Champagne and Murder, Please

Brittany

Welcome to Champagne and Murder Please, the podcast where the eerie, the unexplained, and the downright terrifying come to life. Each episode, we dive into true crime cases, from infamous murders to unsolved mysteries, explore the dark history of witches and occult practices, and venture into the world of the paranormal—where ghosts, hauntings, and curses lurk in the shadows. Plus, we investigate cryptids like Bigfoot, the Mothman, and other legendary creatures that blur the line between myth and reality. If you love all things spooky, sinister, and strange, you’ve found your new obsession.

  1. 3d ago

    When Reality Glitches

    A farmhouse under siege by strange visitors. A woman seen in two places at the same time. No matter how you explain them, these stories have survived for generations because they leave behind one unsettling question: What if the witnesses were telling the truth? Join us as we investigate the infamous Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter and the legendary Emilie Sagée doppelgänger case. We'll separate fact from folklore, explore the theories, and decide for ourselves just how much of reality we're willing to question. Grab your favorite bubbly, settle in, and prepare for a night where nothing is quite what it seems. "Story of Space-ship, 12 Little Men Probed Today." Kentucky New Era, August 22, 1955. WBKO, "70 years later: Revisiting the Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter," August 21, 2025. Roadside America, "Kelly, KY - Site of 1955 Alien Attack." Robert Dale Owen's 1860 book, Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World. This is the most important source for the actual account of Émilie Sagée and includes the story as it was transmitted to Owen by Julie von Güldenstubbe. Robert Dale Owen, Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World — full scanned text/PDF Open Library record for Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World

  2. Aug 6

    The Texarkana Phantom: A Killer in the Shadows

    In 1946, something, or someone, started hunting couples in the quiet towns surrounding Texarkana. A masked stranger appeared from the darkness, attacked without warning, and vanished before anyone could get a good look at him. Before long, the Texarkana area was gripped by fear, and an unknown predator became known as the Phantom. The attacks were brutal. The clues were frustratingly few. And despite an enormous investigation, the identity of the man behind the mask has remained one of those deliciously infuriating mysteries that refuses to stay buried. This week on Champagne and Murder, Please., we’re heading back to 1940s Texarkana to talk about the Phantom, the attacks that terrified an entire community, the suspects who ended up in the crosshairs, and the investigation that followed. And because apparently one mysterious masked killer wasn't enough for the true-crime rabbit hole, there are theories that the Phantom may have had a connection to another infamous unsolved mystery decades later. So pour yourself something cold, lock the doors, and maybe don't go wandering around outside after dark. We're going to Texarkana. Trigger warning: This episode discusses murder, sexual assault, violence, and attacks on victims. https://experiencetexarkana.com/history/the-phantom-killer-texarkanas-chilling-true-crime-legend/ https://the-line-up.com/texarkana-murders https://www.amazon.com/Texarkana-Moonlight-Murders-Unsolved-Phantom/dp/0786473258 https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/feb/07/fbi-releases-archive-texarkanas-phantom-killer-ove/ https://www.texasmonthly.com/culture/texarkana-murder-mystery/https://mystery.frey-united.com/true-crime-stories/texarkana-moonlight-murders/ https://www.grunge.com/328814/the-famous-movie-inspired-by-the-texarkana-murder-mystery/ https://websleuths.com/threads/zodiac-killer-texarkana-phantom-killer.556602/ https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/zodiackillerfr/zodiac-texarkana-moonlight-murders-connections-t2461.html

  3. Jul 30

    Who Wants to Eat a Dead Man’s Sins?

    What if, after you died, someone could literally eat your sins? In this episode of Champagne and Murder, Please, we’re exploring the strange and unsettling traditions surrounding sin eaters—people who were believed to consume food placed on the body of the dead, taking on the deceased person’s sins so their soul could move on. It’s a ritual steeped in death, superstition, fear, and the very human desire to believe that maybe someone else could carry our worst mistakes away for us. Then we’re heading into the bizarre world of the “pig-faced woman” panic, where rumors, newspaper stories, and Victorian fascination with the strange helped create a legend about a wealthy woman supposedly born with the face of a pig. What began as an unsettling tale became a full-blown cultural phenomenon involving gossip, exploitation, and the public’s apparently endless willingness to believe the absolute wildest thing they had read in the newspaper. So grab your champagne, light a candle, and join us for two stories about sin, superstition, death, deception, and the very questionable things people will believe when someone tells them a good story. Eat Sleep Live Herefordshire, "The History of Sin Eaters" — https://www.eatsleepliveherefordshire.co.uk/the-history-of-sin-eaters/ Bone and Sickle, "The Sin-Eater" — https://www.boneandsickle.com/2025/03/24/the-sin-eater/ Goodreads, Sin Eater by Megan Campisi — https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/52185082-sin-eater Atlas Obscura, "Regency Londoners Were Obsessed With Pig-Faced Ladies": https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pig-faced-lady-londonHorniman Museum and Gardens, "The Pig-Faced Lady of Manchester Square": https://www.horniman.ac.uk/object/nn12735/ The Quack Doctor, "From myth to misery: the tragic story of the Pig-Faced Lady":

  4. Jul 23

    To Protect or Betray?

    This week we're looking at two officers who used the power of the badge to do exactly what they swore not to: Zachary Wester, the Florida deputy who planted drugs on innocent people during traffic stops, and Daniel Holtzclaw, the Oklahoma City cop who targeted vulnerable women he assumed no one would believe. Two very different crimes, one uncomfortable question — how many more are out there who just haven't been caught? If anything in this episode resonated with you or brought something up, please know you're not alone — and support exists, even if reaching out feels hard. RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network)National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673 (24/7, free, confidential)Online chat: rainn.org National Domestic Violence Hotline1-800-799-7233 | Text "START" to 88788thehotline.org Crisis Text LineText HOME to 741741 You don't have to have "the right words" or even be sure of what happened to reach out — these lines are there to listen, not to judge. Take care of yourselves out there. https://www.wctv.tv/2024/11/13/rico-conviction-vacated-former-jackson-county-deputy-accused-planting-drugs-traffic-stops-2019/ WMBB/mypanhandle.com, https://www.mypanhandle.com/news/local-news/jackson-county/former-jackson-county-deputy-resentenced-after-racketeering-charges-overturned/ WJHG, "Former deputy Zachary Wester sentenced to more than 12 years for planting drugs," July 14, 2021 — https://www.wjhg.com/2021/07/14/former-deputy-zachary-wester-sentenced-more-than-12-years-planting-drugs/ WFSU News, March 5, 2026 — https://news.wfsu.org/wfsu-local-news/2026-03-04/floridas-high-court-weighs-rico-charge-against-a-jackson-deputy-who-planted-drugs-on-innocents https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/21/463867164/former-oklahoma-city-police-officer-sentenced-to-263-years-for-sexual-assaults https://feminist.org/news/holtzclaw-sentenced-to-263-years-for-rape-and-sexual-assault-of-13-black-women/ https://www.democracynow.org/2015/12/15/daniel_holtzclaw_convicted_of_serial_rape https://okcfox.com/news/local/holtzclaw-victims-to-address-the-media

  5. Jul 16

    Ten Feet Tall and Full of Lies

    Long before viral hoaxes and deep fakes, there was the Cardiff Giant — a ten-foot stone "man" unearthed from a New York farm that had people lining up (and paying admission) to gawk at what they believed was a biblical relic or a fossilized ancient. It was neither. It was gypsum, a con man's imagination, and America's gift for believing exactly what it wants to. We dig into the hoax, the man behind it, and the P.T. Barnum plot twist you didn't see coming. https://www.farmersmuseum.org/cardiff-giant/ https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5824/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-cardiff-giant-one-of-historys-most-famous-hoaxes-72691312/ https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cardiff-giant https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cardiff-Giant https://www.history.com/articles/cardiff-giant-hoax https://www.nysm.nysed.gov/exhibitions/ongoing/cardiff-giant https://archive.org/details/cardiffgiant00newy https://books.google.com/books?id=Qb4DAAAAYAAJ (contemporary 19th-century accounts) https://www.loc.gov/collections/chronicling-america/ (period newspaper coverage) History – The Cardiff Giant Fools the Nation Readex – The Tallest of the Tall Tales The Cardiff Giant reference overview History: The Cardiff Giant Fools the Nation, 145 Years Ago. Live Science: Cardiff Giant: "America's Biggest Hoax." JSTOR Daily: The Cardiff Giant: The Biggest Hoax of the 19th Century. Central New York History: Today in History: The Cardiff Giant.

  6. Jul 9

    Something's Lurking in Ohio... Something's Breathing in Illinois

    This week on Champagne and Murder, Please, we're leaving the world of serial killers behind and stepping into two mysteries that still refuse to die. First, we're heading to the banks of the Little Miami River in Loveland, Ohio, where terrified witnesses claim they came face-to-face with a creature that looked more like something out of a fever dream than reality. Standing several feet tall, covered in leathery skin, and sporting unmistakably frog-like features, the Loveland Frogman has spent decades hopping between local legend, police reports, and cryptid lore. Is it just another case of mistaken identity... or has something strange really been hiding in the shadows all along? Then we're traveling back to the summer of 1944 in Mattoon, Illinois, where ordinary families began waking in the middle of the night unable to move, overcome by a mysterious sweet-smelling gas that seemed to drift through open windows before vanishing without a trace. Panic swept through the town as more reports poured in, newspapers fueled the hysteria, and a phantom attacker became one of America's most bizarre unsolved mysteries. Was the Mad Gasser a real criminal, an industrial accident, mass hysteria, or something even stranger? Pour yourself a glass of champagne, lock your windows, and maybe don't trust anything croaking at you from the dark. Because this week, we're diving into one legendary cryptid and one unexplained panic that continues to haunt the Midwest decades later. As always, we'll sprinkle in a little history, a lot of speculation, and just enough sarcasm to get us through another unforgettable night. https://www.lovelandfrog.com/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-loveland-frog-legend-180981453/ https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/loveland-frogman https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2023/03/03/loveland-frogman-ohio-cryptid-legend-explained/69961627007/ https://www.newspapers.com/ https://www.ohiomagazine.com/travel/article/the-loveland-frogman-legend https://www.wvxu.org/local-news/2023-03-03/loveland-frogman-ohio-legend-history-cryptid https://www.history.com/news/mad-gasser-of-mattoon-illinois https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-mad-gasser-of-mattoon-180979675/ https://www.newspapers.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Gasser_of_Mattoon https://www.americanhauntingsink.com/madgasser https://www.jstor.org/stable/40168543

  7. Jul 2

    Fire in the Sky: The Disasters That Changed Everything

    This week on Champagne and Murder, Please, we're diving into three devastating explosions that transformed celebrations into nightmares. First, we travel back to the 1905 fireworks tragedy that shocked the nation and helped usher in stricter regulations and safety standards that still influence fireworks displays today. One terrible night proved that a few sparks could change an entire industry. Then, things take an unexpected turn as we investigate the bizarre and deadly worm farm explosion in Benton, Tennessee. What sounds like the beginning of a dark joke became a very real disaster that left a community searching for answers. Finally, we head to California to examine the Simi Valley fireworks catastrophe, a modern reminder that even with regulations and experience, fireworks remain as unpredictable as they are beautiful. Pour yourself a glass, settle in, and join us as we explore three stories where celebration met catastrophe, and where the echoes of a single explosion reshaped laws, communities, and lives forever. Stay safe, and don't take candy from strangers. Library of Congress Newspaper Archive on the Brockton Fireworks Disaster Massachusetts State Fire Marshal History Resources Consumer Product Safety Commission: History of U.S. Fireworks Regulations The Washington Post: "Blast at Fireworks Factory Kills 11" Wikipedia: Benton Fireworks Disaster The Cleveland Daily Banner Archives Los Angeles Times: Investigation Finds Faulty Shell Caused Simi Valley Disaster CBS Los Angeles: 28 People Injured During Fireworks Mishap in Simi Valley The Week: Watch the Simi Valley Fireworks Disaster

  8. Jun 25

    Welcome to Hell's Half Acre: The Bloody Benders

    The American frontier was supposed to be a land of opportunity, but for dozens of unlucky travelers passing through southeastern Kansas in the 1870s, it became their final destination. This week on Champagne and Murder, Please, we're diving into one of the most disturbing cases in American history: the story of the Bloody Benders. To weary travelers, the Bender family appeared to be ordinary homesteaders running a small inn and general store on the edge of the prairie. But behind a simple canvas curtain lurked a nightmare. As settlers, drifters, and businessmen disappeared along the Osage Trail, rumors spread across the growing frontier. What investigators eventually uncovered beneath the Benders' property shocked an entire nation and cemented the family’s place in true crime history as what many consider America's first family of serial killers. We'll unravel the enduring mystery that remains unsolved more than 150 years later: what happened to the Bloody Benders after they vanished without a trace? Pour yourself a glass of something bubbly and join us as we step into one of the darkest corners of the Old West. https://www.kshs.org https://labettecountyhistory.com https://www.smithsonianmag.com https://www.loc.gov https://www.nps.gov

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About

Welcome to Champagne and Murder Please, the podcast where the eerie, the unexplained, and the downright terrifying come to life. Each episode, we dive into true crime cases, from infamous murders to unsolved mysteries, explore the dark history of witches and occult practices, and venture into the world of the paranormal—where ghosts, hauntings, and curses lurk in the shadows. Plus, we investigate cryptids like Bigfoot, the Mothman, and other legendary creatures that blur the line between myth and reality. If you love all things spooky, sinister, and strange, you’ve found your new obsession.

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