In 1947, Jake Bird was executed for the murder of a mother and her daughter. Just before his death, he confessed to murdering 44 people, and at least 11 murders have been confirmed. The fact that Bird thought he could hex individuals with his name made him a unique serial killer. As people tried to punish him, he put the "Jake Bird" hex on them, and amazingly, several people involved in his trial passed away suddenly. Listen to the full episode now!

Source Materials:

https://www.southsoundtalk.com/2016/03/31/jake-bird-tacoma/

https://dani-hendrix.medium.com/the-serial-killer-who-believed-his-name-was-a-hex-8763d6fe195b

https://www.historylink.org/File/7971

https://sites.psu.edu/beamerblog/2021/11/05/serial-killer-9-jake-bird-aka-the-tacoma-ax-killer/

https://torontosun.com/news/world/crime-hunter-serial-killer-jake-birds-chilling-hex-left-six-more-dead

https://northomahahistory.com/2021/11/05/a-history-of-jake-bird-in-north-omaha/

Before mysteriously disappearing in 1908, Belle Gunness murdered two of her husbands, a number of single men, and several of her own children on a pig farm in La Porte, Indiana. A fire broke out at her farm on April 28, 1908, and a headless woman's body was found inside. Was it Belle, or did she fake her own death and escape? Listen to the entire story now.

Source Materials:

https://laportecountyhistory.org/exhibits/belle-gunness/

https://allthatsinteresting.com/belle-gunness

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/belle-gunness/

https://www.biography.com/crime/belle-gunness

https://www.historicmysteries.com/belle-gunness/

Fred and Maria Manning's story involves love, treachery, greed, and murder. In a scheme nicknamed "the Bermondsey tragedy," they murdered Marie's affluent lover in cold blood and attempted to profit from their victim's fortune. New technologies and the newly established police units that had appeared throughout Britain in the past two decades would be their undoing.

Source Materials:

https://www.theministryofhistory.co.uk/short-histories-blog/bermondsey-horror

https://headstuff.org/culture/history/terrible-people-from-history/fred-maria-manning-victorian-murderers/

https://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/mannings.html

https://thecrimewire.com/multifarious/The-Bermondsey-Horror

From May 1871 through December 1872, the Bender family—better known as the Bloody Benders—operated as a family of serial killers in Labette County, Kansas, in the United States. John Bender, his wife Elvira, their children, John Jr. and Kate, made up the family. The Bender family appeared seemingly out of thin air, carried out horrifying and uncountable acts of heinous brutality, and then vanished without a trace.

Source Materials:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/03/bloody-benders-true-story-kate-bender-crimes-susan-jonusas.html

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ks-benders/

https://crimereads.com/the-bloody-benders-americas-first-family-of-serial-killers/

https://allthatsinteresting.com/bloody-benders

https://nypost.com/2022/03/26/how-a-serial-killer-family-murdered-8-and-got-away-with-it/

https://www.historicmysteries.com/bloody-benders/

Hell's Half-Acre : The Untold Story of the Benders, America's First Serial Killer Family by Susan Jonusas

A serial killer who went by the names The Cleveland Torso Murderer and The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run operated in Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1930s. Twelve known victims were dismembered in the killings, and their bodies were dumped in the underprivileged Kingsbury Run community. These murders remain unsolved to this day.

Source Materials:

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/632096/cleveland-torso-murderer-unsolved-serial-killer

https://www.clevelandpolicemuseum.org/collections/torso-murders/

https://nypost.com/2022/10/15/clevelands-torso-killer-was-more-vicious-than-jack-the-ripper/

https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/great-depression-history

Jesse Pomeroy was the youngest person to be found guilty of first-degree murder in Massachusetts history in 1874. Even though he was just 14 years old, the brutal and violent atrocities he committed led to life in prison, where he died in 1932.

Source Materials:

https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/jesse-pomeroy

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-story-of-jesse-pomeroy-14-year-old-serial-killer/

https://allthatsinteresting.com/jesse-pomeroy

https://www.historicmysteries.com/jesse-pomeroy/

Gilles de Rais was a Breton nobleman, a soldier with a distinguished career in the Hundred Years’ War and as Joan of Arc’s comrade in arms. Today, however, those accomplishments are only viewed in the context of the secret life he led while committing more than a hundred horrifying child killings, a spree that may have made him the first serial murderer in history.

Source Materials:

 Gilles de Rais: The Authentic Bluebeard by Jean Benedetti

Bluebeard: The Life and Crimes of Gilles de Rais by Leonard Wolf

https://allthatsinteresting.com/gilles-de-rais

https://www.britannica.com/story/gilles-de-rais-historys-first-serial-killer

https://explorethearchive.com/gilles-de-rais