Timesuck with Dan Cummins

Today we do a deep dive on the history of witchcraft. What is witchcraft? How does it differ from organized religion? Why did burning witches ever become a thing, and do witch hunts still occur in the modern world? Why do so many of us have such a strong and irrational fear of people we just don't understand? Going back to some of the earliest written words of Western Civilization, we learn today...

In the Spring of 1990, when Jack Unterweger was released from prison in Austria after serving fifteen years for strangling an eighteen year-old to death with her own bra (amongst numerous other crimes), many of Austria's literary elite were convinced he was rehabilitated.  They'd even tried to get him pardoned years earlier after he'd written a bestselling autobiography, poems, short stories, and...

From 1095 to 1291 CE, thousands and thousands of knights, peasants, nobles, soldiers, and more left Europe for the Holy Land around Jerusalem to take land and power away from Muslims, and into Christian hands. Pope Urban II issued a speech in 1095 calling Christian to take up arms and reclaim "Christian" lands. As incentive, he promised salvation for all who died fighting for what he said was God'...

Did R. Kelly truly have a sex cult?  For around a quarter-of-a-century Robert Sylvester Kelly wrote hit after hit after hit, becoming one of the most successful musical artists in American history. But also, the whole time it seems, he preyed viciously on young women and girls. He brainwashed them, physically abused them,  psychologically abused them, and videotaped himself sexually abusing them i...

On August 28, 2003, a 46 year-old pizza delivery man named Brian Douglas Wells robbed a PNC Bank near his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania, with a bomb locked to his body at his neck. After the bomb detonated a few minutes later, it would take investigators years to figure out who placed the bomb on him and why.  Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp tickets are ON SALE!   BadMagicMerch.com  Get tour ticket...

Between October 1977 and February 1978, with a nickname originating from the fact that many of the victims' bodies were discovered in the hills surrounding the city, the Hillside Stranglers terrorized the Los Angeles greater metro area, raping and strangling ten young women and girls.  Generally posing as police officers, serial killing cousins Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono were originally beli...

Did you know that American banana corporations turned almost all of Central America into US satellite states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for roughly half-a-century? It took the massacre of thousands of unarmed, exploited, and striking Columbian  banana workers in 1928 to turn the tide against American imperialism.  Today we explore just how several central American nations became tru...

We've covered a lot Los Angeles area cults from the 1960s and 70s, but as it turns out, there were cults in LA long before that. Lots and lots of cults. Today's topic, the WKFL Fountain of the World Cult, more commonly known as The Fountain, formed in the 1940s. And their apocalyptic teachings would influence Charles Manson's vision of Helter Skelter. Today we share an explosive story of robes, se...

In the late 1940s, troubled lovers Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck, ran a scam using dating services commonly known as Lonely Hearts Clubs to con and kill women. Their trial became the most sensationalized of the decade.  Today we break down how these dating clubs operated, and get to know these two weirdos and killers in another true crime, deranged lovers edition of Timesuck.  Wet Hot Bad Magi...

On May 18, 1980, at 8:32 AM local time, a major explosive eruption took place at a volcano in southwest Washington State. After months of earthquakes and smaller eruptions, Mt. St. Helens exploded. Over 1,000 feet of mountain was gone in just a few moments. And 57 people quickly died as hot volcanic ash, mudslides, and a fast-moving, incredibly hot cloud of death and destruction tore through miles...

Terry Blair. The Prospect Killer. Before he became a serial killer in the Prospect Avenue neighborhood of Kansas City in 2004, his mother, brother, and sister had all been convicted of different murders. He has two nephews in prison for life for murder. He has a half-brother in prison for life for rape and assault. He witnessed his stepdad get murdered. He has several other violent felons for rela...

Today we look into a series of murders, mostly occurring in the mid-1980s, in the southeastern US. The bodies of unidentified women kept being found along I-40. Collectively, these killings came to be known as the Redhead Murders. And a possible unknown serial killer thought to be responsible for killing many of these women was named the Bible Belt Strangler. Have any of these murders been solved?...

Today we dig into the origins and the history of America's Irish Mob.  We begin centuries ago in Ireland, when a series of oppressive, discriminatory laws designed to break the backs of the Irish and leave them too powerless to rebel against British rule, followed by the Great Famine that was greatly intensified by these same laws, led to hundreds of thousands of Irish fleeing the Emerald Isle for...

The conclusion of the the craziest cult story I had never heard of.  This week, things, incredibly, get even weirder and darker than last week. More sexual debauchery.  
More twisted visions. And mass murder. And then it all comes crashing down after Jeffrey leads his followers into the wilderness where are there are dreams of magical vaginas, additional wives, and a lot more scat play. Want to ap...

The craziest cult story I had never heard of. Jeffrey Lundgren was a cult leader and a mass leader before being caught, imprisoned, and executed. What a wild ride he had before it all came to an end. Twisted sexual desires, doomsday predictions, and more.  Today I tell the first of two parts of this tale. Who was Jeffrey Lundgren? How did he twist RLDS/Community of Christ teachings to convince his...

Skull and Bones has been shrouded in mystery ever since it was founded nearly two centuries ago now, back in 1832. All members take an oath promising NEVER to reveal the group’s activities and secrets. And that oath is taken seriously. According to the traditional narrative, Skull and Bones was founded by a group of Yale juniors who were either angry over that year’s honor society elections or ins...

The Zebra Murders were a series of racially motivated attacks and murders committed in San Francisco, California, by some so-called "Death Angels." From October of 1973 to April of 1974, a group of cold-blooded killers truly terrorized the city. Why? Nation of Islam teachings had convinced them that white people, in general, were truly evil "white devils" who needed to be destroyed. They were also...

Early in the morning of March 28th, 1979, equipment failures and a stuck open relief valve prevented the removal of heat from Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island Unit 2 nuclear reactor’s core - an essential function that prevents reactor damage. And within hours, it seemed like things were on the brink of a catastrophic nuclear crisis. In the end, a true crisis would be averted... kind of. While the...

On March 18th, 1990 two men disguised as Boston police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and overpowered the two security guards on duty. In just 81 minutes, the thieves stole over $600 MILLION worth of historic art. Valued at over $200 million at the time. The Gardner Museum heist remains the biggest art theft in the world - and the biggest private property theft in US history...

On October 8th, 1941, with Stalingrad surrounded, Leningrad besieged, and the Nazis making new gains on Russian territory every day, Joseph Stalin ordered the creation of three new Air Force regiments... the first female aviation military regiments in world history.  Led by famed civilian aviator Marina Raskova,  these young women, most of whom were between the ages of 17 and 26, would have to tra...

What is the the Perfect Murder?  It's what two affluent and academically brilliant young Chicagoans, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, wanted to pull off in 1924 when the murdered fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks. WHY did they want to kill anyone? In part, to prove to themselves that were Übermensches after misunderstanding the philosophical nihilism of Nietzsche. They had come to think that they wer...

The Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, China in 1989  is one of the most important, noteworthy tragedies in modern Chinese history. It was the biggest protest against communism rule in over sixty years. But thanks to the consistent suppression and propaganda of the modern Chinese government…  many if not most Chinese citizens today...don’t even know it ever happened. Why is the communist regime...

In the 1960s, a strange new cult emerged in Manhattan's Upper West Side out of the Sullivan Institute. A cult created by shady "therapist" Saul Newton, who twisted the psychoanalytical teachings of Henry Stack Sullivan into something insidious - a way from him to sleep with paying therapy patients, have them move onto his compound, and play god over their lives. He and a few of his wives would run...

This week we investigate the life and crimes of one of the Freeway Killers. Patrick Kearney, the Trash Bag Killer, was convicted for 21 murders, confessed to 32, but is suspected of up to 43 killings of both boys and young men between 1962 and 1977 in Southern California. Lesser known then the other Freeway Killers, previous Suck subjects Randy "Scorecard Killer" Kraft and William "The Freeway Str...

Today we dig into the life of Julius Caesar and the final days of the Roman Republic. How was Caesar and what was Rome when he lived there? How did he transform himself from a random minor noble in a Republic full of fandom nobles, into one of the most powerful man in Rome and one of the most known historical figures of all time? Today's tale if full of alliances, betrayals, a very confusing Roman...