Astonishing Legends

In tonight's dead letter, our listener named Mark is driving through western Michigan at two in the morning in 1978, working off a paper map and handwritten directions to a house he's never been to. He comes up a hill and into a curve on US 131, and there are four people standing in his lane. Two of them are waving him over to the right, and the other two have their arms raised above their heads in an X. Had they not been there he may have had a fatal collision, and when he went to find them shortly after, they had vanished.

Relevant Prior Episodes

Ep 102: Resurrection Mary Part 1
Astonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts

Ep 116: Small Town Monsters
Astonishing Legends · Spotify · Apple Podcasts

Links and Further Reading

Lydia: The Ghost of Jamestown Bridge, NCpedia

A History of the Vanishing Hitchhiker, Beardsley and Hankey, 1943

The Bray Road Beast, Small Town Monsters

Jim Harold's Campfire: True Ghost Stories, Books 1 through 6

Note: We call it the National Highway Transportation Safety Association in the episode. The ‘A’ is actually for Administration.
  
We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to deadletteroffice@astonishinglegends.com!

In tonight's dead letter, listener Mothmaiden remembers a time when she was four years old and an only child in a neighborhood with no other kids, and she had an imaginary friend named Cindy Cora who looked exactly like Betty Rubble from The Flintstones. Then on a sunny afternoon, in her own bedroom with the light coming through the window, she saw an elderly woman with white and gray hair piled high on her head, sitting in a rocking chair, calm and gentle and completely solid. Were these things connected?

Relevant Prior Episodes

Abduction at Devil's Den

Devil's Den: The Reckoning Part 1

Chris McKinnell and the Warren Legacy

Dan, Susan, Micah Hanks and Missing Time

Links and Further Reading

Two-thirds of school-age children have an imaginary companion by age 7, University of Washington
Note: We say about one in three for the invisible-only friends. In the study, about two thirds of kids have had an imaginary companion by age seven, and about one in three have one at the time they are asked.

The psychological significance of play with imaginary companions in early childhood, Learning & Behavior

Childhood amnesia, Wikipedia

Ghosts and Apparitions in Psi Research, the Society for Psychical Research's Psi Encyclopedia

Phantasms of the Living (1886) by Gurney, Myers and Podmore, Internet Archive

Strange Intruders by David Weatherly

Devils Den: The Reckoning by Terry Lovelace

Contact (1997), Wikipedia
Note: We say David Morse was one of the doctors on ER. He played Dr. Jack Morrison on St. Elsewhere.

Sesame Street debuts, November 10, 1969, HISTORY

Wall Street crash of 1929, Wikipedia

The History of Bettys in Pop Culture, Refinery29

Natalie and Tara on YouTube

We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to deadletteroffice@astonishinglegends.com!

Hey folks! We're gearing up to go to the Wet Hot Bad Magic Summercamp next week but after that we're back on our regular schedule! In the meanwhile here's a chat Scott and Richard had just a week ago about his new tour which is also CLOSE ABOARD!
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A special episode from our friend Richard Hatem. Richard is the screenwriter behind The Mothman Prophecies and a longtime friend of the show, and he hosts Richard Hatem's Paranormal Bookshelf. He invited Scott onto his podcast to talk about his upcoming Light in the Dark Tour 2026, a 10-day, six-city run of live shows in September that wraps up at the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. We liked the conversation enough that we're sharing it here on the main feed.
Along the way, Scott and Richard get to such never-before-asked questions as: What scares our dogs? Where will Scott and Forrest be appearing live in September? Did Abbott and Costello get along? Can anyone find Scott's legendary "lost" appearance on Portlandia? Did Richard schedule too many shows on this tour, and will Susan ever forgive him? Find out the answers to these and many more questions on this episode.
If you can make it to one of the tour stops, go. Tickets and dates are at the link below.
Links

Get tickets to Richard Hatem's Light in the Dark Tour 2026 LIVE: https://www.richardhatemsparanormalbookshelf.com/events
Listen to Richard Hatem's Paranormal Bookshelf: https://www.richardhatemsparanormalbookshelf.com/
Support RHPB on Patreon: https://patreon.com/RichardHatem
Celebrate 2026 with 26% off all RHPB merch with offer code RHPB26. The discount is pre-applied at this link: https://richardhatem-shop.fourthwall.com/promo/RHPB26
Need help with your personal writing projects? Richard is here to help. Get 20% off when you mention RHPB: https://www.richardhatem.com/

Notes

Get the answer to ALL of your Abbott and Costello questions here: Abbott and Costello Meet the Podcast
Is your dog afraid of hiccups, just like Luna? Learn about your dog's weird fears here: Understanding Your Dog's Fear

In tonight's dead letter, listener Chris takes us back to the early 2000s, when he was the head brewer at a restaurant on the east side of Cumberland, Maryland, in a building so old it served as a Civil War field hospital. One night after close, he and three coworkers were having a beer in the basement bar when the loudest sound he'd ever heard slammed into the floorboards right above their heads, shaking dust from the ceiling and rattling every bottle behind the bar.

Relevant Prior Episodes

Nightmarchers of Hawaii

Links and Further Reading

The Battle of Folck's Mill: Maryland Historical Trust Battlefield Documentation (PDF)

Battle of Folck's Mill, Wikipedia

Folck's Mill (National Register of Historic Places site), Wikipedia

The Battle of Folck's Mill, Western Maryland's Historical Library

The Invasion, Aug 1864: The Cumberland Alleganian's Original Account, Western Maryland's Historical Library

Folck's Mill Marker, Historical Marker Database

The History of Puccini Restaurant, Cumberland, Maryland

The Phantom Battle of Edgehill, Historic UK

The Spectral Army of Souther Fell, Mysterious Britain and Ireland

The Dieppe Raid Case, Mysterious Britain and Ireland

The Drummer of Tedworth, Wikipedia

Phantom Armies of the Night by Claude Lecouteux

The Rosenheim Poltergeist, by Tess Pfeifle at Astonishing Legends

We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to deadletteroffice@astonishinglegends.com!

Our friend Richard Hatem is taking his Paranormal Bookshelf on the road! The Light in the Dark Tour 2026 is an all new live show playing six cities in seven days, September 13th through 19th, and it winds up at the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Richard and Susan Lambert will be at the festival both days selling Mothman and podcast merch, and on Saturday night, September 19th, he's performing an episode of the podcast picked especially for Point Pleasant.
Hear Scott and Rich talk about the tour in his most recent post on the RHPB feed:
Spotify
Apple Podcasts

Tour Dates and Tickets

Sunday, September 13: Storm Crow Manor, Toronto, ON

Monday, September 14: Padraigs Brewing, Minneapolis, MN

Tuesday, September 15: The Red Lion Pub, Chicago, IL

Wednesday, September 16: B Side Lounge, Cleveland Heights, OH

Thursday, September 17: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA (FREE SHOW!)

Saturday, September 19: Trinity UMC Community Center, Point Pleasant, WV (The Mothman Festival)

More from Richard

All Tour Dates and Tickets

Richard Hatem's Paranormal Bookshelf on Apple Podcasts

Richard Hatem's Paranormal Bookshelf on Spotify

Paranormal Bookshelf Merch

The Mothman Festival

Tickets for every show but Carnegie Mellon (which MAY not require them, TBD)  are at richardhatemsparanormalbookshelf.com/events, or search Richard Hatem on Eventbrite. Come out and see Richard do his thing!