Ghoul on Ghoul

Amanda and Sadie are back with a banger covering a true crime queen and vengeful percussionist. Amanda recounts the life and times of author Ann Rule, including her fateful friendship with would-be serial killer Ted Bundy. Sadie heads to 15th-century England for the Drummer of Tedworth, the earliest recorded poltergeist episode in the country. Other subjects covered include pants-hungry genitalia, a new hit show, and a little mouse guy.

Recommendations:

Amanda recommends the true crime bookBitter Blood.

Sources:

• Wikipedia/Drummer of Tedworth
• Encyclopedia.com (Drummer Of Tedworth)
• Burials and Beyond
• "New light on the ‘Drummer of Tedworth’: conflicting narratives of witchcraft in Restoration England" by Michael Hunter
• The Guardian (Best-selling true crime writer Ann Rule, author of 33 books, dies at age 83)
• Grunge (The Untold Truth of Ann Rule)
• The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
• CNN (Jan. 12, 1999 interview transcript)
• Washington Post (The twisted friendship of crime writer Ann Rule and serial killer Ted Bundy)
• The New Yorker (Too Close to Ted Bundy)

Originally posted as Episode 11 on July 19, 2018.

It's all about spiritualism on this week's episode as Amanda and Sarah discuss two women associated with the movement. Sarah channels an unusual story about famed spiritualist medium Florence Cook and her "spirit control," Katie King, who was said to be the deceased daughter of a Welsh pirate. Amanda gives a creepy history lesson on the tragic life of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln and her shifty spirit minister Charles J. Colchester. Other subjects covered include big ol' Instagram daddies, donkey facts, and the joy of pretending to be drunk.

Sources:

"Spirited Sexuality: Sex, Marriage, and Victorian Spiritualism"by Marlene Tromp for Victorian Literature and Culture

"Victorian Women and the Theatre of Trance: Mediums, Spiritualists, and Mesmerists in Performance"by Amy Lehman

MysteriousPeople.com (lol): Katie King

Smithsonian Magazine ("The Spiritualist Who Warned Lincoln Was Also Booth’s Drinking Buddy")

Wikipedia: Mary Todd Lincoln

Recommendations:

Sarah recommends you read "Affinity" by Sarah Waters.

Amanda recommends you read "Assassination Vacation" bySarah Vowell and"Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" by Seth Grahame-Smith(the latter only kinda).

For updates on future episodes and other fun stuff, follow us onTwitterand Instagram.

Look to the skies, ghouls, because Amanda and Sarah have an extraterrestrial-filled episode just for you. Sarah presents a very special alien version of Ass-trology, while Amanda delves into the phenomenon of people claiming to have sex with otherworldly beings. Other subjects covered include unimpressive octopi, parts of the boot, and dead social media. 

Sources:

• Listverse (10 People Who Claimed To Have Sexual Encounters With Aliens)
• Vice (This Guy Paints the Sex He Allegedly Has with Aliens)
• The Harvard Gazette (Alien abduction claims examined: Signs of trauma found)
• Huffington Post (Meet the Chinese Lumberjack Who Slept With an Alien)

For updates on future episodes and other fun stuff, follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or check out our Patreon. 

Amanda and Sarah get down and dirty with a series of OG ghost stories and one of the worst movies ever made. Sarah covers the Byland Abbey ghost stories, a set of tales collected by a curious monk. Amanda heads to Italy for the making of, and disastrous release of the 1979 period film Caligula. Other subjects covered include alien updates, bad passwords, and arsenic myths. 

Recommendations:

Amanda recommends the Giallo film Tenebrae and the new horror release Talk to Me. 

Sources:

• Byland Abbey ghost stories: a guide to medieval ghosts
• Anselm Classics-Byland Abbey Ghost Stories Project
• “Repentant Soul or Walking Corpse? Debatable Apparitions in Medieval England” by Jacqueline Simpson. Folklore, Dec., 2003, Vol. 114, No. 3
• Collider (The Infamous 'Caligula': Is It Really As Bad As They Say?)
• Penthouse, May 1980
• The Guardian (Malcolm McDowell on Peter O'Toole: Caligula, catacombs and chicken gizzards)
• The Writer Who Disowned the Movie-Gore Vidal
• Leonardo DiCaprio channelled Caligula for Wolf of Wall Street
• Variety (‘Caligula’ Director Tinto Brass Slams ‘Caligula – The Ultimate Cut’ Screening in Cannes, Says He Is Taking Legal Action Against Penthouse Films)

For updates on future episodes and other fun stuff, follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or check out our Patreon. 

Originally posted as Episode 91 on Feb. 20, 2020. 

Amanda and Sarah say screw it and try to scare the crap out of each other by tapping into their deepest fearscinations. Sarah gets into Amanda's frog/toad phobia with a look at the Loveland Frog and similar accounts from Ohio and other places. Amanda scoured Reddit and other sites for the creepiest, most disturbing, user-submitted doppelganger encounters. Other subjects covered include SWEET POTATO SKINS, horror daddies, and another ghoulish musical.

Recommendations:

Sarah recommends the latest season of the show Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and does not recommend the indie horror film, Pyewacket. Amanda adds her vote for watching the HBO show The Outsider.

Sources:

• The Weiser Field Guide to Cryptozoology: Werewolves, Dragons, Skyfish, Lizard Men, and Other Fascinating Creatures Real and Mysterious Paperback by Deena West Budd
• The Singular Fortean Society (The Loveland Frogmen)
• Exemplore (The Loveland Frog: Monster, Alien, or Escaped Pet?)
• Wikipedia/Joint-eater
• Snopes (‘Loveland Frogman’ Spotted Again?)
• CINCY Weekend (Everything You Need To Know About The Loveland Frog, Cincy’s Wildest Urban Legend)
• Cincinnati.com
• True Horror Stories of Texas (Doppelganger)
• Ranker (People Share Creepy Stories Of Encounters With Doppelgangers)
• Mysterious Universe (Sinister Encounters with Evil Doppelgängers)

For updates on future episodes and other fun stuff, follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Amanda and Sarah get their heads in the summer vacation game with spooky travel stories and beer. Amanda vets a few tales about real people dealing with haunted Airbnbs, roadside killers, and more. Sarah goes deep into the possible lore surrounding Miller High Life's "Girl in the Moon" mascot and her possible connection with early women brewers. Other subjects include a tough furry polycule, a sleep interrupted, and a fratty Amanda. 

Recommendations:

Amanda recommends the Grady Hendrix book How to Sell a Haunted House and the new movie Evil Dead Rise. Sarah recommends the 1971 cult horror film Blood on Satan's Claw. 

Sources: 

• Mashed (Who Inspired Miller High Life's Girl In The Moon Logo?)
• Beer and Beyond (Here's what we know about the Miller High Life lady)
• https://dannwoellertthefoodetymologist.wordpress.com/2023/04/02/decoding-the-miller-high-life-girl-in-the-moon/
• Smithsonian Magazine (Why Did Women Stop Dominating the Beer Industry?)
• Forbes (No, That Halloween Witch (Probably) Does Not Represent A Persecuted Beer Brewer)
• AAA (Haunted Hotel Stories from AAA Inspectors)
• Airbnb Community Cafe (Haunted and Spooky Airbnb Stories!)
• Washington Post (12 chilling travel tales, as told by readers)
   

For updates on future episodes and other fun stuff, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or check out our Patreon. 

Amanda and Sarah are joined by Ben, Gregg, and Lance of Neon Brainiacs for a special fifth-anniversary show! Hear a spooky house party story, followed by a rousing, time travel-inspired game. Other subjects covered include Amanda's illustrious film career, The Shining conspiracies, and Woodstock '99.

For updates on future episodes and other fun stuff, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or check out our Patreon. 

Amanda and Sarah head to historic New England and back to California for two wild cases. Sarah covers Elizabeth Knapp, a 17th-century teen girl believed to be demonically possessed. Amanda reveals part two of the Clara Phillips fiasco. Other subjects covered include fighting in front of the cheese dip, classic Hollywood monologuing, and buying too much unreturnable Target merch. 

Recommendations:

Amanda recommends the 1951 sci-fi film 'The Thing from Another World.'

Sources:

• “The Use of Transference in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts,” by Michael Fass for American Studies, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Fall, 1995) 
• “The Terrifying Demonic Possession of 16 Year Old Elizabeth Knapp,” Hit the Lights Podcast, November 2020
• Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England by John Demos
• Wikipedia/Clara Phillips
• LA Magazine (How Murderess Clara Phillips Became “Tiger Girl”)
• New York Times (' Clara Phillips' Tries Honduras Jail Break; 15 Students Whose Aid She Sought Are Seized)
• New York Post (Inside the deranged mind of Clara Phillips, Hollywood’s first female psychopath)

For updates on future episodes and other fun stuff, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or check out our Patreon. 

Amanda and Sarah go goblin mode for this episode about another little fucker and a Hollywood true crime case. Sarah talks about the connection between the Ebu Gogo and the Homo floresiensis on the Indonesian island of Flores. Amanda heads back to the flapper era with the first of a two-part series about Clara Phillips, aka the Tiger Woman. Other subjects covered include quitting coffee, being nude under a trench coat, and roasting America's Next Top Model. 

Recommendations:

Amanda recommends (kind of) the graphic novel The Low, Low Woods and the 1978 medical thriller Coma. 

Sources:

• The University of Alberta (Are hobbits real?)
• New Scientist (The Little Troublemaker - June 18, 2005)
• Wikipedia/Ebu Gogo
• Live Science (Human 'hobbit' ancestor may be hiding in Indonesia, new controversial book claims)
• FAR WEIRDER THAN HOBBITS by Marek Kohn
• “Images of the Wildman Inside and Outside Europe,” Gregory Forth. Folklore, Vol. 118, No. 3 (Dec., 2007). https://www.jstor.org/stable/30035439
• New York Post (Inside the deranged mind of Clara Phillips, Hollywood’s first female psychopath)
• LA Mag (How Murderess Clara Phillips Became “Tiger Girl”) 
• CHICAGO DAILY TRIBUNE (L.A. murderess Clara Phillips "Tiger Woman", July 15, 1922)
• LA Times (Clara Phillips was never one to mask...)
• Wikipedia/Clara Phillips

For updates on future episodes and other fun stuff, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or check out our Patreon. 

Amanda and Sarah choose a neutral color palette for two stories about a folkloric crone and mysterious light. Sarah goes all witchy again with the legend of Black Annis, a cannibalistic witch-like figure from Leicester, England. Amanda heads to North Carolina for the history of the Brown Mountain Lights. Other subjects covered include a spooky survey, a fictional clothing line, and a new pet camera. 

Recommendations:

Amanda recommends the Dario Argento film Deep Red. 

Sources:

• White Dragon (Black Annis - Leicester Legend or Widespread Myths?)
• Witches by T.C. Lethbridge
• “Four Doubled Figures in the Origins of English Folk Theatre.” Stephen D. Malin, Theatre Journal, Vol. 33 
• Wikipedia/Black Annis
• Charlotte Observer (Burke County's Mysterious Light Still Baffles Investigators)
• Blue Ridge County (Brown Mountain Lights: The Mystery Continues (and Maybe Even Deepens)
• WBTV (Mystery of the Brown Mountain Lights fueled by new pictures)
• PBS (Brown Mountain Lights)
• GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CIRCULAR 646 (Origin of the Brown Mountain Light in North Carolina)
• Blue Ridge Mountains Travel Guide (The Mysterious Brown Mountain Lights of Morganton NC)

For updates on future episodes and other fun stuff, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or check out our Patreon.