(Bonus Episode) “AMATEUR IN CHANCERY” by George O. Smith (Short Sci-Fi Story) #WeirdDarkness

For six months, slaughtered lambs and severed deer heads kept turning up on the doorsteps of New Forest churches, always with an inverted cross set close by, and some of the people who found them stopped going to worship altogether. When police finally caught the man behind it, he gave the court his name as Count Dracula.  SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/NewForestVampire 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://pod.link/1078714736 *No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast* WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.

In 2016, a first-time director captured something on film he never intended to, and the people who've heard about what's buried in that footage tend to wish they hadn't. EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/mitm-cominghome SOURCES and RESOURCES: “Coming Home” by JRT McMahon: https://www.creepypasta.com/coming-home/ WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: August 07, 2026

Thousands have stepped off marked trails and into America's wilderness never to be seen again, and the retired lawman who spent years cataloguing them found the same strange details surfacing case after case. EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/Missing411 READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/34vb6kex FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Thousands of people have vanished without a trace from America's wilderness areas, leaving behind baffling clues that defy conventional explanation. From children who disappear within seconds while picking berries to hikers in bright clothing who seem to evaporate from marked trails, these cases share disturbing patterns that suggest something beyond ordinary misadventure. What is happening in our national parks? And what strange forces might be responsible for those who seemingly step off the face of the earth? SOURCES and RESOURCES: David Paulides' "Missing 411" Book Series (Missing 411: Western United States & Canada * Missing 411: Eastern United States * Missing 411: North America and Beyond * Missing 411: The Devil's in the Detail)https://www.canammissing.com/missing-411.html CanAm Missing Project Website: https://www.canammissing.com George Knapp's Interview with David Paulides for Mystery Wire: https://www.mysterywire.com/ufo/david-paulides-missing-411/ National Park Service Missing Persons Database: https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/foia/foia-reading-room.htm Documentaries on Missing 411: "Missing 411" (2016), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5864680; "Missing 411: The Hunted" (2019), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10524262 Coast to Coast AM Interviews with David Paulides: https://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/paulides-david/49441/ Mysterious Universe: https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2024/08/Don-t-Want-to-Mysteriously-Vanish-Don-t-Do-These-Things-/ The Charley Project: https://charleyproject.org/ National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs): https://www.namus.gov/ Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Dennis_Martin,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Alfred_Beilhartz,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jaryd_Atadero,

A Marine pilot vanished over the Atlantic in 1945 with no wreckage, no body, and no explanation — and more than thirty years later, forty people would swear he was still alive. 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, “Window to Oblivion” (May 23, 1978) 00:44:05.587 = Mysterious Traveler, “The Visiting Corpse” (January 09, 1944) 01:12:38.749 = CBC Nightfall, “The Telltale Heart” (August 01, 1980) 01:40:47.122 = Obsession, “Solitary Genius” (July 30, 1951) ***WD (LQ) 02:04:08.135 = Origin of Superstition, “Knock On Wood” (1935) ***WD 02:17:51.431 = Pat Novak For Hire, “Joe Candono Blackmail Pictures” (March 27, 1949) 02:49:57.789 = Peril, “Man Against The City/Purple Death” (1953) ***WD 03:11:08.909 = Mystery Playhouse, “Man In Velvet Hat” (December 19, 1944) ***WD 03:39:06.839 = Philip Morris Playhouse, “Leona’s Room” (February 25, 1949) 04:07:58.182 = Price of Fear, “Soul Music” (October 27, 1973) ***WD 04:36:05.849 = Adventures of Ellery Queen, “Three Frogs” (April 29, 1948) ***WD 05:04:54.373 = 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/WDRR0736

I swear, I could start a whole new podcast called "They Shouldn't Be Parents" with these stories coming from all directions. So sad. A follow-up welfare visit to a six-week-old in Florahome, Florida ended with the baby in intensive care and four adults from the same household in jail, after deputies described the conditions inside as among the worst child neglect they had ever encountered. SOURCES, LINKS, AND PRINT VERSION: https://weirddarkness.com/CannonCase20260806 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://pod.link/1078714736 *No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast* WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.