Ding Dong Darkness Time

Latest Episodes:

13: The Found Footage Horror Lovefest Oct 12, 2022

Show notes

In the spirit of the Halloween season, Allison and Chris join forces to talk about their favorite subgenre of horror: found footage! And because they're a couple of oldsters, they wax about how awesome it was to experience the viral marketing campaign around The Blair Witch Project as it was coming out.
But that's far from all they cover here. The discussion dives into the origins of the genre, then onto so many of the movies it's spawned, but somehow they've only barely scratched the surface. Also tune in to see which found footage movie receives their crowning jewel.
Additional Info:
The 80s High Podcast https://the80shigh.podbean.com/

Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Music -- Spencer Morelock, Ken Dickson
Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: dddarknesstime@gmail.com

Ding Dong Ditch: Bloody Mary, Toilet Spirits, and Black Mirrors Oct 05, 2022

Show notes

It's October, peak Ding Dong Darkness Month, and this episode gets things off with a roaring start by summoning Bloody Mary and what other toilet spirits might be lurking about. What's up with that bit of folklore anyway? Sprits in the bathroom? And can you really summon a scary woman by speaking her name 13 times into a mirror? Maybe! Get ready for more psychology geekery.
But more than that, for most of human history, we've stared into reflective surfaces for magical purposes. What's up with that? Does it even work?
Well... kind of!
Herein also lies a quick rundown of some choice bathroom ghosts from Japan, including Hanako-san, Aka Manto, and that feisty little toilet licking goblin, Akaname.
And what's up with bathrooms being the prime location for strange hauntings, anyway?
Am I morphing into Seinfeld? Only one way to find out...
Additional Info:
Buy Hillary Monahan's Bloody Mary Books:
https://www.amazon.com/Hillary-Monahan/e/B00JALZWQW/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1
Snopes on Bloody Mary Legend
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bloody-mary-story/
Scrying
http://www.fieldsofstudy.com/scrying
Japanese Bathroom Ghosts
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/japans-bathroom-ghosts

DDD10: Bloody Mary, Toilet Spirits, and Black Mirrors: Oh Scry! Oct 05, 2022

Show notes

Ding Dong Ditch: The Sodder Family Mystery Sep 28, 2022

Show notes

Twas the night before Christmas in 1945, and the Sodder family was settling in for the night at their Fayetteville, West Virginia home. However, in the wee hours of the night, a fire broke out, and five of the nine Sodder children were never accounted for after the blaze.
Over the decades, speculation raged as the family continued to believe that the children were taken, and there were plenty of suspicious events leading up to the fire that caused them to believe that way. After the fire, things only got weirder with the investigation, including sightings of the children and a mysterious photograph sent to the family more than twenty years later.
But what really happened to the missing Sodder kids? Allison does all her best to break it all down and comes up with a theory, but she realizes there are many who may not agree. This one is a bit of a head-scratcher, to say the least.
Additional Info:
Unresolved Mysteries Link on Reddit (Lots of links within)
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/cpvxde/the_sodder_children_new_leads/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
Stacy Horn's NPR Article
https://www.npr.org/2005/12/23/5067563/mystery-of-missing-children-haunts-w-va-town
Smithsonian Magazine Article:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-children-who-went-up-in-smoke-172429802/
Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Intro and Background Music -- Spencer Morelock
Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: dddarknesstime@gmail.com

DDD9: The Sodder Family Mystery Sep 28, 2022

Show notes

Ding Dong Ditch: Royal Incest is Whack Sep 21, 2022

Show notes

Queen Elizabeth II has died, so this seems a great time to talk about incest in royal bloodlines.
Focus is mainly on the Habsburg Dynasty of the 1600s, a family whose interbreeding was so severe, the most powerful monarchy since Charlemagne eventually extinguished itself. We're gonna talk a little about that infamous jaw too.
Also... was the incestuous bloodline of Queen Victoria ultimately responsible for the fall of the Romanov family in Russia? Give a listen and let me know what you think.
Finally, I wrap up with some American takes on the whole inbreeding thing, and the cultural differences between that and royalty. This all but guarantees I have to talk about the blue people of Kentucky.
So come on in and take a short ride on a few twisted bloodlines. This ain't an Olive Garden, but when you're here, you're family.
Additional Info:
That Habsburg Jaw:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/habsburg-jaw
King Charles II:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/charles-ii-of-spain
The Habsburg Family Tree:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBOnjhEbqTM
The Blue Fugates of Kentucky
https://allthatsinteresting.com/fugate-family-blue-people-of-kentucky
The Whitaker Family
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkGiFpJC9LM
Show Credits:
Show Credits:
Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Intro Music -- Spencer Morelock
Background Music -- "Division" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: dddarknesstime@gmail.com

DDD8: Royal Incest is Whack Sep 21, 2022

Show notes

Ding Dong Ditch: Humans Consuming Humans -- Mummy Edition Sep 12, 2022

Show notes

Let's talk about cannibalism! Specifically medical cannibalism.
Humans have been using corpses medicinally for centuries. A little ground up skull for a headache. A sip of blood for the spirit. A slather of human fat for a wound. But around the 12th century, they went particularly nuts for Egyptian mummies, and for the next 500 years, it was available at any town apothecary.
Learn all about ground up mummies, whether unearthed from Egyptian tombs, or locally sourced from the neighborhood executioner and made in-house, and how people used them to treat various ailments, and even made paint pigment out of their ground-up remains.
And that's only a little of what's packed into this 20-something minutes. Come for the primer on curative cannibalism and cultural exploitation. Stay for the always timely reminder as to why incest is bad.
Additional Info:
Smithsonian Magazine Article on Corpse Medicine
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-gruesome-history-of-eating-corpses-as-medicine-82360284/

Modern Antiquities Smuggling
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-21/egypts-3-billion-dollar-smuggling-problem/10388394

Peruvian Gang Harvesting Human Fat
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/20/peru-gang-killing-human-fat

Mummy Brown Pigment Wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy_brown

History of Consuming Human Remains
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/mumia-the-strange-history-of-human-remains-as-medicine#A-controversial-practice

Mummia Wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummia

Mummy Craze of the Victorian Era
https://theconversation.com/why-did-people-start-eating-egyptian-mummies-the-weird-and-wild-ways-mummy-fever-swept-through-europe-177551
Show Credits:
Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Intro Music -- Spencer Morelock
Background Music -- Ken Dickson: https://soundcloud.com/kenjamd

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: dddarknesstime@gmail.com

DDD7: Humans Consuming Humans -- Mummy Edition Sep 12, 2022

Show notes

Modern Antiquities Smuggling
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-21/egypts-3-billion-dollar-smuggling-problem/10388394

Peruvian Gang Harvesting Human Fat
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/20/peru-gang-killing-human-fat

Mummy Brown Pigment Wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy_brown

History of Consuming Human Remains
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/mumia-the-strange-history-of-human-remains-as-medicine#A-controversial-practice

Mummia Wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummia

Ding Dong Ditch: Folie à Deux -- Three Cases of Shared Delusions Sep 05, 2022

Show notes

There are countless examples in true crime of the psychiatric phenomenon Folie à Deux, also known as shared delusion or shared psychosis. In this short episode, Allison goes into three very distinct cases.

In 2016, an Australian family, the Tromps, took an extremely bizarre impromptu road trip that ended with all of them separated and in various states of mental agitation and catatonia.
In the late 1970s, two men were incarcerated together and spent all their spare time feeding a shared fantasy of raping young girls. Once paroled, they set about putting their plans to work. Only it soon escalated to murder. Eventually becoming known as the Toolbox Killers, Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris were eventually arrested, but not before raping, maiming, and killing upwards of a half dozen young women and girls.
Finally, learn about Mr and Mrs A, a couple who became entrapped in one of the partners' psychotic states, feeding a series of delusions that eventually led to the death of their infant son.
Additional Info:
Folie à Deux Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folie_%C3%A0_deux
Excerpt on Folie à Deux re: Toolbox Killers:
https://books.google.com/books?id=uM5SDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA198&lpg=PA198&dq=lawrence+bittaker+and+roy+norris+folie+%C3%A0+deux&source=bl&ots=gKeolktW3s&sig=ACfU3U0NHI1d8VSCrUmTd3TCm9nDTGeEfQ&hl=en&ppis=_c&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjS68Xx_LDoAhVZCc0KHSjoARkQ6AEwAnoECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=lawrence%20bittaker%20and%20roy%20norris%20folie%20%C3%A0%20deux&f=false
The Story of Mr and Mrs A:
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2013.13010027

The Mystery of the Tromp Family:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-37293494

https://www.mamamia.com.au/tromp-family/
Famous Folie à Deux Murder Cases:
https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/folie-a-deux-murders
Show Credits:
Graphics -- Nathaniel Dickson: http://ndickson.com
Intro Music -- Spencer Morelock
Background Music -- Ken Dickson: https://soundcloud.com/kenjamd

Ding Dong Darkness Time Media:
Twitter: @dddarknesstime
Instagram: dddarknesstime
Gmail: dddarknesstime@gmail.com

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