History Goon

Welcome back people! This episode doesn't count for the season numbers but it means A LOT to me. I got a rare chance to sit down and hangout with my brother and talk about the history of the Pittsford Haunted House. This place has lived a few different lives and is enjoying it's twilight years as THE BEST HAUNT ATTRACTION IN THE STATE. It started off as a Preventorium for TB and then trans...

What happens when a group of 156 men are surrounded and assaulted by around 5,000 heavily armed men, led by one of the most skilled and experienced soldiers on the planet at the time? They live. They fought nonstop with dwindling supplies and very little water for nearly 120 hours straight. They turned back wave after wave of attacks killing a few hundred soldiers that were sent to kill them but t...

Getting weird this week on the show… We’re headed back to the 1940s to look into the time the US Navy turned on some experimental tech on the USS Eldridge and poof… It vanished from the Philadelphia Naval and reappeared in Virginia. Then once people noticed it there, poof… Back to Philly. That’s only half the story, they we get into the involvement of Carlos Allende (not his real name BTW) and Mor...

This week, I'm sharing an episode from my Patreon because there was some issues with my recording. This is a taste of what you can kind of expect from the Patreon. Uncensored. Unrelated. Goofy shit. Enjoy! This is a VERY SERIOUS episode. Full of VERY SERIOUS topics. First off, I'm not sure the British know the difference between apes and people. Well, the difference between apes and the Fr...

A young Irish family moved to the US in the late 1800’s. A tale as old as time. But This one is different, they had a tragic future ahead of them. Especially little Vincent. By the time he was 12 basically his entire family was dead except a sister and brother. He didn’t let that stop him from becoming one of the most violent gangsters in New York City though. If you have a passing interest in pro...

Ready for some Pirate stuff? Even if it’s horrific, brutal and gross at times? Cool! Ned Low was born into poverty to a dirt poor British family, he didn’t have a great childhood to say the least. He took to the sea at an early age and found himself as a young man in Boston and, what do you do when you find yourself in Boston as a young man? He fell in love with a girl. They married, they had a co...

Gotz Von Berlichingen - Iron Man This time we head back to the 1500’s Holy Roman Empire for one of the most interesting knights that’s even been a knight. The story itself wouldn’t be that uncommon, a knight from a smaller noble family, he had to pick a side early on because hey, that’s what knights did. What makes it remarkable is the fact that this did went completely bananas and fought for like...

Colditz Castle - Tonight There’s Gonna be a Jailbreak The Nazis had this brilliant idea; Take all the guys who have successfully escaped from prison camps and been recaptured and put them all in one spot. What could go wrong, right? Well… Some of the most creative and entraining escape attempts in human history from a castle that was supposed to be impossible to get out of. This one’s got it all:...

If you have been curious about what I do over on the Patreon, here's a preview! This was the first Patreon for History Goon that I recorded. I won't spoil it content-wise but I will warn you, I don't censor myself on the language front. You're getting this raw and uncut. I've got some other really fun stuff there and it can all be yours (plus a TON of other content from the oth...

We wrap up this 2 part series starting with the counter attack that followed the end of part 1. Sultan Mehmed II stormed across the Danube to exact his revenge on Vlad for the ballsy winter attack. This man had been through TONS of combat and conquest but NOTHING he had seen would prepare him for what he was about to see… Mile after mile of dead, impaled Ottoman soldiers. Up to 20,000 men on spike...

This time we are covering a man that has fascinated me for YEARS. My school library had a book on him that I took out so often they bought me a copy. Vlad Tepes. Vlad III of Wallachia. Vlad Dracul. Vlad The Impaler… The first part of this series we’ll find out about his horrific childhood and upbringing under the Ottoman empire where he was sent as a hostage, where he learned some neat tips and tr...

I’ve been looking forward to this one ALL SEASON. This guy is a hero in my homeland, John Stark may have grown up in the wilderness of New Hampshire and lived there his entire life but… He wrote and performed his greatest work in Vermont. Bennington, Vermont to be specific. Where he led a group of farmers and untrained rabble up against one of the fiercest units that fought on the side of the Loya...

Fritz Haber: The Monster That Fed The World This week we cover a… Complicated man. He’s one of the most important scientific minds that we as humans have ever produced, he literally changed how we produce produce and fed the world. For this invention and what it did won a Nobel Prize. He won that prize the same year he was being hunted across Europe as a war criminal. Now, that’s a big jump, right...

This is actual episode 49 of my friend Levi's show The Remedial Scholar Podcast that I was lucky enough to be a guest on but, it has a good tie in to the Swiss Guard episode so I asked him and he agreed that I could share it with all of you! If you like what you hear go check him out!

We travel back to a time where somehow, Switzerland had one of the most powerful militaries ON THE PLANET. The crazy part is, they didn’t even use it themselves. They sent them off to the highest bidder for a while until The Pope struck a long term deal, the longest term deal in military history; over 500 years with the Swiss. They sent their best and most brutal fighters to The Vatican to protect...

This week we’re doing something a bit different. Not a violence wizard. Not a weird criminal. This man is closer to a cryptid. Diogenes was born into wealth and a high station in life and he decided “Meh, it’s gonna be a no for me dog” and gave EVERYTHING UP. Yeah, sure he was exiled from his homeland first but I think he would have been an odd duck either way. He became one of the strangest, most...

This week we travel to a mysterious corner of the former Soviet Union, a beautiful mountain range not far from Lake Baikal. A region that could kill you in a heartbeat in the right circumstances. The Khamar-Daban mountain range is a well explored and hiked area but, when a hiking party died strangely for no apparent reason very quickly much like the Dyatlov Pass Incident it makes it hard to accept...

JUST A HEADS UP: This is a fairly long episode. We recorded it over the course of 2 days and Jimbo got sucked into the void (had a massive thunderstorm and Tornado sirens) and he couldn't back on for the second half. Also this one has some pretty horrible stuff in it soooo... Join Dustin, Jimbo (2 of the hosts of Dark Discoveries) and myself as we travel into an outer ring of Hell that sprung...

This isn't a full blown History Goon episode. This is actually a full blown Crimes, Killers, Cults AND... episode! I've been co-hosting for Bill for a while now and I wanted to share what we do over there. It's usually God-awful serial killers but, this time was closer to swamp John Dillinger. I hope you all enjoy the episode and check out Crimes, Killers, Cults AND wherever you get yo...

This episode has it all when it comes to things you don’t want to think about: Child sacrifices, warcrimes, naked men and drugged up children being forced to kill. Joshua Milton Blahyi was born into a very strange world. By the age of 11 he was already a High Priest in his local religion carrying out human sacrifices, practicing black magic and having the ear of THE PRESIDENT OF LIBERIA because of...

This week we have one of the best naval commanders that Scotland ever produced. Well, he was born there and cut his teeth in the Colonies. Unfortunately part of his learning experience was as a member of a slave ship called Two Friends which is probably not the best name for a ship like that. He quickly realized this wasn’t for him and after self-defensing a crew member of a different ship he was...

Welcome to Season 3!  I wanted to come out of the gates swinging this time and, Ned Kelly is someone who came and went down swinging. He started life as the son of an Irish criminal who was kicked out of his home country for stealing pigs and sent to the world’s largest prison; Australia. Ned grew up rough, Dad died when he was young, and he spent a lot of time with his Mom’s side of the family wh...

This is it, the Season 2 finale! I couldn’t think of a better way to end this one than with a Germanic bloodbath. Arminius was sent at a very young age to the Roman Empire as a hostage. The Romans did what they did in those situations, they made him Roman. Education, cultural changes, learning a new language, learning military tactics that he’d need as a Legionnaire. All good things. Until he deci...

S.2 Ep. 19 - Mad Jack Churchill This week we have one of the most prolific maniacs in the history of the British Empire and that's saying something. Jack Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill was born in either the perfect time or CENTURIES too late. He would have been just as happy killing invading Danes with a longbow as he was killing Nazis with one. Yeah, you read that right. He led men through...

This week we follow the not at all cursed from the beginning voyage of the Russian Baltic Fleet. Russia had needed a warm water port FOREVER, the Baltic Sea, freezes. They would eventually lease a port from the Chinese buuuuuuut, the Japanese didn’t much care for that and attacked the Russian ships in China. Within A DAY of the Baltic Fleet setting sail they had damaged 3 of their own ships. A wee...