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S20 Ep11: Keystone Paranormal: Spooky tales from Pennsylvania (Sn. 20 Ep. 11) - Monsters Among Us | Wave AI Podcast Notes

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S20 Ep11: Keystone Paranormal: Spooky tales from Pennsylvania (Sn. 20 Ep. 11)

Monsters Among Us

Tue Nov 18 2025

Summary

Monsters Among Us – S20 Ep11: Keystone Paranormal: Spooky Tales from Pennsylvania

Host: Derek Hayes
Release Date: November 18, 2025

Overview

This episode of Monsters Among Us, hosted by Derek Hayes, delves into the eerie paranormal happenings and firsthand witness accounts from the Keystone State—Pennsylvania. Listeners are treated to chilling stories involving haunted houses, mimicked voices, shadowy apparitions, cryptid encounters, and mysterious disappearances, all recounted by callers from various corners of the state. Derek’s narrations provide context and a quintessentially spooky, cozy tone as he weaves together the state’s rich supernatural folklore and present-day mysteries.

Key Stories & Insights

1. Pittsburgh’s Echoes: Ghostly Voices and Pleas for Help

Caller: Eric
[03:00–07:10]

Carnegie Mansion Incident: While renovating an old triplex, Eric heard an old woman’s cough echo from the staircase—despite being alone and the door locked.
- "I heard an old lady cough, like from that center stairway. I could tell exactly where it's coming from. The hair on the back of my neck stood up..." — Eric [03:27]
Lawrenceville Senior Housing: Years later, working as a facilities manager, Eric heard a distorted plea for help, as if through a megaphone. He searched every room, finding nothing. Other tenants shared stories of nightly knocks and ghostly occurrences.
- "It was like a yell, scream, like, help me, help me, but it was weird. It was like through a megaphone, through a radio. It wasn't like a real… person calling." — Eric [04:57]

2. Mimicking Voices & Doppelganger Auditory Phenomena

Caller: Holly
[07:39–09:28]

Mimicked Husband and Wife: Holly details hearing her husband’s voice inside the house after he left, asking the dog if she needs to go out. Later, her husband and daughter heard Holly’s voice at home while Holly was out. Neither saw apparitions, only heard familiar voices.
- "We didn’t see each other’s doppelgangers. We just heard each other's voices." — Holly [09:17]
Creepy Coincidences: Each incident is accompanied by family members and pets reacting in confusion.

3. Southwestern Pennsylvania Ghost Hunt & EVPs

Caller: Justin
[12:11–18:37]

Haunted South Point Mental Institute: Justin and friends explored an abandoned building, experiencing unexplained cold spots, frightening noises, and a loud bang that sent them fleeing.
- "The loudest bang I ever heard in my life, short of a shotgun. I mean, it shook the whole building." — Justin [15:21]
Capturing EVPs: On a return trip, the group conducted an EVP session. A whisper called Justin by his nickname, and another voice replied, "We're not scared," after provocation.
- "First response was clearly an EVP, a whisper... The next one is definitely a male, and he definitely wasn't whispering. It was kind of raspy: 'We're not scared.' " — Justin [17:36]
Host’s Note: Derek mentions he was unable to confirm a South Point Mental Hospital, suggesting it might be a local name for the Western Center near Canonsburg, now demolished.

4. Childhood Encounters: The Man Over the Bed

Caller: Ashley
[20:31–24:04]

Dunbar, PA, Late 1980s: As a young child, Ashley repeatedly heard the front door jiggle by night for days. On the final night, she awoke to find a tall, thin man bent over, staring into her face; she was frozen in fear until he vanished.
- "I woke up and saw a very tall, lean man bent down over top of me, staring directly in my face. I was frozen in fear..." — Ashley [22:38]
Mother’s Validation: Ashley’s mother confirmed her story never changed over the years.

5. Pennsylvania’s Reputation: UFOs (But No Calls)

Host Segment
[25:52–27:15]

Statistical Context: PA is ranked 4th in UFO sightings in the US. Oddly, the show has received no direct UFO stories from the state.
- "Despite the state being fourth in reports, I don't have a single UFO call out of the Keystone state, which I admit is super odd. Odd enough that I'm bringing it up here tonight." — Derek [26:52]

6. Missing Time on the Highway

Caller: Gabrielle
[27:15–29:12]

Highway Glitch or Lost Time: Gabrielle missed her usual exit (77) driving home and did not recall passing it, “waking up” at the next exit (80). She questions if it was abduction, missing time, or merely zoning out.
- "I don't remember ever seeing exit 77 as I was driving home. So not sure if that's a little bit of a time thing... or just a glitch in the matrix." — Gabrielle [28:05]

7. Persistent Haunting & Recurring Nightmares

Caller: Shelly
[29:58–37:47]

Haunted House near the Poconos: Shelly and her husband both experienced recurring, paralyzing nightmares of footsteps and a threatening male figure. Echoing dreams led to real changes (keeping the door closed, a rifle under the bed).
- "I started having recurring dreams... I'd be paralyzed in bed, hearing footsteps coming up the stairs... I couldn't do anything about it." — Shelly [30:42]
Physical Manifestations: Unexplained footsteps, the dog’s terrified reactions, and guests witnessing an older man pacing at the foot of the bed.
- "One night our dog went to bed before us... a huge crash... bedroom door was shut and our dog was cowering in the corner, shivering." — Shelly [33:34]
Final Act: After she left, all her photos in the house were found face-down.
- "There was all this racket upstairs in the bedroom. Every picture of me was face down on the bureau, like something had come in and just knocked 'em over." — Shelly [36:51]

8. Gettysburg: Ghost of the Battlefield

Caller: Tom
[42:19–47:07]

Phantom Civil War Soldier: Tom and his ex-wife see a young, bearded teenage boy in period-correct attire cross the road near Devil’s Den before vanishing.
- "These shoes were just. I looked at them and I said, man, those look authentic... Sure enough, ...my ex wife goes, 'Is he gone?' Yes, he had disappeared." — Tom [43:44]
Cosmic Coincidences: The sighting occurs the same night Princess Diana died (Aug 31, 1997). Later, Tom finds a plaque marking a battle involving soldiers from their own home counties.
- "There you go, Derek. Love the show, keep it spooky..." — Tom [46:45]

9. Cryptids: Black Panther Sighting

Caller: Kim
[48:13–50:08]

Big Cat in Western PA: As a teen, Kim encounters a large black panther, unexplainable by local wildlife standards. The disbelief and emotional impact persist to this day.
- "It looked like a black panther... went out in front of my car, looked at me and then it went into the woods. ... I just saw a black panther." — Kim [48:31]

10. The Pale Crawler in the Poconos

Caller: Anonymous
[51:05–54:43]

Encounter with a Crouching, Humanoid Figure: The caller’s son, a skeptical outdoorsman, sees a pale, bald, lanky creature crouched by the treeline that bolts upright and runs on two legs into the woods. He is so disturbed he refuses to go out at night thereafter.
- "He said, 'But mom, it ran off on two legs.' And I said, well, what do you mean, like a person? And he said, not like any person I've ever seen. The best way I can describe it is it looked like a pale, bald, tall, skinny person jumped out of the bush and just took off into the woods." — Anonymous [53:46]
Host's Lore Segment: Derek references other regional cryptids—Waterford Sheepman, the Alpatwich, the Trotterhead, and the Jawaggle.

11. The Hazmat Man: Grinning Man Phenomenon?

Caller: Brandon
[56:11–61:59]

Large, Smiling Figure in Hazmat Suit: At a Grove City warehouse, multiple witnesses see a very tall man in a bright yellow hazmat suit and N95 mask, exaggeratedly walking and gesturing. He interacts with a child, waves at the caller, then vanishes behind a security shack.
- "He just looked so out of place and so off. Even the way he was walking, it looked like he didn't really know how... he just vanishes." — Brandon [56:44, 58:29]
Speculation: Caller and host compare the sighting’s details to the infamous “Grinning Man”/Indrid Cold reports.

Memorable Quotes

"Hearing someone yell, 'help me.' Paranormal or not, that's the kind of thing that'll make your skin crawl."
— Derek Hayes [07:10]

"We didn’t see each other’s doppelgangers. We just heard each other's voices."
— Holly [09:17]

"The loudest bang I ever heard in my life, short of a shotgun. I mean, it shook the whole building."
— Justin [15:21]

"I woke up and saw a very tall, lean man bent down over top of me, staring directly in my face. I was frozen in fear..."
— Ashley [22:38]

"We're not scared."
— Unexplained EVP, Justin's Recording [17:36]

"I started having recurring dreams... I'd be paralyzed in bed, hearing footsteps coming up the stairs... I couldn't do anything about it."
— Shelly [30:42]

"Is he gone? Yes, he had disappeared."
— Tom [43:44]

"He said, 'But mom, it ran off on two legs.' And I said, well, what do you mean, like a person? And he said, not like any person I've ever seen..."
— Anonymous [53:46]

Notable Moments & Timestamps

[03:00] Eric’s tale of working alone in a haunted Pittsburgh mansion.
[09:17] Holly’s family “voice swap” experiences.
[15:21] Justin’s group flees haunted institution after an unexplained bang.
[17:36] EVP captures: “We’re not scared.”
[22:38] Ashley’s encounter with a hovering shadow figure as a child.
[28:05] Gabrielle experiences possible missing time or a “Matrix glitch”.
[36:51] Shelly’s post-separation phenomenon—photos overturned.
[43:44] Tom’s ghostly Civil War boy vanishes on Gettysburg’s Devil’s Den road.
[48:31] Kim’s emotional recounting of a black panther sighting.
[53:46] Anonymous caller’s son sees the “Pale Crawler”.
[56:44, 58:29] Brandon describes and witnesses the “Hazmat Man” disappear.

Tone & Style

Derek Hayes maintains his signature, atmospheric, spooky-but-nostalgic tone throughout, grounding callers’ astonishing stories with historical asides, local folklore, and a steady dose of wonder and skepticism. The listener is drawn into each account as if by a flashlight beam, flickering across the haunted and unexplainable – the hallmark of Monsters Among Us.

Conclusion

This episode is a deep dive into the shadowy margins of Pennsylvania, from haunted staircases and echoing phantom voices to cryptid creatures and unexplained disappearances. Callers’ authentic, often emotional retellings—coupled with Derek’s thoughtful curation—offer a compelling look at how the supernatural continues to leave its mark on one of America’s oldest and spookiest states.

“Until then, you keep it spooky and have yourselves a good night.”
— Derek Hayes [65:34]

Loading summary...

Transcript

A (0:00)

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B (0:14)

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C (0:15)

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B (0:16)

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A (0:16)

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B (0:22)

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D (0:30)

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B (1:52)

Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us. I'm your guide, Derek Hayes. It's great to be with you this evening. A rainy, dreary evening on my end. Just the kind we like around here. And just the kind of day that's all too common where tonight's episode takes place. It's the fifth most populated state, the second state admitted to the Union all the way back in 1787. Named after Sir William Penn, an English admiral and politician and nicknamed the Keystone State due to its crucial location amid the original 13 colonies. If you haven't figured it out yet, tonight we're talking all about Pennsylvania. And we're going to kick things off here this evening with a story involving two Pennsylvania staples. The city of Pittsburgh in the Carnegie family. Please welcome Eric to the program.

A (3:00)

Hey, yeah, I'm calling about two episodes I had years ago in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My name is Eric. I had a job I was doing working on a triplex in Carnegie. It was like a huge mansion from like, you know, 100 years ago. Big building and the owner worked with computer firm and he wanted the whole top floor renovated and had done, you know, carpeting, painting, the whole floor, all new kitchen. And I remember doing the plumbing. It was like an open floor plan too, so there was no real doors or anything, but the stairs were in the center wrapping around going all the way up. And every time I going to work, I would like, you know, close the door and lock it behind me because the other tenants I Didn't want them, you know, coming in or whatever. And I remember working under the sink in the kitchen and I heard an old lady cough, like from that center stairway. I could tell exactly where it's coming from. And the hair on the back of my neck stood up and it just felt really weird, odd. And I just kept working and tried ignoring it. Eventually, in like a minute or two, I remember, like turning up the radio so I couldn't hear anything else. And then, you know, probably like 10 minutes later, 15 minutes later, I went down the stairs to make sure the door was closed and locked still. And it was. Yeah, that was it, you know, nothing really crazy there. Just really odd and weird. And that was about 25 years ago. Another episode I had about 11, 12 years ago. I was working for HUD for a senior housing development outside the city in Lawrenceville. It was a eight story high rise and they were renovating. If you could envision a building eight stories tall and about 20 units on each floor. And they would like split the whole building in half and they would demolish and renovate each floor going up on one side, and then people would move in and then people would be living on the other side. And then we would pick up their belongings and move them into the renovated half, and then they would demolish and renovate from the top going down on the other side. And this was at a stage, I believe it was a third floor on the second phase, where I had to move a resident's belongings from the side of that building to another unit. And I remember boxing up belongings and, you know, picking up furniture, putting them on carts. I was working alone and I heard it was like a yell, scream, like, help me, help me. But it was weird. It was like through a megaphone, through a radio. It wasn't like a real, you know, like person calling, but, you know, somebody help me, you know. And yeah, I was the facilities manager there, so I had a passkey, master key, and I went to every room on that floor looking for the person that yelled, help me, help me. And I went to every room and nobody was home. I went upstairs, downstairs. But, you know, the sound I heard was like, pretty close. Yeah, that really freaked me out because previously I would always hear, you know, stories or rumors. I remember one resident saying, like, she would get a knock on the door every night between like 2 or 4 in the morning, and she would look through the little, you know, peephole and nobody there. And I would hear different stories about people seeing stuff. And that's just another Weird little experience I had. Can't explain it. That's about it.

A (12:11)

Hey, Derek. This is Justin the fireman from southwestern Pennsylvania again. So me and this dude were hanging out one night, you know, just taking that board and we end up hitting up these two girls we were interested in. The two girls come and pick us up and we go and we're like, man, what are we gonna do? Let's do something. So we're like, let's go ghost hunting. Let's go get in something spooky. You know, it was late at night and we were like, yeah, let's do that. So we're looking up like notorious haunted places around us. This old South Point Mental institute in Canterbury, which was 15, 20 miles away from us. Something like that. Nice little trip, you know, hang out in the car, listen to music, whatever. And it was obviously a dilapidated building. Everything was bored up. We should not have been in the building. So we go out there, there's four of us. We have one flashlight. The rest are cell phone lights. Nothing serious, you know, going out, gigging around, doing stuff we shouldn't, being kids. So we go into this building, right? Spooky vibes, man. I mean, this building is an old mental institution. It's dilapidated, no power, you know, spray paint, graffiti walls. There's actually like a dirt ramp going up to an old window that's busted out. We had to climb through the window. I have the flashlight. So we go walking in to like, I don't know, I guess it was like a kitchen area. And we're like, see the basement? Looking down the basement steps and everything. We start to like. I don't know what it was, but I know that it got really cold where we were in the kitchen area and we started hearing things. Granted, it could have been critters, could have been anything else, but we got freaked out. The girls got freaked out. So we're like, okay, all right, that's cool. We've seen enough. Let's get out of here. So we go back to the room where we came into the window, and we're getting ready to go out. And I'm like, laugh, you know, trying to be the tough guy for the girls, you know, with the flashlight, standing guard at the back. And the loudest, I mean, the loudest bang I ever heard in my life. Granted, it doesn't mean it's paranormal. It could have been a homeless person, anything. There was no one else around. I don't know what it was, but the loudest bang I ever heard in my life, short of a shotgun. I mean, it shook the whole building. Just my instinct right away was, I'm out, I'm gone. Self preservation mode. Fight or flight. I wasn't fighting. I was out that window. But the bad part is I was out the window with the flashlight and before everybody else. So the girls and my buddy are still in this room. I didi out the window, like face first style. Tuck and roll, hope for the best. I land, roll, get up, start running. I literally turn around as the one girl is the final one, jumping out of the window, landing on top of the other two. And I felt instantly terrible. And I knew that the chance that I had with this female was over because I just left them high and dry. Like, I was gone, though. So I go running back over. I'm like, you guys okay? The one girl busted her knee up. It was a mess, right? So we all get out of there. Everybody stands up, run back to the car, get in the car. But one girl was crying. The other one's like, oh, my knee. You know, it was just a mess. What was that? What was that? I don't know. I don't know. You left us. I heard the bang. I was gone. I wasn't sticking around to find out. I'm sorry. You should have been, like, right behind me. You should have went first. I don't know. So we leave, you know, they drop us off. We actually do end up hanging out again. Same group, Actually, it was five of us this time. Two of my buddies, me and the two girls, we go back. This time, we ended up, you know, back in the South Point. We're exploring more. And this time, me and my buddies were drinking. The girls weren't drinking, but me and my buddies were drinking. And we go up to this old, like, common area. I guess it was above the steps. You know, we're creeping around the hospital. We're taking our dull time. Freaked out. I mean, I was just thinking of the bang the whole time, you know? And we got our cell phones out, and we sit in his comma room. We're like, all right, let's do an EVP session. So we do an EVP session, and my buddy John and me were the only two talking. You know, the girls were down the other end. The other dude that was there was with them down the other end, like, sitting on the windowsill or whatever. Me and him were kind of in between the door, the common area, in the door of the hallway. And we're, you know, talking. We're asking questions. And, man, I wish I still had the EVP recording. I had it for the longest time. So you hear me ask a question, you know, the basic common question. Who are you? What did you die from? You know, what do you want? You know, what's death? Like, blah, blah, blah. So as I'm talking, you know, I pause and wait for the response, like you're supposed to. And everybody called me Po growing up. That was my nickname. The first response was clearly an evp, a whisper.

D (20:31)

Hi Derek. My name is Ashley and I'm from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Although this first story that I have to share happened in a very small town in western Pennsylvania named Dunbar. Very, very small town. Anyway, when I was five years old, I with my mother a lot in bed at night because I was, you know, just so little and I loved being with my mom all the time. And one night she was really, really in a deep sleep and I was woken up by our front door jiggling and it kind of threw me off for a minute. What? I was so little that when the first time that it happened, I kind of just brushed it off and I didn't wake up my mom. But then the next night I was woken up by the same thing. The front door of our home. I could hear jiggling now, you may wonder how I could hear our front door being jiggled from the bedroom. It was a very tiny home, so I absolutely could hear our front door from my mom's bedroom. So the second time it happened, heard the jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, and woke my mom off. And I said, mommy, I hear the door jiggling. And she kind of brushed it off and just said, oh, you know, it's probably a dream or just probably, you know, your imagination. And I was like, okay. You know, when your parents says that, you definitely think they're right. So I just went back to sleep. Following night, heard the door jiggling again. Was my mom up right away? And this time my mom got off the check. Nothing there. A few nights later. You know that feeling you can get when you feel like someone's staring at you? I can get it now, even as an adult. But as a kid, I could still tell if someone's looking at you or if you have eyes on you. Get this certain feeling. Well, I woke up out of sleep thinking and feeling someone's looking at me. Woke up and saw a very tall, lean man bent down over top of me, staring directly in my face. And I was frozen in fear. Couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't do anything. The only thing I could do was close my eyes so tightly because again, I was five years old, possibly going on sick back in the late 80s. So at that time, I just didn't know what else to do except shut my eyes. I shut my eyes for a few seconds, opened them back up, and he was gone. To this day, I don't know who it was. And I remember the next morning because I did eventually fall back to sleep. I woke up and told my mom I was so freaked out. And when I talk about it to this day, I still get extremely scared. It's like, who was that? Why were they hovering over me? Why were they looking down at me? And my mom always says, you know, that my story has never changed. As a kid when I would tell it, it would just be the exact same. That's the first creepy encounter I had. Okay, thank you. Bye.

E (29:58)

My name is Shelly, and I live in Eastern Pennsylvania, near the Poconos. That is where this story takes place. And this happened back in the early 1980s. So it was quite a while ago, after I got married to who is now my ex, we bought a house. And it was kind of outside the town we lived in. It was on the side of a mountain. And the house was about 200 years old, so it was very small. But they had built onto it through the years, like, there was a bathroom off to one end. And then they virtually doubled the size of the house recently before we bought it. And we were comfortable in it. But I started having recurring dreams. They started out the same, and then they would have different endings as you went along, until eventually they became horrific nightmares. And the start of the dream would always be that I would wake up and I'd be paralyzed in bed, hearing footsteps coming up the stairs, up the hall, towards the bedroom, and I couldn't do anything about it. And the various endings became bad after. There was a kidnapping in the dream, and then finally there was an axe murder. That was horrific. The weird thing about the dreams is that our stairway was carpeted. And in the dream, it was definitely steps on hardwood stairs. And it sounded like a man because it was a heavier tread. So the guy I was married to was very meat and potatoes. And he was a skeptic of anything that didn't make sense or couldn't be proven. So I never said anything until one morning we woke up, and he said, I had the strangest dream. And, honest, my blood ran cold because I just knew that the dream he had was related to mine. And it was. So in this dream, at the end, you know, we're paralyzed, and you could hear the footsteps approaching. But finally I could move. And in it, I was in a shooter stance with a pistol aimed at the bedroom doorway. His was exactly the same, except instead of a pistol, he had a rifle. We must have taken this dream seriously, because we decided that from there on out, when we were sleeping, the bedroom door had to be closed, and he loaded a rifle and put it under the bed. So after that, I only had the dream a few times. Like, he would come to bed after me and forget to shut the door. And I'd have the dream, and it would wake me up. I'd get out of bed and shut the door, and I'd be fine after that. When we first moved in the house, we had a puppy, and we just thought we got a strange dog because he would look like he was chasing on somebody's heels going forward, prancing, backing up, pawing the air, just like he would if he was playing with somebody. And we didn't think anything about it until we started hearing the footsteps upstairs. They would usually occur when we're downstairs later at night. And you'd hear the heel, toe, heel, toe in the hallway outside the bedroom where we had the dreams. Same area. He would go storming upstairs, and, of course, nobody would ever be there. So I was thinking, okay, we got a ghost. But I never said anything until one night our dog went to bed before us. He went up to the master bedroom, and all of a sudden we heard this racket where it sounded like he was trying to run on the hardwood. And a huge crash. So my ex gets up off the couch and declares, that damn ghost is after my dog. And he goes storming up. He did find that the bedroom door was shut and our dog was cowering in the corner. He was shivering. So we don't know what happened, but something scared our dog. The thing about the ghost was that it wasn't always there, but you could tell when it was there. There was a difference in the energy. And it was especially bad. Like in the winter when I would come home first and you could just walk in and feel the energy in the house was different. And you could hear him walking around in the old part of the house. And the dog and I would just sit at the kitchen table until either my ex came home or the ghost would go away. So maybe it was that reason we didn't tell people about. Did affect people though. Like, one time my ex was on a hunting trip and I had my cousin come down and stay with me and I was doing something in the kitchen and I came back into the living room and she was sitting on the couch, white as a ghost. And she said, who's upstairs? And yep, you could hear him walking around. And I had to tell her we had a ghost. And I tried to comfort her by saying that the bedroom that we were going to sleep in was safe because it was a newer part of the house then. We actually had four people that saw the ghost. I never did, but I had two cousins stay over and a couple from college at different times. And the area that we would use as a guest room, it was a big hall at the top of the stairs, which ironically is where we heard the footsteps, but that's where we kept the fold out couch. And they all saw the same thing. Like they'd wake up in the middle of the night and there would be a man walking back and forth at the foot of their bed who they would think first would be my ex. But then they realized that the man was older and he had silver hair and they were too scared to do anything or call out. So eventually it would just disappear. So the marriage wasn't working. So we separated. I got an apartment and for a while I would come home and we tried to work it out. One of the final times, when I got into my apartment, I got a call from him saying that he went back in the house after I drove away and there was all this racket upstairs in the bedroom. And he went upstairs and every picture of me was face down on the bureau, like something had come in and just knocked him over, which made me think I was the problem. And apparently it was because he did get remarried and they stayed in the house for a little bit and we were on good terms. So I would have to call once in a while with questions about taxes or something. I'd say, so how's the ghost? Have you heard him? Have you seen him? And the answer was always no. And I took it to mean that I was a paranormal magnet, which turns out I am. The house is still there. I don't get up in the Poconos very much, but when I do, when I'm in that area, I'll, like, drive by and I'll think, what is going on in that house? So that's my story. And thank you very much for listening. I appreciate it.

B (37:47)

Thank you, Shelly. That poor pup. And what a revelation to have that you are the connection. Frankly, I think it's incredible that you were able to deduce all that, Shelly. Although I think the downward facing photos was a pretty good clue. But, you know, when it comes to hauntings in the Quaker state, the phenomena extends beyond homes in the Poconos. The following list of haunted Pennsylvania places was pulled from visitpa.com Hillview Manor in Newcastle. In operation from 1926 to 2004, the facility served as a home for the mentally ill, elderly and financially destitute. Visitors report hearing voices and footsteps and even seeing numerous apparitions, including patients peeking out of rooms, a young boy, and a man who offers to take guests photos for just $1. The Selma mansion in Norristown. A federal style home with a storied past, the Selma mansion is one of the oldest structures in Norristown. Dating back to 1794, this historic home is said to be haunted by members of the various families who once resided and died on the property. Reports include disembodied voices, the overpowering scent of roses, shadow figures in a presence lurking behind closed doors. Then there's the historic hotel Bethlehem over in Bethlehem. Built in 1741, the hotel is the hangout of many friendly ghosts, including an 1800 stage star who sings and dances for the guests in the lobby, A welcoming Bethlehem tour guide who greets guests in the boiler room, and a former landlady who appears without shoes or stockings. And finally, we have the cathedral of learning in Pittsburgh, a nearly 100-year-old, 42 story Gothic Revival skyscraper that looms over the university of Pittsburgh's campus. Nearly every floor is said to have some form of paranormal activity, including, but not limited to cold spots, large pieces of furniture moving on their own, shadowy apparitions, flickering lights the smell of baked bread, swaying chandeliers, and the sound of a piano playing. And when we come back, perhaps the most haunted place on the planet, let alone Pennsylvania. So please don't touch that dial.

C (42:19)

Hey Derek and MAU fans, Tom from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with one of those Gettysburg stories. Good old Gettysburg. Got a job with the state about 25 years ago. So I had to relocate to Harrisburg. And with the close proximity to Gettysburg and the historical buff that I am, I'd constantly visit the battlefield. So for a Father's day gift, my ex wife got us a night at a haunted bed and breakfast. And then this took place on August 31, 1997. The date will come back in significance later on in the story. And the plan was after dinner to just do the drive through tour of the battlefield. Had a wonderful dinner and when we did the tour, it was perfect time. It was when the sun was going down right before the moon was coming up. Nice and haunting. Made the left hand turn on the straightaway approaching Devil's Den. And when you go to Gettysburg in the summer, you just have to assume there's going to be tons of reenactors there. So as we made the left hand turn, I paused and for what we assumed was a reenactor crossing the road, a young man canteen. And I would describe him as looking like the kid in high school who was only like in 9th grade or 8th grade, but was extremely big for his age, chubby and had the premature beard growth, not quite the full beard, just the scraggly sideburn, beard, mustache, et cetera, but a face no more than 15 years old if that. Dirty face, et cetera. And what struck my attention and even my ex wife as we talked about it later, was the shoes. The shoes were just. I looked at them and I said, man, those look authentic. They were the brown, leathery up to the ankle, untied, black shoelaces ripped and torn. I remember the details because they look so darn authentic. So he crosses the road and sure enough, I'm talking not even 1000, 1002. Look in the rear view mirror, side mirror, my ex wife goes, is he gone? Yes, he had disappeared. And in this area where you make the left hand turn, where he was crossing the road, absolutely no boulders anywhere for this person to hide. Especially that quick, as I said, where he made the crossing, the only boulder there was a small little rock that went up to about your ankle. This apparition disappeared, plain and simple. So, you know, we were like astounded and we talked about it and continued our drive. Got back to the bed and breakfast and you know, after dinner and everything, my ex said, I'm going to turn in and go to bed. I still had some nervous energy and I said, well, there's a pub down below, I'm going to go and have a pint of ale and I go down to the pub and as soon as I sit at the bar stool, the bartender had her back to me. And I look up on the TV and the date August 31, 1997. Tragically there on CNN, Lady Di just had her tragic car accident. And I was like, wow, what an evening. What a confluence of events. The first aberration I've ever seen in my life. Ex wife's only apparition she's ever seen. And Lady Di gets into a car accident and dies. By the way, nothing happened at the bed and breakfast. I went upstairs, woke up, my wife told her what happened and you know, we just said, what a crazy evening. Fast forward. About a week later, the first chance I got to go back to that site of the aberration, I went, this was around Lunchtime, I drove down to the exact site, pulled over, I get out, I'm looking around, there's a plaque and to paraphrase the plaque said where that boy crossed, there was a battle that took place with soldiers from Allegheny and Beaver County. And me and my ex wife, born and raised in Allegheny, moved to Beaver county before we moved to Harrisburg. So I just thought that was, you know. So there you go Derek. Love the show, keep it spooky. And being a Steeler fan with Will Howard now. Oh.

D (51:05)

Hi, Derek. I just got done listening to season 19, episode 46, the Secret Story at the end with the Pale crawler, and it's got me shaken. So I'm gonna remain anonymous because this is actually a story of what happened to my son. And he's 16, so he's still a minor, but I will let you know. We do live in the Poconos, Pennsylvania. We live on the end of a long dirt road up against 30,000 acres of game land. So it's a pretty isolated area, and my son just give a little background, has grown up doing civil air patrol. He's an Eagle Scout. He is very comfortable outdoors, and he knows the animals that are local to the area. He also likes to spend a lot of time in the backyard under the floodlights, up against the woods, doing things we don't let him do in the house, like wood burning or welding, stuff like that. And sometimes he'll be out there pretty late. Well, one night he was working on a project after dark under the lights, and all of a sudden he comes tearing into the house, goes running right past me into my husband's office, and I hear them talking and my husband telling them it was probably just a bear or whatever. After that, he has not gone out in the backyard after dark. So one day I asked him because it was really bothering me. I'm like, well, what's going on? What'd you see? A bear? And now you're not going out at night? And he said, mom, I don't know what it was. I was working on a project and I Heard something in the bushes at the dark side of the light line. And I look and I can kind of see an outline of something crouching in the bushes, but it was staring back at me. And wild animals don't do that. And it was too big to be a raccoon or a possum. It was too small to be a bear. It looked like it was crouching down, and wild animals don't do that. So then I took a couple steps forward and all of a sudden it jumped up and ran off into the woods. And I said, well, maybe it was, you know, some kind of rare wild cat, a mountain lion or something. I don't even know if we have those around here. But something like that. He said it looked like it was crouching a cat. And then he said something that just gives me chills even telling you now. He said, but mom, it ran off on two legs. And I said, well, what do you mean, like a person? And he said, not like any person I've ever seen. The best way I can describe it is it looked like a pale, bald, tall, skinny person jumped out of the bush and just took off into the woods. And, you know, it's been on my mind. Didn't really talk to him much about it after that, but when I heard about the Pale Crawler, it gave me chills. Also should note, my son is of his friends, he's the skeptic. He's the one that. He'll say, oh, Bigfoot. And he'll say, oh, it's just a hunter in a ghillie suit. Or he'll say, oh, I saw eyes 8ft tall. And he'll say, oh, it was an owl on a tree. So it's not like him. Like, I'm a big fan of the paranormal, but he's more of a skeptic, so it really's got me worried as a mom. Anyway, thanks for letting me call in and I'm looking forward to seeing if my story makes it to your show. Bye.

A (56:11)

Hi Derek, this is Brandon from Aliquipa, Pennsylvania, about 30 minutes north of Pittsburgh, I'd say. And this particular story took place in Grove City, Pennsylvania, which is about another hour away. I was out doing a delivery for work, bringing a pallet of stuff out for customers in our work pickup truck. And it was a clear day, really hot for what it should have been, you know, that time of year. And this was maybe a month or so ago. And as I get to the customer and get unloaded, the guy comes out on a forklift and a couple other guys come out with them just to chat. And the guy on the forklift asks us, yo, do you guys see that over there? And starts pointing over to the road. And we're all like, no, what? And as soon as I turn and look, there's a guy in full hazmat garb, like neon yellow, like stereotypical rainboot colored hazmat suit, with like thick winter gloves and thick winter boots. And he was wearing like one of those N95 face masks too. So the only thing you could really see on this guy were his eyes. And he was almost abnormally tall, like well over six foot something. And he just looked so out of place and so off. Even the way he was walking, it looked like he didn't really know how. And his arms were moving in a really exaggerated motion. It almost looked like he was dancing while he was walking is the best way I can describe it. And as he's doing this weird dance walk, a kid comes up from the opposite direction of him on a bicycle. And he stops the kid and has like a little chat with him and then, you know, sends the kid on his way. And I'm just, you know, in a trance, just staring at this guy, seeing what he's gonna do. And one of the other guys that was helping unload my truck asked if he knew that guy. Like he yelled at the guy like hey, make sure someone knows him. And the dude in the hazmat suit just kept walking. And then he eventually stopped and sees me and gives this, like, really exaggerated, like, full arm wave at me before walking away. And I could kind of tell that he was smiling really big under that face mask. Like his eyes looked like they were scrunched up like you would if you were giving a really big grin at somebody. And he just kept walking. And the way this warehouse I was at was positioned is that there's the security shack right at the entrance, but other than that, you can see the road just fine. And it's almost a one way road. There's no way that you can, you know, lose someone. If you're looking at that road, there's not really anything intersecting, no woods or anything. It's perfectly clear. And the guard sack maybe blocks only about 10ft of vision. But as he walks past this guard shack, he just vanishes. And I sit there for another minute or so just looking, waiting for him, you know, to pop out on the other side or something. And he never does. And I even kind of took a lap around the building going towards the security shack to look again, and he was gone. It was like there wasn't even a trace of him. And I know it wasn't any kind of trick or illusion because at least three or four other men other than myself, you know, saw it too. And I just have no idea what it could have been. But I've done research on, you know, paranormal entities, and I know that southwest Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio are kind of hot spots for possible extraterrestrial encounters and activity. And Pennsylvania also isn't too far off from where sightings of the Grinning man phenomenon have occurred. The only thing that rules out the Grinning man for me, though, is that you couldn't see the grin itself. Unless he was trying to disguise himself even more. Or maybe he was interdimensional and kind of just clipped in and out for a minute, I don't know. But the thing was really off putting. All of us were weirded out by it. And I even had this kind of sense of dread in the pit of my stomach just looking at this guy. Like, I had the feeling that whatever this guy was, he wasn't supposed to be here. That's my story. Thank you so much for the podcast. I love and enjoy listening to it, and I hope everyone stays spooky out there.

B (61:59)

Thank you, Brandon. Whatever it was, it certainly was weird, and I'm sure details like this are enough for someone out there to put two and two together. Maybe it was someone filming a video, a TikTok prank of some sort, perhaps? Or someone overdoing it with COVID protocol. But Brandon is right. A lot of these characteristics do mesh with the past reports of an entity called the Grinning Man. And Brandon is also right in the sightings of this entity near Elizabeth, New Jersey and infamously near Mineral Wells, West Virginia. The Indrid Cold run in are very well known, so is it possible that this entity made a stop in the Keystone State as well? But like I said, I bet someone out there has more information on this experience. A different perspective perhaps. And I'll wait with bated breath until that person or entity reaches out to us. Until then, thank you again, Brandon for that mind boggling tale. And folks, that's the end of tonight's presentation. I want to thank each of tonight's callers once more. And I'd also like to thank you, dear listener, for keeping me company here tonight. Sure is nice when you swing by now Monsters Among Us podcast is written and produced by me, Derek Hayes, copyright Red Grow Media. Additional support is provided by Sarah Carter Hayes, Delaney Bowers and Connor Ryan. All media used in this production is done so under the protection of fair use. Give us a Like and follow on our social media accounts. Join us in Discord, give us a Like and follow on YouTube and leave us a rate and review wherever that sort of thing is possible. Don't forget, you can catch the show every Saturday evening at 10pm Eastern on the Annex Digital Network. Just visit on xnetwork.com to tune in. And finally, tonight's score was provided by Iron Cthulhu, Apocalypse Co AG Music, Carl Casey and White Bat Audio. Now go watch our movie. Go to borregotriangle.com to tune in and join us in the beyond for ad, free content and days worth of bonus material. Visit monsters among us podcast.com and click the Patreon tab to join. And before I duck out of here tonight and speaking of the State of Pennsylvania, for those of you located in or around the fine town of Erie, Pennsylvania, our friend Erie Eric and his wife Carrie are hosting the fifth annual Krampus Knocked Eerie event on December 6, 2025. I'll put all the info down in the show notes if you want to check it out. It looks like a ton of fun. So go get whacked in the back with a stick by some Krampuses and tell Eric and Carrie that we sent you. Alright folks, that's it for this one. But I'll catch you back here on Thursday with a brand new installment. Until then, you keep it spooky and have yourselves a good night.