The Secret Society of Strangers

SSOSPod

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. Sep 22

    "Vampire Clique: Rod Ferrell's Kentucky Legend"

    In November 1996, a 16-year-old from Murray, Kentucky who called himself Vesago — a 500-year-old vampire — drove 800 miles to Eustis, Florida with 3 followers. Hours later, Richard Wendorf and Naoma Ruth Queen were dead in their home, and 5 teenagers were headed for New Orleans in the family's Explorer. We follow the Vampire Clan from the Vampire Hotel to a Baton Rouge Howard Johnson: the blood rituals, the rulebook behind the ranks, the 17th-century demon behind the name, Rod Ferrell's uncorroborated claim that he witnessed a ritual killing as a child, and the daughter who came home at 10:30 that night. True crime, the 1990s vampire subculture around the group, and the Rod Ferrell case — told for the people it happened to. 🕯️ 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.   A Strange Static Media Production. Credits A Strange Static Media Production. Lee — Writer, Researcher, Editor, Producer. Josh & Jen — Co-Host, Assistant, Creative, Co-Producer. Sources Florida Supreme Court, Ferrell v. State, State's answer brief (medical examiner, crime scene, DNA, sentencing order) — https://library.law.fsu.edu/Digital-Collections/flsupct/dockets/93127/93127ans.pdf Florida Supreme Court, Ferrell v. State, initial brief — https://library.law.fsu.edu/Digital-Collections/flsupct/dockets/93127/93127ini.pdf MSNBC Investigates, "Interview With a Vampire" (2011) — https://archive.org/details/MSNBCW_20111029_180000_Interview_With_a_Vampire Tampa Bay Times, "Horrified teen reported finding parents' bodies" (Jan 4, 1997) — https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1997/01/04/horrified-teen-reported-finding-parents-bodies/ 911 transcript (secondary transcription) — https://wendorfmurders.wordpress.com/911-transcript/ Spokesman-Review / AP, "Leader Of Vampire Cult Pleads Guilty To Murders" (Feb 6, 1998) — https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1998/feb/06/leader-of-vire-cult-pleads-guilty-to-murders/ Oxygen, Deadly Cults — Jaden Murphy interview — https://www.oxygen.com/deadly-cults/man-sired-rod-ferrell-vampire-clan-exclusive-1996-bludgeoning-murder Mathers/Crowley, The Goetia (1904), Vassago entry — https://hermetic.com/norton/classics/goetia/vassago Wikipedia, "Vassago" — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vassago Wikipedia, "Rod Ferrell" — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Ferrell White Wolf Wiki, "Blood doll" — https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Blood_doll · "Herd" — https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Herd Tampa Bay Times, "Vampire clan mom pleads in sex case" (Nov 16, 1997) — https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1997/11/16/vampire-clan-mom-pleads-in-sex-case/ CBS News / AP, "Double Death For Vampire Killer" (1998) — https://www.cbsnews.com/news/double-death-for-vampire-killer/ Katherine Ramsland, "The 'Vampire' Murders" — https://katherineramsland.substack.com/p/the-vampire-murders Oxygen, "How Rod Ferrell's Vampire Clan Went From Teen Blood Rituals To Killing Parents" — https://www.oxygen.com/deadly-cults/how-rod-ferrell-vampire-clan-went-from-teen-blood-rituals-to-killing-parents Horror Obsessive, "The 'Vampire' Murders: Tale of Twisted Teen Rod Ferrell" — https://horrorobsessive.com/2021/10/19/the-vampire-murders-tale-of-twisted-teen-rod-ferrell/ Carried from v5 research, URLs to pull: Orlando Sentinel (Dellert, Dec 2006); Murray Ledger & Times (Oct–Dec 1996); Daily Commercial; Ron Patton affidavit; 2018 Anderson and 2020 Ferrell resentencing coverage.

  2. Sep 21

    Vampire Murder Clan: Rod Ferrell’s 1996 Kentucky Killings | SSOS True Crime Podcast

    The Vampire Clan case remains a chilling example of how teenage isolation can warp into dangerous obsession. We break down the reality behind Rod Ferrell and his followers. This episode examines the trajectory of a group that started with small-town boredom and ended in a double homicide. By looking at the specific dynamics of their interactions, we separate the sensationalized mythos from the documented facts. It is a necessary look at how influence and group identity can lead to catastrophic choices. We analyze the intersection of cult psychology and criminal behavior, providing a clearer picture of the events that shocked Kentucky and beyond. For those interested in the mechanics of true crime, this breakdown offers a grounded perspective on one of the most bizarre cases in modern history. Subscribe for weekly crime analysis and let us know which case you want us to cover next. Like SSOS? Don't forget to subscribe, and check us out on: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1234567890 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ssos/1234567890 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SSOSPodcast Support the show: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ssospodcast Discuss episodes on Discord: https://discord.gg/abcdefg SSOS is a Strange Static Media production. Hosted by Lee Miller, Josh Seifert, and Jen Nielsen. For business inquiries or to submit a story tip: ssospodcast@gmail.com. The Vampire Clan case remains a chilling example of how teenage isolation can warp into dangerous, ritualistic obsession. We break down the reality behind Rod Ferrell and the group that started with small-town boredom and ended in a double homicide. By examining the specific dynamics of their interactions, we separate the sensationalized mythos from the documented facts. This analysis explores how influence and group identity lead to catastrophic choices, offering a grounded look at the intersection of cult psychology and criminal behavior. For those interested in the mechanics of true crime, this breakdown provides a clear perspective on one of the most bizarre cases in modern history. We look past the headlines to understand the trajectory of a group that shocked Kentucky and beyond. Whether you are a long-time listener or new to the story, this episode clarifies the events surrounding the 1996 killings #TrueCrime #Paranormal #Vampires #Cult #Murder #Kentucky

  3. Sep 1

    The Bennington Triangle, Part Two: The Ones Who Never Came Back (S2)

    A man vanishes from a moving bus in December 1949 — his bags still overhead, the other passengers none the wiser until his seat turns up empty. He was never found. That's where Part Two begins. Lee, Josh, and Jen return to Glastenbury Mountain for the cases that built the legend of the Bennington Triangle: James Tedford, gone from that bus; eight-year-old Buddy Jepson, gone in the length of a single chore; and Frieda Langer, the only one of the missing whose body ever came back — found in ground the searchers had already crossed. Then we sort the theories, honestly and without a tidy answer: the stone, the creature, the thin place, abduction, a killer on the trail, and the strange pattern hiding in the dates. This is Part Two of two. If you haven't heard Part One, start there. ⚠️ Contains discussion of a child's disappearance and presumed death, plus speculative theory. Listener discretion advised. 🎧 Subscribe wherever you're listening. Merch at ssos-shop.fourthwall.com (code SSOSPOD, 5% off). Support the show at [BUYMEACOFFEE-URL]. Follow @SSOSPodcast. Got a high strangeness story? Email us or DM — we're listening. 🕯️ 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.   A Strange Static Media Production. Sources: Joseph A. Citro, "Green Mountain Ghosts, Ghouls & Unsolved Mysteries" (1994) & "Passing Strange" (1996); Bennington Triangle and Glastenbury Mountain (Wikipedia); Vermont Country Magazine (2023); U.S. Forest Service.

  4. Aug 26

    Why You Should Never Hike the Bennington Triangle

    In the dense woods of Glastenbury Mountain, Vermont, people don't just get lost — they vanish. No bodies. No answers. Just a mountain that's been taking people for as long as anyone can remember. Some places you can only reach on purpose. The Bennington Triangle isn't one of them — you can see it from a college campus, a gas station, a kitchen window. In Part One, Lee leads Josh and Jen up the Green Mountain to trace how one stretch of Vermont wilderness earned its name: Abenaki warnings about ground that owes you nothing, compasses that refuse to point north, a man-eating stone, the Bennington Monster, and the first documented disappearances that turned local legend into an unsolved mystery. The hunter found dead with no wounds. The 74-year-old guide who knew the mountain blind and still walked into the dark and never came back. And the case that forced Vermont to build a state police force from scratch — 18-year-old Bennington College student Paula Jean Welden, who walked up the Long Trail one Sunday afternoon in December 1946 in a red parka and was never seen again. Part One of two. ⚠️ Covers historical events including Vermont's eugenics program. Listener discretion advised. 🕯️ Ex Tenebris, Peregrini — Stay Curious. Stay Strange. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱️ CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold Open — The Triangle You Can Walk To 01:58 Welcome to the Secret Society of Strangers 05:10 Glastenbury Mountain: 26,000 Acres of Nothing 06:21 The Abenaki and the Living Mountain 10:37 The Settlers, the Land, and a Vanishing Population 13:10 The Compass That Won't Point North 16:02 The Man-Eating Stone 18:20 The Dancing Lights 20:50 The Bennington Monster 23:15 Henry McDowell and the Voices 25:30 The Grand Hotel and the Electric Trolley 30:00 The Freshet 32:43 What Vermont Was Doing in the Same Years 34:35 John Harble, 1897 39:46 Carl Herrick, 1943 45:01 Middie Rivers, 1945 51:44 Paula Jean Welden, 1946 1:04:43 The Darkest Theory 1:09:13 End of Part One 1:09:34 Questions for the Strangers ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE Podbean: https://ssospod.podbean.com/e/why-you-should-never-hike-the-bennington-triangle/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2G0aAYQPPp1wqnqJYetOcZ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-secret-society-of-strangers-podcast/id1865736210 🛒 WEAR THE SOCIETY — https://ssos-shop.fourthwall.com Code SSOSPOD takes 5% off. ☕ SUPPORT THE SHOW — https://buymeacoffee.com/ssospod Every cup helps. 📧 Got a high strangeness story? Somewhere the locals avoid? Somewhere the stories don't quite add up? ssospodcast@gmail.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📌 CREDITS A Strange Static Media Production. Lee — Writer, Researcher, Editor, Producer Josh & Jen — Co-Host, Assistant, Creative, Co-Producer DISCLAIMER: This episode discusses historical disappearances, deaths, and documented state programs including eugenics. Content is presented for storytelling and educational purposes. Some accounts described are folklore and circulating local legend, not established fact, and are identified as such. #BenningtonTriangle #Vermont #MissingPersons #TrueCrime #HighStrangeness #PaulaWelden

  5. Aug 25

    THE BENNINGTON TRIANGLE MYSTERY — PART ONE (S2)

    Some places you can only reach on purpose. The Bennington Triangle isn't one of them — you can see it from a college campus, a gas station, a kitchen window. And it's been taking people for a very long time. In Part One, Lee leads Josh and Jen up Glastenbury Mountain: the Abenaki who knew it was inhabited, the settlers who couldn't hold it, the town that dissolved off the map, and the first souls to vanish — a hunter moved after death, a guide who knew every trail and walked into the dark anyway, and 18-year-old Paula Jean Welden in her red parka. Part one of two. 🕯️ 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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).

  8. 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

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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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