Strange and Dreadful Things

Every Halloween, every village, town, and city dredge up their favorite spooky stories. Where I live is no different. Come and hear some of the legends and stories that I grew up with as I tell you about cursed statues, wailing spirits, and haunted houses.

When Johann Whynack married his Marie, he hoped that they would spend the rest of their lives happily ever after. But Marie loved another man, and saw no reason to stop seeing him even after she was married. As the marriage continued, the love triangle quickly took a toll on their lives as it spiraled into physical abuse and murder.

In 1965, two police officers knocked on the door of a small house in Houston, Texas. They were there to check on Fred and Edwina Rogers, an elderly couple who hadn't contacted their family for a week. Going inside the house, they found no one. On an impulse, they opened the refriderator and discovered one of the most gruesome crimes to ever occur in Texas history.

In 1996, Bobie and Marilyn Blewer, professional food vendors from Missouri, set up their trailer at the Iowa State Fair. It was - and is - one of the biggest fairs in the country, and had been a regular stop for the Blewers for twenty years. Then, one sunny afternoon, as thousands of people enjoyed the rides and entertainment, word began travelling amongst the other vendors that something had happened to the Blewers. The word was that they had been murdered. What had happened, and who had done it?

When it was built in 1903, the Claypool Hotel was designed to be the best and brightest of Indianapolis' hotels. And, for forty years, it was. Then, starting in 1943, a serious of tragic events that included two murders and a fire led to the Claypool's dramatic destruction in the 1960's. But does something of the grand old hotel still linger on the site it formerly occupied in downtown Indianapolis?

In 1954, two maids found a horrible odor coming from a dresser in one of the rooms at the Claypool Hotel. When the dresser was searched, hotel staff found the badly decomposed body of a woman in the bottom drawer. Her name was Dorothy Poore, an 18-year-old trying to build a future in Indianapolis. What had happened to her, and who had put her body in the drawer?

Maoma Ridings had joined the United States Army during World War II to aid the war effort. A professional nurse turned physiotherapist; she was a young woman who enjoyed a good time. On August 30, 1943, she was found murdered in an Indianapolis hotel room. Who had ended the life of the well-liked nurse from Georgia?

In 1990, a highway patrolman in Arizona stopped to check on a semi pulled off to the side of the road. Inside he found a woman who was naked, handcuffed, and wearing a horse bridle. While the driver, Robert Ben Rhodes, said that everything was consensual. The patrolman suspected otherwise. The investigation would turn into a nationwide investigation leading to one of the most evil killers to ever prowl America’s roadways.

In January of 1926, Ed Rinebold was driving his normal newspaper deliver route in western Illinois when he had a strange feeling. The car at the railroad crossing had just been in an accident. He hadn’t heard or seen anything, but just knew that’s what happened. When he went back, the flaming ruins of the car and the bodies on the ground told him he was right. What had happened, and how did Ed know?

On the night of October 9, 1896, the town of Corning, Iowa was awakened by an alarm bell. A fire had broken out near the railroad tracks on the south side of town. As firemen and citizens fought the blaze, little did they know that an even bigger disaster was about to happen right behind them.