Poisoned Appalachia: the Dark Side of Appalachia

Heather Blazer
  • 3.4 (17)
  • History
  • Updated Weekly

Discover the dark side of Appalachia through this podcast. Explore the region's rich folklore, mythology, and delve into the unsettling tales of murders, criminals, and disasters that have shaped its history. Join me as I uncover the spooky and captivating aspects of this enigmtic corner of the world.

  1. 2d ago

    Episode 78 Eugenics in Appalachia.

    What happens when a government decides who is “fit” to have a family—and who isn’t? This is one of the darkest chapters in Virginia and Appalachian history, and the connection to Shenandoah National Park is complicated, disturbing, and often overlooked.

  2. Aug 10

    Episode 77 Black Eyed Children

    Have you ever heard the knock? The one that comes late at night… When a child stands on your porch asking to be let inside. Their voice sounds normal. Their face looks innocent. Until you notice their eyes. Completely black. No whites. No pupils. Just darkness. Are they demons? Aliens pretending to be human? Or could they be something far older… Forgotten ghost children whose stories have survived for centuries under different names? In this week’s episode of Poisoned Appalachia, we’re digging into the terrifying legend of the Black-Eyed Children, the folklore that may have inspired them, and why one simple rule appears again and again across cultures: Never invite them inside. Because sometimes… The scariest monsters don’t break down your door. They wait for you to open it.

  3. Aug 3

    Episode 76: Pat Postiglione qnd the murder squad

    Nashville is known for bright lights, country music, and Southern charm. But beneath the neon signs and crowded streets, another story was unfolding. A story of murder. Missing people. Cold cases. And victims whose names were slowly fading from the headlines. Then there was Detective Sergeant Patrick Postiglione. Some called it a photographic memory. Others believed he simply had an extraordinary ability to remember what everyone else had forgotten. The clues. The details. The victims. And the families still waiting for answers. Alongside Nashville’s legendary Murder Squad, Pat reopened cases that had been cold for years—sometimes decades. Using new forensic technology, old evidence, and relentless determination, they followed killers across state lines and uncovered connections hidden deep inside Nashville’s darkest history. Between 2005 and his retirement in 2013, Pat and the Murder Squad helped solve 55 open and unsolved murders. Fifty-five cases. Fifty-five victims. Fifty-five families who were finally given answers. This is the story of the detectives who traveled back through time… The investigators who refused to let the dead be forgotten… And the man who never stopped remembering. Coming soon on Poisoned Appalachia… “Pat Postiglione and Nashville’s Murder Squad: The Detectives Who Refused to Forget.” Because a case may grow cold… But the truth is still waiting.

  4. Jul 27

    Episode 75 Corpsewood Manor

    What happens when two men leave everything behind to build their dream in the Appalachian Mountains… only for that dream to end in bloodshed? This week on Poisoned Appalachia, we’re climbing the lonely ridges of northwest Georgia to uncover the haunting story of Corpsewood Manor. It was a hand-built castle hidden deep in the woods. A place without electricity… without neighbors… and surrounded by rumors of Satanism, occult symbols, and secret gatherings. To some, Charles Scudder and Joseph Odom were kind, welcoming men who simply wanted to live life on their own terms. To others… They were “the devil worshippers on the mountain.” In December 1982, greed, fear, and prejudice climbed Dead Horse Road… and what happened next would become one of Appalachia’s most infamous murder cases. But were the rumors ever true? Or did they help write the ending before the first shot was ever fired? Join me as we separate fact from folklore and uncover the real story behind the legend of Corpsewood Manor. Because sometimes… The most terrifying thing in Appalachia… …isn’t the monster people imagine. It’s the one that’s all too human.

  5. Jul 20

    episode 74 buffalo creek disaster

    Appalachia has always lived with the mountains. The mountains gave people coal. They gave them work. They gave them a place to call home. But sometimes… the mountains gave something back. On the morning of February 26, 1972, after days of relentless rain, a coal waste dam high above Buffalo Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, collapsed. What followed wasn’t a flood. It was a wall of black water, coal sludge, and debris racing through seventeen communities at nearly impossible speed. In just minutes… Entire towns disappeared. More than one hundred people were killed. Thousands lost everything they owned. But perhaps the most haunting part of this story… Many people knew the dam was in danger. Warnings had been written. Inspections had uncovered serious problems. Residents had begged for someone to listen. No one evacuated the valley. This isn’t just the story of a natural disaster. It’s a story of ignored warnings… Corporate negligence… Political controversy… And the survivors who spent decades demanding that the world never forget what happened at Buffalo Creek. Join me on Poisoned Appalachia as we travel back to one of the darkest days in Appalachian history—a tragedy that forever changed West Virginia and became one of the deadliest industrial disasters in American history.

  6. Jul 19

    Poisoned Appalachia is finally back.

    I’ll be going back to our regular schedule starting tomorrow new episodes every Monday at four.

  7. Jan 12

    Episode 73: the battle of Blair Mountain

    In 1921, the mountains of West Virginia became a battlefield. Tens of thousands of coal miners took up arms against coal companies, private detectives, and state power in what became the largest labor uprising—and the largest armed conflict on U.S. soil since the Civil War. This episode of Poisoned Appalachia explores the forces that led to the Battle of Blair Mountain: company towns, union busting, private armies, aerial bombs, and the silencing of working-class resistance. We follow the miners’ march, the violence on the mountain, and the aftermath that reshaped Appalachia—and American labor history. This is not just a story about coal. It’s a story about power, survival, and a mountain that still carries the echoes of war.

  8. Jan 5

    Episode 72: Haunted Virginia

    In this episode, we step inside St. Albans Sanatorium, one of Virginia’s most haunted locations. Once a psychiatric hospital, its walls witnessed electroshock therapy, lobotomies, and brutal treatments that left countless patients broken—or dead. From extreme overcrowding to the infamous Suicide Bathroom, we explore how suffering, neglect, and despair may have left something behind. This is not just history—it’s a place where the past is said to still linger.

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Discover the dark side of Appalachia through this podcast. Explore the region's rich folklore, mythology, and delve into the unsettling tales of murders, criminals, and disasters that have shaped its history. Join me as I uncover the spooky and captivating aspects of this enigmtic corner of the world.

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