First off we want to let you know that Robert Schneck’s first book, The President’s Vampire: Strange-but-True Tales of the United States of America , originally published by Anomalist Books, is being reprinted at the end of the month by TarcherPerigee as The Bye Bye Man and Other Strange-But-True Tales. Originally, the release of the […]
Neither rain, nor snow, nor ice, but a haunted residence? Well, that’s another story. The dangers of the supernatural from the perspective of the mailman. But what about Early Modern Sentries and the Supernatural? These anecdotes lead Dr. Beachcombing to ask: Are there any other early modern sentries seeing headless bears or spectral rabbits out […]
Sometimes trees grow tall because of the gruesome feast entwined in their roots. Others find vigor from their association with the supernatural. In Wrexham, one tree embodies both and caught Dr. Beachcombing’s interest because it’s far from being ancient. Most fairy traditions are long standing, dating back to time immemorial much like the Huldufolk who […]
Dr. Beachcombing writes of witchcraft in Lincolnshire, England in the 1890s. An elderly lady was believed to have bewitched the livestock of a local farmer and was made to suffer the consequences. We help him trace the location of this nasty bit of business. Arguably akin to witchcraft in our own time, Psychic to Medical […]
Classical Greece and Rome have influenced a great many minds across the ages and throughout the civilized continents of the Earth, but India? Really? Or perhaps even more baffling, the presence of ancient Romans in Nineteenth Century Wales?! The mere mention of these geographical and temporal anomalies may be enough to raise the hackles of […]
The sleepy Italian town of Gradoli came into the limelight after a séance was held to find kidnapped politician Aldo Moro. What caught Dr. Beachcombing’s attention was the medium’s accuracy, and how local police interpreted the prognostication. Knowing the circumstances, acquaint yourself with The Protagonists surrounding the Moro séance, including the spook who spilled the […]
You no doubt have heard tales of the vanishing hitchhiker, in which a person driving a car picks up a hitchhiker who subsequently vanishes from the back seat without explanation,. This story turns that old urban legend on its head: here it’s the driver and the car that are the phantoms, but “the principle is […]
Dr. Beachcombing wants us to know that poltergeists just want to have fun. Actually, they’re more homebodies, preferring the quiet life as long as there are young children in supply and a local minister, rabbi, or priest only a stone’s throw away. Seems a bit like Beetlejuice planning to marry Lydia, but who are we […]
We’ve seen some strange superstitious traditions, but Dr. Beachcombing’s latest takes the cake. Santa isn’t the only elf scampering down chimneys, and the good subjects of Britain adopted extreme measures against the Good Folk. Continuing on the topic, Beach finds some details Added In Translation connecting bandits with the fae. Hopefully someone with a firmer […]
In 1555, Lewis Owen, vice-chamberlain, is ambushed and killed along with a small bodyguard and his son-in-law, while passing down the road on the edge of Powys in central Wales. Unlikely as it seems, the people responsible were thought to be the Gwilliaid Cochion Mowddwy, “the Red Fairies of Mowddwy.” Was this just a cool […]