In 1566, a widow from a quiet Essex village was accused of feeding her cat with drops of her own blood—and of using it to kill. This is the story of Agnes Waterhouse, the first woman in England whose witch trial was captured in print. A story offear, faith, and the birth of the English witch.

Source Material:

In 1900, Texas millionaire William Marsh Rice was found dead in his New York apartment. Within hours, forged checks, a suspicious will, and a hasty cremation order set off one of the most sensational murder cases of the Gilded Age. This is thestory of greed, betrayal, and the crime that nearly derailed the founding of Rice University.

Patreon - Historical True Crime | Patreon

Website - Historical True Crime | podcast

Source Materials

Rice's Attorney and Valet Face Criminal Charges, newsclipping - Rice University Digital Collections

Face the Law Murder Conspiracy and Forgery newsclipping - Rice University Digital Collections

"Confessed Murder Forgery" - Rice University Digital Collections

Scrapbook page of New York news clippings announcing the mysterious circumstances of the death of William MarshRice - Rice University Digital Collections

Evidence of Guilt newsclipping - Rice University Digital Collections

Murdered man's estate founds great university, newsclipping regarding Rice Institute - Rice University Digital Collections

The Murder of Millionaire William Rice by Albert Patrick, 1900 - HistoricalCrimeDetective.com

William Marsh Rice: A Story of Money, Poison, and Murder – Kathy M. Slaughter

William Marsh Rice and His Legacy — The Heritage Society

 Martin L. Friedland, The Death of Old Man Rice: A True Story of Criminal Justice in America (University of Toronto Press, 1996).

Thomas Duke, Celebrated Criminal Cases of America (1910), Part III: “The Murder of Millionaire William Rice by Albert Patrick.”

Glamour, scandal, and an unsolved death. When torch singer Libby Holman married into the Reynolds tobacco dynasty, she stepped into a world of wealth and whispers. Whatfollowed was a mystery that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Source Material

The Notorious Libby Holman | Vanity Fair | March 1985

This Month In Rockingham County History: August - 'Libby Holman Reynolds Turns Herself In at Rockingham County Courthouse' - Museum & Archives of Rockingham County

Libby Holman | Jewish Women's Archive

Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa), 1932-10-20

Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa), 1932-10-25

Carolina watchman (Salisbury, N.C.). 1932-12-16 [p ].

Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa), 1932-07-10

Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa), 1932-07-14

Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa), 1932-08-09

Coroner's Report in the Matter of the Death of Z. Smith Reynolds – Works – Reynolda House

Dreams that money can buy : the tragic life of Libby Holman : Bradshaw, Jon : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Passing Strange: Radical Chic, Race, Sex, Song, and Dance in “Moanin’ Low” - Article (Preprint v1) by Thomas F. Connolly | Qeios

In July 1908, the body of 20-year-old Hazel Drew was discovered face-down in Teal’s Pond near Sand Lake, New York. Rumors of secret lovers, missing letters, and powerful suspects turned her death into both a ghost story and, decades later, the inspiration for Twin Peaks.

Source Materials

Jerry Drake, Hazel Was a Good Girl (Clash Books, 2023).

David Bushman & Mark Givens, Murder at Teal’s Pond: Hazel Drew and the Mystery That Inspired Twin Peaks (Thomas & Mercer, 2022)

Murder mystery haunts Rensselaer County 116 years later - WNYT.com NewsChannel 13

Before the Black Dahlia: The Unsolved Murder of Hazel Drew — and What It Reveals About Race, Crime, and Memory | byLawson Brooks | Certifiable | Aug, 2025 | Medium

Who Killed Hazel Drew? The 1908 Murder Case That Inspired Twin Peaks

Murder that inspired ‘Twin Peaks’ solved 100 years later: Book

A Pair Of Amateur Sleuths Believe They've Solved The Century-Old Murder That Inspired 'Twin Peaks'

The murder victim who inspired Twin Peaks haunted me for years... and helped me expose her TRUE killer | Daily MailOnline

Hazel’s brutal murder was all but forgotten. Until she inspired ‘Twin Peaks.’ - The Washington Post

For our 150th episode, we revisit one of history’s most infamous names: H. H. Holmes. Behind the myths of the ‘Murder Castle’ lies a story of fraud, fear, and fact stranger than legend. Step inside Chicago’s 1890s underworld—and separate truth from folklore.

Source Materials

The Enduring Mystery of H.H. Holmes, America's 'First' Serial Killer

The Toronto link to America's bloodiest serial killer - Spacing Toronto | Spacing Toronto

H.H. Holmes: Biography, Serial Killer, Murderer

Murder Castle - H.H. Holmes, Chicago World's Fair & Layout | HISTORY

H. H. Holmes: Master of Illusion — Swindler — Crime Library

Selzer, Adam. H. H. Holmes: The True History of the White City Devil. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2017.

Geyer, Frank P. The Holmes-Pitezel Case: A History of the Greatest Crime of the Century and of the Search for the Missing Pitezel Children. Philadelphia: Publishers’ Union, 1896.

On New Year’s Day, 1886, Edwin Bartlett was found dead in his Pimlico home — his stomach filled with chloroform, but with no sign of how it got there. Was it murder, suicide, or something science couldn’t yet explain? Step into thePimlico Poisoning Mystery, a case that baffled Victorian doctors, scandalized London, and left one woman forever in the shadows.

Source Materials:

nbtfacsimile.pdf

t18860405-466 | The Proceedings of the Old Bailey

The Trial of Adelaide Bartlett for Murder, Held at the Central Criminal Court from Monday, April 12, to Saturday, April 17, 1886

bmj00471-0054.pdf

AFP937923 35..46

Ambrose Bierce was a Civil War veteran, journalist, and master of the macabre whose razor-sharp pen made him both feared and admired. In 1913, at seventy-one yearsold, he left the United States for war-torn Mexico—and vanished. This episode traces Bierce’s journey from log cabin childhood to battlefield survivor, from satirical journalist to literary legend, before diving into one of the greatestmysteries in American history: what became of Ambrose Bierce?

Source MaterialsIntroduction to A Sole Survivor: Bits of Autobiography by Ambrose Bierce

Why did brothers fight on opposite sides of the Civil War? | HowStuffWorks

Disappearance of Ambrose Bierce - Historic Mysteries

Ambrose Bierce, Hoosier author and Civil War vet, vanished in Mexico

Carey McWilliams. Ambrose Bierce: A Biography. New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1929.

 S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz. Ambrose Bierce: The Devil’s Lexicographer. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2002.

In 1928, a Wineville chicken farm became the center of aharrowing investigation into missing boys. Gordon Stewart Northcott and his mother, Sarah Louise, were tied to the disappearances of Walter Collins, the Winslow brothers, and others. This episode follows the crimes, the investigation, and the trials that exposed what really happened on the ranch.

Source Materials:

Wineville Chicken Coop Murders: The Horrifying Crimes of Gordon Stewart Northcott – True Crime Archives

During the 1920s, Boys Became the Prey of a Brutal Killer - Los Angeles Times

The Wineville Chicken Coop Murders — Boomtown — Crime Library

Child Killer: Gordon Northcott and the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders

What Really Happened When Walter Collins Disappeared In 1928

 Nothing Is Strange with You: The Life and Crimes of Gordon Stewart Northcott

In 1935, the seaside calm of Bournemouth was shattered by scandal, betrayal, and murder. Alma Rattenbury — a once-celebrated musician — and her teenage lover GeorgeStoner stood accused in a case that gripped Britain with its mix of passion, tragedy, and sensational headlines. In this episode, we trace Alma’s extraordinary life, her ill-fated marriage to architect Francis Rattenbury, and the events that led to one of the most infamous trials of the 20th century.

Source Materials

The Architect & the Lady - Canada's History

2015.173615.Trial-Of-Alma-Victoria--Rattenbury-And George-Percy-Soner.pdf

The British Newspaper Archive Blog Murder of Francis Rattenbury | The British Newspaper Archive Blog

Adultery, jealousy and murder: How the Rattenbury case gripped the nation | Bournemouth Echo

Jack Knox: Out of tragedy, Francis Rattenbury's son became a fine dad - Victoria Times Colonist

The femme fatale who scandalised Britain: Murder at the Villa Madeira that gripped the country | Daily Mail Online

This Week in History: 1935: Sex, drugs, murder and suicide — the Rattenbury case had it all | Vancouver Sun

The Sensational High-Society Murder of Francis M. Rattenbury | The Canadian Encyclopedia

Murder, suicide and the pain of a surviving son

The Fatal Passion of Alma Rattenbury - Sean O'Connor - Google Books

In 1660, the quiet Cotswold town of Chipping Campden was shaken by the disappearance of its elderly steward, William Harrison. Within months, three members of the Perry family were convicted and hanged for his murder — without a body ever being found. Two years later, Harrison returned alive, with a tale of pirates, slavery, and improbable escape. Was it truth, invention, or something stranger still?

Source Materials

The Story - The Campden Wonder

A true and perfect account of the examination, confession, trial, condemnation and execution of Joan Perry, and her two sons, John and Richard Perry, for the supposed murder of Will. Harrison, Gent Being one of the most remarkable occurrences which hath happened in the memory of man. Sent in a letter (by Sir Thomas Overbury, of Burton, in the county of Gloucester, Knt. and one of His Majesty's justices of the peace) to Thomas Shirly, Doctor of physick, in London. Also Mr. Harrison's own account how he was conveyed to Turky, and there made a slave above 2 years, when hismaster (who bought him there) dying, he return'd to England; in the mean while, supposed to be murdered by his man-servant, who falsly accused his own mother and brother as guilty of the same, and were all three executed for it on Broadway-Hills, in Gloucestershire. | Early English Books Online | University of Michigan Library Digital Collections

The Curious Case of the Campden Wonder

The Campden Wonder | Chipping Campden Online

The Campden Wonder - abduction and witchcraft in 17th century Cotswolds | Great British Life

The Campden Wonder; or, The Supposed Murder of William Harrison — Historical Blindness

The Mystery of The Campden Wonder | Amusing Planet