* You may hear a bit of audio distortion toward the end. I'm traveling for the holidays, but I still wanted to bring you this week’s episode! Thanks for understanding! 

Before revolution swept Russia into chaos, the Romanov dynasty was at a crossroads. Nicholas II inherited a vast empire he was never fully prepared to rule, and the entire family found themselves at the center of a storm they couldn’t escape.

 The stage was being set for terrible crimes to come...

 The murders of Andrew and Abby Borden shocked Fall River...but the trial that followed would capture the entire nation. 

In Part II, we step inside the packed courtroom to unravel the evidence, the contradictions, and the spectacle that turned a family tragedy into America’s first true “media crime.”

Through Victorian criminology and social ideas of gendered crime, we follow how Lizzie Borden went from a quiet churchwoman to a national headline....and why the jury’s decision remains debated more than a century later. 

Long before the murders that made her a household name, Lizzie Borden lived in a world shaped by Victorian rules. The strict gender expectations, family duty, and an obsession with reputation. Fall River’s elite valued quiet conformity, and the Borden household embodied those values almost to a fault.

But under that stillness, resentments were simmering. Money, inheritance, a strained step-mother relationship, mysterious illnesses, and rumors of break-ins all chipped away at the peace of 92 Second Street.

 In Part II, of the Witch Trials in Würzburg... Terror reaches a new height. The city’s prisons overflow, and families vanish overnight. Even noble blood can’t save you when suspicion becomes divine truth.
We’ll trace how fear turned systematic.... and read the chilling letters left behind by those condemned.
How could an entire city lose itself so completely in the name of righteousness? 

Amazon.com: The Hangman's Daughter (US Edition) (Hangman's Daughter Tales Book 1) eBook : Pötzsch, Oliver, Corley, M.S., Chadeayne, Lee: Kindle Store

In the early 1600s, the city of Würzburg stood at the crossroads of faith and fear. As famine, plague, and war closed in, suspicion took root... and soon, neighbor turned against neighbor. Witch trials spread like wildfire across Franconia, fueled by rumor, zealotry, and the iron grip of the Counter-Reformation. 

It's London in 1888...Fear has already gripped the East End. In the wake of the “Double Event,” the hunt for Jack the Ripper intensifies, but the killings only get worse, and theories seem to multiply. In this episode, we trace the investigation through the early days until modern times.

We’ll explore the suspects who seem to have been hiding in plain sight.

Before the murders began, London was already unraveling. Poverty, overcrowding, and disease turned Whitechapel into a place of desperation...The uneasy mix of empire, industry, and inequality paved the way for darkness.

Part I explores the world of late Victorian London and the real lives of the women who became the victims in this story. This isn’t just the tale of a killer, it’s the story of the city that created him.

For the Jack the Ripper Goodreads Shelf:
True Crime of the Historical Kind’s 'jack-the-ripper' books on Goodreads (10 books)

PBS Masterpiece Theater Favorites:

Bleak House | PBS

The Mystery of Edwin Drood | PBS

Watch Tess of the D'urbervilles Season 1 | Prime Video

Little Dorrit | PBS

As tensions in Tombstone reach a breaking point, uneasy truces give way to open threats. In Part II, the line between law and vengeance begins to blur, and the cost of order grows dangerously high...

True Crime of the Historical Kind’s 'the-tombstone-blood-feud' books on Goodreads (4 books)

Tombstone was a boomtown built on silver, ambition, and blood in the wild west. The Earps arrive in a town teetering between law and lawlessness where fortunes rise fast, grudges run deep, and a single spark could ignite a war.

Edward Plantagenet, the 17th Earl of Warwick, was born into royal power...and forgotten behind the walls of the Tower of London. Living in the shadow of his infamous cousins, the missing Princes in the Tower, his story unfolds during the infamous Wars of the Roses. 

Yet, his life was more than a footnote to their mystery. As the last male Plantagenet with a considerable claim to the English throne, Edward’s story is one of innocence, bloodline, and betrayal in a kingdom still haunted by civil war and transitioning into Tudor England.