EP3 - The Boston Tickler: The Man at the Foot of the Bed

On a quiet spring night in 2014, Boston College junior Jonny Goldowsky opened his eyes in his Foster Street bedroom and saw a man in a Gator‑style ski mask standing perfectly still in his doorway, watching him breathe in the dark. No threats, no stolen laptops, no smashed windows—just a silent figure who slipped back into the night and left an entire neighborhood wondering how many times he’d done this before.

He wasn’t the only one. Within weeks, other BC students on Foster and Kirkwood started waking up to bedroom doors easing open, shadows at the foot of the bed, and in some cases, a stranger’s hand on their feet before he bolted down the stairs and out the front door. Once the stories hit the news, the sightings, the break‑ins, and the whispered rumors converged into a single, chilling name: the Boston Tickler.

In this episode of Scarecast, we walk house by house through the 2013–2014 break‑ins around Boston College—unlocked doors on Foster Street, masked intruders in Brighton, and late‑night encounters that police confirmed were very real, even as they publicly downplayed the “tickling” itself. We’ll dig into conflicting suspect descriptions, a summer Peeping Tom who kept returning to the same window, and why some online sleuths now see this case as a possible early warning sign of something far darker.

Was the Boston Tickler just a ridiculous urban legend that got away from the facts, or a methodical prowler testing how close he could get to his victims while they slept?

If you enjoy this episode of Scarecast, follow, rate, and share the show, and send your own home‑intruder or campus‑legend stories to mike@thescarecast.com—you might hear them in a future episode.

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