Weird America/ Unexplained Sleep Deaths

Hosted byDave Schrader

Weird America/ Unexplained Sleep Deaths

About the show

In the first half, Dave Schrader (email) welcomed paranormal adventurers Greg Newkirk and Dana Matthews, who discussed their experiences traveling throughout North America in search of the strange and unusual. They recalled one bizarre incident that happened when a pair of seemingly eccentric Bigfoot researchers invited them to West Virginia, promising a "foolproof way to let us meet a Sasquatch." Upon their arrival, they were regaled with fantastic stories about how the men had interacted with the creature. Although weary of these claims, Newkirk and Matthews agreed to go camping with the men in an area that was allegedly a hot spot for Sasquatch activity. As the night went on, their skepticism turned to amazement and fear as calls to the Bigfoot were answered by booming howls, stones were thrown at their camp, and silhouettes of large creatures emerged on the horizon.

During their appearance, the duo also talked about their traveling museum of weird curios. Amongst the articles in the exhibition are a plank from the infamous Amityville Horror house which has been known to distress psychic sensitives and make EMF meters "go crazy." One particularly troubling object in the collection is a black scrying mirror that was given to them by a woman after her mother became obsessed with it. After bringing the mirror to various events, Newkirk reported, people looking into the mirror have claimed to see their own corpses, feel an electrical shock while holding it, and even taste blood in their mouth. Later in the evening, Newkirk and Matthews also told stories about strange locations in America such the paranormal hotspot called Camp Comfort and a gravesite in Georgia said to be the final resting place of a woman who was said to be a werewolf.

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In the latter half, writer Adam Bulger detailed a string of unexplained overnight deaths between 1977 and 1981, said to inspire the late Wes Craven to create the iconic Freddy Krueger character of the Nightmare on Elm Street series. He explained that the spate of deaths, around 25 in total, all involved immigrants from the Hmong ethnic group that had left Asian and settled in America in the 1970's. The surprising rash of mysterious deaths within this relatively small community raised concerns among government officials and medical examiners, who attempted to decipher what was causing the outbreak. However, as they began investigating, they realized that sudden and unexplained nocturnal deaths actually had a long history in Asian cultures across the globe and were often attributed to evil entities which claimed the lives of men while they slept.

According to Bulger, the Hmong blamed these deaths on an entity known as the Dab Tsog, an "evil nighttime spirit" that would sit on a person's chest and "snuff the life out of them." One Hmong victim who was fortunate to have survived an encounter with the Dab Tsog described it as a small furry creature that sported a terrifying mouth full of teeth. Despite supernatural elements attached to these incidents, Bulger noted that a pair of Italian cardiologists ultimately determined that the deaths were caused by a heart condition. As to why these deaths seemed to happen in a sudden cluster after the Hmong came to America, Bulger suggested that they were brought on by stress and guilt spawned by divorcing themselves from their traditional culture, thus leading the victims to die in a way which was in keeping with the legends of their native land.

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