Dark Histories

Getting away with murder has always been a difficult, and ultimately, unlikely affair, even in the 19th Century, before DNA analysis, fingerprint …

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 …

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 …

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 …

A much requested episode on the history of Waverly Hills, a Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Kentucky. These days, it features in just about every bad …

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 …

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. …

Faeries, changelings and herbalist doctors might seem like characters in a winding tale of medieval folklore today, but in 1895, Ireland bore witness …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

Victorian England, an age of great industry, enlightenment, of learning and of advancement. Equally, it was the age of spiritualism, parapsychology, …

The Lodging houses of Victorian London held no shortage of scandal and intrigue for the more imaginative Londoners in the 19th Century. The Maids and …

The tale of room 1046 of the President Hotel in Kansas City is a strange one. A murder mystery with almost no clues and no evidence at the crime scene, but a victim with three names, left beaten, possibly tortured and a …

This week, we have a tale of Devilry and witchcraft, demonic possessions and a good dose of Persecution on all fronts! Pre-dating Salem by 3 years, Ann Glover was an Irish immigrant living in Boston in 1688, hung for …

Happy Halloween! As a special bonus episode to celebrate the good Hallows Eve, I decided to dig up and re-write five old folk horror tales from …

In 1941, a man named Phillip Peters was found murdered in his home in Denver, Colorado. The doors and windows to the house showed no signs of forced …

Part 2 of 2

In 1946, The American twin city of Texarkana was plunged into the depths of panic and fear. The population of the postwar suburb was …

Part 1 of 2

In 1946, The American twin city of Texarkana was plunged into the depths of panic and fear. The population of the postwar suburb was …

In 2011, Russia bore witness to one of the most bizarre cases in the countries criminal history. A story of Black magic, the Occult and one man's …

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 …

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 …

We're crashing back to earth this week with the lesser known story of William Herbert Wallace and his wife Julia. This is a case named over and over …

Starting off in 1890, we take a look back at the history of secret radio transmissions, leading up until today and unravel some of the mystery, whilst uncovering some new oddities, of what are known as 'Numbers …

We head to the Yorkshire moors to take a look at one story of a mysterious death and then through bizarre coincidence, a second story of lights in the sky and little men with lamp like heads.

For extended show notes, …

We take a look at Roch Theriault, the brutal leader of the Canadian cult, The Ant Hill Kids. More than mere eccentric, Theriualt brutally abused his …

The Grisly story of one of Americas most evasive Serial Killers Vs one of Americas most famous crime fighters. The mad butcher carved up his victims …

In 1845, Emilie Sagée took a job at the Neuwelcke boarding school. It was her 18th teaching position in 16 years. The girls of the school would soon …

This episode I get stuck into The Crabb Affair, a strange disappearance from 1956, surrounded by Cold War suspicion and government cover-ups. Who …

We dig up the life and times of Matthew Hopkins, the self-proclaimed Witchfinder General. A man that, in just 2 years, was responsible for around 60% of all witch trials in England spanning 3 centuries. He hailed from a …

In this weeks episode, Sally and I don our sceptic hats and delve into 1920s Egypt to dig up the story of Tutankhamun and the crazy publicity storm …

An obscure one this week with the lesser-known case of Gary Mathias and his four friends from Yuba City, CA. Five guys who went to a basketball game and ended up disappearing on a mountain road, 70 miles away, with no …

Introducing "Moya", a brand new 12 part fiction podcast written and produced by me  (Ben) from Dark Histories. Out now on all podcast platforms.

Connect on Facebook: facebook.com/moyapodcast

Or find me on Twitter: …

The episode is a bit different this week. We hit our one year anniversary on the day of recording, so we switched it up and had the first annual Dark Histories awards, taking a little look back at some of the people …

In this weeks episode, we tell the story of the Arthurs Seat Coffins, 17 tiny 4" coffins, each holding a wooden doll complete with handmade clothing, …

This episode we take a look at the disappearance and eventual reappearance of the Jamison family. A mother, father and daughter trio who mysteriously went missing in the remote wilderness of Red Oak, Oklahoma only for …

This weeks episode goes a bit more out there as we take a look at a historic exorcism that, despite being a well-documented case for the time, tends to fly under the radar. This is the story of Anna Ecklund, who found …

This week is a tireless effort to unravel the most tightly wound bundle of gossip, hearsay and bizarre facts that make up the Circleville Letter Mystery. A series of thousands of letters, spanning almost three decades …

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 …

Here's the bonus episode to fill the Season 1 break. We're rolling back to a little known Christmas tradition of sitting around the fire and telling …

This week is the final episode of 2017 and the final episode of Season 1. We take a look at some of the folklore behind Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas …

This week we go true crime and take a look at a case of "accidental death" which appears to be anything but. Joshua Maddux went missing in 2008 and seven years later, was found in the chimney of a cabin just two blocks …

This week we look at the life of Omm Sety, an Egyptologist who claimed to have had a past life as an Egyptian priestess and reincarnated 3000 years …

In the early hours of New Year's morning, 1886, Adelaide Blanche Bartlett roused her landlord in Pimlico, London with a few simple words: “come down, I think Mr Bartlett is dead”. She had awoken suddenly, sitting at the …

This episode we take a look at the tale of Peter Stumpp. a man known as the Werewolf of Bedburg, who made a pact with the devil in trade for the …

This week is a monster episode, detailing the life of Terri Hoffman, the leader of a cult called Conscious Development of Body Mind and Soul, who …

Working from contemporary German primary sources, this week we go in deep and take a look at the mysterious case of the Hinterkaifeck murders, a gruesome event from Germany in 1922, surrounded by suspicion and intrigue, …

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 …

In this episode, we dig into the history of Spontaneous Human Combustion and take a look at several historical cases dating from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, along with the theories of the times. We then jump …

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 …

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, …

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 …

In 1943, four young boys, out poaching in Hagley Wood came across a large Wych Elm, a broad, spiderlike tree. One of the boys begun climbing the tree to look for birds eggs and upon reaching the topmost branches, looked …

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 …

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 …

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, …

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 …

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, …

The true story of the Enfield Poltergeist. A historical haunting of a British family during the 1970s, the Enfield Poltergeist is still today …

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 …