All in Fresh from MMN
Everyone's entitled to one good scare on Halloween but the podcasts of the Darkcast Network have enough scares to fill any trick-or-treat sack in this special episode -- No razor blades, we promise!
Featuring spooky stories told by the hosts of Murder Murder News, Sinister Story Hour, Beyond the Rainbow, Cause of Death, Octoberpod AM, Rogue Darkness, Over the Fence, and Horrifying History.
Fourteen years ago this week, tragedy tore through the close-knit family of singer and actress Jennifer Hudson. When Jennifer's sister Julia Hudson tried to separate herself from her possessive husband, William Balfour, domestic abuse escalated to triple homicide.
Scorpio, who pop culture would define as intense and mysterious, coincide with the time when the ancient Gaels believed the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped, and the deceased would come back to life to cause sickness or damage crops.
On Halloween night in 1974, Texas, Timothy O’Bryan ingested Pixy Sticks supposedly given to him while he was out trick-or-treating and died an hour later. Police would discover traces of cyanide mixed with the sugar. Timothy’s father, Ronald O’Bryan, would later be arrested and executed for his son’s murder.
Elizabeth Olten was just 9 years old when she disappeared from her neighbourhood in St. Martins, Missouri on October 21st, 2009. Authorities were puzzled as to how this sweet girly-girl could have vanished so suddenly, and so close to home. The mystery deepened when the child was found brutally murdered two days later. The whole community was shaken when an unlikely suspect was identified.
The popular e-commerce website eBay has banned Jeffrey Dahmer's costumes, declaring that they don't align with eBay's company policy, which prohibits listings "promote or glorify violence or violent acts, or associated with individuals who are notorious for committing violent acts."
On October 31st, 2004, an unidentified pregnant woman was seen existing the women’s bathroom in Hilton Resort and Marina in Key West, Florida at 2 in the morning. Later that day, a member of staff discovered the body of an infant in a garbage bin. The woman has never been identified.
Halloween 2010 was meant to be like any other day for 16-year-old Devon Griffin. Noticing how quiet his home was, he attempted to search for his mother and stepfather, Susan and William Liske. As he entered their bedroom, he found a blanket pulled over their heads. Believing it was a Halloween prank, he removed the blanket from their heads. His gruesome discovery would lead to his stepbrother, BJ’s, arrest for the brutal murders of Susan and William Liske, and Susan’s son Derek Griffin.
32-year-old indigenous actress Misty Upham disappeared from her family home in Auburn 8 years ago this week. After a lifelong struggle with mental health issues and navigating a very broken system, the system failed Misty one last time when she was found dead and the medical examiner's report listed her cause of death as undetermined.
In Lawton, Oklahoma, 1977, the parents of nineteen-month-old Nima Louise Carter put their daughter in her crib on Halloween night. The next morning, Nima was missing. She was eventually found a month later in a fridge in an abandoned home. To this day, her case remains unsolved.
On Halloween in 1974, father of two Ronald Clark O’Bryan took his children, Timothy and Elizabeth, trick-or-treating in their neighborhood. Just after Timothy ate a pixy-stick later in the evening, he began complaining of stomach pains and ultimately collapsed. He would later die from cyanide poisoning and his father would be dubbed ‘The Candyman’ for his role in Timothy’s murder.
Today marks the 24th anniversary of one of the most notorious anti-gay hate crimes in American history. Beaten, tortured, and left for dead, 21-year-old Matthew Shepard was found tied to a fence in a remote field near Laramie, Wyoming. Shepard's case sparked a national and international conversation about sexual orientation as a motive for murder, and inspired hate crime legislation.
In the Oscoda community of eastern Michigan, 1969, high school students Patricia Spencer and Pamela Hobley were seen together at school on Halloween Day, the day they disappeared. After over fifty years, their disappearance has never been solved.
In the modern day, Halloween is celebrated by those from many cultures and religious backgrounds. Halloween’s pagan origins, Samhain, has been practiced for thousands of years. Ancient Celts and those who celebrate today believe the veil between the living and the dead opened from October 31 to November 1.
The first ever instance of domestic terrorism hit the United States 40 years ago this week. Prior to 1982, there was no tamper-resistant packaging, but our approach to food and drug safety was forever changed when an unknown assailant left tainted bottles of Tylenol on the shelves in several stores around the Chicagoland area.
Ten years after the release of instant horror classic Scream, the film served as inspiration for the gruesome murder of 16-year-old Cassie Jo Stoddart. Hired to housesit for family members, the teen was killed in a quiet country home in Pocatello, Idaho. Tucked away out of view from neighbours, Cassie's attackers saw her as the perfect target.
59 years ago this week, 4 little black girls were killed and many others were injured in a church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama. The event would serve as the catalyst for the civil rights act of 1964 and the voting rights act of 1965, but victim’s families and survivors would wait 40 years to see the perpetrators of this crime behind bars.
After pleading not guilty to the death of Christe Chen, Bradley Dawson appeared in court on Tuesday and was denied bail. Dawson was accused of murdering Chen on their honeymoon in Fiji, where Chen was discovered with multiple head and body traumas.
A red hand over the mouth has become the symbol of a growing movement, MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women), which stands for all the voices that have not been heard by media, society, and the government. It stands for the oppression and untold stories of Native women who we have lost and keep losing.
In Philadelphia, February 1957, a college student came across a box discarded in the woods, which held the body of a malnourished boy between the age of three and seven. The cause of death appeared to be blows to the head. While several major theories have been developed as to who the boy was and what happened to him, his case remains unsolved after over sixty years.
