Pleasing Terrors

Throughout history, disasters of astronomical proportions have taken place on one auspicious day -- Friday the Thirteenth. Shipwrecks, tsunamis, raging forest fires, brutal murderers, and horrifying accidents have all claimed victims on a day that many believe has been cursed since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The same serpent who tested the pair has become the dark figurehead of Friday the Thirteenth, feared by ancient cultures for centuries. The fear of 13 seems like old suspicions that were born and died in ancient times, but as an asteroid headed straight for the Earth threatens to destroy civilization as we know it, the due date of Friday the Thirteenth might be more relevant than ever. Episode Highlights: Shipwrecks, gruesome murders, natural disasters, and cannibalism: A trail of death through history The fear of Friday the 13th Numerology and mysticism Adam, Eve, the Serpent, and 13 Symbolism in the works of Edgar Allan Poe Sinister snakes and dark evil in Ancient Egypt Flying aste

Underneath our world lies a twisting and complicated maze, a dark mass of underground caves, passageways, and secrets. In part two of our Labyrinth series, we delve into the explorations of Greg Newkirk into the heart of the Kentucky goblin mystery. Episode Highlights: The m-cave mystery in the desert The “other grandma” Return of the Kentucky goblins Secret missions and underground battles Amazing Stories Brown Mountain: Finding a way into the Labyrinth Mummified remains Following the numbers The Mammoth Resources: Secret Cipher of the UFONAUTS by Allen Greenfield “As Above, So Below” Episode of Euphomet Podcast Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston’s best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter!

The brave Greek hero Theseus made a name for himself when he defeated the monstrous Minotaur and escaped the depths of the Labyrinth by mapping his path back to safety with a ball of red string. The story of the Kentucky Goblins is much like the twisting, mysterious Labyrinth. Many researchers have found themselves lost within the details of the tale, searching for the truth of what lives in the middle of the maze. Was 1950’s Hopkinsville, Kentucky, really home to a colony of extraterrestrial beings? And if so… have they finally made their return? Episode Highlights: The Greeks and the Minotaur The mystical Edgar Cayce Flying saucers in Kentucky A sighting in Roswell, New Mexico Shots fired in Hopkinsville, Kentucky Owls or little green men? Greg Newkirk and the Week in Weird The return of the Kentucky Goblins Resources: Movies:  Close Encounters of the Third Kind E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Poltergeist Gremlins Critters Signs The Bigfoot Hunter:Still Searching  Week in Weird Traveling Museum

The city of dreams, the city that never sleeps, the city with streets paved with opportunities… for many of us, New York represents a glittering place where absolutely anything is possible. Yet for all its glamour and sparkle, there are dark secrets lurking within its shadows, and history has done little to wash away the blood that once soaked New York’s prosperous streets. They say the population of New York City reaches nearly 8.5 million people. Does that count the haunted souls whose ghosts still roam the streets? Episode Highlights: Bloody history of the Empire State Building A Beautiful Suicide: Evelyn McHale Visiting the House of Death in Washington Square The Hangman’s Elm Walking with Edgar Allan Poe Charred bodies in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory A beating heart in 14th West 10th Street The Bartell Experience Mediums and paranormal researchers The tragedy continues Resources: “Beautiful Suicide” photograph of Evelyn McHale Haunted Greenwich Village: Bohemian Banshee, Spooky Sites and Gonzalez

The idyllic Fox Hollow Farm boasts of a basement-level swimming pool and sprawling acres of land. But all is not as it seems. A man creeps through the woods nearby, his legs transparent in the flashlight’s beam. There is an incessant knocking at the front door by hands unseen. Night swims in the pool end with ghostly fingers clenched tight around a throat. For Joe Leblanc, Fox Hollow Farm was meant to be an escape from a long commute and skyrocketing rent. For the dozens of men buried on its grounds, Fox Hollow Farm had come to represent something much more sinister. Episode Highlights: Joe Leblanc Fox Hollow Farm and the Graves family The man with no legs Herb and Julie Baumeister A knock in the night Herb’s dark history Bones in the yard Twisted games An altar in the woods Resources: “While Julie Was Away” People Magazine Article, 1996 Where the Bodies are Buried by Frannie Weinstein and Melinda Wilson “Fox Hollow Farm” Paranormal Witness, Season 2, Episode 8   Enjoyed this episode? Please support Ple

Mysteries are a rarity in our world. What used to be unexplainable is now quickly answered by the modern marvels of technology and science. So when a new mystery appears, we drive ourselves crazy searching for an explanation, haunted by what we can’t explain. One modern mystery is reasoning behind the strange events that took place on a Siberian mountain in 1959, in which a group of experienced hikers were found dead in bizarre circumstances. Since the day of the discovery, many have been tormented by one simple question: What happened on Dyatlov Pass? Was it a Yeti, an avalanche, a top secret military test gone horribly wrong that killed the group? Or was it something simply incomprehensible to modern listeners– an ill-fated encounter with goddesses and myths of old? Episode Highlights: Dyatlov Pass Incident: Ski Tourists in Siberia The search begins First disturbing discoveries Nine sets of footprints in the snow Charred and frozen bodies Conflicting and confusing evidence Timeline of events: What went wro

Werewolves have been portrayed in folklore, books, movies and television for centuries. Rageful howls under the full moon. Fangs, claws, fur, muscle and legend. Is it a monster? A ghost or a demon? Is it real? Historic folk tales about werewolves often evoke images of crisp nights in dark ages of Europe. Yet in the United States, the state of Georgia has one of the longest histories of werewolf encounters in the country. This is the story of the Georgia Werewolf. Personal accounts and anecdotes in modern times give us a glimpse of this creature, not yet verified by science. Small-town legends passed down since the 1800s led ghost-hunters to the local cemetery. Rumors swirled around a well-known farm and the unusual behavior of a young family member. What if the monster was not in the woods, but amongst us? Episode Highlights: Personal accounts of close encounters with werewolves in Georgia Author Linda S. Godfrey’s research on the American Werewolf Ghost-hunters investigate the cemetery linked to the monster

  A haunted house should loom out of the darkness, its windows boarded up, ghosts and dust as the only occupants. But horror dwells inside two beautifully decorated homes in the Benedict Canyon of Beverly Hills. While its name means “heaven” in Spanish, 10050 Cielo Drive was nothing but Hell for the five victims brutally murdered by Charles Manson’s “Family” within its walls. Some say their spirits still haunt the area, having taken up residence in the nearby Oman House.   Two men, film director David Oman and Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, have turned the blood-soaked history of Cielo Drive into a booming source of revenue. Both men show signs of struggling with their own inner demons – are the spirits still trapped within their homes disturbed and vengeful at the business created around their murders, or is it the morality of the situation haunting the living?   Episode Highlights: History of the Oman House David Oman: homeowner, movie director, and tour guide Dr. Barry Taff investigates Trapped sp

Wear garlic around your neck. Carry a wooden stake. Hang a crucifix on the wall, and never, ever, open the door for Dracula. The superstitions that were meant to protect our ancestors from vampires taught them the most important lesson of all: never invite a monster inside. Yet with the birth of Spiritualism in the 19th century came a rise in the belief that the dead harbor secret knowledge from the living, and inviting a monstrous spirit into your home became easier than ever.    The Ouija board, printed with letters and numbers, has entranced generations as a gateway between this world and the next. Groups gather around the board, hands touching the planchette, and hope to make contact with lost loved ones or benevolent guides with insight that only comes from beyond the grave. But when you open the door into the darkness, you can’t control what may come slinking through. Murder, madness, and possession have haunted Ouija board users since its inception, but where does this evil really come from?    T

Early 19th-century America was a time for the pioneer, the robust adventurer who leaves the familiarity of home in search of fortune and success. One such man was John Bell, a farmer who settled in Adams, Tennessee with his family and slaves. Their idyllic country life was soon disturbed after the youngest Bell child, Elizabeth, drew the attention of a sinister spirit. Strange creatures stalked the property as the sounds of clawing, choking, and banging haunted the Bell household, whose inhabitants demanded answers from the spirit who tormented them - “Who are you? What do you want?” Answers whispered from the walls around them as the spirit claimed to be a tormented soul, the resident of a disturbed grave, an immigrant, and finally -- a Witch. John Bell died gasping in the night, the disembodied voice of the Bell Witch cackling as it told his horrified family that he had been poisoned by the spirit. As the centuries passed, the legend of the Bell family haunting has become twisted with age, leaving modern li

Everyone knows the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The young child in her bright red cloak who gets lost in the forest, only to be preyed upon and devoured by the big bad wolf.  Red Riding Hood is freed from her fate by a passing Huntsman, who slaughters the In the time when fairy tales served more to caution than to entertain, Little Red Riding Hood was a warning to always follow the marked path, listen to your elders, and never talk to strangers. The sad, strange story of Elisa Lam mirrors the familiar fairy tale -- except in this version, the lost little girl has no Huntsman to come to her rescue and perishes in the belly of the beast of Los Angeles. But who, exactly, is the beast? Is it the ill-fated hotel? A murderous stranger? Elisa herself? Episode Highlights: The story of Red Riding Hood The deadly history of the Cecil Hotel Elisa Lam’s peculiar behavior and death Conspiracies & suspicions Supernatural experiences in the Cecil Hotel