true crime

13 O’Clock Episode 62 – Vanished! Five Creepy Cases of Unsolved Missing Persons

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Murders are horrific and terrifying, sure, but there’s something that’s somehow even creepier about people who simply vanish without a trace. Were they murdered, did they die in an accident, or did they wander off of their own accord? And how to make sense of the strange clues that they often leave behind? On this episode, Tom and Jenny are continuing their eerie October theme with several of the most unsettling missing persons cases of recent times, including the case of Tara Calico and the disturbing Polaroid found in a parking lot, the bizarre disappearance of a mother and daughter from the same place nearly a year apart, the eighteen-year-old boy who vanished after leaving work and whose abandoned car was discovered with the headlights on and a live puppy inside, and many other ominous and perplexing details about people who just up and disappeared one day. Fix your location definitively in space and time and settle in for episode 62.

Also, if you have a TRUE creepy story that happened to you or someone you know (it doesn’t have to be paranormal, just scary), please email it to me at gravecake@gmail.com and we might feature it on our special Halloween episode!

Download the audio version here or watch the YouTube video here.

Please support us on Patreon! Don’t forget to follow the 13 O’Clock Podcast blog, subscribe to our YouTube channel, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. Check out our list channel, 13 O’Clock In Minutes! Song at the end: “Missing” by Arcadia.

My New Book “The Faceless Villain” is Out in Print and Ebook Formats!

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That’s right, at long last, my gruesome new true crime compilation, The Faceless Villain: A Collection of the Eeriest Unsolved Murders of the 20th Century, Volume One is now available on Amazon in print and ebook formats. If you would like an audio book, you will probably have to wait a couple more weeks, but trust me, it will be available soon. Please enjoy, and keep a lookout for volume two, which will be published next year. Oh, and also check out this cool book trailer I made, won’t you? Thank you.

Faceless Villain_ A Collection of the Eeriest 20th Century_ Volume One, The - Jenny Ashford

 

13 O’Clock Episode 60 – The Cleveland Torso Murders

/ Jenny Ashford / Leave a comment

It’s true crime time again on the show, kids, and today we’re discussing a particularly gruesome and infamous series of unsolved murders that also makes an appearance in Jenny’s brand new book, The Faceless Villain. The Cleveland Torso Murders were exactly what they claim on the tin: they happened in Cleveland in the 1930s, and most of the victims were found in varying states of grisly dismemberment. Many of the victims were never even identified, and the killer never was either, so hopefully that makes you sleep better at night. Gird your loins or other appropriate anatomy, because this one’s a tad icky, and if you’re watching on YouTube, I’ll slap a GROSS PHOTO WARNING right down here. Try to keep all your limbs attached as you settle in for episode 60 of 13 O’Clock.

Also, if you have a TRUE creepy story that happened to you or someone you know (it doesn’t have to be paranormal, just scary), please email it to me at gravecake@gmail.com and we might feature it on our special Halloween episode!

Download the audio version here or watch the YouTube video here.

Please support us on Patreon! Don’t forget to follow the 13 O’Clock Podcast blog, subscribe to our YouTube channel, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. Check out our list channel, 13 O’Clock In Minutes! Check out the heavy metal band Predator! Check out Dan Bell’s Dead Mall Series on YouTube! Song at the end: “The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run” by Black River Drifters.

13 O’Clock Episode 58 – Corpsewood Manor and the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders

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To celebrate the upcoming release of Jenny’s new true crime book, The Faceless Villain, we decided to devote episode 58 to a double feature of some super creepy crime cases (both of which were suggested by fans)! First up, the terrifying murder of Dr. Charles Scudder and Joseph Odom at their castle in the woods, Corpsewood Manor; and second, the bizarre kidnapping/murder case on which the 2008 movie Changeling was based: the so-called Wineville Chicken Coop Murders. Get your true crime on with the latest gruesome installment of 13 O’Clock, and also treat yourself to a slice of virtual cake because it’s Jenny’s birthday today (September 26th)!

Also, if you have a TRUE creepy story that happened to you or someone you know (it doesn’t have to be paranormal, just scary and true to the best of your knowledge), please email it to me at gravecake@gmail.com and we might feature it on our special Halloween episode!

Download the audio version here or watch the YouTube video here.

Please support us on Patreon! Don’t forget to follow the 13 O’Clock Podcast blog, subscribe to our YouTube channel, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. Check out our list channel, 13 O’Clock In Minutes! Songs at the end: “Murder by Numbers” by The Police and “Rosegarden Funeral of Sores” by Bauhaus (John Cale cover).

13 O’Clock Episode 49 – Murder By Witchcraft?

/ Jenny Ashford / Leave a comment

In the English Midlands in the 1940s, there were two very creepy unsolved murders: in one, a woman’s skeleton was found stuffed inside a wych-elm tree, and in the other, an old farmer was murdered in broad daylight by having his throat slashed and his body pinned to the ground by a pitchfork. Neither of the killers was ever caught, and in fact, the identity of the woman found in the wych-elm is still unknown. Eerily, both cases had details that suggested that they could possibly have been occult related. Were these killings part of some weird black magic rite? On this episode, Tom and Jenny discuss two infamous unsolved murders: the case known as Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm, and the Charles Walton Pitchfork Murder. Along the way, we also discuss legends about witchcraft in rural England, as well as the possible Nazi spy connection of the mysterious Bella skeleton. Put on your goat’s head and light a few black candles, because episode 49 of the 13 O’Clock Podcast has just been summoned from the underworld.

Download the audio podcast here, or watch the YouTube version here. Also, don’t forget to follow the 13 O’Clock Podcast blog, subscribe to our YouTube channel, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. And be sure to check out our shiny new list channel, 13 O’Clock In Minutes!

Song at the end: “Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?” by Gravenhurst.

13 O’Clock Podcast Launches a Patreon Campaign!

/ Jenny Ashford / Leave a comment

The one-year anniversary of the 13 O’Clock Podcast is rapidly approaching, and we figured it was an opportune time to start a Patreon campaign so we could make the show even bigger and more badass than before! There are lots of fun exclusives for patrons, so please click here and show us some love. Thank you to all our awesome listeners, who have made the show grow way bigger than we ever expected! We love all you crazy kids out there. 🙂

13 O’Clock Episode 45 – Villisca and the Unsolved Axe Murders of the 1910s

/ Jenny Ashford / Leave a comment

The horrifying massacre that took place in Villisca, Iowa in 1912 is among the creepiest mass murders in American history. Eight people — a couple with four children and two young girls who were staying the night — were brutally slaughtered with an axe while they slept, for seemingly no reason whatsoever. The crime was never solved, and what’s worse, that dreadful slaying might not have been the only one. Some researchers point out that there was a disturbing trend of gruesome axe murders going on in the Midwest from the period of 1911 through 1914, and it’s possible that some of these crimes were perpetrated by the same person. On this episode of 13 O’Clock, Tom and Jenny return to the most terrifying corners of the true crime genre to take a look at the infamous Villisca Axe Murders, as well as the disturbing series of similar crimes that terrorized the American heartland in the early twentieth century.

Download the audio file from Project Entertainment Network here, or watch the YouTube version here. Also, don’t forget to follow the 13 O’Clock Podcast blog, subscribe to our YouTube channel, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.

13 O’Clock Episode 40 – The Atlanta Ripper: America’s Forgotten Serial Killer

/ Jenny Ashford / Leave a comment

The Atlanta Ripper is perhaps one of America’s most brutal and prolific serial killers, but also one of its most forgotten, and there is even some controversy over whether he existed at all. Starting around 1909, a series of murders of black and mixed-race women in Atlanta, Georgia suggested that a mysterious murderer was prowling the streets, slashing women’s throats and sending the entire community into a panic. On this episode, Tom and Jenny discuss this tragically unsolved case, delving into the murders themselves as well as the controversies surrounding the killings at the time. America, it seems, had its very own Jack the Ripper, and whoever he was, he’s the subject of our 40th episode.

Download the audio file from Project Entertainment Network here, or watch the YouTube version here. Also, don’t forget to follow the 13 O’Clock Podcast blog, subscribe to our YouTube channel, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.

13 O’Clock Episode 32 – Horror in Room 1046: The Unsolved Murder of Roland T. Owen

/ Jenny Ashford / Leave a comment

In January of 1935, a young man checked into a hotel in Kansas City under the pseudonym Roland T. Owen, with only a hairbrush, a comb, and a tube of toothpaste to his name. A couple of days later, he was found naked, bound and obviously tortured in his blood-splashed room. Who was this murdered man with the fake name? Why was he constantly sitting in the dark? Who was the mysterious “Don” he talked to on the phone? Why was he running down the street clad only in pants and an undershirt? Who anonymously paid for his funeral and a bouquet of roses? Who sent cryptic typed letters to his mother months after his death?

Everyone loves an unsolved murder, and the mystery of room 1046 is one of the eeriest unsolved crimes in American history. On this episode, Tom and Jenny give a timeline of the bizarre events leading up to the man’s death, and speculate as to what might have befallen the doomed occupant of the Hotel President.

Download the audio file from Project Entertainment Network here, or watch the YouTube version here. Also, don’t forget to follow the 13 O’Clock Podcast blog, subscribe to our YouTube channel, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.

So the police of Kansas City. Mo., might have parodied the old adage on that morning,in 1935, when the curtain rose on one of the strangest murder mysteries in the annals of American crime.