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A couple days late. Thanks for your patience, Strangers.   A girl asks a peddler for a handful of pins. He says no. She curses him as he walks away, and a few steps later he collapses, half his body dead. That is how the Pendle witch trials of 1612 begin, and by August, 10 people are hanged at Lancaster. In Pendle Forest, Lancashire, two near-blind women in their 80s, Old Demdike and Old Chattox, have spent a lifetime as the neighborhood's cunning folk, the ones you pay in oatcakes to fix a sick child or a cow that won't give milk. Then a stroke gets blamed on a curse, magistrate Roger Nowell starts taking statements, and one family turns on itself in a single afternoon. Add a talking dog, spirits named Tib and Fancy, clay figures, a Good Friday feast at Malkin Tower, and a plan to blow up Lancaster Castle that the court said was hatched over dinner. Lee, Josh, and Jen dig into the feud, the confessions, a landowner named Alice Nutter with no clear reason to be in the room, and a 9-year-old girl who becomes the star witness against her own mother. Nearly everything we know comes from one book, Thomas Potts' 1613 The Wonderful Discovery of Witches in the County of Lancaster, written by the court's own clerk at the judge's request. So the question running through the whole hour is what he left out and what he added. 🕯️ Stay Curious. Stay Strange 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify · Apple Podcasts · Podbean · YouTube Hit subscribe so the next one finds you.   🛒 Wear the Society: ssos-shop.fourthwall.com — code SSOSPOD takes 5% off.   ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee — every cup helps.   📱 Follow Us: Instagram · TikTok Clips, extras, and whatever rabbit hole we fell down that week.   📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Somewhere the locals avoid? Somewhere the stories don't quite add up? We want to hear about it. Email at [email protected]  us or slide into the DMs — we're listening.   A Strange Static Media Production. SOURCES Thomas Potts, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster (1613). Robert Poole (ed.), The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories (Manchester UP, 2002). James Sharpe, Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Modern England (1996). Jonathan Lumby, The Lancashire Witch-Craze: Jennet Preston and the Lancashire Witches (2007). Lancaster Castle official history, lancastercastle.com. Oxford DNB entries: Robinson, Edmund; Nowell, Roger. Credits A Strange Static Media Production. Lee — Writer, Researcher, Editor, Producer. Josh & Jen — Co-Host, Assistant, Creative, Co-Producer.

Before there was Mother God, there was just Amy. A McDonald's manager from Houston who found a website that told her she was divine — and spent the next 13 years becoming a 19-billion-year-old creator of the universe with 534 past lives, a spiritual advisory board that included Robin Williams and Steve Irwin, and a Cabal of enemies trying to assassinate her. Her followers called her Mother. Her mistakes were never hers; theirs were hurting God. Then she started drinking. Then she started turning blue. And the people around her stopped calling it alcohol and started calling it her medicine. This is Love Has Won — the story of Amy Carlson, the machinery that let a room full of people watch a 45-year-old woman die on camera and interpret it as ascension, and the successor sites still running the mythology today. Content warning: coercive control, addiction, severe illness, child endangerment, and descriptions of human remains. 🕯️ Stay Curious. Stay Strange 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify · Apple Podcasts · Podbean · YouTube Hit subscribe so the next one finds you.   🛒 Wear the Society: ssos-shop.fourthwall.com — code SSOSPOD takes 5% off.   ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee — every cup helps.   📱 Follow Us: Instagram · TikTok Clips, extras, and whatever rabbit hole we fell down that week.   📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Somewhere the locals avoid? Somewhere the stories don't quite add up? We want to hear about it. Email at [email protected]  us or slide into the DMs — we're listening.   A Strange Static Media Production. Credits A Strange Static Media Production. Lee — Writer, Researcher, Editor, Producer. Josh & Jen — Co-Host, Assistant, Creative, Co-Producer.

In November 1996, a 16-year-old from Murray, Kentucky who called himself Vesago — a 500-year-old vampire — drove 800 miles to Eustis, Florida with 3 followers. Hours later, Richard Wendorf and Naoma Ruth Queen were dead in their home, and 5 teenagers were headed for New Orleans in the family's Explorer. We follow the Vampire Clan from the Vampire Hotel to a Baton Rouge Howard Johnson: the blood rituals, the rulebook behind the ranks, the 17th-century demon behind the name, Rod Ferrell's uncorroborated claim that he witnessed a ritual killing as a child, and the daughter who came home at 10:30 that night. True crime, the 1990s vampire subculture around the group, and the Rod Ferrell case — told for the people it happened to. 🕯️ Stay Curious. Stay Strange 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify · Apple Podcasts · Podbean · YouTube Hit subscribe so the next one finds you.   🛒 Wear the Society: ssos-shop.fourthwall.com — code SSOSPOD takes 5% off.   ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee — every cup helps.   📱 Follow Us: Instagram · TikTok Clips, extras, and whatever rabbit hole we fell down that week.   📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Somewhere the locals avoid? Somewhere the stories don't quite add up? We want to hear about it. Email at [email protected]  us or slide into the DMs — we're listening.   A Strange Static Media Production. Credits A Strange Static Media Production. Lee — Writer, Researcher, Editor, Producer. Josh & Jen — Co-Host, Assistant, Creative, Co-Producer. Sources Florida Supreme Court, Ferrell v. State, State's answer brief (medical examiner, crime scene, DNA, sentencing order) — https://library.law.fsu.edu/Digital-Collections/flsupct/dockets/93127/93127ans.pdf Florida Supreme Court, Ferrell v. State, initial brief — https://library.law.fsu.edu/Digital-Collections/flsupct/dockets/93127/93127ini.pdf MSNBC Investigates, "Interview With a Vampire" (2011) — https://archive.org/details/MSNBCW_20111029_180000_Interview_With_a_Vampire Tampa Bay Times, "Horrified teen reported finding parents' bodies" (Jan 4, 1997) — https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1997/01/04/horrified-teen-reported-finding-parents-bodies/ 911 transcript (secondary transcription) — https://wendorfmurders.wordpress.com/911-transcript/ Spokesman-Review / AP, "Leader Of Vampire Cult Pleads Guilty To Murders" (Feb 6, 1998) — https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1998/feb/06/leader-of-vire-cult-pleads-guilty-to-murders/ Oxygen, Deadly Cults — Jaden Murphy interview — https://www.oxygen.com/deadly-cults/man-sired-rod-ferrell-vampire-clan-exclusive-1996-bludgeoning-murder Mathers/Crowley, The Goetia (1904), Vassago entry — https://hermetic.com/norton/classics/goetia/vassago Wikipedia, "Vassago" — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vassago Wikipedia, "Rod Ferrell" — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Ferrell White Wolf Wiki, "Blood doll" — https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Blood_doll · "Herd" — https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Herd Tampa Bay Times, "Vampire clan mom pleads in sex case" (Nov 16, 1997) — https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1997/11/16/vampire-clan-mom-pleads-in-sex-case/ CBS News / AP, "Double Death For Vampire Killer" (1998) — https://www.cbsnews.com/news/double-death-for-vampire-killer/ Katherine Ramsland, "The 'Vampire' Murders" — https://katherineramsland.substack.com/p/the-vampire-murders Oxygen, "How Rod Ferrell's Vampire Clan Went From Teen Blood Rituals To Killing Parents" — https://www.oxygen.com/deadly-cults/how-rod-ferrell-vampire-clan-went-from-teen-blood-rituals-to-killing-parents Horror Obsessive, "The 'Vampire' Murders: Tale of Twisted Teen Rod Ferrell" — https://horrorobsessive.com/2021/10/19/the-vampire-murders-tale-of-twisted-teen-rod-ferrell/ Carried from v5 research, URLs to pull: Orlando Sentinel (Dellert, Dec 2006); Murray Ledger & Times (Oct–Dec 1996); Daily Commercial; Ron Patton affidavit; 2018 Anderson and 2020 Ferrell resentencing coverage.

The Vampire Clan case remains a chilling example of how teenage isolation can warp into dangerous obsession. We break down the reality behind Rod Ferrell and his followers. This episode examines the trajectory of a group that started with small-town boredom and ended in a double homicide. By looking at the specific dynamics of their interactions, we separate the sensationalized mythos from the documented facts. It is a necessary look at how influence and group identity can lead to catastrophic choices. We analyze the intersection of cult psychology and criminal behavior, providing a clearer picture of the events that shocked Kentucky and beyond. For those interested in the mechanics of true crime, this breakdown offers a grounded perspective on one of the most bizarre cases in modern history. Subscribe for weekly crime analysis and let us know which case you want us to cover next. Like SSOS? Don't forget to subscribe, and check us out on: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1234567890 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ssos/1234567890 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SSOSPodcast Support the show: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ssospodcast Discuss episodes on Discord: https://discord.gg/abcdefg SSOS is a Strange Static Media production. Hosted by Lee Miller, Josh Seifert, and Jen Nielsen. For business inquiries or to submit a story tip: [email protected]. The Vampire Clan case remains a chilling example of how teenage isolation can warp into dangerous, ritualistic obsession. We break down the reality behind Rod Ferrell and the group that started with small-town boredom and ended in a double homicide. By examining the specific dynamics of their interactions, we separate the sensationalized mythos from the documented facts. This analysis explores how influence and group identity lead to catastrophic choices, offering a grounded look at the intersection of cult psychology and criminal behavior. For those interested in the mechanics of true crime, this breakdown provides a clear perspective on one of the most bizarre cases in modern history. We look past the headlines to understand the trajectory of a group that shocked Kentucky and beyond. Whether you are a long-time listener or new to the story, this episode clarifies the events surrounding the 1996 killings #TrueCrime #Paranormal #Vampires #Cult #Murder #Kentucky

A man vanishes from a moving bus in December 1949 — his bags still overhead, the other passengers none the wiser until his seat turns up empty. He was never found. That's where Part Two begins. Lee, Josh, and Jen return to Glastenbury Mountain for the cases that built the legend of the Bennington Triangle: James Tedford, gone from that bus; eight-year-old Buddy Jepson, gone in the length of a single chore; and Frieda Langer, the only one of the missing whose body ever came back — found in ground the searchers had already crossed. Then we sort the theories, honestly and without a tidy answer: the stone, the creature, the thin place, abduction, a killer on the trail, and the strange pattern hiding in the dates. This is Part Two of two. If you haven't heard Part One, start there. ⚠️ Contains discussion of a child's disappearance and presumed death, plus speculative theory. Listener discretion advised. 🎧 Subscribe wherever you're listening. Merch at ssos-shop.fourthwall.com (code SSOSPOD, 5% off). Support the show at [BUYMEACOFFEE-URL]. Follow @SSOSPodcast. Got a high strangeness story? Email us or DM — we're listening. 🕯️ Stay Curious. Stay Strange 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify · Apple Podcasts · Podbean · YouTube Hit subscribe so the next one finds you.   🛒 Wear the Society: ssos-shop.fourthwall.com — code SSOSPOD takes 5% off.   ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee — every cup helps.   📱 Follow Us: Instagram · TikTok Clips, extras, and whatever rabbit hole we fell down that week.   📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Somewhere the locals avoid? Somewhere the stories don't quite add up? We want to hear about it. Email at [email protected]  us or slide into the DMs — we're listening.   A Strange Static Media Production. Sources: Joseph A. Citro, "Green Mountain Ghosts, Ghouls & Unsolved Mysteries" (1994) & "Passing Strange" (1996); Bennington Triangle and Glastenbury Mountain (Wikipedia); Vermont Country Magazine (2023); U.S. Forest Service.

In the dense woods of Glastenbury Mountain, Vermont, people don't just get lost — they vanish. No bodies. No answers. Just a mountain that's been taking people for as long as anyone can remember. Some places you can only reach on purpose. The Bennington Triangle isn't one of them — you can see it from a college campus, a gas station, a kitchen window. In Part One, Lee leads Josh and Jen up the Green Mountain to trace how one stretch of Vermont wilderness earned its name: Abenaki warnings about ground that owes you nothing, compasses that refuse to point north, a man-eating stone, the Bennington Monster, and the first documented disappearances that turned local legend into an unsolved mystery. The hunter found dead with no wounds. The 74-year-old guide who knew the mountain blind and still walked into the dark and never came back. And the case that forced Vermont to build a state police force from scratch — 18-year-old Bennington College student Paula Jean Welden, who walked up the Long Trail one Sunday afternoon in December 1946 in a red parka and was never seen again. Part One of two. ⚠️ Covers historical events including Vermont's eugenics program. Listener discretion advised. 🕯️ Ex Tenebris, Peregrini — Stay Curious. Stay Strange. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱️ CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold Open — The Triangle You Can Walk To 01:58 Welcome to the Secret Society of Strangers 05:10 Glastenbury Mountain: 26,000 Acres of Nothing 06:21 The Abenaki and the Living Mountain 10:37 The Settlers, the Land, and a Vanishing Population 13:10 The Compass That Won't Point North 16:02 The Man-Eating Stone 18:20 The Dancing Lights 20:50 The Bennington Monster 23:15 Henry McDowell and the Voices 25:30 The Grand Hotel and the Electric Trolley 30:00 The Freshet 32:43 What Vermont Was Doing in the Same Years 34:35 John Harble, 1897 39:46 Carl Herrick, 1943 45:01 Middie Rivers, 1945 51:44 Paula Jean Welden, 1946 1:04:43 The Darkest Theory 1:09:13 End of Part One 1:09:34 Questions for the Strangers ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE Podbean: https://ssospod.podbean.com/e/why-you-should-never-hike-the-bennington-triangle/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2G0aAYQPPp1wqnqJYetOcZ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-secret-society-of-strangers-podcast/id1865736210 🛒 WEAR THE SOCIETY — https://ssos-shop.fourthwall.com Code SSOSPOD takes 5% off. ☕ SUPPORT THE SHOW — https://buymeacoffee.com/ssospod Every cup helps. 📧 Got a high strangeness story? Somewhere the locals avoid? Somewhere the stories don't quite add up? [email protected] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📌 CREDITS A Strange Static Media Production. Lee — Writer, Researcher, Editor, Producer Josh & Jen — Co-Host, Assistant, Creative, Co-Producer DISCLAIMER: This episode discusses historical disappearances, deaths, and documented state programs including eugenics. Content is presented for storytelling and educational purposes. Some accounts described are folklore and circulating local legend, not established fact, and are identified as such. #BenningtonTriangle #Vermont #MissingPersons #TrueCrime #HighStrangeness #PaulaWelden

Some places you can only reach on purpose. The Bennington Triangle isn't one of them — you can see it from a college campus, a gas station, a kitchen window. And it's been taking people for a very long time. In Part One, Lee leads Josh and Jen up Glastenbury Mountain: the Abenaki who knew it was inhabited, the settlers who couldn't hold it, the town that dissolved off the map, and the first souls to vanish — a hunter moved after death, a guide who knew every trail and walked into the dark anyway, and 18-year-old Paula Jean Welden in her red parka. Part one of two. 🕯️ Stay Curious. Stay Strange. 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify · Apple Podcasts · Podbean · YouTube Hit subscribe so the next one finds you.   🛒 Wear the Society: ssos-shop.fourthwall.com — code SSOSPOD takes 5% off.   ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee — every cup helps.   📱 Follow Us: Instagram · TikTok Clips, extras, and whatever rabbit hole we fell down that week.   📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Somewhere the locals avoid? Somewhere the stories don't quite add up? We want to hear about it. Email at [email protected]  us or slide into the DMs — we're listening.

She co-founded the order that gave Dracula his name. She was accused of drinking blood, running an alchemy lab, and cutting a deal with the devil. Six hundred years later, Croatian kids still play a schoolyard game named after her. Her name was Barbara of Cilli — Holy Roman Empress, Queen of Hungary, Bohemia, and Germany, and one of the most powerful women of the 15th century. History turned her into a monster. Tonight we find out who did it, and why. Stay Curious. Stay Strange. 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify · Apple Podcasts · Podbean · YouTube Hit subscribe so the next one finds you.   🛒 Wear the Society: ssos-shop.fourthwall.com — code SSOSPOD takes 5% off.   ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee — every cup helps.   📱 Follow Us: Instagram · TikTok Clips, extras, and whatever rabbit hole we fell down that week.   📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Somewhere the locals avoid? Somewhere the stories don't quite add up? We want to hear about it. Email at [email protected]  us or slide into the DMs — we're listening.   🕯️ Stay Curious. Stay Strange. A Strange Static Media Production.   Lee — Writer, Researcher, Editor, Producer Josh & Jen — Co-Host, Assistant, Creative, Co-Producer SOURCES & FACT-CHECK NOTES Dvořáková, Daniela — Barbara of Cilli (1392–1451) — primary modern biography. Wikipedia — Barbara of Cilli; Order of the Dragon; Counts of Celje; Veronika of Desenice; Ulrich II, Count of Celje; Carmilla. (Wikipedia confirms Carmilla is ‘likely based on the legendary image of Barbara as a vampire.’) Journal of Dracula Studies (Kutztown University) — Carmilla / Order of the Dragon academic connection. Paušek-Baždar, Snježana (2008) — ‘Queen Barbara of Cilli as Alchemist in Samobor’ — supports the alchemy lab. Secret Zagreb / Love Zagreb — Medvedgrad and Black Queen folklore (flag as folklore, not record). FACT-CHECK — the €2 coin is 2014 (600th anniversary of her 1414 coronation as Queen of Germany), designed by Matej Ramšak — NOT 2008. Script corrected. FACT-CHECK — 2022 Konstanz event/exhibition title: ‘Barbara von Cilli – Kaiserin, Alchemistin, Vampir’ (Empress, Alchemist, Vampire). Verified via Wikipedia. FLAG — devil’s-pact, snake-in-the-tunnels, raven-was-a-cursed-lover, lovers-off-the-battlements: all folklore. Delivered as legend in-script; keep it framed that way.

In 1941, a quiet Denver neighborhood became convinced one house was haunted. Lights switched on in empty rooms. Footsteps echoed behind locked doors. A widow fled her own home; her housekeeper quit, certain the place was cursed. They were all closer to the truth than the police — because something WAS in that house. Not a ghost. A man. This week, Lee leads Josh and Jen through the case of Theodore Coneys, the “Denver Spider Man,” who murdered 73-year-old Philip Peters and then lived in the victim’s attic crawlspace for nine months — freezing, starving, three feet above the people hunting for a phantom. It’s the most famous case of “phrogging” in American history, and the realest ghost story Denver ever told. Stay Curious. Stay Strange. CTA + LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify  |  Apple Podcasts  |  YouTube: @SSOSPodcast  |  Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee  |  Patreon (The Curious / The Strange tiers)  |  TeePublic (merch) 📱 Follow Us: Instagram: @secretsocietyofstrangerspod  |  TikTok: @ssospodcast  |  Discord (link in description) 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Email: [email protected]  —  or DM us on socials. We're listening.   CREDITS A Strange Static Media Production. Lee — Writer, Researcher, Editor, Producer Josh & Jen — Co-Host, Assistant, Creative, Co-Producer SOURCES Primary / Archival Lowall, Gene. "1942: The Spider Man." In Denver Murders, edited by Lee Casey. Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946. Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Crime. Facts on File, 1982. Denver Public Library Special Collections and Archives — "The Tale of the Denver Spider Man" (2019). Trial records, Denver County Court, October 1942. Detective James E. Childers interview, Denver Post Empire, February 7, 1960. Period News Coverage The Paducah Sun, July 4, 1954 — "Here's Spine Chilling Story of The Spider Murder and a Ghost." Contemporary Denver newspapers, 1941–1942 (Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News). Modern Coverage / Secondary 9News Denver — "Stranger than fiction: the 'Denver Spiderman' and his Moncrieff Place murder" (2019). Law Week Colorado — "Denver's Spider Man, 'The Ghost House of Denver'" (June 2022). Morbidology — "Theodore Edward Coneys, The Denver Spiderman" (Emily G. Thompson). Colorado Public Radio / Colorado Postcards — "Denver Spider-Man" (September 2023). HistoricalCrimeDetective.com — "Mug Shot Monday! Theodore Coneys, the Spiderman of Denver, 1941." Revisit Denver — "Denver Legends: The Spider-Man" (July 2025). Find A Grave Memorial #43200386 — Theodore Edward Coneys. Wikipedia — Theodore Edward Coneys (cross-referenced against primary sources above).

In the summer of 1980, an eleven-year-old boy in Brookfield, Connecticut saw something in an empty bedroom — a withered figure with black eyes and cloven hooves. Over the next seven months, what started as a child's nightmare consumed an entire family, brought Ed and Lorraine Warren to their door, and ended with a nineteen-year-old stabbing his landlord to death outside a dog kennel. Arne Johnson's defense attorney attempted something unprecedented: a plea of not guilty by reason of demonic possession. But behind the trial that inspired The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It lies a darker story — celebrity demonologists who profited from a family's pain, a mother who may have been secretly drugging her own children, and a brother who spent decades trying to tell the truth. Join Lee, Josh, and Jen as they follow this case from the bedroom on Oak Grove Road to the courtroom in Danbury — and uncover what the Conjuring franchise doesn't want you to know. Stay Curious. Stay Strange. 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube: @SSOSPodcast | Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram | TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Email [email protected] or DM us on socials — we're listening. CREDITS Lee — Writer, Researcher, Editor, Producer Josh & Jen — Co-Host, Assistant, Creative, Co-Producer A Strange Static Media Production SOURCES - The Devil on Trial (2023) — Netflix documentary, dir. Chris Holt - The Devil in Connecticut by Gerald Brittle (1983, withdrawn from print) - People Magazine — "A Connecticut Teen Claims the Devil Made Him a Killer" (1981) - The Washington Post — Johnson trial coverage (1981) - Associated Press — trial and verdict reporting (1981) - Glatzel v. Warren — Superior Court of Connecticut, complaint filed September 2007 - The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021), Warner Bros. Pictures - William Weber — 1979 interview on the creation of the Amityville story - Judge Jack Weinstein — litigation statements on the Amityville case - Diocese of Rockville Centre — official statement on the Amityville haunting - Ray Garton — statements to Benjamin Radford on the Snedeker case - National Institute of Justice — 1995 report on satanic ritual abuse claims - Medical examiner testimony — Connecticut Superior Court, Danbury (1981) - Sominex formulation history — scopolamine to diphenhydramine reformulation, late 1980s

She inherited a fortune built on a rifle. The story goes that a medium told her every soul ever killed by that gun was coming for her — and the only way to stay alive was to keep building. Never let the hammers stop. Never let the house be finished. Sarah Winchester built. For thirty-six years, in a house in San Jose, California, the construction never stopped — until the day she died. 160 rooms. Staircases that climb into ceilings. Doors that open onto open air. The most famous haunted house in America — and the widow who, by some accounts, is still inside it. But the story they sell at the gate is not the story of who actually lived there. This week on Secret Society of Strangers, we walk the legend in full. And then we tell you who Sarah Winchester really was. Because they buried her twice — and the second burial is the one we should be angry about.   Hosts: Lee, Josh, Jen Edited by: William Bertschinger     Primary historical source Ignoffo, Mary Jo. Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune. University of Missouri Press, 2010 (rev. 2022). First full-length archival biography. Twenty years of research in Sarah’s personal letters, Winchester financial records, building records, contemporary news coverage. 🕯️  Stay Curious. Stay Strange.

Some people have one strange experience in a lifetime. Samantha Leifker has spent thirty years collecting them. This week the Strangers sit down with Samantha Leifker, author of Born Awakened: An Otherworldly True Story — a memoir that refuses to stay in any single category. It starts in a childhood home where the dead didn't stay quiet, and it spans decades of UFO contact, out-of-body travel, missing time, interdimensional beings, and a pull toward East Tennessee she still can't fully explain. We get into all of it: the poltergeist house she grew up in, the cube-shaped craft, the entities she says have been guiding her since before she could understand them, and what it actually feels like to live a life where the paranormal isn't a story you tell — it's a Tuesday. This is the kind of conversation SSOS was built for. The hauntings, the UFOs, the consciousness work — Samantha doesn't treat them as separate mysteries. She treats them as one. And after this, you might too. And this is only round one — we're already setting up a second sit-down to go even deeper with Samantha, so consider this your way in. Stay Curious. Stay Strange. 📖 GUEST — SAMANTHA LEIFKER / BORN AWAKENED Book — Born Awakened: An Otherworldly True Story (Amazon): https://a.co/d/03y6m5Y0 Instagram: @bornawakened — https://www.instagram.com/bornawakened Facebook: Born Awakened — https://www.facebook.com/share/18E8i8HKWC/ TikTok: @bornawakened — https://www.tiktok.com/@bornawakened Free Newsletter (Substack): https://bornawakened.substack.com/ 🎧 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE Spotify · Apple Podcasts · YouTube @SSOSPodcast · Podbean ☕ SUPPORT THE SHOW Buy Me a Coffee 📱 FOLLOW US Instagram · TikTok 📧 GOT A HIGH STRANGENESS STORY? Email us or DM on socials — we're listening. 🕯️ Stay Curious. Stay Strange.

He called himself a prince. He created a flag, a constitution, a currency. He published a 355-page guidebook to a capital city with an opera house and a cathedral. And none of it existed. In the finale of our April Fools series, we tell the story of Gregor MacGregor — the Scottish soldier who invented an entire nation called Poyais, convinced hundreds to invest their life savings, and sent 250 settlers to die in an empty jungle. Nearly 180 people never came home. And MacGregor? He was never convicted. He died a general, buried with full military honors in a cathedral in Caracas. The deadliest con in modern history. The man who sold a country. 🕯️ Stay Curious. Stay Strange. YouTube THE MAN WHO INVENTED A FAKE COUNTRY AND KILLED 180 PEOPLE | Gregor MacGregor & The Poyais Scheme | SSOS In this episode, we cover the incredible true story of Gregor MacGregor — the Scottish con artist who invented an entire nation called Poyais in the 1820s, printed fake currency, sold government bonds for a country that didn't exist, and convinced 250 settlers to sail across the Atlantic to a "paradise" that was actually empty jungle. Nearly 180 of them died. MacGregor was never convicted. He died a hero in Venezuela. This is the finale of our April Fools con artist series, covering: Frank Abagnale Jr., Anna Delvey, Ann Odelia Diss Debar, and now the deadliest fraud in history.   LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story?   Email us 📩 [email protected] or DM on socials — we're listening.            The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static MediaTM  production

She called herself a Princess of Bavaria. The newspapers called her "The Empress of Swindle." In 1888, Ann O'Delia Diss Debar convinced one of New York's most powerful attorneys that she could summon oil paintings from thin air—works created by Raphael and Rembrandt from beyond the grave. She took his fortune, his mansion, and his sanity. But that was just the beginning. From the Gilded Age parlors of Madison Avenue to the courtrooms of London's Old Bailey, the Spook Priestess left a trail of broken lives, impossible escapes, and crimes so dark the courtroom had to be cleared. And when the final curtain fell? She simply... vanished. Stay Curious. Stay Strange.   SOURCES "Duped By A Spook Priestess" — The New York Times, April 1888 "The Horos Trial" — Old Bailey Proceedings, December 1901 Occult America by Mitch Horowitz (Bantam, 2009) The Darkened Room: Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England by Alex Owen Women of the Golden Dawn by Mary K. Greer (Park Street Press, 1995) The Cincinnati Enquirer archives, 1909   LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story?   Email us 📩 [email protected] or DM on socials — we're listening.            The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static MediaTM  production

She had no money. No trust fund. No Swiss bank account. What Anna Delvey had was a fake name, a designer wardrobe, and the nerve to walk into New York's most exclusive rooms and act like she owned them. For four years, she fooled banks, hotels, and Manhattan's social elite — using Microsoft Word and an AOL email address. In this episode, Josh walks us through the full story: from a working-class suburb of Moscow to a $135 million Park Avenue building, from Rikers Island to Dancing with the Stars. Lee breaks down the Netflix empire built on the con. And Josh asks the uncomfortable question: did she exploit a flaw in the system — or did she exploit the system as designed? LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story?   Email us 📩 [email protected] or DM on socials — we're listening.            The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static MediaTM  production  SOURCES Jessica Pressler, "Maybe She Had So Much Money She Just Lost Track of It," New York Magazine / The Cut, May 2018 Rachel DeLoache Williams, My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress (Simon & Schuster, 2019) Manhattan District Attorney's Office, People v. Anna Sorokin, trial transcripts and evidence exhibits, 2019 Netflix, Inventing Anna (Shondaland, 2022) 60 Minutes Australia, Anna Sorokin interview, 2022 Netflix Tudum, Julia Garner accent interview, February 2022 Newsweek, "Julia Garner on How She Mastered Anna Delvey's 'Wild' Accent," February 2022 Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and various court reporting from 2017-2025