Synodus Horrenda

In this new series we look at the history of blood feuds, starting with an obscure and scattered story from the era of Anglo-Saxon England, and a series of killings between two family lines that took place over 60 years of political upheaval, warfare and conquest, with cameo appearances from Macbeth and Lady Godiva.

 

Our primary source for this episode is "Bloodfeud: Murder and Revenge in Anglo-Saxon England" by Richard Fletcher

 

For the intro on the Regulator-Moderator War, our primary source was this article from the Texas State Historical Association: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/regulator-moderator-war

 

Music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org

You can support the show on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/SynodusHorrenda where for $5 a month you will receive access to short monthly bonus episodes. We are now offering monthly Zoom meetings for all Patreon subscribers regardless of how much you subscribe for. You can also follow us on twitter @SynodusPod and on Instagram at SynodusHorrendaPod. We now offer t-shirts at https://synodushorrenda.threadless.com/

In this episode we conclude our series on shipwrecks by looking at the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, a US Navy cruiser sunk by a Japanese submarine near the end of World War II. The nearly 900 survivors of the sinking were left adrift for days with no food or water, combating the elements and massing of sharks that picked them off one by one.

Our primary source for this episode is "In Harms Way" by Doug Stanton

 

Music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org

You can support the show on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/SynodusHorrenda where for $5 a month you will receive access to short monthly bonus episodes. We are now offering monthly Zoom meetings for all Patreon subscribers regardless of how much you subscribe for. You can also follow us on twitter @SynodusPod and on Instagram at SynodusHorrendaPod. We now offer t-shirts at https://synodushorrenda.threadless.com/

For our annual Christmas Eve ghost story, a reading of Edith Wharton's classic short story, "The Eyes," first published in 1910.

In this episode we look at the sinking of the Lusitania, a British passenger liner that was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915, killing over a thousand people, including 128 Americans, and helping move the then neutral United States toward joining the Allied powers. 

 

Sources for this episode are:

"Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy" by Diana Preston

 

https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2008/february/truth-about-tonkin

 

Music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org

You can support the show on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/SynodusHorrenda where for $5 a month you will receive access to short monthly bonus episodes. We are now offering monthly Zoom meetings for all Patreon subscribers regardless of how much you subscribe for. You can also follow us on twitter @SynodusPod and on Instagram at SynodusHorrendaPod. We now offer t-shirts at https://synodushorrenda.threadless.com/

In this episode we look at one of the most famous shipwrecks in world history: The sinking of the Titanic. An event layered in myth, melodrama and sentimentality, it captured the attention of the world and led to vast changes in international shipping. However, the event is much more political, more troubling and more relevant to today than it is often given credit for.

The primary sources for the episode are:

"Titanic: End of a Dream" by Wyn Craig Wade

"The Story of the Titanic as Told By Its Survivors" edited by Jack Winocour

 

Music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org

You can support the show on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/SynodusHorrenda where for $5 a month you will receive access to short monthly bonus episodes. We are now offering monthly Zoom meetings for all Patreon subscribers regardless of how much you subscribe for. You can also follow us on twitter @SynodusPod and on Instagram at SynodusHorrendaPod. We now offer t-shirts at https://synodushorrenda.threadless.com/

In this episode we look at the mystery of the Mary Celeste, a merchant ship that in 1872 was found having been abandoned for over a week floating in the Atlantic ocean, all who had been aboard it missing for no reason that anyone could discover, the ship still in good working order. We'll look at the history of the ship both before and after this incident, as well as how the mystery reverberated through history, the legend expanding and growing over time.

Our primary source for this episode is "Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew" by Brian Hicks

Music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org

You can support the show on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/SynodusHorrenda where for $5 a month you will receive access to short monthly bonus episodes. We are now offering quarterly Zoom meetings for all Patreon subscribers regardless of how much you subscribe for. You can also follow us on twitter @SynodusPod and on Instagram at SynodusHorrendaPod. We now offer t-shirts at https://synodushorrenda.threadless.com/

In this episode we look at the wreck of the Essex, a whaling ship out of Nantucket that in 1820 was attacked by a giant sperm whale in the Pacific and sunk, leaving its 20 man crew drifting on three whaleboats thousands of miles from land. The journey they took is a terrifying story of the limits of human survival, and became an inspiration for Herman Melville's novel 1851 novel "Moby Dick."

Our primary sources for this episode are:

"In the Heart of the Sea" by Nathan Philbrick

"The Loss of the Whale Ship Essex, Sunk by a Whale: First Person Accounts" by Owen Chase, Thomas Nickerson and others

Music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org

You can support the show on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/SynodusHorrenda where for $5 a month you will receive access to short monthly bonus episodes. We are now offering quarterly Zoom meetings for all Patreon subscribers regardless of how much you subscribe for. You can also follow us on twitter @SynodusPod and on Instagram at SynodusHorrendaPod. We now offer t-shirts at https://synodushorrenda.threadless.com/

In this episode, the first of a six part series on the history of shipwrecks, we look at one of the most famous shipwrecks of the 19th century. In 1816 a French frigate called the Medusa, through the poor leadership of its captain, struck a sandbank in route the Senegal. Without enough lifeboats, 147 passengers were put on a makeshift raft that was soon cut loose while the rest of the passengers fled. Left floating for almost two weeks, the raft of the Medusa became a tale of the terrible cost of survival and had ramifications through France's political world, and inspired one of the world's most famous paintings.

Our primary source for this episode was "The Wreck of the Medusa" by Jonathan Mills.

Music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org

You can support the show on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/SynodusHorrenda where for $5 a month you will receive access to short monthly bonus episodes. We are now offering quarterly Zoom meetings for all Patreon subscribers regardless of how much you subscribe for. You can also follow us on twitter @SynodusPod and on Instagram at SynodusHorrendaPod. We now offer t-shirts at https://synodushorrenda.threadless.com/

In this episode, the first in an occasional series on the executions and executioners, we look at the issue of botched executions, instances when the normal procedure of a state execution goes tragically, sometimes gruesomely wrong. Through this we look through a brief history of executions, from beheadings to modern lethal injections.

Sources for this episode include the follow:

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/botched-executions

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/05/mary-fallin-is-responsible-for-clayton-locketts-botched-execution-the-oklahoma-governor-wanted-his-death.html

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Execution_of_John_Louis_Evans_May_4,_1983:_First_Person_Account

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/us/ledell-lee-dna-testing-arkansas.html

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21518906/

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/12/13/The-execution-early-Tuesday-of-Raymond-Landry-was-interrupted/4883597992400/

 

Music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org

You can support the show on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/SynodusHorrenda where for $5 a month you will receive access to short monthly bonus episodes. We are now offering quarterly Zoom meetings for all Patreon subscribers regardless of how much you subscribe for. You can also follow us on twitter @SynodusPod and on Instagram at SynodusHorrendaPod. We now offer t-shirts at https://synodushorrenda.threadless.com/

In the final entry for our series on unsolved serial killer cases, we look at the Zodiac Killer, who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area with a string of killings from 1968-69 and then for years after with disturbing letters sent to the local press. 

Our primary sources for this episode were:

"Zodiac" by Robert Graysmith

www.zodiackiller.com

http://www.strangemag.com/exorcistpage1.html

Music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org

You can support the show on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/SynodusHorrenda where for $5 a month you will receive access to short monthly bonus episodes. We are now offering quarterly Zoom meetings for all Patreon subscribers regardless of how much you subscribe for. You can also follow us on twitter @SynodusPod and on Instagram at SynodusHorrendaPod. We now offer t-shirts at https://synodushorrenda.threadless.com/