Episodes

Recent sightings of people dressed as clowns and trying to lure children into the woods have set off a storm of panic in the American South. In England and France clown sightings and fear of clowns has resurfaced often in past decades...it is not a new...

In this story by author James Bucham, from our 1001 ClassicShort Stories & Tales show, a young Indian boy befriends awounded eaglet and lives to see the kindness returned.

In recent years an alarming number of young men have been found dead in the waterways surrounding major college towns. In most cases, alcohol and drugs are blamed, in others, suicide, and in still fewer, murder. We explore the cases of the missing men ...

This true story, often called "The War in Athens, Tennessee", describes the actions of the citizens of a small town, in this case mostly GI's recently returned from the battlefields of WWII, as they armed themselves to insure a fair election against a ...

This short story comes from our Mysteries file and is a chilling short story from classic American author Edgar Allen Poe. Poe is considered one of the greatest horror story writers and as the only author that has a professional football team named aft...

In this sequel to our previous "FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS", we discuss the real meaning behind some of those of those innocent nursery rhymes that kids have been enjoying for years., and look at the "grim" facts behind some well known fairy tales....

It is the kind of story you expect to find in the movies- but this one is taking place in real life. When 21 year-old American soldier Norwood Thomas met 17 year-old Joyce Durrant on the banks of the River Thames in London a few weeks before the JUne 6...

"Blood Brothers: The True Story That Inspired the John Wayne Movie "The Sons of Katie Elder". On the evening of January 19th, 1889, two wagons and a buggy slowly crossed Dry Creek, two miles east of Graham, Texas. The lead wagon held six prisoners, four of them being the Marlow Brothers, chained together in pairs by manacles attached to their ankles, and a guard named Phlete Martin. The second wagon carried Deputy U.S.Marshall Edward Johnson, three guards, plus spare weapons and ammunition, whil...

This long-lost American tale tells the true story of two young girls, Abigail and Rebecca Bates, the daughters of a lighthouse keeper in Scituate, Massachusetts, who turn back a British warship during the War of 1812. Early in September, 1814, a Br..

On September 7, 1849, Edgar Allen Poe, at the top of his career, kissed his fiance goodbye at his home in Richmond, VA, and began a business trip to Philadelphia. He then dropped out of sight for a week, he was found in Baltimore on October 3rd, inside...

We originally did this story about a year ago, and just came back to it recently knowing that there was more to tell...actually a story within a story, and one that needs telling, in light of the challenges the world and the Catholic Church are facing....

The year is 404 A.D. Rome is changing under the new direction of Christian emperors. The Roman Coliseum is still home to 86,000 spectators all demanding entertainment, and all very conditioned to spectacles of death and bloodshed. All that is about to ...

The True Story Beats the Novel

"Unsinkable Molly Brown- A Rags To Riches Story of a Titanic Survivor"-Born Margaret Tobin Brown to poor Irish immigrants in Hannibal Missouri in 1867, "Maggie" Brown worked stripping tobacco leaves to support her family until the age of 18, when she moved with her sister to Leadville, Colorado to help establish a blacksmith shop. There she met James Joseph (J.J.) Brown, a miner who was also a son of Irish immigrants. Brown strucj it rich when he figured a way to extract silver from the mine's l...

"The Legend of Snowshoe Thompson" is one of the most enduring tales of the American West. A Norwegian immigrant, Thompson tried his hand at gold mining during the gold rush in California and Nevada but when he married, he went to work delivering mail through the snowed in passes of the Sierra Mountains of Eastern California and Western Nevada, fashioning "snowshoes" mounted on long pieces of oak, and becoming an expert at cross country and downhill skiing. For twenty years he brought desperately...

"The Silent Witness at Appomattox"- This episode tells the little known story of the McLean family's unwilling participation at both ends of the Civil War, beginning with their Northern Virginia farmhouse being bombarded at the Battle of Bull Run in 1861, prompting them to move. They choose to move to safer climes 120 miles south in the quiet village of Appomattox Courthouse, where one of the last battles of the Civil War takes place, and where their house, by pure coincidence, is used as the si...

Urban Legends III- Our stories: 1. Did the mob bury Jimmy Hoffa in Giants Stadium? 2. Do Toilet Alligators Exist? 3. Guardian Angels 4. The Haunted Mudhouse Mansion in Ohio 5. A Craigslist Golddigger Meets Her Match 6. Was the Eagles "Hotel California" about Satanism? 7. An Irish Ghost Story Hoffa: Detroit Free Press article, also discovery.com "Mythbusters" Gators: www.sewergator.com Angels: csicop.org "On a Wing and a Prayer" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoice...

"Quantrill's Raiders and Bloody Kansas"- In August of 1863, an armed force of 400 men descended upon the anti-slavery town of Lawrence, Kansas and proceeded to systematically destroy it. Seven years before, Lawrence Kansas was sacked and burned mainly due to its being known as an anti-slavery town. Then, the war in Kansas, an anti-slavery state, and Missouri, a pro-slavery state, had already started, and was to continue at a level of butchery that exceeded anything seen during the Civil War. Sou...

"The Boys of Point Du Hoc"- D-Day #WWII  The most dramatic and deadly event of D-Day, June 6, 1944, and there were many, occurred as the Army Rangers 2nd Battalion stormed the 100 foot high vertical cliffs of Pointe Du Hoc at Normandy ti silence...

Guest host Dante Stack

"Grace Sherwood: the Witch of Pungo"-The true story of Virginia's Grace Sherwood, who was the last person to be tried and convicted as a witch in the state of Virginia. Her accusers were many, and while her husband lived they both went to court often to try to defend their reputation and name. She was a midwife and healer, and sometimes the line of demarcation between "healer" and "witch" was hard for people to understand in the age of superstition. Sources: Kyle, Louisa Veneble (Nov 1973) The W...

"The Man Who Created Agent 007"- The story of Bond creator Ian Fleming, his crucial role in British military intelligence, his first books, and his career. With special insight into the early James Bond movies and Sean Connery. Sources: Amis, Kingsley (1966) The James Bond Dossier: London Pan Books Black, Jeremy, (2005) The Politics of James Bond: From Fleming's Novel To The Big Screen, Univ. Nebraska Press Ian Fleming: Andrew Lycett The Life of Ian fleming: John Pearson Learn more about your...

"The Great Train Crash in Crush, Texas"-On Sept. 15th, 1896, the KATY railroad staged a big publicity stunt in North Central Texas that drew an estimated 40,000 onlookers. The draw: a staged crash of two steam powered locomotives. A carnival atmosphere prevailed all day as the railroad delivered crowds eager to witness the event and have some fun in the process. But when the locomotives collided and both pressurized boilers exploded, the scene turned dreadly. references: Wikipedia "The Town of C...

"The Mystery of the Ghost Ship Mary Celeste"-The ubrupt disappearance of the Mary Celeste's Captain, his wife and two year old daughter, and the remaining crew of seven, in December of 1872 in the North Atlantic, has been the subject of countless...