I had intended to include two more episodes in the Macabre Museums season. One about true crime Museums and a finale of paranormal museums. However, instead, I’ve decided to cut the season short for a couple of reasons. I won’t go into all of the nitty-gritty details but I will say that my family and I have endured a couple of health scares lately.…

What is a monster? The Oxford Languages dictionary defines a monster as “an imaginary creature that is typically large, ugly, and frightening.” Which is also what makes monsters fascinating, right? Their frightening aspect. But also the fact that they may not be imaginary after all. They may actually be real. In this episode, we visit museums where…

We embark on a whirlwind exploration of witch museums around the world in this episode. Stops include: Magicum in Berlin, Germany Hexenmuseum Schweiz in Gränichen, Switzerland Museo de las Brujas in Zugarramurdi, Spain Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Bocastle, Cornwall Museum of Icelandic Witchcraft & Sorcery in Hólmavík, Iceland Museum of Alchem…

There are really only two UFO museums: The Pine Bush UFO & Paranormal Museum in Pine Bush, New York, and The International UFO Museum & Research Center in Roswell, New Mexico, a.k.a. what many consider the mecca of UFO museums. We explore both, as well as a couple of other museums with UFO connections, in this episode of Macabre Museums. Before we …

Did you know that America didn’t have an official national anthem until 1931? The same man who drew attention to that in 1929 is the same one we can pretty much credit with creating oddities museums. In this episode, we get to know Robert Ripley and his pioneering influence on the bizarre realm of oddities museums. What started as a comic strip ser…

Abracadabra. Hocus pocus. Alakazam. But which magicians were the first to use those now-famous, albeit stereotypical, conjuring words? Maybe the answer lies in the stops we’ll explore in this episode, which are magic museums around the world. We start out with museums dedicated to one of the greatest magical showmen of all time: Harry Houdini. Then…

In this episode we polka with the Skunk Ape in the Everglades, check out a Bigfoot butt print in Georgia, and visit the Bigfoot Handicapped Accessible Garden in Nebraska. And that's just scratching the surface of the booty-shaking fun we have getting swept off our feet in Bigfoot museums! Do you know which state officially declared one of its citiz…

In our third themed season on the Haunt Jaunts podcast, we explore the places where you can learn more about everything from witches, ghosts, and death to leprechauns, mermaids, and magic. Join us starting January 31 for the premiere of Macabre Museums. Listen to Haunt Jaunts on whatever podcast platform you prefer most. Want more Haunt Jaunts? Jau…

The ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future paid Scrooge a visit. We borrow that concept of three as we embark in search of haunted bars, ghost stories and energy centers with a New Year's Eve and/or New Year connection. Places we explore this episode include: Sydney, Australia - We check out two haunted hotels in the Rocks: The Australian Her…

December is often called the most wonderful time of the year. But did you know that the Winter Solstice, which happens during December, is the second most haunted time of the year too? Samhain, or Halloween, is the first. The hauntings that happen during Halloween aren’t the same as the ghosts that come to visit during the Christmas season/Winter S…

These places deck the halls in a major way for the holiday season. However, in addition to conjuring the Christmas spirit, they’re also great places to find restless spirits too. In this episode, we explore: The connection between Legend of Sleepy Hollow author Washington Irving, the Bracebridge Dinner at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Par…

In this episode, we explore cemeteries, state parks, and cities that all share something in common: Paranormal activity and names of things commonly associated with Christmas. There are even some UFO cases ahead, which may or may not be related to Santa and the reindeer pulling his sleigh. Destinations include: Evergreen Cemetery in Owego, New York…

Join me starting December 6th as we explore that and more in the next themed season on the Haunt Jaunts podcast: Haunted Christmas. It’ll just be a short one, a mini-series season so to speak. But we’ll pack a lot of haunting festivities into it. We’ll seek out places to spend time with the ghosts of Christmases past, as well as where to ring in a …

Do you ever tinker with making or crafting stuff? What do you do with the leftover scraps? Toss them? Save them for another project? Repurpose them somehow? I was left with some odds and ends after putting together this first official themed season here on the Haunt Jaunts podcast. Say what? Leftovers of unsolved murders, ghosts, vampires, psychics…

*Warning* This episode includes details of child murders, which some listeners may find upsetting. Listener discretion is advised. The Devil in the White City. The Devil’s Rooming House. The Devil Made Me Do It. The first two are titles of books about American serial killers. The last one is a movie title about a murder that inspired the third movi…

Sometimes houses aren’t haunted by ghosts. Sometimes the restless spirits living under the same roof as the legitimate owners and tenants aren’t unseen souls of the dearly departed. They’re very much alive and secretly dwelling within. Wait, what? That’s just the stuff of urban legends and horror movies like Crawlspace, Hider in the House, or Peopl…

You might expect something like Crime Categories to appear in the index of the Encyclopedia of American Crime. Listed underneath that heading are a variety of crimes you’d also expect to see: everything from arson and bank robberies to kidnapping, murder, and rape. But there were a couple of crimes I wasn’t expecting, such as Spiritualism, which I …

You expect sting operations with certain criminal activities like gambling, prostitution, and illegal drugs. And then there’s Chris Hansen’s appropriately named To Catch a Predator. It uses modern-day technology employed by some of the vilest forms of criminals ever --pedophiles and child molesters-- to catch them red-handed. But what about psychic…

Perhaps ghosts haven't helped solve their own murders as dramatically as portrayed in fiction --or have they? I’ll let you be the judge of that as we explore a few such cases in this episode of Haunting American True Crimes. We start off by examining the case of Zona Heaster Shue, a.k.a. The Greenbrier Ghost. A historical marker in West Virginia de…

A comment on one of my posts from author Priscilla Bettis got me thinking. She had wondered if any of the stories counselors told around summer camp campfires had any basis in fact. Well, that sparked my curiosity and just begged me to research it. That's how I learned about the Camp Scott Murders. Once I did, I instantly wondered if it had inspire…

Haunted summer camps...Surely some of those campfire stories the counselors told us were based on actual events. That comment on one of my posts led to the discovery of one of the most heartwrenching true crime stories I’ve ever learned of. It also served as the impetus for the first serial season we’ll have on the Haunt Jaunts podcast: Haunting Am…

Posies is a short horror film about a woman attempting to hide her transformation into a monster by placing flowers under her skin. It might not sound tantalizing at first blush, but let me assure you it's one of the most beautiful and haunting horror movies --short or long-- that I've ever seen. #superb #horror That's why I was a bit nervous talki…

Dakota Laden, Tanner Wiseman, and Alex Schroeder graciously spent some time having an unconventional chat with Court about Destination Fear season 3. Using a combination of questions from fans as well as her own, Court asked things like: What's up with Dakota's ducks? Are they in every episode and how long have they been doing that? Who drives the …

Kendall and Vera Whelpton are the husband and wife filmmaking team whose latest movie, The Sleepless Unrest: The Real Conjuring Home, hits select theaters and VOD on July 16, 2021. After enjoying an advanced screener of the film, Court had a chance to sit down and talk with the Whelptons about the movie. Richel Stratton and Brian Murray from Ghost …

It started with a shark attack at Beach Haven, New Jersey on July 1, 1916, that killed Charles E. Van Sant. Five days later a shark would claim the life of another victim, Charles Bruder, at Spring Lake, just up the shore. Nerves were rattled but the terror really set in when two more victims, Lester Stilwell and Stanley Fisher, were killed the fol…

That was probably one of the wackier questions I asked Ben Hansen when I got the chance to talk with him about Roswell: The Final Verdict, a new series launching on discovery+ on July 2. The series is comprised of four different elements: Reenactments Witness testimonies The experts (like Ben) Artificial intelligence (AI) lie detection software. Wh…

The Omni Parker House in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of three romantic historic hotels with haunted 10th floors. (The other two are The Skirvin Hilton in Oklahoma City and The Drake in Chicago.) However, the Omni Parker House may have the most active 10th floor of them all. Even better, the Omni Parker House is very open about its restless spirit…

Meteorological summer starts on June 1 and runs to August 31. Astronomical summer starts on the summer solstice, which this year was June 20, and lasts until September 22. One of the ways to locate days on the Weird Holidays & Observances page is via the Jump to a Month section. The table categorizes months by seasons, which are then grouped meteor…

Why was Ed Warren so invested in seeing the Devil put on trial instead of Arne Cheyenne Johnson during the 1981 trial following the murder of Alan Bono? In my review of the doc, I wrote: "I ended up getting my answer when I spoke with Jeff Belanger about his part in The Devil Made Me Do It Shock Docs. He’s one of the experts who's interviewed. But …

Earlier this year you may have heard how US Ghost Adventures bought the Lizzie Borden House & Museum. Last year we had the pleasure of speaking with Josef Kruger, a project manager for USGA, about some fun things the company was doing, including Ghost Flix, Livestream tours (when the pandemic was still keeping most people at home), and their haunte…

The Feminine Macabre, curated by Amanda R. Woomer with a foreword by Patti Negri, is a woman's journal of all things strange and unusual. It contains 30 pieces by women in the paranormal, including one from me, "How to Conjure the Spirit of Charles Dickens in the Haunted Mirror at the Omni Parker House." That's what I read in this episode. Also, as…

This episode comes from the post, "Why did people spy on future ghosts on St. Mark's Eve?" After stumbling across an article on ViraLuck called "15 Weird Forgotten Holidays We Should Totally Bring Back,” I totally added April 24, St. Mark’s Eve, to the Weird Holidays & Observances page. St. Mark's Eve doesn't sound very weird or unusual, but what s…

I had a lot of questions for Steve Shippy and Cindy Kaza after watching an advance screener of the Shock Docs special, Ed Gein: The Real Psycho, which begins streaming on discovery+ April 9. Luckily, I had the chance to ask them! Had they ever worked together before? Nope. (And what a first case to team up on!) Did they ever expect they'd investiga…

Carl and Angie bought the Looney Jones House in Columbia, Tennessee, a few years ago. It was in "horrible" shape, as you'll hear them admit in the interview. They were sure their friends and family were all thinking (but too polite to say), "What are you thinking?" They were thinking they were following a dream of owning a historic home. Angie had …

In this episode, we explore what the LSSU unicorn hunters have to do with burning snowmen. This leads us to also investigate the origins of snowman burning festivals where booggs are burned in effigy of winter. We also examine what burning snowmen share in common with Punxsutawney Phil. Hint: Both are believed to have prophetic powers! Do they? Don…

Besides green beer, shamrocks, and pots of gold, leprechauns are also prevalently represented on St. Patrick’s Day. But their day actually falls on May 13. Why? What's Leprechaun Day's origin story? And what is leprechaunism? That's some of what we explore in this episode, in addition to leprechaun folklore and what to listen for if you're in searc…

The moment I learned that William Mortensen's “Witches” exhibition would be on display at the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick back in 2019, I became obsessed with the museum. Which I still have not yet been to. However, I found a different way to experience it, via an interview with its director and co-owner, Steven Intermill, who gracious…

The Exorcism of Roland Doe Shock Docs special started streaming on February 5 on discovery+. Among the experts interviewed in the film is Troy Taylor, who is the founder of American Hauntings Ink, which offers books, ghost tours, events, and weekend excursions. Troy has personally authored more than 130 books on ghosts, hauntings, true crime, the u…

Alex Matsuo of The Spooky Stuff compiled a list of 30 people she finds the most influential in the paranormal. She stressed that there are hundreds of people who could be considered influential in the field. These are just the 30 that resonated with her. I'm incredibly humbled and flattered to be among those she included on the list. If I were to d…

Curmudgeons Day, observed annually on January 29, is one of the sillier days that I’ve included on the Weird Holidays & Observances page. But what’s its story? Who started it and why? And what is a curmudgeon exactly? In this episode, I explore the unlikely origins of Curmudgeons Day. (Can you believe it pays tribute to a comedian?!) I also take a …

Once upon a time, there was a chimp named Oliver who was believed to be a hybrid humanzee...and possibly a Bigfoot. "A hybrid human what?" you may be wondering. And rightly so, I might add. That's what I asked when I first learned about Oliver too. A humanzee is a cross between a human and a chimp. Yes, "cross" as in offspring. Oliver didn't turn o…

Poor 2020. We weren't very fond of all the upheaval, but it sure did give us a lot to talk about. Number one the pandemic, but also Black Lives Matter protests and the presidential election. But there were also some other wild stories. Like these 24: Spiritual Medium Derek Acorah Dies The Haunted Frozen Elsa Doll The 1st Travel-related Case of COVI…

Confession time: ever since I learned of Lily I've been been a bit obsessed with her. Mainly because she comes with some specific rules, the number one being: Don't leave her near mirrors. Why? I've wanted to know the answer ever since. Last time I had Josef on as a guest, we briefly touched on the Lily "Host a Ghost" doll that US Ghost Adventures …

Like the Halloween full moon, 2020’s Winter Solstice will bring a rare astronomical event too: a planetary alignment between Jupiter and Saturn. But that’s not the only rarity that’s happening with the Great Conjunction. From an astronomy standpoint, the two biggest planets haven't been this closely aligned in almost 800 years. Since March 4, 1226,…

Did you grow up celebrating any particular Christmas traditions? Or did you hear tales of other kinds of folklore besides Santa? Krampus has become more well known in the states, but he's not the only creature some cultures celebrate around Christmastime. Here are four other creepy Christmas traditions from around the world, including Italy's La Be…

Josef Kruger is a project manager for US Ghost Adventures, a ghost tour company that offers both in-person, On Demand, and virtual live event tours. He joined me for a chat about all the cities they're in --over 30, and in all the most popular haunted places, like Salem, Savannah, St. Augustine, New Orleans, Chicago, San Francisco and many, many mo…

Jim Dean is the Creative Director of The Haunted Walk, a ghost tour company that operates in three cities in Canada: Kingston, Ottawa, and Toronto. During Spooky Season, he contacted me about trying The Haunting at Home Paranormal Adventure. I did it with a couple of friends and had a blast! Now the results are in. I was dying to know about one in …

Americans are fascinated by Krampus. And very inquisitive about the Christmas demon. They have a lot of questions about him, including: What is Krampus? Is Krampus Santa’s brother? Is Krampus the devil? What does Krampus do to his victims? Where does he take his victims? Does Krampus kill? What is Krampus’s weakness? Can Krampus be killed? Court di…

What is up with that lyric from "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" that goes: There'll be scary ghost stories And tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago Well, it refers to a tradition that dates back even farther than Scrooge being haunted by Marley’s ghost. Back before Christmas was even born. Thanks to their pagan roots, Chris…

Back in September, Jim from The Haunted Walk, a ghost tour company, reached out to paranormal podcasters with an invitation to try a virtual paranormal experience they had created: The Haunting at Home Paranormal Adventure. I asked a couple of ghoulfriends to try it with me and we had a blast. We also experienced some paranormal activity thanks to …