In 1873, a quiet island off the coast of Maine became the setting for a crime that still unsettles historians more than a century later.

What happened on Smuttynose Island was shaped by isolation, fear, and the limits of certainty in a place where help was slow to arrive and answers were hard to come by. A violent night, a survivor’s account, and a rushed search for justice left behind questions that were never fully resolved.

In this episode of History’s Dark Corners, we travel to the Isles of Shoals to explore the Smuttynose Murders — and the uneasy space between truth, belief, and verdict.

Some stories don’t end cleanly. Some questions refuse to stay buried.

🎙️ History’s Dark Corners — America’s most unsettling stories, one state at a time.

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In southwestern Vermont, there’s a stretch of land where people didn’t just get lost — they vanished.

Between 1945 and 1950, multiple disappearances occurred in and around Glastenbury Mountain, an area that would later become known as the Bennington Triangle. An experienced hunting guide stepped ahead of his group and was never seen again. A college student walked around a bend on a well-marked trail and vanished without a trace. A young boy disappeared in the span of minutes near his family’s home. And one man boarded a bus… but never arrived at his destination.

These weren’t reckless people. They weren’t unprepared. They were seen, accounted for, and doing ordinary things — until they weren’t.

In this episode of History’s Dark Corners, we explore the real cases behind the Bennington Triangle, the history of Glastenbury, the warnings that existed long before the disappearances, and the theories — practical, psychological, and unsettling — that still fail to fully explain what happened.

Because sometimes the most disturbing stories aren’t about what we know.

They’re about what doesn’t add up.

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Because in every state, there’s a dark corner. I’ll meet you there.

Before Christmas became bright, loud, and nonstop, it was something quieter.

Slower.

And in that quiet — when the fire burned low and winter pressed against the walls — people gathered to tell ghost stories.

In this special Christmas episode of History’s Dark Corners, we explore the forgotten tradition of telling ghost stories during the holidays — and why the longest nights of the year were once meant for reflection, memory, and unsettling tales shared by candlelight.

After a brief look at how Christmas ghost stories became a Victorian tradition, we settle in for two classic fireside stories adapted for modern listeners.

First, a chilling tale from Charles Dickens about a railway signal-man whose entire job was to watch for danger — and who begins seeing warnings he doesn’t yet understand.

Then, a snowbound story adapted from Elizabeth Gaskell, told through the eyes of a nurse who witnesses a quiet haunting rooted in guilt, memory, and a door that was once closed — and never truly forgotten.

These aren’t slasher stories. They aren’t meant to shock.

They’re the kind of stories people once told at Christmas — the kind that linger, that ask you to listen more closely to the quiet, and that remind us the past doesn’t disappear just because the year turns over.

So get comfortable. Lower your voice. And keep the lantern lit.

Just in case.