Haunted American History

Episoder

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  31 Days of Halloween | Day 4: Black Shuck — The Devil's Hound 04.10.2026 18min

  On August 4, 1577, a violent storm descended on the English countryside. Then something entered the church. Witnesses described an enormous black dog tearing through the congregation, allegedly killing two people before disappearing into the storm. At another church twelve miles away, a remarkably similar story was unfolding. The creature would become known as Black Shuck—a massive phantom hound said to stalk the lonely roads, marshes, and coastlines of East Anglia. Seeing it could mean death. Looking into its eyes could be worse. But behind the legend is something even stranger: medieval accounts of spectral hounds, smugglers who may have deliberately kept the stories alive, the skeleton of an enormous dog unearthed near the site of the attacks, and a legend that helped inspire one of Sherlock Holmes' most famous cases. Tonight, we're hunting the Devil's hound. Welcome to Day Four of 31 Days of Halloween
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  31 Days of Halloween | Day 3: Stingy Jack and the Jack-O'-Lantern 03.10.2026 22min

  Before the jack-o'-lantern was a grinning pumpkin on an American porch, it was something else entirely. A light over a bog. For centuries, people in Ireland and Britain told stories about strange flames that appeared in the darkness, drifting just far enough ahead to tempt travelers off the road. In Ireland, one explanation had a name: Jack. He tricked the Devil. He was rejected by Heaven. Hell wanted nothing to do with him. And according to the legend, Jack was condemned to wander the earth carrying a light until Judgment Day. But the familiar story of Stingy Jack, his carved turnip, and the Devil's burning coal isn't nearly as ancient—or as straightforward—as it's usually made out to be. From Irish bogs and grotesque turnip lanterns to American pumpkins and mysterious lights over the mountains of North Carolina, this is the strange history behind the face glowing on your front porch. Welcome to Day Three of 31 Days of Halloween.
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  31 Days of Halloween | Day 2: How America Invented Halloween 02.10.2026 24min

  Before Halloween meant costumes, candy, and smiling jack-o'-lanterns, it meant something considerably more dangerous. When Irish and Scottish Halloween traditions crossed the Atlantic, they collided with American harvest parties, fortune-telling games, pumpkins, Victorian entertainment—and a growing tradition of October vandalism. Kids blocked railroad tracks. Wagons ended up on barn roofs. Windows were smashed. False fire alarms were pulled. People were shot. And by the 1930s, some American cities were seriously considering getting rid of Halloween altogether. Instead, they made a deal with the kids. Give us something good, and nothing bad happens to your house. This is the strange, occasionally violent story of how America created the Halloween we know today—and how three little words turned a night of chaos into a national tradition. Welcome to Day Two of 31 Days of Halloween
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  31 Days of Halloween | Day 1: When the Gates Open — Samhain 01.10.2026 27min

  Before Halloween had pumpkins, candy, costumes, or trick-or-treating, there was Samhain. At the edge of winter, the cattle came home, the fires burned, and old stories warned that the boundaries between worlds had opened. The dead could return. Fairies came out of the earth. Headless riders crossed the countryside. And sometimes, something followed you home. From a warrior who carried a talking corpse into the night to spectral black sows, fairy armies, divination rituals, sacred fires, and the old legends that eventually crossed the Atlantic and became part of Halloween as we know it, we're going back to where so much of it began. Welcome to Day One of **31 Days of Halloween**.
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  The Disappearance of the Sodder Children (West Virginia) 30.09.2026 24min

  On Christmas Eve 1945, the Sodder family home in Fayetteville, West Virginia, burned to the ground. George and Jennie Sodder escaped with four of their children, but five others were supposedly trapped upstairs. When the ashes cooled, however, investigators found something the family couldn't understand: no identifiable remains of the missing children. Then came the questions. A missing ladder. Trucks that mysteriously wouldn't start. A telephone line that had apparently been cut. Strange threats before the fire. And, decades later, a photograph that George and Jennie believed showed one of their missing sons as an adult. Tonight, we explore the disappearance of the Sodder children and the mystery that left one West Virginia family asking the same question for the rest of their lives: did five children really die in that fire?
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  John Brown and the Ghosts of Harpers Ferry (West Virginia) 29.09.2026 26min

  In October 1859, John Brown and eighteen men descended on Harpers Ferry with a plan to seize the federal arsenal, arm enslaved people, and ignite a war against slavery. Thirty-six hours later, sixteen people were dead, Brown was captured, and Harpers Ferry had begun its transformation into one of America's most mythologized towns. Today, its streets are filled with ghosts: John Brown wandering the lower town, a burning woman beside the railroad tracks, soldiers haunting a church, and Dangerfield Newby walking an alley with the wound that killed him. But the oldest accounts tell different stories. Tonight, we explore the ghosts of Harpers Ferry—and how generations of storytellers reshaped real deaths, real violence, and real people into the legends visitors hear today. Pasted text
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  The Mothman of Point Pleasant (West Virginia) 28.09.2026 19min

  In November 1966, two young couples driving through an abandoned World War II explosives facility outside Point Pleasant, West Virginia, encountered something they couldn't explain: a towering humanoid figure with enormous wings and glowing red eyes. Within days, others claimed to see it. Then came strange electrical disturbances, UFO reports, mysterious visitors, and a traveling salesman who said he'd spoken telepathically with a man from another world. The phenomenon became known as Mothman. Thirteen months later, the Silver Bridge collapsed into the Ohio River, killing forty-six people—and permanently transforming a strange series of sightings into an American legend. Tonight, we explore the original Mothman encounters, the high strangeness that surrounded Point Pleasant, and how a catastrophic bridge failure turned a mysterious creature into a supposed harbinger of disaster.
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  The Haunted Amusement Park: Lake Shawnee (West Virginia) 27.09.2026 22min

  Deep in Mercer County, West Virginia, the rusting remains of Lake Shawnee Amusement Park are slowly being reclaimed by the forest. Long before the rides arrived, the land was the site of frontier violence and an Indigenous settlement stretching back centuries. Then came the amusement park, where a series of accidents—including the deaths of two children—became part of its dark reputation. Decades later, a new owner attempting to resurrect Lake Shawnee discovered something extraordinary beneath the property: human remains and evidence of a much older community. Today, visitors report children's voices, moving swings, strange figures, and other unexplained activity among the abandoned rides. Tonight, we explore the history and hauntings of Lake Shawnee—and how generations of tragedy transformed an abandoned amusement park into one of West Virginia's most enduring paranormal legends.
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  The Ghosts of Moundsville: West Virginia Penitentiary (West Virginia) 26.09.2026 19min

  For more than a century, the West Virginia Penitentiary at Moundsville held thousands of prisoners behind the walls of a Gothic stone fortress. Ninety-four men were executed there. Riots left inmates dead. Conditions became so brutal that West Virginia's highest court eventually ordered the prison closed. Today, Moundsville is better known for something else: ghosts. Visitors report shadowy figures following them through cellblocks and basements, while one famous apparition has been linked to the murder of an inmate named R.D. Wall. But when you compare the legends with the historical record, some details begin to change—including a murder that ghost stories have placed in the wrong year for decades. Tonight, we explore the history, violence, legends, and ghosts of the West Virginia Penitentiary.
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  The Mount Rainier Murders: The Tube Sock Killer (Washington) 25.09.2026 23min

  In 1985, two couples were murdered months apart in the forests surrounding Mount Rainier. In both cases, a woman was found with a white athletic tube sock tied around her neck using the same distinctive knot. For twenty-five years, investigators believed one of the victims, trapper Mike Riemer, may actually have been the killer. Then, in 2011, a hiker found his remains less than a mile from where his girlfriend had been discovered. Suddenly, investigators weren't looking for three victims and a murderer. They were looking at four victims—and a killer who had disappeared without a trace. Tonight, we explore Washington's unsolved Tube Sock Murders, the toddler the killer inexplicably spared, and the DNA evidence that could finally put a name to whoever walked out of those woods.
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  The Winged Cryptid On The Wrong Mountain: Batsquatch (Washington) 24.09.2026 23min

  In 1994, eighteen-year-old Brian Canfield was driving along a dark road in the foothills of Washington when his pickup suddenly died. Then something dropped out of the sky. He described a nine-foot creature covered in blue fur, with yellow eyes, a wolf-like face, clawed feet, and enormous leathery wings. For several minutes, the two simply stared at each other before the creature took flight—and Brian's truck inexplicably started again. The encounter would give the Pacific Northwest a new cryptid: Batsquatch. But somewhere along the way, the story changed, moving the creature to a completely different mountain and surrounding it with a mythology that wasn't there in 1994. Tonight, we go looking for the real story behind Batsquatch.
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  The Castle of Invented Ghosts: Manresa Castle (Washington) 23.09.2026 22min

  High above Port Townsend, Washington, stands Manresa Castle, a Victorian mansion with two famous ghosts. One is said to be a Jesuit priest who hanged himself in the attic. The other is “English Kate,” a pregnant young woman who supposedly leapt from a third-floor window after learning her lover had died at sea. Guests still report footsteps, weeping, strange odors, and figures appearing in their rooms. But when historians went looking for the deaths behind those hauntings, they found a problem: neither tragedy appears to have happened. Tonight, we explore the ghosts of Manresa Castle, the history behind its legends, and why sometimes the true story a town forgets is darker than the ghost story it chooses to remember.
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  The Boy in the Wall: The Ghosts of Pike Place Market (Washington) 22.09.2026 30min

  Pike Place Market is one of Seattle's most recognizable landmarks, but beneath the flying fish and crowded produce stalls is a maze of old corridors, sealed rooms, forgotten businesses, and more than a century of folklore. Workers have reported seeing the apparition of Princess Angeline climbing stairs that didn't exist during her lifetime. A former mortuary beneath Post Alley became associated with tales of unexplained figures and strange activity. And deep in the Market's Down Under, a bead shop claimed something was stealing its inventory—until its owners broke through a wall and discovered a room that had supposedly been sealed for decades. Tonight, we descend beneath Pike Place Market and explore the ghosts and legends said to inhabit one of Seattle's oldest institutions.
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  The Woman by the Fireplace: The Haunting of the Harvard Exit (Washington) 21.09.2026 21min

  For nearly fifty years, Seattle's Harvard Exit Theatre carried a reputation for being haunted. Employees reported lights turning on by themselves, doors fighting back, strange voices, falling objects, and a mysterious woman appearing beside the lobby fireplace. Some believed she was Bertha Knight Landes, Seattle's first female mayor and a former president of the women's club that originally occupied the building. There was just one problem: Landes died two thousand miles away. And when people began digging deeper into the theater's other ghost stories, some surprisingly human explanations emerged. Tonight, we explore the history and haunting of the Harvard Exit Theatre—and how a workplace prank can become a ghost story that lasts for generations.
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  Six Hours in a Cloud: The Macdona Train Disaster (Texas) 20.09.2026 21min

  On June 28, 2004, two freight trains collided outside San Antonio, rupturing a tank car carrying roughly ninety tons of liquid chlorine. Just a hundred feet away, Wayne and Mary Hale woke to a toxic cloud spreading through their home. They called 911, followed the instructions they were given, and waited for help. But a locked gate, an emergency perimeter, confusion between responding agencies, and well-intentioned advice would leave the family trapped for more than six hours. By the time hazmat crews reached them, two members of the Hale family were dead. Tonight, we explore the Macdona train disaster—and the chain of decisions that turned a railroad collision into a deadly chemical emergency.
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  The Dyatlov Pass Incident (Russia) 19.09.2026 28min

  In February 1959, nine experienced hikers vanished in the frozen wilderness of the Soviet Union. Weeks later, searchers found their tent abandoned on the side of Kholat Syakhl—cut open from the inside, with boots, coats, food, and equipment left behind. Their footprints led nearly a mile into the forest, where their bodies were eventually discovered under circumstances that would fuel decades of theories involving secret weapons, radiation, indigenous attacks, and even the Yeti. But more than sixty years later, modern snow science may finally explain what happened at Dyatlov Pass. Tonight, we explore one of the world's most enduring unexplained mysteries—and the surprisingly ordinary force that may have killed nine experienced hikers.
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  The Missing Child of Rainbow Kids: Brittany Renee Williams (Virginia) 18.09.2026 18min

  Brittany Renee Williams was seven years old when she disappeared from Henrico County, Virginia, in 2000. She was living with the woman who ran Rainbow Kids, a home for children with serious medical conditions, and required ongoing treatment for HIV. But when Brittany vanished, nobody reported her missing. For more than two years, her Social Security and Medicaid benefits continued to be collected while conflicting stories were told about where she had gone. By the time investigators finally opened a missing-person case, the trail was already years old. Searches produced no remains, and no one has ever been charged in connection with her disappearance. More than twenty-five years later, Brittany's case remains open. Tonight, we tell her story.
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  The Stranger and Veiled Woman of Gadsby's Tavern (Virginia) 17.09.2026 28min

  In 1816, a mysterious young woman arrived at Alexandria's finest hotel deathly ill, her face hidden behind a black veil. The man claiming to be her husband demanded absolute secrecy from everyone allowed into her room. Weeks later, the twenty-three-year-old woman was dead, buried beneath an enormous marble monument that revealed everything about her grief—and nothing about her identity. Then her husband disappeared, leaving behind $1,500 in counterfeit money and a mystery that has survived for more than two centuries. Today, she's remembered simply as the Female Stranger, and some believe she never really left Room 8. Tonight, we explore the mystery and haunting of Gadsby's Tavern.
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  The Vampire of Hollywood Cemetery (Virginia) 16.09.2026 18min

  Hollywood Cemetery is the final resting place of presidents, Confederate soldiers, Richmond's elite—and, according to local legend, a vampire. The story begins with the catastrophic 1925 collapse of the Church Hill Tunnel, when witnesses reportedly saw a bloody, badly injured figure emerge from the wreckage. Over the decades, that tragedy became tangled with the tomb of William Wortham Pool, an otherwise ordinary Richmond bookkeeper who died years before the collapse. But the Richmond Vampire isn't Hollywood Cemetery's only strange story. There's also a cast-iron dog guarding a child's grave, a ninety-foot granite pyramid, and generations of reported voices and apparitions. Tonight, we explore the history and folklore of Hollywood Cemetery.
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  The Bones Beneath Jamestown Island (Virginia) 15.09.2026 24min

  Jamestown is remembered as the first permanent English settlement in America. What's remembered less often is how close it came to becoming a mass grave. During the winter of 1609–1610, hundreds died from starvation, disease, siege, and violence—and archaeological evidence eventually confirmed something historians had debated for centuries: some survivors resorted to cannibalism. Today, the island has its own collection of ghost stories, from footsteps inside an empty church to figures among the ruins and strange sounds drifting across the marsh. But beneath the folklore are the remains of very real people, including a fourteen-year-old girl archaeologists call Jane. Tonight, we explore the brutal history and lingering ghost stories of Jamestown.