Freddy Krueger Is... Real? | The True Story Wes Craven Ripped From The Headlines!

Wes Craven didn't invent the idea of dying in your sleep during a nightmare — he read about it in the newspaper. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, dozens of young Hmong refugees in America went to sleep and never woke up, and nobody could explain why. The CDC investigated. Doctors were baffled. And the victims themselves had seen it coming — they were afraid to sleep. The real nightmare came first. Freddy Krueger came second.FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Children dying in their sleep while having terrible nightmares. It’s not just a movie plot from a Wes Craven film – it really happened, and inspired the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. (The Terrifying True Syndrome That Inspired A Nightmare on Elm Street) *** We’re used to seeing someone on television or in movies die from a gunshot or stabbing, knowing they were just pretending – that the gun was using blanks, or the knife was using a retractable blade. But what we don’t often hear are the times that those prop weapons end up killing someone for real. (Death By Movie Prop) *** How can a little girl disappear in a big crowd of people with no one seeing anything? Was it a case of stranger danger or did someone she know betray her trust? We’ll look at the case of Beverly Rose Potts who went missing in 1951, never to be seen again. (Peril in the Park for Beverly Potts) *** Part medicine, part honey, part cannibalism… who or what was the mellified man? (The Mellified Man) *** They say that tragedy can change a person forever… and that couldn’t be more true for one man who went from being considered lucky, to becoming deranged after a horrible accident, (The Hidden Wounds of Mr. Schultz) *** Famous last words. Humphrey Bogart said, “I should have never switched from Scotch to martinis.” Winston Churchill’s last words were simply, “I’m bored with it all.” But sometimes what a person says on their deathbed can be shocking or outlandish – even if they aren’t a celebrity. We’ll look at a few unexpected deathbed moments. (Deathbed Moments)CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding00:00:41.179 = Show Open00:03:18.729 = The Terrifying True Syndrome That Inspired The Creation of Freddy Krueger00:10:01.615 = Death By Movie Prop ***00:16:18.004 = Peril In The Park For Beverly Potts00:30:51.396 = The Mellified Man ***00:37:50.784 = The Hidden Wounds of Mr. Schultz00:43:07.191 = Deathbed Moments00:53:21.541 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on YouTube Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other apps. Get the full list of options here: https://pod.link/1078714736*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:“The Terrifying True Syndrome That Inspired The Creation of Freddy Krueger” by Thad Morgan for History.com:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/37xp3v22 (“1..2..Freddy’s Coming For You” by Remix Maniacs:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhKRXHnYqN4)“Peril in the Park for Beverly Potts” by Crystal Dawn for LostNFoundBlogs.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/x7yuy3kh“Death By Movie Prop” written by Juliet Bennet Rylah for Graveyard Shift: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/59rx9j2z“The Mellified Man” by Bipin Dimri for Historic Mysteries: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yz2k5kw5“The Hidden Wounds of Mr. Schultz” by Kathi Kresol for Haunted Rockford: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/3m8mnpy2“Deathbed Moments” by Mike Lawrence for ListVerse: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/24rppfx5(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: September 27, 2021EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources and full transcript): https://weirddarkness.com/FreddyKrueger