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Between 1590 and 1610, a small village nestled in the heart of Little Carpathia became the hunting ground for one of history’s most prolific serial killers. For the better part of 20 years Elizabeth Bathory, along with a crew of loyal followers, ruthlessly kidnapped, tortured, and murdered young women and girls, earning her the macabre moniker of “The Blood Countess.”

Let’s celebrate 100 episodes with an Espooky collaboration! Cristina, one of the hosts of Espooky Tales, joins us for a discussion about folklore, bonding over horror stories, and everything in between!

In preparation for 100 episodes, enjoy this special re-release of Episode 1 where we discuss the origin story of the Ouija board. The episode also features an original horror story about three girls who messed with a Ouija board, and lived to regret it.

Sometimes horrible things happen in the most mundane of places. The Cecil Hotel is an example of just this. By all intents and purposes, the Cecil should have been a run-of-the-mill hotel with swanky interior and even swankier guests. But a series of unfortunate events would turn this proposed haven for Los Angeles’s elite, into one of the most haunted hotels in the world. WARNING: This episode mentions instances sexual assault and self-harm. Listener discretion of advised.

Would you give anything to reach your goals? Achieve your musical dreams? Have your desires of fame and talent granted? Would you give up your soul, for the music? Some say that Robert Johnson, famed Blues musician, did just - trading his soul to the Devil to become the greatest Blues musician in history.

The Codex Gigas is a religious manuscript written by a 13th century monk that has been so famously dubbed “The Devil’s Bible.” Why? Because it contains a 20-inch tall illustrated portrait of Lucifer that might have been drawn by the Devil himself.

The Frauenkirche is a Gothic Catholic Church located in Munich, Bavaria, in southeastern Germany. Although architecturally it is quite beautiful, the mysterious black footprint that forever mars one of the church's tiles is what attracts visitors - a mark known as The Devil’s Footprint.

Merry Christmas! This year, for our Christmas episode, let’s talk about some not so well known Christmas and Yule folklore and figured- the ones that bring a little spookiness to the Christmas and Yule season. The Ukrainian Christmas Spiders The Yule Cat And Frau Perchta, the Winter Witch Goddess

“Sleep paralysis” is defined as episodes of paralysis that occur while someone is awake, or in the middle of falling asleep. Little is known about what causes sleep paralysis. Many psychotherapists believe that the hallucinations experienced during these paralytic episodes are the reason behind most supposed paranormal events. But what if these episodes aren’t the reason for paranormal events, but a window of time where the paranormal is more likely to happen? A window of time where we are most vulnerable?

Have you ever heard of Pareidolia? It is a psychological phenomena that occurs in humans where we think we see faces in different objects. We are desperate to find the familiar in unfamiliar, and sometimes dangerous circumstances. How many times have you thought that you saw eyes staring at you from your closet just for your brain to be playing tricks on you? But what if something was there? Let me introduce to you a famous case that has divided the supernatural community for decades - Las Caras de Belmez.

Every exorcism and possession case is unique in its own right, but one thing that can always be agreed on is that the possessed individual always suffers. These people are never willing participants in the attacking of their souls. But what if they were? What if someone welcomed the possession? That is what our special Halloween original story is about. Scary Stories for the Soul Presents: The Four Door Experiment

Sitting in the Bel-Nor neighborhood of St.Louis, Missouri is a house with a dark history. Its brick exterior and white shutters makes it just as average and innocuous as the homes that surround it, but this was once the home of Roland Doe - the boy who would go on to inspire William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel “The Exorcist,”and subsequently William Friedkin’s film of the same name.

At this point, we have all witnessed exorcisms taking place. Fictional ones, of course, but nonetheless, horror fans, and those poor souls that we have dragged to the movies with us, have all witnessed a young priest and an old priest, reciting the Rites of Exorcism over a writhing, spitting, tormented man, woman, or child. We’re scared but we know it's not real. We know they are playing characters in a movie. But how would you react if you were watching a real person go through it all? Well in April of 1991, ABC viewers were faced with that very question when “20/20” aired the live exorcism of a teenager known only as “Gina.”

The thought of a minister or a reverend or a nun becoming possessed feels wrong on so many levels, but demons get brownie points for possessing and inhabiting the bodies and souls of those who have given themselves fully to God. However, the overtly religious are taught that evil can wear many faces. If you’re expecting evil to be lurking in every dark corner, anything can seem like a sign from the Devil. And that’s where the lines start to blur - that’s where the waters get murky with paranoia. And that's where Sister Maricica Irina Cornici found herself trapped between paranoia and doctrine.

There is a line in Arthur Miller’s 1953 play The Crucible, that reads, “What victory would the Devil have to win a soul already bad? It is the best the Devil wants, and who is better than the minister?” When we think of demonic possession, we think of random, wrong-place-wrong-time, bad luck of the draw happenstance. We don't think of the religiously devout, but maybe Arthur Miller was right - what better trophy for a demon than one of God's favorites. Which leads us to our first episode to kick off our Halloween season, the case that inspired the 2005 film The Exorcism of Emily Rose, the Possession of Annaliese Michel.