32: Great Balls of Fire

The ideal qualities of a paranormal investigator should include objectivity, a grasp of the relevant history and science, and a skeptical and inquisitive nature that’s balanced with a fair and open mind. Tonight’s guest has all of those traits and more. Author and paranormal researcher James A. Willis originally hails from the Hudson Highlands of upstate New York, the stomping grounds of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. After spending 15 of his formative years being intrigued by macabre media and all things ghostly, strange and spooky, Willis moved to Ohio to found the nationally recognized research organization, The Ghosts of Ohio. He has since grown the organization to over 35 members, representing the regions anchored by the cities of Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. In 2004, the founders of the popular line of Weird US books invited Willis to contribute and he has since collaborated on 6 volumes in the series. In 2012, Willis struck out on his own with the publication of Haunted Indiana. For 2013’s The Big Book Of Ohio Ghost Stories, Willis crisscrossed Ohio to bring readers over 75 of the Buckeye state’s most famous (and infamous) ghosts. In 2015, Willis released Ohio’s Historic Haunts: Investigating the Paranormal in the Buckeye State. Willis’ latest project, 2017’s Central Ohio Legends & Lore, had him chasing down some of the Buckeye State’s most legendary characters, including Johnny Appleseed, Annie Oakley, and Chief Leatherlips. Along the way, Willis took the time to explore some of central Ohio’s stranger legends, such as the Ohio Grassman and even UFOs. A sought-after public speaker, Willis has given presentations throughout the United States, during which he has educated and entertained tens of thousands of people of all ages in crowd sizes ranging from 10 to well over 600. He has also been featured in more than 75 media sources, including CNN, USA Today, Columbus Business First, Midwest Living, The Canadian Press, and even the Kuwait Times. Please join us as we hear about James’ approach to paranormal research and delve into some of his most weird and eerie cases. For more information on this episode visit our website!

16 Syys 20192h 13min

Since its modern discovery, no other medieval manuscript has seen as much media attention or scholarly scrutiny as the Voynich Manuscript.  No doubt this is due to the fantastical strangeness of its mystery, which is also the same reason it continually captures the imagination of the public.  Because it would seem, the bigger the mystery, the bigger the reward for its solving.  Like with any enduring enigma, the manuscript has attracted its share of sleuths who have claimed they've been the ones to at least gain an insight into a solution.  Their confidence may be due to another mystical property of the manuscript.  If one looks hard enough for evidence to make their preconceived hypothesis work, they will find some within its pages.  However, why such interest and debate over this old book?  Other than as a specimen of 600-year-old "folk art," what is the worth of a book no one can read?  Because the Voynich Manuscript still holds the promise of revealing secret knowledge that could help humanity, and it has always been extremely satisfying to discover that which has been lost. For more information on this episode, visit our website.

26 Elo 20192h 46min

At the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, there is a book with the catalog call number, MS 408. It is one of the most examined and researched manuscripts to date because it is one of the most enigmatic documents ever discovered. It was purchased in 1912 at Villa Mondragone in Italy by an antiquities dealer named Wilfrid Voynich, and since there is no discernible title for the book, it is more commonly known as the Voynich Manuscript. The text is written on around 240 pages of vellum and is comprised of over 170,000 characters in the form of a code that no cryptographer has yet been able to decipher from a known language. Equally puzzling are the illustrations which accompany the writing. Most seem to be botanical in content but mostly show no identifiable plants. Along with the drawings of strange flora are diagrams of astrological charts and primitive caricatures of nude women in ceremonial displays. However, is the purpose of this manual merely medicinal or could its secrets be of a more magical instruction? And who could be the author of such a baffling work, one who thought its knowledge was so precious or dangerous enough that it needed to remain secret to all but the truly enlightened, or only to themselves? Until a solution to the Voynich Manuscript is found, it contends for the title of the most mysterious book in the world. For more information on this episode visit our website!

17 Elo 20191h 49min

Podcasters share a special bond, and this is especially true of those engaged with the pursuit of covering stories about the paranormal and unimaginable events.  It is perhaps because we know our pursuit of the truth behind these ineffable events will take us beyond the fringes of belief and acceptance.  It leaves us and our subjects vulnerable.  But those that manage to tell these stories well have also managed to capture and relay the vulnerability and humanity and behind them.  Because without it, there is little context to our own lives and therefore little empathy or meaning, and they may well remain as nothing but improbable tales.  One such storyteller is tonight’s guest, Jim Perry.  Jim and his critically acclaimed audio documentary podcast Euphomet, have explored the strange and our relationship to it.  The result is an intimate and fascinating look at how these encounters affect us on a personal level.  Tonight we talk with Jim about the stories and his own experiences that have shaped his perspective and his show. For more information on this episode visit our website!

12 Elo 20191h 55min

As we often say on the show, if you haven't had a strange, paranormal experience, it's likely someone you know has.  This happens to be the case with two college friends of Forrest, Dan Povenmire and Susan Lambert.  In the mid-1980s, Susan was working as a reporter for the student newspaper of The University of Southern California, The Daily Trojan.  She had asked Dan if he wanted to accompany her to an interview with a movie director.  They set out on a drive that should only have taken no more than 40 minutes to complete.  But upon arriving at the hotel where the director was giving interviews, learned that they were somehow almost two hours late.  This seeming impossibility has baffled Dan ever since and fueled a search for answers.  But to add to the mystery, this wouldn't be the only unexplainable experience of missing time, as the pair would encounter another episode during a subsequent car ride together.  And like with the first trip, each would remember a few odd sights during it that the other didn't recall.  While unexplainable disruptions in time are rare, many people have reported experiencing a disturbing wrinkle in the fabric of time which we trust should always be smooth.  Just what is going on when something so seemingly fixed and unalterable as the passage of time fluctuates?  In the latter portion of the show, writer, field researcher, and podcaster Micah Hanks joins us for a discussion on some possible theories as to what might be happening scientifically with the phenomenon of Missing Time. For more information on this episode visit our website!

29 Heinä 20192h 22min

We love to hate our villains as much as we love to love our heroes.  And many of us have a morbid fascination with some of history's most sinister characters, perhaps as a means of understanding the darkest aspects of human behavior.  But as is regularly the case, the truth behind the real nature and actions of historical figures we can only glean from the reporting of others in that age and often many years after.  Even official accounts are just a widely agreed upon set of assessments by a group of people, each with their own biases and personal opinions.  In other words, one person's villain can be another's hero, or at least grossly misunderstood.  In the case of Elizabeth Báthory, the authorities finally took action against one of their own, leveling upon her a judgment that could appear both lenient and harsh, but in either case, revealing an investigation that would forever brand her as one of the evilest people in antiquity with her name living on in infamy.  Whether or not the testimony against her had any truth to it at all or what the real motivation for her incarceration was, is still debated by historians and researchers.  What is clear is that misery, violence, and torture were part of the norm for her time.  Some would argue that the stories about her were exaggerations, and her deeds merely accepted practice by the aristocracy of the day.  But does normalcy justify a person's acts of any era?  Where is the unacceptable line of behavior, regardless of the epoch or social status?  History has judged Elizabeth Báthory. How will you? For more information on this episode visit our website!

13 Heinä 20191h 50min

Countess Elizabeth Báthory was a Hungarian noblewoman and one of the most wealthy and powerful aristocrats in eastern Europe during the late 16th and early 17th centuries.  Together with her husband Ferenc Nádasdy, a military hero known as the Black Knight of Hungary, Báthory held numerous estates, lands, and villages.  She also currently holds the Guinness World Record for being the most prolific female serial killer and most prolific murderer of the western world.  Báthory had been accused in the testimonies of over 300 witnesses and survivors of some of the most horrific tortures and murders imaginable before she was arrested, even by medieval standards.  Her victims were her maidservants and lesser noble protégés, all girls, with some as young as ten years old.  Years after her death, a legend had formed that Báthory had even routinely bathed in and possibly drank the blood of her virginal victims, believing that the pureblood had retained her beauty.  Some claim that Báthory's story became the partial inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula, along with her more famous sanguinary neighbor, Vlad the Impaler.  But were any of the accusations against Báthory true?  Was she merely a victim herself of a political and gender-biased conspiracy aimed at confiscating her riches and properties?  As we'll learn once again, the truth behind our legends is often shrouded in a fog of conjecture misting through a forest of unknowns.  Join us tonight as we examine the case of Elizabeth Báthory who, regardless of her actual guilt or innocence, will be forever known as, "The Blood Countess." For more information on this episode visit our website!

22 Kesä 20191h 42min

To really study the paranormal, any good researcher will tell you one must get out in the field to investigate the sightings, and that is especially true when it comes to cryptozoology.  This is precisely what our interview guest has done.  Lyle Blackburn is a full-time author, musician, and cryptid researcher from Texas, whose life-long fascination with legendary creatures has led him to write several acclaimed books, including Momo: The Strange Case of the Missouri Monster, The Beast of Boggy Creek, and Lizard Man.  Lyle is a frequent guest on radio programs such as Coast to Coast AM and has been featured on numerous television shows like Monsters and Mysteries in America, Finding Bigfoot, and Strange Evidence, as well as other programs airing on the Animal Planet, Destination America, Discovery Science, and A&E channels.  In addition, Lyle is a regular contributor for the monthly horror magazine, Rue Morgue.  Lyle can also be heard as the frontman for his rock band Ghoultown, along with narrating/producing several Small Town Monsters documentaries, including Terror in the Skies, Boggy Creek Monster, The Mothman of Point Pleasant, and Bray Road Beast.  When he’s not chasing cryptids and writing about them or performing with his band, Lyle can be found speaking at various cryptozoology conferences and horror conventions around the United States.  Tonight, we sit down with Lyle to discuss his books and his thoughts about some of the most chilling encounters with bizarre and frightening creatures ever reported. For more information on this episode visit our website!

16 Kesä 20191h 22min