Historically Bad

SURPRISE EPISODE!!! A special Saturday treat because you deserve it, baddies. Elizabeth Holmes was just 19 years old in 2003 when she founded what would become a multi-billion dollar health technology company. This company, called Theranos, acquired over 700 million dollars in investments from venture capitalists and private investors which was meant to be used towards the research and development...

We're back Baddies and this time, we are covering the famous Bermuda Triangle. Spoiler… It’s Literally Just Water (or is it?).The Bermuda Triangle refers to a region in the Western North Atlantic where several ships and aircrafts famously disappeared under puzzling circumstances. Among the most well-known cases are the USS Cyclops , a U.S. Navy ship that vanished without a trace in 1918, and F...

Surprriissee Baddies! We're back with a brand new episode! When a fire broke out at a farm in LaPorte, Indiana, in 1908. a disgruntled farmhand was immediately suspected of arson and the murders of Belle Gunness and her three children. But when investigators were forced to look deeper by a desperate man searching for his missing brother, they discovered a chilling web of disappearances and a trail...

In 1996, Canadian businessman Adam Walsh was the owner of one of the highest valued junior mining companies in North America, which had several major mining companies bidding for shares and many mutual fund companies and independent investors piling money into stock. Bre-X was sitting on once of the greatest gold discoveries of the century, a deposit in Busang, Indonesia with an estimated 200 mill...

Jonestown became internationally infamous when, on November 18, 1978, a total of 918 people died at the settlement in a mass poisoning and group suicide at the nearby airstrip in Port Kaituma; and at a Temple-run building close to Georgetown, Guyana's capital city. The name ofthe settlement became synonymous with the incidents at those locations. During this massacre, a significant number of p...

H. H. Holmes was an American serial killer and con artist who operated in the early 1890’s and is most well known for luring victims to his “Murder Castle”, a hotel that he built to accommodate guests during the Chicago World’s Fair 1893. A published floor plan of the “Murder Castle” revealed secret torture chambers, trapdoors, gas chambers, and a crematorium in the basement. Though the “Beast of...

Josef Mengele is one of the most infamous figures of the Holocaust. Despite being trained as a doctor, Josef spent little time preserving life and instead brought a sadistic cruelty to experiments that ended the lives of many, mainly children. His service at Auschwitz and the medical experiments he conducted there have made him the most widely recognized perpetrator of the crimes committed during...

This weeks story takes us back to the late 1870’s in Manhattan, New York, where a seasoned criminal was planning his most daring heist yet – a robbery of The Manhattan Savings Institution on Broadway and Bleecker. Despite several hiccups in over three years of planning, including two actual murders, the team of crooks led by George Leonidas Leslie successfully pulled off what was at the time the h...

For 33 months Studio 54 was the place for hedonism, drug consumption and every type of sex you can think of, public and all. Over those months, the club became known as a disco hot house that was infamous for its guest list, its exceeding unrealistic and idealistic entry policies (that led to unbelievable attempts on behalf of patrons to enter), and over the top extravagant events with a plethora...

Vili Fualaau is a Samoan American man who was just 8 years old when he met his future wife and the mother of his children. From a young age he was gifted, with a particular talent for art. It was this talent for art that first captured the attention of his second grade teacher, Mary Kay Letourneau, in 1991 when he first found himself in her classroom. Mary Kay started giving Vili special attention...

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused, 30 found guilty and 20 whom were publicly executed and remained guilty until some 300 years later. Join Carly and Tab this week as the unpack the story of one town's strange journey from paranoid to pa...

Taylor Swift is no stranger to breaking records and making historic moves in the music industry. Whether you are a full-send Swifite or don't listen to her music at all - there is no denying that Taylor is an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. Now more than ever the world is captivated by Taylor Swift as she enters the second year of performing her groundbreaking and breathtaking Eras Tour...

Taylor Swift is no stranger to breaking records and making historic moves in the music industry. Whether you are a full-send Swifite or don't listen to her music at all - there is no denying that Taylor is an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. Now more than ever the world is captivated by Taylor Swift as she enters the second year of performing her groundbreaking and breathtaking Eras Tour...

David Koresh was born Vernon Wayne Howell on August 17, 1959 in Houston Texas and died on April 19, 1993 at age 33 on a momentous day in American history known as the Waco siege, or the Waco massacre; a deadly 51-day standoff against the FBI and the federal bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms. Koresh was an American cult leader of the Branch Davidians-a religious sect that received national at...

David Koresh was born Vernon Wayne Howell on August 17, 1959 in Houston Texas and died on April 19, 1993 at age 33 on a momentous day in American history known as the Waco siege, or the Waco massacre; a deadly 51-day standoff against the FBI and the federal bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms. Koresh was an American cult leader of the Branch Davidians-a religious sect that received national at...

The odds of identical quintuplets like the Dionne sisters being born and surviving into adulthood is only 1 in 57 million. So when the Dionne quintuplets were born in small town Corbeil, Ontario in 1934, they became instant celebrities across the nation with thousands of people offering to help the family and wanting to come visit and see the babies. This initial positive attention quickly darkene...

Area 51 has caused more conspiracy theories than other other military facility in the world. Officially dubbed a United States Air Force base to test "top secret" aerial reconnaissance, Area 51 is argued to be the most secure place on planet earth with many believing its existence involves something more farfetched than the United States government currently lets on. Popularized by Ameri...

The Cecil Hotel was built in Los Angeles, California in 1926 and opened as a budget-friendly hotel for travellers and affordable housing for long-term tenants. However – there has always been something about the hotel – maybe the location adjacent to “Skid Row”, the transient nature of clientele that it attracted, or more likely – the poor management practices of turning a blind eye to nefarious a...

Bobby Dunbar was only four years old when he went missing on a family fishing trip to Swayze Lake near Opelousas, Louisiana in 1912. Join Carly and Tab one of the most mind boggling and absolutely infuriating disappearances of all time – one that was believed to have been solved less than a year after it happened only to be completely uprooted 90 years later due to advances in DNA testing and the...

Grigori Rasputin, born Grigori Yefimovich Novykh, was later given the name Rasputin (which translates to “debauched one”) because of his sinister and scandalous personal life. He is known as the controversial figure who was accused of religious heresy, sexual assault and was suspected of exerting undue political influence over the emperor of Russia, Tsar Nicholas the II and was rumored to have an...

Harold Shipman was a trusted doctor in his community of Hyde, Greater Manchester where he ran his own surgery - until his murderous tendencies were brought to light by some brave whistleblowers and family members of his victims. Shipman was officially charged with 15 murders - but the inquiries that followed his arrest revealed that his body count was more likely in the hundreds. Join Tab and Carl...

Harold Shipman was a beloved and trusted doctor in his community of Hyde, Greater Manchester where he served as a general practitioner for over 20 years - that was until he became the prime suspect in the murder of 82-year old grandmother, Kathleen Grundy. The investigation that followed was one of the largest in Britain’s history, and exposed one of the most prolific serial killers of all time. J...

MERRY CHRISTMAS BADDIES! On this special holiday episode of Historically Bad, Carly and Tab take a deep dive into the very beautiful and hella spooky Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. Follow along as we discuss all of the ghosts that allegedly haunt the hotel and uncover the very real murder case of Lucie Turmel that happened in Banff in 1990 with eerie connections to the haunted castle. Content warni...

Surgeon General, Shiro Ishii, was the leader and co-founder of Unit 731; the deadliest research facility of the 20th century and one of the most barbaric chapters of WWII. In this episode, Carly and Tab unpack the actions of the “most evil scientist in history”, ranking above notorious Nazi doctors and Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer (the father of the atomic bomb) and contemplate what made him test on...

Annie Le was a successful graduate student who was working towards a doctorate degree in pharmacology at Yale University and about to marry her college sweetheart when her life was tragically cut short in a senseless act of violence that took place at an institution where she should have been safe. Join Carly and Tab this week as they unpack this historically bad mouse room murder. Content warning...