Southern Ghost Stories
Southern Ghost Stories
American Hauntstorian Allen Sircy explores America’s haunted past — unearthing true ghost stories, graveyard legends, and forgotten folklore. Join him as he gives voice to haunted history and chilling tales that blur the line between fact and myth from every corner of the country.
Episodes
Hanged Twice: The Ballad of Charles Dilger
In August 1888, a brawl inside a Louisville boardinghouse left two police officers fatally stabbed and local brawler Charles Dilger facing the gallows. After surviving three suicide attempts in his cell, Dilger dropped through the scaffold trapdoor only for the noose to unravel, forcing deputies to haul the barefoot killer back up and hang him a second time. Years later, terrified inmates swore Dilger stalked their cells, while a guard froze in terror beneath a pair of bare feet dangling in the jail yard. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy unearths one of Kentucky’s most gruesome true-crime sagas, a botched execution, and the vengeful spirit that refused to leave the old Jefferson County Jail behind.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Nashville's Most Haunted Church
Standing in downtown Nashville, St. Mary of the Seven Sorrows is Tennessee’s oldest Catholic church—a historic Gothic cathedral harboring a bloody past as a Civil War hospital where hundreds died. Decades after the church’s towering first bishop, Richard Pius Miles, was buried beneath the floorboards and forgotten until a hidden crypt was breached in 1969, clergy and caretakers began reporting phantom footsteps, self-moving doors, death omens, and the apparition of a tall cleric roaming dark corridors. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy explores the sacred downtown landmark where nearly two centuries of faith, war, and restless spirits remain permanently tangled together.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
The Florida Werewolf Panic
In the spring of 1972, the city of Lakeland, Florida, was gripped by mass hysteria when residents reported a shaggy beast stalking roadways and leaping into headlights. What began as scattered driver sightings quickly ignited front-page headlines, late-night police searches, armed citizens, and copycat prowlers—spurred on by a prankster who started it all with a souvenir mask from the newly opened Walt Disney World. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy unpacks Florida’s bizarre "Lakeland Werewolf" panic, exploring how a cheap mask and runaway media coverage birthed a full-blown modern urban legend.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
From the Vault: The Creve Coeur Lake Demon
In August 1892, headlines in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat fueled panic with reports of a nocturnal demon stalking the waters of Creve Coeur Lake, thrashing violently and churning the shallows into an eerie boiling foam whenever young lovers approached the shore. According to legend, the creature was the cursed spirit of an 18th-century native princess who threw herself from the towering bluffs after being abandoned by the French governor's son she loved—doomed by her heartbroken chieftain father to spend eternity as a water fiend tormenting couples along the banks. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy dives into the haunting origins of Missouri's "lake of broken hearts," unraveling the tragic legend, the cursed waters, and the bizarre 19th-century sightings that terrified St. Louis.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
From the Vault : Ernst Doepke — The Prince of Body Snatchers
In late 19th-century St. Louis, privy cleaner Ernst Doepke built a macabre fortune as the "Prince of Body Snatchers"—getting paid by the city to bury unclaimed paupers, secretly digging them back up to sell to medical schools, and reselling their stolen coffins for extra cash. His brazen operation crossed every line when he exhumed his own dead brother, sliced off his decomposing beard as a parlor keepsake, and later dug up his own mother's grave under the cover of night. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy reveals the shocking true crime saga of a resurrectionist who beat prison time on a bizarre casket technicality and spent decades cheating both the living and the dead.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
The Blood Countess Conspiracy
For over four centuries, Countess Elizabeth Báthory has haunted history as the "Blood Countess"—a ruthless Hungarian noblewoman accused of slaughtering hundreds of servant girls and bathing in virgin blood to preserve her youth. Perched high in the Carpathian Mountains at Csejte Castle, her immense wealth and royal bloodlines made her virtually untouchable until a 1610 raid led to her brutal servants' executions and saw Elizabeth bricked up alive in her own fortress. But was she truly the sadistic monster that fueled modern vampire lore, or was she a powerful widow framed by an indebted king eager to erase his debts and seize her empire? In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy dives into the dark origins of vampire folklore to separate documented fact from political conspiracy, gruesome myth, and the bloody legend of history's most notorious noblewoman.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Blackbeard: The Pirate, the Legend, and the Ghost
More than three centuries after terrorizing the Atlantic, the towering specter of Edward Teach—better known as Blackbeard—refuses to abandon the mist-shrouded waters of the North Carolina coast. Armed with smoking fuses braided into his beard and a fearsome reputation designed to freeze merchant crews with sheer dread, Teach transformed from a wartime privateer into the most notorious pirate captain in American history, culminating in a daring naval showdown against Royal Navy Lieutenant Robert Maynard at Ocracoke Inlet. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy separates flesh-and-blood history from enduring coastal folklore, exploring the lost wreckage of the Queen Anne's Revenge, the bloody final clash in the shallow waters of Teach's Hole, and the eerie spectral lights said to still haunt the Outer Banks long after the smoke cleared.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
The Dead Man’s Ultimatum
When convicted murderer William Van Dalsen walked calmly to the Louisville gallows in 1905, his eerie lack of fear stunned guards and doctors alike—a quiet composure fueled by a sudden, eleventh-hour conversion to Catholicism. But the real horror began days after his execution. Past midnight, a young Baptist woman named Ethel Gentry—who had visited him shortly before he died—woke to find a glowing, luminescent figure standing beside her bed, tugging at her blankets and speaking in a cold, unnatural whisper. Night after night, the apparition returned with a relentless supernatural ultimatum: she must convert to the Catholic faith, or he would never leave her in peace. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy uncovers the bizarre Louisville haunting of Ethel Gentry and the chilling bargain that silenced an executed killer's spirit the moment his final demand was fulfilled.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Is the Grand Ole Opry Cursed?
For nearly a century, stepping into the sacred circle of the Grand Ole Opry has meant reaching the pinnacle of country music success—yet behind the applause lies an unsettling legacy of sudden, violent deaths that sparked rumors of a sinister curse. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy examines the tragic pattern that stalked the show's biggest stars: the untimely demise of Hank Williams at twenty-nine, the fatal plane crashes that claimed Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves, and the brutal double murder of Stringbean Akeman just hours after stepping off the Ryman stage. Even after moving across Nashville and embedding a six-foot circle of the old wooden floor into the new venue, tragedy followed—culminating in Dottie West’s fatal crash as she raced to make an Opry show. Tune in as we explore the chilling folklore, bizarre coincidences, and lingering shadows behind Nashville's most infamous musical legend.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Stalked by a Ghost: The Strange Case of Edward Sewell
On August 12, 1901, a daylight shooting in a Pittsburgh saloon sparked one of the most chilling manhunts in Pennsylvania history—led not by police, but by the phantom of the victim. After gunning down Edward Sewell, steelworker Henry Taylor fled, only to find the dead man matching him stride for stride beside speeding streetcars, along midnight rail lines, and even inside the deafening roar of a steel mill. Driven to near-madness by sleepless exhaustion and terror, Taylor finally welcomed arrest just to seek sanctuary behind prison bars, only to discover that locked doors could not keep the dead away. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy explores the harrowing tale of a killer hounded across the state by a restless spirit keeping a lethal promise—a spectral pursuit that ended only at the foot of the gallows.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
From the Vault: The Shepherdess of Paradise & the House of Seven Bathrooms
In this "From the Vault" episode, Allen Sircy enters the shadowy world of late 19th-century Chicago, where Dr. Mabel Jackman became a commanding force in the city's spiritualist movement. From her North Clark Street boardinghouse, the self-proclaimed "Shepherdess of Paradise" hosted mystical gatherings and séances for a devoted flock—until prominent physician Dr. Alfred J. Cole became entangled in a ruinous financial scheme led by two shadowy grifters. Facing scandalous accusations of hypnotic manipulation and spiritual coercion, Dr. Jackman's empire began to unravel, igniting decades of legal battles that reached from opulent drawing rooms to the eerie confines of the notorious House of Seven Bathrooms. Tune in as we uncover the enigmatic saga of Dr. Mabel Jackman, where séances, greed, and alleged mind control collided in the heart of Gilded Age Chicago.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Coffin Nails and Broken Hexes: The Legend of Blue Jacket
In the post–Civil War mining camps of Missouri, desperate souls facing ruin, jail time, or tragic misfortune often bypassed courts and doctors to seek help from the supernatural: the ancient folk magic of conjure. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy explores the legendary exploits of "Blue Jacket," an enigmatic, green-spectacled root doctor revered for breaking hoodoo curses across Macon County. From unearthing buried iron charms outside prison walls to neutralizing deadly hexes laid by feared rivals, Blue Jacket walked the thin line between folk magic, human psychology, and spiritual showmanship. Tune in as we uncover the forgotten world of 19th-century conjure doctors, where belief was absolute and hope was the most powerful medicine of all.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
The Petrified Corpse of St. Joseph Cemetery
In this bizarre episode, host Allen Sircy journeys to St. Joseph Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio, to uncover the grotesque 1881 exhumation of Vital Nagel, a woman who had been buried directly in the earth without a coffin five years earlier. When gravediggers attempted to relocate her remains to a unified family plot, their shovels struck not rot or bone, but a corpse that had mysteriously transformed into solid, statue-like stone. As horrified family members looked on, an initial team of four couldn't budge the petrified woman, prompting a desperate sexton to swing a pickaxe at her limbs in vain before nearly a dozen men finally managed to hoist her using straps—only for a freak accident with a falling pick to snap her petrified head clean off and send it rolling back to the bottom of the open grave.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
The Curse of the Tequesta: Why the Miami Dolphins Can’t Win
In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, host Allen Sircy merges football history with the paranormal to explore the "Curse of the Tequesta," a legendary hex believed to have haunted South Florida football for over four decades. After dominating the 1970s at the Orange Bowl with an undefeated season and back-to-back championships, the Miami Dolphins’ fortunes vanished following the 1985 groundbreaking of Joe Robbie Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium), which unearthed and disturbed a centuries-old Native American burial ground. From the heartbreaking postseason collapses that denied Dan Marino a return to the Super Bowl to modern playoff miseries, Miami Hurricanes heartbreaks, and eerie parallels to New Orleans' Superdome, this episode investigates whether decades of frustration are just bad luck or lingering spiritual retribution from an ancient cemetery that should have been left in peace.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Can A Man Give Away His Head?
In this bizarre chapter of nineteenth-century medical history, host Allen Sircy uncovers the macabre battle over the severed skull of Dr. William Byrd Powell, a prominent eclectic physician and devoted phrenologist who spent his life mapping human character through bone. Convinced his own cranium was the ultimate scientific specimen, Powell legally bequeathed his head to his favored student, pioneering female physician Dr. Temperance Kinsey, and her skull-collecting doctor husband, Adolphus Keckeler. Following an open-air decapitation on the grounds of Linden Grove Cemetery in Covington, Kentucky, the severed head was spirited across the river to Ohio, igniting a fierce courtroom war with Powell's horrified family and forcing the law to answer a truly grotesque question: can a man legally give away his own head?Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
The Beast of Bay Raven
Here's a fun one for Tennessee Tales Tuesday! Tucked away on Old Douglas Lane in Gallatin, Tennessee, the 1820s Douglass Cemetery—better known as Bay Raven—is legendary not just for restless spirits, but for a bizarre, evolving monster. In the 1950s, tales of an insatiable, bull-sized, gorilla-like creature devouring livestock, dried apples, and allegedly thirty-six dogs in one night drew a reporter from The Tennessean out to investigate. Over the decades, the folklore transformed the beast into a terrifying half-man, half-raven hybrid linked to a local dare: walk three times around a certain cemetery tree to summon it. Balancing eerie lore with genuine respect for the damaged, two-century-old burial ground, host Allen Sircy recounts bravely testing the ritual himself in daylight—surviving unharmed, but proving why this shifting monster remains one of Gallatin’s most enduring, unforgettable legends.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Indiana Hauntings and Vampires, Plus Ghosts of Gallatin Kicks off 2026 Season!
In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, host Allen Sircy announces the return of the 2026 Ghosts of Gallatin Haunted Tour and introduces his two new books: Fear and Folklore: Vampires, which details the nineteenth-century New England Vampire Panic—where desperate, grief-stricken families, ravaged by the unseen devastation of tuberculosis, exhumed suspected relatives like Mercy Brown in 1892 to burn their organs under the belief that the dead were consuming the living—and Ghost Stories and Graveyard Tales: Indiana, which chronicles the enduring, century-long hauntings of Evansville’s Victorian Gothic Willard Library and its elusive apparition, the Grey Lady.The books are available now over at Amazon.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
From the Vault: Spirits of the Springs—The Thomas House
In this "From the Vault" episode of Southern Ghost Stories, host Allen Sircy charts the wild history and intense paranormal lore of the Thomas House in Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee—tracing its roots from a premier early 20th-century mineral springs resort built by the Cloyd family, through a bizarre 1970s stint under WWF wrestler Lester Morgan and his wrestling bear, to a near-disastrous takeover by a cult in the late 1980s. Rebranded by the Cole family in 1993, the historic landmark is now celebrated as one of Tennessee’s most actively haunted hotspots, teeming with restless spirits that range from young Sarah in Room 37 to the playful spirit of a drowned boy named Billy. Is the Thomas House really one of Tennessee's most haunted locations? Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Murderer's Rock: The Kentucky Legend
For nearly two centuries in Nelson County, Kentucky, locals have whispered the chilling tale of Nancy Hays—a frontier beauty found brutally murdered and decapitated along Rowan Creek in the 1820s. When suspicion fell upon her heartbroken suitor, Amos Molloy, an angry mob hanged him from a tree, ignoring his desperate cries that an axe-wielding madman had ambushed them both. But the tragedy didn't end at the gallows: years later, a dying stranger delivered a shocking deathbed confession. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy explores the bloody folklore of Pottershop Hill, where mob violence spawned a generational curse and left behind Kentucky’s infamous headless specter, doomed to forever roam the darkened cedar thickets.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Seances & Construction: The Winchester Mystery House
In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy steps inside the labyrinthine corridors of San Jose’s legendary Winchester Mystery House, where documented history collides with chilling folklore. Following the tragic loss of her infant daughter and husband William—heir to the vast Winchester rifle fortune—Sarah Winchester inherited unimaginable wealth stained by blood and tragedy. Legend says a medium warned her that the spirits killed by Winchester firearms had cursed her family, driving her to build an endless architectural maze of staircases to nowhere, blind doors, and rooms dominated by the number thirteen to confuse the dead. But was Sarah genuinely attempting to appease a legion of restless phantoms, or was she simply an eccentric, visionary recluse with unlimited resources? Tune in as we separate fact from myth in America's strangest Victorian mansion.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
The Murder Mansion of Cemetery Road
In June 1948, the grand estate on Cemetery Road just outside Bowling Green, Kentucky, became the site of a brutal Southern Gothic tragedy when eighty-year-old Dr. Charles B. Martin and his wife Martha were gunned down and bludgeoned in their bedroom while their newlywed son was away on his honeymoon. The killer was Harry Edward Kilgore—a brilliant, heartbroken college student driven to savage violence after the eighteen-year-old woman he expected to marry wed into the wealthy Martin family instead. His swift confession soon unraveled into a nationwide media sensation when Kilgore claimed a prominent music professor masterminded the plot, sparking a landmark legal battle over accomplice testimony. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy steps inside Warren County’s infamous "Murder Mansion" to examine the bloodstained crime scene, the ghost stories that still cling to its white columns, and the bizarre twist of fate that awaited the killer years after his release.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Shy’s Hill: Powder Burns and Plundered Graves
On December 16, 1864, twenty-six-year-old Confederate Colonel William Shy was killed during a desperate last stand at the Battle of Nashville, forever lending his name to Shy’s Hill. Sealed in a heavy cast-iron coffin near Franklin, Tennessee, his resting place remained undisturbed for over a century—until December 1977, when police discovered a torn-open grave and a headless corpse propped atop the broken vault. Fearing a modern murder victim had been dumped in an antique tomb, investigators called in renowned forensic anthropologist Dr. William Bass, who uncovered the startling truth: the body was Shy himself, desecrated and decapitated by grave robbers hunting for buried Civil War relics. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, for Tennessee Tales Tuesday, Allen Sircy explores the bloody collapse of the Army of Tennessee and the macabre aftermath of Middle Tennessee’s most bizarre grave-robbing mystery.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
From the Vault: Luxor—The Cursed Casino
Towering 350 feet over the Las Vegas Strip, the Luxor’s black glass pyramid and ten-story Sphinx make it one of the desert’s most iconic landmarks—and, according to local lore, one of its most cursed. Plagued by tragedy from the start, the resort has witnessed fatal construction accidents, horrific falls into the towering atrium, a deadly parking garage bombing, and whispers of an old mob burial ground beneath its foundations. With thousands of preserved human remains in the Bodies exhibit and phantom Edwardian figures reported around recovered wreckage in the Titanic gallery, the hotel has become a hotbed of paranormal activity. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy explores the dark history of this infamous part of Vegas folklore.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
The Ghost of Cypress Bend
Along the dark, winding waters below New Orleans, generations of Mississippi riverboat captains warned their crews never to tie up near Cypress Bend after sunset, where a ruined, moss-draped plantation house stood rotting along the shoreline. In this haunting episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy shares the legendary river lore of First Mate Jim Bryson, a hardened riverman whose hair turned snow-white with fright during a midnight trip ashore—a terrifying encounter that left him muttering that he had "seen it all over again." Listen in as we explore the tragic confession behind the Mississippi's most enduring haunted bend.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
The Denver Spider Man: Horror in the Attic
In the fall of 1941, seventy-three-year-old retired railroader Philip Peters began hearing strange noises in his house and noticing food vanishing from his Denver home, leading him to wonder if the quiet old house had a ghost—never suspecting that a gaunt, desperate drifter was secretly living inside a cramped cubbyhole right above his ceiling. When an unexpected kitchen encounter ended in Peters’ brutal murder, detectives were completely baffled by a crime committed behind bolted doors and shuttered windows, entirely unaware that the killer was still lying silently in the attic rafters directly over their heads. Even as neighbors whispered about Denver’s infamous "Ghost House," reporting phantom footsteps, flickering lights, and foul odors from the supposedly vacant building, the truth proved infinitely more terrifying than any supernatural tale. In this chilling episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy uncovers the horrifying case of Theodore Edward Coneys—the real-life "Denver Spider Man"—and reveals why the most nightmarish hauntings aren't carried out by the dead, but by the living waiting in the dark.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Am I Alive? The Resurrection of William Kriel
In January 1870, ten thousand spectators packed the streets of Louisville, Kentucky, to watch the public hanging of William Kriel—a violent butcher who had murdered his ailing wife in front of her mother and somehow survived pumping multiple bullets into his own skull during a botched suicide attempt. Yet, the drop of the gallows trap proved to be only the opening chapter of Kentucky’s most shocking resurrection legend. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy untangles the macabre aftermath of Kriel's execution: dark rumors of midnight body-snatchers raiding Cave Hill Cemetery, a controversial Cincinnati physician obsessed with human heads, and a clandestine medical room where a galvanic battery was allegedly hooked to the killer's freshly hanged corpse. Did electrical currents and rogue scientists genuinely shock a condemned murderer back to life on an operating table, allowing a revived dead man to board a midnight train out of town, or was it a terrifying nineteenth-century nightmare born from the era's darkest Frankenstein-esque fears?Use promocode GHOSTS10 to at OldFashionedExpress.com to get ten percent off your tickets!Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Follow Me: The Lost Gold of the Hunt-Phelan House
At 533 Beale Street in Memphis stands the Hunt-Phelan House, an antebellum red-brick mansion that has weathered nearly two centuries of turbulent history—serving as a Confederate headquarters, Ulysses S. Grant’s Union command post, a Civil War hospital where thousands suffered, and one of the city's earliest schools for newly freed African Americans. Yet beneath its storied walls and legendary escape tunnels lies a lingering mystery born from the devastating yellow fever epidemics of the 1870s: the lost family gold. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy explores the legend of Nathan Wilson on Tennessee Tales Tuesday. Wilson was the devoted servant entrusted to bury the family fortune before pestilence emptied the city, only to be struck down by the fever before he could reveal its location. Generations later, witnesses and staff still report catching sight of a spectral nineteenth-century servant quietly beckoning and pointing toward the ground—bound not by anger or malice, but by an unfinished promise to show someone where the treasure is buried.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
From the Vault: The Ghosts of Le Pavillon
In this special From the Vault episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy takes you inside New Orleans’ opulent Le Pavillon Hotel, a historic landmark famous for its crystal chandeliers, late-night peanut butter and jelly tradition—and a staggering population of restless spirits. While management prefers to keep the hauntings quiet, guests and staff alike tell a far more active story: phantom elevators that open onto empty corridors, items hurled off shelves by unseen hands, and an eerie shadow presence stalking the hallways. From a girl in a white dress skipping rope on the seventh floor and spectral figures hovering over beds, to the tragic ghost of Ada in the infamous Room 930—a young girl struck down by a carriage who never made it to the river to join her family—step inside one of the Crescent City’s grandest hotels, where the dead have permanently checked in and refuse to check out.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Shot in the Dark: The Body in Girty’s Cave
In August 1879, a bloody love triangle in Perry County, Pennsylvania, ended when outlaw Samuel Albright gunned down his romantic rival, William Miller, before vanishing into the rugged wilderness along the Juniata River. Eleven days into the massive manhunt, two locals exploring the dark, damp recesses of the legendary Girty’s Cave stumbled upon a horrifying sight: a badly decomposed corpse wedged among the rocks, bearing a bullet wound to the back of the head and pockets filled with Albright’s personal letters. While the coroner’s jury declared justice served on the fugitive killer, doubts immediately took root—the face was unidentifiable, the clothing was suspiciously pristine, and sightings of Albright began surfacing from California to Kansas, and even back on the dusty roads of Perry County. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy untangles one of the nineteenth century's most chilling criminal enigmas: did Samuel Albright die alone in that limestone tomb, or did an audacious murderer fake his own demise by dressing another man in his clothes, slipping into the shadows to become a living ghost?Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Looking After Things: The Ghost of Paul Schultz
In December 1897, Pike County, Pennsylvania, carried out its very first hanging behind the Milford courthouse, sending German immigrant Herman Paul Schultz to the gallows for the gunshot murder of his estranged wife, Lizzie. Yet the hanging itself was only the prelude to a far stranger nightmare: Schultz’s dying request to be buried alongside his wife’s severed skull was ignored, his body was sold to medical students for fifteen dollars, and severed scraps of the noose were hawked across town as macabre souvenirs. Exactly one year later, a stonecutter locked overnight inside Schultz’s old cell awoke to an icy draft, a shadowy presence, and a chilling voice whispering from the darkness that it was Herman Schultz himself—not seeking vengeance or proclaiming innocence, but simply “looking after things.” In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy untangles the tragic tale of domestic abuse, arson, and murder that birthed a haunting, exploring how a convicted killer became the eternal, spectral turnkey of the Pike County jail.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Arsenic Anna: The First Woman Executed in Ohio
In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, host Allen Sircy delves into the chilling true story behind his new book, Arsenic Anna, uncovering the rise and fall of Depression-era Cincinnati’s most notorious serial poisoner, Anna Marie Hahn. Driven by crushing gambling debts and sheer desperation, Anna charmed, swindled, and poisoned a succession of vulnerable, elderly men with lethal doses of arsenic, ultimately becoming the first woman in Ohio history executed in the electric chair. From poisoned oysters and forged wills to courtroom curses, exhumations, and a dramatic posthumous confession admitting to four murders, discover how a charming German immigrant turned into a cold-blooded killer—and the tragic trail of victims left in her wake.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
The Legend of Whistling Jack
Deep in the shadow of Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau, where thick woods and steep ridges swallow sound, an unsettling cry shattered the winter silence of 1903. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories for Tennessee Tales Tuesday, Allen Sircy tracks the chilling legend of "Whistling Jack"—a sleek, shadowy predator larger than any hound, with burning red eyes and an unnatural, whistling exhalation that sounded like escaping steam turning into a human hiss. What began as an eerie mountain echo soon erupted into widespread panic across the coal mining towns of Victoria and Whitwell, leaving livestock mauled, armed posses empty-handed despite a five-dollar bounty, and hardened miners running for their lives along moonlit mountain roads. From terrified eyewitness accounts to phantom sightings along the rocky bluffs of Monteagle, discover the enduring Appalachian mystery of a beast that defied every known predator in the woods—and learn why those who travel the dark hollows of the Sequatchie Valley after sunset are still warned never to answer a whistle in the trees.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
From the Vault: Secrets and Sins of the French Quarter
We’re unlocking the archives for this special "From the Vault" episode to revisit one of New Orleans’ most storied and haunted landmarks: the Omni Royal Orleans. Standing on ground once occupied by the antebellum St. Louis Exchange Hotel—marked by devastating fires, war, and the grim reality of slave auctions beneath its grand rotunda—this French Quarter icon carries centuries of restless energy. Allen looks back at the hotel’s darkest moments, including its chilling link to the infamous 2006 murder-suicide, alongside its legendary supernatural residents. From the attentive phantom maid who still tucks in guests on the second floor to the tech-draining spirits of Room 531, revisit this classic deep dive into a corner of the Crescent City where the past refuses to check out.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
The Corpse That Stirred: The Strange Fate of Giovanni Azari
On November 14, 1885, the Cook County Jail executed three men for the infamous Chicago trunk murder of Filippo Caruso, but only one would ignite one of the most chilling premature burial legends in American history. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy examines the botched hanging of Giovanni Azari, whose neck failed to break when the scaffold trap dropped, leaving him to slowly strangle beneath the gallows. Pronounced dead by attending physicians relying on rudimentary nineteenth-century examinations, Azari was sealed inside a casket and transported to Calvary Cemetery—only for stunned witnesses to open the lid inside a vault hours later and discover his body turned onto its side, his hand raised toward his throat, and his eyes allegedly springing open as fresh air rushed inside. Did medical examiners mistake deep unconsciousness for death, trapping a condemned man alive inside a suffocating wooden box, or was it merely the macabre trick of postmortem spasms and rough transit? Azari’s grim fate blurs the terrifying line between justice, medical error, and a nightmare realized.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Stealing Lincoln's Body
On Election Night in 1876, while the nation was gripped by a razor-thin presidential race, a gang of Chicago counterfeiters crept into Oak Ridge Cemetery on an audacious mission: break into the tomb of Abraham Lincoln, haul his 500-pound coffin into a wagon, and trade the martyred president’s corpse for $200,000 in gold and the release of their master engraver from federal prison. Infiltrated by an undercover Secret Service informant and derailed by an accidental gunshot in the dark, the botched heist triggered a frantic scramble that forced the Lincoln family into a decades-long game of hide-and-seek with the president's remains. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, Allen Sircy uncovers the bizarre true crime that led to secret nighttime reburials, a surreal 1901 casket opening, and the drastic decision to encase the Great Emancipator beneath ten feet of solid steel and concrete forever.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Forever Watching: Cincinnati’s Mad Mogul
At the turn of the twentieth century, Charles C. Breuer was one of Cincinnati’s wealthiest real estate moguls, but an explosive family feud over his scandalous marriage to a much younger housekeeper unraveled his empire into an escalating nightmare of lawsuits, madness, and a botched dynamite plot to blow up his own building. Declared insane after years of bitter courtroom warfare with his teenage daughters, the ruined tycoon found a tearful eleventh-hour reconciliation with his family just months before dying inside the infamous Longview Asylum. Even in death, Breuer’s bizarre legacy refused to rest—from proving too large to fit inside the custom luxury coffin he had proudly displayed in his parlor, to his final resting place in Spring Grove Cemetery, where a life-sized bust fitted with eerily realistic glass eyes still appears to track every move of passing visitors from beyond the grave.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
When the Lights Go Down: Percy & the Lady in White
Today on Tennessee Tales Tuseday, the Center for the Arts in downtown Murfreesboro is a vibrant hub of theater, music, and community creativity—but beneath its stage lights and behind its walls lies over two centuries of layered, eerie history. Long before actors took the stage, the 110 West College Street property served as a Civil War-era carpentry shop that built coffins during the bloody Battle of Stones River, an undertaking parlor, a burned livery stable, an Italianate 1909 federal post office riddled with secret catwalks and observation peepholes, and later the Linebaugh Public Library. Today, staff and paranormal investigators frequently report an active ensemble of spirits: a tech-tampering trickster ghost named Percy, phantom footsteps pacing the attic, disembodied children's voices echoing from the basement, vanished costumes, and a mysterious Lady in White who once whispered a chilling plea to staff after hours: "Help them." Host Allen Sircy pulls back the curtain on the historical tragedies, architectural secrets, and persistent hauntings that make Murfreesboro's Center for the Arts one of Middle Tennessee's most multifaceted haunted landmarks.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
From the Vault: Louisville's Lady in White
In this "From the Vault" episode, journey to Louisville, Kentucky’s historic Crescent Hill neighborhood to uncover the storied past of the Peterson-Dumesnil House. Built in 1869 as an elegant Italianate summer villa for wealthy tobacco merchant and Mexican-American War veteran Joseph Peterson, the grand estate survived Civil War trade disruptions, decades of transitions, and near ruin before being lovingly restored as a beloved community and event venue. But beneath its copper roof and timeless architecture lingers one of Louisville's most endearing spectral legends: "The Lady in White." Believed to be Peterson’s granddaughter, Carrie Peterson Lindburger—who passed away inside the home in her late twenties—this gentle spirit is frequently spotted gliding through the living room after weddings, and is even remembered in local lore for comforting lost neighborhood children from the villa's patio. Host Allen Sircy explores the rich history, enduring charm, and friendly hauntings of this Kentucky landmark.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
The Ghost Crew of the USS Alabama
Commissioned during the height of World War II, the 44,000-ton battleship USS Alabama (BB-60)—affectionately known as "The Lucky A"—braved enemy fire, fierce typhoons, and the deadliest naval campaigns of the Pacific Theater while earning nine battle stars. But even the luckiest ships carry deep scars; in February 1944, a catastrophic turret explosion claimed the lives of five young sailors deep within its armored hull. Saved from the scrap yard by the schoolchildren and citizens of Alabama in 1964, the historic warship now rests as a floating museum in Mobile Bay, where visitors, staff, and paranormal investigators regularly report that its wartime crew never fully stood down. From phantom booted footsteps echoing through narrow passageways and disembodied voices barking orders, to apparitions of uniformed sailors vanishing down steel ladders and lingering cold spots near the fatal gun mount, host Allen Sircy dives into the harrowing history and spectral lore of the mighty battleship that seemingly refuses to give up its final watch.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Maple Hill Cemetery: The Poisoned Bride of Huntsville
Established in 1822, Huntsville, Alabama’s historic Maple Hill Cemetery spans over one hundred acres filled with governors, pioneers, Confederate soldiers, and thousands of forgotten, unmarked graves. But beyond its grand monuments and solemn history lie two of the South’s most chilling spectral legends: the tragic story of nineteen-year-old Mary Chambers Bibb, who was accidentally poisoned on the eve of her wedding and is rumored to sit entombed in her bridal gown, rocking quietly inside the cemetery’s very first mausoleum; and the notorious "Dead Children's Playground," nestled against a nearby limestone quarry, where swings sway on windless nights and the phantom laughter of 1918 flu pandemic victims echoes in the dark. Host Allen Sircy journeys through the shadows of Alabama's oldest burial ground to explore how historical tragedy, heartbreak, and urban legend intertwine to keep Maple Hill's past from ever truly resting.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Cursed on the Great Lakes: 1883
The Great Lakes hold thousands of shipwrecks beneath their deceptively tranquil waters, but few legends refuse to rest quite like the doomed lumber schooner Erie Board of Trade. In this chilling episode, Allen Sircy uncovers the tragic tale of Scotty, a dependable sailor who plummeted sixty feet to his death from a weathered boatswain's chair during routine repairs on Lake Huron. Long after his burial ashore, phantom footsteps, moving tools, and an eerie figure suspended high above the deck revealed that Scotty had never truly left his post. Even after the vessel struck a reef near Thunder Bay and sank to the lakebed, sailors crossing the fog-choked waters swear they can still see the ghostly schooner drifting in silence—with a lone, spectral crewman forever keeping watch from the rigging above.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Walking on Air: The Ghost of Nina Conway
We are going back to New Year’s Eve in 1872 for Tennessee Tales Tuesday. On that night hundreds gathered along Lincoln Street in downtown Tullahoma, Tennessee, to watch traveling aerialists Peter and Nina Conway attempt a death-defying high-wire walk suspended forty feet in the air with no safety nets. While Peter made the crossing safely, a sudden, violent gust of wind caught Nina just twenty feet from the opposite rooftop, sending her plunging to her death in front of a horrified holiday crowd. But for over a century and a half, locals insist her final performance never truly ended. From sightings of a woman in vintage circus attire standing on the rooftops to an eerie 1931 report of an apparition walking across empty air above passing automobiles, Nina Conway remains frozen in time. Host Allen Sircy untangles the heartbreaking history and enduring folklore of Tullahoma’s phantom aerialist, forever trying to finish her final walk.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
From the Vault: The Wicked Mistress—Secrets of the LaLaurie Mansion
Behind the elegant façade of one of New Orleans’ most infamous homes lies a story of wealth, cruelty, mystery, and horror. In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, we journey into the dark history of the LaLaurie Mansion and its notorious mistress, Madame Delphine LaLaurie, whose carefully cultivated place in New Orleans society came crashing down after an 1834 fire exposed horrifying conditions inside her Royal Street home. We’ll separate documented history from the gruesome legends that grew in the decades that followed and uncover the ghost stories that have helped make the mansion one of the most notorious places in the French Quarter.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Washington Square: Guardian of the Graves
Philadelphia is celebrated worldwide as the Cradle of Liberty, but beneath the manicured lawns and historic monuments of Washington Square lies one of the largest forgotten burial grounds in American history. Long before it honored fallen patriots, the six-acre site served as a grim potter's field, later crammed with mass trenches holding over two thousand unidentified Revolutionary War soldiers, British prisoners, and more than 1,300 victims of the catastrophic 1793 yellow fever epidemic. Host Allen Sircy uncovers the chilling secrets resting right under tourists' feet—from Deborah Norris's horrifying 1777 account of unburied coffins to the 1950s excavation that created the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier, and the enduring spectral legend of Leah, the mysterious woman in white who vowed to guard the dead from body snatchers and reportedly still walks the park two centuries later.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Murder, Ghosts & Vampires: Three New Books Spooky Season
Halloween is getting closer, and I have three new books coming just in time for the spooky season! In this episode of Southern Ghost Stories, I’m giving you a preview of Arsenic Anna, the true story of Anna Hahn, a German immigrant and Cincinnati caregiver whose patients had an alarming habit of dying under mysterious circumstances before she became the first woman executed by the State of Ohio. I’ll also introduce Ghost Stories & Graveyard Tales: Indiana, a collection of hauntings, strange folklore, forgotten history and true crime from across the Hoosier State, and Fear and Folklore: Vampires, a journey through centuries of vampire history and legend, from the blood-soaked stories surrounding Vlad the Impaler and old European vampire scares to modern Americans who believed they were among the undead. Three books filled with murder, ghosts, graveyards and things that refuse to stay dead—all arriving this September.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
The Murderer Who Promised to Return as a Ghost
In January 1903, former Missoula laundry operator Louis H. Mott’s spiral into alcoholism and addiction ended in brutal violence when he murdered his wife, Leah, as she attempted to flee down a back stairway. Convicted of first-degree murder and facing the gallows, Mott underwent a quiet transformation in his cell—culminating in an extraordinary death-row claim that he would scientifically prove life after death by appearing to Montana Congressman Joseph M. Dixon in Washington, D.C. following his execution. Host Allen Sircy untangles the tragic true crime story of Missoula’s 1904 execution and its bizarre aftermath, where a room of Washington politicians gathered late into the night for a reception with an executed killer's ghost.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Going Up? The Lady in the L&C Tower
Long before glass-walled skyscrapers and rooftop bars dominated the skyline, the 30-story Life & Casualty Tower stood as Nashville's premier architectural wonder—and the Southeastern United States' tallest commercial building upon its 1957 opening. Famous for its towering observation deck and iconic neon letters that once signaled the local weather forecast, the L&C Tower holds a far darker place in Music City lore. On a chilly morning in February 1996, 20-year-old Morningstar Green rode the elevator to the 30th floor observation deck for the second consecutive day, only to tragically fall to her death. Decades later, building staff and security officers report an unexplainable phenomenon: an uncalled elevator that repeatedly ascends to the 30th floor, opening its empty doors as if patiently waiting for a passenger who never returned. Today in Tennessee Tales Tuesday, Allen Sircy explores the haunting history of the L&C Tower, where modern technology and a heartbreaking 1990s tragedy converge to create one of Nashville’s most chilling urban legends.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
From the Vault: Secret Tunnels & the Haunted Childress House
Today we are heading to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to explore the hidden history and shadowy legends of the antebellum Childress-Ray House. Built in 1847, this unassuming Greek Revival home was once owned by Major John Whitsett Childress, brother-in-law to President James K. Polk. Beyond its presidential ties, the property conceals a surprisingly dark and layered past, from its days as a 19th-century undertaker’s mortuary and hearse garage to local rumors of a secret, bricked-up underground tunnel running beneath the street. We peel back the forgotten history, Civil War lore, and enduring local tales to reveal why the presence of its former residents, Union soldiers, and long-gone occupants can still be felt inside one of Middle Tennessee's most underrated historic gems.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
Congress Plaza: The Boy on the 12th Floor
The Congress Plaza Hotel in Chicago has spent over a century accumulating grandeur, secrets, and a staggering collection of ghosts. But among the shadowy figures, none cuts deeper than the spirit on the twelfth floor—a four-year-old boy whose phantom footsteps and quiet laughter echo down the halls after midnight. In August 1939, Adel Langer, a mother who had just fled Nazi-occupied Prague, gave in to the overwhelming isolation of a strange new world. In a horrific moment of despair, she threw her two young sons from the window of Room 1234 before jumping herself—unaware that her husband was sitting across town holding approved Canadian immigration papers for their fresh start. Host Allen Sircy peels back the folklore of the Congress Plaza to reveal the heartbreaking human story behind the specter, where profound grief and tragic timing birthed one of Chicago’s saddest ghost stories.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com
The Detroit Voodoo Slayer
In 1938, Earl Carl Harris believed a $15 bottle of High John the Conqueror elixir could perform two miracles: force a woman to love him and make him invisible to the police. But when the love potion failed on his landlady, Christina Eastmond, Harris brutally murdered her—only to casually remark "I guess it didn't work" when detectives tracked him down in Ontario weeks later. Host Allen Sircy untangles the horrifying true crime story of Michigan's "Voodoo Slayer," exploring how a serial murderer responsible for five deaths across two states attempted to hide his violent rage behind magical promises, bad folk medicine, and absolute denial. This is one the wildest true crime stories we have ever covered.Be sure to like, subscribe and leave a review!Check out Allen's books on Amazon!https://amzn.to/3HEf2u9Got a question or comment? Hit us up on our socials!Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/southernghoststories/Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/southernghoststoriesonlineFollow Allen on Xhttps://x.com/ATOAllenUse code SAVE10 for 10% off your order over at https://monstercitymadhouse.com