Today's True Weird Stuff - Here Be Sea Monsters

Cultures all around the world have myths and legends about the terrifying creatures that inhabit the ocean - from massive sea serpents, to sirens and merfolk. We take a look at the history of folks who encountered or dedicated their lives to searching for monsters in the deep blue sea.

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Today's True Weird Stuff - Shock Doc

In the 1950's, the CIA launched a program aimed at developing methods for interrogating and controlling human behavior; part of the program involved funding tests on children. Dr. Lauretta Bender at Bellevue Hospital would conduct electroshock therapy on kids as young as three years old to treat childhood schizophrenia. The CIA called it "Project Artichoke."

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Today's True Weird Stuff - Prize Prison

It's the wildest reality show in TV history. Susunu! Denpa Shōnen was known for placing contestants in extreme situations for entertainment purposes. This is the story of Nasubi, a comedian who spent 15 months naked and alone in an apartment. Cut off from the world, he was forced to enter magazine sweeptakes until he won $8,000 in prizes. He did this completely unaware that his challenge was being livestreamed 24/7.

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Today's True Weird Stuff - Pay Phone Bandit

He didn't rob banks. He wasn't a serial killer. However, James Clark left the FBI dazed and confused for years as he stole $500,000 in quarters right under everyone's nose. He was known as the Pay Phone Bandit.

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Today's True Weird Stuff - Deadly Circus

Gypsy the elephant had a temper. She was part of the W.H. Harris Nickle Plate Circus, and in 1902, Gypsy killed her trainer and went on a rampage through the streets of Valdosta, Georgia. Animals have long been used in circus performances, but no amount of training changes the fact they're still wild animals.

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Today's True Weird Stuff - The Camel Girl

Ella Harper was born with a rare orthopedic condition that caused her knees to bend backward. During a time when sideshows and oddities were extremely popular, Ella joined W. H. Harris's Nickel Plate Circus, becoming a featured act in the show. Because she walked on her hands and feet, she became known as The Camel Girl.

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Today's True Weird Stuff - Footsie

Elvis Presley. Quentin Tarantino. Jack Black. They're just a few of many people who admittedly have a foot fetish. But serial killer Dayton Leroy Rogers' love of feet took a gruesome turn. He murdered at least eight women in Oregon in the 1980s; some of the bodies were found with their feet severed because Rogers had a kink for killing.

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Today's True Weird Stuff - Baby Broker

Georgia Tann was a social worker who ran a child kidnapping and adoption scheme starting in 1924. Georgia ran the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, and for over 20 years she would take children from poor families and sell them to wealthy families for a hefty profit. She would even steal newborns from mothers in prisons and mental wards. Georgia Tann stole over 5,000 children during the course of her black-market baby ring.

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Today's True Weird Stuff - Secret City

Sarov is a town in Russia that no longer exists...officially, that is. In the 1940s, Sarov was removed from all unclassified maps, and the entire town was transformed into a center for research and development of nuclear weapons. Dozens of cities like these popped up in the Soviet Union at the time, as Stalin led the charge to bolster their nuclear weapons program. But strict rules and harsh conditions meant...sometimes mistakes were made.

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Today's True Weird Stuff - The Mad Scientist

Jack Parsons was one of the fathers of the American space age who helped put man on the moon. He invented solid rocket fuel, co-founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and he was also an occultist. He was written out of a lot of NASA's history because of his antics: he was the leader of a black-magic sex mansion, ate menstrual cakes, and was frenemies with L. Ron Hubbard. Jack Parsons was the definition of a mad scientist.

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