The St. Louis Exorcism | What Was Documented During the 1949 Case (Episode 50)
The St. Louis exorcism case is often treated like a simple origin story for The Exorcist, but the most compelling version is the one that st...

Join host Robert Barber on this haunting journey through America’s darkest legends.
State of the Unknown is a haunted places podcast that explores urban legends, paranormal stories, and eerie folklore rooted in real locations and forgotten history. From ghost-filled hotels to cursed trails and unsolved mysteries, each episode pulls you into the shadows—where the truth is stranger than fiction… and not everything stays buried.
OUR PODCAST
In 1949, a teenage boy in St. Louis became the center of one of the most documented exorcism cases in American history. What followed involved multiple priests, medical observation, and handwritten records describing events that have never been fully explained. Decades later, the case would inspire ...
In the 1980s, the Snedeker family moved into a house in Southington, Connecticut, looking for space and stability while their son Philip underwent cancer treatment. What they didn’t fully understand at the time was what the house had been before they moved in. It wasn’t just an older home. It had on...
A young girl said the haunting was a hoax. But police were inside the house when objects reportedly moved…. In 1974, police were called to a small home on Lindley Street in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Inside, they reported objects moving on their own. Furniture shifting. Activity that continued while p...
On December 29, 1980, three witnesses driving along a rural road outside Dayton, Texas reported one of the most unusual UFO encounters ever documented in the United States. Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and Vickie’s seven-year-old grandson Colby Landrum were returning home after a night of bingo when ...
In the late 1960s, a quiet home in the Black Forest area near Colorado Springs became the center of a disturbing series of events. The family living there claimed objects moved on their own, household items were thrown across rooms, and unexplained disturbances seemed to occur while people were stan...
The L-8 Ghost Blimp is one of the strangest unsolved aviation mysteries of World War II — a Navy patrol airship that returned from a mission over the Pacific with its engines running and its crew missing. In August of 1942, a U.S. Navy patrol blimp lifted off from Naval Air Station Treasure Island f...
FROM THE BLOG
The St. Louis exorcism case is often treated like a simple origin story for The Exorcist, but the most compelling version is the one that st...
The Snedeker haunting sits at a strange crossroads of paranormal investigation, true crime style storytelling, and the messy way memory turn...
The Lindley Street poltergeist is one of the most talked-about American paranormal cases because it sits at the messy intersection of fear, ...

I got my start in broadcasting while still in high school, working on-air at a local radio station where I introduced big band music and learned the fundamentals of audio production. That experience sparked a lasting interest in narration, recording, and the power of sound to create atmosphere. I'm also a guitarist, and over time, those creative threads have stayed central to my work.
By day, I lead training projects in the corporate world. But outside of that, I’ve always been drawn to the strange and unexplained—haunted places, forgotten history, and the kinds of stories that linger in the background. State of the Unknown brings all of that together. It’s where I explore what’s just out of sight—usually with my yellow lab Rosie close by.
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Just found you. Only listened to 1 episode so far. Very good ! I’ll be catching up . They all sound interesting. Thank you.
Fantastic, absolutely riveting podcast about the unknown that actually...keeps it real! Love the storytelling, the subtle effects, the delivery and the questioning at the end...Robert Barber does an excellent job of reflecting on each episode by questioning the validity, the possibility, the reasoning and the parallels...
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