Dark Histories (Ben Cutmore)

The story of William Burke and William Hare, two Irish men living in Edinburgh in 1827, who spied an opportunity to make money through murder. Now known as simply the Burke and Hare murders or The West Port Murders, this is dark history that took advantage of a very unique and grisly opportunity.

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

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Music was recorded by me © 2017

For our first ever episode, we go big with the complete story of Jack the Ripper, one of England most notorious ever killers and infamous all over the world. With only five canonical murders, he wasn't the most prolific serial killer in history, but his reign terrorised East London in 1888 and his identity has been a mystery ever since.

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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Or you can contact me direct via email at contact@darkhistories.com

Music was recorded by me © 2017

In this episode, we detail the mystery, researched from primary sources, of the Somerton Man, or as the case is widely and simply known, Tamam Shud. In 1948, the body of a man was found on Somerton beach, Adelaide, Australia. All identification marks had been removed from his clothing and to this day the mans identification and cause of death are unknown. The mystery goes even deeper however, when a small scrap of paper is found in a pocket of the mans clothing, with the printed line: Tamam Shud.

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

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Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt

Music was recorded by me © 2017

 

This week, we detail the history of the Vampire, from screen to the dark myths and very real folklore of Eastern Europe.

Vampires are a staple in horror fiction the world over, the charismatic lady-killer or seductive succubi, biting necks and sucking the blood of their victims as they sleep. Equally popular in pop culture as they are to horror fans, poring over black and white B-movies, the character of the vampire holds universal appeal and to most, even those not usually prone to scepticism, remain completely fictional.

How can we explain then, the old folk stories, stated squarely and insistently as fact, that vampires, risen from the dead, stalked townsfolk and terrorised entire villages at night? Stranger still, that remains excavated in Bulgaria, Slovakia and right across Europe, staked into their coffins with Iron nails, teeth removed and bricks forced into their gaping mouths, have been found in their hundreds providing compelling evidence for said tales.

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

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Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt

Music was recorded by me © 2017

 

The true story of the Enfield Poltergeist. A historical haunting of a British family during the 1970s, the Enfield Poltergeist is still today Britains most famous haunting. This story would become the inspiration for several TV shows and also the film The Conjuring 2.

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

Connect with me at Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

Or you can contact me direct via email at contact@darkhistories.com

Music was recorded by me © 2017

In this episode we explore the true stories of Zombies of Haitian Voodoo culture, from French colonial rule to an exhaustive search for the source of a compound which could scientifically prove the creation of zombies by Ethnobotanist, Wade Davis. Most of this story summarizes details from Davis' two books on the subject; "The Serpent and the Rainbow" and "Passage of Darkness" which I really highly recommend if you found this interesting. The first is a lighter read, whilst the second a little more academic, but both well worth your time.

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

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Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt

Music was recorded by me © 2017

 

In this episode, we take a look at a mystery that is local to me, the dark and winding story of the satanic and occult practices rumoured to take place in the Clapham Wood area in Sussex, UK. Linked with Satanic practices, strange disappearances, bizarre phenomena and more seriously, four mysterious deaths.

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

Connect with me at Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

Or you can contact me direct via email at contact@darkhistories.com

Or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt

Music was recorded by me © 2017

On the 26th December, 1900, a small ship approached the remote island of Eilean Mor. It was a small eruption of land, uninhabited aside from a small battery of 3 men, whose job was to operate and maintain the isles lighthouse. The relief vessel Hesperus was to bring supplies and rotate a fourth member of the lighthouse team. As the ship closed in on the barren Isle, the sight of the lighthouse on the edge of a sheer cliff sprung out from a bleak landscape. Joseph Moore, the member of the lighthouse crew who would be rotating in, noted that curiously, there was no flag flying on the flagpole, nor were there any provision boxes placed out for restocking. The crew on the boat fired off several blasts of the horn, splitting the quiet air. As they waited for a sign or reply from the lighthouse, an ominous feeling hit Joseph, things, it appeared, were not quite right on Eilean Mor.

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/

Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt

Music was recorded by me © 2017

 

In February of 1855, Britain was deep in the midst of one of the coldest winters recorded. Minus temperatures were reported from January to March, the nights were long and the conditions severe. In the early morning of the 9th February, people across the rural, South West counties of England were waking up after another night of heavy snowfall. As they went about their daily chores, a steady rumbling begun to roll through the small villages and across the bleak farmlands. Rumours were spreading of a trail of prints in the snow. A trail which leapt walls, climbed haystacks, walked on rooftops and seemed to extend for miles upon miles, across rivers and through towns. Each step in the snow left a cloven hoof print, yet it appeared that whatever left it had walked upright on two legs.

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

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Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt

Music was recorded by me © 2017

 

On the night of February 14th, 1945. The body of Charles Walton was found on a farm in Lower Quinton, Warwickshire in England. His throat had been slashed open and the prongs of a pitchfork dug into the mud on either side of his neck, pinning the body to the ground. As leads on the case faded away, paranoia and superstition crept in, leading to theories of witchcraft and the occult, remnants of which linger still.

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

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Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt

Music was recorded by me © 2017

 

Using legitimate research materials from both English and Russian sources, we tell the full story of one of the more strange cases in Russian and possibly the entire world. Still unexplained, though theories abound, this is the full story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident.

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

Connect with me at Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

Or you can contact me direct via email at contact@darkhistories.com

Music was recorded by me © 2017

  In 1866 a gruesome murder on a rural farm in the centre of Scotland shocked the local community. With little clues to go on outside of a bloody axe, a boiled egg and a missing door key, the police would eventually be left having to rely heavily on a string of unreliable testimony to do their job, a factor that would go some way in creating what would wind up as Scotland’s longest running cold case. SOURCES National Records of Scotland (1861) Perth Census. https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//research/census-records/street-indexes/1861/1861-perth.pdf Paton, Chris (2012) The Mount Stewart Murder. The History Press, UK. Erikson, Arvel B. (1961) The Cattle Plague in England, 1865-1867. Agricultural History, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Apr., 1961), pp. 94-103. UK. Dundee Courier (1866) The Murder At Mount Stewart Near Perth. Dundee Courier, Mon 2 Apr 1866, p.2. Dundee, Scotland. Dundee Advertiser (1866) A Murder of a Most Atrocious... Dundee Advertiser, Mon 2 Apr 1866, p.2. Dundee, Scotland. Dundee Courier (1866) The Murder At Mount Stewart Near Perth. Dundee Courier, Thurs 5 Apr 1866, p.2. Dundee, Scotland. Perthshire Constitutional & Journal (1866) Proclamation. Reward of £100. Perthshire Constitutional & Journal. Thurs 12 April 1866, p.1. Perth, Scotland. Perthshire Advertiser (1866) The Mount Stewart Murder. Perthshire Advertiser, Thurs 26 July 1866, p.2. Perthshire, Scotland. Perthshire Advertiser (1867) Murder Near Bridge of Earn. Perthshire Advertiser, Thurs 11 Apr 1867, p.2. Perthshire, Scotland. ------- Click the link to hit up Vessi Footwear and use my code, DARKHISTORIES at checkout for 15% off your entire order! Free shipping to CA, US, AU,JP, TW, KR, SGP -------

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories

Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/

Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf

The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

In England, the Tyne River, famously flowing through the centre of Newcastle on its way to the North Eastern coast, has for many centuries been a vein of industry. In the early 19th Century the banks were filled with shipbuilders, rope makers and flour, grain, textile and corn mills, creaking and grinding with the constant industrial din. On the Eastern outskirts of Newcastle stood Willington Mill, a flour mill built in 1801 with a local reputation. For decades folks had talked about the old mill house, of how a witch had once lived in an old cottage on the land and of the spirit of Old Jefferey. The stories eventually seeped out into national publications after a pair of curious locals carried out an overnight vigil which ended in chaos, earning the mill the title of “most haunted house in England”, but were the stories anything more than just local rumour and legend? SOURCES Proctor, Edmund (1894) The Haunted House At Willington. Journal for The Society of Psychical Research, Vol 5, 1891-92. The Society’s Books, London, UK.   Hallowell, Michael J. & Ritson, Darren W. (2011) The Haunting of Willington Mill. The History Press, London, UK.   Summers, Montague (1927) The Geography of Witchcraft. A.A. Knopf; K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, London, UK.   Hudson, Tom (1887) The Monthly Chronicle of North Country Lore and Legend. Walter Scott, Newcastle, UK   Richardson, M.A. (1842) Authentic Account of a Visit to The Haunted House at Willington near Newcastle Upon Tyne. M.A. Richardson, Newcastle, UK   Crowe, Catherine (1850) The Night Side of Nature. J.S. Redfield, New York, USA.   Sidgwick, Eleanor (1892) On The Evidence For Clairvoyance. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research Vol VII, 1891-92. Kegan Paul, Trench & Turner LTD. London, UK.   Stead, William Thomas (1897) Real Ghost Stories. G. Richards. London, UK   Newcastle Guardian & Tyne Mercury (1867) Local and District News. 26 January 1867, p.2. Newcastle, UK.   Newcastle Guardian & Tyne Mercury (1867) Local and District News. 23 February 1867, p.6. Newcastle, UK.   Beck, Ben. (2022) Children of Elizabeth and Joseph Procter.[online] Benbeck.co.uk. Available at:  

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For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories

Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/

Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf

The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

In Victorian England, fishing all manner of filth, detritus and human body parts from the Thames River in London was not such an unusual affair. Used for centuries as a dumping ground and waste disposal, it became so bad by the mid 19th Century that it was renamed “The Great Stink”. In 1879, a coal porter pulled out an old wooden box and unearthed one of the more macabre treats the river has tossed up over the years when he opened it to discover a heavily mutilated body. The mutilations might have been somewhat notable, but far more so was the killer, who once tracked down was found to be a woman, a fact that rocketed it straight into the spotlight of public attention.   SOURCES   O’Donnell, Elliot (1925) Trial of Kate Webster. W. Hodge, London, UK.   Court Transcript (1879) Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 30 June 2021), June 1879, trial of CATHERINE WEBSTER (29) (t18790630-653).   Fuller, Katie Lisette (2009) Victorian airbrushing: cultural, physical and artistic representations of upper-class women of then and today. Graduate Theses and Dissertations, 11105. Iowa State University, USA.   Wilkes, David (2011) Cut up and boiled to feed street children: Horrific fate of Victorian murder victim whose skull was found in David Attenborough's garden. The Daily Mail, 6th July, 2011, London, UK   The Execution of Kate Webster and its Lessons. South Wales Daily News, p.2, 30th July 1879, Wales, UK.   The Barnes Mystery. Wolverhampton Express and Star, p.3, 12th March 1879, Wolverhampton, UK.   Mysterious Package from the Thames. The Daily Review, p.3, 11th March 1879, Edinburgh, UK.   Extraordinary Discovery. The Nottingham Evening post, p.3, 10th march 1879, Nottingham, UK.   Home News. Paisley & Renfrewshire Gazette, p.2, 8th March 1879, UK.  

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For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/

Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf

The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

During the First World War, the Ottoman Empire established a wide network of camps to house prisoners of war from the allied powers. Like most, the conditions were often poor, the treatment often harsh and the complexes often established in some of the most remote, rural and desolate landscapes. Yozgat was one such camp, comprising a small collection of buildings in a rural town commandeered by the Ottoman Army to house British officers. Whilst its conditions were not the harshest, nor its prisoners the most dangerous, it became the scene for one of the most bizarre tales of escape that the first world war and just about any incarceration, anywhere in the world, would ever see, involving buried treasure, a Ouija board and an audacious pair of pranksters with a strong desire to get home.

Sources

Jones, Elias Henry (1919) The Road to En-Dor. Anchor Press LTD, Essex, UK.

Hill, Cedric Waters (1975) The Spook and the Commandant. William Kimber, London, UK.

Fox, Margalit (2021) The Confidence Men. Profile Books LTD, London, UK.

Ritchie, John (1996) Australian Dictionary of Biography: Vol 14, 1940-1980. Melbourne University Press, Australia.

------- This episode is sponsored by Hello Fresh, check out hellofresh.com/darkhistories50 and use the code darkhistories50 to get 50% off your first order. -------

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories

Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/

Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf

The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

1938 saw one of the world's most famous media hoaxes terrify a nation of unexpecting listeners when the original War of the Worlds radio broadcast was sent out across the airwaves unannounced, leading many to believe it to be a genuine news item. Somewhat more obscure is the tale of its precursor, when 103 years earlier in August of 1835, daily New York newspaper The Sun ran a week-long series of articles concerning the discovery of life on the moon. The paper’s “Lunarians” were a bizarre species of temple building man-bats living in perfect harmony with the animals that surrounded them. It was a humbug to match the audacity from any of the exhibits in P.T.  Barnum's American Museum and as unbelievable as it may sound today, at the time there were many who firmly believed it, fueling debates that raged across all levels of society.

Sources

Goodman, Matthew (2008) The Sun and The Moon. Basic Books, NY, USA.

Adams Locke, Richard (1835) Great Astronomical Discoveries Lately Made By Sir John Herschel, LLD FRS &c At the Cape of Good Hope. New York Sun, NY, USA

Allen Poe, Edgar (1846) Some Honest Opinions at Random Respecting Their Autorial Merits, With Occasional Words of Personality. The Literati of New york City - Vol VI. USA.

Liverpool Mercury (1835) Alleged Discovery of Men, Animals, Vegetables Etc. In The Moon. Friday 25th September, 1835, p.8. Liverpool, UK

Herschel, John F. W. (1834) A Treatise on Astronomy. Carey, Lea & Blanchard, London, UK.

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For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/

Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf

The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

In the streets of Regency London,the young servant, Elizabeth Fenning, faced a sinister charge - attempted murder by poison. Accused of lacing her employer’s dinner with arsenic, the 21-year-old cook quickly found herself trapped in an increasingly lopsided courtroom, where any hope of the justice she had held whilst awaiting trial seemed to recede with every new witness brought to the stand. The case caused widespread public consternation and outrage that lasted months, coming close to sparking riots in the streets, as the debate raged on, that never truly ended. SOURCES

Clarke, Kate (2020) Trial of Elizabeth Fenning. Mango Books, London, UK.

Watkins, John (1815) The Important Results of an Elaborate Investigation into the Mysterious Case of Elizabeth Fenning. William Hone, London, UK.

The Globe (1815) The Globe. Sat 25 March 1815, p4. London, UK.

The Globe (1815) The Globe. Mon 27 March 1815, p4. London, UK.

The Star (1815) Charge Of Poisoning Family. Tues 28 March 1815, p4. London, UK.

The Globe (1815) Charge OF Poisoning A Whole Family. Fri 31 March 1815, p1. London, UK.

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For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories

Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/

Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf

The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

In the 1920s as the world reeled from the first world war and the great flu pandemic, people in their collective grief turned to alternative systems of belief. Spiritualism, already making a new rise, was launched into the spotlight as proponents like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle waltzed around the globe giving lectures on the benefits of communicating with the dead. At the same time, there were others who found the subject altogether distasteful. The infamous magician Houdini had a particular fondness for uncovering false mediums, a past time that would wind up causing some heavy controversy when one of America’s oldest magazines proposed a competition, to pay $2,500 to the first medium that they could prove to be genuine.

SOURCES

Jaher, David (2016) The Witch of Lime Street: Séance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World. Crown Publishing Group, NY, USA.

Conan Doyle, Arthur (1917) The New Revelation. Hodder & Stoughton LTD. UK.

Conan Doyle, Arthur (1922) The Coming of The Faeries. Hodder & Stoughton LTD. UK.

Conan Doyle, Arthur (1923) Our American Adventure. Hodder & Stoughton LTD. UK.

Kuritz, Hyman. (1981) The Popularization of Science in Nineteenth-Century America. History of Education Quarterly, 21(3), 259–274. https://doi.org/10.2307/367698

Bird, J. Malcolm. A Square Deal for the Psychics. Scientific American 127, no. 6 (1922): 388–445. 

Bird, J. Malcolm. Our Psychic Investigation. Scientific American 128, no. 1 (1923): 6-7.

New York Times (1923) To test Mediums Psychic Control. Friday April 6 1923, p.10. NY, USA.

New York Times (1923) Spirit Messages Impress Scientists. Wednesday October 17 1923, p.1. NY, USA.

Bird, J. Malcolm (1923) Another Mediumistic Failure. Scientific American 129, no. 6 (1923): 6-7.

New York Times (1923) Tie Up Boy Medium; Find Trance Is Real. Wednesday December 19 1923, p.1. NY, USA.

Houdini, H (1924) “Margery” The Medium Exposed. USA

New York Times (1924) Margery Passes All Psychic tests. Wednesday July 22 1924, p.19. NY, USA.

Bird, J. Malcom (1928) The Margery mediumship. Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research. New York: American Society for Psychical Research. USA

Dingwall, E.J. (1928). A report on a series of sittings with the medium Margery. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 36, 79-158.

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For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories

Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/

Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf

The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Hi everyone! Thanks for bearing with me over the short summer break! It's good to be back and I've got a cracking episode to launch into the second half of the season. This one has it all, ghosts, murder... well alright, it's got ghosts and murder, but that's not bad! It is a darker one and has some fairly brutal murdery bits, but I don't think it's especially worse than what we've seen before. Little heads up though. I hope you enjoy! In the heart of Boston, Massachusetts, lies a 281 acre wooded parkland area known as Arnold’s Arboretum. A beautiful botanical garden and research institution planted in naturalistic style, its serene park walks bely a history before its life as the arboretum, where dark events in its past stained the ground and transformed a popular picnic spot into an ugly memorial that few wished to visit. Several years later, these events in Boston found themselves tied into a story of a murderer that the contemporary press called “The most monstrous and inhuman criminal of modern times - or indeed any time,” though despite their shocking nature, they have somehow become largely forgotten, if not for a bizarre report of a ghost sighting that keeps the linked cases alive, sparking the public imagination. ------- This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp, check out betterhelp.com/darkhistories to get 10% off your first month. ------- SOURCES   Brent, Henry Johnson (1868) Was it a Ghost? The murders in Bussey's wood. An extraordinary narrative. Loring, USA.   Bangor Daily Whig & Courier (1865) A Terrible Tragedy In Roxbury. Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, Tuesday, 20 June 1865, p.3. USA   New York Daily Herald (1865) Horrible Tragedy In Roxbury. New York Daily Herald, Tuesday, 20 June 1865, p.8. USA   Hartford Courant (1865) Horrible Murder And Outrage. Hartford Courant, Tuesday, 20 June 1865, p.2. USA   The Burlington Free Press (1865) Tragedy In Roxbury. The Burlington Free Press, Wednesday, 21 June 1865, p.2. USA   The Enterprise & Vermonter (1865) Horrid Murder At West Roxbury, Mass. The Enterprise & Vermonter, Friday, 23 June 1865, p.2. USA   The Indianapolis Star (1865) The Roxbury Tragedy. The Indianapolis Star, Monday, 26 June 1865, p.2. USA   Boston Evening Transcript (1865) Coroner’s Inquest In The Case Of The Murdered Children. Boston Evening Transcript, Tuesday, 27 June 1865, p.4. USA   Boston Evening Transcript (1865) Reward. Boston Evening Transcript, Wednesday, 28 June 1865, p.3. USA   The Buffalo Commercial (1865) Arrest Of The Supposed Murderer Of The Joyce Children. The Buffalo Commercial, Wednesday, 12 July 1865, p.2. USA   The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1865) AIsabella Joyce - The Late Boston Tragedy. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Friday, 14 July 1865, p.1. USA   Boston Evening Transcript (1865) The Recent Tragedy In West Roxbury. Boston Evening Transcript, Wednesday, 19 July 1865, p.4. USA   New York Daily Herald (1865) The Roxbury Tragedy. New York Daily Herald, Friday, 21 July 1865, p.8. USA   Boston Evening Transcript (1865) The West Roxbury Tragedy. Boston Evening Transcript, Monday, 24 July 1865, p.3. USA   DeWolfe, Byron (1872) Georgiana Lovering, Or The Northwood Tragedy. New Hampshire, USA.   Spirit of the Age (1874) Franklin B. Evans. Spirit of the Age, Thursday 26 February 1874, p.3, USA.   Brown, Janice (2004) Early History of Town of Strafford, Strafford County, New Hampshire. USA.   St Johnsbury Caledonian (1873) The New Hampshire Murder. St Johnsbury Caledonian, Friday 14 February 1843, p.2. USA.   Lewis, John B. (1896) Stratagems and conspiracies to defraud life insurance companies. J. H. McLellan, USA.   Schecter, Harold (2012) Psycho USA, Famous American Killers You Never Heard Of. Ballantine Books, USA.   Boston Evening Transcript (1872) A Young Girl Outraged And Murdered By Her Uncle. Boston Evening Transcript, Monday, 04 November 1872, p.1. USA   The Boston Globe (1872) The Northwood Tragedy. The Boston Globe, Friday, 08 November 1872, p.5. USA   The Argus & Patriot (1872) Summary Of News. The Argus & Patriot, Thursday, 14 November 1872, p.5. USA   North Star (1872) The Northwood Murder. North Star, Friday 29 November 1872, p.2. USA.   Boston Evening Transcript (1873) The Northwood, N.H, Murder. Monday 03 February 1873, p.4. USA.   Boston Evening Transcript (1873) The Murder Trial At Exeter, N.H.. Tuesday 04 February 1873, p.4. USA.   Boston Evening Transcript (1873) The Murder Trial At Exeter, N.H.. Wednesday 05 February 1873, p.4. USA.   Rutland Independent (1873) Confessions Of Evans. Rutland Independent, Saturday 08 February 1873. P.8. USA  

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

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An evolution of centuries-long efforts to contact and communicate with the dead, the practice of recording voices from the great beyond was attempted almost as soon as radio and tape recording technology became widely available in consumer devices. From garbled electrical chirps emanating out of swathes of white noise, to perfectly clear, eloquent speech, the results across the years have been as varied as they have been numerous. Up there with the capturing of “orbs” on camera in regards to its plausibility, EVP Research has somehow survived sceptical analysis and become a surprisingly persistent area of parapsychology. Though there were several pioneers in the space, there was one man who was supposedly so invested in the subject by the time of his death that he decided to come back and continue the job from the afterlife, through the medium of the telephone.

SOURCES

Jürgenson, Friedrich (1967) Voice Transmissions with the Deceased. Firework, Sweden.

Raudive, Konstantin. (1971) Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead. Smythe, UK.

Roach, Mary. (2005). Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. W.W. Norton & Co. UK.

Banks, Joe (2001) Rorschach Audio: Ghost Voices and Perceptual Creativity. Leonardo Music Journal, Vol. 11, pp 77-83. MIT Press, USA.

Estep, Sarah (1988) Voices of Eternity. Fawcett Gold Medal, NY, USA.

Estep, Sarah (2005) Roads to Eternity. Glade Press, MN, USA.

Moreman, Christopher M. (2013) The Spiritualist Movement: Speaking with the Dead in America and Around the World. ABC-CLIO, CA, USA.

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For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

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Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

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or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf

The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

On the eve of the worst winter for over a century and with France on the brink of war with the English, the 1400s in Paris were a tumultuous period. With a mentally unstable king and a collection of dukes, lords and nobles all vying for power in the background, catastrophe was only a single assassination away. Which is exactly what happened on the night of St Clements Day, 1407, when the Duke of Orleans was jumped by a gang of mysterious hooded men on his way to the palace, leaving the head of the investigation with a difficult choice to make, turn a blind eye to the crime and forgo any semblance of integrity, or uphold the law and throw the country into civil war. SOURCES Adams, Tracy & Rechtschaffen, Glenn (2013) Isabeau of Bavaria, Anne of France, and the History of Female Regency in France. Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Volume 8, Fall 2013. Jager, Eric (2014) Blood Royal: A True Tale of Crime and Detection in Medieval Paris. Little Brown & Co. NY, USA. ------- This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp, check out betterhelp.com/darkhistories to get 10% off your first month. -------  

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

For the final episode of this season, at least until the Christmas Campfire episode, here's a little extra from the Patreon bonus feed, originally recorded around Halloween. Thanks so much for all your support this season, here's to season eight (!!) starting in January.

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This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp, check out betterhelp.com/darkhistories to get 10% off your first month.   Also sponsored by Factor, America's No.1 Ready to eat meal delivery service. Check out factormeals.com/darkhistories50 for 50% off using code darkhistories50. -------

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories

Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

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Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf

The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

In 1888, Whitechapel, was gripped by fear of a brutal series of murders perpetrated by a sadistic killer that named himself Jack the Ripper. He would go on to be one of the world's most famous, and elusive serial killers of all time. Jacks escapades took place just a single step ahead of the curve of criminal forensics, an opportune window in time aiding him in his flight from capture. Across The Channel, just a decade later, another, less well known nightmare was stalking the countryside. No less brutal in his killing spree, Vacher the Ripper, was tearing up victims in secluded forest pathways and the deserted barns of isolated, rural communities across France. The march of science, psychology and criminology had not been standing still, however, and what were only the nuclei of ideas during Jack's reign, were emerging as full fledged methodologies, developed to pull a criminal from the shadows or a brutal murder out, from under the shroud of speculation.   SOURCES   Starr, Douglas. (2011) The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story & The Birth of Forensic Science. Vintage, London, UK.   Gibson, Dirk C. (2012) Legends, Monsters, or Serial Murderers? The Real Story Behind an Ancient Crime. Praeger, CA, USA.   Renneville, Marc. (2005) La Criminolgie Perdue d’Alexandre Lacassagne (1843-1924) History of Criminology, Volume 1. Accessed online 17 February 2020: http://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/112   V comme VACHER Joseph : Itinéraire et parcours de vie d’un des premiers Serial Killer Français. Accessed online 16 February 2020: https://mesracinesdu07aujura.wordpress.com/2018/11/26/v-comme-vacher-joseph-itineraire-et-parcours-de-vie-du-premier-serial-killer-francais/   Un Tueur en série d’autrefois. Accessed online 18 February 2020: http://collections.bm-lyon.fr/presseXIX/PER0044ae55cdc069a7   Smith, B. Timothy. (1999) Assistance and Repression: Rural Exodus, Vagabondage and Social Crisis in France, 1880-1914, Journal of Social History, Vol. 32, No. 4. P. 821-846. Oxford University Press, UK   Renneville, Marc. (2010) L’affaire Joseph Vacher: La fin d’un “Brevet d’impinité” pour les criminels? Droit et Cultures, 60 | 2010, p. 129 - 142. Accessed online, 18 February, 2020: https://journals.openedition.org/droitcultures/2323#quotation   ------

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

By the 1930s forensic police work had just begun to come into its own. The late 1920s had introduced advancements that had seen investigations using more than simple fingerprint evidence to solve crime and in America the FBI’s technical crime lab would firmly establish itself over the first half of the decade. Both in the UK and the USA experts from outside of the police or detective agencies were routinely drafted in to help on cases and in the UK there were none more qualified than the professors in the medical universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. In 1935 a grim discovery in a rural Scottish town opened a sensational case that would see the country's finest experts challenged to not only help the police to solve a murder case, but to pioneer multiple new forensic techniques along the way, creating innovative methods that would go on to be used right up to the modern day. SOURCES Craddock, Jermey (2021) The Jigsaw Murders. The History Press, Cheltenham, UK   Dundee Courier (1935) Moffat Crime: Devil’s Beef Tub Searched. Dundee Courier, Mon 07 Oct 1935. Dundee, UK.   Aberdeen Press and Journal (1935) Grim Discovery Made in Ravine. Aberdeen Press and Journal, Mon 30 Sep 1935. Aberdeen, UK.   Evening Sentinel (1935) Moffat Ravine Mystery. Evening Sentinel, 01 Oct 1935. Staffordshire, UK.   Aberdeen Press & Journal (1935) Nurse Girl Disappears. Aberdeen Press & Journal, 09 Oct 1935, Aberdeen, UK.   Dundee Courier (1935) Mr Buck Ruxton Charged With Murder. Dundee Courier, 14 Oct 1935. Dundee, UK.   -------

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

The technological breakthroughs of the 19th century were, to many people, both equal parts exciting and terrifying. Known as the black arts, the newly emerging techniques of commercial photography were often spoken about as though they were a mysterious or even supernatural process. Of course, there was nothing supernatural about the new technology, at least, not for most photographers. When William Mumler picked it up as a hobby, lured in by his attraction to a local studio owner and a propensity to tinker, he decided to lean into the mystery by offering a spyhole into the unseen world of the dead, shooting portraits of clients sitting alongside the spirits of their lost loved ones.

SOURCES

Manseau, Peter (2017) The Apparitionists: A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man Who Captured Lincoln's Ghost. Houghton Mifflin, MA, USA

Capron, E.W. & Barron, H.D. (1850). Singular Revelations: Explanation and History of the Mysterious Communion with Spirits, Comprehending the Rise and Progress of the Mysterious Noises in Western New York. 2nd ed. Auburn, NY: Capron and Barron.

Nartonis, D. K. (2010, June 1). The Rise of 19th‐Century American Spiritualism, 1854–1873. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2010.01515.x

The London Evening Standard (1869) From Our Own Correspondent.  11th May, 1869

The Banbury Advertiser (1869) Spiritualistic Photography. 29 April, 1869

Elgin Courier (1863) Spirit Photographs. 6 February, 1863

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For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

 

  Haunted human remains are a trope popular in modern horror, from the twisted ivory puppet in the House on Haunted Hill to the skeletal corpses, floating in the swimming pool of Poltergeist, human bones have long held a place of fear, worship and power throughout history and cultures, eventually manifesting within the horror genre of the 20th Century. At the time of the English Civil War, the whisperings of an emergent folk tradition seeded its place in the popular imagination, when stories of skulls with seemingly supernatural powers began to seep from the large, rural manor houses throughout Britain. Screaming Skulls, as they became known, were kept in farm houses, rectories and family estates both for protection and through fear of what might happen if they were mistreated, a situation which sent stories spinning through the local vicinity.   ----------   SOURCES   Hutchinson, John (1809) Hutchinson’s Tour Through The High Peak of Derbyshire. J. Wilson, Macclesfield, UK.   Laycock, Samuel (1863) An Address to Dickie. The Ashton Weekly Reporter and Stalybridge and Dukinfield Chronicle, Saturday 18 July, 1863, p.4.   Ingram, John H. (1897) The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain. Gibbing & Co. LTD, London, UK.   Collinson, John. (1791) HIstory and Antiquities of the County of Somerset, Vol II. R. Crutwell, Bath, UK   Udal, John S. (1910) Concerning the legend of the skull of Bettiscombe manor. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society Volume 31, 1910. UK   Chilton Cantelo and Ashington Parish Website. 2021. Home - Chilton Cantelo and Ashington Parish Website. [online] Available at: [Accessed 2 February 2021].   Clarke, David (1999) The head cult: tradition and folklore surrounding the symbol of the severed human head in the British Isles. University of Sheffield, UK.   Underwood, Peter (1988) Ghosts of Dorset. Bossiney Books, UK   Bord, Janet (2009) Screaming Skulls: Haunting Headbones or Ghostly Guardians? Paranormal Magazine, Issue 37, July 2009.  

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For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that. 

 

“As to the divination which takes place in sleep, and is said to be based on dreams, we cannot lightly either dismiss it with contempt or give it implicit confidence.” These were the words of Aristotle, written in 350 BCE, and taken very much to heart by a British psychiatrist in the 1960’s, when he took on the monumental task of collecting and collating hundreds of premonitions from across the country, with the ultimate goal of not only researching the phenomena, but then also using the data to avert disaster and perhaps even to save the world. SOURCES

Knight, Sam (2022) The Premonitions Bureau: A True Account of Death Foretold. Penguin Press, NY, USA.

Ulanowski, Krzysztof (2014) Mesopotamian Divination. Some Historical, Religious and Anthropological Remarks. Miscellanea Anthropologica et Sociologica 2014, 15 (4): 13–28. 

Martin, Martin (1719) A description of the Western Islands of Scotland. A. Bell, London, UK.

Dunne, J. W. (1927) An Experiment With Time. A & C Black, London, UK.

Barker, John (1968) Scared To Death. Dell Publishing, London, UK.

Psychic News (1968) Doctor Who Studied Premonitions Dies. Psychic News, Thurs 31 Aug 1968, p1. London, UK.

Fairley, Peter (1966) Did Anyone Have A Genuine Premonition OF Aberfan Disaster? Evening Standard, Fri 28 Oct 1966, p13. London, UK.

Fairley, Peter (1967) If You Dream Of Disaster… . Evening Standard, Wed 4 Jan 1967, p19. London, UK.

Barnes, Michael (1966) Learning To Hate Your Bad Habits. The Daily Telegraph, Fri 30 Dec 1966, p5. London, UK.

Birmingham Evening Mail (1967) 124 Killed In Holiday Air Crash. Birmingham Evening Mail. Thurs 20 April 1967, p1. Birmingham, UK.

The Guardian (1967) As Torrey Canyon Breaks Up Oil Battle Is Extended To Strait Of Dover. Tues 28 March 1967, p1. Manchester, UK.

Evening Standard (1967) Giant Tanker On Reef. Evening Standard, Sat 18 March 1967, p9. London, UK.

Birmingham Daily Post (1968) A Bureau To Avert Disasters? Birmingham Daily Post, Fri 23 Feb 1968, p34. Birmingham, UK.

Fairley, Peter (1968) The Londoners Who Believe They Saw Disaster In Advance. Evening Standard, Mon 11 March 1968, p8. London, UK.

Fairley, Peter (1968) Did Mr Hencher Forecast The Hither Green Rail Disaster? Evening Standard, Tues 12 March 1968, p7. London, UK.

Psychic News (1968) Doctor Who Studied Premontions Dies. Psychic News, Aug 31 1968, p1. London, UK.

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This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp, check out betterhelp.com/darkhistories to get 10% off your first month.   -------

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

 

  With a long and winding path through history from ancient times, to the renaissance and beyond, Alchemy was a vast subject with a multitude of practitioners, from the legendary and mythical to established medical gentry and scholarly clergy. In fact and fiction, they were men and women obsessed by the magical bending of the laws of nature to their will, creating gold, the elixir of life, stones that shone like the sun or offered immortality. Another sect of the sprawling tradition, however, found its interest in a far stranger creation, that of the homunculus, or “the little man”. Their writings can today be seen as some of the strangest works to exist in the history of scientific advancement and have far more in line with the publications of Gothic Horror that would eventually follow, centuries later.   ------   SOURCES   Maxwell-Stuart, P.G (2012) The Chemical Choir: A History of Alchemy. Continuum International Publishing, London, UK.   Lindsay, Jack (1970) The origins of alchemy in Graeco-Roman Egypt. Barnes & Noble, NY, USA.   Saif, Liana (2016) The Cows and the Bees: Arabic Sources and Parallels for Pseudo-Plato's Liber Vaccae (Kitab al-Nawamis). Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 2016, pp. 1-47(47). Warburg Institute, University of London, UK.   Van Der Lugt, Maaike (2009) Abominable Mixtures: The Liber Vaccae in the Medieval West, or the Dangers and Attractions of Natural Magic. Traditio: Studies in Ancient and Medieval History, Thought, and Religion, Vol. 64 (2009), pp. 229-277. Cambridge University Press, UK   Newman, William R. (2005) Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature. University of Chicago Press, USA.   Grafton, Anthony. Siraisi, Nancy (1999) Natural particulars: nature and the disciplines in Renaissance Europe. MIT Press, USA.   Besetzny, Emil (1873) Die Sphinx Freimaurerisches Taschenbuch. L. Rosner, Vienna.  

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For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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or via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that. 

 

From the ancient pages of the Old Norse Edda to the interwar pages of American adventure magazines, the depths of our oceans have, in imagination, been host to unspeakable monsters for many hundreds of years. In modern times, the phrase “Here Be Dragons” has been absorbed into popular culture as titles for books, films, TV shows, bands and video games, all this despite the fact that it only ever appeared on the unknown seas of a single 16th Century Globe. Far more common were the giant sea monsters that adorned maps for hundreds of years, existing only as illustrations and in the minds of those that viewed them. In the summer of 1817, just off the coast of Massachusetts, however, these illustrations became flesh and blood for several weeks when witnesses of a Giant Sea Serpent numbered into the hundreds, in what the 19th Century Harvard Professor Jacob Bigelow called “the most interesting problem in the science of natural history.”   SOURCES   France, Robert L. (2021) Ethnozoology of Egede’s “Most Dreadful Monster,” The Foundational Sea Serpent. Society of Ethnobiology, Boston, MA, USA.   Egede, Hans (1818) A Description of Greenland. T & J Allman, London, UK.   Paxton, C. G. M. & Knatterud, E. (2005) Cetaceans, sex and sea serpents: an analysis of the Egede accounts of a “most dreadful monster” seen off the coast of Greenland in 1734. Archives of Natural History, London, UK.   Nickell, Joe (2019) Gloucester Sea-Serpent Mystery: Solved after Two Centuries. Skeptical Enquirer, Vol. 43, No. 5. https://skepticalinquirer.org/2019/09/gloucester-sea-serpent-mystery-solved-after-two-centuries/   Magnus, Olaus (1658) A compendious history of the Goths, Swedes, & Vandals, and other northern nations. J. Streater, London, UK.   Pontoppidan, Erik (1755) The Natural history of Norway. A. Linde, London, UK.   Linnæan Society of New England (1817) Report of a committee of the Linnæan society of New England, relative to a large marine animal, supposed to be a serpent, seen near Cape Ann, Massachusetts, in August 1817. Cummings & Hilliard, Boston, USA   Brown, Chandos Michael (1990) A Natural History of the Gloucester Sea Serpent: Knowledge, Power, and the Culture of Science in Antebellum America. American Quarterly Vol. 42, No. 3 (Sep., 1990), pp. 402-436. The Johns Hopkins University Press, USA   The Long Island Star (1817) A Frightful Fish! The Long Island Star, 20 August, 1817, p.3. NY, USA.   Dublin Evening Mail (1842) The Missouri Leviathan. Monday 07 November, 1842, p.3. Dublin, ROI.   The Illustrated London News (1848) The Great Sea Serpent. The Illustrated London News, 28 October, 1848, p.8. London, UK.  

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For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Hungary during the first world war was a difficult place to live, especially if you happened to live in one of the many rural villages, far away from the grand city of Budapest, where the harsh conditions imposed on a country losing a war bit the hardest. Even if you managed to survive all the fighting, the riots, the violent occupations, or the Spanish Flu, there was always the possibility that your wife, daughter-in-law, or neighbour might decide that they had had enough of you and pay a visit to “Aunty Suzy,” the friendly local midwife. Outside of her duties as a medical practitioner, veterinary surgeon and fortune teller, Zsusanna Fazekas just so happened to run a booming business turning flypaper into poison, taking the term “pest control” to a whole new level.

SOURCES

McCracken, Patti (2023) The Angel Makers: The True Crime Story of the Most Astonishing Murder Ring in History. Mudlark, London, UK.

Kemény, István (2005) History of Roma in Hungary. Issue 123 of Atlantic studies on society in change. Social Science Monographs, Michigan, USA.

Valentiny, Pál (2020) Spanish Flu, Budapest, 1918. 

Hull Daily Mail (1929) Wholesale Exhumations. Hull Daily Mail, Fri 09 Aug 1929, p.7. Hull, UK.

Evening Chronicle (1929) Arsenic Epidemic. Evening Chronicle, Fri 09 Aug 1929, p.14. USA.

Omaha Sunday Bee (1929) One Hundred Self-Made Widows In One Jail - Husband Poisoners. Omaha Sunday Bee, Sun 24 Nov 1929, p43. Omaha, USA.

The Morning Call (1931) Woman Convicted As A Mass Poisoner Is Hanged In Hungary. Wed 14 Jan 1931, p2. Patteson, USA.

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

 

When Harry Price published his first book covering Borley Rectory in 1940, he would have been well aware of how sensational, and potentially controversial, the title would appear. “The Most Haunted House in England” shot Borley Rectory to fame, cementing the name in history with the likes of Jack the Ripper, The Salem Witch Trials and later, The Amityville Horror. That the contents of the book stirred up so many years of controversy is an outcome that was bound to have materialised regardless of the title, with stories of spectral nuns, monks and horse-drawn carriages, ghostly writings on the wall and secret passages, all set in the spiritualist boom between the wars. Tables tipped, planchettes moved, bells rang and eventually the house burnt to the ground. Eighty years later, the legend of Borley still lives on fighting against allegations of fraud all the way.

Sources

Price, Harry (1940) The Most Haunted House in England. Longmans, Green, UK

Price, Harry (1946) The End of Borley Rectory. George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., UK.

Dingwall, Eric J., Goldney, Kathleen M. & Hall, Trevor H. (1956) The Haunting of Borley Rectory - A Critical Survey of the Evidence. Proceedings for the Society for Psychical Research, Vol. 51, Part 186, January, 1956. UK.

Adams, Paul, Brazil, Eddie & Underwood, Peter (2009) The Borley Rectory Companium. The History Press, UK

`Ωcv|”aqTabori, Paul & Underwood, Peter (2017) The Ghosts of Borley. UK.

Wall, V.C. (1929) Ghost Visits to a Rectory. The Daily Mirror, 10th June 1929, UK

Wall, V.C. (1929) Weird Night in Haunted House. The Daily Mirror, 14th June 1929, UK

Clarke, Andrew (2021) The Bones of Borley Rectory. [online] Foxearth.org.uk. Available at: [Accessed 11 August 2021].

----------

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Happy New Year! Here is part of the Christmas (New year? Holiday?) Campfire episode! This year's campfire was a brilliant collection of stories, thank you so much to everyone who sent in stories and got involved. Onwards and upwards, here's to 2022! x

Prior to the First World War, ghostly apparitions across battlefields tended to be confined to large scale skirmishes fought in the skies. In America, Modern folklore has helped to spawn a cottage industry within the tourist trade of Civil War battlefields. The equation of such high death rates, paired with intense levels of trauma seems to equate to an acceptance that wars were surely the perfect breeding grounds for the supernatural. Though this doesn’t always appear to ring true, war is, nevertheless, a ripe area for some very bizarre stories.   SOURCES   R. Machen A., (1915) The Angel of Mons: The Bowmen and Other Legends of the War. London, 1915.   Runcorn Guardian (1915) Angel At Mons. 27 August, 1915. P.5. UK.   Davies, Owen (2018) A Supernatural War: Magic, Divination and Faith during the First World War. Oxford University Press, UK.   Carrington, Hereward (1918) Physical Phenomenon and The War. Dodd, Mead and Co. New York, USA.   Liverpool Echo (1916) The Trench Ghost. 21 November, 1916. P.3. Liverpool, UK   Bird, William R. (1930) And We Go On: A Memoir of The Great War. The HUnter Rose Co. LTD. Toronto, Canada.   Psychic News (1941) Edition No. 455, 08 Feb 1941.   Vu Hong Van, Nguyen Trong Long, Trinh Thi Thanh, Tong Kim Dong & Pham Van Luong (2020) Folk Beliefs of Vietnamese People. Book Publisher International, UK.   BBC Witness History (2017) US Psychological Warfare in Vietnam. BBC World Service, 21 July, 2017.

----------

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories

Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Almost thirty years before the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun and the fabled “curse of the pharaohs” was unleashed upon an excitable population, rumours and stories of another curse, attached to an ancient object, had been weaving its way into myth and legend as a complicated tangle of truth and fabrication. The “Anger of the Priestess of Amen-Ra” has links to several high profile deaths and even the sinking of the Titanic. It was potentially responsible for thousands of deaths in the few decades since its discovery, far overshadowing the famous curse of the boy king in scope, even if it would never quite match it in fame. SOURCES Luckhurst, Roger (2012) The Mummy’s Curse: The True History of a Dark Fantasy. Oxford University Press, UK.   Breckin, Edmun (2020) The Unlucky Mummy: A Concise History of the Legend. Independently Published.   Alcott, Louisa May (2019) Curse of the Mummy: Victorian Tales of Ancient Egyptian Terror. Fox Editing Classics, UK.   Bulfin, Ailise (2011) The Fiction of Gothic Egypt and British Imperial Paranoia: The Curse of the Suez Canal. Trinity College Dublin.   Barbados Agricultural Reporter (1904) A priestess of Death. Barbados Agricultural Reporter, 11 July 1904, p4.   Shaw, I & Nicholson, P (1995) British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt. BMP, London.   Summers, Montague (1946) Witchcraft & Black Magic. Dover Publications, NY, USA.   Goodrich-Freer, Ada (1913) The Priestess of Amen-Ra. The Occult Review, Vol. 17, Jan 1913, p.11. London, UK.   O’Donnell, Elliott (1911) Haunted Houses of London. London, UK.   Stead, William (1909) Ghost of Egyptian Mummy Haunts British Museum. San Francisco Examiner, 15 Aug 1909, p.1. San Francisco, USA.   Cheiro (1928) True Ghost Stories. The London Publishing Company, London, UK. ------- This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/darkhistories and get on your way to being your best self.   ------- Click the link to hit up Vessi Footwear and use my code, DARKHISTORIES at checkout for 15% off your entire order! Free shipping to CA, US, AU,JP, TW, KR, SGP -------

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Part two of this years Christmas Campfire is here! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and wishing you a very happy and healthy New Year!

In 1741, amidst the treacherous waters of Cape Horn, on the southernmost tip of South America, the British warship HMS Wager pushed through a violent storm, hoping to carry out a mission against the Spanish to alleviate them of one it’s trade ships, enriched with gold and silver, and bring the bounty home to England. It was a time of great pomp amongst the British Navy, whose continual wars with the Spanish were prompting the great rise of British Sea Power. Surely nothing could possibly go wrong. Years later, the same men sent out to fight the Spanish, were arriving back on English shores, after making a perilous escape attempt from a deserted island, following a harrowing ordeal of starvation, disease, and mutiny and murder. Far from the great victory that the admiralty had imagined, it had instead turned into a nightmarish tale of human endurance in the face of the bleakest of situations.

SOURCES

Grann, David (2023) The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny & Murder. Simon & Schuster Ltd. NY, USA.

Marshall, P. J. (1998) Rodger, N. A. M., 'Sea-Power and Empire, 1688–1793 in The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume II: The Eighteenth Century. Oxford University Press. Oxford, UK.

River Editors, Charles (2016) The HMS Wager: The History of the 18th Century’s Most Famous Shipwreck and Mutiny. Createspace Independent Publishing. USA.

Bulkeley, John & Cummins, John (1757) A voyage to the South Seas. Jacob Robinson, London, UK.

Byron, John (1768) Narrative of the Hon. John Byron; Being an Account of the Shipwreck of The Wager; and the Subsequent Adventures of Her Crew. London, UK.

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This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp, check out betterhelp.com/darkhistories to get 10% off your first month.   -------

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

 

 

In 1812, in the Manchester settlement of Vermont, a local man named Russell Colvin mysteriously vanished, and despite extensive searches, no trace of him was found. Years later, rumours began to circulate that Russell had been murdered and buried in a cellar on a piece of local farmland. Ghosts were seen, arrests were made, confessions witnessed and convictions completed, before Colvin strolled back into town, dashing the whole thing against the rocks and creating a case that would go on to be remembered for well over a century as “The Manchester Mystery.” SOURCES McFarland, Gerald (1990) The Counterfeit Man. Pantheon Books, NY, USA.   Boorn, Jesse & Boorn, Stephen (1820) Trial of Stephen and Jesse Boorn, for the Murder of Russell Colvin. Fay & Burt, VT, USA.   Sergeant, Leonard (1873) The Trial, Confessions and Conviction of Jesse and Stephen Boorn, for the Murder of Russell Colvin. Journal Book & Job Office, VT, USA.   Manchester Historical Society (1930) Early History of Manchester. The Society, VT, USA.   ------- This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/darkhistories and get on your way to being your best self.   -------

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

In 1944, residents in the town of Mattoon in Illinois came under a prolonged series of attacks by a man the papers named as “The Mad Gasser” and “The Phantom Anesthetist”. Despite the witness accounts that claimed to see a man stalking around the victims houses on multiple occasions, the authorities and subsequent psychological studies chalked the whole saga up to nothing more than a case of “Mass Hysteria”, but did that diagnosis really answer every question posed by the evidence of events that ran for over two weeks, as summer faded over the small farming community, or was it just a convenient outcome for a police force with no answers to give the troubled population?

SOURCES:

Maruna, Scott. Mad Gasser of Mattoon: Dispelling the Hysteria (2003), Swamp Gas Book Co. 

Evans, Hillary & Bartholomew, Robert E. Outbreak!: The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior (2009) Anomolist Books, TX USA

Bartholomew, Robert E. Little Green Men, Meowing Nuns and Head-Hunting Panics: A Study of Mass Psychogenic Illness and Social Delusion (2001) McFarland Publishing, USA

------

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

In the 19th Century, the Elysian Fields in New Jersey, lay just a short boat trip away for New Yorkers looking to stretch their legs, take in some rural, countryside air or relax on the lawn of a riverside refreshment house with a glass of lemonade. Mostly famous for being the birthplace of modern baseball, the fields have another, somewhat less well-known story connected to their dense thickets and green walkways. Far from the straightforward drubbing of that first game of baseball, this story is, of course far darker, full of more twists and turns and has no winners. Hailed as one of the greatest criminal mysteries of 19th Century New York, the case of Mary Rogers is at once perfectly well solved and at the same time, completely wide open.   SOURCES   Stashower, Daniel (2006) The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allen Poe & The Invention of Murder. Berkley Publishing Group, NY, USA   Bowery News Office (1841) Trial of Madame Restell, alias Ann Lohman, for abortion and causing the death of Mrs. Purdy : being a full account of all the proceedings on the trial, together with the suppressed evidence and editorial remarks. Bowery News Office, NY, USA.   Poe, Edgar Allen (2014) The Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allen Poe. Race Point Publishing, NY, USA   Abbot, Karen (2012) Madame Restell: The Abortionist of Fifth Avenue. Smithsonian Magazine [online] Smithsonian Magazine. Available at: [Accessed 6 May 2022].   The Buffalo Daily Republic (1851) Riot In Hoboken. The Buffalo Daily Republic, Thursday 29 May, 1851, p.2. NY, USA.   New York Daily Herald (1838) Beautiful Girls Serving In Stores. New York Daily Herald, Monday 8 October, 1838, p.2. NY, USA.   The Evening Post (1841) The Mysterious Death of Miss Rogers. The Evening Post, Monday 16 August, 1841, p.2. NY, USA.   The Evening Post (1841) Murder of Miss Rogers. The Evening Post, Saturday 21 August, 1841, p.2. NY, USA.   The New York Tribune (1842) The Mary Rogers Mystery Explained. 18 November, 1942. P.2. NY, USA  

----------

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

In an old estate situated just outside Chichester, on the South coast of England sits the HInton Ampner manor house. Rebuilt several times over its 1000 year existence, its current iteration is an innocuous brick building with little in common with the Tudor mansion that stood before and no hints to its creepy past. Once considered by the locals to be haunted, it was the site of an old gothic style haunting, a hundred years before they were all the rage of Victorian readers. Suggested by many to be the influence for Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, the haunting of Hinton Ampner was a ghost story that took place long before its time.

SOURCES

Doubleday, Herbert Arthur (1901) A History of Hampshire & The Isle of Wight, Vol I. Victoria County History, London, UK.

Page, William (1908) A History of the County of Hampshire, Vol III. Victoria County History, London, UK.

Price, Harry (1945) Poltergeist Over England: Three Centuries of Mischievous Ghosts. Country Life Ltd. London, UK.

Parsil, Tim (2022) Certain Nocturnal Disturbances: Ghost Hunting Before the Victorians. Brom Bones Books, UK.

The Gentleman’s Magazine (1872) A Hampshite ghost Story. The Gentleman’s Magazine, v.233 1872 Jul-Dec. London, UK.

Lindley, Charles, Lord Halifax (1936) Lord Halifax’s Ghost Book. Geoffrey Bles, London, UK.

Howard, Catherine Mary (1838) Reminiscences For My Children. Charles Thurnham, London, UK.

Barnham, Richard (1870) The Life and Letters of the Rev. Richard Harris Barnham. Richard Bentley, London, UK.

------- This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp, check out betterhelp.com/darkhistories to get 10% off your first month. -------  

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories

Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

 

 

The North American mineral rushes of the 19th Century saw hundreds of thousands flock to mountains and mines across the continent in search of fame and fortune, from panning for gold to working long, dangerous shifts down poorly run mines, entire industries exploded overnight, sucking in workers from around the world. During the San Juan Silver Rush of the 1870s, one of these workers was a young man named Alfred Packer, an epileptic, military cast-off, who drifted across America looking for his passport to a new life. He had lived a reasonably anonymous existence, until one fateful expedition saw him wind up almost starving to death, only surviving by eating his fellow party members, a surprisingly common occurrence in the Old West.

SOURCES

Keller, David (2015) The Story of Camp Douglas: Chicago's Forgotten Civil War Prison. The History Press, UK

Schechter, Harold (2015) Man-Eater: The Saga of Alfred G. Packer, American Cannibal. Head of Zeus, London, UK.

Brown, Robert Leaman (1965) An Empire of Silver: A History of the San Juan Silver Rush. Caldwell, Idaho, USA.

Randolph, John A. (1874) A Colorado Tragedy. Harper’s Weekly, Sunday 17th October, 1874. New York City, USA

The Cincinnati Enquirer (1874) Revelation of a Horrible Crime - Sequel to a Recent Cannibalistic Sensation! The Cincinnati Enquirer, 9th September, 1874. p.1. USA

The Abingdon Virginian (1874) A Horrible Diet. The Abingdon Virgianian, 25th September, 1874. p.1. USA 

El Paso Herald (1901) Packer Released. El Paso Herald, 8th January, 1901. p.1. USA

The Herald (1989) Scientists Uncover Skull Bone. 19 July, 1989. p.22, USA.

The Orlando Sentinel (1989) Cannibal. 23 July, 1989, p.12, USA.

Christensen, Mike (1989) Final Word: Packer Guilty as Sin. The Daily Sentinal, 13 October, 1989, p.1. USA.

----------

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Amid the opulence of Belle Époque France, a trial took place that threatened to unravel the very meaning of human legal justice. Michel Eyraud and Gabrielle Bompard, two French citizens living their lives quietly in Paris were launched into the spotlight following the discovery of a decomposing corpse, the reconstruction of a destroyed wooden trunk and an international manhunt. Whilst their names eventually disappeared into obscurity, the crime they were involved in left an indelible mark of legal history, as the first case using hypnosis as defence for murder, offering the jury the unique opportunity to not only decide the fate of the convicted, but to reshape the legal definition of free will in a courtroom forever. SOURCES

Levingston, Stephen (2014) Little Demon in the City of Light. Doubleday Publishing, London, UK.

The Daily Telegraph (1889) Paris Day By Day. The Daily Telegraph, Wed 25 Dec 1889, p5. London, UK.

The Standard (1890) The Trial of Michel Eyraud and Gabrielle Bompard. Wed 17 Dec 1890, p5. London, UK.

The Pall Mall Gazette (1890) The Extraordinary Paris Murder Trial. Thurs 18 Dec 1890, p6. London, UK.

The Pall Mall Gazette (1890) The Eyraud-Bompard Murder Trial. Fri 19 Dec 1890, p6. London, UK.

The Pall Mall Gazette (1890) The Eyraud-Bompard Murder Trial. Sat 20 Dec 1890, p5. London, UK.

The Pall Mall Gazette (1890) Eyraud-Bompard Murder Trial - Sentences. Mon 22 Dec 1890, p7. London, UK.

Corydon Hammond, D. (2013) A Review of the History of Hypnosis Through the 19th Century. American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, Routledge, USA.

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

Since the 1960s California has always been a place associated with alternative beliefs, countercultural movements and alternative lifestyles. The hippy movement, with it’s summer of love, fueled by the west coast psychedelic music scene will always be a highlight from the era, but the truth is, the state of California’s links to alternative beliefs go back much further and manifested in much stranger ways than a bunch of long haired students having a good time. Labour movements, civil rights activism and the gold rush era can all be associated with California’s ties to alternative living, as can its long history with cult groups who have thrived in the area throughout history. With the boom of New Thought, Eastern Spirituality and alternative religions, countless groups have emerged to furnish the world with their peculiar beliefs and practices. One group known as The Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven, however, trumps many with its utterly nonsensical story of animal sacrifice, ritual worship, mysterious disappearances and elusive publications.

SOURCES

Fort, Samuel (2014) Cult of the Great Eleven. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. South Carolina, USA.

The Los Angeles Times (1925) Angel Gabriel Girls Quizzed. The Los Angeles Times, Feb 7 1925, p17. LA, USA.

The Los Angeles Times (1925) Cult Leaders Face Charges. The Los Angeles Times, Oct 4 1929, p8. LA, USA.

The Los Angeles Times (1925) Police On Search At Venice Cottage For Secret Grave Of Young Cult Priestess. The Los Angeles Times, Oct 6 1929, p2. LA, USA.

Stark, Rodney. Sims Bainbridge, William & Doyle, Daniel P. (1979) Cults of America: A Reconnaissance in Space and Time. Sociological Analysis, Vol. 40, No. 4, Sects, Cults and Religious Movements (Winter, 1979), pp. 347-359. Oxford University Press. Oxford, UK.

Gordon Melton, J. (1993) Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America. Routledge, NY, USA.

Barghusen, J. D. (1998) Cults. Lucent Books, CA, USA.

------------------ For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

 

 

 

In Victorian England, the press were never shy of calling a crime the “sensation of the century” or a murder, “the most astonishing the world had ever seen.” When the body of a young woman showed up on the beach of a popular seaside resort town, no-one would have imagined it would provoke just such proclamations. As the story unravelled, and the winding, and at times, explosive court case drew on, however, it became clear that not only would it provoke such headlines, but it would also be entirely worthy of many of them. SOURCES

Majoribanks, Edward (1929) The Life of Sir Edward Marshall Hall. Victor Gollanz Ltd. London, UK.

Donovan, Kim (2024) The Mysterious Mrs Hood. Seven Dials Publishing, London, UK.

Hulme, Mike (2010) ‘Telling a different tale’ literary, historical and meteorological readings of a Norfolk heatwave. Climactic Change, UK.

Dade, Richard (2007) Photographs and information about Great Yarmouth Rows. Retrieved March 12, 2024, from http://www.ourgreatyarmouth.org.uk/page_id__54.aspx

Eastern evening News (1900) Terrible Crime At Yarmouth. Eastern Evening News, Mon 24 Sep, 1900.  P3. Norfolk, UK.

Eastern evening News (1900) Yarmouth Beach Tragedy. Eastern Evening News, Tues 25 Sep, 1900. P3. Norfolk, UK.

Eastern evening News (1900) Yarmouth Beach Tragedy. Eastern Evening News, Wed 26 Sep, 1900. P3. Norfolk, UK.

Eastern evening News (1900) Yarmouth Beach Tragedy. Eastern Evening News, Thurs 27 Sep, 1900. P3. Norfolk, UK.

Eastern evening News (1900) The Tragedy On Yarmouth Sands. Eastern Evening News, Fri 28 Sep, 1900. P3. Norfolk, UK.

East Anglian Times (1900) Funeral Of The Victim. East Anglian Times, Sat 29 Sep, 1900. P3. Norfolk, UK.

Weekly Dispatch (1900) Yarmouth Murder Mystery. Weekly Dispatch, Sun 30 Sep, 1900. P11. London, UK.

Evening Star (1900) Yarmouth Denes Murder. Evening Star, Thurs 8 Nov, 1900. P2. London, UK.

Sleaford Gazette (1900) The Yarmouth Tragedy. Sleaford Gazette, Sat 24 Nov, 1900. P7. UK.

Echo (1900) Yarmouth Mystery. Echo, Sat 10 Nov 1900, P2. London, UK.

Liverpool Echo (1901) The Yarmouth Murder. Mon 25 Feb, 1901, P3. Liverpool, UK.

Echo (1901) Bennett Trial. Echo, Tues 26 Feb 1901, P3. London, UK.

Echo (1901) Bennett On Trial. Echo, Fri 1 Mar 1901, P3. London, UK.

Echo (1901) Bennett’s Sentence. Echo, Mon 4 Mar 1901, P2. London, UK.

Norfolk News (1901) Bennett At The Old Bailey. Norfolk News, Sat 2 Mar, 1901, P6. Norfolk, UK.

Norfolk News (1901) The Convict Bennett. Norfolk News, Sat 9 Mar, 1901, P13. Norfolk, UK.

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

Following the first world war, Germany, having never found its feet economically throughout the conflict, now found itself crumbling under the further weight of heavy reparations. Many of those that had survived the fighting found themselves in a desperate state, carrying out all sorts of underground, legally dubious, or just straight up illegal activities, in order to get by. There were some that thrived in the lawless environment, profiteering from others misfortune, and then there were others, a very select few, who not only thrived, but positively excelled at breaking the law, and amongst those, there were one or two who did so in some very dark ways. Friedrich Haarmann was one such individual. Trading used clothing by day, he carried out a series of brutal murders that would earn him the monikers of “The Butcher of Hanover,” “The Wolf Man,” and “The Vampire of Hanover.” Perhaps even more frightening than his nicknames, was the attitude of the man himself, who once told a shocked audience, “Oh believe me, I’m not ill, it’s only that I occasionally have funny turns.”

SOURCES

Theodor, Lessing (1925) Monsters of Weimar. Haarmann - The Story of a Werewolf. Nemesis Books, London, UK.

Daily News (1924) Behead Me! Vampire Slayer Cries, Raving, Tossing In Cell. Daily News, Sun 13 July 1924, p36. NY, USA

The Muncie Morning Star (1925) Germany To Behead Both Murderers. The Muncie Morning Star, Fri 6 Feb 1925, p1. IN, USA.

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For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

 

 

 

It's time for a mid-season summer break and to tide us over I've got a couple of tales for you from the genius of M.R. James. I've picked two of my favourites to read, I hope you enjoy them!

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Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

When Sir Roger Tichborne was shipwrecked and lost at sea in 1854, his mother fell into a deep state of mourning, both devastated by the loss of her son and insistent that he was still alive. As much as the rest of her family tried their best to convince her that Roger was not ever coming back, she just refused to stop searching. It was a stance that paid off handsomely then, when her long lost son made his triumphant return to England 12 years later with a plan to reclaim the family estate. It would be a claim that would make it to court and eventually be the longest running trial in English legal history, holding the title for over a hundred years and would light up the Victorian press with scandal, humour and class warfare that would last decades.

SOURCES   Annear, Robyn. (2002) The Man Who Lost Himself: The Unbelievable Story of the Tichborne Claimant. Constable & Robinson Ltd. London, UK.   McWilliam, Rohan (2007) The Tichborne Claimant: A Victorian Sensation. Hambledon Continuum, London, UK.   Kinsley, William, J. (1911) The Tichborne Case. The Yale Law Journal, Vol. 20, No. 7 (May, 1911), pp. 563-569.   Saunders News-Letter (1867) From Our Own Correspondent. Monday 14 January 1867, Dublin, Ireland.   Yorkshire Gazette (1867) Arrival of Sir Roger Tichborne Bart. Saturday 5 January 1867. Yorkshire, UK.   London Evening Standard (1867) The Tichborne Baronetcy. Wednesday 23 January 1867. London, UK   London Evening Standard (1872) A Last Appeal From The Claimant. Wednesday 27 March 1872. London, UK  

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

Despite the number of documented cases, the poltergeist has consistently been one of the most difficult forms of paranormal phenomena to define with very little consensus over what they are actually supposed to be. Spirits, invisible, unknown energy or childish hoaxes all form the basis of the most common theories that have been presented. In England, the Enfield case is without doubt the most famous poltergeist case and has, over the decades, had all three theories put forward by those that investigated the small, London house. Hundreds of miles north and over the Scottish border in a tiny village named Sauchie is another case that has proven just as difficult to define, despite the contemporary investigator, George Owen concluding, “In my opinion the Sauchie case must be regarded as establishing beyond all reasonable doubt the objective reality of some poltergeist phenomena”.

SOURCES

Robinson, Malcolm (2020) The Sauchie Poltergeist: (And other Scottish ghostly tales). Independently Published.

Glanvill, Joseph (1872) Saducismus Triumphatus: or, full and plain evidence concerning witches and apparitions. With some account of Mr. Glanvil's life and writings. A Bettesworth & J. Batley, London, UK.

Owen, A.R.G. (1967) Can We Explain The Poltergeist. BBC, 1967.

Sims, Victor (1965) Poltergeist Terror. The Sunday Mirror, Sun 13 June, 1965. London, UK.

Sims, Victor (1965) Case Of The Haunted Schoolgirl. The Sunday Mirror, Sun 20 June, 1965. London, UK.

Sims, Victor (1965) Virginia Was Possessed By A Wild Unknown Force. The Sunday Mirror, Sun 27 June, 1965. London, UK.

The Alloa Journal (1960) Ghost - Poltergeist - Or What! The Alloa Journal, Fri Dec 2 1960, Scotland, UK.

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For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

 

 

Forty years before the infamous witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, Hugh Parsons stepped out of his dirty, disease ridden prison cell in Boston and was carted off towards the courthouse in order to stand trial as a witch. He’d come from a small settlement named Springfield over a hundred miles away and spent the last year cooped up in a concrete prison with his life in the balance. The previous few years had seen the fear of witches spread like a disease throughout New England, with cases springing up like boils on a plague victim. Accused, tried and sent to prison to await a verdict, Parsons had survived the cold winter drinking filthy water and eating gruel in the overcrowded gaol and finally, he was to find out if he was to be lanced. SOURCES Pynchon, William (1651) Testimony Against Hugh Parsons Charged With Witchcraft. The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1650 - 1651. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/3ca63410-c627-0139-9efd-0242ac110004 Gaskill, Malcolm (2021) The Ruin Of All Witches: Life And Death In The New World. Allen Lane, UK. Handlin, Lilian (1985) Dissent In A Small Community. The New England Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 2 (Jun., 1985), pp. 193-220 (28 pages). New England, USA. Evans, Hillary & Bartholomew, Robert (2015) Outbreak: The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior. Anomalist Books, UK. ------- This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/darkhistories and get on your way to being your best self. -------

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

For over a century, 19th century criminal history has been dominated by a single name. With his murders so violent, his acts so senseless, his victims so vulnerable and his legacy so profound, Jack the Ripper is as synonymous with Victorian London as the Queen herself. But whilst Jack was busy ripping, there was another series of murders being carried out that were equally as gruesome, executed by a killer equally as mysterious and whose story shared all the same traits of the Ripper, though despite it all, it is a story that has forever remained in the shadow of Jack, whose reign of terror consumed everything in its path, relegating all other mysteries to the back pages, for well over a hundred years. SOURCES

Hebbert, Charles A. (1889) An Exercise in Forensic Medicine. 

Trow, M. J. (2011) The Thames Torso Murders. Pen & Sword Books, LTD. Yorkshire, UK.

Stubley, Peter (2012) 1888: London Murders in the Year of the Ripper. The History Press, Gloucestershire, UK.

The London Evening Standard (1887) To-Days Telegrams. The London Evening Standard, Wed 11 May 1887, p4. London, UK.

Bradford Daily Telegraph (1887) The Rainham Mystery. Bradford Daily Telegraph, Mon 16 May 1887, p3. Bradford, UK.

Essex Newsman (1887) Horrible Discovery At Rainham. Essex Newsman, Sat 21 May 1887, London, UK.

Essex Standard (1887) The Rainham Mystery. Essex Newsman, Sat 13 Aug 1887, London, UK.

Tavistock Gazette (1888) A Thames Mystery. Tavistock Gazette, Fri 14 Sep 1888, Tavistock, UK.

Daily Telegraph & Courier (1888) The Whitehall Murder. Daily Telegraph & Courier, Wed 3 Oct 1888, London, UK.

Newcastle Daily Chronicle (1888) More Remains Discovered. Newcastle Daily Chronicle, Sat 6 Oct 1888, Newcastle, UK.

Birmingham Mail (1888) The Whitehall Mystery. Birmingham Mail, Tues 9 Oct 1888, Birmingham, UK.

Tamworth Herald (1888) The Whitehall Mystery. Tamworth Herald, Sat 27 Oct 1888, Tamworth, UK.

Dundee Courier (1889) The Victim Identified. Dundee Courier, Wed 26 June 1889, Dundee, UK.

Derbyshire Courier (1889) The Battersea Mystery. Derbyshire Courier, Sat 29 June 1889, Dundee, UK.

Illustrated Police News (1889) The Latest Thames Horror. Illustrated Police News, Sat 15 June 1889, London, UK.

Northern Daily Telegraph (1889) The Inquest. Northern Daily Telegraph, Wed 11 Sep 1889, Lancashire, UK.

Glasgow Evening Post (1889) Whitechapel In Panic. Glasgow Evening Post, Tues 10 Sep 1889, Glasgow, UK.

Shields Daily Gazette (1889) The Pinchin Street Mystery. Shields Daily Gazette, Tues 24 Sep 1889, London, UK.

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays everyone! Here is the first part of this years Christmas Campfire episode and I have to say a massive thank you to everyone who sent stories in! This year the Campfire episode had overwhelming interest from everyone and there were so many great stories from everyone, it was such an enjoyable experience reading them and collating them for the episode, so thank you so much! I hope you all enjoy some creepy for the holiday season and have a great holiday, best wishes to you and all your family! Thank you so much for another great season of Dark Histories!

From ancient origins, to Churchill, who popularised the Victorian phrase “The black dog on your back”, the concept of the spectral black dog as a portent of doom, death and catastrophe is one that has maintained, with a constant slow progression throughout centuries. From musty old tomes maintained in cold damp monasteries, to the pages of Harry Potter, the Black Dog, Old Shuck, the Barghest, the Guytrash and the Skriker have haunted the stories of our rural landscapes and worked their way into the global imagination like almost nothing else in popular folklore.   This weeks episode was sponsored by The Art of Crime Podcast, check them out here: https://www.artofcrimepodcast.com/ Sources Chambers, Robert (1894) The Book of Days: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities… W & R Chambers, London, UK.   Waldron, David & Reeve, Christopher (2010) Shock! The Black Dog of Bungay. Hidden Publishing, London, UK.   Waldron, George (1744) The History and Description of the Isle of Man. W.Bickerton, UK.   Dutt, W. A. (1901) Highways and Byways in East Anglia. Macmillan and Co. LTD. UK.   L’Estrange Ewen, C. (1929) Witch Hunting & Witch Trials. Routledge, London, UK.   E.S.T. (1850) Notes & Queries 1850-05-18: Vol 1 Iss 29. Oxford Publishing Limited, UK.   Brown, Theo (1978) The Black Dog in English Folklore. D. S. Brewer, UK.   Parkinson, Thomas (1888) Yorkshire Legends & traditions.   -------

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

New York journalism in 1897 was in a pretty technicolor space. Newspapers, so long the grey, stolid, medium of the merchants and businessman, were instead being filled with lurid stories of murder, scandal and drunken debauchery and the public were loving it. As papers fought for readers in the streets, sometimes quite literally, the stories that filled the pages and the methods utilised on order to write the stories grew more and more sensational by the day. It all came to something of a boiling point in the high temperatures of Summer, when a body washed up in the East River, carved up and lacking a head. The investigation that followed was carried out just as much by the journalists as it was the police, as the lines between who was who became increasingly blurred.   SOURCES   Collins, Paul (2011) Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars. Broadway Books, NY, USA.   Reagan, L. J. (1995). Linking Midwives and Abortion in the Progressive Era. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 69(4), 569–598. John Hopkins University Press, USA   The World (1897) Boys Ghastly Find. 27 June 1897, p1, NY, USA   The World (1897) The Fragments of a Body Make a Mystery. 28 June 1897, p1, NY, USA   The World (1897) World Men Find A Clue. 28 June 1897, p1, NY, USA   The World (1897) The Murder Mystery is a Mystery Still. 01 July 1897, p1, NY, USA   The World (1897) Murder Will Out. 03 July 1897, p1, NY, USA   The World (1897) Mrs Nack’s Confession. 04 July 1897, p1, NY, USA   The World (1897) Supposed Thorn is Captured. 07 July 1897, p1, NY, USA   The World (1897) Thorn’s Friend Betrays Him. 08 July 1897, p3, NY, USA   The World (1897) Mrs Nack Talk Freely to The World. 06 August 1897, p1, NY, USA   The Journal (1897) Mrs Nack: Murderess! 01 July 1897, p1, NY, USA   Buffalo Evening News (1897) Says He Bought Corpses. 14 January 1897, p1, NY, USA  

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

In France during the 17th Century, a string of unexpected deaths lead to a murder inquiry that uncovered the dark practices of a serial poisoner, who had plied her trade in the streets of Paris, using the popular alchemy and astrology social circles for cover. The eventual arrests shocked the nation, when it was discovered that far from common rabble, the poisoners had hailed from a more well bred class of citizen. Unfortunately, for the Royal Court, the case was only the start of what would turn out to be an unravelling scandal, fueled by a moral panic and the wild imaginations of those accused, that saw witchcraft, occultism, poison and assassination infest the entirety of French society, from the bottom, all the way to the very top.

SOURCES

Somerset, Anne (2004) The Affair Of The Poisons: Murder, Infanticide, And Satanism At The Court Of Louis XIV. St Martin’s Press, NY, USA.

Duramy, Benedetta Faedi (2012) Women & Poisons in 20th Century France. Golden Gate University School of Law, CA, USA.

Zacharias, Gerhard (1964) Der dunkle Gott: Satanskult und Schwarze Messe. Wiesbaden, Germany.

Duc de Louis de Rouvroy Saint-Simon (2016) Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Complete. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. -------

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

Given a certain degree of infamy thanks to Charles Darwin, the Galapagos Islands are far less famous for their role in playing host to a tiny, isolated German ex-pat community in the 1930s, living quietly, surrounded by the unending blue of the Pacific Ocean. The motley crew of settlers included a doctor with philosophical aspirations, a pregnant housewife and an eccentric Baroness bent on creating a hotel for millionaires, complete with her doting entourage of love interests. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the ideologically disparate factions often failed to see eye to eye whilst they precariously shared the island's few natural springs, a situation that rose more than a few suspicions to those that watched on from the outside, after a series of unexplained deaths and disappearances tore the quiet island life apart from the inside, leaving the survivors to shrink off into quiet obscurity.

SOURCES

Treherne, John (1983) The Galapagos Affair. Random House, NY, USA.

Beebe, William (1924) Galapagos: World’s End. G. P. Putnam's Sons, NY, USA.

Strauch, Dore (1936) Satan Came to Eden: A Survivor's Account of the "Galapagos Affair". Harper & Bros, London, UK.

The San Fransisco Examiner (1930) Two Modern Robinson Crusoes. Sun 06 April, 1930. P103. CA, USA.

The Montreal Star (1932) Hunt For Priates Hoard. 29 December, 1932. Quebec, Canada. 

The Miami News (1934) Ritter, Galapagos Nudist, Dies Without Telling Orgy secrets. 06 December 1934, P.21. FL, USA.

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Cover Up is a series of investigative stories that take us on a journey into a world of subterfuge and secrecy - a world where the truth is concealed under a blanket of lies. From corrupt individuals to clandestine institutions, Cover Up exposes deceit, deception and the abuse of power. Season one uncovers the story of The Ministry of Secrets, one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Cold War. At its heart is a missing person — a wartime hero and international celebrity. But that’s just the starting point. It involves the royal family, MI6, the CIA and the KGB. There’s conspiracies. And lies. This story is so sensitive, so secret - that the truth is being withheld for 100 years, until 2057. Presenter Giles Milton and producer Sarah Peters are on a quest to find out why… Want the full story? Unlock all episodes of Cover Up: Ministry of Secrets, ad-free right now by subscribing to The Binge — All Episodes. All at Once. Plus, you’ll unlock brand new stories, dropping on the first of every month — that’s all episodes, all at once, all ad-free. Just click ‘Subscribe’ on the top of the Cover Up show page on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you listen. A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production.

In 1871, the seaside town of Brighton, England saw one of the more bizarre cases of the Victorian age play out when a lady of the town, Miss Christiana Edmunds, found her romantic feelings for a local doctor knocked back. As the pain of the unrequited love affair became too much, Christiana attempted and failed to commit murder and then in a perverse effort to clear her name, decided to carry out a mass poisoning campaign.

SOURCES

Wohl, Anthony S. (1983) Endangered Lives: Public Health in Victorian Britain. Cambridge: Harvard UP

Jones, Kaye (2016) The Case of The Chocolate Cream Killer: The Poisonous Passion of Christiana Edmunds. Pen & Sword History, Barnsley, UK

Brighton Gazette (1871) Borough of Brighton, £20 Reward. 17 Aug, 1871. p.4.

Brighton Gazette (1871) Alleged Wilful Poisoning. 24 Aug, 1871. p.6.

Brighton Gazette (1871) The Alleged Poisoning By Sweets. 29 June, 1871. p.7.

Brighton Gazette (1871) Mysterious Death Of A Child - Suspected Poisoning. 15 June, 1871. p.5.

(1871) Poisonous Sweets. Clerkenwell News, 24 June, 1871. p.3

(1871) Summary Of This Mornings News. Pall Mall Gazette, 23 June, 1871. p.4.

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For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

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Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

In the humid nights of New Orleans in the early years of the 1900’s, a shadowy figure prowled the moonlit streets. 

“They have never caught me and they never will. They have never seen me, for I am invisible, even as the ether which surrounds your earth. I am not a human being, but a spirit and a fell demon from hottest hell. I am what you Orleanians and your foolish police call the axman.” 

Whilst almost certainly not written by any real Axeman, this letter, published in the press during the peak of a series of attacks by a violent perpetrator, struck fear into the hearts of citizens who were already terrified of the brutal, seemingly random violence that had been wrapping the city in a terrifying mystery for almost a decade.

SOURCES

Davos, Miriam C. (2017) The Axeman Of New Orleans. Chicago Review Press Inc., Chicago, USA. 

Tallant, Robert (1952) Ready To Hang. Pelican Publishing Co., New Orleans, USA.

New Orleans Dept. of Police (1911) Report of Homicide. Report No.29. New Orleans, USA.

The Times Democrat (1910) Mysterious Assault. Sun 14 Aug 1910, p4. New Orleans, USA.

The Times Democrat (1910) New Clew To Assailant Of Rissetto’s. Wed 21 Sep 1910, p4. New Orleans, USA.

The Times Democrat (1910) She Wore No.4 Shoe. Thurs 22 Sep 1910, p4. New Orleans, USA.

The Times Democrat (1910) Rissetto Assault Remains A Mystery. Fri 23 Sep 1910, p5. New Orleans, USA.

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Hi everyone, I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas or at least a nice bit of time off work... Here's part 2 of the 2022 Campfire episode, which should hopefully be something to help pass the time in these strange limbo days.

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

 

 

The mid 19th Century newspaper headlines saw no shortage of cases involving poison. Unsurprisingly, given the relative ease of obtaining such deadly materials, a long narrative of death, whether by accident or design, formed throughout the period and still today the Victorian period is often characterised as something of a heyday for poisons and poisoners. From time to time, salacious stories of a murderer utilising these violent compounds broke out and captured the public's attention, stacking up a list of names of cold, calculated criminality. In 1855, William Doves name was added to the list after he killed his wife, Doves name drew attention over many of his fellow poisoners, however, when it was uncovered that he had killed her after taking advice from a local wizard, had sold his soul to the devil at a young age and later went on to write a letter to the Prince of Darkness in his own blood, inviting him to collect on his side of the bargain.

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SOURCES

The Leicester Journal (1856) Execution of William Dove. The Leicester Journal, Friday 15th August, 1856. 

Sheffield Daily Telegraph (1856) The poisoning of a Lady By Strychnine, At Leeds. Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Thursday 13th March, 1856.

The Morning Post (1856) Serious Charge Of Slow Poisoning From Strychnine, At Leeds. The Morning post, Monday 10th March, 1856. 

Davies, Owen (2005) Murder, Magic & Madness: The Victorian Trials of Dove and the Wizard. Pearson Education Limited, UK

Davies, Owen (2008) Cunning-Folk in England and Wales during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Rural History, Volume 8, Issue 1, April 1997, pp. 91 - 107

Davies, Owen (2007) Popular Magic: Cunning-folk in English History. Hambledon Continuum, UK     

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If you'd like to send in a submission for the Christmas Campfire episode this year as I mentioned at the start of the episode, the email address to send to is: social@darkhistories.com

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that. 

         

According to the late Father Gabrielle Amorth, co-founder of the International Association of Exorcists, Hitler, Stalin, ISIS, Harry Potter and Yoga were all, in one way or another, touched by demonic influence, This does perhaps go some way towards explaining how he managed to rack up over 150,000 exorcisms throughout his long life. Of all of these cases, however, he admitted openly that only a small minority had been true, legitimate cases of demonic possession. Despite this, exorcism remains more popular today than in any other time in history, where it has existed as a long running ritual spanning centuries, continents and cultures. From personal demons to group possessions, humans battle with the Devil is a long, winding history of violence, perversion and projectile vomit.

SOURCES

St. Louis Globe Democrat (1949) Priest Frees Boy Reported To Be Possessed By Devil. St. Louis Globe Democrat, Sat, 20 Aug 1949, p.3. USA.

Laycock, Joseph P. (2020) The Penguin Book of Exorcisms. Penguin Random House, UK.

Foys, Martin, et al., eds. (2022) Old English Poetry in Facsimile 2.0 (Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2019-): https://oepoetryfacsimile.org.

The University of Edinburgh School of History, Classics and Archaeology (2017) The Role of Psychological Distress and Social Contagion in Demonic Possession in Early Modern England. The University of Edinburgh, UK.

Baker, Ernest Edward, ed. (2009) A True And Most Dreadful Discourse Of A Woman Possessed With The Devil: At Dichet, In Sommersetshire. Kessinger Publishing, UK.

Rev. Father Sinistrari (2019) Demoniality: Incubi & Succubi. Quick Time Press, UK.

Goldsmid, Edmund (2018) The History of the Devils of Loudun. Read Books Ltd., UK

Evans, Hilary & Bartholomew, Robert (2009) Outbreak: The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary  Social behaviour. Anomalist Books, USA.

Reis, Elizabeth, ed. (1998) Spellbound: Women & Witchcraft in America. SR Books, USA.

Pitkin, Joseph (1740) The Diary of Joseph Pitkin. Connecticut State Library, USA.

Marianhill Mission Society (1927) Are There Devils Today? An Authentic Report on Two Cases of Exorcism Performed in Recent Years. Marianhill Mission Society, USA.

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

What if California seceded from the United States? If it did, what would happen?

The Last Resort is a new documentary podcast about the rise, fall, and rebirth of CAL-EXIT: the campaign for Californian Independence. Join our host Xiuhtezcatl (pronounced shoo-TEZ-kah) as the story unfolds about dreaming of a new progressive West Coast utopia, fighting for America’s future, and ending up in the middle of a still-unfolding global criminal conspiracy.

Binge all episodes of The Last Resort available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts!

The belief of extraterrestrial life is one of the most exotic, exciting and long endearing throughout human history. Mars in particular has always proven to be of particular interest. One of our nearest planetary neighbours, the red planet has inspired thousands of works ranging from the earliest science fiction, all the way to contemporary fringe theology. In the late 19th Century, interest in the planet saw a boom, as astronomers battled with one another over their beliefs of the existence of a great Martian civilization, creating a scientific debate that crossed over into far more fringe elements. Spiritualism, with it’s equal boom, became far more interested in the interstellar than one might expect and one case in particular, of a young, Swiss medium named Catherine Elise muller, would charge out in front, presenting the world with not only surreal images of the hypercolour martian landscape, but with descriptions of an alien society and a working language to boot.

SOURCES

Flournoy, Theodore (1900) From India to the Planet Mars. Harper & Bros, London, UK

Keep, Christopher (2020) Life on Mars?: Hélène Smith, Clairvoyance, and Occult Media. Journal of Victorian Culture , Volume 25 (4) – Nov 16, 2020. Leeds Trinity University, Oxford University Press, UK.

Clerke, Agnes Mary (2011) A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, UK.

Greg, Percy (1880) Across the  Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked Record. Ballantyne Press, London, UK.  

Crossley, Robert (2011) Imagining Mars: A Literary History. Wesleyan University Press, CT, USA.

Tipler, F.J. (1981) A Brief History of the Extraterrestrial Intelligence Concept. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 22, P. 133, 1981.

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

The disappearance of James Eugene Harrison, a young entrepreneur who set out on a business trip in the winter of 1958 and never returned, signalled a tragic loss for his family. Their life suddenly flipped on its head. Mrs Harrison slowly came to terms with the difficult life of a widow with two young sons to raise. A Californian convict admitted to the murder, complete with a detailed confession and the whole sorry affair was tied up neatly for police. That was until James Eugene Harrison showed up on the driveway of a suburban house one night, three months later, confused and unsure of how he had moved halfway across the country and very much alive.  

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that. 

Far from being a modern, internet crackpot idea, hollow earth theory has walked a long and winding path, many centuries old. From the mythological pits of hell, to the pseudo-scientific theories of the enlightenment, right through to modern science fiction, founding philosophies of utopian cults and even tenuous links with the Nazis, the proponents have been many and the theories varied, though whether or not they were ever anything other than crackpot is a different question altogether.   SOURCES   Standish, David (2007) Hollow Earth. Da Capo Press, IN, USA.   Bernard, Raymond (1963) The Hollow Earth. Fieldcrest Publishing Co., NY, USA.   Griffin A., Duane (2004) Hollow & Habitable Within: Symmes’s Theory of Earth’s Internal Structure & Polar Geography. Physical Geography, Sep 2004. USA.   Kollerstrom, Nicholas (1992) The Hollow World of Edmond Halley. Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 23 Issue 3, August 1992. USA   Halley, Edmond (1692) An account of the cause of the change of the variation of the magnetical needle with an hypothesis of the structure of the internal parts of the Earth. Philosophical transac­tions, xvi (1692), 563-87. UK   Alexandria Gazette (1818) Food For Philosophers. 13 Aug 1818, p.2. VA, USA   Teed, Cyrus (1899) The Illumination of Koresh: Marvelous Experiences of the Great Alchemist Thirty Years Ago, at Utica, NY. Guiding Star, Chicago, USA.   Goodricke-Clarke, Nicholas (2004) The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and their Influence on Nazi Ideology. Tauris Parke Paperbacks, NY, USA.

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

In 1833, a small village in Kent, England became the focus of attention when the patriarchal head of a wealthy farming family wound up dead, presumed murdered after an attack on the entire household, presumed to be the work of Arsenic Poisoning. The 1830’s were on the eve of a new era in Forensics, and the previously vague symptoms of poisoning were being slowly unravelled and understood on levels far deeper than ever before, but would these new methods of detection prove to be enough to not only detect the presence of poison, but to finger the culprit and see them locked away for their crimes, or would the poisoner simply slip away into anonymity as so many had done in the decades and centuries before?

SOURCES:

Hempel S. (2013) The Inheritor's Powder: A Tale of Arsenic, Murder, and the New Forensic Science. W. W. Norton & Company, London

Hughes, Michael F, et al. “Arsenic Exposure and Toxicology: a Historical Perspective.” Toxicological Sciences : an Official Journal of the Society of Toxicology, Oxford University Press, Oct. 2011, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3179678/?report=classic.

N Hughes, Michael F, et al. “Arsenic Exposure and Toxicology: a Historical Perspective.” Toxicological Sciences : an Official Journal of the Society of Toxicology, Oxford University Press, Oct. 2011, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3179678/?report=classic.

“1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Orfila, Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure.” 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Orfila, Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure - Wikisource, the Free Online Library, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Orfila,_Mathieu_Joseph_Bonaventure.

The Morning Advertiser - Monday 11 November 1833, Murder of Mr. Bodle. p.3

The Morning Advertiser - Friday 8 November 1833, Murder at Plumstead. p.3

The Morning Chronicle - Thursday 14 November 1833, The Murder by Poison at Plumstead. p.3

Public Ledger & Daily Advertiser - Monday 16 December 1833, The Murder at Plumstead. p.3

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Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

“The manifestations described in this story commenced one year ago. No person has yet been able to ascertain their cause. Scientific men from all parts of Canada and the United States have investigated them in vain. Some people think that electricity is the principal agent; others, mesmerism; whilst others again, are sure they are produced by the devil. Of the three supposed causes, the latter is certainly the most plausible theory, for some of the manifestations are remarkably devilish in their appearance and effect.” The opening lines of an account that describes an event that perplexed, excited and angered the citizens of the small, Canadian town of Amherst in the 19th Century. It probably comes as no surprise that the man who wrote them had a professional flair for dramatics, though the events were hardly short of drama to begin with. A young girl, haunted by demons, whose story book-ended a series of supernormal events with an assault and a conviction for arson.

SOURCES

Hubbell, Walter (1879) The Great Amherst Mystery. "Daily News" Steam Publishing Office, Canada.

Prince, Walter F. (1919) A Critical Study of The Great Amherst Mystery. Journal of the American Society of Psychical Research, Vol. XIII. NY, USA.

Carrington, Hereward (1913) Personal Experiences in Spiritualism. Read Books Ltd. UK.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1897) Long Island’s Hamlet. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 15 Dec. 1897, p.7, NY, USA.

The Montreal Star (1881) Strange Doings. The Montreal Star, 25 May. 1881, p.3, Montreal, Canada.

The Daily Expositor (1879) Esther Cox The Medium: Is She A Humbug? The Daily Expositor, 15 Jul 1879, p.1. Ontario, Canada.

The Montreal Star (1879) The Amherst Mystery. The Montreal Star, 18 Jul 1879, p.2, Montreal, Canada.

The Montreal Star (1879) The Amherst Mystery. The Montreal Star, 10 May 1879, p.3, Montreal, Canada.

The Montreal Star (1879) The Amherst Mystery. The Montreal Star, 19 May 1879, p.3, Montreal, Canada.

Ottawa Daily Citizen (1879) The Amherst Mystery Revived. Ottawa Daily Citizen, 7 May 1879, p.1, Ottawa, Canada.

The Montreal Star (1879) The Amherst Mystery Further Developments. The Montreal Star, 25 Jan 1879, p.3, Montreal, Canada.

The Montreal Star (1878) The Amherst Mystery A Puzzle For Scientists. The Montreal Star, 21 Nov 1878, p.3, Montreal, Canada.

Ottawa Daily Citizen (1878) The Amherst Mystery. Ottawa Daily Citizen, 23 Nov 1878, p.1, Ottawa, Canada.

The Montreal Star (1878) The Amherst Mystery. The Montreal Star, 13 Dec 1878, p.3, Montreal, Canada.

Evansville Courier and Press (1888) A Wonderful Book. 23 Apr 1888, p.1. Indiana, USA.

----------

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

William Kent was what some might have called a rather unlucky man. Twice widowed shortly after marriage to his relatively wealthy wives, his relationships had not been the fairy tales he had longed for. The 19th Century was an age where bumping off an unwanted spouse could be as easy as a trip to the local apothecary, and as such, one might have expected William to harbor fears of a few unsavoury rumours surfacing around him, however, when this inevitably did happen in the spring of 1762, his shock could certainly be forgiven when it became apparent that the accusations levelled against him were from none other than the spirit of his recently deceased second wife.   SOURCES:   Carthew, G.A. The hundred of Launditch and deanery of Brisley : in the county of Norfolk : evidences and topographical notes from public records, heralds' visitations, wills, court rolls, old charters, parish registers, town books, and other private sources : digested and arranged as materials for parochial, manorial, and family history collected by G.A. Carthew. Norwich. Vol. 3. (1879) Miller and Leavins, UK.   Goldsmith, Oliver. The mystery revealed; containing a series of transactions and authentic testimonials: respecting the supposed Cock-Lane ghost: which have hitherto been concealed from the public. (1762) W. Bristow, London, UK. Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Text Creation partnership, https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004882880.0001.000?rgn=main;view=fulltext, accessed 22 January 2020.   Chambers, Paul. The Cock Lane Ghost: Murder, Sex and Haunting in Dr. Johnson's London. (2006) The History Press Ltd; UK   Leeds intelligencer Tuesday 02 February 1762, p3   The Scots Magazine - Monday 01 March 1762, p37   Various historical Parish records found on https://www.freereg.org.uk/   ------

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Heya! I hope you had a great Christmas and are relaxing and taking it easy before the New Year. Here's the second part to this years Christmas Campfire. I messed up the timing a little bit and so this episode is not as long as I thought it was going to be, but it was nice to have it in two parts anyhow! I hope you enjoy it, here's to 2021 and a much better year than the mess that was 2020!

There is no shortage of famous names associated with the Golden Age of Piracy. Captain Kidd, Blackbeard, Henry Morgan or Jack Rackham hold such levels of fame, they have become household names, legends with largely fictional tales still told of their lives at sea. There is, however, one man who managed to outdo them all. His largest, most audacious crime is one of the most successful pirate raids in history and one that nearly brought down one of the richest, most powerful empires the world has ever known. Captain Henry Every, the pirate that shook the colonies from the Red Sea to the Caribbean and then disappeared without a trace.

SOURCES

Farooqi, Naim R. (1988) Moguls, Ottomans, and Pilgrims: Protecting the Routes to Mecca in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. The International history Review, Vol. 10, No. 2 (May 1988), pp 198-220. Taylor & Francis Ltd. Oxfordshire, UK.

Johnson, Captain Charles (1724) A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates. UK

Johnson, Captain Charles (1732) History and Lives of the Most Notorious Pirates and their Crews. UK

Fox, E.T. (2008) King of the Pirates: The Swashbuckling Life of Henry Every. The History Press, UK.

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Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

The end of the 18th Century saw the birth of a long line of religious movements focused on the end of days and the biblical second coming. Central to this string of beliefs was an unimposing domestic servant who began to have visions in her mid-life, which she claimed were divine in nature, eventually leading to her insistence that she was a prophetess and at the young age of 64, was pregnant with the new messiah. Far from fading away after the holy childs due date came and went, the movement continued under several different guises for hundreds of years, culminating with the belief in a holy book of dinner etiquette and a mysterious wooden box, the contents of which were lying in wait until called upon to rescue Britain from its catastrophic end.   SOURCES   The TImes (1815) The TImes, Monday 2 Jan, 1815, London, UK   The Stamford Mercury (1815) Dissection of Joanna Southcott. Monday 2 Jan, 1815, UK.   Madden, Deborah (2016) Prophecy in the Age of Revolution. Prophecy and Eschatology in the Transatlantic World, 1550 - 1800 (pp.259-281), University of Brighton, UK.   Cross, George (1915) Millenarianism in Christian History. The Biblical World, Jul., 1915, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Jul., 1915), pp. 3-8. The University of Chicago Press, USA.   Lockley, Philip (2012) Visionary Religion and Radicalism in Early Industrial England: From Southcott to Socialism. Oxford University Press, UK   Southcott, Joanna (1792) The Strange Effects of Faith: With Remarkable Prophecies. T. Brice, Exeter, UK.   Southcott, Joanna (1814) The Third Book of Wonders: Announcing the Coming of Shiloh. Exeter, UK.   Shaw, Jane (2012) Octavia, Daughter of God. Vintage Books, UK.   Price, Harry (1933) Leaves From a Psychist’s Case-Book. Victor Gollancz Ltd, UK  

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that. 

 

Merry Christmas everyone! Thank you so much for your kind support throughout the year, to wrap us up for Christmas, here is this years campfire stories episode. There were loads of great submissions again this year, certainly enough for two episodes, so here is the first part and the second shall follow on shortly! Cheers and Merry Christmas to you and yours xx

Hi everyone, something a little different this week, but I'll be back as usual with next episode. Thanks as always!

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

 

In the eerie stillness of a moonlit Atlantic night in 1896, aboard the doomed Herbert Fuller, a savage cry pierced the darkness. What followed was a chilling discovery: The Captain, his wife, and the second mate lay brutally murdered in their blood-streaked cabins. Panic seized the crew as suspicions and paranoia grew, turning the once peaceful vessel into a floating nightmare, hundreds of miles from port.

SOURCES

Hiam, C. Michael (2019) Murder Aboard: The Herbert Fuller Tragedy and the Ordeal of Thomas Bram. Lyons Press, CT, USA.

Morddel, Anne (2020) American Merchant Seamen of the Early Nineteenth Century: A Researcher’s Guide. Self Published. 

The New York Times (1896) Triple Murder At Sea. Wed July 22 1896, p1. NY, USA.

The Boston Globe (1896) Mutiny And Murder. Wed July 22 1896, p1. Boston, USA.

The Boston Globe (1896) Bram Talks. Fri July 24 1896, p1. Boston, USA.

The Boston Globe (1896) His Life In Their Hands. Tues Dec 15 1896, p5. Boston, USA.

The Boston Globe (1896) For Murder. Wed Dec 16 1896, p5. Boston, USA.

The Boston Globe (1897) Guilty OF Wilful Murder. Sun July 03 1897, p1. Boston, USA.

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

 

In the late 1500s, Britain was, spiritually speaking, in something of a confusing place for the average citizen. With the protestant reform in full swing, many old traditions were being unceremoniously cast aside by the officials, whilst still being clung to by the public, leading to a thriving underground trade in charms and trinkets and the quiet trade of conjurers, folk healers and those ministers willing to indulge the old Catholic rituals. In Cleworth Hall, an estate manor on the outskirts of Manchester, the owner, Nicholas Starkie was forced to dig into this deep underground market, when he found his household ravaged by a host of demons. Fortunately there was an exorcist willing to help, though with his ministry as controversial as it was, it would not be long before the officials would sweep him away with all the other traditions that they felt no longer had a place in a society that was rapidly changing, seemingly at times, without a rudder.

SOURCES

Darrell, John (1600) A True Narration…. The English Secret Press, London, UK.

More, George (1600) A True Discourse…. Richard Schilders, London, UK.

Harland, John & Wilkinson, T. T. (1867) Lancashire Folk-Lore. Frederick Warne & Co. London, UK.

Almond, Philip C. (2004) Demonic Possession & Exorcism in Early Modern England. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Orchard Halliwell, James (1642) The Private Diary of Dr John Dee. John Bowyer Nichols & Son, London, UK.

Young, Francis (2014) A History of Anglican Exorcism. I.B. Tauris, London, UK.

Walsh, Brendan C. (2021) The English Exorcist: John Darrell & The Shaping of Early Modern English Protestant Demonology. Routledge, London, UK.

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

Follow MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge the first 8 episodes, early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.

The human body is a miracle. But when it’s not working, it can be the stuff of nightmares. On this new series from master storyteller MrBallen, we’re sharing medical horror stories and diagnostic mysteries that are surgically calibrated to make your blood run cold.

From bizarre, unheard-of diseases and miraculous recoveries to strange medical mishaps and unexplainable deaths — you’ll never hear the phrase “heart-stopping” in the same way again. MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries is a first of its kind collaboration between MrBallen and Wondery, the award-winning company behind Dr. Death. Listen Now: Wondery.fm/MBMM_DH

Whether it be hidden messages transmitted around the world from the hundreds of operating number stations, or the bizarre illustrations on the sheepskin pages of a medieval manuscript, unsolved ciphers and codes have been a compelling source of mystery for centuries. In the annals of true crime, cold cases like the Zodiac killer and the Somerton man have inspired people from around the world to come together and take up the challenge of solving their peculiar riddles. From national intelligence agencies, to armchair enthusiasts, breakthroughs have been made by individuals from across the spectrum of experience. One similar case has largely managed to escape the limelight, however, that of a late 19th Century man whose true identity was never known, hanged for murdering his wife, who left the world a series of unsolved ciphers that promised to unmask the whole mysterious affair. SOURCES Farnsworth, Cheri (2010) “Adirondack Enigma: The Depraved Intellect and Mysterious Life of North Country Wife Killer Henry Debosnys” The History Press, UK.

The Citizen Examiner (1882) “Debosnys the tramp…” The Citizen Examiner, Wed 15 Nov, 1882. P.4. Alabama, USA.

The Buffalo Commercial (1882) “One Debosnys, confined in Essex…” TheBuffalo Commercial, Wed 15 Nov, 1882. P.1. New York, USA.

The Tribune (1882) “A SIngular Story” The Tribune, Mon 7 Aug, 1882. P.1. Pennsylvania, USA.

The Swanton Courier (1883) “Over the Lake” The Swanton Courier, Sat 20 Jan, 1883. P.3. Vermont, USA.

St Albans Daily Messenger (1883) “A Remarkable Career” St Albans Daily Messenger, Wed 18 Apr, 1883. P.3. Vermont, USA.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1883) “Last Hours Of A Wife Murderer” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Fri 27 Apr, 1883. P.1. New York, USA.

The Sentinel (1883) “Hangman's Day” The Sentinel, Sat 28 Apr, 1883. P.3. Pennsylvania, USA.

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

19th century London saw two of the most sensational public scares in its long history when the enigmatic Spring Heeled Jack stalked the alleyways of the capital city and in 1888, when Jack the Ripper enacted his reign of the streets, bringing about an autumn of terror that has since become infamous. One hundred years earlier, however, the streets were stalked by another threat, one that many consider a precursor to both Spring Heeled Jack and Jack The Ripper, and one that remains, to this day, one of the strangest, most bizarre cases in the entire criminal history of London. Sources Ranger, H. (1793) Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies; or Men of Pleasure kalender for the year of 1793. H Ranger, London, UK.   Swift, Theophilus (1790) The Monster at Large: Or, the Innocence of Rhynwick Williams Vindicated. J. Ridgeway, London, UK.   Bondeson, Jan (2000) The London Monster: A Sanguinary Tale. Free Association Books, London, UK.   Bartholomew, Robert & Evans, Hilary (2009) Outbreak! The Encyclopaedia of Extraordinary Social Behaviour. Anomalist Books, TX, USA   Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette (1790) St James’s, Jan 19th. Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Tuesday 21 Jan 1790, p.3, Bath, UK.   The Public Advertiser (1790) A Reward. The Public Advertiser, Thursday 15 April 1790, p.1. London, UK.   The Public Advertiser (1790) The Monster. The Public Advertiser, Wednesday 16 June 1790, p.3. London, UK.   The Bath Chronicle (1790) The Monster Detected. The Bath Chronicle, Thursday 17 June 1790, p.3. Bath, UK.   Jackson’s Oxford Chronicle (1790) The Monster. Jackson’s Oxford Chronicle, Saturday 19 June 1790, p.1. Oxford, UK.   The Derby Mercury (1790) Trial Of The Monster. The Derby Mercury, Thursday 8 July 1790, p.2. Derby, UK   ------- This episode is sponsored by Babbel, check out babbel.com/darkhistories to get 55% off a subscription. -------

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Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone! Thank you so much for all your support over the previous year! This years Christmas Campfire is a bumper one, full of diverse and fantastic stories. I thought it was a really great snapshot as to how weird and wonderful the world is and how diverse a range of people listen to the show. Putting it together was an absolute pleasure as always!   I start the whole thing off with a short story from M.R James, titled "A School Story" from his 1911 compendium, "More Ghost Stories from Antiquity". If you enjoyed it, I definitely recommend giving his other work a shot, one of my favourites is a story called "Number 13", but it's considerably longer than the one in this episode. Then we're on to the listener stores. Thank you everyone who sent stuff in to be included, it was a great deal of fun reading them this year!   I wish you all the best for the New Year, health and happiness for you and your loved ones, thank you as always for joining me in making Dark Histories, Ben x

“In war, one of our great protections against the dangers of air attack after nightfall will be the "blackout". On the outbreak of hostilities all external lights and street lighting would be totally extinguished so as to give hostile aircraft no indication as to their whereabouts. But this will not be fully effective unless you do your part, and see to it that no lighting in the house where you live is visible from the outside. The motto for safety will be 'Keep it dark!'”

So read the opening paragraph from Public Information Leaflet No.2, published in England on the eve of war, 1939. What may have kept people safe from German bombs, however, had its own disadvantages. Criminality thrived in the gloomy, empty streets. In 1942, as the German bombs began to fall less frequently, a new threat opened up on the streets of London, altogether more silent, emerging from the shadows with a rye smile and unrelenting charm.

SOURCES

The Daily Herald (1942) Waiting Woman is Murdered. Feb 10, 1942. p.3. London, UK

The Daily Mirror (1942) Three Women Murdered In Two Days. Feb 11, 1942. P.8. London, UK.

The Daily Mirror (1942) Razorblade Killed Ex-Soho Actress. Feb 12, 1942. P.8. London, UK.

The Daily Mirror (1942) Fifth Woman Murder In Week. Feb 14, 1942. P.8. London, UK.

Civil Defense (1939) Public Information Leaflet No.2. Lord Privy Seal’s Office, UK

Read, Simon (2006) In The Dark. Berkeley Publishing Group, USA.

Thomas, Donald (2003) An Underworld at War: Spivs, Deserters, Racketeers and Civilians in the Second World War. John Murray, UK.

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that. 

 

Something a little different this week, as you may have guessed from the title. All is explained at the start of the episode, but the long and the short of it is that the episode I completed for this week, seemed, in light of the current events, somewhat tasteless to me if I'd have released it right now. So... for now that episode is benched to return at a later date and instead, I put together a very quick episode introducing the genius of M R James and have narrated two of my favourite of his stories for your listening terror!   Normal service will be resumed from next episode, I appreciate the patience for bearing with me on this one and I hope you all understand where I was coming from in making this last minute switcheroo. Cheers!

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or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

In the first half of the 19th century, there was a single murder that, having ensnared the English countryside in a web of scandal, permeated throughout society and popular culture for decades after its conclusion. Having all the elements of a story written as a gothic thriller, theso-named Red Barn murder sparked a year-long mystery, culminating in a revelation that exposed a history of darkness, hidden beneath a façade of respectability that shocked the nation to its core. SOURCES

Harley, Laurence (1988) The Church And Parish of Polstead, Suffolk. BGA Print, Suffolk, UK.

McCorristine, Shane (2014) William Corder & The Red Barn Murder: Journeys of the Criminal Body. Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire, UK.

Maggs, Peter (2015) Murder in the Red Barn: The Tragic Story of Maria Martin and William Corder. Mirli Books Ltd. Essex, UK.

Foster, George (1828) An Accurate Account of the Trial of William Corder. George Foster, London, UK.

Gibbs, Dorothy & Maltby, Herbert (1949) The True Story of Maria Marten. East Anglian Magazine, UK.

Morning Chronicle (1828) Horrible Murder. Morning Chronicle, Thurs 24 April 1828, p3. London, UK.

Morning Chronicle (1828) The Mysterious Murder. Morning Chronicle, Sat 26 April 1828, p3. London, UK.

Morning Chronicle (1828) Murder At Polstead. Morning Chronicle, Mon 28 April 1828, p3. London, UK.

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

What if someone close to you just … vanished one day? That happens to tens of thousands of families a year in Japan, and it happened to Jake Adelstein, too, back in 2018 — when his accountant disappeared, just before tax day. Adelstein, the author of Tokyo Vice, and co-host Shoko Plambeck go in search of that missing accountant, and take us on a  journey into the fascinating and bizarre world of Japan’s johatsu, or “evaporated” people.

The Evaporated: Gone With The Gods is a Campside Media & Sony Music Entertainment production.

Hi everyone, Christmas Campfire is back for it's 6th year! A big thank you to everyone who wrote in and shared their personal stories. There were tons this year, so I've split it into two episodes and part 2 will be out next week. Until then, I hope you enjoy part 1 and have a wonderful Christmas and holiday period. My very best wishes to you and your loved ones, thanks for listening for another year and all your kind support. Merry Christmas!

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

 

 

All aboard, we're going back to the Victorian era to shed some light on the first ever murder on a train in Britain at a time when people were already terrified on this crazy new technology. It's not all high speed steam trains though, we've even got a super slow-mo police chase across the Atlantic!

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

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Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

In 1628, the Batavia, a flagship Dutch Indiaman left the port of Texel in the Netherlands bound for the Dutch capital in the East Indies filled to the upper decks with gold, silver, gems and jewellery, along with a crew made up of a host of down and out soldiers, sailors and officers. Life in the Dutch East India Company was notoriously hard, but the crew aboard the Batavia were in for a special kind of torture, when the ship was wrecked off the Western Coast of Australia, leading to several months of indescribable bloodshed and violence at the hands of an especially twisted Commander.   SOURCES   van Duivenvoorde, Wendy (2015) Dutch East India Company Shipbuilding: The Archaeological Study of Batavia and Other Seventeenth-Century VOC Ships. Texas A&M University Press, USA.   Dash, Mike (2003) Batavia’s Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny. Crown Publishing Group, NY, USA.   Fitzsimmons, Peter (2011) Batavia. William Heinemann Publishing, Australia

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For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that. 

 

   

Broadstone station in Dublin, Ireland creaked, clanked and clattered with the din of everyday rail traffic. In 19th Century Ireland, it was one of the grandest buildings in the country's capital, and every day hundreds of people worked to ensure that its trains, serving over 500 miles of track from one coast of Ireland to the other, were running as efficiently as they could. It was an imposing machine that stood on the hillside of the city, pulsing away, day after day. In 1856, however, it became famous for more than just its trains and vast profits, when the cashier was found dead, locked in an office full of money. The investigation that followed struggled to solve the mystery for a full year, with a conclusion that pretty much no one who had followed the case, which was more or less the whole of Dublin, would find satisfactory.   SOURCES   Dublin Evening Post (1856) Shocking Occurence - Supposed Suicide. Dublin Evening Post, 15 Nov, 1856, p2. Dublin, Ireland.   London Evening Standard (1856) Murder Of The Cahsier Of The Great Midwestern Railway Company. London Evening Standard, p4. London, UK.   Dublin Evening Mail (1856) Terrible Tragedy At The Midland Railway. Dublin Evening Post, 17 Nov, 1856, p3. Dublin, Ireland.   Dublin Evening Post (1856) This Day. Dublin Evening Post, 20 Nov, 1856, p3. Dublin, Ireland.   London Evening Standard (1856) The Broadstone Tragedy. London Evening Standard, 12 Dec, 1856. p3. London, UK.   Leeds Mercury (1857) The Broadstone Tragedy. Leeds Mercury, 1 Jan, 1857. p4. Leeds, UK.   Saunders’s News Letter (1857) Murder Of The Late Mr Little. Saunders’s News Letter, 24 June, 1857. p1. London, UK.   Manchester Times (1857) The Arrest Of The Suspected Murderer Of Mr Little. Manchester Times, 27 Jun, 1857. p7. Manchester, UK.   Freeman’s Journal (1857) The Murder Of Mr Little. Freeman’s Journal, 29 Jun, 1857. p3. Dublin, Ireland.   Freeman’s Journal (1857) Trial Of Spollen For The Murder Of Mr Little. Freeman’s Journal, 10 Aug, 1857. p4. Dublin, Ireland.   Freeman’s Journal (1857) Trial Of Spollen For The Murder Of Mr Little. Freeman’s Journal, 12 Aug, 1857. p4. Dublin, Ireland.   Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette (1857) Re-Arrest Of Spollen. Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, 26 Aug, 1857. p4. Scotland.   Premium.weatherweb.net (2022) Weather in History 1850 to 1899 AD. [online] Available at:   KBC, S. (2022) Virtual Reality Tour: Explore this grand former railway station in Dublin... with its own murder mystery. [online] TheJournal.ie. Available at:

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

This week I'm off on my Summer holiday for a trip in the woods, so what better episode to do than read a few stories from Algernon Blackwood, all about weird woods. What was I thinking...

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

A hiker terrorized for days by two unknown figures… A man stalked through the woods while camping, who barely escaped with his life… two cops who quit their job at a local theater because of unexplained encounters with an alleged demon…

These are just some of the unbelievable cases you’ll hear on the MrBallen Podcast on Amazon Music. Each week you’ll get new inexplicable encounters, shocking disappearances and other strange, dark and mysterious stories.

Hey Prime Members, listen to the Amazon Music exclusive podcast, MRBALLEN PODCAST: STRANGE, DARK & MYSTERIOUS STORIES, in the Amazon Music App. Download the app today: www.amazon.com/BALL_us_pfd_AA_110122

This week we take a look at Adam, the name given to a body fished out the River Thames in 2001 and winds down a dark path that leads straight into a voodoo cult in the heart of London, embroiled with child trafficking and sacrifice.

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

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Or you can contact me directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

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Music was recorded by me © 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Sightings of winged creatures flying through the sky have long been a staple of folklore, mythology and legend across the world and across time and cultures. In the ancient world, Gods and monsters were depicted with enormous, scaled and feathered wings, whilst in modern times, sightings have become more and more diverse, from thunderbirds, to the mysterious Mothman. Three years before the one of the most famous sightings of a mysterious flying creature in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, there was a sighting almost 4,000 miles away, across the Atlantic in a quiet market town in the south-east of England that bore a remarkable resemblance and whilst it caused far less of a stir, it certainly drew just as much confusion. SOURCES

Keel, John (1970) Strange Creatures From Time & Space. London Sphere, London, UK.

Keel, John (1975) The Mothman Prophecies. Saturday Review Press, USA.

Bowen, Charles (1974) The Humanoids. Futura Productions, London, UK

Waters, Thomas (2019) Cursed Britain: A History of Witchcraft and Black Magic in Modern Times. Yale University Press. CT, USA.

Point Pleasant Register (1966) Couples See Man Sized Bird…Creature…Something! Point Pleasant Register, 16 Nov 1966, p1. VA, USA

Tombstone Weekly Epitaph (1890) Found On The Desert. Tombstone Weekly Epitaph, 26 April 1890, p.3. Tombstone, AZ, USA.

The New York Sun (1877) Was It An Angel? The New York Sun, 21 Sep. 1877, p2. NY, USA.

The New York Times (1880) An Aerial Mystery. The New York Times, 12 Sep. 1880, p6. NY, USA

The Daily Mirror (1963) Rector Hunts Ghost Of Love Lane. The Daily Mirror, 25 Nov 1963, p25. London, UK.

The Kentish Express (1963) Rector Hunts Saltwood Ghost. The Kentish Express, 29 Nov 1963, p1. Kent, UK. 

Maidstone Telegraph (1963) Ghost Scares Teenagers. Maidstone Telegraph, 29 Nov 1963, p3. Kent, UK.

Maidstone Telegraph (1963) Was Red Ball Of Fire A Flying Saucer? Maidstone Telegraph, 13 Dec 1963, p1. Kent, UK.

The Kentish Express (1963) Ghost A Flying Saucer? The Kentish Express, 13 Dec 1963, p1. Kent, UK. 

Nottingham Evening Post (1903) Buried On An Island. Nottingham Evening Post, 27 Aug 1903, p3. Nottingham, UK.

Folkestone Express, Sandgate, Shorncliffe & Hythe Advertiser (1903) Death & Funeral of Mr W. T. Tournay. Folkestone Express, Sandgate, Shorncliffe & Hythe Advertiser, 29 Aug 1903, p5. Kent, UK.

Girvan, Waveney (1963) World Round-Up. Flying Saucer Review, Vol. 9, No. 6. Nov-Dec 1963. London, UK.

Girvan, Waveney (1964) The Saltwod Mystery. Flying Saucer Review, Vol. 10, No. 2. Mar-Apr 1964. London, UK.

Clarke, David (2016) A New Demonology: John Keel and The Mothman Prophecies. In: Hunter, Jack, (ed.) Damned Facts : Fortean Essays on Religion, Folklore and the Paranormal. Cyprus, Aporetic Press, 54-68.

Arnold, Neil (2023) The Hythe Mothman, Monster, Ghost or UFO? Fortean Times, FT439 Christmas 2023. Diamond Publishing LTD, London, UK. 

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For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

Half a century before the Fox Sisters showed up on the scene to propel mainstream spiritualism onto the populace of America, there was a much lesser known haunting taking place in the cellar of a small frontier settlement, named Sullivan in Maine. Though it was extensively documented at the time, the many eye-witness testimonies fell to the back pages of history. Despite its relatively unknown status, it remains as one of, if not the very first documented cases of a haunting in North America and is a story that culminates in an event that was utterly bizarre.

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Deep in the Pacific Ocean, 350 miles off the coast of Central America sits a small, unimposing island, surrounded in natural beauty. One of the island's lesser known claims to fame is that its tropical climate and lost-world appearance were the original inspiration for Jurassic Park's fictional Isla Nublar. Better known, however, are the myths and legends that pertain to the hoards of pirate treasure, buried beneath the surface and lost for over two centuries. Hundreds, if not thousands, of expeditions have sailed to its isolated shores in the hope of uncovering the untold riches, with little to show for their efforts but the wild stories that have helped to continue the legend of the Lost Treasure of Lima for over two hundred years. SOURCES

Pim, Bedford & Seemann, Berthold (1869) Dottings on the Roadside in Panama, Nicaragua and Mosquito. Chapman & Hall, London, UK.

Montmorency, Hervey (1904) On the Track of a Treasure. Hurst & Blackett Ltd. London, UK.

Plumpton, James (1935) Treasure Cruise. Witherby Publishing, London, UK.

The Buffalo Commercial (1854) The Cocos Island Treasure. The Buffalo Commercial, 12 Dec 1854, p1. USA.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1854) The Cocos Island Treasures. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 12 Dec 1854, p2, USA.

Smith, David (1932) El Dorado. Blackwood's Magazine  July-December 1932: Vol 232, The Leonard Scott Publication Co. NY, USA.

Cooper, Stephen (2017) Cocos Island & The Treasure of Lima. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

The New York Times (1855) News from the Cocos Expedition. The New York Times, 9 Feb 1855, USA.

Bangor Daily Whig & Courier (1855) The Buried Treasure at Cocos Islands. Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, 13 Jun 1855, p2. USA. ------- This episode is sponsored by Hello Fresh, check out hellofresh.com/darkhistories16 to get 16 free meals & free shipping. This episode is also sponsored by The Art of Crime Podcast, check it out anywhere you get your podcasts! -------

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Some time around the turn of the fifteenth century, a Cistercian monk of Byland Abbey took it upon himself to pen a series of ghost stories on the empty pages of a folio containing some of the library's more prestigious works. A medieval monk scribbling down ghost stories was, in truth, not entirely unusual. In the case of the Byland monk, however, the stories seemed to be less concerned with religious matters and more with grisly details of the spirits themselves. Undead rising from the graves, shapeshifting from human to animal and back again, hunting down the living to gouge their eyes from their skulls. The monk was, in his way, reporting on the folklore of the day, leaving behind one of the middle ages' more unique documents on belief in the afterlife. Republished in its original Latin by medievalist and author M.R. James in 1922, the stories had, perhaps, more in common with his own writings than they did that of the church and opened a window on the prevalence of Pagan beliefs and folklore tradition that maintained throughout medieval Europe.   SOURCES   Scmitt, Jean-Claude (1998) Ghosts in the Middle Ages: The Living and the Dead in Medieval Society. The University of Chicago Press, London, UK.   Bartlett, Robert (2008) The Natural and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages. Cambridge Universtoy Press, Cambridge, UK.   Joynes, Andrew (2001) Medieval Ghost Stories. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, UK.   Grant, A.J. (1924) Twelve Medieval Ghost Stories. Yorkshire Archeological Journal, Vol. XXVII. Yorkshire, UK.   Fleischhack, Maria & Schenkel, Elmar (2016) Ghosts - or the (Nearly) Invisible: Spectral Phenomena in Literature and the Media. Peter Lang, NY, USA.   Harrison, Stuart (2022) History of Byland Abbey. [online] English Heritage. Available at:  

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

In 1818 Mary Shelley published her infamous novel, “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus”. More than just a work of gothic fiction, it represented a host of fears and concerns that the public held after viewing experiments by the natural philosophers of the day. In the same year, in a lecture theatre in Glasgow, the dissection and supposed resurrection of an executed criminal took place. As electrodes were placed on the body, it jumped and danced, its fingers moved “nimbly, like those of a violin player,” all for the amazement of the excited audience members. It was the dawn of electricity and a period of wild experimentation in an age of divisive and dangerous theories. SOURCES Rhys Morus, Iwan (2011) Shocking Bodies: Life, Death & Electricity in Victorian England. The History Press, UK.   Oxford University & City Herald (1918) Country News. Oxford University & City Herald, Sat 15 May 1918. p4. Oxford, UK.   Oxford University & City Herald (1918) Shocking Murder. Oxford University & City Herald, Sat 15 May 1918. p4. Oxford, UK.   Cambridge Chronicle & Journal (1918) Execution of Weems. Cambridge Chronicle & Journal, Fri 13 Aug 1918. p3. Cambridge, UK.   Cambridge Chronicle & Journal (1918) Trial For Murder. Cambridge Chronicle & Journal, Fri 6 Aug 1918. p3. Cambridge, UK.   Haley, Christopher D., & Archer, Mary D. (2005) The 1702 Chair of Chemistry at Cambridge: Transformation and Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.   Mackenzie, Peter (1865) Reminiscences of Glasgow & The West of Scotland. John Tweed, Glasgow, UK.   Rhys Morus, Iwan (2009) Radicals, Romantics & Electrical Showmen: Placing Galvanism at the End of The English Enlightenment. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 63, No. 3, Thomas Beddoes, 1760-1808 (20 September 2009), pp. 263-275. Royal Society Publishing, UK.   Bostock, John (1818) An account of the history and present state of galvanism. Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, London, UK   ------- This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/darkhistories and get on your way to being your best self. -------

For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Rumoured as a top contender as the inspiration for F. Scott Fitzgeralds most enigmatic of characters, Jay Gatsby, Joseph Bowne Elwell was among other things, a property developer, race horse owner, author, socialite, broker, tutor and, last but certainly not least, thoroughly famous  card player. Winning sums that totalled into the tens of thousands on a nightly basis, he built both wealth and a social circle that placed him firmly in the upper echelons of New York Cities elite. That was until, one morning in June, 1920, when his maid found him, shot in the forehead, dressed in his Pyjamas, sitting in an armchair of the reception room of his Manhattan residence. Perplexing for the police was not only the fact that he was a man with no known, but potentially thousands of, enemies, but also that his house had been locked shut, the windows barred and no gun ever found at the crime scene.

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Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Hi everyone, I'm taking a small summer break for a couple of weeks, so to cover the gap I have a few older patreon bonus episodes to put out for the main feed and give everyone a chance to hear them. Here is an interview I did with Professor Derek Abbott on the recent news about the Exhumation efforts in the Somerton Man case. 

Professor Derek Abbott is Director of the Centre for Biomedical Engineering at the University of Adelaide, Australia, Somerton Man expert and all-round bloody nice bloke. You can find out more about him here: http://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/Personal/dabbott/

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For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

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The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

It was the summer of 1919, in a leafy rural region of Leicestershire that we turn our focus towards today and a woman named Bella Wright, who was found lying dead by the roadside one quiet, Saturday evening. At first, police assumed her death to have been an accident, but things escalated quickly, when a gunshot wound was later discovered and the last man seen with Bella alive appeared to have disappeared completely.

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/

Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

When the Altic Farm House, on the outskirts of La Porte, Indiana burnt down in 1908, locals thought it a tragedy that claimed the lives of three children and their heroic mother, who had died trying to protect them from the flames. During the excavation of the debris, the story flipped on its head as far more than the 4 bodies expected were eventually found. Butchered and cast into pits they were victims of Belle Gunness, a woman the newspapers would come to call the La Porte Ghoul, The Indiana Ogress, The Human Vampire, Hell’s Princess & Lady Bluebeard.

SOURCES:

Schechter, Harold. (2018) Hell’s Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men. Little A, New York.

Billings, John. (1896) Report on Vital and Social Statistics in The United States at the Eleventh Census: 1890. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C.

‘Crime Reigns for Month’, (1902, December 22), The South Bend Tribune, Indiana. p.1.

‘Mystery in Sudden Death’ (1902, December 24), The Weekly Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana. p.10.

‘Killed by Sausage Grinder’ (1902, December 20), Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois. p.7.

‘Family May Have Met Death In Fire’ (1908, April 28) The South Bend Tribune, South Bend, Indiana. P.1.

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For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/

Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

 

We're back for 2018 with more listener stories sent in specially for this Christmas Bonus. Thank you so much to all the contributors and to everyone for listening this year. Merry Christmas.

The music in this episode was used under Creative Commons License. made by Composer Myuu, you can find his YouTube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiSKnkKCKAQVxMUWpZQobuQ

The very last song at the end was my band's improv, and possibly the most horrendous, rendition of Silent Night. Ho Ho Ho.