Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories

A Western Alliance ship circles Mars at the equator and again from pole to pole, and Captain Thomas H. Griswold, already picturing his name in the history books, finds no buildings and no ruins below, only iron ore and long straight canals that the young civilian expert aboard calls evidence of something.

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

SOURCES and RESOURCES: “We're Civilized!” by Alex Apostolides and Mark Clifton: https://amzn.to/3zL4wgZ

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

Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: October 13, 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

In 1887, Roxalana Druse became the last woman New York ever hanged, on a secondhand gallows that used a falling 213-pound weight to jerk her into the air. Her neck didn’t break, and fifteen minutes passed before the doctors pronounced her dead.

From the book “BOTCHED EXECUTIONS: Four Centuries Of Failed Hangings, Electrocutions, Gassings, Injections And Firing Squads” by Darren Marlar at https://weirddarkness.com/botchedexecutions

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

Originally aired: October 12, 2026

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HM3LZM9M/

Witnesses around the world describe the same faceless man in a wide-brimmed hat, and they say once he appears to one person in a house, another family member is often next.ADDITIONAL

ARTICLE ABOUT THE HAT MAN: https://weirddarkness.com/hat-man/

ADDITIONAL ARTICLE ABOUT SHADOW PEOPLE: https://weirddarkness.com/shadow-people/

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

READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/5n85swk3

FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Is there really such a thing as coincidence? One girl used to think so – but a strange paranormal experience has her now thinking there’s no such thing as happenstance. (More Than a Coincidence) *** Is it possible that the real reason for the USA-Iraq war had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction, and everything to do with the appropriation of other-worldly alien technology? (Saddam Hussein’s Stargate) *** Weirdo family member Heather Circle brings us a terrifying story that starts, innocently enough, with her child’s missing plastic drinking cup. (A Little Pink Sippy Cup) *** Rebecca Schaeffer was destined to be a star. But before she had the chance to make it in Hollywood, she was murdered by an obsessed fan. (Hollywood’s Sweetheart Killed By a Stalker) *** With the internet’s recent obsession with Black Eyed Kids encounters and “Shadow People” visitations, you might not notice another phenomena that’s quickly becoming part of the paranormal pop-culture consciousness: The Hat Man. Reports of the strange “Hat Man”, a mysterious entity dressed in a long-brimmed hat, continue to pour in from all over the world. Who is the Hat Man? What does he want? Why have so many people around the world been visited by this strange entity? (The Hat Man And Shadow People) *** If you’ve ever seen the film “The Wicker Man”, you are familiar with the ending of the burning giant made of wood and the human sacrifice therein. But is it possible that this terrifying idea was not an invention of novelists and screenwriters – but was a very real practice at one time? Or even today? (The History Behind The Wicker Man) *** The life that serial killer Dennis Rader lived on the outside, hid his dark secret inside, which he was so desperate to reveal that he began dropping breadcrumbs to the media. (The Paper Trail of BTK) *** A graveyard is typically a quiet place, but Graceland Cemetery in Chicago seems to be a bit too quiet – which might have something to do with its resident ghosts. (The Deathly Silence of Graceland Cemetery) *** In 1888, London was terror-struck by the grotesque murders of Jack the Ripper, who was shortly about to claim his next-victim: 47-year-old prostitute Annie Chapman. Her dissection at the hands of the madman was nothing short of gruesome. (The Dissection of Annie Chapman) *** Annie Chapman likely got a good look at her killer. At the time, scientists thought they could user her corpse’s eyeballs to identify the attacker. Is something like that possible? Could the last visual image of someone’s life remain burned into the eye even after death? (The Last Thing a Corpse Sees)
CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding
00:00:48.416 = Show Open
00:04:18.611 = Hat Man And Shadow People
00:17:11.889 = More Than a Coincidence ***
00:21:32.842 = A Little Pink Sippy Cup
00:25:35.809 = Saddam Hussein’s Stargate
00:32:37.481 = Hollywood’s Sweetheart Killed by a Stalker ***
00:46:50.524 = Dissection of Annie Chapman
00:58:21.136 = The Last Thing a Corpse Sees ***
01:04:13.123 = History Behind the Wicker Man
01:09:04.564 = The Paper Trail of BTK
01:15:41.286 = Deathly Silence of Graceland Cemetery ***
01:26:11.798 = Show Close
01:28:28.675 = SONG: “He’s The Hat Man” by Dark Weirdness, https://weirddarkness.com/music
*** = 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:
“The Hat Man And Shadow People” by Greg Newkirk (http://bit.ly/36DLMwg) and Dana Matthews (http://bit.ly/33oEfiJ) for Week In Weird.
“More Than a Coincidence” is by Cherubim and was posted at YourGhostStories: http://bit.ly/2JXuCQC
“Saddam Hussein’s Stargate” by Michael Moran for The Daily Star: http://bit.ly/2pNfVst
“A Little Pink Sippy Cup” by Weirdo family member Heather Circle
“Hollywood’s Sweetheart Killed By a Stalker” by Natalie DeGroot from All That’s Interesting: http://bit.ly/2NoBbh9
“Dark Annie” from Awesome Stories: http://bit.ly/33H5hlC
“The Dissection of Annie Chapman” by Hannah McKennet for All That’s Interesting: http://bit.ly/2p98hZb
“The Last Thing a Corpse Sees” by Marissa Fessenden for the Smithsonian: (link no longer available)
“The History Behind The Wicker Man” from Ancient Origins: http://bit.ly/2Kr38TR
“The Paper Trail of BTK” by Rachel Chang for Biography: http://bit.ly/32zqpZL
“The Deathly Silence of Graceland Cemetery” by Ursula Bielski for Chicago Hauntings: (link no longer available)(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: August 2019
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

Martha Whitman doesn't think her six-year-old son Osmond is as sick as his doctors and his father say, so she makes him a deal: she'll throw his pills down the kitchen drain, morning and night, and he'll tell his father he's been taking them.

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

SOURCES and RESOURCES: “Stick Man” by Donte-highwater: https://www.inkitt.com/howard23, https://www.youtube.com/@moul4519

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

Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: October 12, 2026

A Fresno, California, family set up a camera by the garage after their dogs kept barking into the dark, and the next morning's footage showed two pale figures with no arms anyone could make out, walking across the front lawn on long legs that seem to bend backward.
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HOUR ONE: There are roads on Long Island that are much more than a line between two points. Some roads contain legends that travel with you on your journey. (Mount Misery and Sweet Hollow Road) *** In 1981, a cabin in the woods played host to a brutal family murder. We’ll look into the still unsolved murders of the Keddie killings. (The Unsolved Keddie Killings) *** Sightings of strange, pale creatures are being reported in California – and now over two decades from the first sighting, we still don’t know what the Fresno Nightcrawlers truly are. (Freaky Reports of Pale Crawlers)
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HOUR TWO: Violence, mayhem, even rape. Horrifying atrocities committed by the most evil of human beings – but in one case, in Culver City, California, it wasn’t a man who engaged in these obscenities, but specters of the paranormal. (A Famous Case of Frightening Entities) *** We’ll delve into a handful of out-of-body experience stories directly from those who lived through them – and they might change your opinion about the afterlife. (Surviving Out of Body Experiences) *** We’ll look at true encounters from Redditors who claim to have come across doppelgangers – their exact duplicates, or duplicates of those they love – and it’s almost always a disturbing experience. (Creepy Encounters With Real Doppelgangers)
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SUDDEN DEATH OVERTIME: During the grueling Great Northern Expedition, naturalist Georg Wilhem Steller came face-to-face with one of the sea's most mysterious creatures. Or did he? (Steller’s Sea Ape) *** Weirdo family member Jamie Tyroler shares what happened to her and a few friends when they rummaged through a demolished building, only to find something still existing there. (The Ninth Street Entity) *** Weirdo family member Daniel Hagan shares how he once explored some woods on his bike and ended up pedaling for his life to escape paranormal beasts that appeared from nowhere. (Demon Dogs) *** Digging in their backyard, two brothers find what appear to be small human heads carved of stone… but the curious find turns creepy once they bring the heads into the house, resurrecting sightings of a wolf-like creature not seen in almost seventy years. (Hexam Heads and the Wolf of Allendale) *** In 1886 Chicago, one of the nation’s very first serial killers would build a sadistic chamber of horrors to live out his most demented fantasies. (Murder Castle of Chicago)
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SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM TONIGHT’S SHOW:
“Freaky Reports of Pale Crawlers” by Brent Swancer: http://bit.ly/2O9fG6C
“Mount Misery and Sweet Hollow Road” by Arthur Criscione: http://bit.ly/2LXUr4K
“The Unsolved Keddie Killings” by Orrin Grey: http://bit.ly/2LYC8fK
“Steller’s Sea Ape” by Andrew Thaler: http://bit.ly/2XMpxDM
“The Ninth Street Entity” by Weirdo Family member Jamie Tyroler
“Creepy Encounters With Real Doppelgangers” by Nathan Gibson: http://bit.ly/2YkPTwL
“Demon Dogs” by Daniel Hagan, submitted at https://WeirdDarkness.com/submit
“Surviving Out of Body Experiences” by Audrey Webster: http://bit.ly/2M3bMKx
““A Famous Case of Frightening Entities” by Brent Swancer: http://bit.ly/2M3YGg3
“Hexam Heads and the Wolf of Allendale” by Neil Boothman: http://bit.ly/2Kut2Fn and http://bit.ly/2Kiufk0
“Murder Castle of Chicago” by Brent Swancer (link no longer available)
==========(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for material I use whenever possible. If I have overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it immediately. Some links may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)
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"I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46
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WeirdDarkness®, WeirdDarkness© 2026
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