Champagne and Murder, Please

This week, we’re taking a road trip with the dead—and we probably should have just stayed home.

We’re kicking things off with Chicago’s legendary Resurrection Mary, the mysterious hitchhiking ghost of Archer Avenue who has been appearing to drivers for decades. But Mary isn’t the only phantom looking for a ride.

We’re also getting into the Ghost of Cline Avenue, the eerie I-71 Hitchhiker, and the bizarre story of the Earthquake Angels.

Four ghost stories. Four roads. A whole lot of people who swear they've encountered someone who shouldn’t have been there.

Some stories are rooted in local legend, some have surprisingly detailed eyewitness accounts, and all of them have that particular kind of freaky that makes you check your back seat when you’re driving home at night.

So grab your champagne, CAMPers. We’re going for a drive—and if you see someone on the side of the road…

Maybe just keep driving.

https://ghostlyactivities.com/resurrection-mary-chicagos-ghostly-hitchhiker/

https://cemeteryinsightsandbeyond.wordpress.com/2024/03/02/resurrection-mary-the-lady-in-white-of-resurrection-cemetery/

https://www.chicagohistory.org/resurrection-mary/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdGiUsuaUtc

https://www.hoosiermythsandlegends.com/episodes/season-1/episode-1-the-cline-avenue-ghost

https://www.instagram.com/p/DUPgxL1jSRa/

https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/cl/article/view/34794/37996

https://www.stlpr.org/show/st-louis-on-the-air/2020-12-03/30-years-later-remembering-iben-brownings-false-new-madrid-earthquake-prediction

A farmhouse under siege by strange visitors. A woman seen in two places at the same time. No matter how you explain them, these stories have survived for generations because they leave behind one unsettling question: What if the witnesses were telling the truth?

Join us as we investigate the infamous Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter and the legendary Emilie Sagée doppelgänger case. We'll separate fact from folklore, explore the theories, and decide for ourselves just how much of reality we're willing to question.

Grab your favorite bubbly, settle in, and prepare for a night where nothing is quite what it seems.

• "Story of Space-ship, 12 Little Men Probed Today." Kentucky New Era, August 22, 1955.

• WBKO, "70 years later: Revisiting the Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter," August 21, 2025.

• Roadside America, "Kelly, KY - Site of 1955 Alien Attack."

Robert Dale Owen's 1860 book, Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World. This is the most important source for the actual account of Émilie Sagée and includes the story as it was transmitted to Owen by Julie von Güldenstubbe.

Robert Dale Owen, Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World — full scanned text/PDF

Open Library record for Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World

In 1946, something, or someone, started hunting couples in the quiet towns surrounding Texarkana. A masked stranger appeared from the darkness, attacked without warning, and vanished before anyone could get a good look at him. Before long, the Texarkana area was gripped by fear, and an unknown predator became known as the Phantom.

The attacks were brutal. The clues were frustratingly few. And despite an enormous investigation, the identity of the man behind the mask has remained one of those deliciously infuriating mysteries that refuses to stay buried.

This week on Champagne and Murder, Please., we’re heading back to 1940s Texarkana to talk about the Phantom, the attacks that terrified an entire community, the suspects who ended up in the crosshairs, and the investigation that followed. And because apparently one mysterious masked killer wasn't enough for the true-crime rabbit hole, there are theories that the Phantom may have had a connection to another infamous unsolved mystery decades later.

So pour yourself something cold, lock the doors, and maybe don't go wandering around outside after dark. We're going to Texarkana.

Trigger warning: This episode discusses murder, sexual assault, violence, and attacks on victims.

https://experiencetexarkana.com/history/the-phantom-killer-texarkanas-chilling-true-crime-legend/ https://the-line-up.com/texarkana-murders https://www.amazon.com/Texarkana-Moonlight-Murders-Unsolved-Phantom/dp/0786473258 https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/feb/07/fbi-releases-archive-texarkanas-phantom-killer-ove/ https://www.texasmonthly.com/culture/texarkana-murder-mystery/https://mystery.frey-united.com/true-crime-stories/texarkana-moonlight-murders/ https://www.grunge.com/328814/the-famous-movie-inspired-by-the-texarkana-murder-mystery/ https://websleuths.com/threads/zodiac-killer-texarkana-phantom-killer.556602/ https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/zodiackillerfr/zodiac-texarkana-moonlight-murders-connections-t2461.html

What if, after you died, someone could literally eat your sins?

In this episode of Champagne and Murder, Please, we’re exploring the strange and unsettling traditions surrounding sin eaters—people who were believed to consume food placed on the body of the dead, taking on the deceased person’s sins so their soul could move on. It’s a ritual steeped in death, superstition, fear, and the very human desire to believe that maybe someone else could carry our worst mistakes away for us.

Then we’re heading into the bizarre world of the “pig-faced woman” panic, where rumors, newspaper stories, and Victorian fascination with the strange helped create a legend about a wealthy woman supposedly born with the face of a pig. What began as an unsettling tale became a full-blown cultural phenomenon involving gossip, exploitation, and the public’s apparently endless willingness to believe the absolute wildest thing they had read in the newspaper.

So grab your champagne, light a candle, and join us for two stories about sin, superstition, death, deception, and the very questionable things people will believe when someone tells them a good story.

Eat Sleep Live Herefordshire, "The History of Sin Eaters" — https://www.eatsleepliveherefordshire.co.uk/the-history-of-sin-eaters/

Bone and Sickle, "The Sin-Eater" — https://www.boneandsickle.com/2025/03/24/the-sin-eater/

Goodreads, Sin Eater by Megan Campisi — https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/52185082-sin-eater

Atlas Obscura, "Regency Londoners Were Obsessed With Pig-Faced Ladies": https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pig-faced-lady-londonHorniman Museum and Gardens, "The Pig-Faced Lady of Manchester Square": https://www.horniman.ac.uk/object/nn12735/

The Quack Doctor, "From myth to misery: the tragic story of the Pig-Faced Lady":

This week we're looking at two officers who used the power of the badge to do exactly what they swore not to: Zachary Wester, the Florida deputy who planted drugs on innocent people during traffic stops, and Daniel Holtzclaw, the Oklahoma City cop who targeted vulnerable women he assumed no one would believe. Two very different crimes, one uncomfortable question — how many more are out there who just haven't been caught?

If anything in this episode resonated with you or brought something up, please know you're not alone — and support exists, even if reaching out feels hard.

RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network)
National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673 (24/7, free, confidential)
Online chat: rainn.org

National Domestic Violence Hotline
1-800-799-7233 | Text "START" to 88788
thehotline.org

Crisis Text Line
Text HOME to 741741

You don't have to have "the right words" or even be sure of what happened to reach out — these lines are there to listen, not to judge. Take care of yourselves out there.

1. https://www.wctv.tv/2024/11/13/rico-conviction-vacated-former-jackson-county-deputy-accused-planting-drugs-traffic-stops-2019/

2. WMBB/mypanhandle.com, https://www.mypanhandle.com/news/local-news/jackson-county/former-jackson-county-deputy-resentenced-after-racketeering-charges-overturned/

3. WJHG, "Former deputy Zachary Wester sentenced to more than 12 years for planting drugs," July 14, 2021 — https://www.wjhg.com/2021/07/14/former-deputy-zachary-wester-sentenced-more-than-12-years-planting-drugs/

4. WFSU News, March 5, 2026 — https://news.wfsu.org/wfsu-local-news/2026-03-04/floridas-high-court-weighs-rico-charge-against-a-jackson-deputy-who-planted-drugs-on-innocents

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/21/463867164/former-oklahoma-city-police-officer-sentenced-to-263-years-for-sexual-assaults

https://feminist.org/news/holtzclaw-sentenced-to-263-years-for-rape-and-sexual-assault-of-13-black-women/

https://www.democracynow.org/2015/12/15/daniel_holtzclaw_convicted_of_serial_rape

https://okcfox.com/news/local/holtzclaw-victims-to-address-the-media

Long before viral hoaxes and deep fakes, there was the Cardiff Giant — a ten-foot stone "man" unearthed from a New York farm that had people lining up (and paying admission) to gawk at what they believed was a biblical relic or a fossilized ancient. It was neither. It was gypsum, a con man's imagination, and America's gift for believing exactly what it wants to. We dig into the hoax, the man behind it, and the P.T. Barnum plot twist you didn't see coming.

• https://www.farmersmuseum.org/cardiff-giant/

• https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5824/

• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-cardiff-giant-one-of-historys-most-famous-hoaxes-72691312/

• https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cardiff-giant

• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cardiff-Giant

• https://www.history.com/articles/cardiff-giant-hoax

• https://www.nysm.nysed.gov/exhibitions/ongoing/cardiff-giant

• https://archive.org/details/cardiffgiant00newy

• https://books.google.com/books?id=Qb4DAAAAYAAJ (contemporary 19th-century accounts)

• https://www.loc.gov/collections/chronicling-america/ (period newspaper coverage)

• History – The Cardiff Giant Fools the Nation

• Readex – The Tallest of the Tall Tales

• The Cardiff Giant reference overview

• History: The Cardiff Giant Fools the Nation, 145 Years Ago.

• Live Science: Cardiff Giant: "America's Biggest Hoax."

• JSTOR Daily: The Cardiff Giant: The Biggest Hoax of the 19th Century.

• Central New York History: Today in History: The Cardiff Giant.

This week on Champagne and Murder, Please, we're leaving the world of serial killers behind and stepping into two mysteries that still refuse to die.

First, we're heading to the banks of the Little Miami River in Loveland, Ohio, where terrified witnesses claim they came face-to-face with a creature that looked more like something out of a fever dream than reality. Standing several feet tall, covered in leathery skin, and sporting unmistakably frog-like features, the Loveland Frogman has spent decades hopping between local legend, police reports, and cryptid lore. Is it just another case of mistaken identity... or has something strange really been hiding in the shadows all along?

Then we're traveling back to the summer of 1944 in Mattoon, Illinois, where ordinary families began waking in the middle of the night unable to move, overcome by a mysterious sweet-smelling gas that seemed to drift through open windows before vanishing without a trace. Panic swept through the town as more reports poured in, newspapers fueled the hysteria, and a phantom attacker became one of America's most bizarre unsolved mysteries. Was the Mad Gasser a real criminal, an industrial accident, mass hysteria, or something even stranger?

Pour yourself a glass of champagne, lock your windows, and maybe don't trust anything croaking at you from the dark. Because this week, we're diving into one legendary cryptid and one unexplained panic that continues to haunt the Midwest decades later.

As always, we'll sprinkle in a little history, a lot of speculation, and just enough sarcasm to get us through another unforgettable night.

https://www.lovelandfrog.com/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-loveland-frog-legend-180981453/

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/loveland-frogman

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2023/03/03/loveland-frogman-ohio-cryptid-legend-explained/69961627007/

https://www.newspapers.com/

https://www.ohiomagazine.com/travel/article/the-loveland-frogman-legend

https://www.wvxu.org/local-news/2023-03-03/loveland-frogman-ohio-legend-history-cryptid

https://www.history.com/news/mad-gasser-of-mattoon-illinois

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-mad-gasser-of-mattoon-180979675/

https://www.newspapers.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Gasser_of_Mattoon

https://www.americanhauntingsink.com/madgasser

https://www.jstor.org/stable/40168543

This week on Champagne and Murder, Please, we're diving into three devastating explosions that transformed celebrations into nightmares.

First, we travel back to the 1905 fireworks tragedy that shocked the nation and helped usher in stricter regulations and safety standards that still influence fireworks displays today. One terrible night proved that a few sparks could change an entire industry.

Then, things take an unexpected turn as we investigate the bizarre and deadly worm farm explosion in Benton, Tennessee. What sounds like the beginning of a dark joke became a very real disaster that left a community searching for answers.

Finally, we head to California to examine the Simi Valley fireworks catastrophe, a modern reminder that even with regulations and experience, fireworks remain as unpredictable as they are beautiful.

Pour yourself a glass, settle in, and join us as we explore three stories where celebration met catastrophe, and where the echoes of a single explosion reshaped laws, communities, and lives forever.

Stay safe, and don't take candy from strangers.

Library of Congress Newspaper Archive on the Brockton Fireworks Disaster

Massachusetts State Fire Marshal History Resources

Consumer Product Safety Commission: History of U.S. Fireworks Regulations

The Washington Post: "Blast at Fireworks Factory Kills 11"

Wikipedia: Benton Fireworks Disaster

The Cleveland Daily Banner Archives

Los Angeles Times: Investigation Finds Faulty Shell Caused Simi Valley Disaster

CBS Los Angeles: 28 People Injured During Fireworks Mishap in Simi Valley

The Week: Watch the Simi Valley Fireworks Disaster

The American frontier was supposed to be a land of opportunity, but for dozens of unlucky travelers passing through southeastern Kansas in the 1870s, it became their final destination.

This week on Champagne and Murder, Please, we're diving into one of the most disturbing cases in American history: the story of the Bloody Benders. To weary travelers, the Bender family appeared to be ordinary homesteaders running a small inn and general store on the edge of the prairie. But behind a simple canvas curtain lurked a nightmare.

As settlers, drifters, and businessmen disappeared along the Osage Trail, rumors spread across the growing frontier. What investigators eventually uncovered beneath the Benders' property shocked an entire nation and cemented the family’s place in true crime history as what many consider America's first family of serial killers.

We'll unravel the enduring mystery that remains unsolved more than 150 years later: what happened to the Bloody Benders after they vanished without a trace?

Pour yourself a glass of something bubbly and join us as we step into one of the darkest corners of the Old West.

https://www.kshs.org

https://labettecountyhistory.com

https://www.smithsonianmag.com

https://www.loc.gov

https://www.nps.gov

This week, Brittany and Vanessa take a heartbreaking journey through two cases that continue to haunt the people who know their stories.

First, we travel to rural Ontario to discuss the murder of nine-year-old Christine Jessop, a bright little girl whose disappearance in 1984 devastated her family and shocked an entire nation. What followed was a decades-long fight for justice filled with wrongful accusations, investigative failures, and a truth that would remain hidden for nearly forty years.

Then we step back into the late 1800s to examine one of America's most infamous unsolved murders: the case of Pearl Bryan. Young, educated, and full of promise, Pearl's life ended in a crime so shocking that it sparked headlines across the country and inspired legends that still linger more than a century later. From a secret romance to a gruesome discovery and a mystery that refuses to die, Pearl's story remains one of the most disturbing cases in true crime history.

Two victims. Two different centuries. Two families forever changed.

Pour a glass, settle in, and join us as we uncover the lives behind the headlines.

Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussions of child murder, violence against women, dismemberment, wrongful conviction, and other disturbing content that may not be suitable for all listeners.

Until we speak to you again, stay safe... and don't take candy from strangers.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/10/15/the-christine-jessop-case-a-timeline-of-one-of-canadas-most-notorious-unsolved-murders.html

https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/crimefeed/murder/how-the-christine-jessop-murder-case-sparked-justice-system-reform-in-canada

https://globalnews.ca/news/7398765/christine-jessop-case-calvin-hoover/

https://innocencecanada.com/exonerations/guy-paul-morin/

https://www.trace-evidence.com/christine-jessop

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-christine-jessops-brother-says-he-finally-has-answers-after-36/

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/how-a-family-tree-helped-police-identify-the-man-they-believe-killed-9-year-old-christine-jessop-1.5146876

Jackson v. Commonwealth case summary

Kentucky Court of Appeals case text for Jackson v. Commonwealth

Historical overview of the Pearl Bryan murder case

NKY Tribune article on Pearl Bryan and Gilded Age scandal culture

Discussion and historical theories surrounding Pearl Bryan’s missing head

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Pearl_Bryan