A basement fire, a desperate escape, and a suitcase full of contradictions turned the Hotel Congress into one of the Southwest’s most enduring ghost stories. We head to downtown Tucson to unravel how a 1918 rail-side hotel became ground zero for Dillinger’s capture and a century of spectral lore, then walk room by room through the encounters that keep investigators coming back.

We start with the history: Congress Street’s expansion, the Southern Pacific station, and the 1934 blaze that raced upward to the gang’s hideout. From there, we sift through the strangest details in the recovered luggage—Tommy guns, body armor, cash, gold coins, and whispers of a glass eyeball and a skeletal hand—and how those artifacts shaped decades of first-hand claims from staff and guests. The building’s restoration, landmark status, and still-working switchboard frame a space where time hasn’t fully moved on.

Then we dig into the hauntings with care. Room 242 carries the weight of a life cut short, with reports of a woman in white who sits at the bed or curls close in quiet grief. Room 220 is lighter, marked by a World War II veteran’s routine and the playful reappearance of butter knives left in impossible places. Room 214 hosts a dapper figure in seersucker and hat, often seen at the window of an unrented room, while 212 delivers pure anxiety: locks clicking, doors opening, and a ghostly “apprentice” practicing the craft of intrusion. Under the sidewalks, sealed tunnels with old glass lenses echo a harsher past—Chinese labor routes, smugglers, and disappearances—that anchor the hotel’s stories in Tucson’s wider underground.

If you love haunted hotels, true crime legends, and the way residual energy loops through old routines, this tour of the Hotel Congress is your next deep dive. We share what to watch for, how to plan a multi-room investigation, and where to extend your trip—Tombstone, Bisbee, and beyond—for a full Southern Arizona paranormal circuit. Subscribe, share with a fellow ghost nerd, and leave a review telling us which room you’d dare to spend the night in.

We apologize for the echo and technical difficulties.

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The quiet streets of Baraboo hide a thundering past. We head straight into Circus City’s living history—where the Ringling Brothers built their empire—and follow a single case that starts with an old house, a fallen barn, and a family desperate for sleep, then spirals into one of the strangest hauntings we’ve explored. When sledgehammer blows rattle the walls, a window bursts without warning, and a goldfish bowl hits the floor with no water and no fish, a no-nonsense police chief and three deputies step in. What they witness—clean snow, no footprints, and a Buick sedan dragged uphill with its wheels locked—turns a simple vandalism call into a mystery of weight, force, and a presence that refuses to be seen.

We connect the dots the way a good investigator would: biography, materials, and place. Rose Holliday’s late husband trained elephants for the circus. The house on 8th Street? Built from reclaimed lumber taken from a Ringling elephant-training barn that once held 24 giants. Suddenly the reports make a different kind of sense. The “dog-shaped” shadow children feared, the barn collapse, the house-quaking booms—these aren’t parlor tricks. They feel like boundaries enforced by something that knows its size and space. Whether you land on intelligent haunting, place memory, or an extraordinary string of coincidences, the story forces a new respect for how history embeds in wood, earth, and routine.

Along the way, we revisit how the Ringling Brothers rose from a one-ring show to a national force, how circus territory agreements shaped entertainment, and why Baraboo’s winter quarters mattered. We consider the ethics of spectacle, the emotional residue of training, and what happens when you build a home from timbers that learned the rhythms of command, fear, and applause. The result is part ghost story, part cultural archaeology, and entirely unforgettable.

If this kind of deep-dive haunt keeps you curious, tap follow, share the episode with a friend who loves strange history, and leave a review with your best theory—intelligent haunting, residual echo, or something wilder?

Apologies for echo and technical difficulties.

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A modest council house on Green Street shouldn’t turn into a stage for flying toys, hot marbles, and a chair that slides on command—but that’s where our night begins. We pull apart the Enfield Haunting with a clear lens: not just what was claimed, but who saw what, when, and how the story held together across months of pressure, fatigue, and scrutiny. From neighbors who fled next door, to a police constable who watched a chair move, to a photographer who took a Lego to the eyebrow, the details pile up—and so do the questions.

We walk through the turning points: the Society for Psychical Research arriving with Maurice Grosse and later Guy Playfair; strange interference that kills video yet allows photos; knocks that track movement; marbles that land hot and refuse to bounce; a child at the center of the storm. Then the voice arrives—deep, gravelly, and eerily specific—identifying itself as “Bill,” later matching a former occupant’s death. Doctors argue false vocal folds; tests with taped lips and water complicate the easy answers. Some moments can be staged; the girls admit the pressure to perform. But other moments—curtains twisting like hands, stones manifesting in the garden, the medium’s cleanse coinciding with a slow fade—refuse to be filed away as tricks.

Rather than force a verdict, we explore three frames: a human spirit with unusual ability, a layered haunting where something non-human rides the chaos, and a psychosocial amplifier centered around a bright, stressed child on the edge of puberty. The label “poltergeist” starts to feel less like a species and more like a weather pattern: conditions where a house becomes conductive, technology misbehaves, and people of all stripes witness things they can’t quickly explain.

If you enjoy careful, grounded storytelling about the paranormal—sourced, skeptical, and still open to wonder—this one’s for you. Hit follow, share with a friend, and tell us: which single detail would make you a believer?

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The corridors of Athens Lunatic Asylum echo with over a century of troubled history. For 119 years, this imposing Gothic structure in Athens, Ohio served as home to thousands of patients – many of whom never should have been there in the first place.

What began as a forward-thinking facility designed according to Thomas Kirkbride's humane principles eventually devolved into a crowded warehouse of human suffering. The shocking reasons for commitment ranged from legitimate mental illness to simply being a troublesome teenager, experiencing menopause, or even masturbating. Women were particularly vulnerable to unnecessary institutionalization, often admitted for normal biological processes like menstruation or childbirth-related conditions.

Our exploration reveals the asylum's darkest practices, including unsedated lobotomies where doctors inserted ice picks through patients' eye sockets while they were fully conscious. We uncover the mysterious case of Margaret Schilling, who disappeared within the asylum in 1978 only to be discovered 42 days later. Her decomposing body left behind a permanent human-shaped stain on the concrete floor that resists all cleaning attempts – a haunting memorial to her tragic end.

Today, Ohio University owns this massive property, repurposing many buildings while preserving their haunting history. With 1,930 former patients buried in unmarked graves and countless stories of paranormal activity, Athens Asylum stands among America's most haunted locations. Journey with us as we separate urban legends from documented horrors, examining how mental health treatment has evolved from these troubling beginnings.

What would it take for you to be committed to an asylum in the 1800s? Listen to discover how close you might have come – and why these historical practices should never be forgotten.

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The story of the Bell Witch stands as America's most vicious haunting—a tale so disturbing it's hard to believe it happened at all. Long before ghost hunting apps and night vision cameras, this malevolent spirit terrorized a frontier family with shocking physical power and psychological cruelty.

When respected farmer John Bell spotted a strange creature in his Tennessee cornfield in 1817, he couldn't have imagined it would lead to years of torment. What began as mysterious knocking quickly escalated into something unprecedented—an entity that could speak, recite scripture, and physically attack both family members and visitors. The Bells' teenage daughter Betsy endured the worst—being pinched, slapped, and having her hair pulled until she broke off her engagement, seemingly the entity's goal all along.

What makes this case extraordinary isn't just the physical phenomena but the intelligence behind it. "Kate," as the entity called herself, displayed preferences and vendettas. She tormented John Bell relentlessly while showing kindness only to his wife Lucy. She quoted Bible passages that stumped ministers and revealed private secrets that sent visitors fleeing. Even future President Andrew Jackson allegedly encountered her power when his wagon wheels mysteriously locked on approach to the Bell property. After witnessing his men being tormented, Jackson reportedly declared he'd "rather fight the British than the Bell Witch."

The haunting culminated with John Bell's death in 1820, when a mysterious black liquid appeared in the medicine cabinet—liquid that killed a cat instantly when tested. As mourners gathered for Bell's funeral, Kate's mocking laughter echoed through the cemetery, a final act of cruelty that cemented this case as uniquely malevolent. Whether demonic entity, vengeful spirit, or something else entirely, the Bell Witch remains paranormal history's most compelling mystery. Next time you hear knocking at night, remember—it could be more than just the wind.

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After taking a much needed hiatus and having to record this episode multiple times due to technical issues.  The paranormal peeps have returned. 

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!  We have some special guests on the show for our Halloween Episode!  Thank you to Luke and Tammy for joining us for a fun night of recording.

Long before the witch trials in Salem, England had their own and one of the most infamous being that of the Pendle Witches. 

The trials of the Pendle witches in 1612 are among the most famous witch trials in English history, and some of the best recorded of the 17th century. The twelve accused lived in the area surrounding Pendle Hill in Lancashire, and were charged with the murders of ten people by the use of witchcraft. All but two were tried at Lancaster Assizes on 18–19 August 1612, along with the Samlesbury witches and others, in a series of trials that have become known as the Lancashire witch trials. One was tried at York Assizes on 27 July 1612, and another died in prison. Of the eleven who went to trial – nine women and two men – ten were found guilty and executed by hanging; one was found not guilty.

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Drover's Inn is known as one of the most haunted locations in Scotland.  Dating back to the early 1700's this Inn was once the season staying place of the cattle herders known as drovers.  They would move their herd from the highlands to the lowlands, and would stop at the Inn for a rest.  This practice lead to at least one known haunting from a man named Angus.  What other events have lead to the hauntings at this location?

Promo: And Then They Were Gone

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On recommendation and submission from one of our listeners, we come just down the road from the recording studio to Lehi Utah.  Named after a prophet in the Book of Mormon, this town located in northern Utah has an amazing history.  It also has some great ghost stories from haunted hospitals to restaurants. This town has several great ghost stories.

Promo: The Bell Witch Podcast 

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Ghost encounters can be scary for people when they are able to get away from the ghost, but what happens when you are on a boat at sea?  Listen to some truly scary tales of ghostly encounters on board ships at sea.  Would you stay the entire cruise in a haunted room?

Promo: The Haunted and the Strange

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