YESTERDAY’S NEWS --

Tales of classic scandals, scoundrels and scourges told from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism...

The Philadelphia Arsenic Ring

Episode 181 takes us down a dark road of spiritualism and witchcraft, of an elaborate web that led to an estimated 200 deaths by various means including arsenic poisoning, and two executions and 12 life sentences as a consequence. In a sidebar that I am posting as a separate episode, “The South Philly Witch Doctor,” you can hear a first-person account of the mystic practices behind this stunning conspiracy.

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Theme Music by Dave Sams and Rachel Schott, engineered by David Hisch at Third Street Music.

Media management by Sean R. Jones

Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun