The Eclectic: True Crime & Paranormal Stories

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Halloween: Where Did It All Begin?

Every October, we carve pumpkins, dress as ghosts and witches, tell frightening stories and fill our homes with things that are supposed to scare us.

But Halloween didn't begin with pumpkins and costumes.

Its history reaches back centuries — through Celtic traditions, Christian observances, folklore, bonfires, the belief that the boundary between the living and the dead could become thinner, and some genuinely strange customs that have almost disappeared from memory.

And then there's the Jack-o'-lantern.

Why do we carve faces into vegetables? Where did the story of Stingy Jack come from? And how did a turnip, a wandering soul and a rather unfortunate bargain with the Devil eventually become the pumpkin sitting in your window every October?

In this special Halloween episode of The Eclectic, we go back to the beginning and trace the strange history behind one of the world's most recognisable celebrations.

From Samhain and All Hallows' Eve to ghosts, disguises, bonfires, fortune-telling and the transformation of turnips into pumpkins, this is the story of how Halloween became Halloween.

Because beneath the costumes and sweets is something much older.

A fascination with death, the dead — and what might happen when the two worlds get a little too close.

🎃 Happy Halloween from The Eclectic.

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On 22 June 1983, fifteen-year-old Emanuela Orlandi left her home in Vatican City to attend a music lesson in Rome.

She never came home.

What followed became one of Italy's most enduring mysteries — a disappearance that would eventually draw in the Vatican, Italian intelligence agencies, organised crime, international politics and decades of speculation.

Emanuela was a Vatican citizen and the daughter of a lay employee who worked inside the Vatican. Her disappearance therefore immediately placed an extraordinary case at the heart of one of the world's most secretive institutions.

There were phone calls. Witnesses. Conflicting accounts. Alleged sightings. Claims that Emanuela had been kidnapped as part of a political bargain. Connections were suggested to the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, the mysterious Banco Ambrosiano scandal and organised crime.

But very little has ever been proven.

Decades later, Emanuela's fate remains unknown.

In this episode of The Eclectic, we follow the events surrounding Emanuela Orlandi's disappearance, examine the major leads and theories, and look at why this case became so deeply entangled with the Vatican itself.

Because this isn't simply the story of a girl who disappeared.

It's a mystery that has spent more than four decades refusing to stay buried.

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Hidden in the East Sussex countryside, the remains of Hellingly Hospital have become the stuff of local legend.

Opened in 1903 as the East Sussex County Asylum, the hospital was built to care for people with mental illnesses at a time when psychiatric treatment looked very different from today. Over the decades, thousands of patients passed through its doors, while the site grew into a sprawling community of wards, treatment buildings and other facilities.

The hospital eventually closed in 1994.

What happened afterwards is another story.

Left abandoned and allowed to deteriorate, Hellingly became increasingly associated with stories of dark corridors, empty wards, strange noises and unexplained encounters. Urban explorers who entered the derelict buildings described an atmosphere that was difficult to shake — and stories about what happened inside soon became almost as famous as the ruins themselves.

But behind the ghost stories is something more complicated.

There are the patients who lived there, the staff who worked there, the changing attitudes towards mental health, and the very real history contained within those crumbling buildings.

In this episode of The Eclectic, we step inside the history of Hellingly Hospital, explore what happened there, look at its years of abandonment, and examine the stories that helped turn an old psychiatric hospital into one of East Sussex's most unsettling locations.

Because sometimes, the history of a place is disturbing enough before you even get to the ghosts.

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The Green Children of Woolpit: The Children Who Came From Somewhere Else

In 12th-century Suffolk, something very strange was said to have happened.

According to medieval accounts, two children appeared near the village of Woolpit. They were dressed in unfamiliar clothing, spoke a language nobody understood — and their skin was reportedly green.

The children were taken in and cared for, eventually learning to eat ordinary food and, according to the accounts, losing their unusual green colouring. The boy died soon afterwards, but the girl survived and was eventually able to communicate. She reportedly described a strange underground world where everything was green and where the two children had been tending livestock before finding themselves in our world.

So what actually happened at Woolpit?

Were the children victims of illness, malnutrition, migration or a misunderstanding that became a legend? Could there be a real event buried beneath the medieval storytelling? Or is the story exactly what it appears to be — a strange piece of folklore that has survived for almost 900 years?

In this episode of The Eclectic, we follow the story of the Green Children of Woolpit, examine the medieval accounts behind it, and separate what was supposedly recorded from the theories that have grown around it ever since.

Some mysteries become less strange with time.

This one somehow became stranger.

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In 1184, hundreds of nobles gathered in the city of Erfurt, Germany, for what should have been an ordinary political meeting.

Instead, they fell through the floor.

The gathering was being held on the upper level of a medieval building above a latrine pit. When the wooden floor collapsed beneath the weight of the assembled nobles, dozens of men plunged into the waste-filled pit below.

Many were crushed beneath the others. Others drowned in the sewage.

What began as a political gathering became one of the strangest and most horrific disasters of the Middle Ages.

In this episode of The Eclectic, we explore the Erfurt Latrine Disaster — what happened, why so many nobles were gathered in one place, and how a seemingly ordinary meeting became a catastrophe remembered more than 800 years later.

Because sometimes, history doesn't just turn dark...

It gets very, very unpleasant.

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In February 1957, a young boy's body was discovered abandoned in a cardboard box in the woods of Philadelphia. He had no name, no missing person report, and no one came forward to claim him. For more than sixty-five years, he was known only as The Boy in the Box—one of America's most heartbreaking unsolved mysteries.

Despite one of the largest identification campaigns in Philadelphia's history, countless theories, psychic investigations, and decades of detective work, the little boy remained anonymous. Then, in 2022, advances in investigative genetic genealogy finally revealed his identity.

But giving him back his name didn't solve his murder.

In this episode of The Eclectic, we follow the extraordinary journey from that cold February morning in 1957 to the groundbreaking DNA breakthrough that finally revealed the child behind the headlines. Along the way, we explore the tireless investigators, the controversial theories, and the haunting questions that remain unanswered.

Because although the world now knows his name...

Justice has yet to find him.

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In 1931, an ordinary farmhouse on the Isle of Man became the centre of one of Britain's strangest paranormal mysteries.

The Irving family claimed they were being visited by a mysterious creature that called itself Gef—a talking mongoose with a sharp wit, an endless stream of stories, and a habit of appearing just out of sight.

Gef insisted he was "an extra, extra clever mongoose," capable of speaking multiple languages, predicting events, and spying on the neighbours. To some, he was a supernatural entity. To others, an elaborate hoax. Nearly a century later, the debate continues.

In this episode of The Eclectic, we explore the legend of Gef the Talking Mongoose, the investigations that followed, and the evidence that has kept one of Britain's most bizarre mysteries alive.

Because sometimes... the strangest stories are the hardest to explain.

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In Part One, we followed fifteen-year-old friends Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock on what should have been an ordinary summer day at Cronulla Beach—a day that ended in one of Australia's most infamous unsolved murders.

Now, the investigation begins.

From the mysterious teenager known only as "The Surfy" to convicted murderer Alan Bassett, serial killer Christopher Wilder, and Australia's notorious Derek Percy, detectives pursued every promising lead in their search for justice.

We explore the suspects, the missed opportunities, advances in DNA technology, and why, more than sixty years later, the Wanda Beach murders continue to haunt Australian criminal history.

Will this mystery ever be solved?

Join The Eclectic as we conclude our two-part investigation into one of Australia's greatest unsolved cases.

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On a warm January morning in 1965, fifteen-year-old friends Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock boarded a train to Cronulla for what should have been an ordinary day at the beach.

They never came home.

Hours later, the girls vanished into the vast Wanda Sandhills, accompanied by a mysterious teenage boy seen only by Marianne's seven-year-old brother. By the following afternoon, one of Australia's most haunting murder investigations had begun.

In Part One of this two-part series, we follow Marianne and Christine's final journey, uncover the disturbing discovery that shocked Sydney, and examine the enormous police investigation that followed. Thousands of witnesses were interviewed, countless leads were pursued, and a nation became captivated by one question...

Who was the mysterious "Surfy"?

Join The Eclectic as we explore one of Australia's most enduring unsolved mysteries.

🎧 Part Two continues the investigation, examining the suspects, modern DNA evidence and the theories that still divide investigators more than sixty years later.