Show notes
The ancients didn’t just fear death — they weaponized it, leaving behind curses in hieroglyphics meant to haunt anyone brave enough to look.
EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/CursesCarvedInStone
READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/3cfn27cp
FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: They say grief lingers in the house where children were murdered… but so does something colder, crueler — and far more dangerous. (The Horror of Waupun, Wisconsin) *** In the haunted heart of Edinburgh, there’s a pub where the drinks are strong and the screams are stronger. (The Spirits of Banshee Labyrinth) *** The last person to see Virginia alive passed a polygraph — but his wife said he didn’t come home until hours later. (The Vanishing of Virginia Carpenter) *** Asteroids, alien civilizations, even cosmic plagues — the real terror isn’t what we can see in the sky… it’s what we can’t. (Space Threats to Earth) *** It started with flirtation, turned into an affair, and ended with a gunshot echoing through the cold night air in a Walgreen’s parking lot. (Three Shots In The Night) *** They carved their warnings into stone 4,000 years ago — and now, after centuries of silence, the hieroglyphic curses of the dead are being read aloud once again. But in doing so, are we inviting doom and destruction? (Hieroglyphic Curses)
CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Short Fictional Story, “Breath of Anubis”
00:11:21.779 = Show Open
00:13:18.068 = Hieroglyphic Curses
00:25:27.966 = The Vanishing of Virginia Carpenter ***
00:32:11.146 = Space Threats To Earth
00:36:45.704 = Spirits of the Banshee Labyrinth
00:42:07.498 = Three Shots In The Night ***
00:47:55.685 = Horror of Waupun, Wisconsin
00:58:32.140 = Show Close
*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break
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*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*
SOURCES and RESOURCES:
Haunted Rockford YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedRockfordEvents
BOOK: “Dark Skies” by Daniel Deudney: https://amzn.to/3XFWUF6
Fictional story at the beginning of this episode, “Breath of Anubis” by ChatterGhost
“Space Threats to Earth”: https://anomalien.com/threats-from-outer-space-might-be-fueling-conspiracy-theories/
“Three Shots In The Night”: https://the-line-up.com/murder-of-emmett-corrigan
“Hieroglyphic Curses”: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40000520,https://ng.opera.news/ng/en/culture/6aaa5bcd19c53ffa60ffc337d5742fce, https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/ancient-egypt-tomb-saqqara-priest-16826821, https://www.rom.on.ca/en/learning/activities-resources/online-activities/ancient-egypt/religion/tomb-inscriptions-curses, https://www.ancient-origins.net/history/tomb-curses-ancient-egypt-magical-incantations-dead-003228, https://lethbridgenewsnow.com/2020/08/06/debunking-the-curse-of-the-pharaohs/, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Execration-Texts, https://www.businessinsider.com/egypt-saqqara-tombs-mummy-curses-2020-11, https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-curse-of-the-curse-of-the-pharaoh,https://blog.nms.ac.uk/2017/06/23/ancient-egyptian-tomb-warnings-curses-and-ghosts/,https://listverse.com/2023/06/08/10-creepy-curses-hidden-in-hieroglyphics
“The Horror of Waupun, Wisconsin: https://www.hauntedrockford.com/shadows-of-a-murder/
“Spirits of the Banshee Labyrinth”: https://moonmausoleum.com/haunted-spirits-at-the-banshee-labyrinth-pub/
“The Vanishing of Virginia Carpenter” by Troy Taylor (used with permission): https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/bdzcaez9
(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: April 01, 2025
Weird Darkness explores ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic curses, the 1948 disappearance of Virginia Carpenter, asteroid and alien threats from space, Edinburgh’s haunted Banshee Labyrinth, the Walgreens murder of Emmett Corrigan, and the 1865 Wisconsin ax killings linked to the restless dead of Waupun.It opens with curses carved into ancient Egyptian tombs, from the 4,000-year-old Execration Texts to warnings left by Harkhuf, Ankhtifi, Khentika Ikhekhi, Hezi, Sarenput I, Ankhmahor, Senenmut, and Pharaoh Amenhotep. These hieroglyphic threats promised strangulation, mutilation, divine judgment, destroyed families, and even attacks by crocodiles and serpents against anyone who violated the dead.From there, 21-year-old Virginia Carpenter vanishes after arriving in Denton, Texas, on June 1, 1948, to attend the Texas State College for Women. Taxi driver Edgar Ray “Jack” Zachary said he left her outside Brackenridge Hall with two unidentified men beside a cream-colored convertible, but Carpenter never checked in, and later leads—including a possible Arkansas sighting and a 1998 burial-site tip—failed to solve the case.Next, the danger moves into space with asteroid 2024 YR4, theories about weaponized asteroid-deflection technology, Cixin Liu’s “dark forest” view of hostile alien civilizations, and Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe’s idea that viruses could arrive from space. The episode also traces fears of catastrophe from the sky back to the ancient Cosmic Hunt tradition and the Sámi story of an arrow striking the pole star.The episode then descends beneath Edinburgh’s Old Town into The Banshee Labyrinth, a rock and metal pub built partly inside the South Bridge vaults. Reports include a screaming banshee in a gray dress, the ghost of a child named Molly who disappeared in 1814, the mischievous Ole Jock in the women’s restroom, and unexplained cold spots, moving glasses, and shadows inside the historic underground chambers.From Edinburgh, the story shifts to Meridian, Idaho, where attorney Emmett Corrigan’s affair with paralegal Kandi Hall ended in three gunshots outside a Walgreens on March 11, 2011. Kandi’s husband, Rob Hall, survived a gunshot wound to the head, Corrigan died from wounds to the heart and skull, and Hall was convicted of second-degree murder in 2012 and sentenced to 30 years in prison.The episode closes with the December 3, 1865 murders of three children at Anton and Amelia Koch’s farm near Burlington, Wisconsin, where hired man Peter Frahm was convicted after bloody footprints, blood on his boots, and a stolen coin pouch tied him to the ax killings. Frahm died by hanging in the Wisconsin State Penitentiary in Waupun on March 21, 1871, and reports of whispers, cold presences, apparitions of children, and a darker shadow have since attached themselves to both the old Koch property and the unmarked graves of the State Prison Cemetery.
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