Sword and Scale Nightmares
Welcome to Sword and Scale Nightmares! True Crime for Bedtime. Your nightmare begins now...
Episodes
Where is Season 3?
Subscribe Now to This Doesn't Happen to People Like Me on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.Show kicks off March 3rd, 2025. Available ad-free at swordandscale.com/plus
Mom
Kimberly Cargill was evil personified. She abused her children for years, circumventing the system to keep them in her clutches. Finally, the state caught on and what she did to keep from trouble was worse than the abuse itself.
Dad
In the tiny, rural village of Emerson, Nebraska, where only about 800 people live nestled in the northern, rolling hills, a series of inexplicable events begins to unfold. What seems like an ordinary morning turns into a nightmare as a youn…
Evil Prevails
In San Fernando Valley, whispers of occult dealings and the lingering legacy of Charles Manson and Richard Ramirez still cast eerie shadows. This is where the chilling tale of Ron Baker's tragic demise beckons. Two years of haunting silence…
Lobotomized
Tammy thought she met the man of her dreams when she started dating Joseph Oberhansley. He was younger than her and she found him handsome. But when he slowly became controlling and she discovered the secret of his horrible past she broke i…
Father Figure
The report of local businessman Tom Merriman’s death may have been overstated but when officers with the Solana Beach Police Department searched for Tom and couldn’t find him they were sent into high alert. The search for Tom would reveal a…
Assistance
In July 2020, 33-year-old tech entrepreneur Fahim Saleh was found dismembered down to his torso in his New York City apartment. Bank statements would reveal who had the motive to commit such a heinous murder.
Laborious
When a 46-year-old woman calls 9-11 for help after a sudden home birth, suspicions are raised when she shows no signs of labor. Police would soon discover the grisly truth behind the baby’s unexpected birth.
Cheers
Cameron Kirk was a sad, depressed middle-aged man who found himself living back at home with his mother, Paula Kirk. Things had never been good between the two, but as her drinking increased, so did his resentments and it would all end in a…
Surgeon
A long-time dream turns into a nightmare for a Virginia man trapped in a cabin in the Oklahoma woods. Kia Aster had the highest hopes when he met a stranger at the airport. But what he thought would be a quick and painless trip landed him i…
No Justice
In December of 2014, 19-year-old Jessica Chambers was set on fire in her car on an old country road in her rural Mississippi town. Jessica survived long enough to give a few clues as to who committed this unspeakable crime, but it would pro…
The Gift
Colleen and Rob McKernan were set up by common friends and had a quick, whirlwind romance. But her controlling ways would turn fatal as she learned the hard way that you can’t change anyone, no matter how hard you try.
Act Your Age
When 15-year-old Joanna Dennehy first met 20-year-old John Treanor in her hometown of St. Albans, Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom, the romance was like something out of “Trainspotting”. It predictably descended into madness over the cou…
The Pact
A quaint township in Pennsylvania is shaken to its core when three dead bodies are discovered lying in a perfect line in their backyard. The police don’t immediately know what happened to Elizabeth Daub and her parents but it appears to be …
The Tourist
When recent college graduates Kelsey Chang and Eva Liu decided to take a celebratory trip to Europe before starting their careers, neither young woman could have prevented the horrors that awaited them when they got to Germany. It’d be a tr…
Hell
88 elderly lives are in peril after the Quaker’s Hill Nursing Home goes up in flames. Who started the fire, and why? This is the story of one of Australia’s worst mass murderers.
Clown
Engulfed in the horrorcore scene, 20-year-old Richard McCroskey made a name for himself, singing about satanism, suicide, murder, and rape online. After releasing songs titled “Murderous Rage,” “Infamy,” and “I Kill People for Real,” Richar…
Cuck
Pastor David Evans and his wife, Kristie, were stars in their little town of Ada, Oklahoma. They were good Christians devoted to their church and their community, but once they became empty nesters, they started dabbling in sin and it all e…
God Bless America
In the idyllic town of Shakopee, where the Minnesota River winds its peaceful course, and a community finds solace, tranquility turns to terror when a horrifying crime rocks the neighborhood to its core. A young woman witnesses a night-mari…
Full House
It took over four years to identify the remains of Ryan Zimmerman. Understanding how and why he was killed would force authorities to untangle a twisted knot of love, sex, and gender transitioning.
Protector
On the bleak day following Thanksgiving in 2022, the tranquility of La Sierra South, a Riverside, California neighborhood, was shattered. Within the confines of a close-knit cul-de-sac, panic ensued. A series of frantic 911 calls echoed thr…
Nightmares Season 2
How to listent to Sword and Scale Nightmares Season 2...swordandscale.com
What a Boar
In 2016, a notorious Polish librarian took flight to the island of Malta after brutally mutilating a beautiful language teacher named Katarzyna Jaroszyńska. Police were thrust onto a dark journey into the twisted mind of a brilliant and sad…
Such Drama
When a promising young actress is raped and murdered in her childhood bedroom, her family and the police department are stunned as to who could have done this. Two linking crimes eventually lead to the same unassuming suspect.
Sucker
During some of Romania’s toughest times under Communist control, a vampire stalked the streets after midnight seeking out prey to satisfy his urges for blood and death. While the crimes were initially ignored to spare the country’s reputati…
Sugar
18-year-old Aprina Paul was a nursing student following her dreams when she mysteriously went missing. Her mother Alice Larrue never gave up hope, even when Aprina’s killer continued to harass her.
No Good Deed
Mormons and entrepreneurs Tony and Katherine Butterfield were the kind of people who gave a leg up to anyone who needed it. They invited jobless citizens to work for their landscaping company and homeless ones into their home. So on the mor…
Nice Shot
In Tennessee in 2005 a jury was faced with a difficult question. What would you do if you were in Kim Cunningham’s place? It was a difficult question to answer. After the law failed her once Kim gunned down a man in broad daylight before tu…
Porcelain
In the spring of 2006, a bubbly young woman with close ties to friends and family suddenly goes missing, leaving behind all of her personal belongings and a ransacked apartment. When Christina Eubanks turns up dead, everyone wants the truth…
Paper Thin
Neighbors in a Santa Cruz beachside bungalow are alarmed when a strange smell starts emitting from one apartment building. No one could have imagined what happened inside.
Doctor Death
In 2008, something strange started happening in Omaha, Nebraska. Multiple members of Creighton University Medical Center’s pathology department were targeted in violent crimes. Five years later, it happened again. Police and people in the c…
Spoiled
Not hearing from her sister in a while Pamela Powel called the police. Upon a welfare check the police would discover her home was empty. It wasn’t just Alison Sapikowski that was missing, it was her husband James, and her high school-aged …
Going for a Spin
In June of 1977, Yale students Terri Jentz and Avra Goldman are on a cross-country biking trip when a terrifying attack changes their lives forever.
Peeping David
When Kent law enforcement arrived at 67-year-old David Fuller’s home on December 3rd, 2020, they expected to put an end to a 33-year-old murder investigation. They never expected that closing this case would shatter the lives of over 100 ad…
Exorcism
While police search a small Pentecostal church for kidnapped Baby Brandon, another disturbing case emerges… one involving the horrifying exorcism of Arely Proctor.
Protective Services
It was May of 1998 in the small town of Romeo, Michigan and a crew of detectives found themselves knee-deep in a hoarder’s nest. The once quaint home of the Verellen Sisters now resembled the inside of a dumpster. The whole house was litter…
Kid Van
After a little boy’s body is found floating off the Oregon coastline in December of 2001, detectives are alarmed that no one in the area reports a missing child. Soon, more bodies are pulled from the water, and a narcissistic conman goes on…
Immaculate
Happily married Joseph Parker and his wife fell on hard times after he lost his job. Their beautiful home in Tennessee was foreclosing soon, and they were equally distressed. The pressure was mounting, and they couldn’t imagine things getti…
Culture War
Amarillo, Texas is known to many as “Bomb City” because it’s home to the Pantex nuclear weapons facility. In the 90’s, Amarillo was filled with lots of country-folk and bible-belt families, but there also existed a subculture that the town …
Check Out
In 1997, Ricki Ellsworth, a wife, mom and daughter went missing from her night job at a Memphis hotel. Her only remains were the red stains left behind on the walls and floor where she worked. While her murder would be solved her body would…