In this episode, we compare the real story of one of the most famous haunted dolls with the second film in the Conjuring universe: Annabelle. In 1970, a young nurse received a second-hand Raggedy Ann doll as a birthday gift from her mother. The woman would use the popular doll as a decorative piece in the apartment she shared with another nurse. It wasn't long before the doll, who the woman named Annabelle, went from cute to all-out terrifying when it began to move on its own around the apartment. By 1971, Ed and Lorraine Warren were called in. The film version of the Annabelle story opens with the Warrens talking to the nurses, but what else did the movie get right, and what did it get wrong?  Is the truth stranger than fiction?

You can stream the Annabelle movie on Netflix

Red Web podcast on YouTube The True Story of Annabelle the Doll from Sept. 2022

The Demonologist by Gerald Brittle, an Ed and Lorraine Warren Book

Ed Warren Tells the Real Story of Annebelle from Official Ed and Lorraine Warren Channel

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Nothing excites the imagination like a good ol’ fashioned curse. Our logical sense tells us they’re nonsense, but even in the face of reason, how many of us still exercise caution? As it turns out, discretion may indeed be the better part of valor, especially when dealing with the cursed objects in this episode. First we’ll visit the Dybbuk box, an antique, portable wine cabinet that brings misfortune to whoever owns it. Second, we’ll look at the curse surrounding the wrecked 1955 Porsche Spyder once owned by Hollywood Golden Age legend James Dean. Do curses really exist? Come along and decide for yourself.

Cursed Objects Book by : J. W. Ocker
Jason Hawes Youtube - cursed objects
Ghost Adventures episodes on Discovery+

The Unexplained with William Shatner S.4 Ep.8 “Uncanny Curses: - Available on Discover+
Strange World: Was the Porsche That Killed James Dean Cursed?
Death of James Dean – Wikipedia
Porche 550 Spider – Exclusive Car Registry

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On today’s Book Club Minisode, we read Tobias Wayland’s The Lake Michigan Mothman: High Strangeness in the Midwest. Wayland spent several years as a field investigator for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). Since then, he's been a guest on podcasts and radio shows and appeared on the series premiere of Expedition X and in the Small Town Monsters documentaries Terror in the Skies and On the Trail of the Lake Michigan Mothman. If you love Mothman as much as Heaven, you need this book. Its chock full of first-hand accounts of sightings and encounters: some of them are utterly terrifying. We love this one, and we’re sure you will too! Buy your copy at the link below.

Find more about Tobias Wayland and buy his books at The Singular Fortean Society

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In this first edition of Local Haunts, we visit two places in our area that you may not have heard about. The first is the (Old) Lake Club in Springfield, IL. In its day, the club was the most popular nightclub outside of Chicago. Mixed in with the usual spirits you'd find behind the bar was the ghost of Rudy, a much loved bartender from the club's hayday.  Next, we’ll hop over to Jacksonville and explore the Illinois State Hospital for the Insane. According to several sources, the abandoned hospital is the most haunted location in Jacksonville. The hospital plays a major role in the history of several Illinois women including Lurancy Vennum the Watseka Wonder.

Paranormal News: Coast to Coast AM Article

Haunted Springfield, Illinois by Garret Moffit
The Ghost Files YouTube - This Nightclub is EVIL - Full Paranormal Documentary - The Lake Club (TRUE GHOST STORIES)
American Hauntings The Lake Club Ghost: The Haunting of Albert “Rudy” Cranor
Newspaper Article Priest’s Rid Club of Bartender’s Ghost

Haunted Jacksonville by: Troy Taylor and Lisa Taylor Horton

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Having investigated a funeral home ourselves, we couldn’t wait to bring you an episode about a couple of them. First, we’ll head to the Riddle House in Palm Beach Florida. The house is home to Buck, a kindly cemetery worker and Joseph, a tragic spirit who haunts the attic and has chased off workers restoring the home. Next, we’ll visit the infamous House of Wills located in East Cleveland, Ohio. The historic House of Wills was once the largest African American owned business in Cleveland, but has since become one of the most haunted places you have probably never heard of. The building has more than one spirit, but one of them is certainly Mr. Wills himself. 

The Line Up - Riddle House
The State Article - Holliday House
Holliday House - Booking and Information
Wikipedia - History of Riddle House

Atlas Obscura
Ghost Brothers S2 Ep7 “The House of Wills”
Death Walker with Nick Groff S1 Ep2 “Stone Tape Theory”
Dalen Spratt YouTube
Daryl Marston book The Horrors of the House of Wills.

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It’s finally happened; we’re going to jail.  No, we’re not in trouble—at least not yet—but we are going to visit two very haunted jails. The first is the Pottawatomie County Jail more famously known as The Squirrel Cage. Here, we’ll find shadows lurking on the fourth floor, hear the voices of children in the juvie wing, and maybe run into a ghost cat or two. After a thirteen hour prison bus ride from Iowa, you'll find yourself outside the gates of Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, Tennessee’s first maximum security prison that housed the state’s worst offenders. Brushy was exceptionally brutal. If the prisoners didn’t kill you, the guards might. With over 10,000 deaths, there is no shortage of vengeful spirits. One part of the prison is so bad, even the property manager won’t go there.

YouTube: “The Ghost of the Squirrel Cage (Serial Killer Was Here) From the channel Paranormal Quest posted 2 years ago

YouTube: “A Scary Night inside the Axe Murder Jail – The Squirrel Cage Jail on the channel The Paranormal Files: Posted Jan 23, 2021

“Squirrel Cage Jail Ghost Video” from the channel Eric Salas Workshops Training Channel and posted 3 years ago

The Historical Society of Pottawattamie County, Iowa

TourBrushy - Paranormal Tours & Info

Wikipedia - Brushy Mountain State Penn.

GhostResearch - Brushy Mountain

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Welcome to another cryptid-tastic episode! This time we’ll take you back to 1952 when two brothers and a friend near the small town of Flatwoods, West Virginia were surprised by a bright light that landed near a local farm. Accompanied by a local National Guardsman, the group came face to face with something straight out of a sci-fi movie: the Flatwoods Monster. Twenty years later in the rural southeastern Illinois town of Enfield, Henry McDaniel and his children were terrorized by a three-legged creature with large pink eyes as big as flashlights that tried to gain access to their home. The Enfield Horror, as it would come to be known, left its mark on a town such that to this day, some refuse to talk about it.

Flatwoods Monster on Wikipedia
Braxton, VW  - Flatwoods page
Flatwoods Monster Museum Merch

Buy Troy Taylor book: Monsters of Illinois
“The Full Story of the Monster at Enfield” by Bob Gymlan
International Cryptid Museum

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On today’s Book Club Minisode we read Craig DiLouie’s much loved Episode Thirteen. The distinct storytelling makes this novel one of the most unique and interesting novels we’ve ever read. The novel depicts a group of paranormal investigators desperately trying to secure a second season for their paranormal television show Fade to Black. Throughout the novel, the reader experiences every second of the character’s lives via journal entries, text messages, and on-screen dialogue via transcript. We recommend you read this one. Everything that makes it quirky also makes it wonderfully strange.

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Once again, it’s time to pack up the Ope, A Ghost van and hit the road. We hope you have a taste for seafood and Tex-Mex because we’re headed to Galveston, Texas. Our first stop will be the Galveston Railroad Museum—also known as Jonathan’s Train Depot—where one traveler might have lost his head, but not his hat. Next, we’ll swing by the local Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and check in on the ghost children haunting the toy aisle. If we get sleepy, we can always stay at the famous Galvez Hotel and hope to catch a glimpse of Audra, the Lovelorn Lady. Or, we could check-in at The Tremont House hotel and visit with the ghosts of a nun and several children. Did we mention that The Tremont House was built atop a mass grave? Buckle up and enjoy the ride! P.S. Heaven is in charge of the radio so don’t ask. Hope you like Hamilton!

“Galveston’s Top 7 Haunts with Really Haunted Places” posted to YouTube by Really Haunted Places
Ghost City Tours
“Galveston Railroad Museum’s Headless Sailor Seems to Enjoy ‘Welcoming’ Visitors” from Chron on YouTube
Galveston Railroad Museum
“The Haunted Walmart of Galveston, Texas” from The Most Epic Adventurers with Robb Zipp on YouTube

Galveston History
Special Report on the Galveston Hurricane by: Isaac M Kline
Information on both hotels from Galveston Ghost
Reddit Story  & direct link to the user's video evidence

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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

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