Highway to Hell

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  60. The Dyatlov Incident 11.08.2026 1ч 59мин

  What could possibly cause experienced hikers to cut their way out of a tent, WALK half clothed to the treeline, and die from the elements?**Special thanks to our patreon supporters for making this show possible patreon.com/highwaytohellpodcast**In January 1959, ten students from the Ural Polytechnical Institute set out on a Category III ski trek through the northern Urals, led by 23-year-old Igor Dyatlov. One member, Yuri Yudin, turned back due to back sciatic pain, leaving nine to camp on February 1 on the slope of Kholat Syakhl, "Dead Mountain." He would be the only person to survive. When searchers reached the site on February 26, the tent had been cut open from the inside, as if the climbers fled to escape. Boots, coats, and equipment remained within. Footprints led 1.5 kilometers downslope toward a treeline — people walking, not running, some barefoot, some in socks. Two bodies lay under a cedar in their underwear beside a dead fire. Three more were found between the cedar and the tent, apparently trying to climb back.The last four surfaced in May, buried in a ravine under four meters of snow. Two had crushed ribs; one had a fractured skull. The examiner compared the injuries to a car crash and noted the absence of corresponding external trauma. How is that possible? Dubinina was missing her tongue and eyes, later explained by months of decomposition in running water. Trace radiation on clothing traced to one hiker's job at a nuclear plant.Soviet investigators closed the file citing a compelling natural force the group could not overcome, then classified it. Six decades of theory followed: military tests, infrasound panic, the KGB, the paranormal.In 2021, Gaume and Puzrin modeled a delayed slab avalanche — triggered by cutting a tent platform into wind-loaded snow, small enough to leave no debris, and capable of causing internal injuries without surface damage. The rest is exposure, darkness, and exhausted people making survivable-seeming choices in −25°C. But what about the military tests? Sources (full source list on Patreon) The 1959 criminal case file — Sverdlovsk Oblast Prosecutor's Office, Feb–May 1959. Roughly 400 pageshttps://dyatlovpass.com/case-filesAutopsy protocols of Boris Vozrozhdenny — forensic medical expert, Sverdlovsk Oblast. First five bodies examined March 1959; the four from the ravine on 9 May 1959.https://dyatlovpass.com/autopsyGenrietta Churkina, criminalistic examination of the tent — case file, 16 April 1959. The finding that the principal cuts were made from inside.Vladimir Levashov, radiological report — chief radiologist, Sverdlovsk city sanitary-epidemiological station, 27 May 1959. Beta contamination readings on Dubinina's sweater and Kolevatov's trousers and sweater waistband.The hikers' diaries https://dyatlovpass.com/diariesThe recovered camera films — five cameras, including the negatives found in Lev Ivanov's private archive in 1997 and donated to the Dyatlov Foundation.https://dyatlovpass.com/photos"Vecherniy Otorten" (Evening Otorten) No. 1 — the group's satirical camp newsletter, dated 1 February 1959. Surviving only as an investigator's transcription in the case file.Lev Ivanov, "The Enigma of the Fireballs" — Leninsky Put, Kustanai, Kazakhstan, November 1990. The lead investigator's account of being ordered to omit the sightings, and his apology to the families.https://dyatlovpass.com/enigma-of-the-fireballsRussian Prosecutor General's Office reinvestigation, 2019–2020 , 11 July 2020.https://dyatlovpass.com/prosecutors-investigationTASS — "Prosecutors say avalanche killed Dyatlov group in Urals in 1959" (July 2020)https://tass.com/emergencies/1177345Gaume, J. & Puzrin, A. M. — "Mechanisms of slab avalanche "Communications Earth & Environment 2, 10 (2021). Published 28 January 2021.https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-020-00081-8DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-020-00081-8
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  59. YES, NO, GOODBYE- The History of the Ouija Board 04.08.2026 1ч 45мин

  Get episodes ad free and support the show at patreon.com/highwaytohell The Spiritualist movement swept America, enticing people to entertain the question, "can we truly talk to the dead?". The Fox Sisters in 1848 entranced interest with their rapping phenomena in Hydesville, NY. Beleivers in contact were already using talking boards, alphabet cards, taple tipping and planchette writing by putting a heart shape platform on casters that held a pencil and wrote form the spirit guides. The Civil Wars mass casualties increased the demand for any way for people to talk to their lost loved ones. "Can they hear me?". Soon the planchette would be combined with an alphabet board to make translating the writing more efficient and meet the increased demand. In 1890, a group of Baltimore investors: businessman Elijah Bond, attorney Charles Kennard, and others, with employee William Fuld would soon file a patent for a "talking board." Legend holds the Patent Office demanded a demonstration, and the board correctly spelled out the skeptical examiner's name; the patent was granted in February 1891. The name's origin is disputed. The company claimed it was Egyptian for "good luck"; the likelier story is that Bond's sister-in-law Helen Peters, a medium, asked the board what it wished to be called, and it answered "Ouija." A name similar to the author's name and likeness she wore in a locket. Fuld would eventually take control of production, and through aggressive manufacturing and litigation against rivals became synonymous with the board. He died in 1927 after falling from the roof of his Baltimore factory — a building he said the board had told him to construct. His family ran the business until selling to Parker Brothers in 1966; Hasbro acquired it in 1991. For decades the board was harmless parlor entertainment, spiking in popularity during wartime and the 1960s occult revival. In 1973, The Exorcist recast it as a portal for demonic possession, and evangelical anxiety hardened that reputation permanently.Science attributes its operation to the ideomotor effect, described by physiologist William Carpenter in 1852: unconscious micro-movements by participants who genuinely believe they aren't pushing. Blindfold experiments reliably reduce the board to gibberish.But then there are stories of unexplainable things, terrifying things, things the board shouldnt... couldnt know. Is it real?Sources: Condensed for Character spaceDeep history & belief — E.B. Tylor, Primitive Culture (1871, animism); archaeology of Sungir, Paviland, Göbekli Tepe; the Epic of Gilgamesh; Egyptian Book of the Dead & "Letters to the Dead"; 1 Samuel 28 & Deuteronomy 18; Homer's Odyssey Bk. 11. The bridge & Spiritualism — Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell (1758); Mesmer; Andrew Jackson Davis; the Fox sisters & Maggie's 1888 confession; Blavatsky & Theosophy; Conan Doyle vs. Houdini; Society for Psychical Research. Tarot — Court de Gébelin's Le Monde primitif (1781); Etteilla; Éliphas Lévi; the Golden Dawn; the 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith deck & Pamela Colman Smith. Ouija — Smithsonian Magazine (Linda Rodriguez McRobbie) · historian Robert Murch · The Strong National Museum of Play · Baltimore Magazine · Time · The Conversation · Atlas Obscura (Pearl Curran) · UBC ideomotor study (Rensink, Gauchou & Fels, 2012) · The Lineup & True Ghost Tales (Zozo) · Wikipedia & Skeptical Inquirer (Roland Doe / Ronald Hunkeler). Dates and figures are drawn from secondary sources — double-check anything you quote on air.
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  58. The Butcher Baker 28.07.2026 2ч 1мин

  Please support the show, get ad free episodes and bonus content at patreon.com/highwaytohellpodcastRobert Hansen was born in Estherville Iowa to Danish immigrant parents. His father, was a baker and very domineering. Hansen had a pronounced stutter, acne scars and experiences social rejection and humiliation. As retaliation for this humiliation, and for the rejection of young women who would bully him, in 1960 he burned down a school district bus garage in Pope County. He was arrested but only served 20 months during which is first wife left him. Good call. Ladies if he's burning buildings down, you can't save him. Once released, he would be responsible for a string of petty thefts.He would relocate to Anchorage Alaska in 1967 with his second wife and two children and opened a downtown bakery. It was a new place and new start. He was able to build a public identity as a respectable career man, family man, and most impressively in Alaska- a trophy bowhunter. Even with assault convictions in 1971 and 1972 didn't ruin his livelihood or reputation. Because how dare men be held accountable and ostracized from society for sex crimes????Then between 1971 and 1983, Hansen would abduct, rape and kill women, mostly dancers and sex workers, knowing full well that the transient nature of Anchorage would protect him and provide alibis and lack of suspicion. He method was horrific. As a pilot, he would fly his victims to the Knik River valley and other bush country, release them... and hunt them. On June 13, 1983, 17-year-old Cindy Paulson escaped in handcuffs at Merrill Field as Hansen loaded her onto his plane. She ran to police and reported it- they didn't believe her. WHY DON'T WOMEN REPORT??? Bodies had been surfacing since 1980 including: unidentified "Eklutna Annie", Joanna Messina, Sherry Morrow, and Paula Goudling. An FBI behavioral profile FINALLY persuaded a judge to issue a warrant. The October 1983 search recovered victims' jewelry hidden in the attic, firearms concealed behind his headboard, and an aviation chart marked with roughly twenty small Xs, a map of his own graves. Ballistics matched shell casings from two scenes.In February 1984 Robert would plead guilty to four murders and was sentenced to 461 years plus life without parole. He confessed to 17 killings and more than 30 rapes, guiding investigators to burial sites. He died in custody on August 21, 2014.Sources: • Walter Gilmour & Leland E. Hale, Butcher, Baker: The True Account of an Alaskan Serial Killer (1991; reissued Open Road Media, 2016). Gilmour was an Alaska State Trooper involved in the case • Leland E. Hale, "Butcher Baker" case blog, lelandhale.com/butcherbaker (co-author's ongoing primary-source chronology, including confession-transcript excerpts, the Cindy Paulson statement, the alibi collapse, and the grave-site map). • UPI Archives, Feb. 28, 1984 — sentencing wire reports ("Sentenced to life plus 461 years"). • Anchorage Daily News — contemporaneous reporting and Aug. 21–22, 2014 obituaries/coverage. • Alaska Department of Public Safety / Alaska State Troopers — press releases, incl. the 44Oct. 22, 2021 identification of "Horseshoe Harriet" as Robin Pelkey (genetic genealogy, Alaska Bureau of Investigation Cold Case Unit with Parabon NanoLabs). • FBI Behavioral Science Unit profile (John E. Douglas, with James Horn), October 1983. • Wikipedia, "Robert Hansen" and "Murder of Eklutna Annie" (used to locate primary citations); Charley Project / Doe Network (Emerick, Thill); Find A Grave (Futrell). • The Frozen Ground (2013, dir. Scott Walker) is a dramatization, not a source of fact — named/altered characters. Used for cultural context only. 
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  57. Herb Baumeister 21.07.2026 1ч 27мин

  Herbert Baumeister was born in Indiana in 1947 and grew up in a middle-class family near Indianapolis. Even as a young man he showed troubling signs, and he spent time in a mental institution as an adult. Still, he built what looked like an ordinary life. He married Julie Saiter in 1971, raised three children, and ran a chain of successful thrift stores called Sav-A-Lot. To neighbors and customers, he seemed like a respectable businessman and family man.Behind that image was a double life. In the early 1990s, Baumeister began visiting gay bars in Indianapolis under the name "Brian Smart." He lured men back to Fox Hollow Farm, his large estate in Westfield, Indiana, while his wife and children were away. There he strangled them, and he buried and scattered their remains across his wooded property.The first hint of trouble came in 1994, when one of his sons found a human bone in the yard. Baumeister brushed it off as a medical skeleton. The truth surfaced through a survivor. A man who had escaped went to police and helped them connect the disappearances to "Brian Smart," who was eventually identified as Baumeister. In 1996, while he was away, his wife allowed investigators to search the farm. They uncovered thousands of charred bone fragments, the remains of at least eleven men.Baumeister did not stay to face the case. He fled to Canada and, on July 3, 1996, shot himself at a provincial park in Ontario. He left a suicide note that mentioned his failing marriage and business but never confessed to the killings.Investigators later suspected he may also have been responsible for a series of unsolved murders in which bodies were dumped along highways in Indiana and Ohio. Because he died before any trial, much about his crimes remains uncertain. Efforts to identify his victims from the recovered remains have continued for decades, giving names back to some of the men lost at Fox Hollow Farm.Sources Full list on patreonJenny Labalme, "Suicide note mentions marriage, business but not bones," The Indianapolis Star, July 6, 1996 (pp. 1–2). — The three-page suicide note's contents. (Anchor contemporary source for the death.)The New York Times, July 1996 — Quoting Hamilton County Sheriff's Sgt. Kenneth C. Whisman that the note "did not mention the deaths or remains." (Exact headline/date/URL not independently verified — fetch blocked; attribution confirmed second-hand.)Associated Press wire, early July 1996 — Breaking discovery / body-count coverage ("bodies found on Westfield estate").People, "While Julie Was Away," Dec. 23, 1996 (Richard Jerome & Fannie Weinstein) Indianapolis Monthly, Dec. 1996 — Julie Baumeister's own first-person essay.Reuters / Indianapolis Star-News wire (c. 1996–1999) — Dr. Stephen Nawrocki, "Our minimum number at the site is 11. There could be more."; Det. Bill Clifford on the DNA signatures.Detective Mary Wilson's 12-page handwritten memo, dated June 27, 1996 — Obtained via public records and published by WRTV (Vic Ryckaert), "Forgotten at Fox Hollow," 2023.WRTV / WCPO, "Forgotten at Fox Hollow" (Vic Ryckaert), 2023 — the memo and case documents from the Hamilton County SheriffFannie Weinstein & Melinda Wilson, Where the Bodies Are Buried (St. Martin's, 1998) Rob Graves & Richard Estep, The Horrors of Fox Hollow Farm (2019) Stephen Nawrocki et al., "A Taphonomic Analysis of Human Cremains from the Fox Hollow Farm Serial Homicide Site" University of Indianapolis Human Identification Center (Dr. Krista Latham) — remains curation/analysis; Latham's "marginalized in life… in death" quotes.Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, "Herbert R. Baumeister" (indyencyclopedia.org) — timeline, the Sept. 12, 1996 first-four IDs, "concluded he was responsible."Indianapolis Monthly, "Unburying the Truth," Eve Batey (Dec. 2024; updated Nov. 4, 2025) — Jellison's "eight gay men from Indianapolis, what do we care?" and "blonde-haired, blue-eyed girls from Carmel or Fishers" quotes; the Livingston landline detail.
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  56. Lights Out Volume 1 14.07.2026 1ч 30мин

  Today a little palette cleanser!After some heavy true crime and hauntings we wanted to do an episode sharing claimed in person paranormal encounters. If you'd like to submit a story- submit to info@montemader.com
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  55. The Worlds Most Haunted Places Part 2 07.07.2026 1ч 46мин

  As always special thanks to our hellions supporting us on patreon! patreon.com/highwaytohellpodcastThis episode closes the two-part countdown of the most haunted places on earth, covering the top five. We open in Edinburgh, Scotland — a city that sealed off its medieval streets and built a new city on top of them, leaving the original closes and vaults intact beneath the surface. The South Bridge Vaults, rediscovered in 1985, have been the subject of one of the most rigorous paranormal studies ever conducted.From Scotland we go to Bohemia, Czech Republic, and Houska Castle — a 13th-century structure with no water source, no town to protect, and no trade route to control, built in the middle of dense forest with outer walls that face inward. It was built over a hole in the ground that medieval sources describe as a gateway to the underworld. The chapel sits directly above the sealed pit and contains a fresco of St. Michael painted deliberately left-handed — in medieval Catholic iconography, the hand of the Devil. In County Offaly, Ireland, Leap Castle earns the third spot. It is the site of a massacre carried out in the castle's own chapel during a feast, and the murder of a Catholic priest at the altar by his own brother during Mass. In 1900, renovation workers discovered a concealed oubliette off the Bloody Chapel — a spiked pit containing the remains of an estimated 150 people. An elemental is also present: a creature the size of a sheep, moving on all fours in a human manner, with a human face, black empty eye sockets, and a smell of sulfur and decay that arrives before it appears and lingers after it's gone. Number two, Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania — 51,000 casualties in 72 hours across six square miles of farmland in July 1863. The most paranormally documented site in the United States. At dusk in the Wheatfield, where 6,000 men fell in a single afternoon, figures in period clothing have been reported walking in opposite directions.We close at number one: Poveglia Island where plague victims were quarantined and burned across three centuries of epidemic — 1348, 1630, and the waves between. The soil is documented at approximately fifty percent human ash and bone fragments. An estimated 160,000 people died there. The bell that was removed from the hospital tower, still ringsSOURCESWiseman, Richard. "Hauntings and Psychology." University of Hertfordshire study, Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There. Macmillan, 2011.Historic Environment Scotland. Edinburgh Castle site documentation and architectural history. Edinburgh: HESBurke and Hare: Bailey, Brian. Burke and Hare: The Year of the Ghouls. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 2002.Ottokar II of Bohemia and Houska Castle construction: Žemlička, Josef. Království v pohybu (The Kingdom in Motion). Prague: NLN, 2014.SS Ahnenerbe occult research division: Pringle, Heather. The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust. New York: Hyperion, 2006.O'Carroll clan history and Leap Castle: Simms, Katharine. From Kings to Warlords: The Changing Political Structure of Gaelic Ireland in the Later Middle Ages. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1987.The oubliette at Leap Castle: Ryan, Sean. Personal accounts and estate documentation. See also: Costello, Con. A Most Delightful Station: The British Army on the Curragh of Kildare, Ireland. Collins Press, 1996.Chamberlain and Little Round Top: Trulock, Alice Rains. In the Hands of Providence: Joshua L. Chamberlain and the American Civil War. University of North Carolina Press, 1992.Venice plague epidemics and the lazaretto system: Cohn, Samuel K. Cultures of Plague: Medical Thinking at the End of the Renaissance. Oxford University Press, 2010.Poveglia Island quarantine history: Norwich, John Julius. A History of Venice. New York: Knopf, 1982.Psychiatric care in early 20th-century Italy: Foot, John. The Man Who Closed the Asylums: Franco Basaglia and the Revolution in Mental Health Care. Verso, 2015.
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  54. The Worlds Most Haunted Places Part 1 01.07.2026 1ч 19мин

  Today we start a two part series on the most haunted places in the world. This is the bottom 5 of the top 10. Little bit different format here with each individual place having its own haunted story and mini travel itinerary. Hoia-Baciu Forest in Romania — a 295-hectare forest outside Cluj-Napoca where locals refuse to enter, a circular clearing where nothing grows, and fifty years of documented reports of time loss, physical symptoms, and disappearing photographs. From there we move to Bhangarh Fort in Rajasthan, India, where the Archaeological Survey of India has posted an official government sign prohibiting entry after sunset — one of the only paranormal-adjacent access restrictions at any heritage site in India — and where the ruins of a once-thriving town of tens of thousands have sat completely abandoned since the early 18th century with no adequate historical explanation.In France, we spend time at Château de Brissac in the Loire Valley, where an eighteen-year-old woman named Charlotte de Brézé was murdered by her husband in 1476, whose killer was protected from prison by his friend the king, and who has been appearing in the castle's north wing ever since. At Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, we examine 141 years of absolute solitary confinement — a Quaker reform philosophy that Charles Dickens called torture in 1842 — and what 75,000 people left behind in those cellblocks. We close in Japan at Aokigahara Forest, the Sea of Trees at the base of Mount Fuji, examining the forest's centuries-long association with death, the documented impact of a 1960 novel on its modern history, and what it means to a search volunteer named Kenji who enters it every spring.Part Two covers places five through one.SOURCESSift, Alexandru. Field documentation of Hoia-Baciu Forest. Babeș-Bolyai University, 1960s–1970s.Archaeological Survey of India. Official access restriction signage, Bhangarh Fort, Alwar District. Government of India, Ministry of Culture.Abul Fazl. Akbarnama. Trans. H. Beveridge. Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1902–1939.Commynes, Philippe de. Mémoires. c. 1490–1498.Dickens, Charles. American Notes for General Circulation. Chapman and Hall, 1842. Chapter 7.De Tocqueville, Alexis, and Gustave de Beaumont. On the Penitentiary System in the United States. Trans. Francis Lieber. Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1833.Grassian, Stuart. "Psychiatric Effects of Solitary Confinement." Washington University Journal of Law and Policy. Vol. 22, 2006.Matsumoto, Seicho. Kuroi Jukai (黒い樹海). Kobunsha, 1960.Miyaji, Naoaki, et al. "Lava Flow History of Fuji Volcano." Bulletin of the Volcanological Society of Japan. Vol. 49, 2004.Foster, Michael Dylan. The Book of Yokai. University of California Press, 2015.
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  53. Real Life Horror: The Case of Junko Furuto 23.06.2026 1ч 21мин

  TRIGGER WARNING: We typically don't have trigger warnings since it is a crime podcast, but this episode is ESPECIALLY graphic in topics of kidnapping, torture, and sexual assault. Not appropriate for young listeners. NEW: Fireside behind the scenes fireside chats available now at patreon.com/highwaytohell podcast with EVERY episode. Get ad free episodes 5 days early and then bonus chats on release day. In November 1988, 17-year-old Junko Furuta, a high school student in Misato, Saitama, Japan, was abducted by a group of teenage boys led by Hiroshi Miyano, a youth with yakuza connections. She was held captive for roughly 40 days in a house in the Adachi ward of Tokyo in the home of one of her captors, whose own parents were living in the same building and reportedly did not intervene. During her captivity, Junko was subjected to relentless and brutal abuse by four primary perpetrators and others who came and went. She died in January 1989 from her injuries. Her body was concealed in a concrete-filled drum and abandoned, which gave the crime its common name in Japan: the "concrete-encased high school girl murder case."The legal fallout drew lasting outrage. Because all four main offenders were minors under Japanese law, their identities were initially protected and they were shielded by the juvenile justice system, which prioritized rehabilitation over punishment. The sentences struck many as shockingly lenient given the severity of the crime. Ringleader Hiroshi Miyano received the harshest term at around 20 years, while the others received far shorter sentences... roughly five to ten years, five to nine years, and five to seven years respectively. Prosecutors and the public viewed the outcomes as wholly inadequate, and all four were eventually released back into society.The aftermath deepened public anger. At least one offender reoffended, including a conviction tied to a violent attack years after his release. Some married and built ordinary lives, reportedly disclosing their pasts to their spouses; one died in 2021 after years of illness and isolation. The case became a touchstone in Japanese debates over juvenile sentencing, victims' rights, and whether protections afforded to young offenders can fail to deliver justice for catastrophic crimes. Decades later, Junko Furuta's name remains a symbol of those unresolved tensions, and her case is still cited whenever Japan revisits how it treats minors who commit grave offenses.Sources:Murder of Junko Furuta — WikipediaJunko Furuta: Examining the Light Sentences of Her Killers — HowStuffWorksWhere Are Junko Furuta's Killers Now? — ComingSoonThe Junko Furuta Murder Case: Justice Revisited — Tokyo WeekenderJunko Furuta Killer Again on Trial — Tokyo ReporterThe UK's Grooming Gangs and the Lessons Never Learned — Al JazeeraRotherham Grooming Gang Scandal — Al JazeeraBrock Turner Sentence — CNNEthan Couch Sentencing — BBCHeisei Yakuza: Burst Bubble — ResearchGateStreet Youths, Bosozoku and Yakuza — Office of Justice ProgramsJapanese Juvenile Law — WikipediaCriminal Majority in Japan — European Journal of Contemporary Japanese StudiesTokyo Ghost Hunting — Metropolis JapanHaunted Places in Japan — TripXL7-Day Tokyo Itinerary — Rakuten Travel
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  52. Bring Me The Beauties 16.06.2026 1ч 48мин

  In the early 1980s, Hoyt Richards was on track to become the world's first male supermodel. He worked campaigns for Ralph Lauren, Versace, Cartier, Burberry, and Valentino all while being part of a cult that would consume 2 decades of his life. On a Nantucket beach in 1978, 16-year-old Richards met Frederick von Mierers: older, charismatic, and full of Eastern philosophy, astrology, and talk of the universe's hidden architecture. Von Mierers victims would later say he could make you feel special, seen... and he pulled attractive, vulnerable people into his orbit.His cult was called Eternal Values, and von Mierers claimed he was an alien "walk-in" spirit, reincarnated from the giant star Arcturus, sent to Earth to prepare a chosen few for the apocalypse he predicted would arrive in 1999. Those who followed him completely, he promised, would be saved by a UFO. The rules were strict: restrictive vegetarian diets, mandatory tanning sessions, total celibacy, and absolute financial surrender. Members slept on futons on the floor, communally, regardless of what they earned outside. Anyone who challenged him faced "slamming sessions" which were group rituals where von Mierers and loyal members screamed insults and tore the dissenter apart psychologically until they submitted.He sold gems, readings, and stole his followers salaries. Von Mierers died on February 4, 1990, from AIDS-related complications, at his North Carolina compound. He was 43. His followers didn't know he had the disease until after his autopsy a final betrayal for a man who preached celibacy. A Vanity Fair exposé on his gem fraud appeared the same month he died, too late to prosecute him. Biographical and Background Reporting (2026)"Who Was Frederick von Mierers? All About the 'Bring Me the Beauties' Cult Leader." Biography.com, 2026."'Bring Me The Beauties': New Docuseries Explores 'Eternal Values' Cult." Rolling Stone, 2026."'Bring Me the Beauties': Inside the Alien Sex Cult HBO Documentary." Variety, 2026."The Untold Saga Behind an Infamous Male Supermodel Cult." The Hollywood Reporter, 2026."The True Story Behind 'Bring Me the Beauties' and the Eternal Values Cult." Time, June 1, 2026."Who Was Eternal Values Founder Frederick von Mierers?" A&E, 2026."Who Was Frederick von Mierers? How Did He Die?" The Cinemaholic, 2026."What Was Eternal Values Leader Frederick von Mierers' Cause of Death?" Distractify, 2026.Hoyt Richards — Wikipedia."How Did Male Model Hoyt Richards Escape the Cult?" Primetimer, 2026."Where Is Hoyt Richards Now?" MEAWW, 2026.Living Cult Free — Hoyt Richards biography."Fabio Helped Me Escape From a Cult." MEL Magazine / Medium."Hoyt Richards: Model Behavior." Nantucket Magazine."Why An 'Alien Walk-In' Cult Leader Convinced Elite '80s Models To Flee The Apocalypse." International Business Times UK, 2026.Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult — Wikipedia. Series overview, crew, and episode structure.Ruth Montgomery — Wikipedia. Background on the "walk-in" concept and Aliens Among Us (1985).New Age — Wikipedia. History, belief structure, and cultural penetration of the New Age movement.HIV/AIDS in New York City — Wikipedia. Statistical and historical context."The AIDS Epidemic in the United States, 1981–Early 1990s." CDC Museum Online.Billy Baldwin (decorator) — Wikipedia.Out on a Limb — Wikipedia. Shirley MacLaine (1983) and the mainstreaming of New Age belief."Supermodel." Encyclopædia Britannica. Cultural and commercial context of the 1980s modeling industry.Robert Jay Lifton, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. W. W. Norton, 1961. The foundational academic framework for understanding cultic control systems.Steven Hassan, Combating Cult Mind Control. Park Street Press, 1988. The BITE model (Behavior, Information, Thought, Emotional control) referenced in Chapter Three.
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  51. The Haunting of Anneleise Michel 09.06.2026 1ч 31мин

  In 1952, a devout Catholic girl was born in a small Bavarian town. By 1976, she was dead at 23, weighing 66 pounds, after 67 exorcism sessions conducted by two Catholic priests while a medical diagnosis went untreated. Her name was Anneliese Michel. You probably know her as Emily Rose. At 16, Anneliese began experiencing seizures and was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy and depression. She was hospitalized multiple times. But the psychiatric medications weren't working, or she believed they weren't, and she began to experience visions of demonic faces during her prayers. She grew convinced she was possessed. Her deeply Catholic family agreed.In 1975, Bishop Josef Stangl of Würzburg granted permission for a formal exorcism under the Roman Ritual. Father Arnold Renz and Father Ernst Alt began conducting sessions at the Michel family home in Klingenberg am Main. One to two sessions per week, each lasting up to four hours. They recorded everything on cassette tape. Forty-three tapes survive. On them you can hear Anneliese screaming, growling, barking like a dog, and speaking in voices that identified themselves as Lucifer, Cain, Judas Iscariot, Nero, Adolf Hitler, who argued in Bavarian dialect, and a disgraced 16th-century priest named Fleischmann. Her parents stopped consulting doctors at her request. On July 1, 1976, Anneliese Michel died of malnutrition and dehydration. The priests and her parents were tried and convicted of negligent homicide in 1978 and sentenced to six months suspended. The court was clear: she was mentally ill, not possessed. Her grave in Klingenberg am Main has become a Catholic pilgrimage site. Buses come from across Europe. People leave notes requesting her intercession.She was 23 years old.SOURCES — Anneliese MichelWikipedia — Anneliese Michel — comprehensive overview with primary source citationsAll That's Interesting — The Real Story Behind Emily Rose — detailed narrative accountGoodman, Felicitas D. — The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel (Doubleday, 1981) — the only full-length scholarly book on the case; Goodman was an anthropologist who analyzed the tapesFortea, Fr. José Antonio — Catholic theological perspective on the caseFind a Grave — Anneliese Michel Memorial — grave location and documentationThe Local Germany — "Fire Resurrects Devil Talk in Exorcism Town" — reporting from Klingenberg am MainMedium / History Retold — "The 67 Exorcisms of Anneliese Michel" — detailed timeline of sessionsEBSCO Research Starters — Anneliese Michel — academic summaryTranscript of Exorcism Sessions — partial transcripts available via Scribd (translated from German)German court records — Landgericht Aschaffenburg, Case No. 1 Ks 4/77, verdict April 21, 1978 — conviction of Josef Michel, Anna Michel, Fr. Arnold Renz, and Fr. Ernst Alt for negligent homicideRTD — "How a Girl Believed to Be Possessed Underwent 67 Exorcisms" — biographical detailDark Holme Publishing — The Exorcism That Ended in Death — medical and legal analysis
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  50. The I -5 Killer 02.06.2026 1ч 14мин

  Title: The I -5 Killer The I-5 Killer Randall Brent Woodfield seemed, on the surface, like everything America admired. A gifted athlete from Oregon, he was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in 1974 — only to be cut before the season and later arrested multiple times for indecent exposure, a pattern the NFL had quietly noted. Despite early warning signs, Woodfield drifted in and out of trouble throughout the late 1970s, until the winter of 1980–81, when a killing spree erupted along the Interstate 5 corridor from California through Oregon and Washington.Over roughly four months, Woodfield committed a string of robberies, sexual assaults, and murders targeting women — often at fast food restaurants and rest stops along I-5. His victims were shot execution-style. Investigators eventually connected him to at least 14 murders, though some estimates run as high as 44. The break came when a survivor identified Woodfield by his distinctive physique — he often wore tape over his face — and investigators matched him through handwriting, physical evidence, and witness testimony.Woodfield was arrested in March 1981. In 1981 he was convicted of the murder of Shari Hull and sentenced to life plus 165 years in the Oregon State Penitentiary. He was subsequently convicted on additional charges, adding decades more to his sentence. DNA evidence later linked him to several cold cases he was never charged with. He remains incarcerated today, his parole denied repeatedly. Ann Rule's definitive account of his crimes, The I-5 Killer, remains one of the most cited true crime books written about him.Sources for Reference:    1    The I-5 Killer by Ann Rule (Amazon) (https://www.amazon.com/I-5-Killer-Ann-Rule/dp/0593441370) — the primary book-length account of Woodfield's life and crimes    2    The I-5 Killer — Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/239848.The_I_5_Killer)    3    Randall Woodfield: The 1-5 Serial Killer by Blake Simpson (Amazon Kindle) (https://www.amazon.com/Randall-Woodfield-1-5-Serial-Killer-ebook/dp/B0D5BWH841)    4    Randall Woodfield — Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randall_Woodfield)    5    The I-5 Killer — Wakefield Books (https://wakefieldbooks.com/book/9780593441374)    6    The I-5 Killer — Bellingham Public Library (https://bellingham.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S150C585053)    7    The I-5 Killer — Chicago Public Library (https://chipublib.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S126C2398317)    8    The I-5 Killer — Glenview Public Library (https://glenviewpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S202C215696)    9    Randall Woodfield: The 1-5 Serial Killer — Apple Books (https://books.apple.com/us/book/randall-woodfield-the-1-5-serial-killer/id6503261153)    10    The I-5 Killer Revised Edition (Amazon) (https://www.amazon.com/I-5-Killer-Revised-Ann-Rule/dp/0451165594)    11    Oregon Department of Corrections — Inmate Records (https://doc.oregon.gov/)    12    FBI Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) — Cold Case DNA Matching (https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/violent-crime/vicap)    13    Oregon State Archives — Court Records, State of Oregon v. Woodfield (https://sos.oregon.gov/archives)
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  49. "No Humans Involved"- Green River Killer 27.05.2026 1ч 31мин

  Apologies this episode is late! We had a major tech issue that showed our podcast no longer existed on our dashboard but all is well and recovered! Thanks for your patienceThank you to our supporters on patreon.com/highwaytohellBetween 1982 and 1998, Gary Leon Ridgway murdered at least 49 women in and around Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, making him one of the most prolific serial killers in American history. Most of his victims were young women, many of them sex workers or runaways, whom he picked up along the Pacific Highway South corridor. He strangled them, dumped their bodies in wooded areas, and for nearly two decades, walked free.The investigation was hampered from the start by institutional indifference. Law enforcement operated under an unofficial but widely understood attitude known as NHI — "No Humans Involved" — a designation applied to cases involving sex workers, homeless individuals, or drug users. Victims in these categories were deprioritized, their cases worked less aggressively, their families given fewer resources. Detectives who did push for more attention were often met with bureaucratic resistance. The assumption that these women had placed themselves in danger, that their deaths were somehow less urgent , allowed Ridgway to keep killing for sixteen years.He was finally arrested in 2001 after DNA technology linked him to several victims. In 2003, Ridgway pleaded guilty to 48 murders in a deal that spared him the death penalty in exchange for helping locate the remains of still-missing victims. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.Sources:Sources: Green River Killer ResearchRule, Ann. Green River, Running Red. Free Press, 2004.Smith, Carlton & Guillen, Tomas. The Search for the Green River Killer. Penguin, 1991.Prothero, Mark & Smith, Carlton. Defending Gary. Union Square Press, 2006.King County Superior Court, Case No. 03-1-00175-9. Guilty Plea & Sentencing Documents, 2003.King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. Statement of Defendant on Plea of Guilty, 2003.Washington State Attorney General's Office. Green River Task Force Investigative Records. Washington State Archives.Federal Bureau of Investigation. Gary Ridgway Case Files. FBI Vault, vault.fbi.gov.King County Medical Examiner's Office. Victim Autopsy & Identification Records. King County Public Records.The Seattle Times. Green River Killer Archive, 1982–2003. seattletimes.com.The Tacoma News Tribune. Green River Killer Coverage Archive.Seattle Weekly. "The List" Investigative Series on NHI Classification and Victim Deprioritization.FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. Serial Murder: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives for Investigators. U.S. Department of Justice, 2008.Criminology & Public Policy Journal. "Policing Sex Work." Various authors.Violence Against Women Journal. "Vulnerability and Victimization: Street Sex Workers and Violence." Various authors.Green River Killer: Mind of a Monster. Investigation Discovery, 2019.
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  48. Rehabilitation Imitation- Jack Unterweger 19.05.2026 1ч 32мин

  Thank you so much for all of the kind comments, likes and shares. It truly means so much to us! If you'd like ad free episodes, travel itineraries and first dibs on merch please join us as a HELLION at patreon.com/highwaytohellpodcastHe was born in 1950 in a small Austrian town called Judenburg, the son of a waitress turned occasional prostitute and an American GI he would never meet. Raised by a violent, alcoholic grandfather, Jack Unterweger learned early that the world was cruel. By twenty-three he had a record running through theft, pimping, and rape. In December of 1974 he lured an eighteen-year-old named Margret Schäfer into a Bavarian forest, beat her, and strangled her with her own bra knotted in an elaborate ligature beneath her chin. Austria sentenced him to life.Inside prison, he taught himself to write. Poems came first, then a memoir, Purgatory, that became a literary sensation. Elfriede Jelinek and Günter Grass championed his release as proof that art could save a soul. In 1990, after fifteen years, he walked free.He became a celebrity. He wore white suits, drove a Mustang, and hosted a TV show on Austrian state television. He was even commissioned to write about a string of unsolved murders of sex workers across Austria — murders he himself was committing. In June 1991 he flew to Los Angeles to study American policing of prostitution. Three women died there in a single week, strangled with their own bras in the same unmistakable knot.A retired detective from his 1974 case recognized the signature. Fibers, receipts, hotel records, and a ligature found nowhere else in any criminal database closed around him. He fled to Miami, where the FBI arrested him in February 1992.At his 1994 trial in Graz he was convicted of nine murders across Austria, the Czech Republic, and California. That night, alone in his cell, he braided his shoelaces and tracksuit drawstrings into the same ligature he had used on his victims, and hanged himself from the bars. He was forty-three. Because Austrian law treats a conviction as final only after appeal, he died, in legal terms, a man presumed innocent.SourcesLeake, John. Entering Hades: The Double Life of a Serial Killer. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. The definitive English-language account. Leake had unprecedented access to the Austrian investigation files and interviewed key figures including Ernst Geiger.Newton, Michael. The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. Checkmark Books, 2000. Well-sourced entry on Unterweger with citation of primary Austrian records.Documentary: Devil and the Angel Documentary: Lustmord (ORF/BBC) Austrian public broadcaster documentary. Der Standard / Die Presse Archives (Austria) — Austrian national newspapers digital archives covered the investigation and trial exhaustively.. derstandard.at / diepresse.comFBI: Serial Murder — Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives — Serial offender behavioral analysis relevant to the Unterweger case study.Haller, Reinhard. Forensic psychiatric testimony, Graz trial, 1994. Published accounts of Haller's analysis appear in Entering Hades and Austrian legal literature.Geberth, Vernon J. Practical Homicide Investigation, 4th ed. CRC Press. Reference for the signature analysis and ligature-knot methodology used in the cross-continental identification.YouTube Archive Search: "Jack Unterweger" used for documentary clips and news segments Unterweger, Jack. Fegefeuer (Purgatory). Jugend und Volk, 1983. His autobiographical novel.
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  47. Metal AF: Music, Satanic Panic, Hype & Hauntings 12.05.2026 1ч 52мин

  Between roughly 1980 and 1995, the United States experienced one of the largest collective delusions in its modern history. A significant share of the public, along with police departments, prosecutors, social workers, and clergy, came to believe that an organized network of Satanic cults was ritually abusing children, sacrificing infants, and operating in plain sight through churches, daycares, and rock-and-roll records. No credible evidence for such a network has ever been found. The trials, convictions, and shattered lives, however, were entirely real.The era was shaped by the lingering shadow of the Manson Family and the Jonestown massacre, the rapid expansion of televangelism, the political ascent of the Christian Right, and an unprecedented entry of mothers into the workforce that placed millions of American children, for the first time, into institutional daycare. Into this anxious moment came the therapeutic vogue of recovered memory, Geraldo Rivera's 1988 NBC special Devil Worship: Exposing Satan's Underground, and a daytime talk-show ecosystem that elevated occult conspiracy to the status of public health crisis.We then turn to the role of popular music. Heavy metal became the panic's most visible scapegoat. Ozzy Osbourne was sued over the lyrics of "Suicide Solution." Judas Priest was tried in a Reno courtroom over allegations of subliminal backmasking. The acronym "Knights in Satan's Service" was retroactively imposed on KISS. In 1985, the Parents Music Resource Center, co-founded by Tipper Gore, led Senate hearings that produced the Parental Advisory label still in use today.We trace the panic's intellectual foundation to three books. Michelle Remembers (1980), co-authored by psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his patient and future wife Michelle Smith, introduced the template of recovered Satanic ritual abuse and has since been thoroughly discredited. Satan's Underground by Lauren Stratford was exposed as fabrication by the evangelical magazine Cornerstone in 1989. Mike Warnke's The Satan Seller, marketed for nearly two decades as the testimony of a former Satanic high priest, was similarly debunked. Each was promoted by churches, sold through Christian bookstores, and circulated to law enforcement as reference material.Finally, we examine the cases. The McMartin Preschool trial, which ran from 1984 to 1990, remains the longest and most expensive criminal trial in American history and produced no convictions. Kern County, Fells Acres, Little Rascals, Wenatchee, and the 1994 conviction of the West Memphis Three followed similar patterns: coached child testimony, suggestive interview techniques, and prosecutions driven by belief rather than evidence. Witch trials anyone?Further Reading & SourcesStanley Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972)Lawrence Wright, Remembering Satan (1994) — the Paul Ingram caseDebbie Nathan & Michael Snedeker, Satan's Silence (1995)Richard Beck, We Believe the Children: A Moral Panic in the 1980s (2015)Richard Ofshe & Ethan Watters, Making Monsters (1994)Jon Trott & Mike Hertenstein, "Selling Satan," Cornerstone (1992)Mara Leveritt, Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three (2002)Damien Echols, Life After Death (2012)Jack & Janet Smurl with Robert Curran, The Haunting (1988)Indianapolis Star, "The Exorcisms of Latoya Ammons" (2014) — official DCS recordsNoreen Gosch, Why Johnny Can't Come Home (2000)David Frankfurter, Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic Abuse in History (2006)Timothy Leary, The Politics of Ecstasy (1968)Hal Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth (1970)Jimmy McDonough, Shakey: Neil Young's Biography (2002) — Altamont contextHoward Sounes, 27: A History of the 27 Club (2013)Martin Wall, Aleister Crowley: The Beast in Berlin (2016) — Page/Crowley connectionPeter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (1998) — counterculture context
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  46. Above All Obey- Warren Jeffs Part 2. 06.05.2026 1ч 45мин

  Apologies for the delay! Monte recently moved and had no internet due to delayed set up. I’m back! In Part 2, we pick up right where the FBI did. Warren Jeffs made the Ten Most Wanted List in 2006 and was arrested that August. A Utah conviction followed in 2007, but was overturned on a technicality. Texas proved far less forgiving.In 2011, prosecutors presented DNA evidence proving Jeffs had fathered a child with a 15 year old, and played audio recordings of him assaulting a 12 year old in open court. Jeffs dismissed his legal team, represented himself, and argued the proceedings were a violation of his religious freedom. The jury was not persuaded. They deliberated for just 30 minutes before returning a sentence of life in prison plus an additional 20 years.He has remained at a Texas prison ever since, with no release date and parole eligibility not until 2038. His incarceration has included a suicide attempt, force feeding, and a medically induced coma following a prolonged fast. And yet his influence never fully disappeared. At various points he was receiving over 1,000 letters a day from devoted followers. He reportedly issued a directive banning the entire community from marrying or having children while he remained imprisoned, and they complied.His son Roy left the church in 2014 and went public with allegations of childhood sexual abuse at his father’s hands. Roy passed away in 2019. His daughter Rachel later alleged that Jeffs was still directing the FLDS from his cell, with followers viewing him as a martyr absorbing suffering on their behalf.The void he left behind did not remain empty for long. By 2019, a man named Samuel Bateman had declared himself the new prophet and taken at least 20 wives, 10 of them minors, with some victims as young as nine years old. He was ultimately brought down by a researcher who went undercover, gathered evidence, and turned it over to the FBI. In December 2024, Bateman was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison.Jeffs is now 70 years old and still regarded as a prophet by those who remain loyal to the FLDS.
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  45. Above All Obey- Warren Jeffs Part 1 28.04.2026 1ч 40мин

  Warren Jeffs was the self-declared prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the FLDS) a polygamist offshoot of mainstream Mormonism. He inherited leadership from his father Rulon Jeffs in 2002, even marrying some of his father's wives after his passing. At its peak, Jeffs controlled an estimated ten thousand followers, primarily concentrated in the twin border towns of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona. Local law enforcement, local government, local businesses answered to Jeffs, not the federal authorities. People who left, or were expelled, often lost everything: their homes, their families, their entire social world, overnight.The crimes Jeffs committed and enabled were extensive, systemic, and in many cases, as so many cults do, perpetrated against children.Jeffs arranged and performed marriages between adult men and underage girls, some as young as twelve and thirteen years old. He taught his followers that these arrangements were divine commandments, that questioning them was questioning God. Women and girls within the sect had no autonomy. They were assigned husbands by Jeffs himself, reassigned when he saw fit, and had children taken from them as punishment.He also wielded excommunication as a weapon. Men who challenged him or fell out of favor were cast out, stripped of their families, their property, and their standing, in a practice followers called "reassignment," in which their wives and children were simply handed to other men in the community.When the kingdom began to crumble Warren Jeffs was put on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List in 2006 but was able to elude capture until a fateful traffic stop in NevadaSourcesState of Utah v. Warren Steed Jeffs (2007) — rape as accomplice convictionUtah Supreme Court appeal — reversal on jury instruction grounds (2010)Texas v. Warren Jeffs (2011) — sexual assault of a child; aggravated sexual assault of a childTexas v. Merril Jessop et al. (2009–2011) — related FLDS prosecutionsTexas Supreme Court, In re: Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (2008) — ruling on mass child removalU.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division v. Town of Colorado City, Arizona et al. (2012–2016) — law enforcement capture case; 2016 consent decreeUtah court receivership of the United Effort Plan (UEP) trust (2005 onward)Warren Jeffs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives file (May 6, 2006)Nevada state trooper arrest report, Clark County, August 28, 2006Utah Attorney General's Office, Safety Net Committee Reports (2004–2012)Arizona Attorney General's FLDS investigation recordsTexas Department of Family and Protective Services, YFZ Ranch operational reports (2008)Elissa Wall with Lisa Pulitzer — Stolen Innocence (2008, William Morrow)Carolyn Jessop with Laura Palmer — Escape (2007, Broadway Books)Flora Jessop with Paul T. Brown — Church of Lies (2009, Jossey-Bass)Rebecca Musser with M. Bridget Cook — The Witness Wore Red (2013, Grand Central Publishing)Jon Krakauer — Under the Banner of Heaven (2003, Doubleday)Benjamin Bistline — The Polygamists: A History of Colorado City, Arizona (2004)Andrea Moore-Emmett — God's Brothel (2004)Rachel Dretzin (director) — Keep Sweet, Pray and Obey, Netflix (2022)Salt Lake Tribune — sustained FLDS coverage 2000–2024; reporters Ben Winslow, Brooke Adams, Lindsay Whitehurst (fasting directive reporting, Lost Boys documentation, UEP trust coverage)Arizona Republic — FLDS investigation series (2005–2011)San Angelo Standard-Times — Deb McCullough's YFZ Ranch reporting (2004–2011), earliest press coverage of the compoundThe New Yorker — Lawrence Wright, "Lives of the Saints" (2005)Associated Press wire reporting on arrest, trial, and sentencingLaurie Allen — "Lost Boys" field research, St. George, Utah (2004)Eric Nichols (lead Texas prosecutor) — post-verdict remarks, reported in San Angelo Standard-Times (August 2011)
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  44. Don't Whistle After Dark: Appalachia Hauntings 21.04.2026 1ч 41мин

  Thank you to our Hellions for your voted in topic! Subscribe for ad free episodes, voting topics and upcoming bonus episodes at patreon.com/highwaytohellpodcast.The Appalachian Mountains are the oldest range on Earth, and something has been living in them since before this country had a name. In this episode, we trace the full history of one of America's most distinct and haunted regions. Walking with the Cherokee nation and their complex spiritual world, to the Scots-Irish settlers who arrived with their own ghosts, to the coal wars, the Trail of Tears, and the grinding isolation that forged a culture unlike anything else on the continent. Before we get to the monsters, we get to the rules. And if you’ve ever met someone from Appalachia you know some of the rules. Don't whistle after sundown. Don't answer your name if something calls it from the trees. Don't let a stranger through the door after dark. We walk through the full system of folk protections that generations of Appalachian families.  Then the legends. A haunting that killed a man and sent a future president running. A ghost who testified at her own murder trial and won. A creature that sounds like a woman screaming and has been documented in these mountains for three centuries. And a 1952 mass encounter with something no one has ever been able to explain, backed by physical evidence, medical records, and witnesses who never changed their story once. This one stays with you.First-hand encounter accounts that are not diary entries are illustrative narratives written in the tradition of submitted testimony; they reflect the type, language, and content of genuine regional accounts but are original compositions for this project.Sources: Ingram, M.V. — An Authenticated History of the Bell Witch of Tennessee (1894). Mooney, James — Myths of the Cherokee (1900, Bureau of American Ethnology). Gainer, Patrick — Witches, Ghosts and Signs: Folklore of the Southern Appalachians (1975). Eller, Ronald D. — Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South (1982). Williams, John Alexander — Appalachia: A History (2002, UNC Press). Dunaway, Wilma — The First American Frontier: Transition to Capitalism in Southern Appalachia (1996). Perdue, Theda & Green, Michael D. — The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears (2007). Mankiller, Wilma — Mankiller: A Chief and Her People (1993). Finger, John R. — The Eastern Band of Cherokees: 1819–1900 (1984, UT Press).The Greenbrier Ghost — documented in West Virginia state historical records; the historical marker text is publicly archived by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History.Feschino, Frank C. Jr. — Shoot Them Down: The Flying Saucer Air Wars of 1952 (2007). The most thorough investigation of the Flatwoods Monster incidentWigginton, Eliot (ed.) — The Foxfire Book series (1972–present, Anchor Books). Randolph, Vance — Ozark Superstitions (1947, Columbia UP). Milnes, Gerald C. — Signs, Cures & Witchery: German Appalachian Folklore (2007, UT Press). Appalachian Journal (Appalachian State University) Appalachian Studies Association research archivesWestern Carolina University's Hunter Library Special Collections — Appalachian CollectionEast Tennessee State University Archives of Appalachia
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  43. La Llorona - Haunted Costa Rica 14.04.2026 1ч 11мин

  Few legends cut as deep as La Llorona, the Weeping Woman. This week we're trading the highway for the rainforest as we trace one of Latin America's most enduring and chilling folk stories into the heart of Costa Rica. We break down the origins of La Llorona, the grieving mother condemned to wander waterways for eternity searching for the children she lost, and how her story evolved differently across Costa Rica than in Mexico or the American Southwest. Local variations are darker, more specific, and tied to real rivers and real grief — and we talk to locals who swear they've heard her cry on the banks of the Río Tárcoles at dusk.From there, we take you on a tour of Costa Rica's most haunted locations — places where the legend bleeds into something that feels less like folklore and more like a warning. We visit the ruins of Ujarrás, a 17th-century church where restless spirits are said to keep residents awake, and the old colonial cemeteries of Cartago, where La Llorona sightings cluster around All Souls' Day. We also dig into the Orosi Valley, where locals describe a particular kind of dread that settles over the water after dark — and where more than one traveler has reported a woman in white standing just beyond the treeline.We close the episode the way we always do — with a reason to go. If this episode has you ready to book a flight to San José, we've put together a seven-day travel itinerary that balances the eerie with the extraordinary. You'll move through Cartago's haunted churches, down into the Orosi Valley, along the Pacific coast near Tárcoles, and end in the Osa Peninsula — one of the most biodiverse and genuinely remote places on earth, where the jungle has legends of its own. Every stop is real, bookable, and worth it — even in the daylight.SourcesLa Nación. (n.d.). News archives and crime reporting. Costa Rica.Tico Times. (n.d.). News reporting and cultural coverage in Costa Rica.Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ). (n.d.). Official crime reports and investigative data. Costa Rica.InSight Crime. (n.d.). Organized crime analysis in Latin America.Lyra, C. (n.d.). Costa Rican Folk Tales.Leyendas Costarricenses. (n.d.). Traditional folklore compilation.Atlas Obscura. (n.d.). Unusual and haunted locations in Costa Rica.Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT). (n.d.). Official tourism information.Lonely Planet. (n.d.). Lonely Planet Costa Rica.Baker, C. P. (n.d.). Moon Costa Rica.Fodor’s Travel. (n.d.). Costa Rica Travel Guide.Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación (SINAC). (n.d.). Protected areas and national parks of Costa Rica.National Geographic. (n.d.). Costa Rica travel and ecology features.UNESCO World Heritage Centre. (n.d.). World Heritage Sites in Costa Rica.Rainforest Alliance. (n.d.). Sustainability and biodiversity in Costa Rica.Instituto del Café de Costa Rica (ICAFE). (n.d.). Coffee production and research.World Coffee Research. (n.d.). Costa Rica coffee reports.Eater. (n.d.). Dining and restaurant guides in Costa Rica.Food & Wine. (n.d.). Culinary travel coverage of Costa Rica.U.S. Department of State. (n.d.). Costa Rica Travel Advisory.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (n.d.). Costa Rica health guidance.World Health Organization (WHO). (n.d.). Regional health data: Costa Rica.U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica. (n.d.). Traveler information and safety resources.Biesanz, R. (n.d.). The Ticos: Culture and Social Change in Costa Rica.Ras, B. (Ed.). (n.d.). Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion.Central Intelligence Agency. (n.d.). The World Factbook: Costa Rica.BBC News. (n.d.). Costa Rica country profile.
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  42. The Chicken Coop Murders 07.04.2026 1ч 15мин

  Gordon Northcott and a trip to Canada.In the late 1920s, one of California’s most disturbing child murder cases unfolded on a remote ranch in Wineville—a place so stained by violence that it would later change its name in an attempt to escape the legacy. At the center of the case was Gordon Stewart Northcott, a sadistic rancher whose crimes against children shocked the country and exposed serious failures in early policing.Northcott operated a chicken ranch where he lured young boys with promises of work or safety. Instead, they were subjected to abuse, imprisonment, and, in multiple cases, murder. The truth began to surface through the testimony of his nephew, Sanford Clark, who had been brought from Canada and forced to participate in and witness the atrocities. Clark’s eventual escape and confession to authorities broke open the case.Investigators uncovered evidence that multiple boys had been killed on the property, their remains disposed of in shallow graves or burned. Among the most infamous victims was Walter Collins, whose disappearance became a national scandal—not only because of his likely murder, but because the Los Angeles Police Department falsely claimed to have found him and returned an unrelated child to his mother. The mishandling of the case exposed systemic issues in law enforcement, including coercion and public image protection over truth.Northcott fled to Canada as suspicion mounted but was captured and extradited back to California. During his trial, he gave inconsistent confessions—at times admitting guilt, at other times denying it—and attempted to shield his mother, Sarah Louise Northcott, from blame. She was ultimately convicted but spared execution.In 1930, Northcott was executed at San Quentin State Prison. The scale and brutality of the crimes, along with the failures surrounding the investigation, left a permanent mark on American criminal justice history. The town of Wineville later renamed itself Mira Loma to distance from the case.The Chicken Coop Murders remain one of the earliest high-profile serial child murder cases in the United States—one that reshaped public awareness around missing children and forced accountability in law enforcement practices.Sources:Los Angeles Times archives (1926–1930 coverage of Wineville Chicken Coop murders)San Bernardino County historical archives on Wineville/Mira LomaRiverside County historical society recordsState of California v. Gordon Stewart Northcott (trial transcripts, 1928–1930)Sanford Clark testimony (court records and archived statements)National Archives (U.S.) records on early serial murder casesFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) historical summaries on serial killersFox, James Alan & Levin, Jack. Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass MurderSchechter, Harold. The Serial Killer FilesNewton, Michael. The Encyclopedia of Serial KillersGado, Mark. CrimeLibrary archives on Gordon NorthcottMurderpedia.org entry on Gordon Stewart NorthcottRamsland, Katherine. forensic psychology writings on early serial killersFind a Grave memorial records for victims and NorthcottCalifornia Department of Corrections historical execution records (San Quentin)The film Changeling (2008) directed by Clint Eastwood (historical dramatization and research notes)
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  41. "We need to come inside"- Black Eyed Kids 31.03.2026 1ч 22мин

  Don't let them in! Black-Eyed Kids (BEK) is one of the most unsettling modern urban legends to emerge from late 20th-century folklore. Described as pale children with completely black eyes, no sclera, no iris. They are most often reported appearing at night, knocking on doors or approaching cars, and asking for permission to enter. And its not just their appearance thats disturbing, its the sense of dread that comes with it.The earliest account comes from 1996, when Texas journalist Brian Bethel shared his experience online. Bethel described being approached by two children while sitting in his car outside a movie theater in Abilene, Texas. The boys asked for a ride home, speaking in an oddly formal and insistent manner. It wasn’t until Bethel noticed their entirely black eyes that panic set in, and he refused them entry. The boys became more aggressive, repeating that they “could not enter unless invited.” Similar stories began surfacing across the United States and internationally. Common elements include: children appearing between ages 6–16, outdated or nondescript clothing, monotone or rehearsed speech patterns, requests for entry into homes, cars, or buildings, strong psychological pressure or compulsion to comply, witnesses reporting nausea, fear, or disorientationThe “invitation” motif has immediately reminded people of vampire folklore, where supernatural entities require permission to enter a private space. Others have linked BEK to demonic entities, extraterrestrials, or interdimensional beings. From a folkloric perspective, Black-Eyed Kids fit into a long tradition of “stranger at the door” narratives. Stories designed to reinforce caution, especially regarding children or vulnerable individuals. These narratives often evolve with cultural anxieties; in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, fears around home invasion, child safety, and the unknown. Psychologically, some researchers suggest that BEK encounters may be explained through sleep paralysis, hypnagogic hallucinations, or heightened suggestibility influenced by prior exposure to the stories. The uniformity of descriptions—particularly the black eyes may be the result of narrative reinforcement through internet forums, creepypasta communities, and paranormal media.This episode explores the origins of the legend, the psychology behind reported encounters, and the cultural forces that transformed a single story into a global phenomenon.SourcesBrian Bethel, “The Black Eyed Kids,” original account archived online (1996, reposted multiple platforms)Nick Redfern, The Real Men in Black, New Page Books, 2011David Weatherly, Black Eyed Children, Eerie Lights Publishing, 2014Sharon A. Hill, Scientifical Americans: The Culture of Amateur Paranormal Researchers, McFarland, 2017Bill Ellis, Aliens, Ghosts, and Cults: Legends We Live, University Press of Mississippi, 2001Jan Harold Brunvand, The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings, W.W. Norton & Company, 1981Jeffrey Sconce, “Haunted Media: Electronic Presence from Telegraphy to Television,” Duke University Press, 2000Folklore Society archives on contemporary legend transmission and digital folkloreJoe Nickell, “Black-Eyed Children: A Case of Urban Legend,” Skeptical Inquirer, Committee for Skeptical InquiryBenjamin Radford, “Black-Eyed Kids: Real or Myth?” Live Science, 2013David J. Hufford, The Terror That Comes in the Night: An Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982American Folklore Society publications on contemporary legend developmentLinda Dégh, Legend and Belief: Dialectics of a Folklore Genre, Indiana University Press, 2001Trevor J. Blank (ed.), Folk Culture in the Digital Age: The Emergent Dynamics of Human Interaction, Utah State University Press, 2009