The Secret Society of Strangers

SSOSPod
  • 4.3 (4)
  • True Crime
  • Updated Biweekly

Secret Society of Strangers digs into history's darkest and strangest cases: unsolved murders, disappearances, cults, con artists, high strangeness. Ever gone down a 3am rabbit hole about a murder that shouldn't have been possible? Questioned a disappearance that violates logic? Wondered how one con artist fooled an entire city? You found your people. Lee, Josh, and Jen investigate the cases that refuse to resolve cleanly: - Unsolved murders where every suspect has an alibi that works - Disappearances that don't obey logic - Cults, con artists, and the people who believed them - Historical crimes where the official story doesn't add up - Cryptids, hauntings, and documented high strangeness New episodes every other week. A Strange Static Media production. Also from SSM: Side Quest — shorter, stranger, and assigned by C4554NDR4. Merch: ssos-shop.fourthwall.com (code SSOSPOD) Got a high strangeness story? ssospodcast@gmail.com Stay Curious. Stay Strange.

  1. Aug 11

    The Black Queen: Barbara of Cilli (S2)

    She co-founded the order that gave Dracula his name. She was accused of drinking blood, running an alchemy lab, and cutting a deal with the devil. Six hundred years later, Croatian kids still play a schoolyard game named after her. Her name was Barbara of Cilli — Holy Roman Empress, Queen of Hungary, Bohemia, and Germany, and one of the most powerful women of the 15th century. History turned her into a monster. Tonight we find out who did it, and why. Stay Curious. Stay Strange. 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify · Apple Podcasts · Podbean · YouTube Hit subscribe so the next one finds you.   🛒 Wear the Society: ssos-shop.fourthwall.com — code SSOSPOD takes 5% off.   ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee — every cup helps.   📱 Follow Us: Instagram · TikTok Clips, extras, and whatever rabbit hole we fell down that week.   📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Somewhere the locals avoid? Somewhere the stories don't quite add up? We want to hear about it. Email at ssospodcast@gmail.com  us or slide into the DMs — we're listening.   🕯️ Stay Curious. Stay Strange. A Strange Static Media Production.   Lee — Writer, Researcher, Editor, Producer Josh & Jen — Co-Host, Assistant, Creative, Co-Producer SOURCES & FACT-CHECK NOTES Dvořáková, Daniela — Barbara of Cilli (1392–1451) — primary modern biography. Wikipedia — Barbara of Cilli; Order of the Dragon; Counts of Celje; Veronika of Desenice; Ulrich II, Count of Celje; Carmilla. (Wikipedia confirms Carmilla is ‘likely based on the legendary image of Barbara as a vampire.’) Journal of Dracula Studies (Kutztown University) — Carmilla / Order of the Dragon academic connection. Paušek-Baždar, Snježana (2008) — ‘Queen Barbara of Cilli as Alchemist in Samobor’ — supports the alchemy lab. Secret Zagreb / Love Zagreb — Medvedgrad and Black Queen folklore (flag as folklore, not record). FACT-CHECK — the €2 coin is 2014 (600th anniversary of her 1414 coronation as Queen of Germany), designed by Matej Ramšak — NOT 2008. Script corrected. FACT-CHECK — 2022 Konstanz event/exhibition title: ‘Barbara von Cilli – Kaiserin, Alchemistin, Vampir’ (Empress, Alchemist, Vampire). Verified via Wikipedia. FLAG — devil’s-pact, snake-in-the-tunnels, raven-was-a-cursed-lover, lovers-off-the-battlements: all folklore. Delivered as legend in-script; keep it framed that way.

  2. Jul 28

    Phrogging, Part 2 — The Denver Spider Man (S2)

    In 1941, a quiet Denver neighborhood became convinced one house was haunted. Lights switched on in empty rooms. Footsteps echoed behind locked doors. A widow fled her own home; her housekeeper quit, certain the place was cursed. They were all closer to the truth than the police — because something WAS in that house. Not a ghost. A man. This week, Lee leads Josh and Jen through the case of Theodore Coneys, the “Denver Spider Man,” who murdered 73-year-old Philip Peters and then lived in the victim’s attic crawlspace for nine months — freezing, starving, three feet above the people hunting for a phantom. It’s the most famous case of “phrogging” in American history, and the realest ghost story Denver ever told. Stay Curious. Stay Strange. CTA + LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify  |  Apple Podcasts  |  YouTube: @SSOSPodcast  |  Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee  |  Patreon (The Curious / The Strange tiers)  |  TeePublic (merch) 📱 Follow Us: Instagram: @secretsocietyofstrangerspod  |  TikTok: @ssospodcast  |  Discord (link in description) 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Email: ssospodcast@gmail.com  —  or DM us on socials. We're listening.   CREDITS A Strange Static Media Production. Lee — Writer, Researcher, Editor, Producer Josh & Jen — Co-Host, Assistant, Creative, Co-Producer SOURCES Primary / Archival Lowall, Gene. "1942: The Spider Man." In Denver Murders, edited by Lee Casey. Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946. Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Crime. Facts on File, 1982. Denver Public Library Special Collections and Archives — "The Tale of the Denver Spider Man" (2019). Trial records, Denver County Court, October 1942. Detective James E. Childers interview, Denver Post Empire, February 7, 1960. Period News Coverage The Paducah Sun, July 4, 1954 — "Here's Spine Chilling Story of The Spider Murder and a Ghost." Contemporary Denver newspapers, 1941–1942 (Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News). Modern Coverage / Secondary 9News Denver — "Stranger than fiction: the 'Denver Spiderman' and his Moncrieff Place murder" (2019). Law Week Colorado — "Denver's Spider Man, 'The Ghost House of Denver'" (June 2022). Morbidology — "Theodore Edward Coneys, The Denver Spiderman" (Emily G. Thompson). Colorado Public Radio / Colorado Postcards — "Denver Spider-Man" (September 2023). HistoricalCrimeDetective.com — "Mug Shot Monday! Theodore Coneys, the Spiderman of Denver, 1941." Revisit Denver — "Denver Legends: The Spider-Man" (July 2025). Find A Grave Memorial #43200386 — Theodore Edward Coneys. Wikipedia — Theodore Edward Coneys (cross-referenced against primary sources above).

  3. Jul 14

    THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT — The Arne Johnson Possession Case (Season 2)

    In the summer of 1980, an eleven-year-old boy in Brookfield, Connecticut saw something in an empty bedroom — a withered figure with black eyes and cloven hooves. Over the next seven months, what started as a child's nightmare consumed an entire family, brought Ed and Lorraine Warren to their door, and ended with a nineteen-year-old stabbing his landlord to death outside a dog kennel. Arne Johnson's defense attorney attempted something unprecedented: a plea of not guilty by reason of demonic possession. But behind the trial that inspired The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It lies a darker story — celebrity demonologists who profited from a family's pain, a mother who may have been secretly drugging her own children, and a brother who spent decades trying to tell the truth. Join Lee, Josh, and Jen as they follow this case from the bedroom on Oak Grove Road to the courtroom in Danbury — and uncover what the Conjuring franchise doesn't want you to know. Stay Curious. Stay Strange. 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube: @SSOSPodcast | Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram | TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story? Email ssospodcast@gmail.com or DM us on socials — we're listening. CREDITS Lee — Writer, Researcher, Editor, Producer Josh & Jen — Co-Host, Assistant, Creative, Co-Producer A Strange Static Media Production SOURCES - The Devil on Trial (2023) — Netflix documentary, dir. Chris Holt - The Devil in Connecticut by Gerald Brittle (1983, withdrawn from print) - People Magazine — "A Connecticut Teen Claims the Devil Made Him a Killer" (1981) - The Washington Post — Johnson trial coverage (1981) - Associated Press — trial and verdict reporting (1981) - Glatzel v. Warren — Superior Court of Connecticut, complaint filed September 2007 - The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021), Warner Bros. Pictures - William Weber — 1979 interview on the creation of the Amityville story - Judge Jack Weinstein — litigation statements on the Amityville case - Diocese of Rockville Centre — official statement on the Amityville haunting - Ray Garton — statements to Benjamin Radford on the Snedeker case - National Institute of Justice — 1995 report on satanic ritual abuse claims - Medical examiner testimony — Connecticut Superior Court, Danbury (1981) - Sominex formulation history — scopolamine to diphenhydramine reformulation, late 1980s

  4. Jun 30

    The Winchester Mystery House (Season 2)

    She inherited a fortune built on a rifle. The story goes that a medium told her every soul ever killed by that gun was coming for her — and the only way to stay alive was to keep building. Never let the hammers stop. Never let the house be finished. Sarah Winchester built. For thirty-six years, in a house in San Jose, California, the construction never stopped — until the day she died. 160 rooms. Staircases that climb into ceilings. Doors that open onto open air. The most famous haunted house in America — and the widow who, by some accounts, is still inside it. But the story they sell at the gate is not the story of who actually lived there. This week on Secret Society of Strangers, we walk the legend in full. And then we tell you who Sarah Winchester really was. Because they buried her twice — and the second burial is the one we should be angry about.   Hosts: Lee, Josh, Jen Edited by: William Bertschinger     Primary historical source Ignoffo, Mary Jo. Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune. University of Missouri Press, 2010 (rev. 2022). First full-length archival biography. Twenty years of research in Sarah’s personal letters, Winchester financial records, building records, contemporary news coverage. 🕯️  Stay Curious. Stay Strange.

  5. Jun 23

    Guest Episode | Born Awakened — Samantha Leifker (Season 2)

    Some people have one strange experience in a lifetime. Samantha Leifker has spent thirty years collecting them. This week the Strangers sit down with Samantha Leifker, author of Born Awakened: An Otherworldly True Story — a memoir that refuses to stay in any single category. It starts in a childhood home where the dead didn't stay quiet, and it spans decades of UFO contact, out-of-body travel, missing time, interdimensional beings, and a pull toward East Tennessee she still can't fully explain. We get into all of it: the poltergeist house she grew up in, the cube-shaped craft, the entities she says have been guiding her since before she could understand them, and what it actually feels like to live a life where the paranormal isn't a story you tell — it's a Tuesday. This is the kind of conversation SSOS was built for. The hauntings, the UFOs, the consciousness work — Samantha doesn't treat them as separate mysteries. She treats them as one. And after this, you might too. And this is only round one — we're already setting up a second sit-down to go even deeper with Samantha, so consider this your way in. Stay Curious. Stay Strange. 📖 GUEST — SAMANTHA LEIFKER / BORN AWAKENED Book — Born Awakened: An Otherworldly True Story (Amazon): https://a.co/d/03y6m5Y0 Instagram: @bornawakened — https://www.instagram.com/bornawakened Facebook: Born Awakened — https://www.facebook.com/share/18E8i8HKWC/ TikTok: @bornawakened — https://www.tiktok.com/@bornawakened Free Newsletter (Substack): https://bornawakened.substack.com/ 🎧 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE Spotify · Apple Podcasts · YouTube @SSOSPodcast · Podbean ☕ SUPPORT THE SHOW Buy Me a Coffee 📱 FOLLOW US Instagram · TikTok 📧 GOT A HIGH STRANGENESS STORY? Email us or DM on socials — we're listening. 🕯️ Stay Curious. Stay Strange.

  6. May 3

    Gregor MacGregor & the Poyais Scheme .(April Fools series )

    He called himself a prince. He created a flag, a constitution, a currency. He published a 355-page guidebook to a capital city with an opera house and a cathedral. And none of it existed. In the finale of our April Fools series, we tell the story of Gregor MacGregor — the Scottish soldier who invented an entire nation called Poyais, convinced hundreds to invest their life savings, and sent 250 settlers to die in an empty jungle. Nearly 180 people never came home. And MacGregor? He was never convicted. He died a general, buried with full military honors in a cathedral in Caracas. The deadliest con in modern history. The man who sold a country. 🕯️ Stay Curious. Stay Strange. YouTube THE MAN WHO INVENTED A FAKE COUNTRY AND KILLED 180 PEOPLE | Gregor MacGregor & The Poyais Scheme | SSOS In this episode, we cover the incredible true story of Gregor MacGregor — the Scottish con artist who invented an entire nation called Poyais in the 1820s, printed fake currency, sold government bonds for a country that didn't exist, and convinced 250 settlers to sail across the Atlantic to a "paradise" that was actually empty jungle. Nearly 180 of them died. MacGregor was never convicted. He died a hero in Venezuela. This is the finale of our April Fools con artist series, covering: Frank Abagnale Jr., Anna Delvey, Ann Odelia Diss Debar, and now the deadliest fraud in history.   LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story?   Email us 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com or DM on socials — we're listening.            The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static MediaTM  production

  7. Apr 22

    Ann O'Delia Diss Debar -The Spook Priestess (APRIL FOOLS SERIES)

    She called herself a Princess of Bavaria. The newspapers called her "The Empress of Swindle." In 1888, Ann O'Delia Diss Debar convinced one of New York's most powerful attorneys that she could summon oil paintings from thin air—works created by Raphael and Rembrandt from beyond the grave. She took his fortune, his mansion, and his sanity. But that was just the beginning. From the Gilded Age parlors of Madison Avenue to the courtrooms of London's Old Bailey, the Spook Priestess left a trail of broken lives, impossible escapes, and crimes so dark the courtroom had to be cleared. And when the final curtain fell? She simply... vanished. Stay Curious. Stay Strange.   SOURCES "Duped By A Spook Priestess" — The New York Times, April 1888 "The Horos Trial" — Old Bailey Proceedings, December 1901 Occult America by Mitch Horowitz (Bantam, 2009) The Darkened Room: Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England by Alex Owen Women of the Golden Dawn by Mary K. Greer (Park Street Press, 1995) The Cincinnati Enquirer archives, 1909   LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story?   Email us 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com or DM on socials — we're listening.            The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static MediaTM  production

  8. Apr 14

    ANNA DELVEY: THE CON ARTIST WHO INVENTED AN HEIRESS (APRIL FOOLS SERIES)

    She had no money. No trust fund. No Swiss bank account. What Anna Delvey had was a fake name, a designer wardrobe, and the nerve to walk into New York's most exclusive rooms and act like she owned them. For four years, she fooled banks, hotels, and Manhattan's social elite — using Microsoft Word and an AOL email address. In this episode, Josh walks us through the full story: from a working-class suburb of Moscow to a $135 million Park Avenue building, from Rikers Island to Dancing with the Stars. Lee breaks down the Netflix empire built on the con. And Josh asks the uncomfortable question: did she exploit a flaw in the system — or did she exploit the system as designed? LINKS 🎧 Listen & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube: @SSOSPodcast Podbean ☕ Support the Show: Buy Me a Coffee 📱 Follow Us: Instagram TikTok 📧 Got a High Strangeness Story?   Email us 📩 ssospodcast@gmail.com or DM on socials — we're listening.            The Secret Society Of Strangers Podcast is a Strange Static MediaTM  production  SOURCES Jessica Pressler, "Maybe She Had So Much Money She Just Lost Track of It," New York Magazine / The Cut, May 2018 Rachel DeLoache Williams, My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress (Simon & Schuster, 2019) Manhattan District Attorney's Office, People v. Anna Sorokin, trial transcripts and evidence exhibits, 2019 Netflix, Inventing Anna (Shondaland, 2022) 60 Minutes Australia, Anna Sorokin interview, 2022 Netflix Tudum, Julia Garner accent interview, February 2022 Newsweek, "Julia Garner on How She Mastered Anna Delvey's 'Wild' Accent," February 2022 Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and various court reporting from 2017-2025

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About

Secret Society of Strangers digs into history's darkest and strangest cases: unsolved murders, disappearances, cults, con artists, high strangeness. Ever gone down a 3am rabbit hole about a murder that shouldn't have been possible? Questioned a disappearance that violates logic? Wondered how one con artist fooled an entire city? You found your people. Lee, Josh, and Jen investigate the cases that refuse to resolve cleanly: - Unsolved murders where every suspect has an alibi that works - Disappearances that don't obey logic - Cults, con artists, and the people who believed them - Historical crimes where the official story doesn't add up - Cryptids, hauntings, and documented high strangeness New episodes every other week. A Strange Static Media production. Also from SSM: Side Quest — shorter, stranger, and assigned by C4554NDR4. Merch: ssos-shop.fourthwall.com (code SSOSPOD) Got a high strangeness story? ssospodcast@gmail.com Stay Curious. Stay Strange.

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