We went out and found you more strange, unusual and horrifying Christmas traditions and stories because tis the season. Merry Christmas everyone!
Episode 216 - Geoffrey Pyke, the Maddest Scientist Ever
Geoffrey Pyke’s colleagues called him “Professor Brainstorm” and during WWII he dreamed up some of the craziest weapons of war ever. Giant ice ships, sideways-jumping snow tanks, and shooting soldiers through pies into enemy territory. But when Pyke spoke, both Lord Mountbatten and Winston Churchill listened.
Episode 215 - The Cave Boys of Thailand
When 12 boys and their soccer coach went into a cave near their home in Thailand, they figured they would be inside an hour at most. It turned out to be more like 17 days. Water rising, no food, probably inbred subhuman cave monsters waiting to feast on human flesh, and the only way out was a torturous tunnel completely submerged.
Weird Bit 38 - Beavers in the Sky
Southwestern Idaho had too many beavers in 1948. They needed to go. But how? That’s easy - by parachute. Genius.
Episode 214 - The Mind Reader and the Mass Murderer
Someone slaughtered four people at the Booher farm in Alberta, Canada in 1928. The police were stumped. Lucky for them, they had one of the foremost psychologists in the world visiting from Austria at the time. Even more fortunate, Maximilian Langsner could not just heal minds, he could read them. Langsner would find their murderer.
Episode 213 - The Poison Squad
No, they didn’t poison us. They actually tried to prevent companies from poisoning us. But they did this by poisoning people. Confusing, yes, but fascinating.
Sources:
https://www.esquire.com/food-drink/food/a23169/poison-squad/
The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, by Deborah Blum
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/16/books/review/poison-squad-deborah-blum.html
https://gastropod.com/keeping-it-fresh-preservatives-and-the-poison-squad/
Episode 212 - Manhattan Transfer: The Alien Abduction of Linda Cortile
Linda Cortile was sleeping soundly in her 12th floor Manhattan apartment when three aliens came and beamed her onto their spaceship at 3:15 in the morning. What made her story different was this: people had actually witnessed the event. And not just two government agents named Richard and Dan, but a whole bunch of freaked out people watching from the Brooklyn Bridge.
Weird Bit 37 - Hallow-Weird World Reveal
Was it the Jenglot? Or the Baby Cages? The Jersey Devil Tree? The Moroccan Moonstone? Or the Man-eating Tree of Madagascar? Finally, we’ll find out…
Episode 211 - The Werewolf of Bedburg
Something was terrorizing the countryside around Bedburg in Germany in the late 1500s. First cattle, then children, then women. Disappeared, dismembered, devoured. Was it wolves? Was it the devil? Or was it a little bit of both.
Disclaimer: There are descriptions of attacks / murder and of old-timey torture and execution methods in this episode.
Episode 210 - Was the Borley Rectory Really the Most Haunted House in England?
It started with a monk and nun executed for their illicit affair in 1362. The nun came back to haunt the scene of her demise. Then came a headless coachman. Then a poltergeist started tossing around candlesticks and scrawling messages on walls. Harry Price went ghost hunting. But only fire could expunge the evil from this place. Or did it?
Weird Bit 36 - El Cucuy, the Monster Under Your Bed
El Cucuy hides in your closet or under your bed. In the dark. And he does not just do mean things to you if you are bad. He eats you. Oh, and El Cucuy sometimes attacks grandmothers. He is just all around bad.
Episode 209 - The Poltergeist Girl of Romania
When 13-year old Eleonore Zugun found a coin on the ground and spent it, her grandmother told her Dracu the Devil would make sure bad things happened to her. Bad things did.
Episode 208 - Frightening Things: Fact or Fiction
Halloween is the perfect time for a fact or fiction episode. This one centers on strange things: tiny little vampires, moonstones, a demonic tree, man-eating trees and, worst of all, baby cages. Listen, then vote for the weird thing you think is B.S. We’ll reveal the fake strange thing on Halloween.
Weird Bit 35 - The Australian Death Bone and the Will to Die
How powerful is belief? Powerful enough to kill? To some indigenous Australians, the mere pointing of a bone can seal a terrible fate.
Episode 207 - The Seven Year Murder of Cindy James
For almost seven years Cindy James was harassed, attacked, and terrorized. Did Cindy have a vicious enemy who would not rest until she was broken or dead? Or was Cindy’s enemy much closer to home?
Episode 206 - The Mysterious Death of Jack Wheeler
Jack Wheeler was a stridently conventional man. West Point grad, military veteran, White House aide. Everything about Jack Wheeler was normal - until two days of strange behavior that culminated in his body being found at a landfill in Delaware, beaten to death.
Episode 205 - An Alan Smithee Film
Over 30 years, Alan Smithee directed more than 25 feature films. He was praised by Roger Ebert. He directed such stars as Richard Widmark, Burt Reynolds, Robert Duvall, Holly Hunter, Jodie Foster and Keanu Reeves. Alan Smithee was a major Hollywood player. It turns out, though, that Alan Smithee did not exist.
Weird Bit 34 - Robert Pakington and the Worst First
Robert Pakington was a wealthy English reformer during the reign of Henry VIII. Who knew that what happened to him on a walk to church in 1536 would change the world forever in a very ugly way.
Episode 204 - My Name is Dan Cooper - The DB Cooper Hijacking Part 3
As law enforcement gave up on ever catching the only successful hijacker in the nation’s history, the question became - who was DB Cooper? Was it the smoke jumper? The terrible skydiving instructor? The transgender woman? The mass murderer? Let’s find out.
Episode 203 - My Name is Dan Cooper - The DB Cooper Hijacking Part 2
The moment Flight 305 touches down in Reno, the authorities swarm. But DB Cooper had already leapt into the rainy night somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Where did he jump? Did he survive? And, if so, where did he go?