Dark Histories

Graham Young: The Tea Boy

Graham Young was an unusual boy. Infinitely fascinated with chemistry, he devoted large amounts of his early life pouring over thick medical textbooks, educating himself on the properties of various chemical compounds. What stood Graham out from his peers more than his intellect was that his obsession with chemistry revolved almost solely around the usage of various poisons. Curiosity has always been inherently dangerous and this is infinitely more true in the case of Graham Young, when theory turned to practice.
SOURCES:
Holden, A. (1974). The St Albans Poisoner. Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., London, UK.
Wilson, C. (1974). Murder in Mind: Issue 30. Marshall Cavendish Paperworks Limited, London, UK.
Trestrail, J H. (2000). Criminal Poisoning: Investigational Guide for Law Enforcement, Toxicologists, Forensic Scientists, and Attorneys. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ.
Harris, P. (1962) ‘Fantastic Mind Of A 14 year Old Poisoner’, Daily Mirror, 6 July, p.3
Laxton, E. (1972) ‘The Poison Boy At Large’, Daily Mirror, June 30, p.13-15
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Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017
Other Outro 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.

Harry price & The Séance of Rosalie

On a cold December night of 1937, renowned Psychical Investigator Harry Price strode up the steps outside a large, Victorian house in a quiet, well-to-do London suburb. He’d come to the house to partake in a séance, invited by a woman known only as Mrs X whom in their communications leading up to the night, had guaranteed a spirit manifestation for him. Price had seen it all before, he had crafted a career from debunking such fraudsters and in all likelihood, this event was to be much the same. Or was it? What unravelled that night has been the subject of fierce debate and deep research for over 80 years and still to this day, it leaves a web of tangled leads the likes of which any Hollywood scriptwriter could only dream of conjuring.
 
SOURCES:
 
Price, H. (1939). Fifty Years of Psychical Research: A Critical Survey. Longmans, Green & Co., London, UK.
 
Price, H. (1926). A Model Psychic Laboratory. British Journal of Psychical Research Vol 1, No.1, May-June 1926. London, UK.
 
Hastings, R.J. (1964). Correspondence. Journal For the Society of Psychical Research: Vol 42 September 1964, London, UK.
 
Cohen, D. (1964). Correspondence. Journal For the Society of Psychical Research: Vol 42 December 1964, London, UK.
 
Medhurst, R.G. (1965). Harry Price and ‘Rosalie’. Journal For the Society of Psychical Research: Vol 42 December 1965, London, UK.
 
Cohen, D. (1966). Correspondence. Journal For the Society of Psychical Research: Vol 43 June 1966, London, UK.
 
Medhurst, R.G. (1966). Correspondence. Journal For the Society of Psychical Research: Vol 43 September 1966, London, UK.
 
Randall, J.L. (2002). Correspondence. Journal For the Society of Psychical Research: Vol 66 January 2002, London, UK.
 
Adams, P. (2017). The Enigma of Rosalie: Harry Price’s Paranormal Mystery Revisited. White Crow Books, Hove, UK.
 
’Science is Baffled’ (1939). The Sunday Mirror. 15 October, p.15.
 
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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
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Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories
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Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com
or via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072
or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt
Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017
Other Outro 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.

Death Raft: The Wreck of The Medusa

As The Medusa sailed from Rochefort in 1816, many aboard saw bright futures ahead for themselves. They were escaping a country torn asunder, harshly divided by war, revolution and eventual restoration. With the French Empire floundering and a band of Hard-Right ultra-royalists creating laws in France, the promise of a new start in a fresh land was enticing for many. Little did they expect to meet such a high degree of incompetency on their voyage, had they foreseen even a fraction of the horrors that lay ahead for them, many might have chosen to stay in France no matter the situation.
SOURCES
Miles, J. (2007). The Wreck of the Medusa: The Most Famous Sea Disaster of the Nineteenth Century. Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, NY.
Savigny, J. B. Henry, and Alexandre Corréard. (1818). Narrative of a Voyage to Senegal in 1816. London: Henry Colburn
McKee, A. (1975). Wreck of the Medusa: The Tragic Story of the Death Raft. Penguin Books, Auckland, New Zealand.
Newworldencyclopedia.org. (2019). Banc d'Arguin National Park - New World Encyclopedia. [online] Available at: https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Banc_d%27Arguin_National_Park [Accessed 28 Aug. 2019].
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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 us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast
Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories
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Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com
or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt
Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017
Other Outro 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.

James Dunham & The McGlincy Murders

Campbell, California. Lying in the heart of Santa Clara County, a periphery city of Silicon Valley and the birthplace of E-Bay. In 1896, 100 years before websites facilitating the auctioning of used underwear and haunted paintings had been dreamt up, Campbell was the scene for a gruesome family killing that saw posses of bounty hunters and bloodhounds, looking to cash in on the reward placed on the head of the murderer, embark on manhunt across mountains and valleys that would span years and eventually, decades.
SOURCES:
Gilman, T. (2018). The McGlincy Killings in Campbell California: An 1896 Unsolved Mystery. The History Press, Charleston, SC
“Hattie B. Wells Dunham (1868-1896) - Find A Grave...” Find A Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10998742/hattie-b_-dunham.
Special dispatches to the Chronicle. (1896) ‘The Sextuple Murder Near San Jose’, The San Fransisco Chronicle, 28 May, p.1-3.
San Jose, Cali, May 27. (1896) ‘Dunham a Maniac’, The San Fransisco Call, 28 May, p.2.
San Jose, Cali, June 01. (1896) ‘Price for Dunhams Body’, The San Fransisco Call, 01 June, p.2.
San Jose, Cali, May 01. (1901) ‘Murderer Dunham or His Double is a Prisoner in San Jose Jail’, The San Fransisco Call, 01 may, p.1.
William Campbell (1793-1885), http://philnorf.tripod.com/william.htm.
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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
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Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories
& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/
Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com
or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt
Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017
Other Outro 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.

William Cragh: The Not So Hanged Man

William the Scabby was lead out to the scaffold on which he was to be hanged. A rebel against the Anglo-Norman rule, he had been sentenced to death on 13 counts of Homicide. Now it was time for him to meet his maker. Except, that is not how the story ends, for though William was hanged “until dead”, he was not to stay as such and later in the day, his miraculous resurrection was witnessed by a large proportion of the population of Swansea, including the highly experienced executioner himself.
 
SOURCES:
 
Hanska, J. (2001). The hanging of William Cragh: anatomy of a miracle. Journal of Medieval History, 27(2), pp.121-138.
 
Bartlett, R. (2006). The hanged man: A Story of Miracle, Memory and Colonialism in the Middle Ages. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
 
Medievalswansea.ac.uk. (2019). The Story / The Twice-Hanged William Cragh | City Witness. [online] Available at: http://www.medievalswansea.ac.uk/en/the-story/the-twice-hanged-william-cragh/ [Accessed 1 Aug. 2019].
 
Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican MS Lat. 4015
 
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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 us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast
Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories
& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/
Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com
or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt
Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017
Other Outro 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.

Lost & Found: The Mysterious case of Pauline Picard

When Pauline went missing in 1922, all hope was initially lost of her return, until a month later, when she showed up 200 miles away. Her parents collected her, took her home and lived with her for several weeks before a body showed up just 800 metres from their house. The body alone was shocking enough, but quickly became doubly so as it was identified as the body of the lost & found Pauline.
SOURCES:
‘Whose Child?’ (1922, May 27), The Pall Mall Gazette, London. P.8.
‘Killed & Stripped by Foxes’ (1922, May 31), The Pall Mall Gazette, London. P.4.
‘A French Mystery’ (1922, May 27), The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Sheffield. P.9.
‘Missing Child Mystery’ (1922, May 31), The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Sheffield. P.3.
‘Breton Childs Mysterious Death’ (1922, June 01), The Yorkshire Post & Leeds Intelligencer, Yorkshire. P.5.
Le Matin, France (1922, May through June).
Le Petit Parisien, France (1922, May through June).
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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 us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast
Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories
& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/
Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com
or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt
Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017
Other Outro 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.
 

Belle Gunness: Lady Bluebeard & The Murder Farm

When the Altic Farm House, on the outskirts of La Porte, Indiana burnt down in 1908, locals thought it a tragedy that claimed the lives of three children and their heroic mother, who had died trying to protect them from the flames. During the excavation of the debris, the story flipped on its head as far more than the 4 bodies expected were eventually found. Butchered and cast into pits they were victims of Belle Gunness, a woman the newspapers would come to call the La Porte Ghoul, The Indiana Ogress, The Human Vampire, Hell’s Princess & Lady Bluebeard.
SOURCES:
Schechter, Harold. (2018) Hell’s Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men. Little A, New York.
Billings, John. (1896) Report on Vital and Social Statistics in The United States at the Eleventh Census: 1890. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C.
‘Crime Reigns for Month’, (1902, December 22), The South Bend Tribune, Indiana. p.1.
‘Mystery in Sudden Death’ (1902, December 24), The Weekly Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana. p.10.
‘Killed by Sausage Grinder’ (1902, December 20), Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois. p.7.
‘Family May Have Met Death In Fire’ (1908, April 28) The South Bend Tribune, South Bend, Indiana. P.1.
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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 us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast
Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories
& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/
Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com
or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt
Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017
Other Outro 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.
 

The Dodleston Messages: Ghost in the Machine

On Dark Histories, we hear the words of people lost to history, echoing through the writings of labourers, servants, judges, juries, maids and mistresses exactly as they were written in decades and centuries past. This one way communication with history is always limited by it’s very definition and no matter how much we dig, we can never ask the writers what were they feeling as they wrote each line, and whilst we judge them by the information they give, we can never invite them to ask what they make of the people and things of today in our alien, modern world. In 1984, an Economics teacher living in the small rural village of Dodleston found he had the opportunity to do exactly this, when he was thrust into a strange link that tied him across centuries with a past inhabitant of his home via an early model personal computer and it’s word processing software EDWORD. Both accused the other of trickery, poltergeist activity, witchcraft and devilry, but eventually, a bond between the two was formed. Cross-century communications are never easy, however, especially when the future gets involved.
To take part in the review drive mentioned in the show, send your screenshots to social@darkhistories.com
SOURCES:
Webster, K. (1989). The Vertical Plane. London: Harper Collins.
Hall, William J. & Petonito J. (2018) Phantom Messages: Chilling phone calls, letters, emails and texts from unknown realms. Disinformation Books.
Out of this World. (1996). BBC One Television.
Mercurius Politicus (2010, 1 November). Ghost in the Machine [Article, comments]. Retrived 14 June, 2019, from https://mercuriuspoliticus.wordpress.com/2010/11/01/ghost-in-the-machine/
 
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 us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast
Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories
& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/
Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com
or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt
Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017
Other Outro 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.
 

The Curious Case of Not Townsend

Getting away with murder has always been a difficult, and ultimately, unlikely affair, even in the 19th Century, before DNA analysis, fingerprint databases, or even any real, proper detective agencies, it was still a challenge that many criminals tried and failed. There were some however, that did manage to achieve the feat, whether it be through cool calculation, or dumb luck, there was always opportunity for the enthusiastic murderer willing to think outside the box. In Canada during the mid-19th Century, one man, William Turner managed to commit and get away with murder, either through dumb luck, due to an unlikely double being framed for the crime, or through an incredible talent for acting. After more than 150 years, the question has always remained, which was it? Luck, or the long game?
To take part in the review drive mentioned in the show, send your screenshots to social@darkhistories.com
Sources:
Townsend The Murderer. (1857, June 10). The Montreal Gazette, p. 3.
Stewart Wallace, W. (1931, April 15). The Townsend Case. Maclean’s, p. 19.
The Alleged Murderer Townsend - The Singular Circumstances of the case - And the Proofs of his Identity. (1857, June 10). The Montreal Gazette, p. 2.
The Alleged Murderer Townsend - The Singular Circumstances of the case - And the Proofs of his Identity. (1857, June 17). The Montreal Gazette, p. 2.
The Townsend Excitement on the Wane! (1857, September 26). The Montreal Gazette, p. 2.
Arraignment of McHenry alias Townsend. (1857, September 28). The Montreal Gazette, p. 2.
Gault, Robert H. (1918) Journal of the American Institute of Law and Criminology Vol. IX. Chicago. Northwestern University Press.
 
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 us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast
Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories
& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/
Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com
or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt
Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017
Other Outro 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.

Detective Whicher & The Road Hill House Mystery

The events that took place in the village of Road during the year 1860 would seem straight out of Victorian detective fiction. The characters played their roles as the family, the live in staff, the day staff and all with their own lives and their own secrets entwined inside the gated middle class household of Road House, one of them guilty of a shocking murder. With all its twists, turns and bombastic, final unravelling, the Murder of Road Hill House is the original whodunnit.
Sources:
Summerscale, Kate (2008) The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or: The Murder at Road Hill House. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2009.
Chambers, Paul (2009) Murder Most Foul: The Road Hill House Mystery of 1860. The History Press, 2009.
Thomas, Hugh (2011) Occasional Papers on Meteorological History No.10, Weather and Phenological Observations At Hurstpierpoint 1859 to 1862. The Royal Meteorological Society, 2011.
Foul and Mysterious Murder (1860, July 3), The Evening Standard, p.6.
Diabolical and Mysterious Murder: Verdict fo Wilful Murder (1860, July 4), The Frome Times, p.4
The Morning Post (1860, July 10), The Morning Post, p.4
Arrest and Examination of Miss Constance Kent (1860, July 21), Bristol Times and Mirror, p.8.
The Late Mysterious Child Murder at Road (1860, July 30), Belfast Mercury, p.4.
Examination of Miss Kent on a Charge of Child Murder (1860, July 29), Reynolds Newspaper, p.9.
The Road Murder (1860, August 2), Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, p.3.
The Road Murder - Constance Kent Sentenced to Death (1865, July 27) Inverness Courier, p.6.
 
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 us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast
Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories
& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/
Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com
or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt
Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017
Other Outro 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.