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Stories Fables Ghostly Tales
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Japanese true crime and Japanese folklore. Each episode pairs one real criminal case with the myth that shares its structure. Sada Abe and the jorogumo. The Saitama kennel murders and the inugami. Inokashira Park and the noppera-bo.

Stories Fables Ghostly Tales has been running since 2017, with more than 1000 episodes and over one million listens. Hosted by the Tale Teller. Alongside the Japanese series you will find creepypasta, NoSleep, Let's Not Meet, ghost stories, urban legends, Old Time Radio, Project Gutenberg classics and original horror audio drama.

New episodes every week. There is a story here for everyone.

Stay curious. Stay a little scared.

storiesfablesghostlytales.com

Stories Fables Ghostly Tales

Stories Fables Ghostly Tales Podcast
True Crime
994 episodes / 1.14M listens
Escape: Finger of Doom & The Adaptive Ultimate | Old Time Radio Double Bill
EARLY DROP: Escape Double Bill: Finger of Doom & The Adaptive Ultimate You're getting this one early, because the Tale Teller is packing a bag. I'm heading over east for an event this weekend, so rather than leave you waiting, I've lit the candle a few days ahead of schedule. This week I've been in the restoration workshop with two episodes from Escape, CBS's great high-adventure anthology. B...
55m • Oct 08
55m
The Joker On The Halloween Train
Halloween Special Part 1 of 4. Japanese true crime and Japanese folklore. On Halloween night 2021, a man in a Joker costume boarded a packed Tokyo train. For eight seconds, nobody moved. On 31 October 2021, a man in a purple suit and a green shirt boarded a crowded Keio Line express heading into Shinjuku. Nobody looked twice. It was the biggest costume night of the year, on a train full of pe...
31m • Oct 04
31m
The Horse That Takes Children
The last night — and the one I nearly didn't write... Mørketid ends tonight. Sweden. Fair warning on this one... This episode is about children. The bäckahästen drowns them and the Myling is one that was left in the woods to die, and while I've kept the detail out, it's there for the whole half-hour. If that's a hard subject for you, take this one at your own pace or skip it — the series wor...
19m • Sep 19
19m
The Black Death Was An Old Woman
Night three of Mørketid is out. Norway. She Carries a Rake... A craft decision I want to explain... The draug should have been the finale. He's the better monster by any obvious measure — a drowned fisherman in oilskins with a mass of seaweed where his head should be, sailing half a boat against the wind, screaming out on the water where there is nobody. That's a closing image. I put him se...
19m • Sep 12
19m
The Finnish Forest Hides People
NIGHT TWO — FINLAND Night two: Finland has a word for a person who isn't lost, isn't taken, and cannot be found — while standing right in front of you. Night two of Mørketid is out. Finland. Metsänpeitto It translates as "the forest cover," and it describes something Finns believed happened often enough that the language needed a word for it. A person walks into the forest they've known th...
20m • Sep 05
20m
Denmark's Sleep Paralysis Demon
Four nights of Nordic folklore. Night one: Denmark buried things alive under its churches — and some of them are still working.
21m • Aug 29
21m
The Kobe Cannibal Got A Food Column
Japanese true crime and Japanese folklore. In 1981 a student in Paris killed and ate his classmate. He was never imprisoned. Japan gave him a food column.
44m • Aug 22
44m
Three Waters, Dark Tides: Two Myths, One Truth (Ep01)
What happens when folklore becomes too terrible to be fiction? Can you listen past the performance and find the true forensic history? Welcome back to Stories Fables Ghostly Tales. In tonight’s interactive special, the Tale Teller presents an impossible challenge: "Three Waters, Dark Tides: Two Myths, One Truth." We have gathered three haunting accounts of Japan's relationship with the dark, ...
37m • Aug 09
37m
The Quiet Boy Who Terrified a Nation: Japan's Darkest Mystery & The Satori
Turn the lights down low... It is time for Tall Tales and True Crime... In this episode of Stories Fables Ghostly Tales, we explore one of the most widely discussed and psychologically complex cases in modern Japan: The 1997 Kobe Case, historically known across the nation as the Sakakibara Investigation. In the spring of 1997, the peaceful neighbourhood of Suma Ward in Kobe, Japan was grippe...
37m • Aug 02
37m
27 Pieces: The Unsolved Horror of Inokashira Park - True Crime Japan
On the morning of April 23, 1994, a park cleaner in Inokashira Park opened a utility trash container expecting ordinary market waste, only to find a severed human foot inside a translucent blue plastic bag. Within hours, police recovered twenty-seven separate body parts distributed across twenty-seven public trash bins—each piece meticulously cut to an exact length of twenty centimetres, draine...
33m • Jul 26
33m
Japanese Kennel Killers - Turning Their Enemies to Dust (1993)
⚠ CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains extensive, highly detailed accounts of real-world serial murder, financial exploitation, the complete thermal destruction of human remains, and themes of animal cruelty. Listener discretion is absolutely mandatory. Welcome back to Stories Fables Ghostly Tales. Tonight, we present The Art of Transparency: The Saitama Dog Lover Murders — Japan, 1993. Dee...
31m • Jul 19
31m
The Reeds of Twilight: The North Kanto Serial Murders Japan
⚠ CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains detailed descriptions of a real-world serial crime involving children, systemic judicial failure, and heavy themes of unresolved communal grief. It also contains an extended discussion of traditional Japanese supernatural folklore. Listener discretion is strongly advised. Welcome back to Stories Fables Ghostly Tales. Tonight, we present The Reeds of Twi...
26m • Jul 12
26m
30 People. 90 Minutes. One Village. Japan's Tsuyama Massacre & The Gashadokuro
G'day Tale Tellers and fans of Japanese True Crime! 👋 Thank you to my Patreon Supporters! Support me here: https://www.patreon.com/SFGT New episode is live right now — and this one hit differently while I was writing it. Tonight we're going to a mountain village in Japan called Kaio [KAH-ee-oh]. On the night of the 20th of May, 1938, a twenty-one-year-old man named Mutsuo Toi [MOOT-soo-oh T...
34m • Jul 05
34m
Sada Abe: Japan's Most Infamous Murder & The Ancient Spirit That Never Left | True Crime Japan
G'day everyone! And Happy Weekend! 👋 New episode is UP — and honestly? This one has been sitting with me for weeks. This episode we're covering the Sada Abe case. If you're not familiar — in May 1936, a woman named Sada Abe walked out of a Tokyo inn, through the city, bought new clothes, ate meals, read the newspaper coverage of her own crime... and didn't run. Not really. What she left behi...
42m • Jun 28
42m
EP06 | The Public Health Ghost: The 1948 Teikoku Bank Incident
Welcome back to the archive, inner circle... Deep Dive: The Sovereign Paralysis of the 1948 Teikoku Bank Incident When we look back at the forensics of post-war true crime, few cases carry the chilling, systemic precision of the Teikoku Bank Incident (Imperial Bank Incident) of January 26, 1948. It stands not just as a cold-blooded mass murder, but as a terrifying demonstration of how structu...
50m • Jun 21
50m
The Locked Room & The Harbour Torso — Malta’s Darkest Archival Voids
Welcome back to the archive. In this special dual transmission, we turn our forensic radar toward a tiny, sun-bleached rock sitting in the literal centre of the Mediterranean Sea: the island of Malta. Built entirely out of soft, honey-coloured Globigerina limestone, Malta's hyper-dense historic cities are marvels of defensive architecture. In a space so profoundly compressed, where secrets are...
40m • Jun 07
40m
The Womb That Held a Telephone Handset | Japanese True Crime Series
G'day Tea Totalling Guardians 🍵🍵🍵🍵🍵 On a cold afternoon in the spring of 1988, a quiet, uniform residential grid in Nagoya, Japan, became the theater for an act of absolute absurdity and horror. A heavily pregnant young mother is strangled from behind in her own living room. What followed was a primitive surgical extraction executed with a common consumer box cutter. But this was not a foetal...
43m • May 24
43m
The Unsolved Asahidake SOS Incident: Mystery of the Terror Tape | Japan True Crime
Case File #04: The SOS Tape Puzzle | The Asahidake Wilderness Anomaly 🔓 Welcome back to the archives, Guardians. The vault is officially open for Case File #05, and this week we are leaving behind the concrete lanes and digital footprints of metropolitan Tokyo. Our destination is the northern wilderness of Hokkaido, specifically the jagged, volcanic heights of Mount Asahi. This file document...
59m • May 17
59m
Mother’s Day Special: From "Mother Bird" Comedy to Toxic Obsession | Jack Benny & Suspense
MOTHERS DAY SPECIAL!!! Good evening Occult Librarians! In celebration of Mother’s Day, we are diving into the radio archives for a special double-feature that explores the many faces of motherhood—from the comedic vanity of a "mother bird" to the chilling obsession of a mother who refuses to let go!! The Jack Benny Program: "Mother's Day Show" (May 8, 1938) Our first program takes us to May ...
1hr 2m • May 10
1hr 2m
Who Leaves 50,000 Clues and Gets Away? | The Setagaya Family Murders
Case File #03: The Millennium Ghost is Now Open 🔓 Welcome to the latest archive Tale Teller Detectives... This week, we are stepping into a true crime puzzle that has frustrated investigators for over two decades. We are traveling to the Setagaya Ward in Tokyo, right on the threshold of the year 2000. While the world was holding its breath for the Y2K digital apocalypse, a very physical night...
34m • May 03
34m
The Monster with 21 Faces: The Cyanide Phantom That Shattered Japan
The lanterns are lit, the archive doors are bolted, and tonight, we are diving into a file that redefined the meaning of "Safety" in the modern world. The Glico-Morinaga Case In 1984, Japan wasn't just an economic powerhouse; it was considered the safest place on Earth. That ended the moment a CEO was dragged naked from his bathtub and the nation’s candy supply was turned into a chemical weap...
34m • Apr 26
34m
The Adventures of Sam Spade: The Death Bed Caper [Remastered]
🤒🤧 TALE TELLER IS SICK TODAY 🤒🤧 Legends writing this to let you know that there’s going to be a short delay with today's scheduled Japanese True Crime Episode due to being sick 🤧. Unfortunately, I’ve come down with a pretty stubborn chest infection, and chest infections hit me really hard, as I had asthma growing up (makes me more susceptible to chest infections) . I tried to push through it t...
32m • Apr 19
32m
Turning Lungs to Stone | Japanese True Crime
The Archives are Open: Turning Lungs to Stone The Paraquat Murders remain one of the most haunting "Forensic Zero" cases in history—a spree where the weapon was a common herbicide and the battlefield was the country's own sense of public trust. In this episode, we step away from the neon lights of the Tokyo Bubble and into the quiet, suffocating reality of the "Stone Lungs." Key Talking Poin...
34m • Apr 12
34m
The Adventures of Sam Spade Remastered | The Bow Window & Adam Figg Capers
HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE! 🐰🐰🐰 Tonight, we step back into the fog-drenched streets of 1947 San Francisco. I’ve spent the last several sessions in the studio with iZotope RX 11, meticulously scrubbing away nearly eighty years of crackle and "transcription hiss" to bring you two of the finest capers from The Adventures of Sam Spade. These aren't just old recordings; they are high-fidelity restorati...
1hr 1m • Apr 05
1hr 1m
Three Teenagers Murdered in Finland: Unsolved True Crime Mysterious
The Real Unsolved Murders of Lake Bodom We zip ourselves into those thin walls of nylon and canvas, and we tell ourselves we’ve built a sanctuary. We believe that if the door is locked and the group is together, the monsters are kept at bay. But on June 5th, 1960, on the shores of Lake Bodom, four teenagers learned the most terrifying lesson of the "White Night": a tent isn’t a shield—it’s a s...
38m • Mar 29
38m
The Stranger in the Rafters: The Villisca Axe Murders
This episode deconstructs the 1912 Villisca Axe Murders, focusing on the terrifying patience of a killer who waited in the rafters before committing a ritualistic massacre. It explores the case’s most bizarre anomalies—like covered mirrors and a slab of bacon—to see if the truth is still hiding in the shadows of that Iowa home.
34m • Mar 22
34m
The Logic of the Dead: The Lead Masks & The Winter Tomb
Welcome back to the dark! This week, we are diving into another extended double-feature exploring the ultimate human mystery: what happens when our most fundamental instinct—the drive to survive—completely collapses? We are unpacking two of the most baffling, psychological true crime cases in modern history. Two distinct groups of men, separated by a decade and thousands of miles, who willingl...
51m • Mar 15
51m
Shadows of the Departed: The Airport Runner & The Faceless Spy
Welcome back, inner circle! DOUBLE FREE EPISODE 💜 The Tale Teller has returned, and this time, I’ve brought you something monumental. This isn’t just an episode; it’s a 9,000-word double feature into the ultimate erasures. Two cases, separated by decades and geography, but bound by one terrifying thread: the profound mystery of the shadows they left behind! We’re diving deep into the blinding...
55m • Mar 08
55m
Sam Spade: The 2026 Public Domain Remasters | 1946 Radio Double Feature (iZotope RX 11)
The Private Eye is Free: A Sam Spade Double-Feature Remaster Listen close, detectives! 🕵️🕵️‍♂️🕵️‍♀️ The blueprint for the hardboiled detective is finally unlocked. As of January 1, 2026, Dashiell Hammett’s legendary private eye, Sam Spade, has officially entered the Public Domain. To celebrate, we aren't just re-playing old tapes—we are performing an audio resurrection. Forget the scratchy, ...
1hr 2m • Feb 22
1hr 2m
Do You Trust Your Nurse? The Lucy Letby Case
"Do You Trust Your Nurse? The Lucy Letby Case" In this deep-dive investigation from Stories Fables Ghostly Tales, we go beyond the initial 2023 convictions to examine the evidence currently dividing the medical world. Following the explosive 2025 Expert Panel report and the ongoing Thirlwall Inquiry, we analyze the technical rebuttals regarding air embolism theories, insulin thresholds, and th...
40m • Feb 15
40m
The Girl Who Never Came Home — April Tinsley
G'daaay Legends! 💜💜💜 This week on Stories Fables Ghostly Tales, I’m sharing the story of April Tinsley. She was eight years old when she disappeared in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1988. For a long time, there were no clear answers — just fragments. A neighborhood. A walk home. A case that never fully left people’s minds. What makes this story compelling isn’t shock or twists. It’s the way it unf...
30m • Feb 08
30m
The Traits of a Serial Killer: Their Weakness
This episode explored a difficult but important idea: the traits that define serial killers are not strengths—they are structural weaknesses. Popular culture often frames serial killers as calculating, fearless, or powerful. But when examined through real cases and repeated behaviours, the opposite becomes clear. Every trait that allowed harm also guaranteed escalation, exposure, and collapse....
34m • Feb 01
34m
Theresa Fusco (1984): Long Island Cold Case Breakthrough After Decades
40 years. 3 wrongful convictions. 1 DNA profile that changed everything. 🧬 In 1984, Theresa Fusco was just four blocks from home when she vanished. Decades later, the "solved" case fell apart. Who is the real suspect? Explore the #LongIsland mystery that redefined forensic justice.
29m • Jan 26
29m
The Butcher of Aberdeen | Katherine Knight & John Price (Australian True Crime)
The Butcher of Aberdeen is a chilling Australian true crime episode set in Aberdeen, NSW (Hunter Valley), covering the case of Katherine Knight and John Price. We explore the relationship’s escalating warning signs, the role of domestic violence and coercive control, and the events leading into March 1, 2000—ending with the court outcome and the lasting impact on the community. ⚠️ Listener disc...
33m • Jan 18
33m
KERRYN TATE: 46 Years Too Late
What happens when a case goes cold — but because time got there first.... Because in true crime, some stories don’t stay unsolved due to a lack of effort. They stay unsolved because the world simply didn’t have the tools to hear what the evidence was trying to say. This week on Nocturne Files: True Crime, we step into the case of Kerryn Tate — last seen in daylight in Mount Lawley in 1979, an...
42m • Jan 11
42m
The Joan Bernal Case: No Body, No Crime?
🕯️ A Question at the Heart of This Episode There’s a quiet question that sits at the centre of this week’s episode. What happens when someone disappears — and never comes back — but there’s no crime scene, no physical proof, and no clear ending? In true crime, these are known as no-body cases. And they’re some of the most unsettling stories we encounter, not because they’re dramatic, but bec...
46m • Jan 04
46m
Solved: The Murder of Louisa Dunne (Bristol Cold Case)
Louisa Dunne was murdered in Bristol in 1967. For decades, the community lived with the silence of unanswered questions. Fifty-eight years later, justice finally arrived. In this episode, we explore the Bristol Cold Case of Louisa Dunne—a story not just of a crime, but of a life interrupted. We discuss the forensic breakthroughs that cracked the case and the enduring impact of a mystery that s...
44m • Dec 28, 2025
44m
The Death of Lana Clarkson: Phil Spector’s Silent Symphony
Some True Crime stories announce themselves loudly. This one doesn’t. It begins quietly — with a late shift, a famous name, and a decision that, on the surface, feels ordinary. But beneath it sits a Murder Investigation that would stretch across years, courtrooms, and headlines, becoming one of the most unsettling Celebrity Crime cases in modern memory. In this episode of Stories Fables Ghos...
36m • Dec 21, 2025
36m
Death Cap Dinner: The Leongatha Mushroom Murders & Erin Patterson
This episode explores the infamous "Death Cap Dinner" in Leongatha, where a family lunch of beef Wellington turned deadly. We dissect the harrowing medical reality of death cap poisoning—including the deceptive "false recovery" phase—and peel back the layers of the fraught family history surrounding Erin Patterson. The story concludes in the courtroom, covering the lack of a clear motive and Pa...
47m • Dec 14, 2025
47m
Justice or Murder? The Ken Rex McElroy Story
Welcome legends to your Research and True Crime Episode! Skidmore, Missouri is the kind of town you’d usually drive through without ever taking off your sunglasses. One main street, a couple of brick buildings, fields on every side. And in 1981, that quiet little dot on the map did something unthinkable. In broad daylight, in the middle of Main Street, the town bully Ken Rex McElroy was shot...
45m • Dec 07, 2025
45m
🔮Inner Sanctum — The Death of Mr Putnam🔮
🪞 Patreon-Exclusive Episode Post Greetings, my dearest creeps, connoisseurs of atmosphere, and candle-lit listeners — it’s your friendly neighbourhood Tale Teller stepping softly through a creaking doorway tonight…because this episode...well... This one comes straight from the dusty, shadowy vaults of old-time radio royalty. We are diving into one of the great macabre institutions of the 1940...
38m • Nov 30, 2025
38m
🌲🌲🌲GRAY DAUGHTER HOLLOW 🌲🌲🌲
🌲 What The Grey Daughter Hollow Is About Welcome back, wanderers of the uncanny — it’s your midnight Tale Teller, reporting from somewhere under the canopy, where the forest listens more intently than any living thing should. Our story, The Grey Daughter Hollow, follows a forest with memory deeper than soil, children who return changed, and a detective whose grief makes him the perfect seed f...
1hr 7m • Nov 23, 2025
1hr 7m
The Soft Place + Quiet Hours — A Double Thread of Dread
Two tales braided by one question: what happens when the things meant to protect us—skin and silence—start letting something else in? 😱Content Warnings: body horror (skin/teeth/eyes), psychological distress, invasive/possessive spaces, loss of agency; no graphic gore. 🔊SPECIAL SONG AT THE END | Hope you love it! The Soft Place 🧽 A bruise opens like a polite mouth on Mae’s ribs, asking for w...
41m • Nov 09, 2025
41m
The Wellness Pit - Everything is Skin Deep...
🪞 What The Wellness Pit Is About Welcome back, my dearest creeps and connoisseurs of the uncanny — it’s your friendly neighbourhood Tale Teller, reporting live from the wrong side of a salt circle! Our latest story, The Wellness Pit, is an outback horror about self-improvement gone feral. It’s a tale of a small, sunburned town called Wattle’s Rest, where the road kills dry faster than the gos...
1hr • Nov 02, 2025
1hr
The Silvermoon Seamstress - Last Chapters 🌔🌓🌒🌑🌚 [Early Access]
🪡 When the Fabric Learns to Breathe Back… Some patterns shouldn’t be finished... Some stitches pull tighter than the maker intends... In this next chapter of The Silver Seamstress, the workshop changes its shape. The thread you thought you escaped has followed you home. The dress is waiting — and it’s not just fabric anymore. Meanwhile, the town awakens, one mannequin at a time. The rhythm t...
45m • Oct 26, 2025
45m
Seamstress of the Silver Moon 🌚 [Special]
🕯️ When the Thread Starts to Breathe… There’s a shop on a street that doesn’t appear on any map. Its window glows long after the rest of the town has fallen asleep. Inside, a lone seamstress works by candlelight — needle flashing, thread whispering, her hands moving with a rhythm that sounds far too alive. No one remembers when she arrived. No one remembers when she stopped. Some say the garm...
54m • Oct 19, 2025
54m
🐺Dungeon of the Black Moon 🐺🌚
🦉Alright my night-owls, candle-huffers, and certified spooky folk — gather ‘round, because tonight’s story is a weird one. We’re talking sentient dungeon weird. We’re talking werewolf-therapy-session-from-hell weird. We’re talking, “if IKEA designed its own haunted house, and the instructions were written in blood,” weird. In The Dungeon of Black Moon, a poor, hairy soul wakes up in a maze ...
1hr • Oct 12, 2025
1hr
BLACKSTONE | The Magic Detective 🕵️🕵️‍♂️🕵️‍♀️[Set of 3 Fully Repaired]
G'DAAAY LEGENDS!!! 💜💜💜 **UPDATE** Currently in Germany at the moment but I wanted to the love your way through a remastered set of three episodes from Blackstone: The Magic Detective! 🕵️ Gather ‘round, legends — it’s time to step back into the golden age of mystery, suspense, and a touch of the supernatural. This week, we’ve unlocked three thrilling Old Time Radio episodes from Blakestone the...
37m • Oct 05, 2025
37m
The Nameless Offspring 🧐👹 [FINALE]
💜 G’day you legends! 💜 This week we descend into the crumbling crypts of Clark Ashton Smith’s The Nameless Offspring—a tale drenched in gothic decay, cursed inheritances, and unspeakable horrors clawing their way back into the present! Smith, one of the great weird fiction masters of the early 20th century, gives us a story that feels part ghost tale, part nightmare folklore, and part grotesq...
47m • Sep 21, 2025
47m
The Horla [Finale] & The Nameless Offspring
G’day you legends!!!! 🥰🥰🥰🥰 Tonight we close the chapter on Guy de Maupassant’s The Horla—a story that began with unease, spiralled into possession, and ended in fire and despair. Our poor narrator, crushed beneath the weight of an invisible parasite, finds his final act of rebellion is not survival, but destruction. And yet, the question lingers: did he truly defeat the creature, or did madnes...
51m • Sep 14, 2025
51m

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