Episode 16: The Tennessee State Prison

Episode 22: The Ghost Army

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1967677/fan_mail/new] Welcome to the Tennessee Ghosts and Legends Podcast. My name is Lyle Russell. I am your host, and I love a good ghost story. Today, have I got a ghost story for you. However, this episode is a little different from what you're used to hearing on this podcast. There are no plantation spirits, no cryptids in the tree line, no UFOs landing in Nashville, and no lights floating over haunted railroad tracks. The story you are about to hear is stranger than any of those things because this ghost story is true. Every word of it. And it started right here, in the woods east of Tullahoma, Tennessee, in the winter of 1944. Welcome to the Ghost Army. Before we get into the story, I want to tell you something about how this episode came to be. Over the 2026 Memorial Day Weekend, I had the privilege of bringing author and documentary filmmaker Rick Beyer to Tullahoma to kick off our city’s America 250 celebration, Along with his wife, Marilyn, and his sister, Catherine, Rick presented his research on this amazing story he has spent over 20 years documenting and bringing to public attention. Rick is the author of The Ghost Army of World War II, co-written with Elizabeth Sayles, and the producer of the 2013 PBS documentary of the same name. He is the foremost authority on this story, and he was gracious enough to share it with our community and to allow me to draw on his research for this episode. What I'm about to tell you is deeply informed by Rick's work, and I am grateful to him for keeping this story alive so others could hear it.

Episode 21: Tennessee's Lost Treasure

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1967677/fan_mail/new] In this episode, we’ll combine a good ghost story with a treasure hunt. Today we are going to chase three of Tennessee's most compelling treasure legends. We begin at a time before before America existed, with Spanish gold and the Cherokee warriors who guarded it along the Elk River. Then we head east to the misty hollows of Greenbrier Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains, where a blacksmith found something in a hillside that he spent the rest of his life hiding, and possibly never told a single living soul about. Finally, we’ll end in the chaos and desperation of the Civil War, with a Confederate paymaster riding hard through the night to bury sixty thousand dollars in gold coins before the Yankees could take it. Today’s episode is about Gold, Ghosts, and Greed. Let’s explore the Lost Treasures of Tennessee

Episode 20: Native American Legends of Tennessee

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1967677/fan_mail/new] On today’s Thanksgiving holiday episode, we’ll explore some Tennessee Native American legends about spurned love, why black bears do not have tails, a strange creature said to eat the livers of kidnapped children, and two trees that grew from an act of great betrayal and from great love. Join me for the stories of the Black Bear and the Fox, Reelfoot Lake, a shapeshifter known as Spearfinger, and the Legend of Nocatula.

Episode 19: The Buckner Witch of Standing Stone

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1967677/fan_mail/new] Today, we’ll discuss a local legend from Putnam County, Tennessee about the ghost of a jealous woman dressed in all black that haunted Margaret Buckner until the day she died. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Polly Brewington, the Buckner Witch of Standing Stone.

Episode 18: The Orpheum Theater

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1967677/fan_mail/new] Today’s episode takes us once again to the home of the Delta Blues and a famous theater site haunted by no less than a reported seven spirits. The most mischievous one has her very own seat that is forever reserved as a place for her to watch performances despite becoming a ghost over 100 years ago. Welcome to Memphis’s Orpheum Theater.