The Devil Within

Episodes

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  HAUNTED HALLOWEEN! The Winchester Mystery House... 23.10.2026 22m

  THE DEVIL WITHIN The Winchester Mystery House: The Gun That Built a Ghost Story Theme: Guilt | True Crime, Haunted History & the Paranormal In San Jose, California, there stands a Victorian mansion unlike any other in America. Staircases climb into ceilings. Doors open onto empty space. Windows look into other rooms, and corridors twist through an architectural labyrinth containing approximately 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, and 10,000 windows. For thirty-six years, a wealthy widow named Sarah Winchester transformed an ordinary eight-room farmhouse into one of the strangest residences ever constructed. And according to legend, she did it because she was terrified of the dead. Sarah was the widow of William Wirt Winchester, heir to the firearms fortune built upon the legendary Winchester repeating rifle, including the Model 1873, famously marketed as “The Gun That Won the West.” After losing her infant daughter and then her husband, Sarah inherited an enormous fortune and moved west, where she began a construction project that would continue until her death in 1922. But why did she never seem to stop building? The legend claims Sarah consulted a medium who warned that the spirits of people killed by Winchester rifles were pursuing her. Her only hope of survival was to construct a house that would never be finished, a maze of rooms and passageways intended to confuse the restless dead. There's just one problem: no convincing historical evidence establishes that Sarah Winchester ever believed the story. In this episode of The Devil Within, Branden Morgan investigates the extraordinary history of the Winchester family, the rifle that helped shape the American frontier, and the eccentric mansion that became one of the country's most famous haunted attractions. We'll explore the mysterious Séance Room, the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and reports of unexplained footsteps, shadowy apparitions, and a ghostly workman known as Clyde, who supposedly continues his duties long after the mansion's construction ended. And we'll consider a darker possibility: perhaps Sarah Winchester wasn't haunted by the victims of her family's rifles at all. Perhaps generations of Americans needed her to be, transforming an uncomfortable history of violence and extraordinary wealth into a ghost story. Sometimes a house isn't haunted because somebody died inside it. Sometimes it's haunted because the living cannot stop imagining who ought to be there. IN THIS EPISODE • The Gun That Won the West: Oliver Winchester, the Model 1866, the Model 1873, and the fortune behind the mansion. • Sarah Winchester's Tragedy: The deaths of her infant daughter and husband, and her move to California. • The House That Wouldn't Stop: Thirty-six years of construction, architectural oddities, and the legends surrounding Sarah's motivations. • The Séance Room: The mysterious chamber where Sarah supposedly communicated with spirits. • The Earthquake of 1906: How a natural disaster reshaped the mansion and contributed to its peculiar architecture. • The Ghosts of Winchester House: The phantom workman Clyde, unexplained footsteps, mysterious photographs, and reported paranormal encounters. • History Versus Legend: What we can establish about Sarah Winchester's life, and what remains speculation. LISTEN, FOLLOW & JOIN THE CONVERSATION Listen & Follow: Follow The Devil Within on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Join us for new investigations into true crime, paranormal phenomena, occult history, and the mysteries that continue to haunt us. Rate & Review: Enjoying the show? Leave us a five-star rating and a written review. Your support helps introduce The Devil Within to new listeners and keeps these stories alive. Watch & Subscribe: Watch The Devil Within on the Evio Creative YouTube channel. Subscribe and turn on notifications for new episodes, original videos, and more from across the Evio Universe. Join the Conversation: Follow @thedevilwithinpod on Instagram for episode updates, historical mysteries, and behind-the-scenes content. Have a Story to Tell? Send your paranormal experiences, true crime tips, and story suggestions to mailto:[email protected]. The Devil Within is written and hosted by Branden Morgan. An Evio Creative production. EPISODE KEYWORDS Winchester Mystery House, Sarah Winchester, Winchester House haunting, haunted California, San Jose ghosts, Winchester rifle, Winchester Model 1873, The Gun That Won the West, Oliver Winchester, William Wirt Winchester, Winchester fortune, Séance Room, Clyde ghost, 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Victorian mansions, haunted houses, paranormal investigations, American history, true ghost stories, The Devil Within, Branden Morgan, Evio Creative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  HAUNTED HALLOWEEN! Edgar Allan Poe - Part Two 21.10.2026 23m

  THE DEVIL WITHIN The Ghost of Edgar Allan Poe: Baltimore's Most Famous Haunting Episode Two | Edgar Allan Poe Series Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore on October 7, 1849. Nearly two centuries later, some people insist he never really left. Along the rain-soaked cobblestone streets of Fell's Point, stories persist of a pale, dark-haired figure wandering beneath streetlights before vanishing into the night. Inside an old Baltimore tavern, employees and patrons have reported unexplained disturbances attributed to a spirit they call Edgar. And at a modest brick house on North Amity Street, where Poe once struggled to survive as a young writer, visitors encounter a building whose history may be more haunting than any ghost story. In this episode of The Devil Within, Branden Morgan returns to Baltimore to investigate the supernatural legends surrounding America's greatest master of the macabre, exploring the extraordinary ways a writer who spent his life contemplating death became one of the country's most enduring ghosts. Our investigation begins at the Edgar Allan Poe House, where poverty, ambition, family tragedy, and literary genius converged during the 1830s. We then travel to Westminster Burying Ground, where a mysterious visitor dressed in black appeared for decades on Poe's birthday, leaving three red roses and a bottle of cognac beside his grave. Known only as the Poe Toaster, the stranger became one of Baltimore's most beloved unsolved mysteries. From there, we venture into Fell's Point and the legendary Horse You Came In On Saloon, where local folklore claims Poe enjoyed one of his final drinks before his mysterious death. Today, the establishment is associated with reports of moving objects, unexplained activity, and the possibility that its most famous patron has never checked out. But how much of Baltimore's haunted history can actually be verified? Are these genuine encounters with the supernatural, elaborate traditions passed down through generations, or the inevitable consequence of a city that refuses to let its most famous literary resident rest in peace? Edgar Allan Poe spent his life writing about the dead refusing to remain dead. Perhaps his greatest trick was becoming one of them. IN THIS EPISODE • The House on Amity Street: Poe's early years in Baltimore, his family, his literary breakthrough, and the ghost stories surrounding his former home. • The Poe Toaster: The mysterious stranger who visited Poe's grave every January 19th, leaving cognac and three red roses. • The Ghosts of Fell's Point: Reports of a nineteenth-century figure wandering Baltimore's historic waterfront streets. • The Horse You Came In On Saloon: The legendary tavern associated with Poe's final days and an alleged resident spirit named Edgar. • History Versus Haunting: Why Poe's supernatural legacy continues to flourish nearly two centuries after his death. COMING NEXT: THE WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE Our journey into America's haunted history continues in San Jose, California, where Sarah Winchester, widow of firearms heir William Wirt Winchester, spent decades transforming a modest farmhouse into an architectural labyrinth. Staircases leading nowhere. Doors opening onto empty space. Rooms within rooms. And a persistent legend that Sarah Winchester believed herself haunted by the spirits of people killed by the rifle that made her family wealthy. Was the Winchester Mystery House built to confuse the dead, or is the truth behind its construction even more fascinating than the ghost stories? Find out next time on The Devil Within. LISTEN, FOLLOW & JOIN THE CONVERSATION Listen & Follow: Follow The Devil Within on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Join us for new investigations into true crime, paranormal phenomena, occult history, and the mysteries that continue to haunt us. Rate & Review: Enjoying the show? Leave a five-star rating and a written review. Your support helps introduce The Devil Within to new listeners and keeps these stories alive. Watch & Subscribe: Watch The Devil Within on the Evio Creative YouTube channel. Subscribe and turn on notifications for new episodes, original videos, and exclusive content from across the Evio Universe. Join the Conversation: Follow @thedevilwithinpod on Instagram for episode updates, historical mysteries, and behind-the-scenes content. Have a Story to Tell? Send your paranormal experiences, true crime tips, and story suggestions to mailto:[email protected]. The Devil Within is written and hosted by Branden Morgan. An Evio Creative production. EPISODE KEYWORDS Edgar Allan Poe, The Ghost of Edgar Allan Poe, Poe haunting, Edgar Allan Poe House, Baltimore ghosts, haunted Baltimore, Fell's Point, Poe Toaster, Poe's grave, Westminster Burying Ground, The Horse You Came In On Saloon, haunted taverns, paranormal investigations, American Gothic, literary ghosts, true ghost stories, The Devil Within, Branden Morgan, Evio Creative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  HAUNTED HALLOWEEN! Edgar Allan Poe - Part One 19.10.2026 24m

  THE DEVIL WITHIN The Five Lost Days: The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe Episode One | Edgar Allan Poe Series On September 27, 1849, Edgar Allan Poe boarded a steamship in Richmond, Virginia, with plans for the future and a woman he hoped to marry. Five days later, one of America's most celebrated masters of the macabre had seemingly vanished from the historical record. When Poe resurfaced in Baltimore on October 3, he was delirious, gravely ill, and reportedly wearing clothes that weren't his own. He had been discovered outside a tavern serving as an election polling place, unable to explain where he'd been or what had happened to him. Four days later, at just forty years old, Edgar Allan Poe was dead. Nearly two centuries later, the circumstances remain a mystery. In this episode of The Devil Within, Branden Morgan investigates the strange final days of Edgar Allan Poe, exploring theories involving alcoholism, disease, robbery, and a sinister nineteenth-century election fraud scheme known as cooping, in which unsuspecting men were allegedly kidnapped, drugged, disguised, and forced to vote repeatedly. But Poe's story doesn't end with his death. Twenty-six years after his burial, his remains were exhumed and relocated to a more prominent grave in Baltimore. What followed was a particularly disturbing legend: that scratches had been discovered inside his coffin, suggesting the man who famously wrote about the horrors of premature burial had himself been buried alive. Is there any truth to the story, or did generations of admirers simply invent the perfect ending for America's greatest Gothic storyteller? From Poe's unexplained disappearance to the macabre folklore surrounding his grave, The Five Lost Days explores the uncomfortable territory where documented history ends and legend begins. Some mysteries remain unsolved. Others become immortal. IN THIS EPISODE • Poe's final departure from Richmond and his plans to marry Elmira Royster Shelton. • The five missing days between September 27 and October 3, 1849. • His mysterious discovery at a Baltimore polling place. • The competing medical and criminal theories surrounding his death. • The terrifying nineteenth-century practice of premature burial and the invention of safety coffins. • Poe's 1875 exhumation and the legend of the scratches inside his coffin. COMING NEXT: THE GHOST OF EDGAR ALLAN POE Our investigation continues in Baltimore, where Poe's presence supposedly lingers nearly two centuries after his death. From his former home on Amity Street and the cemetery where he rests to the haunted taverns of Fell's Point, we explore the ghost stories, strange encounters, and enduring legends surrounding the man who made the macabre an American art form. LISTEN, FOLLOW & JOIN THE CONVERSATION Listen & Follow: Follow The Devil Within on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. New episodes explore true crime, paranormal mysteries, occult history, and the darkest corners of the human experience. Rate & Review: Enjoying the show? Leave us a five-star rating and a written review. Your support helps introduce The Devil Within to new listeners. Watch & Subscribe: Visit the Evio Creative YouTube channel, subscribe, and turn on notifications for video episodes, original investigations, and more from across the Evio Universe. Join the Conversation: Follow @thedevilwithinpod on Instagram for episode updates, historical mysteries, and behind-the-scenes content. Have a Story to Tell? Send your paranormal encounters, true crime tips, and story suggestions to mailto:[email protected]. The Devil Within is written and hosted by Branden Morgan. An Evio Creative production. EPISODE KEYWORDS Edgar Allan Poe, The Five Lost Days, Edgar Allan Poe death, Edgar Allan Poe mystery, Baltimore 1849, Poe's final days, premature burial, buried alive, Poe's grave, Poe exhumation, cooping, election fraud, Gothic literature, historical mysteries, true crime history, paranormal history, The Devil Within, Branden Morgan, Evio Creative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Devil's Ledger - Week of October 19th, 2026 19.10.2026 12m

  THE DEVIL'S LEDGER Week of October 19, 2026 | Evio Creative A Haunted Halloween, the Murdaugh Retrial, The Lexi CON & Crystal Lake This week on The Devil's Ledger, we begin on a somber note, acknowledging the victims and families affected by the reported elementary school shooting in Bend, Oregon, and confronting America's ongoing epidemic of gun violence. Then, in The Creepiest Thing I Heard This Week, a horrifying accident during a livestreamed church service in Ecuador raises unsettling questions about faith, fate, and one of the most improbable tragedies imaginable. THIS WEEK ACROSS THE EVIO UNIVERSE: THE DEVIL WITHIN | HAUNTED HALLOWEEN October gets considerably darker as we investigate the mysterious death of Edgar Allan Poe and the five missing days before his final appearance in Baltimore. Then we travel to California's legendary Winchester Mystery House, where an eccentric heiress, an architectural labyrinth, and more than a century of ghost stories have created one of America's most fascinating haunted landmarks. CRIMINAL MISCHIEF | THE MURDAUGH RETRIAL New developments in the Alex Murdaugh murder case raise questions about missing weapons, unrecovered clothing, a possible secret grand jury proceeding, and unidentified male DNA found beneath Maggie Murdaugh's fingernails. Could additional forensic testing change the course of the upcoming retrial? THE SLIPPERY | INTRODUCING THE LEXI CON From the creators of Scamanda, Nancy Moscatiello and Scott Eldridge introduce The Lexi CON, a multipart investigation into a Maryland woman's extraordinary medical claims, a community united by faith, and allegations of an elaborate deception that inspired thousands of dollars in donations. Listen to The Slippery and The Lexi CON: https://linktr.ee/TheSlippery THIS WEEK IN HORROR | CRYSTAL LAKE We're returning to Camp Crystal Lake for Peacock's Friday the 13th origin series, starring Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees. Before Jason became horror royalty, his mother had a story of her own, and it wasn't particularly conducive to a pleasant summer vacation. LISTEN, FOLLOW & JOIN THE EVIO UNIVERSE • Listen & Follow: Subscribe to The Devil's Ledger, The Devil Within, Criminal Mischief, and The Slippery wherever you get your podcasts. • Rate & Review: Leave a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your support helps independent storytelling reach new audiences. • Watch & Subscribe: Visit the Evio Creative YouTube channel, subscribe, and turn on notifications for new episodes, videos, and exclusive content. • Join the Conversation: Follow @thedevilwithinpod on Instagram. • Have a Story or Tip? Email mailto:[email protected]. Stay safe out there, protect the ones you love, and we'll see you this week across the Evio Universe. The Devil's Ledger | An Evio Creative Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Devil's Audition - Part Three 16.10.2026 20m

  THE DEVIL’S AUDITION Episode Three: The Body by the River For more than twenty years, Valerie McDonald’s family lived without an answer. Valerie disappeared from San Francisco in November 1980 after Michael Hennessey offered the aspiring actress a small role in a Dustin Hoffman movie—a movie that did not exist. Hennessey and John Gordon Abbott subsequently fled north toward Canada, where Hennessey was killed in a shootout with police. Valerie’s identification was reportedly found among the fugitives’ belongings, but Valerie herself seemed to have vanished. Then came the discovery nobody initially understood. On October 3, 1991, hunters found partial human remains near the Kettle River in Ferry County, Washington, roughly a mile from the Canadian border. The woman could not be identified and became a Jane Doe. For nearly another decade, two investigations continued independently: Valerie remained a missing woman in California while her unidentified remains waited in Washington. In January 2001, dental records finally connected them. The Kettle River Jane Doe was Valerie McDonald. In the final episode of The Devil’s Audition, we follow Valerie home and confront the tantalizing geography of her case. Her remains were discovered near the Canadian border—the same general direction Hennessey and Abbott traveled after she vanished—but geography is not proof. No one has ever been convicted of Valerie’s murder. We also return to Phillip Arthur Thompson, whose later conviction for the murder of twenty-one-year-old Betty Cloer established just how dangerous at least one man in Valerie’s orbit truly was, while still providing no legal answer to what happened to Valerie. TDW_Devil Audition_3 And finally, we reconsider the Satanic-cult theory that has followed this case for decades. Valerie reportedly described some activity around the Tower Apartments as Satanic, but there is no reliable evidence establishing that she was murdered in a Satanic ritual or sacrificed by a cult. The documented story may be considerably simpler—and considerably more frightening. TDW_Devil Audition_3 Valerie knew she was in danger. She was already leaving. Then someone offered the aspiring actress exactly what she wanted: an audition. LISTEN • WATCH • FOLLOW Follow The Devil Within wherever you get your podcasts and leave a five-star rating and review. Watch and subscribe on the Evio Creative YouTube channel, with notifications turned on so you never miss a new story. This is the conclusion of The Devil’s Audition. Thank you for spending these three episodes with Valerie McDonald and with us. We’ll have an entirely new story next week. Stay tuned. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Devil's Audition - Part Two 14.10.2026 22m

  THE DEVIL’S AUDITION Episode Two: The Demons in North Beach Seventeen days after Valerie McDonald disappeared from San Francisco, Michael Hennessey—the man who had lured her away with the promise of a role in a Dustin Hoffman movie—was dead. Hennessey and fellow ex-convict John Gordon Abbott had fled north to British Columbia, where a confrontation with the RCMP ended in gunfire. Abbott was captured, Hennessey was killed, and investigators reportedly found Valerie’s voter-registration and unemployment-benefit cards among their belongings. TDW_Devil Audition_2 This week on The Devil Within, we return to the Tower Apartments and the dangerous world Valerie had been trying to escape. Before she vanished, Valerie told friends about large quantities of cocaine and what contemporary reports called “Satanistic” activities inside her building. In San Francisco—the birthplace of Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan—the allegation carried particular weight. But there is no reliable evidence establishing that an organized Satanic cult operated from the Tower Apartments. What is documented is arguably more disturbing: Valerie was surrounded by men with serious criminal histories, including Phillip Arthur Thompson, who decades later would be convicted of the 1971 murder of Betty Cloer. TDW_Devil Audition_2 TDW_Devil Audition_2 Investigators also suspected Abbott, Hennessey and Thompson of participating in an ambitious criminal enterprise involving robbery, automatic weapons and cocaine trafficking. Valerie’s parents came to believe their daughter may have disappeared because she learned something about that operation, although that theory has never been proven. TDW_Devil Audition_2 Valerie had reportedly been threatened. She was frightened enough to move out. Then Hennessey arrived with the irresistible promise of a movie audition, and Valerie disappeared. For eleven years, her family waited. Then, on October 3, 1991, hunters discovered partial human remains near the Kettle River in Ferry County, Washington, hundreds of miles north of San Francisco and near the Canadian border. Nobody knew who she was. It would take another ten years before anyone realized whom they had found. TDW_Devil Audition_2 LISTEN • WATCH • FOLLOW Follow The Devil Within wherever you get your podcasts and leave a five-star rating and review. Watch and subscribe on the Evio Creative YouTube channel, with notifications turned on, and follow @thedevilwithinpod for more from the Evio Universe. The Devil’s Audition: The Devils in North Beach, on The Devil Within. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Devil's Ledger - Week of October 12th, 2026 12.10.2026 15m

  The Devil's Ledger | October 12, 2026 A Human-Skin Teddy Bear, a Hollywood Disappearance, a Surgeon on Trial, and a Reality TV Fraudster Welcome back to The Devil's Ledger, your weekly journey through the darker corners of the Evio Universe. As wild weather continues to make headlines, we're hoping everyone is staying safe, staying dry, and finding a little time to escape into a good book, a great movie, or one of our latest podcasts. This week, we're serving up a particularly unsettling collection of stories involving a grotesque discovery in the California desert, an aspiring actress who vanished in San Francisco, a plastic surgeon facing murder charges, a reality television star's multimillion-dollar fraud scheme, and a Nevada motel where the hospitality is positively murderous. THE CREEPIEST THING: The Human-Skin Teddy Bear In Victorville, California, a horrifying discovery outside a convenience store sent investigators scrambling: a teddy bear that appeared to be stitched together from human skin. The county coroner was called, police launched an investigation, and the truth turned out to be almost as bizarre as the original discovery. Was it evidence of something monstrous, or simply the world's most ill-advised practical joke? THE DEVIL WITHIN: The Devil's Audition San Francisco, 1980. Aspiring actress Valerie McDonald disappears after being lured by the promise of an audition for a nonexistent Dustin Hoffman film. What follows is an investigation involving dangerous criminals, alleged international drug trafficking, and disturbing reports of Satanic activity. In this three-part investigation, The Devil Within explores the circumstances surrounding Valerie's disappearance and the troubling intersection of ambition, deception, and the occult. CRIMINAL MISCHIEF: Tomasz Kosowski, Part Two After last week's special conversation with COLD creator Dave Cawley, Carolyn Ossorio returns to the disappearance and alleged murder of Florida attorney Steven Cozzi. This week, the investigation moves into the courtroom, where accused murderer and plastic surgeon Tomasz Kosowski makes the extraordinary decision to represent himself. Carolyn examines the evidence, the legal proceedings, and the unanswered questions surrounding a case in which the victim's body has never been recovered. THE SLIPPERY: Jen Shah She was a reality television celebrity, a self-proclaimed business mogul, and the face of a lavish lifestyle. Behind the designer clothes and extravagant parties, however, Jen Shah was helping operate a nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme that devastated financially vulnerable Americans. Scott and Nancy investigate the mechanics of the operation, the victims who lost their savings, and the federal investigation that ultimately brought Shah down. She's already out of prison, but has justice really been served? THIS WEEK IN HORROR: Last Chance Motel A newlywed couple's dream wedding becomes a nightmare when they encounter a remote Nevada motel operated by a bloodthirsty family. Starring Heather Langenkamp and Sierra McCormick, Last Chance Motel offers a gruesome reminder that sometimes the best travel advice is simply to keep driving. JOIN US ACROSS THE EVIO UNIVERSE There's always another mystery to investigate, another criminal to expose, and another nightmare waiting just around the corner. Listen & Follow: Subscribe to The Devil Within, Criminal Mischief, The Slippery, and The Devil's Ledger wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss a new episode. Rate & Review: If you enjoy our shows, please leave a five-star rating and a written review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your support helps introduce the Evio Universe to new listeners. Watch & Subscribe: Visit the Evio Creative YouTube channel, subscribe, and turn on notifications for new videos, original content, and updates from across our network. Stay Connected: Follow @thedevilwithinpod on Instagram, and send your stories, tips, and suggestions to mailto:[email protected]. Until next time, stay safe, have a calm and productive week, and we'll catch up again across the Evio Universe. An Evio Creative Production. Suggested episode keywords: The Devil's Ledger, Evio Creative, The Devil Within, Valerie McDonald, The Devil's Audition, Satanism, occult mysteries, Criminal Mischief, Tomasz Kosowski, Steven Cozzi, Carolyn Ossorio, Dave Cawley, COLD podcast, The Slippery, Jen Shah, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, true crime, fraud, human skin teddy bear, Victorville, Last Chance Motel, Heather Langenkamp, horror movies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Devil's Audition - Part One 12.10.2026 24m

  THE DEVIL’S AUDITION Episode One: Temptation On November 9, 1980, twenty-six-year-old Valerie McDonald was doing something remarkably sensible: she was getting out. The aspiring filmmaker, actress, model and cocktail waitress had become frightened by the men managing her apartment building in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood. She reportedly told friends and family about drugs, threatening behavior and activity she considered Satanic. With friends helping her move, Valerie appeared ready to put the Tower Apartments—and the people surrounding it—behind her. TDW_Devil Audition_1 Then Michael Hennessey arrived with an offer almost perfectly designed for an ambitious young actress. There was a movie shooting in town, he said, starring Dustin Hoffman, who was then at the absolute height of his career after winning the Academy Award for Kramer vs. Kramer. The production supposedly needed an attractive blonde woman for a small role playing the victim of a serial killer. The job paid $200 and, more importantly, offered Valerie the possibility of appearing opposite one of the biggest movie stars in America. TDW_Devil Audition_1 Valerie agreed to go. Her family would never see her alive again. The movie did not exist. A private investigator hired by Valerie’s parents later contacted the production company and Hoffman’s representatives and found no evidence of the film or the role Valerie had been promised. Someone appears to have constructed an elaborate fiction around Valerie’s ambitions and used it to lure her away. TDW_Devil Audition_1 Then the story became considerably stranger. Within days, Hennessey and convicted criminal John Gordon Abbott were fleeing north. On November 26, Canadian authorities caught up with them in British Columbia. A confrontation with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police erupted into gunfire. Abbott was captured. Hennessey was killed. TDW_Devil Audition_1 Among the fugitives’ belongings, authorities reportedly discovered Valerie’s voter-registration and unemployment-benefit cards. The missing woman in San Francisco was now physically connected to the men who had fled hundreds of miles toward Canada. TDW_Devil Audition_1 But Valerie herself was nowhere to be found. In Episode One of The Devil’s Audition, we return to San Francisco at the dawn of the 1980s—a city emerging from Jonestown, the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk, and the fading glow of the counterculture—to reconstruct Valerie’s final days. We enter the Tower Apartments, meet the dangerous men who surrounded her and follow the irresistible promise of a Hollywood audition that appears to have been created specifically for her. TDW_Devil Audition_1 Because Valerie recognized that she was in danger. She was already leaving. Then somebody offered her exactly what she wanted. Listen & Follow: Follow The Devil Within wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode. Rate & Review: Leave us a five-star rating and review—it remains one of the best ways to help new listeners discover the show. Watch & Subscribe: Watch The Devil Within on the Evio Creative YouTube channel, subscribe, and turn on notifications for every new episode. TDW_Devil Audition_1 Join the Conversation: Follow @thedevilwithinpod for episode clips, imagery, updates and more from the Evio Universe. Stories & Tips: Have a story you think belongs on The Devil Within? Send it to [email protected]. The Devil’s Audition — Episode One: Temptation, on The Devil Within. LISTEN • WATCH • FOLLOW Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Christa Pike: The Devil On Death Row - Part Three 09.10.2026 22m

  THE DEVIL ON DEATH ROW Episode Three: Twice Condemned For nearly thirty years, Christa Pike waited to die. She entered Tennessee’s death row at nineteen under a sentence of electrocution, but remained there long enough to watch the machinery of capital punishment change around her. The electric chair gave way to lethal injection, the teenager associated with pentagrams became a fifty-year-old practicing Buddhist, and Tennessee eventually set September 30, 2026, as the day her sentence would finally be carried out. TDW_Pike_3 In the final episode of The Devil on Death Row, we follow Pike through decades of appeals, challenges to her original sentencing, arguments over childhood trauma and adolescent brain development, and her attorneys’ final attempts to obtain clemency. Then September 30 arrives. A federal appeals court temporarily stops the execution, Tennessee appeals, and the United States Supreme Court clears the way for the state to proceed. TDW_Pike_3 At 7:27 p.m., the curtains open at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution and Pike is strapped to a gurney. Pentobarbital is administered—but Pike remains alive and complains that her arm is burning. Tennessee tries again. After a second administration of the execution drug, witnesses can still hear her breathing. Eventually the witnesses are removed, Pike is transported to a hospital, and the state acknowledges an extraordinary fact: Christa Pike survived her execution. TDW_Pike_3 Governor Bill Lee subsequently halts Tennessee’s remaining 2026 execution and orders an independent review. Thirty-one years after Colleen Slemmer was murdered, the story that began with pentagrams, Satanic imagery and the fading embers of the Satanic Panic is suddenly unfinished again. TDW_Pike_3 The Devil may have been everywhere in this story, but perhaps he was never required. Human beings did all of it themselves. Listen & Follow: Follow The Devil Within wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a 5-star rating and review. Watch and subscribe on the Evio Creative YouTube channel, turn on notifications, and join the conversation at @thedevilwithinpod. Stories and tips: mailto:[email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Christa Pike: The Devil On Death Row - Part Two 07.10.2026 22m

  THE DEVIL ON DEATH ROW Episode Two: The Devil in the Woods Hours after nineteen-year-old Colleen Slemmer was tortured and murdered in the woods outside Knoxville, Christa Pike went to breakfast. According to trial testimony, she was carrying something almost impossible to comprehend: a fragment of Colleen’s skull, taken from the murder scene as a souvenir. Pike reportedly showed the bone to other students, pointed to blood on her shoes and openly described what had happened the night before. TDW_Pike_2 In Episode Two of The Devil on Death Row, we return to the woods to reconstruct Colleen’s final hour and examine the Satanic imagery that became inseparable from the crime. The attack lasted somewhere between thirty minutes and an hour, and when Colleen’s body was examined, investigators found a pentagram carved into her chest. But the occult connection went deeper: at Tadaryl Shipp’s later trial, another student testified that days before the murder Shipp had spoken about the need for a human sacrifice because the celestial bodies were in alignment. TDW_Pike_2 As Christa goes on trial, psychiatrists attempt to answer the question that had haunted the case from the beginning. Was this a Satanic murder, or were troubled teenagers borrowing the imagery of Satanism to give jealousy, rage and violence a darker mythology? The jury ultimately finds Pike guilty of premeditated first-degree murder and conspiracy, and Tennessee chooses the ultimate punishment: death by electrocution. TDW_Pike_2 The Satanic Panic taught America to believe extraordinary evil required an extraordinary explanation. Christa Pike offered something considerably more disturbing: perhaps people don't need the Devil to commit monstrous acts. Sometimes they simply borrow his language. Listen & Follow: Follow The Devil Within wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a 5-star rating and review. Watch and subscribe on the Evio Creative YouTube channel, turn on notifications, and join the conversation at @thedevilwithinpod. Stories and tips: mailto:[email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Christa Pike: The Devil On Death Row - Part One 05.10.2026 22m

  THE DEVIL ON DEATH ROW Episode One: The Pentagram In January 1995, nineteen-year-old Colleen Slemmer walked away from the Knoxville Job Corps Center with three other students. The following morning, her body was discovered on the University of Tennessee agricultural campus. She had been subjected to a prolonged attack, and carved into her chest was a symbol America had spent more than a decade learning to fear: a pentagram. TDW_Pike_1 In Episode One of The Devil on Death Row, we return to the fading years of the Satanic Panic, when allegations of secret cults, ritual abuse and devil worship had moved from horror movies into police departments, courtrooms and American living rooms. By 1995, much of that panic was beginning to collapse beneath the weight of its own extraordinary claims. Then Colleen Slemmer was murdered, and the crime contained genuinely documented Satanic imagery: Christa Pike and her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp were observed wearing pentagram necklaces, Pike had experimented with occult imagery before the murder, and a forensic psychiatrist would later testify that the crime contained “satanic elements,” while characterizing what he saw as adolescent dabbling rather than evidence of an organized cult. TDW_Pike_1 But behind the pentagrams was something considerably more human. Eighteen-year-old Christa Gail Pike had endured an unstable adolescence before arriving at Job Corps, where she became intensely attached to Shipp and convinced herself that Colleen wanted to take him away from her. The day before the murder, Pike reportedly told another student that she intended to kill Colleen. On January 12, four young people walked into the woods together, with Colleen believing they were going to smoke marijuana and settle their differences. TDW_Pike_1 The Satanic Panic taught America to search for elaborate explanations for evil. The Christa Pike story asks a more unsettling question: what happens when the symbols a culture creates to represent evil become part of the language young people use to commit it? Listen & Follow: Follow The Devil Within wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a 5-star rating and review. Watch and subscribe on the Evio Creative YouTube channel, turn on notifications, and join the conversation at @thedevilwithinpod. Have a story or tip for the show? Email mailto:[email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Devil's Ledger - Week of Oct. 5th, 2026 05.10.2026 14m

  THE DEVIL’S LEDGER Week of October 5, 2026 October has arrived across the Evio Universe, and before we get to the murder, monsters, fraud and assorted demonic activity, we have one request: vote. The midterms are approaching, and regardless of party, voting is how we hold elected officials accountable—or throw them out. Our longstanding policy remains simple: if you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain about shit. Ledger Oct 5 This week’s Creepiest Thing I Heard This Week investigates the strange online mythology forming around the upcoming supernatural horror film You Can’t Leave. Social media claims insist the filmmakers employed real occult experts to create authentic demonic rituals capable of exposing audiences to something genuinely dangerous. There’s just one problem: we couldn’t find credible evidence that any of it is true. Which raises an even better question—are we watching a modern urban legend being created in real time? Ledger Oct 5 On The Devil Within, our new three-part series The Devil on Death Row examines Christa Pike, the brutal 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, its documented Satanic imagery and its place at the dying edge of the Satanic Panic. Then we follow Pike through thirty years on death row to the extraordinary events of September 30, when Tennessee attempted to execute her with pentobarbital—and she survived. Twice. Ledger Oct 5 On Criminal Mischief, Part Two of the Tomasz Kosowski case enters the courtroom, where the plastic surgeon accused of murdering attorney Steven Cozzi makes the extraordinary decision to represent himself in a capital murder trial. Over on The Slippery, we meet former Bellum Entertainment CEO Mary Carole McDonnell and the alleged $30 million fraud built around a decidedly inconvenient detail: the enormous aerospace-family fortune she claimed to possess apparently didn't exist. Ledger Oct 5 Ledger Oct 5 Finally, This Week in Horror heads deep into the Amazon for Beware Boiuna, a good old-fashioned monster movie about a humanitarian mission that awakens a colossal serpent from Amazonian folklore—and one that has a special connection to the Evio family. Ledger Oct 5 Halloween is getting closer. The monsters are stirring. Let’s open the books. Listen & Follow: Follow the Evio shows wherever you get your podcasts, leave a 5-star rating and review, and watch and subscribe on the Evio Creative YouTube channel with notifications turned on. Join us at @thedevilwithinpod, and we’ll see you this week across the Evio Universe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Killer of Lake Tangyanika - Part Three 02.10.2026 21m

  THE DEVIL WITHIN GUSTAVE — Episode Three: The Hunt For years, Patrice Faye had followed the evidence left behind by one of Africa's most notorious predators. He interviewed witnesses, mapped attacks around Lake Tanganyika, studied movements along the Rusizi River and learned the scars that distinguished one enormous Nile crocodile from every other animal in the water. By 2002, studying Gustave was no longer enough. Faye wanted to capture him alive. In the final installment of our three-part investigation, The Hunt, the naturalist's obsession becomes an extraordinary field expedition. Gustave's legend has now escaped Burundi and entered the international press, bringing increasingly spectacular claims with it: hundreds of victims, gunshot wounds, attacks on massive animals and a crocodile that supposedly killed without eating. Faye himself offered a considerably more cautious estimate, saying he had documented roughly sixty deaths attributable to Gustave, perhaps fewer—a number that still could never be scientifically confirmed. But Gustave himself was real. His extraordinary size and distinctive scars allowed Faye to identify an individual animal moving through the enormous interconnected ecosystem of Lake Tanganyika and the Rusizi River. Capturing him alive could finally replace estimates with measurements: his true length, weight, age, physical condition and injuries could all be studied for the first time. So Faye built a jail. Nearly thirty feet long and weighing roughly a ton, the enormous steel cage looked more like industrial machinery than an animal trap. Cameras monitored it. Bait was placed inside. Crocodile specialist Alison Leslie joined the expedition, while filmmaker Jean-Michel Corillion documented the hunt for what would become Capturing the Killer Croc. Eventually, something enormous approached the cage. Then everything went wrong. A violent storm struck. The infrared camera failed. By morning, the trap had been damaged and partially submerged—and the live goat being used as bait had vanished. Whatever happened during those missing hours was never captured on film. The cage intended to settle the mystery of Gustave had somehow produced another one. Faye's expedition ended without its prisoner. But Gustave didn't disappear from the story. Reports continued for years, including another reported sighting in 2009. What remained were ultimately two Gustaves: the documented animal—an exceptionally large, heavily scarred Nile crocodile photographed and filmed in the Lake Tanganyika region—and the nearly supernatural creature built around him by decades of rumor and repetition. And then there is the final mystery. Did Gustave ever die? Rumors say yes. Evidence says we don't know. No verified carcass was recovered. No skull was conclusively identified. No scientific examination established when or where Gustave's life ended. That doesn't make him immortal. It simply means that the final chapter of his biological life was never documented. Perhaps that's appropriate. Because after three episodes spent asking what transformed Gustave into a monster, we arrive at a more uncomfortable possibility: Maybe nothing did. Maybe Gustave remained exactly what millions of years of evolution had designed him to be—patient, opportunistic, adaptable and capable of learning from the world around him. Perhaps it was the world around him that changed. LISTEN, WATCH & FOLLOW Follow The Devil Within wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a five-star rating and review. It remains one of the simplest and most effective ways to help new listeners discover the show. Watch The Devil Within on the Evio Creative YouTube channel. Subscribe and turn on notifications so you never miss a new episode. Follow @thedevilwithinpod for clips, archival material, episode imagery and more from the stories we investigate. Have a story, mystery or case you think belongs on The Devil Within? Send it to [email protected]. The Devil Within is written and hosted by Branden Morgan and produced by Evio Creative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Killer of Lake Tangyanika - Part Two 30.09.2026 23m

  THE DEVIL WITHIN GUSTAVE — Episode Two: Built to Kill What makes a predator perfect? In Episode Two of our three-part investigation into Gustave, we leave Lake Tanganyika behind for a moment and travel to Tsavo, Kenya, in 1898, where two maneless male lions began pulling railway workers from their camps. The animals that became known as the Ghost and the Darkness terrorized the Uganda Railway project for months before Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson finally killed them. More than a century later, their preserved remains would give scientists something Patrice Faye never had with Gustave: a killer they could actually examine. Then we go inside the Nile crocodile. Calling Gustave a dinosaur isn't scientifically accurate, but crocodilians belong to an evolutionary lineage whose basic predatory strategy has survived for an extraordinary span of time. Eyes and nostrils positioned above the water allow the animal to disappear almost completely beneath the surface. A muscular tail provides explosive acceleration. Armored osteoderms protect the body. Conical teeth seize rather than chew. And when prey is too large to swallow, the infamous death roll can tear it into manageable pieces. Everything about the design is built around one principle: Don't waste energy. That principle makes Gustave's story considerably stranger. Crocodiles are ectothermic ambush predators capable of waiting extraordinary periods between meals. They don't need prolonged pursuit. They wait until an animal enters the narrow strip of geography where water meets land—and then patience becomes explosive violence. For people who depend upon Lake Tanganyika for fishing, bathing, washing and drinking water, that kill zone is also an unavoidable part of everyday life. But Patrice Faye encountered reports of victims attributed to Gustave whose bodies were recovered or only partially consumed. That helped create the sensational legend that Gustave killed for pleasure. The biology tells a more complicated story. Crocodile ecologist Alison Leslie rejected the idea of a crocodilian psychopath. Attacks can be interrupted. Crocodiles can behave territorially. Large prey may be consumed over several days. And some of the deaths attributed to one famous crocodile may have belonged to entirely different animals. Faye nevertheless wondered whether decades of conflict in Burundi and neighboring Congo had provided Gustave with opportunities to scavenge human remains—and thereby learn that humans were simply another available food source. It remains a hypothesis, not an established scientific explanation. Finally, we meet the Old Man of the Lake. Faye estimated Gustave at approaching twenty feet long and perhaps a ton in weight. His enormous body carried distinctive scars, including wounds Faye believed came from gunfire, allowing him to distinguish Gustave from other crocodiles. After decades of survival, this wasn't simply a giant animal. It was an experienced predator capable of learning the repetitive patterns of the people living along its territory. Perhaps Gustave wasn't terrifying because he broke the rules of nature. Perhaps he was terrifying because he followed them perfectly. And Patrice Faye had finally decided that understanding Gustave wasn't enough. He was going to catch him. LISTEN, WATCH & FOLLOW Follow The Devil Within wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a five-star rating and review to help new listeners discover the show. Watch The Devil Within on the Evio Creative YouTube channel. Subscribe and turn on notifications so you never miss a new episode. Follow @thedevilwithinpod for episode clips, archival material and more from the stories we investigate. Have a story or case you think belongs on the show? Send it to [email protected]. The Devil Within is written and hosted by Branden Morgan and produced by Evio Creative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Devil's Ledger - Week of September 28th, 2026 28.09.2026 12m

  THE DEVIL'S LEDGER Week of September 28, 2026 Fall has officially arrived, playoff baseball is back, and apparently Mother Nature decided the Northeast needed to celebrate with a violent nor'easter. This week on The Devil's Ledger, Branden sends some love to everyone currently getting battered by wind, rain and coastal flooding—and finally answers a question some of us have somehow avoided asking our entire lives: What the hell actually is a nor'easter? Then we head into considerably darker territory. THE CREEPIEST THING I HEARD THIS WEEK: THE MOSQUITO Brazilian authorities say they've captured Jorlan Lopes da Silva, a suspected serial killer nicknamed “Mosquito” because of his thin, frail build. Police accuse da Silva of involvement in sixteen murders around Mulungu in northeastern Brazil. Investigators say he evaded capture by disappearing into dense vegetation and living in makeshift camps hidden in the wilderness. But it's the bizarre circumstances of his arrest that elevate this one into Creepiest Thing territory: when police finally cornered him after a two-day pursuit, da Silva was reportedly wearing a dress, wig and painted fingernails—and carrying an unrelated baby in his arms. THIS WEEK ON THE DEVIL WITHIN: GUSTAVE The New Monsters has come to an end, which means we're returning to something considerably more familiar: Serial killers. Sort of. Our new three-part series travels to Burundi and the shores of Lake Tanganyika for the extraordinary story of Gustave, the enormous, heavily scarred Nile crocodile blamed in legend for more than 300 human deaths. That number has never been verified—and naturalist Patrice Faye offered far more conservative estimates—but behind the mythology was a very real, exceptionally large crocodile that Faye spent years tracking. How do you hunt a serial killer with no motive, fingerprints or confession—one who can simply disappear beneath the surface of one of Africa's great lakes? Meet Gustave: The Killer of Lake Tanganyika. CRIMINAL MISCHIEF: TOMASZ KOSOWSKI Over on Criminal Mischief, Carolyn investigates the extraordinary case of plastic surgeon Tomasz Kosowski, recently found guilty of murdering attorney Steven Cozzi. Cozzi vanished from his Largo, Florida, law office in March 2023. His wallet, phone and keys were left behind, while investigators discovered blood inside the men's restroom. His body has never been recovered. Then Kosowski made the already extraordinary case even stranger: facing first-degree murder and the possibility of a death sentence, he represented himself. Carolyn breaks down the evidence, the disappearance and one of the stranger murder trials we've encountered in quite some time. THE SLIPPERY: THE PONZI KILLER MOM Scott and Nancy bring us the rise and spectacular collapse of Natalie Cochran. Natalie and Michael Cochran appeared to have everything: high-school sweethearts turned successful suburban family, with Natalie working as a pharmacist and Michael as a popular baseball coach and businessman. Behind that success was a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme involving supposedly lucrative government and defense contracts. As the money poured in, so did the lies—and when Michael began asking questions, prosecutors said Natalie chose murder over exposure. A jury ultimately convicted her of killing her husband with insulin. Money. Marriage. Fraud. Defense contracts. Murder. This week, The Slippery takes on The Ponzi Killer Mom. THIS WEEK IN HORROR: VICTORIAN PSYCHO Finally, we're going Gothic. Maika Monroe stars as Winifred Notty, an eccentric young governess who arrives at a remote English manor in 1858 to educate the children of a wealthy family. Then people begin disappearing. Also starring Jason Isaacs, Thomasin McKenzie and Ruth Wilson, Victorian Psycho gives us a remote manor, Victorian repression, disappearing servants and a governess who may have considerably more on her mind than afternoon lessons. LISTEN • WATCH • FOLLOW Follow The Devil Within, Criminal Mischief, The Slippery and The Devil's Ledger wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a five-star rating and review to help more listeners discover the Evio Universe. Watch and subscribe on the Evio Creative YouTube channel, and turn on notifications so you never miss a new episode. Follow @thedevilwithinpod for clips, episode imagery, stories and updates. Have a story or tip for us? mailto:[email protected] Fall is here. The sweaters are coming out. The leaves are changing. Playoff baseball has arrived. Nature is healing. We'll see you this week across the Evio Universe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Killer of Lake Tangyanika - Part One 28.09.2026 22m

  THE DEVIL WITHIN GUSTAVE: THE KILLER OF LAKE TANGANYIKA Episode One — Pattern For years, people living along the shores of Lake Tanganyika told stories about something enormous moving beneath the water. Fishermen disappeared. Bodies were recovered bearing catastrophic injuries. Survivors described attacks that happened with terrifying speed, often in places where generations of Burundians had fished, washed clothes and collected water. Then French naturalist Patrice Faye began looking for a pattern. Faye was an unlikely investigator: a self-taught naturalist and herpetologist from Lyon who had worked as a plumber and lumberjack, traveled through Africa and eventually made Burundi his home. During some of the country's darkest years, he developed an extraordinary knowledge of its wildlife—and became increasingly troubled by the stories emerging from Lake Tanganyika. In Episode One of our three-part investigation into Gustave, we travel deep into the history of Burundi, a breathtaking country scarred by colonialism, political assassination and a civil war that killed an estimated 300,000 people between 1993 and 2005. Against that backdrop, Faye developed a disturbing theory: could years of human bodies entering the region's waterways during the violence have taught an opportunistic predator that human beings were food? It was a theory he could never prove, but one that connected Burundi's human tragedy to the mystery developing along its shoreline. Faye collected eyewitness accounts, compared locations and studied descriptions until he became convinced that many of the attacks were connected. Witnesses repeatedly described extraordinary size and distinctive scars, including an injury on the animal's head. Eventually, Faye saw his suspect himself and gave him a name: Gustave. Gustave wasn't a man. He was an enormous Nile crocodile—estimated by Faye at roughly twenty feet long, perhaps a ton in weight and around sixty years old, although the animal was never captured and scientifically measured. And while the sensational claims that Gustave killed two or three hundred people belong more comfortably to legend than established fact, something very real remained beneath the mythology: an exceptionally large, scarred crocodile that Faye would spend years trying to understand. This is the story of a naturalist, a country haunted by war, and a predator that became a legend. This is Gustave: The Killer of Lake Tanganyika. Listen & Follow: Follow The Devil Within wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode, and leave us a five-star rating and review to help more listeners discover the show. Watch & Subscribe: Watch The Devil Within on the Evio Creative YouTube channel. Subscribe and turn on notifications for new episodes and original video content. Join the Conversation: Follow @thedevilwithinpod for clips, images, archival material and more from the stories we investigate. The Devil Within is written and hosted by Branden Morgan and produced by Evio Creative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The New Monsters: The Loveland Frogman - Part Three 25.09.2026 23m

  THE NEW MONSTERS: THE LOVELAND FROGMAN Episode Three: The Monster Loveland Kept By the summer of 2016, hunting monsters had changed. Armed with smartphones and Pokémon Go, two teenagers wandered near Ohio's Little Miami River and reportedly encountered something that wasn't supposed to be part of the game. Their footage was ambiguous, but the name attached to it was unmistakable: the Loveland Frogman. The alleged sighting resurrected a legend stretching back decades—mysterious humanoid figures beside an Ohio road in 1955, police encounters in 1972, and the wonderfully bizarre story of a frog-like creature carrying a wand that produced sparks. But the renewed attention also brought former Loveland police officer Mark Mathews back into the story. Mathews had encountered and shot the animal associated with the legend in 1972, and his explanation was considerably less supernatural: according to him, it was a large, tailless iguana, probably an escaped or abandoned exotic pet. That should have killed the legend. Instead, Loveland kept the Frogman. In the conclusion of our three-part investigation, we explore what happens when a monster outlives the eyewitnesses who created it. From the arrival of the internet and the 2016 Pokémon Go encounter to the transformation of regional cryptids into hometown mascots, merchandise and cultural identities, the Frogman reveals something important about the way modern folklore survives. Evidence may weaken a legend, but once enough people inherit the story, evidence isn't the only thing keeping it alive. We also bring The New Monsters full circle, from alligators beneath Manhattan and the Bunny Man of Northern Virginia to the strange amphibious resident of the Little Miami River. Cameras, smartphones and instant communication were supposed to make monsters obsolete. Instead, technology gave folklore a distribution system. Maybe the Loveland Frogman really was an iguana. If so, the iguana lost. The monster survived. LISTEN, FOLLOW & REVIEW Listen to The Devil Within wherever you get your podcasts, and make sure you're following the show so you never miss a new episode. If you enjoy the series, please leave us a five-star rating and review—it remains one of the best ways to help new listeners discover the show. WATCH & SUBSCRIBE Watch The Devil Within and more from the Evio Creative network on the Evio Creative YouTube channel. Subscribe and turn on notifications so you know whenever a new episode drops. JOIN THE CONVERSATION Follow @thedevilwithinpod for clips, stories, archival material and more from The Devil Within. Have a strange story, unexplained encounter, case or legend you think we should investigate? Send it to [email protected]. The Devil Within is written and hosted by Branden Morgan and produced by Evio Creative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The New Monsters: The Loveland Frogman - Part Two 23.09.2026 24m

  THE DEVIL WITHIN THE NEW MONSTERS: THE LOVELAND FROGMAN Episode Two — The Creature Gets a Name Before the Loveland Frogman became one of America's strangest regional cryptids, it may have been something else entirely. The story takes us back to Loveland, Ohio, in 1955, where a businessman or traveling salesman supposedly encountered three small humanoid figures beside a country road near the Little Miami River. Later versions describe creatures standing three or four feet tall, with leathery skin, deeply wrinkled heads and vaguely frog-like faces. Then one of them reportedly raised a strange metal rod above its head—and sparks began shooting from it. A Frogman is strange enough. A Frogman with a magic wand requires considerably more explanation. In Episode Two of The New Monsters, we investigate how a handful of separate encounters gradually became the mythology of the Loveland Frogman—and why the creature's bizarre origins may have more in common with America's flying-saucer obsession than traditional cryptozoology. The problem begins with the 1955 encounter itself. Unlike the better-documented police sightings that followed seventeen years later, there is no readily available contemporary police report establishing the version of the story we know today. Its famous details reach us largely through later researchers, paranormal literature and decades of retelling, meaning the Frogman's origin story belongs much more securely to folklore than verified history. And then there's that wand. America in 1955 was deep in the first great age of flying-saucer fascination. UFO reports were multiplying, science-fiction theaters were filled with extraterrestrial visitors, and stories of strange humanoids carrying mysterious technology occupied a very different corner of the American imagination. Three small beings beside a road carrying a sparking device don't necessarily sound like unknown amphibians at all. They sound suspiciously like visitors. The documentary trail is too weak to conclude that the Frogman began as a UFO story, but the possibility reveals just how dramatically a story can change depending upon the name we eventually give its creature. Then came 1972. Loveland police officers Ray Shockey and Mark Mathews encountered unusual animals near the Little Miami River seventeen years after the alleged 1955 incident. Suddenly, the older story had something it had previously lacked: recognizable witnesses and the authority of a police uniform. Three mysterious humanoids from 1955 could become earlier examples of the same creature encountered by police in 1972, while those later encounters appeared to prove that something had been returning to the river for decades. Separate stories became sightings. Sightings became a pattern. And eventually, the pattern became a monster. Once the name Loveland Frogman took hold, the transformation accelerated. Paranormal books, cryptozoology collections and eventually the internet standardized a creature that eyewitness testimony had left frustratingly incomplete. Artists supplied enormous eyes, long limbs, webbed hands and unmistakably amphibian features until generations of people who had never seen the creature nevertheless knew exactly what a Loveland Frogman was supposed to look like. And somehow, through every transformation, the sparking wand survived. This week on The Devil Within, we follow one of America's strangest cryptids from an uncertain roadside encounter through police reports, paranormal publishing and the internet, examining how folklore can create a coherent history from stories that may never have belonged together in the first place. Because the Loveland Frogman wasn't simply discovered. It was assembled. Next time, the Frogman enters the smartphone age when teenagers playing Pokémon Go near Loveland encounter something strange beside the water. We'll also meet the police officer who publicly tried to kill his own legend by insisting that the Frogman he encountered in 1972 was actually a tailless iguana—and discover why Loveland kept its monster anyway. Listen & Follow: Follow The Devil Within wherever you get your podcasts. Rate & Review: Leave us a 5-star rating and review to help new listeners discover the show. Watch & Subscribe: Watch The Devil Within on the Evio Creative YouTube channel. Subscribe and turn on notifications so you never miss a new episode. Join the Conversation: Follow @thedevilwithinpod and send your stories, sightings and tips to [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The New Monsters: The Loveland Frogman - Part One 21.09.2026 22m

  THE DEVIL WITHIN THE NEW MONSTERS: THE LOVELAND FROGMAN Episode One — Encounter There are places where the modern world seems to thin after dark. Outside Loveland, Ohio, the Little Miami River winds through wooded banks, bridges and stretches of road where everything beyond the headlights can disappear into darkness. It was along this landscape in March 1972 that Loveland police officer Ray Shockey reportedly encountered something strange near the roadway—an unusual creature that moved toward the guardrail and vanished in the direction of the river. Then another Loveland police officer encountered something in roughly the same area. This week, The New Monsters investigates the legend of the Loveland Frogman, one of Ohio's strangest and most beloved cryptids. But beneath the stories of upright amphibious creatures and mysterious encounters is something even more interesting: a collection of separate incidents that gradually became the history of a single monster. We begin with the landscape itself and the Little Miami River, the waterway that helped shape Loveland long before anyone imagined a Frogman living beside it. From Indigenous history and early settlement to farms, mills, railroads and the growth of Cincinnati, the river became both an economic corridor and a natural boundary between civilization and the remaining woods. Even as modern development spread outward, the river preserved precisely the sort of places where folklore thrives: dark water, wooded banks, blind curves and roads that surrender to the landscape after sunset. Then we travel back to 1955, when the earliest and most mysterious chapter of the Frogman legend supposedly occurred. Later versions describe a motorist encountering several short, upright creatures with leathery, frog-like bodies—and even claim that one carried a bizarre rod or wand capable of producing sparks. The problem is that the original encounter is difficult to document cleanly, and many of its most famous details reach us through later retellings. Seventeen years later, the story becomes considerably harder to ignore. In March 1972, Officer Shockey reported encountering an unusual animal while driving near the Little Miami. Fellow officer Mark Mathews subsequently encountered something in the same area and fired at it. Years later, Mathews would insist there was nothing supernatural about what he saw: according to him, the creature was a large iguana missing its tail, probably an escaped or abandoned exotic pet. That should have killed the legend. Instead, it helped create one. Because once the name Frogman entered the story, separate encounters began fitting together. The mysterious creatures of 1955 became earlier sightings of the animal encountered by police in 1972, while the credibility of the later police encounters reached backward and gave the older story an authority it had never possessed on its own. Loveland no longer had an unexplained animal sighting; it had a history. And that's where our investigation begins. IN THIS EPISODE The Little Miami River and the history that shaped Loveland; the mysterious and difficult-to-document 1955 encounter; Ray Shockey's 1972 roadside sighting; Mark Mathews and the alleged tailless iguana; the exotic-pet explanation; and the strange process by which separate stories became the mythology of the Loveland Frogman. Next time on The New Monsters, we'll go deeper into the bizarre 1955 encounter, investigate the Frogman's infamous sparking wand, and discover how paranormal books, local storytelling and eventually the internet transformed a handful of uncertain encounters into one of America's most recognizable regional cryptids. Listen & Follow: Follow The Devil Within wherever you get your podcasts. Rate & Review: Leave us a 5-star rating and review to help more listeners discover the show. Watch & Subscribe: Watch The Devil Within on the Evio Creative YouTube channel. Subscribe and turn on notifications for every new episode. Join the Conversation: Follow @thedevilwithinpod and send your stories, sightings and tips to [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Devil's Ledger - Week of September 21st, 2026 21.09.2026 15m

  THE DEVIL’S LEDGER Week of September 21, 2026 Football is back, fall is finally arriving, and the Evio Universe has assembled a particularly strange collection of stories this week. We begin with The Creepiest Thing I Heard This Week, where an unsettling internet trend has transformed one of Dr. Seuss’s most beloved characters into nightmare fuel. AI-generated images of a sinister Cat in the Hat lurking outside homes and schools have prompted police investigations across the country, juvenile arrests—and, in Canada, a bizarre real-world incident involving someone in costume allegedly chasing a teenage girl through a neighborhood. Then, on The Devil Within, we head to Ohio for the conclusion of our investigation into the Loveland Frogman. From a murky 1955 encounter involving strange humanoid figures and a supposedly sparking wand to two police encounters in 1972 and a wonderfully appropriate Pokémon Go sighting decades later, we examine how separate stories became the biography of a single monster—and why even a police officer’s decidedly unromantic explanation involving a tailless iguana couldn’t kill the legend. On Criminal Mischief, Carolyn Ossorio investigates the developing case surrounding Philadelphia’s so-called “House of Horrors.” Authorities are investigating an Olney home in connection with at least seven missing women, as police and the FBI work through disturbing physical and digital evidence recovered during the investigation. With no remains yet confirmed at the property, Carolyn separates what investigators actually know from the speculation surrounding a case that is still unfolding. Over on The Slippery, Scott and Nancy enter the heavily filtered world of Adva Lavie, the Israeli-born former flight attendant and social-media personality accused of using dating apps and aliases to enter the lives of wealthy older men and steal luxury property. Then the story acquires a billionaire, an engagement and an even stranger investigation. Lavie has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges against her, and the latest allegations remain under investigation. Finally, This Week in Horror takes us onto the highway with Passenger, the new supernatural road-trip nightmare from director André Øvredal. A young couple leaves New York for life on the road, only to discover that something demonic may have joined them for the ride. And with that, we say farewell to summer and welcome back pumpkin spice, football weekends, open sweater cabinets, earlier sunsets, changing leaves and—hopefully—a slight slowing of the relentless pace of life. Listen and follow the shows of the Evio Creative network wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoy what we’re doing, leave us a five-star rating and review and help other listeners discover the Evio Universe. Watch and subscribe on the Evio Creative YouTube channel, and turn on notifications so you never miss a new episode. Until next week, we’ll see you across the Evio Universe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices