Dark Histories

Graham Young was an unusual boy. Infinitely fascinated with chemistry, he devoted large amounts of his early life pouring over thick medical textbooks, educating himself on the properties of various chemical compounds. What stood Graham out from his peers more than his intellect was that his obsession with chemistry revolved almost solely around the usage of various poisons. Curiosity has always been inherently dangerous and this is infinitely more true in the case of Graham Young, when theory turned to practice. SOURCES: Holden, A. (1974). The St Albans Poisoner. Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., London, UK. Wilson, C. (1974). Murder in Mind: Issue 30. Marshall Cavendish Paperworks Limited, London, UK. Trestrail, J H. (2000). Criminal Poisoning: Investigational Guide for Law Enforcement, Toxicologists, Forensic Scientists, and Attorneys. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. Harris, P. (1962) ‘Fantastic Mind Of A 14 year Old Poisoner’, Daily Mirror, 6 July, p.3 Laxton, E. (1972) ‘The Poison Boy At Large’, Daily Mirror, J

On a cold December night of 1937, renowned Psychical Investigator Harry Price strode up the steps outside a large, Victorian house in a quiet, well-to-do London suburb. He’d come to the house to partake in a séance, invited by a woman known only as Mrs X whom in their communications leading up to the night, had guaranteed a spirit manifestation for him. Price had seen it all before, he had crafted a career from debunking such fraudsters and in all likelihood, this event was to be much the same. Or was it? What unravelled that night has been the subject of fierce debate and deep research for over 80 years and still to this day, it leaves a web of tangled leads the likes of which any Hollywood scriptwriter could only dream of conjuring.   SOURCES:   Price, H. (1939). Fifty Years of Psychical Research: A Critical Survey. Longmans, Green & Co., London, UK.   Price, H. (1926). A Model Psychic Laboratory. British Journal of Psychical Research Vol 1, No.1, May-June 1926. London, UK.   Hastings, R.J. (196

As The Medusa sailed from Rochefort in 1816, many aboard saw bright futures ahead for themselves. They were escaping a country torn asunder, harshly divided by war, revolution and eventual restoration. With the French Empire floundering and a band of Hard-Right ultra-royalists creating laws in France, the promise of a new start in a fresh land was enticing for many. Little did they expect to meet such a high degree of incompetency on their voyage, had they foreseen even a fraction of the horrors that lay ahead for them, many might have chosen to stay in France no matter the situation. SOURCES Miles, J. (2007). The Wreck of the Medusa: The Most Famous Sea Disaster of the Nineteenth Century. Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, NY. Savigny, J. B. Henry, and Alexandre Corréard. (1818). Narrative of a Voyage to Senegal in 1816. London: Henry Colburn McKee, A. (1975). Wreck of the Medusa: The Tragic Story of the Death Raft. Penguin Books, Auckland, New Zealand. Newworldencyclopedia.org. (2019). Banc d'Arguin National

Campbell, California. Lying in the heart of Santa Clara County, a periphery city of Silicon Valley and the birthplace of E-Bay. In 1896, 100 years before websites facilitating the auctioning of used underwear and haunted paintings had been dreamt up, Campbell was the scene for a gruesome family killing that saw posses of bounty hunters and bloodhounds, looking to cash in on the reward placed on the head of the murderer, embark on manhunt across mountains and valleys that would span years and eventually, decades. SOURCES: Gilman, T. (2018). The McGlincy Killings in Campbell California: An 1896 Unsolved Mystery. The History Press, Charleston, SC “Hattie B. Wells Dunham (1868-1896) - Find A Grave...” Find A Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10998742/hattie-b_-dunham. Special dispatches to the Chronicle. (1896) ‘The Sextuple Murder Near San Jose’, The San Fransisco Chronicle, 28 May, p.1-3. San Jose, Cali, May 27. (1896) ‘Dunham a Maniac’, The San Fransisco Call, 28 May, p.2. San Jose, Cali, June 01. (18

William the Scabby was lead out to the scaffold on which he was to be hanged. A rebel against the Anglo-Norman rule, he had been sentenced to death on 13 counts of Homicide. Now it was time for him to meet his maker. Except, that is not how the story ends, for though William was hanged “until dead”, he was not to stay as such and later in the day, his miraculous resurrection was witnessed by a large proportion of the population of Swansea, including the highly experienced executioner himself.   SOURCES:   Hanska, J. (2001). The hanging of William Cragh: anatomy of a miracle. Journal of Medieval History, 27(2), pp.121-138.   Bartlett, R. (2006). The hanged man: A Story of Miracle, Memory and Colonialism in the Middle Ages. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.   Medievalswansea.ac.uk. (2019). The Story / The Twice-Hanged William Cragh | City Witness. [online] Available at: http://www.medievalswansea.ac.uk/en/the-story/the-twice-hanged-william-cragh/ [Accessed 1 Aug. 2019].   Vatican City, Bibliote

When Pauline went missing in 1922, all hope was initially lost of her return, until a month later, when she showed up 200 miles away. Her parents collected her, took her home and lived with her for several weeks before a body showed up just 800 metres from their house. The body alone was shocking enough, but quickly became doubly so as it was identified as the body of the lost & found Pauline. SOURCES: ‘Whose Child?’ (1922, May 27), The Pall Mall Gazette, London. P.8. ‘Killed & Stripped by Foxes’ (1922, May 31), The Pall Mall Gazette, London. P.4. ‘A French Mystery’ (1922, May 27), The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Sheffield. P.9. ‘Missing Child Mystery’ (1922, May 31), The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Sheffield. P.3. ‘Breton Childs Mysterious Death’ (1922, June 01), The Yorkshire Post & Leeds Intelligencer, Yorkshire. P.5. Le Matin, France (1922, May through June). Le Petit Parisien, France (1922, May through June). ------ For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to dar

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. ‘K

On Dark Histories, we hear the words of people lost to history, echoing through the writings of labourers, servants, judges, juries, maids and mistresses exactly as they were written in decades and centuries past. This one way communication with history is always limited by it’s very definition and no matter how much we dig, we can never ask the writers what were they feeling as they wrote each line, and whilst we judge them by the information they give, we can never invite them to ask what they make of the people and things of today in our alien, modern world. In 1984, an Economics teacher living in the small rural village of Dodleston found he had the opportunity to do exactly this, when he was thrust into a strange link that tied him across centuries with a past inhabitant of his home via an early model personal computer and it’s word processing software EDWORD. Both accused the other of trickery, poltergeist activity, witchcraft and devilry, but eventually, a bond between the two was formed. Cross-century

Getting away with murder has always been a difficult, and ultimately, unlikely affair, even in the 19th Century, before DNA analysis, fingerprint databases, or even any real, proper detective agencies, it was still a challenge that many criminals tried and failed. There were some however, that did manage to achieve the feat, whether it be through cool calculation, or dumb luck, there was always opportunity for the enthusiastic murderer willing to think outside the box. In Canada during the mid-19th Century, one man, William Turner managed to commit and get away with murder, either through dumb luck, due to an unlikely double being framed for the crime, or through an incredible talent for acting. After more than 150 years, the question has always remained, which was it? Luck, or the long game? To take part in the review drive mentioned in the show, send your screenshots to social@darkhistories.com Sources: Townsend The Murderer. (1857, June 10). The Montreal Gazette, p. 3. Stewart Wallace, W. (1931, April 15).

The events that took place in the village of Road during the year 1860 would seem straight out of Victorian detective fiction. The characters played their roles as the family, the live in staff, the day staff and all with their own lives and their own secrets entwined inside the gated middle class household of Road House, one of them guilty of a shocking murder. With all its twists, turns and bombastic, final unravelling, the Murder of Road Hill House is the original whodunnit. Sources: Summerscale, Kate (2008) The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or: The Murder at Road Hill House. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2009. Chambers, Paul (2009) Murder Most Foul: The Road Hill House Mystery of 1860. The History Press, 2009. Thomas, Hugh (2011) Occasional Papers on Meteorological History No.10, Weather and Phenological Observations At Hurstpierpoint 1859 to 1862. The Royal Meteorological Society, 2011. Foul and Mysterious Murder (1860, July 3), The Evening Standard, p.6. Diabolical and Mysterious Murder: Verdict fo Wilful Murder (1

In 1764, France was a tumultuous place. On the eve of Revolution, the peasant farmers of the remote region of Gévaudan were suffering from decades of difficulties, brought about by war, poverty, poor agricultural conditions and plague. As the Summer brought about favourable weather and life for the population of the barren and sparse region should have begun an upswing in fortune, a series of attacks marked the beginning of a reign of terror that would last almost three years, headed by a monster known simply as “The Beast”. Bodies were found half eaten, the remains left on the ground spreading a fear throughout the region that would eclipse all of the previous problems and would escalate the situation as high as the court of the King. Sources: Smith, J.M (2011) Monsters of the Gévaudan: The Making of a Beast. Harvard University Press, 2011. This day arrived, the mail from France & Flanders (1764, November 30), The Derby Mercury, p.2. Tuesday’s Post, Utrecht Nov. 29. (1764, December 8), The Oxford Journal

In April, 1876, Charles Bravo took to his bedroom, rubbed a dose of laudanum into his gums and poured himself a glass of water from the jug on his nightstand. Within minutes of retiring to bed, Charles Bravo fell desperately ill. Within two days, he would be pronounced dead, the victim of Antimony poisoning. Suicide, manslaughter and murder have been cast forward by amateur historians and famous crime writers alike. 145 years on, some have claimed to have solved the mystery of the death of Charles Bravo, but in reality, the truth lies as buried as the characters themselves. Two inquests to the good, the question remains, who killed Charles Bravo? Sources: Ruddick, James (2001) Death at the Priory: Love, Sex and Murder in Victorian England. Atlantic Books, 2001. The Verdict in the Bravo Case (1876, August 12), The Independent, p. 6. The Balham Mystery (1867, May 16), The Daily Post, p.6. Taylor, Bernard & Clarke, Kate (1988) Murder at the Priory: The Mysterious Poisoning of Charles Bravo. Grafton Books, 19

A much requested episode on the history of Waverly Hills, a Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Kentucky. These days, it features in just about every bad cable TV show on ghosts all around the world, but whats the reality behind the decrepit walls that are left standing today? And how much truth is there to the ghosts that allegedly walk the halls? Sources: Thomas, C. C. (2007) With their dying breaths: A history of Waverly Hills Tuberculosis Sanatorium. C C Thomas, 2007  Opening of Waverly Hill Sanatorium (1910, October 2), The Courier Journal, p. 18. Waverly Hill Sanatorium Dedicated Tomorrow (1910, October 11), The Courier Journal, p. 10. Dedicated to the Cause of Humanity (1910, October 13), The Courier Journal, p. 12. Mullin, E. (2016). How Tuberculosis Shaped Victorian Fashion. [online] Smithsonian. Available at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-tuberculosis-shaped-victorian-fashion-180959029/[Accessed 25 Mar. 2019]. Schuleit, A. (n.d.). State Hospitals of Massachusetts: Historical Overview.[onl

This week, we have a story of a 19th Century spiritual possession, when 14 year old Lurancy Vennum began suffering from fits that eventually led her to visiting heaven, speaking with angels and finally, taking in the spirit of deceased 19 year old Mary Roff, the daughter of local spiritualists. Sources: The demonism of the ages, spirit obsessions so common in spiritism, … Peebles, J. M. (James Martin), 1822-1922. The Watseka wonder; a startling and instructive psychological …Stevens, E. Winchester, 1822-1885. Iroquois County Genealogical Society – http://sites.rootsweb.com/~ilicgs/bio/bio.htm Morning Post, Friday 2nd October, 1908. New York Tribune, Sunday July 19th, H. Addington Bruce, 1908. Iroquois County Times, October 17th, 2014 Reminiscences of my sister Mary Roff, Mrs H. H. Alter, September 1908   The merch store can be found here: https://teespring.com/stores/the-dark-histories-podcast The 50th episode celebration discount code will run from 17/03 - 31/03 with code FIFTY20 For extended show notes, inc

Lord Lucan, a name of considerable infamy, not as a member of the aristocracy, but for the murder of his children's nanny in a house in the elitist district of Belgravia, London in 1973 and his subsequent disappearance. It was a story that the press went to town on, a classic us vs them tale of Class superiority and those that would seek to protect the hierarchy at all costs, but how much of it was based on truth and how much just a convenient narrative for the journalists that covered the case? It was a case that was launched into mythical status after the Lord himself vanished without trace, leaving a question that runs until today. Where in the world is Lord Lucan? 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/darkhist

Faeries, changelings and herbalist doctors might seem like characters in a winding tale of medieval folklore today, but in 1895, Ireland bore witness to a case that saw these facets of folk tradition flare up in a very real way when Michael Cleary, a skilled tradesman of County Tipperary set fire to his wife, burning her to death. As the body of Bridget Cleary was placed in the ground, her husband was convinced that he would see his wife again, riding on the back of a grey horse as she emerged from an invisible plane. The body in the ground was merely that of a changeling, an imposter placed in his house by the fairies, he had merely expedited the process of return. I was very lucky to be joined in the second half of this weeks episode by Fin Dwyer of the Irish History Podcast. If you enjoyed hearing FIn and would like to know where to find him, follow this little link and you will find all! https://irishhistorypodcast.ie/ For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories

We take a deep look at the Victorian press and in particular, hone in on the wonder that was The Illustrated Police News. Most famous today for its coverage of Jack the Ripper, the paper covered all manner of Victorian crime, punishment, murder, suicide and cultural oddities. Aimed at the masses, it was sensationalist, scandalous and wildly popular, much to the chagrin of the established press. Stay tuned to the end of the episode for a special announcement, or if you like spoiling surprises, take a look at this little link here: http://www.darkhistories.com/yesterday-today/ 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://

Bit of a massive cock-up this week, all is explained, but instead of skipping a week, I'm putting out this episode instead. Apologies, back to usual programming from next week! 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

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

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.