In this episode of Strange Matters the bizarre and unusual topic of crimes involving sleepwalking murders is discussed.  Though hard to imagine, in rare instances of homicide crimes an individual is actually capable of brutal and violent murder, all the while remaining asleep.  Though many have tried and failed to use the “sleepwalking defense” through the years, for a select few cases the actions of the killer, and the science behind the condition, do show that a person is perfectly capable of murdering others while sleepwalking.
The idea that people were capable of killing in their sleep has been around for hundreds of years, but very rarely has it been successful in defending the accused.  Many have tried to claim they were in a parasomnia state at the time they committed murder, but due to the scientific and behavioral studies of the modern world it is known their actions could not have been done while sleepwalking.  However, there are a small number of cases where the most likely and agreed upon theory is that the murderer was actually asleep during the entirety of their crime.


Sleepwalking Murders

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This episode of Strange Matters presents a particularly disturbing crime that took place in the early 20th century, in France.   The story involves two sisters who worked as maids for an upper class family.  The Papin Sisters had been employed by the family for seven years, and had been described as idyllic workers.   Things weren’t as perfect as it seemed, however.   A sudden and gruesome act by the sisters would shock the country of France, and would be regarded as one of the worst crimes committed in the century.  This episode will go over the history and background of the Papin Sisters, the details of their terrible crime, and the aftermath of the event that would quickly become the top story of its time.
Click here to check out Strange Matter’s episode on the condition known as Shared Psychosis.

The Papin Sisters

This episode of Strange Matters details an area of Lake Michigan that has become quite infamous for a number of strange and deadly incidents.  For more than a century, there have been cases of unexplained shipwrecks, disappearances, plane crashes, and mysterious lights in the sky, all over Lake Michigan.   As the strange stories and legends of unanswered mysteries of the lake grew, the region where all these incidents occurred would be nicknamed the “Lake Michigan Triangle.”  This episode will present a number of the mysterious and dark events that have all occurred over the waters of Lake Michigan.

The Lake Michigan Triangle

This episode of Strange Matters talks about a weird weather phenomenon that happened in 1994.  In a small city in the state of Washington, the people were surprised by what happened during some rainstorms.  Instead of seeing the familiar regular rain, the folks of Oakville had to deal with the sky opening up and dropping “blobs” on them.  What these blobs were has remained a mystery for decades now.  This episode presents the details of what happened when the blobs starting to rain down, and the possible theories that have been put forth by the Oakville citizens to try and make some sense of this strange event.

The Oakville Blobs

Fate.  Death.  The Fox.   The various nicknames signed by a man who sent out ransom notes regarding the kidnapping of a twelve year old girl named Marion Parker.
This episode of Strange Matters discusses the terrifying and disturbing events surrounding an infamous kidnapping case that took place in Los Angeles in 1927.   A young girl named Marion Parker was abducted by a smooth talking man, right from her own school.  Meanwhile, her father would be contacted by the same man demanding ransom money.  This individual would become commonly known as The Fox.  This disturbing case would ultimately be referred to at the time as the “Crime of the Century.”  This episode goes over all the details of the kidnapping, the investigation of the police trying to figure out who the Fox was, and the tragic outcome of this dark crime.

The Fox

This episode of Strange Matters talks about the phenomenon known as Time Slips.   Time Slips refer to events in which a person supposedly either leaves their own timeline to get a glimpse of something in the past or future, or sees something in the present of a person or object from another time era.  This episode goes over details of these so called “Time Slips,” as well as presents various stories of people who have said to experienced such things.

Sleepwalking Murders

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