In 1985, authorities in Lucas County announced they were bringing in bulldozers, fully expecting to find up to 75 bodies of people who had been ritually sacrificed by a local cult. They found none. We interview Jack Legg, whose new book "Digging up Devils" takes a look at that case and the national "Satanic Panic" scare that fueled thousands of witchhunts. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries A...
Oct 09, 2023•58 min•Season 1Ep. 246
In this episode we explore the UFO chase in Portage County, Ohio in 1966. At 5 a.m. April 17, 1966, two Portage County, Ohio, sheriff deputies on routine patrol stop to investigate an abandoned vehicle down a dark road and are blinded by known craft rising into the sky behind the car. Deputy Dale Spaur decides to go check it out while his partner stayed behind. They heard a noise sounding like "an overloaded transformer" and illuminated the entire area in brilliant light. Th craft would lead the...
Oct 05, 2023•22 min
In 1963, Ohio native Paul Landis was a Secret Service agent assigned to protect First Lady Jackie Kennedy, a role that put him on the running board of the car tailing President Kennedy at the moment Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. In October of 2023, Landis is releasing a memoir of his experience, and for the first time, he reveals a decision he made at the crime scene that could change theories about what happened that day. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/oh...
Oct 02, 2023•32 min•Season 1Ep. 245
In this episode we journey to Milan, Ohio and discuss the Mad Miller of Milan. The Mad Miller of Milan was named Sam Winchester. He owned a mill in Milan, Ohio and decided to fly in a balloon. When he set aloft in 1855, this fateful flight would lead to mysteries that are still talked about today. Here is a YouTube video filmed at the actual launch spots!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfWWUmG8zzE&t=7s Thanks for the gracious people at the Milan Historical society: https://milanhistory.org...
Sep 28, 2023•28 min
In 1866, the body of Rosa Colvin was discovered in the woods near the shanty she shared with her husband, Bill, in Cuyahoga County's Olmsted Township. Cause of death: An ax to the head. Though Bill was initially arrested for murder, authorities began to believe the real killer may have been a boarder the couple had taken in. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Additional music: New Horizon - A...
Sep 25, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 244
Join us on our Backroads journey to Cincinnati, Ohio, as we explore the Queen City's connections to actor George Reeves, who is best remembered for his role as Superman In the 1950s. Reeves died under mysterious circumstances in 1959. In this episode we'll discuss why Reeves' body was sent to a Cincinnati hospital after his death, and why his body spent several months in storage at a Cincinnati cemetery. We'll also discuss Reeve's multiple family connections to Cincinnati. Mike hosts a Facebook ...
Sep 21, 2023•17 min•Season 1Ep. 2
A new book - “Unnatural Ohio: A History of Buckeye Cryptids, Legends and Other Mysteries” - has been released by Kevin Moore and Kristina Smith, who both work at the Hayes Presidential Library and Museum. They share with us three of their stories: the legend of Holcomb Woods (Wood County), the Elmore Rider (Ottawa County) and the Defiance Dogman (Defiance County.) www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomys...
Sep 18, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 243
Hello and Welcome to the first episode of Ohio Mysteries: Backroads. In this episode we discuss the skydiving tragedy of Huron, Ohio. On Sunday, August 28th, 1967, 18 skydivers accidentally parachuted into Lake Erie in an attempt at a high altitude (20,000') jump and 16 people were killed. A series of errors led to this tragedy including a deadly mistake by the FAA, a pilot who drifted off course and sky divers eager for the experience. This disaster was the deadliest accident in the history of ...
Sep 14, 2023•24 min
In 1936, Jesse Owens single-handedly shattered Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy by winning four gold medals at the Berlin Olympic Games. But he returned home to a deeply segregated country that challenged him to the very end. We share the highlights of his life and career, and follow the trail of what happened to his iconic gold medals. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Additional music: New...
Sep 11, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 242
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Sep 07, 2023•29 min
In 1970, university students Mary Petry and Bill Sproat were murdered in Bill's Columbus apartment in such a brutal way, people wondered if Charles Manson copycats were at work. In a new 7-part podcast "Mary & Bill: An Ohio Cold Case," investigative reporter Justin Glanville revisits the crime and offers fresh interviews, new facts and hope for a conclusion. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomyste...
Sep 04, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 241
An Ohio Mysteries/Akron Beacon Journal crossoverIn 2002, Javan and Markus Rogers - brothers and rap record producers in Akron - were shot and killed three months apart. Akron police thought they could prove who pulled the trigger in one of the murders, but an evidence mixup in Youngstown resulted in the case being thrown out. More than 20 years later, police still don't even have a motive in the murders, though suspect drugs or debt were involved. Ohio Mysteries: http://www.ohiomysteries.com Akr...
Aug 31, 2023•30 min
In Marietta, legend has it that in the late 1800s, a son beheaded his adulterous father in front of his mistress at a riverfront hotel. The former La Belle Hotel where it is said to have happened is now nearly 200 years old, and modern-day tenants believe all three of their spirits are still repeating the crime. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Additional music: New Horizon - Aderin; Audion...
Aug 28, 2023•20 min•Season 1Ep. 240
In 1985, Mel Wiley, the police chief in Medina County's Hinckley Township, tells his girlfriend he's meeting an old friend for a dip in Lake Erie. Three days later, park rangers find his abandoned car at Edgewater Park with his clothes, money and police ID inside - but no chief. While townsfolk wonder if he met with foul play, was lost in a drowning accident or committed suicide, the lead investigator settles on a completely different theory: That Wiley, who loved writing mystery novels in his s...
Aug 24, 2023•29 min
In 1840, a merchant ship was built in Burma for trading throughout India. But over the next century, it would be reinvented many times - as an immigrant ship from Britain to Australia, as a jail for convicts in Melbourne, as a tourist attraction throughout the western world. Her last chapter was written in Ohio, where someone lit it on fire on the Fourth of July in 1946. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/...
Aug 21, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 239
Five mysteries in Ohio that involve the gravesite of notable Ohioans. We explore the strange habits of the granite ball over the Charles Merchant Family plot, why Chief Joc-O-Sot might be haunting the Joining us is Michael Bonano, administrator of the Facebook page "Too Late For Autographs, Ohio," who has visited each of the featured sites. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Music: Ohio (That...
Aug 17, 2023•36 min
Cincinnati arrested and convicted Posteal Laskey Jr. for running over and stabbing to death a woman he picked up in a stolen cab. But was Laskey also responsible for the rape and choking deaths of six other women in 1966? Officials believe he was the "Cincinnati Strangler," though he was never convicted in those deaths. The story was made more complicated because Laskey was black, during a height of racial tensions in the country, and his conviction led to volatile unrest in the Queen City. www....
Aug 14, 2023•27 min•Season 1Ep. 238
In 1925-26, a man with a face painted red and a maniacal laugh stalked the west end of Toledo, randomly selecting women and clubbing them - many, to the death. A serial killer still unidentified to this date had this city on the edge of hysteria, and with good reason. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 10, 2023•47 min
When Albert Sabin graduated from medical school in New York, his mentor encouraged him to focus his career on a killer that had terrorized a generation: Polio. So when Sabin accepted a job as a medical researcher at the University of Cincinnati, he did just that. After solving the mysteries of the virus, he made Cincinnati the first American city immune to the illness. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/oh...
Aug 07, 2023•30 min•Season 1Ep. 237
Why does the Painesville, Ohio tombstone of Joseph Linhart proclaim him to be "Not Guilty." Why did thousands of people visit the McMorran family plot in a small St. Paris, Ohio cemetery in 1975? Why does Jessica Lyn Keen have markers in two different cemeteries in West Jefferson, Ohio? www.ohiomysteries.comfeedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Music: Audionautix- The Great Unknown The Great Phospher- Daniel Birch Le...
Aug 03, 2023•27 min
In 1945, Jim Heckman of Akron, Ohio was knocked out of the sky over Germany by an enemy pilot. More than 40 years later, a German man who had been made an orphan by American bombers works to bring the two pilots together in a unique friendship. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Additional music: New Horizon - Aderin; Audionautix- The Great Unknown; The Great Phospher- Daniel Birch Learn more...
Jul 31, 2023•27 min•Season 1Ep. 236
10-Minute Mystery: How old is Ohio? Ohio has been treated like a state since 1803, when Congress extended federal laws to the land. But in 1953, researchers preparing for Ohio's 150th birthday learned something stunning: Congress had never actually declared Ohio a state. So how old is Ohio, and what does it mean for the eight presidents Ohio gave the country in its first 150 years? www.ohiomysteries.comfeedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.fac...
Jul 27, 2023•11 min
In 1968, Barbara Ann Butler, a 23-year-old schoolteacher, went to a store in Kettering in the middle of the afternoon. The next day, she was discovered dead on the floor of her car. Four years later, police named their top suspect as Jimmy Wayne Howard and closed her case, saying they were unable to pursue a conviction but were confident of his guilt. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Additi...
Jul 24, 2023•31 min
In the early 1960s, four American soldiers patrolling the DMZ between South Korea and North Korea separately made an incomprehensible decision - to seek asylum in the communist country. Larry Abshier, a private from Garfield Heights, Ohio, was one of the four, and never seen by anyone in the free world again. His life was a complete mystery until 2004, when one of the defectors was able to leave North Korea and finally share their story. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patre...
Jul 17, 2023•26 min•Season 1Ep. 234
In the 1942, in an Akron-built Goodyear blimp delivered to the Navy after the start of WWII, a two-man crew set out over the Pacific from San Francisco for a short four-hour patrol in search of Japanese subs. The blimp returned. The crew did not. www.ohiomysteries.comfeedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Music: Get That Tree Up On The Roof, by Lisa Gain & the Rusty Silos. Find more at: https://www.facebook.com/ru...
Jul 13, 2023•21 min
In a weather event Ohio had never before experienced, a powerful "derecho" thunderstorm formed as Fourth of July revelers gathered along the Lake Erie shoreline for a fireworks show. The storm capsized 200 boats before making its way south to Wayne County and its neighbors, where flash floods devastated communities. In the end, 41 people were killed and an estimated 21,000 homes and businesses damaged or destroyed. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries ww...
Jul 10, 2023•21 min•Season 1Ep. 233
A wild trip through Ohio's geologic past, from when it was a mountain, to when it was a warm tropical sea, to when it became buried beneath a mile of ice. We also share where Ohio allows you to walk on the bottom of the ocean, and how Ohio's unique location contributed to rich resources that range from oil and gas, to quarries of limestone, to one of the most amazing stretches of farmland in the country. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.c...
Jul 06, 2023•18 min
The story of a determined detective who identified - and then caught - a serial killer. In the last of this 3-part series, Tallmadge Captain Doug Bohon describes the trial of Gus Sapharas - from pre-trial hearings that threatened to throw out key evidence, to the nail-biting wait for the jury's verdict. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/ad...
Jul 03, 2023•58 min
The story of a determined detective who identified - and then caught - a serial killer. In Part 2 of this three-part series, Tallmadge Captain Doug Bohon learns the shocking truth of his prime suspect, Gus Sapharas, whose criminal assaults spanned 40 years. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Music: New Horizon - Aderin; Audionautix- The Great Unknown; The Great Phospher- Daniel Birch Learn mo...
Jun 29, 2023•1 hr 6 min
The story of a determined detective who identified - and then caught - a serial killer. In Part 1 of this three-part series, Tallmadge Captain Doug Bohon discusses two unsolved homicides from the 1970s - Karen Bentz and Loretta Davis - and what compelled him to pull their files and try one more time to solve these old mysteries. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Learn more about your ad choi...
Jun 26, 2023•1 hr 6 min
