Haunted Talks

In 1987, Ruthie Mae McCoy called 911 from her apartment with a terrifying story: someone was trying to break in through her bathroom mirror. To the dispatcher, it sounded impossible. Maybe even delusional. Ruthie Mae's call was treated as low priority. Officers came, knocked, and left. Two days later, they forced the door and found her dead inside. The mirrored medicine cabinet had been pulled from the wall, revealing a dark passageway behind it. Ruthie Mae had been telling the truth. Someone had come through the mirror. If that sounds familiar, it should. Ruthie Mae's case would later become entangled with Candyman, the horror film that helped turn a mirror, a repeated name, and a hook-handed killer into one of the genre's most enduring nightmares. On this episode of Haunted Talks, we explore the real murder behind Candyman, and how architectural shortcuts, systemic neglect, folklore, and disbelief transformed an ordinary apartment fixture into a threshold for evil. But this story is more than a chilling connection to a famous film. It is about fear, poverty, disbelief, and the unsettling truth that some of the most terrifying horror stories begin with something real. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like: Episode 216 – Lizzie Borden: Inside the Murder HouseEpisode 184 – Dark Folklore From Around the World Episode 151 – Forgotten: The Death of Joyce Carol Vincent

In 1794, a stranger died in a farmhouse on the edge of the Virginia frontier. What followed became one of the most chilling, bizarre, and well-documented hauntings in early America. Phantom horses galloped through the night. Objects flew across rooms. Fires sparked without cause. Clothing was clipped by unseen scissors into crescents, sometimes while still being worn. And then the voice arrived. The Wizard Clip haunting was investigated in real time by clergy, skeptics, and even a Russian prince who had become a Catholic priest. Letters, court records, and land deeds remain. But the most important evidence vanished. In this gripping episode, we unravel a supernatural mystery that changed lives, sparked conversions, and still defies explanation more than two centuries later. Was it fraud, faith, or something far stranger? If you enjoyed this episode, you might like: Episode 204 – Mysteries of the Keyhole HouseEpisode 198 – Haunted Houses of Ontario – 1924Episode 192 – America's Most Haunted House – The Whaley HouseEpisode 190 – The Bell Witch For information or to get tickets for our ghost tours or paranormal adventures, please visit hauntedwalk.com.

Deep in the wilderness of northwestern Ontario, where the forest swallows sound and the lakes stretch toward the horizon, stands a log castle. Not the ruin of a forgotten community, or the relic of a wealthy eccentric. This towering mansion of timber was built by one man. Working alone. In this episode, we journey to White Otter Lake and step inside the haunting legacy of Jimmy McOuat. A man driven by a childhood curse, a lifelong loneliness, and a defiant dream to prove the world wrong. His creation, White Otter Castle, is part marvel and part mystery. Three stories tall, built by hand, it stands as a monument to obsession, resilience, and the heavy silence of solitude. Yet the castle did not free him. Jimmy's mysterious death left unanswered questions, and for over a century, travellers to White Otter Lake have whispered of strange encounters, eerie sounds, and the lingering presence of its solitary builder. Join us as we step into the wilds of northern Ontario and uncover the chilling legend of White Otter Castle. Now streaming: The Curse That Built a Castle For information or to get tickets for our ghost tours or paranormal adventures, please visit hauntedwalk.com.

On a crisp December morning in 1917, Halifax woke to calm skies and the quiet hum of a wartime city at work. Children hurried to school. Workers streamed into factories. Families went about their routines. Out in the harbour, two ships moved slowly toward one another. One carried deadly cargo, volatile enough to erase a city. When they collided, a fuse was lit. At 9:04 a.m., Halifax was ripped apart in a wave of fire, force, and sound. In this first part of our two-part series, we walk alongside the people who lived those ordinary minutes before disaster: the harbour pilot steering a ship of fire, the dispatcher tapping out his last warning, and the young girl whose small choice meant survival. Hear their stories in Before the Blast, now streaming. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like: Episode 193 – The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald Episode 164 – What Happened to the Mary Celeste? Episode 152 – Premonitions of the Titanic Disaster For information or to get tickets for our ghost tours or paranormal adventures, please visit hauntedwalk.com.

Can you tell a true ghost story from a convincing hoax? In this special interactive episode of Haunted Talks, we share three eerie tales that once captured the public's imagination. But here's the twist: two of them are hoaxes. When fear, belief, and hidden motives collide, strange things can take hold. After you hear all three stories, it's your turn to decide which one was real. Think you can separate fact from fiction? Cast your vote now for a chance to win a Haunted Talks t-shirt and a pair of ghost tour tickets. 🎧 Listen to the episode, then vote here: https://hauntedwalk.com/hoaxes/ In two weeks, on Friday, August 8th, 2025, we'll reveal the truth…and the lies. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like: Episode 154 – Fake Mediums: Putting the "Con" in Conjuring Episode 127 – Dybbuk Box: Haunted or Hoax? For information or to purchase tickets for any of our ghost tours or paranormal adventures in Kingston, Ottawa, or Toronto, visit hauntedwalk.com.

What secrets is the Keyhole House still holding on to? And what happens when a house decides it wants to be heard? Every old home has its tales. This one refuses to stop sharing them. In this special episode, we travel to Smiths Falls, Ontario, to explore the haunting of the Keyhole House—a striking 1892 Victorian home with a history that won't stay in the past. Since moving in, magicians Ted and Marion Outerbridge have experienced an ongoing series of eerie phenomena: discovering objects long hidden in the walls, coincidences that challenge belief, phantom footsteps, and a ghost who seems to have joined the family. But this haunting is more than flickering lights and sudden cold spots. It feels intimate, emotional. Like a relationship unfolding across time. And it shows no sign of ending. This is more than a tale of things that go bump in the night. It's a glimpse into how the past and present collide inside the places we call home. Think you've heard haunted house stories before? Think again. If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like: Episode 198 – Haunted Houses of Ontario – 1924 Episode 192 – America's Most Haunted House – The Whaley House

When strange lights appear in the sky, we are left wondering what they are. But when those encounters become personal, when people claim they have been taken, studied, or changed, the questions grow darker. In this episode, we continue our journey into the world of UAPs and the paranormal, exploring the stories that disturb us most. From the famous case of Betty and Barney Hill to chilling reports of livestock mutilation, mass sightings like the Phoenix Lights, and the secrecy surrounding Roswell and Area 51, we follow the trail of evidence and ask what these encounters might really mean. Because whether these visitors are simply observing or deliberately interfering, their presence suggests intention. And that intention may not be as distant as we would like to believe. Along the way, we confront an even stranger possibility. What if the boundaries we draw between UFOs, ghosts, cryptids, and the unexplained edges of science are illusions? What if these are not separate mysteries at all, but pieces of the same story? Join us as we wrestle with the evidence, the fear, and the question at the heart of it all: What do they want with us? If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like: Episode 201 – Unidentified: Evidence and the Unknown