Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories

Four thousand light-years from Earth, a survey ship deep inside the Crab Nebula picks up something on its locator that no human built, and within the hour both crews understand the same thing: whichever ship leaves first can be followed home, so neither one can be allowed to leave.

A NOTE FROM YOUR NARRATOR: I’ve been on an old-time radio kick recently, listening to shows like “The Whistler”, “Dimension X”, and “Strange Tales”. One of my favorite shows is called “X-Minus One”.  It was a half-hour science fiction radio drama series that was broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various timeslots on NBC radio. At the end of each episode they tell you where the stories they used came from before they adapted them for radio – and one of those sources was the publication “Astounding Science Fiction Magazine”. I jumped online to see if there were old copies I could look at, and I found a book – an anthology of many of the stories from that magazine. The book was published in 1954. The story was entitled “First Contact”, written by Murray Leinster in 1945. The story is credited as one of the first instances of a universal translator in science fiction. So influential is the story that it won a retro Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 1996.

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

SOURCES and RESOURCES: 
“First Contact” by Murray Leister from “Astounding S-F Anthology”: https://amzn.to/3zhbBWi

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

Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: September 13, 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 episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

An actress found with her throat cut on Christmas morning, a socialite on trial for arsenic, a child butchered in Bradford, and not one of the cases found the end of the rope.

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

READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/489cffte

FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE:Nine murders from the reign of Queen Victoria, and the hangman went home after every one of them. In April 1891, a janitor at a Manhattan waterfront hotel opened the door to room 31 and found a woman the neighborhood called "Old Shakespeare" strangled and cut open, and within a day the New York papers were asking whether Jack the Ripper had crossed the Atlantic. In London, while the Ripper hunt filled the front pages, someone else was dropping the dismembered pieces of women into the Thames, one of them on the construction site of Scotland Yard itself. A Glasgow socialite stood trial for lacing her lover's cocoa with arsenic, barrister Charles Bravo lingered for days in his Balham mansion with antimony in his body and a household full of suspects, and Adelaide Bartlett walked out of court with liquid chloroform in her dead husband's stomach and no explanation of how it got there. Add a young Bradford boy whose mutilated body drew the Ripper's name north, a murdered London prostitute whose death gave Charles Dickens the killing of Nancy in "Oliver Twist", an actress found on Christmas morning with her throat cut and her door locked from the outside, and three siblings laid out in a Queensland paddock with their feet pointed west, and you have nine cases closed by verdict, by acquittal, or by nobody at all, with the questions still sitting open more than a century later.

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = East River Shadows
00:07:15.256 = Show Open
00:10:36.687 = The Gruesome Murder Of Shakespeare: Jack The Ripper In America?, Part 1
00:25:21.616 = The Gruesome Murder Of Shakespeare: Jack The Ripper In America?, Part 2 ***
00:38:58.221 = The Gruesome Murder Of Shakespeare: Jack The Ripper In America?, Part 3 ***
00:50:06.531 = The Thames Torso Murders: Victorian London's Forgotten Serial Killer ***
01:13:04.687 = The Balham Mystery: The Inexplicable Poisoning of Charles Bravo ***
01:35:52.584 = Blood On Boxing Day: The Gatton Murders ***
01:48:01.563 = The Strange Affair of Madeleine Smith: Love, Poison, and Mystery
02:02:16.844 = Bradford Butchery: The Tragic Case of John Gill ***
02:19:36.644 = The Grimwood Murder: The Real-Life Crime Behind Oliver Twist's Darkest Scene
02:34:13.930 = Christmas Murder Of A Forgotten Actress: The Case of Harriet Busman ***
02:49:05.581 = The Pimilco Poisonings: Marriage, Minister, Murder, and Mystery ***
02:59:24.285 = 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*

More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

A young intern at a state asylum wires a homemade telepathy set to the forehead of a dying, illiterate mountain man whose ravings describe palaces of fire he could never have read about.

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, “It’s Hard To Be Rich” (September 18, 1978) ***WD
00:46:47.126 = Beyond Midnight, “Short Circuit” (January 03, 1969) ***WD
01:12:15.812 = MindWebs, “Beyond The Wall of Sleep” (April 16, 1983)
01:40:59.205 = Half Hour to Kill, “Blackout” (October 29, 1946 – Never Aired) ***WD
02:10:00.512 = Molle Mystery Theater, “Angel Face” (December 20, 1946)
02:39:18.122 = Mr Keen, “Murder And Bloodstained Necklace” (September 15, 1949) ***WD
03:08:03.457 = Murder at Midnight, “The Thirteenth Floor” (July 24, 1950)
03:34:31.197 = The Black Museum, “A Woman’s Pigskin Glove” (1952) ***WD
04:01:08.926 = Mysterious Traveler, “The Good Die Young” (February 27, 1944)
04:29:57.647 = House of Mystery, “The Ghost Who Forgot Halloween” (October 27, 1945) ***WD
05:01:19.157 = Show Close

(ADU) = Air Date Unknown
(LQ) = Low Quality
***WD = Remastered, edited, or c = leaned 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/WDRR0772

More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

A man with a past he won't discuss buys a house deep in the woods, miles from anyone, and starts keeping a record of what comes out of the trees at night; the one he calls Skinny wears the faces of the dead, and it's already carved a message into the side of his house.

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

SOURCES and RESOURCES: 
“My Property Isn’t Normal” by Redditor Murderbird17: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/1av3mfeg

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

Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: September 12, 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 episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

Three MicroTerrors listeners wrote in with their own scary stories: a girl who sneaks out at night to see the T-Rex every parent in town warns about, a free doll on the sidewalk that introduces itself as Mr. Stevenson, and a family cruise with nothing but one-star reviews and something big moving under the boat.

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
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Weird Darkness©, 2026
Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids™, 2026#MicroTerrors #WeirdDarkness

More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

Starring Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster, a bedridden heiress alone in a New York townhouse asks the operator to ring her husband's office, gets crossed into a stranger's call, and listens to two men schedule a killing for 11:15 that night.

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 Secret of Crow’s Nest” (September 15, 1978) ***WD
00:46:32.237 = Lights Out, “Valse Trieste” (March 30, 1938) ***WD
01:15:01.463 = Lux Radio Theater, “Sorry, Wrong Number!” (January 09, 1950) ***WD
02:15:39.965 = Macabre, “Man In The Mirror” (November 27, 1961) ***WD
02:44:42.385 = Philip Marlowe, “Angry Eagle” (April 18, 1950)
03:15:27.040 = Favorite Story, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (January 10, 1948)
03:43:13.264 = Black Mass, “Imp of Perverse” and “Message Found In a Bottle” (July 29, 1964) ***WD
04:19:46.309 = Michael Shayne, “Gossip Writer” (July 09, 1945)
04:49:31.361 = Incredible But True, “What Day Will He Die” (1950-1951) ***WD
04:53:00.777 = Strange Adventure, “The Frozen Barrier” (1945)
04:56:19.215 = Tales of the Frightened, “”Hands of Fate” (December 09, 1957) ***WD
05:00:51.812 = 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/WDRR0771

More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

She claimed she could predict your death to the exact day — and somehow, she was always correct. But how did she know?

EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkess.com/TillieKlimek

READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8wt2ep

FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Tillie Klimek had been convicted of only a single murder, but the authorities suspected that she had killed many more, including her three husbands. (Chicago’s Constant Widow) *** The batteries of numerous vehicles in a family’s driveway all go dead at the same time. Two at the same time might be a coincidence. Three would be suspicious. Four dead batteries – combined with the sighting of a shadow person and other bizarre experiences… that has got to be supernatural. (Dead Battery) *** The case had gone cold some say because of police corruption and a cover-up, but is heating up again now as a new sheriff discovers long-hidden evidence. We’ll look inside the Keddie Murders. (The Quadruple Homicide at Cabin 28) *** Extraterrestrials… and the government. It seems you can’t have one without the other. (The Politics of the UFO)

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00.00.000 = The Foreboding
00:00:24.205 = Show Open
00:02:11.497 = Chicago’s Constant Widow: Tillie Klimek
00:13:24.546 = Dead Battery ***
00:21:13.546 = Quadruple Homicide At Cabin 28
00:35:52.916 = The Politics Of The UFO ***
00:55:30.164 = 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:
“Chicago’s Constant Widow, Tillie Klimek” by Troy Taylor: http://bit.ly/weirddarkness2Gkzz4r
“Dead Battery” by Sunset Sister: http://bit.ly/weirddarkness2v7GWFT
“The Quadruple Homicide at Cabin 28” by Ted Kammerer: http://bit.ly/weirddarkness2UhZKg9
“The Politics of the UFO” by Brian Allan: http://bit.ly/weirddarkness2X72oqA
(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 14, 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

More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

On Friday, September 11th, three weeks before anyone could buy it, I played the entire audiobook of my new book live on Patreon, start to finish, with the chat open the whole time.  Something I only do for my Patreon members! https://weirddarkness.com/patreon 

Since 1997, young men have walked out of bars alone and turned up in rivers. Two retired New York detectives say it's a serial killer network, and that police have been calling murder an accident. The FBI says there's no evidence any of it is connected. THE CONCRETE SMILED gives that theory its best case, at full strength, and then checks it against the record. Ninety-five sources, and every claim traced back to where it came from.

THE BOOK OFFICIALLY RELEASES OCTOBER 1ST for Kindle, paperback, and audiobook on Amazon, with the Kindle edition up for pre-order now. Cover, description, and the full linked source list are athttps://weirddarkness.com/concretesmiled

More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

Sorting through the papers of his late great-uncle, a Providence professor of ancient languages, Francis Thurston finds a clay bas-relief of a winged, tentacled thing, a file of newspaper clippings from around the world, and a set of notes connecting a young sculptor's fever dreams to a swamp cult in Louisiana and a word no human tongue was built to pronounce.

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

SOURCES and RESOURCES: “The Call of Cthulhu” by H.P. Lovecraft: https://amzn.to/3cTCzUs

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

Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: September 11, 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 episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

Our alien visitors have changed their looks, their home planets, and their warnings every generation or so – always right in step with what we happened to believe at the time. Airships, ghost rockets, flying saucers, black triangles – for more than a century our UFOs and aliens have kept pace with our imaginations, and one longtime researcher wonders whether that's because our imaginations are where they came from.

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

READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/y37cak7k

FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Is it possible that UFOs and ETs exist simply because we believe they exist? Could it be that our own minds are creating real extraterrestrial entities and alien spacecraft? (Could UFOs Be Tulpas?) *** Nearly two decades after the disappearance of Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman, a suspect was finally arrested. But did police have the right man? (The Disappearance of Lauria and Ashley) *** The town of Bath, North Carolina was a known port for pirates. It was even rumored that Blackbeard lived a second life in the town with a wife – or two. With villainy and corruption rampant, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the town might also be cursed. (The Bath Town Curse) *** One of our Weirdo family members tells the story about how he came into contact with a Sasquatch! (I Saw Bigfoot While Working Security) *** Your grandfather is the founder of one of the world’s largest brewing companies, and you’re fortunate enough to not only work for him, but to also be the heir to his brewing empire. Life was good, you were untouchable. Until one day, you weren’t. (Coors – Death of an Heir)
CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00.00.000 = The Foreboding
00:02:00.806 = Show Open
00:03:58.895 = Could UFOs Be Tulpas?
00:13:16.910 = The Disappearance of Lauria and Ashley
00:21:07.792 = The Bath Town Curse ***
00:25:42.372 = I Saw Bigfoot While Working Security
00:28:02.815 = Coors: Death Of An Heir
00:33:15.924 = 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:
“Could UFOs Be Tulpas?” by Nick Redfern: http://bit.ly/weirddarkness2uIT0NQ
“The Disappearance of Lauria and Ashley” by Allison Wild: http://bit.ly/weirddarkness2Uq0MdN
“The Bath Town Curse” posted at North Carolina Ghosts: http://bit.ly/weirddarkness2VeJM7F
“I Saw Bigfoot While Working Security” by Weirdo family member Clayton Blackwell
“Coors – Death of an Heir” by The Scare Chamber: http://bit.ly/weirddarkness2Kf4R0T
(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 13, 2021
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 episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.