This episode's topic is morbid by nature, so listener discretion for our youngest listeners is perhaps advised.

I'm Laura Norton, and this is one strange thing, the show where we search the nation's news archives for stories that can't quite be explained.

Strangers, if you were a child of the 1980s or 1990s, then you might be familiar with a certain book series.

Scary stories to tell in the dark.

There were plenty of these anthologies, with their creepy, sketchy, black and white covers,

splashed with just a little red.

They were full of short, nightmarish tales that were plucked from who knows where,

and they were virtually guaranteed to keep us up far past our bedtimes. And generations of

children, who are now adults, we guess, we are still convinced that any girl with a ribbon tied

around her neck should be avoided at all costs.

You never know what it might come loose and her head will simply topple off.

Honestly, it was traumatizing.

It still is.

And probably a formative experience for a lot of goths.

But that's hardly the only memorable tale brought to us by author Alvin Schwartz.

If we read you the beginning of this one, we suspect that it will be familiar.

It appeared in the third collection of his scary story series.

This one set some time vaguely in the third collection of his scary story series. This one set sometime vaguely in the past.

It's titled, Maybe You Will Remember. Mrs. Gibbs and her 16-year-old daughter Rosemary arrived in Paris on a hot morning in July. They had been on a vacation and now were returning home.

But Mrs. Gibbs did not feel well, so they decided to rest in Paris for a few days before going on. The city was crowded with tourists. Still, they found a place to stay at a good hotel. They

had a lovely room overlooking a park.

It had yellow walls, a blue carpet, and white furniture. As soon as they unpacked, Mrs. Gibbs

...