Perhaps the most thorough and well-balanced of the Sheppard trials was the one held long, long after Marilyn Reese Sheppard’s death. In the first installment of this article, we discussed the first trial of her husband and accused killer, Sam, some of the questionable decisions made by the trial judge, and the media circus that…
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As Samuel Holmes Sheppard, D.O., would later tell the story, he had dozed off on a daybed in his living room, wrapped in his corduroy jacket against the night’s chill, on July 3, 1954. He had had a very difficult day at work, but it had ended well enough with a casual dinner and drinks…
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There is much that can be said about Edgar Allan Poe, but in terms of his literary habits, little that needs to be. Much more famous in death than he was in life, he was nevertheless a literary critic of some renown in his own time. His true love, however, was lurid, ghastly fiction. Poe…
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I got into my bed and I turned out the light, and I started hearing someone whistling. I don’t remember the tune, I just remember whistling. It was clear. I could hear it everywhere. In my mind, and since we lived in a two story apartment, I remember imagining a man walking across above us…
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It’s an old, old story. The shadowed, dusty crossroads sit lonely in the sultry, oppressive summer night, seemingly waiting for the young Black man who now arrives. He holds a guitar in one hand and a mostly empty bottle of whiskey in the other. He does not stumble as he walks, but looks about warily…
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The Bell Witch haunting is one of the most famous American hauntings on record, not only for the extent of the hauntings but because it is credited as the only American haunting to result in the death of a living person. The story is certainly alive and well and is still being told in modern…
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We were living in New Jersey. I was riding in our car with my husband when the oddest thing happened. It was a normal, sunny day and we were in a bit of a traffic jam. Cars were backed up in both directions on the road where we were traveling. While we were sitting at…
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The spiritualism movement of the early-to-mid 1800s captured the hearts and minds of a great many people. Spiritualism – the belief that the spirits of the dead are not only able to communicate with us, but are eager to share their wisdom with the living world – flourished at a time when Mesmerism was a…
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I am going to tell you a story that happened to my dad. Just to give everyone a little bit of backstory: my parents pretty much live in the middle of nowhere. They live on a lake in what I would call the boonies. The surrounding area is all wooded state land, and you have…
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It was early February of 2013 when some of the residents of the Stay on Main (formerly the Cecil Hotel) began to have problems with their tap water. The water pressure was inconsistent, and the water itself tasted peculiar and was oddly discoloured. In response to the residents’ complaints, the hotel sent employee Santiago Lopez…
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