The Award Winning "Once Upon A Shroom"   Sheri and Max have placed True Weird Stuff on hiatus through the holiday season. Today, we present to you another one of their award winning episodes. Winner of a W3 Award for best history episode, Once Upon A Shroom dives into the story of the man who popularized shrooms in America.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Award Winning "Cokey & Lucky"   Sheri and Max have placed True Weird Stuff on hiatus as we enter the chaotic crunch time of the Christmas season, In their stead, we present to you one of their award-winning episodes. Winner of a W3 Award for best history episode, Cokey and Lucky explores the rise and fall of the architect of the modern mafia.   Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at https://www.rula.com/trueweirdstuff #rulapod

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Phantom Killer   In 1946, the twin cities of Texarkana were gripped by terror; an unknown person began attacking couples in the night, murdering five people over the course of weeks. As the murders mounted, fear and paranoia consumed the community. Despite an exhaustive investigation fueled by endless false tips, bogus confessions, and hundreds of possible suspects, the actual perpetrator was never found. They'd vanished without a trace and will forever be known as the Phantom Killer.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Dopey & Sad: The Year In Review   It's been quite the year for the True Weird Stuff crew. We won awards and spent countless hours writing and editing dozens of stories that may or may not have been lost to time. We don't have a story for you in this episode, per se, but it is the tale of how we've managed to build True Weird Stuff into something we're really proud of.   Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at https://www.rula.com/trueweirdstuff #rulapod

Today's True Weird Stuff - Revisiting The First War On Christmas   We're off for the Thanksgiving holiday, so in honor of Christmas here's a tale about a group of Grinches who hated the holiday. The Puritans in Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 17th Century, people like Governor William Bradford and Reverend Increase Mather, hated Christmas so much that they chose to ban it.     Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at https://www.rula.com/trueweirdstuff #rulapod

Today's True Weird Stuff - Road Zoo   As cars and family road trips exploded across America in the early 20th century, hundreds of mom-and-pop zoos sprang up along the highways, promising exotic animals, cheap thrills, and quick profits. But behind the quirky billboards and hand-painted signs, many of these zoos operated with little to no oversight. Lax regulations opened the door for questionable practices: cramped cages, animal mistreatment, and even the smuggling of dangerous species that sometimes resulted in serious injuries—or worse.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Fall of Fatty   In 1921, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars—beloved, bankable, and untouchable. But a wild party at San Francisco’s St. Francis Hotel changed everything. When young actress Virginia Rappe fell mysteriously ill and later died, Arbuckle was accused of murdering her, igniting one of the first major celebrity scandals in American history. The tabloids turned the tragedy into a feeding frenzy, but the truth of what really happened that night remains murky over a century later.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Gorillas in the Myth   Long before Bigfoot roamed through modern folklore, there was another giant said to haunt the jungles. For centuries, explorers called it a monster, a savage man-beast that couldn’t possibly exist. Then one day, proof was uncovered. From cryptid legend to reality, this is the tale of the gorilla and its emergence from the mythical shadows.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Bright Lights, Big Sleepy Revisited   This was one of the first True Weird Stuff episodes we did...it's a deeply personal story for Sheri, who shared the time she and her family experienced a "lost time" phenomenon. This episode has been updated to include a newly recorded Post-Mortem, in which Sheri reveals new information she recently learned while visiting her mom.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Flat Earth City   Wilbur Glenn Voliva was a self-proclaimed prophet, flat-earth crusader, and autocratic ruler of Zion, Illinois. This fiery preacher took over John Alexander Dowie’s religious utopia in the early 1900s, ruling with an iron fist, Volivabanning everything from whistling to reading newspapers on Sundays. But his most infamous crusade was against science itself: Voliva loudly declared that the Earth was flat, even offering thousands of dollars to anyone who could prove it was round.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Littlest Survivor   In 1846, the Donner Party set out westward seeking new land and opportunity, but their journey turned into a nightmare when they became trapped by snow in the unforgiving Sierra Nevada. Starvation, freezing temperatures, and impossible choices claimed the lives of many members of the Donner Party. Eliza Donner Houghton, the youngest survivor and among the last to be rescued, witnessed the loss of both parents and bore witness to fear, desperation, and horrors no child should endure.

Today's True Weird Stuff - A Demon Named Bob   In 1878, a quiet town in Nova Scotia became the stage for one of the most chilling hauntings in North American history. After a near-death experience, a young woman named Esther Cox began to suffer strange attacks — unseen forces that scratched messages into walls, set fires, and hurled objects through the air. Was she the victim of a violent haunting, or the center of a psychological storm misunderstood by her time?

Today's True Weird Stuff - Liar, Liar, Plants on Fire   In 1966, Cleve Backster, an interrogation specialist for the CIA, claimed to have discovered something shocking: plants seemed to respond to human thoughts and emotions. He came to this conclusion by hooking up plants to a polygraph machine to measure their response. His controversial experiments with polygraphs suggested that living things might share a hidden form of communication, and sparked a wave of fascination and skepticism that still lingers today.

Today/s True Weird Stuff - The Terrordome   Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia became notorious for unethical medical experiments conducted on inmates from the 1950s through the 1970s. Prisoners, many of them poor and Black, were lured into participating with small payments; doctors also lied to prisoners about the risks. Under dermatologist Albert Kligman, inmates were exposed to chemicals, viruses, asbestos, and other toxic chemicals that caused lifelong physical and psychological damage. The horrors of this institution are why Holmesburg Prison was given the nickname, "The Terrordome."

Today's True Weird Stuff - Wild Child (Airdate 9/19/2025)   In 1797, a young boy was discovered in the woods of France. He would eventually be found and taken into towns to be cared for by the locals. This boy, known as Victor, couldn't speak, was covered in scars, and behaved like a wild animal. Victor would escape many times, but he was eventually taken in by a French physician, who vowed to turn Victor into a civilized member of society.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Our Lady Of The Attic   Blanche Monnier’s story is one of the most chilling true tales from 19th-century France. Once a vibrant young woman from a respected family, Blanche mysteriously vanished—only to be discovered 25 years later, imprisoned in a dark, filthy room by her own mother. Malnourished, covered in filth, and hidden away from the world, Blanche’s shocking ordeal became headline news across Europe, exposing the horrifying secret that had been kept behind closed doors for decades.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Sin Eater   The practice of people eating a meal after a loved one's funeral is common, but the combination of eating and death used to have a morbid relationship in some religions. Certain people were called upon to place bread on the deceased's body, then eat the bread as a way to "consume" the person's sins. They were known as Sin Eaters, and these social pariahs were doomed to carry the burden of others' sins into eternal damnation.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Madames of Mayhem - A True Crime Marathon   We have four chilling tales of women you don't want to cross. Nannie Doss loved her husbands...until she got tired of them and decided to murder them. Baba Anujka, the world's oldest serial killer, used her scientific knowledge to poison her victims. Megan Hess and Shirley Koch were a mother/daughter duo who illegally sold body parts through their funeral home. Georgia Tann, aka the "Baby Broker," ran an adoption agency that kidnapped young children and sold them to wealthy families.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Ghost Ship   A bizarre distress signal. A vessel discovered adrift. An entire crew found deceased with their faces frozen in terror. Since the 1940s, the legend of the SS Ourang Medan has been shrouded in mystery. Different accounts tell different stories. How did the crew die? Did the Ourgang Medan even exist at all? Only the souls of those on board know the truth about this ghost ship.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Living Corpse   Taphophobia is the fear of being buried alive. During the Victorian Era, people being mistakenly buried alive was so common that extensive measures were taken to prevent it. But throughout history, there have been individuals like "Country" Bill White, a man who made a career out of burying himself alive for the fame and notoriety. He will forever be known as The Living Corpse.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Vanished   In 1768, Owen Parfitt was a crippled, old man sitting on his front porch like usual. When his sister returned to bring him inside, he was gone. It was impossible that he'd left on his own, and no one had seen a thing. Every search turned up empty-handed, and Owen Parfitt was never seen again. Was he kidnapped? Was he a victim of the supernatural? The disappearance of Owen Parfitt remains a mystery to this day.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Human Livestock   In the 20th century, the American Eugenics Society promoted its ideas of "racial betterment" through publications, lectures, and even at state fairs. Entire families would jump at the chance to be scrupulously evaluated at these exhibits. The prize for winning these "Fitter Family" contests? Being deemed worthy of passing on your genes to improve the white race.

Today's True Weird Stuff - People Chow   Webster Edgerly was the creator of a social movement known as Ralstonism. His self-promoted pseudoscience was based upon his advocacy of racial eugenics and strict health and hygiene habits. That's why in 1902, Edgerly's Ralstonism movement would end up partnering with popular food brand Purina, whose whole-grain cereal Edgerly considered to be the perfect food for his faithful followers.

The Hobo King   In the decades before the Great Depression, it was common for folks known as hobos to wander from town to town searching for work, dangerously hopping on and off moving trains to reach their next destination. A man named Jeff Davis believed that hobos deserved a chance to care for themselves, and in 1913, he opened a hotel where hobos would provide for each other in exchange for lodging. This concept spread across the country, and Jeff Davis would become known as The Hobo King.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Revisiting Sea Demon    You’re at the beach, standing at the water’s edge. Shielding your eyes from the sun glaring off the water, you gaze out at the far horizon. Did you see it? Was it a trick of the light or was it...a fin? You’re about to hear a shark tale unlike any other. One that makes Jaws look like Finding Nemo. This is the terrifying true story of...the Sea Demon.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Revisiting We The People   In honor of the 4th of July, here's the episode we did about Gouverneur Morris, the man who coined the term "We the People."

Today's True Weird Stuff - Nazi Farm Part 2   In Nazi Farm, Part 1 we discussed the origin of Colonia Dignidad, the Nazi religious cult established by Paul Schäfer in Chile. In this episode, we dive deeper into Colonia Dignidad's relationship with Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet. Schäfer's alliance with Pinochet's regime led to Colonia Dignidad becoming a place where Pinochet's enemies would be brutally tortured...or worse.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Nazi Farm Part 1   Paul Schäfer was a Nazi who, after World War II, would go on to become a minister. When Schäfer was accused of abusing two young boys at his orphanage, he fled to Chile and started a community called Colonia Dignidad. Though this 53-square-mile compound looked peaceful on the outside, Colonia Dignidad was a horrific nightmare. Violence, abuse, forced separation of families, and an alliance with a Chilean dictator were just a few of the ways Paul Schäfer maintained control over his Nazi cult with an iron fist.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Order of the Pug   The rise of Freemasonry in 18th century Europe led to conflict within the Catholic Church. Their disdain of these secret fraternal orders led to  Pope Clement XII banning Catholics from joining them. However, that didn't stop a group of Catholics from creating their own secret society, one based on loyalty, trustworthiness, steadfastness...and wearing a dog collar. This group was known as the Order of the Pug.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Revisiting A Killer Pool   With Sheri feeling under the weather this week, we thought it'd be a good time to re-release the first episode of True Weird Stuff. Sheri shares the details of growing up with a neighbor down who was as nice as could be...until the day he snapped and went on a killing spree.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Killer Eyes   Fritz Angerstein was a German mass murderer who killed his wife and 7 other people on November 30 and December 1, 1924. For centuries, people wondered if it might be possible for the human eye to record the last image it saw before death, leading to the practice of forensic optography. Even though it would eventually be debunked, forensic optography was admitted as damning evidence in the trial of Fritz Angerstein. It claimed that his face and an axe were the last images his victims saw.

Today's True Weird: Murder Farm (Airdate 5/23/2025)

Today's True Weird Stuff - Mammoth Feast (Airdate 5/16/2025)   In 1901, an expedition team in Siberia discovered a nearly perfectly preserved mammoth locked in permafrost for 44,000 years. Various tales of the consumption of mammoth meat have been around for centuries, but none like the Explorers Club's 47th Annual Dinner in 1951.  The exclusive meal was rumoured to have included a host of exotic delicacies, including pieces of 250,000-year-old woolly mammoth meat. It wouldn't be until decades later that examinations of a sample of the meat from that legendary dinner would solve the mystery, once and for all.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Adam & Eve Declassified   In the 1960s, the CIA classified a book called The Adam and Eve Story. The book claims that Earth undergoes catastrophic events approximately every 6,500 years, leading to the destruction and rebirth of civilization through disasters like pole shifts and mass extinctions. The book became declassified in 2013, but even then, only several dozen pages were made available...and the reason the CIA has kept the details of this book secret is still unknown.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Casket Girls   In the 1700s, the French colony in Louisiana had a population problem: there weren't enough women. And so the French government rounded up and shipped over hundreds of women across the Atlantic to marry male settlers and help “civilize” the growing colony. The women carried what little belongings they had in small wooden trunks that looked like mini coffins, which is why the women were known as the Casket Girls.

Today's True Werid Stuff - Doomsday Clock: 89 Seconds To Midnight   Created in 1947, the Doomsday Clock was established by a group of atomic scientists to represent to the public the likelihood of a human-made global armageddon,  whether it's the looming threat of nuclear war, bioterrorism, or cyberwarfare. Over the years, the Doomsday Clock has found itself inching closer to midnight, and January 2025, the clock was set to 89 seconds before midnight...the closest it's ever been to doomsday.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Arkansas Ghost   January, 1929. A man named Connie Franklin moved to Stone County, Arkansas. The alleged 20-something began courting a 16-year-old girl named Tiller Ruminer, and on March 9th, 1929, the two were on their way to obtain their marriage license when a group of men attacked them. Tiller survived the brutal assault, but Franklin was tortured to death, and his body was burned in the woods. Months later, a pile of ashes and charred bones was discovered, leading to a bizarre moment in history that included Connie Franklin himself testifying at his own murder trial. And thus, the tale of the Arkansas Ghost was born.

Today's True Werid Stuff - Reliving The Black Eyed Kids   In 1996, reporter Brian Bethel said he had an encounter with two children that left him terrified. Sitting in his car in a parking lot late at night, Bethel was approached by two young boys whose eyes were as black as coal. In the decades since Bethel shared his story, others have claimed to have similar encounters with children with pitch-black eyes asking for help, or asking to enter the person's home. Are these haunting run-ins an urban legend, or do you have reason to fear the black-eyed kids? (NOTE: This was originally released as episode #31. We're re-releasing it with a newly added Post Mortem discussion).

Today's True Weird Stuff - Another Icepick To The Brain   Rosemary Kennedy was part of the powerful and highly esteemed Kennedy Family. Rosemary was born with intellectual disabilities at a time when children with special needs were highly stigmatized. When she was 23 years old, Rosemary's father ordered her to have a lobotomy. The procedure left her permanently incapacitated, and her family would keep her mostly hidden from the public for the rest of her life. (NOTE: This was originally released as episode #29. We're re-releasing it with a newly added Post Mortem discussion).

Today's True Weird Stuff - Headless Valley   The Nahanni Valley in the Northwestern Territories of Canada is a beautiful area that's home to strange and deadly tales, including the story of Frank and William McLeod. The two brothers set off into the Nahanni Valley in hopes of discovering a fortune in gold. Years later, their skeletons were found at an abandoned camp...and their heads were missing. Hence the reason the area became known as the Headless Valley.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Last Duel   The most famous duel in American history was between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr in 1804. The premiere way of settling disputes and upholding unwritten codes of honor, the act of dueling would gradually fall out of favor over the 19th Century. However, dueling was still commonplace in Southern states like South Carolina. That is, until a duel in 1880 between Colonel E.B. Cash and Colonel William Shannon forced the state to ban the practice.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Jill the Ripper    In 1888, the people of the Whitechapel district of London were terrorized by someone on a ruthless killing spree. Over 100 suspects were named, including a woman named Mary Pearcey. In 1890, Mary was convicted of brutally murdering her lover's partner and child, and Mary was sentenced to death. The brutal nature of the killings would lead to a theory decades later that claimed Mary Pearcey was the was the infamous Jack the Ripper.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Mirror, Mirror   Margaretha von Waldeck was the real-life inspiration for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Born to a noble family during the Holy Roman Empire, Margaretha's mother passed away when she was 4 years old. Her father, Count Philip IV, would go on to remarry a woman named Katherina von Hatzfeld. Katherina despised her stepdaughter, and had Margaretha sent away. Though beautiful and poised to make a name for herself in the history books, Margaretha's short life would play out like a fairy tale...minus the happy ending.

Brain In A Jar   Phineas Gage was an American railroad foreman who survived a traumatic brain injury.  In 1848, an iron rod shot through his skull and destroyed a chunk of his left frontal lobe. Though he survived the accident, the damage to his brain drastically altered his personality. Gage's story became a catalyst for modern neuroscience, which has advanced to the point scientists are now able to develop a brain in a jar.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The King's Rhinoceros   In the 1500s, King Manuel of Portugal gifted Pope Leo a beautiful, white elephant as a gesture of obedience to the Vatican. Unfortunately, the majestic beast passed away after only two years. To make up for it, King Manuel tried to ship Pope Leo a rhinoceros named Ganda; however, the rhino met its demise in a shipwreck before it could make it to Rome. The only good thing to come from this debacle was the immortalization of Ganda by an artist who created a sculpture without ever having seen a rhinoceros.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Appetite   Tarrare was a French Showman in the 1700s who had an insatiable appetite. His eternal hunger terrorized him to the point he literally tried to consume everything: live animals, garbage, inanimate objects, and even human flesh. The curious case of the 100lb Tarrare baffled even the greatest medical minds, and the medical findings of his autopsy were the definition of truly weird stuff.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Bunker   In the 1950's and '60s, fallout shelters were all the rage. Tensions due to America's Cold War with Russia led to a looming fear of nuclear disaster. These underground bunkers, equipped with a living space and food rations, were a civil defense strategy aimed at reducing casualties in a nuclear war. And no fallout shelter was more elaborate than the Greenbrier Hotel; a luxurious resort paid for by the government as a cover for the secret bunker designed to house Congress below.

Today's True Weird Stuff - A Real Stiff   Elmer McCurdy was an American outlaw who couldn't pull off a smooth heist to save his life. He tried to use his Army training with nitroglycerin to rob banks and trains, often to no avail. After accidentally robbing the wrong train in 1911, a drunken McCurdy met his demise after firing at the deputy sheriffs searching for him. And for the next 65 years, McCurdy's mummified corpse wound up being used as a traveling sideshow attraction known as "The Bandit Who Wouldn't Give Up."

Today's True Weird Stuff - Human Cloning   In the previous episode of True Weird Stuff, we told the story of Raëlism, the religious UFO cult led by Claude Vorilhon. We're now diving into one of their core beliefs: that Jesus was resurrected through cloning and humans need to perfect human cloning to achieve immortality. That would lead to a claim made in 2002 by a scientific company created by Raëlians that the first human clone had been born.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Messenger   This is the story of a man who created a religion around UFO's. Claude Vorilhon was a journalist who claimed he was abducted by aliens in 1973. He said they told him humans were created by extraterrestrial species using advanced technology, and then they renamed him Raël and sent him back to Earth to serve as ambassador to their faith. And thus, Raëlism was born.

Coconut Cult   In the early 1900s, a German author named August Engelhardt packed up his library of books, moved to the South Pacific island of Kabakon, and started a sun-worshipping coconut cult. He believed the way to become closer to God and gain immortality was by consuming coconuts and nothing else. Engelhardt convinced dozens of people to join him on the island, but many of them died from illness or malnutrition. And the ones who didn't perish fled, having realized the lunacy of a man who was cuckoo for coconuts.

Today's True Weird Stuff - A Curse on You   Alchemist. Astrologer. Magician. Georg Faust was considered a heretic in medieval Europe, primarily because he practiced black magic and summoned the spirits of the dead. Through legend and literature, Faust was hated by many, not just because of his fraudulent ways, but because of his pact with the devil for knowledge and power; a debt the devil would quickly collect.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Once Upon A Shroom   R. Gordon Wasson was an author, and worked in banking for J.P. Morgan. He was also responsible for popularizing shrooms in America...you know, the ones with psychedelic properties. Even the CIA got in on the action, covertly funding Wasson's expedition to study and collect hallucinogenic species of mushrooms for MK-Ultra's subproject 58.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Asylum Ladies   In the 1800s, women could be placed in mental institutions simply for not behaving the way society believed they should. Mental diagnoses at the time were simple: you were either deemed a lunatic, a moron, an imbecile, or feeble-minded. Like many others, a woman named Josephine Shaw Lowell believed poor women who lived in almshouses were promiscuous and prone to having illegitimate children. That's why in 1878 she created a place to house those women called the New York State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-Minded Women.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Forbidden Island   In the early 1900s, a woman known as Typhoid Mary was identified as patient zero for a series of typhoid outbreaks in New York. As a result, she was forced into quarantine on North Brother Island and lived the rest of her life in exile. Not only was the island a quarantine zone, it was the location of the General Slocum steamboat disaster, the deadliest event to happen in New York before 9/11. Today, North Brother Island has been abandoned for over 60 years, and travel to the island is strictly forbidden.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Dark Twinning   Stewart and Cyril Marcus were identical twin gynecologists. Though regarded as brilliant men in their profession, the Marcus twins' personal lives were shrouded in darkness. In 1975, the 45-year-old brothers' partially-decayed bodies were found inside a locked apartment littered with garbage and pharmaceuticals. An investigation led to the discovery of lives that had been just as mysterious and tragic as their deaths.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Hammersmith Ghost (Airdate 11/15/2024)   In 1803, residents of the Hammersmith district of London reported being terrorized by a ghost. The hysteria was so intense that a man named Francis Smith did the unthinkable: he shot and killed a man wearing white clothing, having mistaken the man for the Hammersmith Ghost. Can a man be found guilty of trying to kill a ghost? It's a decision that would take English courts 180 years to figure out.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Werid Stuff - Cokey & Lucky His name is Lucky Luciano. An Italian-born gangster, Luciano was credited as the Godfather of American organized crime. From extortion, to bootlegging, and prostitution, Luciano was on top of the world as he rose to power beyond his wildest dreams. That is, until a woman named "Cokey Flo" helped expose his prostitution ring in front of a jury, causing Luciano's luck to finally run out.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Welcome to the Multiverse Do you remember as a kid it being called the Berenstein Bears with an "e?" It was actually spelled with an "A". How about the Monopoly man's monocle? Turns out he never actually had one. Oh, and Ed McMahon never showed up on anyone's doorstep during the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes. These collective false memories we share with others are called the "Mandela Effect." Is this a coincidental phenomenon, or part of something bigger in a multiverse reality?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The DUNE Project   Neutrinos are tiny, fundamental particles that may contain a key to better understanding the universe. Roughly a thousand trillion of these mysterious particles harmlessly pass through your body every second. In order to better understand them, scientists shoot an intense beam of neutrinos from a facility in Illinois to an underground detector 1,300 kilometers away in South Dakota. They call it The DUNE Project.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Rest In Peace London in the early 1800s had a graveyard problem. A lack of space led to unsanitary burial practices as the smell of rotting corpses and overflowing sewers consumed the city. One such place was Enon Chapel, a church in which the pastor was getting paid to allow bodies to be buried in the chapel's basement. But a man nicknamed "Graveyard Walker" made it his mission to put an end to these filthy practices.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today True Weird Stuff - The Rightest Stuff   Astronaut Gordon Cooper had to manually control his spacecraft after a series of equipment failures. Edgar Mitchell avoided disaster by deactivating spaceship abort commands caused by a faulty switch. Becoming an astronaut has been the dream of generations of children, but it's more than exploring strange new worlds. The job of an astronaut is stressful, demanding and requires quick life-or-death decision making. This episode looks at a few tales in space where astronauts rose to the occasion to avoid catastrophe.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Beavers on the Moon    Claims that the Apollo 11 moon landing was a hoax have existed for decades. Meet the grandaddy of moon landing conspiracy theories, Bill Kaysing. He believed the Apollo Moon landings between 1969 and 1972 were faked. However, this isn't the only lunar conspiracy...The Great Moon Hoax of 1835 went as far as to trick people into believing that animals lived on the moon.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Pineys   The Pine Barrens of New Jersey may be a forbidding wilderness, but people have called the place home for hundreds of years. It's also where folks have reported sightings of a terrifying beast, capable of a blood-curdling scream that can send chills down the sturdiest spines. It's the legend of the Jersey Devil that haunts the Pineys.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Legend of the Pines   Joe Mulliner was known as the “Robin Hood of the Pines.” Forced to flee his home in 1779, Mulliner went on a crime spree through the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey...never killing anyone, but robbing and kidnapping his way into the history books.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - King Of Quacks   Curtis Howe Springer was a radio evangelist, self-proclaimed medical doctor and minister. In 1944, he laid claim to 12,000 acres of land in California's Mohave Desert and created his own town. The only problem? The land wasn't his. He was also a medical fraud who used his radio show to sell fake miracle potions. Springer was the ultimate con man known as the "King of Quacks."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Big Muddy Monster   Summer, 1973. Police in Murphysboro, Illinois started receiving phone calls about the presence of a large creature. Some saw a tall, muddy beast with glowing red eyes lurking around wooded areas. Others heard a shrieking noise that terrified even the police officers who were investigating. It's a cold case that's never been solved...the mystery of the Big Muddy Monster.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Adios, Yda!   Yda Addis was a brilliant and famous writer in California in the late 1800s. She was also someone whose personal life was full of turmoil. Constant legal battles, a nasty divorce, charges of defamation and attempted murder took their toll on Yda. Then one day, out of nowhere, she disappeared...never to be heard from again.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Here Be Sea Monsters   Cultures all around the world have myths and legends about the terrifying creatures that inhabit the ocean - from massive sea serpents, to sirens and merfolk. We take a look at the history of folks who encountered or dedicated their lives to searching for monsters in the deep blue sea.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Shock Doc   In the 1950's, the CIA launched a program aimed at developing methods for interrogating and controlling human behavior; part of the program involved funding tests on children. Dr. Lauretta Bender at Bellevue Hospital would conduct electroshock therapy on kids as young as three years old to treat childhood schizophrenia. The CIA called it "Project Artichoke."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Prize Prison   It's the wildest reality show in TV history. Susunu! Denpa Shōnen was known for placing contestants in extreme situations for entertainment purposes. This is the story of Nasubi, a comedian who spent 15 months naked and alone in an apartment. Cut off from the world, he was forced to enter magazine sweeptakes until he won $8,000 in prizes. He did this completely unaware that his challenge was being livestreamed 24/7.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Pay Phone Bandit He didn't rob banks. He wasn't a serial killer. However, James Clark left the FBI dazed and confused for years as he stole $500,000 in quarters right under everyone's nose. He was known as the Pay Phone Bandit.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Deadly Circus   Gypsy the elephant had a temper. She was part of the W.H. Harris Nickle Plate Circus, and in 1902, Gypsy killed her trainer and went on a rampage through the streets of Valdosta, Georgia. Animals have long been used in circus performances, but no amount of training changes the fact they're still wild animals.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Camel Girl   Ella Harper was born with a rare orthopedic condition that caused her knees to bend backward. During a time when sideshows and oddities were extremely popular, Ella joined W. H. Harris's Nickel Plate Circus, becoming a featured act in the show. Because she walked on her hands and feet, she became known as The Camel Girl.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Footsie   Elvis Presley. Quentin Tarantino. Jack Black. They're just a few of many people who admittedly have a foot fetish. But serial killer Dayton Leroy Rogers' love of feet took a gruesome turn. He murdered at least eight women in Oregon in the 1980s; some of the bodies were found with their feet severed because Rogers had a kink for killing.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Baby Broker   Georgia Tann was a social worker who ran a child kidnapping and adoption scheme starting in 1924. Georgia ran the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, and for over 20 years she would take children from poor families and sell them to wealthy families for a hefty profit. She would even steal newborns from mothers in prisons and mental wards. Georgia Tann stole over 5,000 children during the course of her black-market baby ring.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Secret City   Sarov is a town in Russia that no longer exists...officially, that is. In the 1940s, Sarov was removed from all unclassified maps, and the entire town was transformed into a center for research and development of nuclear weapons. Dozens of cities like these popped up in the Soviet Union at the time, as Stalin led the charge to bolster their nuclear weapons program. But strict rules and harsh conditions meant...sometimes mistakes were made.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Mad Scientist   Jack Parsons was one of the fathers of the American space age who helped put man on the moon. He invented solid rocket fuel, co-founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and he was also an occultist. He was written out of a lot of NASA's history because of his antics: he was the leader of a black-magic sex mansion, ate menstrual cakes, and was frenemies with L. Ron Hubbard. Jack Parsons was the definition of a mad scientist.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Devil Went Down To Georgia   The Georgia Guidestones were a monument that stood in Elbert County, Georgia for 42 years. Often called the "American Stonehenge," the creators believed society would eventually collapse, and built the monument as a guide for humanity after the apocalypse. However, conspiracy theorists believed the Georgia Guidestones were tied to Satanism, and in 2022, the monument was destroyed by an explosive device...and the person or persons involved remain a mystery.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Teenage Nazi Hunters   Meet Freddie and Truus Oversteegen. Freddie was a wife and mother. Truus was a sculptor and painter. But long before that, these two sisters spent their teenage years as part of the anti-Nazi Dutch resistance during WWII. They used their lethal skills and innocent charm to eliminate Nazi soldiers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Human Product 12   Society has a long history of conducting terrible experiments on humans, often without their knowledge or consent. In 1945, Ebenezer Cade was in a car accident and needed medical attention, but doctors injected an unknown substance into him just to see what would happen. It turns out he was a guinea pig for their tests on the effects of radiation; he was the first of 18 men, women, and children who were secretly injected with plutonium.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Glass Closet   Liberace was one of the great performers of his time. His flamboyant style on and off the stage are what made fans love him, and made the gossip magazines love to hate him. Despite the tabloids relentless insults and rumors about his sexuality, Liberace found himself crying all the way to the bank.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Enema King Once upon a time in a faraway land, there lived a very powerful king. He was quite good at being a king, and ruled for longer than any other monarch in the history of the whole world. But even a king chosen by God is still just a human being. Beset by all the troubles and mischief a human body can get up to. Yet his heart was glad because his people called him The Sun King, and not the other nickname he’d so richly earned: The Enema King.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Baroness    In 1929, Friedrich Ritter and his mistress took off to an uninhabited island in the Galapagos to start their new life together. But their peaceful paradise was interrupted by other inhabitants, including a woman and her two German lovers. With tensions rising and questions lingering around her sudden disappearance, this is a story about the mystery of the Baroness.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Ghost Of Ed Neal   Omaha, 1890. Allen and Dorothy Jones were brutally murdered at their farm. The culprit? A man named Ed Neal...or so they say. Little is known about who he was or where he came from, but the actions of this ruthless killer sparked bloodlust in a town hellbent on revenge.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Devil Himself   It was a beautiful, 22-bedroom mansion that was built in 1350. But the sprawling country home in County Wexford called Loftus Hall is also known as the most haunted mansion in Ireland. Stories have been passed down of a spirit that wanders the halls, but even darker than that, Loftus Hall has been haunted by the devil himself.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Turning The Bones   You know the story of President Abraham Lincoln and his assassination at the hands of John Wilkes Booth. But did you know Honest Abe's body was sent on a two-week funeral procession? 1,600 miles and over 400 stops across 7 states. Things were smooth at first, but once the decay started to set in, his corpse "was not a pleasant sight."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - On Her Nerves   She was known as the Giggling Granny...but behind the warm smile of Nannie Doss was the heart of a cold-blooded murderer. In 1954 she confessed that over the course of nearly 30 years she'd killed 11 people: four husbands, two children, one of her sisters, her own mother, two grandsons, and a mother-in-law. The casual killing of her own family members made Nannie Doss one of history's most notorious female serial killers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Shhh, It's Mars Humanity dreams of the day when we can inhabit Mars. However, it wasn't long ago that even great thinkers and inventors were convinced Martians were there first..so much so that the U.S. government instituted a "National Radio Silence Day" to listen for signs of extraterrestrial life.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - I Do, I Do, I Do    She had it all. Money. Eight different husbands. Her name in the headlines. Was she a free spirit? An impulsive woman in love with love? The life of Monaei Lindley ended in the same way she lived it...in a blaze of glory.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Unholy City   He called himself "The Comforter" and "The Emancipator." William E. Riker was a religious cult leader who preached what he called, "The Perfect Christian Divine Way," the belief in celibacy and racial and gendered segregation. In the 1920s and 30s, he purchased 200 acres of land to establish a town built on white supremacy. He called it...the Holy City.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Boy From Mars   James Leininger said he used to be a Navy Pilot whose plane was shot down during WWII. Ryan Hammons remembered his life as former actor Marty Martyn.  Boriska Kipriyanovich claimed he was a Martian who was reborn as a human. Researchers have spent decades studying the one thing they have in common: all three believe their soul was reincarnated and could describe their past lives in great detail. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Charlie No Face   Raymond Robinson was only 8 years old when he was severely injured in an electrical accident. The incident left him so disfigured that he spent the rest of his life avoiding being out in public during the day...choosing only to go on long walks under the cover of darkness. Stories spread of an elusive, disfigured man wandering the streets late at night...and so began the legend of Charlie No-Face.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Ballsy   Dr. Leo Stanley was the chief surgeon at San Quentin State Prison from 1913 to 1951. His horrific, pro-eugenics legacy included performing inhumane surgeries on inmates as a way to rehabilitate them...from thyroid removal to transplanting testicular glands from executed prisoners to living inmates. His belief in surgical cures for criminal minds made him a medical Frankenstein.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Hungry Puppet   Ronald William Brown was a Christian TV puppeteer; he was also a pedophile, sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for the hundreds of lewd and disturbing images of children in his possession. But his desires were much darker than wanting to abuse children. Ronald William Brown discussed in detail his desire to torture, murder, and eat them.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Skinned    This is the story of a wallet made from human skin. The journey of Antoine LeBlanc to America in search of a better life. The rage of being screwed over by his bosses, the Sayres...and in return, murdering them in cold blood. And a town so outraged they executed LeBlanc, and used his remains to create keepsakes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Flat Tire, Lonely Road   In 1973, Dionisio Yanca arrived at a hospital in Bahia Blanca in a state of total amnesia. Days later, as he regained his memory, he retold his extraordinary experience: a bright light consumed the area around him as three humanoid beings approached him on the side of the road at night and took a sample of his blood. Dionisio even recounted his story multiple times while under hypnosis. Some people would kill for the chance to encounter alien life, but Dionisio only wished to forget the events of that fateful night.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The First War On Christmas   Imagine living in a world where people hated Christmas...so much so that they banned people from celebrating it. We're not talking about some grumpy, green-colored mean one, or a cold-hearted miser. These were Puritans in Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 17th Century...people like Governor William Bradford and Reverend Increase Mather. Their hatred of Christmas showed no restraint, these folks made the Grinch look like a saint.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Cursed Christmas Ghost   In the late 1800s, May Yohé had it all: a successful musical theatre career. A handsome, royal husband. A lavish, extravagant lifestyle. And then...it was all gone. If you're the superstitious type, you'd believe she was yet another victim of the most famous jewel in the world. Passed down to her husband, Lord Francis, those who've inherited it have suffered great misfortune. That's the power of the curse of the Hope Diamond.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Beamed Up In 1943, the USS Eldridge, a U.S. Navy ship, allegedly teleported from Philadelphia to the waters of Norfolk, Virginia. Some claim that during this experiment some men on the ship disappeared permanently…while others reappeared, with their bodies fused into the metal of the ship. Was this a real government cover-up, or does teleportation only exist in the minds of those who boldly go where no man has gone before?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Red Crown   You’ve heard of Bonnie and Clyde. But before one of the most infamous crime sprees in American history came to a bullet-riddled end, Bonnie, Clyde, and their cohorts foundthemselves cornered by the law in a motel in Parkville, Missouri. With no other choice but toshoot their way out, this is the tale of The Barrow Gang at The Red Crown.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff -  Sweet Baba   When you think of serial killers, the most notorious ones come to mind: Ted Bundy. Jack The Ripper. Jeffrey Dahmer. But an accomplished chemist, a woman known as Baba Anujka, earned her reputation by concocting a “love potion” that was used to kill as many as 150 people. In the words of Bell Biv DeVoe…”That girl is poison.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Mother & Ghost   Decades before an old, rundown haunted house in Indiana was torn down, it was the beautiful home of Dr. and Mrs. Wilson, and their son, Aesop. In 1861, Aesop lost his life while serving in the Civil War. His grief-stricken mother had her son's casket returned home and kept it in the house for 12 years. Was the house haunted by Aesop's ghost? Or was it haunted by sorrow, because a mother's love never dies?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Room 1046   A man named Roland T. Owen checked into the Hotel President in Kansas City, Missouri on January 2, 1935. Days later, he was found in his hotel room, beaten and stabbed, blood all over the walls. Hotel staff had several strange encounters with Roland during his stay, but nothing that suggested he was in danger. With no clues, besides discovering that Roland T. Owen wasn't his real name, detectives embarked on solving the mystery of the terrible events...in Room 1046.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Swing That Axe   In 1922, Andreas and Cäzilia Gruber, their daughter Viktoria Gabriel, Viktoria's children Cäzilia and Josef, and the family's maid Maria Baumgartner were all found brutally murdered at their farm known as Hinterkaifeck. There were no clues for a motive. No usable DNA evidence. Any leads investigators had over the years led only to dead ends. The killer has never been found. The Hinterkafeck murders are the definition of a cold case.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Unmarked Graves   The Florida School for Boys, also known as the Dozier School, operated from the year 1900 until 2011. This reform school had notorious history of abuse: beatings..torture…even murder of students by staff. Many believe over 100 bodies were buried on school grounds. To this day, those who survived, and the loved ones of those lost, fight for justice for those unmarked graves.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Farmer To Fork   Cannibalism has a deeply unsettling history across various cultures and time periods, from the desperation of the Donner party in 1846, to a man in 2018 who killed and ate parts of a farmer, and used the remains to create artwork. Yes, cannibal art is a thing…but it’s usually art about cannibalism, not art made BY cannibals.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Don't Lose Your Head   How did William Guldensuppe become the most famous man in New York in 1897? It was all thanks to the fiendish antics of his lover, Augusta Nack, and her side piece, Martin Thorn. They lured Guldensuppe into a murderous trap. His body parts were scattered across the city. This love triangle was sure to make…HEADlines.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Swimmers    In 1982, Russian Navy divers were conducting a military exercise 50 metres deep in Lake Baikal when they noticed something observing them. Tall, humanoid creatures with silvery silhouettes lingered; a sight that would terrify even the toughest soldier. 7 divers entered those waters that day…only 4 survived. What lurks below in the world’s oldest lake?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.