Just a heads up. If you aren't aware, snuff films are alleged murders filmed for the purpose of entertainment.

So there will be some descriptions of alleged violent content. But as usual, I did my best to avoid graphic detail.

On this podcast, we explore fantastical thinking, moral panics, conspiracy theories, and urban legends,

examine the forces that shape our culture and tell the stories that create the realities we share,

and sometimes the realities we don't. I'm your host, Chelsea Weber Smith, and this is American History.

Ladies and gentlemen, the bloodiest thing that ever happened in front of a camera.

She got this videotape from a friend of a friend. There are snuff films.

The camera contained film that seems to have recorded a killer of who shot the film and who committed a crime.

Or was it a crime? Those answers next.

In 1989, a rural Michigan farmer by the name of Robert Reed looked up into the Cerulean sky

and saw something quite out of the ordinary.

A cluster of weather balloons that began to sink slowly down toward his field.

He followed them until they finally touched the ground. And that's when he found the super-8 camera that had been tied to the strings.

Robert Reed was a logical man, and remembering the recent drug busts in the area,

he assumed the device must have been a crude police surveillance unit created by the local marijuana farmers.

And so, he did his duty as an American citizen and narc and took the camera to the local police station.

That's when it became clear that the hillside farmers were innocent.

And what authorities found on that tape was way worse than a stoner's idea of security.

In fact, the unspeakable horror they saw when they played it back would spark a year-long investigation.

The video appeared to be a real-life snuff film, a ritual murder movie possibly made by a satanic cop.

The alleged murderers were described by Michigan State Police Detective Paul Wood like this.

These two people standing on the body had a distinctive type uniform on.

...