35 - The Spiderman of Denver

A retired railroad worker is murdered in his home in a classic locked door mystery.  In the following weeks and months, apparently ghostly phenomena are noticed.  But the truth was far weirder.
Episode 35 Photo Gallery: https://www.facebook.com/andrew.d.gable/media_set?set=a.10216795083982977&type=3
Part of the Straight Up Strange Network: https://www.straightupstrange.com/
Opening music by Kevin MacLeod.
Closing music by Soma.
"Attic wraith re-enacts his murder of man he now says he knew in Denver earlier,” Greeley Daily Tribune, August 1, 1942.“Coneys pleads innocent to first degree murder,” Oshkosh (Wisconsin) Northwestern, August 24, 1942.“Convicted ghost slayer given life,” Fresno (California) Bee, November 1, 1942.“Ghost awaits murder trial,” Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner, October 29, 1942.“Ghost shows detectives how murder took place,” Brownsville (Texas) Herald, August 2, 1942.“Mrs. Peters recalls man who says he slew her husband as visitor at their home as music club member,” Greeley Daily Tribune, August 1, 1942.“Spider man, slayer of friend, living out days as life termer,” Panama City (Florida) News-Herald, July 4, 1954.“Two held here not wanted,” Greeley Daily Tribune, October 24, 1941.Childers, James E. “Death was a phantom lodger,” Denver Post Empire, February 7, 1960.
https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/tale-denver-spider-man
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2015/10/26/stranger-than-fiction-denver-spiderman-and-his-montcreiff-place-murder/74638310/
https://history.denverlibrary.org/sites/history/files/DPL_1940_1944_Death_Index_0_0.pdf
http://www.darkhistories.com/the-spider-man-of-denver-theodore-edward-coneys/
 

34 - The Mouse Tower

A German legend of an evil clergyman eaten by rats.  But the story isn't all it's cracked up to be; countless variants of it exist across Europe.  
Episode 34 Photo Gallery: https://www.facebook.com/andrew.d.gable/media_set?set=a.10216733467682608&type=3
Part of the Straight Up Strange Network (https://www.straightupstrange.com/).
Baring-Gould, Sabine.  Curious Myths of the Middle Ages.  London, Oxford, and Cambridge: Rivingtons, 1877.Brewer, Ebenezer C.  Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama (vol. 3).Coryat, Thomas.  Coryat's Crudities: Hastily Gobled Up In Five Moneths Travells (vol. 2).  Glasgow: University Press, 1905.Gask, Lilian.  Folk Tales From Many Lands.  New York: T.Y. Crowell, 1910.Gerald of Wales.  The Historical Works of Giraldus Cambrensis.  London: George Bell & Sons, 1894.Miltoun, Francis.  Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine.  Boston: Colonial Press, 1909.Morris, Charles.  Historical Tales: The Romance of Reality (vol. 5).  Philadelphia and London: J.B. Lippincott, 1908.von Döllinger, Johann J.I.  Fables Respecting the Popes in the Middle Ages.  New York: Dodd & Mead, 1872.“The Mouse Tower,” Buffalo Commercial, April 9, 1901.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babenberg
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/death-archbishop-hatto
http://www.loreley-info.com/eng/rhein-rhine/castles/maeuseturm.php
https://melaniejeanjuneau.blog/2014/02/27/there-is-a-saint-for-everything-afraid-of-mice/
https://www.fuenfseenland.de/fuenfseenland/die-fuenf-seen/woerthsee/
https://lamusdworski.wordpress.com/2016/03/12/mouse-tower/
 
Opening music by Kevin MacLeod.Closing music by Soma.

33 - Rehmeyer's Hollow

On November 27, 1928, a suspected curse-layer is brutally killed by three others.  This is one of the more infamous stories near my home, and is one of the earliest "true" supernatural accounts I remember hearing.
Episode 33 Photo Gallery: https://www.facebook.com/andrew.d.gable/media_set?set=a.10216677669847697&type=3
Part of the Straight Up Strange Network (https://www.straightupstrange.com/).
In reference to Alice Rehmeyer's statement at the beginning of the episode, “try” is the word generally used to denote pow-wow work; by “things for him to try” is meant essentially “problems to be cured.”
“Commonwealth v. Curry,” 298 Pa. 363 (Pa. 1930).  https://casetext.com/case/commonwealth-v-curry-10Donmoyer, Patrick J.  Powwowing in Pennsylvania: Braucherei and the Ritual of Everyday Life.  Kutztown, PA: Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center, 2017.Kriebel, David W.  Powwowing Among the Pennsylvania Dutch: A Traditional Medical Practice in the Modern World.  University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2007.McGinnis, J. Ross.  Trials of Hex. York, PA: Davis/Trinity Publishing Company, 2000.Renner, Timothy.  Beyond the Seventh Gate.  CreateSpace, 2016.“Select counsel for 3 slayers,” Harrisburg Evening News, December 4, 1928.White, Thomas.  Witches of Pennsylvania: Occult History & Lore.  Charleston, SC: History Press, 2013.
Opening music by Kevin MacLeod.Closing music by Soma.

32 - The Origin of the Poltergeist

Episode 32 Photo Gallery: https://www.facebook.com/andrew.d.gable/media_set?set=a.10216607565775139&type=3
Part of the Straight Up Strange network. https://www.straightupstrange.com/
Baring, Maurice. The Mainsprings of Russia. London: T. Nelson, 1914.Brockett, L.P. Bogomils of Bulgaria and Bosnia. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1879.Calmet, Augustine. The Phantom World (Henry Christmas, trans.). Philadelphia: T.K. & P.G. Collins, 1850 (originally published as Traité sur les Apparitions des Esprit et sur les Vampires, 1751).Comnena, Anna. The Alexiad (Elizabeth Dawes, trans.). London: Kegan Paul, 1928.Conway, M.D. Demonology and Devil-lore. New York: H. Holt & Co., 1879.Keightley, Thomas. The Fairy Mythology. London: George Bell & Sons, 1892 (originally published 1870).Kirk, Robert. The Secret Commonwealth. London: David Nutt, 1893 (original 1691).Lecouteux, Claude. The Secret History of Poltergeists and Haunted Houses (Jon E. Graham, trans.). Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2011 (originally published as La Maison Hantée: Histoire des Poltergeists, 2007).—. The Tradition of Household Spirits: Ancestral Lore and Practices (Jon E. Graham, trans.). Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2013 (originally published as La Maison et ses Génies: Croyances d'Hier et d'Aujour d'Hui, 2000)Maxwell-Stuart, P.G. Poltergeists: A History of Violent Ghostly Phenomena. Stroud, England: Amberley, 2011.Mitterauer, Michael. Why Europe: Medieval Origins of its Special Path. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.Sanidopoulos, John. The Rise of Bogomilism and Its Penetration into Constantinople. Rollinsford, NH: Orthodox Research Institute, 2011.Summers, Montague. The Vampire: His Kith and Kin. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1929.Various. Three Byzantine Saints (Elizabeth Dawes, trans.) London: Kegan Paul, 1948.
Opening music by Kevin MacLeod.Closing music by Soma.