So Supernatural

What makes a serial killer? Mind of a Serial Killer takes you deep into the twisted minds of history’s most notorious serial killers. Every Monday, hosts Vanessa Richardson and Dr. Tristin Engels, a Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, combines gripping true crime storytelling with expert psychological analysis to answer the question - what makes a serial killer? From Jeffrey Dahmer to Ted Bundy, explore not only their chilling crimes but the dark psychology behind them. Follow Mind of a Serial Killer wherever you get your podcasts!

On March 13, 1997, thousands of witnesses in Phoenix, Arizona, reported seeing a series of bright lights moving silently across the night sky. The phenomenon, known as the Phoenix Lights, sparked speculation about UFOs, military exercises, and secret government experiments. Despite official explanations attributing the lights to flares or military aircraft, the mystery of the Phoenix Lights remains unsolved, leaving many to wonder about the true nature of the unidentified flying objects.

In the 1980s, a mysterious game began popping up in Portland, Oregon, arcades. Players walked away with a variety of strange side effects, from amnesia, to nightmares, to wild hallucinations. But the game vanished as quickly as it appeared, said to be whisked away by agents in black suits. This got many people thinking, was the game, known as Polybius, a government experiment... Or did it have more... supernatural origins?

The Salem witch trials involved a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts. The trials were characterized by mass hysteria, fear, and superstition. The accusations began with a group of young girls who claimed to be possessed and accused several local women of witchcraft. The trials resulted in the execution of 20 people and the imprisonment of many others.

The internet is flooded with stories of someone meeting their exact double – a copy who looks, acts, speaks, even thinks like them, only they seem to have a… supernatural quality to them. Even prominent figures in history, from Catherine the Great to Abraham Lincoln have come into contact with their doppelgängers, making many wonder, are these ghosts of ourselves, or versions of us from some alternate reality?

Hangar 18, a classified facility rumored to exist within Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, is believed by some to be a secret storehouse for extraterrestrial technology and artifacts. Conspiracy theories abound regarding what may be housed within its walls, including crashed UFOs, alien bodies, and advanced weaponry. Despite government denials and secrecy surrounding the base, speculation about Hangar 18 continues to fuel rumors and intrigue within the UFO community.

The Yeti, also known as the Abominable Snowman, is a legendary creature said to inhabit the Himalayan mountains of Asia. Described as a large, ape-like creature, the Yeti has captured the imagination of explorers and adventurers for centuries, but conclusive evidence of its existence remains elusive.

In 1994, residents of Oakville, Washington, woke up to find gelatinous blobs had rained down from the sky, covering the area in a strange, gooey substance. The mysterious blobs caused illness and confusion amongst the townspeople, prompting investigations into their origin and composition. Despite efforts to unravel the mystery, the blobs and their peculiar properties remain unexplained to this day.

This phenomenon involves large groups of people recalling events or details that conflict with historical records. Named after Nelson Mandela, whom many people falsely remember dying in prison during the 1980s, this bizarre phenomenon raises intriguing questions about the nature of memory, reality, and possible alternate universes. We explore the most famous examples of the Mandela Effect, its scientific explanations, and consider the mind-bending theories that challenge our understanding of reality.

In 1980s Britain, a series of haunting portraits featuring a tearful little boy were discovered untouched amidst the ashes of devastating house and business fires. While rumors of the subject and the artists' backstory became fodder for the tabloids, there's been no good explanation for why this particular image has managed to survive so many devastating fires... Unless it caused them...

On the night of December 29, 1980, Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and Vickie's grandson Colby were driving through the woods near Dayton, Texas when they encountered a large, diamond-shaped object being pursued by a handful of military choppers. Hours later, they suffered severe physical side effects, including burns, blisters, and radiation poisoning which left them with lasting scars and lingering questions.

After his sudden death in 2011, friends and family of Jack Froese received mysterious emails from his account containing personal messages and information only Jack could have known. Dubbed the 'Jack Froese Emails,' these messages have sparked speculation about the afterlife and how modern technology may be a conduit for communicating beyond the grave.

Throughout his presidency, Abraham Lincoln was reportedly plagued by strange premonitions and recurring nightmares. Some say they were omens of his assassination. And in the aftermath of his death, Lincoln has been seen haunting the White House and elsewhere.

A weekend road trip ends bizarrely for a New Hampshire couple after they return home with a two-hour gap in their memories. Then the nightmares begin.

Competing narratives and fictionalized accounts make it hard to say what exactly happened in the house at 112 Ocean Avenue after the Lutz family moved in. Maybe the Amityville house truly was haunted — after all, it was the site of a near-complete family annihilation. But what if what happened to the Lutzes had nothing to do with the house at all?

Angélique Cottin was not your typical 19th-century French teenager. For one, she could make huge objects move with the faintest touch. And despite being observed by doctors and scientists across France, no one could conclude anything more than that it had something to do with electricity.

As a cloistered nun in the 17th century, Maria never left her convent in Spain. But through some miracle, she appeared repeatedly in the American Southwest to spread her religion. Believers said it was bilocation — the ability to be in two places at once. Others feared it was a hoax, or worse: the work of the devil.

Werewolves have been terrorizing our collective psyche for millennia. Can we still separate the men from the monsters from the myths?

In the 18th century, an alchemist and philosopher became something of an international celebrity, rubbing elbows with royalty, predicting violent revolutions, and allegedly unlocking the secret to eternal life. Who really was Count St. Germain?

Fragments of a map from the 1500s sparked a theory that’s been going strong for decades. It holds that extraterrestrials have been visiting Earth for thousands of years, gifting humans with advanced tech far beyond our means. Today we investigate the mysteries that make aliens seem almost plausible.

A 32-year-old resident of Vancouver Island vanishes in November 1980, leaving behind a note that says he’s heading off on an adventure. But Granger Taylor is not your regular voyager. He’s a mechanical genius who’s built a life-size replica of a flying saucer. And he’s heading to space — with the help of aliens.

In June 1980, police officer Alan Godfrey investigated the strange death of Zigmund Adamski. While his superiors eventually ruled the death an accident, it bore all the hallmarks of an alien abduction.

When strange and terrifying events start happening around 18-year-old Esther Cox, locals blame electricity… then ghosts.

Time travel seems to be firmly in the realm of science fiction, and yet history is filled with alleged cases — from a traveler who broke the internet, to an Italian priest peering into the past.

Born in Poland in 1899, Wolf Messing could reportedly read minds, control people's thoughts, and tell the future. But he wasn't any ordinary psychic. When he met Joseph Stalin in 1940, his powers might've become weapons of war.

In 1817, the Bell family noticed strange noises in their log cabin in Red River, Tennessee. For the next four years, they’re tormented by an invisible being. Hundreds of people come to see the infamous Bell Witch… but none of them could stop her when her harassment turned homicidal.

When Maria Marten disappears in 1827, her stepmother begins having unsettling visions. She dreams that Maria is dead, and buried in a nearby barn.

In 1952, a small group of people in Flatwoods, West Virginia ventured into the dark to find a downed UFO. They came across a strange aircraft… piloted by a monster.

In December 1980, just outside of London, several members of the U.S. Air Force spotted an indescribable craft in the forest. But this wasn't an ordinary sighting. It communicated with one of the officers — and offered an explanation about UFOs that completely turns the concept on its head.

In the 1930s, Robert Johnson broke barriers in the American South to become the king of Delta blues. His music is legendary. But his journey from flop to fame? Downright otherworldly. At least, if you believe the stories that he made a deal with the devil…

When a housewife in the U.S. undergoes hypnosis in 1952, she recalls detailed memories of a past life in 19th-century Ireland.

In 1989, Bob Lazar joined a top secret project out of Area 51 — supposedly reverse engineering alien technologies. When he was threatened to stay silent about his work, Bob took the opposite approach, blowing the whistle on the government's knowledge about UFOs. Today, he's still paying the price.

This odd 24,000-square-foot Victorian mansion boasts winding staircases that lead to nowhere, windows built into the floors, and doors that open to 13-foot drops. But the oddest thing about this structure is who Sarah Winchester may have built it for.

In 1931, the Irving family started hearing the pitter patter of a rodent living behind their walls. Three months later, that animal starts to talk. He tells them he’s a mongoose and his name is Gef.

Rock star. Rocket scientist. Computer programmer. Philip Taylor Kramer seemed capable of doing everything. His mysterious disappearance in 1995 may be evidence that he invented a new technology that would shake the foundations of modern physics.

In 1973, fishing buddies Charlie Hickson and Calvin Parker turned up terrified at the Pascagoula, Mississippi Sheriff's Station. Over years of hypnosis, interviews, and public ridicule, Charlie and Calvin convinced multiple experts that they had been abducted and probed by aliens.

In 1845, the Franklin Expedition left London to chart the Northwest Passage. When Sir Franklin and his crew went missing, his wife turned to the psychic world for answers about his location. But she didn't anticipate those answers coming from the ghost of a child...

In the terrifying, mysterious experience known as sleep paralysis, people wake up to find their bodies completely paralyzed. They are frozen in place, unable to do anything but watch and listen as they are assaulted by nightmarish, shadowy demons.

After a wave of animal murders terrorized Puerto Rican farms in 1995, locals banded together to hunt a beast they called the Chupacabra. Some called it a genetic experiment. Others swore it was an alien. But whatever it was, the Chupacabra would soon take its reign of terror across the entire world.

Explorer Juan Ponce de León made the quest for the Fountain of Youth what we know it as today, but it's possible that he was searching for something much larger than simply water that turns back time…

Over a hundred years ago, the city of San Diego hired a rainmaker. His fee was huge, his methods were chemical, and he promised rain — then delivered a deluge. Against all odds, Charles Hatfield’s experiments prefaced the worst flooding in that region’s history.

In the spring of 1848, the Fox sisters heard the chilling sounds of rapping and thumping on their walls. When the noise wouldn't stop, the girls started rapping back. Soon after that, they started speaking to the dead.

In 1957, an extraterrestrial named Valiant Thor allegedly landed outside of Washington D.C. demanding to speak with President Eisenhower. For the next three years he lived inside the Pentagon working with top scientists and government officials. But his mission has not been completed...

Navy pilots stationed in the Pacific Ocean saw something inexplicable in November 2004. Eleven years later, a different crew saw the same unidentified phenomenon. The U.S. government has confirmed that leaked tapes of the encounters are real… But what exactly are we looking at?

In the early 1980s, psychiatrist Dr. Richard Gallagher worked with the Catholic Church to monitor the mental health of people seeking exorcisms. The doctor turned from a rational skeptic to a true believer when he met Julia, a self-proclaimed Queen of Satanism.

When tragedies occur, the world often points to Nostradamus as a soothsayer of grim times, but both his legacy and his predictions are a bit more complicated than history has let on...

In the 1960s a half-bird, half-man creature terrorized the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. But it didn't come alone... The Mothman's appearance triggered UFO activity, a vicious Men in Black presence and terrifying premonitions of a catastrophic event. One that ended up costing 46 people their lives.

In 1877, a 13-year-old girl named Lurancy Vennum developed mysterious symptoms. Her doctors couldn't determine what was wrong with her, until a spiritualist suggested Lurancy's illness was due to her ability to speak to the dead.

What makes a human body burst into flames? Victims leave behind nothing but a pile of ashes and questions. From dark magic and holy fire to unbelievable coincidences, the answers are surprising.

Patience Worth hit America’s literary scene hard in the early 20th century. She was a celebrated poet, novelist, and a charming conversationalist. But she was far from your typical literary celebrity: Patience was a ghost.

In 1928, a Pennsylvania faith healer was accused of placing a hex on multiple people in York county, leading to his brutal murder. But the events that followed his death convinced people he was actually practicing black magic.

In 1994, an entire playground full of school children in Zimbabwe claimed they saw a UFO hovering overhead. When experts tried to debunk their claims, they found little evidence to prove the kids weren't telling the truth.

In 1838, a strange villain began stalking the London suburbs. For the next 70 years, Spring-Heeled Jack — a fire-breathing, metal-clawed monster — terrorized the city.

The Illuminati was an 18th-century secret society that supposedly ended just a decade after it began. But conspiracy theorists argue that it never really went away — it just went deeper underground, where it could slowly achieve world domination with no one the wiser.

In a 12th-century English village, farmers discovered two young children wandering alone in the woods. The kids’ unrecognizable clothing and language, along with their startling green complexions, led many to wonder if the people of Woolpit had a genuine encounter with fairies…

In the 14th century, an ordinary bookseller named Nicolas Flamel may have unlocked the secrets of immortality, and learned to turn ordinary metals into gold — all thanks to a mysterious object known as the philosopher's stone.

In 1967, Stefan Michalak went to Falcon Lake for a weekend prospecting trip, where he encountered what has become the best-documented UFO in Canadian history.

Celebrated author Barbara Newhall Follett went missing in December 1939. She's never been seen or heard from again. Is the key to solving her mysterious disappearance in the books she left behind?

In 1966, an avalanche struck a school in Wales, killing more than 100 children. Afterwards, dozens of people claimed to have "seen" the disaster in dreams and visions before it happened — inspiring one psychiatrist to start Britain's first Premonitions Bureau.

When his two daughters died in a tragic accident, John Pollock prayed for a miracle that would bring them back. Less than a year later, his wife gave birth to twins who defied the odds of genetics. The only clear explanation? Reincarnation.

Toni Bosco dreamed something terrible would happen to her son. In August 1993, it came true — John and his wife Nancy were murdered. But the most unsettling part wasn’t the premonitory dream she had. It was the nightmares the culprit was having.

In 1925, an explorer led an expedition into the Amazon rainforest and was never seen again. Officials ruled that Percy Fawcett died. But many believe he discovered the lost city of “Z” and a portal to another dimension.

In the 1970s and '80s, a top-secret research program supposedly took place on the northernmost tip of Long Island. With reports of kidnappings, weather control, time travel and more, it may just be the Holy Grail of government conspiracy theories…

In 1632, the Devil came to Loudun, France. For nearly five years, dozens of priests performed hundreds of public exorcisms on a convent of nuns who claimed they were possessed by demons. The nuns accused a parish priest, Urbain Grandier, of making a deal with the Devil.

Over fifty years ago, the body of a woman was found burned to death in Norway’s “Ice Valley.” Her identity has never been confirmed, despite her leaving behind a trail of aliases, eyewitness accounts, and even a coded travel ledger.

In the summer of 1958, a strange creature terrorized construction crews in rural California. Since then, Bigfoot true-believers have collected a wealth of information on the strange ape-like being — including a minute of undoctored footage of a female Sasquatch in the wild.

After UFO sightings exploded in New Hampshire in 1965, everyone from local police to Air Force officials to the Pentagon began investigating. But no one could conclude what exactly residents had seen — until, perhaps, now.

In 1828, a town in Germany received a strange visitor: a teenage boy who claimed he had been imprisoned his whole life. His mysterious murder just a few years later made his true identity more elusive — and engrossing — than ever.

In 1892, Lena Brown died at just 19 years old, joining her mother and sister in an early grave. Then her brother, Eddie, got sick too. The working theory? His health was being syphoned by a vampire. When townspeople exhumed Lena’s body, their theory started looking a lot more plausible…

The gruesome 1945 pitchfork murder of an elderly townsman brought Scotland Yard’s best detective into one of the most superstitious villages in England.

Most people recognize Men in Black from the movie franchise, but this mysterious organization originated as a real-life alien conspiracy theory. It began in 1947: After Harold Dahl saw UFOs over the Puget Sound, he was visited by a suited agent with an uncanny warning…

It’s the most famous UFO event in U.S. history: In July 1947, a rancher named Mac Brazel found strange debris scattered across one of his fields. Local military officials told him it came from a weather balloon… But many believe the object didn’t come from Earth at all.

In the spring of 1922, a man named Paul Amadeus Dienach fell into a coma. He eventually woke up — in the year 3906, in another man's body.

One summer day in 1518, a woman named Frau Troffea started dancing. She didn't stop. Her dancing compulsion was contagious, and spread to hundreds of people before it turned deadly.

A mysterious woman in a headscarf was seen filming the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. For years, she remained nameless — until one day, she stepped forward with a story no one saw coming.

A young woman in Greenbrier, West Virginia died mysteriously in 1897. Weeks later, she returned from the dead to identify the man who murdered her.

In 1590, an English colony on Roanoke Island disappeared without a trace. The only clue was a message carved on a fence post. While some think the settlers integrated with a local tribe, multiple leads suggest otherwise.

Hooves, wings and high-pitched screams… The Jersey Devil has reportedly been seen thousands of times, lurking in and around a forest called the Pine Barrens. How much of its existence is rumor, and how much is reality?

In November 1929, a woman named Netta Fornario was found dead on the mystical island of Iona, Scotland. She was naked except for a black cloak with insignia, suggesting perhaps something occult was responsible for her death.

On October 21, 1978, amateur pilot Frederick Valentich took off for a quick nighttime flight off Australia's southern shore. He was never seen again. But right before he disappeared, he radioed ground control to report he was being stalked by a UFO.

Can the dead actually curse the living? After the 1922 unearthing of an Egyptian pharaoh's tomb, a mysterious string of misfortunes plagued the archaeologists who discovered it—and it’s not the first time a cursed mummy has wreaked havoc.

In the early 1900s, Eleanor Jourdain and Charlotte Moberly visited the Palace of Versailles. The two academics were hoping for a pleasant trip. Instead, they found themselves transported over a century into the past where they saw the long-dead Queen of France, Marie Antoinette.

In the 1950s, Morris K. Jessup received a letter from a stranger. The man claimed to have intel on an ultra-classified wartime Naval experiment involving teleportation, human test subjects, and disastrous results that the government would do anything to cover up.

When Terry and Gwen Sherman bought their dream ranch in Utah, they never suspected they were entering a hotspot of paranormal activity: glowing orbs, hovering aircraft, mutilated cows… A team of researchers was finally called in to investigate—and two scientists witnessed perhaps the most terrifying phenomenon of all.

On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 seemed to vanish into thin air. Less than an hour after takeoff, the plane disappeared from radar—and though seven countries launched a search and rescue operation, the 227 passengers on board were never heard from again.

In 1991, singer-songwriter Pam Reynolds underwent a daring operation to remove a life-threatening aneurysm. Afterwards, Pam was able to describe the entire procedure in detail… even though she was clinically dead throughout.

In February 1981, a man named Cheyenne Johnson stabbed his girlfriend’s boss to death. His defense? He’d been possessed. It turns out, he might’ve actually caught a demon from his girlfriend’s brother the summer before, when the young boy allegedly had forty-three demonic spirits inside him.

In the early 1900s, a strange peasant from Siberia charmed Russia’s royal family. Grigori Rasputin gained entry into the Romanovs’ inner circle using his reputation as a healer and prophet—but not everyone was brought under his spell.

A young man went missing for five days in 1975, and when he returned claimed he’d been abducted by aliens. There to witness it? His six lumberjack coworkers, who reported it to the police the night he went missing.

He only wanted to use the Ouija board to contact his Aunt Helen… He didn’t mean to summon anything evil. And yet, Roland Doe became the most thoroughly documented case of demonic possession in American history, inspiring the 1973 movie The Exorcist.

On December 4th, 1872, the Mary Celeste was found drifting in the Atlantic Ocean. The ship was fully stocked with food and drinking water, and its cargo still intact—but the crew was nowhere to be found. What had happened to the so-called “Ghost Ship”? And what if the answer came from the ship itself?

In small-town Georgia, there’s a strange monument with bizarre instructions for reordering society. The whole town knows how it got there, but nobody knows why—or just how dark a secret it may be hiding.

In 1953, Army scientist Frank Olson jumped out of a hotel window in New York City. His death was ruled a suicide, but two decades later, word of a top-secret CIA program cast new light on the case. The program’s purpose? Assess the use of LSD… for mind control.

From 1764 to 1767, a strange creature terrorized a mountainous French region called the Gévaudan. But though myths and stories surrounding the “Beast” are still around to this day, nobody knows what exactly was roaming through the area…

In September of 1890, inventor Louis Le Prince got on a train in Dijon, France, on his way to present his latest invention to the world… But no one saw him get off, and he was never heard from again.

On the last day of 1992, Debra and Tony Pickman moved into a rented house in Atchison, Kansas. A few months later, they began to notice flickering lights, cold spots, and items moving by themselves. They learned the house was haunted by the ghost of a little girl named Sallie. But as the haunting grew more extreme, they began to wonder if there was something else lurking in the home.

From drug sales to human trafficking, the dark web is full of illicit activity. But murder-for-hire websites were always presumed to be a scam—until 2016, when a woman who had been targeted by a website called the Besa Mafia was actually murdered.

On December 5th, 1945, Flight 19 flew out over the Atlantic Ocean on a routine training mission. It was a simple exercise—hundreds of pilots had navigated it before. But the flight crew never made it back to base. Instead, they fell victim to one of the deadliest paranormal phenomena on earth: The Bermuda Triangle.

For more than two decades, the CIA and U.S. military ran a top-secret project to study psychic phenomena. The declassified files suggest that psychic powers do exist—and that they were used in some of the most important intelligence operations of the 20th century.