You know these stories. A lost girl in the woods. A puppet who lies. A chicken convinced the sky is falling. You've known them since childhood. What you don't know is what those stories were before someone decided they belonged in the nursery.

What we found is not charming. A puppet hanged from an oak tree. Stepsisters carving off their own toes. Children led into the woods to starve. It is bloody, strange, and much harder to forget than the version your parents read to you.

In this episode of Haunted Talks, we step into the true history of fairy tales, tracing their journey from gruesome oral traditions to the softened classics most of us were raised on. How did horror become a bedtime story?

This episode is not for children. Listener discretion is advised. For information or to purchase tickets for our ghost tours or paranormal adventures in Kingston, Ottawa, or Toronto, please visit hauntedwalk.com.

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On the morning of February 9th, 1855, the residents of Devon woke to a nightmare pressed into the snow. A single-file line of cloven hoof-prints, stretching over miles of frozen English countryside. Across thirty towns. In six hours. Made by something walking upright, one foot precisely in front of the other. The prints didn't go around obstacles. They went through them. Over fourteen-foot walls without disturbing the snow at the base. Across a two-mile river with no mark at either shore. Across rooftops while families slept below. The explanations that followed were creative. None of them quite fit the evidence. Then, in 2009, a woman in North Devon walked out to her garden after a fresh snowfall. Same prints. Same single-file line. Starting at a window. Vanishing without explanation on the other side of the yard. One hundred and fifty-four years between events. Same county. No answers. Haunted Talks tells the story of the Mystery of the Devil's Footprints. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like: Episode 188 – Something in the Air: What Happened in Mattoon, Illinois? Episode 184 – Dark Folklore From Around the World – Part 1 Episode 150 – Footsteps in the Attic: The Hinterkaifeck Murders

Jim steps out from behind the microphone to share a talk he gave at the Modern Language Association conference in Toronto, where he was invited to speak on a panel about Gothic scholarship, podcasting, and public humanities.

It's a conversation about what we're really doing when we tell ghost stories. Not just entertaining, but shaping how people think about the past, life, death, and what may lie between. It's about butterflies that remember past lives, Titanic folklore that won't die, and why a zombie apocalypse in a Cold War bunker became one of our most beloved projects. Thanks to Joshua Tuttle from Concordia University in Chicago for the invite!

Also: Valentine's Weekend is upon us. Friday the 13th and Valentine's Day, back-to-back. The most superstitious night of the year, followed by the most romantic. Ghost tours in Kingston, Ottawa, and Toronto. Paranormal investigations in Ottawa and Toronto.

Journalist and researcher Brian Baker, founder of The Superstitious Times, joins Haunted Talks to discuss his new book, Eerie Whispers: Exploring Canada's Reluctant Relationship with Its Ghostly Lore.

Why is Canada, a country overflowing with ghost stories, so hesitant to talk about them?

Brian shares a chilling childhood encounter he has never quite shaken, unpacks his idea of Canada as "the introvert on the global stage," and takes us across the country to explore why some regions embrace the paranormal while others keep it at arm's length. We also dive into Toronto's legendary Philip Experiment, where a group of researchers appeared to summon a ghost they invented, raising unsettling questions about belief, storytelling, and what might be shaping a haunting.

Along the way, we explore fear, pop culture, and Indigenous perspectives that challenge the very word "paranormal."

If you've ever wondered why Canadians are so shy when it comes to ghosts, press play and find out.

If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like: Episode 196 – Spiritualism in Canada, Eh? Part 1 "Ghosts, God & The Great Divide" Episode 163 – Canada's Ghost Towns

She was the quiet churchgoer. The dutiful daughter. The last person anyone expected to wield a hatchet.

But on an August morning in 1892, the Borden home in Fall River, Massachusetts, became the scene of one of the most savage double murders in American history. And the name Lizzie Borden became synonymous with murder itself.

In this episode, we step inside the Borden home to uncover what really happened—the brutal killings, the family tensions no one talked about, the trial that transfixed a nation, and the enigmatic woman at the centre of it all. Was Lizzie a cold-blooded killer? A victim pushed to violence? Or a scapegoat of Victorian morality?

But the story doesn't end with the verdict. The house is still standing. Still watching. Still haunted.

Guests report children giggling in the attic. Shadows beside their beds. Their own names whispered from the dark. The murders may be over a century past, but something seems to remain.

This isn't just a story about what happened in 1892. It's about a place haunted by violence, a search for justice, and a mystery that will likely never be solved.

Jim's love letter to Halloween. Walk with us through fog-lit childhood streets, pause beside ancient fires for the dead, and feel again the quiet magic of the night when the veil grows thin. This is a night for stories, for spirits, and for those who still believe in a little mystery. Settle in, press play, and celebrate Halloween with us. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like: Episode 191 – Candy Panic! The Truth Behind the TrickEpisode 94 – Poe's The Raven

For information or to get tickets for our ghost tours or paranormal adventures, please visit hauntedwalk.com.

December 29, 1972. A routine flight becomes an unspeakable tragedy when Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashes into the Florida Everglades. Ninety-six souls perish in the dark swampland, their final moments a desperate struggle against fire, water, and alligators.

But for some of the crew, death wasn't the end of their duties.

Weeks later, Captain Bob Loft and Flight Engineer Don Repo began appearing on other Eastern Airlines aircraft, warning crews of danger, completing pre-flight checks, and even materializing in overhead bins. The airline attempted to silence the stories, stripping parts from haunted planes in a desperate bid to exorcise the spirits.

From the swamps of the Everglades to 30,000 feet in the air, this is one of the most meticulously documented cases of aviation hauntings in history. A story where grief, duty, and the paranormal collide at cruising altitude.

Listen now to discover why the ghosts of Flight 401 refused to stay grounded, and what still stirs in the skies above. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like:

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For information or to get tickets for our ghost tours or paranormal adventures, please visit hauntedwalk.com.

They were the most famous ghost hunters in the world. A husband and wife who claimed to battle demons, investigate possessions, and protect families from the darkness beyond. But every haunting has two sides. In this special episode, we peel back the legend to uncover who Ed and Lorraine Warren really were. From their humble beginnings to their most infamous cases, we explore the uneasy space where faith, fame, and fear collide. Were they true seekers of the unknown, or storytellers who blurred the line between truth and performance until even they could not tell the difference? From Amityville to Annabelle to the Enfield Poltergeist, discover how the Warrens turned the paranormal into pop culture and left behind a mystery that refuses to die. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like: Episode 206 – Two Hoaxes and a Ghost StoryEpisode 154 – Fake Mediums: Putting the "Con" in ConjuringEpisode 112 – The Enfield Poltergeist For information or to get tickets for our ghost tours or paranormal adventures, please visit hauntedwalk.com.

In 1794, a stranger died in a farmhouse on the edge of the Virginia frontier. What followed became one of the most chilling, bizarre, and well-documented hauntings in early America.

Phantom horses galloped through the night. Objects flew across rooms. Fires sparked without cause. Clothing was clipped by unseen scissors into crescents, sometimes while still being worn. And then the voice arrived.

The Wizard Clip haunting was investigated in real time by clergy, skeptics, and even a Russian prince who had become a Catholic priest. Letters, court records, and land deeds remain. But the most important evidence vanished.

In this gripping episode, we unravel a supernatural mystery that changed lives, sparked conversions, and still defies explanation more than two centuries later.

Was it fraud, faith, or something far stranger?

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Most shipwrecks leave behind ghosts. This one left behind something stranger.

In 1912, the Mayflower, a wooden steamer built for the quiet lakes of eastern Ontario, set out on one final trip before winter. Aboard were a small crew, nine passengers, and a coffin carrying the body of a young man named Herman Brown, on his way home to be buried.

As a sudden snowstorm swept across Lake Kamaniskeg, the Mayflower vanished beneath the water in under a minute. Nine lives were lost. Three men survived…by clinging to the coffin.

In this episode, we retrace the events of that harrowing night. How a trusted vessel became a death trap. How an elderly woman gave away her only life jacket so someone younger might live. How three Ottawa salesmen drifted for hours through freezing darkness.

This is a true story of loss, sacrifice, and impossible survival. Now streaming: The Coffin That Saved Three Men From Drowning If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like: Episode 208 – Halifax Explosion: Before the Blast Episode 193 - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald For information or to get tickets for our ghost tours or paranormal adventures, please visit hauntedwalk.com.