Christmas in Texas was supposed to be peaceful in 1927… until Santa walked into a bank and everything went to hell. What started as a harmless holiday costume turned into gunfire, chaos, and the biggest manhunt the state had ever seen.

In this episode, we dig into the unbelievable true story of the Santa Claus Bank Robbery—where a gang of ex-cons, a stolen car, and one very un-jolly Santa turned a small-town Christmas into pure pandemonium.

References

⁠https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/santa-claus-bank-robbery⁠

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus_Bank_Robbery/

https://www.fwweekly.com/2007/12/26/santa-got-a-gun-and-a-rope/

🧑‍🎄Music used : "JINGLE BELLS ." composed and produced by "Vivek Abhishek"Music link :https://youtu.be/mP1Er3W6Zk8SUBSCRIBE us on YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/VivEKhsihbAFollow on Facebook : https://bit.ly/33RWRtPFollow on Instagram : https://bit.ly/2ImU2JV-

🎄Music used : " SINISTER " composed and produced by "Vivek Abhishek"Music link : https://youtu.be/s7_oukTEFrcSUBSCRIBE us on YOUTUBE: https://bit.ly/3qumnPHFollow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/33RWRtPFollow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/2ImU2JV----------------------------------------------------------------------

Support the show

✨Follow us on Social Media✨

Instagram ⁠⁠⁠@storyteller.pod⁠⁠⁠

TikTok ⁠⁠⁠@StorytellerPod⁠⁠⁠

Facebook ⁠⁠⁠@Storyteller Podcast⁠⁠⁠

✨⁠⁠Support the show⁠⁠✨

If you enjoy the stories we tell and want to help us keep bringing them to life, you can support the podcast here:

🔗 ⁠⁠https://www.buzzsprout.com/2535436/support⁠⁠

Every contribution goes directly back into the show — from research and recording to editing and equipment. Your support truly means the world to us and helps us continue sharing strange, mysterious, and unbelievable tales every week. Thank you for listening and being part of the Storyteller family.

✨🔮🕯

He killed more men than Dahmer or Gacy — yet most people have never heard his name.

In this episode, we uncover the chilling true story of Herb Baumeister, the seemingly ordinary Indiana businessman, husband, and father whose idyllic suburban life hid a nightmare. While his wife Julie raised their children on an 18-acre estate straight out of Leave It to Beaver, bones were scattered just beyond the tree line — and young men were disappearing across the Midwest.

We trace Herb’s life from his disturbing childhood obsessions to his carefully crafted adulthood mask, his rise as a local entrepreneur, and the unraveling of his double life as bodies began piling up on the property known as Fox Hollow Farm.

You’ll hear about:

• The skull Julie’s son found in the woods
• The horrifying discoveries that followed
• A near-victim who escaped Baumeister’s deadly sexual sadism
• The possibility that Herb was also the long-suspected I-70 Strangler
• And the chilling new questions raised by the 2025 Hulu documentary — including whether Herb may not have acted alone

Despite at least 25 suspected victims, Herb left behind no confession, only a suicide note blaming business troubles — and families were left with decades of unanswered questions.

This episode shifts the spotlight where it should have been all along: on the victims, their lives, and the ongoing efforts — using new DNA technology — to finally identify those found on Fox Hollow Farm.

Because every one of them mattered.And every one of them deserves to be known.

Support the show

✨Follow us on Social Media✨

Instagram ⁠⁠⁠@storyteller.pod⁠⁠⁠

TikTok ⁠⁠⁠@StorytellerPod⁠⁠⁠

Facebook ⁠⁠⁠@Storyteller Podcast⁠⁠⁠

✨⁠⁠Support the show⁠⁠✨

If you enjoy the stories we tell and want to help us keep bringing them to life, you can support the podcast here:

🔗 ⁠⁠https://www.buzzsprout.com/2535436/support⁠⁠

Every contribution goes directly back into the show — from research and recording to editing and equipment. Your support truly means the world to us and helps us continue sharing strange, mysterious, and unbelievable tales every week. Thank you for listening and being part of the Storyteller family.

✨🔮🕯

In the final chapter of our FLDS deep-dive, we uncover what happened after Warren Jeffs seized power — the moment faith turned into fear, and a community became a controlled kingdom of silence. We break down the suffocating rules, the destruction of individuality, and the psychological warfare used to keep followers obedient and terrified.

This is a story of control, manipulation, and survival — but ultimately, it’s about courage.
If you’ve ever wondered how something like this could happen in modern America… this is the episode you need to hear.

Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussions of abuse, including physical and sexual violence. Listener discretion advised.

INTRO Music used : " SINISTER " composed and produced by "Vivek Abhishek"

Music link : https://youtu.be/s7_oukTEFrc

SUBSCRIBE us on YOUTUBE: https://bit.ly/3qumnPH

Follow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/33RWRtP

Follow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/2ImU2JV

References:

⁠https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Jeffs⁠

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna30016991⁠

⁠https://www.deseret.com/2006/8/29/19971153/the-rise-of-warren-jeffs/⁠

⁠https://local.sltrib.com/charts/jeffstimeline/timeline.html⁠

⁠https://www.deseret.com/2006/8/30/19971276/from-nerd-to-flds-chief/⁠

⁠https://local.sltrib.com/upload/2010/11/1288813415awantedman.pdf⁠

⁠https://www.netflix.com/title/81292539⁠

⁠https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/preaching-evil-a-wife-on-the-run-with-warren-jeffs/8910741537945005112⁠

Support the show

✨Follow us on Social Media✨

Instagram ⁠⁠⁠@storyteller.pod⁠⁠⁠

TikTok ⁠⁠⁠@StorytellerPod⁠⁠⁠

Facebook ⁠⁠⁠@Storyteller Podcast⁠⁠⁠

✨⁠⁠Support the show⁠⁠✨

If you enjoy the stories we tell and want to help us keep bringing them to life, you can support the podcast here:

🔗 ⁠⁠https://www.buzzsprout.com/2535436/support⁠⁠

Every contribution goes directly back into the show — from research and recording to editing and equipment. Your support truly means the world to us and helps us continue sharing strange, mysterious, and unbelievable tales every week. Thank you for listening and being part of the Storyteller family.

✨🔮🕯

Part Two is Here!! The Making of Warren Jeffs
Content warning: discussion of abuse, child abuse, and spiritual coercion.

Before he became the self-proclaimed Prophet of the FLDS and one of America’s most notorious cult leaders, Warren Jeffs was just a boy born into chaos — the “golden child” of a sprawling polygamist family and the son of the church’s future prophet.

In this episode, we trace how a quiet, awkward teacher turned into the architect of absolute control. From the turmoil of the Jeffs household to his years running Alta Academy, we uncover the blueprint of obedience, isolation, and fear that would later define his reign.

Through survivor accounts, family testimonies, and chilling early patterns of abuse, we explore how Warren learned to manipulate faith itself — turning devotion into domination.

🎧 This is The Making of Warren Jeffs — Part Two of our FLDS series.

Music used : " SINISTER " composed and produced by "Vivek Abhishek"

Music link : https://youtu.be/s7_oukTEFrc

SUBSCRIBE us on YOUTUBE: https://bit.ly/3qumnPH

Follow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/33RWRtP

Follow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/2ImU2JV

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Jeffs

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna30016991

https://www.deseret.com/2006/8/29/19971153/the-rise-of-warren-jeffs/

https://local.sltrib.com/charts/jeffstimeline/timeline.html

https://www.deseret.com/2006/8/30/19971276/from-nerd-to-flds-chief/

https://local.sltrib.com/upload/2010/11/1288813415awantedman.pdf

https://www.netflix.com/title/81292539

https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/preaching-evil-a-wife-on-the-run-with-warren-jeffs/8910741537945005112

Support the show

If you enjoy the stories we tell and want to help us keep bringing them to life, you can support the podcast here:

🔗 https://www.buzzsprout.com/2535436/support

Every contribution goes directly back into the show — from research and recording to editing and equipment. Your support truly means the world to us and helps us continue sharing strange, mysterious, and unbelievable tales every week. Thank you for listening and being part of the Storyteller family.

✨Follow us on Social Media✨

Instagram @storyteller.pod

TikTok @StorytellerPod

Facebook @Storyteller Podcast

Imagine being born into a dynasty where faith is law, obedience is survival, and a man’s word determines your destiny. In this episode, we follow the gripping true story of Carolyn Jessop, a sixth-generation member of the FLDS who defied her husband, her prophet, and her entire community to save her eight children.

From her grandmother’s fairytales to the night she fled in secret with a van running on fumes, Carolyn’s story of courage and conviction mirrors the dark evolution of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints—from its 19th-century origins under Joseph Smith and Brigham Young to the eventual rise of the “Keep Sweet” doctrine.

This is a journey through faith turned fanatic, freedom reclaimed from fear, and a community whose secrets would one day shock the world.

👉 Stay tuned for Part 2, where we dive into the rise of Warren Jeffs, his stranglehold over the FLDS, and the women who risked everything to expose him.

Tags: #FLDS #TrueCrimePodcast #CultStories #WarrenJeffs #StorytellerPodcast #KeepSweet #EscapingFLDS #WomenSurvivors #TrueCrime #ReligiousCults

📚Further Reading:

https://www.amazon.com/FLDS-Books/s?k=FLDS&rh=n%3A283155

📚References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Creek_raid

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rulon_Jeffs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalist_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-Day_Saints

https://abcnews.go.com/US/twisted-world-warren-jeffs-former-flds-members-speak/story?id=107493397#:~:text=From%201986%20to%202002%2C%20Rulon,%E2%80%94%20the%20all%2Dknowing%20prophet.

Support the show

✨Follow us on Social Media✨

Instagram ⁠⁠⁠@storyteller.pod⁠⁠⁠

TikTok ⁠⁠⁠@StorytellerPod⁠⁠⁠

Facebook ⁠⁠⁠@Storyteller Podcast⁠⁠⁠

✨⁠⁠Support the show⁠⁠✨

If you enjoy the stories we tell and want to help us keep bringing them to life, you can support the podcast here:

🔗 ⁠⁠https://www.buzzsprout.com/2535436/support⁠⁠

Every contribution goes directly back into the show — from research and recording to editing and equipment. Your support truly means the world to us and helps us continue sharing strange, mysterious, and unbelievable tales every week. Thank you for listening and being part of the Storyteller family.

✨🔮🕯

Beneath Gatlinburg’s neon lights, pancake houses, and souvenir shops lies a chilling true story that most visitors will never hear.

In 1986, a confession letter left in a phone booth in Maggie Valley unraveled one of Tennessee’s most brutal crimes — the murders of Melissa “Missy” Hill and Troy Valentine at the Rocky Top Village Inn.

What began as an ordinary night for a young dispatcher and his wife became a nightmare that would haunt the Smoky Mountains for decades.

Join Courtney and Teresa as they uncover the bizarre, tragic, and downright unbelievable story of “Tattoo Eddie,” his ragtag crew, and the senseless violence that rocked this Appalachian tourist town.

🎙️ Welcome to Storyteller — where every episode is a blind date with the bizarre.

#TrueCrime #Appalachia #Gatlinburg #RockyTopMurders #Podcast #StorytellerPod

Support the show

✨Follow us on Social Media✨

Instagram ⁠⁠⁠@storyteller.pod⁠⁠⁠

TikTok ⁠⁠⁠@StorytellerPod⁠⁠⁠

Facebook ⁠⁠⁠@Storyteller Podcast⁠⁠⁠

✨⁠⁠Support the show⁠⁠✨

If you enjoy the stories we tell and want to help us keep bringing them to life, you can support the podcast here:

🔗 ⁠⁠https://www.buzzsprout.com/2535436/support⁠⁠

Every contribution goes directly back into the show — from research and recording to editing and equipment. Your support truly means the world to us and helps us continue sharing strange, mysterious, and unbelievable tales every week. Thank you for listening and being part of the Storyteller family.

✨🔮🕯

Grab your marshmallows and settle in by the fire—because this week on Storyteller, we’re taking you deep into the haunted woods of Ohio to uncover one of Appalachia’s creepiest legends: Red Eyes, The Mad Man of Camp Manatoc.

But this episode isn’t your average campfire ghost story… we’ve got special guests—our husbands—joining us around the fire as we swap spooky tales, suspicious noises, and more laughter than we expected. Courtney digs into the bizarre "history" and chilling folklore surrounding a dismembered counselor, a cursed campsite, and a pair of glowing red eyes that still stalk the trees.

Meanwhile, Teresa faces her worst nightmare—not the ghost—but a caterpillar attack (yes, really).

It’s equal parts eerie, hilarious, and pure Appalachian chaos. So grab a blanket, light the fire, and join us for the story that proves some legends never die… they just keep wandering the woods.

📑References:

Red Eyes Camp Legend of Manatoc: Ohio

Red Eyes, the Mad Man of Camp Manatoc

Do you have 1920s photos of Camp Manatoc?

Support the show

✨Follow us on Social Media✨

Instagram ⁠⁠⁠@storyteller.pod⁠⁠⁠

TikTok ⁠⁠⁠@StorytellerPod⁠⁠⁠

Facebook ⁠⁠⁠@Storyteller Podcast⁠⁠⁠

✨⁠⁠Support the show⁠⁠✨

If you enjoy the stories we tell and want to help us keep bringing them to life, you can support the podcast here:

🔗 ⁠⁠https://www.buzzsprout.com/2535436/support⁠⁠

Every contribution goes directly back into the show — from research and recording to editing and equipment. Your support truly means the world to us and helps us continue sharing strange, mysterious, and unbelievable tales every week. Thank you for listening and being part of the Storyteller family.

✨🔮🕯

In the latest installment of our Spooky Season series, we’re headed to southwest Virginia, once again recording from the deck...at night...in rural Appalachia—to dig into the story behind America’s loudest founding father… and his darkest secret.

Everyone knows Patrick Henry as the man who shouted “Give me liberty, or give me death!” But few know the story of Sarah Shelton Henry, his wife who was locked away in the cellar of their home, Scotchtown, as her mind unraveled after childbirth.

What happened to Sarah? Was Patrick protecting her—or protecting his reputation? And why do visitors still hear chains dragging in the basement centuries later?

Join Courtney and Teresa as they explore the unsettling side of American history, where love, madness, and legacy collide.

Featuring true history, tragic love, and one seriously haunted house.

✨Follow Us on Social Media✨

Instagram: @storyteller.pod

Facebook: @Storyteller Podcast

Tiktok:@storytellerpod

Send us story requests to our gmail: ⁠storytellerpodd@gmail.com⁠

References:

⁠Patrick and Sarah Henry: Mental illness in 18th century America | National Museum of American History⁠

⁠Founding Mother: Sarah Shelton Henry – History Made Seamless⁠

⁠Sarah Shelton Henry - Wikipedia⁠

⁠899) Sarah Shelton Henry – The Exasperated Historian⁠

⁠Scotchtown and the Haunting of Sarah Henry⁠

⁠Scotchtown – OCCULT WORLD⁠

⁠Patrick Henry - World History Encyclopedia⁠

⁠Sarah Henry: Patrick Henry’s Basement Kept Wife - Richmond Ghosts⁠

Support the show

✨Follow us on Social Media✨

Instagram ⁠⁠⁠@storyteller.pod⁠⁠⁠

TikTok ⁠⁠⁠@StorytellerPod⁠⁠⁠

Facebook ⁠⁠⁠@Storyteller Podcast⁠⁠⁠

✨⁠⁠Support the show⁠⁠✨

If you enjoy the stories we tell and want to help us keep bringing them to life, you can support the podcast here:

🔗 ⁠⁠https://www.buzzsprout.com/2535436/support⁠⁠

Every contribution goes directly back into the show — from research and recording to editing and equipment. Your support truly means the world to us and helps us continue sharing strange, mysterious, and unbelievable tales every week. Thank you for listening and being part of the Storyteller family.

✨🔮🕯