There will be more Bad Elizabeths in the new year, but right now we bring you a recommendation from Kathy Egan-Taylor and Gideon Evans:

"Origin Stories", a podcast from Campside Media hosted by Matthew Shaer, is a terrific deep dive into how great projects begin. Matthew hosts many fascinating guests from Mitch Albom, to Dan Taberski, to Evan Ratliff, to Stephanie Foo. In this clip we hear from stand-up comedian and former "Daily Show" correspondent Roy Wood Jr. - author of the new book "The Man of Many Fathers: Life Lessons Disguised as a Memoir" - as he breaks down the difference between writing for stand-up comedy, and writing a book. You can find "Origin Stories" wherever you get your podcasts.

"Origin Stories" with Matthew Shaer and guest Roy Wood Jr.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/roy-wood-jr-on-the-man-of-many-fathers/id1833077585?i=1000735355722

In this episode, Gideon and Kathy delve into the sordid, gory story of Countess Erzsebet (the Hungarian variation of Elizabeth) Bathory,  AKA “The Blood Countess.” Born into an aristocratic family with lots of in-breeding in 1560 in the Kingdom of Hungary (an area that is part of Slovakia today), Bathory came to believe that blood was the tonic that could help her achieve eternal youth, and she ended up torturing and killing up to 650 young maidens, in hopes of preserving her smooth, alabaster skin. She used many methods of luring maidens to the castle, and even more methods of extracting the young women's blood - including torture devices like the Iron Maiden. She drank blood, bathed in blood, and even forced a few women to eat their own flesh. Apart from these horrific acts, Bathory was very adept at running and defending her massive estate, and even indulged in meaningful philanthropy. The story of Bathory was an inspiration of Bram Stoker when he wrote "Dracula" (in addition to the Romanian Vlad the Impaler). Bathory was also a model for many characters in literature and film, including the Evil Queen in Snow White. It may not be a surprise that Bathory is also a muse for several heavy metal bands from around the world.

Is Erzsebet Bathory the Baddest of all of our Bad Elizabeths so far? Does mental illness mitigate how bad she was, or was she simply misunderstood?

Later, Actress, director, writer, composer, and polyglot, Julie Delpy joins the discussion. You may know her from many things, notably for acting in Richard Linklater's beloved films “Before Sunrise," “Before Sunset” and “Before Midnight”, she earned Oscar nominations for Best Screenplay for the latter two works. Gideon and Kathy talk to Julie about her 2009 film “The Countess,” which tells Bathory’s story. She also talks about her first encounter with a real life Bathory when she was young, shooting in actual castles where torture took place, and the challenges of acting and directing while wearing a very restrictive corset. Julie Delpy can currently be seen on the Netflix series, “Hostage,” and soon in director Ruben Ostlund’s latest black comedy, “The Entertainment System is Down” alongside actors Keanu Reeves, Kristen Dunst and Delpy's “Countess” co-star, Daniel Bruhl.

This is the last episode of "Bad Elizabeth" of 2025, thanks to all who help make this series a success including - and especially - the listeners! We are taking a short hiatus, and will have more episodes in the new year, featuring more questionable Elizabeths. Exciting things ahead, please continue to give us those five star reviews, and spread the word! We really appreciate it.

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Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan-Taylor

Producer & Engineer: Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber Becton

Theme Song Composed by Alexis Cuadrado & Danny Gray

Recorded @ Jett Road Studios

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Sources:

Bathory

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blood-countess-elizabeth-bathory-slovakia-serial-killer-new-theory/

Countess Elizabeth Bathory: The Life and Legacy of History's Most Prolific Female Serial Killer

Charles River Editors

https://a.co/d/3uSadXd

Infamous Lady: The True Story of Countess Erzsebet Bathory by Kimberly L Kraft

https://a.co/d/dHnLGdM

The Countess:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0496634/

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B005DD7GE2/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/december-29/bathorys-torturous-escapades-are-exposed

https://medium.com/never-stop-writing/countess-elizabeth-bathory-real-life-vampire-or-scapegoat-of-history-dd70322adb03

Hostage

https://www.netflix.com/search?q=hostage&jbv=81696688

Before Sunrise

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0091WD4ZQ/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

Before Sunset

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B001N9BGGY/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

Before Midnight

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B00FJTWK0U/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

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Bad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack

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This episode Kathy and Gideon look at Elizabeth "Betty" Broderick whose case was chewed over by Daytime Television hosts of the 1980s like Oprah Winfrey and supermarket tabloids. Elizabeth and Dan Broderick were the couple who seemed to have it all, but once infidelity became an issue in the marriage, all hell broke loose. Betty stalked and terrorized Dan and his new girlfriend including driving her car into a house. It all ended in violence and America became obsessed with the case and consumed multiple television series and podcasts for decades after it all occurred. What is it about this case that fascinates Americans, is there something relatable or universal about the players or do Americans just love to see rich, good looking, people go down.

Our special guest is Griffin Matthews (the Flight Attendant, You, Dear White People), joining us from Madrid. His experience playing a Flight Attendant gives him special insight into that world, which is pertinent, since one of the victims was a Delta Flight Attendant. In dissecting the particulars, Griffin brings up another famous Elizabeth: Elizabeth Edwards, who took credit for building her husbands career. We also discuss with Griffin what it's like being an American transplant in Europe as well as acting in Spinal Tap 2.

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Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan-Taylor

Producer & Engineer: Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber Becton

Theme Song Composed by Alexis Cuadrado & Danny Gray

Recorded @ Jett Road Studios

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Sources:

Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story

https://www.netflix.com/title/80241855

It Was Simple: The Betty Broderick Murders

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/it-was-simple-the-betty-broderick-murders/id1513430448

Dirty John: Betty: The Betty Broderick Story (podcast)

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dirty-john-season-2-the-podcast/id1513500047

The Betty Broderick Story: A Woman Scorned

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dirty-john-season-2-the-podcast/id1513500047

Telling On Myself by Betty Broderick

https://a.co/d/9QOp9sC

Oprah interviews Betty Broderick

https://a.co/d/9QOp9sC

Fatal Attraction

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0B8SWV9Q3/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

One Angry Betty - LA Magazine

https://lamag.com/crimeinla/one-angry-betty1/

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Bad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack

Kathy and Gideon talk about the woman many consider the worst Canadian serial killer - Elizabeth "Bethe" Wettlaufer. Wettlaufer, who grew up near Woodstock, Ontario, fits into the True Crime sub-genre of Nurses Who Kill. She worked at various rehab and medical facilities and administered deadly doses of insulin to many of her older patients, but the horrible things she did didn't come to light until much later. After admitting her crimes to various people, nothing happened to her. Was this an example of "Canadian nice" or was it just that Wettlaufer didn't "look" like a killer, and therefor nobody could believe it.

We also welcome to the show, Charles Graeber, author of the best selling book "The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder" which was made into an award-winning film starring Eddie Redmayne as American Nurse Killer Charles Cullen. Graeber explains how the hospitals ignored whistleblowers, and allowed Cullen to get jobs at other facilities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania where he continued murdering patients. Cullen was quite possibly responsible for as many as 400 killings. And while Cullen did end up behind bars, the hospital administrators were never held accountable. Perhaps there's more than one villain in these stories...

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Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan-Taylor

Producer & Engineer: Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber Becton

Theme Song Composed by Alexis Cuadrado & Danny Gray

Recorded @ Jett Road Studios

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SOURCES:

The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder by Charles Graeber

https://a.co/d/81TLJmc

The Good Nurse (film)

https://www.netflix.com/title/81260083

"Living with a Serial Killer: Elizabeth Wettlaufer"

https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/living-with-a-serial-killer/8729766680284507112/seasons/2/episodes/elizabeth-wettlaufer-episode-6/06fc97a9-48ee-3cb8-a292-ad141236f59b

"Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer: Elizabeth Wettlaufer"

https://www.primevideo.com/region/na/detail/0SX2ANK3N5DM7AY19FW6I6YXRR?ref_=atv_dp_pb_core

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Bad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack

Halloween is almost here (at the time of posting) and doing a show about the Salem Witch Trials is perfectly on-brand for this spooky holiday. The Elizabeth that our episode is about is Elizabeth Parris - whose child Betty Parris and her niece Abagail Williams - were the first to be "afflicted" by alleged Satanic influences in 1692. Parris with her husband, Samuel, and another neighbor diagnosed the so-called nefarious symptoms of their children, and accused three of being Witches - two townswomen and Tituba, who was the slave who lived in the Parris household. This first case of "Witchcraft" started the fire (to paraphrase Billy Joel) and an epidemic of satanic activity across Salem and even parts of Connecticut. Do Elizabeth and her child Betty (a variation of Elizabeth) get a pass from Gideon and Kathy? And what caused these symptoms? Kathy and Gideon go through some of the theories including "Mass Hysteria" and ergot mushroom poisoning.

Later in the episode, Gideon and Kathy welcome guest Jane Borden, author of "Cults Like Us" and discuss whether the Puritans, who founded America, were essentially a cult, and how does the Puritans' cult-like behavior and thinking manifest in our modern society in America. In a twist, we channel Henry Louis Gates, and help reveal the descendant of our guest Borden...can you guess?

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A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience by Emerson W Baker

https://a.co/d/8k3xxRF

Hysterical by Dan Taberski

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hysterical/id1753789609

Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America by Jane Borden

https://a.co/d/g6Frn5F

I Totally Meant to Do That by Jane Borden

https://a.co/d/eh0c3Ot

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

https://a.co/d/383dc3f

John Proctor is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower

https://a.co/d/ez6xt4z

The Day of Doom - by Michael Wigglesworth

https://a.co/d/6q4G470

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Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan-Taylor

Producer & Engineer: Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber Becton

Recorded @ Jett Road Studios

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Jett Road Studios - Website - YouTube - Instagram - Substack

Bad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack

Queen Elizabeth I is known as the steady, confident ruler who beat the Spanish Armada, supported the arts, and led to England's golden age. But her reign also had a darker side, including killing of Catholic priests, terrorizing Puritans, and speculation she might've been part of a plot to kill a lover's wife.

In this episode Gideon and Kathy look past the legend to the woman behind the crown - part hero, part manipulator, and part mystery.

Our guest is Alice Loxton, also known as History Alice, who joins us to tutor us on the Tudors, and help make sense of the Virgin Queen.

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Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan-Taylor

Producer & Engineer: Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber Becton

Recorded @ Jett Road Studios

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Jett Road Studios - Website - YouTube - Instagram - Substack

Bad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack

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SOURCES

The First Elizabeth by Carolly Erickson

https://a.co/d/5UAb5x4

Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives by Alice Loxton

https://a.co/d/2OipuVO

Elizabeth I: A Study in Insecurity by Helen Castor

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/05/elizabeth-i-helen-castor-study-insecurity-penguin-monarchs

Gideon and Kathy discuss the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes, the infamous CEO of Theranos. Holmes dropped out of college like Steve Jobs, she wore black turtle necks like jobs, and created a tech product like Jobs. But unlike Jobs, Homes' product didn't do what she said it would do and she lied about it repeatedly. The Theranos idea was to have a fast and easy way to run many medical tests using a tiny pin prick to the finger, but it turned out to be pie in the sky. If only Homes spent the same amount of energy covering up the fact that her product was a failure, and blaming her staff, into actually working on making the product work, maybe she'd attain the Jobs-like stature she desired. Both Gideon and Kathy have had their share of terrible work environments, but probably not nearly as toxic as that of Theranos. And like other bad Elizabeths we have covered, Holmes is attempting a comeback even though she's currently in prison, Gideon and Kathy discuss the how likely it'll be for her new ideas to work. Later in the episode Kathy and Gideon talk to writer E. Jean Carroll, who is also an Elizabeth, but a badass one. Carroll gives her take on Holmes and then we go in-depth about Carroll's life growing up in Indiana and her hard-fought battle to become the beloved writer she has become. The episode wraps up with Carroll talking about her gripping and often hilarious book "Not My Type" about her lawsuit against Donald Trump for assaulting her in the dressing rooms of a Manhattan, New York, Bergdorf Goodman. She won her case not once, but twice.

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Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan-Taylor

Producer & Engineer: Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber Becton

Recorded @ Jett Road Studios

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Jett Road Studios - Website - YouTube - Instagram - Substack

Bad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack

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SOURCES:

New York Times - Elizabeth Holmes Partner Blood-Testing Start-up

ABC News - Elizabeth Holmes Prison Release Date

Vanity Fair - The Talented Ms Holmes

IMDB - The Dropout

The Dropout - Apple Podcasts

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President

Lizzie Borden’s father and stepmother were found hacked to death in Fall River, Massachusetts over one hundred and thirty years ago, yet everyone today still knows her name. Kids dress up like Lizzie carrying bloody axes for Halloween, or spookily recite the famous nursery rhyme “Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks/When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one." But what is the real story behind this gory tale?

Gideon and Kathy break down what happened the morning of August 4th, 1892, examining Lizzie as the number one presumed suspect, but also look into the possibility that someone else might’ve murdered Abby and Andrew Borden. What are the possible motives? Was Lizzie pissed because modern plumbing was available at the time, but her tight-pursed father made the family crap in chamber pots? Or was it for the money? And what exactly qualifies one as a “spinster?” But most importantly, was Lizzie Borden BAD? Gideon and Kathy pull from their many resources, including the salacious, and kinda weird, 1975 made-for-TV movie, “The Legend of Lizzie Borden,” starring beloved “Bewitched” actress, Elizabeth Montgomery, to explore the most critical questions behind one of America’s most enduring crime mysteries. 

Later in the episode, Kathy talks to Ricardo Rebelo, an instructor of Film, Video & Communications at Bristol Community College in Rhode Island, from his home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Ric discusses his PBS documentary, “Lizbeth: A Victorian Nightmare,” growing up on the same street from the infamous Borden house, the ecosystem of ghosts that haunt the town of Fall River, and the tourism industry it lures. Tuck in for some good tales as spooky Pumpkin Spice season has officially begun!

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Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan Taylor

Produced & Engineer by Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber Becton

Recorded @ Jett Road Studios

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Jett Road Studios - Website - YouTube - Instagram - Substack

Bad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack

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SOURCES:

The New Yorker: Legends of Lizzie

Smithsonian Magazine: How Lizzie Borden Got Away with Murder 

New York Times: Lizzie Borden Took an Ax

The Legend of Lizzie Borden (starring Elizabeth Montgomery)

Lizbeth: A Victorian Nightmare : A Lizzie Borden True Crime / Paranormal Documentary

One August Morning: The True Story of Lizzie Borden - Troy Taylor

Elisabeth Finch was an ambitious writer and producer of the hit ABC series Grey’s Anatomy. As talented as Finch was at crafting episodes of the beloved hospital drama, she was even more talented at lying her ass off about her own life. Finch got ahead in Hollywood by making up a sob story about having and inoperable spinal cancer. She shaved her head, and pretended to throw up in the restroom at work, pulling the heartstrings of her colleagues, family, and lovers. Her charade was so convincing that her "struggle" even became a Grey's Anatomy plot line. And that was just the beginning of the bullshit she spewed. Gideon and Kathy reluctantly marvel at the exploits of this “Zelig of Misfortune,” and her commitment to the reality she created.

Later in the episode Gideon sits down with legendary journalist Michael Musto in his native New York City, to discuss Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor. The glamorous star of films like Giant, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was also known for tempestuous relationships with her many husband, like Richard Burton, and disastrous Hollywood flops like Cleopatra. Was Elizabeth Taylor an out-of-control, home-wrecking diva? Or a was she an ahead-of-her-time, philanthropic, badass? Listen to find out.

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Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan Taylor

Produced & Engineer by Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber Becton

Recorded @ Jett Road Studios

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Jett Road Studios - Website - YouTube - Instagram - Substack

Bad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack

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Vanity Fair (Article)

Vanity Fair article, Part One

Vanity Fair article, Part Two

Anatomy of Lies (TV)

Anatomy of Lies

The Plot Thickens: Cleopatra (Podcast)

The Plot Thickens: Cleopatra

Bad Elizabeth. Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan-Taylor. Coming soon...