Every small town has one, that stretch of road where the streetlights stop and the rumors start. You probably know a few of the stories: the boyfriend who never came back, the hook on the door handle, and the scraping sound on the roof you were too afraid to explain.

But what if the scariest thing about Lover’s Lane isn’t the legend? What if it’s the true story hiding underneath it all?

In this episode of Haunts & Hollows: True Tales of the Gothic South, we trace the strange evolution of America’s most chilling parking spot folklore, from the postwar teenagers who accidentally invented Lover’s Lane culture to the ghost of a skinned man still prowling the woods of rural Tennessee seeking revenge on cheating hearts. Then things get darker. Behind the campfire tales are the real killers: the Phantom of Texarkana, the Zodiac, the Atlanta Lover's Lane shooter, and the shadowy figure who hunted couples along Virginia’s Colonial Parkway for over a decade, a killer whose crimes went unsolved until DNA evidence finally told the truth thirty years too late.

Romance, murder, folklore, and justice delayed: this one’s got it all.

Roll up the windows, lock the doors, and turn up the volume. And maybe, just maybe, don’t park somewhere too dark tonight.

Haunts & Hollows: True Tales of the Gothic South is the podcast for anyone who yearns for stories of haunted plantations, of deals made at midnight crossroads, of creatures lurking in moss-draped cemeteries. But where did these tales actually start? Turns out, the real history behind Southern folklore is wilder, stranger, and a whole lot darker than the stories themselves. With each episode, mystery author Liam Ashe uncovers the true tales hiding underneath the myths of the Gothic South.

Subscribe now and never miss a tale. And whatever you do tonight, be sure to lower the lights, lock the doors, and pull up a rocking chair. . . things are about to get interesting.