Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories

Few know of the original short story that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic horror film, “The Birds” - but it’s that story that I’m sharing with you tonight.

THE STORY: On December 3rd the wind turns east and winter lands overnight on a Cornish peninsula, where Nat Hocken, a part-time farm worker living on a wartime disability pension, wakes to something tapping at the bedroom window. By dawn there are fifty dead birds on the floor of his children's room, and out in the bay the gulls are massing by the tens of thousands, riding the swells and waiting on the tide. Nat boards his windows and stuffs his chimneys while the wireless carries a Home Office statement, then a national emergency, then nothing at all; he works out that the attacks rise and fall with the flood tide, and measures his family's odds in bread, candles, and kerosene. Evan Hunter's screenplay moved the story to Bodega Bay and built new characters around du Maurier's title, keeping her unexplained attacks and little else. The original ends with Nat lighting the last cigarette in the packet and throwing the empty one on the fire.

EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/mitm-thebirds

SOURCES and RESOURCES: “The Birds” by Daphne du Maurier from the book, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents My Favorites In Suspense”: https://amzn.to/3knkjZ3

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

Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: September 17, 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

Philadelphia police have finally described, on the record, the video from 417 W. Chew Avenue in which Raymond Horsch tightens a zip tie around a handcuffed woman's neck; two more women who appear dead have turned up in his photographs, which puts seven women at the house with the FBI less than a third of the way through more than a million files.

SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/HorschHouse20260916

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/1078714736

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

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

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

Two men on a hunting vacation in the Adirondacks wake to find a small metal box sitting in their cabin doorway, a tag on top calling it a free promotional model of a brand-new kind of trap.

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, “A Thousand Year Old Story” (September 29, 1978) ***WD
00:45:44.446 = X-Minus-1, “The Trap” (February 13, 1957)
01:07:38.102 = Appointment With Fear, “My Fate Cries” (December 04, 1976) ***WD
01:35:42.435 = Arch Oboler’s Plays, “Big Ben” (April 13, 1943)
01:58:28.249 = Barry Craig, “Ghost of a Chance” (December 19, 1951)
02:28:09.864 = BBC Radio 4/Radio 7 Ghost Story, “The Crowd” (December 30, 1986)
02:41:56.411 = Night Beat, “Jockey Brothers” (May 29, 1952) ***WD
03:11:11.673 = Nick Carter, “Legend of Shakespeare’s Ghost” (December 30, 1945)
03:40:48.518 = Box 13, “Hare And Hounds” (February 27, 1949)
04:08:16.744 = Calling All Cars, “The Spinoza Case” (March 28, 1934) ***WD
04:36:40.006 = Casey Crime Photographer, “Twenty Minute Alibi” (February 20, 1947)
05:06:08.757 = 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/WDRR0776

The staff of Thelma Todd's old café on the Pacific Coast Highway still see a blonde woman near the steps to the garage, which is the last place anyone saw the actress alive in December of 1935.

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

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

FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: She was sexy, she was flirtatious… then she was dead. Who killed actress Thelma Todd, and why does her ghost still linger in Hollywood? (Death Of The Ice Cream Blonde) *** A woman has been haunted by a dark, cloaked and hooded entity for the past eighteen years. And it’s real – because her husband has seen it too. (Followed By A Hooded Entity) *** Gary Heidnik didn't just kidnap, torture, and murder women in the basement of his house of horrors — he got one of his victims to help. (Gary Heidnik: The Inspiration for Buffalo Bill)

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding
00:01:08.935 = Show Open
00:02:30.791 = Death Of The Ice Cream Blonde
00:31:17.830 = Followed By A Hooded Entity ***
00:35:54.210 = Gary Heidnik: The Inspiration For Buffalo Bill
00:46:42.618 = 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:
“Death Of The Ice Cream Blonde” by Troy Taylor: http://bit.ly/2XkqRZA
“Followed By A Hooded Entity” by Chaos 92 at YourGhostStories.com: http://bit.ly/2UIJcme
“Gary Heidnik: The Inspiration for Buffalo Bill” by Mark Oliver for All That’s Interesting: http://bit.ly/2UIO2Qw
(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 2021
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

The overnight crew at a small farm-town TV station spent two hours broadcasting a late-night talk show that nobody in their world had made.

EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/mitm-alternateprogramming

SOURCES and RESOURCES: “Alternate Programming” by Keith Conrad (Auditory Anthology, April 2025), https://www.auditoryanthology.com

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

Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: September 16, 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