Fresh Hell Podcast

This week, Johanna takes us back to 18th-century Austria, when terrified villagers were convinced the dead were refusing to stay buried...and the Habsburg Empire responded the only way it knew how: with paperwork! Hear all about Petar Blagojević and Arnold Paole, and how it lead to Maria Theresia’s no-nonsense vampire ban. This is the true...... Continue Reading →

For our 300th episode, we’re boarding one of the most famous ships in the world: the RMS Queen Mary. Once the epitome of 1930s luxury and wartime resilience, she now sits permanently moored in Long Beach, California… and she’s said to be home to over 150ghosts. We talk about the tragic story of Door 13...... Continue Reading →

This week on Fresh Hell, we’re taking you to the heart of spooky fuckery month with a deep dive into witch lore and trials in Austria and Germany. You know Salem: twenty people, one tragic year! But compared to what happened in central Europe, Salem was just a footnote. We’ll explore the folklore that fed...... Continue Reading →

Crikey! This week we’re taking you to meet crocodiles. The largest living reptiles on Earth, creatures that inspire both awe and terror. We’ll talk about the late, great Steve Irwin, whose passion and humor showed millions of people why crocodiles deserve our respect.  We’ll also tell you the truth about the legend of the Ramree...... Continue Reading →

Cardinal de Rohan believes he’s secretly helping Marie Antoinette purchase the world’s most extravagant necklace, while Jeanne de la Motte and her accomplices quietly dismantle it and sell the diamonds across Europe. We’ll tell you all about the scheme, the dramatic arrest of Rohan at Versailles during the Feast of the Assumption, and the sensational...... Continue Reading →

This week we’re heading to Versailles for one of the most scandalous cons in French history. In Part 1, you'll hear all about the glittering worlds of Versailles and Schönbrunn, the childhood and marriage of Marie Antoinette, and her already fragile reputation as “Madame Déficit.” We’ll meet the main characters in this elaborate scheme: Cardinal...... Continue Reading →

In the 16th to 18th centuries, hundreds of people across Central Europe engineered their own executions in the hope of dying “in a state of grace.” Suicide was a mortal sin, but murder was a capital crime, and execution after confession was seen as a path to salvation. In this episode we discuss several real...... Continue Reading →

We're still on a summer break, but you know we couldn’t stay away from the horror for long.  In this second Best of Fresh Hell special, we’ve got three more unforgettable true crime cases from the archives, all condensed for maximum dread in minimum time. We start with the heartbreaking murder of Katharina Fellner, a young woman in...... Continue Reading →

We might be on a summer break, but the mystery doesn’t stop.  In this first Best of Fresh Hell special, we’re serving up three of our favorite cold cases in condensed form.  Perfect for when you want the unsettling highlights without the two-hour extra information! First up: Owen Parfitt, a paralyzed man who vanished from his front porch...... Continue Reading →

In the third and final part of this Hollywood murder saga, we talk about the murder scene, all the possible suspects! Who had a motive? And who may have been protected by the studio system at all costs? We’ll walk you through the possible killers — from studio insiders and jilted lovers to the ones no...... Continue Reading →

In part two of our three-part look at the mysterious murder of William Desmond Taylor, we pick up with the powerful (and possibly romantic) figures in Taylor’s life, and trace the final days leading up to his death. You’ll hear about his complex relationship with set designer George James Hopkins, the bond he shared with...... Continue Reading →

Before there was Hollywood scandal, there was THE Hollywood scandal. In this first part of our series on the murder of William Desmond Taylor, we're setting the scene: Los Angeles in the 1920s, the silent film industry at its decadent, chaotic peak, and the lives of the people who would soon be swept up in one...... Continue Reading →

This week’s episode covers everything from the grim legacy of racist alligator myths to actual gator attacks, pet alligators ordered through the mail, and that one time a gator rang a doorbell in Florida. You’ll learn why the myth of sewer gators exists (and how Eleanor the Nile crocodile ended up beneath Paris), what black...... Continue Reading →

This week, we’re trading murder for mayhem of the ancient reptilian variety. We take a deep dive into the world of crocodilians—those prehistoric apex predators that have been lurking in rivers, swamps, and sometimes swimming pools for millions of years. From the surprisingly gentle Chinese alligator to the misunderstood American alligator and the unexpectedly terrifying...... Continue Reading &#8...

In this week’s solo episode, Johanna takes you to the picture-perfect Austrian town of Werfen — home to falcons, frozen caves, The Sound of Music, and once... a baker with a deadly secret. Johann Oberreiter was a respected businessman, a model Catholic, and even a former town leader. But behind closed doors, he was also a...... Continue Reading →

So... you almost died. Or you technically did—for a moment. And then came the tunnel, the music, the relatives made of light, the surgeons flapping like chickens, or the sudden drop into a shadowy void full of screaming. Welcome to the Fresh Hell guide to near-death experiences. In this episode we explore what happens when...... Continue Reading →

Congratulations—you’ve died! Now what? In this our version of the "Handbook For the Recently Deceased" (and the morbidly curious). We take you on a cross-cultural tour of the afterlife. Whether you’re heading for a bureaucratic judgment hall, a tunnel of light, a reincarnation lottery, or just... absolute nothingness, we’ve got you covered. This episode explores...... Continue Reading →

In this week’s episode, Johanna takes us deep into the shadows of pre-WWI Austria-Hungary to tell the true story of Colonel Alfred Redl, once one of the most trusted man in the Austro-Hungarian military....and also its most infamous traitor. From his modest beginnings in Lemberg to the very top of the empire’s intelligence apparatus, Redl’s...... Continue Reading →

In part two of our deep dive into the 1982 Tylenol Murders, we pick up with the immediate aftermath of the cyanide-laced capsules that killed seven innocent people in the Chicago area. As the city and the whole nation started to panic, Johnson & Johnson faced a nightmare scenario. We’ll walk you through the frantic...... Continue Reading →

In September of 1982, a 12-year-old girl in suburban Chicago took a Tylenol for a cold—and never got back up. Within days, six more people would die the same way. The connection? A bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol and a horrifying dose of potassium cyanide. In this first part of our two-part series, Johanna and...... Continue Reading →

This week, we’re taking a peel behind the Vatican’s heaviest doors. From popes who put each other on trial...AFTER DEATH...to rumors of devilish deals and sweating tombs. We’ll also tell you about the Vatican’s key master (yes, that’s a real job), the Room of Tears (because popes cry too), and how sometimes it's important that...... Continue Reading →

In the final part of our Nellie Bly series, we follow her through yet another reinvention ...as wife to industrialist Robert Seaman and, after his death, one of the first female CEOs in the U.S. We look at her lesser-known interviews with a ten-year-old Helen Keller and the terrifying Lizzie Halliday, and how she returned...... Continue Reading →

In Part 3 of our Nellie Bly series, the whole world starts to pay attention. We’ll follow her from the publication of Ten Days in a Madhouse to her globe-circling race against the fictional Phileas Fogg. Along the way, Nellie becomes a household name, fields marriage proposals from strangers, and gets immortalized on trading cards and weird...... Continue Reading →

In 1887, Nellie Bly got herself committed to one of the most notorious mental institutions in the country — not because she needed help, but because she wanted the truth. In Part 2, we follow Nellie through the gates of Blackwell’s Island, where the food was inedible, the baths were freezing, and silence wasn’t just...... Continue Reading →

Before she became one of the most daring journalists in history, Nellie Bly was Elizabeth Jane Cochran — a smart, stubborn girl from Pennsylvania with very few options and even fewer rights. In this episode, we’re going back to the beginning: the poverty, the abusive stepfather, the letter that launched her career, and the fight...... Continue Reading →