True Crime

Highway to Hell

Welcome to Highway to Hell, the unique crossroads where wanderlust meets mystery. Every episode, I take you on a journey to breathtaking destinations around the globe, unveiling not just the beauty of travel but the shadows that lurk behind the postcard-perfect views. From unsolved mysteries to infamous crimes, I explore the darker tales hidden within the world’s most enchanting locales. So pack your curiosity, keep your wits about you, and join us as we dive deep into the thrilling intersection of travel and true crime. Your adventure into the unknown starts now.

Latest Episodes:

73. The Hatman Nov 10, 2026

Show notes

Please like, share and review and support us at patreon.com/highwaytohell

He stands in the doorway. He stands at the foot of the bed. He has no face, and you know exactly where he's looking. He's called the Hat Man, the tall shadow in the wide-brimmed hat and long coat that people all over the world describe in almost the same words.

We start with the night visitors of the old world: the Babylonian lilu and alû, the Egyptian shadow-soul, the Norse mara that gave us the word nightmare, Odin walking the roads as "Broad Hat". Then the witch trials, where the hat first shows up on paper. Swedish children in 1669 described the Devil in a gray coat, a red beard and "a high-crown'd Hat." In Salem in 1692, Richard Carrier, eighteen, confessed that a man "black and had a high crowned hat" met him on the road home and offered to walk a little way with him.

Then the modern Hatman from pop culture to TikTok challenges and possible scientific explanations why it happens.

SOURCES (full list on patreon)

- Joseph Glanvill, Saducismus Triumphatus (London, 1682), appendix on the Mora and Älvdalen witch trials translated by Anthony Horneck. archive.org

- Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive, University of Virginia (salem.lib.virginia.edu): Examination of Tituba, March 1, 1692; Examinations of Ann Foster, Mary Lacey Sr. and Mary Lacey Jr., July 21, 1692 (SWP No. 87); Examination of Richard and Andrew Carrier, July 22, 1692 (SWP No. 25)

- Susannah Sheldon's testimony against Bridget Bishop, June 1692, in the notes to Cotton Mather, Wonders of the Invisible World (Project Gutenberg)

- Isbrand van Diemerbroeck, Observationes et Curationes Medicae (1664), "Of the Night-Mare"

- Sumerian King List; Ynglinga saga; the Eddic name lists for Síðhöttr; Sahih Muslim 2814a on the qarin

- The Hat Man Project (thehatmanproject.com), Tim Brown's founding account and the Stephanie, Tammy, Theresa, Tibor and Anchorage submissions, as reprinted at believingthebizarre.com/the-hat-man

- Thought Catalog, "17 People On Their Real Experiences With A Shadow Person," June 2014

- Wikipedia: Shadow person; Mora witch trial; Saducismus Triumphatus; Gray Barker; El Sombrerón; La leyenda del Charro Negro; Qareen; Choctaw mythology; Ancient Egyptian conception of the soul; Alû; Night hag

- Art Bell archive, Coast to Coast AM, April 12, 2001, "Shadow People – Thunder Strikes"

- Heidi Hollis, The Secret War (2001); The Hat Man: The True Story of Evil Encounters (2014)

- Jason Offutt, Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us (Anomalist Books, 2009)

- Rodney Ascher, The Nightmare (2015); The Hat Man: Documented Cases of Pure Evil (2019)

- Miles Klee, "How the 'Hat Man' Went From Benadryl Joke to TikTok Horror Villain," Rolling Stone, Nov. 2, 2022

- Know Your Meme, "The Hatman" and "Benadryl Challenge"

- The Week, "Who is the Hat Man? 'Shadow people' and sleep paralysis"

- IFLScience, "Who Is 'The Hatman'?" April 1, 2025

- All That's Interesting, "The Hat Man"

- CBS News and ABC6 Columbus on the death of Jacob Stevens, April 2023; FDA warning on diphenhydramine, September 2020

- Mental Floss and History.com on the 1981 Los Angeles Times coverage of the Hmong deaths and Wes Craven; Slashfilm and Yahoo Entertainment on Craven's Cleveland memory and Robert Englund on the fedora

- Bridgeport Public Library, "Bridgeport's UFO Legacy: Men in Black and the Albert K. Bender Story"

72. The Mushroom Murders Nov 03, 2026

Show notes

Merch on sale until November 15th: https://monte-mader-shop.fourthwall.com/

The door stopper Monte mentioned in episode: https://a.co/d/0548zyof

On Saturday, July 29, 2023, Erin Patterson served beef Wellington to her husband's parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and to Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson and Heather's husband Ian, the pastor of the Korumburra Baptist Church, at her new house in Leongatha, Victoria. She told them over dessert that she had cancer. Within a week three of them were dead from death cap mushroom poisoning. Ian Wilkinson came out of a coma in late August and was back in his pulpit the following February.

Let's take a trip to Australia! South Gippsland and the English oaks the settlers planted; Erin's childhood in Glen Waverley, her time as an air traffic controller, and what the people who worked with her said about her; the marriage to Simon Patterson, the two-million-dollar inheritance, the money she gave his family, and the child-support fight that ended in a Facebook message about his parents; how a death cap works and how it got to Australia; the phone-tower trips to Loch and Outtrim, the dehydrator, the lunch plate by plate, and the five minutes she spent in Leongatha Hospital before a doctor called triple-0; the deaths at the Austin, the tip, the phone resets and the police interview; and the nine-week trial in Morwell, her eight days in the witness box, the verdict, the life sentence, and the October 30, 2026 Court of Appeal decision that took away any chance of parole.

Court and official

- Supreme Court of Victoria. "Erin Patterson appeals: judgment." October 29, 2026. supremecourt.vic.gov.au

- Patterson v The King [2026] VSCA 253, Court of Appeal of Victoria, October 30, 2026 (as reported by the ABC, CNN, The Conversation and the Supreme Court of Victoria).

- DPP v Patterson, Supreme Court of Victoria, sentencing remarks of Justice Christopher Beale, September 8, 2025 (as broadcast and reported by the ABC, The Guardian and The Conversation).

- Victorian Department of Health public health investigation, August 2023, as given in evidence by Sally Ann Atkinson, May 26–27, 2025

- "Who is Erin Patterson, the host of Australia's infamous mushroom lunch?" July 8, 2025.

- "The key people, timeline and evidence in Erin Patterson's mushroom murder trial." Updated July 7, 2025.

- Trial live blogs from the Latrobe Valley Law Courts, Morwell: May 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, 22, 27 and 29, 2025; June 26, 2025.

- "A girl's police interview brings 'truth' into focus during Erin Patterson's mushroom murder trial." May 10, 2025.

- "Lunch guests' illnesses were 'not survivable', doctor tells Erin Patterson trial." May 23, 2025.

- "Erin Patterson disputes testimony of witnesses and family in mushroom murder trial." June 10, 2025.

- "Erin Patterson's guilty verdict over a death cap mushroom lunch brings her trial to an end." July 7, 2025.

- "Doctor who treated Erin Patterson describes moment he came face-to-face with convicted murderer." July 8, 2025.

- "Intensive care doctor Stephen Warrillow details agonising efforts to save Erin Patterson's mushroom murder victims." July 9, 2025.

- "The evidence and events ruled inadmissible in the Erin Patterson mushroom murder trial." August 8, 2025.

- "Mushroom murderer Erin Patterson denied poisoning husband using toxic pasta, chicken curry." August 8, 2025.

- "Erin Patterson's police interview about deadly mushroom lunch released by court." August 8, 2025.

- "Dropped attempted murder charges against Erin Patterson labelled 'dubious', court documents show." August 12, 2025.

- "Prosecutor calls for Erin Patterson to be jailed for life with no parole for mushroom murders." August 25, 2025.

- "Erin Patterson sentenced to life with 33 years non-parole for mushroom murders — as it happened." September 8, 2025.

- Appeal live blogs: August 19 and 20, 2026; October 30, 2026.

- "Erin Patterson's failed appeal leaves few legal avenues for the mushroom killer." October 30, 2026.

71. Samhain and the Haunted Highlands Oct 30, 2026

Show notes

We are back and Happy Halloween! Since Monte just got back from Scotland-we figured we could give you a highland special!

Thank you to hellions on patreon.com/highwaytohell - you will get the full download of Monte's entire itinerary there!

In 1891 a chemistry professor alone on Ben Macdui heard footsteps behind him in the mist, each stride three times his own, and ran four miles down the mountain. In 1662 a farmer's wife at Auldearn told a notary, without torture, the rhyme she used to turn into a hare. In 1692 soldiers who had eaten the MacDonalds' food for twelve nights got up at five in the morning and shot their hosts. And this week, in a glen in Perthshire, somebody carried a family of stones into a thatched hut and shut the door on them for the winter, the way it's been done every Samhain since at least the 1880s.

This episode follows the oldest layer of Celtic belief from the Highlands of Scotland, starting with the Bronze Age cairns at Clava and the Cailleach, the old woman of winter, and moving forward through the first written record of Samhain on a Gaulish calendar, Columba's beast in the River Ness in 565, the Hallowe'en fires, the cup of ale offered to the sea god Shony on Lewis, the bull sacrifices on Loch Maree, the fairy faith of Robert Kirk, Isobel Gowdie's confessions, the water horse, the baobhan sith, the Big Grey Man of Ben Macdui, the Brahan Seer, the last witch burned in Britain, the massacre at Glencoe, Culloden, the Clearances, the three keepers who vanished from the Flannan Isles, and the bearded sailor of Sandwood Bay.

We go across the sea to the Gaelic-speaking Highlanders of Darien, Georgia, who signed the South's first anti-slavery petition in 1739, the Cape Fear settlements, the dumb suppers of Appalachia, how guising became trick-or-treat and the turnip became a pumpkin, how Walter Scott's fiery cross ended up on Stone Mountain in 1915, and how a god named Samhain who never existed got into American church pamphlets.

Sources

Adomnán, Life of St Columba (c. 697), trans. Sharpe (1995)

Hugh G. Allison, Culloden Tales (2007)

Robert Burns, "Halloween" (1785) and notes

Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica (1900)

J. Norman Collie, address to the Cairngorm Club, Dec. 1925

Mike Dash, "The Vanishing Lighthousemen of Eilean Mor," Fortean Studies 4 (1998)

John H. Dixon, Gairloch in North-West Ross-shire (1886)

Major Robert Duncanson, order to Glenlyon, 12 Feb. 1692

Affleck Gray, The Big Grey Man of Ben Macdhui (1970)

Northern Lighthouse Board: Harvie telegram, Moore and Muirhead reports (1900–01)

Robert Kirk, The Secret Commonwealth (1691)

Donald Macleod, Gloomy Memories (1841)

Alexander Mackenzie, The Prophecies of the Brahan Seer (1877)

Martin Martin, A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland (1703)

Thomas Pennant, A Tour in Scotland (1769, 1772)

Robert Pitcairn, Ancient Criminal Trials in Scotland, vol. 3 (1833)

Presbytery of Dingwall records, 1656 and 1678

R. Macdonald Robertson, Selected Highland Folktales (1961)

Alexander Tewnion, "A Shot in the Mist," The Scots Magazine, June 1958

The Times, report from Croick, 2 June 1845

Emma Wilby, The Visions of Isobel Gowdie (2010)

Also: Canmore, Spooky Isles (Cape Wrath), Spooky Scotland (Culloden), Undiscovered Scotland, University of Aberdeen (Brahan Seer study), Your Ghost Stories no. 8902, and Alex Cochrane's Sandwood Bay blog with reader comment by Granville Parker.

70. Aleister Crowley Oct 20, 2026

Show notes

Born at 30 Clarendon Square, Leamington Spa, on October 12, 1875, to a Plymouth Brethren preacher and a mother who would call him the Beast from the Book of Revelation, Edward Alexander Crowley grew up to make the name his own. This week we follow him from the prayer meetings of Warwickshire to a boarding house in Hastings: the sadistic Brethren school in Cambridge, the Golden Dawn and his brawl with W.B. Yeats on the stairs at Blythe Road, the house on Loch Ness where he tried to summon the kings of hell and never closed the door, the Cairo flat where a voice over his left shoulder dictated The Book of the Law over three lunch hours in April 1904, the Kangchenjunga expedition that left four men under an avalanche while he drank tea, the demon Choronzon in the Algerian desert, the Rites of Eleusis, the Paris Working, five strange years in wartime America, and the Abbey of Thelema in Sicily, where an Oxford graduate named Raoul Loveday died and Mussolini threw Crowley out of the country.

We lay out what Thelema actually teaches, from True Will and the three Aeons to the A∴A∴ grades, sex magick, Liber OZ, and the women he called Scarlet and used up one after another. Then three hauntings that follow him: Boleskine House and Jimmy Page's caretaker's worst night, the House of Ghosts at Cefalù that Kenneth Anger scraped the whitewash off in 1955, and Lam, the big-eyed grey thing Crowley drew in 1918, which runs straight into Jack Parsons, L. Ron Hubbard, and an explosion in Pasadena.

We close with four days in the West Midlands: Leamington and Warwick Castle's Ghost Tower, Stratford and a night at the hotel where The Haunting was filmed, Coventry and Coombe Abbey, and Birmingham for the Black Sabbath Bench, Aston Hall, a balti, Dudley Castle's Grey Lady, and a four-pound pie in the Black Country.

Support the show at patreon.com/highwaytohell for ad-free episodes and bonus content.

SOURCES

Aleister Crowley, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (ed. Symonds and Grant, 1969); The Book of the Law (1904); The Equinox of the Gods (1936); Magick in Theory and Practice (1929); The Vision and the Voice (1911); Liber OZ (1941)

Betty May, Tiger Woman (1929)

Richard Kaczynski, Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley (2010)

Lawrence Sutin, Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley (2000)

Tobias Churton, Aleister Crowley: The Biography (2011); Aleister Crowley in Paris (2022)

John Symonds, The Great Beast (1951)

Richard B. Spence, Secret Agent 666: Aleister Crowley, British Intelligence and the Occult (2008)

Gary Lachman, Aleister Crowley: Magick, Rock and Roll, and the Wickedest Man in the World (2014)

George Pendle, Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons (2005)

Kenneth Grant, The Magical Revival (1972); "Statement on LAM," Starfire vol. 1 no. 3 (1989)

Picture Post, "Kenneth Anger at the Abbey of Thelema," November 26, 1955

Contemporary press via aleistercrowleytimeline.com: The Pioneer (Sept. 29, 1905); Daily Mail (Sept. 11, 1905); Alpine Journal (Feb. 1906); Morning Leader and Daily Chronicle (Oct. 1910); Sunday Express (Nov. 26, 1922); John Bull (Mar. 24, 1923); Daily Express (Apr. 14, 1934); Yorkshire Post and Birmingham Gazette (Dec. 2, 1947); Crowley's 1918 Amalantrah diaries

The Scotsman, "House of the Unholy"; The Wild Hunt, "Renovation Plans Underway for Boleskine House" (2019); Boleskine House Foundation

Jimmy Page interview, Rolling Stone (1975)

Pasadena Police Department and Los Angeles press, June 1952 (Parsons)

Travel: Leamington Observer; Visit Warwickshire supernatural trail; Higgypop and Spooky Isles haunted-location guides; Express & Star; Coventry Telegraph; Birmingham Westside BID and Central BID (Black Sabbath trail, 2025–26); Songkick and Stereoboard venue listings

69. The Worlds Most Haunted Hotels Oct 13, 2026

Show notes

Support the show and get bonus content at patreon.com/highwaytohellpodcast

On the top floor of a hotel in Sydney, on ground that was a convict hospital in 1788, two women on two different nights woke up to a sailor standing at the foot of the bed, looking at them. In a castle on the coast of Northern Ireland, a receptionist sent up the tower stair to sweep up a broken glass was shoved from behind on the top step and went down the whole flight. In Room 217 of the Stanley Hotel, a man hid under the covers at three in the morning while his wife whispered that something was bent over the bed with its mouth at her ear, and that she could still feel its breath. In a ground-floor suite in the Ozarks that used to be a cancer quack's office, four friends propped a vodka bottle against the inside of their door, came back at eleven, and found a row of cards laid out on the carpet in front of it with the two jokers turned face up. On a ship in Long Beach, a mother woke to a man made of darkness sitting on the other twin bed, and he sat there until dawn.

Today we're counting down the ten most haunted hotels in the world, from number ten to number one. We're going from Sydney to the Scottish Highlands, the Antrim coast, London, the Canadian Rockies, the French Quarter, a California beach, a Cunard liner, an Arkansas mountaintop, and Estes Park, Colorado.

Sources:

24 Hours in Sydney. "Room 8 in the Russell Hotel… Sleep There If You Dare." 24hoursinsydney.com.au.

Abandoned NI. "The Haunted Ballygally Castle Hotel." abandonedni.com.

Archer, Bella. "Haunted Tulloch Castle in Dingwall: Castles, Ghost Stories and Scottish Mornings." Buckle Up, Boo!, buckleupboo.com.

Atteberry, Todd. "Ballygally Castle Hotel: The Knock at the Door Isn't Room Service." Witchery Art / Gothic Horror Stories, February 19, 2024. gothichorrorstories.com.

Avenue Calgary. "The Ghosts of Fairmont Banff Springs." avenuecalgary.com.

Ballygally Castle Hotel. "Ballygally Castle Hotel and Its Ghost Room" and "The History of Ballygally Castle." ballygallycastlehotel.com.

Bauer, Ellen. "A Ghostly Maid on the Queen Mary." Ghostvillage.com. Encounter dated June 1, 1973.

Brody, Mike. "Confessions of a Novice Ghost Investigator: Surviving the Stanley Hotel." Ghostvillage.com, January 2010.

Cappy. "The Beautiful Lady in White." Your Ghost Stories, April 1, 2020. yourghoststories.com, story 27186.

Crescent Hotel and Spa. "Haunting Ghost Experiences Revealed." crescent-hotel.com.

Crescenta Valley Weekly. "The Legend of B340." crescentavalleyweekly.com.

Cricket Australia. "Boo! Ghosts Have England Jumping." cricket.com.au, July 2014.

Cushman, Paige, and Kristen Belue. "'This Isn't a Horror Film': A Night at Arkansas' Haunted 1886 Crescent Hotel." KATV, Little Rock, October 2020.

Deccan Chronicle. "Haunted London Hotel Frightens England Cricketers." July 21, 2014.

East Durham Paranormal Research Group. "Tulloch Castle: Ghost Sightings." eastdurhamparanormalrg.co.uk.

Fiorito, Teddy. "My Wife and I Stayed at the Stanley Hotel and Experienced Something Out of This Realm." Thought Catalog, September 2015.

Ghost City Tours. "The Ghosts of Haunted Hotel Monteleone." ghostcitytours.com.

Ghost5034. "What an Experience – Ghost Included!" Review of Tulloch Castle Hotel, Dingwall. TripAdvisor, June 2009.

Graham, Seanín. "'There's a Darkness to That Place': A Night in Northern Ireland's Most Haunted Castle." The Irish Times, October 31, 2025.

Haunted Hotels UK. "The Langham – Haunted Hotel in London," including guest review by Deborah Newton, November 6, 2023. hauntedhotels.uk.

Haunted India. "Ghosts of the Langham Hotel, London, Haunting English Cricketers." hauntedindia.blogspot.com, July 2014.

Haunted Rooms. "The Langham Hotel – London." hauntedrooms.co.uk.

Haunt Jaunts. "Researching London's Most Haunted Hotel Room." hauntjaunts.net.

68. Dangerous Delusions, Surgical Precision: The Ant Hill Kids Cult Oct 07, 2026

Show notes

In 1977, a charismatic former Seventh-day Adventist named Roch Thériault led a small group of followers into the woods of Quebec’s Gaspé region to await the end of the world. He renamed himself Moïse, after Moses, and told his followers God would end the world in February of 1979. When the apocalypse never came, he kept them anyway. The group lived in handmade cabins, cut off from their families, working so relentlessly that outsiders called them the Ant Hill Kids. Thériault took nearly all of the women as his wives and fathered more than twenty children with them. In 1984, after a brief prison stint, he moved the commune to a remote property near Burnt River, Ontario, where almost no one was watching.

What happened there over the next five years is among the most horrific abuse ever documented in a Canadian cult. Thériault drank heavily and ruled through torture, forcing members to break their own limbs, pull out their own teeth, and sit naked in the snow. He performed brutal “surgeries” with kitchen tools. In 1988 one of his wives, Solange Boilard, died after he cut open her abdomen. The end came in 1989, when another follower, Gabrielle Lavallée, had her arm hacked off with a cleaver after years of mutilation. She escaped, walked into a hospital, and told police everything. Thériault pleaded guilty to murder and received a life sentence. In 2011 he was killed by his cellmate in a New Brunswick prison.

Sources:

Here's the bibliography, alphabetized, no headers, ready to paste. It's also saved as [Ant_Hill_Kids_Bibliography.txt](Ant_Hill_Kids_Bibliography.txt) in your home folder, and the script's Sources section at **https://claude.ai/artifact/DMtQSJp2AhK117SuJRjqkZ** and in the PDF now matches it.

Adventist News Network. "J. Wayne McFarland" (obituary). March 24, 2011.

Beeby, Dean. "Flowers and Pastels: Notorious Cult Killer's Artwork, Poetry for Sale." Canadian Press / Globe and Mail, March 10, 2008.

Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée nationale du Québec. "Union des électeurs, 1939–1948."

Cameron, Daphné. "Roch Thériault assassiné." La Presse, February 27, 2011.

Canadian Encyclopedia. "Asbestos Strike of 1949"; "Quiet Revolution."

CBC News. Reports of July 11, 2002; April 6, 2009; February 27, 2011; May 6, 2011; March 5, 2012.

Cloutier family genealogy. Entry for Solange Boilard.

Dimmock, Gary. "Inside the Prison Killing of Roch Thériault." Ottawa Citizen, November 14, 2011.

Fenelon Falls Gazette. December 12, 1984.

Ferron, Madeleine, and Robert Cliche. Les Beaucerons, ces insoumis. Montreal, 1974.

Fortin, Denis. "Above and Beyond: Adventism in Québec." Adventist Review, April 28, 2005.

Gagné, Gilles. "Le spectre de Moïse." Le Nouvelliste, October 5, 2018.

Gagnon, Karine. "Trois femmes suivent toujours leur maître." Le Journal de Québec, 2002.

Gélinas, Geneviève. "Sectes: la responsabilité partagée." Le Soleil, October 5, 2018.

Geneanet. Raymond Dallaire family tree (Thériault–Tremblay marriage, 1943).

Global News / Canadian Press. February 28, 2011; May 13, 2011.

Hassan, Steven. Combating Cult Mind Control. Park Street Press, 1988.

Kaihla, Paul, and Ross Laver. "The Ant Hill Kids." Maclean's, February 8, 1993.

Kaihla, Paul, and Ross Laver. Savage Messiah: The Shocking Story of Cult Leader Rock Thériault and the Women Who Loved Him. Doubleday Canada, 1993.

Kaihla, Paul, and Ross Laver. "Under the Spell of a Madman." Maclean's, September 27, 1993.

Kropveld, Mike, and Marie-Andrée Pelland. "Le groupe de Roch 'Moïse' Thériault." Info-Secte / Info-Cult, Montreal, 2003.

Laflamme, Francine. Roch Thériault dit Moïse. Stanké, 1997.

Lalich, Janja. Bounded Choice. University of California Press, 2004.

Lavallée, Gabrielle. L'alliance de la brebis: Rescapée de la secte de Moïse. Éditions JCL, 1993; revised 2009; 2023.

Le Journal de Québec. Archives feature on the Thériault case. October 13, 2019.

67. Carl Tanzler and His Corpse Bride Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

Support the show, get ad free and bonus content patreon.com/highwaytohellpodcast

Carl Tanzler was a German-born radiology technician who emigrated to the United States and by 1927 was working at the Marine Hospital in Key West, Florida. He claimed that as a young man he had been visited by the spirit of an ancestor who showed him the face of his destined true love, and in 1930 he became convinced he had found her in Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos, a 21-year-old Cuban-American patient dying of tuberculosis. Tanzler showered her with gifts and attempted to treat her with homemade tonics and X-ray equipment, but she died in 1931. He paid for an elaborate mausoleum, visited it nightly, and in 1933 removed her body and brought it home. Over the next seven years he reconstructed her decaying corpse with wire, plaster, wax, glass eyes, and her own hair fashioned into a wig, dressed it in a wedding gown, and kept it in his bed while dousing it in perfume to mask the odor. In 1940 Elena's sister heard rumors, confronted him, and found the body, leading to his arrest for grave robbing. The charge was dropped because the statute of limitations had expired, and much of the public, swept up by the press coverage, viewed him as a tragic romantic rather than a criminal. Elena was reburied in an unmarked grave, and Tanzler died in 1952, reportedly with a life-sized effigy of her by his side. ICK

Sources

Harrison, Ben. Undying Love: The True Story of a Passion That Defied Death. Key West, 1997; expanded edition 2001.

Swicegood, Tom. Von Cosel. iUniverse, 2003. Source of the body-switch theory.

Sloan, David L. Ghosts of Key West. Phantom Press, 1998. Sloan also discussed the 1982 Michelfelder article on the NightMerica podcast, February 3, 2021.

Peričić, Marija. Exquisite Corpse. Ultimo Press, 2023. Novel; ABC News (Australia) profile of the book and the Trial Bay internment, November 18, 2023.

Tanzler von Cosel, Karl. "The Secret of Elena's Tomb." Fantastic Adventures, vol. 9 no. 5, September 1947, Ziff-Davis, Chicago. Full scan at archive.org (Fantastic_Adventures_v09n05_Ziff-Davis_Sep_1947).

Von Cosel's journal, final entry ("Human jealousy has robbed me of the body of my Elena"), as quoted in Harrison and in later retellings.

Miami Herald, October 1940. Source of Nana Medina's statements: "She never loved him… She looked upon von Cosel as a grandfather" and the "wedding… or a funeral" warning.

Key West Citizen, October 1940. Hearing coverage before Justice of the Peace Enrique Esquinaldo, October 8–9, 1940; $1,000 bond; charge wording.

The Tennessean (Nashville), October 1940. Cousin's statement that Elena "finally died hating her rescuer."

Death certificate of Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos, October 25, 1931, as reported by Michelfelder (below); no autopsy performed.

DePoo, Dr. Julio, and Dr. Foraker. Recollection of the 1940 examination, first stated 1972; DePoo interviewed on HBO's Autopsy series, 1999 ("I found a tube wide enough to permit sexual intercourse…").

Perez, Bienvenido (Key West chief of police, 1940). Statement to Men True Adventure magazine, undated ("I'll kill her, if necessary, to fulfil my destiny").

Michelfelder, William. Article in Detective Cases, 1982. Source of the unverified "wolfsbane… aconite" note and the "dormant epilepsy" death-certificate wording.

Wikipedia, "Carl Tanzler" (with its cited sources: Harrison, Swicegood, Sloan, HBO Autopsy). Dates of birth, marriage, emigration (Rotterdam, February 6, 1926), Hoyos family dates, hearing, viewing, citizenship 1950, death July 3, 1952.

WLRN, "A Love That Would Not Die: Key West Tells Its Most Macabre Legend," February 11, 2018.

HistoryHub.info, "Twists in a Twisted Tale: The Exploitation, Defilement and Murder of Elena Hoyos."

66. Family Business- The Hillside Stranglers Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

Support the show at patreon.com/highwaytohellpodcast

Does evil run in the family? Cousins Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono Jr. murdered at least 10 women and girls in the Los Angeles area between October 1977 and February 1978.

They would use the "cop ruse" posing as plainclothes police officers, pull women over or approach them on the street, and take them to Buono's upholstery shop in Glendale. There they raped, tortured, and strangled their victims, then dumped the bodies on hillsides around the city. Their victims ranged in age from 12 to 28.

Bianchi would eventually be arrested in washington after two more kills, tried to fake multiple personality disorder to escape before agreeing to plead guilty and testify against Buono. Buono's trial was one of the longest criminal trials in American history, running from 1981 to 1983. He was convicted of nine of the ten LA murders and sentenced to life without parole. He died in prison in 2002. Bianchi is still alive and incarcerated in Washington State.

Sources: - full list on patreon

ABC News. (2021). ‘City of Angels, City of Death’: Inside the hunt for Los Angeles’ string of serial killers. https://abcnews.com/US/city-angels-city-death-inside-hunt-los-angeles/story?id=81231947

Balagtas, T. (2026, July 16). All about Hillside Stranglers Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi, and the victim they spared because of her famous father. A&E. https://www.aetv.com/articles/all-about-the-hillside-stranglers-angelo-buono-kenneth-bianchi-victim-they-spared-because-of-her-famous-father

Bardsley, M. (2015). Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi, the Hillside Stranglers [19-chapter feature]. Crime Library, TruTV. Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/2015/http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/stranglers/rampage_1.html

Barnes, M. (Producer & Director). (1984). The mind of a murderer, Parts I and II [Television documentary transcript]. Frontline, WGBH/PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/programs/transcripts/206.html

Board denies parole for Hillside Strangler. (2010, August 18). Los Angeles Times. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/08/hillside-strangler-denied-parole.html

Boren, R. W. (2000). The Hillside Strangler trial. Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, 33(2), 707–725. https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/llr/vol33/iss2/

Chavez, S., & Gorman, A. (2002, September 22). ‘Hillside Strangler’ dies at 67. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-sep-22-me-hillside22-story.html

Chavez, S., & Gorman, A. (2002, September 23). Angelo Buono Jr. dies at 67. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2002/09/23/angelo-buono-jr-dies-at-67/5e2b4952-bb96-47a2-af4f-9cc744ffb281/

Convicted ‘Hillside Strangler’ serial killer is denied parole, will be eligible in a decade. (2025, July 10). Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-07-10/hillside-strangler-a-convicted-serial-killer-gets-denied-parole-will-be-eligible-in-a-decade

Crabtree, M. (2026, July 4). The disturbing story of Angelo Buono, the ‘Hillside Strangler’ who tormented 1970s Los Angeles. All That’s Interesting. https://allthatsinteresting.com/angelo-buono

Dismissal of Buono murder counts asked. (1981, July 14). Los Angeles Times, p. 1.

Edwards, M. (2025, July). ‘Hillside Strangler’ Kenneth Bianchi, convicted in 1970s serial killings, is denied parole. CBS News Los Angeles. https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/hillside-strangler-kenneth-bianchi-denied-parole/

Farr, B. (1981, July 26). Prosecution memos list holes in Strangler case. Los Angeles Times, pp. 1, 3, 24–25.

Find a Grave. (n.d.). Memorial pages for Dolores Ann “Dolly” Cepeda, Cindy Lee Hudspeth, Sonja Marie Johnson, Elissa Teresa “Lissa” Kastin, Evelyn Jane King, Kimberley Dianne “Kim” Martin, Judith Lynn “Judy” Miller, Beulah Mae Stofer, Lauren Rae Wagner, and Kristina Weckler. https://www.findagrave.com

65. The Theology of Submission and the Death of a Pastors Wife Sep 14, 2026

Show notes

TW: Suicide

First ever true crossover episode! Flippers meet the Hellions, Hellions meet the Flippers. This case included so much of our mutual subject matter we decided to post it on both shows.

Mica Francis Miller, 30, died on April 27, 2024, at Lumber River State Park in North Carolina, roughly an hour from her home in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. She had bought a handgun that afternoon and called 911 minutes before shooting herself; the Robeson County Sheriff's Office and North Carolina medical examiners ruled her death a suicide. Days earlier she had filed for divorce from her husband, John-Paul Miller, pastor of Solid Rock Church in Market Common, and police records show she contacted law enforcement at least 14 times between February and mid-April 2024.Court filings and family statements alleged years of abuse, surveillance, financial control, and nonconsensual distribution of intimate images; a December 2024 filing added strangulation allegations. Miller denied wrongdoing.

On December 17, 2025, a federal grand jury in South Carolina indicted Miller on two counts, cyberstalking and making false statements to investigators, alleging he used tracking devices and unwanted communications to harass Mica from November 2022 until her death. Netflix's documentary series "Death of a Pastor's Wife" premiered August 27, 2026, renewing attention on the case and on South Carolina's protective-order law.

Sources: Full list on patreon

ABC News 4 (WCIV). (2026, January 12). JP Miller pleads not guilty to federal charges of cyberstalking, false statements. ⁠https://abcnews4.com/news/local/dozens-show-up-outside-florence-federal-courthouse-for-arraignment-of-jp-miller-mica-cyberstalking-lying-authorities-fbi-solid-rock-church-pastor⁠

Burroughs Funeral Home & Cremation Services. (2024). Obituary for Mica Acacia Miller. ⁠https://www.burroughsfh.com/obituary/Mica-Miller⁠

Christianity Today. (2022, September). What happens when you ask thousands of evangelical women about sex. ⁠https://www.christianitytoday.com/2022/09/sheila-gregoire-great-sex-rescue-survey-evangelical-women/⁠

Condo-World. (n.d.). History of the Sea Captain's House Myrtle Beach. ⁠https://blog.condo-world.com/history-of-the-sea-captains-house/⁠

Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. (1987). The Danvers Statement.

Creepy Catalog. (2026). Death of the Pastor's Wife: John-Paul Miller's first wife says Mica's account matched her own. ⁠https://creepycatalog.com/death-of-the-pastors-wife-john-paul-millers-first-wife-says-micas-account-matched-her-own/⁠

Crime and Cask News Network. (2026, August). Father of former Solid Rock pastor John Paul Miller pleads guilty. ⁠https://crimeandcask.com/father-of-pastor-john-paul-miller-pleads-guilty/⁠

FITSNews. (2024, December 20). Mica Miller saga: Police reports fill in blanks, raise more questions. ⁠https://www.fitsnews.com/2024/12/20/mica-miller-saga-police-reports-fill-in-blanks-raise-more-questions/⁠

FITSNews. (2025, June 2). Embattled South Carolina pastor John-Paul Miller marries girlfriend. ⁠https://www.fitsnews.com/2025/06/02/embattled-south-carolina-pastor-john-paul-miller-marries-girlfriend/⁠

Gregoire, S. W. (2023, September). 10 things to know about obligation sex. Bare Marriage. ⁠https://baremarriage.com/2023/09/10-things-obligation-sex/⁠

Gregoire, S. W., Lindenbach, R. G., & Sawatsky, J. (2021). The great sex rescue: The lies you've been taught and how to recover what God intended. Baker Books.

Guidepost Solutions. (2022, May 15). Report of the independent investigation: The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee's response to sexual abuse allegations and an audit of the procedures and actions of the Credentials Committee.

Jane Doe v. John-Paul Miller, Reginald Wayne Miller, et al. (2025). Complaint, Horry County Court of Common Pleas. ⁠https://www.wbtw.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/03/JP-lawsuit-2.pdf⁠

64. Crime of the Summer- the Lindsay Clancy Case Sep 08, 2026

Show notes

Andy and I have bombshells about the timeline in our fireside chat on patreon.com/highwaytohellpodcast (we also tease the new studio and halloween merch)

Clarify some points:

**This is by no means all of the data from the trial, only what we could fit into the evidence, we talk more about things on the fireside

**The timeline discrepancy comes from Patrick testifying he left at 5:15 but an email being sent from his account at 5:24

**Since this recording, a mistrial has been declared due to a hold out jury refusing to follow the law on reasonable doubt

On January 24, 2023, Lindsay Clancy, a labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital for nine years, allegedly strangled her three children in the basement of the family's home at 47 Summer Street in Duxbury, Massachusetts, while her husband was out picking up takeout and a prescription she had asked him to get. Cora was 5, Dawson was 3, Callan was 8 months old. Clancy then allegedly took pills, strangled herself with a belt, cut her wrists and neck, and went out a second-story window, severing her spinal cord. In the four months before that night, at least six providers had prescribed her thirteen different psychiatric medications across more than thirty prescriptions; she was turned away by two crisis hotlines in four days, told her psychiatrist she was having intrusive thoughts of harming her children. A status hearing on whether the Commonwealth will retry her is set for September 29.

Sources- full list on patreon

AAMC. "Why we know so little about women's health." aamc.org/news/why-we-know-so-little-about-women-s-health

ABC News. "'She was begging for help': former mother-in-law testifies." Aug 2026. abcnews.com/GMA/News/begging-lindsay-clancys-former-mother-law-testifies/story?id=135739178

ABC News. "Mistrial declared. What happens next?" 4 Sep 2026. abcnews.com/GMA/News/lindsay-clancy-jury-deadlocked/story?id=136153308

Boston Globe. "Prescribed 13 different medications." 27 Jul 2026. bostonglobe.com/2026/07/27/metro/lindsay-clancy-timeline-medications-13/

Boston Globe. "Timeline of activities on Jan. 24." 4 Aug 2026. bostonglobe.com/2026/08/04/metro/timeline-lindsay-clancy-cell-phone-records/

Boston Globe. "Surgeon, investigators testify on her injuries." 4 Aug 2026. bostonglobe.com/2026/08/04/metro/lindsay-clancy-trial-testimony-tuesday/

Boston Globe. "Mechanics of the insanity defense." 12 Aug 2026. bostonglobe.com/2026/08/12/metro/clancy-trial-structure-insanity-defense/

Boston Globe. "Googled psychosis symptoms and hallucinations." 13 Aug 2026. bostonglobe.com/2026/08/13/metro/lindsay-clancy-trial-live-updates/

Boston Globe. "Said 'Go to God' as she strangled each child." 21 Aug 2026. bostonglobe.com/2026/08/21/metro/lindsay-clancy-trial-mack-resnick/

Boston Globe. "Dueling assessments of psychosis." 21 Aug 2026. bostonglobe.com/2026/08/21/metro/lindsay-clancy-trial-live-updates/

Boston Globe. "Kevin Reddington, 'girl dad' energy." 24 Aug 2026. bostonglobe.com/2026/08/24/lifestyle/lindsay-clancy-murder-trial-kevin-reddington-insanity/

Boston.com. "What prosecutors say happened Jan. 24." 17 Feb 2023. boston.com/news/crime/2023/02/17/lindsay-clancy-timeline-january-24-duxbury-mother-children/

Brown University. "32 years of U.S. filicide arrests." 2014. archive2.news.brown.edu/2007-2015/articles/2014/02/filicide.html

CBS Boston. "Case ends in mistrial after jury deadlock." 4 Sep 2026. cbsnews.com/boston/live-updates/lindsay-clancy-murder-trial-hung-jury-mistrial-verdict-watch-live-updates/

CBS Boston. "Karen Read sues Mass. State Police, Canton Police." cbsnews.com/boston/news/karen-read-lawsuit-massachusetts-state-police-canton-police/

CBS News. "Key moments from the Clancy trial." Aug 2026. cbsnews.com/news/lindsay-clancy-trial-key-moments-jury-weighs-case/

CNN. "Opening statements to begin." 26 Jul 2026. cnn.com/2026/07/26/us/lindsay-clancy-trial-opening-statements

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