The otherworld of Welsh mythology, known as Annwn, is said to be populated with a vast array of creatures including fairies and mottled ridged serpents.  It is also said that there is one place more than any other where the bridge between our world and theirs is at its thinnest.

That place, is the Berwyn Mountains...

Go to twitter@unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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1990 in Gulf Breeze, Florida, in the early hours of Saturday, July 14th, a young man is pulled over for a routine traffic stop. Little could anyone have predicted it would begin the unravelling of one of the most bizarre cases of desertion in the United States Military’s entire history.

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The volcanic landscape of Iceland exerts a strong pull on the psyche. So it's no wonder the nation's folklore is so rich with stories of the supernatural, of ghosts and trolls, but most of all, elves... 

This episode was written by Diane Hope and produced by Richard MacLean Smith

Go to @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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On December 1st, 1948, the body of an unknown man was found on Somerton Beach in Adelaide, South Australia. 

Despite recent claimes that the identity of the individual, who would come to be known as the Somerton Man, has now been discovered, his story remians one of the most enduring mysteries of modern times.

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In 1685 George Sinclair, the brother of Maister Thomas Sinclair, the man who revealed Major Thomas Weir's confession to the authorities, published a book titled Satan's Invisible World Discovered, which contained a number of stories that neatly outlined the leading superstitions of the day.

Among them, although never referred to as such, is one of the earliest ever recorded cases of an apparent poltergeist...

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In 1670, in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Major Thomas Weir, a Covenanter and man of puritanical faith was a much-respected member of the city's Presbyterian community. Until, one day, the mask slipped.  

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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With the death of Francisco Marto in 1919, followed by that of his sister Jacinta the following year, Lucia dos Santos was left as the only living member of the enigmatic trio who knew the apparent secrets given to them by the Virgin Mary.

Lucia disclosed the first two in 1941. The third one however, she would not reveal, believing it was simply too distressing for the public to hear...  

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Part two of Season 6 Episode 20: Children of the Pastures

Lucia is faced with a true test of her faith as the Mayor attempts to put an end to her and her cousin's extraordinary claims. 

Meanwhile, excitement grows for the miracle that the Virgin Mary has apparently promised to perform at her 6th and final appearance...

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In the spring of 1916, three young children from the village of Aljustrel in western Portugal claimed to see the Virgin Mary while out tending sheep in a nearby pasture. 

The incident marked the beginning of what is now known as the Fatima Prophecies.

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In March 1974, Terry Matthews and his mother, Gerri Betz, came across a strange metallic sphere in the woods close to their home in Jacksonville, Florida.

Then, things got a little strange...

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In 1951, 67-year-old Mary Reeser moved down from Columbia, Pennsylvania to Florida to be closer to her son and grandchildren.

Five weeks later, Mary was dead; killed in the most horrifying and bizarre circumstances that continue to confound to this day.

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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It is said that St Francis of Assisi was the first person to receive the stigmata, back in 1224. 

Since then only thirty or so people have seriously claimed to have suffered from it, with perhaps the most famous of them being Francesco Forgione, or as he would later be known, Padre Pio.

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In the late 1940s, Italian sculptor Amilcare Santini was commissioned to make a statue of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to use as a model for mass production. 

Little did he know, that it would become just about the most famous depiction of the Immaculate Heart ever created.

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Third and final part of Season 07 Episode 23: The Box 

Jason continues his quest to get to the bottom of how the dibbuk box came into being.  What he uncovers is more wild than he could possibly have imagined...

Go to @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Perhaps one of the strangest cases of an unidentified body occurred in Kenora, Canada, in 1974 when an unknown man walked into the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce on Main Street with disastrous consequences...

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In late November 1970, in a valley just outside of Bergen in western Norway, a 12-year-old girl stumbles upon the burned remains of a body.  The discovery will spark one of the most enigmatic true-crime mysteries of modern times.  

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In last week's episode, we learned about Baba Vanga, whose apparent psychic abilities are said to have been analysed by a number of parapsychologists.

As for mainstream scientists, you might think they prefer to stay away from such things.

In fact, there is a long and fascinating history of well-respected academics, many of whom have made significant contributions in their field, putting such people to the test, with often startling results.   

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Blinded in a freak storm, Baba Vanga from Strumica in present-day North Macedonia is believed by some to have been the most gifted psychic of the modern age. 

Her life story is almost as extraordinary as her supposed gifts. 

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Of all the strange aviation related disappearances, perhaps the spookiest of all are those in which the aircraft return, but the crew do not...

Stories like that of US Navy scouting blimp L-8, which in 1942 became the locus of one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time.  

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Second Officer Donald Repo was one of the 101 people killed when Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 crashed in the everglades just west of Miami in December 1972.

But then, according to numerous apparent witnesses, he came back…

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Early in the evening of November 23 1953, USAF pilot First Lieutenant Felix Moncla and radar operator Second Lieutenant Robert Wilson were scrambled in an F-89 Scorpion to intercept a UFO flying over Lake Superior.

They and their plane were never seen again. 

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In May 1967, Stefan Michalak was spotted walking along Trans-Canada Highway 1, just west of Falcon Lake in Manitoba, Canada. 

Bleary-eyed and holding a briefcase in one hand, while clutching at his stomach with the other, the story of what he was doing there exactly, is one of the strangest in Canadian history. 

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Remorse, guilt, and the ghosts of the English Civil War.

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In 1898 a story written by Mildred Darby was published in London’s Belgravia magazine titled, “A House of Horrors.”

Darby later claimed it was in fact a true reflection of the many strange goings-on that occurred during her time living at Leap Castle in Ireland.

This episode is an adaptation of “A House of Horrors” by Mildred Darby.

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Part two of Season 07 Episode 23: The Box 

Despite the disturbing nature of Kevin's eBay listing, his 'dibbuk' box attracts the interest of hundreds of potential buyers. Before long, it's heading for Kirksville, Missouri, with disturbing consequences...

Go to @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In this episode, we look at the history of criminal profiling and how the practice first came about. But more importantly, just how effective is it anyway?

The answers might surprise you. 

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening. 

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This episode contains deeply disturbing scenes of violence, murder and sexual violence toward children. Parental discretion is advised.

Third and final part of Season 6 Episode 12: A Darkness on the Edge of Town 

With many giving up hope of ever finding the killer, Detective James Wilkerson is convinced he has the guilty man in his sights. 

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening. 

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This episode contains deeply disturbing scenes of violence, murder and sexual violence toward children. Parental discretion is advised.

Part Two of Season 6 Episode 12: A Darkness on the Edge of Town 

In the wake of the horrific murders in Villisca, investigators struggle to find a culprit. But is the killer already in their midst?

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening. 

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This episode contains deeply disturbing scenes of violence, murder and sexual violence toward children. Parental discretion is advised.

In June 1912, one quiet rural community in southwest Iowa, USA, became the scene of one of the most brutal and inexplicable unsolved murders in American history. It remains no less shocking today than it was over 100 years ago. 

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening. 

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Perhaps the strangest and most mysterious story to come out of the 'Bennington Triangle' was that which took place in the early 1800s, which ultimately led to the first officially recorded case of a wrongful conviction for murder in the United States, but was it?  

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Between 1945-1950, four people vanished without trace in an area of Vermont dubbed the Bennington Triangle due to the array of strange and weird occurrences said to have taken place there. 

In 1946, 18-year-old Paula Jean Weldon became the second of those four people disappear in a case one investigator described as the most baffling he ever came across.

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening. 

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Some look for gold in rock seams and mineral deposits. Others prefer their search for riches served with a healthy side order of deep and mystical conspiracy... 

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Back in 1892, 29-year-old Julia Thomas headed out into the heart of Arizona's Superstition Mountains in search of an apparently lost gold mine, after having its location disclosed to her by a dying man. Said to have been the richest mine in the world at the time it has since become known as The Lost Ducthman's Mine.

Some say it still lies out there, just waiting to be discovered...

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Just like Miguel Jose Viana and Manual Pereira da Cruz, 32-year-old Granger Taylor, from Vancouver Island, Canada, also had extensive knowledge of electronics and a burning desire to visit another world.  

And just like Miguel and Manuel, his too is a tragic tale clouded in mystery.

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In Brazil, in August 1966, two years into a military dictatorship, there was every reason to assume the bodies of two men, found dead on a hill outside the city of Niteroi, could well be victims of the country's cruel new reality.

Within minutes of surveying the apparent crime scene, however, it quickly became clear to police that something far more bizarre was going on. 

 Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In June 2003, something unusual popped up for sale on eBay.

The listing was posted by used furniture dealer Kevin Mannis and concerned a strange Jewish artefact he'd apparently purchased a few years before. He called it a 'dibbuk' box.

He said he wanted to sell it because, according to him, it was haunted...

Go to @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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It may seem far-fetched to believe that a vampire had been living at the site of London's Highgate Cemetery since the 18th century.

But did you know the so-called vampire plague said to have ravaged parts of eastern Europe in the 1730s was in one way or another, entirely real...

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In the late 1960s, a large number of acts of vandalism perpetrated in English churchyards were thought to be linked to a resurgent interest in black magic. 

In Highgate Cemetery in North London especially, the evidence was becoming increasingly difficult to deny. 

Something dark and sinister, it seemed, was brewing...

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Author Elliot O’Donnell wrote widely about all manner of apparent hauntings in Britain and the United States, but there was one story – or rather location, for which he had a particular soft spot.  

The place, a mid-terraced Georgian townhouse in London’s Berkeley Square is often referred to as quite simply the most haunted house in London...

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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(Please note: the following episode is adapted from the live episode I presented at the London Podcast Festival in 2016 and later released on this stream, so may be familiar to some listeners).

In the English north western town of Runcorn in 1952, like most typical working families of the time left dealing with the economic aftershocks of the second world war, the Jones and Glynns of 1 Byron Street had little choice but to keep calm and carry on regardless. 

But nothing could prepare them for the extraordinary events that were soon to engulf their lives...

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Almost every culture it seems has a story of wild mythical creatures living out in the woods and mountains. 

Sometimes they break out from the myth, to be apparently captured on film, recorded on audio, and seen in real-life.

And in 1850, one was even said to have been caught...

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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In July, 1924, a group of prospectors returned from a trip working their claim in the Cascade Mountains of the Pacific Northwest, with an incredible tale to tell having apparently come face to face with some kind of terrifying ape-like creatures...

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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More on Kaspar Hauser with some thoughts on the myth of the 'noble savage', the Allegory of the Cave, and the problem with 'Original Sin'...

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Part Two of Season 06 Episode 5: The Boy Who.

As Kaspar Hauser’s mind begins to expand, so too does his sense of self and the world around him.

Meanwhile, as rumours begin to swirl about his true identity and where he had really been all his life, things take a deeply sinister turn.

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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One afternoon in May 1828, a mysterious boy stumbled into a quiet square in the picturesque city of Nürnberg, in what was then the German Confederation.

Unable to utter more than a few words and seeming as though he had just arrived from another planet, when the apparent truth of the boy's provenance eventually came to light, it was even more extraordinary than anyone could possibly have imagined. 

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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The strange story of British teenager Matthew Manning who achieved worldwide fame in the 1970s after he was determined to possess incredible psychic powers. 

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Second and final part of Season 07 Episode 22: Jumping into Legend

In the hunt for the true identity of the so-called Dan Cooper, the FBI and police interview over 800 suspects. Could one of them be him?

This episode was written by Emma Dibdin and produced by Richard MacLean Smith.

Go to @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or www.unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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The third and final part of Season 6 Episode 4: The Widening Gyre

As the bizarre events at 284 Green Street show no sign of abating, things reach a fever pitch in December 1977 with a series of even more seemingly incredible events, as Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair struggle to make sense of it all. 

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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Part Two of Season 6 Episode 4: The Widening Gyre 

As Guy Lyon Playfair joins the fray at 284 Green Street, the bizarre activity plaguing the Hodgson family starts to intensify. And soon, things begin to take a more sinister turn.  

Go to twitter @unexplainedpod, facebook.com/unexplainedpodcast or unexplainedpodcast.com for more info. Thank you for listening.

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It was back in May 2020 that the body of Ben Williams was found in his flat on Fountain Road in Tooting, London.

When police found him, those who saw the state of his body had no doubt he had been murdered. After a more thorough investigation, however, the cause of Ben’s death was judged unknown and labeled simply ‘death by misadventure'.

And then they discovered the tapes; an audio diary that Ben had been recording of the pandemic, in the months before he died.

These are those tapes, raw and unadorned. Make of them, what you will.

Happy Halloween and remember, wherever you are, it is always the witching hour, somewhere...

https://thefountainroadfiles.com/

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