Criminalia

Philandering husband Edwin Main Post found himself blackmailed by a scorned mistress who threatened to go public with their affair unless he paid her and her publisher to stay silent. This is a story about blackmail, yes, but it isn't actually a story about Edwin, not really; this is the story about how his wife, Emily Price Post, suffered the humiliations of his actions and the blackmail that ensued, and then rose above it. Let’s hop back to Manhattan during the Gilded Age for this story of adultery, blackmail, and bestselling books about etiquette.

Executive Producers: Maria Trimarchi and Holly Frey
Producer & Editor: Casby Bias

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Regency courtesan Harriette Wilson exposed in her memoirs the names of royal, aristocratic, and political men, whom she then blackmailed to keep their names out of those memoirs. Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, was, famously, one of those influential names. Arthur was a national hero and wasn’t the kind of man who was easily intimidated; and when Harriette threatened to name his name, he was outraged, leading him to roar the now-famous quote: "Publish and be damned!" Let's talk about what happened next.

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Thomas Neill Cream graduated with honors from Montreal's McGill medical school in 1876. His thesis had been about the effects of chloroform; and he would soon demonstrate just how devastating he could be with toxic compounds. Several people died under his 'care.' But we’re not here to talk about Dr. Cream the murderer; we’re here to talk about his other criminal offense: extortion. Thomas was ultimately undone when he attempted to frame and blackmail other people for his murders. Let’s meet the doctor.

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“I got a revolver to protect us, and I soon had use for it,” stated Constance Kopp when interviewed about the intruders intimidating her family under the cover of darkness at her home. Her assistance with solving the case led to her role as the first female appointed deputy sheriff of Bergen County, New Jersey. Let's talk about how Constance got there in a time when women were not-so-much welcomed into such work. 

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Welcome to a brand new season of Criminalia, where we'll be talking about blackmail throughout history. We’re rolling straight from the criminal world of forgers to one of blackmailers -- we’ll see you there, not only with some very real stories about some very shady things, but also with the cocktails and mocktails made to go with them.

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Welcome to the final episode of our season of forgers, where we've been exploring the stories of some of the most amazing forgeries – and those behind them -- throughout history. But it wasn't all about fakes and forgeries. There were plenty of cocktails and mocktails to go around, too.

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During the 18th century, early animatronics were hot. They were featured in circuses, carnivals, and other touring exhibitions, and were usually built and operated with various parts like axles, chains, cogs, gears, levers, pulleys, wheels, wind-up keys – you get the point. For Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, in 1769, Hungarian inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen’s created the Mechanical Turk, a chess-playing machine that could beat almost any person who played against it. The Turk appeared to be a fully functional artificial intelligence to those who saw and interacted with it. It left audiences delighted, but baffled as to how it worked -- until a young poet named Edgar Allan Poe convinced many audiences it was not what it seemed.

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When a group of miners uncovered a skull deep in a mine shaft on the western slopes of Bald Mountain in Calaveras County, California, it was believed, at least initially, to be a history-changing discovery. The owner of the mine didn't know at first what it was that he'd dug up that day in 1866. And when he shared it with those who might, including the State Geologist of California, things went a bit, well, off the rails.

Executive Producers: Maria Trimarchi and Holly Frey
Producer & Editor: Casby Bias

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In the summer of 1917, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths convinced a whole lot of people, including the famous Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, they'd seen fairies neat their home -- and they had photographic evidence to prove it. After decades of keeping their ruse a secret, they admitted their "joke was to last two hours, and it has lasted 70 years.

Executive Producers: Maria Trimarchi and Holly Frey
Producer & Editor: Casby Bias

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the early 1970s, McGraw-Hill Book Company landed what could have been the literary scoop of the 20th century: A writer named Clifford Irving pitched them that he'd obtained the permission of the reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes to write a tell-all memoir of the mogul. That manuscript, though, turned out to be one of the biggest literary hoaxes of the 20th century, and it landed Irving in prison.

Executive Producers: Maria Trimarchi and Holly Frey
Producer & Editor: Casby Bias

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.