For centuries, Edinburgh has been home to murderers, body snatchers, executioners, occultists, and some of Scotland's most famous ghost stories. Today, one figure dominates the city's paranormal tourism scene - Mr Boots. But long before Mr Boots became Edinburgh's unofficial ghostly mascot, there was another name people feared encountering after dark.

This week, we're exploring the forgotten legend of Johnny One-Arm - the restless spirit said to be that of John Chiesley of Dalry, the man who assassinated Scotland's most powerful judge in 1689 before suffering one of the most brutal executions in Edinburgh's history.

From the narrow closes of the Royal Mile to the lonely roads of old Dalry, generations of witnesses claimed to encounter a silent one-armed figure standing motionless in the darkness. Some heard footsteps behind them on empty roads. Others claimed to have come face-to-face with a man who vanished moments later.

Was Johnny One-Arm simply a local bogeyman used to frighten children home before dark, or one of Edinburgh's most overlooked ghost stories?

The case of Lurancy Vennum is often described as America’s strangest possession case.

In 1877, in the small town of Watseka, Illinois, a young girl began falling into violent trances. She spoke in unfamiliar voices, claimed to see dead people standing in her room, and seemed to lose awareness of the world around her.

What followed drew physicians, spiritualists, sceptics, and newspaper reporters from across the country.

But this wasn’t a medieval witch trial or local legend. It happened in front of witnesses. Doctors documented it. Families opened their homes to investigators. And for months, an ordinary household became the centre of one of the most disturbing paranormal cases in American history.

In this episode, we explore the full story of the "Watseka Wonder" - from the first signs something was wrong, to the alleged spirit of Mary Roff, and the question that still hangs over the case nearly 150 years later:

Was this possession, psychological trauma… or something far stranger?

It was meant to be empty.

After closing time, with the doors locked and the building cleared, staff began noticing things that didn’t quite fit. A face appearing briefly above the bar, as if someone had lifted themselves just enough to look over before dropping back out of sight. A glass shelf, fixed securely in place, shifting in a way that didn’t make sense.

Nothing dramatic. Nothing that could be easily explained either.

These weren’t stories told years later or passed through word of mouth. They came from people who worked there - people familiar with the space, who knew what was normal and what wasn’t.

In this episode, we’re looking at a nightclub in Glasgow where something continued to be seen, even when it should have been empty.