"...we should pass over all biographies of 'the good and the great,' while we search carefully the slight records of wretches who died in prison, in Bedlam, or upon the gallows."
~Edgar Allan Poe

Friday, August 29, 2025

Weekend Link Dump

 


Welcome to this week's Link Dump!

The gang's all here!


The Edenton Tea Party.

The creatures that used to rule the earth.

Christopher Marlowe and Shakespeare.

A man who went from rags to riches to the UK Parliament.

The life of Gothic writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.

A brief history of Pontefract Castle.

The mysterious sound of an ancient theater.

An "extraordinary" 3,000 year old mural.

Sybilla, Queen of Scots.

Dog-headed saints.

A vanished civilization in the Negev desert.

Lourdes and medical science.

A really weird ancient skull.

An engraving of a 17th century engraver.

A possible solution to the Bermuda Triangle mystery.

A possible solution to the "Wow" signal mystery.

The long, strange history of the glass armonica.

A tale of a stingy widow.

A German Shepherd who became a silent film star.

A cat learns not to be lonely.

Some paranormal detectives.

The Clink Prison Museum.

The folklore surrounding a Danish pile of sticks.

The many journeys of a Civil War-era Bible.

The wedding of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon.

A sacred tree at a Japanese train station.

The very strange death of Cindy James.

The disappearance of Marjorie West.

Chunks of the seafloor are upside down, and scientists are perturbed.

A "horrible butchery."

Australia's deadliest animal may surprise you.

That's all for this week!  See you on Monday, when we'll visit some Mystery Fires!  In the meantime, in case you're not familiar with glass armonicas, here's a peek. It's a fascinating instrument.

Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Newspaper Clipping of the Day



Haunting a house is bad form, but stealing electricity from the rightful residents seems to be going way too far.  The London "Independent," December 6, 1994 (via Newspapers.com):

Heol Fanog House in St David's Without, near Brecon in Wales, has plagued its occupants since they moved in five years ago. Self-employed artist Bill Rich, his wife Liz and three young children, have endured smells of sulphur and church incense, shadowy figures and ghostly footsteps. Their first quarterly electricity bill was £750; electricity is somehow consumed even when the family is away and all the appliances are off. They reckon they had been charged about £3,000 for electricity they hadn't themselves used. The house made the children edgy and the parents listless.

The Riches called in the medium Eddie Burks, who said he found the highest concentration of evil he had ever come across, which was feeding off electricity for its own power. It was also taking it from the family. The electricity board tested the meter twice and found it to be working correctly with no abnormal fluctuation.

Apparently, the Rich family was troubled by various sinister manifestations until they finally fled the house in 1995.  Subsequent residents did not report anything unusual, which just shows that you can never tell with poltergeists.

Monday, August 25, 2025

A Car Bombing in Texarkana




There is something particularly sinister about murders that not only go unsolved, but where it is impossible to even find the motive for the killing.  Such an unaccountable act of evil leaves onlookers with the horrified thought, “For all I know, that could have been me…”  The following mystery is one of those cases.

36-year-old Daryl Crouch was president of a successful family-owned pharmaceutical company, the Walsh-Lumpkin Drug Co.,  in Texarkana, Texas.  He and his wife, Jan, appeared to be happily married, and they adored their 10-year-old daughter, Sandy.  Daryl was described as “one of this city’s most promising young businessmen,” a civic leader who was “always a man spreading good will.”  He was a likable fellow who had no known enemies or notable personal problems.  In short, he was among the last people you’d think anyone would want to see dead.

However, as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, someone did.

On the evening of February 2, 1987, Crouch left his office to have dinner with his wife and daughter.  Afterwards, Jan (whose father founded the company) went to her husband’s office to use the copy machine.  The family then left the building.  Daryl and Sandy got into his Mercedes, while Jan returned to her Lincoln Continental.

Suddenly, there was a massive explosion that could be heard for blocks away, and the Mercedes turned into a fireball.  Sandy Crouch miraculously managed to escape the car with only minor burns, but Daryl was killed instantly.  The blast was powerful enough to destroy three nearby autos.  A 30-inch hole was blown in the floorboard of the Mercedes directly under the driver’s seat.  No one in Texarkana had ever seen anything like it.  Someone had managed to place beneath the vehicle a pipe bomb that was designed to be very, very lethal.  (Police were unable to determine how the bomb was detonated, as Daryl had yet to start the car, but it was thought possible that it was set off by remote control.)

This unusually brutal murder of one of the city’s most well-known and well-liked residents left Texarkanans understandably shocked--and frightened.  People were afraid to leave their parked cars unattended.  Police struggled to determine not just who placed that bomb under Crouch’s car, but why.  Rattled citizens demanded answers that no one seemed able to provide.

Unsurprisingly, the local rumor mill attempted to fill this vacuum.  Some speculated that Crouch was not murdered at all, but staged an unusual suicide.  This theory was fueled by the fact that Crouch had recently resigned his position on the board of Security Savings Association (a major local thrift institution.)  The past December, the institution had posted a $62 million deficit.  However, spokespeople for Security Savings insisted that the timing of Crouch’s resignation and his death was a mere tragic coincidence.  Crouch had planned to retire from the board for some time, in order to concentrate on his other business interests.  They pointed out that the financial institution had options for dealing with the deficit, such as cash infusions or mergers.  Besides, even if Crouch had considered suicide, his friends found it impossible to believe that he would have done so in a way that risked the lives of his wife and daughter.

Police also examined an odd incident that took place the previous summer.  Walsh-Lumpkin received an anonymous phone call saying that the company’s products would be poisoned unless they paid an undisclosed amount of money.  The caller--whoever he or she may have been--was never heard from again, so at the time, the threat was shrugged off as a sick prank.  However, after Crouch’s death, persistent rumors arose that this extortion attempt somehow led Daryl to fear for his family’s safety.  Jan denied such claims.  “He had absolutely no idea something like this was going to happen,” she said.  “If he had, he would have said, ‘Look we need to do so and so.  We need to be real careful.”

The car-bombing is one of those inexplicable crimes where there is very little to report about the matter.  Despite their most diligent efforts, police were utterly unable to find even a remotely plausible suspect, and the motive to blow to bits a seemingly thoroughly respectable and popular businessman remained equally unknown.  To date, the murder of Daryl Crouch remains one of Texarkana’s most unnerving cold cases.

Friday, August 22, 2025

Weekend Link Dump

 


Welcome to this week's Link Dump!

Although I regret to note that the Strange Company HQ staffers are becoming a bit egocentric.



The notorious murder of a 19th century prostitute.

Why you probably wouldn't enjoy a ride in an 18th century sedan chair.

Kansas is seeing a lot of UFOs.

An ocean discovery may provide clues about extraterrestrial life.

A legendary "act of insane heroism."

A mysterious cave monument in Thailand.

Summer drink recipes from the Prohibition era.

From prisoner to politician.  Yeah, the jokes sorta write themselves.

The oldest trout in the Great Lakes.

The life of Victorian author Isabella Banks.

Stone Age warfare was pretty nasty.

A famed painter's unconventional cousin.

A regicide's eulogy for a squirrel.

A man has spent years blocking UK traffic, because everyone needs a purpose in life, I guess.

A brief history of the full English breakfast.

I suppose it's not unreasonable to make sure someone is dead before you bury them.

An archaeologist studies Viking seamanship.

The world's scariest library.

The strange death of Blair Adams.

How Davy Crockett became an icon.

"Reconstructing" two Stone Age miners.

Another one for the "rewriting human history" file.

That wraps it up for this week!  See you on Monday, when we'll look at an unsolved car bombing.  In the meantime, here's a bit of Haydn.

Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com



I thought it was time for this blog to have a little romance, and what better setting than an undertaker’s establishment?  The “Trenton Times,” January 23, 1911:


NEW YORK, Jan. 23.--Mrs. Josephine Grasso, wife of Leonardo, whose friends describe him as one of the most popular undertakers in Sullivan street, won a decree of divorce yesterday after she had convinced Justice Sutherland in the supreme court that "Mike,” her husband's efficient assistant, was none other than Marie Bondi, a remarkably pretty girl. The undertaker's wife testified that Miss Bondi, who is twenty-three years old, was so fond of Grasso that she masqueraded as a young man that she might always be near him, and that much of their lovemaking had been carried on in the back room of the Grasso undertaking establishment at No. 146 Sullivan street, when Grasso and "Mike" were supposed to be absorbed in preparations for a funeral.


Mrs. Grasso said also that Marie Bondi in her character of "Mike" passed a great deal of time riding around on a burial wagon with Grasso, and that not even the trappings and habiliments of woe with which they were environed had any deterrent effect upon their blithe demonstrations of affection.


It was when a client of Grasso entered the undertaking establishment to inquire about the cost of a funeral that the fact that "Mike" was not a "Mike" at all, but a Marie, became known. This client said that as he entered the back room of the shop he was disturbed in his finer sensibilities to see Grasso and "Mike" sitting side by side in front of a row of coffins, their arms about each other's waists and their faces closer together than is the usual custom for undertakers and their first grave diggers. The client was so perturbed that he went away without ordering a funeral.


He thought it was his duty to tell Mrs. Grasso what he had seen. Mrs. Grasso, who believes that It is better to see than to hear, made some purchases herself, as the result of which she had "Mike" arrested, charged with having masqueraded as a man. The young woman was arraigned in a magistrate's court and fined.  She was also told to resume the apparel proper to her sex. 


It was after this appearance in court that "Mike" disappeared from the list of Grasso's assistants. Mrs. Grasso maintains that although her husband and Miss Bondi ceased to occupy the positions of employer and employee, there was no break in their tenderer ties. She said her husband became more devoted than ever after Miss Bondi had substituted feminine garments for the blue serge suit she used to wear as "Mike" and discarded the green goggles behind which "Mike" had shaded the brilliance of Marie's fine brown eyes.


Justice Sutherland listened with interest to the disclosures about the goings on in Grasso's undertaking establishment and at the conclusion of the testimony granted a decree to Mrs. Grasso, with alimony.

Monday, August 18, 2025

In Which Ennio La Sarza Has A Very Bad Day At Work

The Garson Nickel Mine, circa 1920



Accounts of UFO encounters can be--considering the subject matter--surprisingly dull.  However, the following tale, recorded in the famed pages of “U.S. Project Blue Book” was colorful enough to catch my attention.  It was recorded by a Buffalo, New York minister named Charles Beck who had a side career as a UFO researcher.


The story was related to Beck by a 23-year-old native of Italy, Ennio La Sarza.  In 1954, he was working at a nickel mining company in Garson, Canada.  At about 5 p.m. on July 2, La Sarza was alone, busy with a painting job on the mine premises, when he was startled by the sight of an object coming down from the sky with “several times the speed of a jet plane.”  Just before it would have crashed into the earth, the object slowed down and hovered just above the ground.  La Sarza noticed that the grass beneath the strange craft was now scorched.  The object was spherical in shape, about 25 feet in diameter, and had a ring of what looked like portholes around it.  It had what appeared to be landing gear on the bottom and something resembling an antenna on top.


After a moment, three very bizarre beings came out of the craft.  They were about 13 feet tall and blue-green in color.  They seemed to glow.  The creatures all had one eye in the center of their foreheads, six sets of hairy appendages with crablike claws at the ends, and twin antenna sprouting from their heads.


In short, these beings were not your average extraterrestrials.


When one of the beings started to approach La Sarza, he did the only sensible thing: namely, begin to run like hell.  However, the being fixed the young man with a hypnotic stare that paralyzed him.  La Sarza then heard a voice inside his head which demanded that he do…something.  The horror of what was happening to him caused him to faint.  When he came to, the craft and its sinister occupants were gone.


We will--possibly fortunately--never know what the being wanted La Sarza to do, as he refused to divulge it to his later interviewers.  He said only that he would “rather die” than comply with the creature’s wishes.  In fact, La Sarza remained so terrified of what “they” had told him to do, that he later asked authorities to jail him, for his own safety.  (It was pointed out to him that, considering the capabilities these creatures seemed to have, imprisonment probably would not help.)


Beck and others who later interviewed La Sarza (including several psychiatrists) said he appeared completely sane.  He was described as a “model citizen with a good record,” who gained nothing from the often unflattering publicity his story attracted.  La Sarza told Beck that he was aware of how “crazy” his tale sounded, but he could not retract any of it.


I have only one thing to add:  I’ll probably go to my grave wondering what in hell that alien ordered him to do.

Friday, August 15, 2025

Weekend Link Dump

 


Welcome!

It seems appropriate for this week's Link Dump to be hosted by an authentic 16th century witch's cat.

Just be careful how you pet him.  You don't want to turn into a frog.



What the hell is 31/Atlas?  And do we really want to know?

One of the first celebrity dogs.

A pitchfork murder.

Paging Graham Hancock!

A visit to Christ Church, Spitalfields.

There's really nothing like morgue humor.

The mystery of the Hopkinsville goblins.

Remembering VJ Day, 1945.

Poland's first encyclopedia.

The puzzling Sabu Disk.

Who were the first storytellers?

The long history of people falling out of windows.

"Visitations" in medieval England.

Some important historical jewelry.

The difference between jealousy and envy.

Did you know that Van Gogh ate paint?  News to me.

Why Beethoven was not black.

An invincible lock.

The fear of Ouija boards.  It's possible I'm wrong, of course, but I knew someone who "played" with Ouija boards, and I'm convinced it opened them up to spirits you really don't want to meet.

The man who was eaten by an apple tree.

The remains of a man who disappeared in Antarctica in 1959 have finally been found.

The "least foolish woman in France."

The 19th century ice trade.

A weird Stone Age skull.

Fatalities at a brothel.

That's it for this week!  See you on Monday, when we'll meet some very weird extraterrestrials.  In the meantime, here's a bit of lute music.

And trains.