Castles & Cryptids

Hope this finds you well, and also before we begin:

 Massive Trigger Warning For Sexual Assault

So, this week's focus is true crime in Egypt. Kelsey talks us through the murders of a complicated predator, Karim Salim. which is rough enough.

Then, Alanna walks us through some hard truths about the safety of simply  being women protesters in Egypt. Just fighting for their rights puts many women in danger of sexual harassment and assault. Can we fight the crowds of predators and win? We hope so. 

Please listen with care and always feel feel to reach out to those you love (even us), or helplines  if you feel in danger. We love you all and help is here if you need it. 

Darkcast Network Promo of the week: Scottish Murders

(Sorry the description didn't save the first go!) 

Happy Friday and Happy December Cryptic Crew! So happy you could join us for another adventure, we hope you love conspiracies as much as we do. This week we bring you an oldie but a goody as it’s Government Secret Projects! And sometimes they turn out to be truth that’s stranger than fiction. It’s an early Patreon bonus ep., so be patient if it sounds a little different, but it’s a really fun one so please enjoy.

Kelsey brings us the story of the US Army’s Secret Unit, the Stargate Project. Meant to make a sort of super-soldier that could kill goats at a glance and act as psychic spies (from China??) it had some strange experiments and odd original code-names. Gondola Wish, Grill Flame or Center Lane? Come on, y’all. Do better!

Next Alanna tells us about Project Pegasus, where people maybe fly high on the road to political success and presidency, and also bend space and time so....let’s gooo! Talk about something for the vision board, eh? And there’s a cameo from someone we mentioned in passing last episode, from Baba Vanga’s predictions, huh...it’s all rather coincidental, no? We love it!

Next week we will have more brand-new, true crime content for ya, so stay tuned and Keep it Cryptic!

Hope you enjoyed the last episode, and now for something completely different! Sort of, since this psychic has been known to have some spot-on visions, never took to a stage like some brothers, ahem, and may have made some other, very outlandish predictions!

Meet seer, mystic, and healer Baba Vanga, the star of this story. Point-of-view, its the early 1900's, you lost your mother and went blind, but gained some other senses.. so what do you do? Help people of course! 

But also maybe you make some predictions about world wars, alien intelligence and human evolution, and agreed with Nostradamus?

It's a bumpy ride, so get comfy and get ready to listen to the life and times of the "Nostradamus of the Balkans"!

Darkcast Network Promo of the Week: Sinister Story Hour! 

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We've covered the Fox sisters, but have you heard of the Davenport brothers? In the days of the rise of spiritualism, people flocked to see anyone claiming to see beyond the grave. Or better yet, to interact with the spirit world. 

So when Ira Erastus and William Henry Davenport came on the scene with their cabinet of curiosity, many were curious themselves. Names big and small set out to see the brothers, including a certain famous mystery writer and massive magician, the cameos are just plentiful!

Leaving a trail of awed crowds, angry mobs and even some imitators, they blazed their way into the history books as two entertaining dudes. So watch out for smoke and mirrors, the stage is set for intrigue, many musical instruments and a show that's BOUND to be a blast! Wink!

Darkcast Promo of the Week! The Haunted and the Strange Podcast 

Check them out!

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We have a mega-sized episode for you that coincided nicely with Remembrance Day being this week! Hope you have some long drive or big pile of dishes, we guess?? Or maybe you listen at work, like Alanna. So sorry, but this one is NOT Safe For Work. Earbuds in, in presence of kiddos. 

And as we discuss, you're never safe, not even at work, not even if you work as a trained soldier, not if someone decides they want you dead. Kelsey tells the tale of Tyrone Hassell III, who lived up to his awesome name by joining the military and making his dad proud. Of course it ends in tragedy, and that's all we will say here. Listen for the rest. 

Alanna takes us to Texas and the Fort Hood shooting of 2009. To the scene of the deadliest mass shooting on an American military base, and the heroes that stopped it from going further. The content is extremely upsetting, so please take care when listening. 

This one is dedicated to our military family, friends and all service members and their families for all they do. Thank you!!

Darkcast Promo of the week: the Bell Witch Podcast!

Check out all our friends on the Darkcast network website, and our site and socials! See you next week and Keep it Cryptic!

We hear dead people! Haha, we promised a local hometown haunt and here it is. Alanna reads to us of the haunting encounters that happen at the McKay Avenue School, an institution established in Edmonton in 1881. You know the big old buildings that look like they could be old-timey jails or schoolhouses? That's the vibe, only now it's a museum where the spirits tease the workers like they may have pranked their teachers so long ago! And since Leslie Nielson was a student, you know stuff went down!

So join us, Gordo the Interrupting Ca-(Meow!), Ron the worker and Peter the poltergeist with a saucy personality, for some Sunday Scaries, but the good kind! And some divergences into Halloween 2024, the Haunted Museum in Vegas, and why we would never come back to haunt high school. But we may have to go check out this haunted school... 

So don't forget to rate, share, and donate on Patreon so we can go ghost-hunting!! Right, Kelsey? Kelsey?? ....

We are sorry, but this week we get super spooky, so come along on the  spectral wild ride! 

Gather round the campfire, a bevy of tales await you! First Kelsey graces us with several ghost encounters of the worst kind-knocks, sounds and sights of a poltergeist. Several tales like  The Haunted Ventriloquist make us scared to know more. Chuckie, are you listening?

Next, Alanna Takes us down the haunted road to the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, where many films are made and a Lady in Red resides.  The Local ghost story will be a bonus ep as I don't have it edited lol. Stay tuned for that in the coming days! We love you and stay spooky my friends!

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Horror season is in full swing, and we have some scary stories for you, my cryptic cuties! We are so excited to be joined by special guest Lindsay Valenty of the Ye Olde Crime Podcast for some true or false tales of creeps!

If you are on Patreon, you know we have done our version of 2 Truths, 1 Lie scary stories and had so much fun , so here's some more you can play along with at home!

So listen in, guess along, there will be ghosts on stairs, in closets, naked men stealing pizzza, you name it we talk about some weird spooky shit! Thanks so much to our special guest, Lindsay, drop what you are doing and go check out her amazing podcast and our guest episode of their Crack the Cramp Word segment, all at Ye Olde Crime Podcast. Please don't haunt us closet-creeper, and always let your ghost girls accept your parcels,  just warn us all first, for god's sakes. I'd rather ghost helpers than porch pirates, eh?

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween and get ready for more ghost stories to come! Boo-yah!!

Check out Lindsay and co-host Madison here: https://www.yeoldecrimepodcast.com/episodes

Keep it Cryptic!!

Apologies for my audio not being the clearest, we had some issues with recording remotely, but we hope it's worth the pain lol!

Proud Member of the Darkcast Network!

This week we conclude the Gainesville Student Murders, sometimes known as the Gainesville Ripper Murders. 

They do make for a scary movie, targeting a young, defenseless, student population. From a triple-murder to the killing of the  Gainesvillle victims, this killer was vicious, yet cautiaus. Who's lying?

But however terrifying, there were some details that the movies got wrong. We can be stranger than we think, so stay strong! 

Love y'all and Keep It Cryptic!

Darkcast promo of the week: And Then they Were Gone

Art and Life, movies and madness, do they always go hand in hand? We take a look at two cases that sit on different sides of the "inspired by"  storyline. 

Kelsey covers Allan Menzies, a story that involves mental illness, an obsession with the Queen of the Damned, and a very sad loss of innocent life. Movies often get blamed for inciting violent tendencies, but how much culpability can we give them when the movie is telling the person to do something truly evil? Can movies be accessories to murder?

Turning the tables, Alanna takes us to the USA for the horrific Gainesville Student Murders, aka the inspiration for Scream. We start off with the troubling childhood of Danny Rolling, the so-called Gainesville Ripper. Had he got the help he needed, would we still have had the triple-murder that kicked off a crime spree so chilling it inspired its own story? We'll never know, but stick around for part two of this murder rampage, it's a tough one that had to be split up due to time. 

Darkcast Network Promo of the Week! Burnt Marshmallows Podcast

Check us out on our website, socials and support the show on Patreon.com/castlesandcryptids! Keep it Cryptic!