RedHanded

This week, we continue our spooky tradition of swapping stories on All Hallows Eve, with two chilling cases of betrayal and deceit. From a death in the dorms to a long-buried family secret that changed a Midwestern teenager’s life forever, we’ll have you looking at your inner circle with a healthy dose of suspicion: how much can we really trust those closest to us? Happy Halloween! Exclusive bonus...

The winter solstice is almost here – the time when the threshold between the living and the dead is at its weakest. And here at RedHanded towers, that only means one thing: spooky story swap time! Hannah and Suru have once again searched high and low for the spookiest, most bone-chilling cases they can find, to tell each other for the first time. For the first of our two story-swaps this year, Han...

Incest runs in the family – and Eddie Lee Sexton’s depravity knew no bounds. From his own  teenage daughters right down to the children he had fathered with his own kin – nobody was safe from him, or the sons he’d raised in his image.  With the authorities breathing down his neck, Sexton fled with his miserable menagerie in tow. By the time the law caught up to them, at least two people had been m...

We're digging deeper than ever into the dark recesses of the RedHanded vault – seven years to be exact – to bring you our first EVER Halloween special from 2017... For Halloween, the girls bring you the most disturbing cases they could find for their very own treehouse of horror, filled with kidnapping, a Buffalo Bill copy cat and shivers for days. Get cosy and grab the dog as Hannah & Suruthi...

Neglect has a smell – and it clung to the walls of 1849 Caroline Street, Stark County, Ohio. As a litany of horrors unfurled, the stench was dwarfed only by the darkness emanating from its owner – Eddie Lee Sexton. Over the next two episodes, we reveal a multi-generational secret; one that haunted Sexton’s 12 children for the rest of their days. The DHS, the Police and the Sheriff’s department all...

At first, police thought they were only looking for a double murderer. Nicknamed the ‘Bedsit Killer’ in the press, the suspect’s reputation for savage violence already loomed large in the town of Tunbridge Wells in the late 80s.  But it was only when they caught David Fuller – more than 30 years later – that they learnt the blood-curdling truth: that for years, the mortuary worker had been acting...

We now know that the CIA quietly tested mind-bending psychedelics on unwitting American citizens. But how do we know? In Part 2 of our series on MK-Ultra, we're going to tell you the story of how one of the CIA's many dirty secrets was revealed to the world, and how they were forced not only to hand over damaging information about their mind-bending escapades but also to inadvertently help promote...

ShortHand is available exclusively for Amazon Music and Wondery+ subscribers. Rumours about NASA scientists trying to teach dolphins to talk and getting frisky in the process have long been internet lore. But what really happened when Margaret Howe took on the task of training a sexed-up sea mammal to speak? And how on earth did they get it funded?

In the wake of an Allied victory, the threat of a communist New World Order loomed over the West. Desperate to beat the Soviets at their own game, the USA gave the secret service all the money and drugs they needed to create a real-life Manchurian Candidate. Left with their minds in tatters and their relationships all but destroyed, the subjects of the CIA program ‘MKUltra’ were unwitting lab rats...

Kirk Anderson was abducted from an LDS meeting house in Surrey by his ex-partner – and ex-beauty queen – Joyce McKinney.  He said he was taken to a small rural cottage, tied to a bed, and sexually assaulted for three days. According to McKinney, everything was above board – Kirk just liked things kinky.  But the British tabloids only cared about one thing: the wisecracking Southern belle Joyce McK...

When the body of a weeks-old baby was found in a plastic bag in a shed, covered in soil and rubbish, it marked the end of one of the UK’s strangest and most tragic criminal manhunts. The baby’s parents were Constance Marten and Mark Gordon – an aristocratic heiress and an American convicted rapist. As a jury wrestled for months over the couple’s guilt, more and more shocking details came out. Deta...

Nicknamed "Artemis" and "The Limping Lady" by Nazi Germany, Virginia Hall was, without a doubt, one of the most effective—and certainly the most feared—Allied spies during the Second World War. She helped countless POWs escape and funneled a constant stream of weapons into and information out of Nazi-occupied Europe. Her contribution is almost unfathomable, yet most people don't even know her name...

When the son of Mormon family vlogger Ruby Franke turned up bound, emaciated and apparently covered in blood – it horrified the police, the internet and Franke’s millions of followers. The uber-strict brand of parenting advice she preached on her YouTube channel, “8 Passengers”, had been drawing online criticism for years. But even her loudest detractors couldn’t know how despicable and unhinged h...

In our unexpected third part on this neverending rabbit-hole of a case, we finally take on the big, crucial factors that have sent the internet into a frenzy: the taillight, the flirty texts, the inverted video, and the conduct of one Trooper Michael Proctor. And, finally, we give our verdict: is Karen Read guilty of murder? Exclusive bonus content: Wondery  - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon  - Ad...

In this second (and not-quite-final) part on the Karen Read saga, we take a look at the most talked about trial of the year. In front of a packed courtroom – and with furious demonstrators from both sides lining the streets outside – Karen Read’s defence team painted a picture of a malicious conspiracy that went all the way to the top. The plot, they said, included dozens of public officials, thei...

At roughly 12:30am on 29 January 2022, Karen Read drove her boyfriend, Boston police officer, John O’Keefe to a party at a friend’s house. The next morning John would be found unresponsive on the front lawn of this house, and would later die in hospital. Karen would say that she saw John go inside the house - so the people at the party must be the ones responsible for his death. But the 9 people i...

With Scott Peterson back in the news, having given his first interview in decades we thought it would be a good time to refresh our memories on this baffling case, and remind you all of one very important fact - He 100% did it. When beautiful, eight-and-a-half-month-pregnant Laci Peterson vanished without a trace on Christmas Eve 2002, headlines across the US exploded. As much as the media and the...

A serial paedophile and murderer, Javid Iqbal dedicated his entire existence to grooming, sexually abusing, and eventually killing young boys from the streets of Lahore. Using his father’s money, Iqbal designed his entire life – from his businesses to his home – around capturing vulnerable children who were desperate for help. By the time Iqbal had handed himself in to the police, he had sexually...

This week on RedHanded we’re joined by some new friends from across the pond - Lucy and Amanda aka Wine & Crime! Given our geographical and cultural differences we thought it would be fun to discuss some “Bad Brits”, as well as give our new mates a bit of insight into the British way of life. So tune in for the tale of Pottery Cottage, and the story of the “Teacup Poisoner”, two British true c...

In the early hours of Valentine's Day 2014, 29 year old model Reeva Steenkamp was shot to death by her partner: South African Olympic sprint runner and double amputee, Oscar Pistorius. He still claims that it was a tragic case of mistaken identity, but the forensics and the messages Reeva left before her death tell a very different story. 

Three trials, countless corrupt officers, and years behind bars faced Renee Chignell, after she and her boyfriend, were accused of the murder of 51-year-old British cricket umpire Peter Plumley-Walker in their ramshackle sex dungeon. Renee was adamant Peter’s death had been a tragic accident – but it would take years of jail time, heartbreak, and her own mother going behind bars, to convince anyon...

How does a “true British gentleman”, complete with love of cricket and handlebar moustache, end up dead at the bottom of a waterfall in New Zealand with his limbs bound and lashes to his buttocks? This is the question that faced police in 1989, when a tourist boat found the body of 51-year-old cricket umpire Peter Plumley-Walker floating at the bottom of Huka Falls. To find out the answers you nee...

As far as the people of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, knew, Davy Tweed was a sporting hero, dedicated public servant, and good Protestant family man. But his stepdaughter Amanda Brown knew what this public façade masked: a volatile, unstoppable juggernaut of physical and sexual abuse, who made her family’s life a living hell. In a very special episode, we directly hear from Amanda herself – who...

Bleeding from the eyes, foaming at the mouth, and bashing themselves to death against the rocks. That was the fate of six skilled hikers in the Russian mountain range Khamar-Daban – at least according to the single survivor Valentina Utochenko. Yet if the Russian authorities are to be believed, it was just a simple case of hypothermia. With speculation over what happened still rife, this mystery h...

On 19 May 2024, Ebrahim Raisi – “The Butcher of Tehran” and President of the Islamic Republic of Iran – died in a helicopter crash. Immediately, theories of who had killed him and why, swept the worlds’ media. But while his passing inspired this episode, we’re also going to look at his many thousands of victims – and in particular how his actions led to the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in 202...