Built in 1894, the seven-story Hotel Jermyn has been a Scranton landmark for over a century. Named after coal baron John Jermyn, the 200-room hotel has seen scores of famous and infamous guests alike, from President Eisenhower to mafia hitmen, and has boasted a bevy of locally-famous bars and nightclubs such as the Omar Room, which opened in 1935 and showcased renowned performers of the era like Pauline Gaskins, Frank Fay and Red Nichols.  

Today, the Scranton landmark once known as the Hotel Jermyn now operates as an apartment building for seniors. Perhaps some of the older residents may remember dancing the night away in the hotel's Arabian Ballroom or slaking their thirst in the Manhattan Bar. And perhaps some of them might still recall that strange night in 1947 when a young woman named Ethel White mysteriously jumped to her death from her seventh floor window.

Located about seventy-five miles northeast of Pittsburgh, Reynoldsville is a small, quiet town which hasn't seen much excitement since the 1920s, when a handful of factories and silk mills attracted workers to the tiny borough. In the summer of 1928, Frank Chiffin was employed at the silk mill as a watchman. The close proximity between the mill and his home allowed him to keep tabs on his family. He kept a particularly close watch on his wife, who was fifteen years younger and said to be quite attractive, and before long Frank Chiffin began to suspect that Gertrude was having an affair. What happened next? Listen to this episode and find out.

Located near the center of the Lock Haven University campus, Woolridge Hall is home to over two hundred college students. While scores of students have passed though the doors of this modern building since its construction in 1962, many would be surprised to learn that this spot was once the location of "Hillside"-- the sprawling estate of state senator Samuel Richard Peale and his wife, Harriet. It was also the site of a mysterious suicide in 1884.

The story of Solomon "Bip" Vawn is well known throughout Pennsylvania. It is a classic tale of a runaway slave who, despite unbelievable odds, finds freedom north of the Mason-Dixon Line and lives out the remainder of his days in peace and prosperity. There are many different versions of the story; in some accounts, Bip dies at a ripe old age and is buried on his farm in Mont Alto in Franklin County, while other versions of the story have him retiring to Ohio or Southern California. But what is the truth behind this classic Pennsylvania fable?

One of Montgomery County's most perplexing unsolved mysteries is the 1932 death of Samuel Forti, whose battered body was found hanging in the washroom of the Werner Foundry in Lansdale, where he worked as a night watchman. At various times, authorities believed that Forti's death was the result of suicide, an attack by a burglar, revenge by a jealous lover, and-- perhaps strangest of all-- a shadowy religious cult.

A decade ago, the law enforcement community of Chester County wanted to pay tribute to a sheriff who was killed on his second day on the job in 1887. They chose to memorialize the long-forgotten sheriff, Benjamin Irey, with an 18-by-15-inch bronze plaque at the courthouse in West Chester. Usually, such ceremonies involve descendants of the fallen hero's family. But in the case of Benjamin Irey, county officials were unable to find any of his descendants-- and, for a very peculiar reason: The Irey family bloodline was obliterated by a baffling series of strange deaths.

The Moosic Mountains of Lackawanna County are just a stone's throw away from the urban centers of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, yet they still contain dark, shadowy, seemingly impenetrable places steeped in mystery dating back to Indian times. However, one of the most fascinating mysteries doesn't date back to the early settler days, but to the early 20th century, when the coal mining industry reigned supreme. It is the mystery of a skeleton of an unknown man whose bones might be scattered anywhere except the spot they were first buried in 1906.

In the early hours of September 10, 1896, the sleepy town of Bloomsburg became the center of one of the most diabolical murder plots ever concocted by the human mind. Poison, dynamite and deadly microbes-- these were the tools used by Clifton Knorr, a disgruntled son  of a wealthy businessman hired by prominent local lawyer Lloyd S. Wintersteen to eliminate his chief rival.

With its fieldstone construction reminiscent of a Medieval fortress, the William Penn Memorial Fire Tower is a Reading landmark that turns about as many heads as its Mt. Penn neighbor, the Pagoda. While both structures are unofficial historic symbols of Berks County's largest  city, the fire tower has a particularly strange history-- a history marked by irony, tragedy and perhaps even an Indian curse.

Amid the sprawling wilderness of the Allegheny National Forest, miles from the nearest town, four roads converge in a remote spot in Howe Township, where a wooden cross marks the lonesome grave of a murder victim long forgotten. Although the name 'Turner' is etched into the weather-beaten memorial, most locals can't quite say who the unfortunate man was or when he died; all they can tell you is that it happened long, long ago.