In this first-ever Hearth & Home Horrors, we step away from grand events and turn instead to the darker histories hidden in the places we grow up, walk through, and call home. These are the stories that don’t make national headlines — the ones carried quietly in local memory, passed down in families, spoken of in pubs, whispered across generations.

In this special post-Christmas bonus episode, Rob shares three true tragedies rooted in three very different hometowns:

• Wigan, UK (1908): A coal mine explosion that tore through the Maypole Colliery, killing 75 miners and boys, and leaving a permanent scar on a northern community built on hard labour and harder lives.

• York, UK (1800s): The chilling story of Mary Bateman, the “Yorkshire Witch,” whose manipulation, fraud, and eventual murder of Rebecca Perigo reveal how fear and superstition can be twisted into something far more dangerous than folklore.

• Portland, Maine, USA (1866): A firestorm that swept through the city on Independence Day, destroying nearly 2,000 buildings and leaving 10,000 people homeless — a disaster that forced Portland to rebuild itself from the ashes.

These are small places with enormous shadows — ordinary towns shaped by extraordinary events.

Settle in by the fire. Pour a drink.

In this first-ever Hearth & Home Horrors, we step away from grand events and turn instead to the darker histories hidden in the places we grow up, walk through, and call home. These are the stories that don’t make national headlines — the ones carried quietly in local memory, passed down in families, spoken of in pubs, whispered across generations.

In this special post-Christmas bonus episode, Rob shares three true tragedies rooted in three very different hometowns:

• Wigan, UK (1908): A coal mine explosion that tore through the Maypole Colliery, killing 75 miners and boys, and leaving a permanent scar on a northern community built on hard labour and harder lives.

• York, UK (1800s): The chilling story of Mary Bateman, the “Yorkshire Witch,” whose manipulation, fraud, and eventual murder of Rebecca Perigo reveal how fear and superstition can be twisted into something far more dangerous than folklore.

• Portland, Maine, USA (1866): A firestorm that swept through the city on Independence Day, destroying nearly 2,000 buildings and leaving 10,000 people homeless — a disaster that forced Portland to rebuild itself from the ashes.

These are small places with enormous shadows — ordinary towns shaped by extraordinary events.
Stories from hearth, home, and the edges of memory.

Settle in by the fire. Pour a drink.
This is a bonus tale told between holidays, where the world slows down and history feels close enough to touch.

Christmas is a season wrapped in warmth, light, and nostalgia — but history doesn’t pause for the holidays. In this special episode of Dark History, we explore three true tragedies that unfolded in December’s deepest shadows.

From the firestorm that tore Halifax apart in 1917, to the brutal Christmas Day massacre of the Lawson family in North Carolina, to the surrender of Hong Kong in 1941 — a moment that opened the door to one of the darkest chapters of the Second World War. These are not ghost stories or festive myths. They are real events, shaped by human fear, violence, and circumstance, all happening while the rest of the world sang carols and lit candles.

This Christmas Special is a journey across continents and centuries, tracing the places where the season of light collided with the harshest edges of history.

Settle in. Dim the room. Let the fire crackle.

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In this episode of The Dark History Podcast, you’re stepping into one of the most unbelievable true stories of the Second World War—an operation so absurd, so intricate, and so effective that it reshaped the outcome of D-Day. This is the real history of Juan Pujol García: the failed poultry farmer who built an entire spy network out of thin air, convinced the Nazi High Command he was their greatest agent, and helped save tens of thousands of Allied lives using nothing but nerve, imagination, and a talent for lying.

You’ll follow Pujol from the chaos of the Spanish Civil War to the cafés of Lisbon, where he created a fantasy Britain detailed enough to fool the Abwehr. You’ll meet the fake agents he invented, the MI5 handlers who recognised his genius, and the ghost army he helped conjure for Operation Fortitude—the deception that kept German forces pinned in Calais while the real invasion hit Normandy.

This is the truth behind Agent Garbo: the man awarded honours by both Nazi Germany and the British Crown, the only double agent to become a legend on both sides of the same war. No guns. No gadgets. Just one ordinary man who refused to accept the rise of fascism and used pure audacity to bend history.

If you enjoy the episode, consider leaving a review, sharing it with someone who loves hidden corners of history, or checking out the ad-free version on Patreon.

Settle in—this is one of the most extraordinary wartime stories ever told.

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Season 4, Episode 21 marks a milestone: the 100th episode of The Dark History Podcast—and the beginning of a new era as the show officially joins the Radcast Network. In this immersive, narrative-driven special, Rob takes you deep into the choking streets of London in 1349, at the height of the Black Death.

Told through the final day of an imagined plague doctor, Thomas Avery, this episode blends historical fact with vivid storytelling to capture the fear, superstition, and relentless human suffering of a city on the edge of collapse. You'll walk with Avery through plague-ridden parishes, mass grave pits, shuttered homes, and the moral twilight that defined the era. Though fictional, his experience is built from real accounts, archaeological evidence, and surviving plague doctor contracts from across medieval Europe.

This is not just history—it’s a descent into the heart of catastrophe, illuminated through one man’s final reckoning.

If you find this episode valuable, consider leaving a review or sharing the show. Links to our socials, Patreon, and merch are included below.

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In this episode of The Dark History Podcast, we examine the life and crimes of Ilse Koch — the woman whose name became synonymous with cruelty inside Buchenwald concentration camp. You’ll hear a first-person composite account based on survivor testimony, followed by a detailed investigation into Koch’s early life, her rise within the Nazi regime, and the brutality she inflicted on prisoners.

We look closely at the allegations that made her infamous: the selection of tattooed prisoners, the killings connected to the pathology block, and the accusations surrounding objects said to be made from human skin. We also break down the legal battles that followed the war, including her convictions, sentence reduction, re-arrest, and her final years in prison.

This episode avoids sensationalism. Instead, it places Koch within the wider structure of Nazi authority and explores how ordinary people can become active participants in atrocity. It is a difficult story, but understanding it is essential when studying the mechanics of genocide and the consequences of unchecked power.

If you find this episode valuable, consider leaving a review or sharing the show. Links to our socials, Patreon, and merch are included below.

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Send us a text. Thank you for your messages I really appreciate it 😁

This Halloween, The Dark History Podcast takes you inside one of the most terrifying true hauntings in British history — the Black Monk of Pontefract. In the 1960s, the Pritchard family’s ordinary council house at 30 East Drive became the site of violent paranormal attacks that defied explanation. Furniture moved on its own. Objects flew across rooms. And a dark, hooded figure watched silently from the shadows.

Was the infamous Pontefract poltergeist the restless spirit of a medieval monk, condemned and buried beneath the estate? Or something far darker — a demonic force feeding on fear?

Join Rob for this chilling Halloween special as we uncover the history, the eyewitness accounts, and the terrifying legacy of 30 East Drive — the house that still draws ghost hunters and sceptics alike.

If you enjoy real hauntings, historical mysteries, and the darker side of British folklore, this is one episode you won’t want to miss.

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What happens when a person simply ceases to exist? When one moment they are here—walking to work, stepping onto a train, or marching into history—and the next, they’re gone? No struggle, no evidence, just a void where a life should be.

In this episode of The Dark History Podcast, Rob takes you into the chilling world of unexplained disappearances—real stories where the trail ends in silence and speculation fills the gap. From modern America to Victorian England, from the dawn of cinema to the chaos of revolution, these cases remind us how fragile our presence in the world really is.

You’ll hear about Cindy Anderson, a nineteen-year-old secretary who vanished in broad daylight from a locked law office, leaving behind an open novel that eerily mirrored her fate. Then, a leap back to 1873, where a drunken wager ended with a man literally vanishing mid-run on a Warwickshire road. We’ll follow Louis Le Prince—the forgotten father of cinema—who boarded a train in France and never arrived, erasing not only himself but his claim to history. And finally, we’ll trace the footsteps of Ambrose Bierce, the legendary American writer who walked into the Mexican Revolution and disappeared into myth.

Each story is an open wound in history—unsolved, unsettling, and impossible to forget. Were these people victims of crime, of circumstance, or of something stranger still? Rob examines the evidence, the folklore, and the eerie coincidences that keep these disappearances alive more than a century later.

Because sometimes, it’s not the ghosts of the dead that haunt us… it’s the silence of the missing.

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During the American Civil War, the nation was bleeding on the battlefield—but another war was being waged in the shadows. Counterfeiters flooded the Union with fake money, threatening to destroy its fragile economy from within. Amid the chaos, Abraham Lincoln faced an invisible enemy that struck at the very idea of trust itself.

In this episode of The Dark History Podcast, Rob Bradley speaks with historian Andrea Nolen, author of Lincoln’s Counterfeiters, to uncover the hidden story of 19th-century forgery, financial collapse, and the desperate creation of the U.S. Secret Service. Together, they expose the network of con men, printers, and opportunists who thrived during America’s darkest hour—and reveal how this forgotten war shaped the modern world of crime and security.

What happens when truth becomes negotiable, and even money can’t be trusted? Lincoln found out the hard way.

Links To Andrea Nolen:

https://www.andreanolen.com/

I'm on facebook under "Lincoln's Counterfeiters"

and instagram as "andreanolenauthor"

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The summer of 1914 was dazzling. Electric lights blazed in great cities, ocean liners crossed the Atlantic in record time, and the world was bound together by telegraph wires and trade. Politicians, scholars, and ordinary people alike told themselves the same comforting story: war was impossible in a modern, interconnected age. And then, with the crack of a gunshot in Sarajevo, that illusion shattered—and the world plunged into the bloodiest conflict humanity had ever seen.

In this episode of The Dark History Podcast, Rob takes you into that fragile moment before the fall: a Europe brimming with confidence but trembling on hidden fault lines of nationalism, empire, and pride. You’ll hear how Germany’s restless ambition collided with Britain’s naval supremacy, how France dreamed of revenge, how Russia and Austria-Hungary tangled in the Balkans, and how a single assassination lit the fuse of catastrophe.

But this is not just a story about the past. It’s a warning. As Rob draws eerie parallels to our own time—rising powers, arms races, fragile alliances, and volatile flashpoints—the question becomes impossible to ignore: are we, too, sleepwalking toward disaster? Or can the lessons of 1914 open our eyes before it’s too late?

With immersive storytelling and unsettling echoes across a century, this episode isn’t just about history—it’s about the fragile present we’re living in right now.

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