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This is a remastered episode — new research, new stories, new folklore. Worth a re-listen.

We pull on a blue silk dress in 1884 Boston and follow the thread back through the strange, unsettling history of secondhand things. From the rag pickers of Victorian London to the smallpox-laced wardrobes of the dead, from The Hands Resist Him to the Crying Boy paintings that wouldn’t burn, from a haunted wine cabinet in Oregon to a green velvet chair no one should have brought home — tonight we’re asking the question every thrifter eventually whispers to themselves: what lived in this thing before I did?

Sources

Thrifting & Victorian secondhand: Lemire, The Business of Everyday Life (2005); Mayhew, London Labour and the

London Poor (1851); Le Zotte, “The Surprisingly Sanitized History of the Thrift Store,” Time (2017).

Mourning culture: Lutz, Relics of Death in Victorian Literature and Culture (Cambridge, 2015).

Folklore traditions: Foster, The Book of Yokai (UC Press, 2015); Nigal, Dybbuk Tales in Jewish Literature.

Hands Resist Him: Bill Stoneham’s artist statements (billstoneham.com); Snopes, “eBay Haunted Painting.”

Crying Boy: The Sun, “Blazing Curse of the Crying Boy” (Sept 4, 1985); David Clarke, Fortean Times investigation.

Dybbuk Box: Mannis’s original 2003 eBay listing; Haxton, The Dibbuk Box (Truman State Press, 2011); LA Times

coverage (July 2004).

Listener folklore: r/ThriftStoreHauls Reddit thread.

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Got your own haunted thrift story? I want to hear it.

Email: letstalkspookypodcast@gmail.com

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Stay Curious. Stay Spooky.

Written, researched, and produced by Shauna.

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Inside one of the most haunted buildings in Canada — the Ottawa Jail Hostel, formerly the Carleton County Jail at 75 Nicholas Street, Ottawa, Ontario. From 1862 to 1972, this limestone prison housed up to 150 inmates in cells barely three feet wide, with no heat, no plumbing, and no light. Three men were hanged on its still-standing gallows: Patrick James Whelan in 1869 for the assassination of the Father of Confederation, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, William "Billy" Seabrooke in 1933, and Eugène Larment in 1946 — the last public hanging and the last execution in Ottawa's history. Roughly 140 unmarked graves were uncovered beneath the site's parking lot.

Today, paying guests sleep in converted death-row cells. Visitors and staff report a dark figure at the foot of the bed, the Lord's Prayer whispered in empty corridors, sudden nosebleeds near Whelan's unmarked grave, sleep paralysis in the old Warden's office, and the unmistakable sense of being watched on the eighth floor. We walk the building room by room — the basement "Hole," the women's wing, death row, the gallows, and the courtyard — and ask the harder question this place keeps raising: what does it mean to turn a site of real human suffering into somewhere you pay to spend the night?

Visit the Carleton County Jail & Ottawa Tours

If this episode pulled you in, the building itself is open to visitors. For guided historical and ghost tours of the Ottawa Jail and surrounding heritage sites, we recommend reaching out to our friend at Ottawa Tours by TAF — local, knowledgeable, and passionate about the haunted history of the capital. OTTAWA TOURS BY TAF

Carleton County Jail & Ottawa Heritage Tours Website: ottawatoursbytaf.ca

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Subscribe, share, and tell a friend who loves haunted history. Every listen helps us find the next story. Folklore · Haunted History · Urban Legends Website: www.letstalkspooky.ca

Sources

• Historical Society of Ottawa & Today in Ottawa's History

• The Globe (1869), Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette (1933) — archival coverage

• The Canadian Encyclopedia & Dictionary of Canadian Biography — Whelan / McGee

• Lorna Poplak, Drop Dead (Dundurn, 2017)

• Heritage Ottawa & Ottawa Police Service historical archive

• Globe and Mail (Roy MacGregor, 2015); Canadian Geographic (Robin Esrock, 2024)

• Hostelworld — Jeff Delgado interview; Haunted Walk of Ottawa

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What if the scariest urban legends were real? Not metaphors. Not campfire exaggerations.

Actually, verifiably, documentable real — and the communities telling them knew something terrible was happening long before anyone with authority chose to listen?

In this episode of Let’s Talk Spooky — a solo-narrated folklore and haunted history podcast — we follow four true horror stories hidden within four legends you thought you already knew. Visit letstalkspooky.com to connect with our socials and see what's new!!

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If this episode got under your skin — share it. The best way to help Let’s Talk Spooky grow is to leave a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and to send it to one person you know who loves a good dark story. Word of mouth is still the most powerful algorithm there is.

Sources & Further Reading

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

• Lüneburg Manuscript (c. 1440–50); Hamelin Town Chronicle (1384); Stained glass window, Marktkirche

Hameln (c. 1300); Rattenfängerhaus inscription, Hameln, Germany. • Mieder, Wolfgang. The Pied Piper: A

Handbook. Greenwood Press, 2007. • Udolph, Jürgen. Linguistic surname research linking Hamelin to Polish &

Pomeranian records. • Kadushin, Raphael. “The Grim Truth Behind the Pied Piper.” BBC Travel, 2020.

The Greenbrier Ghost

• The Greenbrier Independent & The Monroe Watchman, 1897 (archived, WV Division of Culture and History). •

Baltimore American. “Mother-in-Law’s Vision as Evidence.” July 5, 1897. • Greenbrier County Courthouse —

trial records and autopsy report, 1897. • Lyle, Katie Letcher. The Man Who Wanted Seven Wives. Quarrier

Press, 1999. • e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia. “Greenbrier Ghost.” wvencyclopedia.org.

Cropsey & Andre Rand

• Zeman & Brancaccio, dirs. Cropsey. Antidote Films, 2009 (Tribeca Film Festival). • Rivera, Geraldo.

Willowbrook: The Last Disgrace. WABC-TV, 1972. • The New York Times — coverage by Todd Purdum (Aug.

6, 1987) and Elizabeth Neuffer (Aug. 14, 1987). • The Charley Project — case files for all confirmed and

suspected victims. charleyproject.org.

The Black Volga

• Czubala, D. Wspónczesne Legendy Miejskie. Uniwersytet nlnski, 1993. • Brunvand, J.H. Encyclopedia of

Urban Legends. ABC-CLIO, 2001. • Kunicki, M. “The Red and the Brown.” East European Politics and

Societies, 2005. • Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), Warsaw — Piasecki case archival materials.