Small Town Whispers
Bethany Yucuis Borden
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About This Podcast
Small Town Whispers is a storytelling podcast where history and the paranormal meet under the glow of the porchlight. Season One, Watseka Wonder, explores the chilling 19th-century case of possession and exorcism that haunted my hometown of Watseka, Illinois. I first discovered the story as a twelve-year-old when I read the book Watseka: America's Most Extraordinary Case of Possession and Exorcism by David St. Clair. Now, I return to share those haunting pages alongside small-town legends, ghost stories, and folklore submitted by listeners like you.
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Recent Episodes
S1E27 Hello, Goodbye
We'd love to hear from you!Water is not supposed to burn, and yet that’s exactly where this story goes. We pick up the final excerpt from Watseka, America’s Most Extraordinary Case of Possession and…
S1E26 The Unforsaken Chair
We'd love to hear from you!A seance isn’t supposed to turn physical, but this one does. We’re back inside the Roff Home circle for the second part of the seance being held by Mary/Lurancy. Then the…
S1E25 Another Daughter Appears
We'd love to hear from you!A wound that vanishes by sundown. A dining room cleared like a stage. Twelve chairs set in a circle with one seat left empty and untouchable. I’m taking you back to…
S1E24 A Double Warning
We'd love to hear from you!A brother shows up at the door with his hat in his hands and a request that sounds simple: “Can Rancy come see Ma?” That one question pulls the Roff household back into the…
S1E23 A Letter From Heaven and a Warning
We'd love to hear from you!A child’s body goes still. A household runs out of options. Then an ordinary white envelope drifts down from the ceiling with instructions detailed enough to save a life.…
S1E22 Spring Fever
We'd love to hear from you!Spring has a way of making people bold, and in Watseka it also makes the haunting louder. We pick back up with the Watseka Wonder story at the moment it turns deeply…
S1E21 "Two 'Crazies' to Contend With"
We'd love to hear from you!A girl runs barefoot into the March snow because she doesn’t recognize the people calling her “family,” and the whole town decides that panic is proof. We’re back in…
S1E20 Total Recall
We'd love to hear from you!A single bark hidden in an audio edit shouldn’t rattle anyone, but it did. While revisiting our interview with paranormal investigator and podcaster Tom Stewart, we hear…
S1E19 Tea in Heaven
We'd love to hear from you!A girl walks out of her house in 1878 and into someone else’s life, and a grieving family chooses to believe their daughter just came home. We pick up the Watseka Wonder at…
S1E18 Unfamiliar Territory
We'd love to hear from you!A girl insists she isn’t who her parents think she is and the room spirals from arguments into terror. We start with a chilling stretch of the Watseka possession narrative,…
S1E17 An Unconventional Tea Party
We'd love to hear from you!A mother opens her front door and watches a “stranger” sprint through the snow with her arms wide, calling someone else “Ma” and “Nervie” like it’s the most natural thing…
S1E16 A Hail Mary Possession
We'd love to hear from you!A father hears his daughter’s voice twelve years after her death. A basement lamp clicks itself on. We open the door to Watseka’s haunted past and present, weaving the…
S1E15 A Voice From the Past
We'd love to hear from you!A number can spook a culture, but it can also signal a doorway. On a Friday the 13th packed with lore and pop nostalgia, we follow a thread that leads to Watseka,…
S1E14 Cigars, Sailors, & a Very Rude Ghost
We'd love to hear from you!A winter storm closed the world outside, so we opened a door most people keep shut: the Watseka Wonder. Bethany revisits a case tangled with possession, small-town…
S1E13 Dr. E. W. Stevens, At Your Service
We'd love to hear from you!The room goes quiet when a child is called “possessed,” but the real noise lives in the spaces between fear, faith, and the need to explain what we can’t understand. We…
S1E12 September 21, 1877: The Crow
We'd love to hear from you!Content Note: This episode includes discussion of suicide and historical mental health struggles. Listener discretion is advised.A seventh grader bends over a blank page…
S1E11 July 4, 1877: It's Happening Again
We'd love to hear from you!We revisit Watseka and are introduced to Lurancy Vennum, a frail teen who hears voices and sees the dead during frightening fits. Between a mother’s terror and a town’s…
S1E10 Permanent Side Effects
We'd love to hear from you!A quiet Illinois morning shatters with a single scream, and an old question returns with new force: what do we do with the stories we can’t explain? We follow Mary Roff’s…
S1E9 A Cup of Tea
We'd love to hear from you!The bells of Palm Sunday ring, the town pours into the street, and then the story slips sideways. Watseka, Illinois is celebrating the end of war, but behind the music and…
S1E8 Dinner & a Séance Part 2
We'd love to hear from you!A quiet room, a held breath—and then a voice that isn’t quite Mary’s. What begins as a message for a granddaughter turns into a reckoning about shame, stolen money, and the…
Frequently Asked Questions
Small Town Whispers has published 27 episodes since October 2025, covering topics in Documentary, History.
Small Town Whispers is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 26m.
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