Terrifying & True Episodes

A human skull found inside a hollow tree in wartime England inspired one of true crime’s most haunting questions: “Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?” In April 1943, four boys entered Hagley Wood in Worcestershire and climbed an old wych elm while looking for bird nests. Inside the trunk they discovered the remains of a woman. Clothing, a counterfeit wedding ring, and other evidence offered few answers, and investigators could not match the victim to a missing person. The mystery deepened when gra...

The Axeman of New Orleans broke into homes, attacked families with their own tools, and sent a letter promising to spare anyone playing jazz on a designated night. From 1918 into 1919, a series of brutal assaults spread fear through New Orleans and nearby Gretna. Many victims were Italian grocers or members of their households, including Joseph and Catherine Maggio, Louis Besumer and Harriet Lowe, Joseph Romano, the Cortimiglia family, Steve Boca, Sarah Laumann, and Mike Pepitone. Entry was oft...

The Poltergeist film series became surrounded by stories of a curse after real-life deaths, production accidents, and the revelation that human skeletons were used on screen. Terrifying & True begins with the 1982 haunted-house classic directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Steven Spielberg, then follows the tragedies most often cited by believers. Dominique Dunne, who played Dana Freeling, was killed by her former boyfriend shortly after the first film’s release. Heather O’Rourke, the young a...

The Somerton Man now has a probable name—Carl “Charles” Webb—but the Tamám Shud code, his death, and his reason for being on an Adelaide beach remain unsettled. On December 1, 1948, a well-dressed man was found dead against the seawall at Somerton Beach. He carried no identification, labels had been removed from his clothing, and his fingerprints and dental records produced no match. Investigators later found a suitcase at the railway station and a tiny scrap torn from The Rubáiyát of Omar Khay...

A murdered man, cryptic notes, and a fictional victim called “Liquid Matthew” collided in Hialeah, Florida, creating a true-crime mystery stranger than its nickname. On December 6, 1983, two joggers found Francisco Patiño Gutiérrez dead in a parking area. Heavy rain complicated the scene and threatened to wash away evidence. Then investigators discovered a sealed note attached to a nearby “No Dumping” sign. Its rhyming instructions appeared to promise a trail of clues, another victim, and a hor...

Six members of the Robison family were murdered inside a Lake Michigan cottage in 1968, leaving Good Hart with a case many investigators believed they solved—but never proved in court. Richard and Shirley Robison had brought their four children—Richie, Gary, Randy, and Susan—to Summerset, their seasonal cottage at Blisswood Resort. They were killed on June 25, but the secluded home was not entered until July 22, after neighbors reported a terrible odor. Investigators found evidence of a .22-cal...

Two Houston-area women named Mary Morris were murdered four days apart in October 2000, creating a true-crime mystery built around coincidence, possible mistaken identity, and two families without answers. Mary Lou Morris, a 48-year-old bank employee, disappeared on her way to work. Her burned vehicle and remains were found near her home, while her purse and wedding ring were missing. Investigators could establish little about how she was killed or why someone with no known enemies would be tar...

Six people were murdered at Germany’s isolated Hinterkaifeck farm in 1922, and evidence suggested the killer remained there after the crime. Andreas and Cäzilia Gruber, their widowed daughter Viktoria Gabriel, her children Cäzilia and Josef, and newly arrived maid Maria Baumgartner were found dead on April 4. Four bodies had been stacked and covered with hay in the barn; Maria and two-year-old Josef were discovered inside the farmhouse. Investigators believed a mattock-like farm tool caused the...

Census worker Bill Sparkman was found hanging in a remote Kentucky cemetery with “FED” written on his chest, his death staged to suggest an anti-government killing. The September 2009 scene in Clay County was deliberately alarming: Sparkman was bound with duct tape, gagged, stripped, and displayed with his Census Bureau identification. The location, the federal marking, and local tensions over government authority and the upcoming 2010 census fueled national speculation that he had been murdere...

Seventeen-year-old Junko Furuta was kidnapped in November 1988 and held for forty days before four teenage captors murdered her in Tokyo. Terrifying & True presents this case without turning Junko’s suffering into spectacle. Hiroshi Miyano, Nobuharu Minato, Jō Ogura, and Yasushi Watanabe abducted her as she traveled home from work, threatened her family, and confined her in the Minato residence. Forced phone calls misled her parents after they reported her missing. She died on January 4, 1989, ...

Ronald Gene Simmons turned Christmas 1987 into one of America’s most devastating family massacres, killing 16 people across several days in Arkansas. Terrifying & True examines the history behind the violence: Simmons’s military career, allegations of abuse within his household, the family’s isolated move to Pope County, and the resentments he carried toward relatives and former coworkers. Beginning December 22, he killed 14 members of his own family at their home, including children and grandc...

In 1976, human remains were discovered in an abandoned Oklahoma City property—so horrifying that police first dismissed the report as an April Fool’s prank. The victim, later identified as Kathy Lynn Shackleford, was young, Native American, and brutally mutilated. Three years later, another Native American woman, Arley Bell Killian, was found dismembered nearby. Then in 1986, Tina Marsha Sanders became the third linked victim. Investigators believed a serial killer was targeting vulnerable Nati...

A man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked Northwest Orient Flight 305, collected $200,000, and parachuted into a storm—then disappeared into American legend. On November 24, 1971, Cooper boarded the short flight from Portland to Seattle wearing a business suit and carrying an attaché case he said contained a bomb. He demanded four parachutes and cash in twenty-dollar bills. After the plane landed, he released 36 passengers, kept several crew members aboard, and ordered the pilots south toward M...

Thierry Tilly convinced eleven members of France’s de Védrines family that a secret conspiracy threatened them, then took control of their lives and fortune. After meeting Ghislaine de Védrines around 2000, Tilly presented himself as a noble-connected financial adviser and gradually became the family’s trusted authority. He warned that Freemasons and other hidden enemies wanted their ancestral château at Monflanquin. The frightened relatives cut off friends and spouses, abandoned careers, signe...

Three teenagers were murdered inside a lakeside tent in Finland in June 1960, while their badly injured friend Nils Gustafsson survived. Maila Björklund, Anja Mäki, Seppo Boisman, and Gustafsson camped beside Lake Bodom near Espoo. During the night, an attacker struck through the collapsed tent with a knife and blunt object. By morning, Björklund, Mäki, and Boisman were dead; Gustafsson was found injured outside. The chaotic, unsecured scene and missing possessions complicated an investigation ...

On Halloween morning in 2010, a teenager returned home in Oak Harbor, Ohio, and discovered that three members of his family had been murdered. Sixteen-year-old Devon Griffin found his mother, Susan Liske, and stepfather, William Liske, dead in their bedroom. His older brother, Derek Griffin, was found elsewhere in the house. The killings stunned Sandusky County and immediately focused attention on William “B.J.” Liske Jr., William’s adult son, who had a history of severe mental illness, violenc...

Fifteen-year-old Martha Moxley was killed with a golf club in Greenwich, Connecticut, on Mischief Night 1975 after visiting the Skakel family. Martha was last seen on October 30 near the Skakels’ Belle Haven home. Her body was discovered beneath a tree in her family’s yard the next day, and pieces of a broken six-iron traced to the neighboring household were found at the scene. Suspicion moved among brothers Thomas and Michael Skakel and live-in tutor Kenneth Littleton, while changing accounts ...

Japanese exchange student Yoshihiro “Yoshi” Hattori went to the wrong Louisiana house while looking for a Halloween party and was shot at the door. On October 17, 1992, the 16-year-old and his host brother Webb Haymaker followed a mistaken address in Baton Rouge. The decorated home and cars outside looked like the party, but homeowner Rodney Peairs emerged with a revolver. Peairs ordered Yoshi to “freeze.” Yoshi, wearing a costume and still approaching, may not have understood the command befor...

An attempt to egg a Georgia home during a romantic dispute ended with 22-year-old Jonathan Tyler Gilbert shot in the road—and three young defendants facing the consequences. On July 3, 2023, Sydney Maughon, Jeremy Munson, and McKenzie Davenport traveled to a house on Dobbins Mill Road near Griffin. Authorities said the plan involved vandalizing the home and confronting a woman, but the situation changed when Gilbert—also known as Tyler Lane—came outside. Video and the later prosecution establis...

Nineteen-year-old student Amber Wilde vanished from Green Bay, Wisconsin, in September 1998 after a minor crash left her with a possible concussion. Amber spoke with her father throughout September 23 and asked him to call the next morning so she would wake for class. When she failed to answer, her apartment and car were both empty. Days later, the vehicle appeared near Lambeau Field with the doors unlocked, keys in the ignition, phone on the seat, and purse in the trunk. The driver’s seat had ...

Henry Lee Lucas, often dubbed "The Confession Killer," was a serial killer known for his jaw-dropping confessions to hundreds of murders across the United States. Yet, the true mystery lies in the unsettling question: Were his claims of committing these heinous acts fact or fiction, and what drove him to such bizarre extremes of deceit? Dive into the captivating world of Pakistani urban legends. From haunted landmarks to enigmatic creatures, prepare to explore the mysterious narratives that def...

CBS anchor Dan Rather was attacked on a New York sidewalk by a man demanding, “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?”—a question that became a pop-culture mystery. On October 4, 1986, Rather was walking toward his Park Avenue apartment when a stranger beat and kicked him while repeating the bizarre phrase. A doorman interrupted the assault, but the attackers escaped and no immediate motive emerged. The question spread through comics, music, and television, most famously inspiring R. E. M.’s 1994 singl...

Pakistan’s urban legends lead from a woman with backward feet to haunted roads, palaces, islands, and buildings where the past is said to remain dangerously present. Terrifying & True gathers stories from several regions rather than treating one legend as a verified case. The episode visits Old Sukkur’s Jinnat Building, Karachi’s Karsaz Road and Devil’s Point, the Mohatta Palace, and a lodge associated with sudden deaths. It also follows the Pichal Peri, a shapeshifting female spirit whose beau...

Three children were murdered and their Ashland, Kentucky, home burned just before Christmas 1881, igniting trials, a lynching, and a deadly militia confrontation. Fanny and Robert Gibbons were staying with their friend Emma Thomas when neighbors discovered the Gibbons house in flames on December 24. The fire concealed a triple murder that outraged the close-knit town. George Ellis, William Neal, and Ellis Craft were arrested; Ellis gave an account implicating the others, while Neal and Craft ma...