True Weird Stuff

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Living Corpse

Taphophobia is the fear of being buried alive. During the Victorian Era, people being mistakenly buried alive was so common that extensive measures were taken to prevent it. But throughout history, there have been individuals like "Country" Bill White, a man who made a career out of burying himself alive for the fame and notoriety. He will forever be known as The Living Corpse.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Vanished

In 1768, Owen Parfitt was a crippled, old man sitting on his front porch like usual. When his sister returned to bring him inside, he was gone. It was impossible that he'd left on his own, and no one had seen a thing. Every search turned up empty-handed, and Owen Parfitt was never seen again. Was he kidnapped? Was he a victim of the supernatural? The disappearance of Owen Parfitt remains a mystery to this day.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Human Livestock

Today's True Weird Stuff - People Chow

Webster Edgerly was the creator of a social movement known as Ralstonism. His self-promoted pseudoscience was based upon his advocacy of racial eugenics and strict health and hygiene habits. That's why in 1902, Edgerly's Ralstonism movement would end up partnering with popular food brand Purina, whose whole-grain cereal Edgerly considered to be the perfect food for his faithful followers.

The Hobo King

In the decades before the Great Depression, it was common for folks known as hobos to wander from town to town searching for work, dangerously hopping on and off moving trains to reach their next destination. A man named Jeff Davis believed that hobos deserved a chance to care for themselves, and in 1913, he opened a hotel where hobos would provide for each other in exchange for lodging. This concept spread across the country, and Jeff Davis would become known as The Hobo King.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Revisiting Sea Demon 

You’re at the beach, standing at the water’s edge. Shielding your eyes from the sun glaring off the water, you gaze out at the far horizon. Did you see it? Was it a trick of the light or was it...a fin? You’re about to hear a shark tale unlike any other. One that makes Jaws look like Finding Nemo. This is the terrifying true story of...the Sea Demon.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Revisiting We The People

In honor of the 4th of July, here's the episode we did about Gouverneur Morris, the man who coined the term "We the People."

Today's True Weird Stuff - Nazi Farm Part 2

Today's True Weird Stuff - Nazi Farm Part 1

Paul Schäfer was a Nazi who, after World War II, would go on to become a minister. When Schäfer was accused of abusing two young boys at his orphanage, he fled to Chile and started a community called Colonia Dignidad. Though this 53-square-mile compound looked peaceful on the outside, Colonia Dignidad was a horrific nightmare. Violence, abuse, forced separation of families, and an alliance with a Chilean dictator were just a few of the ways Paul Schäfer maintained control over his Nazi cult with an iron fist.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Order of the Pug

The rise of Freemasonry in 18th century Europe led to conflict within the Catholic Church. Their disdain of these secret fraternal orders led to  Pope Clement XII banning Catholics from joining them. However, that didn't stop a group of Catholics from creating their own secret society, one based on loyalty, trustworthiness, steadfastness...and wearing a dog collar. This group was known as the Order of the Pug.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Revisiting A Killer Pool

With Sheri feeling under the weather this week, we thought it'd be a good time to re-release the first episode of True Weird Stuff. Sheri shares the details of growing up with a neighbor down who was as nice as could be...until the day he snapped and went on a killing spree.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Killer Eyes

Fritz Angerstein was a German mass murderer who killed his wife and 7 other people on November 30 and December 1, 1924. For centuries, people wondered if it might be possible for the human eye to record the last image it saw before death, leading to the practice of forensic optography. Even though it would eventually be debunked, forensic optography was admitted as damning evidence in the trial of Fritz Angerstein. It claimed that his face and an axe were the last images his victims saw.

Today's True Weird: Murder Farm (Airdate 5/23/2025)

Today's True Weird Stuff - Mammoth Feast (Airdate 5/16/2025)

In 1901, an expedition team in Siberia discovered a nearly perfectly preserved mammoth locked in permafrost for 44,000 years. Various tales of the consumption of mammoth meat have been around for centuries, but none like the Explorers Club's 47th Annual Dinner in 1951.  The exclusive meal was rumoured to have included a host of exotic delicacies, including pieces of 250,000-year-old woolly mammoth meat. It wouldn't be until decades later that examinations of a sample of the meat from that legendary dinner would solve the mystery, once and for all.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Adam & Eve Declassified

Today's True Weird Stuff - Casket Girls

Today's True Werid Stuff - Doomsday Clock: 89 Seconds To Midnight

Created in 1947, the Doomsday Clock was established by a group of atomic scientists to represent to the public the likelihood of a human-made global armageddon,  whether it's the looming threat of nuclear war, bioterrorism, or cyberwarfare. Over the years, the Doomsday Clock has found itself inching closer to midnight, and January 2025, the clock was set to 89 seconds before midnight...the closest it's ever been to doomsday.

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Arkansas Ghost

Today's True Werid Stuff - Reliving The Black Eyed Kids

Today's True Weird Stuff - Another Icepick To The Brain

Today's True Weird Stuff - Headless Valley

Today's True Weird Stuff - The Last Duel

The most famous duel in American history was between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr in 1804. The premiere way of settling disputes and upholding unwritten codes of honor, the act of dueling would gradually fall out of favor over the 19th Century. However, dueling was still commonplace in Southern states like South Carolina. That is, until a duel in 1880 between Colonel E.B. Cash and Colonel William Shannon forced the state to ban the practice.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Jill the Ripper

 In 1888, the people of the Whitechapel district of London were terrorized by someone on a ruthless killing spree. Over 100 suspects were named, including a woman named Mary Pearcey. In 1890, Mary was convicted of brutally murdering her lover's partner and child, and Mary was sentenced to death. The brutal nature of the killings would lead to a theory decades later that claimed Mary Pearcey was the was the infamous Jack the Ripper.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Mirror, Mirror

Margaretha von Waldeck was the real-life inspiration for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Born to a noble family during the Holy Roman Empire, Margaretha's mother passed away when she was 4 years old. Her father, Count Philip IV, would go on to remarry a woman named Katherina von Hatzfeld. Katherina despised her stepdaughter, and had Margaretha sent away. Though beautiful and poised to make a name for herself in the history books, Margaretha's short life would play out like a fairy tale...minus the happy ending.

Brain In A Jar

Phineas Gage was an American railroad foreman who survived a traumatic brain injury.  In 1848, an iron rod shot through his skull and destroyed a chunk of his left frontal lobe. Though he survived the accident, the damage to his brain drastically altered his personality. Gage's story became a catalyst for modern neuroscience, which has advanced to the point scientists are now able to develop a brain in a jar.