THE OLD MAN ON SUTTER LANE: True Crime Reimagined | #MurderNoir

A skeptical reporter is sent to debunk England's most famous UFO hotspot — but the more nights he spends on Star Hill, the harder it becomes to dismiss what he sees, and the woman who keeps appearing there may be asking him to believe in far more than he ever bargained for. Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTR CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = Show Open 00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “A Message From Space” (February 28, 1978) ***WD 00:46:14.309 = The Sealed Book, “Death Spins a Web” (April 01, 1945) ***WD 01:15:36.156 = The Shadow, “The Ghost Walks Again” (March 16, 1941) ***WD 01:40:19.756 = Sleep No More, “To Build a Fire” and “Three Skeleton Key” (February 20, 1957) ***WD 02:09:17.703 = BBC Radio 4 Spine Chillers, “Doppelganger” (January 01, 1977) 02:34:22.138 = Strange, “Greenwood Acres” (October 10, 1955) ***WD 02:46:54.981 = Suspense, “Defense Rests” (March 09, 1944) ***WD 03:16:42.462 = Tales of the Frightened, “Mirror of Death” (November 27, 1957) 03:21:37.453 = The Creaking Door, “Cards” (1964-1965) ***WD 03:49:11.172 = The Saint, “Mr. Important” (October 15, 1947) ***WD 04:17:00.318 = Theater 1030, “Trespassers Will be Experimented Upon” (1968-1971) ***WD 04:45:47.834 = Tales From The Tomb, “Hooked” (1960s) 04:50:01.149 = Show Close (ADU) = Air Date Unknown (LQ) = Low Quality ***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing. CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0701 Tonight's #RetroRadio — Old Time Radio in the Dark brings together a full night of vintage horror, mystery, and supernatural suspense, from a UFO sighting on an English hillside to a steel hook left dangling from a car door. The CBS Radio Mystery Theater opens the night with "A Message From Space," written by Ian Martin and starring Tony Roberts, in which a skeptical American feature writer named Pete Heron is sent by his editor uncle to debunk the wave of UFO sightings around Warminster, England — an ancient stretch of Wiltshire ringed by 45,000-year-old burial mounds, or barrows, and crossed by invisible electromagnetic ley lines. Guided by a strange radio man called Bryce Bond up to Star Hill, Pete watches a glowing craft settle into a wheat field and leave behind a scorched, counterclockwise depression no wind could explain. But it's the violet-eyed woman named Maru who keeps appearing there — claiming to be a reporter, smelling of roses and lily of the valley, and seeming, somehow, entirely out of this world — who tests everything Pete thought he knew.From The Sealed Book comes "Death Spins a Web," a tale narrated from the pages of the keeper's ponderous volume about the dying Mrs. Oliver Drake, who summons her three worthless grandchildren — Blanche, Vivian, and the charming polo-playing scoundrel Chris — to her mansion and announces that her entire fortune will go to just one of them. As Chris courts both beautiful cousins at once to hedge his bets, a canoe trip across a deserted lake sets a deadly scheme in motion, and the old woman proves to be playing a far stranger game than anyone suspects.The Shadow presents "The Ghost Walks Again," with Lamont Cranston and Margot Lane traveling to a small New England town terrified by the apparition of Sir Roger Mathis, the village's stern Puritan founder, dead more than...

In a world that has finally outlawed war, every boy must still report for combat at fifteen — and Tom is about to learn exactly what that means. TRANSCRIPT: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8scp4f “The Invisible Enemy” by Arnold Castle, originally published in “Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy” October 1954 https://weirddarkness.com/invisibleenemy

A bumbling, newly dead ghost can't remember the gestures that would let it leave — so a kindly skeptic offers to help, never guessing what the way out would cost. EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/inexperiencedghost READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2x3w7t7v FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: A classic from H.G. Wells entitled “The Inexperienced Ghost”. It’s a short story that blends humor with the supernatural. It was first published in 1902 in the collection “Twelve Stories and a Dream.” The story centers around a man named Clayton who, during a gathering with friends at a London club, tells them an unusual tale about his recent encounter with a ghost. This ghost, however, is unlike typical spectral beings; it is inexperienced and rather inept at haunting. Clayton explains that he encountered the ghost at a house and discovered that it was struggling to perform its ghostly duties. The ghost, which had died only recently, was still getting accustomed to its new existence and was having trouble with the basic mechanics of haunting, such as passing through walls. Clayton, with a mix of curiosity and amusement, decides to help the ghost by giving it advice on how to properly haunt. But things begin to twist in the story, but I’ll refrain from spoilers so those of you who’ve not yet heard the story can enjoy it all the more. “The Inexperienced Ghost” is notable for its witty dialogue, playful exploration of ghostly themes, and its blend of the humorous with the eerie. Wells uses the story to subtly critique the conventions of ghost stories while also providing a unique take on the concept of the afterlife and what it might be like for those unaccustomed to it. LISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps *No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast* SOURCES and RESOURCES: “The Inexperienced Ghost” by H.G. Wells, from the book “Alfred Hitchcock Presents: My Favorites In Suspense”:https://amzn.to/4crM3TM (Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.) WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. Originally aired: August 15, 2024

A drifter set to die in the gas chamber for a murder he didn't commit offers one last gift to the man who framed him — never imagining what that gift might carry. Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTR CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = Show Open 00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Second Sight” (February 27, 1978) ***WD 00:46:14.838 = Origin of Superstition, “Three On A Match” (December 16, 1932) ***WD 01:00:44.894 = Pat Novak For Hire, “Don’t Tell Hilda” (February 27, 1949) 01:29:14.739 = Peril, “Darkness Within” (1953) ***WD (LQ) 01:58:15.099 = Mystery Playhouse, “Death is a Joker” (May 25, 1941) ***WD 02:28:27.475 = Price of Fear, “Meeting In Athens” (July 07, 1973) ***WD 02:55:48.036 = Ellery Queen, “Number Thirty-One” (September 07, 1947) ***WD 03:24:14.186 = Quiet Please, “If I Should Die Before I Wake” (February 27, 1949) 03:53:27.551 = Radio City Playhouse, “The Wind” (October 30, 1949) ***WD 04:22:21.175 = Sam Spade, “Death of Dr. Denhoff Caper” (August 09, 1946) ***WD 04:51:19.818 = Show Close (ADU) = Air Date Unknown (LQ) = Low Quality ***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing. This episode of #RetroRadio — Old Time Radio in the Dark, hosted by Darren Marlar at WeirdDarkness.com, runs ten classic mystery, crime, and horror broadcasts back to back, from a condemned man who donates his eyes to the very person who framed him to Ray Bradbury's tale of a living, intelligent wind that hunts a man across the globe. CBS Radio Mystery Theater opens the night with "Second Sight," a February 27, 1978 drama hosted by E.G. Marshall in which drifter Larry Millard, condemned to die in the gas chamber for the shotgun murder of farmer Jason Hadley, volunteers his own eyes for an anonymous corneal transplant — handing his sight to Glen Plaxton, the businessman who actually pulled the trigger and framed him to protect a secret reservoir land-grab. After the surgery, Plaxton and his partner Tip Foster begin to suspect that the dead man's eyes may have carried more than vision.Next, Origin of Superstition traces the famous taboo against lighting three cigarettes from a single flame in "Three On A Match," a December 16, 1932 sketch that carries listeners back to 1899 and the Boer War in South Africa, where British officer Captain Frank Mattox laughs off the fire-reading warning of a Zulu medicine man named Grumbo, who reads ruin in the ashes and cautions of "danger in three."In "Don't Tell Hilda," the hard-boiled Pat Novak For Hire (February 27, 1949, starring Jack Webb) finds the San Francisco waterfront boat-for-hire man tangled in murder when a beautiful blonde claiming amnesia collapses dead in a coffee joint after a fatal dose of sleeping pills. Hounded by Inspector Hellman and helped by boozy ex-doctor Jocko Madigan, Novak traces her to a long-vanished heiress named Marcia Halpern and a fortune up on Pacific Heights.Peril offers the 1953 psychological case "Darkness Within," where Mrs. Diana Carson walks into the office of psychiatrist Dr. James Bancroft insisting that her mild-mannered stockbroker husband, Lionel Carson, seized the fireplace tongs and tried to murder her — then woke with no memory of the attack, much like the family cat she found poisoned in the basement. Bancroft must decide whether Lionel suffers a blackout-driven split personality or something far more...

Five prisoners are kept awake for fifteen days in a sealed chamber — and what the researchers find when they open the door no longer wants to be set free. A blockbuster film series trails a string of real-life deaths its cast can't explain. On the back roads of Maryland, a half-goat figure waits for teenagers who wander too far. And one ordinary night in El Paso, a couple walks out of their home — dishes still in the sink, cat unfed — and is never seen again. EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/russiansleepexperiment/ READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/3rr9mhjx FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: The Russian Sleep Experiment *** The Poltergeist Film Curse *** The Goat-Man of Maryland *** The Patterson Family Disappearance *** The Legend of the Leprechaun CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding 00:01:06.939 = Show Open 00:01:55.409 = The Poltergeist Curse 00:06:21.074 = The Goatman of Prince George’s County 00:14:07.417 = The Lore of the Leprechaun *** 00:16:55.345 = Vanishing of the Pattersons 00:27:39.437 = The Russian Sleep Experiment *** 00:43:05.653 = Show Close *** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break LISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps *No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast* SOURCES and RESOURCES: “The Russian Sleep Experiment”: http://bit.ly/36mHCc9 "Leprechaun: One Of The Most Famous And Powerful Creatures Of The Irish Faerie Folk" (link no longer available) “The El Paso Vanishing (What Happened To The Pattersons?)”: http://bit.ly/2JHq3cW “Maryland’s Goat-Man Is Half Man, Half Goat, and Out For Blood”: http://bit.ly/2pEciVw “The Poltergeist Curse?”: http://bit.ly/36oH857 (Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.) WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. Originally aired: July 22, 2018 Weird Darkness travels from a cursed Hollywood film set to a Maryland goat-monster, the cobbler-fairies of Irish legend, a vanished El Paso couple, and a blood-soaked Soviet sleep laboratory where the test subjects no longer wanted to be set free.It opens with the deaths that shadow the Poltergeist films, beginning with Heather O'Rourke, who played Carol Anne Freeling from the original 1982 release through both sequels and died at twelve in San Diego in February 1986 during surgery for a bowel obstruction later traced to a congenital intestinal flaw. Dominique Dunne, who played older sister Dana Freeling, was strangled in 1982 by John Sweeney outside her Hollywood home, and Sweeney served just three years and seven months. Julian Beck, the gaunt preacher Kane of Poltergeist II,...