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Pleasing Terrors

Join acclaimed ghost storyteller Mike Brown for a bi-weekly tour through the shadows of history. The Pleasing Terrors Podcast features stories about haunted places, creepy history, and forgotten folklore.
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Now displaying: July, 2017
Jul 31, 2017

Chicago’s West 63rd Street Post Office was built in 1938 over the site of what its creator referred to as “The Castle”, and in 1902 an Ohio Daily News article called it Chicago’s Ghost Castle. Whatever you want to call it, this site was once or possibly still is the home to a notorious killer.

A figure who built a home that included a 2nd floor full of secret passages, trap doors, and hidden staircases. The basement so notorious that a crowd would lay on the sidewalk and try to peer through the cracks as it was excavated.

The creator of “The Castle” claimed to be under an evil influence. An influence that seemed to continue to claim victims after his death. An influence that is still felt today

  • Moyamensing Prison was finished in 1835
  • Chicago Police Detective Frank Geyer interviews his nemesis in 1895
  • A crowd gathers for the excavation of “The Castle” basement excavation
  • Another crowd gathers outside “The Castle” to see if the owner returns after his execution
  • In 2012 a tunnel that leads to “The Castle” basement is discovered
  • The story of Herman Webster Mudgett
  • Christmas Day, 1891 Julia Smythe and her daughter Pearl disappear
  • The investigation into the Pitezel case
  • H.H. Holmes wrote Holmes’ Own Story while incarcerated at Moyamensing
  • Mysterious deaths of anyone connected to the case or “The Castle”

Resources:

Herman Webster Mudgett or H. H. Holmes

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Jul 24, 2017

The Heriot House in Georgetown, South Carolina was built in 1765. It is now the Harbor House Inn and there are many stories by visitors and Georgetown residents alike of seeing an image of a woman that looks like she doesn’t belong there. Is this woman the ghost of a forlorn lover or does she represent something more sinister?

 Something that ties in with the four circles of Dante’s Inferno and stretches all the way from the old Heriot House to a Greenwich Village neighborhood located on Jane Street. A story that crosses the founding of America and the early days of New York, featuring such notable founders as Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and even George Washington.

Episode Highlights:

  • Dante Alighieri’s Inferno The Divine Comedy
  • Are ghosts fragments of energy left behind
  • A lantern in the window of The Heriot House
  • Jane Street hauntings and ghost sightings
  • The ghost of Alexander Hamilton
  • The home of Eliza Jumel
  • The story of Gulielma Sands and the Well of Malebolgia
  • The Ambition of Aaron Burr
  • Tragic life and death of Theodosia Burr Alston

Resources:

Divine Comedy

Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes.

Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston’s best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter!

Jul 7, 2017

In Austin, Texas in 1884 a female servant was killed in a gruesome ax murder. Feeble attempts were made to find the murderer, but to no avail. Soon a series of gruesome ax murders and attacks followed. Each one more horrific than the other, and the murders spread beyond the black servant population to the white community.

What originally was considered a black problem in the South twenty years after the Civil War became society's problem. This was a birth. The birth of legions of Demons cast out by Jesus. The birth referred to in the occult addicted mind of William Butler Yeats in his poem The Second Coming. The birth of something much more sinister.

Episode Highlights:

  • The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats
  • Yeats obsession with the occult and marriage to medium Georgie Hyde-Lees
  • The murder of Molly Smith
  • Many believed a demon had come to Austin
  • The Gospel of Mark and Jesus casting out demons in the Gerasenes
  • The legend of the boogeyman can be found in all cultures
  • The attack of Susan Hancock and murder of Jimmy and Eula Phillips
  • Christmas Day, 1885 the day “Hell Broke Loose”

Resources:

The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats

Enjoyed this episode? Please support the show by rating, reviewing, and subscribing on iTunes.

Please visit Pleasing Terrors, the podcast behind Old Charleston’s best ghost tour, on Facebook and Twitter!

 

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