Spooky B*tch Walk

The Dancing Plague of 1518

In 1518, the strangest of plagues swept through modern day France. It wasn’t a plague of boils, swollen lymph nodes, or gangrene. No, this was a plague of dance. On July 14, 1518, a woman named Frau Troffea started dancing in the streets of Strasbourg and couldn’t seem to stop. Citizens couldn’t help but notice this woman dancing until her feet were bloody and bruised. They believed this could be a sign from God or a curse from St. Vitus. Frau Troffea danced for six days before she was taken to a shrine of St. Vitus. By then, others had started to join her and within a month, more than 400 people had been afflicted by the dancing plague and some even danced themselves to death. 
What could cause such strange behavior? Was this a warning from God? Demonic possession? A curse? Or a physical malady such as “hot blood”? Come along with Hannah and Bob as they discuss fridge cigs (AKA Diet Coke), the Brothers Grimm’s Snow White, and was the dancing plague just the plague from The Last of Us? 
CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains discussions of plagues, death by dancing, starvation, and child deaths. Listener discretion is advised.
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Please subscribe, rate, and review. Follow us on Instagram @spookybitchwalk for all the updates. Email us at spookybtchwalk@gmail.com to share all your spooky stories. 
Sources: 
Andrews, E. (2025, May 27). What was the dancing plague of 1518? History. https://www.history.com/articles/what-was-the-dancing-plague-of-1518?utm_source=chatgpt.com 
Dancing plague of 1518 Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia. https://kids.kiddle.co/Dancing_plague_of_1518?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Davis, M. (2023, July 14). The bizarre story of the deadly “dancing plague” of 1518. Big Think. https://bigthink.com/the-past/dancing-plague-middle-ages/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Pennant-Rea, N. (2018, July 10). The dancing plague of 1518. The Public Domain Review. https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-dancing-plague-of-1518/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Traub, C. (2024, August 15). The Strasbourg dancing plague of 1518: Myth or reality? Paris Unlocked.https://www.parisunlocked.com/around-france/french-history/the-strasbourg-dancing-plague-of-1518-fact-or-fiction/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Waller, J. (2009). The dancing plague: The strange, true story of an extraordinary illness. SourceBooks, Inc.

Besham Brian Sugrim

On today’s episode, Hannah tells Adriana about the murders of Beshan Brian Sugrim. Brian and Bernadette met when Bernadette was only 16. At first, everything was sunshine and rainbows, until one day when Brian told Bernadette he had murdered someone. Seven years later, Brian woke Bernadette in the middle of the night to tell her he had murdered someone again. Bernadette and her children suffered abuse at the hands of Brian for years. One day, Bernadette’s daughter did what Bernadette couldn’t: she ran to a neighbor’s and asked for help. Bernadette’s daughter is the real hero of this story. If it weren’t for her courage, we may be discussing a very different case today. 
Along the way, Hannah and Adriana discuss how it just takes one person to make a difference and the power of love. 
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at  800-799-7233 or text BEGIN to 88788.
If you have any information regarding the murder of Demetrius Carter, please contact the Sullivan County Sheriff at 845-794-7100 or the Sullivan County DA at 845-794-3344.
CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains discussions of domestic violence, animal cruelty, and child abuse. Listener discretion is advised.
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Please subscribe, rate, and review. Follow us on Instagram @spookybitchwalk for all the updates. Email us at spookybtchwalk@gmail.com to share all your spooky stories. 
Sources: 
Harris, Lissa, “Michigan murder trial yields hot tip on a cold Sullivan County murder case” - Watershed Post, 2012. 
Kimball, Cody, “Verdict reached in local murder trial” - Western Herald, 2012. 
NBC. (2012, April 20). Skye Sugrim shares feelings on her father [TV broadcast]. Dateline NBC. https://www.nbcnews.com/video/skye-sugrim-shares-feelings-on-her-father-44563523850
Today Show. (2012, April 19). Wife of confessed murderer: “I was terrified” [TV broadcast]. Today Show. https://www.today.com/video/wife-of-confessed-murderer-i-was-terrified-44486211907 
Whitman, Victor, “Suspect surfaces in old Sullivan killing” - Times Herald-Record, 2012.
Zerilli, Ursula, “After guilty verdict, Linda Gibson’s sister says Gibson ‘can finally rest in peace’” - Michigan Live, 2012.
Zerilli, Ursula, “Bernadette Sugrim interview: Seeing violence in Besham’s eyes (Part 1 of 5)” - Michigan Live, 2012.
Zerilli, Ursula, “Bernadette Sugrim interview: Besham reveals a dark secret (Part 2 of 5)” - Michigan Live, 2012.
Zerilli, Ursula, “Bernadette Sugrim interview: Moving to Michigan (Part 3 of 5)” - Michigan Live, 2012.
Zerilli, Ursula, “Bernadette Sugrim interview: The heart attack (Part 4 of 5)” - Michigan Live, 2012.
Zerilli, Ursula, “Bernadette Sugrim interview: A little girl becomes a hero (Part 5 of 5)” - Michigan Live, 2012.
Zerilli, Ursula, “Besham Sugrim, convicted of murdering Linda Kay Gibson, to be sentenced today” - Michigan Live, 2012.
Zerilli, Ursula, “Dateline NBC airing Besham 'Brian' Sugrim case tonight at 10 p.m. (with timeline of events)” - Michigan live, 2012.
Zerilli, Ursula, “From the comments: Family members of Linda Kay Gibson talk about her murder, Bernadette Sugrim” - Michigan Live, 2012.
Zerilli, Ursula, “Witnesses describe brutality of Linda Kay Gibson’s murder during Besham Sugrim trial” - Michigan Live, 2012.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/87427545/demetrius-carter
https://mdocweb.state.mi.us/OTIS2/otis2profile.aspx?mdocNumber=763247

Corruption, Fraud, and Murder on the Reservation

Today is an extra special episode of Spooky B*tch Walk because our co-host today is Hannah’s mom! Hannah tells her mom about the disappearance/murder of Kristopher Clarke (KC) and the murder of Doug Carlile.
KC was last seen dropping off the company credit card at Blackstone Trucking Company on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation on February 22, 2012. Immediately, KC’s friends were suspicious of KC’s longtime friend and boss, James Henrikson, but there wasn’t enough evidence to prove anything nefarious had even occurred. Over a year later, James went into business with Doug Carlile. Just a few months later, Doug was shot and killed in his home. Luckily, the murderer left the best piece of evidence any detective could ever ask for: DNA. The person this DNA belonged to was someone who wasn’t even on police’s radar. 
Listen as Hannah and her mom discuss amateur criminals, the oil boom on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, and how Hannah and her mom used to be Native Americans. 
Follow Lissa’s cause here: https://www.sahnishscouts.org/
CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains discussions of violent murders and drug use. Listener discretion is advised.
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Please subscribe, rate, and review. Follow us on Instagram @spookybitchwalk for all the updates. Email us at spookybtchwalk@gmail.com to share all your spooky stories. 
Sources:  
Jim Fuglie, “Ugliest story yet from North Dakota’s oil patch” - The Prairie Blog, 2015.
John Magney, “North Dakota gets fracked” - MROnline, 2021.
Kip Hill, “Three of five plead guilty in murder-for-hire case” - The Spokesman-Review, 2015.
Mike Simpson, “We must address the ongoing missing and murdered Indigenous women crisis” - Washington Reporter, 2024. 
Missing Person/NamUs #MP17150 - National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, 2021. https://namus.nij.ojp.gov/case/MP17150
Missing Persons Cases Network. (2019, April 20). K.C. left Texas in 2011 with the hopes of earning a little money as an operations manager for Blackstone Trucking… [Facebook Post]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/MissingPersonsCasesNetwork/posts/kc-left-texas-in-2011-with-the-hopes-of-earning-a-little-money-as-an-operations-/350348685825312/
NEWS, “North Dakota’s body hunter, seeker of the missing and the dead” - High Plains Reader, 2017.
Sierra Crane Murdoch, Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country - Random House, 2020.
Susan H. Greenberg, “Unburying the truth” - Middlebury Magazine, 2020.
Unknown Author, “Henrikson found GUILTY of all charges in murder-for-hire trial” - KHQ, 2016.

The Iroquois Theatre Fire

In 1903, the Iroquois Theatre opened in Chicago, IL. It was designed to be the most magnificent “temple of the drama.” It was advertised as being fireproof. On December 30, 1903, the audience members attending the matinee show of Mr. Bluebeard would learn the truth of this fireproofing. It was just a spark at first, but it spread quickly. Soon, the whole theater was on fire, and all 1,924 audience members plus 500 performers and stage crew members were panicking and trampling over each other to get out of the building. In all, 602 people lost their lives that day. The surrounding community came together to help in any way they could.
Today, the Iroquois Theatre is gone and another theater stands in its place. This theater is said to be haunted. People have heard whispers in the alleyway behind the building and seen full body apparitions in the balconies during performances. 
Join Hannah and Lainey as they discuss fire extinguishers, identifying your significant other by only their ring, and the incredible support of Chicagoans during and after this tragic event. 
CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains discussions of burn victims, death by trampling, and child deaths. Listener discretion is advised.
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Please subscribe, rate, and review. Follow us on Instagram @spookybitchwalk for all the updates. Email us at spookybtchwalk@gmail.com to share all your spooky stories. 
Sources:  
CBS Chicago, “Chicago Hauntings: The Horrors Of The Iroquois Theater Fire That Killed 602 People Downtown In 1903, And Stories About Ghosts Left Behind” - CBS News, 2021. 
Nat Brandt, Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903 - Southern Illinois University Press, 2003.
“The Iroquois Theatre Fire” - Windy City Ghosts, 2025.

The School for Wayward Girls

From 1894 to 1977, a juvenile detention center operated under the guise of a school in Geneva, IL. Girls as young as 10 were sent to this facility for “crimes” including being homeless, being pregnant, being sexually assaulted, having a mental illness, etc. Many girls attempted to escape and some even died in the process. Many of them were buried on the grounds of the school. The rest of the school was torn down but the cemetery remains today. 
Along the way, Hannah and Lainey discuss the chair, solitary confinement, and where are the babies?!
CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains discussions of child abuse and child death. Listener discretion is advised.
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Please subscribe, rate, and review. Follow us on Instagram @spookybitchwalk for all the updates. Email us at spookybtchwalk@gmail.com to share all your spooky stories. 
Sources:  
Brian Nam-Sonenstein and Wendy Sawyer, “Youth Confinement: The Whole Pie 2025” - Prison Policy Initiative, 2025. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/youth2025.html#demographics
Katie Prout, “The ghosts of Geneva’s ‘home for wayward girls’” - Chicago Reader, 2025. https://chicagoreader.com/news/feature-news-politics/illinois-school-prison-history-girls/
Rodney B. Nelson, Who Sadie Cooksey Was: The Brief Life and Troubled Times of Sarah Elizabeth Cooksey - Grant House Press, 2016 https://genevanotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/who-was-sadie-cooksey-18.pdf
Rudy Clai, “The Hauntings of the Geneva Bad Girls School” - WordPress, 2012 https://rudyclai.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/the-hauntings-of-the-geneva-bad-girls-school/
Sophonisba P. Breckinridge and Edith Abbott. "Family paragraphs relating to the delinquency of 50 girls committed to the state training school at Geneva by the Juvenile Court of Cook County at Chicago, Illinois, during the years 1903 to 1908". Appendix V in  The Delinquent Child and the Home. New York: Russell Sage Foundation Charities Publication Committee. (1912): 314-332. Accessed September 21, 2025. https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/Abbott/Breckinridge_Abbott_1912/Breckinridge_Abbott_1912_16.html
Tara-Mae Wrona, “I Never Thought I’d be so Terrified Investigating a Graveyard Until Tonight” - The Crypt, accessed October 2, 2025.
https://crypt.creepycatalog.com/i-never-thought-id-be-so-terrified-investigating-a-graveyard-until-tonight/
Tim Bateman and Neal Hazel, “Youth Justice Timeline” - Beyond Youth Custody, 2025. https://www.beyondyouthcustody.net/policy/youth-justice-timeline/
Vegan Street - The Suburban Cemetery for ‘Wayward Girls’ and Their Babies, accessed September 21, 2025 https://www.veganstreet.com/blog/the-suburban-cemetery-for-wayward-girls-and-their-babies

The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel

On today’s episode, Hannah tells Adriana about the exorcism of Anneliese Michel in 1975-1976. Anneliese started experiencing strange phenomena when she was 16 including seeing grimacing faces, not being able to take communion, strange smells, and holy objects burning her. She underwent over 60 exorcisms before her death in 1976. Charges were brought against her parents and priests for neglect. But was the cause of this death human negligence or supernatural evil?
Join Hannah and Adriana as they discuss priests, demons, and the similarities between tonic clonic seizures and demonic possession.  
CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains discussions of exorcisms and death. Listener discretion is advised.
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Please subscribe, rate, and review. Follow us on Instagram @spookybitchwalk for all the updates. Email us at spookybtchwalk@gmail.com to share all your spooky stories. 
Sources:  
Autumn Sword, “Seized By the Spirit: Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and the Exorcism of Anneliese Michel” - Skeptical Inquirer, 2021. https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/seized-by-the-spirit-temporal-lobe-epilepsy-and-the-exorcism-of-anneliese-michel/   
Elizabeth Day, “'God told us to exorcise my daughter's demons. I don't regret her death'” - The Telegraph, 2005. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1504158/God-told-us-to-exorcise-my-daughters-demons.-I-dont-regret-her-death.html
Felicitas Goodman, The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel - Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1979.
Nama Winston, “'God told us to exorcise her demons.' The real story behind Netflix's The Exorcism of Emily Rose.” - Mamamia, 2020. https://www.mamamia.com.au/the-exorcism-of-emily-rose/

The Incredible Survival Story of Alison Botha

This episode is Adriana’s (our producer) first time being a co-host! And Hannah picked a doozy of a case to tell her. 
In 1994, Alison Botha was abducted, raped, brutally attacked and left for dead in the middle of nowhere South Africa. What her attackers didn’t know though is that they picked the baddest bitch to try to bring down. Alison survived and went on to share her story, and we are lucky enough to be alive at the same time as her so we can hear that story.
Along the way, we’ll discuss near death experiences, ambulance response times, and how therapy is always a good idea.
If you would like to support Alison, you can donate here: Help Alison Botha in Her Time of Need | BackaBuddy 
CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains discussions of sexual assault, attempted murder, medical procedures, blood, guts, and gore. Listener discretion is advised.
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Please subscribe, rate, and review. Follow us on Instagram @spookybitchwalk for all the updates. Email us at spookybtchwalk@gmail.com to share all your spooky stories. 
Sources:  
Alison Botha as told to Marianne Thamm, I Have Life: Alison’s Journey - Penguin Books, 2008, 2016.
Sonja Carstens - Motor Industry Staff Association, July 6, 2023. https://www.misaweb.org/copy-of-combat-illegal-dumping-1
South African Government News Agency - Parole for Alison Botha’s attackers cancelled, 2025.
https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/parole-alison-bothas-attackers-cancelled

Elisa Lam and the Cecil Hotel

On today’s episode of Spooky B*tch Walk, Hannah tells Lainey about the mysterious death of Elisa Lam at the Cecil Hotel. 
In 2013, Elisa Lam went on a solo adventure up the west coast of California. When she didn’t check in with her parents one day, they reported her missing. Nineteen days later, her body was discovered in a water tank on the roof of the Cecil Hotel. Due to this and some creepy CCTV footage, the internet speculated wildly about what could have happened that led to Elisa being in that water tank.
Hannah walks Lainey through these theories and how most of them don’t make sense. Along the way, they’ll discuss mental illness, cyberbullying, and how being kind doesn’t cost money.
CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains discussions of mental illness and death. Listener discretion is advised.
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Please subscribe, rate, and review. Follow us on Instagram @spookybitchwalk for all the updates. Email us at spookybtchwalk@gmail.com to share all your spooky stories. 
Sources:
Alex Gurley, “Elisa Lam’s Body Was Found at the Infamous Cecil Hotel 13 Years Ago. Inside the Mysterious Circumstances Around Her Death — and What Police Really Think Happened” - People, 2025
Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel - Netflix, 2021
James Bartlett, “‘A parish of its own’: Finding faith inside LA’s famous murder hotel” - SFGate, 2025

The Mad Trapper of Rat River

Welcome back, spooky b*tches! Today, Hannah walks Jessica through the story of the Mad Trapper of Rat River.
In the 1930s, a man referred to as Albert Johnson evaded police capture for over 30 days in the extreme freezing temperatures and harsh conditions of the Canadian tundra. After being shot down by police, they realized they did not know the true identity of this man who seemed to have supernatural strength and resilience. There are many theories, none of them conclusive. This will not stop Hannah from telling you every single one in detail.  
Along the way, they’ll discuss sled dogs, the Arctic Circle, DNA testing, and who the f*ck is Albert Johnson?!
CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains discussions of homicide, corpses, and exhumation. Listener discretion is advised.
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Please subscribe, rate, and review. Follow us on Instagram @spookybitchwalk for all the updates. Email us at spookybtchwalk@gmail.com to share all your spooky stories. 
Sources:
Arctic Manhunt: Hunt for the Mad Trapper - Myth Merchant Films, 2009
Dick North, The Mad Trapper of Rat River: A True Story of Canada’s Biggest Manhunt - Lyons Press, 2003.
Harding, Kathering, “Hunt for the Mad Trapper is Back On” - The Globe and Mail, 2007
Vogen, Michael, “Myth Merchant Films, the Alberta OCME, and Othram Work to Identify the Mad Trapper of Rat River” - DNASolves, 2021

Highway 20 Killer

Happy Tuesday, spooky b*tches! Join Hannah and Lainey as they discuss the Highway 20 Killer who murdered women and disposed of their bodies along Highway 20 in Oregon for over a decade before he was arrested.
We’ll chat about how crimes might be avoided if women were believed sooner, how you can report a child missing before 24 hours has passed, and how Lainey’s first experience with Taco Bell was not life changing.
CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains discussions of homicide, child abuse, and sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised.
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Please subscribe, rate, and review. Follow us on Instagram @spookybitchwalk for all the updates. Email us at spookybtchwalk@gmail.com to share all your spooky stories. 
Sources:
Auclair, Ryan, “Lee and Grissom: Facts” - The Search for Karen Jean Lee and Rodney L. Grissom, May 20, 2023, https://ryanschapbook.art.blog
Ghosts of Highway 20 - The Oregonian / OregonLive, 2018
Crombie, Noelle, “Ghosts of Highway 20” - The Oregonian / OregonLive, 2018