 Hey Weirdos, just wanted to let you know what's going on here. I'm telling you, when it rains, it pours around here. Over the weekend, we had some terrible weather that triggered the migraines again today. I'm finally feeling better, and when I jump onto the computer, the website's been hacked. So if it's not one thing, it's another around here. Definitely Weirdling Woods material, apparently, but we've been hacked somehow and I don't know if I should take that as a compliment because I'm quote unquote famous enough to be hacked or if it's just I happen to be a random victim like the rest of the world, which is probably more likely the case. But either way, we're working on that. We're going to try to get it fixed. I've had quite a few emails of people saying that they wanted to listen to episodes and they were trying to access the episodes through the website with the individual blog posts. And I'm sorry, that's just not working at the moment. So if you do want to listen to something, you might be better off using a regular podcast app and then searching for that particular episode. If you're looking for a specific one or just scroll through them or whatever, hopefully we'll have this fixed within the next 24 to 48 hours. But in the meantime, all I can really do is put up some archive episodes as we try to figure out the web hacking thing because that's taking up so much time. I just can't sit here and put together a new episode. They keep coming back with me with messages like every 30 seconds. So anyway, I hope you guys are having a great afternoon and here's another dark archive episode. Stories and content and weird darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. Stories of mysterious phantom black dogs abound in Britain. Almost every country has its own variant, from the black shuck of East Anglia to the padfoot and bogey beast of Yorkshire. Phantom black dogs have been witnessed too frequently in modern times to parcel the phenomena as pure folklore and legend, but then folklore and legend often have origins in real events. There are various theories to explain the phenomena and they seem to have many common traits from sighting to sighting. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome weirdos, this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. If you're new here, welcome to the podcast and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. If you're already a weirdo, please share the podcast with others. Doing so helps make it possible for me to keep creating episodes as often as I do. Coming up in this episode… The dark practice of body snatching was a lucrative business, committed by those with a strong stomach and a willingness to disturb the dead to turn a profit. Megalodon died out millennia ago, but our fascination with this mighty shark will never go extinct. We are so obsessed with this ancient leviathan that people still claim to spot Megalodon even today, but that couldn't be, could it? Megalodon isn't the only creature of the deep people report sighting. For centuries a denizen of oceanic monsters have allegedly been seen, but the question is whether or not they are fact or fantasy. High in the Himalayas is a mysterious lake with a very grisly secret, what's at the bottom of Skeleton Lake? Dalton Highway is already a scary road for those driving down the ice-covered highways of Alaska. The loneliness on the barren stretch of highway can go on for hours without seeing a single soul. For one ice-road trucker, that solitude would be interrupted by something terrifying and unexplainable. Hunters come across a strange note left behind by someone who claimed he'd been stuck in the wilderness for over a week and was out picking berries, but the hunters soon realized there was no one out berry-ficking, for the person who wrote the note was already dead and had been for over two weeks. Sometimes drugs can work too well. For example, a hair loss prevention drug could turn your own children into hairy wolfman-like monsters. But first, it has several names all over the world, such as the bogey beast, the black shuck, hairy jack, padfoot, striker and more. But a phantom black dog by any other name is still a phantom black dog. We begin with that story. While listening, be sure to check out the Weird Darkness website. At WeirdDarkness.com you can sign up for the newsletter to win monthly prizes, find paranormal and horror audiobooks I've narrated. Watch old horror movies for free. Plus, you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you're struggling with depression or dark thoughts. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights and come with me into the Weird Darkness. A black dog is a motif of a spectral or demonic entity found primarily in the folklore of the British Isles. The black dog is essentially a nocturnal apparition, in some cases a shapeshifter, and is often said to be associated with the devil or described as a ghost or a hellhound. Its appearance was regarded as a portent of death. It's generally supposed to be larger than a normal dog and often has large, glowing eyes. It's sometimes associated with electrical storms, such as the black shuck's appearance at Bungay Suffolk, and also with crossroads, places of execution, and ancient pathways. The origins of the black dog are difficult to discern. It's uncertain whether the creature originated in the Celtic or Germanic elements of British culture. Throughout European mythology, dogs have been associated with death. Examples of this are the Kwan'an one from Welsh, Garmor of the Norse, and Cerebrus from Greek, all of whom were in some way guardians of the underworld. This association seems to be due to the scavenging habits of dogs. It's possible that the black dog is a survival of these beliefs. Black dogs are generally regarded as sinister or malevolent, and a few, such as the Vargas and Shuck, are said to be directly harmful. They may also serve as familiar spirits for witches and warlocks. Some black dogs, however, such as the Gertdog in Somerset and the black dog of the Hanging Hills in Connecticut, are said to behave benevolently. Some known as guardian black dogs guide travelers at night onto the right path or guard them from danger. In appearance, the phantoms vary from region to region, but it's not uncommon for them to be described as calf-sized, with saucer eyes and a shaggy coat. Phantom dogs are not always black, however. The one that's supposed to haunt the area around Cothorpe and Hoffam in Lincolnshire is described as white, but still has saucer eyes and is as big as a calf. The Cousseth, the traditional fairy dog of Scotland, is dark green in color, with a shaggy tail up its back. Black dogs are more often than not associated with a specific location, such as an old trackway or lane. It is sometimes reflected in the name of the routeway, although not every black dog lane has a tradition of the haunting. There have been some attempts at classification. The folklorist Theo Brown divided the black dog phenomena into three separate types, A, B and C, A being a shape-shifting demon dog, B being a dark black dog calf-sized with shaggy fur, and C, a dog that appears in time with certain ancient festivals in specific areas of the country. Catherine Briggs, the renowned folklorist, splits these further into mysterious demon dogs, the ghosts of human beings and the ghosts of dogs in their own right. In local traditions, black dogs are seen as death portents, especially those seen in ancient churchyards in the form of the church of Kirk Grimm, Kirk being the Scottish word for church, which is thought to represent a folk memory of a sacrifice. The black dog that used to haunt Peel Castle and a nearby graveyard on the Isle of Man is one such Grimm. It is said to have scared a century to death. Other sightings from the south of England have been related to coincidental sudden deaths. The next two accounts relate to actual deaths by a black dog over 400 years ago, although it is likely both events were the result of ball lightning. A weather vane in Bungay Market and Suffolk depicts a black dog and a flash of lightning. It commemorates an event on Sunday, the 4th of August 1577. Between 9 and 10 in the morning, while the parishioners of Bungay were at church, a fearful and violent storm broke out, which caused the sky to darken and the church to quake. Suddenly, in the midst of the storm, a black dog appeared within the church. Lit by flashes of fire, it ran about the body of the church causing great fear and panic. It passed between two people kneeling at prayer, killing them instantly, and caused another man to shrivel up, severely burned, although he is said to have survived. 7 miles away, in Blytheburg at around the same time, another black dog, or possibly the same phenomena, appeared in the parish church preceded by the same thunderstorm. This black dog struck three people dead and left scorch marks on the north church door, which can still be seen today. These two examples suggest phenomena related to the weather conditions, perhaps some form of little understood ball lightning, substantiated by the fact that one person was burned and the scorch marks on the church door. It is difficult to make any snap judgments because of the long span of time involved from the recorded events. Other phantom dogs are more benevolent, and stories exist of people being helped from tight spots. For example, Augustus Hare, in his book In My Solitary Life, recounts a common tale he heard about a man called Johnny Greenwood of Swancliff. Johnny had to ride through a wood in darkness for a mile to get to where he was going. At the entrance of the wood, he was joined by a black dog. It pattered beside him until he emerged from the trees whereupon it disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. On his return journey through the wood, the dog joined him again on the dark woodland path, and again disappeared mysteriously when he emerged. Apparently some years later, two prisoners condemned to death confessed that they had decided to rob and murder Johnny that night in the wood, but the presence of the large black dog had stopped them. Black dogs often seemed to haunt ancient lanes, trackways, crossroads, old churchyards, and prehistoric sites. Many of these places were associated with local superstitions and the uncanny. They are liminal places, where the veil between worlds was thought to be thin. The haunts of the black dogs are also features said to denote lay lines. It's been suggested they represent some form of energy or natural phenomena molded by the mind into an archetype of the black dog. A great deal of work has been done by Earth mystery researchers to suggest that certain geophysical conditions may affect the human mind. These places were recognized by ancient man, and that's why black dogs, as some form of archetype, appear at places of ancient sanctity. This same theory has been applied to other unexplained phenomena. Gallows sites, often crossroads, were also common black dog haunts. The black dog was often seen as the spirit of the executed criminal, such as the dog said to haunt a gallows site in Tring, Hertfordshire. An old woman was drowned for witchcraft at Tring in the year 1751. A chimney sweep was held responsible in part for the killing, and was hanged and gibbeted near to the place of the crime. A black dog came to haunt the place where the gibbet stood, and was seen by the village schoolmaster. He described it as being shaggy, as big as a Newfoundland, with long ears and a tail, eyes of flaming fire, and long teeth. It's interesting to note that at first the black dog appeared as a standing flame, flames and scorched earth being another aspect associated with black dog sightings. Black dogs are also seen as guardians of treasure, especially in Scotland. A black dog was said to guard treasure buried under a standing stone near Murthley in Perthshire. Here we have an account of a black dog at an ancient site and as a guardian of treasure. In summary, it seems that the phenomena of phantom dogs is a complex mix of folklore, sightings and local superstition, which has roots reaching far into the past. There are probably a myriad of different explanations for modern sightings, and a phantom black dog is a powerful archetype, incorporated into modern stories such as the Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. We hope to delve into the mystery further in the future, including some of the many folktales associated with them. Here are just a few of the hundreds of sightings of black dogs. In Thornton, near Bradford, Jim Cravenwell was the haunt of the ghost of Peggy Witt Lantern and Bloody Tongue, a great dog with red eyes and a huge tail. The well is now gone. Meon Hill has both a phantom black dog and a ghostly pack of white hounds. The death of George Walton, in very curious circumstances on the 14th of February 1945, was accompanied by a black dog being hung in a nearby tree. Walton had seen a black dog on nine occasions. The last time it changed into a headless black woman. His sister died shortly after. Although strongly contested, Walton's death has many overtones of the ritual sacrifice of a cunning man. During the Second World War at Brookhouse, Snitterfield, which used to be the bellbrook inn, a big black dog was seen. It ran over the tilled earth of the garden without leaving footprints. Very old people of Warwick used to say that the castle was haunted by a black dog. The tale has the hallmarks of a time-encrusted tall story. The local version claims it all started when an old retainer there, a woman called Maul Bloxham, sold milk and butter from the castle's stores for her personal gain. On Christmas, she overdid this, and then the Earl of Warwick, getting wind of it, stopped her source of supply. Curiously angry, she vowed that she would get them haunted. She apparently succeeded and returned in the form of a big black dog. In due course, the clergy were called in to exercise the ghost with bell, book, and candle, but for a time they were entirely unsuccessful. Then one day, so it was said, a huge black dog sprang from Caesar's tower into the river below, and so ended the ghost story. At Alveston, Charles Walton, a plowboy, met a phantom black dog on his way home on nine successive evenings. On the final occasion, a headless lady in a silk gown rushed past him, and the following day he heard of his sister's death. A black dog has been said to haunt the Newgate prison for over 400 years, appearing before executions. According to legend, in 1596, a scholar was sent to the prison for witchcraft, but was killed and eaten by starving prisoners before he was given a trial. The dog was said to appear soon after, and although the terrified men killed their guards and escaped, the beast is said to have haunted them wherever they fled. A black dog is said to haunt Ivalet Bridge near Ivalet in Swaledale, Yorkshire. The dog is allegedly headless and leaps over the side of the bridge and into the water, although it can be heard barking at night. It is considered a death omen, and reports claim that anybody who has seen it has died within a year. The last sighting was around 100 years ago. On Dartmoor, the notorious squire Cabell was said to have been a huntsman who sold his soul to the devil. When he died in 1677, black hounds are said to have appeared around his burial chamber. The ghostly huntsman is said to ride with black dogs. This tale inspired Arthur Conan Doyle to write his well-known story, The Hound of the Baskervilles. The Coussith, Scottish Gaelic pronunciation, is an enormous otherworldly hound said to haunt the Scottish Highlands. Roughly the size of a cow or large calf, the Coussith was feared as a harbinger of death and would appear to bear away the soul of a person to the afterlife, similar to the manner of the Grim Reaper. Supernatural dogs and the legends are usually completely black or white with red ears. The Coussith's coloration is therefore highly unusual because of its light green color, although it may be derived from the green color often worn by Celtic fairies. Up next, Dalton Highway is already a scary road for those driving down the ice-covered highways of Alaska. The loneliness on the barren stretch of highway can go on for hours without seeing a single soul. But for one ice road trucker, that solitude would be interrupted by something terrifying and unexplainable. But first, sometimes drugs can work too well. For example, a hair loss prevention drug that could turn your children into werewolves. These stories and more, When Weird Darkness Returns. This episode is sponsored by Guardio. How much online shopping did you do during the Christmas season? How much financial information are you sharing online now in the new year as you plan your business or work on your taxes? Nowadays, it's not only a good idea but absolutely essential to always double-check before clicking on a link, online ad or an email. Identity theft is happening more now than ever and scammers are getting good at their task. In fact, I had to cancel the same credit card twice last year due to the information somehow getting into the hands of nefarious nincompoops. None of us are safe from online hacks, scams and phishing. But I just learned about Guardio and they can help protect from all of that. Battling back against scammers, hackers, malware, phishing attempts and identity theft. Using Guardio on your Chrome browser gives you real-time protection that keeps you safe from these online threats. You can give it a try right now with an absolutely free scan of your computer to see if there are already threats on your machine that you don't even know about. Go to guard.io slash weirddarkness to run your free scan and learn more about Guardio. That's g-u-a-r-d dot i-o slash weirddarkness. All one word. Guard dot i-o slash weirddarkness. Use that link for your free security scan and if you also sign up with that web link, you'll save 20% on premium protection from Guardio. So run the free security scan now and get started. That's guard dot i-o slash weirddarkness. This story is a bit different than my normal fair, but it is so bizarre I decided to share it anyway, just out of pure curiosity. More than a dozen babies in Spain have been diagnosed with so-called werewolf syndrome after taking contaminated medication according to officials. The infants took a preparation of ameprazole, a drug used to treat conditions caused by excess stomach acid like heartburn. The batch was contaminated with monoxidil, a medication for baldness according to a statement from the Spanish Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare. Manuel Fuentes of the Official College of Pharmacists of Granada explained to Granada Hoy the drugs are different to the ameprazole capsules taken by thousands of adults. As children can't swallow capsules, pharmacists must prepare special ameprazole syrups. The condition faded after the children stopped taking ameprazole according to the Spanish Ministry of Health. Parents who have a preparation for babies containing ameprazole should visit their pharmacy to check if it's not from a contaminated lot. Anyone who notices excessive hair growth after using the drug should visit a doctor. On July 11, the Spanish Agency for Medicine and Health Products regulatory body released an alert relating to one batch of ameprazole, Official Documents Show. By August 6, the body had recalled 22 lots. Before the July recall, the health department was notified of 13 cases of the condition known as hypertrichosis. They later learned of three new cases in the southern Spanish province of Granada, prompting the second recall. The Spanish pharmaceutical firm, Pharma Quimisa Sur, distributed the 22 batches of the drug and imported the active ingredient from Indian firm Smilax Laboratories Limited. Pharma Quimisa Sur and Smilax Laboratories Limited did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Newsweek. Health officials told Granada Hoy the product was contaminated in Asia. Officials stopped the company from manufacturing, importing or distributing drugs in July. Hypertrichosis is characterized by excessive hair on any part of the body, when compared with those of the same age, sex and race. In rare conditions, the condition is inherited rather than caused by a drug as it was in Spain. Only 50 such cases though have ever been reported. The condition can also be triggered in cancer patients, where hair can appear on body parts including the eyelids and nose. It is unclear why this happens. Malnutrition in those with eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, is also associated with hypertrichosis. The only currently available treatment for forms of the condition not related to drugs is removing the hair, including shaving, waxing or performing laser removal on the area. I am an ice road trucker. Every winter I drive my semi up the Dalton Highway in Alaska to deliver supplies. Other drivers complain about how isolated the road is, but I love it. Driving through expanses of snow-covered wilderness surrounded by nothing but the stars, it is a dream. Well, it was a dream, until the night of January 17, 2017. I was driving the stretch between Coldfoot and the Pruto Bay oil field around midnight. It is the loneliest part of the highway, 200 plus miles with no gas stations, restaurants, no cell phone reception, no traces of civilization at all. And then my headlights rolled over a truck. It had skidded off the road and flipped on its side. From the distance, I couldn't tell if it was fresh, or a week old wreck the recovery crews just hadn't picked up yet. Hey, Jim, I yelled. He was back in the sleeper. We drove together and took turns, so we didn't have to stop for the night. Besides, it was always safer to have a second person if we ran into an emergency. He poked his blonde head out, what? Look, I said. The wreck rapidly approached. It was dark. No headlights, no fire, no lights on in the cabin, just a metal husk breaking the otherwise monotonous Alaskan landscape. Poor fella, he said, reaching for the cup and the holster. A long slurp echoed from behind me. This road gets mighty nasty sometimes. Maybe we should stop, I said, see if they need help. Nah, it's an old wreck. Look how dark it is. Uneasiness settled in my stomach. I'd always felt safe driving up the Dalton Highway because fellow truckers were so helpful. Once, when I'd gotten a flat, no less than three stopped in to make sure I was all right. It was like we were all part of an unspoken brotherhood, looking out for each other. I stomped on the brakes. The truck screeched to a halt. Hey! Jim protested. We're stopping? Sorry, I need to make sure no one's in there. Leaving the headlights on, I swung the door open and pulled myself down. Wait, I'm coming! Jim called after me, pulling on a coat. I didn't wait for him, though. Instead, I walked ahead, ice crunching noisily under my boots. The cold wind bit into my exposed face and I grimaced. Oh, I called out into the darkness. No answer. Anyone there? I called again. See? No one there, Jim said, coming up behind me. Stopped for nothing. I ignored him, and I walked towards the cabin. He was facing away from us, pointing towards the forest in the distance. The trailer was nondescript. No logos or color, but the back hatch was open. Rolled up just a few inches. Jim called out behind me. See? They removed all the supplies already, left the hatch open. This thing's probably been here for weeks. Okay, I get it. I called back. No, wait. I just want to check out the cabin, all right? Humor me. Humor you. We're wasting precious time, Danny. I ignored him and walked across the frozen plain anyway, my boots crunching loudly through the snow. I rounded the corner and came upon the cabin. I stopped dead in my tracks. It was a mangled mess of metal. The hood was crunched like a tin can. The side view mirror dangled limply. There was no windshield, just a misshapen hole where it used to be. Through it, I could make out the driver's seat. It was horribly buckled and bent, conjuring awful images of what the driver must have looked like. Hello? I called through the window. He looked empty, but just in case. All was silent. It's empty, huh? Jim asked, a wild smile on his face. Yeah, and I don't think the driver made it, I replied. My mouth suddenly dry. The highway. She takes some good sometimes. Nothing we can do. Just a circle of life and all that. Great. Jim was waxing poetic now. Okay, Jim. I said, cutting him off. Let's get back on the road. But that's when I noticed it. The snow around the truck was undisturbed. No swirl of frantic footprints from a rescue team. No tire tracks from police cars racing to the scene. No grooves from the body being dragged away. The cabin was empty. The driver had most likely perished and no rescue team had come out. Why aren't there any prints around here? I asked Jim. If the rescue team came out, ah, must be weeks old. As I said, probably snowed 10 times since I got him and the supplies out, covered the prints right up. I guess you're right. That did make sense. Now that I took a closer look, there weren't any skid marks in the snow from the truck either. Defeated, I turned and walked back towards our truck. Wait, what's this? I turned around. Jim was crouched in the snow, trailing a finger across the ground. What's what? These prints! I walked back over and crouched beside him. There were several overlapping trails of footprints. They began at the back door of the trailer, weaved through the snow and ended somewhere in the darkness of the plains. And they looked fresh. The edges were sharp and clean, not softened by the wind or snowfall. That doesn't make any sense. We're in the middle of nowhere, not a single soul for miles around. Then who made these prints? I don't know. Let's find out. Jim walked over to the back door and, with a grunt, pulled it open. Shlip! The metallic sound reverberated through the trailer, echoing against the snow. I pulled a flashlight from my pocket and flicked it on. What the hell? The trailer looked lived in. Empty glass bottles glinted in the light, stacked up in a line against the wall. Clothing was strewn everywhere. In the right corner, they were piled up with a blanket to form a rough bed. There's nobody for 200 miles at least, he said with fascination, pulling himself up into the trailer. What the heck is going on here? Hey, wait! I called after him. We shouldn't. Tools back here, Danny, he called out, his voice echoing in the metal box. All kinds of knives and spears and stuff. I suppose that's how he gets his food. Runs it down. I stepped onto the lip of the trailer and hoisted myself inside. The air was musty, damp and cold, though warmer than the outside. The floor, which was really the side of the trailer, was tilted at a slight angle. I glanced around. While there were many household items I recognized, knives, shears, clothes, there were some I didn't recognize. The black medallion emblazoned with a strange symbol next to the bed area, a stone bowl and a stick that resembled a mortar and pestle. Danny, take a look at this. I turned the flashlight towards him and jumped back. White bone. Twisted mouths, sunken eye sockets. More than a dozen animal skulls all lined up in a neat row at the back wall. The first was tiny, the size of a mouse head. They grew progressively larger. The last ones looking like they belonged to deer, caribou, moose, and painted on the ground under our feet was some sort of symbol. A circle with strange characters all around it, like letters from an unknown language. This is freaking creepy, Jim said. Wish I brought my camera. Despite my thick jacket, a chill went up my spine. Come on, jammals, let's go. Like you said, we're wasting time. We'll get to Pruto late and, oh, now you care about wasting time. His blue eyes met mine. You're just a scaredy cat. That's what you thunk. We both froze. That thunk sound had been faint, but in the absolute silence of this Alaskan wasteland, it was more than just a random sound. More than the wind, the forest, the earth could produce. You hear that? Jim whispered. We listened, but there was only silence. Okay, let's get out of here, Jim said, taking a step forward. We walked to the front of the trailer, our footsteps shaking the metal, and then we jumped down into the snow. My blood ran cold. A man stood in the darkness, dressed head to toe in black, tattered clothing. A hood veiled his face in shadow, and a knife glinted in his right hand, catching the light of our headlights. We broke into a run. He bolted forward, crunching footsteps rang out behind us, growing louder by the second. My lungs burned in the cold air, but I forced myself forward. My hand fell on the metal handle of the truck. I dove in. Jim followed me a second later. Click, click, click. He madly pressed the lock button. I turned the key and the engine rumbled underneath us. Drive! Jim yelled, panting. My headlights flashed over the man. He stood still in the snow, staring at us with wild blue eyes, gripping his knife tightly. And behind him, more figures materialized around the fallen trailer, all wearing black hooded clothing. They remained still, their heads turning to stare as we pulled on to the highway. Then they were left in the dust as we sped forward into the Alaskan wilderness. We called the police, but by the time they made it out there, the truck had been cleaned up. It was just an empty old wreck. No animal skulls, no strange symbols, no sign that anyone ever lived there. I haven't driven a truck up the Dalton Highway since that night. I still deliver supplies, but to other parts of Alaska. Never again will I voluntarily drive up that cursed road. But sometimes I hear about disappearances along that highway. A lonely trucker here or there vanishing into thin air. His vehicle left behind, parked on the side of the road. And I know he didn't just get lost on that lonely stretch of highway. I believe he was taken. When Weird Darkness returns, hunters come across a strange note left by someone who claimed he had been stuck in the wilderness for over a week and was out picking berries. But the hunters soon realized there was no one out berry picking, but the person who wrote the note was already dead and had been for over two weeks. Plus, high in the Himalayas is a mysterious lake with a very grisly secret. What's at the bottom of Skeleton Lake? Hey Weirdos, have you listened to the first episode of Weirdling Woods entitled Chapter 1, Bounty? Well, whether you have or not, you can join me and the author John Allen for a live chat this coming Wednesday, March 9th, as we all listen in real-time to the episode, and live chat about the story, the characters, the numerous horror-themed Easter eggs that are sprinkled all throughout the episode, and you can ask any questions you like of me and the author. The Weirdling Woods live chat is this coming Wednesday, March 9th. It begins precisely at 6 p.m. Pacific, 7 p.m. Mountain, 8 p.m. Central, 9 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. in Hawaii, and 2 a.m. for our friends in Greenwich Meantime. Get the details at WeirdlingWoods.com. On September 6, 1992, a pair of moose hunters came across an old, rusted bus just outside Denali National Park in Alaska. The bus was a strange sight in the middle of the wilderness, but over the years it had become well known to hunters and hikers. It was often used as a stopping point for travelers and trappers who visited the area. What was not a usual sight was the crumpled note that had been fixed to the door of the bus. A handwritten letter scrawled on a page torn from a Nicolai Gogol novel which read, Attention possible visitors, S-O-S, I need your help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here. I am all alone, this is no joke. In the name of God, please remain to save me. I am out collecting berries close by and shall return this evening. Thank you." Signed Chris McCandless. But Chris was not out picking berries. He was inside of the bus. He had died 19 days before. Sparking a years-long investigation into his life by John Crackauer that was turned into the heartbreaking book Into the Wild. Despite the in-depth account of his travels, though, what we know about Chris' life in the Alaskan wilderness is relatively little. He kept a diary that detailed the events that led up to his death, but the weaker he got the less sense those entries made, and his death still remains a mystery. What we do know is that Chris hitchhiked from South Dakota to Fairbanks, Alaska in April of 1992. The last man to give him a ride was a local electrician named Jim Galleon, who dropped him at the head of Stampede Trail on April 28. Galleon later said that he had deep doubts about Chris' ability to survive in the wild, unforgiving wilderness. Chris, who had been using the name Alexander Supertramp on the road, didn't seem to have the appropriate equipment for survival, but insisted that he be fine with his light backpack, meager rations, several books, rifle, and the pair of Wellington books that Galleon gave him. Chris ended his hike at the old bus, deciding it would make the perfect campsite for his adventurous summer. For the next 113 days he lived in that bus, surviving off a nine-pound bag of rice that he had brought with him, as well as local plants and small game like squirrels and game birds. At one point he managed to shoot a moose, but the meat went bad before he could figure out how to preserve it. Chris' diary entry is described the food that he ate, and, despite his inexperience, he did pretty well. However, the last month of entries told a different story. After three months, Chris decided to return to society. He packed up his camp and began the trek back to the trailhead and the highway. Unfortunately the trail that he had taken to the bus was now flooded from the snowmelt that had flowed down from the hills. Unable to cross the flooded river, he returned to the bus in despair. From there the journal entries became bleaker, and he wrote less frequently. One week before his death he wrote his final entry, which read only beautiful blue berries. From then, until day 113, the last day of his life, his entries were only marked with slashes. On the 132nd day after Chris had been seen alive, his body was found by the moose hunters. One of the men who read the note entered the bus and found what he thought was a sleeping bag filled with rotting food. Instead, he found Chris' body. The cause of his death has been debated ever since. It was initially assumed that he had starved to death. His ride supply had run out and the hungrier he got, the harder it was for him to find the energy to get up and hunt. In the end, park rangers believed he simply wasted away. However, John Crackhower came to a different conclusion. Based on journal entries that detailed his food sources, Chris may have eaten the poisonous seeds of a wild sweet pea, believing they were something else. Under ordinary circumstances, the seeds might not have been toxic. The poison in them is usually rendered ineffective by stomach acid. However, if he had eaten the seeds as a last resort, his digestive system may have been too weak to combat the poison. The hunters who found Chris' body also found the camera, which contained dozens of photographs taken by mechanists of his journey, including self-portraits. If anything, the photographs deepen the mystery. In them, his physical deterioration is obvious, though the intent behind them is not. His body was wasting away, evidently right before his eyes, yet he continued in solitude, only asking for help when it was too late. Known by many as Skeleton Lake, Rubkind is a high-altitude Himalayan body of water that sits 16,499 feet above sea level in the northern state of Uttarakhand, India. Every time the snow melts and the ice thaws, this shallow glacial pool reveals the ghastly origins of his nickname. A pile of human skeletons is at rest at the bottom. Scattered around the rim of the lake are even more bone remnants, as well as iron spearheads, rings and leather slippers. In total, nearly 300 souls call Rubkind their final resting place. Even more strange, research suggests that nearly all of these eternal residents died at the exact same time. A forest ranger named HK Madwal officially stumbled across this location in 1942, though mentions of the lake and its grisly contents date back to the 19th century. The first person to climb the surrounding mountains and see the bones must have been terrified. Rubkind is awash with corpses, as if it were the sight of a mysterious massacre. Later visitors were baffled by just what could have caused so much death at such a remote location. Local folklore told of a goddess furious at the defilements of her mountain sanctuary by disrespectful strangers. To retaliate, she rained down death upon the trespassers, flinging hailstones as hard as iron upon their heads. For years, this explanation was dismissed as apocryphal. It would be decades before science ultimately proved this local legend was accurate. DNA tests conducted in 2004 suggest the bones date back to approximately 840 AD, almost 1200 years ago. The testing also suggests that among the almost 300 human remains present at the lake, there are only two groupings of people, a small clan or family, and a group of porters and guides. The family's DNA leads back to Iran, while members of the servant troop seem to be local. It is hypothesized that perhaps the wealthy family was in search of new land or new opportunity. While historical documentation of this specific expedition is currently non-existent, that area of the Himalayas is known for its ancient trade routes. What shocked researchers the most, however, was the way in which this large group died, all from blows to the head that seemed to come from above. Yet the skull fractures didn't point to sharpened weapons, instead some sort of round, blunt object did the deed. This is where legend and science intertwine. Both believe now that while traveling through the mountains, the group was caught by a sudden and deadly hailstorm. Stranded at the pass with no shelter in sight, the travelers were forced to stand and endure the blows of the flying ice chunks. Ultimately, nature prevailed. One by one, the skulls of the travelers were caved in by falling hail. The deaths were followed by a long winter burial in the mountains, preserving the bodies in icy graves for nearly 1200 years. Today, the Alpine Pool is a popular hiking destination for serious trekkers. Yet the bones at the bottom of Skeleton Lake serve as an ominous reminder to all those who visit. Respect the awesome power of Mother Nature. Although British anatomists often hunted for fresh cadavers in the 15th century, it was only in the 18th century that demand boomed. In particular, an explosion of new medical schools and rising requirements for students meant that there were not enough bodies to go around. Too bad they didn't know about Skeleton Lake. Enlightened laws also only allowed for medical science to use the bodies of executed criminals. Soon enough, academics turned to illegal body snatching, which required skill in removing the body without taking the clothing or disturbing the ground too much. A lucrative and ethically questionable industry was born that offered a way out of poverty for many. While some responded with cemetery guards and robber-proofed coffins, resurrectionists worked to turn a profit, often by whatever means necessary. William Burke and William Hare both emigrated from Northern Ireland to Scotland to work on the Union Canal. While Burke settled in Tanners Close with his second wife Helen Madougal, Hare worked as an agricultural laborer before moving to Edinburgh in the mid-1820s. The two met in 1827 while working on the harvest at Midlothian, and they and their wives became fast friends. After Hare and his wife moved into Burke's lodging house, the two soon plunged into a world of body snatching, only to become the world's most infamous resurrectionist duo. They first collaborated on selling the body of a deceased lodger to the desperate Dr. Robert Knox of Edinburgh Medical College. To meet Knox's high standards, the pair turned to murder and killed 17 lodgers, prostitutes, and other unfortunates between 1827 and 1829. The Westport murders shocked the Medical Science Capital of Edinburgh, though Burke soon grew overconfident. On the night of October 31st, 1828, he used the pair's trademark method of suffocation, later known as burking, on a Mrs. Doherty after inviting her to his home. Too drunk to deliver her to Knox, Burke was found in the morning and later executed by hanging thanks to Hare's testimony against him. While Hare and Knox both escaped to England, Burke's body was publicly disacted at Edinburgh Medical College, the very college he delivered corpses to, and he was put on display as a skeleton along with a death mask and a wallet was made of his tanned skin. Around the same time, John Bishop and his compatriots James May and Thomas Williams worked as resurrection men in London. After a dozen years of body snatching, though, the trio decided to go from stealing corpses to creating them. They specifically focused on street urchins and made around nine guineas per body, which would translate to about 1500 U.S. dollars today. At the same time, the ghouls boosted their profits by knocking out and selling teeth to dentists as well. In November 1831, though, Bishop slipped up while preparing a subject for the anatomy instructors at King's College. After he presented them with the corpse, the instructors noticed the boy's suspicious head wound and called the authorities while claiming that they needed change for a 50-pound note. When caught, Bishop and Williams confessed to the murders of a 10-year-old boy, 14-year-old agricultural worker and 35-year-old woman. They admitted modeling their activities on Burke and Hare, but threw their victims into a well head-first to die after being doused with rum and laudanum. In his confession, Bishop declared with pride that he had sold as many as a thousand anatomical subjects. Soon enough, though, he was just another anatomical subject himself, though his crimes inspired Charles Dickens to focus on the plight of beggar boys in his writings, especially the Pickwick Papers. In the same year of 1831, the body of Catherine Walsh of Whitechapel was sold to surgeons at the London Hospital. However, they quickly realized that the woman in question had been murdered. Walsh, who sold lace and cotton for a living, had been living with Elizabeth Ross and her family. Until that point, Elizabeth had largely been known for her love of gin and thieving. Upon investigation, though, Ross's 12-year-old son and his father, Edward Cook, reported seeing the young mother with their lodger shortly before her death. When Elizabeth was then accused of murdering Walsh and selling her body, she herself reported last seeing their lodger going off with Cook and her son. However, the damage was done and rumors began to fly about the neighborhood cats disappearing around the Ross home. In court, she was portrayed as a large, burly Irish woman who could easily kill a man in cold blood. Yet actual sketches showed a slight woman and the son's testimony seemed biased in favor of his father. With little evidence, Ross was convicted and executed by a city held by an intense fear of murderous body snatchers. Not all encounters with resurrection men were negative, though. In a broad sheet from shortly before Burke and Harris Esprit, John McIntyre describes a harrowing experience of being saved by grave robbers. The April 15, 1824 article starts at his deathbed, with the man mysteriously paralyzed but still fully conscious. He watched in silence and horror as his family gathered and then mourned over his coffin at his wake, him completely conscious the entire time. Then McIntyre details what it was like to be sealed in his coffin, taken to the graveyard, and buried with clods of dirt falling onto his wooden prison. Silence fell and McIntyre was left to the ensuing darkness. As he imagined his ensuing death, the man heard the sound of digging. A gang of body snatchers pulled him from the grave, stripped him of his shroud, and delivered him to a local university. There, he was laid out on a dissection table as students and doctors alike filled the room. McIntyre realized he was in a lecture hall shortly before he felt the knife slicing his chest and finally woke. Once the doctors realized their corpse was not dead, they were able to fully revive him and the man recovered. Ross, Bishop, Burke, and Harris Crimes all led to the 1832 Anatomy Act, which combated body snatching by increasing the supply for medical research. Yet decades later, in 1885, a similarly gruesome crime was uncovered in San Francisco, California. After complaints of a stench from a building in Chinatown, the city's coroner uncovered decomposing human remains in the basement. In one room, workers were busily boiling the bodies down, scraping the flesh off in order to speed the process. Most bodies had been taken from California-area cemeteries, likely on behalf of their family members back home in China. They had paid for their late-loved ones' bodies to be boiled down to the bones so that they could be easily shipped back home. By the end of their investigation, authorities had recovered over 300 human bodies from the building's basement. Even during its heyday, body snatching was an especially uncertain business. Not only were bodies not always legally obtained, but they could even be far from dead. That was the case for Robert Morgan, who was captured and tied up in a sack by Hackney Coachman and Resurrection Man John Bottomley in 1816. In other cases, the bodies of loved ones could be ransomed for cash. For instance, in 1881, the Earl of Crawford's body was taken from his mausoleum in Aberdeen and held for ransom. Still, the profits of body snatching were hard to resist, with an adult corpse in the early 1800s easily earning four pounds and four shillings or around $450 USD today. As a result, even with increased regulation, the practice took quite some time to abate. To this day, people are often willing to steal other people's bodies, so long as they can make a tidy profit in the process. Up next, Megalodon died out millennia ago, but our fascination with this mighty shark will likely never go extinct. We are so obsessed with this ancient Leviathan that people still claim to spot Megalodon even today. But that couldn't be possible, could it? And Megalodon isn't the only creature of the deep, people report citing. For centuries, a denizen of oceanic monsters have allegedly been seen, but the question is whether or not they are fact or fantasy. These stories, When Weird Darkness Returns Want to receive the commercial-free version of Weird Darkness every day? For just $5 per month, you can become a patron at WeirdDarkness.com. As a patron, you get commercial-free episodes of Weird Darkness every day. Bonus audio, and you also receive chapters of audiobooks as I narrate them, even before the authors and publishers hear them. But more than that, as a patron, you're also helping to reach people who are desperately hurting with depression and anxiety. You get the benefits of being a patron, and you also benefit others who are hurting at the same time. Become a patron at WeirdDarkness.com. Humans are fascinated by sharks, and the larger the shark is, the tighter its grip on our collective imagination. So let's take a look at the biggest shark of them all, carcarocles megalodon, or megalodon for short. It's thought to have grown to approximately 60 feet long, and when extinct, approximately 2.6 million years ago. However, not everybody is convinced that megalodon is actually dead and gone. Some megalodon truthers think the massive shark is still alive and well, and living undiscovered in the Earth's oceans, and they will often point to the sightings I'm about to share with you as evidence. Even if you believe that megalodon is long extinct, in which case you are in good hands, scientists everywhere agree with you, the myth of the modern megalodon is still fascinating. If nothing else, these alleged megalodon sightings prove humans are fascinated by the oceans' mysterious depths. And in an ideal world, the fascination might lead to increased interest in conservation of actual extant sharks. This first entry isn't a sighting but a fossil find that sometimes is brought up and frequently misinterpreted in discussions of whether or not megalodon is still with us. In 1875, the British ship HMS Challenger pulled up a pair of megalodon teeth from a seabed. In 1959, Dr. W. Sharnesky of London's Queen Mary College attempted to date the teeth by studying the buildup of the manganese dioxide layer on each tooth. Through examining manganese dioxide deposition, Sharnesky determined the teeth were 11,000 and 24,000 years old, respectively. If correct, those findings would indicate that, at the very least, megs have gone extinct far later than previously thought. However, manganese dioxide dating is often unreliable, particularly in dating shark teeth. As Ben S. Roche writes in the 1998 Cryptozoology Review article, a critical evaluation of the supposed contemporary existence of carcaradon megalodon, shark teeth are more durable than typical fossil bones, and they are able to withstand considerable erosion. This can make it challenging to determine how old the teeth actually are. Many researchers now think it likely that shark teeth once believed to be post-Pliocene megalodon teeth were indeed older specimens that were somehow moved from their original, older sedimentary layer and deposited in a younger layer. In his book Sharks and Rays of the Australian Seas, Australian naturalist David Steed shared an anecdote which some believe describes a terrifying encounter with Meg herself. According to Steed, in 1981 he spoke with several crayfish fishermen who were so terrified of a shark they saw in their fishing grounds off Broughton Island they refused to return to the ground for days. They claimed to have seen a shark of unbelievable size surface in the deep water of the fishing grounds, taking the pots and mooring with it. Given that the crayfish pots were over three feet in diameter and loaded with a heavy catch, that would be no small feat. Steed and the local fisheries inspector, A. Mr. Patton, questioned the men who all agreed to the shark's monstrous size. One claimed that its head along was at least as long as the roof of the Worf Shed Nelson's Bay. Many said it measured around 115 feet in length. Others said the water seemed to boil where it surfaced. All of them were confident that it was a shark rather than a whale and that it was pale white in colouring. Given that the men they spoke to were all hardened fishermen accustomed to sharks, whales and other sea creatures, the conversations they had with these frightened witnesses left quite an impression on Steed and Mr. Patton. But even if the shark observed by the fisherman were as massive as described, several signs indicate that it still could not have been mighty megalodon. As Roche writes in his 1998 paper, if megalodon were alive in the modern world and surviving in the deep sea, it is unlikely he would be the white colour described in the 1918 accounts. Most deep sea sharks are dark rather than white, although there is a general misconception that dark deep sea habitats result in lack of pigmentation. In his 1978 book Let's Go Fossil Shark Tooth Hunting, author B.C. Cartmell describes an alleged incident that took place off the edge of Australia's Great Barrier Reef in the 1960s. According to Cartmell, the sailors involved initially refused to speak of the incident because they feared teasing. But after time, they admitted that when their 85-foot ship was forced to weigh anchor for engine repairs, the captain and crew were shocked to see a gargantuan white shark swim slowly past their anchored ship. It rivaled the entire boat in size. All aboard agreed it was not a whale. But was it Meg herself? Probably not. But whatever the sailors saw that day, it is proof that the ocean is a fascinating place. The Black Demon of Cortez is believed to be a massive black shark seen off Mexico's Baja Coast. Some reports allege that the big boy may even be comparable in size to the ancient Megalodon. In one alleged encounter, fisherman Eric Mackey reported that the Black Demon rocked his boat while its towering tail stuck five feet out of the water. Of course, if the Black Demon is real, that doesn't mean it's a Megalodon. It could easily be a plankton-eating whale shark or even a large great white with melanism. The enormous black shark was the focus of an episode of the History Channel Cryptozoology TV show Monster Quest. However, the investigators failed to find any evidence of the fabled demon. Novelist and deep-sea angler Zane Gray claimed to have had an experience with a massive shark that some believe could have been Megalodon. In his novel Megalodon Fact or Fiction, Rick Emmer writes that Gray claimed to have seen one of the man-eating monsters of the South Pacific, a shark much larger than his 30-40-foot boat. Apparently, the shark was yellow-green with a square head, immense pectoral fins, and a few white spots. In other words, not a mere harmless white shark. As fun as it is to imagine these stories are evidence that Megalodon is still alive, that's just not the case. As Megan Balke, a Megalodon researcher at the University of New Mexico told The Daily Beast, there is no doubt in the scientific community that Megalodon is extinct. Balke explains that Megalodons stayed close to the coast, so if they were still alive today, we'd know it. It would be hard to miss a 50-plus-foot super-predator roaming the shores. According to Balke, most large sharks occur in the upper 500 meters of the water column, probably due to productivity. The deep is much too nutrient-poor to support such a large animal. In many ways, Shark Week is responsible for popularizing the myth that Megalodon is still around. In 2014, Discovery aired the highly controversial Shark Week mockumentary Megalodon the Monster Shark Lives. The incredibly misleading program presented evidence that Megalodon was not only still alive, but also attacking humans and boats. Although a brief disclaimer at the end of the so-called documentary explained that it was actually a work of fiction, many viewers were understandably fooled by the eyewitness accounts and interviews with quote-unquote scientists. The next year, Discovery aired a follow-up mockumentary called Megalodon the New Evidence, which only compounded the confusion. Megalodon also garnered increased curiosity in the public eye around the release of the 2018 movie The Meg. Based on the Steve Alton book, Meg, a novel of deep terror, the Meg featured Jason Statham going fist to fin with the prehistoric predator after the shark escapes from the Mariana Trench. After entering the open ocean, the shark goes on to eat a whale and terrorize swimmers at a beach in China before Statham saves the day. Although the action movie was more explicitly fictional than the infamous 2014 Discovery documentary, it's easy to understand how the different representations of Megalodon in pop culture could cause debate. Considering Shark Week 2019, launched with the special expedition unknown Megalodon and a The Meg sequel is already rumored to be in the works, it's likely confusion over this prehistoric predator will persist. Sadly, even if Megalodon were discovered to be alive today, experts say it's likely humans would soon put them on the path to extinction again. Conservationist Shark Expert and Shark Week critic David Schiffman wrote in 2014 that if Megalodon were alive today, it would probably be hunted to extinction for its fins. He estimates that if a hypothetical modern-day Megalodon has 1.5 metric tons of fins, it could be sold for around $600,000 and make approximately 70,456 bowls of Megalodon shark fin soup. And as Schiffman points out, if the hypothetical overfishing of a species that has been extinct for millions of years has you upset as it has me, you should learn more about the real overfishing of shark species that are still around. At least for now. Megalodon is not the only sea monster we get reports of. Humans have always been fascinated by the ocean. After all, even today, we're not entirely certain what lies beneath the waters that cover more than 70% of the Earth's surface. So it's no wonder that storytellers throughout history, from the most ancient mythologies to modern monster movies, have populated those dark waters with all sorts of giant ocean monsters, ready to wreak havoc on the surface world at a moment's provocation. Some of these mythic monsters are so large they can lay waste to entire cities with ease, while others are no bigger than the creatures that actually inhabit the oceans of our world. But all of them have captured human imagination throughout the years, just like Meg herself. Let's look at just a few of our favorite sea monsters, from the mists of prehistory to the silver screen of the last few decades. Cthulhu. It would not be a proper sea monster list without touching on at least a few of the squamous entities that dwell beneath the waves in the stories of HP Lovecraft. Cthulhu is probably the old gents most famous creation, described by Lovecraft himself as resembling an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature. According to Lovecraft's work, Cthulhu waits dreaming in his house in the sunken city of Ralea, and when he wakes up, there will be trouble. Dagon. While Cthulhu may be Lovecraft's best known sea monster, he's by no means the only one. An actual deity from ancient times, Dagon is not only mentioned in some of Lovecraft's most famous stories, the esoteric order of Dagon plays a major role in The Shadow over Innsmouth, but also has a story of his own named after him and lent his name to Stuart Gordon's 2001 Lovecraftian film, Dagon, despite that movie sharing more in common with The Shadow over Innsmouth than it actually does with Lovecraft's story of Dagon. Ebyra. Beginning in 1954, Toho created a sort of cottage industry, releasing films starring their own homegrown radioactive monster, Godzilla. Over the years, Godzilla went up against many threats, several of which came out of the ocean. Heck, Godzilla himself is technically a sea monster. But for a sea monster list, why not go with the creature that lent its name to the 1966 film Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster? In the movie, Ebyra is a giant crustacean controlled by an evil organization known as Red Bamboo. Ebyra later reappears, thanks to the magic of stock footage, in All Monsters Attack and then later in Godzilla Final Wars. Ebyra is superficially similar to the monster Ganyms, a mutated stone crab that appears in the 1970 film Yogg, Monster from Space, or also known as Space Amoeba. Giganto. In the 50s and 60s, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby populated the pages of comic books with a lot more than just some of their greatest superheroes. They also filled them with lots of big, lumpy monsters, many of whom came out of the sea. Few of these seafaring brutes, however, are as memorable as Giganto, actually the name of a whole race of giant whales with arms and legs who helped the Atlanteans attack the surface world, beginning in Fantastic Four No. 4, published in May of 1962. Kraken. Sea Monster names can be confusing, and the kraken is a prime example. The word comes to us from Norwegian, where it means an unhealthy or twisted animal. But it entered the popular lexicon when it was borrowed for one of the main antagonist monsters in Ray Harryhausen's Clash of the Titans film. While Harryhausen's kraken was a humanoid sea monster with tentacle-like arms and a fishy tail, the mythological kraken more closely resembles a giant squid. The second Pirates of the Caribbean movie featured a more mythologically accurate depiction of the kraken, while the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans boasted a critter that was something of a mixture of the two, also incorporating some crab-like elements. The version of the kraken that shows up in Clash of the Titans may have been inspired by the mythological Qetus, taken from the Greek word Qetus, meaning a large fish or sea monster. When Queen Cassiopeia ticked off Poseidon by claiming that she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than the Nereads, sea nymphs who accompanied Poseidon, he punished them by sending the sea monster Qetus to attack Ethiopia. The king and queen consulted an oracle and were told to sacrifice Andromeda to the monster in order to spare their kingdom. They chained her up to a rock, but she was saved when Perseus slew Qetus. In some versions of the story, he did this using Medusa's head. Certainly sounds a lot like the kraken of Clash of the Titans, doesn't it? Qetus later lent its name to a constellation and also showed up to Menace Sinbad's crew in the animated film Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas. Atoia There are loads of giant and not so giant sea monsters populating the movies, from the giant octopus of It Came from Beneath the Sea to more recent creatures like those in, say, Megashark vs. Giant Octopus. But one of my favorites is the thing that attacks the Argonautica in Stephen Summer's 1998 aliens-like film, Deep Rising. While one of the characters within the movie hypothesizes that the creature is an evolution of a type of Cambrian worm known as the Atoia, the end result is something more closely resembling the mythical kraken. Skyola and Charibdis Something of a matched set, Skyola and Charibdis also come to us from Greek mythology, specifically the Odyssey. Two monsters, dwelling on either side of the Strait of Messina, Skyola represented the dangers of the rocky shore and was depicted in a variety of ways, including as a woman with a dragon-like tail and dog heads sprouting from her body, while Charibdis represents a deadly whirlpool. The two monsters have given us an idiom that dates back to this very day between Skyola and Charibdis, meaning about the same thing as between a rock and a hard place. Sirens Famed for luring unwary sailors to smash their ships upon the rocks, the sirens are known for their lovely and enchanting songs, with which their names have become virtually synonymous. In Greek mythology, the sirens plagued both Jason and the Argonauts and Odysseus on their respective voyages. Most depictions of the sirens show them as part-women, part-bird, though some more recent variants have taken a looser approach, as in the 2003 animated adventure Sinbad Legend of the Seven Seas, in which the sirens are portrayed as a sort of living water taking on humanoid form. The Terrible Dogfish In Disney's 1940 animated feature film version of Pinocchio, Gepetto and Pinocchio are swallowed by a sea monster named Monstro, who is portrayed as a giant sperm whale. In Carlo Collodi's original 1883 book, The Adventures of Pinocchio, however, that role is filled by the Terrible Dogfish, a giant ocean monster also known as the Attila of Fish and Fisherman. According to Collodi, the shark-like dogfish is larger than a five-story building and has three rows of teeth in its enormous mouth, which is plenty big enough to swallow ships, and of course, Pinocchio and Gepetto. Jormungandr In Norse mythology, Jormungandr is also known as the Midgard Serpent because it is so long that it wraps all the way around the world and can hold its own tail in its mouth. The offspring of Loki and a giantist named Ogriboda, when the Midgard Serpent releases its tail, it will mark the beginning of Ragnarok. During that cataclysmic event, Thor will fight a final battle with Jormundr, during which he will slay the mighty serpent, only to then fall dead himself from its venom. Sea Bishop According to sea monster myth and legends, the sea bishop or bishopfish was caught and taken to the king of Poland who showed it to a group of Catholic bishops. When the bishops released the creature, it made the sign of the cross before disappearing back under the waves. The bishopfish is a type of fish that looks like a man, specifically like a Catholic bishop, while other variations include legends of the sea monk, a fish that looks like a monk. Later experts came to the conclusion that the sea monk was probably actually an angel shark, a type of shark that is also known as a monkfish. The bishopfish made an appearance in the fourth volume of Conrad Gesner's Historia Animalium, an inventory of Renaissance zoology, as well as Johann Zahn's Specula fisico-mathematica historica norabilium, and it has been associated with the imagery of the half-human half-fish sages known as Apkalu in ancient Mesotopean mythology. Lion Turtle This mythic sea monster exists in the world of Avatar the Last Airbender, but unlike other creatures on this list, the gigantic half-chimera half-turtle animal is pretty benevolent. In the television series, Aang, the main protagonist, accidentally encounters one of these fearsome creatures when he swims toward a floating island just off the coast in a trance. When he snaps out of it, he realizes the island he's sitting on top of is actually the back of this large creature. He dives into the ocean to communicate with it. The backs of lion turtles are so large that they host their own entire ecosystem on their shell. In The Legend of Korra, the successor to Avatar the Last Airbender, a large number of these creatures existed in the past, serving as both shelter and guardians for humans. In the early days of humanity, settlements were built on the backs of these creatures since they were the only safe place for humans to thrive. This was the case because the world outside the lion turtle towns and villages was populated by troublesome spirits that had a tendency to attack humans. In addition to this, lion turtles also provided humans with the ability to bend fire, water, earth, and air when they traversed outside the colonies to gather resources. Avatar the Last Airbender didn't create these island-sized lion turtles' whole cloth though. They are inspired by the legends of Aspita Shalone, which are described in medieval bestiaries as turtles or fish so large that they are mistaken for islands by sailors. Ritosaurus Before Godzilla, there was The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. This 1953 monster movie takes its inspiration from The Foghorn, a Ray Bradbury story about a sea monster that falls in love with a lighthouse's Foghorn. In the film, the monster is a rotosaurus, a made-up dinosaur that is awakened from hibernation by atomic testing and the Arctic Circle. Sounds like a Godzilla movie already, doesn't it? The rotosaurus heads south, destroying a lighthouse along the way in a scene reminiscent of Bradbury's short story before finally meeting its end at New York's Coney Island. Brought to life by special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, the rotosaurus was far from the last sea monster that Harryhausen would bring to screens. He also contributed creatures to other parts of this list, including the giant octopus in It Came from Beneath the Sea and, of course, the Kraken in Clash of the Titans. Umibuzu In Japan, these sea creatures were pure nightmare fuel for sailors who believed in the myths surrounding this creature. Umibuzu is a giant, shadowy, humanoid-like monster who terrorizes sailors who are unlucky enough to cross paths with it during a voyage. Upon encountering the creature, what was once a beautiful day with calm waters immediately turns into thunderous chaos with harsh waves and never-ending rain. According to Japanese mythology, when an Umibuzu appears, they will either immediately attack a ship and drown its crew or ask for a barrel from the ship's supply as an offering. If the crew complies with the creature's demand, sometimes the Umibuzu will spare the ship. But in order to ensure a safe travel away from the sea monsters, sailors say that giving the Umibuzu a bottomless barrel will leave the creature confused, giving the ship and its crew an opportunity to flee before the Umibuzu realizes that it has been tricked. A Tropical Horror The British author William Hope Hodgson produced a vast and varied body of work around the turn of the century, but what he is perhaps best known for are his stories of horror on the high seas. Returning again and again to the weed-choked wastes of the Sargasso Sea, Hodgson's sea stories had the ring of truth to them, due in part to the fact that Hodgson himself had served several years as a sailor. The ocean in a William Hope Hodgson story is populated by all sorts of weird monsters, from ghost pirates to giant crabs to sinister fungi to things even more impossible to describe. Yet describe them Hodgson did, and one example is the epitomous thing in his story, a Tropical Horror. Rising from the bulwarks, Hodgson writes, seen plainly in the bright moonlight is a vast, slobbering mouth of fathom across. From the huge, dripping lips hang great tentacles. As I look, the thing comes further over the rail. It is rising, rising, higher and higher. There are no eyes visible, only that fearful, slobbering mouth set on the tremendous trunk-like neck, which even as I watch, is curling inboard with the stealthy celerity of an enormous eel. Capricorn More often than not, when we hear the word Capricorn, our minds immediately jump to birth charts and zodiac signs, but this sea monster actually has its roots in Greek mythology. Capricorns have the face and upper body of a goat and the tail of a fish, making it capable of swimming and laying out on shores. Despite anatomically making zero sense whatsoever, these creatures were capable of speech and were often favored by the gods. The mythology behind Capricorns starts with Preacus, the original Capricorn who fathered the entire race. Preacus was granted immortality and the ability to turn back time by Cronus, the god of time. When his Capricorn children walked on the shore and stayed out to see too long, they ended up becoming regular goats who lost their ability to swim, speak and think. In an effort to revert this, Preacus used his time-reversing ability to turn the regular goats back into Capricorns. Preacus couldn't keep up with how many times his children repeatedly stayed on the shore though, so he gave up trying to remedy the situation and led a life of loneliness. Taking pity on Preacus, Cronus turned the creature into the constellation that we all know today, so he could happily see how all of his goat children are doing from the sky. Gyarados This intimidating sea monster has appeared many times throughout the Pokémon series. Gyarados, which I'm sure I'm butchering the name of as I have with many of the names on this list, thrives in both fresh and salt water and is infamously known for its bad temper and destructive nature. Trainers in the Pokémon universe who are capable of capturing and taming this beast are said to share a powerful bond with Gyarados since the creature will repress its violent instincts to obey its master. Gyarados' sea serpent design was actually inspired by dragons in Chinese mythology. Unlike European dragons, these creatures are very serpent-like in shape and have distinct whiskers on their faces. Funny enough, Gyarados also evolves from the very useless Magikarp, a fish Pokémon that's incapable of doing anything but splashing about. According to Pokémon lore, it's this very dramatic shift in brain structure during evolution that causes Gyarados to have violent tendencies. Vodgenoi Routed in Slavic mythology, Vodgenoi are water spirits who take on the form of a naked old man with a frog-like face. After spending so much time and fresh and salt water, these creatures tend to have moss, algae and other plant-like growth all over their bodies, giving them a distinct green color. Vodgenoi are said to be relatively calm and can often be seen floating down a river or along the shore on a log or driftwood. In popular culture, these creatures have appeared in the Witcher series where they have formed a society and share the ocean with other races. Despite their old appearance and peaceful demeanor, if angered, Vodgenoi can be quite destructive. In Slavic lore, if anyone angered these sea creatures, the Vodgenoi would destroy man-made structures near the body of water it resided in or drown humans and animals in the area. Worst case scenario, a really mad Vodgenoi would drag its victims down to its underwater home where they would be enslaved for eternity. Leviathan Hebrew in origin, this terrifying sea monster is often drawn and described as being a water reptilian of some sort. Immensely large in size, the Leviathan appears in the Old Testament as a sea serpent with multiple heads. In this scene, God kills the creature and it offers its carcass as food for the Hebrews. As a creature rooted in a religion that comes from ancient Mesopotamia, this creature has been interpreted in a variety of ways in different religions and cultures. As Judaism continued to develop, the Leviathan upgraded from sea serpent to the water dragon that many associate with the creature today. In Christianity, the Leviathan is presented as a ravenous demon that has an insatiable appetite for all of God's creations. In some Christian interpretations, the Leviathan might also be just a giant crocodile. Because of this creature's massive size and underwater dwelling, the name Leviathan is actually used as a general term for describing large sea monsters. More than likely, due to its very old origins, the Leviathan is pretty much the root of most sea creature myths. Therefore, the Leviathan easily takes home the title for the oldest and most fearsome of sea creatures. It is kind of interesting that the Leviathan is supposed to have double armor on its belly, comes from the sea, and breathes fire. Sounds a lot like Godzilla. Sigmund the Sea Monster Not all sea monsters are as scary, of course. In fact, the star of the Sid and Mardi Croft children's show, Sigmund the Sea Monsters, was a sea monster himself named Sigmund, and he got in trouble with his sea monster family precisely because he couldn't or wouldn't scare humans. Along with Sigmund himself, the show featured the rest of his aquatic clan, including his two brothers named Slurp and Burp, and their parents Big Daddy Ooze and Sweet Mama Ooze. Thanks for listening. If you liked the podcast and you haven't already subscribed, be sure to do so now so you don't miss future episodes. And also, please, tell someone else about the podcast. Recommend weird darkness to your friends, family, and co-workers who love the paranormal, horror stories, or true crime like you do. Every time you share the podcast with someone new, it helps spread the word about the show, and a growing audience makes it possible for me to keep creating episodes as often as I do. Plus, telling others about weird darkness also helps get the word out about resources that are available for those who suffer from depression, so please share the podcast with someone today. Do you have a dark tale to tell of your own? Fact or fiction, click on tell your story on the website, and I might use it in a future episode. All stories in weird darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes. Phantom Black Dogs was written by Vintageyne for Unexplained Mysteries. The Terror on Dalton Highway is by Blair Daniels for Thought Canalog. Into the Wild, The Death of Chris McCandless is by Troy Taylor. Drugs Turn Babies Into Werewolves is by Kashmira Gander for Newsweek. What's at the bottom of Skeleton Lake is written by Elizabeth Tilstra for the lineup. Body Snatchers is from the Occult Museum. The Return of Megalodon is by Carolyn Cox for the Portalist. And Sea Myths or Sea Monsters is by Oren Gray and Xavier Piedra for the Portalist. Weird Darkness Theme by Alibiomusic. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. James 4, Verse 7 Submit yourselves then to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. And a final thought by John Burroughs. The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.