Historical True Crime

American criminal and potential serial killer William George Heirens admitted to three murders. In 1946, he was found guilty of the charges and earned the moniker "Lipstick Killer" after leaving an infamous note was found at one crime scene in lipstick. Was he a serial killer or wrongfully convicted? Listen to hear the full story! Source Materials https://www.crimelibrary.org/serial_kill...

Two different murders were arrested and prosecuted at the same unremarkable three-story house in a cul-de-sac in London's Notting Hill. John Reginald Christie’s home at 10 Rollington Place became known as the House of Horrors. He was responsible for the murders of up to 8 women and1 child and let a potentially innocent man be executed for his crimes. His story is even more intriguing because i...

Edward Wheeler Hall, an Episcopal priest, and Eleanor Mills, a member of his choir with whom he was having an affair, were both murdered on September 14, 1922, in Somerset, New Jersey, United States. To this day the case remains unsolved.  Source Materials: https://yalereview.org/article/hall-mills-murder-trial-1926 https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/09/the-birth-of-americas-true-crime-obsession...

Nancy "Nannie Doss" Hazle, a serial killer, was also known as the Giggling Granny, Giggling Nannie, Jolly Black Widow, Lonely Hearts murderer, Lady Bluebeard, and, as one newspaper put it, the "self-made widow." Source Materials https://allthatsinteresting.com/nannie-doss-giggling-granny               https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/Nannie_Doss https://encyclopediaofalaba...

Albert Fish, a prolific 20th-century American serial killer, had numerous aliases, including The Boogeyman, The Grey Man, The Werewolf of Wysteria, The Brooklyn Vampire, and The Moon Maniac. Despite claiming 400 victims, Fish was found guilty and condemned to death for the murder of 10-year-old Gracie Budd. Fish was a little, gentle-looking man who appeared friendly and trusting, but when he was a...

One of the most well-known classical poison concoctors was Locusta of Gaul, who practiced her trade in the Roman Empire throughout the first century. Although very little has been published about her, one fact sticks out: she may have been one of the first serial killers in history. The majority of the information on Locusta that we have comes from classical male historians who were not acquainted...

The story goes something like this - two rich and respected men and one stunning woman. A terrible murder was committed in front of almost a thousand witnesses at an outdoor theatre in the middle of New York City, fueled by jealousy and a family history of mental illness. The subsequent trial immediately earned the moniker "the trial of the century." The 1907 trial and a second one held the follow...

Prospector Alferd Packer came in the Los Pinos Indian Agency in Gunnison, Colorado, on April 16, 1874, broke, freezing, and most significantly, by himself. Packer had been travelling into the mountains with a party of five men, but they had vanished. The last person to see them all together had reported that they were all still alive, but it appeared that something horrible had taken place by the...

One of the most notorious criminals from New Zealand was Minnie Dean. The first and only woman to be executed in the country's history. In the 123 years since a legend has developed around her notoriety, and it has been preserved in literature, theatre, poetry, and a folk song by Helen Henderson. The argument over Minnie’s legacy has persisted despite the considerable time that has passed. Sou...

At least 20 African-American women, all of whom were young, were murdered between 1911 and 1915. Their throats were cut, and nearly all of the victims sustained crippling head injuries from blunt objects.  No one has ever been found guilty of the murders that are mainly thought to have been the work of the city's first serial killer. Eventually, local publications started calling the killer th...

Accusations of being a murderer, a cannibal, and a werewolf were levelled against Peter Stumpp. While there are few records of his life before the crime, his murders and horrifying execution are somewhat well-recorded in history books. Source Materials: https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2022/10/a-german-werewolfs-confessions-horrified-1500s-europe https://benkageyama.me...

Albert Pierrepoint hanged a record number of individuals between 1932 and 1956. Although the precise number is still unclear, popular estimates place it at 435, but the man once asserted 550. As a young child, he was inspired by his father and uncle, both of whom carried out executions, and helped his uncle in the early stages of his career. Source Materials: https://allthatsinteresting.com/albert...

Martha Needle appeared to be a loyal housewife and a loving mother, but she harboured a dark secret.  Martha methodically and painstakingly poisoned her entire family a little over a century ago.  Drop by deadly drop, one by one, she killed her husband, three daughters, and the brother of her new fiancé, appearing to be loyal to her suffering loved ones as they died at her hands. Source Materials:...

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was in his prime in the summer of 1921. He was paid an extraordinary $3 million over three years by Paramount Pictures to star in 18 silent pictures, and he had just agreed to a new million-dollar deal with the company, which is equivalent to nearly $13 million today. The 266-pound comic was advertised on movie posters as "worth his weight in laughs." But before the year wa...

Leo Frank's trial and lynching have long captivated historians and audiences. Factory manager Frank, a Jew from the North, was charged in 1913 with the murder of Mary Phagan, a thirteen-year-old local White employee who worked for him in Atlanta. Two deaths are intertwined in this case– one would lead to the rise of the Klu Klux Klan, and the other, the creation of the anti-defamation league. Sour...

Women who wanted a quick and simple solution for their health issues visited Dr. Linda Hazzard in the early 1900s. Socialites came to Hazzard and her cutting-edge sanatorium, Wilderness Heights, to spend weeks relaxing and cleansing their bodies. They had no idea that Linda Hazzard was a con artist. In addition to the fact that none of her remedies worked, she was a serial killer. At Linda Hazzard...

Just seven years after the horrific Whitechapel murders, the startling violence of "The Demon of the Belfry" killings prompted immediate comparisons to Jack the Ripper. Contrary to the Ripper, however, Durrant targeted young middle-class ladies by luring them into the church where they all worshipped, raping, and killing them. Source Materials https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Theodore-Durran...

By August 1918, terror had paralyzed the city of New Orleans. The Axeman of New Orleans, as he became known, broke into several Italian grocery stores in the middle of the night and attacked the store owners and their families. He killed four individuals and left four more wounded. The assaults were brutal. All of the murders that bear The Axeman's signature are cold cases, as he was never caught...

The course of Hawaiian race relations and politics was permanently altered by two highly public criminal cases, one for rape and the other for murder, both involving several defendants. The trials have all the makings of a good mystery—twists and turns, unsolved questions—and they are full of them. Clarence Darrow, America's best defense lawyer, ends his judicial career during the second of th...

In a wealthy London home, Eliza Fenning served as a housekeeper for Mr. Turner, a legal stationer. She was executed for allegedly attempting to poison him and his family by preparing arsenic-laced dumplings for the dinner table. Due to the general belief that Fenning was innocent, her trial and execution were sensational at the time. Source Materials: https://marylmmaculatelonnerholman.medium.com/...

A failed missionary, insurance salesman, and lawyer named Charles Guiteau shot President James A. Garfield as he entered the Baltimore and Potomac Railway station in Washington, D.C., on the morning of July 2, 1881. Listen to the full episode to learn why Guiteau shot Garfield and why Garfield didn't die until months later. Source Materials: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Oneida-Community https:...

The first person in Ireland to be found guilty of witchcraft was Alice Kyteler. She fled persecution but on November 3, 1324, Petronilla de Meath, one of her servants, was flogged and burned at the stake. Listen to the full story now!

Said to be the most ruthless female serial killer in history. She is only surpassed by Count Dracula in terms of her notoriety as alegendary vampire. She is suspected of killing over 600 girls inside her opulent palaces. Listen to hear the full story! Source Materials: https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/countess-elizabeth-bathory-and-the-dark-truth-behind-her-killer-legend https://www.historyhit.com/t...

The 1920s saw a number of serial murderers in North America, but no one was more active than Earle Nelson, also known as "the Gorilla Killer or Dark Strangler." Nelson appeared to be able to kill at will as he wandered the country for more than a year, breaking into and out of suburban residences and boarding houses with ease. Source Materials: https://allthatsinteresting.com/earle-nelso...

Catherine Monvoisin was the wife of a jeweller and silk merchant. She had a comfortable home in the fashionable Villeneuve Sur Gravois neighbourhood in the centre of Paris. She was a mother, an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, and a lover of the arts. But she was also a witch, one who nearly overthrew the French aristocracy and almost succeeded in slaying a king. Source Materials: https://www.syfy....