Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories

A house built on a history of war, death, and dark magic—what lurks within the walls of 63 Maple Street may be more than just restless spirits.

EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/63MapleStreet

READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yck2wx6x

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:
Book: “The Haunting of 63 Maple Street” by Jordan Quinn Farkas: https://amzn.to/3w2Ximy
Blog post: “Our Humble Haunted Home” from ParanormalHauntings.blog: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/5x4y29w4
(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: April 22, 2024

Weird Darkness digs into the decades-long haunting of a single working-class home in Belišće, Croatia, tracing how war, buried cemeteries, black magick, and strange lights in the sky converge on one address. The account comes from Jordan Quinn Farkas, who moved to Belišće in 2017 and settled into a house his wife had owned since 2010 on a street locals still call Maple Street, a corner of Slavonia near the Hungarian border founded by the wealthy Jewish Gutmann family around their massive Slavonian Oak sawmill. The ground itself carries a grim record: Communist party members captured and killed the Jewish factory owner in 1945, a Yugoslav "working camp" operated on the town's edge for a single year of killings and starvation, and the Homeland War of the early 1990s drove residents into basements and bomb shelters. Farkas counts more than a dozen deaths on the street since 2017, including two suicides and a neighbor who vanished near the Drava river around Halloween and surfaced miles downstream, a landfill dumped over both an old Jewish cemetery and an even older Celtic one within a few hundred yards, and Roman and Celtic coins dating to roughly 300 AD dug from his own yard. Inside the house, the activity sorts room by room: a lobby where a wardrobe bangs from within and a strawberry-blonde female apparition — believed to be a deceased teenage friend of his wife — walks past the window until a welcoming ritual quiets her; a living room where a bathroom light switch flips itself on despite rewiring done twice, doors open and slam, and a voice recorder captured EVPs of footsteps and toggling switches; a kitchen where he and his wife heard a dragon-like screech and two heavy wingbeats overhead one night around 2 a.m., which they connect to the Croatian Zmaj or Pozoj of regional folklore; a master bedroom where a phantom smoker's residual haunting appeared as swirling smoke and laughing voices over an overnight video call, tied to the original owners' chain-smoking daughter Iva; a kid's room where his son Ivan babbles and laughs at an unseen presence an old man's ghost once shown to a girl named Stella occupied; and an attic where sounds of two creatures wrestling gave way to running "cement boots" footsteps too small to be an adult. Outside, the haunting takes on the shape of a deliberate campaign, with witch's eggs — light and hollow, a Balkan curse object — rolling from an old drainpipe more than once, black roosters and chickens left dead and scattered in feathers, three crow wings severed as cleanly as by a laser, a knotted cord of knot magick hidden in an oak cabinet, and a leather satchel of dust, a small bone, and adult teeth, all of it unfolding alongside a UFO sighting in which a solid cream-colored light outran three fighter jets over the Drava the night after Farkas dreamed of a shuttle landing in his side yard.

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

In 1872, the children of a Newburyport schoolhouse watched a bloodless child's hand press against the window glass — and then the dead boy it belonged to began walking their halls. | #WDRadio JULY 05, 2026

HOUR ONE: What caused complete darkness to engulf the New England town of Newburyport in 1871 – and what were the strange lights seen by dozens of students and their teacher? *** Engineers working to link Scotland and England with cables on the floor of the ocean have stumbled across an amazing find from Word War 1… a submarine that was sunk due to a sea monster! (The Submarine Sunk by a Sea Monster) *** “The Mira Theater Haunting” by Bili White 
==========
HOUR TWO: “MJ12: JFK and UFOs” *** No one likes uninvited guests – and it appears, neither do those in the afterlife. (Dead Village) *** Ask Pedro Rodrigues Filho and he’ll tell you he’s a nice guy. After all, he may be a serial killer – but he only kills bad guys. (The Real-Life Dexter) *** What caused the sky to go dark in the middle of the day back in 1780? (New England’s Dark Day)
==========
SUDDEN DEATH OVERTIME: Paul Bernardo, with the help of his wife Karla Homolka, stalked a Canadian suburb with a number of terrible rapes that were only the beginning of their life of cruelty. They would come to be known as the Ken and Barbie Killers. (The True Horror of the Ken and Barbie Killers) *** When you think of a con artist, you think of slick players like Johnny Hooker and Henry Gondorf from “The Sting”, masters of disguise and ID like Frank Abagnale from “Catch Me If You Can”, or even the mysterious Keyser Söze from “The Usual Suspects”. But I’m guessing what you never picture in your head is a Victorian woman named Madame Rachel. She never got her own movie, but she was the real deal. (The Con Woman Madame Rachel) *** A forest in beautiful West Sussex, UK is only beautiful from the outside – for within, witnesses have seen mysterious things… including UFOs, mysterious deaths, and unexplained vanishings. (Danger Lurking In The Woods)
==========
SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM TONIGHT’S SHOW:
“The Mira Theater Haunting” by Bili White from Paranormality Magazine
“The Shadow Over Newburyport” posted at Esoterx.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/y62cmsun
“The Submarine Sunk by a Sea Monster” from Earth-Chronicles.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/ve7bwnvh
“The True Horror of the Ken and Barbie Killers” by Frankie Stein for FilmDaily.co: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/5ddyr25y
“The Con Woman Madame Rachel” by Geri Walton: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/f5jnwjwz
“New England’s Dark Day” by Troy Taylor: http://bit.ly/2OEuVTl
“Dead Village” by Dreyk: http://bit.ly/33lz1Eg
“The Real Life Dexter” by Kara Goldfarb: http://bit.ly/2IUuQaP
“Danger Lurking In The Woods” by Ellen Lloyd: (link no longer available)
“JFK And UFOs” from Paranormality Magazine
==========
(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for material I use whenever possible. If I have overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it immediately. Some links may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)
==========
"I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46
==========
WeirdDarkness®, WeirdDarkness© 2026
==========
To become a Weird Darkness Radio Show affiliate, contact Radio America at [email protected], or call 800-807-4703 (press 2 or dial ext 250).

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

Real animals have grown to draconic sizes, taken to the skies on thirty-foot wings, and even weaponized explosions from inside their own bodies—but could nature ever assemble all three into a living, fire-breathing dragon?

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

READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2kepzd3u

FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Is it possible dragons are… or at least were… real? Science takes a look at the possibility. (Are Dragons Real?) *** In a thick, dark forest in Colorado is a foreboding house which is considered one of the most haunted places in the U.S. (Haunted House In The Black Forest) *** A woman has the gift of speaking with and interacting with those who have passed on… but what began as a gift, evolved into a curse. (The Man Is Back) *** Weirdo family member Ezra tells us of his personal encounter with a black-eyed child. (An Angel Saved Me From a Black Eyed Kid) *** Pukwudgies were known to Native Americans, who gave them a wide berth. And if you see one, it’s best to stay away. (What is a Pukwudgie?) *** What began as a practical joke soon became one of the greatest hoaxes in American history – it’s the true story of the Cardiff Giant. (The Petrified Man) *** Jody smiled at the children playing in her backyard. She didn’t know them, they were probably the neighbors’ kids. At least that’s what she thought at first until she began to notice something disturbing about those children. (Phantom Children of Guilford) *** Dealing with the paranormal is already unsettling. What if you were to learn that the supernatural has actually been feeding on you? (Supernatural Feedings) *** Newlywed couples planning a trip to Venice envision romantic walkways and Renaissance art. What they don’t expect to find is an island that is illegal to set foot on… and for good reason. (Black Plague Island) *** Weirdo family member Ber Bella shares an experience her grandmother had on an icy road. (Angel On Black Ice) *** Sometimes a prisoner is let free, with experts of the opinion he has been completely rehabilitated. Sometimes they are right. Often they are wrong. And in the case of Jack Unterweger – releasing him was the worst thing that could ever have been done. (Poet of Death)

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = “The Dragon” by Ray Bradbury (short fiction story)
00:07:30.018 = Show Open
00:10:13.041 = Are Dragons Real?
00:20:11.728 = Haunted House in Black Forest ***
00:34:02.034 = What Is a Pukwudgie?
00:40:21.466 = The Petrified Man ***
00:48:12.375 = The Man Is Back
00:52:49.488 = An Angel Saved Me From a Black-Eyed Kid
00:54:29.177 \ 00:55:52.250 = The Phantom Children of Gilford ***
00:59:58.589 = Supernatural Feedings
01:07:31.225 = Black Plague Island ***
01:17:23.478 = Angel on Black Ice
01:21:03.162 = Poet of Death
01:27:33.935 = 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:
BOOK: “Haunted Places, The National Directory” by Dennis William Hauck: https://amzn.to/4iDKvJN
The short fiction story “The Dragon” written by Ray Bradbury: http://bit.ly/2WHbtKp
“Are Dragons Real?” by L.W. Martin: http://bit.ly/2IqEX5Q
“An Angel Saved Me From a Black Eyed Kid” by Weirdo family member Ezra
“What is a Pukwudgie?” by John Freund: http://bit.ly/319JD8R
“The Petrified Man” by Troy Taylor: http://bit.ly/2MvPlif
“The Man is Back” by E6bee: http://bit.ly/2IjyklT
“Haunted House In The Black Forest” by Brent Swancer: http://bit.ly/2IeVZUo
“The Phantom Children of Gilford” posted at FarShores (link no longer available)
“Supernatural Feedings” by Nick Redfern: http://bit.ly/2Mquz3p
“Black Plague Island” by Cheryl Adams Richkoff (link no longer available)
“Angel On Black Ice” by Weirdo family member Ber Bella
“Poet of Death” by Shannon Rafael: http://bit.ly/2WEGaQn
(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: January 2022

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

A mild-mannered chemistry teacher weighing a lucrative job offer against the quiet life he loves finds his decision complicated when a woman claiming to be from the Pleiades strolls into his house and refuses to leave, insisting to move in.

“A Matter of Ethics” by Russ Winterbotham, originally published by Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy, April 1955

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

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

Originally aired: July 05, 2026

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

A locked-room death, a fragile heiress convinced her dead mother is beckoning her from the top of the marble stairs, and three witnesses who all swear they've seen the ghost as well.

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 Impossible Is True” (March 14, 1978)
00:46:17.985 = Jeff Regan, “Lady With The Golden Hair” (July 31, 1948) ***WD
01:15:49.025 = The Key, “Gentleman Companion” (1956)
01:40:02.178 = Lights Out, “The Author And The Thing” (September 28, 1943)
02:03:11.287 = Lux Radio Theater, “The Canterville Ghost” (June 18, 1945)
03:02:19.887 = Macabre, “House In The Garden” (December 04, 1961) ***WD
03:29:59.456 = Philip Marlowe, “Big Step” (February 28, 1950)
03:59:32.488 = Black Mass, “Squaw” (January 24, 1964) ***WD
04:29:14.551 = Michael Shayne, “Murder Trial of Jack Holmes” (May 21, 1945) ***WD
04:58:07.194 = 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/WDRR0707

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

An old villager's tale about a beautiful, undead noblewoman feels like harmless folklore to two visiting American brothers — right up until the night one of them meets her.

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 Wheel of Life” (March 13, 1978) ***WD
00:46:42.838 = Crime And Peter Chambers, “Cemetery Attack” (April 20, 1954)
01:09:59.902 = Hall of Fantasy, “Marquis of Death” (June 22, 1953)
01:33:32.517 = Harry Lime, “Bohemian Star” (September 07, 1951)
01:57:55.866 = BBC Haunted Tales of the Supernatural, “Little Girl Lost” (June 21, 1980)
02:24:28.027 = The Haunting Hour, “Hands of Mr. Smith” (May 19, 1945) ***WD
02:49:17.057 = Hermit’s Cave, “Spirit Vengeance” (December 08, 1946) ***WD
03:13:37.434 = Mystery Is My Hobby, “Death of an Old Prospector” (1945-1950)
03:37:36.810 = Sherlock Holmes, “The Dying Detective” (February 03, 1947)
04:06:49.592 = Mystery House, “Composite Killer” (May 05, 1946) ***WD
04:31:37.992 = Incredible But True, “Death Notice” (1950-1951)
04:35:19.365 = Inner Sanctum, “Voice On Wire” (November 29, 1944) ***WD
05:04:58.539 = 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/WDRR0706

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

Every state in the Union has its own creepy collection of urban legends — haunted playgrounds and vampires, cryptids and cursed roads, black-eyed children and shape-shifting monsters — and we're crossing all fifty to find the eeriest tale each one has to tell.

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

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

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:
https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/mv357ex6, https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yckpd7md,https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/3k9anyn3, https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/3ahdkmkc,https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/3kmnpahx, https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yckpebp7,https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8s3eny, https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2bz4zr7b,https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/5e9whsm4, https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p83tczx
(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: August 29, 2023

Every state in America is hiding something. Cross the country from Alabama to Wyoming and you'll find a haunted playground where swings move on their own, a vampire buried in a Colorado cemetery, a goat-headed man lurking under a Kentucky railroad trestle, and black-eyed children knocking on car windows in Texas. Some of these urban legends are pure fiction. Others have a disturbing amount of truth buried underneath them — which is exactly what makes them stick.This episode of Weird Darkness travels through all fifty states to uncover the eeriest tale each one has to tell. There's the Alaskan Triangle, where thousands have vanished without a trace, and the shape-shifting otter people the Tlingit say are responsible. There's Resurrection Mary, the ghostly hitchhiker still searching for a dance partner outside Chicago. There's the Villisca ax murders, an unsolved 1912 slaughter that turned a family home into a haunted museum. There's Mothman over Point Pleasant, the skunk ape in the Everglades, the Jersey Devil in the Pine Barrens, and Bigfoot stalking the forests of the Pacific Northwest.Cryptids and creepy clowns. Cursed roads and phantom trains. Witches, wendigos, and vampires. Alien crash sites and portals to hell. You'll meet the "watcher" who terrorized a New Jersey family through the mail, the Bunny Man of Virginia, Walking Sam on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and the Candy Lady of rural Texas. Whether these stories were born around a campfire or dragged out of something that really happened, they've survived because nobody can quite prove they're not true.So bolt your doors, lock your windows, and find out what's whispered about in your own backyard — because every state in the Union has its own creepy collection of urban legends, and some of them might be closer than you think.

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

The 1975 film that emptied the beaches was built on real horror — the 1916 Jersey Shore attacks that killed four, the unsolved disappearance of Tom and Eileen Lonergan, and the science of why great whites bite at all.

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

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

FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: In June of 1975 we were exposed to one of the scariest movies ever made. For this podcaster, it’s just not Independence Day until I watch it – and you still can’t get me to swim in the ocean. We’ll look at what made ‘Jaws’ so successful… and so frightening. We’ll also look at the true story of a string of shark attacks in 1916 that inspired the novel and the film. And while 1975’s ‘Jaws’ was inspired by a series of shark attacks but greatly fictionalized, the film ‘Open Water’ from 2003 is based on a very real and terrifying story. But the truth behind the movie is a dark mystery that goes way beyond the horror of what you see in the film. We’ll look at several other real shark attacks that are almost too incredible to believe, and also try to answer the question as to why shark attacks don’t happen more often as you would expect them to, seeing as humans should be easy pickings.

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding (My First Experience With a Horror Movie)
00:02:16.983 = Show Open
00:05:28.642 = The Real-Life Inspiration for “Jaws”
00:15:01.913 = The Horror of “Jaws” ***
00:40:05.165 = The True Darkness of “Open Water” ***
00:52:06.811 = Real Shark Attacks
01:04:18.086 = Why Sharks Attack Humans ***
01:23:44.579 = 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 True Darkness of Open Water” by Erin McCann for Ranker: https://tinyurl.com/y8vaqgra
“The Real-Life Inspiration for ‘Jaws’” by Christopher Klein for History: https://tinyurl.com/yb5s35xc
“The Horror of ‘Jaws’” by Jackie Flynn Mogensen for Mother Jones: https://tinyurl.com/y2mxf8us, Andrew Housman for ScreenRant: https://tinyurl.com/yae8ohh6, Meagan Navarro for Bloody Disgusting: https://tinyurl.com/y7p8q9lw, Tim Donnelly for the New York Post: https://tinyurl.com/y9twrcc7, and Rachel Paige for Hello Giggles:https://tinyurl.com/ycdlb6je
“Real Shark Attacks” by Charles W. Bryant for How Stuff Works: https://tinyurl.com/y9scmg9x, and Lou Boyd for Mpora: https://tinyurl.com/y9e55t4u
“Why Sharks Attack Humans” by Richard Gray for BBC: https://tinyurl.com/ycf563up
(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: July 03, 2020

This episode of Weird Darkness dives into the world of sharks — the 1975 film that made a generation afraid of the water, the 1916 New Jersey attacks that shaped America's fear of the sea, the unsolved disappearance behind a 2003 horror movie, a catalog of real maulings, and the science of why sharks bite people at all.It opens with Steven Spielberg's Jaws, the 1975 blockbuster that grossed $7 million its first weekend and ranked sixth on IMDb's list of the ten best horror films. The mechanical shark, three models all nicknamed "Bruce," sank on first submersion and corroded in the saltwater of Nantucket Sound, forcing Spielberg to keep the animal off-screen for all but roughly four minutes and to build terror through John Williams' two-note score instead. Screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, who now calls it "the fish movie," predicted audiences would fear the ocean the way they feared showers after Psycho. Clinical psychologists Ali Mattu and James Hambrick, both trained to talk people out of irrational fears, admit the film gave them their own galeophobia, with Mattu once showering while standing on the edge of the tub to avoid a drain-based attack. Author Peter Benchley, who wrote the novel, spent his final years advocating for shark conservation after fishermen killed sharks by the thousands in the film's wake, cutting large shark populations along the eastern seaboard by an estimated fifty percent.From there the episode turns to the real attacks that preceded the fiction, the deadly summer of 1916 along the Jersey Shore. Charles Vansant, a 25-year-old from Philadelphia, bled to death in the lobby of the Engleside Hotel in Beach Haven on July 1 after a shark clamped his left leg in three-and-a-half feet of water. Five days later Charles Bruder, a 27-year-old Swiss bellboy captain, lost both legs off Spring Lake, and on July 12 the killing moved more than a mile inland up Matawan Creek, taking 11-year-old Lester Stillwell and Stanley Fisher, the 24-year-old tailor who dove in to recover the boy's body. President Woodrow Wilson convened a cabinet meeting over "the shark horror," and shark hunter Michael Schleisser later killed a shark in Raritan Bay with human bones reportedly found inside, after which the attacks stopped.Next the episode examines Open Water, the 2003 film built on the disappearance of Tom and Eileen Lonergan, experienced divers left behind by the Outer Edge dive boat at St. Crispin Reef on the Great Barrier Reef on January 25, 1998. No one noticed them missing for roughly forty-eight hours. A dive slate later recovered miles away bore the date January 26 and a plea for help, their diaries revealed unhappiness and Tom's stated readiness to die, and their wetsuits and air tanks washed ashore without a single bite mark or trace of blood. Australian diver Ben Cropp argued tiger sharks took them within two days, while boat owner Jack Nairn faced a manslaughter acquittal and a civil negligence conviction that shuttered his company, and more than twenty people claimed to have seen the couple alive afterward, leaving the truth unresolved.Next comes a run of documented real-life attacks stretching across centuries. The USS Indianapolis sank near Guam on July 30, 1945, dropping roughly 900 sailors into the water where sharks reduced the survivors to 317. Barry Wilson, a 17-year-old tuba player, became the first person killed by a shark in California history, and free-diving abalone hunters Omar Conger and Randall Fry were both taken by great whites, Fry's body recovered with his head separated from it. Bethany Hamilton lost her left arm at thirteen and returned to competitive surfing, spearfisherman Rodney Fox survived a torso bite by gouging the shark's eyes and now educates the public about the animals, and Brook Watson lost a leg to a shark in Havana Harbour in 1749 at the age of fourteen.The episode closes with the science of why sharks bite people, drawn from researchers including Gavin Naylor of the Florida Program for Shark Research and marine biologist Blake Chapman. Attacks correlate with the overlap of people and sharks in the same water, which is why rising seal populations off Cape Cod — rebounding under the 1972 Marine Mammal Act — drew great whites that delivered Massachusetts its first fatal attack in eighty-two years in 2018. Most bites appear to be cases of mistaken identity, the flash of a foot resembling bait fish, and the three species most often responsible are the great white, tiger, and bull sharks, the last hunting murky water by smell and electroreception rather than sight. The odds of dying in a shark attack sit near one in 3.7 million, yet Hannah Mighall, mauled by a five-metre great white in Tasmania's Bay of Fires at thirteen, still carries the toothy bite scar on her leg and the nightmares that came with it, alongside her refusal to see the animals culled for what they did to her.

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

A bored kid trapped in a powerless, sweltering house sneaks into his father's off-limits basement lab, where a machine that turns AI drawings into living creatures is about to make his worst summer unforgettable.

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.

You ever get that feeling like you’re being watched when you’re out in the woods? Turns out, some people know they were — and what they saw was anything but normal.

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

READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/zyutdd7j

FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: There are numerous bizarre and creepy tales of people who have ventured into the woods to find not only the natural world, but perhaps the supernatural as well. (Weirdness In The Wilderness) *** Is it true that the Pentagon has been investigating bizarre creatures, poltergeist activity, invisible entities, orbs of light, and other strangeness at the Skinwalker Ranch? (UFOs, The Paranormal, and the Pentagon) *** Dino Bravo is a name that only a die-hard wrestling fan would know, as he never achieved stardom. So when Bravo was murdered, it did not receive much publicity.  Which might be part of the reason his murder has never been solved. (The Mysterious Death of Pro Wrestler Dino Bravo) *** Locking the doors in your home is usually a good idea – unless it’s an invisible entity locking you out of the house! Weirdo family member Brenda McDonald talks about the strange experiences she and her family dealt with when moving into a new home. (The Move)

CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding
00:00:52.894 = Show Open
00:02:33.875 = Weirdness In The Wilderness
00:25:28.664 = UFOs, The Paranormal, And The Pentagon ***
00:37:11.014 = The Mysterious Death of Pro Wrestler Dino Bravo
00:45:20.077 = The Move ***
00:47:58.646 = 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:
“Weirdness In The Wilderness” by Brent Swancer: http://bit.ly/310woY9
“UFOs, The Paranormal, and the Pentagon” by Alejandro Rojas: http://bit.ly/2KtWpsK (more episodes with stories of the Skinwalker Ranch: http://weirddarkness.com/?s=skinwalker+ranch)
“The Mysterious Death of Pro Wrestler Dino Bravo” by Josh Raibick :http://bit.ly/2WqJoaZ
“The Move” by Weirdo family member, Brenda McDonald
(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: January, 2021
Weird Darkness runs from shapeshifters in the American backcountry to a Pentagon program built around a Utah ranch, then to the unsolved execution of a professional wrestler and a spirit that locked a family out of its own home.It opens in the wilderness, where a wildland firefighter working as an assistant superintendent in Idaho's Hell's Canyon in 2004 met a bobcat that stared him down, screamed, and climbed a tree, then found a boarded-and-chained cabin on federal land before a barefoot Native American woman in a tattered nightgown appeared on the same spot, screamed with the identical cry, and scaled the trunk faster than a person should; a local named the thing a pumawha, a skin changer. A Montana park ranger described a similar abandoned cabin beside a shed whose reinforced steel door had been forced open from the inside, a dazed man who fled into the trees twice, and a full-grown bear that bolted from the house moments after the man vanished. On Mount Sterling in North Carolina, a climber six miles from the nearest road watched a figure with no headlamp arrive at his camp under a full moon and sit motionless facing the tents from roughly 10:30 at night until 3:30 in the morning. Reddit user tytrim89 recounted an abandoned Army training town in North Carolina where two people heard girls laughing in the woods and came back to find the locked jeep's dome light on and a door cracked, followed by a thud that shook the century-old main house. A former summer-camp counselor posting as fleetw16 and a friend followed the sound of running water that grew louder and softer with no creek anywhere on the map, drawn on by a presence that turned sinister the instant they chose to turn back. The segment ends at Yellowstone's Lamar Valley, where a ranger eleven miles from the nearest road found a doe's head severed cleanly and set in the middle of the trail, no blood, no scavenging, the eyes and tongue intact and the body gone.From there the episode turns to the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, the $22 million Pentagon UFO effort that Luis Elizondo helped expose in the New York Times in December 2017, and to the fuller account that its original name was the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Applications Program and its real focus was Skinwalker Ranch in Utah's Uintah Basin. Robert Bigelow bought that ranch in 1996 after founding the National Institute for Discovery Science in 1995, and what happened there fills the 2005 book Hunt for the Skinwalker by journalist George Knapp and biochemist Colm Kelleher. The family who sold it, pseudonymed the Gormans, reported a wolf-like creature that shrugged off point-blank gunshots and orbs of light that lured their dogs into the trees for good. Funding ran through Senator Harry Reid and the Defense Intelligence Agency until fundamentalist Christians inside the intelligence community, convinced the phenomena were demonic, lobbied the program shut; retired Army intelligence colonel John Alexander called what they studied precognitive sentient phenomena. Filmmaker Jeremy Corbell's documentary and the History Channel series Unidentified, premiering May 31, carried the material to a wider audience.Next comes the killing of Dino Bravo, born Adolfo Bresciano, a Montreal wrestling star who held a WWWF tag title, benched a claimed 655 pounds as a heel at the 1988 Royal Rumble, and was let go by the company in 1992. Rather than relocate his family to join WCW, he moved into Canada's booming illegal cigarette trade and built a local monopoly, then partnered with a cocaine dealer whose $400,000 shipment was seized by police after sitting three days in a warehouse. A week later, on March 10, 1993, his wife came home to find him shot seven times in the head and ten times in the torso, seated in a chair with the television remote still in his hand and no sign of forced entry. Investigators recovered .380 and .22 caliber rounds and suspect a silencer, since no neighbor reported seventeen gunshots; the execution bore the marks of a Canadian mob hit, and at 44 Bravo left a wife and young daughter behind. The case remains unsolved.The episode closes with Brenda McDonald, who rented a suburban rambler while home on mid-tour leave and watched the back sliding door lock her family out again and again on moving day, its latch not spring-loaded, while her grandson's bedroom door kept shutting and locking until she removed the knob. Home later from deployment, she heard loud snoring beside her on the couch and then in her bed, and during a backyard barbecue a dark shape shot down the hall as a metal candle holder and several pairs of socks flew off a ledge and struck the far wall. A psychic medium told her a frustrated male spirit who wanted a family had followed her daughter home, then coaxed it toward the light, though McDonald came to believe that wherever her daughter goes, spirits follow.

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