Just Sleep - Bedtime Stories for Adults · Bedtime Stories with Taesha Glasgow

The New Catacomb: A Spooky Story

·37 min·3 clips

Berger traps Kennedy in the catacomb's darkness, revealing he was Mary Saunderson's fiancé seeking revenge.

Tayshia opens the episode by welcoming listeners to the Just Sleep Podcast, thanking recent supporters by name, and noting the episode is part of a Halloween run-up series. The story she reads is Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The New Catacomb,' set in late 19th-century Rome. The two central characters are Kennedy, a rich and socially prominent English archaeologist, and Julius Berger, a poorer but equally accomplished German scholar. Berger arrives at Kennedy's apartment with a basket of ancient artifacts and Kennedy realizes he has found an entirely new catacomb, one richer and older than any known site. Berger refuses to share the location until Kennedy agrees to answer a personal question: what really happened between Kennedy and Mary Saunderson, a woman who left Rome with Kennedy and never returned. Kennedy admits he seduced her knowing she was engaged to someone else, pursued her as an adventure, and abandoned her in London after three weeks when the affair grew inconvenient. Satisfied, Berger takes Kennedy at midnight along the Appian Way, through the Campagna, and into a hidden entrance beneath a cowhouse. Inside they find an extraordinary catacomb containing the earliest known Christian altar and the buried remains of early popes in full canonicals. At the deepest chamber, Berger extinguishes the lantern, takes the matches, and leaves Kennedy in total darkness with over two thousand branching passages between him and the exit. As he departs, Berger reveals that Mary Saunderson was his fiancee. A closing newspaper paragraph reports the catacomb as Berger's celebrated discovery, and notes that Kennedy's body was found deep inside, apparently lost in the dark without candles. The story operates as a revenge tale using archaeology as both setting and instrument. Doyle's prose is atmospheric and economical, building tension through the gradual revelation of Berger's motive. Tayshia's narration is calm and measured, well-suited to the podcast's sleep format. Listeners who enjoy 19th-century Gothic fiction, revenge narratives, or classic Doyle beyond Sherlock Holmes will find this a strong entry.

As heard by us

A Halloween catacomb tale that builds unease through conversation and slow pressure.

The episode opens with Tayshia's welcome, a run of thanks for recent coffee supporters, and a quick note about ads and premium access before Arthur Conan Doyle's "The New Catacomb" begins as a Halloween-season bedtime reading.

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Why you'd press play

You want a Halloween catacomb story with a slow, underground feel.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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