American Dread: The Murdered Girl the Coroner Kept: The Louise Betts Story
In 1977, seventeen-year-old Louise Betts disappeared from Loves Park, Illinois. Months later, her remains were found in a rural Boone County...
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American Hauntings Podcast
History, hauntings, legends, lore, true crime, and the paranormal activities of small-town America. Hosted by Cody Beck and Troy Taylor, Season 6, "Woods & Fields, Dark & Wicked" is now live...
Episodes
20 of 337 episodesAmerican Nightmares 26: "The Devil & the Movie that (Maybe) Killed Sharon Tate
This is an episode of the podcast that could have gone in a lot of directions – it’s an episode about the Devil, cults, true crime, satanic...
Bring Me the Head of Al Capone
In the fall of 1926, the best friend of Chicago gangsters returned to politics and got his name added to the Republican mayoral primary ball...
Blood in the Streets
If there was any one thing that motivated Hymie Weiss it was revenge. Since the murder of his friend Dean O’Banion, he’d been the de facto b...
American Dread: The Silence in Room Five: The Death of John Ushman
In 1997, 13-year-old John Ushman was found dead inside Room Five of the Southern View Motel in Springfield, Illinois. Authorities ruled that...
American Dread: The Finch Drive Murder: Who Killed Sherry Lewis?
On August 5, 1994, Decatur Realtor Sherry Lewis left to show a home. She never came home. More than three decades later, her murder remains...
Death of the Hanging Prosecutor
On the same day that the corpses of the last of the men who tried to revive the “Terrible Genna’s” operation was found, the Vice President o...
American Nightmares 25: "The Devil's Music - Part 5"
When it comes to music curses – and the Devil’s Music itself – there is no musician more closely linked to the supernatural than Robert John...
American Dread: Five Little Birds
On April 27, 1968, five children from the Cox family were murdered near their rural home outside Mattoon, Illinois. The killer was someone t...
The End of the "Terrible Gennas"
In May 1925, Angelo and Lucille found a home they liked in suburban Oak Park and began planning to move. On the morning of May 25, Angelo se...
American Dread: Four Hours Before Dawn: The Ray Timmons Story
In July of 1977, G. Ray Timmons left his Bloomington, Illinois home for a walk and never returned. Hours later, he was found murdered in a d...
Jazz Bars, Smoke Shops, and Gangland Hotels
The murder of Dean O’Banion – followed by the near-miss on John Torrio – became the opening battles in what would become the longest and blo...
American Dread: The Last Walk: The Billie Lee Boyce Story
Two days before Halloween in 1987, 13-year-old Billie Lee Boyce was found behind a garage in Springfield, Illinois. She had left home two ni...
LIVE From The 2026 Haunted America Conference
Ghost stories recorded from friends and vendors at the 2026 Haunted America Conference. Check out our new American Hauntings Podcast Network...
AMERICAN NIGHTMARES UPDATE
An update from Troy Taylor about the status of AMERICAN NIGHTMARES and an explanation about why it hasn’t been in your feed lately. In mid-J...
John Torrio's Last Stand
Just as the door closed behind Capone, a long black car cruised slowly by. Inside the black car were North Siders Hymie Weiss, Vincent Drucc...
American Dread: The Schneider Triple Homicide
In 1976, a quiet farm home outside Lincoln, Illinois became the scene of one of Logan County’s most horrifying crimes. Lloyd, Phyllis, and T...
American Nightmares 24: "The Devil's Music Special Episode: Bobby Fuller"
The Day the Music Died happened February 3, 1959, when a plane crash in Iowa claimed the lives of rock-n-roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Val...
American Dread - Blood on Route 66: The Service Station Murder
On a cold December morning in 1969, a motorist pulled into an all-night Shell station near Glenarm, Illinois, along old Route 66. Inside, th...
American Nightmares 23: "The Devil Goes to the Movies - Part 4"
In the 1960s, Satanic Cinema took on a life of its own. Mostly left behind were the humorous portrayals and worn old tales that had already...