Dark Histories

An obscure one this week with the lesser-known case of Gary Mathias and his four friends from Yuba City, CA. Five guys who went to a basketball game and ended up disappearing on a mountain road, 70 miles away, with no explicable reason as to how they got there, nor what led to their eventual fate. For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support th...

Introducing "Moya", a brand new 12 part fiction podcast written and produced by me  (Ben) from Dark Histories. Out now on all podcast platforms. Connect on Facebook: facebook.com/moyapodcast Or find me on Twitter: twitter.com/moyapodcast & Instagram: instagram.com/moyapodcast You can contact me directly via email at moyapodcast@gmail.com Music in the trailer is used under CC license and is called...

The episode is a bit different this week. We hit our one year anniversary on the day of recording, so we switched it up and had the first annual Dark Histories awards, taking a little look back at some of the people we've covered in the last year and then, using listener questions, had a candid chat about behind the scenes things, taking a look back, a little look forward, talking about episodes c...

In this weeks episode, we tell the story of the Arthurs Seat Coffins, 17 tiny 4" coffins, each holding a wooden doll complete with handmade clothing, uncovered from the Arthurs Seat area of Edinburgh in 1836. To this day, no one has any explanations for what they were for, or who put them there. For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support the...

This episode we take a look at the disappearance and eventual reappearance of the Jamison family. A mother, father and daughter trio who mysteriously went missing in the remote wilderness of Red Oak, Oklahoma only for the bodies to be found four years later. For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign u...

This weeks episode goes a bit more out there as we take a look at a historic exorcism that, despite being a well-documented case for the time, tends to fly under the radar. This is the story of Anna Ecklund, who found herself cursed and possessed by five demons and suffered months of exorcisms lasting for 23 days, in Earling, Iowa, way back in 1928. For extended show notes, including maps, links a...

This week is a tireless effort to unravel the most tightly wound bundle of gossip, hearsay and bizarre facts that make up the Circleville Letter Mystery. A series of thousands of letters, spanning almost three decades that lead to at least one strange death, a shifty court trial and incarceration and accusations of deep conspiracy. Oh and a booby trap. For extended show notes, including maps, link...

This week we take a look at Adam, the name given to a body fished out the River Thames in 2001 and winds down a dark path that leads straight into a voodoo cult in the heart of London, embroiled with child trafficking and sacrifice. For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audib...

Here's the bonus episode to fill the Season 1 break. We're rolling back to a little known Christmas tradition of sitting around the fire and telling creepy stories. This episode features stories sent to me from listeners especially for the episode. Ho Ho Ho. For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign u...

This week is the final episode of 2017 and the final episode of Season 1. We take a look at some of the folklore behind Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas and specifically, his band of little helpers, who have a much darker history than the elves of today might let on. For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you si...

This week we go true crime and take a look at a case of "accidental death" which appears to be anything but. Joshua Maddux went missing in 2008 and seven years later, was found in the chimney of a cabin just two blocks from his home. The question remains, how did he get there? For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support the show by using our l...

This week we look at the life of Omm Sety, an Egyptologist who claimed to have had a past life as an Egyptian priestess and reincarnated 3000 years later. For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Ac...

In the early hours of New Year's morning, 1886, Adelaide Blanche Bartlett roused her landlord in Pimlico, London with a few simple words: “come down, I think Mr Bartlett is dead”. She had awoken suddenly, sitting at the foot of her bed where she had dozed off earlier that night to find the feet of her husband. Thomas Edwin Bartlett, stone cold. During the following days, a postmortem was conducted...

This episode we take a look at the tale of Peter Stumpp. a man known as the Werewolf of Bedburg, who made a pact with the devil in trade for the ability to turn into a werewolf. We dig a little into the history of the folklore behind werewolves and have a look at the popular theories for the tale. For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support th...

This week is a monster episode, detailing the life of Terri Hoffman, the leader of a cult called Conscious Development of Body Mind and Soul, who fought Black Lords in the spiritual realm and on the side, benefitted financially from a dozen mysterious deaths. For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign...

Working from contemporary German primary sources, this week we go in deep and take a look at the mysterious case of the Hinterkaifeck murders, a gruesome event from Germany in 1922, surrounded by suspicion and intrigue, but never solved. For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://...

In this episode, we take a look at a mystery that is local to me, the dark and winding story of the satanic and occult practices rumoured to take place in the Clapham Wood area in Sussex, UK. Linked with Satanic practices, strange disappearances, bizarre phenomena and more seriously, four mysterious deaths. For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com...

In this episode, we dig into the history of Spontaneous Human Combustion and take a look at several historical cases dating from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, along with the theories of the times. We then jump forward and have a look at two modern cases, that of Mary Reeser in Florida, and Michael Faherty from Galway, Ireland. For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head o...

This week, we detail the history of the Vampire, from screen to the dark myths and very real folklore of Eastern Europe. Vampires are a staple in horror fiction the world over, the charismatic lady-killer or seductive succubi, biting necks and sucking the blood of their victims as they sleep. Equally popular in pop culture as they are to horror fans, poring over black and white B-movies, the chara...

In February of 1855, Britain was deep in the midst of one of the coldest winters recorded. Minus temperatures were reported from January to March, the nights were long and the conditions severe. In the early morning of the 9th February, people across the rural, South West counties of England were waking up after another night of heavy snowfall. As they went about their daily chores, a steady rumbl...

On the 26th December, 1900, a small ship approached the remote island of Eilean Mor. It was a small eruption of land, uninhabited aside from a small battery of 3 men, whose job was to operate and maintain the isles lighthouse. The relief vessel Hesperus was to bring supplies and rotate a fourth member of the lighthouse team. As the ship closed in on the barren Isle, the sight of the lighthouse on...

In 1943, four young boys, out poaching in Hagley Wood came across a large Wych Elm, a broad, spiderlike tree. One of the boys begun climbing the tree to look for birds eggs and upon reaching the topmost branches, looked down to find the tree was curiously hollow. Inside the inky blackness of the broad trunk there was no trace of any bird nests, instead he saw a human skull staring blankly back at...

On the night of February 14th, 1945. The body of Charles Walton was found on a farm in Lower Quinton, Warwickshire in England. His throat had been slashed open and the prongs of a pitchfork dug into the mud on either side of his neck, pinning the body to the ground. As leads on the case faded away, paranoia and superstition crept in, leading to theories of witchcraft and the occult, remnants of wh...

In this episode we explore the true stories of Zombies of Haitian Voodoo culture, from French colonial rule to an exhaustive search for the source of a compound which could scientifically prove the creation of zombies by Ethnobotanist, Wade Davis. Most of this story summarizes details from Davis' two books on the subject; "The Serpent and the Rainbow" and "Passage of Darkness" which I really highl...

In this episode, we detail the mystery, researched from primary sources, of the Somerton Man, or as the case is widely and simply known, Tamam Shud. In 1948, the body of a man was found on Somerton beach, Adelaide, Australia. All identification marks had been removed from his clothing and to this day the mans identification and cause of death are unknown. The mystery goes even deeper however, when...