{"podcast":{"title":"Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories","slug":"weird-darkness-paranormal-true-crime-stories-475827","podcast_index_feed_id":475827,"rss_url":"https://www.spreaker.com/show/3655291/episodes/feed","website_url":"https://weirddarkness.com","image_url":"https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/a1570d70b941e8f0e16b68380622d72f.jpg","author":"Darren Marlar","episode_count":1000,"summary":"Award-winning podcast of true stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, true crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained -- seven days a week! Hosted by professional voice actor Darren Marlar, named one of the “Best Storytellers in Podcasting” by Podcast Business Journal.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-28T14:17:16.106491+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/weird-darkness-paranormal-true-crime-stories-475827"},"episode":{"title":"The Murder Castle | America's First Serial Killer H.H. Holmes And His Deadly Hotel","slug":"the-murder-castle-america-s-first-serial-killer-h-h-holmes-and-his-deadly-hotel","published_at":"2026-06-11T00:00:02+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/weird-darkness-paranormal-true-crime-stories-475827/the-murder-castle-america-s-first-serial-killer-h-h-holmes-and-his-deadly-hotel","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/weird-darkness-paranormal-true-crime-stories-475827","url":"https://weirddarkness.com/HHHolmesHotel","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72465729/wd20260610_hhholmeshotel.mp3","summary":"Behind the walls of H.H. Holmes' \"World's Fair Hotel\" waited trap doors, gas chambers, and a basement of acid vats — and more than a century after the Murder Castle burned, something still lingers at 63rd and Wallace. EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/HHHolmesHotel READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/57djvd7f FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: It’s one of the most infamous and macabre subjects of Chicago history – it even served as inspiration for TV’s “American Horror Story: Hotel”. It’s what has become known as “The Murder Castle” where serial killer H.H. Holmes committed his monstrous crimes. But even today, Holmes continues to terrify… in spectral form. (H.H. Holmes’ Hellish Hotel And Lingering Haunting) *** A woman tries to save the soul of her daughter, believing her to be possessed… but her solution to drive out the demon was to murder her daughter using a holy crucifix. (Murder By Crucifix) *** What’s worse than proclaiming yourself to be a supernatural being and starting your own cult? How about telling your followers you are God so you could do drugs and have sex with teenage girls? It’s the disturbing true story of the cult called “The Group”. (Theodore Rinaldo – The Drug Cult Rapist) *** Shrunken heads – believe it or not, they are real. And some tribal peoples create them even today – from real human heads. But why do it at all? We’ll look at the reality behind shrunken heads, the reason they are created… and even how they are created. (The History and How of Shrunken Heads) *** A terrifying series of paranormal activities invade a family’s home in Wales. (The Swansea Entity) *** Tenome is a Japanese Urban Legend about a blind man who was robbed and murdered. His dying wish? To ha…","meta_description":"Behind the walls of H.H. Holmes' \"World's Fair Hotel\" waited trap doors, gas chambers, and a basement of acid vats — and more than a century after the Mur…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4004,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/weird-darkness-paranormal-true-crime-stories-475827/episodes/the-murder-castle-america-s-first-serial-killer-h-h-holmes-and-his-deadly-hotel/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/weird-darkness-paranormal-true-crime-stories-475827/the-murder-castle-america-s-first-serial-killer-h-h-holmes-and-his-deadly-hotel.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}