At 107 North Fairfax St. in Alexandra, Virginia is a three-story building that became the location of one of Alexandria’s most enduring tales of love, loss, and hauntings: The Burning Bride. It was on the evening of June 27, 1868, perhaps the night before the couple was set to marry when 26 year-old Laura Schafer, excited for her upcoming nuptials accidentally spilled burning fuel from a kerosene lamp onto her dress. Within moments she was alight. At 11 in the morning on Sunday June 28, 1868, on...
Sep 30, 2022•32 min•Ep 90•Transcript available on Metacast Along the northwestern edge of Tennessee sits Reelfoot Lake. The only natural lake in the state, it's a flooded cypress forest that has more in common with the bayous of the deep south than other more open and expansive lakes of the surrounding area. Yet this lake dates back only two centuries and owes its creation to the massive New Madrid earthquakes that rocked the area in 1811-1812 and caused the Mississippi River to temporarily flow backward. Yet according to local legend the cause of those...
Sep 14, 2022•45 min•Ep 89•Transcript available on Metacast According to local legend, visitors to Savannah’s Historic Wright Square have been known to encounter a young woman dressed in 18th-century style clothing. Some are said to have been approached and begged for their assistance in finding the woman’s lost son. Yet when folks begin to search the area, the girl disappears. Many believe this is the ghost of Alice Riley, the first woman executed in the colony of Georgia. Alice Riley arrived in the American Colonies in January of 1734 as an indentured ...
Aug 19, 2022•39 min•Ep 88•Transcript available on Metacast Legend says John Murrell’s father was a preacher and his mother took pride in teaching him how to steal, but that is just the first of many claims made about this infamous highwayman who was once accused of being the mastermind of a criminal organization known as the Mystic Clan. Help Southern Gothic grow by becoming a Patreon Supporter today! Connect with Southern Gothic Media:Website: SouthernGothicMedia.com Merch Store: https://www.southerngothicmedia.com/merch Pinterest: @SouthernGothicMedia...
Aug 12, 2022•11 min•Ep 87•Transcript available on Metacast The McRaven House of Vicksburg, Mississippi has earned a national reputation for the amount of paranormal activity said to occur there. The home was said to be first built in 1797 as the hideout for a notorious highwayman. Over the next 220+ years, McRaven was expanded twice, survived the brutal Siege of Vicksburg during the Civil War, served as a hospital during that same conflict, and been a home to numerous families. Largely unchanged since the additions were constructed, each section of McRa...
Aug 07, 2022•45 min•Ep 86•Transcript available on Metacast One of the most well-known graves at the Old Burying Grounds in Beaufort, North Carolina is that of a young girl who purportedly died at sea and was buried there in a keg of rum. Who the girl is we will never know, but her legend lives on and her spirit purportedly haunts the three-century-old cemetery to this very day. Help Southern Gothic grow by becoming a Patreon Supporter today! Connect with Southern Gothic Media: Website: SouthernGothicMedia.com Merch Store: https://www.southerngothicmedia...
Jul 29, 2022•9 min•Ep 85•Transcript available on Metacast In 1910, Robert Broussard, a Louisiana member of the United States House of Representatives introduced a bill that he believed would address several problems that his local district in New Iberia was actively struggling with: first, the problem of water hyacinth taking over local waterways and the second was the country’s ongoing meat shortage. It was known simply as the American Hippo Bill. Help Southern Gothic grow by becoming a Patreon Supporter today! Connect with Southern Gothic Media:Websi...
Jul 22, 2022•9 min•Ep 84•Transcript available on Metacast The legend of Julia Legare has been passed down for generations, likely due to the fact that it brings into focus a far-reaching human anxiety, the fear of being buried alive. In 1852, while visiting her relatives at their home in Ediso Island, South Carolina, 22-year-old Julia Legare fell ill. Her diagnosis was not good, Julia had been struck with diphtheria and there was little that they could do for her. Eventually, Julia just slipped further away deep into a coma, and after many days and nig...
Jul 17, 2022•31 min•Ep 83•Transcript available on Metacast On Saturday, October 21, 1899 the New Orleans Times-Democrat ran an article under the headline: “Real Ghost Story. The Old Carrollton Jail Said to be Haunted.” Through the use of the exact words of the police officers, the article chronicles the eerie occurrences at the local jail. Built when the town of Carrollton took over as the new seat of Jefferson Parish in 1852. It was a bland brick and stucco building, two-stories tall with large doorways and heavily barred windows. Quite simply, it was ...
Jul 03, 2022•45 min•Ep 82•Transcript available on Metacast For many of the early mariners traveling to Beaufort, North Carolina they were reliant upon physical landmarks to help guide them safely through the shoals and into the harbor entrance. Some of the early maps and charts of Port Beaufort indicate that one such landmark was the “White House.” Little remains that offers insight into the origin of Beaufort’s White House, but tradition maintains that what was once the White House is now the historic Hammock House. Identified as one of, if not, the ol...
Jun 18, 2022•37 min•Ep 81•Transcript available on Metacast On Wednesday, July 10, 1706, scores of people arrived at what is now known as Witch Duck Point on the Lynnhaven River in Virginia. They were there to witness a unique but brutal legal proceeding that would never again be carried out in the colony of Virginia– the trial of forty-six-year-old Grace Sherwood by ducking. It is unknown exactly what happened when she hit the water, but what was clear to the folks who came that day was that Grace Sherwood survived and therefore she must be a witch. Hel...
May 20, 2022•44 min•Ep 80•Transcript available on Metacast Travel about 85 miles south of Little Rock, Arkansas along Interstate 30 and you come to the town of Gurdon. In a remote area, several miles outside Gurdon sit railroad tracks for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. It is along a four-mile stretch of track that sightings of a floating, glowing orb have been reported for the last ninety years, now known as the Gurdon Light. While there are of course scientific theories that attempt to explain the origin of the Gurdon Light, many instead believe the ph...
May 06, 2022•30 min•Ep 79•Transcript available on Metacast According to Cherokee folklore, a deadly creature lives at the confluence of Valley and Hiwasee Rivers in Murphy, North Carolina. It is known simply as the Great Leech of Tlanusi’yĭ. This week’s minisode, The Great Leech of Tlanusi’yĭ, is a companion to Legend of the Moon-Eyed People, released on April 15, 2022. Additional Links from this Episode:The Southern Gothic Walking Tour will be at 7:00 pm on April 30, 2022 in Franklin, Tennessee! Be sure to get your tickets today over at Franklin Walkin...
Apr 22, 2022•10 min•Ep 78•Transcript available on Metacast Atop Fort Mountain, in the northwestern corner of Georgia, is an 885-foot-long rock wall that zigzags its way through the curves of the mountain. Though the ruins were constructed with stone from the surrounding region, the story behind it, when it was built, and by whom, remains a mystery. Theories arose to explain the structure’s origin, today most agree it was likely completed by Native people who lived in the area. But who were they? Legend says that a unique, ancient race of people once inh...
Apr 15, 2022•29 min•Ep 77•Transcript available on Metacast On the west side of Kingsport, Tennessee is Rotherwood, an old antebellum mansion overlooking the spot where the two forks of the Holston river come together. Today this red brick structure is privately owned, but according to local lore, it is home to more than just the living. For the last half a century, stories have placed at least two spirits on the ground of Rotherwood Mansion. First is the beautiful “Lady in White,” Rowena Ross who is forever searching for her lost love who died before th...
Apr 01, 2022•41 min•Ep 76•Transcript available on Metacast In 1878, a dredge crew working near the mouth of Bayou St. John in New Orleans uncovered a twenty-foot-long iron submarine. For years people thought the sub was the CSS Pioneer, the first of three submarines built by Horace Hunley, but in reality, the ship’s origin is still a mystery to this day. This week’s minisode, The Bayou St. John Submarine, is a companion to The Mystery of the Confederate Submarine H.L. Hunley released on February 7, 2022. Help Southern Gothic grow by becoming a Patreon S...
Feb 14, 2022•12 min•Ep 75•Transcript available on Metacast “Sinkings of modern submarines always resulted in the discovery of the dead clustered near the exits in their desperate efforts to escape their cold metal coffins, because to sit silently and await one’s own demise simply defies human nature. The crew of the Hunley, however, looked quite different. Each man was still seated peacefully at his station.” - Rachel Lance, In the Waves On the night of February 17, 1864, an immense explosion took down the USS Housatonic, a massive warship that was part...
Feb 07, 2022•48 min•Ep 74•Transcript available on Metacast On the last episode of Southern Gothic we explored Huntingdon College’s most iconic haunting, The Red Lady of Huntingdon College; but this week, we head back down to Montgomery, Alabama to explore one of the campus’s lesser-known “spooks”– Frank the Library Ghost. Help Southern Gothic grow by becoming a Patreon Supporter today! Connect with Southern Gothic Media: Website: SouthernGothicMedia.com Merch Store: https://www.southerngothicmedia.com/merch Pinterest: @SouthernGothicMedia Facebook: @Sou...
Jan 24, 2022•7 min•Ep 73•Transcript available on Metacast “Nearly all colleges have ghosts, legends that have grown up around some supernatural occurrences generations of students tell to each other [...] but the finest of those ghost stories, those college ghost stories, is told here at Huntingdon College in Montgomery.” - Kathryn Tucker Windham, 1918 - 2011 Huntingdon College of Montgomery, Alabama regularly makes the lists of ‘most haunted’ universities in America as generations of students have claimed the ghost of a young woman haunts the fourth f...
Jan 17, 2022•32 min•Ep 72•Transcript available on Metacast In this Southern Gothic: Minisode we return to Williamsburg, Virginia to explore the most haunted residence in the four-century-old colonial town-- the Peyton Randolph House. Help Southern Gothic grow by becoming a Patreon Supporter today! Connect with Southern Gothic Media: Website: SouthernGothicMedia.com Merch Store: https://www.southerngothicmedia.com/merch Pinterest: @SouthernGothicMedia Facebook: @SouthernGothicMedia Instagram: @SouthernGothicMedia Twitter: @SoGoPodcast Join our Facebook G...
Nov 22, 2021•12 min•Ep 71•Transcript available on Metacast When construction began on the Williamsburg Gaol it was never intended to house those who were deemed as significantly dangerous, like murderers or pirates. Instead it was meant for largely non violent offenders, such as debtors, thieves, the mentally ill and enslaved people who were caught after fleeing their captors... but good intentions pale in comparison to reality, leaving many to believe that today the Williamsburg Public Gaol is one of the most haunted places in one of America's oldest c...
Oct 18, 2021•27 min•Ep 70•Transcript available on Metacast In 1837 Godfrey Barnsley purchased 3,645 acres of land that had recently been acquired from the Cherokee people in the coercive Treaty of New Echota and opened up for settlement by force. But Barnsley was not concerned and planned to build an extravagant mansion for his wife and family on what legend claims was the sacred ground for generations of Cherokee– a tragic mistake that led to a series of unfortunate events for the Barnsley family. Be sure to check out our all-new podcast Ghost To...
Aug 23, 2021•27 min•Ep 69•Transcript available on Metacast “Blood Seeped Under the Door, Down the Steps, and into the Street…” On the corner of Orleans Avenue and Dauphine Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans is a stately three and a half-story mansion that is said to be the site of a massacre so significant that blood flowed from the building and into the street. It is the tale of a mysterious Turkish gentleman, perhaps even the brother of a Sultan, who arrived in New Orleans, threw wild parties, and was then viciously murdered. But is this stor...
Aug 02, 2021•33 min•Ep 68•Transcript available on Metacast Built in 1881, Sloss Furnaces was the first of many blast furnaces in Birmingham, Alabama to manufacture pig iron. The furnaces aided in catalyzing an Industrial Revolution in the postwar south. It was in Alabama, that the iron industry took off, providing the rest of the country with the material necessary to build everything from country bridges to the first skyscrapers. But this lucrative new economy came at a high cost to the men who toiled to keep the furnace fed. A majority of furnaces wor...
Jul 12, 2021•26 min•Ep 67•Transcript available on Metacast LOST TO TIME AND THE SHIFTING CURRENTS OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER… It was in 1828 that the town of Rodney, Mississippi was formally incorporated. Located near the Mississippi River, the town would grow to become an essential port for steamboats traveling up and down the river. Rodney became known as a bustling town and thriving entertainment center, even building the state’s first opera house. The city survived a devastating yellow fever epidemic and was occupied by Federal forces during the Civil...
Jul 02, 2021•28 min•Ep 66•Transcript available on Metacast In 1891 Octavia Hatcher was twenty years-old. She was married to the most successful businessmen in the state of Kentucky and was awaiting the birth of her first child. There should have been nothing but excitement and hope in a bright future for the family, but that was not to be. After the devastating loss of her child, Octavia became despondent, eventually becoming bedridden. She was pronounced dead on May 2, 1891. Yet just days later, an odd sleeping sickness struck the town, during which th...
Jun 14, 2021•26 min•Ep 65•Transcript available on Metacast Enter our April T-shirt Giveaway by signing up for our newsletter at SouthernGothicMedia.com In October 1872, a small Georgia community was bursting with visitors and curiosity seekers in an attempt to discover the truth behind mysterious happenings at the family home of Allen Powell Surrency. In what many consider to be one of the most documented ghost story in American history, the Surrency family home seemingly became the epicenter of a destructive entity. From the benign—doors slammed open a...
Apr 23, 2021•35 min•Ep 64•Transcript available on Metacast Enter our April T-shirt Giveaway by signing up for our newsletter at SouthernGothicMedia.com Hilton Head Island’s Leamington Lighthouse was erected in 1880 to help guide ships away from the island and safely into Port Royal Sound; but according to local lore, the now decommissioned structure is home to the apparition of a young women in a blue dress. Legends say that the woman is the daughter of a lighthouse keeper who tragically met his fate during a massive hurricane. As a result, she purporte...
Apr 02, 2021•27 min•Ep 63•Transcript available on Metacast When the Civil War drew to a close, the United States’ railway networks, particularly those in the Southern states, were in shambles. During the Reconstruction era, the rehabilitation of the southern rails and expansion of transcontinental railroads became a major undertaking, and as the importance of the railroad rose. In the three decades after the Civil War over 170,000 miles of track were added to America’s railway system; it opened the western states for further settlement and reestablished...
Mar 05, 2021•22 min•Ep 62•Transcript available on Metacast Help Southern Gothic grow by becoming a Patreon Supporter today! Along the coastal plain region of Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina lies the ominously named Great Dismal Swamp. While this unique habitat has served as home to a wide array of biological diversity for over ten thousand years, modern archaeologists are uncovering more and more evidence of a unique community of runaways slaves and their families who thrived there for over two centuries– the Great Dismal Swamp Mar...
Feb 19, 2021•30 min•Ep 61•Transcript available on Metacast 
