In this episode, we walk through one of the most haunting unsolved cases in American history: the 1912 Villisca Axe Murders. We explore the suspects, the theories that divided a town, the strange clues left behind, and the chilling possibility that the killer returned to the Stillinger girls’ room after the murders.

If you enjoy the episode, follow along for more folklore, true crime, and the uncanny:

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Step back onto the crooked path… if you dare.

Season 2 opens the door to a deeper, stranger, more intimate exploration of the stories that cling to the edges of our communities; the hauntings we inherit, the mysteries we can’t shake, and the histories that refuse to stay buried.

This season, we’re venturing into some of the most unsettling and compelling stories ever told, including:

• The Villisca Axe Murders and the eerie echoes inside that still Iowa home
• The strange, magnetic pull of Mount Shasta and the legends that refuse to die
• The doomed Franklin Expedition and the spectral trail it left across the Arctic
• The Mothman sightings that spiraled into prophecy, panic, and folklore
• The Vatican Secret Archives and the shadows cast by centuries of hidden history
• UFO encounters, unexplained disappearances, and the patterns no one wants to acknowledge
• Cryptids, conspiracies, and the stories that thrive in the dark corners of belief

Season 2 is more atmospheric, more personal, and more unsettling; a descent into the shadows with intention, curiosity, and respect.

Follow, subscribe, and stay close. The path is darker this time… but you’re not walking it alone.

As the holiday season settles in and the year winds toward its close, Down the Crooked Path is shifting its weekly rhythm. For the next few weeks, our Thursday episodes are taking a brief winter rest. In their place, we’re bringing you a special run of Canadian Creepies every Tuesday—bite‑sized explorations of the strange, the spectral, and the wonderfully weird corners of Canadian folklore.

Regular full-length episodes return in the New Year, but until then, consider these eerie little detours our gift to you.

Tonight, we travel to the windswept prairies of Alberta, where the tracks cut through open land and the past refuses to stay quiet. Locals have whispered for generations about a phantom locomotive that barrels through the night near Medicine Hat—headlight blazing, wheels screaming, and yet… no train ever arrives.