Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories

A man on our block sat between burning cauldrons in a devil costume every Halloween, and the year I was finally brave enough to trick-or-treat at his house, he gave me something that wasn't candy at all.

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

FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: A local lake's water turned crystal clear overnight, every fish and plant gone from its depths, and the two university microbiologists who collected a sample to find out why brought something back to the lab that should never have left the water. (Amoeba) *** Two out-of-state hunters were found torn apart in a cabin north of town — one man's leg inside, the other's upper torso on the roof — and the night four friends gathered in a basement in the small mountain town of Linglestown to drink beer and laugh about the creature stalking the local woods, heavy footsteps started crossing the floor above them. (The Cycle) *** A secret modification had pushed Keck Observatory's telescope to 45 billion light-years — the very edge of the known universe — and when they called Caltech's astronomy chief for his opinion, what he saw wasn't a star, a galaxy, or a nebula, but something that appeared to be looking back. (A Scarecrow For God) *** In the 1970s suburban neighborhood where I grew up, every kid measured his bravery by whether he'd ever walked up the lawn of the man who dressed as the devil on Halloween, and the year my best friend and I finally took the dare, what was dropped into my candy bag turned a rite of passage into something far stranger. (Satan’s Fall)

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Show Open
00:01:15.425 = Amoeba
00:18:17.841 = The Cycle
00:37:01.840 = A Scarecrow For God
00:54:23.851 = Satan’s Fall
01:29:01.448 = 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:
“Amoeba” was submitted by Sabby Ray: https://www.facebook.com/ray.saibal
“The Cycle” - an original story submitted by Michael Dieb at http://www.WeirdDarkness.com
“A Scarecrow For God”: https://www.creepypasta.com/a-scarecrow-for-god/
“Satan’s Fall”: http://www.creepypasta.org/creepypasta/satans-fall#read

(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: October 15, 2017

Old Alexander Jordan, terrified of being buried alive during one of his cataleptic fits, rigs a bell from his crypt to his nephew's bedroom — so that if he wakes inside the coffin, he can ring for help. But his nephew Ramsey has been waiting a long time to inherit the Jordan place, and a bell that rings in the dead of night can be silenced more than one way.

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, “The Case of the Chateau-Margaux” (October 12, 1977) ***WD
00:45:49.691 = Creeps By Night, “Strange Burial of Alexander Jordan” (July 13, 1944)
01:15:20.185 = The Crime Club, “Cupid Can Be Deadly” (October 16, 1947) ***WD
01:43:49.472 = Danger Dr. Danfield, “Mad Men Strike Swiftly” (January 05, 1947)
02:08:13.766 = CBC Deep Night, “Birth” (July 08, 2005)
02:39:10.152 = The Devil and Mr. O, “Vacation With Death” (November 26, 1971) ***WD
03:07:52.353 = Diary of Fate, “Joe Mattuck” (March 16, 1948) ***WD
03:36:20.390 = Dimension X, “Potters of Firsk” (July 28, 1950) ***WD
04:03:51.650 = The Strange Dr. Weird, “Stand-In For Death” (December 26, 1944) ***WD
04:15:18.925 = The Eleventh Hour, “Bad Day for Big Ben” (1960’s – Early 1970’s) ***WD
04:45:09.364 = Escape, “The Day The General Died” (April 16, 1949)
05:14:36.099 = 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/WDRR0654

When telephone lineman Sam Yoder picks up an impossible call from himself ten days in the future, the tips start paying off — until future Sam steers him straight into the middle of a bank robbery he's told to watch, but not stop.

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, “The Actress” (October 10, 1977) ***WD
00:46:36.193 = X Minus One, “Sam This Is You” (October 31, 1956)
01:15:29.980 = Zero Hour, “An Arms Length” (May 13, 1940) ***WD
01:32:52.045 = ABC Mystery Time, “The Tale” (1956-1957)
01:56:19.779 = Strange Adventures, “Malay Magic” (1945) ***WD
01:59:34.349 = Appointment With Fear, “The Clock Strikes Eight” (May 18, 1944) ***WD
02:28:21.070 = BBC Radio4 Ghost Story, “Lost Hearts” (October 29, 1978)
02:42:35.566 = Beyond The Green Door, “Frederick Morton” (1966)
02:46:35.493 = The Man In Black, “The Price Of The Head” (February 02, 1952) ***WD
03:01:20.239 = Barry Craig, “Ghosts Don’t Die In Bed” (September 07, 1954)
03:29:53.534 = Box 13, Double Right Cross” (November 28, 1948) ***WD
03:56:39.464 = CBC Mystery Theater, “Mr Higginbothom’s Catastrophe” (1967) ***WD
04:25:34.811 = The Clock, “The Hunter And The Hunted’ (November 22, 1955) ***WD
04:51:37.696 = 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/WDRR0653

A twelve-year-old takes an easy weekend house-sitting job in a quiet rural neighborhood — until a thunderstorm knocks out the power and something starts scraping its way through an upstairs wall.

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

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Weird Darkness©, 2026
Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids™, 2026#MicroTerrors #WeirdDarkness

Ruthie Mae McCoy fought her whole life to escape the violence and fear of Chicago’s public housing, but when intruders slipped through her medicine cabinet and into her apartment, her worst nightmare became horrifyingly real.

EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources and full transcript): https://weirddarkness.com/TheyCameThroughTheBathroomMirror

FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Ruthie Mae McCoy was the type who talked to herself and cursed strangers on the street. When she called 911 to report that someone was coming through the medicine cabinet of her Abbott Homes apartment, she might have been hallucinating. But she wasn’t. (They Came Through The Mirror) *** Who was the mysterious woman who spoke a language no-one could understand? What was inside the box she held in her hands? What was the meaning of the markings on the round metal object she arrived in? Those are just some of the questions no one has been able to answer about a strange encounter near Tokyo in 1803. (The Alien Woman and the Hollow Ship) *** In a well-known area of southwest Texas that many believe to already be haunted, a woman dies in childbirth – but when she is found, her baby is missing, and wolf prints are everywhere. And that’s when sightings of The Wolf Girl of Devil’s River begin. (The Wolf Girl of Devil’s River) *** Throughout early 1800s Delaware and Maryland, Patty Cannon and her gang kidnapped as many as 3,000 Black Americans to sell into bondage in the South… and would often murder those slaves… and those that sold them. (Patty Cannon: The Slave-Trading Serial Killer)

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Show Open
00:02:03.759 = Patty Cannon: The Slave-Trading Serial Killer
00:12:09.850 = The Alien Woman and the Hollow Ship ***
00:15:47.640 = The Wolf Girl of Devil’s River
00:25:21.261 = They Came In Through The Bathroom Mirror, Part 1 ***
00:48:34.358 = They Came In Through The Bathroom Mirror, Part 2 ***
01:11:13.860 = They Came In Through The Bathroom Mirror, Part 3 ***
01:26:46.822 = Show Close & Bloopers
*** = 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:
“Patty Cannon: The Slave-Trading Serial Killer” by Emily Stringer for All That’s Interesting:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/a95a6zaz
“The Alien Woman and the Hollow Ship” by Ellen Lloyd for Ancient Pages: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/tvkvddc5
“The Wolf Girl of Devil’s River” by Brian Haughton: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/5uf2utcc
“They Came Through The Mirror” by Steve Bogira for Chicago Reader: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/65pp5y96
(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: October 14, 2021