Lighthouses have stood on the Northeastern coast of America for centuries, beacons of hope in dark night or a desperate storm...and, sometimes, silent witnesses to the many tragedies that can befall seafarers and their loved ones in the course of their sometimes dangerous work.

This week, we take a trip through the past 300 years of American history to visit some of the most haunted lighthouses in New England (and, uh, one in New Jersey) and see how their morbid tales tie in to the most important moments of this country's past.

We meet a lighthouse keeper driven mad by his wife's incessant piano playing - to the point of murder...

A very good boy named Spot who some say still barks to warn sailors of deadly fog to this day, decades beyond his crossing over the Rainbow Bridge...

A Revolutionary War soldier hanged by the British Redcoats for a crime he didn't commit, and who may still patrol the New Jersey coastline even after death...

And several more interesting characters and strange happenstances across the maritime history of Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Grab an oar and hop aboard!

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We take a trip back to '40s and '50s London this week to cover the grimy and gruesome story of serial killer John Reginald Christie, who gassed and strangled 8 women to death and stowed their bodies in and around his London flat.

Sean takes us through the case that helped get the death penalty abolished in the UK, and we tackle all the most important unanswered questions - like how this guy stayed married as long as he did.

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For our 175th episode, we're going back to our spooky roots to investigate another internet-popularized urban legend: Black Eyed Kids.

In 1998, journalist Brian Bethel took to the fledgling interwebs to share a strange tale. Sitting in his car alone one night in 1996, he'd been approached by two strange children - children who insisted he let them in the car and acquiesce to their demands. The encounter made Brian uneasy...especially so when he realized that both of the kids had entirely black eyes. No iris, no sclera, just pure black voids. There was something off about these kids, and he would be far from the only person to experience this bizarre moment of high strangeness.

Since Bethel's encounter, hundreds of people have shared their stories of run-ins with threatening black eyed kids...and how the kids, seemed, well, off. Unearthly. Dangerous.

Is this just a case of hysteria? Is it a tulpa, like some believe Slender Man to be, rising from the depths of the internet to wreak havoc on the real world? Or is it just a bunch of creepypasta storytelling? We try to get to the truth, and avoid letting creepy kids into the house along the way.

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This week we tackle the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft, one of the most notorious and high-value art heists of all time. One March night in Boston, 1990, two men donned police disguises to enter the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Once inside, they subdued security and walked off with a collection of art potentially valued at over $1 billion in 2024.

Vermeers, Rembrandts and more were lost to the world that night, never to be seen again. To this day, no one has ever been charged with the robbery. So who did it, and how, and can we collect this reward already? Find out on an action-packed episode!

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This week, we're celebrating all kinds of mums - but no, that isn't in observance of America's Mother's Day holiday this upcoming Sunday! No, the collection of mums we're discussing are of a decidedly drier type: mummified human remains.

And these aren't the millennia-old corpses of ancient Egyptian Pharoahs; no, all the mummies we're discussing come from the last century (and change) and all across the world.

From a drag queen's closet in New York City to a musty Sicilian catacomb to Moscow's Red Square to a D&D style booby trap that holds the body of one of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's greatest inspirations, follow us on a globe-trotting tour of the last 104 years' most fascinating mummies.

(Note for our beloved listeners: We will be "off" next week, as Carrie will be out of state for a business trip. But don't worry - we'll see you again Thursday after next!)

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This week we're tackling the "ancient astronaut" hypothesis: the idea that ancient humans had repeated contact with extraterrestrials that is borne out in their myths, art, and monumental achievements.

How were the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Moai of Easter Island erected without modern technology? Could the Bible, the myths of the Babylonians and Mayan religion all be cultural memories of heavenly beings from another planet? Are the Annunaki and Planet X on their way back to the inner solar system at this very moment?

These crucial questions and more are - well, they're mocked and dismissed. Enjoy!

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Last week we shared the first half of the dramatic tale of one of America's so-called "Crimes of the Century" - the kidnapping, and tragic murder, of Charles Lindbergh Jr., toddler son to one of the most famous men in the world: aviator Charles Lindbergh.

In this, our 2nd and final part, we detail the painstaking investigation that eventually led to the arrest of German immigrant Richard "Bruno" Hauptmann for the murder of little Charles. The years-long search for the kidnapper and killer involved serial numbers, con artists, ransoms and one very tenacious wood expert, all which eventually led police to Hauptmann's doorstep. But was the (admittedly very guilty-looking) Hauptmann actually the one who took the Little Eaglet from his "nest" that fateful night in March 1932?

We launch own own investigation, including a recap of Charles Lindbergh's life after his son's death...and how his alleged Nazi sympathies may have pointed to a darker motive than greed in the toddler's killing.

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On the night of March 1st, 1932, little Charles Lindbergh Jr. was tucked into his crib for a good night's sleep. Mere hours later, the family nurse discovered that Charles Jr. was no longer in his bed...nor was he anywhere else to be found. The disappearance kicked off the beginning of one of America's so-called "crimes of the century", and one of the world's earliest international true crime sensations.

Because Charles Jr. wasn't just any toddler - he was the son of megastar aviator Charles Lindbergh, one of the most decorated daredevils of all time and one of the most famous men to ever live. What was to follow was a historic investigation, involving a desperate manhunt, con artists, ransom notes, and the still-new FBI.

Next week, we'll go into the second part of this story with the O.G. "trial of the century."

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It's an old school ghost story this week - and we mean *way* old school, as we jump back to the early 19th century to explore the Bell Witch Haunting.

From 1817 to 1821 John Bell Sr. and his family were harassed by an invisible presence with a clear, distinct voice and a penchant for slapping people around. This week Sean introduces us to the Bell family, the mischievous spectral gossip known as Kate, and the series of events on this Tennessee farm that would eventually turn deadly. (I mean, maybe.)

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[Obvious TW this week for discussion of suicide.]

Over the years, certain songs have attracted dark reputations. Reputations like that the songs might drive you mad enough to end your own life... or make others mad enough to end another's. This week, we discuss 3 famous examples of these "suicide songs": the morosely melancholic "Gloomy Sunday", the sinister legend of the Lavender Town Syndrome, and the very real rash of "My Way" murders, centered within Philippines karaoke culture.

Can a song really drive you to life-ending despair? Can a video game chiptune actually break your mind? And can one of the Chairman of the Board's most famous ditties really inspire murderous intentions in others? We try to find the answers in a decade-spanning journey from 1930s Hungary to Pokémon's Kanto Region to Filipino karaoke bars.

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