Dark Histories

Nov 19 2024 199 ep. 62 mins 45.4k
Dark Histories Podcast artwork

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

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

Nov 19 2024 67 mins  
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 of strychnine, preying on vulnerable women, using his sinister charm and cunning to both administer poison and run from the effects. For years Cream operated in the

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

Nov 04 2024 96 mins  
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 chequered past. When Gibson mysteriously vanished, and her lifeless body was allegedly pushed through the ship’s porthole, a dark tale of desire, deceit, and death un

Farrant, Manchester & The Highgate Vampire

Oct 20 2024 67 mins  
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 into their investigations of the grounds, reports spread of a dark, otherworldly figure stalking its overgrown graves. Sometimes tall, sometimes with glowing red eyes,

The Case of Elizabeth Fenning & The Poison Dumplings

Oct 06 2024 64 mins  
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 herself trapped in an increasingly lopsided courtroom, where any hope of the justice she had held whilst awaiting trial seemed to recede with every new witness brought

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

Sep 22 2024 64 mins  
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 inventor and filmmaker, there are few who could reel off a biography based on nothing more than a name. Perhaps even more obscure, however, was his time spent as a ghost h

Sorcery, Witchcraft & Murder: The Affair of the Poisons

Sep 09 2024 76 mins  
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 alchemy and astrology social circles for cover. The eventual arrests shocked the nation, when it was discovered that far from common rabble, the poisoners had hailed from

Summer Holiday 2024 - Algernon Blackwood

Aug 25 2024 55 mins  
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, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or

The Spectacular Life of Donald Omand, Exorcist Extraordinaire

Aug 11 2024 89 mins  
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 Christ. At the same time as the Exorcist movie was hitting the cinemas, however, there was one, real life exorcist doing very different work. With several decades

Smuggling, Riots & The Sampford Peverell Ghost

Jul 28 2024 52 mins  
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 century haunting that had shook the walls for several months, before falling to a curious silence, the history of the ghost house told the story of a terrifying h

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

Jul 18 2024 89 mins  
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 the ether which surrounds your earth. I am not a human being, but a spirit and a fell demon from hottest hell. I am what you Orleanians and your foolish police ca