The Sewers

One Strange Thing: True Paranormal Mysteries

Laurah Norton

Paranormalpodcast, History, True Crime, Paranormal, Mystery

4.6 • 763 Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One of the United States' most enduring urban legends swims just below the surface of our major urban centers—and most especially New York City: the belief that giant alligators live, and grow, in the sewers. One Strange Thing: True Paranormal Mysteries explores the archives of the unexplained, blending rigorous historical research with a wry, skeptical wit to investigate true supernatural stories and baffling mysteries that made headlines. Dive into our Episode Mystery Archive — a curated, topic-organized source for documented hauntings, UFO sightings, cryptids, folklore, and bizarre true mysteries. Check it out here! https://www.onestrangethingpodcast.com/episodes-by-topic-mystery-archive Hosted and Written by Laurah Norton Researched by Melissa Gold and Laurah Norton Produced by Maura Currie Engineered by Brandon Schexnayder Subscribe to our Substack: https://substack.com/@onestrangething Sources on our website: https://www.onestrangethingpodcast.com/ Join us on Patreon for early release and ad-free episodes, exclusive stories, and bonus episodes: https://www.patreon.com/OneStrangeThing You can also subscribe to premium episodes on Apple Premium and Supercast! Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/OSTPod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onestrangethingpod/ and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/One-Strange-Thing-114307627035607 We have partnered with Libsyn to handle our advertising/sponsorship requests. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email ad-sales@libsyn.com or click the link below to get started. https://advertising.libsyn.com/OneStrangeThing 2025 All Rights Reserved One Strange Thing Podcast & The Fall Line Podcast LLC

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, strangers, this tale does touch on some rather unfortunate ends for a few alligators.
0:07.0	Nothing too grotesque, but listener discretion might be advised.
0:16.8	I'm Lauren Orton, and this is one strange thing, the show where we search the nation's news archives for stories that can't quite be explained.
0:35.6	Strangers, we must say, we're fond of a good urban legend.
0:40.3	These stories are the folklore and fairy tales of our modern age,
0:44.8	the bloody woman who appears after we chant her name,
0:48.0	the deep-fried rats that are served up in buckets of fast-food-fried chicken,
0:52.2	or spider bites that hide a thousand pulsing eggs,
0:56.3	just waiting to burst forth. Honestly, we'd give you more examples, but we kind of grossed
1:02.9	ourselves out too much with that last one. Anyway, not all urban legends are based on nightmare
1:08.7	scenarios. There are plenty that have floated around about, say, celebrities,
1:14.0	like that 1990s-era belief that a child star from the TV show The Wonder Years
1:19.3	grew up to be shock rock singer Marilyn Manson.
1:23.0	But the best ones are, we think, scary,
1:26.8	and just outlandish enough to push the boundaries of belief.
1:32.0	One of our very favorite urban legends, perhaps because it just butts up against that boundary,
1:38.7	is the rumor that big old alligators are swimming around in the sewers of major American cities, feasting on rats
1:46.6	and splashing around in the dank waters. The idea is that major metropolis is everywhere
1:52.8	might have a reptilian menace, roiling just underneath the surface. A nasty kind of secret,
2:03.9	you might say. And the city with the biggest alligator legend of all? Well, it must be somewhere in Florida, right? Or maybe even Louisiana.
2:11.9	According to official stats from the latter state, each is home to at least a million wild
2:17.0	alligators.
	...

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