Among the legends of allegedly cursed objects, stories of cursed jewelry and gemstones reign supreme. There's something mystical about these items, which often fall into the hands of the extremely wealthy, famous, and powerful - from bone-fide royalty to your run-of-the-mill tycoons and socialites. But can these gaudy possessions really be cursed? We cover the stories of 4 of the most possessed possessions, including: The Delhi Purple Sapphire, which returned to one desperate author's possession...
May 26, 2022•51 min•Ep. 86
Even among all the creative execution methods mankind has dreamed up over the years, the Guillotine stands out, raising nightmares of show trials and cutting ( ahem ) an imposing silhouette. Originally created as a more “humane” capital punishment, the head-chopping machine soon became synonymous with the bloodthirsty excesses of the French Revolution. This week, Sean takes us through the history of “ Madame la Guillotine” - from its British ancestors to its horribly iconic role in 1790s France ...
May 19, 2022•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 85
In March 1998, the Bradley family - dad Ron, mom Iva, son Brad, and daughter Amy - embarked on a "trip of a lifetime": a luxurious cruise on the Rhapsody of the Seas , sailing between Puerto Rico, Aruba, and Curacao on a whirlwind vacation of carefree fun and family time. Three days into the trip, 23-year-old Amy vanished from the cruise, never to be seen again. ...Or was she? We discuss all the clues in this baffling case, including supposed sightings of Amy in the Caribbean as recently as 2005...
May 12, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 84
This week we dive into one of the most persistent legends of secret U.S. military experimentation - the famed Philadelphia Experiment. In the fall of 1943 - so the story goes - highly classified government tech made the destroyer escort USS Eldridge completely invisible - and, as an unexpected side effect, displaced it in time and space and left it sitting 200 miles away in Norfolk, Virginia for several minutes before snapping back into place. In the aftermath, sailors were said to have strange,...
May 05, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 83
In November 1987, one of the weirdest moments of TV history happened right underneath the noses of the Chicago viewing public. That night a mysterious figure wearing a full-head "Max Headroom" mask invaded the broadcasts of local Chicago TV stations WGN and WTTW. Initially, on WGN, the masked marauder was only able to cut in for about 30 seconds before the transmission was re-seized by network engineers...but on WTTW, which was airing an innocuous Doctor Who rerun, the signal hijacking would las...
Apr 28, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 82
Inspired by the new hit show "Our Flag Means Death", we're covering the most famous pirate in history: Blackbeard! At the dawn of the 18th century, the Caribbean was ruled by roving bands of seaborne criminals who robbed and murdered with impunity. The British colony of the Bahamas even lost an entire island to pirate occupation as Nassau became home base for all of the most famous criminals ever to sail the seas. Of all of these pirates, none had a more fearsome reputation - and none is better ...
Apr 21, 2022•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 81
After a long month of axe-murder mayhem, Carrie takes a break from the grim and gory to tell a strange tale about what may be the most adorable cryptids of all time! The Fresno Nightcrawlers first came on the scene in security camera footage from 2007, when a California homeowner named José checked his tape from the night before only to find one of the strangest pieces of video evidence the world has ever seen. On the tape was 2 creatures, which almost resembled sentient pants with a head, walki...
Apr 14, 2022•54 min•Ep. 80
Axe Season 2022 comes to a close with the end of our discussion of Bill and Rachel James' 'Man From The Train' theory. We follow our proposed serial murderer from his probable several-year stint in prison to his roving, cross-country murder spree - a spree that will claim dozens of victims as the axeman tears a path from Virginia, to Texas, to Seattle, all the way to - in 1912 - Villisca, Iowa. We might even tie in another old Ain't It Scary cold case! ________________________________________ Co...
Apr 07, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 79
We’re rounding out Axe Murder Month with two weeks on Sean’s favorite solution to last week’s unsolved mystery, the 1912 axe murders in Villisca, Iowa: the roving serial-murderer theory proposed by famed baseball writer Bill James in his 2017 book “The Man From The Train.” This week Sean spends a long time raving about Bill James, and then weaves the tale of a 19th century East Coast murder spree stretching from Massachusetts to Florida. Were these family murders all committed by one man? Was th...
Mar 31, 2022•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 78
Sometime in the overnight hours of June 9-10, 1912 in the tiny town of Villisca, Iowa, eight people - including six children - were killed by an intruder, with an axe, in cold blood. The case caused a national uproar and years of investigation...and it remains unsolved to this day. This week, Sean takes us through the facts in one of the most infamous axe murders in American history, and some of the principal suspects throughout the years. Were the Moore family and the young Stillinger girls kil...
Mar 24, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 77
Sean has officially declared March to be axe murder month - much to the chagrin of March-born Carrie - and so we begin a multi-part series on horrific axe murders! Well, in like a lion, out like a lamb, as they say. Our first part focuses on one of the most famous early unsolved murder sprees in American history. From 1910 to 1911, and again from 1917 to 1920, New Orleans' famous French Quarter was stalked by a madman with a lust for blood. This mysterious figure, dubbed "The Axeman of New Orlea...
Mar 17, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 76
Union Cemetery sits at a crossroads, almost 400 years old, with headstones scattered across its area spanning centuries of New England history. From the first settlers from the New Fairfield Company to the most recent citizens of Easton, Connecticut, Union Cemetery is home to the final resting places of hundreds of locals...and several spirits. Why has Union Cemetery and its surroundings been the site of not one, not two, but at least three brutal murders/body disposals? Who is the real "White L...
Mar 10, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 75
We're singin' more sea shanties on the finale to our 2-part series on ghost ships! This week Sean rounds things out with two twentieth-century tales of ships turning up abandoned at sea, their crew and passengers vanished without a trace. First, MV Joyita recalls last week's Mary Celeste affair with a drifting vessel whose crew never should have dropped their lifeboats. Then, the twists and turns of the Carroll A. Deering incident leave a luxury shipping schooner high and dry on the Carolina coa...
Mar 03, 2022•1 hr 2 min
In this first of two nautical episodes, Sean introduces us to three of history’s eeriest ghost ships. First, the Flying Dutchman sets the stage (and sails) for all ghost ships to come. Then, the passengers and crew of the Mary Celeste vanished on the way across the Atlantic, leaving no trace behind. Finally - the steamship Valencia meets a watery grave, only to find its way into local legends. Come back next week for some phantom ships (or phantom crews) of the 20th century! ____________________...
Feb 24, 2022•1 hr 13 min
"A long, long time ago, I can still remember..." February 3rd, 1959. Three of the brightest stars in the rock 'n roll galaxy - Buddy Holly, the bespectacled frontman of the Crickets; Ritchie Valens, the first crossover Latino artist in rock; and JP "The Big Bopper" Richardson, a famous DJ making waves with his first hit records - boarded a small plane after the eleventh show on the Winter Dance Party tour to skip an arduous 400 mile journey between performance stops and escape the bitter Midwest...
Feb 17, 2022•1 hr 14 min
This week we take a look at Indiana's most prolific serial killer, Herb Baumeister. After a string of disappearances of gay men in the Indianapolis area throughout the early 90s, the police investigation eventually leads to an apparently mild-mannered family man and successful business owner - with bodies buried all over his sprawling estate. Sean takes us through the facts - from Baumeister's birth to his deadly double life to his ignoble death - and we try to figure out how Herb's wife missed ...
Feb 10, 2022•1 hr 7 min
In the incredibly polarized times we're living in, it's comforting to know there are some things we can all agree on, even if it's just the shape of the planet we live on. Right? This week Sean digs into the history of Flat Earth belief and conspiracy thought, from ancient Greece to Christopher Columbus and right through to the Internet era. There is overwhelming scientific evidence and consensus that the Earth is round and virtually zero evidence to the contrary - so what has kept people so fas...
Feb 03, 2022•1 hr 11 min
In 1886, Sarah Winchester - widow of William Winchester, the son of the founder of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company - took her $20 million inheritance ($550 million in today's money), moved from Connecticut to California, and began a project that would only end with her death in 1922. Winchester began to build a house...a house that would defy explanation. This house at its peak comprised 7 stories, 24000 square feet, and 161 rooms including 40 bedrooms and dozens of stairways and fireplace...
Jan 27, 2022•55 min
In October 1849, now-legendary horror and suspense writer Edgar Allan Poe was found in a tavern in Baltimore, delirious, with clothes that didn't appear to be his and no concrete answer for where he'd been since he left Richmond, Virginia almost a week before. Just days later, the author would be dead - and it's still unknown what exactly caused his death, and what happened to him in the time before his tragic demise. Was goth king Edgar Allan Poe the victim of alcoholism? A fatal illness? Was h...
Jan 20, 2022•1 hr 39 min
This week, we're teaming up with our friends at the New York Mystery Machine podcast for a crossover look at UFOs and abductions in the Hudson Valley! Adam and Christina from NYMM join us for part 1 of the saga as Sean introduces us to the Hudson Valley Boomerang. Hudson Valley, New York is an all-time UFO hotspot, with thousands of sightings of a boomerang-shaped craft the size of a football field over the most active period in the mid-80s. We follow the adventures of J. Allen Hynek and his UFO...
Jan 13, 2022•1 hr 19 min
Graduation Night, 1992. Suzie Streeter and Stacey McCall arrive home to Suzie's mother Sherrill's house in a giddy daze. They're finally done with high school, and they have summer - and their whole lives - ahead of them. The next day they're heading to the water park with friends to celebrate, and starting to think about what the future holds. They would never find out. Suzie, Stacey, and Sherrill disappeared from the Streeter-Levitt home sometime between 3am and 8am the next morning, and they ...
Jan 06, 2022•1 hr 22 min
We're back from the sick bay and rounding out the holiday season with some Yule-tide cheer this week! Sean takes us through the folklore and traditions that inspired our modern-day American Santa Claus, from pagan ritual sacrifices to jolly old St. Nicholas' crew of child-beating European sidekicks. Knecht Ruprecht! Zvarte Piet! Krampus! The gang's all here, and they're absolutely going to kidnap your children. ________________________________________ Connect with us on social media: Facebook: w...
Dec 30, 2021•1 hr 2 min
Happy holidays from your favorite ghoulish couple! No, not Gomez and Morticia...okay, maybe second favorite, then. Due to health reasons we unexpectedly have to take a break this week (fingers are crossed that Omicron hasn't come down our chimney) but we wanted to leave our Scary Squad a message of holiday cheer to sustain you until next week's Yuletide episode. Thank you all for making this year so awesome, and thanks for bearing with us during these - everyone say it with us! - "uncertain time...
Dec 23, 2021•6 min
The weather outside is frightful...but not as frightful as the weather on Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world and highest point on Earth! In honor of the chilly season we're taking a dangerous journey to explore the most horrific tragedies and creepiest facts about the world's tallest peak...including the fact that the mountain is literally littered with corpses. Yes, the culmination of mountaineering achievement - summiting Mt. Everest - isn't possible without basically climbing ov...
Dec 16, 2021•1 hr 30 min
In 1892, 19-year-old Mercy Brown's corpse was exhumed and her vital organs were ritually burned by Exeter, Rhode Island townsfolk convinced the recent consumption victim was a vampire, feasting on her surviving younger brother's life force from the grave. As Sean shows us this week, the desecration of Mercy's corpse was only the latest in a hundred-year trend of rural New England vampire exorcisms, known as the "New England Vampire Panic". Were these "oddly preserved" corpses really blood-drinki...
Dec 09, 2021•1 hr 15 min
In honor of the Beatles documentary Get Back premiering over Thanksgiving on Disney+, Carrie takes us through one of her favorite conspiracies of all time: "Paul is Dead". This conspiracy theory, which spread across the globe like wildfire beginning in late 1969, purports that the "Cute Beatle", Paul McCartney - writer of such classic songs as "Yesterday", "Hey Jude", and more - was killed in a tragic car accident in November 1966. Not wanting to cause mass hysteria, The Beatles partnered up wit...
Dec 02, 2021•1 hr 45 min
Plenty of trigger warnings apply as Sean takes us back to the grim world of serial killers with the human string of misadventures known as Paul John Knowles. After killing (probably) 20 people on a cross-country crime spree, Knowles was dubbed the "Casanova Killer" by the press, who mistook him for a dashing ladies' man and mastermind murderer. In reality - as we'll see - he was as much a failure as a criminal as he was in the bedroom. Uhh, Happy Thanksgiving! ___________________________________...
Nov 25, 2021•1 hr 19 min
Hotels are places of transition, whose rooms have seen intense passions, furious hatred, great joys, deep sorrows, and even murder. Not surprisingly, hotels are also places that seem to attract the spirits of their former tenants. From a golf course ghost in upstate New York to the super-haunted hotel that inspired Stephen King's The Shining; from the spirits of Lizzie Borden and her possible victims to the crooked cancer doctor who buried his specimens in a resort's backyard and the specter of ...
Nov 19, 2021•1 hr 7 min
On March 16th, 1957, a Venusian named Valiant Thor landed his flying saucer in Alexandria, Virginia. After meeting Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon at the White House, Thor would live in an a luxury apartment in the base of the Pentagon for the next three years, while he helped the American government develop new technology and... tried to share the good word about Jesus? Anyway, that's the assertion made by 1967's Stranger at the Pentagon, a classic of UFO contactee "nonfiction" whose presen...
Nov 11, 2021•1 hr 17 min
Here we are at the long-awaited final episode in our Salem Witch Trials series. What is there to say aside from that on this episode we examine the worst miscarriages of justice in the whole hysteria: the 20 innocent people executed on blatantly vague charges of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts during the latter half of 1692. We see the deaths of John Proctor, the hero of the play The Crucible; the brutal pressing death of stubborn Giles Corey, the tragic murder of Salem's former minister Reve...
Nov 04, 2021•1 hr 37 min
