Pretty Wicked

Some stretches of ocean don't give people back, and the Bermuda Triangle is the most famous one. Navy squadrons. Cargo giants. A cabin cruiser that called for a tow on a calm December night and was gone before the Coast Guard could get there. This week we're going into the lore. The famous cases. The ghost ships. And what science actually thinks is happening out there, because the real answers might be stranger than the myth.

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Pretty Wicked is hosted by Megan Alda.

🖤 SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Here is everything used to research this episode.

🔗 WEB SOURCES

Naval History and Heritage Command - H-057-4: The Disappearance of Flight 19

National Archives - The Official Record and the Loss of Flight 19

History.com - The Mysterious Disappearance of Flight 19

Naval History Magazine (USNI) - USS Cyclops, The Deadliest Unsolved Mystery in the Navy

History.com - Bermuda Triangle Mystery: What Happened to the USS Cyclops?

Naval Historical Foundation - The Unanswered Loss of USS Cyclops

Library of Congress - The Mysterious Disappearance of Ghost Ship Carroll A. Deering's Crew

NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources - The Carroll A. Deering, Ghost Ship

National Park Service - The Ghost Ship of the Outer Banks

PlaneHistoria - BSAA Star Tiger coverage and inquiry summary

PlaneHistoria - BSAA Star Ariel coverage

Bernews - Plausible Solutions To Bermuda Triangle Mysteries (Tom Mangold reporting)

Civil Aeronautics Board / USDeadlyEvents - Report on DC-3 NC16002

Coast Guard Inquiry Findings, summarized - USDeadlyEvents on Marine Sulphur Queen

Porchlight International - Burack and Father Horgan / Witchcraft case file

NOAA Ocean Service - What is the Bermuda Triangle?

National Geographic - Gas Craters Off Norway Linked to Bermuda Triangle Theory

Live Science - Could Gas Explosions Explain Bermuda Triangle Mystery?

Fox News - Bermuda Triangle Rogue Wave Theory (Dr. Simon Boxall, Channel 5 documentary)

Britannica - What Is Known (and Not Known) About the Bermuda Triangle

Smithsonian Magazine - How the Disappearance of Flight 19 Fueled the Legend

ElectronicFog.com - Bruce Gernon's account of his 1970 flight

📚 BOOKS

The Bermuda Triangle Mystery - Solved - Lawrence David Kusche, 1975

The Bermuda Triangle - Charles Berlitz, 1974

Invisible Horizons: True Mysteries of the Sea - Vincent Gaddis, 1965

Beyond the Bermuda Triangle: True Encounters with Electronic Fog, Missing Aircraft, and Time Warps - Bruce Gernon and Rob MacGregor, 2017

Sailing Alone Around the World - Joshua Slocum, 1900

Ghost Ship of Diamond Shoals: The Mystery of the Carroll A. Deering - Bland Simpson, UNC Press, 2005

🎬 DOCS

The Bermuda Triangle Enigma - Channel 5 documentary featuring Dr. Simon Boxall of the University of Southampton

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In a quiet Italian town, there was a woman everyone trusted. She baked. She welcomed people in. She was the kind of person no one questioned. And then people started disappearing. When she finally confessed, it wasn’t just what she had done… it was why.

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Pretty Wicked is hosted by Megan Alda.

🖤 SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Here is everything used to research this episode.

🔗 WEB SOURCES

Weird Italy - Leonarda Cianciulli, the Soapmaker of Correggio https://weirditaly.com/2013/04/25/leonarda-cianciulli-the-soapmaker-of-correggio/

All That's Interesting - The Chilling Story of Leonarda Cianciulli https://allthatsinteresting.com/leonarda-cianciulli

Utterly Interesting - The Crimes of Leonarda Cianciulli https://www.utterlyinteresting.com/post/the-crimes-of-leonarda-cianciulli-the-soap-maker-of-correggio

Cardinal Points Online - Soap Maker of Correggio https://cardinalpointsonline.com/cardinal-sins-soap-maker-of-correggio-murders-three-women/

Medium - Mother Dearest: The Crimes of Leonarda Cianciulli https://medium.com/@rocknrollgeek1975/mother-dearest-the-crimes-of-leonarda-cianciulli

Museo Criminologico, Rome - The Correggio Soap-Maker http://www.museocriminologico.it/correggio_uk.htm

Life in Italy - Italy During the Second World War https://lifeinitaly.com/italy-second-world-war/

History Rise - Italy Under Mussolini https://historyrise.com/italy-under-mussolini-fascism-propaganda-and-world-war-ii/

Chapman University - Italian Society During World War II https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1038&context=history_books

Working Class History - Italian Resistance https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e77-80-italian-resistance/

Baltimore Sun - "Rendered Her Friends to Wax, She Says" (April 28, 1946) Referenced in multiple secondary sources above - original print archive only.

📚 BOOKS

The Curse: A Shocking True Story of Superstition, Human Sacrifice and Cannibalism - Ryan Green (2019)

Confessioni di Un'Anima Amareggiata (Confessions of a Bitter Soul) - Leonarda Cianciulli
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What if the boogeyman you grew up hearing about wasn't just a story? On Staten Island, there was a figure parents whispered about to keep their kids close to home. Bedtime warnings, campfire dares, everyone thought it was just make-believe. But then children started to vanish. And suddenly, it wasn't just scary anymore. It was real.

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Pretty Wicked is hosted by Megan Alda.

🖤 SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Here is everything used to research this episode.

Quick corrections: Ethel Atwell disappeared October 1978, Rand legally changed his name in 1972, and Tiahease Jackson was sent to the supermarket by another motel resident while her mother was napping, not on an errand from home. Sources in the show notes

🔗 WEB SOURCES

The Charley Project - Holly Ann Hughes

The Charley Project - Alice Pereira

The Doe Network - 136DFNY Holly Ann Hughes

The Doe Network - 134DFNY Alice Pereira

NCMEC - Have you seen this child? Alice Pereira

UPI Archives - Jennifer mourned as loveable child who comforted all

All That's Interesting - The Haunting Story of Andre Rand, the Real-Life Cropsey Killer Who Stalked Staten Island in the 1980s

The Line-Up - Cropsey: The Terrifying Urban Legend Brought to Life

Historic Mysteries - Cropsey: New York's Terrifying Urban Legend

Disability Justice - The Closing of Willowbrook

NYU Undercover Reporting - Willowbrook: The Last Disgrace - Geraldo Rivera, WABC-TV

The New York Review of Books - The Horrors of Hepatitis Research

Our Black Girls - Tiahease Jackson, 11: May Have Fallen Victim to Serial Killer in 1983

Whereabouts Still Unknown - Ethel Atwell

Find a Grave - Holly Ann Hughes Memorial

🎬 DOCUMENTARY & FURTHER LISTENING

Cropsey (2009), directed by Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio

Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace (1972), Geraldo Rivera for WABC-TV

Killer Psyche Daily episode on Staten Island's "Cropsey" Killer

Production notes: Specific quotes from Andre Rand have been attributed broadly to prison staff and fellow inmates rather than named individuals where the named source could not be independently verified. Some details about the missing victims, particularly the adult cases, are circumstantial and Rand was never charged in connection with them.
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Today Megan is revisiting a medieval building in a quiet Cotswolds village. A 900-year legend that doesn't quite hold up under the tree rings. A pagan burial ground nobody can find in the archaeological record. And the man who spent fifty years inside it, telling stories nobody could verify and experiencing things he couldn't explain.

The Ancient Ram Inn calls itself the most haunted building in England. The reality is stranger, and more layered, than the marketing.

SHOW NOTES

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Instagram: @prettywickedthepodcast

If you loved this episode, leaving a review means the world and helps other listeners find the show.

Pretty Wicked is hosted by Megan Alda.

🖤 SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Here is everything used to research this episode.

🔗 WEB SOURCES

Triskele Heritage - Mediaeval Mythbusting Blog #26: The Ancient Ram Inn

Historic England - The Ancient Ram Inn, List Entry 1088885

Historic England - Educational Resource: The Ancient Ram Inn

The Ancient Ram Inn - Official Website

Higgypop Paranormal - The Former Gloucestershire Inn Where History and the Paranormal Collide

Higgypop Paranormal - Ancient Ram Inn Ghost Hunt Review

Find a Grave - John Humphries Memorial

Stroud Times - Owner of Ancient Ram Inn Speaks of Plans for the Iconic Former Pub

Ex Utopia - The Ancient Ram Inn: A Visit to England's Most Haunted House

Travel Channel - Ancient Ram Inn's Haunted History

Astonishing Legends - The Ancient Ram Inn

From Tiny Pennies - The Ancient Ram Inn, Wotton-Under-Edge

Visit Herefordshire - Introducing Alfred Watkins, a Fascinating Man

Woolhope Club - Alfred Watkins

English Heritage - Witchcraft: Eight Myths and Misconceptions

English Heritage - Building Stonehenge

University of Reading - New Research Reveals Origin of Stonehenge's Great Sarsen Stones

University College London - Stonehenge Bluestone Quarries Confirmed 140 Miles Away in Wales

Birmingham Museums Trust - Sarehole's Inspiration for Tolkien's Middle-earth

Wotton Heritage - Wotton-Under-Edge Local History

British History Online - Wotton-under-Edge (RCHME 1976)

Gloucestershire Archives - Deeds D1193/16/1 (1350-1724)

IMDB - Most Haunted: The Ancient Ram Inn (Season 5, 2005)

📚 BOOKS

Historic Building Mythbusting: Uncovering Folklore, History and Archaeology - James Wright, The History Press, 2024

The Old Straight Track - Alfred Watkins, 1925

Early British Trackways - Alfred Watkins, 1922

Vernacular Architecture Group Spring Conference 2014 - Gloucestershire - Linda Hall, Vernacular Architecture Group, 2014

Tree-ring Dates from the Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory List 263 - Daniel Miles and Martin Bridge, in Vernacular Architecture Volume 45, 2014

🎬 DOCUMENTARY & FURTHER LISTENING

Ghost Adventures (Travel Channel) - The Ancient Ram Inn episode

Most Haunted, Series 5 - The Ancient Ram Inn (originally broadcast 29 January 2005)
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In August 2009, two men in tailored suits walked into the most exclusive jewelry store on London's most exclusive street, and two minutes later they walked out with forty million pounds in diamonds. No masks. The makeup artist who'd spent four hours disguising them thought they were working on a music video. The man who planned it all was out on police bail for cocaine, still living at his mother's house. Sixteen years on, not a single stone has been recovered.

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Please leave a rating and review. It really does help small podcasts like this one find new ears.

Pretty Wicked is hosted by Megan Alda.

🖤 SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Here is everything used to research this episode.

🔗 WEB SOURCES

The Cinemaholic - Michelle Hogg: Where Is the Make-up Artist Now?

Chris Dennis Talks Makeup - Charles H. Fox turns into Kryolan Store

Jack the Ripper Tour - An Interview With Charles H. Fox

CBC News - How British drag queen La Voix unwittingly provided the makeup for a $73M jewel heist

HuffPost UK - How La Voix Became Embroiled In The UK's Biggest Ever Jewels Heist

Hello Magazine - Inside Strictly star La Voix's private life – from tragic loss to 'frightening' diamond heist

The Natural Sapphire Company - The Graff Diamond Heist: One of London's Biggest Robberies

Art Hostage - Stolen Art Watch: Graff Jewel Heist

CBS News - Caught on Tape: Dirty Sexy London Heist

France24 - Robbers raid London store in Britain's biggest jewel heist

WWD - Graff Robbers Sentenced

IDEX Online - First Conviction in Graff Robbery Case

The London Daily News - £40 million Graff diamond heist 21 year prison sentence

The New Yorker - The Pink Panthers

JCK Online - Interview With Director of Documentary About the "Pink Panther" Jewel Thieves

CBS News 60 Minutes - The Pink Panthers: Daring heists rake in half-a-billion dollars

LCCSA - Graff robbery diamond turns up in Hong Kong pawn shop

Professional Jeweller - Stolen Graff jewel turns up in Hong Kong

Headspace Group - Laurence Graff: A lifetime with diamonds

Bloomberg - Laurence Graff profile

ARTnews - Laurence Graff, Top 200 Collector profile

Hancocks London - Graff maker profile

Thought Economics - A Conversation with Laurence Graff OBE

Interview Magazine - Peter M. Brant interviews Laurence Graff

Rapaport - The Heart of Graff

Graff - House Heritage

Graff - London New Bond Street store

🎬 DOCUMENTARY & FURTHER LISTENING

Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers (2013, dir. Havana Marking)

Little Did You Know podcast (2021), hosted by David McGillivray, episode 12 with Chris Dennis - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82Ier5pYLRE

ABC News original 2009 broadcast featuring the bystander cell phone footage

VICE short documentary on the Pink Panthers (2014)
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