This week the Spooky Darlings cover a case of lazy, racist, and downright crooked police work. A woman is murdered at a Jacksonville hotel on a Sunday morning. Ninety minutes later, police have their suspect, a fifteen-year-old boy on his way to get a job application. His name is Brenton Butler, and his story, documented in the Oscar-winning film Murder on a Sunday Morning, is one of the most infuriating wrongful arrest cases in American history. Racial profiling, a coerced confession, zero physical evidence, and two public defenders who simply refused to let the system win. This week on the Spooky Darlings, we're telling it in full.

Sources:

PRIMARY SOURCES:

De Lestrade, Jean-Xavier, director. Murder on a Sunday Morning. HBO America Undercover, 2001.

Murder on a Sunday Morning." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_on_a_Sunday_Morning. Accessed 6 June 2026.

"Brenton Butler Case." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenton_Butler_case. Accessed 6 June 2026.

CLOSE CAPTIONING FOR DRAMATIC READING IN EPISODE: https://subsaga.com/bbc/documentaries/factual/storyville/2011-2012/5-murder-on-a-sunday-morning.html

CROSS-RACE EFFECT SOURCES:

Horry, Ruth, et al. "The Cross-Race Effect in Eyewitness Identification." Visual Cognition, vol. 31, no. 1, 2023, pp. 1–18. Taylor & Francis Online, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13506285.2023.2288358.

Available, John, et al. "Cross-Race Effect in Face Recognition." PubMed Central, National Institutes of Health, 2020, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7067904/.

"Cross-Race Effect." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-race_effect. Accessed 6 June 2026.

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Our 23rd stop on the Cryptid Crawl is The North Star State, Minnesota! This beautiful but cold land has a reputation for being nice. The lakes? Hmmm... Maybe not all of them. Join us as we head north to dig into the cryptic legends of the Land of 10,000 lakes, and just as many mysteries. 

We explore a mystery that blurs the line between hoax and horror with the Minnesota Ice Man, then lean Into a creepy haunted lake with a story that will make you never want to swim again, and end with a river/lake monster with a history that goes waaaaayyyy back- not to mention a $50,000 dollar reward that nobody has claimed yet! Maybe it will be The Spooky Darlings that finally get the prize?

Sources:

https://scienceignored.fandom.com/wiki/Minnesota_Iceman?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.discoveryuk.com/mysteries/unveiling-the-mystery-of-the-minnesota-iceman/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/tetrapod-zoology/a-review-of-neanderthal-the-strange-saga-of-the-minnesota-iceman-part-1/

https://tetzoo.com/blog/2023/9/4/review-of-neanderthal-heuvelmans-2016

Minnesota Historical Society Book of Days Almanac

Visit Lake City MN — https://www.visitlakecity.org/pepie-the-lake-pepin-monster/

Star Tribune — https://www.startribune.com/lake-pepin-s-rumored-creature-may-be-folklore-come-to-date/267579381

Daily Yonder — https://dailyyonder.com/lake-pepin-monster-fires-up-peoples-imaginations-and-local-economy/2021/05/07/

Folk Bestiary — https://folkbestiary.com/minnesota/

Thieves River — https://thievesriver.com/blogs/articles/minnesota-cryptids-other-legendary-creatures

Hangar 1 Publishing — https://hangar1publishing.com/blogs/cryptids/minnesota-cryptids

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In the summer of 1976, school bus driver Ed Ray was making what should have been an ordinary trip home. On board were 26 children returning from a day at summer school and eager to see their families.

But that routine ride took a terrifying turn when three armed men in two vans carried out one of the most shocking kidnappings in American history. Trapped underground and facing impossible odds, the captives would be forced to rely on courage, determination, and the remarkable leadership of 14-year-old Mike Marshall.

Join The Spooky Darlings as we unpack the Chowchilla bus kidnapping, the dramatic escape that captured the nation’s attention, and the lasting impact this extraordinary crime had on the survivors, their families, and the community for decades to come.

Sources:

HBO Chowchilla documentary 2023

The Chowchilla Kidnapping: Why Me? by Larry Park

LA Times

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Chowchilla_kidnapping

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We are headed to Brandi Carlile at the Gorge Amphitheater!

We talk about J-hole Judge Nicholas Rowland, problematic prisoners Tony Carruthers and Ricky Wassenaar, and the extraordinary Erin Brockovich and her work with data centers.

Don't forget the update onwhat we're watching and listening to — Catch up with us! And of course we would never skip out on essential updates on mormon wives and Vanderpump Villa!

Sources:

Tiktok: @Stephwiththedeets

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Thanks for listening to The Spooky Darlings! If you have a creepy, strange, or cool story you would like to share email us at [email protected].

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Long before it was a party game, humans were obsessed with talking to the dead. This week the Darlings trace the strange history of spirit communication from Shang Dynasty oracle bones to the Fox sisters' famous knocking act, from Roman ring-and-alphabet divination to the planchette-wielding Spiritualists of the 1800s. Then there's the board itself: the 1890 Baltimore patent, outselling Monopoly in year one, and why The Exorcist changed everything. But the story that might haunt you longest comes from Robert Damon Schneck's The Bye Bye Man — a supposedly true account of college students who used an Ouija board to make contact with a living serial killer. Hollywood adapted it into a film and quietly removed the board entirely. We put it back. Plus — the Darlings get personal. Sisters bring stories from their own lives, their friends, and the darkest corners of Reddit, because it turns out everyone has an Ouija board story. Is it a window to the other side, or just your own unconscious mind spelling things out? Come find out...If you dare!

Sources:

Schneck, Robert Damon. The Bye Bye Man (originally published as The President's Vampire) Penguin Random House, 2004, 2016

Hunt, Stoker. Ouija: The Most Dangerous Game. 1985.

Weisberg, Barbara. Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism. 2004.

The Witch's Board: A Comprehensive Guide to the Ouija

Marcellinus, Ammianus. Res Gestae. 4th century CE. (Primary source — Roman account of ring-and-alphabet divination)

Talking Board Historical Society — Robert Murch. talkingboard.org

Mysterium.com — Brandon Hodge. (History of spirit communication tools and planchettes)

U.S. Patent No. 446,054 (1891) — Original Ouija board patent filed by Elijah Bond. Available via Google Patents.

Carpenter, William Benjamin. "Ideomotor Action." British Journal of Psychiatry, 1852. (Original paper coining the ideomotor effect)

Oracle Bone Script — National Palace Museum, Taipei. npm.gov.tw

"The Bizarre History of the Ouija Board." Smithsonian Magazine. smithsonianmag.com

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Thanks for listening to The Spooky Darlings! If you have a creepy, strange, or cool story you would like to share email us at [email protected].

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From red-skinned harbingers of doom to howling forest beasts, we’re diving into some of Michigan’s strangest legends. This week, The Spooky Darlings explore the  Nain Rouge of Detroit, the terrifying Michigan Dogman, the eerie tale of the Ada Witch, and the very real lumberjack P.K. Small whose bizarre appearance and behavior earned him the nickname “Slackjaw,” or “the Ogre of Seney”. Cryptids, curses, and backwoods chaos await. 

Sources:

https://visitdetroit.com/inside-the-d/the-legend-of-the-nain-rouge-in-detroit/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nain_Rouge

Podcast Theories of the Third Kind,  Episode 297 - Nain Rouge.

Michigan Dogman:

• Luther cabin attack details: Cadillac News, "Was the Dogman responsible?"
• Cook's own account: Cadillac News 30th anniversary + WCMU + Michigan Enjoyer
• Beast of Bray Road: Wikipedia
• Modern sightings color: Connect Paranormal (paranormal blog tier)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvlQp5f7ZwU

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Thanks for listening to The Spooky Darlings! If you have a creepy, strange, or cool story you would like to share email us at [email protected].

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Steven Jay Russell wasn’t just a con man — he was an escape artist, master manipulator, and one of the most unbelievable criminals Texas ever tried to contain.

Join The Spooky Darlings as they unravel the bizarre true story of Steven Jay Russell: from insurance fraud and impersonation schemes to his jaw-dropping prison escapes that embarrassed law enforcement again and again. His final capture led to years spent in brutal solitary confinement, a cruel punishment for a non-violent offender. 

Steven Jay Russell was a charming genius, convincing liar, and a man the system tried to break completely. Join us as we share the incredible story of one of Texas’s most persistent absconders.

Sources: 

I Love You Phillip Morris,  by Steve McVicker

https://solitarywatch.org/2014/12/08/voices-from-solitary-the-life-of-an-escape-artist/

https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2020/06/king-con-the-conman-who-simply-walked-out-of-prison-four-times/

Karl Smallwood: King Con: The Con Man Who Simply Walked Out of Prison Four Times

The Great Escapee, article in Esquire Magazine, by Alex Hannford

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Join the sisters as they catch up, and then discuss current events, and current drama! 

Starting with what we're reading and watching, to what we are paying attention to in the media. Taylor Frankie Paul to the beloved Lani monk seal in Hawaii.

We might even get a deplorable doppelgänger out of this! 

Sources: 

New Girl inspiration TikTok: @viperpilotkarathrace

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Thanks for listening to The Spooky Darlings! If you have a creepy, strange, or cool story you would like to share email us at [email protected].

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This week the Spooky Darlings are meeting you on the Astral Plane! 

In 1887, a California judge built a Victorian mansion on a hilltop in Los Angeles — a house that would later appear in Spider Baby, Silent Scream, and Insidious: Chapter 2. Some houses just have a type.

But the real story isn't the house.

It's 1912. A poet named Elsa Barker is alone in her Paris apartment when she feels a sudden, overwhelming compulsion to pick up a pencil. Her hand moves as if seized from the outside. Words come. And at the end of the message — a single signature.

X.

She has no idea what it means.

This week: a dead judge, a living poet, and letters written from the other side. 

Sources:

• Smith Estate (Los Angeles) — Wikipedia
• The Smith Estate from Insidious: Chapter 2
• The Man Called X Was Judge David P. Hatch

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Thanks for listening to The Spooky Darlings! If you have a creepy, strange, or cool story you would like to share email us at [email protected].

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This week, The Spooky Darlings head to the Bay State for a Cryptid Crawl filled with tiny demons, cursed swamps, and a shadowy blue-glowing-eyed creature with superhuman strength leaping through the fog.

First, we dive into the eyewitness accounts of the Dover Demon — the bizarre, big-eyed creature spotted crawling along stone walls by terrified teens in 1977. Then we venture into the infamous Bridgewater Triangle, a region packed with UFO sightings, phantom animals, poltergeist activity, and generations of eerie encounters. Finally, we head to the coast to uncover the mystery of Provincetown’s Black Flash: a dark, lightning-fast figure said to sprint through the town, strike fiercely when provoked, and disappear into the night.

Are these creatures misunderstood cryptids, local folklore gone wild, or something even stranger lurking in Massachusetts after dark?

Light your candles and settle in for the spooky tales, darlings.

Sources: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dover_Demon

http://www.strange-new-england.com/2015/10/21/dover-demon/

https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Dover_Demon

https://garyreddin.substack.com/p/the-dover-demon?r=2xommj&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true

“Decades later, the Dover Demon still haunts” By Mark Sullivan, Boston Globe Correspondent  |  October 29, 2006 

“Monsters of Massachussetts”, by Loren Coleman

www.gothichorrorstories.com/gothic-travel/by-location/new-england/cape-cod/the-black-flash-of-provincetown-ma-folk-horror-and-hysteria-from-new-england-echoes-in-the-midwestern-countryside/&ved=2ahUKEwjNq-X0iKmUAxVTHjQIHZ1lFk0QFnoECBwQAQ&usg=AOvVaw03_5yfXzrwy_EQzmeuh4vJ

https://newenglandfolklore.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-black-flash-of-provincetown-hoax-or.html

https://www.preston-posits.com/blog/cryptids-of-north-america-pt-5-massachusetts

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Thanks for listening to The Spooky Darlings! If you have a creepy, strange, or cool story you would like to share email us at [email protected].

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