Pennsylvania Oddities

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**Pennsylvania Oddities**

Author and “historian of the macabre” Marlin Bressi explores true crime, unsolved mysteries, haunted places, and strange history from around the Keystone State. Based on the Pennsylvania Oddities blog and book series by Sunbury Press. New episodes on the 1st and 15th of every month (Note: There will be no new episodes in August; new episodes will return September 1).

Be sure to visit the Pennsylvania Oddities blog for hundreds of astonishing true stories from every corner of the spookiest state in America!

Latest Episodes:

The Cripple's Curse and the Three Kings of Pittsburgh Feb 15, 2023

Show notes

A baseball executive, a sex-crazed playboy, and a wealthy doctor all suffer strange fates courtesy of the "evil eye".

The True History of the Lizzie Lincoln House Feb 01, 2023

Show notes

Ask any resident of Exeter Township, and they'll tell you the most famous haunted house in the area is the Lizzie Lincoln house-- an abandoned 19th century structure that beckons spook-seekers from behind a rusting fence festooned with "No Trespassing" signs. The legend of Lizzie Lincoln is so famous around Berks County that it has found a home in numerous books about Pennsylvania ghost stories. However, it turns out that the entire legend may be nothing more than a hoax perpetrated by a lawless landfill owner... with a penchant for toxic waste.

The Lycoming Creek Mystery of 1922 Jan 15, 2023

Show notes

When a small child was found hungry and crying inside an abandoned automobile parked along a rural stretch of Lycoming County in the summer of 1922, the first chapter of a perplexing mystery was written. When the bodies of a man and woman, their throats slashed as if by a razor, were found a few feet away in the waters of Lycoming Creek, the mystery deepened, and to this day no one knows if Henry Shearer and his wife were victims of a double murder or a murder suicide.

The Disappearance of Martha Jane Straley Jan 01, 2023

Show notes

In 1909, an old hermit named David Cutschall died at the home of his brother-in-law in a sparsely-populated spot in Franklin County known as "The Corner". On his deathbed, Cutshall made a series of strange comments that left many scratching their heads, including a possible confession regarding the mysterious disappearance of an eight-year-old girl who vanished in the mountains below Mercersburg in 1869. At the time of the girl's disappearance, it was believed that she had either died of starvation after wandering off, or had been kidnapped by gypsies, but others believed until their dying day that David Cutschall had murdered the child in cold blood.

The Ghosts of Gudgeonville Dec 15, 2022

Show notes

Perhaps the most famous haunted location in Erie County is the site of the old Gudgeonville Covered Bridge, which spanned Elk Creek for over a century near a gorge known as the Devil's Backbone. With rumors of paranormal activity stretching back to the early 20th century-- and a verifiable track record of bizarre deaths-- it is no surprise that Gudgeonville has become a favorite spot for ghosthunters. But when it comes to this spectacularly spooky site, what is fact and what is fiction?

The Supernatural Experience of Henry Ort Dec 01, 2022

Show notes

Just outside of Lewistown in Mifflin County is a picturesque little valley of patchwork farms and ancient barns. Known as Ort's Valley, this was the home of Henry Ort who, in 1903, bequeathed the cemetery on his farm to be held in trust for future burials of his descendants. Perhaps then it is no surprise that, shortly before his death in 1907, Henry Ort experienced a supernatural event that not only astounded newspaper reporters, but seemed to suggest that a heavenly reward had been set aside for him by a Higher Power.

The Veiled Lady of Penn Park Nov 15, 2022

Show notes

In 1903, the residents of York were terrorized by the appearance of a woman in a long black veil who strolled through Penn Park every night, imploring frightened passersby to lift her veil and take a peek. As if this nightly occurrence wasn't bizarre enough, it just so happened that Penn Park was once the site of a potter's field where York's impoverished and unknown dead had been buried in unmarked graves, as well as the site of a Civil War hospital.

Terror From Above: The Meteor Storm of 1907 Nov 01, 2022

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Thousands of meteors streaked across the Pennsylvania sky for several weeks in October of 1907, with meteorites crashing into Schuylkill, Dauphin, Northumberland and surrounding counties by the hundreds. Across the mid-state, enormous chunks of red-hot space rock set forests ablaze while farmers and livestock alike huddled in barns and basements, fearful of their lives. From Wilkes-Barre to York, hundreds of men and women dropped to their knees in prayer, with many in hysterics. Surely, they thought, this is an omen of the end of the world.

The Beaver County Axe Murders of 1939 Oct 15, 2022

Show notes

It was a Wednesday morning in May of 1939 when neighbors of the Cook family made a startling discovery-- a bloody axe lying upon the ground. Being a farming community not far from the Ohio state line, blades and bloody implements weren't terribly uncommon in South Beaver Township; the necessities of daily life often required the butchering of a chicken or the slaughtering of a pig. But there was indeed something about the bloody axe that was very uncommon, and grounds for some concern-- there was hair stuck to the blade, and the hair appeared to be human.

Who's Buried Beneath Kettle Creek Reservoir? Oct 01, 2022

Show notes

Constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1961, Kettle Creek Reservoir in Clinton County is a popular destination for fishermen, boaters and swimmers. Yet, beneath its peaceful waters rests the bones of long-forgotten early settlers of Leidy Township.

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