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

On August 14th, 2005, the Davidson family found two circles of flattened pea plants in their field near Aneroid, Saskatchewan, and four days later, eighteen miles away, one of the brothers came across a dead bull calf the family said was missing an ear and an eye, its tongue pulled out through its throat. Michigan biophysicist W.C. Levengood spent years testing plants from crop circles, and when he tested grass from cattle mutilation sites in New Mexico, Kansas and Colorado, he reported finding the same kind of cellular damage. From the book “CONNECTIVE TISSUE: How Cattle Mutilations Link Bigfoot, Alien Abductions, Mind Control, And The Men In Black” by Darren Marlar at https://weirddarkness.com/ConnectiveTissue WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. Originally aired: November 11, 2026 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HKTS19Z1 More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

A search party in South Carolina comes across a patch of freshly disturbed ground in the woods and starts to dig. Police officers in Wales ask a man where his mother is, and he tells them she's alive and staying with relatives in London. Police in Arizona say a couple measured beds and furniture to cover a man's body by the side of a desert road. After brain surgery, a man starts seeing his cat's eyes on the faces of the people he meets. And a family in northern Italy says it came up on a figure dressed as Pennywise, standing in the middle of a dark road. EXPANDED STORIES & SOURCES: https://weirddarkness.com/baby-buried-in-dog-crate-mother-freezer-weird-darknews WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

Strangers in dozens of countries now meet over tea and cake to talk openly about dying, and in New Zealand, retirees gather every week to build and paint the coffins they'll one day be buried in. READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8tmdrd FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Have you heard of the “Death Positive” movement? Would you visit a Death Cafe? Would you join a Coffin Club? Why the sudden positive twist on what is typically so morbid? What’s so great about death? (Discourse At The Death Diner) *** When it comes to homes, the ghosts go bump in the night. When it comes to automobiles, do they go honk in the night? (Cursed Cars and Haunted Hoopties) *** Airline pilots in the UK are reporting strange objects in the sky. Not just one pilot, but several. And not just one UFO, but many. And the sightings were close. Very close. So close that they are being described as “near misses”. (Airliners Almost Crash Into UFOs) *** In today’s world, parents often worry about whether their kids are eating healthy and getting a good education, and in the case of long car trips, whether the children have their phones fully charged. It’s tough being a modern parent, but at least you don’t have to worry like Europeans did about your spawn being snatched by fairies. (Child Snatching Fairies) *** Two men go out for a weekend of elk hunting – and come back with the story of a creature so strange they don’t know what to call it. (Close Encounter at Pot Mountain) *** At a downtown Chicago church, people are turning up in droves – not for the preaching or the powerful worship band – but to see a painting of the Virgin Mary, crying real tears. (The Crying Madonna) CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = Show Open 00:02:23.730 = Discourse At The Death Diner 00:08:43.721 = Cursed Cars And Haunted Hoopies 00:19:56.590 = Airliners Almost Crash Into UFOs *** 00:32:23.263 = Child-Snatching Fairies 00:39:18.693 = Close Encounters on Pot Mountain *** 00:45:36.275 = The Crying Madonna 00:48:48.583 = Show Close *** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break SOURCES and RESOURCES: “Discourse At The Death Diner” by Marilyn A. Mendoza Ph.D. for Psychology Today: https://tinyurl.com/vd6ober “Cursed Cars and Haunted Hoopties” by Erin Marquis for AutoBlog: https://tinyurl.com/r35gcjc “Airliners Almost Crash Into UFOs” from The Bolton News: https://tinyurl.com/vsn8rer “Child Snatching Fairies” by Tristan Shaw from Bizarre And Grotesque: https://tinyurl.com/u84989q “Close Encounter at Pot Mountain” by Staci Matlock for the Santa Fe New Mexican: https://tinyurl.com/soo5l6z “The Crying Madonna” by Cate Cauguiran for ABC7 Chicago: https://tinyurl.com/v4cv4sg (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. *No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This...

On vacation in Taxco, Mexico, an 18-year-old American watches a woman stabbed in an upstairs window by a hand wearing a blood-red ring, and a few days later her father's old friend sits down to dinner wearing one just like it. CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = Show Open 00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Ring of Evil” (April 16, 1979) ***WD 00:45:51.422 = The Devil And Mr. O, “Revolt of Worms” (October 01, 1971) 01:16:15.872 = Diary of Fate, “Tina Crowley” (March 09, 1948) ***WD 01:45:43.665 = Dimension X, “The Martian Death March” (January 14, 1951) ***WD 02:12:23.911 = The Eleventh Hour, “Ghost Town” (ADU) 02:41:55.156 = Escape, “Seeds of Greed” (December 27, 1949) 03:11:36.356 = Everyman’s Theater, “Cat Wife” (October 18, 1940) 03:41:39.116 = Exploring Tomorrow, “The Moon Is New” (January 22, 1958) ***WD(LQ) 04:01:09.064 = Faces In The Window, “Lightning Rod Man” (January 17, 1953) **WD(LQ) 04:26:42.927 = Dark Fantasy, “Debt From The Past” (January 16, 1942) 04:51:48.576 = Strange Adventure, “Shots In The Night” (1945) 04:55:01.236 = Tales of the Frightened, “Chung Ling Soo” (December 16, 1957) ***WD 04:59:21.285 = 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. https://weirddarkness.com/old-time-radio-horror-ring-of-evil More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.

Jane Pryor comes home from Vienna to visit her father at a famous seaside clinic, is told at the door that he died two weeks ago, and is talked into staying on at a place where attack dogs roam the grounds after dark and the new young doctor keeps begging her to leave. CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = Show Open 00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Charnel House” (April 11, 1979) ***WD 00:46:05.113 = Casey Crime Photographer, “Gentle Strangler” (April 24, 1947) 01:16:31.244 = CBC Mystery Theater, “Two Little Punctures” (September 22, 1967) ***WD 01:44:34.174 = All Star Western Theater, “Ghost In Little Deer Canyon” (November 29, 1947) ***WD 02:14:00.822 = Chet Chetter, “It Came From Video” (1990) ***WD 02:42:53.880 = The Clock, “Only Death is Timeless” (March 27, 1956) 03:08:33.201 = The Creaking Door, “Imposter” (July 20, 1964) ***WD 03:36:29.873 = The Crime Club, “Coney Island Nocturne” (July 10, 1947) ***WD 04:06:38.739 = Crime Classics, “Seven-Layered Arsenic Cake” (October 14, 1953) 04:38:06.894 = Danger Dr. Danfield, “Life Insurance Claim” (December 08, 1946) 05:03:06.270 = 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. More episodes, additional podcasts, books, original music, in-depth paranormal and true-crime articles, and much more at https://weirddarkness.com.