91: Listener Stories | 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories

A lot of people might not think the Bell Witch story is “true crime.” It sounds like folklore or a classic ghost tale. But it is true crime for one simple reason: John Bell was murdered. Welcome to another 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories. In 1820, on the Bell family farm along the Red River in what is now Adams, Tennessee (Robertson County), John Bell died in his bed. If you believe it was the Bell Witch (the voice the neighbors called Kate), then a supernatural being killed him. If you don’t believe in witches or ghosts, then a person put poison in his medicine cabinet and gave him a fatal dose while he slept. Either way, a man died and someone, or something, did it. That’s the definition of true crime. This is the rare case where the supernatural and the murder aren’t competing explanations. They’re the same story. Whether it was a ghostly witch or a human hand that put the poison in that vial, John Bell was murdered in his own bed. Most of what we know about the Bell Witch haunting comes from his son Richard Williams Bell’s 1846 manuscript, later published in 1894. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. Sleep well. Patreon Exclusive: Ad-free version & bonus content available now for supporters. Your support keeps the stories coming... thank you! 💤 Listen & Connect • Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@SleepyTimeCreepyTime • Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Stay in Touch Facebook Instagram: @truecrimesleepstories | @kellibrink TikTok: @truecrimesleepstories Buy the True Crime Sleep Stories Books by Kelli Brink Vol. 1: amzn.to/3Z8jx5L Vol. 2: amzn.to/4kAthhj Vol. 3: amzn.to/3H9xfPQ

In this True Crime Sleep Stories episode, hear five quiet near-miss stories of ordinary people who came close to dangerous men, including Rodney Alcala, Ted Bundy, and Israel Keyes... and went home safe. None of them knew the full picture at the time. Most only learned years later. These gentle true crime accounts focus on the moments when something felt off and the people who trusted that feeling. There’s a canceled date after The Dating Game, a Tinder match that shifted, a fireplace that filled with smoke, a couple parked at an Anchorage overlook, and a red truck on a dark highway. These stories touch on real cases, but we stay with the people who walked away and keep the details soft and low-stakes, perfect for falling asleep. The stories: The Dating Game, September 1978: Cheryl Bradshaw picked Bachelor Number One on the popular TV show. After meeting him, she called the casting director and canceled the date because something felt wrong. She was right. The man was Rodney Alcala, a serial killer already responsible for multiple murders. Salt Lake City, April 2019: Missy Lewis matched with a charming man on Tinder. When he pushed to meet in a parking lot and his tone changed, she unmatched him. Less than two months later his face was on the news. Seattle, early 1970s: Elizabeth Kloepfer (also known as Elizabeth Kendall) fell asleep in front of the fireplace with her longtime boyfriend Ted Bundy. She woke up to a room full of smoke after he closed the damper and blocked the door. Years later he told her what he had done. Point Woronzof, Anchorage, spring 2011: A young couple sat in their car at the overlook. Serial killer Israel Keyes was watching from the trees with a silenced rifle, ready to shoot. Two officers doing a routine closing-time check changed the night, and their fate. The couple’s names are still unknown. A lonely highway, ~2000: A woman in the Army was driving from Colorado to Arizona when a red truck flashed its lights and honked. She started to pull over, then changed her mind halfway to the back of her car. She later saw a similar story on a crime show. They all noticed something felt off and acted on it. I believe we’re given intuition for a reason. Animals trust it without argument. We often talk ourselves out of it. This episode is a calm reminder to listen the first time your gut tells you something isn’t right, especially in true crime near-miss situations like these. Patreon Exclusive: Ad-free version & bonus content available now for supporters. Your support keeps the stories coming... thank you! 💤 Listen & Connect • Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@SleepyTimeCreepyTime • Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Stay in Touch Facebook Instagram: @truecrimesleepstories | @kellibrink TikTok: @truecrimesleepstories Buy the True Crime Sleep Stories Books by Kelli Brink Vol. 1: amzn.to/3Z8jx5L Vol. 2: amzn.to/4kAthhj Vol. 3: amzn.to/3H9xfPQ

In January 1921, the five-masted schooner Carroll A. Deering was found abandoned on Diamond Shoals off Cape Hatteras in the Graveyard of the Atlantic, sails set, food in the galley, and her entire crew of eleven missing. This classic Outer Banks ghost ship mystery has the shape of true crime, with theories of mutiny, piracy, crew tension under Captain Willis B. Wormell, a strange hail from a non-officer, and missing lifeboats and navigation gear, yet nothing has ever been proven and the fate of the men remains unsolved. A broken radio on the Cape Lookout lightship may have delayed any warning, and a later message in a bottle that briefly gave hope to Wormell’s daughter Lula turned out to be a hoax. If you visit the Outer Banks, the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras has displayed the ship’s bell and capstan, and local houses were built with her timbers. This maritime mystery sits right on the line between true crime and something we may never fully understand. Thank you for listening. Sleep well, and lock your doors. Patreon Exclusive: Ad-free version & bonus content available now for supporters. Your support keeps the stories coming... thank you! 💤 Listen & Connect • Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@SleepyTimeCreepyTime • Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Stay in Touch Facebook Instagram: @truecrimesleepstories | @kellibrink TikTok: @truecrimesleepstories Buy the True Crime Sleep Stories Books by Kelli Brink Vol. 1: amzn.to/3Z8jx5L Vol. 2: amzn.to/4kAthhj Vol. 3: amzn.to/3H9xfPQ

The Flannan Isles Lighthouse Mystery: three lighthouse keepers vanish without a trace on Eilean Mòr, Scotland, in December 1900. A calm, cozy true crime sleep story for 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories. In December 1900, three lighthouse keepers vanished from the remote Flannan Isles, about twenty miles west of the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides. James Ducat, Thomas Marshall, and Donald McArthur simply disappeared from their post on Eilean Mòr. No bodies were ever recovered. More than a century later, this unsolved disappearance remains one of Scotland's most famous historical mysteries. This episode walks through the historical record: the newly built Flannan Isles Lighthouse, the quiet routines of a rock station, the last ordinary entries on the station slate, the storm damage found on the west landing, and Superintendent Robert Muirhead's careful inquiry. It also separates the facts from the later legends that have gathered around the empty tower, like an untouched meal, an overturned chair, and a logbook filled with terror and prayer. Along the way we look at the theories, from a rogue wave to sea serpents and the Phantom of the Seven Hunters. What remains, when the inventions are set aside, is a very human winter and three experienced men who set out to keep a light burning for ships they would never meet. The men are long lost, but their names are not. James Ducat. Thomas Marshall. Donald McArthur. Sleep well, dear listener. And I'll see you in the shadows next time. Patreon Exclusive: Ad-free version & bonus content available now for supporters. Your support keeps the stories coming... thank you! 💤 Listen & Connect • Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@SleepyTimeCreepyTime • Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Stay in Touch Facebook Instagram: @truecrimesleepstories | @kellibrink TikTok: @truecrimesleepstories Buy the True Crime Sleep Stories Books by Kelli Brink Vol. 1: amzn.to/3Z8jx5L Vol. 2: amzn.to/4kAthhj Vol. 3: amzn.to/3H9xfPQ

Welcome to another 31 Nights of Frights On True Crime Sleep Stories. In the spring of 1876, Balham still felt almost like a village on London's southern edge. On Bedford Hill stood The Priory, a large white house with turrets, horses in the stables, and an ordinary Tuesday dinner waiting indoors. Barrister Charles Bravo, 31 years old and just 4 months into a marriage with wealthy widow Florence Bravo, sat down with Florence and her companion, Mrs. Jane Cox. He drank Burgundy. They did not. A little after nine he went upstairs and fell violently ill. Doctors came through the night, including Sir William Gull. On the morning of April 21, 1876, Charles died. Chemists found a massive dose of antimony... tartar emetic... in his body. What happened next? Listen to find out. Patreon Exclusive: Ad-free version & bonus content available now for supporters. Your support keeps the stories coming... thank you! 💤 Listen & Connect • Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@SleepyTimeCreepyTime • Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify Stay in Touch Facebook Instagram: @truecrimesleepstories | @kellibrink TikTok: @truecrimesleepstories Buy the True Crime Sleep Stories Books by Kelli Brink Vol. 1: amzn.to/3Z8jx5L Vol. 2: amzn.to/4kAthhj Vol. 3: amzn.to/3H9xfPQ