Based on the episodes that you’ve heard in this series, then you’re likely aware there are many stories of curses, superstitions, and creepy coincidences that have been interwoven into the fabric of the “Devil’s Music.” Some are silly and a bit of a stretch, some are eerie, and some – like the most famous music curse of the “27 Club” – are downright unnerving.

In this episode, we’ll dig into the infamous “Buddy Holly Curse,” which began on a fateful night in February 1959 – the “Day the Music Died.” Legend has it that this curse dogged an entire generation of rock stars connected to Buddy Holly. Is it truth or fiction?

Curses and superstitions are not taken lightly in the music world. But I’ll leave it up to you to decide if the frightening things that occurred were the supernatural at work, mere coincidence, or the result of that famous rock-n-roll adage of “living fast and leaving a good-looking corpse behind.”

Once the smoke cleared from the Cicero elections, Eddie Vogel – the underworld mover and shaker of the town, who gave orders to the mayor and other local officials – kept his promise to Torrio and Capone about gambling. On May 1, they opened the Cicero’s first bookmaking and gambling operation, the Hawthorne Smoke Shop, right next door to their Cicero headquarters, the Hawthorne Inn. Things were running smoothly in Cicero, this small but growing town of just over 16,000 people at the time, or…. Well, for the most part.

There was still one ongoing problem that needed to be dealt with. That problem’s name was Eddie Tancl.

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This episode was written by Troy Taylor

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Filmmakers in the 1950s didn’t completely abandon the dry and dusty lore of the Devil even if it did seem audiences were now much more inclined to see threats in the form of atomic bombs, little green men in flying saucers, and giant monsters unleashed by man’s experiments with radioactivity. A new obsession with science and outer space seemed to temporarily put the Devil on hold, largely pushing the mysteries of black magic off the screen.

But the 1950s weren’t a complete loss when it came to the Devil onscreen. They not only introduced an unhinged underground filmmaker who would have a much bigger impact in the decade to come but 1957 also gave us what was, without question, one of the best satanic films of all time – one of the few truly effective films about black magic that can still give you a chill even nearly 70 years later.

The call came in as a fire. What firefighters found inside was far worse. In March of 1994, three people were discovered dead inside a Westlawn Avenue home in Decatur, Illinois. The investigation led police to James David Dyer, a man already feared by one of the victims and already named in a court order.

This episode follows the threats, the violence, the chase, and the aftermath of a case that left one town shaken.

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This episode was written by Troy Taylor

Produced and edited by Cody Beck

Before rock-n-roll started taking America by storm in the 1950s, you wouldn’t find a minister or holy roller anywhere in the country who didn’t refer to the blues as the “Devil’s Music.”

During the Middle Ages, the Church told people that any kind of music that wasn’t about God was the work of the Devil. That became a popular refrain for church leaders – then and sometimes now. By the early twentieth century, it was jazz music – linked to the blamed of Storyville – that was being blamed for lewd and lascivious behavior.

Jazz seemed really bad – but then came the blues -- a form of music with an angry, wicked sound that conjures up visions of dive bars, pool halls, graveyards, and an abandoned crossroads in Mississippi where the Devil just might be waiting for the next hopeful guitar player to come along, looking for fame and fortune.

Then, with the blending of blues, country, hillbilly music, and more, rock-n-roll was born. It’s evolved in many ways over the years – but it’s always been trouble.

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This episode was written by Troy Taylor

Produced and edited by Cody Beck

After keeping a low profile in the previous decade, the Devil made a comeback in the 1940s, when soon-to-be-war-weary audiences were both diverted and disturbed by satanic entertainment. Thanks to the darkness lurking in the world during those years, we shouldn’t be surprised to find there were a number of genuinely ominous visions of evil captured on celluloid at the time.

Reflecting on those terrible years of global bloodshed, the dawning of the nuclear age, and the years of exhaustion that followed the war, we find that many of the satanic films of the 1940s present a darkly pessimistic view that leaves no doubt that humanity really doesn’t need the Devil to encourage it to do evil.

On a summer night in 1987, 22-year-old Brenda Sue Bottoms left her home in Auburn, Illinois for a short walk to a nearby tavern. Hours later, she was seen getting into a brown car with dents on the passenger side.

She was never seen again.

Nearly four decades later, investigators say new information has surfaced — including the possibility that more people witnessed Brenda’s final moments than originally believed.

In a town where people remember everything…who is still keeping this secret?

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