MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories

Episode: Unreal Vol. II (April 23, 2026)

Overview

On this installment of the MrBallen Podcast, host John Allen (MrBallen) dives into three astonishing stories so improbable, they seem unreal. “Unreal Vol. II” is themed around bizarre tragedies, impossible coincidences, and the blurred line between nightmare and reality. All stories come from true events, retold in MrBallen’s signature suspenseful storytelling style.

• Story 1: “Scooped” — A maritime disaster leads to a miraculous survival.
• Story 2: “One for the Road” — A drunken evening ends in a shocking tragedy.
• Story 3: “Her Face” — A widow’s nightmare guides her to an unfathomable real-life reunion.

Story 1: Scooped

Starting at [02:18]

Key Points

• Setting: July 25th, 1956, Atlantic Ocean, featuring the SS Andrea Doria (Italy’s “largest, fastest, and safest” ocean liner) and the Swedish liner SS Stockholm.
• Both ships entered heavy fog. Despite radar technology, both misread their instruments and failed to communicate. A catastrophic collision at 11:10pm resulted in 51 total fatalities (46 on the Andrea Doria, 5 on the Stockholm).
• ABC News reporter Edward Morgan was assigned to cover the story—unaware his own daughter, Linda Morgan, 14, was aboard the Andrea Doria and missing.
• Despite learning Linda was among the missing just before going on air, Edward delivered the news with composure, not revealing the personal connection.
• The miraculous twist: Linda was in a room directly struck by Stockholm’s bow. After the crash, a Stockholm crewman heard a girl calling for her mother. Linda was discovered on her bed, “perched on the destroyed bow” of the Stockholm, “relatively unhurt.”
• The impact had “scooped” her up, transferring both bed and Linda from Andrea Doria to Stockholm.
• Edward later learned his daughter was alive—the “miracle girl.” He returned to the air, sharing her story and reflecting on “how hard it was to deliver the news when it was about someone he loved.”
• Though Linda recovered physically (her only injury: a broken arm), she suffered severe survivor's guilt, having lost her stepfather and half-sister in the tragedy.

Notable Quotes

• “The bow of the Stockholm plowed directly into the side of the Andrea Doria, penetrating over 40 feet inside the ship before coming back out again.” ([02:54])
• “Perched on the destroyed bow of the Stockholm was a bed. And on that bed was a relatively unhurt 14-year-old girl named Linda Morgan.” ([04:31])
• “When Edward Morgan found out his daughter was the so-called miracle girl, he was overcome with emotions... how hard it was to deliver the news when it was about someone he loved.” ([05:10])

Story 2: One for the Road

Starting at [06:00]

Key Points

• Setting: Late night, September 18, 2015—central India, small village.
• Latori Barman, 45, was heavily intoxicated, stumbling home late after visiting a local fair and continuing to a liquor store. His wife had gone to her parents’ house.
• The unlit village street was unusually busy and filled with commotion—unusual, but not enough to alarm Latori.
• Latori, impaired vision and senses, falls into an unseen deep pothole and is knocked unconscious. The road was under repair, a crew present overnight.
• Due to darkness and chaos, no worker noticed Latori’s fall. Later, the crew filled the pothole with molten tar and rolled over it—unknowingly entombing him, still alive but incapacitated.
• In his final moments, Latori managed to reach his hand through the tar. The next morning, villagers saw the hand sticking out of the freshly repaired road and alerted authorities.
• Latori’s body was recovered, and he received a proper burial. Two construction workers were arrested and charged with culpable homicide. Compensation to his family amounted to only about US$760.

Notable Quotes

• “As he’s making his way home, he thought it was weird that there was a lot of people out on the road... more activity on this road than usual. But... he just kept on walking towards his house.” ([07:22])
• "He fell into one of these deep potholes, smashed the ground, and was knocked unconscious... at some point that night, the construction crew reached the pothole that Latori was in. They didn’t see him, and they poured molten tar into the hole and rolled over it with a roller, all with Latori inside the hole." ([09:15])
• “What did they see? They saw Latori’s hand poking out of the ground.” ([09:56])

Story 3: Her Face

Starting at [11:05]

Key Points

• Setting: September 1885, rural England. Mary, a young widow, visits her late husband’s ailing aunt for solace.
• Mary struggles with grief; her extended family wants her to remarry, but she remains heartbroken.
• That night, Mary has a disturbing nightmare: walking across a field at night to a decrepit shed, hearing moaning inside. She flings open the door to find a tormented woman with her deceased husband’s face. She awakens in terror.
• Unable to sleep, Mary walks into the countryside with brandy in hand. On a distant hill, she stumbles upon a field and, incredibly, sees a shed identical to the one from her dream.
• Compelled by an inexplicable urge mirroring her dream, she approaches and finds a real, dying woman inside, moaning.
• Mary chooses to stay, offers comfort, shares her brandy, and keeps the stranger alive through the night.
• At dawn, help arrives by chance (a passing wagon). The woman is carried back to the aunt’s house where Mary falls gravely ill, bedridden with fever for weeks.
• Upon recovery, Mary is visited by the now-healthy rescued woman, who eagerly recounts her incredible story:
  • Years earlier, the woman was saved from a burning ship by a stranger, survived a year shipwrecked, and finally reached England after rescue. Her savior, mentally broken, was hospitalized and forgotten.
  • The woman had traversed England on a quest to find his relatives and inform them he was alive. She failed just before reaching her destination, collapsing in the shed.
• The stranger who saved her was Mary’s husband—long presumed dead but alive in a hospital. The only reason the woman could deliver the message (and thus, reunite Mary and her husband) was because Mary’s dream brought her to the shed.
• Newspapers worldwide published the miraculous tale; no explanation has ever satisfactorily unraveled the astonishing sequence of coincidences.

Memorable Moments & Quotes

• “In this nightmare... in the corner... is this woman, this emaciated, destroyed looking woman, but her face is the same face as Mary’s dead husband.” ([12:32])
• “She’s looking out at this huge, huge field. In the center... is a single small structure, broken down wooden shed that looks nearly identical...” ([15:32])
• “It was like she had to go to the shed. Even though everything inside of her logically is saying: don’t go, but into the field she goes.” ([16:10])
• "The woman told her that a couple years earlier, she had boarded a ship... the ship caught fire... A stranger saved her, and they were castaways on an island for a year before being rescued. That stranger lost his sanity, placed in a hospital, and forgotten. The woman was trying to find his family. That stranger was Mary’s husband." ([22:47])
• “It was because of that dream that fate aligned, and now her husband was back.” ([25:11])

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Segment / Story | Start Time | |----------------------------------|-------------| | Introduction & story lineup | 00:00 | | Story 1: Scooped | 02:18 | | Story 2: One for the Road | 06:00 | | Story 3: Her Face | 11:05 | | Her Face — The Dream Sequence | 12:32 | | Her Face — Discovery of Shed | 15:32 | | Her Face — Rescue and Reunification | 22:14 | | Story summarization & conclusion | 25:11 |

Episode Highlights

• Unbelievable Coincidences: Each story is a testament to how reality can be stranger than fiction—survivors snatched from the jaws of death, a tragic accident caused by drunk misadventure and urban neglect, a prophetic dream leading to a family reunion that defies all logic.
• Powerful Human Emotions: MrBallen consistently returns to the raw emotional toll these events take on survivors: survivor’s guilt, public composure in private agony, and the desperation of holding onto hope against all odds.
• Memorable Storytelling: Story 3’s climactic twist—Mary’s “dream” becoming the vector for a miraculous rescue and reunion—is thick with suspense and emotion.

Notable Quotes

• “Perched on the destroyed bow of the Stockholm was a bed. And on that bed was a relatively unhurt 14-year-old girl named Linda Morgan.” ([04:31])
• “They poured molten tar into the hole and rolled over it with a roller, all with Latori inside the hole.” ([09:34])
• “In this nightmare... in the corner... is this woman, but her face is the same face as Mary’s dead husband.” ([12:32])
• “It was because of that dream that fate aligned, and now her husband was back.” ([25:11])

Final Thoughts

MrBallen’s “Unreal Vol. II” is a gripping anthology of stories that challenge the boundaries of chance—reminding listeners that the world can be, at times, far stranger, darker, and more mysterious than we imagine.

Note: Some names and details are changed for dramatic effect, but all core events are based on true stories.