This week, we’re diving into the wonderfully bizarre world of cryptids where folklore meets the downright unbelievable. First, we travel to the windswept Isle of Man in the 1930s, where a talking mongoose named Gef supposedly made a family’s farmhouse his home, leaving behind one of the strangest legends in paranormal history. Was Gef a ghost, a hoax, or a creature from somewhere beyond the ordinary? Then we head to the murky backroads of Bishopville, South Carolina, to meet the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp—a reptilian beast that terrorized locals and left claw marks on cars in the 1980s. With one cryptid chattering in the walls and another lurking in the shadows, we’ll unravel the tales, the evidence, and why these stories still spark fascination (and a few goosebumps) today.

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In Paranormal News - Possible fairy caught on camera?

Fatemag - Gef the talking Mongoose / 30 years later

Garrett Collection - Gef

Atlas Obscura - The Bizzare Story of Gef the Talking Mongoose

Cryptid Wiki - Gef

Excerpt from My Diary in the House of the Talking Mongoose pg. 39

The Harry Price Website - The Talking Mongoose

Swamp Ape Review – Lizard Man

The City of Bishopville – Lizard Man

Crypto Zoo News – Lizard Man

Cryptid Wiki

U.S. Department of Mythical Wildlife

South of Spooky Podcast

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If you have an experience, story, or anything else you'd like to share with us, you can email us at [email protected] You can also follow us on Instagram, Join our Facebook group : Ope, A Ghost, or Follow us on Youtube

Toodles!

Pack your ghost-hunting gear and your frontier sass because this episode is headin’ west in search of haunted ghost towns. First stop: Bannack, Montana, a gold rush town frozen in time and reportedly still hosting guests at the famously haunted Meade Hotel. We’ll dive into the eerie tale of Dorothy Dunn, the young girl whose tragic fate may have tethered her spirit to the old town . . . when she isn’t following you home. Then we hitch a spectral ride to Deadwood, South Dakota, where Wild Bill Hickok was shot holding the “Dead Man’s Hand”—and may not have folded just yet. We’ll also check in (but maybe not sleep) at the Bullock Hotel, where lawman-turned-hotelier Seth Bullock is said to keep things orderly even from beyond the grave. Ghosts, gold, and gunfights—what more could you want from your haunted history?

Visit Southwest Montana - Bannack

Visit Southwest Montana - Ghosts

Legends of America

Historic Montana

Haunted US – Barrack, MT

HauntedHouses.com

Ghostlandia.media

Travel South Dakota

Deadwood History

Deadwood - Wikipedia

Legends of America

City of Deadwood Timeline

Black Hills Paranormal Investigation (their EVPs and photo evidence can be found here)

Haunted Houses - Wild Bills Bar

Haunted Rooms America - Bullock Hotel

Ghost Adventures Season 14 Episode 11 on Discovery+

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If you have an experience, story, or anything else you'd like to share with us, you can email us at [email protected] You can also follow us on Instagram, Join our Facebook group : Ope, A Ghost, or Follow us on Youtube

Toodles!

Welcome to our second episode where we take an in-depth look at a location with far too much history to cover in a regular episode. This time, we journey deep into the history and ghosts of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, one of America’s most famously haunted locations. Located in Louisville, Kentucky, Waverly Hills was a state-of-the-art tuberculosis hospital that opened in 1910 as a humble, two-story stucco building that served 40 people. By 1926, the rise in tuberculosis cases, and a 2,600-person waiting list, necessitated the 180,000 square foot monolithic structure we know today. By the 1950s, new medicines and treatments made the disease less deadly, and in 1961, Waverly Hills closed. The building didn’t stay empty for long. From 1962-198l, the building operated as a convalescent center for the aging. Listen in as we discuss the legends, lore, and truth of the sanatorium, the “death tunnel,” and the complicated story of the nurse in room 502.

Waverly Hills Sanatorium: A History

Spooked: The Ghosts of Waverly Hills Sanitorium documentary on Tubi

Buzzfeed Unsolved: Waverly Hills

Ghost Files: Waverly Hills

Visit Waverly Hills

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If you have an experience, story, or anything else you'd like to share with us, you can email us at [email protected] You can also follow us on Instagram, Join our Facebook group : Ope, A Ghost, or Follow us on Youtube

Toodles!

Who’s ready for another road trip? Pack up the Ope, A Ghost Van because we’re headed to the Emerald City itself: Seattle, WA. We have several stops to make, but a few of them include the Owl N’ Thistle Pub where an elusive piano player tickles the ivories when no one is looking. Then we’ll stop at the Merchant’s Café where portraits move on their own and a lady of the night whispers in the ears of unsuspecting male patrons. Finally, we’ll end at the historic Cadillac Hotel where the ghosts of merchants, prospectors, and a crying woman haunt the halls of the upper floors. It’s going to be a long drive, so bring a book. And this time, please go to the bathroom before we leave. Jonathan gets cranky if we have to stop before we’ve left the state. (Heaven says Jonathan can get over it)

Shout Out Alley : Anomalous Midwest (instagram) / Cryptid Comforts (Instagram) / Short and Stout Designs (website/shop) / KeaLite (etsy shop) / Springfield IL Ghostbusters (facebook) / American Hauntings Podcast: Live From the Conference (apple podcasts) / Preorder Mothman: Sightings and Investigations of the Iconic Flying Cryptid By RIchard Estep and Tobias Wayland (amazon)

Sources: 

Seattle Gov. Archives

History of Seattle - Wikipedia

Seattle Undergound History - Wikipedia

Haunted Seattle

Seattle Terrors - Seattle Underground

Seattle Terrors - Great Seattle Fire

Seattle Terrors - Kells Irish Pub

Seattle Terrors - Pike Place Market

The Great Seattle Fire – Wikipedia

History of the Cadillac Hotel

National Park Service – Cadillac Hotel

Klondike Gold Rush Nat. Historic Park - Seattle

Ghost City Tours – Cadillac Hotel

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If you have an experience, story, or anything else you'd like to share with us, you can email us at [email protected] You can also follow us on Instagram, Join our Facebook group : Ope, A Ghost, or Follow us on Youtube

Toodles!

In this delightfully eerie second installment in our funeral home adventures, we creak open the doors of two former houses of mourning that are now anything but lifeless. First, we take a spine-tingling stroll through the Bell Mansion in Fort Wayne, Indiana—a towering tribute to Victorian opulence and spectral sightings where children’s laughter echo in the halls and a mysterious woman in jeans is said to roam. Then, we cross the border to Dresden, Ontario, where the Thomas L. DeBurger Funeral Home has found new life (and possibly some lingering spirits) as the Blumberg family’s residence, featured in the Discovery+ series We Bought A Funeral Home. Expect phantom whispers, flickering lights, and a spectral Lady in Blue. Death may have moved out, but something spooky still lingers in the halls of these buildings.

Bell Mansion website

Scare X on Youtube

A Grave Undertaking: Adventures in a Haunted Funeral Home by Richard Estep

You can stream We Bought a Funeral Home on Discovery+, HBO Max, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Hulu

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If you have an experience, story, or anything else you'd like to share with us, you can email us at [email protected] You can also follow us on Instagram, Join our Facebook group : Ope, A Ghost, or Follow us on Youtube

Toodles!

Welcome to another Paranormal Rewatch! In this episode, we’ll follow Nick Groff and Katrina Weidman from Paranormal Lockdown (Season 1 - Episode 1) as they investigate the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in search of evidence of a shadow person Nick saw almost 10 years before. Come along for a 72-hour lockdown with two of our favorite investigators. The evidence they capture might be the creepiest we’ve seen to date.

Enhanced Evidence Video on YouTube

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If you have an experience, story, or anything else you'd like to share with us, you can email us at [email protected] You can also follow us on Instagram, Join our Facebook group : Ope, A Ghost, or Follow us on Youtube

Toodles!

Welcome to another fact vs. film episode where we look at the true story of a haunting and compare it with the “based on a true story” film version. For this one, we’ll tackle another film from the Ed and Lorraine Warren inspired Conjuring universe: the 2021 The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. We'll evaluate the terrifying scenes from the movie compared to eyewitness accounts and the Warrens' own claims. What really happened in that Brookfield, Connecticut household? How much of the story was spiritual warfare, and how much was legal strategy, mental illness, or media frenzy? As always, the real story is more chilling than you'd expect.

Book: The Devil in Connecticut by Gerald Brittle

TV Show: The Demon Murder Case

A Haunting: Where Demons Dwell

The True Story Behind the Netflix Documentary The Devil on Trial

Wikipedia: Trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson

Netflix: The Devil on Trial 

You can stream The Devil Made Me Do It on HBO Max

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If you have an experience, story, or anything else you'd like to share with us, you can email us at [email protected] You can also follow us on Instagram, Join our Facebook group : Ope, A Ghost, or Follow us on Youtube

Toodles!

Step right up—if you dare—for a chilling ride through two of America’s most haunted amusement parks. In this episode, we explore the eerie legends and ghostly encounters tied to Chippewa Lake Amusement Park in Ohio and Sylvan Beach Amusement Park in New York.

Abandoned for decades, Chippewa Lake is a rusting graveyard of forgotten rides and lingering spirits. Locals speak of phantom music coming from the demolished dance hall and the sound of a rollercoaster that hasn’t ran in almost 50 years. Meanwhile, Sylvan Beach remains open to thrill-seekers—but its century-old carousel and historic buildings come with paranormal baggage. Visitors and employees alike have reported flickering lights, unexplained footsteps, and the spectral sightings of past employees and the ghost of a little girl. So come one, come all. This is one ride you won't forget.

Get your tickets to the Haunted America Conference!

The Witches Familiar Etsy Page

Chippewa Lake - Wikipedia

Idea Stream - The Ohio Newsroom

Chippewa Lake Ohio Historical Society

Carousel of Chaos - 12 Bizarre Facts about Chippewa Lake Park

OmarGoshTV YouTube

MVL #175 Sylvan Beach Part 1of 2

MVL #175 Sylvan Beach Part 2 of 2

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If you have an experience, story, or anything else you'd like to share with us, you can email us at [email protected] You can also follow us on Instagram, Join our Facebook group : Ope, A Ghost, or Follow us on Youtube

Toodles!

Welcome to an Ope, A Ghost Book Club Mini Episode. In another foray into fiction, we read Darcy Coates’s The Haunting of Rookward House (2020). Meet Guy, a man looking to escape his hometown after becoming the community pariah. His luck seems to have changed when he finds the deed to a forgotten house in his mother’s attic. This is his chance: fix up the old mansion, sell it for a quick profit, and use the money to move away. Sounds easy, but the ghost of a deranged and jealous stalker has other plans, including keeping Guy all to herself. What a fun book! We highly recommend this one. We’re sure you’ll love it as much as we did.

You can also use this link to text us your story :)

If you have an experience, story, or anything else you'd like to share with us, you can email us at [email protected] You can also follow us on Instagram, Join our Facebook group : Ope, A Ghost, or Follow us on Youtube

Toodles!

Welcome to another Unrelated Ghosts episode where we dive into two locations that have nothing in common with one another. Nothing except that they’re both haunted, of course. First, we’ll stop in the quaint town of Felicity, Ohio and visit the Broadwell Funeral Home. The current owner purchased the property with the intent to remodel it to move it, but after several paranormal occurrences, his wife left and has not stepped foot back into the house since. Visitors have experienced shadow people, disembodied voices, and poltergeist activity. Our second stop takes us to the oldest operating restaurant in the U.S.: the White Horse Tavern in Newport, RI. The building is verging on being 400 years old which might explain why the ghosts include a colonial patron, a spirit known as “the guardian,” and the ghost of Rebecca Cornell who convicted her supposed killer from beyond the grave! You’ll want to hear this one.

In Paranormal News .. Video evidence from Willard Library 

Just Say Boo

Jennifer’s Paranormal Investigations

Broadwell Funeral Home Facebook

Death Walker with Nick Groff

Haunted Nights 2024

Haunted Nights 2023

Paranormal Quest 2021

Wikipedia - Francis Brinley

Wikipedia - White Horse Tavern

Wikipedia - William May - Pirate

Legends of America - White Horse Tavern

Haunted Houses - White Horse Tavern

US Ghost Adventures - White Horse Tavern

Porstmouth History Notes - Rebecca Cornell

White Horse Tavern's business site & history

You can also use this link to text us your story :)

If you have an experience, story, or anything else you'd like to share with us, you can email us at [email protected] You can also follow us on Instagram, Join our Facebook group : Ope, A Ghost, or Follow us on Youtube

Toodles!