Coast to Coast AM - Dec 09 2011 - Vintage Paranormal & Open Lines

Host: George Noory
Guests: Chad Lewis

Hours 1 & 2 - Author and investigator Chad Lewis discussed vintage paranormal cases reported in newspapers from the period of 1860-1910.

Lewis explained that, while researching specific cases that he was investigating, he began discovering weird and odd stories in old newspapers. As the serendipitously discovered tales began to accumulate, he decided to begin searching for such stories. The arduous process, begun in the days before search engines, saw Lewis sometimes going days without finding a story and then, when one would emerge, "it felt like winning the lottery." He observed that these stories often featured an attention grabbing headline such as "Woman Yawns Herself to Death," which was an actual article that Lewis discovered.

Other stories depicted mysteries that are still puzzling Americans today, such as Bigfoot and UFOs, as well as the potential origins for some modern urban legends. On Bigfoot, Lewis said that tales from the time reported creatures that were over 7 feet tall and described as a "hairy monster." According to these newspaper stories, such sightings would spawn "posses of hundreds of men" who would try to hunt the creature terrorizing the area. Regarding UFOs, he expressed amazement at how the stories recounted bright lights hovering over towns for up to thirty minutes at a time with numerous witnesses seeing the anomaly. Another eerie, recurring theme that Lewis uncovered were tales of people nearly being buried alive. He revealed that there are "thousands of newspaper reports" which detail a person being pronounced dead and then reviving moments before they were to be lowered into the ground.

Hours 3 & 4 - Open Lines.

The latter half of the show was devoted to Open Lines and featured callers sharing tales of ghost encounters, theories on the nature of the universe, and chilling predictions for impending world events. To that end, a caller simply billed as 'Lieutenant' and claiming to be a part of the Air Force, warned that the drone allegedly shot down in Iran was actually "landed there by nefarious forces within our own government." Citing the video footage which shows the drone as remarkably intact, 'Lieutenant' contended that the "plan" is for Iran to use the craft to deliver a nuclear bomb attack on the US or one of our allies. Failing that, he said, the story would serve as the basis for a false flag attack to be blamed on Iran and "this will perfectly spark World War III."

On a more uplifting note, Alex in Ontario, Canada shared an amazing story from his childhood in Iran. While on a family trip to the Caspian Sea, an old man asked for a ride, but they were unable to help him, since there was no room in the car. Upon arriving at their destination, they were stunned to see the man there, despite no cars passing them along the way. Alex's father struck up a conversation with the old man, who asked him how his parents were and what their address was. After learning this information, the old man closed his eyes and described, in detail, visiting their home. While still in the restaurant, Alex's father called his parents and was told that, just moments ago, a "beautiful old man" visited them. This visit matched the old man's description perfectly. "This is beyond comprehension," Alex marveled, "it's phenomenal."