“THE JONESTOWN MASSACRE AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES IT CAUSED TO FIRST RESPONDERS” #WeirdDarkness

Decades of alien encounters may not point to other worlds at all, but to a ruined future Earth — where the last survivors of humanity travel back to our present, disguised as the aliens we expect, to harvest the DNA that might save their dying species. ========== HOUR ONE: A Virginia pilot encounters a mysterious golden orb during a skydive flight! *** For those who claim to have spoken with extraterrestrials, they are told the aliens arrive here from other worlds. But what if the so-called aliens aren’t really aliens at all – what if they are humans, visiting from the future? We begin with that story! (Aliens: Us From a Future Time?) *** Horror and Sci-Fi author and Weird Darkness fan J.D. Buffington doesn’t believe in such things as ghosts. If Houdini couldn't reach his wife from the other side, then certainly no one else could, either, right? But that being said, J.D. has had some weird stuff take place in his life. (My Many Ghostly Encounters) *** Soon after moving into a sprawling Denver mansion, Russell Hunter sensed he wasn't alone. I’ll share true events that inspired the film, “The Changeling”. (The Real Life Haunting That Inspired “The Changeling”) ========== HOUR TWO: Colorado’s best urban legends! *** A pitch black room at an inn, yields to a strange glow. (Comfort At The Comet Inn) *** Each year, hundreds of people simply disappear from parks and forests. What happened to them – and where are they? (People Are Vanishing Into Thin Air In Our National Parks) *** A series of unexplained incidents took place in the early 19th century at the Chase Vault, in the cemetery of the Christ Church in Oistins, Barbados. Each time the vault was opened to bury a family member, all coffins but one had changed position. (The Chase Vault) ========== SUDDEN DEATH OVERTIME: Known as California's Freeway Killer, William Bonin used a Ford van to lure in teenage hitchhikers to rape and ruthlessly murder. (California’s Freeway Prowler) *** A couple is haunted by a slain rooster! (Cock-a-Doodle BOO!) ========== SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM TONIGHT’S SHOW: “Virginia Pilot Encounters Mysterious Golden Orb During Skydive Flight” by Brandon Grimes for Paranormality Magazine: https://paranormalitymag.com/?ref=5714 “Aliens: Us From a Future Time?” by Nick Redfern for Mysterious Universe: http://bit.ly/2JptCDF “My Many Ghostly Encounters” by J.D. Buffington from his Circus Sized blog: http://bit.ly/2YvapqF “The Real Life Events That Inspired ‘The Changeling’” by Orrin Grey for The Line Up: http://bit.ly/2xwnMLa “The Forgotten Epidemic” by Troy Taylor: http://bit.ly/2RUIA8M “Comfort At The Comet Inn” by Jubelee from YourGhostStories.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/93sauh8b “California’s Freeway Prowler” by Giselle Ruiz from All That’s Interesting: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/3hrvrs8z “The Chase Vault” from Ghost-Story.co.uk: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2dzwvsjk “Cock-a-Doodle BOO!” by James McGuinness: (link no longer available) “People Are Vanishing Into Thin Air In Our National Parks” by an unknown author: (link no longer available) “Colorado’s Best Urban Legends” from Paranormality Magazine:

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 broke private eye rides south to explain away a little girl's imaginary friend, and walks out of a pine-country farmhouse convinced the old man pushing her on the swing has been dead for years. EPISODE PAGE (includes list of sources): https://weirddarkness.com/noir-oldmanonsutterlane TRANSCRIPT: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p84f78k THE REAL CASE BEHIND THIS STORY: In February 1989, Andy and Lisa Wyrick moved into a brick ranch house on Swint Loop in Ellerslie, Georgia, a small town in Harris County about a hundred miles south of Atlanta. The land had once been an antebellum plantation, and the previous owners had walked off and left the house abandoned long enough for it to go to auction. The following month, the Wyricks' three-year-old daughter Heidi began describing visits from an elderly man she called Mr. Gordy — silver-gray hair, dark suit, top hat, shiny black shoes — who pushed her on the backyard swing. Not long after, a wounded man she called Con appeared at the front door, a bloody bandage on his arm and blood soaking his shirt.Both were eventually tied to deceased local figures. James S. Gordy had run a real estate company in Columbus, Georgia, served for years as Sunday school superintendent at Ellison Methodist Church, and was connected to the Swint Loop property as executor and caretaker before his death. (His death year appears inconsistently across sources, with some citing 1972 and most citing 1974; either way, he died well over a decade before Heidi was born.) Lon "Con" Batchelor had lost his hand in a cotton gin accident as a teenager, returned home in bloodied clothing with his arm in bandages, and died of cancer in 1957. Heidi, who could not yet read, picked Gordy out of a blind photo lineup and walked directly to his grave among hundreds of headstones in a local cemetery. She identified Batchelor — whose name she'd heard as "Con" — from a family photograph brought to the house by Catherine Ledford, who had previously owned the adjacent property and knew the family history.Beginning in 1993, the activity escalated sharply. Heidi and other family members began seeing a black, hooded, faceless figure that moved through the house, stood in Heidi's closet, and appeared at the foot of her bed. Objects moved on their own; a kitchen chair pulled itself from the table in front of two witnesses; scratches appeared on Heidi and her father Andy across consecutive nights. The Wyricks' second daughter, Jordan, born February 3, 1994, later began reporting interactions with an unseen child. Parapsychologist Dr. William Roll — an Oxford-educated psychologist who had spent eight years researching at Oxford before building a scientific reputation studying haunting phenomena — investigated the case. He recorded an electromagnetic field spike to over forty milligauss in the parents' bedroom against a residential baseline near one-tenth of a milligauss, found elevated positive ion concentrations near Heidi's room, and tied her perceptions to environmental sensitivity and documented seismic activity in the Columbus region. He could not explain the scratches. Roll also traced a reported family history of psychic sensitivity across several generations, extending back to Lisa's mother and to land in north Georgia along the Trail of Tears route.Roll brought in medium Amy Allan — later known to television audiences through The Dead Files — who walked the property under blind conditions and identified three entities in the back rooms: two older men and a faceless dark presence. A second psychic, brought in separately by the family, named the same three entities in the same locations and identified the fireplace as a portal. Years of mounting medical bills kept the Wyricks in the house long after...