Haunted American History

On State Street in Madison, Wisconsin, a nearly century-old movie palace has become home to some unusual stories. Employees at the New Orpheum Theatre describe unexplained footsteps, disembodied voices, mysterious figures, and a mischievous ghost named Pete who supposedly haunts the projection booth. But the theater's documented history is almost as strange as its hauntings, involving mysterious fires, bitter ownership disputes, and decades of near-demolition. And then there's a photograph taken just days after the theater opened in 1927, showing a translucent figure standing inside the auditorium.

Tonight, we explore the history and hauntings of Madison's New Orpheum Theatre, the stories that have followed its employees through the darkened halls, and a mysterious photograph that may have a perfectly ordinary explanation—or something considerably stranger.

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Deep in the forests of northern Wisconsin, a once-grand lakeside mansion became the center of one of America's most enduring haunted-house legends. Known as Summerwind, the property was said to harbor shadowy figures, unexplained voices, malfunctioning machinery, and even human remains hidden inside its walls.

But the strangest claim came from a man who believed the house was haunted by the spirit of an eighteenth-century explorer searching for a lost land deed. As the stories spread, Summerwind attracted national attention, curious visitors, and paranormal investigators—until a devastating fire destroyed the mansion in 1988.

Tonight, we explore the history and hauntings of Summerwind, the family whose experiences made it famous, and the evidence that raises uncomfortable questions about how the legend began.

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January 31, 1874. The outlaw Jesse James and his gang pull off one of the most infamous crimes in the American Old West with the Gads Hill Train Robbery.

On History Daily, we do history, daily. Every weekday, host Lindsay Graham (American Scandal, American History Tellers) takes you back in time to explore a momentous event that happened ‘on this day’ in history.
Whether it’s to remember the tragedy of December 7th, 1941, the day “that will live in infamy,” or to celebrate that 20th day in July, 1969, when mankind reached the moon, History Daily is there to tell you the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world—one day at a time.
So if you’re stuck in traffic, bored at work—wherever you are, listen to History Daily to remind yourself that something incredible happened to make that day historic.
A co-production from award-winning podcasters Airship and Noiser.

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On Halloween night in 1936, a group of people gathered on the roof of Hollywood's Knickerbocker Hotel.

At the center of the gathering sat Bess Houdini, widow of the legendary escape artist Harry Houdini.

Ten years earlier, Houdini had died on October 31, 1926.

Before his death, he and Bess had agreed upon a secret message. If he could communicate from beyond the grave, she would know it was really him.

For a decade, she waited.

And on that Halloween night in 1936, she made one final attempt to reach her husband.

Now, exactly one hundred years after Houdini's death, we're exploring the strange, sometimes disturbing history of Halloween in America.

From ancient Irish traditions and Victorian fortune-telling rituals to the origins of trick-or-treating, we'll uncover how Halloween evolved into the holiday we know today.

We'll investigate the terrifying legend of poisoned Halloween candy and the true story of Ronald O'Bryan, the Texas father who murdered his own son with a poisoned treat.

We'll revisit the infamous 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast, the devastating 1963 Indianapolis Coliseum explosion, and Detroit's notorious Devil's Night fires.

And finally, we'll return to Harry Houdini.

A man who spent his final years exposing fraudulent mediums, yet left behind a secret message that people are still hoping to hear from the other side.

One hundred years after his death, the séances continue.

And if Houdini ever does return, we already know what he promised to say.

Haunted American History | Day 31 of 31 Days of Halloween

Happy Halloween

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On Halloween morning in 1984, smoke hung over the city of Detroit.

Over the previous three nights, firefighters had responded to an astonishing 810 fires.

Homes, businesses, and abandoned buildings burned as an annual tradition of Halloween mischief spiraled into something far more dangerous.

Detroit called it Devil's Night.

But the story of Devil's Night began centuries earlier, with a tradition of pranks, stolen garden gates, and one night a year when young people were allowed to get away with things they normally couldn't.

Tonight, we're investigating the dark history of Mischief Night and Devil's Night.

From the English villages where teenagers terrorized their neighbors to the Irish and Scottish Halloween customs that crossed the Atlantic, we'll explore how harmless pranks evolved into increasingly destructive American traditions.

We'll uncover the origins of Cabbage Night, Gate Night, Goosey Night, and the elaborate tricks that once turned entire communities upside down.

Then we'll travel to Detroit, where Devil's Night became synonymous with arson, abandoned buildings, and a city struggling to contain hundreds of fires.

We'll also examine the devastating Mischief Night fires in Camden, New Jersey, and the extraordinary community efforts that eventually brought these dangerous traditions under control.

Because long before Halloween became a night of costumes, candy, and haunted attractions, it was a night when the rules were different.

And sometimes, the consequences were deadly.

Welcome to Day 30 of 31 Days of Halloween

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Deep in the Appalachian Mountains, families once believed that death could announce itself long before it arrived.

A bird flying into the house. Three mysterious knocks at the door. A dog howling through the night.

And sometimes, hidden inside the feather pillow of a dying person, a tightly woven ring of feathers known as a death crown.

For generations, the people of Appalachia passed down stories of witches, restless spirits, supernatural warnings, and strange rituals meant to protect their homes and families.

Tonight, we're exploring the dark folklore of the Appalachian Mountains.

From the Scots-Irish settlers who carried centuries-old superstitions into the American backcountry to the witch doctors who supposedly broke curses with silver bullets, we'll uncover the beliefs that shaped everyday life in the mountains.

We'll also investigate the Greenbrier Ghost, the remarkable case of a murdered woman whose alleged return from the dead helped expose her killer, and examine the histories behind the Bell Witch, the mysterious Brown Mountain Lights, and the legendary Mothman of West Virginia.

Finally, we'll trace the connections between Appalachian folk traditions and the Halloween customs still practiced today, including fortune-telling games, carved lanterns, and a particularly unsettling ritual involving an apple, a candle, and a mirror.

Because in the mountains, the supernatural wasn't always something hiding deep in the woods.

Sometimes, it was waiting inside your own home.

Welcome to Day 29 of 31 Days of Halloween

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In August 1872, the Chinese community of Los Angeles gathered on a street where, just ten months earlier, a violent mob had murdered approximately eighteen Chinese men and boys.

They weren't there to celebrate.

They were there to feed the dead.

According to traditional Chinese beliefs, those who die violently, far from home, or without proper burial can become restless spirits. Hungry ghosts who wander among the living, searching for food, comfort, and a way home.

And every year, during the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar, the gates of the underworld are believed to open.

Tonight, we're exploring the history and supernatural traditions of the Hungry Ghost Festival.

From the ancient Buddhist story of a monk attempting to save his starving mother to the elaborate offerings, ghostly performances, and unsettling superstitions surrounding Ghost Month, we'll discover how communities across Asia have welcomed the dead back into the world of the living.

We'll also investigate the legend of the Jiangshi, China's infamous hopping corpse, and the mysterious corpse drivers who supposedly transported the dead through mountain villages under cover of darkness.

Finally, we'll return to America's forgotten Chinese communities, where immigrant families exhumed their loved ones, carefully packed their bones, and sent them across the Pacific so they could finally rest at home.

Because in these traditions, the dead don't always return to frighten the living.

Sometimes, they're simply trying to find their way back.

Welcome to Day 28 of 31 Days of Halloween

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On July 10, 1706, a woman named Grace Sherwood was bound and thrown into the Lynnhaven River in colonial Virginia.

Her neighbors had accused her of witchcraft.

According to the beliefs of the time, an innocent woman would sink beneath the water. A witch would float, rejected by the same water used in Christian baptism.

Grace Sherwood floated.

And with that, she became the central figure in one of the strangest witchcraft cases in American colonial history.

Tonight, we're investigating the true story of Grace Sherwood, better known as the Witch of Pungo.

From accusations that she transformed into a black cat and tormented her neighbors to the invasive examinations ordered by colonial authorities, we'll follow the surviving court records through her extraordinary trial by water.

We'll also explore the legends that developed around her, including a voyage across the Atlantic in an eggshell, a mysterious disappearance after her death, and the ghostly light said to appear over the waters where she was thrown.

But behind those stories was a real woman who spent years defending herself against accusations that threatened her freedom, her livelihood, and her life.

More than three centuries later, Virginia finally acknowledged the injustice.

And according to local legend, Grace Sherwood still returns to the river.

Welcome to Day 27 of 31 Days of Halloween

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In February 1855, mysterious hoof-shaped footprints appeared across the snow-covered countryside of Devon, England.

They stretched for miles, seemingly crossing rooftops, walls, and other obstacles no ordinary animal should have been able to navigate.

Terrified residents believed the Devil himself had walked through their villages.

But across the Atlantic, New England had its own stories about the Devil leaving his mark.

Tonight, we're exploring the strange history of the Devil's footprints and the supernatural legends that took root in colonial America.

From a Massachusetts preacher who supposedly threw Satan from a church steeple to wealthy men accused of selling their souls, we'll investigate the mysterious marks left in stone, the bargains that allegedly ended in damnation, and the places where the Devil was believed to walk among ordinary people.

We'll also uncover how English colonists transformed Indigenous spiritual traditions into stories about Satan, why the Puritans outlawed Christmas, and how New England's forgotten Pope Night celebrations shared surprising similarities with the Halloween traditions that followed.

Because in early New England, the Devil wasn't simply a figure from the Bible.

He was a stranger on a lonely road, a footprint in the rocks, a noise beneath the earth, and sometimes an explanation for things people didn't understand.

Welcome to Day 26 of 31 Days of Halloween

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In the winter of 1879, a Cree hunter named Swift Runner returned from the Canadian wilderness without his family.

He claimed they had starved to death.

But when investigators followed him back into the forest, they discovered something far more disturbing.

Swift Runner had murdered and consumed members of his own family. He claimed an evil spirit had driven him to do it.

For generations, Indigenous communities across the northern forests and Great Lakes had told stories of a terrifying being associated with insatiable hunger, cannibalism, and the darkest months of winter.

They called it the Wendigo.

Tonight, we're investigating the history and folklore behind one of North America's most frightening supernatural legends.

From early accounts recorded by French missionaries to the horrifying crimes of Swift Runner, we'll explore the beliefs surrounding the Wendigo and the people accused of becoming one.

We'll also examine the remarkable story of Jack Fiddler, an Indigenous leader who claimed to have defeated fourteen Wendigos, the controversial history of so-called Wendigo psychosis, and how Hollywood transformed an ancient figure of hunger and greed into the antlered monster recognized today.

Because the original Wendigo wasn't simply something waiting in the wilderness.

It was something a person could become.

Welcome to Day 25 of 31 Days of Halloween

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In February 1927, William Fuld fell to his death from the roof of his factory in Baltimore.

Years earlier, Fuld claimed that a Ouija board had told him to build that very factory, promising him a future of enormous success.

It was a strange ending for the man who helped turn a simple talking board into one of America's most recognizable supernatural objects.

But the Ouija board wasn't originally designed to summon demons.

It was a business.

Tonight, we're tracing the history of the Ouija board from the rise of American Spiritualism and its mysterious naming in a Baltimore boarding house to the bitter family feuds, lawsuits, and tragedies surrounding the people who manufactured it.

We'll explore the mediums who claimed to channel entire books through the board, the real-life exorcism that helped inspire *The Exorcist*, the Hollywood movies that transformed a parlor game into an object of terror, and the strange modern legends surrounding demons like Zozo.

And we'll examine the science behind the moving pointer, including experiments suggesting that a Ouija board may reveal information buried in our own minds.

Because the most unsettling thing about the Ouija board might not be the possibility that something on the other side is answering.

It might be that the answers are coming from us.

Welcome to Day 24 of 31 Days of Halloween

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In the winter of 1590, an elderly Scottish healer named Agnes Sampson was brought before King James VI of Scotland.

She had been accused of witchcraft, tortured, and forced to describe an extraordinary gathering that supposedly took place on Halloween night.

According to her confession, hundreds of witches had sailed across the sea in sieves, gathered at a church in North Berwick, and met the Devil himself.

Their purpose was to bring about the death of the king.

James initially dismissed the accusations. But then Agnes whispered something into his ear, repeating words he had supposedly spoken privately to his new wife on their wedding night.

The king was astonished.

What followed was one of the most notorious witch hunts in Scottish history.

Tonight, we're investigating the North Berwick witch trials, the accusations against Agnes Sampson, Geillis Duncan, and John Fian, the brutal interrogations that produced their confessions, and the extraordinary Halloween gathering described in the surviving accounts.

We'll also examine how these trials influenced King James's beliefs about witchcraft, helped shape the imagery of witches in Shakespeare's *Macbeth*, and left behind a mystery that has endured for more than four hundred years.

Because while the alleged meeting with the Devil may never have happened, the people who died because of it were very real.

Welcome to Day 23 of 31 Days of Halloween

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In 1967, the RMS Queen Mary arrived in Long Beach, California, after more than three decades crossing the Atlantic.

Not long afterward, a marine engineer working deep inside the ship claimed to hear the sounds of tearing metal, rushing water, and screaming men.

He would later connect those sounds to a terrible wartime disaster.

On October 2, 1942, the Queen Mary collided with HMS Curacoa, a British warship escorting her through dangerous waters. The massive ocean liner sliced through the smaller vessel, sending hundreds of sailors into the North Atlantic.

The Queen Mary never stopped.

Today, the ship is celebrated as one of America's most haunted attractions, with stories of drowned children, mysterious figures, haunted staterooms, and the ghost of a young crewman killed by a watertight door.

But how many of those stories are true?

Tonight, we're investigating the real history and alleged hauntings of the RMS Queen Mary, from her days as a luxury ocean liner and wartime troopship to the tragedies recorded in her logs, the paranormal investigators who helped build her reputation, and the Halloween attractions that turned her ghost stories into an industry.

Because the Queen Mary doesn't need invented ghosts to have a terrifying history.

Welcome to day 22 of 31 Days of Halloween

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In Savannah, Georgia, ghost stories are everywhere.

In Wright Square, a woman is said to wander the night asking strangers if they've seen her baby. Her name was Alice Riley, and nearly three hundred years ago, she was executed in the very square where her ghost supposedly appears.

But Alice Riley is only the beginning.

Tonight, we're exploring the history and hauntings of Savannah, the city famously dubbed America's Most Haunted City.

From the devastating yellow fever epidemic of 1820 and the graves of Colonial Park Cemetery to the haunted halls of Moon River Brewing Company and the disturbing legends of the Sorrel-Weed House, we're separating historical fact from the stories that generations of ghost tours have passed along.

We'll also explore the Gullah Geechee traditions of haint blue and the terrifying boo hag, the real murder behind *Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil*, and the surprising history of how Savannah earned its haunted reputation.

Along the way, we'll uncover stories of tragedy, exploitation, forgotten history, and the people whose lives became something much larger after their deaths.

Because sometimes the most unsettling thing about a haunted place isn't what people claim to have seen there.

It's what actually happened.

Welcome to Day Twenty One of 31 Days of Halloween.

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On November 13, 1974, a young man ran into a bar in Amityville, New York, shouting that his parents had been shot.

When police arrived at his family's waterfront home, they discovered six bodies.

Ronald DeFeo Jr. had murdered his parents and four younger siblings while they slept.

Just over a year later, another family moved into the house.

George and Kathy Lutz knew about the murders, but they believed they could make a new life there. Within twenty-eight days, they had abandoned the property, claiming something terrifying had happened inside.

They described mysterious voices, unexplained noises, strange substances appearing throughout the house, and a supernatural presence that seemed determined to drive them away.

Their story became The Amityville Horror, one of the bestselling haunted-house books of its time and the inspiration for a horror franchise that continues to this day.

But how much of it actually happened?

Tonight, we're investigating the real murders behind the Amityville Horror, the twenty-eight days that supposedly transformed an ordinary family home into a supernatural nightmare, the lawsuits and conflicting testimony that followed, and the people who spent decades living in the shadow of America's most famous haunted house.

Welcome to Day Twenty of 31 Days of Halloween.

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In 1907, a wealthy Boston businessman named Thomas Lawson published a novel called Friday, the Thirteenth.

It told the story of a stockbroker who exploited people's fear of an unlucky date to trigger a financial panic.

That same year, a seven-masted schooner bearing Lawson's name sank in the Atlantic.

In Boston, where Lawson lived, the date was Friday, December 13th.

Only two men survived.

For generations, Friday the 13th has been associated with terrible luck, mysterious curses, and the fear that something awful is waiting to happen.

But the superstition isn't nearly as ancient as people believe.

Tonight, we're tracing the strange history of Friday the 13th, from medieval superstitions and the Knights Templar to a secretive New York dining club, a Wall Street panic, and the horror movie that turned an unlucky date into one of the most recognizable names in American pop culture.

Along the way, we'll uncover the stories that were invented, the coincidences that actually happened, and why Friday the 13th feels especially ominous when it falls in October.

Welcome to Day Nineteen of 31 Days of Halloween.

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In 1891, a jeweler in Salem, Massachusetts, began selling a silver souvenir spoon decorated with a witch on a broomstick.

Beneath the witch were three small pins.

Those pins were modeled after evidence used two centuries earlier, when frightened girls accused their neighbors of being attacked by invisible spirits.

The accusations helped send innocent people to their deaths.

And now their story was being sold as a souvenir.

In 1692, Salem Village became the center of one of the most infamous witch hunts in American history. Nineteen people were hanged, one man was crushed beneath stones, and five others died in jail. More than 170 people were accused.

But the history of Salem didn't end when the executions stopped.

Over the following centuries, stories of curses, restless spirits, and haunted buildings grew alongside a very different kind of tradition: turning the town's darkest history into a Halloween destination.

Tonight, we're returning to Salem to examine what actually happened during the witch trials, the people who suffered, the legends that followed, and how a town once ashamed of its past became America's Halloween capital.

Welcome to Day Eighteen of 31 Days of Halloween.

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In 1845, a strange fossil bone appeared in the Australian town of Geelong.

When an Aboriginal man was shown the remains, he reportedly identified the creature immediately.

It was a bunyip.

According to the newspaper account, the animal stood more than twelve feet tall, had the head of an emu, the body of an alligator, and claws capable of killing a person.

Within two years, a supposed bunyip skull was on display in a Sydney museum, and reports of mysterious creatures were spreading across colonial Australia.

But the bunyip's history began long before European settlers arrived.

Across Aboriginal Australia, different communities had their own stories of powerful beings inhabiting rivers, lakes, and deep waterholes. These weren't simply tales of monsters. They carried teachings about danger, responsibility, and the relationship between people and the land.

Tonight, we're exploring the history of Australia's most famous water monster, the extraordinary sightings that fueled a nineteenth-century obsession, the strange explanations offered by scientists, and the Indigenous traditions that survived long after the colonial bunyip became a curiosity.

And we'll discover why Halloween itself feels a little different in a country where October marks the arrival of spring.

Welcome to Day Seventeen of 31 Days of Halloween.

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Tales from the Shadows Weekend in Lancaster PA

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On October 30, 1938, a radio reporter broadcasting from a farm field in New Jersey suddenly stopped speaking.

Moments earlier, he had described a terrifying scene: a strange metal cylinder, creatures emerging from inside it, and a mysterious weapon burning everything in its path.

Then came silence.

And somewhere in a New York studio, a piano began to play.

The broadcast was Orson Welles's adaptation of The War of the Worlds, a fictional account of a Martian invasion presented through realistic news bulletins.

According to newspaper headlines the following morning, America had descended into chaos. Families fled their homes. People barricaded themselves indoors. Some reportedly believed the world was ending.

But how much of that actually happened?

Tonight, we're revisiting one of the most famous broadcasts in American history, examining the evidence behind the legendary nationwide panic, and uncovering what really happened when another radio station staged its own Martian invasion eleven years later.

It's a story about fear, sensational headlines, the power of radio, and how a Halloween prank became a piece of American mythology.

Welcome to Day Sixteen of 31 Days of Halloween.

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Tales from the Shadows Weekend in Lancaster PA

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In 1949, a thirteen-year-old boy living outside Washington, D.C., began experiencing something his family couldn't explain.

Scratching sounds came from inside the walls. Furniture reportedly moved on its own. Strange marks appeared on the boy's skin.

His family believed something supernatural was happening.

Eventually, they turned to the Catholic Church.

What followed was a series of exorcisms conducted by Jesuit priests in St. Louis, Missouri, and documented in a diary that would remain largely hidden for decades.

The boy became known to the public as Roland Doe.

And more than twenty years later, his story would inspire one of the most terrifying films ever made: The Exorcist.

But the real events were very different from what appeared on screen.

Tonight, we're investigating the 1949 exorcism case, the priests who claimed to witness extraordinary events, the evidence that raised serious questions about their accounts, and the boy who grew up to become a NASA engineer while trying to escape the most frightening chapter of his childhood.

Welcome to Day Fifteen of 31 Days of Halloween.

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http://verbenergy.com/haunted

Tales from the Shadows Weekend in Lancaster PA

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YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory

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