Southern Mysteries Podcast Podcast Por Shannon Ballard arte de portada

Southern Mysteries Podcast

Southern Mysteries Podcast

De: Shannon Ballard
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Unearthing the forgotten, the mysterious, and the legendary—one Southern story at a time. Hosted by Shannon Ballard, Southern Mysteries explores the rich and often untold history of the American South through a captivating mix of folklore, legends, unexplained mysteries, and true crime. Each episode uncovers a compelling tale from a Southern state, blending history with intrigue to reveal the fascinating stories that time left behind. While some episodes delve into chilling crimes, others spotlight legendary figures, ghostly lore, or baffling events.Sometimes the mystery is: why haven’t you heard the story?Copyright 2017 . All rights reserved. Biografías y Memorias Ciencias Sociales Crímenes Reales Mundial
Episodios
  • Episode 178 Little Boy Lost - The Disappearance of Kenneth Beasley

    Episode 178 Little Boy Lost - The Disappearance of Kenneth Beasley
    Nov 10 2025
    In 1905, eight-year-old Kenneth Beasley, the son of North Carolina State Senator Samuel Beasley, walked out of his one-room schoolhouse in Poplar Branch, Currituck County—and vanished. What followed was one of the most haunting and controversial cases in North Carolina history. A bitter feud between two respected families, a trial built on circumstantial evidence, and a man’s death that left more questions than answers. Over a century later, the disappearance of the senator’s son remains unsolved. In this episode of Southern Mysteries, explore the loss, suspicion, and silence that still echo through the story of Kenneth Beasley—a mystery that has never let go of the Carolina coast. Join the Community on Patreon: Want more Southern Mysteries? You can hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries 🎧 Explore More Southern Mysteries Visit SouthernMysteries.com for more episodes and source lists. 📱 Follow on Social Media: Facebook: Southern Mysteries Podcast TikTok @southernmysteries Instagram: @southernmysteries Email: southernmysteriespodcast@gmail.com Episode Sources State v. Harrison, 146 N.C. 540 (1907) – Official North Carolina Supreme Court opinion detailing the 1907 conviction of Joshua T. Harrison for the kidnapping of Kenneth Beasley; includes procedural history, evidence summary, and court rulings.The News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), February 1905 – Original newspaper publication of the anonymous letter alleging a man seen with a crying boy in a buggy near Barco on the day Kenneth Beasley disappeared. The Elizabeth City Economist (Elizabeth City, N.C.), March 1907 – Contemporary reporting on the Pasquotank County trial of Joshua Harrison; includes witness testimony summaries and public reaction to the guilty verdict. The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.), September 1907 – Coverage of Joshua Harrison’s suicide at the Gladstone Hotel following the Supreme Court’s decision; includes mention of the suicide note claiming innocence. The Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Va.), September 19, 1907 – Regional coverage of Harrison’s death and aftermath, quoting Senator Beasley’s reaction that Harrison “took his secret to the grave.”The Atlanta Georgian, September 1907 – Additional newspaper reporting on Harrison’s suicide, reprinting statements from North Carolina officials regarding the case outcome.Currituck County, North Carolina GenWeb Archives – Miscellaneous Newspaper Articles – Digitized transcriptions of early 20th-century reports on the Beasley case, including disappearance coverage, Harrison’s indictment, and excerpts from the Supreme Court opinion.Beach Glass Books – The Senator’s Son: The Shocking Disappearance of Kenneth Beasley, and the Trials of Joshua Harrison by Charles Oldham (2018) – Modern historical investigation into the case; draws from court records, newspaper archives, and local oral history.Most Notorious Podcast – Interview with Charles Oldham (December 7, 2023) – Discussion of the Beasley disappearance and Harrison’s trial; includes historical context on Currituck County politics and the culture of the early 1900s.Strange Company Blog – “Where is Kenneth Beasley?” (January 6, 2020) – Summary of the case using verified newspaper accounts; cites the News and Observer letter and the 1907 court proceedings.Find a Grave – Senator Samuel Mordecai Beasley (1863–1910) – Burial information and biographical details confirming Beasley’s death in Norfolk, Virginia.Find a Grave – Joshua Thomas Harrison (1839–1907) – Burial and genealogical data, confirming Harrison’s identity, family connections, and date of death.Currituck County Historical Society Records – Local archival notes and oral tradition references to the Beasley disappearance; confirm the location of Poplar Branch schoolhouse and family properties.North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources – State Archives, Raleigh – Holding references for Beasley and Harrison court and legislative documents, including the 1906–1907 Currituck Superior Court docket entries.U.S. Census Records, Currituck County (1900 & 1910) – Verification of Beasley and Harrison family members, occupations, and ages.Elmwood Cemetery Records (Norfolk, Virginia) – Burial registry confirming interment of Senator Samuel M. Beasley, 1910. Episode Music Out of the Mines, courtesy of Ross Gentry, Asheville, North Carolina.
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    33 m
  • Episode 177 Witch Legends of the South

    Episode 177 Witch Legends of the South
    Oct 27 2025
    Across the South, the word witch has been used to explain what people fear and cannot control. For generations, healers, midwives, conjurers and root workers carried knowledge their communities needed, yet often faced suspicion when tragedy struck. In this episode of Southern Mysteries, we explore the real lives and southern legends behind those branded as witches. From colonial courts to mountain cabins and coastal swamps, these stories reveal how the line between healing and haunting has always been thin and how fear can turn ordinary people into figures of folklore. Join the Community on Patreon: Want more Southern Mysteries? You can hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries 🎧 Explore More Southern Mysteries Visit SouthernMysteries.com for more episodes and source lists. 📱 Follow on Social Media: Facebook: Southern Mysteries Podcast TikTok @southernmysteries Instagram: @southernmysteries Email: southernmysteriespodcast@gmail.com Episode Sources Anderson, Jeffery E. Conjure in African American Society. Louisiana State University Press, 2005.American Folklife Center, Library of Congress — regional oral history collections on conjure, hoodoo, and midwifery.Anniston Hot Blast and Birmingham Age-Herald (Alabama newspapers), 1880s witchcraft coverage.Deep South Magazine. “Julia ‘Aunt Julie’ Brown: Debunking Her Voodoo Priestess Mythos.”Encyclopedia of Louisiana. “Marie Laveau.” Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.Encyclopedia Virginia. “Sherwood, Grace (ca. 1660–1740).”Federal Writers’ Project. South Carolina Slave Narratives. Library of Congress, 1938.Ferry Plantation House Museum archives, Virginia Beach, Virginia. Fett, Sharla M. Working Cures: Healing, Health, and Power on Southern Slave Plantations. University of North Carolina Press, 2002.Foxfire 2: Houses and Appalachian Traditions. Edited by Eliot Wigginton. Anchor Books, 1973.Historic New Orleans Collection. “Julia Brown: Hoodoo, Hurricanes, and a Storm-Swamped Ruddock.”L’Observateur (St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana). “Voodoo Queen and Forces Unseen.”Library of Virginia. “The Case of Grace Sherwood, 1706.” Princess Anne County Court Records.Louisiana State Museum archives, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans, Louisiana.Long, Carolyn Morrow. A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau. University Press of Florida, 2006.Martha Ward. Voodoo Queen: The Spirited Lives of Marie Laveau. University Press of Mississippi, 2004.McTeer, J.E. Fifty Years as a Low Country Witch Doctor. University of South Carolina Press, 1971.Mental Floss. “The Legend and Truth of the Voodoo Priestess Who Haunts a Louisiana Swamp.”Milnes, Gerald. Signs, Cures, and Witchery: German Appalachian Folklore. University of Tennessee Press, 2007.National Park Service. “Marie Laveau’s Tomb – St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.”Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. Vintage Books, 2003.Princess Anne County Order Book, 1695–1709. Virginia State Library microfilm collection.Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. “Granny Women: Healers of the Southern Appalachians.”South Carolina Encyclopedia. “Dr. Buzzard.”South Magazine. “Lowcountry Root Doctors.”The State (Columbia, South Carolina). “In the mid-20th century, even the county sheriff was a witch doctor.”Swannanoa Valley Museum. “Mary Stepp Burnette Hayden: Midwife and Healer of Western North Carolina.”The St. John the Baptist Pioneer, October 1915, hurricane coverage.The Times-Picayune (New Orleans), October 1–3, 1915, storm and casualty reports; obituary, June 17, 1881.Virginia Memory, Library of Virginia. “Good Witch or Bad Witch? The Grace Sherwood Trial and Pardon.”Ward, Martha. Voodoo Queen: The Spirited Lives of Marie Laveau. University Press of Mississippi, 2004.Western Carolina University Digital Humanities Project. “Midwives and the Medicalization of Birth in Appalachia.”Wikipedia (used for verification of geography and storm data): “Frenier, Louisiana” and “1915 New Orleans Hurricane.”Wigginton, Eliot, ed. Foxfire 2: Houses and Appalachian Traditions. Anchor Books, 1973. Episode Music Out of the Mines, courtesy of Ross Gentry, Asheville, North Carolina.
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    31 m
  • Episode 176 The Mystery of the Surrency Poltergeist

    Episode 176 The Mystery of the Surrency Poltergeist
    Oct 20 2025
    In 1872, the quiet Georgia town of Surrency became the center of one of America’s strangest mysteries. Inside the home of Allen Powell Surrency, glass shattered, clocks ran backward, and furniture moved without a hand touching it. The events drew scientists, skeptics, and spiritualists, including one from Salem, Massachusetts. Was it a hoax, hysteria, or something that defied explanation? In this episode of Southern Mysteries, uncover the story of the Surrency family and the haunting that shook a town, blurred the line between faith and fear, and became one of the most documented poltergeist cases in U.S. history. Join the Community on Patreon: Want more Southern Mysteries? You can hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries 🎧 Explore More Southern Mysteries Visit SouthernMysteries.com for more episodes and source lists. 📱 Follow on Social Media: Facebook: Southern Mysteries Podcast TikTok @southernmysteries Instagram: @southernmysteries Email: southernmysteriespodcast@gmail.com Episode Sources The Savannah Morning News (Oct–Dec 1872) – Coverage of the Surrency disturbancesThe Atlanta Constitution (Nov 1872–Jan 1873) – Reports on the “Surrency Mystery”The Augusta Chronicle (Oct 1872) – Editorial accounts of the Surrency hauntingThe New York Times (Dec 4 1872) – “Spiritual Manifestations in Georgia”The Albany Patriot – Reprinted witness letters and commentary, 1872The Philadelphia Inquirer (1872–1873) – Syndicated reports on the hauntingHarper’s Weekly (1873) – “Poltergeists and the Marvels of Surrency”John W. Truesdell, The Bottom Facts Concerning the Science of Spiritualism (1873)The Boston Globe (1872–1873) – Reports on Charles H. FosterGeorgia Historical Quarterly Vol. 47 (1963) – “The Surrency Ghost: A Georgia Poltergeist Reexamined”The Georgia Encyclopedia – Entry on Surrency, Appling CountyAlan Brown, Haunted Georgia: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Peach State (2008)Charles Elliott, Strange Tales of the South: Haunted Houses and Ghost Legends (1974)Dennis William Hauck, Haunted Places: The National Directory (2002)Jim Miles, Haunted South Georgia (2017)J. Michael Norman, Spirits of the Southeast (2010)Rosemary Ellen Guiley, The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, 3rd Ed. (2007)Tiya Miles, Phantoms of the Past: The American South and the Supernatural (2021)Alan Gauld & A.D. Cornell, Psychical Research and the Poltergeist (1979)Michael Norman & Beth Scott, Haunted America (1988)Nancy Roberts, Haunted Houses: Tales from the American South (1972)Jim Miles, Haunted Georgia: Ghosts and Legends of the Peach State (2010)Randy Russell & Janet Barnett, Spirits of the South: Ghost Stories of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi (2000)Alan Dundes, Dictionary of American Folklore (1993)William G. Roll, The Poltergeist Phenomenon (2012)Nancy Roberts, Haunted Houses: Where Ghosts Still Roam (1979)Kathryn Tucker Windham, Southern Spirits: Tales of the Supernatural from the Deep South (1983)Ann Braude, The American Spiritualist Movement, 1848–1920 (2001)Muriel V. Murphree, Mysteries and Legends of Georgia (2009)Georgia Public Broadcasting (2021) – “The Surrency Poltergeist: Georgia’s Most Documented Haunting”Georgia Archives – Appling County records and land grants, Allen P. Surrency estate (1870s–1880s)U.S. Census Records – Appling County, Georgia (1870–1880)Library of Congress Chronicling America – Digitized newspaper archives, 1872–1873Frank Podmore, The Poltergeist in History (1896)American Hauntings Podcast, Season 4, Episode 14 – “The Surrency Ghost”Beast of Bladenboro – “The Surrency Haunting: Georgia’s Most Infamous Poltergeist”Otherworldly Oracle – “The Surrency Ghosts: True Terrifying Tales of Haunted Georgia”PANICd.com – “ParaPedia: The Surrency Family Poltergeist”US Ghost Adventures – “The Poltergeist of Phelps Mansion”Paranormal Research Society of New England – “Phelps Mansion”American Hauntings Ink – “The Stratford Poltergeist” Episode Music Out of the Mines, courtesy of Ross Gentry, Asheville, North Carolina.
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    29 m

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What a gem to find. A staff of one, Shannon Ballard, does an incredible job of researching, presenting, recording and producing this great podcast. She’s a wonderful storyteller!

A fun gem, and thank you Audible!

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If you are into history and crime this podcast brings it all together in a great storytelling set.
Shannon does an awesome job looking up the facts. Her storytelling is wonderful. I look forward to new episodes all the time.

Love this show!

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Great and to the point stories that are well researched. I love her voice as a podcaster. I wish I could give more stars!

Love this podcast

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Ms. Ballard tells the story with such eloquence. No drama, no giggles, no irrelevant jabber, no foul language here. Stories are told with class and respect. Well done.

Stories as they should be told

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It's pretty good despite her inserting her social justice warrior commentary. Her empathy for whatever down-trodden minority group really has been morphing into virtue signaling. Let the story work for itself. We all know what happened was bad. That is why you are telling it.

Good, despite....

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Love the host, love the stories. The pacing is cozy, there are just enough details and backstory.

Great Podcast

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excellent and interesting... I look forward to each of them... when I found this podcast.. I binge listened to them.. even my kids found them cool

best podcast ever

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enjoy every moment of this podcast brings to account mysteries of the South and crimes that have been around us for years and those that live here in the south, we don't realize the things that happened around us.

Great Stories

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I love this podcast! Enjoyable and captivating Southern stories. Great narrative & well researched. Hard to believe one person does it all.

My new favorite

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The narrator is always a joy to listen to. She draws you inside to the stories.

Interesting way things happen

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