Poison artisans Giulia Tofana and Gironima Spana took all the power held hostage in their time by men and placed it in the hands of women. Join us as we go deep into the rise and fall of the world’s most infamous poison and sought after skin care line: Aqua Tofana.

Last week we told Guilia's story and this week we tell Gironima's.  Gironima Spana was a savvy business woman who took the recipe for Aqua Tofana and created an empire run by women for women. Empires however, have a tendency to fall. In its own time the Spana Prosecution as it came to be known was a sensational, news worthy event, but after the pope locked away all the documents from the trial, the true story of the women poisoners of Rome disappeared and all that remained was a half baked legend. Thankfully the documents resurfaced over 200 years later and they revealed a nuanced, intelligent and incredibly dramatic tale that we cannot wait to share with you.

Click to learn more

*The Black Widows of the Eternal City: The True Story of Rome's Most Infamous Prisoners

A famous and incredibly thorough article by Mike Dash

*Affiliated link

WWBD Merch Shop

Buy us a cup of validation

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 1

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 2

Shadows of Christmas (WWBD Christmas Album)

Try Audible Plus

Give the Gift of Audible!

Kindle Unlimited Membership

Amazon Prime Free Trial

We wanted to end women’s history month with a bang, so we decided to deliver this much requested case in a way you’ve probably never heard it before, the way it actually happened. What was once thought to be the story of one woman, is actually that of a mother daughter dynasty. Poison artisans Giulia Tofana and Gironima Spana took all the power held hostage in their time by men and placed it in the hands of women. Join us as we go deep into the rise and fall of the world’s most infamous poison and sought after skin care line: Aqua Tofana.

Click to learn more

*The Black Widows of the Eternal City: The True Story of Rome's Most Infamous Prisoners

A famous and incredibly thorough article by Mike Dash

Leiden Medievalists Blog - Female Make Up and Beauty Standards of the 1600s

Evie Magazine - The Weird and Dangerous Beauty Standards of Renaissance Italy

*Affiliated link

WWBD Merch Shop

Buy us a cup of validation

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 1

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 2

Shadows of Christmas (WWBD Christmas Album)

Shore Soaps

Try Audible Plus

Give the Gift of Audible!

Kindle Unlimited Membership

Amazon Prime Free Trial

Greetings fiends, it’s time for our 2023 St. Patrick’s Day offering!

Every we find some wild Irish stories and folklore for you, so we can celebrate one of the most magical and terrifying places in folkloric history. 

Click to learn more

Red Mary Irish Folklore

Wiki - Red Mary

The Last Leprechauns of Ireland - Kevin "McCoillte" Woods

WWBD Merch Shop

Buy us a cup of validation

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 1

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 2

Shadows of Christmas (WWBD Christmas Album)

Shore Soaps

Try Audible Plus

Give the Gift of Audible!

Kindle Unlimited Membership

Amazon Prime Free Trial

On December 2nd 1991,Costa Mesa CA police arrested 23 year old Egyptian former model Omaima Nelson for the murder of her 56 year old husband Bill. Omaima had confessed to a former boyfriend on December 1st when she showed up at his home with a suitcase of unidentifiable body parts. 

Investigators were immediately sent to the Nelson residence, and while they didn’t expect the scene to be neat and tidy or even easy to stomach, they couldn't possibly have prepared themselves for what they found. It didn't look like a crime of passion had occurred, It looked like a cannibal’s test kitchen.

Click to learn more

Egypt UNFPA - FGM

World Health Organization - FGM

https://www.ocregister.com/2011/10/06/woman-who-dismembered-husband-denied-parole/

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-12-03-me-526-story.html

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-01-13-mn-1395-story.html

WWBD Merch Shop

Buy us a cup of validation

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 1

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 2

Shadows of Christmas (WWBD Christmas Album)

Shore Soaps

Try Audible Plus

Give the Gift of Audible!

Kindle Unlimited Membership

Amazon Prime Free Trial

Jolly Jane Toppan was a bubbly nurse and caregiver who was know in the late 1800's Boston area for her extreme compassion and dedication to her patients. Jane was a natural fit to take care of the sick and elderly, as she was patient and always in a good mood. Her kind eyes, matronly appearance and jovial smile made Jane easy to trust and a breath of fresh air in the cold clinical light of a hospital, it was so nice to have a person as caring as Jane in their corner in what would often be the last moments of there life. Therein lied the problem for Jane, it seemed that more and more of her patients were winding up dead. By the time Jane was apprehended she confessed to over 30 murders though most suspect it could be more. Join us for this exploration a seldom discussed character in the true crime sphere, the serial killing woman. 

Click to learn more

WWBD Merch Shop

Buy us a cup of validation

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 1

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 2

Shadows of Christmas (WWBD Christmas Album)

Shore Soaps

Try Audible Plus

Give the Gift of Audible!

Kindle Unlimited Membership

Amazon Prime Free Trial

On Sunday February 13th 2000, 9 year old Asha Degree went to church, went home, spent the day with her family and went to bed on time. The next morning her mother opened her door at 6:30 am, expecting to see her sleepy 4th grader burrowed under her covers, instead she opened the door to find an empty bed, no sign anywhere in the house of Asha, and no one ever saw or heard from her again.

What tiny pieces  of the story the police could uncover made little to no sense. It appeared, astonishingly, that Asha actually had run away. This is a highly unusual case, at just 9 years old we have to assume that Asha wasn't just trying to make her own way in the world, if she ran there had to be something or someone she was running to... or from. 

If you have any information about Asha Degree, please call the tip line at (704) 672-6100 or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST, that's 1-800-843-5678. 

Click to learn more

https://www.actus-reus.com/asha-degree-timeline

https://www.fbi.gov/video-repository/inside-the-fbi-searching-for-asha-degree-021422.mp4/view

https://findingashadegree.wordpress.com/a-ashas-story-a-summary-of-circumstances/b-ashas-disappearance-the-timeline/

https://findingashadegree.wordpress.com/a-ashas-story-a-summary-of-circumstances/b-ashas-disappearance-the-timeline/

http://www.webbsleuths.com/cgi-bin/dcf/dcboard.cgi?az=printer_format&forum=MC&om=249&omm=8

WWBD Merch Shop

Buy us a cup of validation

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 1

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 2

Shadows of Christmas (WWBD Christmas Album)

Shore Soaps

Try Audible Plus

Give the Gift of Audible!

Kindle Unlimited Membership

Amazon Prime Free Trial

Fiends! We Would Be Dead has turned 3! In honor of our first episode "Gross Love" (and Valentines Day of course), we would like to offer you a strange and unusual story swap about love affairs gone wrong. Leslie brings us the story of Penelope Jackson, a lovely British Nana who simply had enough (Do NOT insult a woman's favorite side dish, it never ends well.) and Holly tells us the story of Florida's own killer clown. One might think Florida has seen many a killer clown, but no, just one. Here's to three years of fake short stories, true long stories, history, horror, humor, important lessons, fun facts and lots and lots of Validation.  TOAST!

Click to learn more

999 Call between Penny Jackson and Dispatcher 

BBC-Penny and David Jackson case

Daily Mail (Penny Jackson)

Penny Jackson's Confession note

Penny Jackson and her husbands

https://www.foxnews.com/us/inside-florida-killer-clown-murder-carnations-balloons-fatal-gunshot-focus-decades-old-case

https://abcnews.go.com/US/killer-clown-suspects-husband-insists-shes-falsely-accused/story?id=50536783

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5642465/Son-mother-shot-dead-killer-clown-1990-gives-emotional-interview.html

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/crime/2022/10/11/true-crime-clown-killer-wellington-florida-accused-marlene-warren-murder/8035633001/

https://www.local10.com/topic/Marlene_Warren/

https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/2017/09/27/after-27-years-arrest-made-shooting-florida-clown/15774591007/

WWBD Merch Shop

Buy us a cup of validation

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 1

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 2

Shadows of Christmas (WWBD Christmas Album)

Shore Soaps

Try Audible Plus

Give the Gift of Audible!

Kindle Unlimited Membership

Amazon Prime Free Trial

On April 3, 2004, 23 year old Alonzo Brooks left his home in Gardner Kansas with three friends to attend a party. He said goodbye to his mother, Maria,  and hopped into a friends car. This was the last time Alonzo’s mother would ever see him alive. 

The next day when Alonzo hadn't returned home, Maria knew something was wrong, she contacted his friends and tried to retrace his steps to see where he could be. Instead of finding her son however, Maria discovered a tangled web of disjointed. It seems that Alonzo was left alone at a party an hour away with no car and no way to get home. After a month long police investigation turns up nothing, Alonzo's family organized their own search. Scarcely an hour into their search, in an area that had been cleared many times, Alonzo's family discovered his body. How does a person disappear without a trace, only to reappear a month later as if by magic, dead? We don't know, but one thing is for sure, there is more to this case than meets the eye. 

Click to learn more

https://kansaspublicradio.org/local-news/2021-03-02/racist-history-still-haunts-hays-and-other-kansas-towns

https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2021-03-02/what-the-history-of-noose-road-tells-us-about-kansas-race-and-the-lynchings-of-black-men

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1993/11/20/431093.html?pageNumber=26

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/06/us/alonzo-brooks-case-ruled-homicide-unsolved-mysteries-trnd/index.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/new-autopsy-report-reveals-2004-death-alonzo-brooks-was-homicide-n1263108

https://www.abhmuseum.org/sundown-towns-the-past-and-present-of-racial-segregation/

https://www.britannica.com/place/sundown-town

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/marion-indiana-lynching-1930/

https://www.abhmuseum.org/an-iconic-lynching-in-the-north/

Cold Case Kansas Blog

Unsolved Mysteries

WWBD Merch Shop

Buy us a cup of validation

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 1

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 2

Shadows of Christmas (WWBD Christmas Album)

Shore Soaps

Try Audible Plus

Give the Gift of Audible!

Kindle Unlimited Membership

Amazon Prime Free Trial

On April 3, 2004, 23 year old Alonzo Brooks left his home in Gardner Kansas with three friends to attend a party. He said goodbye to his mother, Maria,  and hopped into a friends car. This was the last time Alonzo’s mother would ever see him alive. 

The next day when Alonzo hadn't returned home, Maria knew something was wrong, she contacted his friends and tried to retrace his steps to see where he could be. Instead of finding her son however, Maria discovered a tangled web of disjointed. It seems that Alonzo was left alone at a party an hour away with no car and no way to get home. After a month long police investigation turns up nothing, Alonzo's family organized their own search. Scarcely an hour into their search, in an area that had been cleared many times, Alonzo's family discovered his body. How does a person disappear without a trace, only to reappear a month later as if by magic, dead? We don't know, but one thing is for sure, there is more to this case than meets the eye. 

Click to learn more

Cold Case Kansas Blog

Unsolved Mysteries

WWBD Merch Shop

Buy us a cup of validation

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 2

Shadows of Christmas (WWBD Christmas Album)

Shore Soaps

Try Audible Plus

Give the Gift of Audible!

Kindle Unlimited Membership

Amazon Prime Free Trial

On April 18th 1943 in Worcestershire England, (yes like the sauce no one can pronounce) 4 young boys looking for birds eggs crept into Hagley Wood. Hagley wood was a mysterious place. Located on the grounds of the partially abandoned Hagley Hall, Hagley woods were dotted with neglected temples and statues, overgrown landscaping and ancient stately trees. But one tree stood out among the rest. A tree almost entirely comprised of sharp, leafless twigs jutting out at severe angles, a gnarled, menacing, leafless wych elm. Most people would steer clear of such a thing, but the boys knew this kind of tree was the perfect place to hide nests. When they looked inside it's large and hollow trunk however, they didn't find birds, they didn't find eggs, they found a body, and unearthed a mystery that hangs over the village of Hagley to this very day. Who put Bella in the Wych Elm? This story may be familiar to some, but our dive is DEEP. 

Click to learn more

From the Worcestershire county council

Josef Jakobs Blog

British Newspaper Archive, create a free account to see all original articles

Explore Hagley Hall

WWBD Merch Shop

Buy us a cup of validation

WWBD Official Soundtrack, Vol. 2

Shadows of Christmas (WWBD Christmas Album)

Shore Soaps

Try Audible Plus

Give the Gift of Audible!

Kindle Unlimited Membership

Amazon Prime Free Trial