Few realize or remember that the very beginnings of English colonization in North America were fraught with tremendous hardship, peril, and connected to an enduring mystery. A charter was granted to Sir Walter Raleigh by Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1584 to explore and colonize lands unclaimed by Christian kingdoms, south of Newfoundland, and north of Spanish Florida. With hopes of finding vast riches as the Spanish Empire had done in Central and South America and a possible Northwest Passage...
Mar 15, 2020•1 hr 52 min
On November 29, 1925, the tramp steamer SS Cotopaxi left port at Charleston, South Carolina, under the command of Captain William Meyer loaded with her usual cargo of coal, and headed for Havana, Cuba. The voyage was routine until the ship ran into a fierce tropical storm off the eastern coast of Florida near Jacksonville. On December 1, the Cotopaxi sent out a distress call saying it was taking on water and listing badly. A thorough search of the area found no trace of the vessel or its thirty-...
Mar 08, 2020•1 hr 30 min
As with any mysterious event, it’s often said that we should look to the simplest solution as being most likely the right one. The idea that when presented with competing hypotheses that make the same predictions, the solution with the fewest assumptions should be chosen is usually attributed to the principle of “Occam’s razor.” But what happens if we try to apply this cure-all of an axiom to explain a medieval legend that has few clues associated with it? In Part Two of our series on The Pied P...
Feb 23, 2020•1 hr 54 min
In the year 1284 CE, a remarkable and colorfully dressed young man came to the town of Hamelin in Lower Saxony, Germany. There are two documentations of this wanderer’s visit, the originals of which have since been lost. According to the contemporary Hamelin chronicle and a depiction in a stained glass window in a local church, this handsome stranger began to play his flute through the streets. Enchanted by the notes, 130 children from the town followed him into the woods, never to be seen again...
Feb 16, 2020•57 min
In this episode, we revisit the Sallie House in Atchison, Kansas – by way of The Dave Glover Show , as Scott's not quite ready to return in person. ; ) Being an Astonishing Legends listener himself, Dave has graciously invited Scott and Forrest to appear on his show several times. Now it was time to repay the favor, especially since Dave and his crew had a chilling and emotional experience there themselves. The Dave Glover Show has been driving St. Louis home for 20 years. Airing regularly from ...
Feb 10, 2020•1 hr 53 min
Most people today believe that the legendary lost continent of Atlantis is just that, an ancient legend buried by time and not the ocean. The first known mention of the fable comes from two of Plato's dialogues, Timaeus and Critias , where mighty princes ruled the massive and prosperous island. However, Atlantis' glory faded as they were conquered and eventually became undone by their evil and impious ways until earthquakes destroyed this once utopian land, submerging it under the waves. But wha...
Jan 27, 2020•2 hr 37 min
The second half of Edgar Cayce's story would see more extraordinary experiences layered over an ordinary and humble man's life. Even more unimaginable for his tastes was the non-medical information that would later come through him. Though mostly remaining uncertain about the medical advice he'd been dispensing while in his sleep-like state, his answers to metaphysical questions distressed him, as they conflicted with his traditional Christian beliefs. While suffering personal hardship and trage...
Jan 20, 2020•3 hr 3 min
Edgar Cayce is often remembered nowadays as the "father of holistic medicine" and the rightful originator of many of the beliefs and practices of the "New Age" movement. Yet what is remarkable is that although you might naturally think Cayce was a pop-culture product of the 1960s and '70s, his mystical talents gained him worldwide attention beginning from just after the turn of the last century until his death in 1945. Even more astounding was that the valid diagnoses and cures for the ailing th...
Jan 13, 2020•2 hr 27 min
Some time ago, we attempted a hybrid holiday special that combined a traditional episode with a call-in show. Unfortunately, it didn't really go as planned. Still, Scott seemed to think it had some value of some kind, so he talked Forrest into releasing it here and now in 2019. So tonight, the Astonishing Legends team is pleased to present a commercial-free, family-friendly Holiday episode for you to enjoy with or without your loved ones as you see fit. While it contains some fascinating backgro...
Dec 23, 2019•1 hr 49 min
Those skeptical of the existence of a spirit world will often cite that there is no credible evidence leading to proof, this being the basis for their disbelief. Yet what constitutes as evidence or proof seems to be a personal decision, as there is an endless supply of visual and audio recordings and environmental data which at the least appear to be genuinely anomalous and unexplainable. For the mainstream scientific community, these anomalies would need to be consistently repeatable under labo...
Dec 22, 2019•2 hr 4 min
The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, is not so famous for its beautiful surroundings and accommodations or its famed founder as it is for its connection to a book and a movie. The Shining was Stephen King's third published novel and a bestseller. This classic of horror fiction, in turn, inspired the iconic motion picture of the same name by Stanley Kubrick. And these two works had cemented the idea in the popular imagination that the Stanley Hotel must have some dark history of troubled sp...
Dec 16, 2019•2 hr 14 min
At 9:20 p.m. on December 29, 1972, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar commercial airliner, designated as Eastern Airlines Flight 401, departed John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, bound for Miami, Florida. Onboard were 13 crew members and 163 passengers, 176 souls in all. It was a routine trip for Flight 401 until 11:32 p.m. when the plane began its approach to Miami International Airport, and an indicator light for the nose landing gear had not lit up. While the Flight Crew tried t...
Nov 25, 2019•1 hr 40 min
In your final visit to The Midnight Library of the season, and since we now count so many among you as our friends… we thought we might impart to you some rare and useful, magical knowledge. We’re going to tell you all about the powerful Runic alphabet. What you do with it after that is up to you… but we’ll know, so just keep that in mind...friend. For more information on this episode visit our website !...
Nov 24, 2019•23 min
The accident that killed James Dean was the end of his life, but it was the beginning of a legendary story about the curse of his Porsche, ‘Little Bastard.’ Parts from the car salvaged by amateur racing enthusiasts caused numerous injuries and the death of at least one man on the track. The broken shell of the car traveled around the country as part of a safety exhibition curated by legendary car customizer George Barris. Along the way, several trucks that hauled it crashed, in once case, killin...
Nov 17, 2019•1 hr 59 min
In 1931 a man and a machine were both created. James Byron Dean was born to a modest farming family in rural Indiana, and Ferdinand Porsche founded a company in Stuttgart, Germany, to build automobiles. These two men would never meet, but their egos would clash in a way that would redefine charisma, performance, and power that will never be forgotten. In 1955 both man and machine would die in a horrific crash. But is the legend of a curse in a story like this unavoidable? That’s easy for us to a...
Nov 11, 2019•1 hr 42 min
What is at the heart of our fears? We may be afraid to encounter a supernatural specter or a creature from beyond our reality and understanding, or an agent of evil from a more earthly realm, but in either case, what we actually fear is the potential for harm to come to us or our loved ones. The deadly violence that visits randomly and one we are powerless to stop. Ironically, our tendency as humans is also to become fascinated by what scares us. We seek to glimpse into the darkness not only as ...
Oct 27, 2019•3 hr 30 min
Where's the one place in the world you'd like to feel the safest? Your bed, right? And in a secure home that surrounds that bed. We also become nostalgic for what we think was a simpler and more wholesome time. The atrocities we've become accustomed to hearing about on our current nightly news, we imagine inconceivable in bygone eras. But the truth is, we've always been vulnerable to the brutality of the waking world, no matter the times or the place. The darkest evil can come to find us whereve...
Oct 21, 2019•1 hr 24 min
The interview you’re about to hear is one of the most compelling, fascinating, and terrifying personal accounts we’ve ever come across. We realize it may also be one of the most controversial subjects we’ve ever discussed. Our guest tonight knows these sensations all too well. The wonder, terror, decades of trauma, and the consequences from coming forward after a lifetime of these experiences are all part of his story. In June of 1977, Terry Lovelace was in the U.S. Air Force working as a medic ...
Oct 13, 2019•2 hr 46 min
The Astonishing Legends podcast is proud to invite you to The Midnight Library, -Not just a show, but a place you can go-. For your listening pleasure, tonight’s reading will be about The Paris Catacombs. Once you’re inside, your Hosts, Miranda Merrick & Mr. Darling will do everything in their power to make you believe that you’re safe, so you can relax and hear the fascinating story of how 6 million skeletons made their way beneath the streets of Paris. (The Midnight Library cannot be held ...
Oct 05, 2019•28 min
Many of us have seen all the ghost hunting shows on cable television and elsewhere, but are those accurate representations of what goes on during a paranormal investigation? After all, TV shows, have to deliver as many instances of spooky "evidence" as possible, because we, the viewing audience, demand it. In reality, like any hunting or fishing expedition, the experience is usually long stretches of waiting patiently and hopefully for brief moments of high excitement. Well, tonight we're going ...
Sep 23, 2019•3 hr 35 min
The ideal qualities of a paranormal investigator should include objectivity, a grasp of the relevant history and science, and a skeptical and inquisitive nature that’s balanced with a fair and open mind. Tonight’s guest has all of those traits and more. Author and paranormal researcher James A. Willis originally hails from the Hudson Highlands of upstate New York, the stomping grounds of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. After spending 15 of his formative years being intrigued by macabre m...
Sep 16, 2019•2 hr 14 min
Since its modern discovery, no other medieval manuscript has seen as much media attention or scholarly scrutiny as the Voynich Manuscript. No doubt this is due to the fantastical strangeness of its mystery, which is also the same reason it continually captures the imagination of the public. Because it would seem, the bigger the mystery, the bigger the reward for its solving. Like with any enduring enigma, the manuscript has attracted its share of sleuths who have claimed they've been the ones to...
Aug 26, 2019•2 hr 46 min
At the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, there is a book with the catalog call number, MS 408. It is one of the most examined and researched manuscripts to date because it is one of the most enigmatic documents ever discovered. It was purchased in 1912 at Villa Mondragone in Italy by an antiquities dealer named Wilfrid Voynich, and since there is no discernible title for the book, it is more commonly known as the Voynich Manuscript . The text is written on around 240 ...
Aug 17, 2019•1 hr 49 min
Podcasters share a special bond, and this is especially true of those engaged with the pursuit of covering stories about the paranormal and unimaginable events. It is perhaps because we know our pursuit of the truth behind these ineffable events will take us beyond the fringes of belief and acceptance. It leaves us and our subjects vulnerable. But those that manage to tell these stories well have also managed to capture and relay the vulnerability and humanity and behind them. Because without it...
Aug 12, 2019•1 hr 55 min
As we often say on the show, if you haven't had a strange, paranormal experience, it's likely someone you know has. This happens to be the case with two college friends of Forrest, Dan Povenmire and Susan Lambert. In the mid-1980s, Susan was working as a reporter for the student newspaper of The University of Southern California, The Daily Trojan . She had asked Dan if he wanted to accompany her to an interview with a movie director. They set out on a drive that should only have taken no more th...
Jul 29, 2019•2 hr 23 min
We love to hate our villains as much as we love to love our heroes. And many of us have a morbid fascination with some of history's most sinister characters, perhaps as a means of understanding the darkest aspects of human behavior. But as is regularly the case, the truth behind the real nature and actions of historical figures we can only glean from the reporting of others in that age and often many years after. Even official accounts are just a widely agreed upon set of assessments by a group ...
Jul 13, 2019•1 hr 51 min
Countess Elizabeth Báthory was a Hungarian noblewoman and one of the most wealthy and powerful aristocrats in eastern Europe during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Together with her husband Ferenc Nádasdy, a military hero known as the Black Knight of Hungary, Báthory held numerous estates, lands, and villages. She also currently holds the Guinness World Record for being the most prolific female serial killer and most prolific murderer of the western world. Báthory had been accused in the...
Jun 22, 2019•1 hr 43 min
To really study the paranormal, any good researcher will tell you one must get out in the field to investigate the sightings, and that is especially true when it comes to cryptozoology. This is precisely what our interview guest has done. Lyle Blackburn is a full-time author, musician, and cryptid researcher from Texas, whose life-long fascination with legendary creatures has led him to write several acclaimed books, including Momo: The Strange Case of the Missouri Monster , The Beast of Boggy C...
Jun 16, 2019•1 hr 23 min
Does some element of us exist after we die? Is it possible that a message in a dire time of need could reach a loved one across vast distances without the aid of electronic or mechanical means, with a form of psychic energy either just before or after death? Could our emotional spirit be so intense in a moment of crisis that it leaves an imprint or echo that can reverberate in the ether and be heard, seen or sensed again and again? There have been many reported cases where this seems to have hap...
Jun 08, 2019•1 hr 29 min
Whether you believe in Bigfoot or not, the story of the Patterson-Gimlin film remains a superb example of the scientific investigation of an anomalous event that falls within the realm of the paranormal. Other documentation of things like UFOs, ghosts, and other cryptids have come under close examination throughout the years, but little has been of such relative quality and few examples if any have been able to provide such relatable data to examine. This relatability is due to the corporeality ...
May 26, 2019•2 hr 15 min
