O.P.I.S. Oklahoma Paranormal Information Syndicate

04/25/2026

A symbol both of chaos and order, the wolf came to represent many things for the Vikings.

04/25/2026

THE DOVER DEMON

On the night of April 22, 1977, two Massachusetts teenagers, Will Taintor and Abby Branham, were driving home and caught a glimpse of something they’d never forget. Along the side of the road, they spotted a thin, monkey-like creature with a head the size of a watermelon and two glowing green eyes. Whatever it was, it seemed to have no mouth or nose. When it turned its bulbous head to look at Abby – even from eight feet away – she locked her door and told Will to drive faster.

Unknown to the pair, the creature had also been sighted the previous evening. Bill Bartlett, 17, and two friends were driving down the same road and spotted the creature in his headlights. He described the thing has being hairless and three-or four-feet tall. It had peach-colored, textured skin and was crawling along a stone wall with long fingers that gripped the rocks as it moved. He reported the creature as having glowing orange eyes. Frightened, Bill asked his friends if they had seen the creature – they hadn’t, but, of course, being teenage boys, wanted to go back and have a look. At first, Bill refused. He was still shaken by what he’d seen. Finally, he was convinced to return to the spot where he’s seen it, but the monster was nowhere to be found. When he got home that night, he drew a sketch of what he’d seen – an image that has become the basis for all the interpretations of that has become known as the “Dover Demon,” named for the town where the sightings occurred.

Soon after Bill’s sighting – and a mile away – John Baxter was walking along the road and noticed someone coming toward him. He assumed it was another person and called out a greeting. At the sound of his voice, the figure jumped down into a gully and ran into the woods. John got just enough of a look at it that he gave chase – although most people, getting a look at what the others described, would have run the other way.

John caught up the creature at the edge of a creek, and the two of them eyed one another cautiously. The creature was outlined against the sky, standing on a rock and holding onto a tree. Its feet, with abnormally long toes, were gripped around the rock it was standing on.

It had now become a case of not knowing what to do with something once he caught up with it, and John turned and ran away toward the road. He didn’t see the creature again.

And neither did anyone else. The sightings became widely popularized, and all the witnesses swore to what they had seen. All the teenagers drew sketches of the creature. Bill Bartlett added to his with a statement: “I, Bill Bartlett, swear on a stack of Bibles that I saw this creature."

Not surprisingly, the authorities played down the encounters, suggested that what the witnesses had seen had been a “baby moose or a cow.” Other suggestions were that it was an illegally-owned escaped gibbon, a dog, a mutation, or simply a hoax. Local police told the Associated Press that the creature was probably nothing more than a school vacation hoax.”

But no one who saw the “Dover Demon” thought it was a hoax, and officially, the case remains unsolved.

04/18/2026

04/09/2026

FORGET ABOUT THE WORRIES OF REAL LIFE FOR A WHILE THIS WEEKEND AT THE AMERICAN ODDITIES MUSEUM!

Expect the Unexpected at the NEW location of the American Oddities Museum at 301 Piasa Street in Alton, Illinois! Check out our bigger collection, new exhibits, and JUST EXPANDED gift shop! It's definitely the weirdest place in the St. Louis area -- and you don't want to miss it!

NOW OPEN THURSDAY TO SUNDAY!
🎟️ Admission: Only $7 per person
📍 301 Piasa Street, Alton, Illinois
🕛 Open Thursday to Sunday | 12-5 PM

04/09/2026

📣 Join us at The Hollow Paracon and Film Fest! Continuing to share this . Also, if you like to be a vendor and you’d like a table at the event please contact ! The team would be happy to assist you. Also grab your tickets now it’s gonna be an amazing Paracon ! Hope to see you there !

04/09/2026

THE FORGOTTEN EPIDEMIC
The “sleepy sickness” epidemic of 1918

Near the end of World War I, a bizarre disease known as “sleepy sickness,” or lethargic encephalitis, was contracted by millions of people across the world. There seemed to be no treatment for it and the cause of the disease remains a mystery to this day. What was it? And why did nearly 1 million people who came down with the disease die from it, while so many others did not?

That’s the problem – no one knows.

Those who survived the disturbing illness probably wished they had died. It transformed people into living statues, forcing them to spend the rest of their lives trapped within their bodies and locked away in institutions, speechless, and motionless.

You’re probably thinking that you’ve never heard of this and there’s a good reason why – the brain illness spread around the globe at the same time as the Spanish Flu pandemic that killed over 50 million people, causing it to be overlooked by history, in spite of the 1 million dead and the millions of lives that were affected by it.

Although most cases were reported near the end of World War I, it’s believed that the epidemic began in 1915 or 1916, when soldiers who displayed incredible lethargy and confusion were examined by doctors in Paris. At first, they assumed the cause of their unusual symptoms was mustard gas – which had been used during the war – but this proved to be wrong.

It turned out that the disease was already being studied by a neurologist from Vienna named Constantin von Economo, who had been studying the effects of the illness in civilians. In a paper, he wrote:

“We are dealing with a kind of sleeping sickness, having an unusually prolonged course. The first symptoms are usually acute, with headaches and malaise. Then a state of somnolence appears, often associated with active delirium from which the patient can be awakened easily. He is able to give appropriate answers and to comprehend the situation. This delirious somnolence can lead to death, rapidly, or over the course of a few weeks. On the other hand, it can persist unchanged for weeks or even months with periods lasting bouts of days or even longer, of fluctuation of the depth of unconsciousness extending from simple sleepiness to deepest stupor or coma.”

Just a year after Economo’s paper was published, the horrifying illness turned into an epidemic, taking its toll in human lives and leaving millions of people trapped in their own bodies.

Lethargic encephalitis literally translates to “brain inflammation that makes you tired,” but it became commonly known as “sleepy sickness.” It’s a funny name, but the result was anything but humorous. Most accounts state that over one-third of those infected died, while around 20 percent survived but were more or less dependent on professional care for the rest of their lives. Sadly, fewer than one-third made full recoveries. It affected people of all ages but – like the Spanish Flu – young people between 15 and 35 were hit the hardest. The initial stages of infection were a lot like the flu -- a high fever, headache, feeling tired, runny nose. There was no way for the infected to know that he or she was battling a deadly disease, which gave the virus just enough time to spread into the brain.

The disease peaked just after the war but lingered for almost 10 years. Finally, it began to fade – but it never completely disappeared. In fact, new cases were reported as recently as 1993. Modern doctors who studied the new cases came to believe that patients were affected by a rare form of streptococcus bacteria. They noted that the massive immune reaction to the bacteria caused the immune system of the infected to attack the brain, resulting in brain damage.

But that’s just a guess. So far, there is no warning, no treatment, and no cure for “sleepy sickness.” It remains one of the strangest medical mysteries of all time.