Historical True Crime

The 1612 Pendle witch trials remain among the most famous in English history. What began with a single accusation soon expanded into a prosecution that would send ten people to the gallows.

Source Materials

Potts, Thomas. The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster (1613)

Almond, Philip C. The Lancashire Witches: A Chronicle of Sorcery and Death on Pendle Hill.

Poole, Robert (ed.). The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories.

Sharpe, James. Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Modern England.

Gibson, Marion. Witchcraft and Society in England and America, 1550–1750

Gaskill, Malcolm. Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy.

In 1937, three girls left home for a day at the park and never returned. Their disappearance sparked a frantic search, a shocked community, and a murder case that moved with remarkable speed. This episode traces the investigation intothe deaths of Melba Everett, Madeline Everett, and Jeanette Stephens, the arrest of Albert Dyer, and a trial shaped almost entirely by his confessions.

Everett, Pamela. Little Shoes: The Sensational Depression-Era Murders That BecameAmerica’s First Celebrity Crime. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2018.

People v. Dyer, 9 Cal. 2d 317 (Cal. Sup. Ct. 1938).

“Three Little Girls.” Time, July 12, 1937.

Contemporary newspaper reporting, including coverage from the Daily Breeze and Los Angeles–area papers (1937).

In September 1907, Emily Dimmock was found murdered in her rented rooms in Camden Town, her throat cut while she slept. Known to some as “Phyllis,” she lived a double life in Edwardian London, moving between respectability and survival.

This episode explores Emily’s final days, the trial that followed, andwhy the Camden Town Murder remains unsolved more than a century later.

Source Materials

Napley, Sir David. The Camden Town Murder. In Great Murder Trials of the Twentieth Century. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson / Orion.

Barber, John. The Camden Town Murder.

Barber, John. “The Camden Town Murder.” Ripperologist, no. 44 (December 2002). Reprinted at Casebook.org.

Grant, Thomas. Court Number One: The Old Bailey, the Trials and Scandals. London: John Murray, 2019.

Oates, Jonathan. Unsolved Murders in Victorian and Edwardian London. Barnsley: Wharncliffe, 2007.

Melville, Elizabeth. “The Camden Town Murder.” Medium.com.

Tilstra, Elizabeth. “A Killer in London: The Camden Town Murder.” The Line-Up.

Contemporary newspaper coverage including The News of the World, Illustrated Police News, and The Penny Illustrated Paper (1907).

In 1799, Elma Sands vanished from a New York boardinghouse. Her body was later found in a well, and the trial that followed — defended by Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr — left more questions than answers. This episode examines the Manhattan Well murder and the limits of justice in early America.

Source Materials

Coleman, William. The Trial of Levi Weeks; or, The Manhattan Well Mystery. New York: Printed for the author, 1800.

Kleiger, Estelle Fox. The Trial of Levi Weeks: Sex, Seduction, and Murder in the Early Republic. Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, 1989.

American State Trials: Being a Collection of the Most Interesting Criminal Trials Which Have Ever Occurred in the United States. Vol. 1. New York: Printed andpublished by G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1849.

 Murder by Gaslight: A Victorian Anthology of True Crime

The Paris Review —“The Well on Spring Street,” Angela Serratore

“Death in the Manhattan Well.” Crime Magazine. https://www.crimemagazine.com

New York Gazette and General Advertiser. New York, various issues, 1799–1800.

The New-York Daily Advertiser. New York, various issues, 1799–1800.

Three deaths. No obvious violence. No immediate suspicion.
An 1886 poisoning case that unfolded quietly inside the home — until it didn’t.

Source Materials:

Berry,James. My Experiences as an Executioner.Berry, James. The Hangman’s Thoughts Above the Gallows.Shannon, Issy. Infamous Lancashire Women.Stratmann, Linda. The Secret Poisoner: A Century of MurderWatson, Katherine. Poisoned Lives: English Poisoners and Their Victims.Contemporary newspaper reports relating to the Britland case (1886).

In February 1567, an explosion destroyed a house in Edinburgh but the body of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley was found outside the ruins, untouched by the blast. His murder was never solved. This episode examines Darnley’s death within thepolitical world of sixteenth-century Scotland and the pressures facing Mary, Queen of Scots. A story of power, perception, and suspicion without proof.

Source Materials

 Darnley: A Life of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley — Caroline Bingham. Constable & Robinson, 1995.

 Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley — Alison Weir. Vintage Books, 2008.

Criminal Trials in Scotland, Volumes I–III — edited by Robert Pitcairn. Bannatyne Club, 1833.

My Heart Is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots — John Guy. Fourth Estate, 2004.

 “10 February 1567 – The Murder of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley” — Claire Ridgway, The Tudor Society.

“Murder of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley of Scotland” — Historic Mysteries.

Calendar of State Papers, Scotland, Volume 2 (1563–1569) — edited by Joseph Bain. London, 1900.

In 1924, bones emerging from the River Leine exposed the crimes of Fritz Haarmann—the “Butcher of Hanover”—who had been operating in plain sight. This episode traces the missing boys, the fractured systems that failed them, and how one city finally uncovered a killer hidden in its midst.

Source Materials

Alexander Gilbert — The Hanover Vampire: Fritz Haarmann

Mark Pulham — “The Monster of Hanover,” Crime Magazine

Maria Tatar — Lustmord: Sexual Murder in Weimar Germany

Crime Stories, Criminalistic Fantasy, and the Culture of Crisis in Weimar Germany

Sexual Murder: Catathymic and Compulsive Homicide, Annals of Forensic Research

Morgan Dunn — “Fritz Haarmann Was a Popular Butcher…” (All That’s Interesting)

Hannover Police Records (as cited through secondary sources)

Hannoverscher Kurier reporting (as cited through secondary sources)

A quiet border town, a sudden illness, and a solicitor accused of poisoning both his wife and a rival. This episode examines the Armstrong case and why, even 100 years later, it remains one of Britain’s most debated convictions.

Sources & Further Reading

Stephen Bates, The Poisonous Solicitor (2022)

Martin Beales, The Hay Poisoner: Herbert Rowse Armstrong (2001)

Robin Odell, Exhumation of a Murder (1975)

“Herbert Rowse Armstrong,” The History Room (history-room.co.uk)

Polly Botsford, “The incredible true story of the only solicitor ever to hang for murder,” Legal Cheek (legalcheek.com)

Stephanie Almazan, “Herbert Armstrong,” The Line-Up (the-line-up.com)

Nicola Bryan, “Fresh doubt cast on solicitor’s murder conviction 100 years on,” BBC News (bbc.com)

A 1932 Stockholm murder becomes one of Sweden’s strangest cold cases. When 32-year-old Lilly Lindeström is found dead in her apartment, unusual details spark rumorsof a “vampire” killer. What’s fact, what’s myth, and why was the case never solved?

Source Materials
https://gizmodo.com/swedens-most-bizarre-unsolved-murder-was-maybe-commit-1706115395
https://londonpress.wordpress.com/2016/08/24/the-disturbing-unsolved-case-of-the-atlas-vampire

https://medium.com/@marvelinemerab/she-was-killed-in-broad-daylight-and-drained-like-a-horror-story-de41701dd6bf

https://www.ranker.com/list/atlas-vampire-murder/april-a-taylor
https://strangeremains.com/2019/10/24/stockholms-unsolved-vampire-murder
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/shadow-boxing/201211/vampire-personality-disorder

https://polismuseet.se

https://stockholmskallan.stockholm.se

A woman posing as Andrew Carnegie’s secret daughter scammed banks out of today’s equivalent of $20 million—armed with nothing but forged notes and absolute confidence. This is the rise and unraveling of Cassie Chadwick, one of the boldest fraudsters of the Gilded Age.

Source Materials

Crosbie, John. The Incredible Mrs. Chadwick. 1975.

Hazelgrove, William Elliott. Greed in the Gilded Age: TheBrilliant Con of Cassie Chadwick. Lyons Press, 2021.

Wade, Carlson. Great Hoaxes & Famous Impostors. 1976.

Hayek, Caroline C.; Gates, Sandra; Rankin, Robert J. “TheSocial Construction of Fraudulent Identity.”

“Cassie Chadwick: The Female Wizard of Finance.” Ohio History Connection, June 22, 2022.

“The High Priestess of Fraudulent Finance.” SmithsonianMagazine.

Newspaper coverage quoted from: Cleveland Plain Dealer;Clinton Republican; Oberlin Review.