For one unnamed family in Italy, weirdly copious sweating, high blood pressure, dilated eyes, stiff limbs and impotence were more ominous than they might be for most people. For this family, they signaled the onset of not days of sleeplessness, not weeks, but months, maybe even years. That never ends well.
Episode 200 - The Montauk Project
When Ed Bielek saw the movie, The Philadelphia Experiment, something sparked in his primal memory. Something from his past in Montauk on Long Island, New York. In a flash, Bielek realized he could add to the lore of time travel, telepathy, and government conspiracies with his own remarkable experiences. Be forewarned, this episode goes to 11.
Episode 199 - The Philadelphia Experiment
It was an astounding event that crossed paranormal fields - aliens, teleportation, time travel, secret government conspiracies. It was the Philadelphia Experiment. It was also a fantastic movie in 1984 starring the unforgettable Michael Pare. Remember him? Also in Streets of Fire, Eddie and the Cruisers? Nothing? Well, it is still a remarkable story, so tune in.
Sources:
https://www.military.com/off-duty/2020/05/04/truth-behind-wwiis-creepy-philadelphia-experiment.html
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq21-1.htm
https://medium.com/the-mysterious-miscellany/https-medium-com-the-mysterious-miscellany-bending-reality-the-philadelphia-experiment-9959a496756f
https://people.howstuffworks.com/philadelphia-experiment.htm#pt1
Dunning, B. (2006, Dec. 24). The real Philadelphia experiment. Skeptoid Podcast, Skeptoid Media. Retrieved from http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4016
Episode 198 - The Accidental Tourist and The Disappearing Tourist: Carl McCunn and Atsumi Yoshikubo
Carl McCunn looked forward to another summer in the rugged Alaskan interior photographing wildlife. But what exactly did he say to the bush pilot he thought was going to pick him up when winter loomed? And Atsumi Yoshikubo wanted so badly to see the Northern Lights she walked into the wilds of Canada’s frozen north — to vanish off the face of the earth. The stories of Carl and Atsumi demonstrate the dangers of tourism.
Episode 197 - Denise Huskins and Her Supposedly Hoax Kidnapping
What would you do if you were kidnapped by an invader in the middle of the night? He holds you, he threatens you, he assaults you. But then what would you do if you were finally released and the police didn’t believe a word you said?
Sources:
https://abc7news.com/vallejo-gone-girl-kidnapping-case-denise-huskins-police-misconduct/6339403/
https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/How-Vallejo-police-mistook-kidnap-victim-Denise-13250455.php
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Vallejo-kidnap-victim-and-fiancee-accused-of-hoax-12757846.php
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-matthew-muller-plea-vallejo-kidnapping-20160928-snap-story.html
https://www.wired.com/2015/09/matthew-muller/
20/20 Episode
Weird Bit 32 - April Fool's Truthing
Discover which of our April Fool’s stories was real and which two were fake. Quasi-spoiler alert - we tricked most of you.
Episode 196 - The Phantom Slayer Murder Mystery Part 2
The Phantom Slayer commits his most horrific attack on a couple in their own home. Texarkana devolves into panic and paranoia. Will we ever know who this monster was?
Episode 195 - The Phantom Slayer Murder Mystery, Part 1
First you see a man walking toward your car in the dead of night in a deserted lovers’ lane. Then you see he is wearing some kind of hood over his head. Then you see he is holding a gun. The Phantom Slayer has begun his reign of terror in Texarkana.
Episode 194 - Hey Mr. Submarine Man
If you invented a working submarine, would you: A) Humble brag this in every conversation (“Oh, you started a yeast culture? Hm, that reminds me of when I made a working submarine in my garage.”), B) Go on Shark Tank and ask for a billion dollars to start Underwater Uber, or C) Use it to lure women into close confines to do something unspeakable? You can probably guess the answer.
Episode 193 - Of Ghost Grannies, Alien Bigfoots, and Shooting Up Peanut Butter and Mayo
It’s April Fool’s Day but no one is going to trick our listeners. Except us. Three strange stories. Two are made up, one is real. Your job is to figure out which one. Go to our Facebook page to vote on which story is real.
Weird Bit 31 - Betsy Aardsma and the Dangers of Libraries
Betsy wore a red dress to the library on the day after Thanksgiving in 1969. That way, no one could see the blood…
Sources:
Murder in the Stacks: 50 Years Later Still No Answers, by Erin Hogge in The Daily Collegian – Penn State https://www.collegian.psu.edu/news/campus/article_b6280ed6-1a18-11ea-a966-2b1ac6ebcdcb.html
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/betsy-aardsma-murder.html
https://pennstatermag.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/aardsma_so_09.pdf
Episode 192 - The Disappearance of the Martin Family
It is sadly common for one person to disappear, but an entire family? Ken and Barbara Martin and their three youngest children vanished on a Christmas outing. It took days to realize they were gone and months for the first solid clues to arise, but we still do not know what happened to the Martin Family.
Episode 191 - The Mad Gasser of Mattoon, Part 2
With surprising speed, the mood in Mattoon turns from vigilance to skepticism. Who and what was behind the mad gassings in Mattoon? Or, to some, did they even occur?
Episode 190 - The Mad Gasser of Mattoon, Part 1
The attacks started with a sickly sweet odor that paralyzed and sickened its victims. Soon a small town in World War Two-Era middle America was in a panic. Was there a mad gasser in their midst?
Episode 189 - Nick Lotz, the Biggest TV Star You've Never Heard Of
Nick Lotz led a normal college freshman life getting blackout drunk and high on opiates and Adderall. But then he realized he was different - he was the star of his own TV show. About him. Every day. All day. And when the producer who speaks directly into your head tells you to do something, you do it. Nick did.
Episode 188 - The Devil Went Down to Devon
When the people of Devon in the UK awoke to find single file trails of cloven or horseshoe footprints in the snow, they wondered what had caused them. But when they realized they went on for mile after mile, crossed rivers, danced atop roofs, and leapt high walls, they feared what might have caused them.
Episode 187 - The Mystery Guest
Who were those old women who had spent the last 24 years in a hotel, never seen, never spoken to? It would take a dead body to re-discover Ida Wood, millionaire socialite who had disappeared over two decades before.
Sources:
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/02/05/ida-wood-recluse/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/everything-was-fake-but-her-wealth-4621153/
Episode 186 - The Belmez Faces
When Maria Gomez Pereira saw a stain appear on her kitchen floor in Spain in 1971 she was annoyed. When the next morning that stain had morphed into a human face, she was scared. When more faces started appearing the world came to Belmez to see the miraculous faces on her kitchen floor.
Episode 185 - Keith Reinhard's Last Hike, Part 2
What happened to Tom Young, the man whose disappearance obsessed Keith Reinhard? Then what happened to Keith? What drove him up a treacherous mountain as darkness loomed, never to be seen again?
Episode 184 - Keith Reinhard's Last Hike, Part 1
Keith Reinhard fled his mundane life to a living ghost town in the Rocky Mountains. There he obsessed over the disappearance of Tom Young - the man who had rented his shop space before him. Then Keith followed Tom into oblivion.