Bad Elizabeth

Kathy and Gideon talk about the woman many consider the worst Canadian serial killer - Elizabeth "Bethe" Wettlaufer. Wettlaufer, who grew up near Woodstock, Ontario, fits into the True Crime sub-genre of Nurses Who Kill. She worked at various rehab and medical facilities and administered deadly doses of insulin to many of her older patients, but the horrible things she did didn't come to light until much later. After admitting her crimes to various people, nothing happened to her. Was this an example of "Canadian nice" or was it just that Wettlaufer didn't "look" like a killer, and therefor nobody could believe it. We also welcome to the show, Charles Graeber, author of the best selling book "The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder" which was made into an award-winning film starring Eddie Redmayne as American Nurse Killer Charles Cullen. Graeber explains how the hospitals ignored whistleblowers, and allowed Cullen to get jobs at other facilities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania where he continued murdering patients. Cullen was quite possibly responsible for as many as 400 killings. And while Cullen did end up behind bars, the hospital administrators were never held accountable. Perhaps there's more than one villain in these stories...----------------------------------------Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan-TaylorProducer & Engineer: Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber BectonTheme Song Composed by Alexis Cuadrado & Danny GrayRecorded @ Jett Road Studios----------------------------------------SOURCES:The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder by Charles Graeberhttps://a.co/d/81TLJmcThe Good Nurse (film)https://www.netflix.com/title/81260083"Living with a Serial Killer: Elizabeth Wettlaufer"https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/living-with-a-serial-killer/8729766680284507112/seasons/2/episodes/elizabeth-wettlaufer-episode-6/06fc97a9-48ee-3cb8-a292-ad141236f59b"Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer: Elizabeth Wettlaufer"https://www.primevideo.com/region/na/detail/0SX2ANK3N5DM7AY19FW6I6YXRR?ref_=atv_dp_pb_core----------------------------------------Jett Road Studios - Website - YouTube - Instagram - SubstackBad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack

Halloween is almost here (at the time of posting) and doing a show about the Salem Witch Trials is perfectly on-brand for this spooky holiday. The Elizabeth that our episode is about is Elizabeth Parris - whose child Betty Parris and her niece Abagail Williams - were the first to be "afflicted" by alleged Satanic influences in 1692. Parris with her husband, Samuel, and another neighbor diagnosed the so-called nefarious symptoms of their children, and accused three of being Witches - two townswomen and Tituba, who was the slave who lived in the Parris household. This first case of "Witchcraft" started the fire (to paraphrase Billy Joel) and an epidemic of satanic activity across Salem and even parts of Connecticut. Do Elizabeth and her child Betty (a variation of Elizabeth) get a pass from Gideon and Kathy? And what caused these symptoms? Kathy and Gideon go through some of the theories including "Mass Hysteria" and ergot mushroom poisoning. Later in the episode, Gideon and Kathy welcome guest Jane Borden, author of "Cults Like Us" and discuss whether the Puritans, who founded America, were essentially a cult, and how does the Puritans' cult-like behavior and thinking manifest in our modern society in America. In a twist, we channel Henry Louis Gates, and help reveal the descendant of our guest Borden...can you guess?----------------------------------------A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience by Emerson W Bakerhttps://a.co/d/8k3xxRFHysterical by Dan Taberskihttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hysterical/id1753789609Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America by Jane Bordenhttps://a.co/d/g6Frn5FI Totally Meant to Do That by Jane Bordenhttps://a.co/d/eh0c3OtThe Crucible by Arthur Millerhttps://a.co/d/383dc3fJohn Proctor is the Villain by Kimberly Belflowerhttps://a.co/d/ez6xt4zThe Day of Doom - by Michael Wigglesworthhttps://a.co/d/6q4G470----------------------------------------Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan-TaylorProducer & Engineer: Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber BectonRecorded @ Jett Road Studios----------------------------------------Jett Road Studios - Website - YouTube - Instagram - SubstackBad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack

Queen Elizabeth I is known as the steady, confident ruler who beat the Spanish Armada, supported the arts, and led to England's golden age. But her reign also had a darker side, including killing of Catholic priests, terrorizing Puritans, and speculation she might've been part of a plot to kill a lover's wife.In this episode Gideon and Kathy look past the legend to the woman behind the crown - part hero, part manipulator, and part mystery.Our guest is Alice Loxton, also known as History Alice, who joins us to tutor us on the Tudors, and help make sense of the Virgin Queen.----------------------------------------Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan-TaylorProducer & Engineer: Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber BectonRecorded @ Jett Road Studios----------------------------------------Jett Road Studios - Website - YouTube - Instagram - SubstackBad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack----------------------------------------SOURCESThe First Elizabeth by Carolly Ericksonhttps://a.co/d/5UAb5x4Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives by Alice Loxtonhttps://a.co/d/2OipuVOElizabeth I: A Study in Insecurity by Helen Castorhttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/05/elizabeth-i-helen-castor-study-insecurity-penguin-monarchs

Gideon and Kathy discuss the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes, the infamous CEO of Theranos. Holmes dropped out of college like Steve Jobs, she wore black turtle necks like jobs, and created a tech product like Jobs. But unlike Jobs, Homes' product didn't do what she said it would do and she lied about it repeatedly. The Theranos idea was to have a fast and easy way to run many medical tests using a tiny pin prick to the finger, but it turned out to be pie in the sky. If only Homes spent the same amount of energy covering up the fact that her product was a failure, and blaming her staff, into actually working on making the product work, maybe she'd attain the Jobs-like stature she desired. Both Gideon and Kathy have had their share of terrible work environments, but probably not nearly as toxic as that of Theranos. And like other bad Elizabeths we have covered, Holmes is attempting a comeback even though she's currently in prison, Gideon and Kathy discuss the how likely it'll be for her new ideas to work. Later in the episode Kathy and Gideon talk to writer E. Jean Carroll, who is also an Elizabeth, but a badass one. Carroll gives her take on Holmes and then we go in-depth about Carroll's life growing up in Indiana and her hard-fought battle to become the beloved writer she has become. The episode wraps up with Carroll talking about her gripping and often hilarious book "Not My Type" about her lawsuit against Donald Trump for assaulting her in the dressing rooms of a Manhattan, New York, Bergdorf Goodman. She won her case not once, but twice.----------------------------------------Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan-TaylorProducer & Engineer: Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber BectonRecorded @ Jett Road Studios----------------------------------------Jett Road Studios - Website - YouTube - Instagram - SubstackBad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack----------------------------------------SOURCES:New York Times - Elizabeth Holmes Partner Blood-Testing Start-upABC News - Elizabeth Holmes Prison Release DateVanity Fair - The Talented Ms HolmesIMDB - The DropoutThe Dropout - Apple PodcastsBad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley StartupNot My Type: One Woman vs. a President

Lizzie Borden’s father and stepmother were found hacked to death in Fall River, Massachusetts over one hundred and thirty years ago, yet everyone today still knows her name. Kids dress up like Lizzie carrying bloody axes for Halloween, or spookily recite the famous nursery rhyme “Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks/When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one." But what is the real story behind this gory tale? Gideon and Kathy break down what happened the morning of August 4th, 1892, examining Lizzie as the number one presumed suspect, but also look into the possibility that someone else might’ve murdered Abby and Andrew Borden. What are the possible motives? Was Lizzie pissed because modern plumbing was available at the time, but her tight-pursed father made the family crap in chamber pots? Or was it for the money? And what exactly qualifies one as a “spinster?” But most importantly, was Lizzie Borden BAD? Gideon and Kathy pull from their many resources, including the salacious, and kinda weird, 1975 made-for-TV movie, “The Legend of Lizzie Borden,” starring beloved “Bewitched” actress, Elizabeth Montgomery, to explore the most critical questions behind one of America’s most enduring crime mysteries. Later in the episode, Kathy talks to Ricardo Rebelo, an instructor of Film, Video & Communications at Bristol Community College in Rhode Island, from his home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Ric discusses his PBS documentary, “Lizbeth: A Victorian Nightmare,” growing up on the same street from the infamous Borden house, the ecosystem of ghosts that haunt the town of Fall River, and the tourism industry it lures. Tuck in for some good tales as spooky Pumpkin Spice season has officially begun!----------------------------------------Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan TaylorProduced & Engineer by Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber BectonRecorded @ Jett Road Studios----------------------------------------Jett Road Studios - Website - YouTube - Instagram - SubstackBad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack----------------------------------------SOURCES:The New Yorker: Legends of Lizzie Smithsonian Magazine: How Lizzie Borden Got Away with Murder New York Times: Lizzie Borden Took an Ax

Elisabeth Finch was an ambitious writer and producer of the hit ABC series Grey’s Anatomy. As talented as Finch was at crafting episodes of the beloved hospital drama, she was even more talented at lying her ass off about her own life. Finch got ahead in Hollywood by making up a sob story about having and inoperable spinal cancer. She shaved her head, and pretended to throw up in the restroom at work, pulling the heartstrings of her colleagues, family, and lovers. Her charade was so convincing that her "struggle" even became a Grey's Anatomy plot line. And that was just the beginning of the bullshit she spewed. Gideon and Kathy reluctantly marvel at the exploits of this “Zelig of Misfortune,” and her commitment to the reality she created.Later in the episode Gideon sits down with legendary journalist Michael Musto in his native New York City, to discuss Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor. The glamorous star of films like Giant, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was also known for tempestuous relationships with her many husband, like Richard Burton, and disastrous Hollywood flops like Cleopatra. Was Elizabeth Taylor an out-of-control, home-wrecking diva? Or a was she an ahead-of-her-time, philanthropic, badass? Listen to find out.----------------------------------------Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan TaylorProduced & Engineer by Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber BectonRecorded @ Jett Road Studios----------------------------------------Jett Road Studios - Website - YouTube - Instagram - SubstackBad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack----------------------------------------Vanity Fair (Article)Vanity Fair article, Part OneVanity Fair article, Part TwoAnatomy of Lies (TV)Anatomy of LiesThe Plot Thickens: Cleopatra (Podcast)The Plot Thickens: Cleopatra

Bad Elizabeth. Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan-Taylor. Coming soon...