Unpleasant Dreams

Please keep following, subscribing and telling your friends about the show...have them listen to the archive!

Wishing you pleasant dreams!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The mysterious Chupacabra is the subject of this week’s Unpleasant Dreams!

Find the original article by EM Hilker that this podcast is based on HERE

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

It often happens as the dusk settles itself gently over the lush rainforest.  You might think farm animals, confined to pens or herded by human and canine protectors, wouldn’t have a sense of their own vulnerability or the existence of predators. But somewhere, deep down in their basest primal instincts that reach back to the dawn of time, they must have known it was coming. Even before the whiff of the rank animal in the cool evening air hits them, they have to have known. It was fast, though, and that was a blessing. It didn’t toy with them, or drag it out. It was fast. The unlucky ones watched it happen to another animal first, smelled the creature and the blood and knew deep down it was bad, and they were next; the lucky ones never saw the chupacabra. The humans who cared for the animals would never forget what it left behind. 

FIND THE REST OF THE TRANSCRIPT & SOURCES HERE

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spooky (Christmas) ghost stories are the subject of this week’s Unpleasant Dreams. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Find the original article by EM Hilker that this podcast is based on HERE

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Yuletide is a season of warmth and joy, at least according to Hallmark. There you sit by the fireside, sipping hot chocolate, bathed in the warm glow of the lighted tree, the flickering lights from the menorah or yule log, filled with contentment. But outside (at least in the Northern parts of the globe) the bone-bare branches claw at your window as the cold, dry wind blows snow in small spirals, lifting the ethereal sparkling flakes back into the black sky. On the nights that they’re visible, the stars shine like a careless scattering of diamonds in the darkness, seemingly so close you could pluck them out of the sky. It’s bitterly cold, and very still; and it is perhaps in that stillness that you begin to feel just a little bit uneasy.

Let’s face it... 

FOR A FULL TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES CLICK HERE

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The real story of Krampus is the subject of today’s holiday edition of Unpleasant Dreams! Oh, and be sure to be good. You wouldn’t want to upset The Krampus…

Find the original article by EM Hilker that this podcast is based on HERE

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

A fresh blanket of snow glistens in the cold light of the moon, a contrast to the warm glow of street lamps, wrapping the city streets in the cozy blanket of early winter. Twinkling across the surrounding fields in the night, mirroring the light of the moon in a million broken rays, the landscape is nevertheless stark beyond the forests surrounding the city. 

The creatures come from there, beyond the city, thickly furred and sharply clawed, from dank caves and deep, dark, ancient places. Some have feet and some have cloven hooves, some one of each; the thick layer of snow softly crunching under feet and hooves both in a smudge of sound as they scatter across the landscape and toward the small, neat houses. Their faces, pallid and gnarled and very nearly demonic, turn from moon-silver to a pale bronze as they approach the warmly-lit city streets, chains and bells clinking gently as they draw near.

CLICK HERE FOR A FULL TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A beast that terrorized the French countryside is one of history’s greatest mysteries. The Beast of Gévaudan is the subject of this episode of Unpleasant Dreams.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Apprehensive they went, clasping each other tightly, into the night. It was so, so quiet outside of the footsteps of their papa, clomping along hurriedly, unsteadily ahead. The unnatural still of the night seeped into all three children’s blood, making them shiver as the moon poured silver upon them. They didn’t need to go out to look for her. They knew. The Beast had butchered someone in the village not even two days ago. And now, tonight, maman hadn’t come home with the flock.

Papa, now far up ahead, let out a strangled cry, indecipherable. It was followed by the sound of vomiting. They ran to their father and tried not to look at whatever was up ahead of them, but they looked. They quickly buried their small, tear-streaked faces against their papa’s generous, sturdy body. But they saw, and it would be years before they would be able to close their eyes without seeing it again. Their maman’s body lay ahead of them, twisted and mauled. Where they expected to see maman’s sweet face and her tumbling waves of reddish hair, there was only a dark smear. It took her head.

The youngest, huddled behind papa, widened her eyes in wonder and whispered, “loup garou.”  FOR THE REST OF THE TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES GO HERE

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part two of our program on The Sheppard Murder case which spawned the American “Trial of The Century” before OJ. A physician is suspected of murdering his wife in a quiet, affluent 1950s Midwestern bedroom community.

Did Sam Sheppard kill Marilyn Sheppard? That is the topic of this week’s edition of Unpleasant Dreams.

---

Cassandra Harold is your host. EM Hilker is our principal writer and researcher with additional writing by Cassandra Harold. Jim Harold is our Executive Producer.

Unpleasant Dreams is a production of Jim Harold Media.

A copy of EM Hilker’s original article can be found HERE

-PODCAST TRANSCRIPT-

Perhaps the most thorough and well-balanced of the Sheppard trials was the one held long, long after Marilyn Reese Sheppard’s death. In the first installment of this saga, we discussed the first trial of her husband and accused killer, Sam, some of the questionable decisions made by the trial judge, and the media circus that surrounded it; we also explored briefly his retrial in the 1960s where the evidence intended to prove Sam’s motive was kept from the jury and where the science of the time, much of which has been debunked over the roughly 40 years since the retrial, favoured Sam’s innocence. This was the opportunity, in many ways, to finally reach the truth; a sequestered jury untainted by a riotous media, the benefits of the 50 years of advancement in both biological and behavioral sciences , and all the evidence on the table,  

At last, the chance to accurately assess whether or not Sam H. Sheppard murdered his wife. FOR THE REST OF THE TRANSCRIPT CLICK HERE

– FURTHER READING AND SOURCES –

Affleck, John. “Bailey Testifies in Sheppard Case.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, 16 Feb. 2000. Retrieved 9 October 2021. 

“AMSEC 04 — Richard Eberling Background Investigation.” EngagedScholarship@CSU, 9 Mar. 1995. Retrieved 9 October 2021.

“Blood 5: Transfer Bloodstains – Crime Scene.” Google Sites. Retrieved 9 October 2021.

Butterfield, Fox. “New Clues in an Old Murder Case.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Feb. 1997. Retrieved 9 October 2021. 

DeSario, Jack and William D. Mason. Dr. Sam Sheppard on Trial. Kent State University Press, 2003. 

“Did Ancient Teeth Decay?” ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 28 May 2008. Retrieved 9 October 2021.

Drenkhan, Patrolman Fred. “Statement given to BVPD by Esther Houk.” EngagedScholarship@CSU. Retrieved 9 October 2021.

“Fetus DNA Tests Inconclusive in ‘The Fugitive’ Murder Case.” Deseret News, Deseret News, 18 Jan. 2000. Retrieved 9 October 2021.

Finn, Peter. “Loudoun Firm Made Sam Sheppard Case Its Own.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 9 Feb. 1997. Retrieved 9 October 2021.

“Forensic Anthropology.” Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 9 October 2021.

Gilbert, Terry H., and George H. Carr. “Motion in Limine to Limit Testimony of Dr. Roger Marsters.” EngagedScholarship@CSU, 13 Mar. 2000. Retrieved 9 October 2021.

Linder, Douglas O. “Sam Sheppard.” Famous Trials, UMKC School of Law. Retrieved 9 October 2021.

Neff, James. The Wrong Man: The Final Verdict on the Dr. Sam Sheppard Murder Case. Open Road Media: 2015.

“Richard Eberling Dies; Inmate Denied Killing Wife of Sam Sheppard.” The Buffalo News, 27 July 1998. Retrieved 9 October 2021.

Simon, Scott. “Son of the ‘Fugitive’ Defends His Father.” NPR, NPR, 12 Sept. 2009. Retrieved 9 October 2021.

“Testimony Reveals That Sheppard Sought Out-of-Court Settlement.” CNN, Cable News Network, February 23, 2000. Retrieved 9 October 2021.  

Wendling, Mike. “Marilyn Sheppard Body to Be Exhumed.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, 20 Aug. 1999. Retrieved 9 October 2021.

“William D. Mason.” Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Retrieved 9 October 2021.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Sheppard Murder case spawned the American "Trial of The Century" before OJ. A physician is suspected of murdering his wife in a quiet, affluent 1950s Midwestern bedroom community.

Did Sam Sheppard kill Marilyn Sheppard? That is the topic of this week's edition of Unpleasant Dreams.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For our Halloween episode, we explore the strange death of the master of the macabre himself, Edgar Allan Poe.

---

Cassandra Harold is your host. EM Hilker is our principal writer and researcher with additional writing by Cassandra Harold.

Jim Harold is our Executive Producer.

Unpleasant Dreams is a production of Jim Harold Media.

You can find EM Hilker's original article HERE

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

There is much that can be said about Edgar Allan Poe, but in terms of his literary habits, little that needs to be. Much more famous in death than he was in life, he was nevertheless a literary critic of some renown in his own time. His true love, however, was lurid, ghastly fiction. Poe unknowingly fathered the genre of detective fiction, through his tales of C. Auguste Dupin. The most well-known Dupin story was The Murders in the Rue Morgue, which served to set the stage for Sherlock Holmes and his ilk. He is best known now for his gothic fiction, morbid tales filled with crumbling stone castles and candle-lit catacombs, of demonic foes and bitter sweet revenge. He brought us The Raven, Hop-Frog, The Fall of the House of Usher. The creative mind of Poe was deep and dark and mysterious as a night ocean. 

… but little is so mysterious as Poe’s own death....

FIND THE REMAINDER OF THE TRANSCRIPT HERE

SOURCES – FURTHER READING

Anon. “Poe’s Death Theories.” Poe’s Death | Edgar Allan Poe Museum | Richmond, VA, www.poemuseum.org/poes-death. Retrieved 5 Sept. 2021

Birch, Doug. “The Passing of Poe: What Really Happened to the Master of the Macabre in the Days Leading up to His Death Here 145 Years Ago?” Baltimoresun.com, 24 Oct. 2018, www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1994-10-02-1994275208-story.html. Retrieved 5 Sept. 2021

Edgar Allan Poe: A Life from Beginning to End. Hourly History, 2018. Kindle ed.

Eschner, Kat. “Who Was the Poe Toaster? We Still Have No Idea.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 19 Jan. 2017, www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/who-was-poe-toaster-we-still-have-no-idea-180961820/. Retrieved 5 Sept. 2021 

Geiling, Natasha. “The (Still) Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 7 Oct. 2014, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/still-mysterious-death-edgar-allan-poe-180952936. Retrieved 5 Sept. 2021

Kay, Liz F. “Poe Toaster Tribute Is ‘Nevermore’.” Baltimoresun.com, 9 Dec. 2018, www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bs-xpm-2010-01-19-bal-poe0119-story.html. Retrieved 5 Sept. 2021.

Lovejoy, Bess. Rest in Pieces. Simon and Schuster, 2013.

Miller, John C. ‘The Exhumations and Reburials of Edgar and Virginia Poe and Mrs. Clemm,” Poe Studies, Dec. 1974, Vol. Vii, No. 27: 46-4, www.eapoe.org/pstudies/ps1970/p1974204.htm. Retrieved 5 Sept. 2021

Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allen Poe: His Life and Legacy. Cooper Square Press, 2000.

Pruitt, Sarah. “The Riddle of Edgar Allan Poe’s Death.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 26 Oct. 2015, www.history.com/news/how-did-edgar-allan-poe-die. Retrieved 5 Sept. 2021.

Semtner, Christopher P. “13 Haunting Facts About Edgar Allan Poe’s Death.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 13 Jan. 2021, www.biography.com/news/edgar-allan-poe-death-facts. Retrieved 5 Sept. 2021.

Walsh, John Evangelist. Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2000. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aural death omens that are believed to be harbingers of doom across cultures around the globe. Tune into some of the sounds of death on this episode of Unpleasant Dreams. That is, if you dare.

Cassandra Harold is your host. EM Hilker is our principal writer and researcher with additional writing by Cassandra Harold. Jim Harold is our Executive Producer.

Unpleasant Dreams is a production of Jim Harold Media.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

There’s something of the foreboding in an unexpected sound piercing an otherwise placid stillness; perhaps it’s an eerie hoot borne through the evening hush, or the lull of the afternoon suddenly shaken by a grandfather clock chiming loudly off-time. It might be a mysterious whistling where there ought not be anyone to whistle, or a heavy knocking from an empty doorway. It chills the blood and brings to mind strange, dark suspicions of things to come.

Aural death omens. Those sounds that herald the approach of death. Common across cultures all over the world, generations of people have heard them and known, deep down, that they signal an ending. Sometimes it’s the cry of an animal; sometimes it’s the full brassy ring of a bell or the chime of an old broken clock, or an inexplicable knocking or a strange, ghostly figure.

Aural death omens can often take the form of an animal messenger.

Perhaps one of the most interesting living aural death omens was made famous in Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Tell-Tale Heart:

“He was still sitting up in the bed listening; –just as I have done, night after night, hearkening to the death watches in the wall.”

The “death watches” being referred to were, of course, the deathwatch beetle, a woodboring beetle that makes a peculiar tap-tap-tap sound from within the walls of the home or building they’ve infested. As author Laura Martisiute suggests, the beetles’ tap-tap-tapping became associated with the long sleepless vigils held by the bedsides of the dying, during which the sounds of the beetle would persist throughout the otherwise quiet night. Over time, people came to believe that the tap-tap-tap was forecasting death rather than simply accompanying it, and they came to dread it… during the long, silent nights.

Birds, the natural predator of beetles, are also a common source of aural death omens. Owls in particular are generally seen as magical birds for both good and ill across many countries and cultures. And as such, they are also commonly considered death-signalling birds across vast geographical expanses. The Hottentot in Southern Africa believe that the hooting of an owl predicts death, as do a number of Native American tribes, and people in Mexico and India. A relative to the owl, the tawny frogmouth, also has a cry that portends death throughout Asia and Australia.

FIND THE REST OF THE TRANSCRIPT & SOURCES HERE

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices