A special “Very Scary Christmas” Episode! 

Traditional Christmas celebrations in colonial American were much different than they are today. It was a public celebration in the streets and the pubs. Few people celebrated in church and even fewer celebrated with family at home.

And for good reason. The winter nights were cold and dark. It was a time of snow, ice, and being trapped indoors with that family. The coming days – and weeks – were going to be spent around the fire, waiting for better weather to return. That fire, along with candles and oil lamps, were the only way to stay warm – and to keep away the shadows that were creeping outside your door. 

This made it the perfect time for stories and storytelling, especially stories of ghosts, hauntings, spectral travelers, and the night folk. In those days, the cold winter months were considered the spookiest time of the year. It was a dark season that began with Halloween and lasted until the spring thaw. In centuries past, the holiday season was not just a time of celebration – it was a time to be afraid.

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It's that time of year again! Join us as we attempt to avoid going off on wil tangents while we discuss our favorite Horror films of the year.

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The Devil didn’t confine his shenanigans to Salem Village or even the Massachusetts Bay colony in the 1600s. A penchant for hanging and persecuting those believed to be in league with him swept through the colonies in those days, leading to many tragedies and deaths. But the madness the Puritans introduced in that period drained America of its lust for religions mania and fanaticism for many years to come. 

The hardship, brutality, and war that followed over the next century and a half sent the broken and the disillusioned in search of enlightenment. In the 1820s and 1830s religious excitement began to sweep the country, and soon new churches, sects, and cults began to emerge. This new age would be dubbed “The Great Awakening” and while none of these new groups would compare with the strictness of the Puritans, a devout belief in the works of the Devil remained.

As did an unhinged belief in doomsday, the Antichrist, and the end of the world.

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The terrible incident at Salem was not the last American witch hunt. It was also not the end of Puritan oppression in the region. They would leave a last impact on both New England and American history.

And no aspect of the Puritan experience remains as vivid in American memory as their fear of monsters, specifically the fear of witches that led to the trials of hundreds of settlers during the 1600s. For most of us today, the witch trials seem to be a brief flirtation with an irrational past. 

But there was nothing irrational about Salem to the Puritans. They hunted monsters for a generation before Salem, believing that strange creatures lurked in the “howling wilderness.” They imagined their religious experience as a war with monstrous beings birthed by the Devil. It was a struggle with the forces of darkness that turned the New World into a place teeming with such monsters in the minds of the Puritans.

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In the past on this podcast, we have often asked the question of whether a monster is born or are they made? This might be the episode that finally answers that question. The story that follows suggests that monsters are NOT born; they’re made – often by the very people who should protect them.

Have a question or comment? Text us on the Haunt Line @ 217-791-7859

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This episode was written by Troy Taylor

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The fires of the witchcraft allegations burned through the towns and villages of New England during the 1600s, leading to accusations, trials, and even hangings. Many communities regretted the belief that the Devil was at work in their own until it was too late and near the end of the century, the fires that had burned so hot began to cool.

But not before the events at Salem Village occurred in 1692, spawning the most infamous witchcraft panic in American history. The town was a hotbed of gossip, hostility, and family squabbles and when religious fanaticism was added to the mix, accusations of the Devil’s work soon followed.

But not just in Salem. Most don’t realize that another witchcraft panic was occurring at the same time, a short distance away, and that Salem’s so-called “Afflicted Girls” had a starring role in that terror, too. 

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In 1987, ten-year-old Amy Rachel Schulz vanished from the quiet town of Kell, Illinois. By morning, her body was found in a rural oilfield — brutally murdered. The investigation that followed tore through southern Illinois, led to a death sentence, and decades later unraveled into one of the most controversial cases in the state’s history. This is the story of innocence lost, forensic failure, and the haunting legacy Amy left behind.  

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A war raged in the Puritan New England of the 1600s with both the indigenous people who first settled the land and against the “Spirits of the Invisible World” who used “horrid sorcerers and hellish conjurers who conversed with demons” to torment and persecute the faithful. 

It was a time of sin, suspicion, wild accusations – and witchcraft. Those who had made pacts with the Devil were intent on the destruction of the “purified” world that the Puritans had created – and they would do anything to stop it.

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Riders on the Storm” turned out to be the last song Jim Morrison ever recorded. When the album was finished, he left L.A. for Paris and either died on July 3, 1971, or he went permanently off the grid – whichever you’d like to believe.

But it’s the lyrics behind the song that is the most unsettling of all – it was inspired by one of the most sinister spree-killers in history. His reign of terror began in the last days of 1950, and over the next two weeks, he went on a senseless rampage. He kidnapped nearly a dozen people, including a deputy sheriff, and murdered six of them in cold blood, including three children. 

During those 14 days, the killer – a born loser named Billy Cook – terrorized the highways of the American Southwest and earned a permanent place in the history of music and as the inspiration for two terrifying films.

Have a question or comment? Text us on the Haunt Line @ 217-791-7859

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This episode was written by Troy Taylor

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American Nightmares begins with the horror at the root of the stories that kept the early settlers huddled around the fire late into the night – the Devil himself.

Understanding the Devil in America is the key to understanding our undeniable taste for the evil and the monstrous in all their many forms. The pages of our history can be read as a tale of horror -- with the Devil as one of the main characters. The Devil, like the first white settlers, was imported to these shores, and he found great success here. At almost every turning point in our history, at every moment of great societal and cultural change, the Devil has embodied, and even legitimized our nation. He has been the uninvited guest at the American banquet and the inspiration for religious movements, politics, entertainment, and our country's greatest nightmares.

American Nightmares is part of the American Hauntings Podcast Network. You can find more about us, our books, tours, ghost hunts, dinner events, the Haunted America Conference, and the American Oddities Museum in Alton, Illinois, at the American Hauntings Website!

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