Podcast
Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories
Hosted by Darren Marlar | Weird Darkness | Full-Time Voice Actor · EN
Award-winning podcast of true stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, true crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained -- seven days a week! Hosted by professional voice actor Darren Marlar, named one of the “Best Storytellers in Podcasting” by Podcast Business Journal.
296episodes
Episodes
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JUKEBOX WEIRDO | Send Me Your Weirdest Idea, I'll Turn It Into a Song!
Yesterday00:10:30Tap to summarizeStep right up, Weirdos! Got a strange idea rattling around in your skull — a haunting nobody believes, a cryptid your uncle swears he saw, some true-crime case that still keeps you up at night? Jukebox Weirdo turns it into a real, honest-to-goodness song. You bring the weird, you pick the band off the Weird Darkness Records roster, and I write it and produce it — with your name on the idea. And if it's a keeper, I'll send it out to Spotify, iHeart Radio, YouTube Music, and everywhere else, so you can crank it for everybody you know and holler, "THAT'S my song!" Want in? Become an Official Weirdo at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL and send me your idea. Let's make something strange together!
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The Looking Glass Girl: What Did They Do To Her? | #RetroRadio
Yesterday05:04:50Tap to summarizeTwo young Parisians dreaming of artistic greatness stumble upon a squalid countryside farm, where one becomes fatally transfixed by a strange, silent girl the family keeps like livestock — and the price of his masterpiece may be more than either of them can imagine.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Nighteyes” (February 13, 1978) ***WD00:44:52.381 = Faces In The Window, “Pit And the Pendulum” January 24, 1953) ***WD01:16:57.706 = Dark Fantasy, “Cup of Gold” (May 08, 1942) ***WD01:41:08.547 = BBC Fear on 4, “By The River, Fountainebleau” (February 14, 1988)02:11:47.932 = Future Tense, “Protection” (May 29, 1974) ***WD (LQ)02:35:01.801 = BBC Ghosts From The Past, “Mortmain” (April 22, 1992)03:20:24.273 = Columbia Workshop, “Half Pint Flask” (July 06, 1939)03:49:41.327 = Hall of Fantasy, “The Tell-Tale Heart” (June 01, 1953) ***WD04:13:19.188 = Harry Lime, “Voodoo” (August 31, 1951) ***WD04:37:18.634 = BBC Haunted Tales of the Supernatural, “The Grey Ones” (August 11, 1984)05:03:59.833 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0696
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Proof the Men in Black Are Real, Hidden in Federal Records
Yesterday01:11:42Tap to summarizeA Phoenix musician snapped two clear photos of a flying saucer in 1947 — then government agents with hidden names showed up, took his negatives, and made the evidence vanish into federal archives forever.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/RhodesMIBREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8z656hFEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Natalie Bollinger seemed to have her whole life ahead of her, but beneath the surface was a dark and tragic story that would end in obsession, danger, and a horrifying Craigslist ad that no one saw coming. (Natalie Bollinger – Stalked, Betrayed, and Forgotten) *** Oregon’s scenic beauty hides a darker side, where ghostly encounters and eerie legends bring the state’s haunted history to life. We’ll look at five of the most haunted places in The Union State. (Five Haunted Locations in Oregon) *** Andrew Keegan went from ’90s heartthrob to the charismatic leader of a crystal-charged spiritual group, where eerie rituals and strange coincidences blur the line between community and cult. (Teen Heartthrob to Cult Leader) *** The Dakota is more than just a historic NYC landmark—its dark history of ghostly encounters, untimely celebrity deaths, and eerie connections will leave you with chills. (Famous Phantoms of the Dark Dakota Building) *** A wild night in 1979 – Chicago’s Comiskey Park turned into a chaotic battlefield as tens of thousands of disco-hating fans lit records on fire, sparked a riot, and may have sealed the fate of an entire music genre. It’s the night “Disco Inferno” turned literal. (The Night Disco Burned) *** When a man in 1947 captured stunning photos of a UFO over Phoenix, he unknowingly invited the shadowy Men in Black into his life, sparking one of the earliest and most chilling accounts of government secrecy and dark intimidation. (First Documented Encounter With The Men In Black) *** The U.S. has a seven-step plan for meeting aliens, and it’s a mix of science fiction, strategy, and some downright unsettling steps you won’t believe. (First Contact or Planetary Catastrophe?)CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding00:01:56.144 = Show Open00:04:35.317 = The First Documented Encounter With The Men In Black00:18:57.349 = First Contact, Or Planetary Catastrophe ***00:26:17.432 = Natalie Bollinger – Stalked, Betrayed, and Forgotten00:35:41.483 = Five Haunted Locations in Oregon ***00:48:27.369 = The Night Disco Burned00:55:11.587 = Teen Heartthrob to Cult Leader01:03:27.692 = Famous Phantoms of the Dark Dakota Building ***01:07:45.841 = Facing Fear For Fun01:10:30.883 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:“The First Documented Encounter With The Men In Black”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes_UFO_photographs,https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/the-original-men-in-black-3849054,https://www.history.com/news/men-in-black-real-origins, https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2024/08/Are-Men-in-Black-Real-At-Least-One-Was/“Natalie Bollinger – Stalked, Betrayed, and Forgotten”: https://cattstruecrimecorner.com/the-case-of-natalie-bollinger/,https://genwhypod.com/blogs/the-generation-why-podcast-blog/the-murder-of-natalie-bollinger,https://lauthmissingpersons.com/murder-natalie-bollinger/, https://klakstrom.medium.com/the-strange-murder-of-natalie-bollinger-16110ddaefb7, https://www.truecasefiles.com/2019/12/the-murder-of-natalie-bollinger.html,https://bekah302.medium.com/of-stalking-craigslist-and-social-media-the-case-of-natalie-bollinger-6846c98a8cc5“Five Haunted Locations In Oregon”: https://the-line-up.com/haunted-places-in-oregon (used verbatim with permission)“Facing Fear For Fun”: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/annalisa-netherly,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Read_House_Hotel, https://www.clthomas.org/post/the-read-house-hauntings-and-legends, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/thoughts-thinking/201810/5-reasons-we-enjoy-being-scared,https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-do-we-like-to-get-scared, https://www.healthline.com/health-news/why-we-like-to-be-scared, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/why-fear-feels-good“Teen Heartthrob To Cult Leader”: https://people.com/andrew-keegan-looks-back-insane-spirituality-venture-cost-tens-of-thousands-sparked-cult-rumors-8576493, https://ew.com/andrew-keegan-responds-rumors-he-started-cult-8576464,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Keegan, https://www.ranker.com/list/andrew-keegan-cult-facts/carly-silver“Famous Phantoms of the Dark Dakota Building”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_John_Lennon,https://jessicajewettonline.com/ghosts-of-the-dakota-building, https://the-line-up.com/the-dakota-building,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dakota, https://www.ranker.com/list/dakota-building-curse/april-a-taylor,“First Contact or Planetary Catastrophe”: https://www.nsa.gov/portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/cryptologic-spectrum/communications_with_extraterrestrial.pdf, https://www.livescience.com/19360-humans-discover-aliens.html, https://listverse.com/2017/03/12/10-laws-rules-and-regulations-for-extraterrestrial-contact/, https://www.livescience.com/alien-contact-protocol.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-detection_policy,https://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-the-seven-steps-to-contact/laura-allan“The Night Disco Burned”: https://www.britannica.com/event/Disco-Demolition-Night,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Demolition_Night, https://edm.com/features/remembering-disco-demolition-night-1979, https://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-disco-demolition-night/melissa-sartore; Audio Clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAJfOcnYYEQ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWCRu-yVEFU(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included
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Florida Man Who Saw the Anti-Christ Tried to Steal a Medical Helicopter | #WeirdDarkNEWS
Yesterday00:04:27Tap to summarizeA pickup driver who told troopers he had just seen the anti-Christ ran past every first responder on a closed stretch of I-75 and yanked open the pilot's door of the helicopter sent to airlift the two people he had badly injured.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/antichrist-helicopter-heistLook for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.
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A Teacher, a Whole-Life Order, and the Baby He Was Adopting | #WeirdDarkNEWS
Yesterday00:08:35Tap to summarizeJamie Varley told police his adopted son drowned in the bath, but the baby's hair was dry, his nappy was still on, and a post-mortem found forty injuries.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/babyprestonLook for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.
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Leah Anderson Shot in the Head, Teen Brother Charged in Thornton | #WeirdDarkNEWS
Yesterday00:05:43Tap to summarizeA 21-year-old Plymouth State student was shot in the head inside her own family's home, and the person charged with pulling the trigger is her teenage brother.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/leah-andersonLook for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.
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Three Inmates Killed a Child Murderer Inside HMP Wakefield | #WeirdDarkNEWS
2d ago00:07:26Tap to summarizeThree men walked into Kyle Bevan's cell at one of England's most secure prisons, stabbed him more than 25 times, tucked his body into bed to look asleep, and walked out four minutes and 39 seconds later.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/three-inmates-wakefieldLook for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.PHOTO INFO:Top Left: Mark Fellows, known as “The Iceman,” was already serving a whole-life term for two gangland murders. West Yorkshire Police / SWNSTop Center: David Taylor was also serving time for murder and awaiting trial over a separate killing when the prison attack took place. West Yorkshire Police / SWNSTop Right: Lee Newell was previously convicted of killing another child killer inside his prison cell in 2013. West Yorkshire Police / SWNSBottom Center: Kyle Bevan, who was serving a life sentence for killing his partner’s toddler, was stabbed to death by three inmates. Dyfed-Powys Police / SWNS
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Nancy Guthrie: A New Ransom Note and Three Debunked Theories | #WeirdDarkNEWS
2d ago00:13:07Tap to summarizeA ransom note sent five days after 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Tucson home opened with an apology for her death — and offered to return her body for a price.SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/Guthrie20260622Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.
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The Horned Man of Dawstone Road: Heswall Crashes
2d ago00:58:03Tap to summarizeAcross four decades on Heswall's Dawstone Road, drivers and a motorcyclist reported a seven-foot horned figure that seized their vehicles and threw them into the sandstone wall.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/DawstoneDemonREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2en5ubwwFEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Dawstone Road is where some say the veil between our reality and the unknown is thin. A motorist's brush with death in 1961 sparked a chain of inexplicable events. From encounters with horned entities to unexplained accidents, the road holds secrets that seem to defy rational explanation. (The Demon of Dawstone Road) *** There is a dark history and supernatural secrets at the Manila Film Center. Built as a symbol of power and prestige during the Marcos regime, its construction was rushed, resulting in a catastrophic collapse that claimed numerous lives. But the horror didn't end there. Stories of hauntings, spectral hands reaching out, and cries for help still echo through its halls. (Horrors At Manila Film Center) *** When 19-year-old Kenneka Jenkins vanished during a hotel party, it sparked a viral whirlwind of speculation and suspicion. Despite authorities ruling her death an accident, questions lingered – as they should, seeing as her body was found in the hotel freezer. (Frozen Corpse at Crown Plaza) *** For over a century, these ghostly orbs have captivated and spooked travelers in Queensland, Australia. Are they supernatural spirits or mere mirages? (The Ghostly Orbs of Min Min) *** AND MORE!CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:02:07.004 = Demon of Dawstone Road00:11:30.917 = Horrors at Manila Film Center ***00:31:46.055 = Frozen Corpse at Crown Plaza ***00:40:24.583 = Ghostly Orbs of Min Min00:50:15.674 = Blowing Smoke Up Your Enema ***00:56:56.461 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:“Blowing Smoke Up Your Enema” by Bipin Dimri for Historic Mysteries: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yckujv2n“The Demon of Dawstone Road” by Tom Slemen for Anomalien.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/muvz6wbv“Horrors At Manila Film Center” by Lucia for TheGhostInMyMachine.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/9es3ka3j“Frozen Corpse at Crown Plaza” by Amanda Sedlak-Hevener for Graveyard Shift: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8drf6j“The Ghostly Orbs of Min Min” by Kimberly Lin for Historic Mysteries: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/ea9zway9(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: April 15, 2024This episode of Weird Darkness travels from a haunted stretch of English road and a tower built on dead workers to a teenager found frozen in a hotel kitchen, a century of phantom lights in the Australian Outback, and an 18th-century medical practice involving tobacco and a part of the body it had no business near.It opens on Dawstone Road in Heswall, where a Neston motorist crashed through a six-foot sandstone wall in the winter of 1961 and later told a surgeon at Clatterbridge Hospital that a horrible devil had pushed his car sideways, despite no alcohol in his blood. That March, a 23-year-old Wallasey man named Rory was thrown from his motorbike at the Baskervyle Road junction by a seven-foot horned figure that seized his handlebars, and he woke to a face with pointed ears and luminous eyes muttering about the pit. The road's reputation reaches back to November 1934, when a posse hunted a demonic creature that a wealthy mansion owner blamed on his escaped bulldog, an explanation a local policeman rejected by asking how a broad bulldog squeezed through iron gate bars. The pattern continued through a stalled Hillman Imp shoved backwards in 1969 and a nurse's 1978 sighting of a horned man in black standing beside a ten-foot hole that glowed red and echoed with screaming.From there the episode moves to the Manila Film Center, the cinema palace Imelda Marcos rushed to completion for the first Manila International Film Festival in January 1982, where part of the structure collapsed on November 17, 1981 and buried workers in wet cement during a 24-hour construction schedule. Eyewitness Nena Benigno described seeing men carried out frozen in cement that had not fully hardened, while official counts from the Marcos regime claimed only a handful of deaths against outside estimates ranging as high as 169. Architect Froilan Hong put the toll at seven and denied the burial stories, yet legends persisted that the dead were entombed in the walls, and a medium reportedly brought in by Imelda Marcos to exorcise the building announced during a trance that the spirits now numbered 169 after the road death of project supervisor Betty Benitez.Next comes the death of 19-year-old Kenneka Jenkins, found face-down in a walk-in freezer at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare in Rosemont on the morning of September 11, 2017, nearly a full day after security footage caught her stumbling through the hotel and entering an unused kitchen. The Cook County Medical Examiner ruled the death an accident from hypothermia, with a blood-alcohol level of 0.112 and epilepsy medication cited as contributing factors, but her mother Teresa Martin questioned how a teenager could open the freezer's heavy steel doors and filed a $50 million lawsuit against the hotel. Viral speculation drew comparisons to the 2013 death of Elisa Lam at the Cecil Hotel, fueled by footage in which background music was mistaken for a cry of help and an anonymous tip claiming a gang had killed her for $200.The episode then crosses to the Outback near Boulia in Queensland, where Min Min lights have trailed travelers since Europeans first documented them in 1838, hovering about three feet off the ground, changing color, and following people on foot, on horseback, and in cars. A stockman riding past the burned ruins of the Min Min Hotel reported a glow the size of a watermelon that chased him to the edge of town, and Arrernte elder Mavis Malbunka tied the lights to a Dreamtime story of a mother searching for a child fallen from the Milky Way. University of Queensland physiologist Jack Pettigrew traced the phenomenon to a Fata Morgana, an optical illusion in which warm air over cold bends light from sources hundreds of kilometers beyond the horizon, a finding he published in 2003 after recreating the effect with car headlights ten kilometers away.The episode closes on the tobacco enema, the 18th-century practice of blowing smoke into a patient's rectum to revive the drowned, with resuscitation kits hung near English waterways for emergency use. Nicholas Culpeper adapted the method from Native American medicine and Richard Mead carried it forward, and an early 1746 account credits a husband with reviving his apparently drowned wife by inserting a pipe stem and puffing smoke through it. Nicotine absorbed this way could raise a patient's heart rate, which gave the treatment a plausible mechanism, and the 1774 Institution for Affording Immediate Relief to Persons Apparently Dead from Drowning built its work around it before being renamed the Royal Humane Society, which still operates in England today.
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Royston House: The Mansion That Forbids Mirrors | #RetroRadio
2d ago04:54:19Tap to summarizeA young woman hired to care for an invalid widow in a crumbling Hudson River mansion soon learns why her brooding employer forbids every mirror in the house—and why the dogs are always watching.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Reflected Terror” (February 10, 1978) ***WD00:46:05.827 = Deep Night CBC, “Ice Screams” (August 05, 2005)01:20:02.229 = Calling All Detectives, “The Necktie” (1947)01:29:12.083 = The Devil and Mr. O, “Balance Sheet” (December 24, 1971(01:59:18.938 = Diary of Fate, “Walter Vincent” (May 25, 1948) ***WD02:28:14.559 = Dimension X, “The Parade” (August 25, 1950) ***WD02:55:28.216 = The Strange Dr. Weird, “The Man Who Lived Twice” (January 30, 1945) ***WD03:08:09.231 = The Eleventh Hour, “Bomb” (ADU)03:34:51.891 = Escape, “Action” (July 21, 1949)04:04:04.818 = Murder By Experts, “The Big Money” (July 25, 1949)04:33:28.472 = Exploring Tomorrow, “Diamond Mountain of Venus / aka Inferiority” (June 04, 1958)04:53:28.724 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0695
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