Highway to Hell

By Monte Mader

Welcome to Highway to Hell, the unique crossroads where wanderlust meets mystery. Every episode, I take you on a journey to breathtaking destinations around the globe, unveiling not just the beauty of... more

· True Crime

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Number 1: 61. The Warrens & The Conjuring Empire
Our longest episode EVER. The ultimate deep dive on The Warrens, their history and their conjuring Empire! Ed and Lorraine were born in a factory town in Conneticut just 19 weeks apart. For both of them, a significant moment at 5 would help shape the course of their future. A chance meeting at a movie theater led to their marriage and the occult awakening and the Satanic Panic in the US would enable them to release books, cases, work a lecture circuit and become some of the most famous figures in the paranormal world. But how much of it was true? Was it God or was it money? How do you reconcile the devoted catholic couple with an alleged 40 year affair and a contract clause that said they cannot be depicted having affairs or sexual contact with minors? Thats oddly specific. SOURCES: Books and First-Person AccountsAnson, Jay. The Amityville Horror: A True Story. Prentice Hall, 1977.Brittle, Gerald. The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren. Prentice Hall, 1980. — the authorized biography; the core text of the mythology.Brittle, Gerald. The Devil in Connecticut. Bantam, 1983. — the Glatzel/Arne Johnson case; pulled from print after the 2007 lawsuit.Curran, Robert, with Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Haunted. St. Martin's, 1988. — the Smurl case.Garton, Ray, with Ed and Lorraine Warren. In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting. Villard, 1992. — the Snedeker case. Read alongside Garton's later public statements about how it was written.Hall, William J. The World's Most Haunted House: The True Story of the Bridgeport Poltergeist on Lindley Street. New Page, 2014. Lasalandra, Michael, and Mark Merenda. Satan's Harvest. Dell, 1990. — Maurice Theriault, by two Boston Herald reporters.Perron, Andrea. House of Darkness House of Light: The True Story, Vols. 1–3. AuthorHouse, 2011–2014.Playfair, Guy Lyon. This House Is Haunted: The True Story of the Enfield Poltergeist. Souvenir Press, 1980. Sawyer, J.F. Deliver Us From Evil. 1973. — the first book about the Warrens. Notably contains no mention of Annabelle.Warren, Ed and Lorraine. Ghost Hunters (1989), Werewolf: A True Story of Demonic Possession (1991, with Robert David Chase and William Ramsey), Graveyard (1992), Ghost Tracks (2004).State of Connecticut v. Arne Cheyenne Johnson, Danbury Superior Court, 1981. Judge Robert Callahan presiding. Trial opened Oct. 28, 1981; manslaughter conviction Nov. 24; sentenced Dec. 18. — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Arne_Cheyenne_JohnsonDengrove courtroom sketch collection, Arne Cheyenne Johnson — University of Virginia Law Library — https://archives.law.virginia.edu/dengrove/writeup/arne-cheyenne-johnsonGlatzel v. Warren, Brittle, iUniverse, and William Morris Agency, 2007 (dismissed) — https://www.religionnewsblog.com/19687/devil-in-connecticutAdams County (PA) Coroner's ruling on the death of Dan Rivera, July 2025 — cardiac, natural — https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dan-rivera-paranormal-investigator-died-tour-anabelle-doll-suffered-he-rcna229144WPC Carolyn Heeps's signed statement, Enfield, 1977 — reproduced in Playfair; summary of police involvement at http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2019/07/police-officers-involved-in-enfield-case.htmlLanning, Kenneth V. Investigator's Guide to Allegations of "Ritual" Child Abuse. FBI Behavioral Science Unit, 1992. — for the Satanic Panic context.Wilmer, William H. "Effects of Carbon Monoxide upon the Eye." American Journal of Ophthalmology, 1921. — the 1921 haunted-house/CO case.Vardy, Tom, et al. "The Warrens." World Religions and Spirituality Project, Jan. 19, 2023. — https://wrldrels.org/2023/01/19/the-warrens/ — the single best scholarly overview."The Demonologist and the Clairvoyant: Ed and Lorraine Warren, Paranormal Investigation, and Exorcism in the Modern World." DIG: A History Podcast, Oct. 3, 2021. — https://digpodcast.org/2021/10/03/demonologist-and-the-clairvoyant/ — source for the gender analysis.
August 18, 20262h 37min
Number 2: 54. The Worlds Most Haunted Places Part 1
Today we start a two part series on the most haunted places in the world. This is the bottom 5 of the top 10. Little bit different format here with each individual place having its own haunted story and mini travel itinerary. Hoia-Baciu Forest in Romania — a 295-hectare forest outside Cluj-Napoca where locals refuse to enter, a circular clearing where nothing grows, and fifty years of documented reports of time loss, physical symptoms, and disappearing photographs. From there we move to Bhangarh Fort in Rajasthan, India, where the Archaeological Survey of India has posted an official government sign prohibiting entry after sunset — one of the only paranormal-adjacent access restrictions at any heritage site in India — and where the ruins of a once-thriving town of tens of thousands have sat completely abandoned since the early 18th century with no adequate historical explanation. In France, we spend time at Château de Brissac in the Loire Valley, where an eighteen-year-old woman named Charlotte de Brézé was murdered by her husband in 1476, whose killer was protected from prison by his friend the king, and who has been appearing in the castle's north wing ever since. At Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, we examine 141 years of absolute solitary confinement — a Quaker reform philosophy that Charles Dickens called torture in 1842 — and what 75,000 people left behind in those cellblocks. We close in Japan at Aokigahara Forest, the Sea of Trees at the base of Mount Fuji, examining the forest's centuries-long association with death, the documented impact of a 1960 novel on its modern history, and what it means to a search volunteer named Kenji who enters it every spring. Part Two covers places five through one. SOURCES Sift, Alexandru. Field documentation of Hoia-Baciu Forest. Babeș-Bolyai University, 1960s–1970s. Archaeological Survey of India. Official access restriction signage, Bhangarh Fort, Alwar District. Government of India, Ministry of Culture. Abul Fazl. Akbarnama. Trans. H. Beveridge. Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1902–1939. Commynes, Philippe de. Mémoires. c. 1490–1498. Dickens, Charles. American Notes for General Circulation. Chapman and Hall, 1842. Chapter 7. De Tocqueville, Alexis, and Gustave de Beaumont. On the Penitentiary System in the United States. Trans. Francis Lieber. Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1833. Grassian, Stuart. "Psychiatric Effects of Solitary Confinement." Washington University Journal of Law and Policy. Vol. 22, 2006. Matsumoto, Seicho. Kuroi Jukai (黒い樹海). Kobunsha, 1960. Miyaji, Naoaki, et al. "Lava Flow History of Fuji Volcano." Bulletin of the Volcanological Society of Japan. Vol. 49, 2004. Foster, Michael Dylan. The Book of Yokai. University of California Press, 2015.
July 01, 20261h 20min
Number 3: 62. The Jersey Devil
How prejudice, misogyny and a kangaroo in bat wings created a monster. Support the show by becoming a hellion at patreon.com/highwaytohellpodcast The legend is rooted in the Pine Barrens, the million-acre stretch of sandy pine forest across southern New Jersey. The legend begins in 1735 when a woman remembered only as Mother Leeds went into labor with her thirteenth child. Exhausted and cursing her fertility, she cried, "Let this one be the devil." The child was born normally, then twisted before the midwife's eyes into something with a horse's head, leathery bat wings, cloven hooves, and a forked tail. It shrieked, beat its way up the chimney, and vanished into the pines. Historically this woman was likely Deborah Leeds wife of Japhet Leeds, who records show had 12 children. But the creature was likely born from politics, not a woman crying out in pain and frustration, exhausted by pregnancy and birth. Daniel Leeds, a colonial almanac publisher, broke with his Quaker neighbors and printed astrology and occult lore. They branded him "Satan's Harbinger."(great metal band name) His son Titan (also great name) continued the feud and was mocked by Benjamin Franklin, who jokingly predicted Titan's death, then insisted his ghost lingered on. The Leeds family crest bore a wyvern a winged, clawed dragon. A hated family, a devilish reputation, and a monster on the coat of arms fused over generations into the "Leeds Devil," renamed the Jersey Devil only in the twentieth century. Its most famous week came in January 1909, when hundreds of sightings and mysterious hoofprints swept New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Schools and factories closed, armed posses combed the woods, and a Philadelphia showman, Norman Jefferies, cashed in by exhibiting a painted kangaroo fitted with fake wings. The Jersey Devil was born from a colonial grudge, regional prejudice, and a curse on a woman who would DARE to not want to have more kids. SOURCES (full sources on Patreon) Brian Regal and Frank J. Esposito, The Secret History of the Jersey Devil: How Quakers, Hucksters, and Benjamin Franklin Created a Monster (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018) — the foundational scholarly work, and the source for the Daniel Leeds / Titan Leeds / wyvern / Franklin argument.Brian Regal, “The Jersey Devil: The Real Story,” Skeptical Inquirer, November 2013.W. F. Mayer, “In the Pines,” The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. III, May 1859 — first known print appearance of the “Leeds Devil.”Caleb Pusey, Satan’s Harbinger Encountered, 1700.Daniel Leeds, An Almanack for the Year of Christian Account 1687; The Temple of Wisdom for the Little World, 1688; The Trumpet Sounded Out of the Wilderness of America, 1699.Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1733–1738 editions — the Titan Leeds death prediction and the “ghost of Titan Leeds” sequence.Japhet Leeds will, 1736, Burlington County records — twelve named children.Encounter 1 (Nelson Evans, 1909): Philadelphia Evening Bulletin and allied Philadelphia press, January 19–20, 1909, Geoff Tibballs, The World’s Greatest Hoaxes (2006) — Norman Jefferies, Jacob Hope, and the Arch Street Dime Museum kangaroo.Robert E. Bartholomew on the 1909 flap as mass hysteria seeded by regional legend.Jeff Brunner, Humane Society of New Jersey — the sandhill crane hypothesis.Henry H. Goddard, The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness (1912); Elizabeth Kite, “The Pineys” (1913); Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man (1981), on the retouched photographs.John McPhee, The Pine Barrens (1968).Weird NJ magazine, Jersey Devil reader files — three decades of submitted first-hand accounts.
August 25, 20261h 54min
Number 4: 60. The Dyatlov Incident
What could possibly cause experienced hikers to cut their way out of a tent, WALK half clothed to the treeline, and die from the elements? **Special thanks to our patreon supporters for making this show possible patreon.com/highwaytohellpodcast** In January 1959, ten students from the Ural Polytechnical Institute set out on a Category III ski trek through the northern Urals, led by 23-year-old Igor Dyatlov. One member, Yuri Yudin, turned back due to back sciatic pain, leaving nine to camp on February 1 on the slope of Kholat Syakhl, "Dead Mountain." He would be the only person to survive. When searchers reached the site on February 26, the tent had been cut open from the inside, as if the climbers fled to escape. Boots, coats, and equipment remained within. Footprints led 1.5 kilometers downslope toward a treeline — people walking, not running, some barefoot, some in socks. Two bodies lay under a cedar in their underwear beside a dead fire. Three more were found between the cedar and the tent, apparently trying to climb back. The last four surfaced in May, buried in a ravine under four meters of snow. Two had crushed ribs; one had a fractured skull. The examiner compared the injuries to a car crash and noted the absence of corresponding external trauma. How is that possible? Dubinina was missing her tongue and eyes, later explained by months of decomposition in running water. Trace radiation on clothing traced to one hiker's job at a nuclear plant. Soviet investigators closed the file citing a compelling natural force the group could not overcome, then classified it. Six decades of theory followed: military tests, infrasound panic, the KGB, the paranormal. In 2021, Gaume and Puzrin modeled a delayed slab avalanche — triggered by cutting a tent platform into wind-loaded snow, small enough to leave no debris, and capable of causing internal injuries without surface damage. The rest is exposure, darkness, and exhausted people making survivable-seeming choices in −25°C. But what about the military tests? Sources (full source list on Patreon) The 1959 criminal case file — Sverdlovsk Oblast Prosecutor's Office, Feb–May 1959. Roughly 400 pageshttps://dyatlovpass.com/case-files Autopsy protocols of Boris Vozrozhdenny — forensic medical expert, Sverdlovsk Oblast. First five bodies examined March 1959; the four from the ravine on 9 May 1959.https://dyatlovpass.com/autopsy Genrietta Churkina, criminalistic examination of the tent — case file, 16 April 1959. The finding that the principal cuts were made from inside. Vladimir Levashov, radiological report — chief radiologist, Sverdlovsk city sanitary-epidemiological station, 27 May 1959. Beta contamination readings on Dubinina's sweater and Kolevatov's trousers and sweater waistband. The hikers' diaries https://dyatlovpass.com/diaries The recovered camera films — five cameras, including the negatives found in Lev Ivanov's private archive in 1997 and donated to the Dyatlov Foundation.https://dyatlovpass.com/photos "Vecherniy Otorten" (Evening Otorten) No. 1 — the group's satirical camp newsletter, dated 1 February 1959. Surviving only as an investigator's transcription in the case file. Lev Ivanov, "The Enigma of the Fireballs" — Leninsky Put, Kustanai, Kazakhstan, November 1990. The lead investigator's account of being ordered to omit the sightings, and his apology to the families.https://dyatlovpass.com/enigma-of-the-fireballs Russian Prosecutor General's Office reinvestigation, 2019–2020 , 11 July 2020.https://dyatlovpass.com/prosecutors-investigation TASS — "Prosecutors say avalanche killed Dyatlov group in Urals in 1959" (July 2020)https://tass.com/emergencies/1177345 Gaume, J. & Puzrin, A. M. — "Mechanisms of slab avalanche "Communications Earth & Environment 2, 10 (2021). Published 28 January 2021.https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-020-00081-8DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-020-00081-8
August 11, 20261h 60min
Number 5: 64. Crime of the Summer- the Lindsay Clancy Case
Andy and I have bombshells about the timeline in our fireside chat on patreon.com/highwaytohellpodcast (we also tease the new studio and halloween merch) Clarify some points: **This is by no means all of the data from the trial, only what we could fit into the evidence, we talk more about things on the fireside **The timeline discrepancy comes from Patrick testifying he left at 5:15 but an email being sent from his account at 5:24 **Since this recording, a mistrial has been declared due to a hold out jury refusing to follow the law on reasonable doubt On January 24, 2023, Lindsay Clancy, a labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital for nine years, allegedly strangled her three children in the basement of the family's home at 47 Summer Street in Duxbury, Massachusetts, while her husband was out picking up takeout and a prescription she had asked him to get. Cora was 5, Dawson was 3, Callan was 8 months old. Clancy then allegedly took pills, strangled herself with a belt, cut her wrists and neck, and went out a second-story window, severing her spinal cord. In the four months before that night, at least six providers had prescribed her thirteen different psychiatric medications across more than thirty prescriptions; she was turned away by two crisis hotlines in four days, told her psychiatrist she was having intrusive thoughts of harming her children. A status hearing on whether the Commonwealth will retry her is set for September 29. Sources- full list on patreon AAMC. "Why we know so little about women's health." aamc.org/news/why-we-know-so-little-about-women-s-health ABC News. "'She was begging for help': former mother-in-law testifies." Aug 2026. abcnews.com/GMA/News/begging-lindsay-clancys-former-mother-law-testifies/story?id=135739178 ABC News. "Mistrial declared. What happens next?" 4 Sep 2026. abcnews.com/GMA/News/lindsay-clancy-jury-deadlocked/story?id=136153308 Boston Globe. "Prescribed 13 different medications." 27 Jul 2026. bostonglobe.com/2026/07/27/metro/lindsay-clancy-timeline-medications-13/ Boston Globe. "Timeline of activities on Jan. 24." 4 Aug 2026. bostonglobe.com/2026/08/04/metro/timeline-lindsay-clancy-cell-phone-records/ Boston Globe. "Surgeon, investigators testify on her injuries." 4 Aug 2026. bostonglobe.com/2026/08/04/metro/lindsay-clancy-trial-testimony-tuesday/ Boston Globe. "Mechanics of the insanity defense." 12 Aug 2026. bostonglobe.com/2026/08/12/metro/clancy-trial-structure-insanity-defense/ Boston Globe. "Googled psychosis symptoms and hallucinations." 13 Aug 2026. bostonglobe.com/2026/08/13/metro/lindsay-clancy-trial-live-updates/ Boston Globe. "Said 'Go to God' as she strangled each child." 21 Aug 2026. bostonglobe.com/2026/08/21/metro/lindsay-clancy-trial-mack-resnick/ Boston Globe. "Dueling assessments of psychosis." 21 Aug 2026. bostonglobe.com/2026/08/21/metro/lindsay-clancy-trial-live-updates/ Boston Globe. "Kevin Reddington, 'girl dad' energy." 24 Aug 2026. bostonglobe.com/2026/08/24/lifestyle/lindsay-clancy-murder-trial-kevin-reddington-insanity/ Boston.com. "What prosecutors say happened Jan. 24." 17 Feb 2023. boston.com/news/crime/2023/02/17/lindsay-clancy-timeline-january-24-duxbury-mother-children/ Brown University. "32 years of U.S. filicide arrests." 2014. archive2.news.brown.edu/2007-2015/articles/2014/02/filicide.html CBS Boston. "Case ends in mistrial after jury deadlock." 4 Sep 2026. cbsnews.com/boston/live-updates/lindsay-clancy-murder-trial-hung-jury-mistrial-verdict-watch-live-updates/ CBS Boston. "Karen Read sues Mass. State Police, Canton Police." cbsnews.com/boston/news/karen-read-lawsuit-massachusetts-state-police-canton-police/ CBS News. "Key moments from the Clancy trial." Aug 2026. cbsnews.com/news/lindsay-clancy-trial-key-moments-jury-weighs-case/ CNN. "Opening statements to begin." 26 Jul 2026. cnn.com/2026/07/26/us/lindsay-clancy-trial-opening-statements
September 08, 20262h 25min