Sinister Sisters

On this week’s episode, Felicia’s urban legend might be the Greatest Of All Time while Lauren’s cultural tale might be the weirdest of all time! 

First, Felicia explores the urban legend of the Goatman of Maryland - a half goat / half human hybrid cryptid who is rumored to reside in the woods of Prince George's County and reportedly responsible for countless unexplained dog disappearances & deaths over the decades since the 1970s. There are several theories on this Greek mythology-inspired urban legend with how the Goatman may have come to be…but is truth stranger than fiction?

Next, Lauren documents the funeral rituals of the Torajan people on Sulawesi Island. Every 3 years, for more than 900 years, the people of the Lembang Paton Village perform the Ma'nene death ritual aka "The Ceremony of Cleaning Corpses" in which natives of this Indonesian island dig up the bodies of their dead mummified relatives to clean them, dry them, and nicely dress them to spend time with them before burying them again. If you thought your family get-togethers were awkward…

This week we’re going Gothic with 2 classic monsters universally known and the true tales behind their masks! 

First, Lauren uncovers a case centering around recent discovery of alleged remains of a female "vampire" in the Polish village of Pień. In September 2022, archaeologists unearthed a skeleton dating to the 17th-century that featured some strange burial rituals, including a sickle across its neck and a padlock on its toe. The skull also has a large protruding fang-like tooth! Lauren also explores the 17th & 18th-Century Vampire Controversy in which real life superstition surrounding vampires ran rampant in Eastern Europe, leading to countless deaths and odd burials much like our own Salem Witch Trials stateside. 

Next, Felicia tells the true story behind the Phantom of the Opera and all of the true life details that inspired French author Gaston Leroux to write his classic novel first published in 1910. Which of course went on to inspire everything from the Universal Monsters movie from 1925 starring Lon Chaney to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Broadway smash hit musical. And with the musical finally closing after its epic 35 year run, it feels only fitting to finally learn more about the real history behind the page, the stage, and the screen! In fact, the real life tragedy that took place in an actual Parisian theatre might be even more upsetting than the masked Phantom's tragic tale…

This week, we’re both covering stories from The Lone Star State with a couple of con people! Where’s that Southern hospitality?! 🤠

First, Felicia covers the case of Frédéric Bourdin - a notorious serial imposter from France who earned the nickname "The Chameleon.” Since childhood, Bourdin is believed to have assumed at least 500 false identities throughout his life. But none more infamous than the case of the Barclay family in San Antonio who, at age 23, Bourdin convinced was their long lost 13-year-old son that had mysteriously vanished from his neighborhood in 1994. 

Next, Lauren tells the tale of Helen Hadsell - a woman known as the “Contest Queen" for how many contests she won in the ‘50s & ‘60s. With prizes ranging from lavish all-expense paid trips to even a whole house that was showcased in the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, Hadsell was a real life Lady Luck! Until later in her life when she became involved with Laredo cult leader Jose Silva and his Silva Mind Control approach. Under Silva, she went on to give lectures on mind control and positive thinking as a self proclaimed “Doctor of Metaphysics,” even retconning her earlier contest wins to imply they were due to these techniques.

This week, we’re going from fires underground to “fires in the sky”! 🔥🛸 

First up, Lauren explores the abandoned ghost town of Centralia, Pennsylvania - an old mining town that steadily declined in population over the decades since 1962 due to a coal mine fire which has continued to mysteriously burn under the ground for 60 years straight. This creepy location even served as the spooky inspiration for the Silent Hill film adaptation! 

Next, Felicia opens up the X-Files on a few more recent UFO cases, focusing on the modern disclosure movement and release of the various UAP reports from the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, as first covered in the famous New York Times expose in 2017. 👽

Links: 
60 Minutes Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBtMbBPzqHY

Centralia Spooky Website: https://offroaders.com/album/centralia/haunted.htm

On this week’s episode it’s possessed bodies and bodies without identities! 

First up: we’ve of course covered specific exorcism cases on the show, but on this episode, Felicia exercises the demons and explores the broad history of exorcisms, dating all the way back to written text to modern day, with roots in religion and the Catholic church. 

Then Lauren covers the mysterious case of The Somerton Man - this well-dressed mystery man was found on the shores of a beach in an Australian suburb with no clear cause of death, no identification and only random objects in his pocket, including a scrap of paper with the Persian phrase “tamám shud” (“is finished”). It’s one of the most perplexing mysteries from down under that has plagued amateur sleuths and armchair detectives alike for nearly 75 years! But has the who in this whodunnit finally been solved in this year thanks to forensic genetic genealogy?!

We’re back with Part 2 of our paranormal 2-parter from last week! 

This week, Lauren is up as she explores the Lemp Mansion in St. Louis, Missouri - said to be one of the top ten most haunted places in America! Built in the 1860s, this mansion just off the Mississippi River has been everything from a millionaire's home to a boarding house and even a dead, er, bed-and-breakfast as it is today. But is it also home to specters, spirits, and spooks?! Find out the history of this historic and haunted house and its storied paranormal activity through the ages in this week’s episode!

This week, there was so much to pack in that it’s a spooky 2-parter, featuring Felicia’s story this week and Lauren’s story next week! 

First up this week, Felicia explores the phenomena of NDE’s, or Near-Death Experiences, as she focuses on the story of Pam Reynolds - a singer/songwriter who was knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door during a brain operation. Her story has been purported as proof for out-body-experiences and life after death, with near-death studies proponents considering her operating table tale “evidence of the survival of consciousness after death.” 

Step into the light with us, Carol Anne, to find out in this week’s episode! And tune-in next week as Lauren explores The Lemp Mansion - one of the ten most haunted places in America!

In this week's episode, it’s haunted towns in Connecticut all the way to haunted hospitals in Costa Rica! 

Lauren explores the abandoned settlement and real life “ghost town” of Dudleytown in northwestern Connecticut. Settled in the early 1740s, this town (which was never an actual town) has been closed to the public since the mid-1900s. Was it a curse placed on the Dudley family that caused the demise of Dudleytown? And do ghosts still haunt this ghost town? 

Then from North America to South America, Felicia explores another possibly haunted, definitely deserted location - the Durán Sanatorium! Built in 1918 to treat tuberculosis patients as well as an asylum for the mentally ill, it was later used as an orphanage and then a prison. That is, until it was abandoned in the 1970s after the Irazú Volcano erupted nearby and damaged the building. Guess that’s why they call it the most haunted place in Costa Rica!

In this week's episode, Felicia dives into the true story behind the horror movie classic, The Changeling. In the late 1960s, composer Russell Hunter experienced strange paranormal activity in an old home in Denver. This story has hidden staircases, ghost little boys, and of course, a red rubber ball. 

Lauren covers a freaky cryptid with more first hand sightings than most. The Enfield Monster was first seen in April 1973 in Enfield, Illinois. These early sightings blew up in the media and led to a wave of hysteria and panic in the small town. Could it be an alien, an escaped zoo animal, or perhaps just social contagion at its finest? 

This week, it’s spooky staircases in the woods and spookier castles in the Scottish countryside!

First, Lauren explores the unexplained phenomena of “staircases in the woods” - like something out of an MC Escher piece, these mysterious isolated wooden or stone staircases have been found deep in numerous national parks & forests (and now across the world) with no signs of structures attached to them, seemingly leading nowhere…or do they?! Are they gateways to hell or other dimensions?! Are they pulpits for Satanic cult rituals?! What are they for?! Who is walking up them?! Take your own steps to find out...listen if you dare!

Next, Felicia picks up from last week with Part 2 of Glamis Castle aka “The most haunted castle in Scotland.” 300 years before the “Monster of Glamis” Thomas Lyon-Bowes, the Lady Glamis Janet Douglas Lyon was burned as a witch in 1537 at only 39-years-old after she was falsely accused of witchcraft and plotting to poison King James V. She was one of 2,000 Scots (mostly women) burned as a witches at Castlehill between 1479-1722, when Edinburgh was the witch-burning capital of Europe. These witch hunts targeted women, especially those with any kind of power or property and/or who challenged the patriarchy. Find out more about Scotland’s own Salem Witch Trails this week!