Pumpkin Smiles

“It was like something sealed up in the wall was trying to bust out.”

A story from Jennifer, an elementary school teacher who is still a little nervous about her eerie experience as a kid.

Kaskaskia became the capital of the Illinois Territory in 1809; after Illinois achieved statehood, Kaskaskia briefly served as the state capital (1818–20), until it was damned and would be destroyed, along with all of the land around it.

An old Hawaiian legend goes that as long as all Hawaiians remained at peace, no shark would ever disturb a human being in the island waters.

The people honored the pledge and kept peace with themselves and their neighbors. They served the Shark God faithfully and were thankful that they need have no fear of him in their own lagoons.

But what happened when the United States came to the peaceful islands?

On January 11, 1880, the Marlborough departed from Lyttleton, New Zealand,, bound for Scotland under the command of a Captain Herd, with 33 crew members and a small number of passengers on board. The Marlborough never did arrive at its destination, and when months went by with no sign of it the ship was listed as missing and was assumed to be lost, that is until October of 1913.

A series of grave desecrations happened in Paris between the summer of 1848 and March 1849. These desecrations were eventually blamed on an unknown person nicknamed “The Vampire” of Paris.

In Haiti, voodoo believers pray and perform animal sacrifices to feed and beckon the spirits. Voodoo is often seen as a practice involving magic. In Haiti, Voodoo is a religion born out of the struggle of slaves.

A wide variety of mythical creatures are found in Burmese mythology. Many Burmese creatures are part human or creatures capable of assuming human form. This episode features one of them.

A foretelling by a phantom during the Korean War.

Up the close and down the stair,
In the house with Burke and Hare,
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief, Knox the man who buys the beef.
Burke and Hare they were a pair, Killed a wife and didnae care.
Then they put her in a box, and sent her off to Doctor Knox.
Burkes the Butcher, Hares the thief, Knox’s the yin that buys the beef!

The Love Me game is a scary ritual that comes from a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. The ritual summons an evil spirit called Raku-nene. This spirit can tell you if someone loves you. It can also kill the person you love if they reject you or turn you down.

This is a weird story from the distant days of the First World War, a war that was far more productive of ghostly manifestations than World War

II.

The vanishing hitchhiker is a popular urban legend but what if it happened to you?

The Werewolf of Lawton, Texas

A story of a ghost haunting a trusting spot in Ohio

The young woman claimed to be possessed by the spirit of a wolf.

The black dog is essentially a nocturnal apparition, in some cases a shapeshifter, and is often said to be associated with the Devil or described as a ghost or supernatural hellhound. Its appearance was regarded as a portent of death. This is a tale of an encounter with a demonic black dog

In many Native American traditions, the werewolf, were-coyote, or whatever form the therianthrope or demon may assume is known as a “Skin Walker.”

Friedrich Heinrich Karl "Fritz" Haarmann was a German serial killer, known as the Butcher of Hanover, the Vampire of Hanover and the Wolf Man

Vera Renczi (dubbed the Black Widow or Chatelaine of Berkerekul), was a possibly fictional Romanian serial killer who allegedly confessed to poisoning 35 individuals including her two husbands, multiple lovers, and her son with arsenic during the 1920s.

John George Haigh (24 July 1909 – 10 August 1949), commonly known as the "Acid Bath Murderer", was an English serial killer during the 1940s

Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish, a.k.a. "The Gray Man", was an American (possibly prolific) "vampirist"-type pedophilic and cannibalistic serial killer, serial rapist, lonely hearts killer, abductor, and one-time enucleator who targeted children in the 1920s.

Vincent verzini 'The Vampire of Bergamo' 

Elizabeth Báthory, Hungarian form Báthory Erzsébet, is a Hungarian countess who purportedly tortured and murdered hundreds of young women in the 16th and 17th centuries. 

How the children of Lilith, demons, and other spirit parasites became known as beautiful, angst-ridden creatures

A chilling chronicle of the often ignored history of vampirism as it has surfaced repeatedly in news articles, historical accounts, and first-person interviews, this shocking account of occultist rituals and the inhuman forces that influence them shines a light on the horrifying truth. Each episode will reveal that real vampires are not immortal, do not have fangs or sleep in coffins, and have no fear of sunlight or crucifixes, the examination dispels many myths but also confirms the truth behind several traits of real vampires, such as the insatiable thirst for blood and the dream of an eternal soul. Click and subscribe as each week we explore tales of real vampires, night stalkers, and creatures from the Darkside.