Harry Houdini spent years exposing mediums who claimed they could communicate with the dead. But before his own death on Halloween in 1926, he and his wife, Bess, reportedly agreed on a secret message—one only she would recognize if he ever found a way to reach her from the other side.

Ten years later, hundreds of people gathered on the roof of a Hollywood hotel for one final attempt to contact the world’s most famous escape artist.

Join host Robert Barber for this special Halloween edition of Fragments as we revisit Houdini’s secret code, the séance that captured the public’s imagination, and the question that remains one hundred years after his death: Did Harry Houdini ever find a way back?

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🔍 New episodes every Tuesday
🌐 Visit stateoftheunknown.com for show notes and to submit your own story.
📬 Questions, theories, or story ideas? Reach out at contact@stateoftheunknown.com or @stateoftheunknownpodcast.

Some stories don’t stay buried.
We go looking anyway.

In 1971, NBC cameras entered a Chicago home where Edwin and Marsha Becker said they had been experiencing strange disturbances, unexplained sounds, and unsettling activity.

The crew arrived to document an attempted exorcism involving a medium, religious symbols, blessed salt, and a room full of people who believed something was inside the house.

But the television report was only a few minutes long—and the story surrounding it would continue for decades.

Join host Robert Barber as we explore the Becker haunting, the televised exorcism, the family’s account of what happened inside the house, and the mysterious details that made this case endure.

Listen to State of the Unknown for paranormal encounters, haunted history, unexplained events, and stories that remain difficult to explain.

Support the show

Support State of the Unknown

If you enjoy the show and would like to help support it, you can become a Sasquatch Supporter for $3 a month. Your support helps cover the costs of researching and producing the show, website hosting, distribution, and helping more people discover State of the Unknown.

Membership is completely optional, and the show remains free for everyone.

Become a Sasquatch Supporter on Patreon

🔍 New episodes every Tuesday
🌐 Visit stateoftheunknown.com for show notes and to submit your own story.
📬 Questions, theories, or story ideas? Reach out at contact@stateoftheunknown.com or @stateoftheunknownpodcast.

Some stories don’t stay buried.
We go looking anyway.

In the late 1960s, fairgoers were invited to look through the glass at a strange figure frozen inside a refrigerated coffin. It was tall, humanlike, and covered in dark hair. The exhibit became known as the Minnesota Iceman.

In this episode of State of the Unknown: Fragments, Robert Barber explores the alleged Bigfoot body that drew the attention of cryptozoologists, the Smithsonian Institution, and the FBI. Two respected investigators believed they had examined an unknown human relative, while questions about the figure’s origin, ownership, and disappearance only made the story stranger.

Was the Minnesota Iceman a genuine cryptid discovery, an elaborate sideshow hoax, or something caught between the two? And why did the one piece of evidence that might have settled the question remain out of reach?

State of the Unknown is a paranormal podcast about true paranormal stories, cryptids, unexplained mysteries, Bigfoot sightings, and the people who encounter the unknown.

Support the show

Support State of the Unknown

If you enjoy the show and would like to help support it, you can become a Sasquatch Supporter for $3 a month. Your support helps cover the costs of researching and producing the show, website hosting, distribution, and helping more people discover State of the Unknown.

Membership is completely optional, and the show remains free for everyone.

Become a Sasquatch Supporter on Patreon

🔍 New episodes every Tuesday
🌐 Visit stateoftheunknown.com for show notes and to submit your own story.
📬 Questions, theories, or story ideas? Reach out at contact@stateoftheunknown.com or @stateoftheunknownpodcast.

Some stories don’t stay buried.
We go looking anyway.