#FIRESIDEFRIGHTS VOLUME 32 #WeirdDarkness

In the spring of 1942, seven-year-old Scott Paradine was playing hooky down by the creek when a scorched metal box tumbled down the bank, packed with toys no store on Earth had ever stocked – an abacus whose beads slid off in a direction no grown-up could follow, a crystal cube full of tiny people who did whatever he thought at them, and a doll whose insides didn't match any anatomy chart. Scott and his two-year-old sister Emma figured the toys out fast, their father couldn't work them at all, and the child psychologist he brought home to dinner came away convinced the toys were teaching the kids to think in a way no adult could follow. EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/mimsy SOURCES and RESOURCES: "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" by Lewis Padgett, the pen name of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, first published in Astounding Science Fiction, February 1943 WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: October 07, 2026 LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL

Lord Carnavan's wife lends a visiting sheikh her carved Indian jewel box for one afternoon, and the morning after she wears her diamond necklace to Buckingham Palace, the necklace is gone from the locked box and her husband wants the psychic detective next door on the case. Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTR CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = Show Open 00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Devil’s Bargain” (December 06, 1978) ***WD 00:46:21.922 = The Saint, “Nineteen Santa Clauses” (December 25, 1949) ***WD 01:15:28.920 = 2000 Plus, “Green Thing” (September 27, 1950) ***WD 01:46:11.949 = The Unexpected, “Cargo Unknown” (1947-1948) ***WD 02:00:49.726 = Unsolved Mysteries, “Writing On The Wall” (October 05, 1949) ***WD 02:16:31.638 = Dark Venture, “Hideout” (January 07, 1947) ***WD 02:40:04.171 = The Weird Circle, “Terribly Strange Bed” (July 29, 1943) 03:08:10.615 = The Whistler, “Death Pays a Visit” (June 11, 1945) 03:37:46.860 = Strange Wills, “Singapore Liz” (November 02, 1946) 04:08:25.983 = Witch’s Tale, “Spirits Of The Lake” (January 02, 1933) 04:39:31.712 = X Minus One, “Real Gone” (February 27, 1957) 05:01:37.400 = Show Close (ADU) = Air Date Unknown (LQ) = Low Quality ***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.

Tennessee gave Christa Pike two doses of pentobarbital on September 30th, 2026, and she survived both. In 1650, Anne Greene hung for almost half an hour at Oxford, and when the anatomists opened her coffin, she was breathing. From the book “BOTCHED EXECUTIONS: Four Centuries Of Failed Hangings, Electrocutions, Gassings, Injections And Firing Squads” by Darren Marlar, https://amzn.to/4yLF5oo, sources at https://weirddarkness.com/botchedexecutions. WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. Originally aired: October 06, 2026 https://weirddarkness.com/botched01

You go to bed like any other night… but by morning, someone is dead — was it a dream, or did you kill while still deep in sleep? EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/HomicidalSleepwalking READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yckud24p FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: At least 68 cases of sleepwalking murder have reached a courtroom, giving a jury the unenviable task of deciding whether a murder committed while asleep means criminal responsibility for the unfortunate sleepwalker. (Homicidal Sleepwalking) *** A man begins to see and experience strange things around the house as he cares for his elderly grandmother. 
(The Other Company) *** What does uncontrollable laughing, the Chupacabra, rampant crime, witch burnings, and dancing to exhaustion all have in common? They are all examples of what experts call “mass hysteria”. (Strange Stories of Mass Hysteria) *** Weirdo family member and U.S. veteran Joe Akins shares a personal experience with the paranormal and extraterrestrial! (UFO's & Demonic Shadow Figures) *** Another Weird Darkness fan, Mathew R., sent us a short story about what happened to him while visiting the Watseka Wonder House (The Watseka Wonder) CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding 00:00:38.261 = Show Open 00:02:29.182 = Homicidal Sleepwalking 00:18:49.261 = The Other Company *** 00:24:50.570 = Strange Stories of Mass Hysteria 00:37:01.174 = UFOs and Demonic Shadow Figures *** 00:39:58.141 = The Watseka Wonder 00:43:52.791 = Show Close *** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break LISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps *No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast* SOURCES and RESOURCES: “Homicidal Sleepwalking” by Fiona Guy for Crime Traveller: http://bit.ly/2nhu93j “The Other Company” by Marc Eulo Boni for Ghost Attic: http://bit.ly/2lN5UcS “Strange Stories of Mass Hysteria” by Doug MacGowan for Historic Mysteries: http://bit.ly/2lIJ8mp “UFO's & Demonic Shadow Figures” by Joe Akins for Weird Darkness “The Watseka Wonder” by Troy Taylor for American Hauntings: http://bit.ly/2nOK1dE, with a short paragraph at the end from Weirdo family member Mathew R. (Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.) WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. Originally aired: August 22, 2018

Six members of a space expedition find themselves hunted by a shapeshifting monster that appears from nowhere on a desolate alien world, seeming to pick them off one by one. EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/SixFrightenedMen SOURCES and RESOURCES: “Six Frightened Men” by Randall Garrett (Originally published in ‘Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy’ June 1957) WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. Midnight In The Macabre (MITM), originally aired: October 07, 2026 LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL