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The weed of crime bears bitter fruit, or so we’ve heard. It certainly didn’t pay for any of the people featured in these episodes.
In October 1846, the world discovered surgical anesthesia. Four men would spend the next two decades fighting over which one of them deserved the credit.
Categories: History, Series 12, The Marvels of Science
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An ambitious Prince William Frederick, prince of Orange-Nassau, was an ambitious man. The House of Orange had been chased from Holland by French revolutionaries, so when the Napoleonic empire crumbled in the final months of 1813 he was determined to grab as much of the spoils as he possibly could. His ultimate ambition was to […]
Categories: History, People & Places, Series 11
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In 1874 four-year-old Charley Ross was kidnapped in front of his family's Philadelphia home... and became America's first case of kidnapping for ransom.
Categories: Intriguing & Unsolved Mysteries, People & Places, Series 11
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On Anzac Day 1935, a shark in a Sydney aquarium vomited up a severed human arm. The police investigation that followed went to some truly strange places.
Categories: Intriguing & Unsolved Mysteries, People & Places, Series 10
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Baseball, black magic, corruption, drugs, murder and poop jokes in the Florida Keys.
Categories: Intriguing & Unsolved Mysteries, People & Places, Series 10
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In which two Irish art students commit a daring daylight museum heist with virtually no planning, and somehow get away consequence-free.
Categories: Arts & Culture, Series 7
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For years the Torso Burchianti Gang terrorized the Monongahela Valley. It turned out the gang wasn't quite as fearsome as the cops thought...
Categories: People & Places, Series 6
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How many times will folks fall for the same old tricks? You might be surprised. The story of Prince Mike, King Ben, and the Houses of Israel and David.
Categories: Eccentrics & Prophecies, Least Popular, People & Places, Series 5
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In 1929 it was a sensation, "the most notorious witchcraft trial since Salem." Today it's all but forgotten. Let's talk about the York County Hex Murder.
Categories: Footsteps into the Unknown, People & Places, Series 5
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The idea that color has healing power is a relatively modern (and utterly fallacious) one. We discuss its development through the 19th and 20th centuries.
Categories: Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Science & Nature, Series 5
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On July 14, 1952 a mysterious man walked into the office of the American Physical Society and murdered secretary Eileen Fahey for no apparent reason.
Categories: Science & Nature, Series 5
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The amazing story of Laura Biggar, the Anna Nicole Smith of 1901, and her crazy plot to steal an inheritance that may or may not have been rightfully hers.
Categories: Biography, History, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Least Popular, Series 4
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