Odd Things I've Seen: The Podcast: Recent Episodes
J.W. Ocker
My fascination with serial killers comes with a heaping load of shame, except for in one instance: Ed Gein. That's because without Gein, we might not have Norman Bates. Or Leatherface. Or Buffalo Bill. Or the Firefly family. So my shame load was only a mild one as I visited sites related to him in his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin. With my wife and two kids.
- See photos from our visit to Plainfield here.
- Hardware Store Address: 110 S. Main St., Plainfield, WI.
- Plainfield Cemetery Address: 6590 5th Ave, Plainfield, WI.
- Property Address: Archer Avenue and Second Avenue.
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write spooky books, including my latest The Smashed Man of Dread End.
On February 3, 1959, a small plane carrying pop stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper crashed into an Iowa cornfield, killing all three instantly and inspiring Don McLean to write American Pie. We trudge into that cornfield, to see the place where the music died.
- See images from our jaunt to the death site here.
- Death site address: 315 St. and Gull Ave., Clear Lake, Iowa.
- More information on The Smashed Man of Dread End sticker offer.
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write spooky books.
In this special on-location episode, I head to North and South Dakota to see a couple of gigantic cryptid statues. In Bismarck, North Dakota, a quartet of Thunderbirds glower above a lightning storm on the banks of the Missouri. Then I drive five hours southwest through snow and rain and flocks of pheasants to Keystone, South Dakota, to see the world's largest Bigfoot statue, right in the shadow of Mount Rushmore. Come with me.
- See images of the world's largest wooden Bigfoot statue.
- See images of the Thunderbird statue of Bismarck.
- Bigfoot statue address: 121 Roy Street Highway 16A, Keystone, SD.
- Thunderbird statue address: 1605 River Rd, Bismarck, ND
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write spooky books.
In this episode, I read from my latest nonfiction book, Cursed Objects, to talk about what exactly is a cursed object, as well as to tell the story of the time I bought one to see what would happen.
- Buy Cursed Objects: Strange but True Stories of the World's Most Infamous Items.
- See bonus Cursed Objects materials that didn't make it into the book.
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other spooky books.
We visit High Rock Tower Park, where nineteenth century spiritualist John Murray Spear built his New Motive Power, aka, the God Machine, aka, the Infant Motor, aka, the Mechanical Messiah, all based on plans that the ghosts of Benjamin Franklin and Socrates gave him. Then the story gets weird.
- Photos from my visit to High Rock Tower Park
- Address of High Rock Tower Park: 30 Circuit Ave, Lynn, MA.
- A book about John Murray Spear.
- My Cursed Objects book is out now!
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other spooky books.
I’m a guy who digs the ghostly. I love the macabre. I obsessively search out spooky sites and objects like my afterlife depends on it. That means I always find myself in paranormal circles, be they crop, spellcasting, or fairy. I’m constantly absorbing other people’s takes on the paranormal. And I have a take on it, too. Actually, let’s get specific. Ghosts. I have a take on ghosts.
- Here's the essay version of this topic.
- My Cursed Objects book is out now!
- My next book, The Smashed Man of Dread End, is on NetGalley!
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other spooky books.
We head to Cape Cod in Massachusetts to find neighboring, but very different oddities: A nineteenth century tower in a forest that is haunted by a famous opera singer who fights the local witch and an abandoned air force base with connections to a UFO abduction. Yeah, this one has it all. Even pirates.
- Photos from my visit to the Jenny Lind Tower.
- Photos from my visit to the abandoned North Truro Air Force Station.
- Address of North Truro Air Force Station: Old Dewline Road, Truro, MA.
- GPS coordinates of the Jenny Lind Tower: 42.034664, -70.055276.
- My Cursed Objects book is out now!
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other spooky books.
A Season with the Witch: The Magic and Mayhem of Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts is my account of living in the city of Salem, Massachusetts, during the entire month of October, getting to the heart of this weird city during its weirdest season. In this episode, I read from that book. I'm also releasing this episode through my YouTube channel, so you can either watch me read or listen to me read. Unfortunately, I come with both versions.
- Watch this reading on YouTube.
- Buy A Season with the Witch.
- My Cursed Objects book is out now!
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other books that you can buy. Spooky books.
For this episode, we're going on location to an abandoned Bible theme park (and murder scene) looming over the town of Waterbury, Connecticut. It's oddities like these that this site and that podcast and, well, I (me?) are made for.
- Photos from my visit to Holy Land USA.
- Address of Holy Land USA: 60 Slocum Street, Waterbury CT.
- Website for Holy Land USA.
- My Cursed Objects book is out now!
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other books that you can buy. Spooky books.
My obsession with Danvers State Hospital (aka Danvers Insane Asylum) started with the horror movie Session 9 back in 2001, which was filmed inside the then 120-year-old abandoned asylum. Over the next two decades, I visited the site, found the asylum cemetery, watched Session 9 on the site where it was filmed, and, just a few months ago, returned to find the second asylum cemetery. This is the whole story.
- Photos from my first visit to Danvers State Hospital.
- Photos from my second visit to Danvers State Hospital (to watch Session 9).
- Photos from my visit to the second Danvers Asylum cemetery.
- Address for Danvers State Hospital site: 1101 Kirkbride Dr., Danvers, MA
- Address for second Danvers Asylum cemetery: Gregory St. and Middleton Rd., Middleton, MA
- My Cursed Objects book is up for preorder.
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other books that you can buy. Spooky books.
I take you back to where my love for cemeteries first started...Highgate Cemetery in London. I met her in 1999, returned to her in 2017. We go to both West and East Cemeteries, finding the graves of Douglas Adams and Karl Marx and the guy who wrote The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, to the parts that inspired Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book and The Abominable Dr. Phibes with Vincent Price, into crypts and through plots of stones invisible under creepers. I hope you fall in love with it, too.
- Highgate Cemetery website.
- My photos of the west section of Highgate Cemetery.
- My photos of the east section of Highgate Cemetery.
- My Cursed Objects book is up for preorder.
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other books that you can buy. Spooky books.
Lily Dale is an quaint little town in western New York that you'd probably like a lot…if you can stomach all the ghosts. But the residents like it that way. After all, they’re all mediums. In this episode, I tell you about my visit to this strange place and about my own personal session (my very first!) with a medium.
- Photos from my trip to Lily Dale.
- The transcript of my session with a medium and some dead people.
- Photos from my trips to Fox Sisters sites.
- Buy The New York Grimpendium.
- My Cursed Objects book is up for preorder.
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other books that you can buy. Spooky books.
Torture museums: Are they ghastly tourist traps with acute deficiencies of taste or family-friendly opportunities for history lessons? I have no clue! But I've been to two of them, one in Wisconsin and one in Florida, and they couldn't have been more different experiences from each other. Let's visit them together now, and learn the shameful secret of all medieval torture museums. With bonus serial killer severed head and alien implant asides.
- Photos from the Museum of Historic Torture Devices in the Wisconsin Dells.
- Address for the Museum of Historic Torture Devices: 305 Broadway, Wisconsin Dells, WI
- Photos from the Medieval Torture Museum in St. Augustine, Florida
- Address for the Medieval Torture Museum: 100 St George St, St. Augustine, FL
- My visit to the severed head of the Dusseldorf Vampire.
- My Cursed Objects book is up for preorder.
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other books that you can buy. Spooky books.
I don't use the term bonkers lightly, but in this episode, I'm going to tell you about two of the most bonkers museums I've ever been to. And that image you have in your head when I say "museum"? Throw it out. Doesn't apply. Oddly enough, both of these museums have very boring names, despite being places of breathless bizarrerie and overwhelming wonderment: The City Museum in Missouri and the House on the Rock in Wisconsin.
- Photos from the City Museum.
- Address for the City Museum: 750 N 16th St, St. Louis, MO
- Photos from the House on the Rock.
- Address for the House on the Rock: 5754 WI-23, Spring Green, WI
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other books that you can buy. Spooky books.
We're headed to Staten Island. to a chicken wing joint. That has a 13-foot-long artificial great white shark hanging from its ceiling whose name is JAWS. But not thee one from the movie, the one from the ride. This one's a weird one, so strap on your life jacket, grab a harpoon gun, and make sure your boat is of adequate size.
- Photos from my visit.
- Address for 494 Chicken: 3785 Victory Blvd, Staten Island, New York.
- Universal Studios Hollywood tram tour video.
- Universal Studios Orlando original JAWS ride video.
- Universal Studios Orlando revamped JAWS ride video.
- Photos of JAWS decaying in a yard in Maryland.
- The history of JAWS the ride.
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other books that you can buy. Spooky books.
In Part 2 of this interview with my wife about this thing called OTIS, we delve into her photography and how that intersects with the project, some of her favorite oddities and where she wants to go the most, what it's like doing OTIS with kids, and--my favorite part in the entire interview--we talk about ending this OTIS project.
Don't forget to listen to Part 1, as well as the minisode pulled from the interview where we somehow end up arguing Halloween vs. Christmas. That minisode is going on the OTIS Club Patreon and will be open to all member levels, which means you can hear it for as little as $1.
- Odd Things My Wife's Seen (including photos of her).
- The OTIS Club Patreon, where you can get the bonus minisode.
- The time saw the House on the Rock in Wisconsin.
- The time we went to the City Museum in Washington.
- Want to learn about the oddities we visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other books that you can buy. Spooky books.
For almost the entire 12 years of OTIS, there have actually been two I's in that acronym, my own and my wife's. Lindsey's never told her half of the OTIS story, though, until now. In this first part of the interview, we cover how the whole thing started (which was around the time we met each other), what our first oddities we visited together were, what oddities she is completely uncomfortable visiting, the types of oddities she loves to see, and her take on our night at Lizzie Borden's.
Also debuting today, a minisode pulled from the interview where we somehow end up arguing Halloween vs. Christmas. That minisode is going on the OTIS Club Patreon and will be open to all member levels, which means you can hear it for as little as $1.
- Odd Things My Wife's Seen (including photos of her).
- The OTIS Club Patreon, where you can get the bonus minisode.
- The time we stayed together at the Lizzie Borden House.
- The time we visited Ed Gein sites.
- Want to learn about the oddities we visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other books that you can buy. Spooky books.
In this episode, I take you to Hamilton, Ohio, to see the hollow-earth-inspired gravestone of one of the theory's biggest evangelists, and then we go to Estero, Florida, to see the remnants of a hollow earth cult whose definition of hollow earth is mind-blowing.
- Photos of my visit to the hollow earth-inspired grave of John Symmes.
- Photos of my visit to the remains of the Koreshan hollow earth cult.
- Address for the grave of John Symmes in Symmes Park: Sycamore St. and South Third St., Hamilton, Ohio.
- Address for Koreshan State Park: 3800 Corkscrew Rd., Estero, Florida.
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other books that you can buy. Spooky books.
We recently trekked to the Springfield area of Massachusetts to see some seriously weird, creepy, and fascinating oddity, and recording the whole outing. That's the "Special On-Location" part. I'd tell you more, but it's kind of all in the title.
- Photos of this road trip on OTIS.
- A deeper dive into Witch Path.
- GPS Coordinates for Monk Cave: 42.506533, -72.409833
- Address of South Cemetery (Grave of Martha Dwight, the Vampire): 143 Mill Valley Rd., Belchertown, MA
- Address of Fairview Cemetery (Grave of Edward Bellamy): 687 Front St, Chicopee, MA
- Witch Path address: Witch Path, Springfield, MA
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other books that you can buy. Spooky books.
Gather 'round, and I'll elucidate, everything I've learned over a decade of visiting Sleepy Hollow, New York, during the Halloween season. The only thing you need to know in advance is that the Headless Horseman is my favorite monster.
- All of my OTIS articles on Sleepy Hollow.
- The 2019 OTIS Halloween Season is in full swing over at oddthingsiveseen.com.
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other books that you can buy. Spooky books.
In this episode, I answer the four questions I'm always asked about Salem, Massachusetts: When to go there, what to do there, what are my favorite spots there, and how do I feel about partying on the corpses of the murdered?
- All of my OTIS articles on Salem.
- My book on Salem, which I wrote after living there for all of October: A Season With the Witch: The Madness and Mayhem of Halloween in Salem
- The 2019 OTIS Halloween Season is in full swing over at oddthingsiveseen.com.
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write other books that you can buy. Spooky books.
We're one month away from the 58th anniversary of the most famous alien abduction in the history of the lore: The Betty and Barney Hill Incident. On the 47th anniversary, my wife and I, newly arrived in New Hampshire, spent a night retracing their route through the White Mountains, and then we saw their graves, actual artifacts from the incident, and a bathroom gas station exhibit dedicated to them. The truth is in the Granite State.
- Photos from our reenactment and our visits to the two exhibits.
- Address for the roadside sign:664 US-3, Lincoln, NH
- Address for the gas station exhibit: 467 US-3, Lincoln, NH
- Address for their graves: 8-2 N Rd, Kingston, NH
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write books that you can buy. Spooky books.
In a first for this podcast, I present a candid, unscripted story of my recent visit to The Haunted Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada. The museum is owned by Zak Bagans (of "Ghost Adventures" fame) and features the earthly remains of Charles Manson, Jack Kevorkian's van, a dybbuk box, and a jaw-dropping array of other oddities, murderbilia, and paranormal artifacts.
- Address for the Haunted Museum: 600 E. Charleston Blvd. Las Vegas, NV 89104
- Website for the Haunted Museum.
- No photos for this episode, as photos were not allowed.
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write books that you can buy. Spooky books.
In our second ever Special On-Location episode, I take you with me on a recent road trip we took to Baltimore, Maryland, to see some of the sights that make the state so spooky, including the unmarked grave of Herman Munster, the site where the Ouija board named itself, the Edgar Allan Poe House, and on a whim, we head up to the top of the Washington Monument...Baltimore's Washington Monument.
- Photos from the trip.
- Photos of Elijah Bond's Oujia board grave.
- Photos of the Edgar Allan Poe House.
- Address for Fred Gwynne's Grave: 2101 Old Westminster Pike, Finksburg, MD
- Address for the Oujia board plaque (the Baltimore Washington Monument is across the street): 529 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD
- Address for the George Peabody Library: 17 E Mt Vernon Pl, Baltimore, MD
- Address for the Edgar Allan Poe House:203 N Amity St, Baltimore, MD
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write books that you can buy. Spooky books.
In this episode, I take you behind the scenes at the Natural History Museum in London to witness the most mindboggling biological artifacts in the entire collection: Archie the Giant Squid and actual specimens bottled by Charles Darwin himself on his world-changing HMS Beagle voyage. Oh, and I embark on a side quest for an infamous cursed jewel. Lotta stuff going on in this episode.
- Photos of Archie the Giant Squid and Darwin's specimens.
- The behind-the-scenes Spirit Collection tour page.
- Photos of my visit to the giant squid at the Smithsonian.
- Photos of my visit to Damien Hirst's bediamoned skull.
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write books that you can buy. Spooky books.
In this episode, I take you to the house where infamous occultist Aleister Crowley enjoyed a magick retirement and then to the severed arm of Saint Edmund. Surprisingly, neither of these two sites are in Europe. They're in New England. And they are mere hours from each other. The depth of oddity in any given state is astounding.
- Aleister Crowley House: 14 Church Lane, Hebron, NH
- Arm of Saint Edmund: 1 Enders Island, Mystic, CT
- Photos of the Arm of Saint Edmund.
- Photos of the Aleister Crowley House.
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write books that you can buy. Spooky books.
In this special episode of Odd Things I've Seen: The Podcast, I take you on location with me on a road trip I took last Saturday to see five oddities in Connecticut: Two sites connected to a Great Awakening preacher who has haunted me since childhood, a minor witch memorial, the house of a serial killer who inspired a delightful comedy movie, and an abandoned amusement park. This is the episode I show you what I mean by "within a tank or two of gas of any point in this country is some seriously cool oddity."
Too see photos from this trip, visit the OTIS Patreon Page, and download Issue 157 of the weekly OTIS Club Newsletter. This particular issue is free to the public, and if you like it, please consider joining so that I can do more podcasts like this one and so that you can have the maximum dosage of oddity in your life as recommended by the surgeon general.
Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon. I also write books that you can buy. Spooky books.
We're going international in this episode, heading to Italy to see what it's like/how exhausting it is to visit both Pompeii and Vesuvius in a single day. Volcanic ghost towns might be the most fascinating ghost towns.
- Pics from out stroll through Pompeii.
- Pics from our ascent up a foggy Vesuvius.
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write books that you can buy. Spooky books.
Plants are 80% of the planet's biomass. So it makes sense that there are some odd plants out there. I've seen a few in my day. Like a swamp full of cobra lilies in Oregon and a seven-foot-tall phallus-shaped corpse flower in New Hampshire. Let's get botanical.
- Pics from our time among the cobra lilies.
- Pics of our our meeting with a corpse flower.
- Address for Darlington State Park: 5400 Mercer Lake Rd, Florence, OR
- Address for the Dartmouth Life Sciences Center: 15 Dewey Field Road, Hanover, NH
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write books that you can buy. Spooky books.
The story of Lizzie Borden and the ax murder of her parents has been told...to death. But the oddest part of the story is that today...you can stay the night at the crime scene. Which. We. Did.
- Pics from our night at Lizzie Borden's.
- More pics from our night at Lizzie Borden's.
- Address for Lizzie Borden's B&B: 230 Second St., Fall River MA
- Address for Maplecroft: 306 French St., Fall River, MA
- Address for the Borden family grave plot: 765 Prospect St., Fall River, MA
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write books that you can buy. Spooky books.
We head out to the Nevada desert to play chicken with Area 51. And see an Independence Day (the movie) time capsule. And eat at an alien-themed eatery. And generally look for the truth that is out there.
- Pictures from The Extraterrestrial Highway.
- Pictures from Area 51.
- The video of the tour group accidentally crossing the line into Area 51.
- Address for the Little A'Le'Inn: 9631 Old Mill Rd, Alamo, NV
- GPS coordinates for the turnoff to Area 51: 37.457170, -115.483479
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write books that you can buy. Spooky books.
Centralia, Pennsylvania, is a ghost town...on fire. Beneath its grass blades, a coal fire rages that has burned for half a century and will burn for centuries longer. Smoke wafts over the sites where neighborhoods once stood. Roads choke on overgrowth. Pockets beneath the topsoil are waiting to cave in at the next footstep. The idea of the place is terrifying. But the reality of the place is...fascinating. Heck, I brought my family with me on one of my visits.
- Photos from my first visit to Centralia.
- Photos from my second visit to Centralia.
- GPS coordinates for the town: 40.804336, -76.342517 (but really, you just have to tell Google Maps to take you to Centralia)
- GPS Coordinates for the old damaged Route 61: 40.779370, -76.366882
- Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
- I also write books. Spooky books.
A suicide brought it into existence. A copy of it turned evil. You can find a version of it in a graveyard, at the Smithsonian, at an artist's studio in New England...and outside, just around the corner from the White House. Come with me, J.W. Ocker, as we visit the Adams Memorial and its Mr. Hyde, the Black Aggie, and learn the strange story that entwines them.
Photos on OddThingsIveSeen.com of the funerary sculptures.
Sites you can visit:
- Rock Creek Cemetery (Adams Memorial): 201 Allison St NW, Washington, DC
- Druid Ridge Cemetery (Black Aggie pedestal): 7900 Park Heights Ave, Pikesville, MD
- Howard T. Markey National Courts Building (Black Aggie): 717 Madison Pl NW, Washington, DC
- Hay-Adams Hotel (Site of Clover Adams' suicide): 800 16th St NW, Washington, DC
- Saint-Gauden's National Historic Site (Home of sculptor, with a casting of the statue): 139 St Gaudens Rd, Cornish, NH
- Smithsonian American Art Museum (Site of a casting of the statue): F St NW &, 8th St NW, Washington, DC
Want to learn about the oddities I visit in real time? Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Patreon.
My name is J.W. Ocker. For more than a decade, in my spare time, I have sought out odd sites and artifacts. I'm terrible at maps and bad at driving, but I believe that within a tank or two of gas of any point in the country are oddities worth trekking to on a Saturday afternoon. And I have the stories as proof.