Historical True Crime

In 1857, a prominent New York dentist was found murdered in his Bond Street office. Suspicion fell on Emma Cunningham, the widow who ran the boardinghouse and claimed to be his wife — and heir. Her acquittal did not end the scandal. Adisputed marriage, a claimed pregnancy, and a staged birth kept the city riveted and raised new questions about truth, reputation, and inheritance in mid-19th-century New York.Source Materials:Duke, Franklin. Celebrated Criminal Cases of America. San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Company, 1910.Serratore, Angela. “The Murder of Dr. Harvey Burdell and the Scandal That Gripped 1857 New York.” Smithsonian Magazine.Roberts, Sam. “The Murder That Gripped Bond Street.” The New York Times.The New-York Daily Times (1857), contemporary coverage of the Burdell murder and Emma Cunningham trial.Contemporary inquest and trialreporting in New York newspapers, 1857.

In 1629, the Dutch merchant ship Batavia wrecked on a remote reef off Western Australia. What followed was not just a struggle for survival, but a calculated campaign of violence that left more than one hundred people dead. Drawing on survivor testimony and historical records, this episode examines one of the most disturbing episodes in maritime history.Source MaterialsPelsaert, Francisco. The Journal of Francisco Pelsaert. 1629.Dash, Mike. Batavia’s Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History’s Bloodiest Mutiny. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2002.Drake-Brockman, Henrietta. Voyage to Disaster. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1964.Edwards, Hugh. Islands of Angry Ghosts. New York: William Morrow, 1966.Western Australian Museum — Batavia Collectionhttps://museum.wa.gov.au/This episode was researched using both primary historical documents and modern scholarly works.

The 1612 Pendle witch trials remain among the most famous in English history. What began with a single accusation soon expanded into a prosecution that would send ten people to the gallows.Source MaterialsPotts, Thomas. The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster (1613)Almond, Philip C. The Lancashire Witches: A Chronicle of Sorcery and Death on Pendle Hill.Poole, Robert (ed.). The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories.Sharpe, James. Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Modern England.Gibson, Marion. Witchcraft and Society in England and America, 1550–1750Gaskill, Malcolm. Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy.

In 1937, three girls left home for a day at the park and never returned. Their disappearance sparked a frantic search, a shocked community, and a murder case that moved with remarkable speed. This episode traces the investigation intothe deaths of Melba Everett, Madeline Everett, and Jeanette Stephens, the arrest of Albert Dyer, and a trial shaped almost entirely by his confessions.Everett, Pamela. Little Shoes: The Sensational Depression-Era Murders That BecameAmerica’s First Celebrity Crime. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2018.People v. Dyer, 9 Cal. 2d 317 (Cal. Sup. Ct. 1938).“Three Little Girls.” Time, July 12, 1937.Contemporary newspaper reporting, including coverage from the Daily Breeze and Los Angeles–area papers (1937).

In September 1907, Emily Dimmock was found murdered in her rented rooms in Camden Town, her throat cut while she slept. Known to some as “Phyllis,” she lived a double life in Edwardian London, moving between respectability and survival.This episode explores Emily’s final days, the trial that followed, andwhy the Camden Town Murder remains unsolved more than a century later.Source MaterialsNapley, Sir David. The Camden Town Murder. In Great Murder Trials of the Twentieth Century. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson / Orion.Barber, John. The Camden Town Murder. Barber, John. “The Camden Town Murder.” Ripperologist, no. 44 (December 2002). Reprinted at Casebook.org.Grant, Thomas. Court Number One: The Old Bailey, the Trials and Scandals. London: John Murray, 2019.Oates, Jonathan. Unsolved Murders in Victorian and Edwardian London. Barnsley: Wharncliffe, 2007.Melville, Elizabeth. “The Camden Town Murder.” Medium.com.Tilstra, Elizabeth. “A Killer in London: The Camden Town Murder.” The Line-Up.Contemporary newspaper coverage including The News of the World, Illustrated Police News, and The Penny Illustrated Paper (1907).

In 1799, Elma Sands vanished from a New York boardinghouse. Her body was later found in a well, and the trial that followed — defended by Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr — left more questions than answers. This episode examines the Manhattan Well murder and the limits of justice in early America.Source MaterialsColeman, William. The Trial of Levi Weeks; or, The Manhattan Well Mystery. New York: Printed for the author, 1800.Kleiger, Estelle Fox. The Trial of Levi Weeks: Sex, Seduction, and Murder in the Early Republic. Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, 1989.American State Trials: Being a Collection of the Most Interesting Criminal Trials Which Have Ever Occurred in the United States. Vol. 1. New York: Printed andpublished by G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1849. Murder by Gaslight: A Victorian Anthology of True CrimeThe Paris Review —“The Well on Spring Street,” Angela Serratore“Death in the Manhattan Well.” Crime Magazine. https://www.crimemagazine.comNew York Gazette and General Advertiser. New York, various issues, 1799–1800.The New-York Daily Advertiser. New York, various issues, 1799–1800.

Three deaths. No obvious violence. No immediate suspicion.An 1886 poisoning case that unfolded quietly inside the home — until it didn’t.Source Materials:Berry,James. My Experiences as an Executioner.Berry, James. The Hangman’s Thoughts Above the Gallows.Shannon, Issy. Infamous Lancashire Women.Stratmann, Linda. The Secret Poisoner: A Century of MurderWatson, Katherine. Poisoned Lives: English Poisoners and Their Victims.Contemporary newspaper reports relating to the Britland case (1886).

In February 1567, an explosion destroyed a house in Edinburgh but the body of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley was found outside the ruins, untouched by the blast. His murder was never solved. This episode examines Darnley’s death within thepolitical world of sixteenth-century Scotland and the pressures facing Mary, Queen of Scots. A story of power, perception, and suspicion without proof.Source Materials  Darnley: A Life of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley — Caroline Bingham. Constable & Robinson, 1995. Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley — Alison Weir. Vintage Books, 2008.Criminal Trials in Scotland, Volumes I–III — edited by Robert Pitcairn. Bannatyne Club, 1833.My Heart Is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots — John Guy. Fourth Estate, 2004. “10 February 1567 – The Murder of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley” — Claire Ridgway, The Tudor Society.“Murder of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley of Scotland” — Historic Mysteries.Calendar of State Papers, Scotland, Volume 2 (1563–1569) — edited by Joseph Bain. London, 1900.

In 1924, bones emerging from the River Leine exposed the crimes of Fritz Haarmann—the “Butcher of Hanover”—who had been operating in plain sight. This episode traces the missing boys, the fractured systems that failed them, and how one city finally uncovered a killer hidden in its midst.Source MaterialsAlexander Gilbert — The Hanover Vampire: Fritz HaarmannMark Pulham — “The Monster of Hanover,” Crime MagazineMaria Tatar — Lustmord: Sexual Murder in Weimar GermanyCrime Stories, Criminalistic Fantasy, and the Culture of Crisis in Weimar GermanySexual Murder: Catathymic and Compulsive Homicide, Annals of Forensic ResearchMorgan Dunn — “Fritz Haarmann Was a Popular Butcher…” (All That’s Interesting)Hannover Police Records (as cited through secondary sources)Hannoverscher Kurier reporting (as cited through secondary sources)

A quiet border town, a sudden illness, and a solicitor accused of poisoning both his wife and a rival. This episode examines the Armstrong case and why, even 100 years later, it remains one of Britain’s most debated convictions.Sources & Further ReadingStephen Bates, The Poisonous Solicitor (2022)Martin Beales, The Hay Poisoner: Herbert Rowse Armstrong (2001)Robin Odell, Exhumation of a Murder (1975)“Herbert Rowse Armstrong,” The History Room (history-room.co.uk)Polly Botsford, “The incredible true story of the only solicitor ever to hang for murder,” Legal Cheek (legalcheek.com)Stephanie Almazan, “Herbert Armstrong,” The Line-Up (the-line-up.com)Nicola Bryan, “Fresh doubt cast on solicitor’s murder conviction 100 years on,” BBC News (bbc.com)

A 1932 Stockholm murder becomes one of Sweden’s strangest cold cases. When 32-year-old Lilly Lindeström is found dead in her apartment, unusual details spark rumorsof a “vampire” killer. What’s fact, what’s myth, and why was the case never solved?Source Materials https://gizmodo.com/swedens-most-bizarre-unsolved-murder-was-maybe-commit-1706115395https://londonpress.wordpress.com/2016/08/24/the-disturbing-unsolved-case-of-the-atlas-vampirehttps://medium.com/@marvelinemerab/she-was-killed-in-broad-daylight-and-drained-like-a-horror-story-de41701dd6bfhttps://www.ranker.com/list/atlas-vampire-murder/april-a-taylorhttps://strangeremains.com/2019/10/24/stockholms-unsolved-vampire-murderhttps://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/shadow-boxing/201211/vampire-personality-disorderhttps://polismuseet.sehttps://stockholmskallan.stockholm.se

A woman posing as Andrew Carnegie’s secret daughter scammed banks out of today’s equivalent of $20 million—armed with nothing but forged notes and absolute confidence. This is the rise and unraveling of Cassie Chadwick, one of the boldest fraudsters of the Gilded Age.Source MaterialsCrosbie, John. The Incredible Mrs. Chadwick. 1975.Hazelgrove, William Elliott. Greed in the Gilded Age: TheBrilliant Con of Cassie Chadwick. Lyons Press, 2021.Wade, Carlson. Great Hoaxes & Famous Impostors. 1976.Hayek, Caroline C.; Gates, Sandra; Rankin, Robert J. “TheSocial Construction of Fraudulent Identity.”“Cassie Chadwick: The Female Wizard of Finance.” Ohio History Connection, June 22, 2022.“The High Priestess of Fraudulent Finance.” SmithsonianMagazine.Newspaper coverage quoted from: Cleveland Plain Dealer;Clinton Republican; Oberlin Review.

A young woman in rural Tipperary falls suddenly ill in 1895—and within days, fear, folklore, and family pressure spiral into one of Ireland’s most disturbing murder cases. This episode unravels the death of Bridget Cleary, the beliefs that shaped it, and the legacy she never asked for.Source Materials Bourke, Angela. The Burning of Bridget Cleary: A True Story. Penguin, 2000.The Tipperary Witch Case (1895 court and newspaper reporting).McGrath, Thomas. “Fairy Faith and Changelings: The Burning of Bridget Cleary in 1895.” Ruxton, Dean. “The Story of the Last ‘Witch’ Burned Alive in Ireland.” The Irish Times, 2016.“The Charred Remains of Bridget Cleary Were Found in a Bog…” History Collection.“The Murder of Bridget Cleary: Ireland’s Last Witch and the Fire of Superstition.” Secret Ireland.National Archives of Ireland images and records related to the Cleary case.

In 1920s Los Angeles, prophecy, greed, and death collided in the hills of California. This episode unravels the story of the Blackburn Cult—a mother-daughter prophecy, a girl kept on ice, and a courtroom that tried to make sense of itall.Historical True Crime was named one of Feedspot’s Best 1920s Podcasts, coming in at #4. Feedspot highlights top podcasts across history, true crime, and culture — you can find their full 1920s list on their site. https://podcast.feedspot.com/1920s_podcastsSource MaterialsBlackburn, May Otis. The Origin of God. Los Angeles: DeVross & Co., 1936.Young, Paul. L.A. Exposed: Strange Myths and Curious Legends in the City of Angels. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2002.Introvigne, Massimo. “Beth Sarim: Princes, Slander, and the Millennium.” The Journal of CESNUR 6, no. 6 (2022): 12–17. “Believe Child Sacrificed in Ritual of Cult.” Associated Press, October 7, 1929.“Los Angeles Authorities Probe Deaths of Cult Members.” Associated Press, October 9, 1929.“Mary Otis Blackburn Convicted in Grand Theft Case.” Associated Press, March 3, 1930.“Cult Leader Sentenced to San Quentin.” Associated Press, March 14, 1930.Divine Order's Tale Smacks of Cult Fiction - Los Angeles TimesTake It On Faith: A Press Photo of Members of the Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven, Los Angeles, 7 October 1929 -The Homestead BlogFemale Justice Recap: “Persons Believing They Have Divine Power are Entitled to Assert It”: Religious Freedom in the May Otis Blackburn Theft Trial -The Homestead BlogThe Blackburn Cult - HistoricalCrimeDetective.com

Between 1894 and 1897, a scarred drifter named Joseph Vacher wandered the French countryside, leaving a trail of murdered shepherds and farmhands in his wake. Dubbed “The French Ripper,” his crimes terrified rural France—and helped give birth to modern forensic science. This episode traces his life, his trial, and the work of Dr. Alexandre Lacassagne, the scientist who proved that evidence could speak louder than fear.Source Materials Starr, Douglas. The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science. (Alfred A. Knopf, 2010).Tracking a 19th-Century Serial Killer | BU Today | Boston UniversityJoseph Vacher: Serial Killer Known as "The French Ripper" - geriwalton.comThe 'French Ripper' Killed Dozens — So Why Don’t You Know His Name?Joseph Vacher: The French Ripper’s Brutal Killing Spree – True Crime ArchivesJoseph Vacher: The Killer of Little ShepherdsJoseph Vacher, the “French Ripper” - HeadStuff

In 1803, a ghost was said to haunt the lanes of Hammersmith.By the time the truth emerged, one man was dead—and another stood trial for murder. This is the story of the Hammersmith Ghost: where fear, rumor, and justice collided in the dark.Source MaterialsProceedings of the Old Bailey,11 January 1804 – Trial of Francis Smith for the murder of Thomas Millwood.Burton, Paul J. “The Hammersmith Ghost and the Rule of Law.” SSRN Scholarly Paper, 2015. Davies, Owen. The Haunted: A Social History of Ghosts. Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.Westwood, Jennifer, and Jacqueline Simpson. The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England’s Legends, from Spring-Heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys. Penguin Books, 2005.“The Newgate Calendar: The Trial and Execution of Francis Smith.” (Contemporary 19th-century account).A Deadly Scare? The Hammersmith Ghost Murder Case - Historic MysteriesThe Hammersmith Ghost and a Murdered ManThe Hammersmith Ghost and the Strange Death of Thomas Millwood Crime MagazineThe Case of a Ghost Haunted England for Over Two Hundred Years | In Custodia Legis

A nobleman’s drunken murder. A trial before the Irish House of Lords. And the scandal that gave rise to Ireland’s most infamous secret society — the Hellfire Club.Source Material  Neal Garnham, “The Trials of James Cotter and Henry, Baron Barry of Santry: Two Case Studies in the Administrationof Criminal Justice in Early Eighteenth-Century Ireland”, IrishHistorical Studies, Vol. 32, No. 128 (2001).Neal Garnham, “The Trials of James Cotter and Henry, Baron Barry of Santry”, Irish Historical Studies, 2001.F. Elrington Ball, The Judges in Ireland, 1221–1921 (London: John Murray, 1926).Geoffrey Ashe, The Hell-Fire Clubs: A History of Anti-Morality (The History Press, 2000).Evelyn Lord, TheHellfire Clubs: Sex, Satanism and Secret Societies (Yale University Press, 2008).Hellfire Clubs (Pamphlet / Irish National Library Collection, c. 18th century).Abarta Heritage, TheHellfire Club Archaeological Project – History and Folklore, Abarta Heritage (https://www.abartaheritage.ie/hellfire-club-archaeological-project/hellfire-club-history/hellfire-club/).John D’Alton, Historyof the County of Dublin (Dublin, 1838). “The Hell-Fire Club: Sex, Satanism andSecret Societies,” History Is Now Magazine, 2018.“The Hellfire Club Murders”, Dublin Penny Journal, archival reprint. 

In 1566, a widow from a quiet Essex village was accused of feeding her cat with drops of her own blood—and of using it to kill. This is the story of Agnes Waterhouse, the first woman in England whose witch trial was captured in print. A story offear, faith, and the birth of the English witch.Source Material:

In 1900, Texas millionaire William Marsh Rice was found dead in his New York apartment. Within hours, forged checks, a suspicious will, and a hasty cremation order set off one of the most sensational murder cases of the Gilded Age. This is thestory of greed, betrayal, and the crime that nearly derailed the founding of Rice University.Patreon - Historical True Crime | PatreonWebsite - Historical True Crime | podcastSource MaterialsRice's Attorney and Valet Face Criminal Charges, newsclipping - Rice University Digital CollectionsFace the Law Murder Conspiracy and Forgery newsclipping - Rice University Digital Collections"Confessed Murder Forgery" - Rice University Digital CollectionsScrapbook page of New York news clippings announcing the mysterious circumstances of the death of William MarshRice - Rice University Digital CollectionsEvidence of Guilt newsclipping - Rice University Digital CollectionsMurdered man's estate founds great university, newsclipping regarding Rice Institute - Rice University Digital CollectionsThe Murder of Millionaire William Rice by Albert Patrick, 1900 - HistoricalCrimeDetective.comWilliam Marsh Rice: A Story of Money, Poison, and Murder – Kathy M. SlaughterWilliam Marsh Rice and His Legacy — The Heritage Society Martin L. Friedland, The Death of Old Man Rice: A True Story of Criminal Justice in America (University of Toronto Press, 1996).Thomas Duke, Celebrated Criminal Cases of America (1910), Part III: “The Murder of Millionaire William Rice by Albert Patrick.”

Glamour, scandal, and an unsolved death. When torch singer Libby Holman married into the Reynolds tobacco dynasty, she stepped into a world of wealth and whispers. Whatfollowed was a mystery that would haunt her for the rest of her life.Source MaterialThe Notorious Libby Holman | Vanity Fair | March 1985This Month In Rockingham County History: August - 'Libby Holman Reynolds Turns Herself In at Rockingham County Courthouse' - Museum & Archives of Rockingham CountyLibby Holman | Jewish Women's ArchiveDaily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa), 1932-10-20Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa), 1932-10-25Carolina watchman (Salisbury, N.C.). 1932-12-16 [p ].Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa), 1932-07-10Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa), 1932-07-14Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa), 1932-08-09Coroner's Report in the Matter of the Death of Z. Smith Reynolds – Works – Reynolda HouseDreams that money can buy : the tragic life of Libby Holman : Bradshaw, Jon : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet ArchivePassing Strange: Radical Chic, Race, Sex, Song, and Dance in “Moanin’ Low” - Article (Preprint v1) by Thomas F. Connolly | Qeios