Bedtime Stories

Each year, people around the world report having encounters with bizarre animals that seem not to be of this earth. It occurs so frequently that an entire scientific discipline, cryptozoology, was established to study the phenomenon. For a brief period during the early 1970s, one small town in rural Illinois would briefly play host to an entity so mysterious that neither the residents themselves nor anyone else has ever encountered it again. Just what exactly was the Enfield Horror? MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In most missing persons cases, time eventually provides answers. The individual is either found safe and well, or, sadly, they are located after passing. However, in a frustratingly small number of cases, neither the family nor the public ever receives true closure. When this lack of resolution is due to police failings, the consequences can be devastating. This was certainly the case in the investigation we’ll be exploring in this episode: that of the Missing Airman. MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Battle of Antietam during the American Civil War remains the bloodiest day in American history. That day, and the future of the United States, could have turned out very differently, if not for a single note and three cigars. From Ballen Studios, join us - for the most heart pounding podcast in history. Listen to ⁠A Twist of History⁠ wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the Cold War, soldiers stationed on an army base in the German city of Celle began to report strange, unexplainable experiences. As time wore on, many of the men came to believe they were being terrorised by a sinister paranormal presence. These encounters proved so horrifying that some took their own lives rather than face another night on patrol. Whilst the incidents were largely dismissed, experts have uncovered long-hidden secrets that prove these men might have been telling the truth. Indeed, few places in the world have a darker, more sinister history than the Celle Neues Rathaus. MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Having an encounter with a UFO is one of the most bizarre and overwhelming events a person might experience. But in a large percentage of these cases, the sighting itself is just the beginning. Over the years, hundreds of witnesses have reported being visited by strange, unearthly men in the days and weeks following their sightings. Are they government agents of suppression, extraterrestrial visitors in disguise, or something else entirely? Who are the Men in Black? And what can we learn from the recent videos that claim to finally prove their existence? MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In April 1991, the body of an otherwise healthy 35-year-old man was found inside his Seattle apartment. He was fully clothed, kneeling in an empty bathtub, with no signs of a struggle or forced entry. The death was quickly written off as the result of natural causes. But when his friends came forward, they told a different story. They claim he’d spent a week evading a supernatural force he swore had been sent to kill him. Did he literally scare himself to death? Or was the peculiar death of Christoper Case really the result of a witch’s curse? MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Each year, hundreds of thousands of people go missing across the United States. Most are eventually found, sometimes safe, sometimes not. But then there are the anomalies - the people who, for whatever reason, seem to completely disappear without a trace. These cases often linger for decades, fuelled by rumour, strange clues, and unanswered questions. This is one such story - a disappearance so bizarre that it left people around the world asking, “What happened to Jared Negrete?” MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For those who believe in extraterrestrials, the military is commonly seen as the first line of defence. For over a century, radio dramas, films, and literature have asked: what would really happen if our military forces engaged an advanced interstellar species? At least two men claim to not only know the answer, but to have participated in just such a conflict, only to be abducted, and their minds mysteriously wiped. Their tales raise an important question: just what happened during the Fort Benning Incident? MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Story One – What Killed Olivia Mabel? One afternoon in 1994, a series of silent 911 calls from a remote Texas property would result in several police officers descending upon the scene. What they found after breaking in through the front entrance, would shock them to their core and leave them questioning what killed Olivia Mabel. Story Two – The Strange Death of Gaurav Tiwari In July 2016, a young ghost hunter died in mysterious circumstances after visiting a supposedly haunted property. Authorities hastily ruled it a suicide, but this was not a satisfactory answer for many people, including those closest to him, who are still trying to understand the strange death of Gaurav Tiwari. MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There have been multiple alleged interactions which are reported to have taken place between the US military and extraterrestrial visitors. These include the supposed crash of a UFO near to Roswell in New Mexico, and the craft that was encountered by US servicemen in Rendlesham Forest near RAF Woodbridge. In this episode we examine yet another such story, where an alien trespasser is believed to have been incapacitated by sentries who were stationed at another military site. An incident which over time has become known as, the McGuire Air Force Base Encounter. MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Time, for most of us, feels like the one true constant - a steady progression from past to future. Yet throughout history, people have reported moments where time - and perhaps even reality - seems to falter. Some claim to have been pulled into the past or thrust briefly into the future. Others describe slipping into worlds that look almost like our own, but with subtle, unsettling differences. In most cases, these experiences are fleeting glimpses across eras. In others, they resemble accidental detours into entirely separate dimensions. Unlike stories of time machines or interdimensional travel, these events - often called time slips or interdimensional rifts - are completely beyond the experiencer’s control. And in rare cases, they leave lasting and sometimes even tragic consequences. MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For decades, paranormal researchers have heard tales of a strange anomaly in the hills of central Washington - a hole so deep that it devours everything thrown into it, and which seems to possess supernatural powers. In the late 1990s, a man named Mel Waters came forward, claiming to own the land upon which the bottomless pit resides. But after going public, he found himself at the centre of a conspiracy involving top branches of the US government that ultimately led to his disappearance. Was it all a hoax, or is there more to the curious case of Mel’s Hole? MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In August 1993, a group of kayakers from Ukraine travelled to Irkutsk in Southern Siberia. Whilst enjoying the river and scenery south of Lake Baikal, they came across something haunting: a 17-year-old girl, covered in blood and mumbling incoherently about a tragedy that had befallen her and her friends. Her name was Valentina Utochenko, and the terror she survived still baffles experts, who refer to the event simply as the Khamar-Daban Mountain Deaths. MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Plenty of towns have disappeared over the years. In most cases, the explanations range from economic problems to government initiatives to resources drying up. But what about the towns that truly and quite literally vanished without a trace? It’s not as rare a phenomenon as some people might think. And for thousands of people in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, it’s a perplexing reality. Given the presence of so many vivid memories, how can we possibly explain the vanishing of Doveland? MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Story One – The Manchester Pusher Over the past decade, close to a hundred people have lost their lives in the canal network of one northern English city. In this chapter, we examine evidence, which suggests that a significant number of these deaths were the work of one person, the Manchester Pusher. Story Two – The Uniondale Hitchhiker The N9 is one of South Africa’s longest roads, running from the golden shores of the Southern Coast, right up into the heart of the Northern Cape Province. It is also home to one of the country’s most famous ghostly apparitions. Listen, as we take a ride with the Uniondale Hitchhiker. MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the closing stages of 2009, a family residing in Oklahoma vanished under suspicious circumstances, leaving little clue as to what had happened to them. When evidence of their tragic fate did eventually surface five years later, it only prompted further questions as to what exactly had transpired, rather than providing any useful answers. Join us as we attempt to unravel what really happened to the Jamison family. MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Story One – Drawn by Conflict When the movie Predator released in 1987, audiences were captivated as they watched an unseen, extra-terrestrial interloper stalk and kill a highly trained team of US special forces. Little did we know that during the Vietnam war, the militaries on both sides had been attacked by something just as frightening and just as bizarre, a true to life enemy unknown which seemed to be drawn by conflict. Story Two – The Burning Man of Brazil The men and women who devote their lives to working in hospitals across the world quickly become accustomed to treating the worst injuries that a human being can sustain. But every so often, a case comes along that is so gruesome, that it succeeds in shocking even the most hardened of medical professionals. In this story, we look at the haunting tale of the Burning Man of Brazil. MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Story One – There is Something in the Forest Abandoned towns can be found scattered across the globe and are usually the epilogue of natural disaster or ever-changing economic factors. But every so often, an established settlement can turn into a ghost town for much more sinister reasons. The one featured in this story was allegedly abandoned because of something in the forest. Story Two – There is Something in the Mountains For more than a century, a steady stream of treasure hunters and thrill-seekers have lost their lives under mysterious circumstances whilst searching for a legendary cache of gold, hidden away somewhere in Central Arizona. The headless bodies of those who have eventually been located have made it clear that there is something in the mountains. MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The ocean has always captured mankind's imagination. But where some saw endless potential for travel, trade, and exploration, others could only imagine what untold terrors might be lurking in its depths. Ask any sailor, modern or ancient, and they’ll tell you that the sea is not only a natural force but a supernatural one. As more people begin to confront the thousands of firsthand accounts of mysterious terror of the deep, it becomes clear that there are things above and below the waves that may never be explained. MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scotland’s Highlands are among the most beautiful and remote places in the world. But to many, this stunning landscape of mountains, lakes, and coastal villages also bears a notable air of mystery and foreboding. Even today, these ancient lands remain steeped in folklore and supernatural tales. Once one begins to dig into the stories of High Strangeness in the Scottish Highlands, it becomes clear why it is often considered one of the most haunted places on earth. MUSIC Tracks used by kind permission of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices