Small Town Whispers

Epilogue

We'd love to hear from you! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2539508/fan_mail/new] The Watseka Wonder has always lived in a strange space between documented history, Illinois folklore, and the kind of paranormal story you swear you only hear in one town. For our season one finale, I read the epilogue from David St. Clair’s book and finally step past the “what happened” into “what happened next” for Lurancy Vennum, the Roff family, and the wider community that couldn’t stop watching. Some of the locations still exist today, and the fact that the Roff home is now an Airbnb makes the past feel uncomfortably close.  After the epilogue, I’m joined in a Zoom roundtable by several of the voices who helped bring the season to life. We talk about growing up around the legend, what it’s like to perform characters tied to real people, and why this story keeps resurfacing across generations. Then we get specific: where St. Clair takes creative liberties, what the original 1878 E W Stevens case study actually documents, and why the record focuses so heavily on Lurancy even though pop culture memory clings to Mary Roff.  We also leave room for the harder questions that modern listeners bring to possession stories: mental health, trauma, and medical possibilities like epilepsy. If you’re searching for a clear, grounded breakdown of the Watseka possession case, spiritualism history, and the line between fact and storycraft, this wrap-up puts the receipts on the table while still honoring the mystery. Subscribe, share the show with a friend who loves true paranormal history, and leave a rating or review so we can keep building what comes next. The song at the end is The Watseka Wonder by Heliotropic Music.  Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2539508/support] If this show resonates with you, please hit follow, share it with a friend who loves true history and the paranormal, and leave a rating and review. It really helps us get discovered, and it helps boost my morale!  If you’ve enjoyed listening and you would like to support the show, please consider donating through the following, which are also listed at the end of the episode: Venmo- Bethany-Borden-1 Paypal- BethanyBorden865 Buzzsprout website [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2539508/support] CashApp- $SmallTownWhispers Please share your stories with us at porchlightwhispers@gmail.com  or send us a message on the Small Town Whispers Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581954877702]!  You'll also want to head to our Patreon page [https://patreon.com/SmallTownWhispersMidnightSociety?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink] for exclusive footage of the Roff house, bonus listener stories, and more!  Did you know we’re on YouTube?! I dare you to put it on at bedtime. https://www.youtube.com/@SmallTownWhispersPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@SmallTownWhispersPodcast] Don't forget to tell a friend or family member about the show.  Thank you!

Hello, Goodbye

We'd love to hear from you! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2539508/fan_mail/new] 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 Exorcism, and it turns into one of the most intense seance scenes I’ve ever read. Then the narrative cuts to Hickory Street, where Lavinia Durst hears someone inside her home.  After that, I switch gears into Porchlight Whispers with guest Billy Lewis, a filmmaker who built Scare Network, a streaming platform for paranormal documentaries, horror, true crime, and monsters. Billy talks skepticism, EVPs, shadow figures, and the kind of evidence that changes you, including a chilling scream caught on camera during the Malifice shoot and the one abandoned hospital where he truly felt watched. https://www.scarenetwork.tv/ [https://www.scarenetwork.tv/] https://www.facebook.com/ScareNetwork [https://www.facebook.com/ScareNetwork] https://www.youtube.com/@scarenetworktv [https://www.youtube.com/@scarenetworktv] If you’re into the Watseka Wonder, possession and exorcism history, haunted locations in America, or modern paranormal investigation, queue this one up. Subscribe, share it with a friend who loves the strange, and leave a review with your theory about what really happened here. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2539508/support] If this show resonates with you, please hit follow, share it with a friend who loves true history and the paranormal, and leave a rating and review. It really helps us get discovered, and it helps boost my morale!  If you’ve enjoyed listening and you would like to support the show, please consider donating through the following, which are also listed at the end of the episode: Venmo- Bethany-Borden-1 Paypal- BethanyBorden865 Buzzsprout website [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2539508/support] CashApp- $SmallTownWhispers Please share your stories with us at porchlightwhispers@gmail.com  or send us a message on the Small Town Whispers Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581954877702]!  You'll also want to head to our Patreon page [https://patreon.com/SmallTownWhispersMidnightSociety?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink] for exclusive footage of the Roff house, bonus listener stories, and more!  Did you know we’re on YouTube?! I dare you to put it on at bedtime. https://www.youtube.com/@SmallTownWhispersPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@SmallTownWhispersPodcast] Don't forget to tell a friend or family member about the show.  Thank you!

The Unforsaken Chair

We'd love to hear from you! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2539508/fan_mail/new] 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 porch light clicks on in Wilmington, North Carolina, and my guest Sarah, a true Wilmington native, walks us through the haunted locations she’s convinced still hold energy. We talk about the USO building on Orange Street and the way a historic theater space can feel “loud” after traged. From there, we head to Bellamy Mansion, where a widow’s walk turns cold and a sealed-off room becomes the setting for Sarah’s most unsettling memory. We close at Oakdale Cemetery, where childhood curiosity about channeling collides with a moment that feels far too specific to brush off, and we pull the thread that runs through everything tonight: why some people feel open to the unexplained, and why some towns feel like they keep what happened there. If you love paranormal podcasts, real ghost stories, haunted Wilmington history, and the Watseka possession case, this one is for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who sleeps with the lights on, and leave a review so more listeners can find us. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2539508/support] If this show resonates with you, please hit follow, share it with a friend who loves true history and the paranormal, and leave a rating and review. It really helps us get discovered, and it helps boost my morale!  If you’ve enjoyed listening and you would like to support the show, please consider donating through the following, which are also listed at the end of the episode: Venmo- Bethany-Borden-1 Paypal- BethanyBorden865 Buzzsprout website [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2539508/support] CashApp- $SmallTownWhispers Please share your stories with us at porchlightwhispers@gmail.com  or send us a message on the Small Town Whispers Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581954877702]!  You'll also want to head to our Patreon page [https://patreon.com/SmallTownWhispersMidnightSociety?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink] for exclusive footage of the Roff house, bonus listener stories, and more!  Did you know we’re on YouTube?! I dare you to put it on at bedtime. https://www.youtube.com/@SmallTownWhispersPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@SmallTownWhispersPodcast] Don't forget to tell a friend or family member about the show.  Thank you!

Another Daughter Appears

We'd love to hear from you! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2539508/fan_mail/new] 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 Watseka, Illinois and the Roff House, where the final seance begins to form around Lurancy Vennum with a level of planning that feels equal parts family gathering and ritual. Before the lamps are turned down, I share something personal: how fear and perfectionism kept me from publishing creative work for years, and why finishing this season matters to me. Then we return to the pages of Watseka as Mary directs the room, assigns seats like a clock face, and insists on absolute trust. A small basin of water appears, a protective charm is brought into the circle, and the group joins hands as Lurancy slips into stillness. What follows is why this story has never let go of people. A new voice breaks through, and it’s not subtle. Two brand new voices appear out of thin air, seeking through Lurancy. Tune in to her channel in this episode. If you’ve been following this Watseka possession and exorcism journey, this chapter is the hinge that swings everything forward. Subscribe, share Small Town Whispers with a friend who loves paranormal history, and leave a rating and review so more listeners can find the show. And if you’ve got a story of your own, email Porchlight Whispers at gmail.com or message the Small Town Whispers Facebook page. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2539508/support] If this show resonates with you, please hit follow, share it with a friend who loves true history and the paranormal, and leave a rating and review. It really helps us get discovered, and it helps boost my morale!  If you’ve enjoyed listening and you would like to support the show, please consider donating through the following, which are also listed at the end of the episode: Venmo- Bethany-Borden-1 Paypal- BethanyBorden865 Buzzsprout website [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2539508/support] CashApp- $SmallTownWhispers Please share your stories with us at porchlightwhispers@gmail.com  or send us a message on the Small Town Whispers Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581954877702]!  You'll also want to head to our Patreon page [https://patreon.com/SmallTownWhispersMidnightSociety?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink] for exclusive footage of the Roff house, bonus listener stories, and more!  Did you know we’re on YouTube?! I dare you to put it on at bedtime. https://www.youtube.com/@SmallTownWhispersPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@SmallTownWhispersPodcast] Don't forget to tell a friend or family member about the show.  Thank you!

A Double Warning

We'd love to hear from you! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2539508/fan_mail/new] 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 most volatile part of the Watseka-inspired possession story, where every choice feels like it could tip the case toward healing or disaster. Bethany and the Small Town Whispers team walk you through a chapter where love is real, the fear is louder, and the town is watching. We start with a quick, important reminder that this is a fictional retelling loosely inspired by The Watseka Wonder and Dr. E. W. Stevens’ 1878 account, with dramatic liberties taken for storytelling. From there, the tension climbs fast: Henry Vennum worries about a petition to have Lurancy committed, Lurinda Vennum arrives in tears to see her daughter, and the fragile peace at the Roff home feels like it might finally hold. Then Loozie returns to Watseka, and a single church visit detonates into a brutal confrontation that leaves blood on a Sunday sidewalk and a warning no one can pretend they didn’t see. Under the Porchlight Whispers segment, we zoom out into paranormal history and American spiritualism, tracing the Hydesville farmhouse, the Fox Sisters, and the infamous knocks that helped spark a national obsession with séances and spirit communication. Was it trickery, mass grief, or something genuinely unexplained? We sit with the question that keeps haunting every ghost story: if someone you loved could reach back from the other side, would you answer? If you’ve ever had signs you couldn’t deny, email us at Porchlight Whispers at gmail.com, then subscribe, share this episode with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2539508/support] If this show resonates with you, please hit follow, share it with a friend who loves true history and the paranormal, and leave a rating and review. It really helps us get discovered, and it helps boost my morale!  If you’ve enjoyed listening and you would like to support the show, please consider donating through the following, which are also listed at the end of the episode: Venmo- Bethany-Borden-1 Paypal- BethanyBorden865 Buzzsprout website [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2539508/support] CashApp- $SmallTownWhispers Please share your stories with us at porchlightwhispers@gmail.com  or send us a message on the Small Town Whispers Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581954877702]!  You'll also want to head to our Patreon page [https://patreon.com/SmallTownWhispersMidnightSociety?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink] for exclusive footage of the Roff house, bonus listener stories, and more!  Did you know we’re on YouTube?! I dare you to put it on at bedtime. https://www.youtube.com/@SmallTownWhispersPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@SmallTownWhispersPodcast] Don't forget to tell a friend or family member about the show.  Thank you!