THE HOUSEWIFE WHO CHANNELED A DEAD AUTHOR FOR 25 YEARS: Pearl Curran and Her Ouija Board
Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories
Darren Marlar
4.6 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 10 September 2025
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1913, a St. Louis housewife with no literary education began receiving messages through a Ouija board from someone calling herself Patience Worth, who claimed to have died centuries earlier. Over the next 25 years, Pearl Curran would produce 400,000 words of historically accurate novels, plays, and poetry that literary experts said she couldn't possibly have written herself.
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IN THIS EPISODE: How did Pearl Curran, an ordinary St. Louis housewife, become the center of one of the greatest paranormal mysteries of all time? (Patience Worth And The Ouija Board) *** A home in India is grappling with an angry ghost that apparently has chosen to throw potatoes at it. (Terrifying Tater Tosser) *** It began with a blast the power of a nuclear bomb, lights filled the skies, a fireball the size of the moon streaked across the sky. But this wasn’t a UFO or anything paranormal or supernatural. This was all man-made – and it was only the beginning of something much more sinister that was planned. (The Japanese Death Cult’s Plan To Split The World In Two) *** John Hatfield could not stay out of trouble. Probably due to the fact that he kept making up false identifies for himself, and getting into trouble with those identities. His antics were so well known that later, a woman who created a falsehood about herself was accused of being an imposter just like him. We’ll look at both of their strange stories! (The Keswick Imposter, and the Fasting-Woman of Tutbury) *** Long before Sybil and the Three Faces of Eve, there was Doris Fischer and her case is still considered a classic. (Multiple Personality Doris)
CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Lead-In
00:01:58.189 = Show Open
00:04:11.570 = Patience Worth and the Ouija Board
00:19:22.166 = Multiple Personality Doris
00:25:02.657 = Keswick Imposter
00:32:06.239 = Fasting Woman of Tutbury
00:46:48.927 = Terrifying Tater Tosser
00:49:43.174 = Japanese Death Cult Plan To Split The World
01:02:28.213 = Show Close
SOURCES AND RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE…“Patience Worth and the Ouija Board” by Dr. Romeo Vitelli for Providentia: https://tinyurl.com/yybffe6z and Troy Taylor for American Hauntings: https://tinyurl.com/y3ma4gk5
“Terrifying Tater Tosser” posted at The Shillong Times: https://tinyurl.com/y3gnqhp2
“The Japanese Death Cult’s Plan To Split The World in Two” from Motherboard: https://tinyurl.com/9unt6b9
“The Keswick Imposter and the Fasting-Woman of Tutbury” by Geri Walton: https://tinyurl.com/y3fda3jh,https://tinyurl.com/y4fo7ov7
“Multiple Personality Doris” by Dr. Romeo Vitelli for Providentia: https://tinyurl.com/yxtq5ht6=====(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)= = = = ="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46= = = = =WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2025, Weird Darkness.=====Originally aired: August 17, 2020
EPISODE PAGE at WeirdDarkness.com (includes list of sources): https://weirddarkness.com/PatienceWorth
ABOUT WEIRD DARKNESS: Weird Darkness is a true crime and paranormal podcast narrated by professional award-winning voice actor, Darren Marlar. Seven days per week, Weird Darkness focuses on all thing strange and macabre such as haunted locations, unsolved mysteries, true ghost stories, supernatural manifestations, urban legends, unsolved or cold case murders, conspiracy theories, and more. On Thursdays, this scary stories podcast features horror fiction along with the occasional creepypasta. Weird Darkness has been named one of the “Best 20 Storytellers in Podcasting” by Podcast Business Journal. Listeners have described the show as a cross between “Coast to Coast” with Art Bell, “The Twilight Zone” with Rod Serling, “Unsolved Mysteries” with Robert Stack, and “In Search Of” with Leonard Nimoy.DISCLAIMER: Ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. *** Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.
#PearlCurran #PatienceWorth #OuijaBoardMystery #ParanormalHistory #UnexplainedMysteries
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, weirdos. Just wanted to let you know that on the Weird Darkness YouTube channel recently, we've been having fun doing a live chat each weeknight at 10.30 p.m. Central Time. I set up the YouTube channel to premiere a video at that time, usually the podcast episode for the day, and then during the premiere, we all hang out in the YouTube live chat. Even if you've already heard that day's episode here in the podcast, you're |
| 0:21.2 | still welcome to join us for the YouTube chat. It's every weeknight at 10.30 p.m. Central |
| 0:26.0 | time. And sometimes I do it over the weekends, too, because I have no social life whatsoever. |
| 0:31.6 | You can find my channel at weirddarkness.com slash YouTube. That's weirddarkness.com |
| 0:36.3 | slash YouTube. Hey, weirdos, as we get closer to Halloween |
| 0:40.1 | and our 10-year anniversary of this podcast, I'd love to get your opinions on how I'm doing, |
| 0:45.2 | what you like, what you don't like, what you'd like to see more of, what you'd change if you were |
| 0:50.3 | in charge. Well, you get the idea. I have a new Weird Darkness survey on the website so you can send me your opinions. |
| 0:56.4 | And it's completely anonymous, so you can be completely honest. |
| 1:00.2 | This is a new survey, so even if you did give your opinion before, you can do so again, and I'd appreciate you doing so. |
| 1:06.8 | Visit WeirdDarkness.com slash survey. |
| 1:09.9 | That's Weirddarkness.com slash survey. That's Weirddarkness.com slash survey. |
| 1:15.6 | Spiritualism was tremendously popular during the early years of the 20th century, with countless |
| 1:21.5 | occult believers across most English-speaking countries. Mediums like Usapia Palladino and Helen Smith regularly conducted seances for the |
| 1:31.8 | rich and not-so-rich alike, and news of spooky happenings definitely sold newspapers. |
| 1:39.7 | While Houdini's anti-spiritualism crusade helped deflate spiritualist claims. |
| 1:45.4 | There was still enough interest for Ouija boards to be a common item in many homes. |
| 1:51.4 | Which brings us to Pearl Curran having a quiet tea with her mother and a family friend |
| 1:56.7 | at her home in 1913. |
| 2:00.3 | Pearl was reluctant about using the Ouija board that her friend had |
| 2:03.5 | brought to her home, but after some initial success with messages from someone on the other |
| 2:09.2 | side calling themselves Pat C., the three of them decided to keep trying. On July 8 of that year, they received the following message. |
... |
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