My Victorian Nightmare

On today’s’s episode, Genevieve will be discussing a young girl caught in a waterwheel, stonings, pickaxings, a harrowing coal oil disaster, a ludicrous fall in a church, a man’s head blown to atoms, men in drag wreaking havoc upon street harassers, a man who visit’s his wife’s grave and leaves with her - it’s not what you think, booby traps gone terribly wrong and so much more.

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References for today’s episode:

“The Frenzied Lover's Murder In Boston” - The Illustrated Police News, Mar. 14th 1872.

“Ludicrous Fall of a Young Lady in a Church at Lyons, NY” - The Illustrated Police News, Jan. 25th 1872.

“Summary Vengeance on an Insulter of Females at Bridgeport Conn.” - The Illustrated Police News, Jan. 25th 1872.

“A Lunatic Assaults the Statue of Franklin in Printing House Square” - The Illustrated Police News, Jan. 25th 1872.

“A Postmaster Shot by His Own Burglar Trap - The Illustrated Police News, Jan. 25th 1872.

“Bloody Work in John Street” - The Illustrated Police News, Jan. 11th 1872.

“Another Martyr to Coal Oil” - The Illustrated Police News, Jan. 11th 1872.

“The Newfoundland Horror” - The Illustrated Police News, Jan. 11th 1872.

“A Man Stoned to Death in Columbus Ohio” - The Illustrated Police News, Jan. 11th 1872.

“A Young Daughter of Mr. Villiton of Centerport Caught in a Water Wheel,” - The Illustrated Police News, Jan. 11th 1872.

“A Mans Head Blown to Atoms” - The Illustrated Police News, Jan. 25th 1872.

“Double Murder in Newfoundland - Hanging of a Beautiful Woman.” - The San Fransisco Examiner, Mar. 14th, 1872.

 https://www.farmcollector.com/farm-life/water-wheels-zmlz12novzbea/

http://www.thelampworks.com/lw_lamp_accidents.htm

On today’s episode, Genevieve will be discussing a topic that she’s said numerous times she would never cover: The Winchester Mystery House. She will thoroughly debunk all of the falsehoods, embellishments and downright lies about its very generous, very kind creator, Sarah (Sallie) Winchester, and her weird and wonderful house. You’ll also learn some great trivia night factoids in the process.

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References for today’s episode:

“The Frenzied Lover’s Murder in Boston” - The Illustrated Police News, Mar. 14th, 1872.

https://skepticalinquirer.org/2024/08/the-truth-about-sallie-winchester-and-the-mystery-house-that-never-was/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House

https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/real-story-behind-the-winchester-house

https://www.7x7.com/the-top-10-lies-about-the-winchester-mystery-house-1786563456.html

https://www.housebeautiful.com/design-inspiration/a27481666/winchester-mystery-house/

https://www.biography.com/personality/sarah-winchester

Ignoffo, Mary Jo. 2010. Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press.

Nickell, Joe. 2002. Winchester Mystery House: Fact vs. fiction. Skeptical Inquirer (September/October).

On today’s episode, Genevieve will discuss ghosts frightening country bumpkins, really spooky skeleton encounters, a hatchet attack by a blind man, a man trying to slice his own head off and a young lady with enough pluck and presence of mind to save the very day.

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References for today’s episode:

“A Ghost at Large” - The Illustrated Police News, Sept. 10th, 1881.

“A Baltimore Woman Killed by a Blind Man” - The Illustrated Police News, Dec. 14th, 1871

"A Burglar Bitten by a Skeleton" The Illustrated Police News - Jun. 27th, 1874.

"The Discovery of Skeletons at Birmingham" - The Illustrated Police News - Jun. 21st, 1879.

"Extraordinary Discovery of a Skeleton" - The Illustrated Police News - Jul. 16th, 1870.

"A Horrible Story From the Sea" - The Illustrated Police News - Oct. 26th, 1872.

“Foreign Arrivals and Sailings” - Glasgow Herald - Apr. 4th, 1872.

“A Brother of the Baltimore Borgia Attempts Suicide” - The Illustrated Police News - Nov. 30th, 1871. 

“Pluck and Presence of Mind” - The Illustrated Police News - May. 20th, 1875.

“Foreign Arrivals and Sailings” - Glasgow Herald - Apr. 4th, 1872.

https://www.murderbygaslight.com/2021/08/a-baltimore-borgia.html

https://www.tasanet.com/Knowledge-Center/Articles/ArtMID/477/ArticleID/338920/Forensic-Analysis-of-Injury-and-Death-by-Asphyxiation#:~:text=Postmortem%20examinations%2C%20review%20of%20medical,the%20skin%20and%20the%20scalp.

On today’s episode, Genevieve will discuss the all-female Victorian gang, the 40 Elephants, as well as the thieving, poisoning, barbarous, butchering Belle Gunness: Hell’s Belle herself. 

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References for today’s show:

https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/triflers-need-not-apply-the-sNexttory-of-deadly-belle-gunness

https://www.nydailynews.com/2014/11/30/belle-gunness-queen-of-black-widows-murdered-dozens-and-planted-victims-around-farm/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Gunness

https://www.crimelibrary.org/serial_killers/history/gunness/index_1.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-100-year-mystery-of-lady-bluebeard/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Khlysty 

https://murderpedia.org/female.G/g/gunness-belle.htm

“A Headless Ghost in Buckinghamshire” - The Illustrated Police News, January 8th, 1898.

On today’s episode, Genevieve will discuss a ghost sighting of the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, an insane hatchet murder, a brass burglar blown away by a buckshot, a demented opera singer’s stalker, a lamp light disaster, a gory game of cards, a nearly naked man frozen to death in a sinkhole, and much, much more!

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References for today’s episode:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Lady_of_Raynham_Hall

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Nilsson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_laundry

https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/history-of-vaccination/history-of-smallpox-vaccination

“Murder at Louisville” - The Oregonian, January, 10th 1872.

“A Swedish Horror” - The Sioux City Journal, September 25th, 1885.

"Mother in Lawlessness" - The Illustrated Police News, January 4th, 1872.

"A Burglar Killed by a Trap Gun" - The Illustrated Police News, January 4th, 1872.

"Miss Nilsson's Demented Lover" - The Illustrated Police News, January 4th, 1872.

"A Life of Shame Quickly Ended " - The Illustrated Police News, January 4th, 1872.

"An Affecting Scene"- The Illustrated Police News, January 4th, 1872.

"A Gory Game of Cards" - The Illustrated Police News, January 4th, 1872.

"A Doctor Insane with Smallpox Freezes to Death on an Iowa Prairie"- The Illustrated Police News, January 11th, 1872.

On today’s episode, Genevieve will discuss the case of “The Richmond Murderess,” Kate Webster. This story has everything: a brutal murder, a dismembering, mysterious skulls, ghost nuns, cutting edge execution techniques and Sir David Attenborough intricately knitted into the very fabric of this bone chilling saga.

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References for today's episode:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Julia_Martha_Thomas

https://www.theregister.com/2011/07/06/barnes_mystery/

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-14374296#:~:text=Nowadays%20it%20would%20seem%20almost,crime%20in%20England%20and%20Wales.

“Influence of Kate Webster” - The Illustrated Police News, August 23rd, 1879.

“The Richmond Murder” - Daily News, July 4th, 1879.

“The Richmond Murder, Trial of Catherine Webster” - The Guardian, July 4th 1879.

On today’s episode, Genevieve will have a number of love-sick murderers, bad words that we’re allowed to use, so many gun fights, so many brains, a corpse concealed in a glen, Rasputin’s favorite sex cult, waxed mustaches, a dead robber baron at a seance, and much more.

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References for today's episode:

https://www.murderbygaslight.com/2022/07/dr.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fisk_(financier)

“Matricide and Self-Murder” - The Illustrated Police News, November 30th, 1871.

“Bad Tom” Smith - The Illustrated Police News, July 6th, 1895.

“It’s Not Use Trying to be Good” - The Illustrated Police News, May 20th, 1875.

“Criminal Capers” - The Illustrated Police News, July 6th, 1876.

“A Married Man, After Cohabiting with a Young Lady, Kills Her With Poison” - The Illustrated Police News, November 30th, 1871.

“A Father Taken At His Word - What Whisky Did for a Young Man in Kansas” - The Illustrated Police News, November 16th, 1871.

“How the Liquor Law is Enforced in New Bedford, Mass.” - The Illustrated Police News, December, 7th 1871.

“A Lovesick Sunday Superintendent Blows His Brains Out” - The Illustrated Police News, November 23, 1871.

“Mysteries of Spiritualism” - The Illustrated Police News, January 4th, 1872.

On today’s episode, Genevieve is talking about Victorian era cults: the bonkers beliefs, the scandals, manipulation, devil children, corpses in bath tubs, custom tea blends, and what inspired these cults to come about in the first place.

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References for today’s episode:

https://medium.com/@pau1morgan/the-lampeter-brethren-a-victorian-sex-cult-e318213d7b7f

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agapemonites

https://www.utopia-britannica.org.uk/pages/abode%20of%20love.htm

https://headstuff.org/culture/history/terrible-people-from-history/henry-james-prince-john-hugh-smyth-pigott-agapemonite-messiahs/

https://digitalcommons.hamilton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?params=/context/acsq/article/1490/&path_info=ACSQ_2021.02_130.pdf

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koreshan_Unity

https://floridatraveler.com/koreshan-state-park/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/917741876/?match=1&terms=Agapemonite

https://medium.com/illumination/blurred-lines-how-our-culture-echoes-cult-like-patterns-181bcb9b600a

https://conflicttransformation.substack.com/p/responding-to-cults-as-a-social-conflict

On today’s episode, Genevieve will have a deathbed confession, the accidental death of a horse fancier, a horrific elevator accident, a horrific mowing machine accident, naughty picture book advertisements, a butchered brother in law, a case of Victorian cat fishing, a hairbreadth escape, and more!

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References for today’s episode:

“The Avondale Horror. A Deathbed Confession” - The Illustrated Police News, November 30, 1871.

“A Bottle of Horse Medicine Kills a Horse Fancier” - The Illustrated Police News, December 21, 1871.

“A Chambermaid Crushed by an Elevator” - The Illustrated Police News, December 14, 1871.

“A Man Butchers his Brother In Law in Tippecanoe, Ohio - Tragical Result of a Whisky Quarrel” - The Illustrated Police News, November 9th, 1871.

“Marrying By a Photographic Proxy - An innocent Nebraskan Ensnared by a Touched-Up Picture” - The Illustrated Police News, December 28, 1871.

“A Truly Terrible Death - A mowing machine Literally Slices a Man to Pieces” - The Illustrated Police News, August 29th, 1873.

“Affray Between Two Ladies of Fashion in the Streets of St. Louis” - The Illustrated Police News, December 7, 1871.

“A Saddening Story” - The Illustrated Police News, January 4th, 1872.

“A Hairbreadth Escape - A Mississippi Girl Saves a Drowning Man in a Curious Manner” - The Illustrated Police News, August 28, 1873.

https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2022/09/fifth-avenue-hotel-opulence-atop.html

https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2010/10/i-sit-on-your-grave-new-yorks-hidden.html

https://wynninghistory.com/2019/03/04/avondale/

https://thetroyhistoricalsociety.org/obits/John%20Aston.htm

On today’s episode, Genevieve will discuss the repugnant trade of body snatching in the Victorian era, she’ll discuss the ways families fought back, she’ll introduce you to the 2 most infamous body snatchers of all time; Burke and Hare, and we’ll run into a few friends along the way.

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References for today’s episode:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_and_Hare_murders

https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.24794

https://www.civilwarmed.org/bodysnatching/

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/coffin-torpedos

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84028490/1881-01-20/ed-1/seq-8/

https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/beating-the-bodysnatchers

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/grave-guns-coffin-torpedoes-vintage-defenses-aimed-foil-grave-robbers/

https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=history

https://history.utk.edu/from-grave-robbing-to-giving-your-own-body-to-science-a-short-history-of-where-medical-schools-get-cadavers/