Phantasmal Crime

The Novel "To Kill a Mockingbird," written by Harper Lee, has been translated into over 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies, been made into a movie and won a Pulitzer Prize. The story was set in a fictional southern town in the state of Alabama and tells the story of a black man, Tom Robinson, living in the South during the Great Depression and what happens when he is accused of rape by a white woman. A prominent white lawyer named Atticus Finch defends him masterfully and yet, Robinson is convicted and eventually killed when he tries to escape custody. It was as though Harper Lee had heard the true story of Robert Milton. Milton was a black man accused of rape by a white teenager in 1920s Mississippi. He was convicted and executed and most people believe he was an innocent man. Perhaps that is why he haunts the courthouse where he was hanged, the Old Tishomingo County Courthouse. Join us for this compelling story of how rape was treated in the 1920s,

 (Suggested by: Memory Burcalow) The Crandell Murder shocked the nation. Sylvester Crandell shot his mother-in-law, his step-daughter, his wife and himself in 1887. This was the worst crime Saratoga County had experienced up to that point. All four people would die and the main motivation seems to have been money. Sylvester Crandell and wanted more of it and when his wife and mother-in-law wouldn't give it to him, his rage erupted. And in the wake of the crime, it seems that the Crandell House has some paranormal activity. Julia V. Stone was born in 1846, the daughter of paper collar manufacturer Samuel S. Stone. During the 1850s and 1860s, companies were experimenting with making cuffs and collars out of paper. These detachable paper collars and cuffs could be thrown away when they got dirty. So they were very convenient and popular during a time when laundry was hard to get done. This made Samuel Stone a very wealthy man. He was worth around $1,625,000 in today's dollars. Jul

Jean Harlow was known as the "Original Blonde Bombshell." In 1932, she married Paul Bern, a screenwriter, director and assistant at MGM Studios. It was an odd match and would end when Bern apparently committed suicide. Or did he? Could he have been murdered? And by who? Could this be why his spirit is at unrest? Come with us as we explore the mysterious death of Paul Bern! Paul Bern was born as Paul Levy in Germany in 1889. The family moved to New York in 1898. Paul's father died in 1908 and his mother drowned herself to death in 1920. Paul studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and got started acting on the stage in New York. He decided to take a stage name and changed Levy to Bern. The acting was not going very well, so Bern decided to jump into stage managing and then in the early 1920s he moved to Hollywood. He got involved with film editing and then started working on writing and directing films for United Artists and Paramount Picture

Gerard John Schaefer had been a Florida Law Enforcement Officer. Police are some of our most trusted public servants. Our default position when it comes to police officers is to trust them. And most of the time, that position is correct. But sometimes it can be wrong. Very wrong. That was the case with Gerard John Schaefer. He was a prolific serial killer during the heyday of serial killers in the 1960s and 1970s. There are those who say he made Ted Bundy look like a Boy Scout. Many serial killers have a particular place they gravitate to for dumping bodies. Schaefer had a place he liked to torture and kill young women. That place is known as the Devil's Tree.  Oak Hammock Park is a popular waterfront park in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Trails encircle a lush hammock with an area of pine trees. Large live oaks that have stood as sentinels for centuries make up the rest of the landscape. This park is hard to find as it sits in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Everything about

The Plains of Abraham have known death. This is a historic area inside Battlefields Park in Quebec City, Canada. Quebec City had been the capital of New France and was a strategic location in the colony. The French and English would fight for control here in a battle that took place on September 13, 1759. The Plains of Abraham were named for Abraham Martin who had owned the fields. The battle lasted 30 minutes and the French were defeated. This had been a very bloody battle. The British had 658 casualties and the French had 716. Stories of the ghosts of dead soldiers roaming the plain have traversed the years even up into our modern era with the Plains of Abraham now serving as an urban park. Before the park, this was a place few would wander as it had a reputation for being a hiding place for criminals. Then it became a spot for executions to be carried out. And that is why there is a female ghost that roams the Plains of Abraham. Everyone calls her La Corriveau. The legend behind La

Asheville is a smaller city in North Carolina where I had the pleasure of experiencing one of my favorite ghost tours. While on that tour, I heard about a mass shooting involving a man named Will Harris. This happened many years ago and the violence and the residue of that event seems to have left an energy that still traverses the same area where the crimes took place to this day. Join me as we explore the crimes of Will Harris and the ghostly aftermath. Asheville is known as an artsy and bohemian city, nestled in the gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountain Range. Thoughts of murderous rampages are incongruous with the community that dwells here, but 112 years ago, a man named Will Harris broke the calm during a night of mass murder. Will Harris was a bad guy. He had a long rap sheet having been busted for stealing and assault many times in Charlotte, North Carolina. He had spent time in jail in Charlotte and was assigned to a chain gang of black felons from which he escaped. Char

(Suggested by: Joanne Maio) The Amityville Horror caused people to question whether a home could be possessed and cause a person to kill nearly their entire family, as Ronnie Defeo did in 1974. He killed his father and mother and four siblings. A family who moved in after the massacre, claimed to experience some intense haunting activity in the home that paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren judged to be demonic. Regardless of what one may personally believe about the case, the question of whether someone could be possessed or influenced into committing murder is real. This theory becomes more complicated when associated with an entire island. Is there a curse on the Palmyra Atoll and did it have anything to do with the murder of Muff and Mac Graham?  Palmyra Atoll is a territory owned by the United States and is located around 1000 miles south of Hawaii. The tranquil island is beautiful with blue lagoons and white sand beaches. The island received its name in 1807 from Capta