Grim Philly

The Real-life Tony Soprano Tony Soprano’s real-life New Jersey prototype was a frightening hitman who separated business and suburban family life perfectly. Was a freelance assassin and international contract killer with a wife, 3 children, Swiss bank accounts, a businessman cover, and 200 bodies to his name. This is the rags to middle-class-ish Jekyll-Hyde, murder for money, family-man, contract-...

Halloween Episode interview in London with Dr. Rebecca Hayes (tenure faculty at University College London) on Bram Stoker’s use of sources and influences for his novel: Dracula. Including modern-day vampire and werewolf lore, and recommended ghost story readings. Support the show on patreon.com/grimphilly Live event information at grimphilly.com

Part 2 of 2. Following a manhunt when body parts were found strewn around the home of Philadelphia’s Cookie Monster Serial Killer; testimony was given that the lovable handyman and drug dealer was a necrophiliac sex addict who enjoyed playing with local children and coloring with crayons. Historians Joe Wojie, Britnee Smith, and Ted Sisco are joined by Dr. Jon Crider of Texas Tech University and a...

Part 1 of 2. Philadelphia’s Cookie Monster Killer staged corpses in his kitchen, fingerpainted his living room with their blood, danced in the streets, and signed autographs and played with finger-puppets during his sentencing. Historians Joe Wojie, Britnee Smith, and Ted Sisco are joined by Dr. Jon Crider of Texas Tech University and Psychologist Dr. Kim for this most comprehensive deep-dive ever...

Black Beard, Captain Kidd, and numerous pirates frequented Philadelphia’s brothels and markets; kept girlfriends and close company with government officials, buried treasure, and operated from the port of Philadelphia. Historians Britnee Smith, Ted Sisco, and Joe Wojie are joined by Ted Maust, Director of Elfreth’s Alley Museum; and Neil Ronk Historian Emeritus of Christ Church Philadelphia for th...

Bonus Banter and story conclusion. We discuss the treason trial and last moments of the life of the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette before her beheading. Banter and speculation are indulged. Historians Joe Wojie and Britnee Smith are joined by historians Ted Sisco, Cassie Coxon, and Morgan Haller. Support the show on patreon.com/grimphilly Live event information at grimphilly.com

Grim explores The French Queen’s relationship with her lover Axel Von Fersen, her imprisonment, and escape attempts. Newly decoded secret letters between lovers using x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy from the French National Archives are discussed. As is The French King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette’s political and social ineptitude leading up to the Reign of Terror and French Revolution. Hi...

The Queen of France shat herself and was dragged to her execution in a rope leash; watched friends ripped limb from limb in front of her eyes; and endured a 24-hour trial for treason accused of masturbating her son. So many heads rolled during The Reign of Terror of the French Revolution that the entertainment of death and souvenir heads to take home by jeering peasants ceased to fulfill crowds. K...

Contemporary Satanism. Part II of our Satan series moves from historical analysis of Satan in the Dead Sea Scrolls and so-called Lost Books of The Bible through Dante Alighieri to investigate Lucien Greaves and the political protest movement of the Satanic Temple with “After School Satan,” Satanic coloring books for children, and explores key differences from Anton Levey's Church of Satan, includi...

The historiography of Satan. The earliest Mishnaic and Aramaic writings of The Sa’Tan, Diabolis, Eblis were much different from the devil of modern imagination. Grim investigates the dead sea scrolls and other so-called lost books of the bible through dark age poetic and artistic expression; and influence from Hades through Dante’s Inferno.

Medieval barber shops bled and performed surgeries on patients between hair dressing and a shave while operating as a tavern. Join Grim for the lost wonderous and terrifying world of the barber-surgeon with dark history stories of George Washington and medical tobacco enemas to educate and entertain.

Penis’ were inspected and evidence given by family, neighbors, and friends in gawking sex-court proceedings around allegations of love-making deficiencies by medieval wives. Spectators attended and placed bets. Trial details were published. And it became an entertainment mainstay throughout the sixteenth-century. Grim investigates: medieval sex-court. As well as love, lust, and love-making in the...

The most badass saint butchered, boiled, buried, and burned her enemies alive. This is her story.

The conqueror of Europe was a passionate little fellow. Enjoyed oral sex. Wrote a host of love, sex, and amorous letters of torment to his love. And his penis now lives in New Jersey, by way of Philadelphia. Grim historians read and discuss the emperor’s love letters, love life, and the strange and wonderous journey of Napoleon’s penis from the hands of collectors, priests, and party-goers followi...

Demonic possession and ghosts are investigated including Vatican Secret Archive documents and protocols for Catholic exorcism rites. Cross-cultural analysis for spirit possession also is explored.

Scientist Albert Hoffman’s synthesis of LSD-25 in 1938 was hailed as a miracle psychopharmaceutical throughout the 1950s and studied by Harvard University and others for use in psychiatric treatment. Grim’s candid investigation of the controversial chemical includes CIA, counter-culture, and medical interest and contention through the present. Explores Native-American shamanism, psylocibin, and ay...

Grim explores scientific progress in artificial super-intelligence, futuristic cyborg technologies and robotics. And discusses the work of Stephen Hawking, Nick Bostrom, Sam Harris, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk including the potential positive and negative impacts of developing technologies of the future on humanity and the human race. Joe Wojie, Britnee Smith, and Ted Sisco are joined from the J Edg...

The Founding Fathers’ first scandals of blackmail, sex, and betrayal involving George Washington, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson were all published by a Philadelphia journalist whose body washed up in the James River amidst the scandals he created. Grim Investigates. This is the story of Hamilton’s marital infidelities with Maria Reynolds. Of Jefferson’s children with his sla...

Part II of II. Victorian brothels in Philadelphia and London are discussed within a wider secret underground world of sensually themed bordellos, sporting guides, brothel-menus for prices and services, and clandestine fetish communities. Photography, homosexuality, the connection of sex-work and the theater industry (including The Chestnut Street Theater in Philadelphia); and moral and legal issue...

Part I of II. The dark world of esoteric sex moments treatment in Philadelphia and Victorian society is examined. Brothels, syphilis, sex-workers, and Victorian and historic medicine are investigated. Joe Wojie and Britnee Smith are joined by Historians Ted Sisco and Sara McDonall. grimphilly.com/podcast for more.

Philadelphia’s real-life Buffalo Bill cannibal killer was more gruesome than the moth-raising dungeon murderer he inspired in Silence of the Lambs. True-crime historians examine the life, crimes, and psychological complexities of the tortured genius and his cellar of horrors.

A dark history; true-crime podcast for mature-audiences for your r-rated educational intellect. Grim is recorded in Philadelphia and is a dark sarcastic; sometimes comedic, sometimes scholarly dive in to impactful and little-known topics the world-over by historians in often vernacular form. Our language and topics are not suitable for children or those of prudish disposition. Grim is a global pod...

Vagina’s of fire and penis swallowing demons mark the four centuries old Festival of the Steel Phallus which has become the Marti Gras of The East. Dragons, sex-demons, and a world-class penis parade mark this once solemn occasion curated by Shinto monks. Joe Wojie and Britnee Smith are joined by Cultural Anthropologist Dustin Cushman, and Historians Adam Iessi and Ted Sisco. grimphilly.com/podcas...

Pablo Escobar as humanitarian: cocaine wildlife, drug-lord parenting, and housing subsidies for the poor. Narco-Terrorism, Narco-Populism, and the rags to riches rise and fall of Columbia's sinful saint are examined.

The most terrifying serial killer psychopath home-invaded with military precision and was uncaught by FBI for 45 years. True-crime historians Joe Wojie and Britnee Smith are joined by Psychologist Jennifer Murphy, Ethics Professor Tim Collins, and Historian Ted Sisco for a deep-dive in to the M.O. and psychopathy of Joseph DeAngelo who evaded conviction until 2019