Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast

Shane Waters and Gemma Hoskins close out their reunion by going down the list of the people who appeared in the Netflix documentary The Keepers, where they are today, who is still fighting, who has found peace, and who the world has lost. It is a warm, reflective conversation about the unsolved 1969 murder of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik, the young School Sister of Notre Dame who taught English and...

Shane Waters and Gemma Hoskins continue their first sit-down in over a year, working through the second half of the questions listeners submitted through the show's Facebook community. This is the follow-up to "The Mary Statue and Unanswered Questions, " a wide-ranging conversation about the unsolved 1969 murder of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik in Baltimore, Maryland. Known to millions t...

This episode contains descriptions of murder, mob violence, historical racial violence, and the execution of a convicted killer. If you need to skip this content, advance past the 18:00 mark. Support resources are listed at the end of these notes. This Episode Season 40: Fifty states, fifty forgotten crimes, America's 250th year. Episode 9 covers California and Alabama — two cases, two communi...

This episode contains discussions of murder, execution, racial violence, and a botched public hanging. If you need to skip any section, the chapter markers below will help you find your way around. Support resources are listed at the end of these notes. This Episode Season 40 of Foul Play covers America's forgotten crimes — fifty states, 250 years, and the stories that slipped out of the histo...

Shane Waters and Gemma Hoskins sit down together for the first time in over a year for a wide-ranging conversation about the unsolved 1969 murder of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik in Baltimore, Maryland. Known to millions through the Netflix documentary The Keepers, Gemma has spent more than a decade investigating what happened to Sister Cathy, the young School Sister of Notre Dame who taught English...

This episode contains detailed descriptions of violent death, including axe murders and decapitation. If you need to skip this content, advance to the chapter markers below. Support resources are listed at the end of these notes. This Episode Season 40 of Foul Play marks America's 250th anniversary with a series of Twin Portraits, two true crimes from two different states, set in the same deca...

This episode contains discussions of murder, arsenic poisoning, the deaths of children, and historical criminal trials. Ifyou need to skip any portion, advance past that segment using your chapter markers. This Episode Season 40 of Foul Play marks America's 250th anniversary by examining two cases that expose how the justice system treated killers differently based on wealth, gender, and class...

Historical Significance In Georgia, a Webster County posse pursued Susan and Enoch one hundred twenty-five miles to Coffee County, Alabama. The grand jury indicted both on May 27, 1872, twenty-three days after the murder. Enoch's trial lasted a single day; the jury deliberated for three minutes. Both were sentenced to death on May 30. Twenty-six days from murder to death sentence. The Georgia...

July 1877. A dirt road in rural Missouri. A fifty-eight-year-old woman named Martha Parrish is shot dead by her own son-in-law while trying to rescue her daughter from an abusive marriage. Fifteen years later and five hundred miles east, an eighteen-year-old maid named Ellen Smith is shot behind a luxury hotel in Winston, North Carolina — and someone writes a song about it. Two historical murders....

Content Warning: This episode contains descriptions of gun violence, intimate partner violence, poisoning, and discussions of coercive control in same-sex and heterosexual relationships. Crisis resources are listed at the end of these notes. of Foul Play, Shane and Wendy examine two cases from the American Gilded Age connected by the same institutional failure: not a lack of evidence, but a refusa...

Billy Wimbish - was born around 1859. A Black man who made his life in the Alaska Interior, Wimbish earned respect among the miners of the Fairbanks district. In 1906, he served as lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against mine owner D.H. Cascaden on Cleary Creek. Judge James Wickersham ruled in the miners' favor, finding Cascaden liable for all wages owed. That legal victory, won in Alaska Territor...

Content Warning: This episode contains descriptions of gun violence, intimate partner violence, poisoning, and discussions of coercive control in same-sex and heterosexual relationships. Crisis resources are listed at the end of these notes. Historical Context In Indiana, public pressure forced an exhumation four months after Hattie's death. Organs shipped to Chicago forchemical analysis revea...

Content Warning This episode contains discussions of murder, suicide, and Victorian scandal. Support resources are listed at the end of these notes. This Episode Season 39 Finale: The Balham Mystery. The jury deliberated for three hours. Their verdict would haunt this case for one hundred and fifty years: "Willful murder by person or persons unknown." Murder--but no murderer. Four suspects...

Content Warning This episode contains discussions of adultery, abortion, and Victorian scandal. Support resources are listed at the end of these notes. This Episode Season 39: The Balham Mystery. For twenty-three days, the secrets of The Priory were stripped bare in the longest inquest in English legal history. Forty witnesses. Thousands of pages of testimony. Florence Bravo finally forced to admi...

Content Warning This episode contains detailed descriptions of poisoning and prolonged death. Support resources are listed at the end of these notes. This Episode Season 39: The Balham Mystery. For seventy-two hours, Charles Bravo lay dying at The Priory while doctors—including Queen Victoria's own physician—watched helplessly. He suffered. He convulsed. He said almost nothing about who poison...

Content Warning This episode contains discussions of poisoning and death. Support resources are listed at the end of these notes. This Episode Season 39: The Balham Mystery. April 1876—a young barrister collapses in agony minutes after retiring to bed. For three days, Charles Bravo suffers while doctors, family, and suspects gather. He names no one. The poison is antimony—enough to kill ten men. B...

Content Warning This episode contains discussions of domestic abuse, poisoning, and death. Support resources are listed at the end of these notes. This Episode Season 39: The Balham Mystery. April 1876, a successful barrister collapses in his bedroom after drinking from a bedside water jug. For three agonizing days, doctors begged him to name his poisoner. He never would. This is the story of Char...

A Victorian courtroom drama unfolds as a chilling murder verdict is delivered in 19th-century London, a place of evolving laws and societal norms. This episode, nestled in the heart of Season 38's exploration of 'The Rugeley Poisoner,' uncovers the judicial outcomes and societal impact of murder trials during this transformative era. Episode 3 follows the toxic trail left by the infamo...

Enter 'The Doctor's Care' in New York, a chilling glimpse into the remaining shadows of the Rugeley Poisoner series, Part 2. This four-part narrative dissects the devious manipulations of Dr. William Palmer, a man whose affable facade masked cruel intentions. Diving deeper than mere medical malpractice, these stories reveal how once-respected figures turned to devious strategies to sta...

In the fog-laden lanes of Victorian Staffordshire, William Palmer found his first victim, igniting a path of sinister intent that would crown him the notorious Rugeley Poisoner. Season 38 of Foul Play examines deep into the life and crimes of William Palmer, examining the chilling narrative from his humble beginnings to the peak of his criminal exploits. Long before William Palmer was branded a mu...

Constance Kent's confession shocked a nation still reeling from the Road Hill House murder, altering her life forever as Victorian justice loomed. In Season 37's climax, Foul Play explores the ripple effects of Constance Kent's confession which exposed Victorian society's rigidities and prompted a broader contemplation of justice. Constance lived in quiet affluence, working through...

Road Hill House weaves a haunting legacy as the walls echoed with accusations, while Constance Kent disappeared into silence for five years. Amidst the intrigue of Season 37, examine into the aftermath of the Road Hill House murder where the secrets of Constance Kent, the prime suspect, veered between silent confession and public observation. Before the silence, Constance Kent was a young woman gr...

Detective Whicher stumbled onto the Road Hill House murder, probing deeper into its secrets than anyone dared, forever changing investigative practices. Season 37's focus unfolds the life and work of Detective Whicher, a key figure in the Road Hill House murder case whose methods carried the burden of public scrutiny and professional respect. The Kent family remained enshrouded in mutual suspi...

A quiet Wiltshire town became infamously known as the site of the 1860 Road Hill House murder, a case that shattered Victorian complacency and intrigued the nation. Season 37 of Foul Play opens with the harrowing murder at Road Hill House, examining into one of Victorian England's most brutal and mystifying family tragedies. At the heart of this mystery was the Kent family, generally respected...

Münsterberg's forgotten cannibal terrorized under the veil of normalcy... Enter the darker side of history with Season 36's exploration of serial killers. During the early 1920s, Münsterberg was unaware of a brutal presence lurking within its town. The victims, often travelers and transient workers, had fallen prey to the townsman who cannibalized beneath accepted societal surfaces. They l...