Dark Histories

Here's the bonus episode to fill the Season 1 break. We're rolling back to a little known Christmas tradition of sitting around the fire and telling creepy stories. This episode features stories sent to me from listeners especially for the episode. Ho Ho Ho. For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories Connect with me on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast Or find me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories Or you can contact me directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com Music was recorded by me © 2017 Other Intro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

This week is the final episode of 2017 and the final episode of Season 1. We take a look at some of the folklore behind Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas and specifically, his band of little helpers, who have a much darker history than the elves of today might let on.

This week we go true crime and take a look at a case of "accidental death" which appears to be anything but. Joshua Maddux went missing in 2008 and seven years later, was found in the chimney of a cabin just two blocks from his home. The question remains, how did he get there? For more in-depth show notes, including maps, links and full scripts for each episode, visit darkhistories.com

This week we look at the life of Omm Sety, an Egyptologist who claimed to have had a past life as an Egyptian priestess and reincarnated 3000 years later. For more in-depth show notes, including maps, links and full scripts for each episode, visit darkhistories.com

In the early hours of New Year's morning, 1886, Adelaide Blanche Bartlett roused her landlord in Pimlico, London with a few simple words: “come down, I think Mr Bartlett is dead”. She had awoken suddenly, sitting at the foot of her bed where she had dozed off earlier that night to find the feet of her husband. Thomas Edwin Bartlett, stone cold. During the following days, a postmortem was conducted and evidence found of a large quantity of Chloroform in the stomach of the deceased, however, there were no signs of how it had been ingested. There were no burns, nor were there any sores or other signs of irritation that would usually line the mouth and throat from drinking such a caustic poison. In the words of Sir Charles Russell, the Attorney General who oversaw the inquest: “How came the Chloroform there?” For more in-depth show notes, including maps, links and full scripts for each episode, visit darkhistories.com

This episode we take a look at the tale of Peter Stumpp. a man known as the Werewolf of Bedburg, who made a pact with the devil in trade for the ability to turn into a werewolf. We dig a little into the history of the folklore behind werewolves and have a look at the popular theories for the tale. For more in-depth show notes, including maps, links and full scripts for each episode, visit darkhistories.com

This week is a monster episode, detailing the life of Terri Hoffman, the leader of a cult called Conscious Development of Body Mind and Soul, who fought Black Lords in the spiritual realm and on the side, benefitted financially from a dozen mysterious deaths. For more in-depth show notes, including maps, links and full scripts for each episode, visit darkhistories.com

Working from contemporary German primary sources, this week we go in deep and take a look at the mysterious case of the Hinterkaifeck murders, a gruesome event from Germany in 1922, surrounded by suspicion and intrigue, but never solved. For more extensive show notes, including maps, links and scripts, visit http://darkhistories.com

In this episode, we take a look at a mystery that is local to me, the dark and winding story of the satanic and occult practices rumoured to take place in the Clapham Wood area in Sussex, UK. Linked with strange disappearances, bizarre phenomena and more seriously, four mysterious deaths. For more extensive show notes, including maps, links and scripts, visit http://darkhistories.com

In this episode, we dig into the history of Spontaneous Human Combustion and take a look at several historical cases dating from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, along with the theories of the times. We then jump forward and have a look at two modern cases, that of Mary Reeser in Florida, and Michael Faherty from Galway, Ireland. For more extensive show notes, including maps, links and scripts, visit http://darkhistories.com

This week, we detail the history of the Vampire, from screen to the dark myths and very real folklore of Eastern Europe. Vampires are a staple in horror fiction the world over, the charismatic lady-killer or seductive succubi, biting necks and sucking the blood of their victims as they sleep. Equally popular in pop culture as they are to horror fans, poring over black and white B-movies, the character of the vampire holds universal appeal and to most, even those not usually prone to scepticism, remain completely fictional. How can we explain then, the old folk stories, stated squarely and insistently as fact, that vampires, risen from the dead, stalked townsfolk and terrorised entire villages at night? Stranger still, that remains excavated in Bulgaria, Slovakia and right across Europe, staked into their coffins with Iron nails, teeth removed and bricks forced into their gaping mouths, have been found in their hundreds providing compelling evidence for said tales.  For more extensive show notes, including maps, links and scripts, visit http://darkhistories.com

In February of 1855, Britain was deep in the midst of one of the coldest winters recorded. Minus temperatures were reported from January to March, the nights were long and the conditions severe. In the early morning of the 9th February, people across the rural, South West counties of England were waking up after another night of heavy snowfall. As they went about their daily chores, a steady rumbling begun to roll through the small villages and across the bleak farmlands. Rumours were spreading of a trail of prints in the snow. A trail which leapt walls climbed haystacks, walked on rooftops and seemed to extend for miles upon miles, across rivers and through towns. Each step in the snow left a cloven hoof print, yet it appeared that whatever left it had walked upright on two legs. For more extensive show notes, including maps, links and scripts, visit http://darkhistories.com

On the 26th December 1900, a small ship approached the remote island of Eilean Mor. It was a small eruption of land, uninhabited aside from a small battery of 3 men, whose job was to operate and maintain the isles lighthouse. The relief vessel Hesperus was to bring supplies and rotate a fourth member of the Lighthouse team. As the ship closed in on the barren Isle, the sight of the lighthouse on the edge of a sheer cliff sprung out from a bleak landscape. Joseph Moore, the member of the lighthouse crew who would be rotating in, noted that curiously, there was no flag flying on the flagpole, nor were there any provision boxes placed out for restocking. The crew on the boat fired off several blasts of the horn, splitting the quiet air. As they waited for a sign or reply from the lighthouse, an ominous feeling hit Joseph, things, it appeared, were not quite right on Eilean Mor. For more extensive show notes, including maps, links and scripts, visit http://darkhistories.com

In 1943, four young boys, out poaching in Hagley Wood came across a large Wych Elm, a broad, spiderlike tree. One of the boys begun climbing the tree to look for birds eggs and upon reaching the topmost branches, looked down to find the tree was curiously hollow. Inside the inky blackness of the broad trunk there was no trace of any bird nests, instead, he saw a human skull staring blankly back at him.

On the night of February 14th, 1945. The body of Charles Walton was found on a farm in Lower Quinton, Warwickshire in England. His throat had been slashed open and the prongs of a pitchfork dug into the mud on either side of his neck, pinning the body to the ground. As leads on the case faded away, paranoia and superstition crept in, leading to theories of witchcraft and the occult, remnants of which linger still. For more extensive show notes, including maps, links and scripts, visit http://darkhistories.com