Ominous Origins

Smiley Face :)

Ah yes, the smiley face. It's an icon as old as time. It brings people together with its warmth and charm. Of course, like any form of language, the symbol has evolved to mean any number of things, from sarcasm to indifference. But one thing the smiley was never meant to mean was murder! Yes, today we're talking about the smiley face murders, or the theory surrounding it. The story goes that a couple detectives had a hunch that men who were being found dead in bodies of water where victims of either one, or multiple serial killers that left a smiley face tag/graffiti at the site in which they dumped the bodies. Some agreed that this was a sound theory, others called it ludicrous.
Whatever you believe about that theory, there is one man who was legit in his use of the famous emoji and murder, and was Keith Jesperson. At a young age Keith showed some trademark signs of being a bad, bad boy, but like many in the 70's, the signs were ignored, or missed. He had an abusive father, and was bullied at school because he was a giant (at 35 years old he was 6'7.5"). All this lead to him becoming a fairly prolific serial killer, who was charged with 8 counts of murder when it was all said and done. But what makes him the smiley face killer? Well, when a woman claimed her and her boyfriend killed one of his victims, he left a note on a public washroom wall signed with a smiley face. He later sent letters to the media signed with a smiley face.
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Brian Shaffer Walked Into A Bar...

And he never came out... Or he did? Either way, he was never seen again. Yeah, the story of Brian Shaffer is an interesting one. The story goes (cheat notes version), is that he was a med student who went bar hopping with a couple friends the night before he was meant to leave for a spring break vacation with his girlfriend. However, once the end of the night rolled around, he was nowhere to be seen.
Neither friend he was with recalled seeing him past a certain point, and the CCTV, which was rather extensive given the high crime rate of the area, only spotted him entering the bar. It never showed him leaving. Brian was never seen or heard from again. Of course, there are a bunch of theories, like he ran off because he couldn't handle the recent death of his mother. It's been suggested that he was kidnapped, though no ransom was ever given. It's possible he left wearing a disguise. There are countless theories, but that's all they are: theories.
Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the case is that his best friend, Clint, refused to take a polygraph test. It makes one think, but it's also hard to believe he did anything nefarious as there's no evidence of Brian leaving the bar, or Clint being seen with him at the end of the night. 
Anyway, to hear the full story, and more in depth theories, you'll just have to listen to the whole thing.
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Ronald Gene Simmons WASN‘T a Member of KISS

Despite sharing 2/3rds of a name with rock legend Gene SImmons, the two couldn't be further apart. One worshipped demons, one was a rock god, and one had a tongue that legends were made of; the other, well, he was a straight up demon, a vessel for pure evil, a man who killed 16 people, including his entire immediate family. Yeah, so buckle up for a fun one this week. I mean, they're all fun, aren't they?
Richard Gene Simmons was a US citizen who excelled while being a member of the military in more than one role. He was a decorated soldier, and from all accounts did well for himself while enlisted. However, something changed when he retired from the military. Perhaps its the highscool syndrome, you know the jocks who peak at 17 then it's all downhill from there? Yeah, I'm thinking Simmons peaked in the military and didn't know what to do when he got out. He worked a string of low paying jobs, a couple from which he was fired. Maybe it was all the stress from being fired and a failure, or maybe it was the fact he fathered a child with his own daughter - yeah, that happened - that set him off.
But the fateful December of 1987, Simmons killed his entire family before going after all those who wronged him. There are some terrible and gruesome details that you can only get by listening to the episode, so... Listen!
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Robert Pickton Was A Bad Man | Part 2

Last week we took a short look at Robert Pickton and what he'd done. It was brief, and we didn't cover all the details I wanted to, so this week we spend a little more time on the crimes of Pickton, his trial, and of course, most importantly, his victims. These serial killer episodes are always a bit love hate for me. Sure, like most people I find the topic to be incredibly interesting, but on the other hand, I hate glorifying and giving these "people" any more attention than they've already gotten. One thing that I do find incredibly important is the victims. They should never be forgotten, but they will forever be linked with the person who took their life. So it's a two way street.
Nevertheless, this episode does deal with some more of the details concerning Pickton, and what he did, and what the police eventually found after ignoring his crimes for sooooo long. Really, it's disgusting how long they turned a blind eye to what he was doing on that pig farm. Spoiler alert, it involved feeding his victims to his pigs.... among others. Yeah, you'll have to listen to find out more details on that.
In the end, Pickton was a despicable person, who, like many others like him, suffered from a pretty crappy upbringing from abusive parents. Of course, that's not an excuse. Pickton had siblings that didn't turn into serial killers, and they had the same upbringing, especially his brother. His sister was sent to live with relatives at a young age. But, it does get one thinking about the whole nature vs. nurture things. 
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Robert Pickton Picked a Pig Farm

Yes, when you think of Canada, you probably think of friendly faces, maple syrup, and the phrase "Eh." But what doesn't come to mind is serial killers. Well, I have some news for you, we up here in the great white north have our fair share of bloodthirsty killers, and today we'll be talking about one by the name of Robert "Willy" Pickton. This "human" did some pretty unspeakable stuff, and his laundry list of terrible deeds is punctuated with murder. In this first part of at least two, I look at a brief overview of his case and crimes, and to be honest, it's pretty enraging stuff. But sadly, that's not the only enraging bit about this case as the police messed up... A lot. Not only did they let Pickton go at one point, they barely lifted a finger when over 65 women were reported missing in a 20 year span.
Pickton targeted women in the sex work industry in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. This was an area known for poverty, drugs, and sex work, and he knew damn well that the police gave zero craps about the people in this area, and so he was able to get away with his heinous crimes for years without detection, and as previously mentioned, was even able to get basically get away with murder when one of the women who fought him and got away was basically told she was lying about her encounter (despite both her and Pickton being stabbed in an altercation) because she was a drug addict. 
Pickton was eventually caught when a former colleague told the police he had seen illegal guns on the property. But, if this guy had ever smoked weed in his life, then well, he would have been written off as a filthy cretin with no moral compass. Thankfully, I guess, he never partook in passing anything to the left hand side, and was taken seriously. But just how many women did Pickton kill? Well, you'll just have to listen to find out.
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Are they a bad cover band, or just the Black Eyed Kids?

We are back this week with a topic I've wanted to cover for quite sometime; the strange phenomena of the Black Eyed Kids. Back in 1996 a journalist, Brian Bethel, had an encounter that left him with an unsavory taste in his mouth. He couldn't explain what happen, only that it had, but what he could recall was shocking. Bethel's account featured a new type of haunting with a brand new, never before seen monster - black eyed kids. He described these kids as between the ages of 6 and 16 with fairly normal features, except that their clothes were dated by a few decades... oh and their eyes were solid black. Yeah, I know, terrifying, right?
Well after Bethel's account, other's began either having similar encounters with these things, or recalled events that had happened to them in their younger years. All of these stories, which are now plentiful all over reddit, have one thing in common - the kids always want to come into your space, be it a house or car, or... whatever. Generally, these kids also seem out of touch with modern society, such as asking to come into a home to use a landline when pretty much everybody (including bloody toddlers), have their own cellphone. They also create a sense of unease within the person/people they're interacting with.'
Most chilling of all? Well, there are absolutely no accounts of what happens in somebody lets one of these Black Eyed Kids into their house... Maybe nobody's lived to tell the tale.
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Let‘s Escape to the Astral Planes

I'm back! I know, it's been a while. This episode has been kicking my arse. When I was contacted about my thoughts on the astral planes, I became curious and jumped right in. However, I was a little overwhelmed by how much research there's been on the topic, and so I did my best to take the best bits from a ton of different sources and condense it into a 20 minute episode. So, that was fun.
But what I did learn as that the there are a lot of these planes, and while I didn't go into detail on any of them, we get a pretty firm understanding of just what these places are. But what I found more interesting was how people travel there. The experiences, called astral projections, or out of body experiences can happen to anybody at any time, though there are some triggers for the involuntary OBE's. On the flipside, there are some who train themselves to project themselves to these dimensions. It's all very interesting.
One of the biggest studies I could find on OBE's came from Frontiers in human neuroscience. I will admit that I didn't read the whole thing. For as interesting as it is, it wouldn't make for good podcasting content, but I encourage you to check out the article HERE.
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The Beast of Jersey was a Musty man

Going through some past episodes, I realized that we've covered a lot of beasts. To be fair, the term beast can be attributed to any number of terrifying things, so I don't feel too bad. Nevertheless, this character is a real piece of work. Edward Paisnel has hints of Albert Fish in the sense that he was a disturbed man who preyed on the young, and they both had a crime spree that lasted much longer than it should have. But we've already covered Fish, so onto the Beast!
During the late 1950's through to the early 70's. Paisnel went from attacking women on the street, and abusing them in a field, to breaking into homes and abducting kids from their bedrooms... and abusing them in fields. The Island of Jersey is a tiny place, and back in the 50's and 60's it was even smaller in terms of population, and the fact that this guy got away with what he did for so long is nothing short of incredibly disturbing. 
So you're sitting there thinking, "yeah, this guy's terrible for what he did to people and kids, but why is he is so terrifying?" Well, he would wear a disguise, and not just any disguise, but one that consisted of a loose fitting mask and wig that resembled a woman - think Texas Chainsaw 3 - and a coat adorned with nails on the collar, sleeve, and front flap. He was right out of a nightmare, and I'll post the picture below.
Thankfully he was eventually caught, the only way a serial criminal could be. What might that be? Well, you'll just have to listen to find out.
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