He appears in the dark — a shadowy figure with a wide-brimmed hat — and countless people across the world share the same chilling encounter: the Hat Man is watching. Why is he so much more terrifying than other shadow people?

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IN THIS EPISODE: Is there really such a thing as coincidence? One girl used to think so – but a strange paranormal experience has her now thinking there’s no such thing as happenstance. (More Than a Coincidence) *** Is it possible that the real reason for the USA-Iraq war had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction, and everything to do with the appropriation of other-worldly alien technology? (Saddam Hussein’s Stargate) *** Weirdo family member Heather Circle brings us a terrifying story that starts, innocently enough, with her child’s missing plastic drinking cup. (A Little Pink Sippy Cup) *** Rebecca Schaeffer was destined to be a star. But before she had the chance to make it in Hollywood, she was murdered by an obsessed fan. (Hollywood’s Sweetheart Killed By a Stalker) *** With the internet’s recent obsession with Black Eyed Kids encounters and “Shadow People” visitations, you might not notice another phenomena that’s quickly becoming part of the paranormal pop-culture consciousness: The Hat Man. Reports of the strange “Hat Man”, a mysterious entity dressed in a long-brimmed hat, continue to pour in from all over the world. Who is the Hat Man? What does he want? Why have so many people around the world been visited by this strange entity? (The Hat Man And Shadow People) *** If you’ve ever seen the film “The Wicker Man”, you are familiar with the ending of the burning giant made of wood and the human sacrifice therein. But is it possible that this terrifying idea was not an invention of novelists and screenwriters – but was a very real practice at one time? Or even today? (The History Behind The Wicker Man) *** The life that serial killer Dennis Rader lived on the outside, hid his dark secret inside, which he was so desperate to reveal that he began dropping breadcrumbs to the media. (The Paper Trail of BTK) *** A graveyard is typically a quiet place, but Graceland Cemetery in Chicago seems to be a bit too quiet – which might have something to do with its resident ghosts. (The Deathly Silence of Graceland Cemetery) *** In 1888, London was terror-struck by the grotesque murders of Jack the Ripper, who was shortly about to claim his next-victim: 47-year-old prostitute Annie Chapman. Her dissection at the hands of the madman was nothing short of gruesome. (The Dissection of Annie Chapman) *** Annie Chapman likely got a good look at her killer. At the time, scientists thought they could user her corpse’s eyeballs to identify the attacker. Is something like that possible? Could the last visual image of someone’s life remain burned into the eye even after death? (The Last Thing a Corpse Sees)

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate and Only Accurate For the Commercial Version)…
00:00:00.000 = Lead In
00:00:48.416 = Show Open
00:04:18.611 = Hat Man And Shadow People
00:16:57.721 = More Than a Coincidence
00:21:37.346 = A Little Pink Sippy Cup
00:25:34.161 = Saddam Hussein’s Stargate
00:33:00.675 = Hollywood’s Sweetheart Killed by a Stalker
00:47:28.250 = Dissection of Annie Chapman
00:58:31.078 = The Last Thing a Corpse Sees
01:04:39.727 = History Behind the Wicker Man
01:09:28.044 = The Paper Trail of BTK
01:15:55.830 = Deathly Silence of Graceland Cemetery
01:26:35.520 = Show Close

SOURCES AND RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE…
“The Hat Man And Shadow People” by Greg Newkirk (http://bit.ly/36DLMwg) and Dana Matthews (http://bit.ly/33oEfiJ) for Week In Weird.
“More Than a Coincidence” is by Cherubim and was posted at YourGhostStories: http://bit.ly/2JXuCQC
“Saddam Hussein’s Stargate” by Michael Moran for The Daily Star: http://bit.ly/2pNfVst
“A Little Pink Sippy Cup” by Weirdo family member Heather Circle
“Hollywood’s Sweetheart Killed By a Stalker” by Natalie DeGroot from All That’s Interesting: http://bit.ly/2NoBbh9
“Dark Annie” from Awesome Stories: http://bit.ly/33H5hlC
“The Dissection of Annie Chapman” by Hannah McKennet for All That’s Interesting: http://bit.ly/2p98hZb
“The Last Thing a Corpse Sees” by Marissa Fessenden for the Smithsonian: (link no longer available)
“The History Behind The Wicker Man” from Ancient Origins: http://bit.ly/2Kr38TR
“The Paper Trail of BTK” by Rachel Chang for Biography: http://bit.ly/32zqpZL
“The Deathly Silence of Graceland Cemetery” by Ursula Bielski for Chicago Hauntings: (link no longer available)
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Originally aired: August 2019
EPISODE PAGE at WeirdDarkness.com (includes list of sources):https://weirddarkness.com/HatManAndShadowPeople