The Historian of the Strange Returns! w/ Robert Damon Schneck

On this edition of Parallax Views' #HalloweenPodcastMassacreSeries, "The Historian of the Strange" Robert Damon Schneck shares with us macabre and ghoulish tales of autoerotic asphyxiation, man in black attacks, homicidal preachers, and... bigfoot porn?

Robert Damon Schneck is the author of The President's Vampire: Strange-but-True Tales of the United States of America (later re-issued as The Bye Bye Man: And Other Strange-but-True Tales) and Mrs. Wakeman Vs. the Antichrist: And Other Strange-but-True Tales from American History. He covers all things eerie, strange, and "Fortean", but from a perspective closer to a folklorist than a believer in the paranormal. For Schneck whether or not strange stories have a paranormal explanation makes them no less strange and ultimately his interest is in what these stories say about our history.

Lately, Schneck has been investigating the history of auto-erotic asphyxiation. That is to say the phenomenon of people, mostly men, who cut off their own oxygen supply for sexual pleasure. Yes, it's weird but has become well-known thanks to the death of Kill Bill actor David Carradine. Carradine's death led to the phenomenon being more widely hear of and since then it has even been the punchline of jokes in sitcoms and TV shows like South Park. However, auto-erotic asphyxiation didn't become a named phenomenon until the 1980s due to the work of researchers like forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz. Schneck's research delves into cases before the 1980s that are otherwise inexplicable without the auto-erotic asphyxiation explanation. 

From there we delve into a potential mass panic in 1935 involving a a person being beaten by a man in black using a silver ball. Yes, it does sound like a scene straight out of the cult classic horror franchise Phantasm featuring the villainous "Tall Man" played by Angus Scrimm. We then discuss other weird stories from America's past concerning "Man in Black" figures including the story of the Black Flash and tying in the tales of phantom leapers, like Spring-Heeled Jack, into our discussion.

From there we pivot to a potpourri of strangeness that is wide-ranging and cover many different cases and even some movie talk! Among the other topics covered:

- The serial child attacker known as the "Los Angeles Witch Woman"
- A vile Detroit serial killer known who became nicknamed "Bigfoot"
- Strangeness involving serial killers, specifically Charles Starkweather's weird journal entry claiming to have met a supernatural creature in his childhood (he called it "Death") and the Yosemite Killer Cary Stayner's peculiar obsession with sasquatch
- Weird movie discussion! Strange Bigfoot movies involving Sasquatches ripping off people's lower parts, a one where Bigfoot is an interdimensional demon, and, yes, the existence of, believe it or not, Bigfoot erotica. Then we discuss one of the strangest zombie movies of the 1970s (and one of Robert Damon Schneck's favorite movies) Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things.
- The peculiar use of hair pins as weapons
- Briefly revisiting the story that brought Schneck to the attention of movie studios, "The Bye Bye Man"
- Insane, homicidal ministers, preachers, and religious men!
- Stories of mesmerism and mind control (as an excuse for bad behavior?) in the 19th century
- The Satanic Panic of the 1980s and Michelle Remembers!
- The only piece of crime memorabilia Robert Schneck owns and its relationship to an electrocution story

Yes, this is a barn-burner of a conversation clocking in at just a little over two hours that's perfect listen for the spooky season!

This Episode Brought to You By:

The War State:
The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963
by
Michael Swanson
of
The Wall Street Window