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
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…
S1E7 Dinner & a Séance Part 1
We'd love to hear from you!The room goes still, the metronome ticks, and Mary begins a slow descent down an imagined staircase that somehow leads straight into the private histories of everyone at…
S1E6 Ghost Horse
We'd love to hear from you!A girl wakes after five silent days with no memory and no weakness. A minister sits in her parlor and suggests a possibility more human than demonic: a spirit not gone far…
S1E5 Bloody Mary
We'd love to hear from you!Content Warning:This episode contains descriptions of self-harm, blood, graphic injury, violence, and strong language. Check the Chapters for details.Listener discretion is…
S1E4 Possession or Performance?
We'd love to hear from you!We trace Mary’s missing days at the Peoria Water Cure and the split between diagnosis and belief, then widen the lens to Wilmington’s haunted landmarks and why certain…
S1E3 Mary Mary, Quite Contrary
We'd love to hear from you!A teenager restrained in a windowless room, a doctor’s letter that reads like a warning, and a father who refuses to accept “coincidence” as an answer—this chapter of Small…
S1E2 There's Something About Mary
We'd love to hear from you!A quiet kitchen, a Sunday supper, and a six-year-old who suddenly sounds sixty-three. That’s where our journey takes a sharp turn, pulling us from small-town routine into a…
S1E1 Watseka: America's Most Extraordinary Case of Possession and Exorcism
We'd love to hear from you!Welcome to Small Town Whispers. In Episode 1, you are going to get to know your host a little bit better and understand why she wants to keep the history of Watseka, IL and…
Frequently Asked Questions
Small Town Whispers has published 16 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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