Explore every episode of the podcast Pleasing Terrors
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Descent: Part 3- Lost | 04 Nov 2025 | 00:49:42 | |
In this episode we visit the most haunted house of Edgar Allan Poe and then retrace his path to the threshold of a secret world. Sources that were either referenced directly or consulted during the writing of this episode:
Ghosts of Philadelphia by Charles J. Adams III
A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Mark Dawidziak
The Final Days of Edgar Allan Poe: Nevermore in Baltimore by David F. Gatlin
True Tales of the Unknown: The Uninvited, published in 1989 and edited by Sharon Jones
The Ghostly Register by Arthur Meyers
The Man of the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe and the City by Scott Peeples
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe
Haunting Poe: His Afterlife in Richmond and Beyond by Christopher P. Semtner
The Poe Shrine: Building the World's Finest Edgar Allan Poe Collection by Christopher P. Semtner | |||
| The Descent: Part 2- Spiral | 20 Oct 2025 | 01:10:36 | |
In this episode we continue our search for the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe and retrace his path through the final, ill-fated months of his life.
Sources that were either referenced directly or consulted during the writing of this episode:
Ghosts of Philadelphia by Charles J. Adams III A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Mark Dawidziak True Tales of the Unknown: The Uninvited, published in 1989 and edited by Sharon Jones The Man of the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe and the City by Scott Peeples Haunting Poe: His Afterlife in Richmond and Beyond by Christopher P. Semtner The Poe Shrine: Building the World's Finest Edgar Allan Poe Collection by Christopher P. Semtner | |||
| Through A Glass Darkly | 17 Sep 2019 | 00:34:39 | |
This a story about the Titanic, Victorian sex trafficking and a mummy's curse.
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| Shadows of Savannah Part 2: The Dead Time | 15 Aug 2019 | 00:38:15 | |
Haunted houses, midnight witchcraft and famous murder in historic Savannah, Georgia. | |||
| Shadows of Savannah (Part 1): Most Haunted | 22 Feb 2019 | 00:33:55 | |
In this episode I visit some of Savanah's most haunted locations.
Suggested Reading: Haunted Savanah: America's Most Spectral City by James Caskey Haunted Savannah by Georgia R. Byrd | |||
| True Ghosts | 24 Aug 2018 | 00:31:20 | |
Harry Houdini and the Halloween Séance. | |||
| Creepy Door Room | 24 Apr 2018 | 00:30:18 | |
An unexpected return to a very creepy place to do a very foolish thing. | |||
| In the Shadow of Oz | 10 Apr 2018 | 00:31:09 | |
This episode features The Wizard of Oz, Greek mythology and a famous unsolved murder. | |||
| Resurrection | 16 Mar 2018 | 00:26:46 | |
Episode 30: Resurrection delves into the history of Chicago's most famous ghost: Resurrection Mary! | |||
| 029: Invisible World Part 2 - Satan's Kingdom | 12 Dec 2017 | 00:40:32 | |
I am with Alyson Horrocks of The Strange and Unusual Podcast. It's the evening of August 20th, 2017. We are in Danvers, MA which was previously known as Salem Village. We are visiting the Samuel Parris archeological site. Surrounded by a rail fence there are two stone lined cellars marking the location of the house that once stood here. Next to this location is a grassy path that leads to the back of a house with a wolves head door knocker. A wolf can be a monster of many faces and a bad omen. This is one of the hidden places of American history. A place where the horrors of yesterday have cast a long shadow. The bright memory of a day spent walking the sunny streets of Salem have suddenly grown dim. Even though the sun has not yet set, we are surrounded by darkness.
Resources: The Strange and Unusual Podcast A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter! | |||
| 028: Strange Terrors | 20 Oct 2017 | 00:38:08 | |
Alyson Horrocks from the Strange and Unusual Podcast took me on a tour of a historical site with a dark past. The site sits in a town called Danvers, but it was once Salem Village. This site was the culmination of a strange mix of religion, superstition, folklore, slavery, patriarchy, truth, and lies. A place where people's imagination or secret motives ran wild and story or lie or desperate attempt at redemption led to the basis for one of the darkest times in colonial American History. What started as a search for freedom to pursue religion and all things good, and ended in a nondescript historical site and archaeological dig, has a sinister history with a story that is hard to tell and even harder to understand.
Resources: The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege The Strange and Unusual Podcast Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter! | |||
| 027: The Dark Path | 29 Sep 2017 | 00:40:45 | |
The history of the Navajo goes back in time to the Four Corners region in Arizona. Where the spider grandmother spun a giant web and threw it into the night sky to create the stars. This area known as Canyon de Chelly is also known as the Canyon of the Dead after a misguided weaver's warning resulted in a cruel cave massacre. Like the art and designs of the Navajo weaver's blanket, the Navajo legends are intertwined with a ranch purchased by a Utah couple. The Sherman ranch seemed like an idyllic place to raise premium cattle, but strange things started happening almost immediately upon the family's arrival. This ranch is now known as the Skinwalker Ranch and the legends continue. Episode Highlights:
Resources: Kit Carson's Campaign Against the Indians Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter! | |||
| The Descent: Part 1- Hollow | 06 Oct 2025 | 00:45:07 | |
In this episode we embark on a search for the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe, guided by Henry David Thoreau and the mystery of the Hollow Earth. Our quest begins with a visit to a haunted saloon and an apartment building that is hiding a dark past. | |||
| 026: Monster of the Deep | 19 Sep 2017 | 00:29:52 | |
On November 20th, 1850 night watchman George Pollard Jr. makes his nightly rounds on the foggy Island of Nantucket, MA. An island once inhabited by proud tribes of Native Americans before the addition of the colonists. An island that was the whaling capital of the world for over a century. The inhabitants and the whalers themselves were haunted with superstition and legends about the dark underworld of the sea and the evil that lied beneath the depths. The dangers were all too real, yet it wasn't a sea monster or a devil ascended from Davy Jones' Locker that posed the threat. It was an invisible threat that lurked in the hearts of men like the night watchman.
Resources: How Nantucket Came to Be the Whaling Capital of the World George Pollard Jr.
Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter! | |||
| 025: A Vampire's Heart | 18 Aug 2017 | 00:37:05 | |
Count Dracula's story is one of many pieces; a story of a man and the secrets that are hidden inside his castle. Bram Stoker, the story's author, is also a man of many secrets who constructed his own castle and built a fortress around his heart. The puzzle of Count Dracula is not complete until the intertwining pieces are put together. When put together what do the pieces reveal about the story and the man behind it? Episode Highlights:
Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter! | |||
| 024: The Devil Inside | 31 Jul 2017 | 00:30:21 | |
Chicago's West 63rd Street Post Office was built in 1938 over the site of what its creator referred to as "The Castle", and in 1902 an Ohio Daily News article called it Chicago's Ghost Castle. Whatever you want to call it, this site was once or possibly still is the home to a notorious killer. A figure who built a home that included a 2nd floor full of secret passages, trap doors, and hidden staircases. The basement so notorious that a crowd would lay on the sidewalk and try to peer through the cracks as it was excavated. The creator of "The Castle" claimed to be under an evil influence. An influence that seemed to continue to claim victims after his death. An influence that is still felt today
Resources: Herman Webster Mudgett or H. H. Holmes Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter! | |||
| 023: Sins of the Father | 24 Jul 2017 | 00:43:13 | |
The Heriot House in Georgetown, South Carolina was built in 1765. It is now the Harbor House Inn and there are many stories by visitors and Georgetown residents alike of seeing an image of a woman that looks like she doesn't belong there. Is this woman the ghost of a forlorn lover or does she represent something more sinister? Something that ties in with the four circles of Dante's Inferno and stretches all the way from the old Heriot House to a Greenwich Village neighborhood located on Jane Street. A story that crosses the founding of America and the early days of New York, featuring such notable founders as Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and even George Washington. Episode Highlights:
Resources: Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter! | |||
| 022: Hell Broke Loose | 07 Jul 2017 | 00:32:06 | |
In Austin, Texas in 1884 a female servant was killed in a gruesome ax murder. Feeble attempts were made to find the murderer, but to no avail. Soon a series of gruesome ax murders and attacks followed. Each one more horrific than the other, and the murders spread beyond the black servant population to the white community. What originally was considered a black problem in the South twenty years after the Civil War became society's problem. This was a birth. The birth of legions of Demons cast out by Jesus. The birth referred to in the occult addicted mind of William Butler Yeats in his poem The Second Coming. The birth of something much more sinister. Episode Highlights:
Resources: The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter!
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| 021: Hungry Spirits | 02 Jun 2017 | 00:24:31 | |
In Native American folklore, there was a dark creature that possessed the mind and body of men, instilling within them a great hunger for human flesh. The Wendigo was feared by tribes throughout what is now North America and Canada as stories of bloodshed and terror spread across the continent. Picture it: Your best friend, your husband, your sister -- crouched down and feasting upon the flesh of someone you love. It's been many, many years since a Wendigo was rumoured to be wreaking havoc, but are they truly gone for good? Episode Highlights:
Resources: Dangerous Spirits: The Wendigo in Myth and History by Shawn Smallman
Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter! | |||
| 020: True Horror | 19 May 2017 | 00:28:17 | |
The Salisbury Plain is the name for the 300 miles of grasslands located in Wiltshire, England. Home to Stonehenge, a rich history, and a wide variety of plants and animals, the Salisbury Plain is one of the most famous locations in England. For the residents of Wiltshire, however, the area is notorious for more than its archaeological features and mystical energy. The great grassy plains of Salisbury border the mansions of Wiltshire, whose walls are painted in blood and sorrow. In these great houses, the dead refuse to rest. Episode Highlights:
Haunted Wiltshire by Sonia Smith
If you are looking for podcasts that are similar to Pleasing Terrors, check out: The Strange and Unusual Podcast Quid Pro Quo Podcast, episode 10 "Double Trouble"
Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter! | |||
| 019: The Dark Séance Polka | 02 May 2017 | 00:27:31 | |
The White House: In all it's glory, from the immaculately-kept gardens to the walls hung with priceless art, is an icon of American history and power. Home to every President since 1800, the White House is seen as a safe haven for the President and their family. Not even the heavy iron fence that borders the grounds of the White House can keep dark magic from harming its inhabitants. A curse muttered on a bloodied battlefield in 1812 has left over a hundred years of President's scared for their lives, but has the debt finally been paid? Episode Highlights:
The History Goes Bump Podcast, Episode 162: The White House
Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter! | |||
| 018: The Place of the Dragon | 14 Apr 2017 | 00:23:10 | |
Deep within the heart of New Jersey lies an untamed swath of trees and brush, long believed to be the home of the Jersey Devil itself. A horrifying creature with the head of a goat and the wings of a bat, the legend of the Jersey Devil has haunted the Pine Barrens for generations. Yet the Jersey Devil might not be the only degenerate creature lurking within the shadows of the Pines. What dark secrets does the Devil guard? Episode Highlights:
Resources: Dogma and Ritual of High Magic by Eliphas Levi Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter! | |||
| 017: A Monster of Many Parts | 04 Apr 2017 | 00:25:14 | |
Who can forget the classic tale of the mad scientist who creates a gorgeously gruesome Creature, only to become frightened and disgusted by his own creation? Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein is one of the most widely taught examples of Gothic literature, yet most readers don't know the true story behind Shelley's most famous work. Was Frankenstein really the product of a writing competition between friends while on summer vacation, as most people believe it to be, or was the story of the scientist and his Monster born out of a much darker mindset? Episode Highlights:
Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter!
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| The Mermaid Returns: Part 3 | 21 Dec 2022 | 00:47:06 | |
The conclusion of the three part series which combines history, ghosts, true crime and fairytales. | |||
| 016: True Crime | 17 Mar 2017 | 00:30:16 | |
Fairy tales often teach an important moral lesson, hidden within the entertaining twists and turns of the story. The tale of Bluebeard, the rich man who keeps the bodies of his murdered wives locked behind the forbidden doors of the dungeon in his castle, doomed to have his wrongdoing exposed by his newest wife, serves as a reminder to young women that curiosity can sometimes be your downfall -- or your savior. In real life there are rarely happy endings to tragedies and moral lessons must be learned the hard way. For Zona Shue, choked to death in her own home, life was certainly no fairytale. Yet the strange events that led to a murder conviction were as fantastical as any tale written up in a storybook. The moral lesson in her twisted fairy tale? Mothers are always right. Episode Highlights:
Resources: The Man Who Wanted Seven Wives by Katie Letcher Lyle, Quarrier Press 1999 Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter! | |||
| 015: Condemned, Part Two - The Devil's Hour | 24 Feb 2017 | 00:31:36 | |
The time between three and four in the morning is said to be the hour when evil is at the height of it's power -- the time when the Devil ascends from Hell and ghosts haunt the land of the living. In part two of my experience of the Devil's hour inside Charleston's Old City Jail, I receive a message from Hell itself, and discover the truth about one of the jail's most famous prisoners -- Lavinia Fisher herself. Episode Highlights:
Resources:
Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter! | |||
| 014: Condemned, Part One - Welcome to Hell | 17 Feb 2017 | 00:31:44 | |
Nestled inside Charleston, South Carolina lives a menacing stone monstrosity, often called the most haunted building in America -- The Old City Jail. The square upon which the Jail sits has been home to untold amounts of suffering and torture, making it the perfect breeding ground for the supernatural to take hold. As part of my training and experience as a storyteller and tour guide, I have been visiting haunted locations for the past 19 years. There have been many times that I've been in the presence of people having a paranormal encounter, but I had never felt anything myself until the night I decided to enter the Old City Jail. This is part one of my experience, the story of a night that shook me to my very core. Episode Highlights:
Resources:
Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter! | |||
| 013: Place of Slaughter | 03 Feb 2017 | 00:28:39 | |
The railroad tracks over the Tsavo river are flanked on either side with lush grasses. A picturesque river runs below, providing a calming base for the trains that rush from Uganda to Kenya and back again. During it's construction, men from all over India and far parts of Africa gathered at the Tsavo river, working for months on end. At first, the men were oblivious to the twin pairs of golden eyes stalking them from the grasses… until half-devoured bodies and screams in the night became commonplace. From a distance, from a viewpoint high above the clouds, the Kenya-Uganda Railway snakes its way across deserts and through forests of thorns, trailing bloodshed and pain in its wake. Episode Highlights:
Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter!
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| 012: The Serpent's Curse | 13 Jan 2017 | 00:23:54 | |
Throughout history, disasters of astronomical proportions have taken place on one auspicious day -- Friday the Thirteenth. Shipwrecks, tsunamis, raging forest fires, brutal murderers, and horrifying accidents have all claimed victims on a day that many believe has been cursed since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The same serpent who tested the pair has become the dark figurehead of Friday the Thirteenth, feared by ancient cultures for centuries. The fear of 13 seems like old suspicions that were born and died in ancient times, but as an asteroid headed straight for the Earth threatens to destroy civilization as we know it, the due date of Friday the Thirteenth might be more relevant than ever. Episode Highlights:
Resources: Friday the Thirteenth by Thomas William Lawson "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe
Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter!
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| 011: The Labyrinth Part 2 - The Hell Below | 16 Dec 2016 | 00:25:05 | |
Underneath our world lies a twisting and complicated maze, a dark mass of underground caves, passageways, and secrets. In part two of our Labyrinth series, we delve into the explorations of Greg Newkirk into the heart of the Kentucky goblin mystery. Episode Highlights:
Resources: Secret Cipher of the UFONAUTS by Allen Greenfield "As Above, So Below" Episode of Euphomet Podcast Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes.Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter! | |||
| 010: The Labyrinth Part 1 - Goblins | 09 Dec 2016 | 00:25:01 | |
The brave Greek hero Theseus made a name for himself when he defeated the monstrous Minotaur and escaped the depths of the Labyrinth by mapping his path back to safety with a ball of red string. The story of the Kentucky Goblins is much like the twisting, mysterious Labyrinth. Many researchers have found themselves lost within the details of the tale, searching for the truth of what lives in the middle of the maze. Was 1950's Hopkinsville, Kentucky, really home to a colony of extraterrestrial beings? And if so… have they finally made their return? Episode Highlights:
Resources: Movies: Traveling Museum of the Paranormal and the Occult "Have the Kentucky Goblins Returned?" Article by Greg Newkirk Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes.Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter! | |||
| 008: Shadows of Gotham | 04 Nov 2016 | 00:27:05 | |
The city of dreams, the city that never sleeps, the city with streets paved with opportunities… for many of us, New York represents a glittering place where absolutely anything is possible. Yet for all its glamour and sparkle, there are dark secrets lurking within its shadows, and history has done little to wash away the blood that once soaked New York's prosperous streets. They say the population of New York City reaches nearly 8.5 million people. Does that count the haunted souls whose ghosts still roam the streets? Episode Highlights:
Resources: "Beautiful Suicide" photograph of Evelyn McHale Haunted Greenwich Village: Bohemian Banshee, Spooky Sites and Gonzalez Ghost Walks by Tom Ogden, published by Globe Pequot Press, 2012
Spindrift: Spray from a Psychic Sea by Jan Bryant Bartell Enjoyed this episode? Please support Pleasing Terrors by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on Itunes.
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| 007 The Married One | 21 Oct 2016 | 00:21:44 | |
The idyllic Fox Hollow Farm boasts of a basement-level swimming pool and sprawling acres of land. But all is not as it seems. A man creeps through the woods nearby, his legs transparent in the flashlight's beam. There is an incessant knocking at the front door by hands unseen. Night swims in the pool end with ghostly fingers clenched tight around a throat. For Joe Leblanc, Fox Hollow Farm was meant to be an escape from a long commute and skyrocketing rent. For the dozens of men buried on its grounds, Fox Hollow Farm had come to represent something much more sinister. Episode Highlights:
Resources:
Enjoyed this episode? Please support Pleasing Terrors by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on Itunes.
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| The Mermaid Returns: Part 2 | 11 Dec 2022 | 00:52:27 | |
The second episode in a three part series about one of Charleston's lost stories. It is a true story that combines history, true crime, ghosts and fairy tales. | |||
| 006: The Mountain of Madness | 07 Oct 2016 | 00:24:13 | |
Mysteries are a rarity in our world. What used to be unexplainable is now quickly answered by the modern marvels of technology and science. So when a new mystery appears, we drive ourselves crazy searching for an explanation, haunted by what we can't explain. One modern mystery is reasoning behind the strange events that took place on a Siberian mountain in 1959, in which a group of experienced hikers were found dead in bizarre circumstances. Since the day of the discovery, many have been tormented by one simple question: What happened on Dyatlov Pass? Was it a Yeti, an avalanche, a top secret military test gone horribly wrong that killed the group? Or was it something simply incomprehensible to modern listeners– an ill-fated encounter with goddesses and myths of old? Episode Highlights:
Resources:
Enjoyed this episode? Please support Pleasing Terrors by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on Itunes.
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| 005: Shadow of the Wolf | 21 Sep 2016 | 00:25:59 | |
Werewolves have been portrayed in folklore, books, movies and television for centuries. Rageful howls under the full moon. Fangs, claws, fur, muscle and legend. Is it a monster? A ghost or a demon? Is it real? Historic folk tales about werewolves often evoke images of crisp nights in dark ages of Europe. Yet in the United States, the state of Georgia has one of the longest histories of werewolf encounters in the country. This is the story of the Georgia Werewolf. Personal accounts and anecdotes in modern times give us a glimpse of this creature, not yet verified by science. Small-town legends passed down since the 1800s led ghost-hunters to the local cemetery. Rumors swirled around a well-known farm and the unusual behavior of a young family member. What if the monster was not in the woods, but amongst us? Episode Highlights:
Resources: Hunting the American Werewolf by Linda S. Godfrey - Amazon Enjoyed this episode? Please support Pleasing Terrors by rating, reviewing, and subscribing. | |||
| 004: The Devil's Business | 07 Sep 2016 | 00:28:42 | |
A haunted house should loom out of the darkness, its windows boarded up, ghosts and dust as the only occupants. But horror dwells inside two beautifully decorated homes in the Benedict Canyon of Beverly Hills. While its name means "heaven" in Spanish, 10050 Cielo Drive was nothing but Hell for the five victims brutally murdered by Charles Manson's "Family" within its walls. Some say their spirits still haunt the area, having taken up residence in the nearby Oman House.
Two men, film director David Oman and Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, have turned the blood-soaked history of Cielo Drive into a booming source of revenue. Both men show signs of struggling with their own inner demons – are the spirits still trapped within their homes disturbed and vengeful at the business created around their murders, or is it the morality of the situation haunting the living?
Episode Highlights:
Resources:
Enjoyed this episode? Please support Pleasing Terrors by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on Itunes.
Please visit Pleasing Terrors, Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter!
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| 003: The Invitation | 24 Aug 2016 | 00:25:47 | |
Wear garlic around your neck. Carry a wooden stake. Hang a crucifix on the wall, and never, ever, open the door for Dracula. The superstitions that were meant to protect our ancestors from vampires taught them the most important lesson of all: never invite a monster inside. Yet with the birth of Spiritualism in the 19th century came a rise in the belief that the dead harbor secret knowledge from the living, and inviting a monstrous spirit into your home became easier than ever. The Ouija board, printed with letters and numbers, has entranced generations as a gateway between this world and the next. Groups gather around the board, hands touching the planchette, and hope to make contact with lost loved ones or benevolent guides with insight that only comes from beyond the grave. But when you open the door into the darkness, you can't control what may come slinking through. Murder, madness, and possession have haunted Ouija board users since its inception, but where does this evil really come from? The spirit world? Or our own minds? Episode Highlights:
Resources: The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty Enjoyed this episode? Please support Pleasing Terrors by rating, reviewing, and subscribing. Please visit Pleasing Terrors, Charleston's best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter!
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| 002: Who Are You? | 10 Aug 2016 | 00:28:18 | |
Early 19th-century America was a time for the pioneer, the robust adventurer who leaves the familiarity of home in search of fortune and success. One such man was John Bell, a farmer who settled in Adams, Tennessee with his family and slaves. Their idyllic country life was soon disturbed after the youngest Bell child, Elizabeth, drew the attention of a sinister spirit. Strange creatures stalked the property as the sounds of clawing, choking, and banging haunted the Bell household, whose inhabitants demanded answers from the spirit who tormented them - "Who are you? What do you want?" Answers whispered from the walls around them as the spirit claimed to be a tormented soul, the resident of a disturbed grave, an immigrant, and finally -- a Witch. John Bell died gasping in the night, the disembodied voice of the Bell Witch cackling as it told his horrified family that he had been poisoned by the spirit. As the centuries passed, the legend of the Bell family haunting has become twisted with age, leaving modern listeners with these final questions: Who killed John Bell? Was it a Witch? Or someone much closer to home? Episode Highlights:
Resources: Enigmatic Anomalies Episode 5: The Bell Witch Haunting An Authenticated History of the Bell Witch by M.V. Ingram The Bell Witch: An American Haunting by Brent Monahan Quotes/Tweets: "Who are you? What do you want?" "Women who lived on the margins of society, especially older women, had always lived with the possibility of being cast in the role of the witch" "Whoever this was, whatever this was, it wanted John Bell dead" "It is killing me by slow tortures and I fear the end is nigh" "Like any good mystery, the killer may be the person you would least suspect" "We know that there was a voice whispering in the dark, but the question remains - whose voice?" | |||
| 001: Red Riding Hood & the Wolf | 03 Aug 2016 | 00:28:29 | |
Everyone knows the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The young child in her bright red cloak who gets lost in the forest, only to be preyed upon and devoured by the big bad wolf. Red Riding Hood is freed from her fate by a passing Huntsman, who slaughters the In the time when fairy tales served more to caution than to entertain, Little Red Riding Hood was a warning to always follow the marked path, listen to your elders, and never talk to strangers. The sad, strange story of Elisa Lam mirrors the familiar fairy tale -- except in this version, the lost little girl has no Huntsman to come to her rescue and perishes in the belly of the beast of Los Angeles. But who, exactly, is the beast? Is it the ill-fated hotel? A murderous stranger? Elisa herself? Episode Highlights:
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| The Mermaid Returns: Part 1 | 01 Dec 2022 | 00:52:30 | |
This is the first in a three part series about one of Charleston, South Carolina's lost stories. It combines history, ghosts, true crime, amd fairytales. | |||
| Here Are Dragons | 29 Mar 2021 | 00:47:44 | |
This episode features the untold story of the origin of King Kong. | |||
| Last Breath | 30 Oct 2020 | 01:00:36 | |
This episode tells a story about pirates and a haunted dungeon. | |||
| The Mermaid | 24 Jul 2020 | 00:47:22 | |
This episode tells the story of the Charleston mermaid. | |||
| Corpsewood | 23 Oct 2019 | 00:46:40 | |
This is a story about a German fairytale and a brutal murder in northwestern Georgia.
Suggested reading: The Corpsewood Manor Murders In North Georgia by Amy Petulla | |||
| Charleston Gothic: Part 3- Juliet's Tomb | 28 Dec 2025 | 00:55:26 | |
Find the grave of Annabel Lee and you find the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe!
In this episode, a hand-drawn map pulls us through a locked iron gate into Charleston's most overgrown churchyard, where legends gather like mist and names disappear into leaves. A lady in white wanders the paths. Sixty-four people have collapsed before this very gate.
We follow the trail of Annabel Lee—the girl Poe loved, or invented, or summoned—and uncover the stranger story beneath the legend: a visiting scholar who survived war and exile, stood before Juliet's Tomb in Verona, and quietly planted a grave that may never have existed.
The map points toward a burial—but the real treasure may be hidden elsewhere. What if the grave was a lie but the lie was true?
Sources:
The Ghosts of Charleston by Julian Buxton Edgar Allan Poe's Charleston by Christopher Byrd Downey
A History Lover's Guide to Charleston by Christopher Byrd Downey
Unburied Treasure: Edgar Allan Poe in the South Carolina Lowcountry Scott Peeples, Michelle Van Parys Southern Cultures, Vol. 22, No. 2
Haunted Charleston by Sarah Pitzer
Nevermore! Edgar Allan Poe- The Final Mystery by Julian Wiles
Primary Sources by Alexander Lenard
Die Kuh auf dem Bast (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1963) The Valley of the Latin Bear (New York, 1965) - English translation Am Ende der Via Condotti: Römische Jahre (München: DTV Verlag, 2017) - translated by Ernö Zeltner Stories of Rome (Budapest: Corvina, 2013) - translated by Mark Baczoni O Vale Do Fim Do Mundo (São Paulo: Cosac Naify, 2013) - translated by Paulo Schiller Die römische Küche (München, 1963) Sieben Tage Babylonisch (Stuttgart, 1964) A római konyha (1986) Winnie Ille Pu (Latin translation of Winnie-the-Pooh) Völgy a világ végén s más történetek (Budapest: Magvető, 1973)
Secondary Sources - Books and Academic Articles
Siklós, Péter. "Von Budapest bis zum Tal am Ende der Welt: Sándor Lénárds romanhafter Lebensweg" (online) Siklós, Péter. "The Klára Szerb – Alexander Lenard Correspondence." The Hungarian Quarterly 189 (2008): 42-61 Sachs, Lynne. "Alexander Lenard: A Life in Letters." The Hungarian Quarterly 199 (Autumn 2010): 93-104 Lénárt-Cheng, Helga. "A Multilingual Monologue: Alexander Lenard's Self-Translated Autobiography in Three Languages." Hungarian Cultural Studies 7 (January 2015) Vajdovics, Zsuzsanna. "Gli anni romani di Sándor Lénárd." Annuario: Studi e Documenti Italo-Ungheresi (Roma-Szeged, 2005) Vajdovics, Zsuzsanna. "Alexander Lenard: Portrait d'un traducteur émigrant." Atelier de Traduction 9 (2008): 185-191 Rapcsányi, László & Szerb, Klára. "Who Was Alexander Lenard? An Interview with Klára Szerb." The Hungarian Quarterly 189 (2008): 26-30 Lenard, Alexander. "A Few Words About Winnie Ille Pu." The Hungarian Quarterly 199 (2010): 87-92 Humblé, Philippe & Sepp, Arvi. "'Die Kriege haben mein Leben bestimmt': Alexander Lenard's Narratives of Brazilian Exile." In Hermann Gätje / Sikander Singh (Eds.), Grenze als Erfahrung und Diskurs (Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 2018) Badel, Keuly Dariana. "Writing oneself and the other: A biography of Alexander Lenard (1951-1972)." Proceedings of the XXVI National History Symposium – ANPUH (São Paulo, July 2011) Nascimento, Gabriela Goulart. "Erich Erdstein and the hunt for Nazis: A study on the book 'The Rebirth of the Swastika in Brazil.'" Federal University of Santa Catarina (Florianópolis, 2021) Mosimann, João Carlos. Catarinenses: Gênese E História (Florianópolis/SC, 2010) Kroener, Sebastian (Ed.). Das Hospital auf dem Palmenhof (Norderstedt, 2016) Ilg, Karl. Pioniere in Brasilien (Innsbruck/Wien/München, 1972) Lützeler, Paul Michael. "Migration und Exil in Geschichte, Mythos, und Literatur." In Bettina Bannasch / Gerhild Rochus (Eds.), Handbuch der deutschsprachigen Exilliteratur (Berlin/Boston, 2013): 3-25 Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism (New York, 1993) Said, Edward. Representations of the Intellectual: The 1993 Reith Lectures (New York, 1994) Herz-Kestranek, Miguel; Kaiser, Konstantin & Strigl, Daniela (Eds.). In welcher Sprache träumen Sie? Österreichische Lyrik des Exils und des Widerstands (Wien, 2007) Lomb, Kató. Harmony of Babel: Profiles of Famous Polyglots of Europe (Berkeley/Kyoto, 2013)
Hungarian Periodical Obituaries and Commemorations
Egri, Viktor. "A day in the invisible house." In Confession of Quiet Evenings (Bratislava: Madách, 1973): 162-166 Antalné Serb [Mrs. Antal Szerb]. "About Sándor Lénárd." Nagyvilág 1972/8: 1241-43 Kardos, György G. "Man at the end of the world: On the death of Sándor Lénárd." Élet és Irodalom (Life and Literature), May 6, 1972: 6 Bélley, Pál. "Tomb at the end of the world." Magyar Hírlap, April 29, 1972: 13 Kardos, Tibor. "Farewell to the doctor of the valley: The memory of Sándor Lénárd." Magyar Nemzet (Hungarian Nation), May 14, 1972: 12 (also in Az emberiség műhelyei, Budapest: Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó, 1973) Bodnár, Györgyi. Radio broadcast, Petőfi Rádió "Two to Six," June 21, 1972
Newspaper and Magazine Sources (Hungarian)
Magyar Napló, 2005 (17. évfolyam, 11. szám) Kurír, 1990 (1. évfolyam, 124. szám) Magyarország, 1969 (6. évfolyam, 9. szám) Élet és Irodalom, 2010 (54. évfolyam, 11. szám) Siklós, Péter. Budapesttől a világ végi völgyig – Lénárd Sándor regényes életútja Berta, Gyula. "Egy magyar orvos, aki megtanította latinul Micimackót"
Other Sources
Lenard, Andrietta. "In Memory of Alexander." O Estado, May 11, 1980 (Florianópolis) Rosenmann, Peter. "Lénárd Sándor." Web-lapozgató, November 30, 2004 Wittmann, Angelina. "Alexander Lenard – Sándor Lénárd – Chose Dona Emma SC" (blog, June 24, 2022) Spiró, György & Kallen, Eve Maria. "No politics, no ideology, just human relations." Hungarian Lettre 92 (2014): 4-7 FCC – Fundação Catarinense de Cultura Cultural Heritage Inventory (2006) AMAVI (Association of Municipalities of Alto Vale do Itajaí) Registry (2006) FamilySearch genealogical records Lenard Seminar Group website (mek.oszk.hu) Scherman, David E. "Roman Holiday for a Bashful Bear Named Winnie" (article on Winnie Ille Pu)
Film
Sachs, Lynne. The Last Happy Day (experimental documentary film, 2009) - premiered at New York Film Festival | |||
| Charleston Gothic: Part 2- Buried Treasures | 14 Dec 2025 | 00:54:11 | |
In this episode, we follow the Annabel Lee legend backward: from modern ghost tours to nineteenth-century poetry, from pirate treasure maps to academic footnotes, from Sullivan's Island beaches to a forgotten corner of a graveyard. What emerges is not a simple ghost story, but an obsession—shared by scholars, storytellers, and an entire city convinced that something precious was buried in the South Carolina Lowcountry and must be found.
Edgar Allan Poe's Charleston by Christopher Byrd Downey
Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle By C.G. Jung
Unburied Treasure: Edgar Allan Poe in the South Carolina Lowcountry Scott Peeples, Michelle Van Parys Southern Cultures, Vol. 22, No. 2
Haunting Poe: His Afterlife in Richmond and Beyond by Christopher P. Semtner
Nevermore! Edgar Allan Poe- The Final Mystery by Julian Wiles
The New York Evening Post
The Charleston News and Courier The Sullivan's Island Edition of The Gold-Bug by Edgar Allan Poe, Frank Durham and Elizabeth Verner Hamilton | |||
| Charleston Gothic: Part 1- Night Sea Journey | 19 Nov 2025 | 01:02:58 | |
The Descent has led us to Charleston, and to a haunted historic theatre where we uncover a clue that may bring us closer to finding the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe.
Sources:
The Ghosts of Charleston by Julian Buxton
Charleston Ghosts: Hauntings in the Holy City by James Caskey
Complex, archetype and symbol in the psychology of C.G. Jung by Jolande Jacobi
The Mad Booths of Maryland By Preston Kimmel
The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe by Scott Peeples
Nevermore! Edgar Allan Poe- The Final Mystery by Julian Wiles
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| Charleston Gothic: Part 4- Tekeli | 12 Jan 2026 | 01:01:24 | |
CHARLESTON GOTHIC Episode 4: Tekeli
The Charleston Library Society has survived fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, and war—emerging each time with its treasures intact. Among those treasures: the world's most complete archive of Charleston newspapers from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
In this episode, we enter the stacks where a ghost named Hinson is said to wander, where Henry Timrod's blood-stained manuscript bears witness to a poet's final days, and where a century-old scholarly article waited decades for someone to understand what it revealed. What was Edgar Allan Poe really searching for when he visited Charleston's archives during his time at Fort Moultrie? For over a hundred years, the legend said he came looking for pirate treasure—the buried gold that would inspire "The Gold-Bug." But a 1922 discovery by a Texas scholar suggested something far more personal. Following threads that connect the Poetry Society of South Carolina, a Harvard-trained philologist, and the vanished stage of the Charleston Theatre, we trace Poe's footsteps to a secret hidden in plain sight—one that may unlock the strangest passage he ever wrote.
The answer lies where it has always been: in the newspapers, in the archives, in the advertisements for a play called Tekeli.
Sources:
Books
- Allen, Hervey. Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe (1926) - Allen, Hervey and DuBose Heyward. Carolina Chansons (1922) - Allen, Hervey and Thomas Ollive Mabbott. Poe's Brother: The Life and Poetry of William Henry Leonard Poe (1926) - Downey, Christopher Byrd. Edgar Allan Poe's Charleston (2020) - Kopley, Richard. Edgar Allan Poe: A Life (2025) - Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed. Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 1: Poems (Harvard University Press, 1969) - Poe, Edgar Allan. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838) - Ravenel, Beatrice Witte. The Arrow of Lightning (1926)
Academic Articles
- Law, Robert Adger. "A Source for 'Annabel Lee'" Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Volume 21 (April 1922) - Peeples, Scott and Michelle Van Parys. "Unburied Treasure: Edgar Allan Poe in the South Carolina Lowcountry." Southern Cultures (2016)
Newspapers & Periodicals
- Charleston Courier (December 4, 1807) - Charleston Courier (March 22, 1811) - Charleston Mercury (2011) - News and Courier (February 6, 1889) - News and Courier (1938) - Southern Patriot (July 25, 1833) - Russell's Magazine - Southern Literary Messenger - Texas Review / Southwest Review
Archival & Primary Sources
- Charleston Library Society archives - Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Volume 21 — inscribed "Gift of author, Oct. 1934" - Surveyor's plat for Captain William C. Hammer (February 16, 1867) - Affidavit dated September 5, 1745 (Cid Campeador treasure deposition)
Plays
- Hook, Theodore Edward (libretto) and James Hook (music). Tekeli; or, The Siege of Montgatz
Television
- "Time Enough at Last." The Twilight Zone (1959)
Reference Works
- South Carolina Encyclopedia (entry on Henry Timrod)
Interviews & Personal Communications
- Christopher Byrd Downey (conversation at Owlbear Café) - Danielle Cox, Digital Historian, Charleston Library Society - Scott Peeples, phone interview
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| Charleston Gothic: Part 5- The Unfortunate Pirate | 24 Jan 2026 | 01:22:05 | |
Episode 51: The Unfortunate Pirate For over a century, "Annabel Lee" has been read as Edgar Allan Poe's final love poem—a haunting elegy to his child bride Virginia, written months before his death. But what if we've been wrong about the poem's true subject all along? In this episode, Mike follows a trail of evidence from a forgotten 1827 tale about a murderous pirate to the windswept shores of Sullivan's Island, where Poe was stationed as a young soldier. Along the way, he uncovers a family accusation that pursued Poe his entire life, a poem he was forced to burn, and the testimony of a woman who nursed him through his darkest hours. What emerges is a radical reinterpretation of America's most famous poem of loss—and a story about what it means to defend someone you love when the whole world has turned against them. The grave of Annabel Lee has finally been found. It was never where anyone thought to look.
Sources Referenced in Episode 51: The Unfortunate Pirate Primary Sources & Archival Materials Ellis & Allan Papers, Library of Congress (John Allan's 1824 letter to William Henry Leonard Poe) Charleston Courier, December 4, 1807 ("The Mourner" by D.M.C.; theatrical advertisements for Placide's company) Charleston News and Courier, September 15, 1912 (account of the Pirate's House legend) The North American (Baltimore periodical containing "The Pirate" by W.H.P., published November 27, 1827) Flag of Our Union (Boston, 1849 — publication of "To My Mother") New York Tribune (publication of "Annabel Lee," October 1849) Broadway Journal, 1845 (Poe's defense of his mother's profession) John Henry Ingram correspondence with Marie Louise Shew (1875–1877) Works by Edgar Allan Poe "Annabel Lee" (1849) "To My Mother" (1849) "Song" (from Tamerlane and Other Poems, 1827) "To M. L. S." (1847) "To Marie Louise" (1848) The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket Secondary Sources & Biographies Hervey Allen — Poe biographer (collaborated with Thomas Ollive Mabbott) Thomas Ollive Mabbott — Poe scholar (1927 discovery of W.H.P. works in The North American) Robert Adger Law, "A Source for 'Annabel Lee'" (April 1922) — article tracing the poem to the Charleston Courier John Henry Ingram — early Poe biographer J.W. Ocker, Poe-Land: The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe Scott Peeples — Poe scholar (quoted in Poe-Land) Contemporary Accounts & Memoirs John Sartain — account of Poe's 1849 Philadelphia breakdown N.P. Willis — description of Maria Clemm as "Edgar's sole ministering angel" Marie Louise Shew — correspondence and forty pages of notes from Fordham Mary Starr — recollections of the Poe household in Baltimore Samuel Mordecai — letter describing fashionable visitors to Elizabeth Poe's deathbed Colonel James House — March 30, 1829 letter requesting Poe's discharge Historical & Architectural References Robert Mills — architect of the Fireproof Building (Charleston, 1827) and Monumental Church (Richmond, 1814) Richmond Theatre Fire accounts (December 26, 1811) Previous Episodes Referenced "Night Sea Voyage" (Dock Street Theatre, Julian Wiles's Nevermore!) "Buried Treasures" (Charleston's Gold-Bug mythology, Alexander Lenard) "Juliet's Tomb" (Alexander Lenard's biography, the A.L.R. tombstone) "Tekeli" (Robert Adger Law's discovery, Eliza Poe's Charleston performances, Tekeli connection) | |||