On an early morning in 2018, a woman in her 50s stood in the doorway of her bedroom in Austin, TX – firing off shots from her .357 revolver into the dark kitchen a few yards away. Someone in the kitchen fired back, and bullets whizzed past her and crashed into the wall. The woman saw shadows moving back and forth in the kitchen, but no matter where she aimed in the darkness, she just couldn’t hit anyone. She kept firing until she heard a CLICK – her gun was empty. Terrified, she turned and ran into her bedroom closet to hide. Later that morning, when detectives arrived at the house and walked into the kitchen, the scene looked almost like something out of an old western movie – like some insane shootout had taken place in this quiet, upscale neighborhood. The dead body of a middle-aged man lay on the floor, surrounded by multiple bullet casings from what looked like several different weapons. And a handgun rested near the dead man’s out-stretched hand. The woman who lived there described the wild events of the morning to the detectives, and she claimed people had broken into her house and killed her husband, but they must have run when she opened fire on them. But the detectives had no way of knowing what had really happened, and they immediately started to wonder if this entire crime scene – this massive shootout – had just been staged to cover-up a good old-fashioned case of a wife murdering her husband.

For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallen

If you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballen

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today’s podcast will feature 2 stories about people who have sinister intentions. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast.

Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:

• #2 -- "Loana the Bloodthirster" -- A horrifying ritual that led to a supposed curse (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tgiVW9mSL8)
• #1 -- "The Witching Hour" -- In 2005, a small group of people sat in a circle and devised a plan to break their curse (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMW7JjJcByg)

For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallen

If you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballen

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On Christmas morning of 2010, snow fell on a quiet suburb in South West England. But just after 9:00 a.m., the quiet was shattered by the sound of police sirens racing through town. The police cars came to a screeching stop on a wet street, and a veteran Detective Inspector stepped out into the cold. He walked towards a stone wall that separated the road from a tree-covered field on the other side. The Detective Inspector reached the wall, crouched down, and started digging through a pile of snow and leaves. And when he saw what was underneath this pile, he knew he would not be spending Christmas with his family.

For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallen

If you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballen

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today’s podcast will feature 3 medical horror stories. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast.

Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:

• #3 -- "The Shadow" -- One man's night of terror has devastating ripple effects (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qz4U3bh-eE)
• #2 -- "Night and Day" -- A pair of brothers suffer from nightly transformations (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn7eaj36dUY)
• #1 -- "Leg Pain" -- A man's leg pain would escalate into one of the most baffling medical mysteries (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRzdiHG3_eY)

For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallen

If you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballen

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

At 3:45 a.m. on a morning in 2003, police cars raced down a street in a small, sleepy English village. A Detective Inspector stepped out of his car and approached an old house that was connected to a butcher shop. The Detective Inspector was still in shock from the call he’d gotten – an 83 year-old man had been brutally murdered in his bedroom. This was just not something that ever happened in English villages like this. The inspector knocked on the door to the house, and things would only get stranger from there. Because the victim’s wife had seen the men who killed her husband, and the image of one of them was burned into her mind – it was a young man in bright white pants and a hat that looked just like the one the famous fictional English detective Sherlock Holmes wore. Soon, the inspector and his team would find themselves investigating a case where they had no idea what was real, and what was simply the imagination of a scared, 81 year-old woman.

For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallen

If you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballen

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today’s podcast will feature 2 stories that prove that money is the root of all evil. The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast.

Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:

• #2 -- "Loan Shark" -- Student takes drastic measures to pay off debt... (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rpQ3VP9-Mc)
• #1 -- "Western Russian Farm Animal" -- The plot of this story is so absurd it sounds like badly written fiction, but it's not fiction, and it really happened (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAHgzaFiF0Y)

For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallen

If you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballen

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a special bonus episode of our new format called, "You Can't"

On a dark fall night in 2010, two detectives stood in the street in an upscale suburban neighborhood outside of Boston, Massachusetts. In the middle of the road – lit by their flashlights – lay the body of a teenage boy. These were two veteran detectives, but neither of them had ever seen the type of brutal violence that had been inflicted on this young man. His legs look shattered, his jeans had been shredded, and his face was bruised and broken. The detectives felt sure this young man had been murdered, but because he had no ID on him, they didn’t know who he was. But when they did finally discover his identity, this case would take a totally bizarre turn. The detectives would find themselves 1,000 miles away from their crime scene, sifting through reported sightings of their victim that defied the laws of physics, and grasping at an insane theory that they hoped could somehow tie it all together.

For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallen

If you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballen

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On Halloween night in 1957, a group of children ran towards a brand new house in a suburban neighborhood outside of Los Angeles, California. This house had some of the best decorations on the street, and the kids all hoped the house would have the best candy, too. One of the children knocked on the front door, and a middle-aged woman in a witch hat and her husband opened the door and told the kids how great all of their costumes looked. The wife handed out a huge handful of candy to each of them, and they all said thank you – the candy really was as good as the decorations. The kids, giddy with excitement, ran towards the next house. But none of the kids saw the person in white make-up, red gloves, and a mask pulled down over half of their face quietly watching the woman in the witch hat talking to her husband in the doorway. And as the husband and wife walked back inside their house to restock their candy bowl, they had no idea this Halloween was about to turn truly horrifying.

For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallen

If you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballen

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.