Twice each week, legend hunter, author, and historian Jeff Belanger and radio host Ray Auger explore the ghosts, monsters, aliens, folklore, history, roadside oddities, true crime, and legends of New England in this award-winning podcast. If you give us about twenty minutes, we’ll give you something strange to talk about today. The bizarre is closer than you think!
299 Available Episodes (299 Total)Average duration: 00:14:42
Apr 20, 2023
The Great Hartford Circus Fire Mystery
00:22:35
In Episode 296 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger visit Hartford, Connecticut, to see the memorial to the July 6, 1944 circus fire that claimed 167 lives and launched a 50-year mystery as to the identity of a young victim they called Little Miss 1565. This tragic story changed state laws and left a permanent scar on the state’s capital city.
Welcome to New England Legends From the Vault – FTV Episode 1 – Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger revisit Dungeon Rock in Lynn, Massachusetts. It was here in 1852 that spirits told Hiram Marble to dig for buried pirate treasure. Marble and his son spent years tunneling through solid rock searching for gold. Their tunnel is still there as is the legend. This first aired August 22, 2017.
Apr 13, 2023
The Woonsocket Werewolf
00:16:29
In Episode 295 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger hunt the woods of the Fairmont section of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, searching for the loup-garou, the French-Canadian version of the werewolf. Found somewhere near a cave called the Devil Hole, the story about a monster roaming the woods near the Blackstone River has been passed around for generations.
10In Episode 294 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger explore a Jonesport, Maine, monument to the 1866 voyage of the Nellie Chapin. The ship, and its 156 Christian pilgrims was led by Rev. George Adams, with the plan to sail to Jaffa and build housing for Jewish people in an effort to restore Israel to the Jews so Jesus can return and bring on the End of Days. Even Mark Twain weighs in on the sorry state of the expedition. We ask the important question: What’s the rush?
A Contract for Murder with the Devil in New Hampshire
00:25:44
In Episode 293 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger investigate an 1897 Good Friday murder and bank robbery that left the town of Somersworth, New Hampshire, in shock. A 68-year-old pillar of the community named Joseph Stickney was found lying in the bank in a pool of his own blood. The police chased 24-year-old Joseph Kelley into Canada where he was apprehended and brought back to New Hampshire for trial. In court, Kelley claimed he was under contract with the Devil.
In Episode 292 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger dig down 114 feet in the Forestdale section of Brandon, Vermont, to search for an Ice Age-era frog they say was discovered back in the summer of 1865 deep in an ochre mine. But when the frog was brought to the surface… it jumped back to life! Is this just one weird fish story, or something more?
In Episode 291 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger hike up a wooded hill in Chester, Massachusetts, searching for a unique tomb carved into a glacial boulder. In 1873, Hiram Smith and his sister, Isabell Toogood were entombed in a rock that took masons two years to chisel. One story goes that Hiram wanted to be buried above ground so the Devil couldn’t get him. But maybe it was a childhood memory that haunted Hiram all of his long years.
In Episode 290 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger explore the Meeting House Hill region of Meriden, Connecticut, searching for a ghost that made the newspaper back in August of 1895 -- a spooky specter around Booth Pond seen by dozens of locals. Though the reporter at the time seems to think he solved the mystery of the ghost… we found something more. The pond is gone now, but are the ghosts?
In Episode 289 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger head to Little Compton, Rhode Island, to drive by the Spite Tower. Built in 1905, it’s a three-story, odd-looking tower located at the edge of the former Hathaway property. They say it was built out of spite -- to intentionally block the view of a neighbor Hathaway didn’t like. But what’s inside?
In Episode 288 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger hike up to Maiden’s Cliff near Lake Megunticook in Camden, Maine, where they say the ghost of a young woman still haunts the ledge. Some people witness the horrific fall that killed the girl back in 1864 playing over and over again. Today there’s a large white cross and plaque marking the spot where young Elenora French lost her life.