One Step Beyond’s Spooky Storyline

Stepping Out

 DATELINE: First Season Titanic Show

On the 62ndanniversary of the show called One Step Beyond, just after watching the last 2020 documentary on Titanic, we tuned into the seond episode of the series that predated Twilight Zone.

Of course, One Step Beyond  based its episodes on real historical events, like the Titanic disaster.  Rod Serling used fictional stories about a far-out dimension in time and space.

John Newland was your host and also the director of the episode, a rather low-budget black and white show with some stock footage from the 1953 movie about Titanic.

In this show, Newland begins with showing an unknown book in the library from 1889, which he keeps to himself, but will reveal at the end of the half-hour.

The main story is about a newly-wed Grace who dreams she will drown. Then, her bridegroom husband arranges a honeymoon on Titanic.

End of suspense. Yet, the story also threw in a couple of other precognitive incidents: a passenger who has free-floating anxiety about the ship—and in Canada, a minister who changes the church service choir song to one about a sinking ship.

These incidents were actually in the minor key of paranormal, but perhaps others were not so well-known. The real author W.T. Stead also wrote a story about a luxury ship that hit an iceberg. But, Stead on on board. The 1889 novel, Futility, was the second prediction novel.

The series had spooky little riff that came up on the sound-track at suitable moments, which may be the most memorable aspect of the show.





Shocking Titanic Info in Forgotten Journal


The show is called “Lost Evidence,” but it really is “Ignored Evidence.”

When History Channel presents Laurence Fishburne to narrate another Titanic documentary, you might be skeptical about what more can be said. You’d be surprised almost immediately by the high quality of this production. IN fact, it may be instantly one of the best of all Titanic documentaries.

The premise is snide: there was far less heroism and good behavior than you have been led to believe, and the key is in the British investigation of 1912 that was led by Lord Mersey. He was likely the spearhead of a coverup, or at least whitewash.

In his private red journal, however, unread for 100 years, were his observations never published. His GGG grandson, the new Viscount of Mersey, appears and allows information to be released.

Some is surprising, but the most visual is a spectacular collection of film clips and photos, not necessarily from Titanic, but of the White Star liners.

The grand tragic ship itself was not at capacity, despite legends to the contrary. Indeed, young Richard White, traveling with his father in first-class D deck, moved across the hall to an empty cabin a day into the voyage.

Mersey notes that the crew was the same bunch of incompetents under Captain Smith that were involved in several crashes on the Olympic. And, buried headlines indicate survivors denounced the officers of Titanic.

Smith was old-fashioned—and a 20thcentury technophobe, disdaining Marconi-grams on icebergs and refusing to hold new system lifeboat drills. Who knows what else contributed to the “millionaires’ captain” and his failures? A few experts suggest that Smith deep-sixed the ship’s log because it would make him look bad.

Marconi operators actually told other ships to “Shut Up!” about ice warnings. Lord Mersey notes all this in his journal.

Of twenty lifeboats, only two bothered to pick up floundering passengers in the water. Others had seats and left them empty. One British aristocrat paid cash bribes to lifeboat crewnotto turn back to help others.

Ismay and crew were trapped by the American investigation that started almost immediately. Ismay was labeled a “coward” and “murderer.” Yet, the British inquiry with Lord Mersey was meant to be fairer and restore integrity to the shipping industry.

Mersey came to conclude Californian was most at fault and might have saved many, if not all, victims. Yet, years later, it was discovered Titanic was 13 miles off-course, allegedly too far from Californian to rescue them. It’s a stretch.

It seems excuses still abound 108 years later.


Enchanted Cottage: Ghostly Choice!

DATELINE: More Augurs

Into the Vortex?










Dalmatian Jasper Stones

DATELINE: More Mysteries of History

 Signs of psychic protection?

A summer of mysterious signs at my historic home has finished with a flourish of new augurs. Over the course of the month of September, there had been such bizarre occurrences as a black butterfly hovering and settling on my white garden love-seat.

I had a visit on three consecutive days by a gold finch who showed up at the same time, same place, then never came by again.

And of course, I found white quartz stone next to my driveway where I had never seen it on a lawn that is mowed regularly. All three events have mystical connotations, interpreted differently by many cultures.

Suffice it to say: when your home was once the property of victims of the Titanic, and paranormal is the norm, you can expect more.

Today, that event arrived: home from having morning bloodwork at the lab, there in the grass next to the driveway in the same spot where the white quartz rock had rested, there were several oval white, black speckled stones.

They were not there previously. We would have seen them. Nothing more is there, and if something turns up, we will know what is afoot.

According to Internet lore, they are Dalmatian Jaspers, a rare stone that promotes calmness, stops insomnia, and helps with meditation. They are considered psychic protection.

Now they rest in my library with other stange marvels of psychic power, What will they bring? Will spirits respond? We can only wait and anticipate.

Pictured are the Dalmatian stones. One of the Titanic victims used to collect rocks around the yard: we cannot help but think these were the kind he enjoyed finding.





Spooky Titanic’s Northern Lights

DATELINE:  Geo-Magnetic Anomalies

Today as I sit in my home office writing these words, I can look on the Internet to find the exact latitude at which I can be located: it is 42.695652 (within a thousandth of a degree).

I will feel no difference if my position were 41.6 or 43.6. The place is an arbitrary point on a map to help find me if I am lost or unconscious. My smartphone is a beacon of that information to a world of technological marvels.

In 1912, the passengers on the Titanic likely had no idea exactly where they were when the ship hit the iceberg. Their compasses and rudimentary radio communications systems had an idea. Crew members and radio operators did send out appeals for help. Yet, for over seventy years the exact location of the wreckage was not precisely known.

Something had thrown off the numbers, or the inexactitude may be attributed to primitive technology. Today we know that the Titanic wreck is at approximately Latitude 41.72. It broke into pieces and they scattered over a ten-mile area. The ship may have hit the berg within a range somewhere between 41.5 and 42.5 latitude. We cannot be sure how much the ship drifted during its two-mile descent to the ocean floor.

I live in a house at 42.69 latitude once owned by two of the victims who died on Titanic. The ship hit the berg and sank ten miles north or south of this latitudinal location. Their home was directly west of the spot of their deaths. Directly.

New theories have emerged that solar flares and geomagnetic factors could have contributed to the sinking of the Titanic. conditions on Earth.

Mila Zinkova, a retired computer expert, explained that she discovered that more than a few witnesses reported seeing the Northern Lights around the time that Titanic made its voyage across the North Atlantic.

Usually the Aurora Borealis  can be seen above or at 55°N geomagnetic latitude. In a particularly strong geomagnetic storm, such sights can fall to the lower reading of 45 to 55°N. It seems highly unlikely that victims on the ship, fighting for their lives, in a state of shock, would be watching the sky for a beautiful display of Northern Lights. Some might regard it as a paranormal omen of doom, and others might ignore the phenomenon for the same reason.

Zinkova states: “Most people who write about Titanic, they don’t know that northern lights were seen on that night.” In fact, she goes beyond that to postulate:an ejection of charged particles from the sun may have caused the crew to make navigational adjustments that led the Titanic along a slightly different course. “Even if the compass moved only one degree, it already could have made a difference,” says Zinkova.

Besides crew member James Bisset and Officer Joseph Boxhall, at least three Titanic survivors reported seeing the aurora borealis that night. “The fact that so many people saw the aurora makes me confident that there was a space weather event happening,” concurred one scientist from England.

Black Butterfly in the Yard!

DATELINE:  Noir Papillion?

Our summer of paranormal messages continues its barrage of weekly activities.

The latest visitor to our little corner of spooky alley is a black butterfly.  It might have piqued our interest in normal times, but over the past few weeks, it has become a culmination of strange events.

According to some experts in mythology, Irish and Celtic legends say that black butterflies are also the souls of deceased people who are unable or unwilling to move on to the afterlife; they may return to the place they once lived or somewhere they were fond of visiting when they were alive.”

If you have followed our adventures, you may recall that three days in a row, we had a visit from a gold finch. We had never seen one around here previously, in person, but to have it show up for an afternoon tea break for three separate visits was fascinating. The totem mythology of gold finches is their spiritual impact, sending positive vibrations.

After a tropical storm not a few days earlier, we discovered a white quartz rock, flat and unusual, next to the car that also seems to have positive predictive qualities if you follow the buzz on the Internet.

So, should I be surprised when a few days ago a black butterfly sat on my car’s windshield before I could adjust my eyes and grab the camera.  A few friends told me it was bad luck and not to drive the car for a while.

A Haitian friend who knows his voodoo told that the black butterfly is feared as a portent of death to come.

This morning the black butterfly returned, and he sat on my white garden chair. He stayed long enough for me take a video.

Investigating its meaning, I discovered the old Celtic legend about a spirit returning to its old home for a visit.

None of this would matter much except for the long history of my home, once the residence of two victims of the Titanic in 1912.  Now, one of them has taken up regular stays in my library where paranormal experts and psychics have been in ecstasy over the ghostly presence. We have had more than a few seances!

Now, a series of physical and totem experiences has made the theory more concrete for me. Gold finches, white crystals, and black butterflies. It is a summer to remember.

Dr. William Russo is author of several Titanic books: Tales of a Titanic Family, Chess-mate from Titanic, Spooky Geology & Titanic. All are available in print or ebook format on


Titanic’s Marconi Radio & a Spirit’s Reaction

DATELINE: Titanic Spirit

 New Book: Titanic’s Forgotten Movie.
















Afraid of Nothing or Nothingness?

DATELINE:  Paranormal in Salem, MA!

 Director Robert Heske.

Bob Heske is a writer/director of low-budget stories, and his major documentary film is called Afraid of Nothing.Its appeal on some levels is all the small businesses associated with spirit life and death (from Ouija board historians and prosthetic mask shops to healers of all stripes who meet people for various paranormal purposes.

The film spent considerable time in Salem, Massachusetts, which is a hotbed of witchcraft and afterlife experts. Also included in the visits are East Bridgewater, Mass., and Gardner, Mass. All three locations are adjacent and contiguous owns where this writer lived.

As someone who lives in a haunted house, we are always curious about others and what they experience: to that end we meet regression specialists, healers and teachers of how to deal with death. The big wheel involved here is Jeff Belanger who created the Ghost AdventuresTV series and has cornered the market on paranormal topics in New England.

An actor from Los Angeles is at the crux of people here, as he lived a previous life in Salem—and has been drawn to return to the area of Salem Willows, an old haunt.

All these many individuals have achieved some level of connection to the great beyond—and all seem to have multiple talents to connect with both positive and negative forces. It astounds us—as we have only one spirit in the house, though he is a big one, a victim of Titanic.

We have learned late in life that we have some still unknown connection to this guide and mentor who is a guardian spirit. So, we hardly disparage all the kind souls who show up in Bob Heske’s little film. It is not frightful or horrific, but it is informative and fascinating for those with an interest in the hereafter.






Titanic & Night Wire Exposed!

DATELINE: Connections!

 Henry Ferris Arnold.

When I looked at the various reviews of “The Night Wire” on Goodreads, I felt it was my duty to add. what I have learned during research for my book, Titanic’s Forgotten Movie.

Yes, there is a creepier theme in the story that relates H.F. Arnold’s little horror tale to the infamous sinking of the luxury liner in 1912.

Published in the heyday of short story writing when magazines were devoted to the art, now basically lost to writers, were genre-periodicals as well as major magazines that published stories. Of course, in those days, you had H.P. Lovecraft, J.D. Salinger, and B. Traven.

Then in the 1920s, out of nowhere came a young writer graduated from a mid-Western college. He only wrote three stories in his life, all of the supernatural vein. You may well ask why.

Arnold’s background has been called mysterious and murky, some even questioning whether he used a pen-name. No, he was Henry Ferris Arnold. And, he went to Hollywood upon graduation from college to work in the publicity and movie advertising business. He was not necessarily a denizen of tabloid journals where he worked the graveyard shift in the Morgue (old newspaper term for the library).

He actually started out in the Goldwyn Studios and quickly rose to the exalted position as Sam Goldwyn’s Director of Publicity. He was also elected to various positions of importance at WAMPAS (Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers).

His sister Pauline Arnold, aka Polly, moved to New York in 1926 and became a pioneer woman in the advertising business—and the east coast tie-in with her brother. She founded a company called MRCA, and it was a press agency that handled people who wanted their name dropped into columns of Walter Winchell or Ed Sullivan.

Polly soon became partners with a man called Percy White, Jr.

What has this to do with “Night Wire” and Titanic?

It is the backstory.

Percy White’s father and brother died on Titanic in 1912. He was a man haunted by their ends. Polly then married Percy—and she told her brother about his family history.

“Night Wire” emerged when H.F. Arnold started to use details from Percy as the basis for a story that kept the family’s name out of it, but might be a sellable story to movies. He knew many people in movies who wanted to make a Titanic movie.

After all, one of the famous stories of wire operators centered on the two heroic Titanic men who sent out distress calls for two hours. It is the basic plot of the story.

Where are they? In a place called Xebico. If you are a cryptographer, you may have done your homework. Most have not. Xebico is an anagram for Icebox.

The fog washing over the victims might well be the frigid North Atlantic as the ship sank, becoming an icebox containing hundreds of souls.

The narrator observes the wire operator named John Morgan. IN some Titanic circles, one of the controversial figures is John Pierpont Morgan, who had a first-class suite on Titanic—and bailed out of sailing at the last moment. Some said he knew something bad was imminent.

So, that is a little background information.


‘Orb’ Watches Titanic Movie Again!

DATELINE: Insider Viewing!

Videotape on floor.

Lost Newsreel Film of Titanic

DATELINE: But Never Really Lost!

  Titanic Survivor Millvina in 1998.











A Tale of Two Titanic Survivors

DATELINE: Never Told Story?

Emilio Portaluppi.    &     Charles Joughlin

One of the segments of the recent TV series UnXplained featured the mysterious survival story of Charles Joughlin, the chief baker on the Titanic. It went so far as to suggest that supernatural forces were at work when it came to this man’s miraculous escape from death.

The story of Joughlin was made famous, or infamous, on the movie A Night to Rememberwhen notable character actor George Rose played him for comic relief. When he discovered the ship was sinking, baker Joughlin started drinking heavily and was totally drunk as the ship went under.

He spent his last minutes aboard ship, in his chef’s white smock, throwing objects into the ocean for those in the cold water to hold as buoyant rafts. He himself went into the frigid waters that killed people after ten minutes. Only he did not die.

After a short time in the North Atlantic among chunks of ice, he was pulled aboard the lifeboat of Officer Lighttoller and lived.

How miraculous was that?

Not quite as amazing as the story of Emilio Portaluppi, a second-class passenger who lived in Milford, New Hampshire, and worked there as a stonemason. He too was tossed into the ocean as Titanic sank, and he too survived being in the frigid waters that killed so many so quickly. Yet, his story has not really been told.

What’s the difference?

Perhaps, the key ingredient was nationality: Joughlin could readily speak to journalists and told a tale that bemused even other survivors. Portaluppi was an Italian immigrant who moved to Milford, New Hampshire, likely spoke poor English and returned to a small New England town and lived unobtrusively for years. No movie character ever depicted his intriguing story.

Joughlin was older by eight years, and he was in his mid-30s, married with two children, when he was chief baker on the White Star Lines. Portaluppi had no listed famiy in America. In fact, he was on a holiday in Italy to see his parents when he booked passage on Titanic in France to return to America.

Both men lived years after Titanic became folklore, but Joughlin was British and managed to find his tale in Walter Lord’s famous book, A Night to Remember.Portaluppi, by that time, had left New Hampshire to work in Brooklyn for a contracting company. Though Joughlin died in the 1950s, Portaluppi lived until 1974—and was available to talk to anyone interested in Titanic.

Apparently, he never did. The few news stories about him seem to offer details and dismissive skepticism. He said he was in the water for about two to four hours, and he floated among dead bodies until a rescue vessel came by after dawn and found him. He was one of four still alive in the waters. This superseded Joughlin by many hours!

How did Portaluppi survive the hypothermia? There are no tales of his drunkenness being the root cause. The officer who led the rescue claimed he never spoke to those whom he saved, and they never spoke to him even after being fished out of the water. No thanks, and no explanations. One could presume they were half-dead, in shock, and perhaps Portaluppi knew little enough English.

Thus, Portaluppi’s tale was truly supernatural, but for over fifty years, he lived quietly, even as films were made and TV specials passed him by. Perhaps he blacked out and did not recall what happened. Perhaps he suffered from post-traumatic syndrome and never wanted to discuss it. He went into a kind of seclusion usually afforded New Yorkers like Greta Garbo. He was in the biggest metropolis of media for 35 years, and when he died, his body was sent to Italy for burial.

You mean no journalist found a story here worth telling?

UnXplained Ends Too Soon?

 DATELINE:  Shatner Show Sort of Ends…

 Survivor Mysteries!

For the first batch of the UnXplained series, Shatner hosted a bunch of tales of survival and unusual, perhaps supernatural, abilities that caused people to overcome the worst odds. Now, the most extraordinary of these survival oments came when a commercial interrupted the series, and William Shatner himself promised us that the series is not done, after all, and will return “soon.”

Such a threat actually became a delight.

The series brought its limited run to another intriguing close with an episode that again brought disparate episodes into a kind of cohesive pattern.

We saw a six-year old boy, lost in wilderness, who walked 18 miles overnight to find a road to safety. He felt something was following him: coyotes, or something else. How he chose to make the right turns is something inexplicable all right. But he did it.

One of the hosts ofAncient Aliens recounted his boyhood experience, also unusual, when time stood still and he was able to rescue a 13-year old friend from going over a waterfall to certain death.

Another tale, close to our heart and chilling to our personal experience, related to a Titanic survivor, one of the bakers, whose story is often recounted in movies as an episode that many would call fictionalized. The wonderful scenes are from A Night to Remember!

Yet, the baker who was soused, inebriated, managed to survive in below freezing water for two hours when most others who fell into the Atlantic died, of hypothermia, in ten minutes.How did it happen? Why? No one can explain.

There was the tale of the man whose parachute did not open, and he fell three mile—defying all physical laws to end up with a broken spine (that also miraculously healed) and he was able to walk away from what should have been sure death.

And, one of the other tales told a weird, extra-sensory experience about a British woman, Clare Henry, whose avoidance of a foggy car crash that should have killed her was owed to a casual friend who had recently died in a car crash.

Yes, that friend was Princess Diana who appeared before Clare and directed her to pull off the road before she would have been killed in multi-car pileup.


The moments gathered together all featured some rising above physical laws and physics to areas of puzzling survival. There are hints of guardian angels and directive spirits, protective forces, and other dimensions, yet as some of the experts note:  these things have not been studied by science enough to figure out if there are forces in the universe that transcend our world.


Yes, we want old bill Shatner’s show to return.






Séance at Spring Village

DATELINE: Titanic Spirits Beckon Us!

 Five Who Dared!




It seems to us that what goes around comes around.













One Hour on the Decks of Titanic!

DATELINE: Seance on a Saturday PM

















Dr. William Russo has written three books on his Titanic connections:  Tales of a Titanic Family, Chess-mate from Titanic, and Titanic Mysteries on Mill Circle. All are available on in print and in ebook format.