The Wog of Nodoroc

Just east of Atlanta, Georgia is the mysterious site of an eerie, boggy marshland that once emitted a constant bluish smoke, devouring everything that came into contact with it’s boiling waters. The Creek named this site, and the violent mud volcano within it, Nodoroc, or “gateway to hell.” But if the treacherous geography of Nodoroc were not enough to inspire fear, the Creek also believed that a vicious beast guarded this entrance to the underworld. A beast that required human sacrifices to appease its hunger. A devil-dog known simply as the Wog.

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Blackbeard's Demise

Off the coast of North Carolina is one of America’s most breathtaking roadways, a 138-mile National Scenic Byway that connects a vast stretch of beautiful and historic barrier islands known as the Outer Banks.

Archaeologists believe these small islands, separating the mainland from the Atlantic Ocean, were inhabited for more than a thousand years prior to the arrival of European explorers; most likely by small branches of Native tribes like the Algonquins, Chowanog, and Poteskeet.  These were some of the tribes who initially welcomed the European explorers of the early 16th century, but their hospitality would inevitably cost them their communities, as settler migration and European-borne disease brought a sharp decline to their population.

The Outer Banks, now a major tourist destination known for its beautiful wide open beaches, also has the distinction of being home to the first European colony of North America-- the infamous Roanoke settlement, established in 1584; as well as the world famous town of Kitty Hawk where the Wright Brothers made their first successful flights in 1903.

But it’s on Ocracoke Island, one of the Outer Banks’ southernmost spits of land, accessible only by ferry, where the last stand of one of the world’s most notorious pirates occured.  A man feared by many, who terrorized ships on the high seas with his grim persona and massive displays of force.

A pirate known as Blackbeard.

A man that some claim still walks amongst the living three centuries later, forever searching Ocracoke Island for either revenge, or his head.

St. Alban's Sanatorium

On January 15, 1916 Dr. John C. King opened the St. Alban’s Sanatorium in Radford, Virginia; converting a former school into a modern mental health facility that he had hoped to transform by focusing on the moral management and care of those admitted. Unfortunately, his goal of assisting his patients fell short, leaving many to live lives of torment within the walls of his sanatorium.

A sanatorium built on land that had been the sight of numerous tragedies for centuries. Tragedies that pitted natives against colonists, and northerners against southerners.

The Fouke Monster

Enjoy this preview of the member’s only-episode “The Fouke Monster,” a vicious ape-like beast that roams the wooded regions of Texarkana and has become known to many as the Beast of Boggy Creek…

The Woolfolk Family Massacre

On August 6, 1887 one of Georgia’s darkest, and most infamous murders occurred at a farmhouse in Bibb County.  Nine members of Richard Woolfolk’s family were brutally slain with an axe. Suspicion immediately fell on his son Thomas, the only member of the household to survive the event, and a national media circus erupted.

Explore the events that led up to the brutal axe murder of an entire family; as well as the explosive trial that followed, captivating national media coverage…

The Tale of Two-Toed Tom

Legend of a Demon Alligator

Legend says that a vicious alligator once roamed the swamps & farmland along the Gulf Coast of Florida and Alabama.  The creature was over fourteen feet in length, had glowing red eyes and an undeniably monstrous strength.  Locals called him Two-Toed Tom for his unique footprint.  The demon gator had lost all but two of the toes on his left foot after being caught in a steel trap. 

For over two decades Tom preyed upon livestock, with all attempts to be stopped thwarted by his undeniable strength.

CARL CARMER’S TALE OF PAP HAINES

The legend of Two-Toed Tom was first published in 1934.  Author Carl Carmer recounted the tale in his acclaimed work Stars Fell on Alabama which outlined folklore from all across the state.  Carmer tells the story of Pap Haines who purchased 40 acres of land from the lumber company in South Alabama.  Locals warned Pap that he shouldn’t keep any livestock on his new property or else he might attract the attention of a local alligator who was like no other he’d ever encountered, but Pap ignored the warnings.  The result was an epic battle between man and beast.

MYSTERY OF THE DEMON GATOR

Pap wasn’t the only man to attempt to hunt the demon gator.  After decades of Tom’s destruction, a group of Alabamians were finally able to chase him out, all the way across the border into Northwest Florida.  Some say he made a home in a pond near Esto in Holmes County where locals claim he’d let out a deep monstrous bellow every time the nearby lumber company’s whistle would go off.  

Eventually sightings of Two-Toed Tom began to waver and speculation of his demise began.  Then, a half century after Carmer published the story of Pap Haines, the tracks of an enormous alligator were found on a sandbar at Boynton Island on the Choctawahtchee.  These monstrous footprints had two toes.

Whether these tracks were in fact Two-Toed is still a mystery to this day.

Phantom Flames of Tuscaloosa

Dr. John R. Drish began construction of one of Tuscaloosa's first plantation homes in 1835.  Unfortunately, after he and his wife Sara's deaths, the home fell to ruin; giving life to claims that the tower that looms over this once stately plantation home is often the sight of eerie apparitions. 

Birth of a City: New Orleans, Part III

This episode of Southern Gothic is the third in the three-part series "Birth of a City: New Orleans," a story that chronicles the inception of a great American city and the legends that evolved with it.

Part III: The Infamous Madame Delphine LaLaurie

On April 10, 1863 a fire broke out in the home of Creole socialite Madam Delphine LaLaurie; but as men rushed to save the lavish French Quarter mansion, they had no idea of the horrors they would uncover inside.  Madame LaLaurie and her husband had been brutally and inhumanely torturing their slaves.

A massive public uproar erupted and news of the vicious crimes of this Creole Queen spread across America rapidly; yet some scholars believe there may be more to this story than has been told in the portrayal of this historical figure, and it might even be possible that the infamous socialite may have survived without punishment for her crimes, making her one of the most infamous figures of New Orleans’s vast underbelly of legends and lore.

Theme music for "Birth of a City: New Orleans" was written and performed by Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Adam Wright.

Additional narration by Justin Drown of Obscura: A True Crime Podcast.  

The Pope Lick Monster

The Kentucky Goatman

The Pope Lick Monster is an infamous hybrid creature that many claim lives under an old railroad trestle bridge just east of Louisville, Kentucky.  Those who have seen him describe the monster as part-man, part-goat and part-sheep.  He is covered in greasy fur, with sharp horns protruding from his pale white forehead and equipped with cloven hooves in the place of feet.  The Pope Lick monster stands upright like a man, but this vicious beast is blessed with more than just inhuman strength, he also has supernatural powers.

The origin of the Pope Lick Monster varies depending on who tells the tale.  Some claim he is the product of human-animal relations, others that he is the reincarnation of a local farmer believed to have sacrificed goats in a deal with Satan to receive immortality, but the most infamous tale says that the Pope Lick Monster is an escaped carnie out for revenge.  He stalks the area surrounding his home near Pope Lick, either hypnotizing his victims or luring them onto the 90-foot high train trestle with his uncanny power to mimic the voice of those they trust.  It is there, on the top of that bridge, that his victims meet their death-- often the result of an oncoming train.

A Deadly Urban Legend

While tales of the Pope Lick Monster have been around since the sixties, the monstrous archetype of the goatman has been a staple in lore as far back as the satyrs of Ancient Rome; but unlike these other mythical creatures, the myth of the Kentucky goatman has proven more lethal than the monster itself.  The old trestle bridge crossing Pope Lick Creek is still part of an active railroad line, and unfortunately, over the last several decades dozens of people have either been killed or injured on it while searching for the fabled beast.

The Madison County Grey

Private Nicodemus Kidd enlisted in the Confederate Army on July 10, 1861; however, the young private quickly fell victim to an horrendous disease while camped outside of the Confederate capital.  A disease that would plague Confederate camps for the entire war, giving soldiers an horrific 1 in 5 chance of dying from illness and infection during the conflict.

Fort Jefferson's Most Infamous

Construction of Fort Jefferson began in the early 19th century to address the growing need for America to protect its shores.  The resulting massive coastal fortress is the largest masonry structure on American soil; however, its history as a defensive outpost is far overshadowed by its time spent as a prison, housing Union Army deserters and none other than the very men convicted for successfully conspiring to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln.

The Abandoned Amusement Park of Lake Shawnee

In 1926 Conley Snidow opened the Lake Shawnee Amusement Park in West Virginia, on land that many believe was once sacred to the indigenous tribes of the region.  Land that these Native men even once attempted to protect through a bloody massacre of a family of settlers. Unfortunately Snidow’s amusement park would continue the location’s connection to tragedy, causing Snidow to abandon this once great amusement park for the prospering coal miners of West Virginia.

Today, almost half a century since it closed the gates, the Lake Shawnee Amusement park still sits abandoned, and exposed to the elements as what some claim is a playground for the spirits of the past.

The Seer of Shelbyville

On March 22, 1957, Simon Warner, a self-described "crime doctor," was murdered at is home in Shelbyville, Tennessee for allegedly placing a Voodoo hex on a man who had come to him for help; and while Warner was certainly not a Voodoo practitioner, many believed he held supernatural powers.

Taking Up Serpents for Salvation

The religious practice of snake handling sprung up from the isolated rural communities of Appalachia in the early twentieth century; spreading throughout the south by way of an eccentric, charismatic and often troubled group of devout pastors.