Before The Conjuring 2 terrified moviegoers, there was a real family — living through something no one could explain.

In 1977, the Hodgson family of Enfield, London, reported furniture moving on its own, voices echoing from the walls, and violent disturbances witnessed by police, reporters, and paranormal investigators alike.

But what really happened inside that house?

In this episode, State of the Unknown host Robert Barber uncovers the true story behind The Conjuring 2, the real Enfield Poltergeist case. You’ll hear what the investigators saw, what skeptics uncovered, and what the surviving witnesses still believe nearly fifty years later.

🎧 Listen now — and decide for yourself what haunted 284 Green Street.

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State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast tracing the haunted highways, forgotten folklore, and unexplained phenomena across America’s 50 states.

👁️‍🗨️ New episodes every Tuesday — with full-length stories every other week, and shorter mini tales in between.
📬 Reach out: [email protected]
📣 Follow the strange: @stateoftheunknownpodcast on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, & Threads
🔍 Want more? Visit stateoftheunknown.com to explore show notes and submit your own story.

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Some stories don’t stay buried.
We go looking anyway.

In 1981, a quiet Connecticut town became the center of one of the strangest murder cases in American history.

When nineteen-year-old Arne Johnson stabbed his landlord, he claimed something no U.S. court had ever heard before, that he was possessed by a demon.

This episode of State of the Unknown uncovers the true story that inspired The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Host Robert Barber takes you inside the real case, from the alleged possession of eleven-year-old David Glatzel, to the Warrens’ controversial involvement, to the trial that tried to put the Devil on the witness stand.

You’ll hear what was verified, what was exaggerated, and what Hollywood left behind. No jump scares. No clichés. Just the documented events, chilling details, and quiet questions that still haunt Connecticut to this day.

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State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast tracing the haunted highways, forgotten folklore, and unexplained phenomena across America’s 50 states.

👁️‍🗨️ New episodes every Tuesday — with full-length stories every other week, and shorter mini tales in between.
📬 Reach out: [email protected]
📣 Follow the strange: @stateoftheunknownpodcast on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, & Threads
🔍 Want more? Visit stateoftheunknown.com to explore show notes and submit your own story.

## Join the Conversation ##
Join the conversation! Head to our Facebook group at State of the Unknown Listeners to connect with other listeners, suggest topics, and get behind-the-scenes updates.

Some stories don’t stay buried.
We go looking anyway.

In the world of paranormal encounters and urban folklore, few stories are more chilling than this one.

Before The Conjuring turned her into a horror icon, Annabelle was real — a simple Raggedy Ann doll at the center of one of the most documented real hauntings in American history.

In this episode of State of the Unknown, host Robert Barber explores the true paranormal story of Annabelle - from the strange movements witnessed by two nursing students in 1970s Connecticut to the terrifying investigation led by Ed and Lorraine Warren.

Discover how an innocent gift became one of the most infamous haunted objects in haunted America, and how its legend continues to shape creepy history and eerie stories to this day.

If you love true paranormal stories, haunted history, and the darker corners of American folklore, this one’s for you.

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Support the show

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast tracing the haunted highways, forgotten folklore, and unexplained phenomena across America’s 50 states.

👁️‍🗨️ New episodes every Tuesday — with full-length stories every other week, and shorter mini tales in between.
📬 Reach out: [email protected]
📣 Follow the strange: @stateoftheunknownpodcast on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, & Threads
🔍 Want more? Visit stateoftheunknown.com to explore show notes and submit your own story.

## Join the Conversation ##
Join the conversation! Head to our Facebook group at State of the Unknown Listeners to connect with other listeners, suggest topics, and get behind-the-scenes updates.

Some stories don’t stay buried.
We go looking anyway.

Before Hollywood gave it a name, there was the real story.
Between 1974 and 1989, Jack and Janet Smurl claimed their quiet Pennsylvania duplex had become a battleground of good and evil — a haunting so violent it drew the attention of famed investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.

In this episode of State of the Unknown, Robert Barber revisits one of America’s most disturbing real-life hauntings - the true events that inspired The Conjuring: Last Rites. From unexplainable noises and levitations to an alleged demonic presence that terrorized an ordinary family, this case remains one of the most chilling chapters in modern paranormal history.

🎧 Haunted history. True encounters. Real fear.

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Support the show

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast tracing the haunted highways, forgotten folklore, and unexplained phenomena across America’s 50 states.

👁️‍🗨️ New episodes every Tuesday — with full-length stories every other week, and shorter mini tales in between.
📬 Reach out: [email protected]
📣 Follow the strange: @stateoftheunknownpodcast on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, & Threads
🔍 Want more? Visit stateoftheunknown.com to explore show notes and submit your own story.

## Join the Conversation ##
Join the conversation! Head to our Facebook group at State of the Unknown Listeners to connect with other listeners, suggest topics, and get behind-the-scenes updates.

Some stories don’t stay buried.
We go looking anyway.

This October, State of the Unknown presents a special haunted series: the true stories behind The Conjuring movies.

Join host Robert Barber as we dive into the real cases Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated — the ones that became the inspiration for The Conjuring: Last Rites, Annabelle, The Devil Made Me Do It, and The Conjuring 2. From the Smurl Haunting in Pennsylvania to the infamous Enfield Poltergeist, we’ll separate fact from Hollywood and uncover the chilling truth behind the Conjuring universe.

Follow State of the Unknown wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss a single haunted story this October.

Send us a text

Support the show

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast tracing the haunted highways, forgotten folklore, and unexplained phenomena across America’s 50 states.

👁️‍🗨️ New episodes every Tuesday — with full-length stories every other week, and shorter mini tales in between.
📬 Reach out: [email protected]
📣 Follow the strange: @stateoftheunknownpodcast on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, & Threads
🔍 Want more? Visit stateoftheunknown.com to explore show notes and submit your own story.

## Join the Conversation ##
Join the conversation! Head to our Facebook group at State of the Unknown Listeners to connect with other listeners, suggest topics, and get behind-the-scenes updates.

Some stories don’t stay buried.
We go looking anyway.

St. Louis, Missouri. Once a mansion of chandeliers, marble, and fortune — now one of the most haunted houses in America.

The Lemp family built their empire on beer, but inside their 33-room mansion, sorrow took root. Five suicides. A legacy of grief. And a house that refuses to let go of its past.

Today, the Lemp Mansion is famous for more than history. Guests report footsteps in empty hallways. Staff hear boots crossing the ballroom after midnight. Paranormal investigators capture whispers - even the laughter of a child long gone.

Join host Robert Barber as we step inside the haunted Lemp Mansion - to explore its history, its ghosts, and the lingering question: is it the family that haunts these halls, or the grief itself?

This is State of the Unknown.

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Support the show

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast tracing the haunted highways, forgotten folklore, and unexplained phenomena across America’s 50 states.

👁️‍🗨️ New episodes every Tuesday — with full-length stories every other week, and shorter mini tales in between.
📬 Reach out: [email protected]
📣 Follow the strange: @stateoftheunknownpodcast on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, & Threads
🔍 Want more? Visit stateoftheunknown.com to explore show notes and submit your own story.

## Join the Conversation ##
Join the conversation! Head to our Facebook group at State of the Unknown Listeners to connect with other listeners, suggest topics, and get behind-the-scenes updates.

Some stories don’t stay buried.
We go looking anyway.

In September 1961, Betty and Barney Hill were driving through New Hampshire’s White Mountains when a strange light in the sky began to follow them. Hours later, they pulled into their driveway with two hours of missing time — and a story that would become America’s first widely publicized alien abduction.

Torn clothing. Watches that would never tick again. A trembling dog that wouldn’t leave Betty’s side. And under hypnosis, Barney’s voice breaking as he screamed about “the eyes” — eyes he swore were burned into his mind.

Join host Robert B. as State of the Unknown revisits that night on Route 3, unraveling the Hill abduction in vivid detail. From Betty’s recurring dreams of being taken aboard a craft, to Barney’s chilling hypnosis sessions, to the infamous “star map” pointing to Zeta Reticuli, this case laid the foundation for everything we now recognize in modern alien abduction lore.

Was it stress and fractured memory, shaped by dreams and fear? Or the night two ordinary people truly came face-to-face with something not of this Earth?

🎧 Listen now to The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Abduction: America’s First Alien Encounter — and decide for yourself.

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Support the show

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast tracing the haunted highways, forgotten folklore, and unexplained phenomena across America’s 50 states.

👁️‍🗨️ New episodes every Tuesday — with full-length stories every other week, and shorter mini tales in between.
📬 Reach out: [email protected]
📣 Follow the strange: @stateoftheunknownpodcast on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, & Threads
🔍 Want more? Visit stateoftheunknown.com to explore show notes and submit your own story.

## Join the Conversation ##
Join the conversation! Head to our Facebook group at State of the Unknown Listeners to connect with other listeners, suggest topics, and get behind-the-scenes updates.

Some stories don’t stay buried.
We go looking anyway.

Just off the coast of Venice lies a place so feared that even locals refuse to go near it.
Poveglia Island has been called the world’s most haunted island — a former quarantine zone and plague hospital where tens of thousands perished, and where the echoes of suffering seem impossible to silence.

In this episode of State of the Unknown: Out of State, Robert Barber uncovers the true paranormal history of Poveglia — from plague pits and asylums to ghostly sightings and modern-day bans. It’s a haunting unlike any other… and one that still lingers over the waters of the Venetian Lagoon.

🎧 Haunted history. Real places. True fear.

Send us a text

Support the show

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast tracing the haunted highways, forgotten folklore, and unexplained phenomena across America’s 50 states.

👁️‍🗨️ New episodes every Tuesday — with full-length stories every other week, and shorter mini tales in between.
📬 Reach out: [email protected]
📣 Follow the strange: @stateoftheunknownpodcast on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, & Threads
🔍 Want more? Visit stateoftheunknown.com to explore show notes and submit your own story.

## Join the Conversation ##
Join the conversation! Head to our Facebook group at State of the Unknown Listeners to connect with other listeners, suggest topics, and get behind-the-scenes updates.

Some stories don’t stay buried.
We go looking anyway.

For centuries, the legend of Atlantis has captured our imagination — a powerful civilization said to have vanished beneath the sea. Was it a cautionary tale, a historical reality, or something else entirely?

In this episode of State of the Unknown: Out of State, Robert Barber dives into the origins of the Atlantis myth — from Plato’s first writings to modern theories that place it everywhere from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean. Explore the blend of fact, folklore, and mystery that continues to make Atlantis one of humanity’s most enduring legends.

🎧 Ancient myths. Lost worlds. Enduring mysteries.

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Support the show

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast tracing the haunted highways, forgotten folklore, and unexplained phenomena across America’s 50 states.

👁️‍🗨️ New episodes every Tuesday — with full-length stories every other week, and shorter mini tales in between.
📬 Reach out: [email protected]
📣 Follow the strange: @stateoftheunknownpodcast on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, & Threads
🔍 Want more? Visit stateoftheunknown.com to explore show notes and submit your own story.

## Join the Conversation ##
Join the conversation! Head to our Facebook group at State of the Unknown Listeners to connect with other listeners, suggest topics, and get behind-the-scenes updates.

Some stories don’t stay buried.
We go looking anyway.

Deep in the heart of Ireland stands Leap Castle — a centuries-old fortress known for bloodshed, betrayal, and the restless spirits said to haunt its halls. From secret dungeons and family murders to a malevolent presence known only as the Elemental, its story is one of Ireland’s darkest legends.

In this episode of State of the Unknown: Out of State, Robert Barber explores the haunted history and true paranormal stories of Leap Castle — a place where history and horror intertwine, and where the past refuses to stay buried.

🎧 Ancient walls. Real hauntings. True fear.

Send us a text

Support the show

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast tracing the haunted highways, forgotten folklore, and unexplained phenomena across America’s 50 states.

👁️‍🗨️ New episodes every Tuesday — with full-length stories every other week, and shorter mini tales in between.
📬 Reach out: [email protected]
📣 Follow the strange: @stateoftheunknownpodcast on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, & Threads
🔍 Want more? Visit stateoftheunknown.com to explore show notes and submit your own story.

## Join the Conversation ##
Join the conversation! Head to our Facebook group at State of the Unknown Listeners to connect with other listeners, suggest topics, and get behind-the-scenes updates.

Some stories don’t stay buried.
We go looking anyway.