Down the Crooked Path

In this episode, we look at the Axeman of New Orleans and the panic that followed him through the city. We go through the attacks on grocery families, the letter printed in the Times Picayune, the chalk message near the Maggio home, and the suspects who were pulled into the story over the years. We also look at how newspapers shaped the case, how the investigation stalled, and why the Axeman disappeared as suddenly as he arrived.

You can find Down the Crooked Path on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram at @downthecrookedpath. If you have your own stories...

The Nahanni Valley built its reputation on the sheer number of people who went in and never came back. Prospectors, trappers, outlaws, and travelers moved through that stretch of the Northwest Territories for decades, and many of them were later found under circumstances that didn’t match the usual hazards of the region. Enough bodies turned up without their heads that the place picked up the name Valley of the Headless Men.

This episode looks at the pattern that formed around those disappearances. It includes the early prospectors who vanished in the late 1800s, the McLeod brothers fo...

A remote Bavarian farm. Six people who never saw spring. Footprints in the snow that led in but never led out. And an attic that seemed to breathe when no one was looking.

In this episode, we walk the crooked path to Hinterkaifeck, a case that feels less like true crime and more like a folktale that refuses to settle. We trace the strange days leading up to the murders, the unsettling signs the family tried to ignore, and the theories that still cling to the rafters more than a century later.

If...

The Hexham Heads have been blamed for hauntings, poltergeist activity, wolf‑man sightings, and a decades‑long argument between scientists, folklorists, and anyone who ever walked through that house. This episode looks at the theories people built around two small stone faces and why so many different groups became convinced they were dealing with something more than a garden find.

We get into the Stone Tape theory, the “recording device” angle, the hoax claims, and the psychological side of why multiple witnesses reported similar experiences. No single explanation settles the case, which is exactly why the Hexham Heads re...

In this episode, we step into one of Europe’s most baffling unsolved mysteries. In November 1970, a woman was found dead in Norway’s Isdalen Valley: burned, staged, and surrounded by clues that only raised more questions. Multiple passports. Disguises. Wigs. Cryptic travel notes. Hotel aliases. International movements that touched Paris, Basel, Geneva, and Stavanger. And a trail that may have crossed paths with intelligence agencies, militant groups, and a Swiss banker with a very dark history.

We follow her footsteps through Europe, decode her notepad, dig into the spy theories, and look at the strange forces that...

This week, we’re heading straight into one of Canada’s strangest, smokiest, most stubborn hauntings — the Baldoon Mystery. A family farm under siege. Fires that sparked out of nowhere. Bullets that bent in mid‑air. A suspected witch who absolutely did not appreciate being accused of anything. And a curse that refused to mind its business.

We’re unpacking the folklore, the eyewitness chaos, the generational drama, and the one bizarre solution that supposedly ended it all. If you love a haunting with attitude, this one’s for you.

In this episode:

In this episode of Down the Crooked Path, Amanda Joy walks through the 1827 murder of Maria Marten and the strange trail that followed. From the dream that sent Maria’s stepmother back to the Red Barn to the discovery that shocked the village to the trial that turned William Corder into one of the most talked about men in England, this case has all the twists you would expect from early true crime.

We also look at the stories that surfaced long after the murder, including the tale of Dr. John Kilner and the skull he should ha...

In this episode, we return to Point Pleasant, West Virginia, a quiet river town that became the center of one of the most unsettling waves of sightings in American history. Between 1966 and 1967, dozens of witnesses reported a winged figure with glowing red eyes moving through the abandoned TNT area, appearing on lonely roadsides, and watching from the treetops.

But the creature was only part of the story. As the sightings continued, strange lights appeared in the sky, unsettling letters arrived, and a sense of dread settled over the town. When the Silver Bridge collapsed on December 15, 1967, many...

On August 20th, 1966, two Brazilian electronics technicians were found dead on a lonely hillside overlooking Niterói. Their bodies were neatly laid out. Their belongings were untouched. And over their eyes… lead masks. The kind you’d wear to shield yourself from radiation.

No signs of struggle. No obvious cause of death. Just a cryptic note in one man’s pocket that read: “Take capsules. After effect, protect metals. Await signal.”

If you want to wander a little further down the crooked path, come hang out with us on social:

Follow us on TikTok and...

A single bone found on Albuquerque’s West Mesa led investigators to a discovery no one was prepared for. Over the following days, the desert revealed the remains of eleven women and one unborn child. This episode traces the years before that moment, the women whose lives were taken, and the long search for clarity that has yet to bring closure. It is a story shaped by vulnerability, systemic failure, and a landscape that held its silence for far too long.

This is the Case of the West Mesa Bone Collector

Follow along on Instagram an...

Life has a way of throwing curveballs, and this week it definitely did. Between health, schedules, and the general chaos of being human, we weren’t able to finish our regular episode in time.

But we didn’t want to leave your feed empty, so today we’re sharing a sister‑podcast crossover from Canadian Creepies: the strange little tale of Jacko the Ape. It’s weird, it’s folkloric, and it’s exactly the kind of odd Canadian mystery we love.

Thank you for your patience, your messages, and your support while we catch our breath. We...

In this episode, we dive into one of the most controversial modern possession cases ever documented: the story of Julia, the woman psychiatrist Dr. Richard Gallagher publicly claimed was genuinely possessed by a demonic entity. Gallagher, a trained medical professional and skeptic by nature, became convinced that Julia’s case defied every psychiatric explanation he knew.

We explore:

On a rainy January night in 1982, 19‑year‑old Lisa Au left her boyfriend’ in Kailua and began the short drive home. She never arrived. What followed was one of Hawai‘i’s most haunting and consequential missing‑person cases — a story that reshaped public trust, changed policing practices, and left a family searching for answers that never came.

Mount Shasta has a reputation that stretches far beyond its trails. People come here for the scenery, but the stories that surround this mountain go in every direction. In this episode, we look at the documented disappearances, the search efforts that followed, and the conditions that made those cases so difficult to resolve. We also explore the stranger accounts tied to the area: the claims of hidden cities beneath the mountain, the Bigfoot reports, and the well‑known “robot grandma” encounter that has circulated for years.

In this episode:

Sorry this episode was delayed. I was unwell this week.

A corner of the internet once promised something unthinkable: a place where anyone could hire a killer with a few clicks. It called itself Besa Mafia, and for a brief, chaotic moment, it became one of the most infamous “hitman‑for‑hire” sites on the dark web. But behind the ominous branding and whispered rumors was something far stranger and far more human than a criminal empire.

We explore:

In 1897, Zona Heaster Shue was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Her death was ruled natural. Her husband insisted on a quick burial. And the case should have ended there. But it didn’t. Because Zona’s mother, Mary Jane, claimed her daughter came back from beyond the grave to tell her she’d been murdered.

This episode breaks down what really happened inside that house, what Mary Jane knew that she shouldn’t have known, and the ghost story printed on the front page of The Greenbrier Independent that may have...

Percy Fawcett: The Explorer Who Walked Into the Amazon and Never Returned

In 1925, legendary explorer Percy Fawcett set out with his son and his son’s best friend to find a lost city he called “Z.” They walked into one of the most unforgiving regions of the Amazon rainforest and vanished without leaving a single confirmed trace behind.

This episode breaks down the theories that have followed the case for nearly a century. You will hear about the belief that Fawcett reached a hidden community he had written about for years. You will also hear the id...

In this episode, we walk through one of the most haunting unsolved cases in American history: the 1912 Villisca Axe Murders. We explore the suspects, the theories that divided a town, the strange clues left behind, and the chilling possibility that the killer returned to the Stillinger girls’ room after the murders.

If you enjoy the episode, follow along for more folklore, true crime, and the uncanny:

Instagram & TikTok: @downthecrookedpath

Step back onto the crooked path… if you dare.

Season 2 opens the door to a deeper, stranger, more intimate exploration of the stories that cling to the edges of our communities; the hauntings we inherit, the mysteries we can’t shake, and the histories that refuse to stay buried.

This season, we’re venturing into some of the most unsettling and compelling stories ever told, including:

As the holiday season settles in and the year winds toward its close, Down the Crooked Path is shifting its weekly rhythm. For the next few weeks, our Thursday episodes are taking a brief winter rest. In their place, we’re bringing you a special run of Canadian Creepies every Tuesday—bite‑sized explorations of the strange, the spectral, and the wonderfully weird corners of Canadian folklore.

Regular full-length episodes return in the New Year, but until then, consider these eerie little detours our gift to you.

Tonight, we travel to the windswept prairi...

This week, we’re revisiting one of Canada’s most infamous hauntings—the Baldoon Mystery. In the early 1800s, the McDonald family of Wallaceburg, Ontario, found themselves tormented by unexplained fires, shattered windows, and eerie phenomena that defied explanation. Local lore tells of a curse, a witch, and a desperate attempt to end the haunting with a silver bullet.

This episode is pulled from our Tuesday segment over at Canadian Creepies, while I’m busy working through the holiday season. Regular episodes of Down the Crooked Path will resume soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this chilling tale of...

During the holiday season Down the crooked path is taking a Canadian Detour. We are revisiting our Tuesday Segments over on our sister podcast Canadian Creepies.

Don't worry! Regular episodes will resume soon!

----------------------------------------

Project Magnet — a little‑known program launched in the 1950s to investigate UFOs, magnetic anomalies, and unexplained aerial phenomena.

Listeners will discover:

We are visiting another Tuesday segment of Down the crooked path from out sister podcast Canadian Creepies, while Amanda tackles a busy holiday season in her personal life.

In Manitoba, Canada, a prospector named Stephan had an encounter with what would become known as Canadas most well documented UFO case. This encounter would leave him sick and suffering from burns for the rest of his life!

Don't worry! Amanda will be back soon with regular episodes of Down the Crooked path soon!

A day late, its been a busy time of year in my personal life so I do apologies for letting the calendar get away from me.

This week we are revisiting a feature from our Tuesday segments at the Canadian Creepies podcast!

Tom Thomson was an artist who went missing only for his body to turn up under mysterious conditions.

Was it an accident or did something more sinister happen to him?

And does his spirit still haunt the lake to this day?

Find out more and...

This week we are taking trip to revisit an episode from my Tuesday segments over on my sister podcast Canadian Creepies.

Every Tuesday I take a deep dive in to a paranormal or totally creepy Canadian mystery.

Mr. Christie does make good cookies, from believed Oreos to long time staple Social Teas. But when his son took after his death, something sinister was taking place behind a hidden room of their mansion.

What was the dark secret he was keeping?

Who knew?

What lengths were taken to keep that...

On a frigid December night in 1956, Barbara and Patricia Grimes—15 and 12 years old—left their Chicago home to see Love Me Tender for the eleventh time. They never returned. What followed was one of the most intense missing persons investigations in Chicago’s history, marked by conflicting sightings, false confessions, and haunting letters that would torment their mother for years

we unravel one of the most bizarre and haunting UFO encounters in American history: the Cash-Landrum Incident. On a quiet Texas night in 1980, two women and a child witnessed a diamond-shaped craft hovering in the sky, blazing with heat and flanked by military helicopters. What followed was a harrowing tale of radiation burns, government silence, and the only known lawsuit filed against the U.S. government over a UFO sighting.

We explore:

🎙️ Episode Notes: Canadian Creepies Edition – Grainger Taylor

Due to unexpected technical difficulties behind the scenes, this week’s episode of Down the Crooked Path is taking a brief detour. But don’t worry! We’re still serving up something eerie, enigmatic, and deeply Canadian.

This week, we’re featuring a special segment from our sister podcast, Canadian Creepies, where every Tuesday we explore supernatural stories from across the country in our recurring series: Down the Crooked Path.

Today’s tale? The haunting disappearance of Grainger Taylor—a mechanical prodigy from Vancouver Island who claimed he was leav...

In this episode of Down the Crooked Path, we walk the blood-soaked fields of Gettysburg.

Beneath the monuments and manicured grass lies a battlefield imprinted with grief, rage, and unfinished stories.

We explore the psychological theory of trauma-imprinted landscapes and ask: what does it mean for a place to remember? From phantom regiments seen at twilight to whispered names in the fog, Gettysburg remains one of the most persistently haunted sites in North America.

Through historical accounts, environmental cues, and folklore passed down through generations, we trace the line between residual hauntings and...

A man writes a word. Crosses it out. Hours later, he’s found naked, dying in the passenger seat of his own car. He says four men were with him—but no one else is there.

In this episode, we unravel the haunting final hours of Günther Stoll, a food engineer from West Germany whose death in 1984 remains one of the country’s most baffling unsolved cases. At the center of it all: a cryptic note—YOGTZE—a string of letters that may be a call sign, a food additive, a Hebrew word, or nothing at all.

...

Before H.H. Holmes built his infamous murder castle, before Jack the Ripper haunted London’s alleys, two men roamed the American frontier leaving a trail of blood and terror. In this episode, we dive into the chilling legacy of Micajah and Wiley Harpe—widely considered America’s first documented serial killers.

From the brutal discovery of John Langford’s body to the Harpes’ arrest, escape, and the bounty that launched a manhunt, we unravel the true story behind the myth. Who were these men? Why did they kill without motive? And how did their reign of violence s...

In this episode, we unravel the chilling legend of the Philadelphia Experiment—a rumored 1943 naval test that allegedly rendered the USS Eldridge invisible, teleported it through space, and left its crew physically fused to the ship. Was it a misunderstood radar cloaking experiment, or something far more disturbing?

We trace the story from its wartime origins to the strange letters of Carl Allen, the man who claimed to witness the event. Along the way, we explore the science that may have inspired the myth, the psychological toll on those who believed they were involved, and the eerie si...

What happens when a man disappears during a storm and reappears years later with a new name, a new life, and no memory of his past? In this episode of Down the Crooked Path, we unravel the bizarre and haunting tale of Lawrence Bader—who vanished from Lake Erie in 1957 and resurfaced as John Fritz Johnson, a charismatic TV personality in Omaha.

Was it amnesia, a calculated escape, or something even stranger? Join Amanda as she dives deep into one of the most perplexing identity mysteries of the 20th century. From the stormy night that sparked his di...

In this chilling episode of Down the Crooked Path, Amanda unpacks the enduring mystery of the Dyatlov Pass incident—a case that has haunted investigators, spawned dozens of theories, and captivated conspiracy lovers for over six decades.

🔍 What you'll hear:

🧊 Whether you're a true crime junkie, a paranormal sleuth, or just love a good unsolved myste...

In this episode of Static Whispers: Ghosts in the Machine, we explore the strange ways modern technology seems to echo with voices from beyond. From phantom phone calls that ring in the dead of night, to radio transmissions that speak in riddles, and teasing emails from accounts that should be long dormant—these stories aren’t pulled from textbooks. They’re lived.

Topics include:

Is it just static—or are we picking...

In the heart of post-Katrina New Orleans, amid floodwaters and fractured psyches, a love story spiraled into one of the city’s most chilling tragedies. This episode unpacks the haunting tale of Zack Bowen and Addie Hall—two lovers drawn together by chaos, trauma, and a shared sense of rebellion. From rooftop cocktails during the storm to the infamous apartment on Rampart Street, we trace the descent from survival to psychological collapse.

What You’ll Hear:

In the heart of post-Katrina New Orleans, amid floodwaters and fractured psyches, a love story spiraled into one of the city’s most chilling tragedies. This episode unpacks the haunting tale of Zack Bowen and Addie Hall—two lovers drawn together by chaos, trauma, and a shared sense of rebellion. From rooftop cocktails during the storm to the infamous apartment on Rampart Street, we trace the descent from survival to psychological collapse.

What You’ll Hear:

Step into the shadowy streets of 19th-century New Orleans, where mysticism, power, and legend converge in the life of one of the most enigmatic figures in American history—Marie Laveau.

In this episode of Down the Crooked Path, we unravel the truth and myth behind the woman known as the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. Was she a healer or a sorceress? A devout Catholic or a master of occult rites? Or perhaps all of the above?

🔮 What you'll hear:

In this chilling episode, we unravel the haunting mystery of Room 1046, a case that has baffled investigators for nearly a century. A man checks into a Kansas City hotel under a false name. Days later, he’s found brutally beaten, barely alive, and surrounded by cryptic clues. He dies shortly after, and the trail goes cold.

🔍 What really happened in Room 1046? Was it a mob hit, a lover’s quarrel, or something even darker? We dig into the police reports, the strange phone calls, and the eerie silence that followed.

🎙️ In this episode:

Skeletons In this bone-chilling episode of Down the Crooked Path, we dig deep into tales of giant skeletons discovered in forgotten graves and remote landscapes across the world. Were they remnants of ancient civilizations, cryptid hoaxes, or suppressed archaeological finds?

Join Amanda as she unearths the shadowy history behind these colossal bones, the lore that surrounds them, and the conspiracy theories woven through museums, newspapers, and secret archives. From Appalachian caves to the deserts of Nevada, strange skeletons whisper secrets that challenge everything we thought we knew about human origins.

🦴 Topics include: