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The 1970s and 80s was a hotbed of excellent paranormal horror films – The Exorcist, the original Amityville Horror, Halloween, Carrie, Eraserhead, Dawn of the Dead, Suspiria, Invasion of the Body Snatchers…. I could go on. It was quite the era of film – and remarkably, some of these legendary tales are based on true stories.

One of the lesser known films of this era is The Entity. It’s sort of your run-of-the-mill poltergeist film: single mother, claims she’s being attacked and harassed physically and sexually by a ghost or demon or something…

But! It was based on the true story of Doris Bither…whose case was, in fact, rather unique for an alleged haunting.

Sources: 

1) https://skepticalinquirer.org/2021/10/a-closer-look-at-the-entity-photographs/
2) https://laghosttour.com/the-entity-house/
3) https://www.themysticmedium.com/the-entity-haunting-the-doris-bither-story/
4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Bither_case
5) https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/paranormal-activity-ucla-haunting-story

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Today on STM I’m taking it back to the early 1800s and the village of Hammersmith, located in foggy London. 

Nowadays, Hammersmith is a populated area within the Greater London area, home to almost 200,000 people . In December of 1803, However, the village only had about 5,500 inhabitants - the perfect setting for local gossip to run amok. 

And amok it ran! Tales of an ominous specter were spreading among the village. It was described as a white-shrouded figure that would stalk Black Lion Lane. Some said it wore calfskin clothes and had horns and large glass-like eyes. Local legend was that the spectre was actually the restless spirit of a man who’d taken his own life the year before, and who was now condemned to haunt the grounds of St. Paul’s churchyard.

But was the figure really a ghost?

And how did this lead to a legal dilemma that would last for 200 years?

Sources: 

1) https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2015/10/the-case-of-a-ghost-haunted-england-for-over-two-hundred-years/
2) https://www.historicmysteries.com/history/hammersmith-ghost/37316/ 
3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammersmith_Ghost_murder_case 
4) https://www.discoveryuk.com/mysteries/the-hammersmith-ghost-londons-paranormal-murder/ 

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The Dybbuk box first gained popularity in 2003, after a man by the name of Kevin Mannis posted the Dybbuk box for sale on ebay. He claimed that the Dybbuk box was haunted and was causing a lot of strange and supernatural things to happen to both him and his family. 

Sources: 

1) https://jewitches.com/blogs/blog/the-deal-with-the-dybbuk?srsltid=AfmBOooiwzKe-kwg8ZBK2fCzzIa10aX_7PbGLT9DV-QiFa2KlCeknEQl
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repentance_in_Judaism
3) https://www.inverse.com/input/features/dybbuk-box-dibbuk-kevin-mannis-zak-bagans-haunted-hoax-revealed
4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dybbuk_box

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Hello and welcome to Small Town Mysteries, spooky season edition! This October we’re bringing you some truly bizarre cases – ones that we think simply scream Supernatural…are they truly the works of ghosts and phantoms? Are these crimes caused by otherworldly beings…or are humans the most depraved creature of all? I’m Kate, here with Christine and Rachael, bringing you our the first episode of our annual Spooky Season Series, The Death of Zona Shue…also known as the Greenbrier Ghost. 

Sources: 

1) https://appalachianmemories.org/2025/01/10/the-greenbrier-ghost-the-case-where-a-spirit-helped-convict-a-murderer/
2) https://dannyechase.com/blog/greenbrier/
3) https://greenbrierwv.com/editorials/the-greenbrier-ghost
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenbrier_Ghost
4) 

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On a Monday morning in February 1986, in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles, Sherri Rasmussen’s life came to a violent end. Sherri, a young nurse, was found dead in her condo. She had been brutally beaten and shot three times.
Following this discovery, the Los Angeles Police Department quickly labeled the case as a botched burglary. But to Sherri's father, Nels, this felt wrong. He had a suspect in mind from the very beginning, one he had even told police about. A woman who couldn't let go of the man Sherri had just married. A woman who just happened to be an LAPD officer herself.
This is the story of a cold case that went unsolved for over two decades. A story of obsession, murder, and the blue wall of silence.

Sources: 

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sherri_Rasmussen
2) https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-lapd-detective-hid-murder-decades-wont-paroled-reversing-earlier-de-rcna173723
3) https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/stephanie-lazarus-former-lapd-detective-who-shot-ex-lovers-new-wife-has-parole-denied-again/
4) https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-05-15/it-took-lapd-23-years-to-identify-police-detective-as-culprit-in-fatal-love-triangle
5) https://abcnews.go.com/US/former-lapd-detective-murdered-lovers-wife-hid-crime/story?id=113955531
6) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/52954546/sherri_rae-rasmussen 

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On July 4, 2016, David Isaiah Goodwin (age 25)  murdered Wendy Tamagne (age 37) and then dismembered her body and shoved her remains into trashbags.

Sources: 

1) https://wcti12.com/news/local/deliberations-finish-jury-begins-discussion-of-sentencing-for-david-godwin
2) https://www.wnct.com/news/david-godwin-sentenced-to-death-justice-has-been-served/
3) https://www.jdnews.com/news/murder-suspect-to-be-returned-to-carteret-county-to-face-charges/article_3d2ca89e-a450-5cc6-9941-4f1e0c8e4aee.html
4) https://www.newbernsj.com/news/local/wendy-tamagne-remembered-as-caring-friendly/article_dfa05da8-d8ab-5827-8e18-e82585b744f0.html
5) https://www.gofundme.com/f/welovewendyrae

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Sometimes on this podcast, or in true crime in general, there’s discussion over so-called “black widows,” or women who have had multiple husbands die mysteriously, with the implication that they were responsible for those deaths. 

But that’s not why we’re here today. Today, we’re going to talk about a bluebeard – yes, a man rather similar to a black widow, whose wives or partners mysteriously died. 

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Over 40 years ago, on July 15th, 1984, in the rugged wilderness of the Madison Range in Montana, 22-year-old Kari Swenson went missing. 

Kari was a recent Montana State University graduate and rising star in the world of biathlon, a sport that combines cross country skiing and rifle shooting. One sunny morning in July, Kari went for a run on a scenic forest trail. She was actually hoping to see a grizzly bear during her run, as it was an animal she’d always wanted to see. But instead of a bear, she encountered two men. 

Sources: 

1) https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/100/newsmakers/mountain-men-kidnap-murder-captured-world-s-attention/article_b7b40ff8-c53e-11e0-b014-001cc4c03286.html 
2) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/24/mountain-man-freed-32-years-after-kidnapping-athlete-to-be-sons-bride
3) https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/28086785/30-30-podcast-how-gender-politics-tragedy-changed-kari-swenson-biathlon-generation
4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kari_Swenson 

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One unhinged person murders their in-laws and the sister of her mother-in-law via death cap mushrooms. 

Sources: 

1) https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy3ngr2n3vo
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leongatha_mushroom_murders
3) https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-02/police-charge-erin-patterson-mushroom-poisoning-deaths/103056694
4) https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/30/erin-patterson-mushroom-poisonings-murder-trial-ntwnfb
5) https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/son-pays-tribute-to-extremely-thoughtful-and-generous-parents-gail-and-don-patterson-after-they-died-from-mushroom-poisoning-following-leongatha-lunch/news-story/2b5f5ad4e303390e5312c4077b7b46a9
6) https://www.sgst.com.au/news/memorial-service-brings-home-depth-of-korumburra-tragedy
7) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-67002918
8) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_phalloides
9) https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-04/mushroom-poisoning-victim-heather-wilkinson-memorial-service/102929526
10) https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-10/gail-don-patterson-heather-ian-wilkinson-erin-patterson-mushroom/105513208

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On May 13, 1998, the body of a woman was found on the side of I-85 in Spartanburg, South Carolina. On September 25 of the same year, the body of a young boy was found underneath a billboard off of I-85 in Mebane, North Carolina. The bodies were found about 3 hours away from each other – in different months, in different stages of decay, even in different states. But more than 20 years later, the truth would come out – connecting these bodies, their lives, and their deaths, once and for all. 

Sources: 

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensic_palynology
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotope_analysis
3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Bobby_Whitt_and_Myoung_Hwa_Cho
4) https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article225508170.html
5) https://people.com/crime/john-mebane-doe-murdered-north-carolina-new-photo/
6) https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/investigations/two-decades-ago-a-10-year-old-was-killed-now-his-fathers-been-charged-with-murder/275-b4a44661-02a5-4269-a8ee-fad621c769ee
7) https://local12.com/news/local/brown-co-family-says-final-goodbye-to-missing-boy-found-murdered-in-1998
8) https://www.wral.com/man-to-spend-rest-of-life-behind-bars-for-killing-wife-boy-whose-remains-were-found-under-mebane-billboard/18888831/
9) https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article230338529.html

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