Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories

Livia is the three-time champion of her school's scary story contest, and then a new boy shows up in fourth grade with a book he's already published and a red notebook he never opens where anyone can see.

“Write Or Very Wrong” by Evan Baughfman

Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1655277373

Find more family-friendly frights and creepy games to play on our website at http://MicroTerrors.com!

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/microterrors

Other stories, novels, and more from author Scott Donnelly: https://amzn.to/3LymHaU

Other narrations, podcasts, and audiobooks from voice artist Darren Marlar: https://WeirdDarkness.com
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Weird Darkness©, 2026
Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids™, 2026#MicroTerrors #WeirdDarkness

Everybody on the block knew the tall man in the black cloak who never spoke and shut his eyes whenever a woman passed him on the sidewalk, and nobody thought to wonder why until the morning the janitor came running out of the tenement shouting for help.

Written in 1942, “Mimic” eventually inspired the 1997 horror film of the same name. The short story was written by Martin Pearson, though you may also know him as Donald A. Wollheim or Darrel G. Raynor, as he used many pseudonyms when writing. The story is a simple premise, talking of how some insects disguise themselves as other insects, or some animals disguise themselves as other animals, in order to not be eaten by the creatures above them in the food chain. At the top of the food chain is man – do we have mimics disguised as us – in plain sight?

EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/mitm-mimic

SOURCES and RESOURCES: “Mimic” by Martin Pearson: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2me9rc2n

WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: September 19, 2026

LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL

More aircraft and people vanish here than in the Bermuda Triangle – but no one can explain why.

EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/NevadaTriangle

READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yaffy7a4

FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Werewolves being spotted in Wisconsin have been reported as far back as 1936. Then again in 1964 and 1972. But there had been nothing like the reports that came out of the area near Delavan, starting in 1989. (The Bray Road Beast) *** A teen finds two dead bodies, side by side, both wearing raincoats. But the disturbing thing is that both dead men were wearing lead masks. And that’s not the end of the strangeness. (The Case of the Lead Masks) *** A woman sees something so horrifying she turns the rest of her life over to Jesus Christ so she will remain protected. (My Skinless Demon) *** Over 2,000 flight disappearances over the past 60 years… that’s three missing planes every month. You might think I’d be referring to the Bermuda Triangle… but I’m not. There’s a lesser-known but significantly more dangerous triangle near Area 51 in Nevada. (2,000 People Go Missing In The Nevada Triangle)
CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding
00:01:14.530 = Show Open
00:03:16.053 = Disappearances In The Nevada Triangle
00:20:03.180 = The Case of the Lead Masks ***
00:26:30.652 = My Skinless Demon
00:31:11.820 = The Beast of Bray Road ***
00:59:27.550 = Show Close
*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break




LISTEN ON PODCAST APPS:
Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps
*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*
SOURCES and RESOURCES:
“The Case of the Lead Masks” by Xavier Ortega: http://bit.ly/2HJuPET
“My Skinless Demon” by GayLelu: http://bit.ly/2Jw4IF8
“People Go Missing In The Nevada Triangle” by George Knapp, Matt Adams (link no longer available), Joe Shoenmann (http://bit.ly/2LSm6Wf), and Brent Swancer (http://bit.ly/2WlTkle)
“The Bray Road Beast” (http://bit.ly/2VQa5VT) and “Werewolves of Wisconsin” (http://bit.ly/2LXsCLJ) by Troy Taylor
(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)

WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.
Originally aired: June 2020
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL

Dr. James Graham is building the ultimate weapon, and on an ordinary quiet evening a small, harmless-looking stranger knocks on his door asking only for a few minutes of conversation — a few minutes readers of Frederic Brown have been unable to shake for seventy years.

EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/mitm-theweapon

SOURCES and RESOURCES: “The Weapon” by Frederic Brown (from 1951): https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/y6prpd2n

WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: September 18, 2026

LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL

There's only one way out of the Forever Alley, a cop was parked in front of it all night, and the man inside still vanished.

Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTR

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Show Open
00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Forever Alley” (October 02, 1978) ***WD
00:47:30.644 = CBC Mystery Theater, “The Screaming Skull” (April 01, 1968) ***WD
01:16:44.754 = The Clock, “Death Valley” (February 21, 1956)
01:42:13.284 = Creeps By Night, “Six Who Did Not Die” (July 11, 1944) ***WD
02:09:47.242 = The Crime Club, “Murder Rents a Room” (June 05, 1947)
02:39:56.431 = Crime Classics, “Alsop Family, How It Diminished” (August 24, 1953)
03:09:33.593 = Danger Dr. Danfield, “Death Paints a Picture” (October 20, 1946)
03:34:59.577 = Deep Night, “The Intercom” (July 15, 2005)
04:08:57.297 = The Devil and Mr. O, “The fast One / Speed” (January 05, 1943)
04:38:25.599 = Diary of Fate, “Darrel James” (August 10, 1948) ***WD
05:05:37.816 = Show Close

(ADU) = Air Date Unknown
(LQ) = Low Quality
***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.
CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0777

SANParks has now confirmed that elephants trampled a suspected poacher in Kruger National Park and that his body was found intact, which is the one detail the version of his death that traveled the world can't survive.

SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/KrugerPoacher

Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736


*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*

WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL

Six years after seven men were machine-gunned in a Chicago garage, a captured gangster named the killers to the FBI, and J. Edgar Hoover spent two years denying he had ever said a word.

EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/ValentinesDayMassacre

READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/faw4hz5n

LISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: 
Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps

*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*

SOURCES and RESOURCES:“The Unsolved St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” by Steve Shukis from Chicago True Crime (link no longer available)

WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

Originally aired: June, 2020

LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL

Elizabeth Siders pleaded not guilty Wednesday to twenty-three counts across two Vinton County indictments, and her attorney declined to say whether the mother of the sixteen children taken from the Ohmer Street house is pregnant again.

SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/SidersCase20260917

Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736


*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*

WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL

Few know of the original short story that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic horror film, “The Birds” - but it’s that story that I’m sharing with you tonight.

THE STORY: On December 3rd the wind turns east and winter lands overnight on a Cornish peninsula, where Nat Hocken, a part-time farm worker living on a wartime disability pension, wakes to something tapping at the bedroom window. By dawn there are fifty dead birds on the floor of his children's room, and out in the bay the gulls are massing by the tens of thousands, riding the swells and waiting on the tide. Nat boards his windows and stuffs his chimneys while the wireless carries a Home Office statement, then a national emergency, then nothing at all; he works out that the attacks rise and fall with the flood tide, and measures his family's odds in bread, candles, and kerosene. Evan Hunter's screenplay moved the story to Bodega Bay and built new characters around du Maurier's title, keeping her unexplained attacks and little else. The original ends with Nat lighting the last cigarette in the packet and throwing the empty one on the fire.

EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/mitm-thebirds

SOURCES and RESOURCES: “The Birds” by Daphne du Maurier from the book, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents My Favorites In Suspense”: https://amzn.to/3knkjZ3

WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: September 17, 2026

LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL

Philadelphia police have finally described, on the record, the video from 417 W. Chew Avenue in which Raymond Horsch tightens a zip tie around a handcuffed woman's neck; two more women who appear dead have turned up in his photographs, which puts seven women at the house with the FBI less than a third of the way through more than a million files.

SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/HorschHouse20260916

Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736


*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*

WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL