Podcasts · History

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore

262 episodes

Fortnightly narratives on the unsolved and the unexplained, mysteries, historical true crime, touches of the paranormal and cultural peculiarities.

Episodes page 2 of 6

  1. The Poisoned Prince: The Germ Murders of the British Raj

    · 1 h 19 min

    In 1933, within the quiet corridors of the palace of the Pakur Raj, a death of the young Raja stirred more than grief—it raised suspicions. What seemed at first a tragic illness soon unraveled into one of India’s most…

  2. Yesterday Today - 06/04

    · 40 min · S9 E7

    The return of Yesterday Today! For those that remember, this is a little side episode for a bit of fun, focusing on old news reports through history. In this episode, I thought I'd focus on April Fools Day and see what…

  3. Project X-Ray & The Bat Bombs of World War II

    · 1 h 00 min · S9 E6

    Amid the chaos of World War II, a secret project emerged from the depths of military innovation—Project X-Ray. It was an idea so strange, so deceptively simple, it bordered on madness: an army of bats, each carrying a…

  4. The Strange Death of Ocey Snead: The East Orange Bathtub Mystery

    · 1 h 19 min · S9 E5

    In 1909, the discovery of a young woman, pale and emaciated, lying lifeless in a bathtub marked the start of an investigation into what seemed like a tragic story with a bleak ending. Just beneath the surface, however,…

  5. Edward Leonski The Brownout Strangler

    · 1 h 21 min · S9 E4

    By the time Japanese launched their air attack force on the US Naval base of Pearl Harbour, in Hawaii, raining down a hail of metal from the Pacific sky, the US had already been quietly preparing an Oceania invasion…

  6. Midway Atoll & The Wreck of the Wandering Minstrel

    · 1 h 00 min · S9 E3

    In the heart of the Pacific in the late 19th century, an expedition planned by Frederick and Elizabeth Walker, turned into a nightmare. In the dead of night, their ship, The Wandering Minstrel, struck the jagged reefs…

  7. The Islandmagee Witch Trials of 1711

    · 1 h 03 min · S9 E2

    In the windswept town of Islandmagee, County Antrim, in the year 1711, fear took root, and hysteria fanned the flames of injustice. Eight women—healers, widows, and outcasts—stood accused of witchcraft, charged with…

  8. Occult Rituals & Space Rockets: The Strange Life of Jack Parsons

    · 1 h 14 min · S9 E1

    Beneath the blazing Californian sun, in a world teetering on the edge of war and wonder, one man dared to ignite the stars. Jack Parsons, a visionary rocket scientist, fused the fiery realms of science and the…

  9. Introducing: Southern Gothic

    · 52 min · S8 E28

    Whilst I'm finishing up my Winter holiday, i wanted to share with you all one of my favourite shows, from a good friend of mine, Southern Gothic! This episode is a really good example fo what they do over there, and…

  10. Christmas Campfire 2024 (Part 2)

    · 1 h 01 min · S8 E27

    Here is Part 2 of this years Christmas Campfire, more of a New Years Campfire, really. I hope you enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  11. Christmas Campfire 2024 (Part 1)

    · 59 min · S8 E26

    Hey everyone! Merry Christmas (Eve)! Here is this years Christmas Campfire, or at least the first half of it. Thanks for everyone for taking part, I hope you enjoy some spooky stories and have a wonderful Christmas…

  12. The Life and Hauntings of Violet Tweedale

    · 1 h 14 min · S8 E25

    The life of Violet Tweedale was one of some fantasy and interest. A Victorian woman, powerful and wealthy in a time when women were not often such, she spent her days writing, socialising and hobnobbing with the elite.…

  13. The Murderous Life of Dr Thomas Neill Cream (Part 2)

    · 1 h 22 min · S8 E24

    Dr. Thomas Neill Cream, a physician with a respectable facade, became one of the most notorious figures in Victorian London’s dark history. Under the guise of providing medical care, he secretly dispensed deadly doses…

  14. The Murderous Life of Dr Thomas Neill Cream (Part 1)

    · 1 h 05 min · S8 E23

    Dr. Thomas Neill Cream, a physician with a respectable facade, became one of the most notorious figures in Victorian London’s dark history. Under the guise of providing medical care, he secretly dispensed deadly doses…

  15. The Porthole Mystery: James Camb & The Death of Gay Gibson

    · 1 h 35 min · S8 E22

    On a misty night in October 1947, the luxury liner Durban Castle sailed smoothly across the dark waves of the Atlantic. Aboard was Gay Gibson, a young actress with dreams of stardom, and James Camb, a steward with a…

  16. Farrant, Manchester & The Highgate Vampire

    · 1 h 05 min · S8 E21

    In the 1970s, the shadowy depths of Highgate Cemetery, London became the centre of what would go on to become an enduring urban legend. As two men, both with their own views on what the cemetery was hiding, dug deep…

  17. The Case of Elizabeth Fenning & The Poison Dumplings

    · 1 h 02 min · S8 E20

    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…

  18. The Ghost Hunts of George Albert Smith: Mesmerist & Film Maker

    · 1 h 02 min · S8 E19

    The life and times of George Albert Smith are not particularly well known. Despite working for several years as a stage hypnotist and psychic, the owner of a popular pleasure park and then eventually a pioneering…

  19. Sorcery, Witchcraft & Murder: The Affair of the Poisons

    · 1 h 15 min · S8 E18

    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…

  20. Summer Holiday 2024 - Algernon Blackwood

    · 56 min · S8 E17

    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... ------- For almost anything,…

  21. The Spectacular Life of Donald Omand, Exorcist Extraordinaire

    · 1 h 28 min · S8 E16

    When one thinks of exorcisms, it’s hard to get past the infamous imagery published to the world in 1973, of a young girl, floating above a bed, flanked by two priests, flinging holy water and yelling about the power of…

  22. Smuggling, Riots & The Sampford Peverell Ghost

    · 50 min · S8 E15

    In the heart of Devon, in the quaint village of Sampford Peverell, an information board refers the curious tourist to a now demolished building that had once been known as “The Ghost House.” The scene of an early 19th…

  23. The Cleaver, The Fiend & The Axeman's Jazz of New Orleans

    · 1 h 27 min · S8 E14

    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…

  24. Murder Aboard the Herbert Fuller

    · 1 h 19 min · S8 E13

    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…

  25. The Wreck of the Wager

    · 1 h 20 min · S8 E12

    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…

  26. A Shot in the Dark: The Hammersmith Ghost of 1804

    · 52 min · S8 E11

    In the last twenty-five years, ghost hunting has entered something of a golden age, with all sorts of technology playing its part and filling up an investigators kit bag. Cameras, EMF metres, InfraRed thermometers and…

  27. William Corder & The Red Barn Murder

    · 1 h 10 min · S8 E10

    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.…

  28. Fritz Haarmann: The Vampire of Hanover

    · 1 h 06 min · S8 E9

    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…

  29. Story Time: Dark Rituals & Pagan Rites

    · 56 min · S8 E8

    Hi everyone, something a little different this week, but I'll be back as usual with next episode. Thanks as always! ------- For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com Support the show by…

  30. Counterfeiting, Undercover Agents & The Abduction of Abraham Lincoln

    · 1 h 13 min · S8 E7

    The ingenuity of the criminal class has rarely been criticised for lacking in imagination. One of the finer examples of this concept was put on full display in America, on the eve of the presidential election in 1876,…

  31. The Mysterious Murder of Mary Jane Bennett

    · 1 h 21 min · S8 E6

    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…

  32. Prophecy, Second Sight & John Barker’s Premonitions Bureau

    · 1 h 10 min · S8 E5

    “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…

  33. The Druce-Portland Affair: The Duke That Never Was

    · 1 h 12 min · S8 E4

    Cases of stolen, mistaken and fraudulent identity were not an entirely uncommon thing in Victorian Britain. Somewhat more unusual was the bizarre allegation that an English aristocrat, the 5th Duke of Portland, had…

  34. Zsuzsanna Fazekas & The Angel Makers of Nagyrév

    · 1 h 10 min · S8 E4

    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…

  35. The Saltwood & Hythe Mothman

    · 1 h 03 min · S8 E2

    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…

  36. May Blackburn & The Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven

    · 1 h 45 min · S8 E1

    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…

  37. Christmas Campfire 2023 (Part 2)

    · 49 min · S7 E27

    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! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  38. Christmas Campfire 2023 (Part 1)

    · 57 min · S7 E26

    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,…

  39. Stories for the Winter Solstice

    · 1 h 12 min · S7 E25

    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…

  40. The Dalby Spook: Gef the Talking Mongoose (Part 2)

    · 1 h 22 min · S7 E24

    Having risen to the status of international newspaper sensation, The Dalby Spook, or Gef the talking mongoose to those that knew him, was now poised to meet some of the world’s most infamous psychical researchers.…

  41. The Dalby Spook: Gef the Talking Mongoose (Part 1)

    · 1 h 05 min · S7 E23

    In the 1930s a peculiar story began filtering out from the towns and villages surrounding a small farm on the western coast of the Isle of Man. Reports of a talking animal, a local spook that could sing the Manx…

  42. Thames Torso Mysteries: London in the Shadow of the Ripper

    · 1 h 22 min · S7 E21

    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…

  43. Listen Now: MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries

    · 8:40 · Episode 33

    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…

  44. The Ratcliffe Highway Murders of 1811

    · 1 h 19 min · S7 E21

    In 1811 a series of brutal murders on the Ratcliffe Highway in the east end of London shook the locals to the very core with their unrivalled brutality and seemingly random, everyday targets. The murders exposed a fear…

  45. The Lancashire Seven: Possessions, Exorcisms & Executions

    · 1 h 00 min · S3 E20

    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…

  46. The Haunting of Hinton Ampner

    · 48 min · S7 E19

    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…

  47. Hypnotism & Murder: The Bloody Trunk of Eyraud & Bompard

    · 1 h 21 min · S7 E18

    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…

  48. The Assassination of Orléans: The Rise & Fall of a Medieval Detective

    · 1 h 05 min · S7 E17

    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…

  49. Mary Ellen MacDonald & The Haunting of Caledonia Mills

    · 1 h 08 min · S7 E16

    In the winter of 1922, a bizarre series of events fell across an isolated Nova Scotian farmhouse, leaving the locals grappling with a set of mysteries that were as terrifying as they were exciting. Unseen forces…

  50. Mina Crandon, Scientific American & The $5000 Psychical Challenge

    · 1 h 31 min · S7 E15

    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…

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