Trade in your candy canes for birch branches as we explore the terrifying global origins of holiday folklore that prove Santa Claus is the exception, not the rule. From the skin-peeling Namahage of Japan and the child-hunting Nalujuit of the frozen North to the suffocating Christmas witches of France and the original bad cop, Krampus, this episode uncovers the monsters that haunt the Twelve Days of Christmas. Tune in to discover why our ancestors used fear rather than rewards to enforce obedience, how a lack of butter could cost you your life in Scandinavia, and why the "most wonderful time of the year" was historically the most dangerous.

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Move over, Krampus—this episode uncovers the true nightmares of the Yuletide season, taking you on a global tour of the gruesome, the ghostly, and the grotesque. From the visceral horror of France’s Père Fouettard—the butcher who pickled children in barrels—to Austria’s belly-slitting Frau Perchta and the rap-battling skeletal horse of Wales, we explore the dark folklore that transforms the holidays into a fight for survival. We break down the obsession with counting that stops the Cajun Lutin and Greek Kallikantzaroi, survive the chimney-smashing rage of Scandinavia's Lussi, and finally make a case for the most disturbing legend of all: Hans Trapp, the Alsatian "Christmas Scarecrow," a figure based on a real-life 15th-century psychopath whose cannibalistic legacy is a horror movie waiting to happen.

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This episode focuses on Dr. Jules Wallace, arguably one of the most controversial and successful mediums in American history, who perfected the blend of showmanship, psychology, and trickery that defined the Spiritualist craze of the late 19th century. Arriving in St. Louis in 1893, Wallace quickly became a national sensation by staging elaborate séances and "materializations"—where he would ostensibly summon full-bodied apparitions from his spirit cabinet. His career peaked with a spectacular public duel against the rival mind-reader Professor Tyndal. Despite his masterful illusions, Wallace's elaborate fraud was ultimately exposed by reporters and police, leading to his charge of fraud before he vanished with a bag of cash, successfully escaping arrest and solidifying his legacy as the adaptable grifter who exploited the national yearning for proof of the afterlife.

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This show highlights Houston's most disturbing true crime and supernatural legends, beginning with the Rice Hotel, famous as the last resting spot of President Kennedy and now known for the unsettling apparitions of spectral dancers haunting its grand ballroom. The episode also details the gentle, musical haunting of the Julia Ideson Library by its late caretaker and his dog, contrasting it with the intense, traumatic hauntings of the Old Jeff Davis Hospital and the Black Hope Cemetery, both built over disturbed burial grounds, where residents report screams, poltergeists, and the palpable energy of a curse. Finally,we also revisits the grotesque 1965 Icebox Murders—the unsolved dismemberment of an elderly couple—and the baffling vanishing of their reclusive son, Charles Rogers, whose disappearance fueled decades of sensational conspiracy theories, including claims connecting him to the JFK assassination.

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This episode explores the chilling history of Madison, Wisconsin, focusing first on the Capital City Killings—a series of unsolved, brutal murders of seven young women spanning from 1968 to 1982 in the UW-Madison and surrounding Dane County areas. The second half pivots to the supernatural history of the UW campus, describing documented hauntings like the discovery of body parts in Science Hall, the lingering spirits of two founders buried beneath Bascom Hill's Lincoln statue, and the ghosts of a fallen construction worker and a fatal heart attack victim (timpanist Samuel Segal) who allegedly demand the "ghost light" remains lit at the Wisconsin Union Theater. All of this and more!

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Albany, New York, is a city layered with history and secrets, where the past still echoes in its grandest buildings. This episode explores three of its most compelling and eerie legends: the tragic, unsolved 1922 mystery of the Parcella Post Baby, a newborn delivered to an undertaker via U.S. Parcel Post. We then delve into the heart of state power at the Capitol, uncovering the hidden Devil's Face carved into the Million Dollar Staircase—a curse blamed for the catastrophic 1911 Capitol Fire that destroyed countless archives and trapped the ghost of night watchman Samuel Abbott in his eternal patrol. Finally, we meet the friendly phantom, Jason, a stonemason allegedly sealed into the State Library's foundation, whose helpful spirit still assists researchers by guiding hard-to-find books off the stacks and into their hands.

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In 1692, they called her the Queen of Hell. This is the story of Martha Carrier, the fierce and unyielding center of the Salem witch hysteria's spread into Andover. While others confessed under duress, Martha stood defiant, even when her own children were tortured for testimony. Driven by political fear attached to her mysterious, legendary husband, Thomas Carrier, and condemned by authorities like Cotton Mather, Martha refused to break. This podcast tells the shocking truth of the Andover witch crisis and the incredible story of the woman who chose defiance over deception, even on the gallows.

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After a wild October, I'm getting back into the swing of things and digging into some listener questions. From a Boston witch trial, to ghost stories at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, I'm all over the place. Also, I dive into the story of Jim Clinstock, a professional wrestler who was found dying in the floor of a Charlotte, North Carolina dentist office in the 1940s. I also dig into the cursed Annabelle doll that I avoided last month when we were both together in Lexingont! Lots of fun this week!

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