What better way to celebrate spooky season than with two real haunted houses as told by those who lived it. First, we visit Northwest Chicago where in 1970, Ed and Marsha Becker bought a two-flat apartment to start their family. What they found instead was decades of tragedy, strange chills, objects moving on their own, and an unseen presence that grew stronger with every month they stayed. From floating kitchen appliances to a failed exorcism captured on film, this true story — later known as “The Haunting in Wicker Park” — remains one of America’s most chilling hauntings. Then, we step inside 21 St. Helens Avenue, a quiet Baltimore home with a violent history. Built in 1915, the house witnessed a string of deaths, tragedies, and unexplained phenomena long before Sean Paul Murphy’s family moved in. What began as flickering lights and misplaced objects soon escalated into shadowy figures, mimicked voices, and a darkness that seemed to press in on its residents.

True Haunting by Edwin F. Becker

World’s First Nationally Televised Exorcism on NBC

SeanPaulMurphyVille: The Haunting of 21 St. Helens Avenue

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Toodles!

Tucked away on a quiet hill in Staten Island stands the Kreischer Mansion—a Gothic relic with a past so grim it refuses to stay buried. In this episode, we revisit Portals to Hell and their unnerving investigation of this historic home where the line between residual memory and intelligent haunting blurs uncomfortably thin. As Jack Osbourne and Katrina Weidman peel back the layers of the mansion’s sordid history—arson, mob murders, and lingering whispers in the walls—we break down the most chilling moments and debate what exactly is clinging to the house after all these years. Turn down the lights. This isn’t just another ghost story.

Stream Portals to Hell - Season 3 Episode 8 - On Discovery+

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Toodles!

In this bone-chilling episode, we unravel two spine-tingling poltergeist hauntings, each more unsettling than the last. First, we travel to the eerie Welsh hills of 1989, where a young family’s dream home quickly becomes a waking nightmare. Heol Fanog, or The Witch Farm, is a place where ancient forces awaken from the walls, pulling a once-happy family into a vortex of terror. What ancient evil lies buried beneath this cursed land?

Next, we venture into a more modern mystery that begins with the purchase of an old frame from a charity shop in 2021. The seemingly innocent item hides a chilling secret: an image of a man—who, upon closer inspection, turns out to be the first-ever mugshot in the UK. But this isn’t just any old photograph. As the family investigates further, they realize that this man's tragic past may be entwined with dark forces that have followed the frame into their home, wreaking havoc in ways they could never have anticipated. Dim the lights, lock the doors, and prepare yourself for a journey into the world of poltergeists—where the past and present collide, and evil never truly stays buried.

Vote for us in the Illinois Times Best of Springfield, for Best Local Podcast!

In Paranormal News - Ghost caught on Ring Doorbell

The Witch Farm Podcast - Apple Podcasts

Testimony by Mark Chadbourn

True Horror on Tubi – Episode 4 – Hellfire Farm 

Leave This House by Lee Brickley

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Toodles!

In this rewatch episode, we dive back into The Holzer Files and their chilling investigation of Franklin Castle—Cleveland’s most notoriously haunted mansion. We revisit the shadowy corridors and dark family secrets that made this episode a standout. Did Hans Holzer’s original files uncover the truth behind the Tiedemann family tragedies? Did Dave Schrader and the team create more questions than answers? We’re unpacking the hauntings and the history as we try to determine which elements hold historical weight and which raise new questions. Was Franklin Castle truly a house of horrors or has legend overtaken fact? Join us as we separate sensationalism from substance and assess whether The Holzer Files added clarity or confusion to the case.

Holzer Files: Season 2 - Episode 4 - Stream on Discovery+

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Toodles!

Step into the darkened halls of two of America’s most infamous haunted hospitals. First, we explore the dim hallways of the sprawling Sheboygan County Asylum in Wisconsin where shadowy figures roam the tunnels and the ghosts of nurses greet you by humming a little tune. Then we travel south to Yorktown, Texas, where the abandoned Yorktown Memorial Hospital looms—its corridors echoing with whispers of patients and nuns long gone. From eerie apparitions to chilling EVP recordings, this episode takes you deep into the unsettling legacy of these institutions where healing was once promised, but hauntings remain.

Wisconsin Frights

Wikipedia – Sheboygan County Asylum

Haunted Wisconsin

Destination Fear – Shadow Person

Destination Fear – S2 E6 – Discovery+

WI Public Radio Article

We Bought a Haunted Hospital! - Curious Twins Blog

Yorktown, TX - tshaonline.org

The Haunted Yorktown Memorial Hospital, Yorktown TX - Haunted Rooms

The Haunting of Yorktown Memorial Hospital, Texas - Amy's Crypt (blog)

Sam and Colby - Youtube

Amy's Crypt - Youtube

Twin Paranormal - Youtube

Ghost Adventures - Season 5 Episode 4

It Feels Evil - Season 1 Episode 3

Destination Fear - Season 2 Episode 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!

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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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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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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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!