Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories

The Amityville house and the Rhode Island farmhouse that inspired The Conjuring have both been sold, and so has a Los Angeles home that a retired LAPD detective ties to his own father and the Black Dahlia murder.

EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/HomeSweetHauntedHome

READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/y7zyfsmy

FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Are you brave enough to live in a haunted house? If so, and you’re ready to make a move, you might find a good deal in one of the homes I’m about to tell you about. (They Sold Their Haunted Houses) *** The Nazca Lines of Peru span for miles and are visible only from the sky. These mysterious designs have sparked theories ranging from astronomical markers to extraterrestrial landing strips, challenging our understanding of ancient civilizations. We’ll look at the mystery behind them – and consider a few theories for their existence. (Mystery of the Nazca Lines) *** Armin Meiwes placed a personal ad for a volunteer. He was looking for someone to give themselves over to him… to eat. It’s one of the most infamous cases of modern cannibalism. (The Cannibal Who Placed a Personal Ad) *** On May 28, 1903, Dr. Francis J. Tumblety, a man with a deep-seated hatred for women and surgical skills, died in St. Louis. Intriguingly, Tumblety was in London during the gruesome Jack the Ripper murders in 1888, sparking speculation that he might be the infamous slasher. (Was Jack The Ripper From St. Louis?) *** Imagine a duel between two women. One a princess, the other a countess. Now picture them dueling topless. It really happened… and the reason for the duel? A disagreement over flower arrangements. (The Topless Duel Between Two Ladies)

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding
00:01:28.929 = Show Open
00:3:48.289 = They Sold Their Haunted Houses
00:24:13.718 = The Mystery of the Nazca Lines ***
00:34:32.503 = Was Jack The Ripper From St. Louis?
00:47:50.258 = The Topless Duel Between Ladies ***
01:02:14.046 = The Cannibal Who Placed a Personal Ad ***
01:07:54.857 = Show Close
*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break

LISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: 
Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps

*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*

SOURCES and RESOURCES:
“They Sold Their Haunted Houses” source: Sonja Ska, Graveyard Shift: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2ezeefr9
“The Mystery of the Nazca Lines” source: Marcus Lowth, UFO Insight: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p9dumsu
“The Cannibal Who Placed a Personal Ad” source: The Scare Chamber, https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/3vy977m8
“Was Jack The Ripper From St. Louis?” by Troy Taylor (used with permission): https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yyj892ws
“The Topless Duel Between Ladies” source: Genevieve Carlton, Weird History: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/bdcs6zuk
(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)

WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

Originally aired: June 12, 2024

LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL
Weird Darkness tours haunted houses that have gone up for sale, then visits Peru's Nazca Lines, a Jack the Ripper suspect who died in St. Louis, a topless sword duel between two noblewomen, and the German cannibal Armin Meiwes.
It opens with haunted houses on the market, including the Amityville house where Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed six members of his family in 1974, a Nyack, New York, Victorian that a state appeals court ruled haunted in 1991, and the Rhode Island farmhouse behind The Conjuring, which sold for $1.5 million in 2021.
From there, the episode heads to Peru, where figures like the Nazca Lines' hummingbird and so-called Astronaut were scraped into the desert floor sometime between 500 BC and AD 500, and the explanations run from astronomical markers and rain rituals to Erich von Däniken's landing strips for ancient astronauts.
Next is Dr. Francis J. Tumblety, a patent-medicine seller with no medical degree who, by a Washington lawyer's account, kept women's uteruses in jars; he jumped bail after a London arrest during the 1888 Whitechapel murders and died in St. Louis on May 28th, 1903.
After that, newspapers in 1892 reported a rapier duel in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, between Princess Pauline von Metternich and Countess Anastasia Kielmannsegg over the flowers for a Vienna exhibition, both women stripped to the waist on a doctor's advice that cloth driven into a wound could cause infection.
The episode closes in Rotenburg, Germany, where Armin Meiwes advertised on the Cannibal Cafe forum for a man to kill and eat and found Berlin engineer Bernd Brandes, whose death in March 2001 he filmed. Convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, Meiwes has since become a vegetarian.

Not long after a couple in ancient Macedonia buries their only daughter, their old servant looks in on a guest from the king's court and finds the girl asleep beside him.

Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTR

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Show Open
00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Night Visitor” (November 24, 1978) ***WD
00:45:55.090 = Lights Out, “Battle of Magicians” (July 27, 1946)
01:15:41.270 = Lux Radio Theater, “The Big Clock” (November 22, 1948)
02:16:01.653 = Macabre, “Midnight Horseman” (December 11, 1961) ***WD(LQ)
02:43:08.743 = Philip Marlowe, “Sea Horse Jockey” (May 02, 1950)
03:13:25.378 = Have Gun Will Travel, “Monster On Moon Ridge” (March 08, 1959)
03:37:05.177 = The Black Mass, “Atrophy” (October 10, 1964) ***WD
04:04:36.460 = Michael Shayne, “Strange Business Call” (July 23, 1945)
04:35:19.862 = Beyond Midnight, “Insect Man” aka “Insects” (February 12, 1969) ***WD
05:02:26.573 = Show Close

(ADU) = Air Date Unknown
(LQ) = Low Quality
***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.
CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0790

A grayish-black disk the size of a truck tire turns up in the ditch by a professor's front lawn in upstate New York, and whatever touches it, from a clod of dirt to the end of a spade, dissolves into it; by the next day, it's eight feet across. A blowtorch, and a sledgehammer don't do any better against it. 

EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/DontFeedIt

SOURCES and RESOURCES: “The Leech” by Robert Sheckley: https://amzn.to/3TXtU9N

WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: October 03, 2026

LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL

When a mysterious curfew grips the small town of Grove City, Ohio, young Sean discovers during his Halloween weekend visit that the recent string of vicious attacks might be connected to local legends about monsters lurking in the shadows.

Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1655277373
Find more family-friendly frights and creepy games to play on our website at http://MicroTerrors.com!

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/microterrors

Other stories, novels, and more from author Scott Donnelly: https://amzn.to/3LymHaU

Other narrations, podcasts, and audiobooks from voice artist Darren Marlar: https://WeirdDarkness.com
https://weirddarkness.com/grovecitywerewolf

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Weird Darkness©, 2026
Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids™, 2026#MicroTerrors #WeirdDarkness
This MicroTerrors episode is a Halloween scary story for kids about a werewolf stalking Grove City, Ohio, written by Scott Donnelly and narrated by Darren Marlar, with real Grove City shops and shopkeepers written into the plot. It opens in Andrea Cordle's backyard, where the Grove City Messenger writer is brushing off a caller's push for a werewolf article when a howl rises from the tree line and something large gallops after her to the back door. From there it follows Sean Dyer, a homesick boy dropped off with his Uncle Curtis and Aunt Jade for Halloween weekend while his parents close on a new house in North Carolina; the town is under a sundown curfew that no adult will explain, and a police officer sends Sean and his uncle home from Tammy's Pizza on Broadway before dark. The next morning the TV news reports that a beast crashed through the front window of Skylark's Toys and Comics and attacked owner Darren Neff, and at the Grove City Visitor Center, Teresa Breckenridge quietly tells Sean that people all over town have seen a giant wolf walking upright on two legs. By Sunday a second attack has made the news, police are urging everyone to stay indoors, and Sean takes a fifty-dollar job helping Reese, the friendly neighbor with a dog named Bongo, clear out his cluttered attic.

From phantom students and haunted dorm rooms to ghostly professors and cursed frat houses, these college campuses prove that “school spirit” can have more than one meaning – where classes might get dismissed, but some students never leave.

EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/HauntedColleges

READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8tjcym

FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Classes are now back in full-swing for college students, and many high school juniors and seniors are already in the process of choosing a college to attend in the future. But after hearing about some haunted college campuses, you might choose to change your mind about your chosen universities… or change your major to parapsychology. (Haunted Colleges) *** Weird stories about Area 51 almost all stem from the belief that the government is most likely hiding UFO technology or aliens there. You probably know most of your Area 51 knowledge from movies like “Independence Day” or television programs such as “The X-Files”. But what about the real world? Are any of these stories based on truth? (Tales and Legends of Area 51) *** Weirdo family member Alex shares how fleeing an abusive father brought some comfort from an unexpected source. (Guardian Angel) *** Soon after her disappearance, Dorothy Jane Scott's family began receiving chilling calls from an unidentified caller.  (A Killer Calls)

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding
00:00:41.497 = Show Open
00:02:34.322 = Haunted Colleges
00:24:26.294 = Guardian Angel ***
00:26:06.791 = Tales And Legends of Area 51
00:34:45.911 = A Killer Calls
00:40:12.100 = Show Close
*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break

LISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: 
Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps

*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*

SOURCES and RESOURCES:
“Haunted Colleges” by Erin McCann: http://bit.ly/2luLcxM
“Tales and Legends of Area 51” by Kellen Perry: http://bit.ly/2lyyGNG
“Guardian Angel” by Alex, submitted at https://weirddarkness.com/submit
“A Killer Calls” by Orrin Grey: http://bit.ly/2lvQ99B
(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)

WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

Originally aired: July 2020

LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL