Lizzie Andrew Borden (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927) was an American woman who was the main suspect in the August 4, 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River , Massachusetts . Borden was tried and acquitted of the murders. --- Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more details....
Feb 26, 2020•37 min
Dan Cooper is the pseudonym of an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing 727 aircraft in the northwest United States , in the airspace between Portland , Oregon, and Seattle , Washington, on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 24, 1971. [1] [2] The man purchased his airline ticket using the alias Dan Cooper but, because of a news miscommunication, became known in popular lore as D. B. Cooper. He extorted $200,000 in ransom (equivalent to $1,260,000 in 2019) and parachuted to an uncertain fate. ...
Feb 19, 2020•39 min
Peter Bartholomew (died 20 April 1099) was a soldier and mystic from France who was part of the First Crusade as part of the army of Raymond of Saint-Gilles . Peter was initially a servant to William, Lord of Cunhlat.
Feb 12, 2020•42 min
Jenkem is an inhalant and hallucinogen created from fermented human waste . [1] In the mid-1990s, it was reported to be a popular street drug among Zambian street children. They would reportedly put the feces and urine in a jar or a bucket and seal it with a balloon or lid respectively, then leave it out to ferment in the sun; afterwards they would inhale the fumes created. [2] [3] [4] [5] In November 2007, there was a moral panic in the United States after widespread reports of jenkem becoming ...
Feb 05, 2020•42 min
Walter Jackson Freeman II (November 14, 1895 – May 31, 1972) was an American physician who specialized in lobotomy . [1]
Jan 29, 2020•33 min
This episode is about is a list of serious injuries and deaths in which one or more subjects of a selfie were killed or injured, either before, during or after having taken a photo of themselves, with the accident at least in part attributed to the taking of the photo.
Jan 22, 2020•46 min
Uranus (from the Latin name Ūranus for the Greek god Οὐρανός ) is the seventh planet from the Sun . It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System . Uranus is similar in composition to Neptune , and both have bulk chemical compositions which differ from that of the larger gas giants Jupiter and Saturn . For this reason, scientists often classify Uranus and Neptune as " ice giants " to distinguish them from the gas giants. Uranus' atmosphere is sim...
Jan 15, 2020•39 min
Pedro Rodrigues Filho (born July 17, 1954 in Santa Rita do Sapucaí , Minas Gerais ), also known as Pedrinho Matador (Killer Petey), is a Brazilian serial killer who pursued and killed other criminals. His victims included 47 people who were murdered inside the very jails he was imprisoned in. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more details....
Jan 08, 2020•47 min
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (Spanish: Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición ), commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition ( Inquisición española ), was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile . It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and to replace the Medieval Inquisition , which was under Papal control . It became the most substantive of the three different manifestations of the wider Catholi...
Jan 01, 2020•39 min
The observance of Christmas around the world varies by country. The day of Christmas, and in some cases the day before and the day after , are recognized by many national governments and cultures worldwide, including in areas where Christianity is a minority religion. In some non-Christian areas, periods of former colonial rule introduced the celebration (e.g. Hong Kong ); in others, Christian minorities or foreign cultural influences have led populations to observe the holiday. --- Our theme so...
Dec 25, 2019•45 min
Castration (also known as orchiectomy) is any action, surgical , chemical , or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles : the male gonad . Surgical castration is bilateral orchidectomy (excision of both testes), and chemical castration uses pharmaceutical drugs to deactivate the testes. Castration causes sterilization (preventing the castrated person or animal from reproducing ); it also greatly reduces the production of certain hormones , such as testosterone . Surgical cast...
Dec 18, 2019•42 min
James Riddle Hoffa (born February 14, 1913; disappeared July 30, 1975, later declared dead July 30, 1982) was an American labor union leader who served as the President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) union from 1957 until 1971. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more details....
Dec 11, 2019•36 min
John David McAfee ( /ˈmækəfiː/ MAK-ə-fee ; [1] [2] born September 18, 1945) is a British-American computer programmer and businessman. He founded the software company McAfee Associates in 1987 and ran it until 1994, when he resigned from the company. McAfee Associates achieved early success as the creators of McAfee, the first commercial antivirus software , and the business now produces a range of enterprise security software. The company was purchased by Intel in 2011 and spun back out in 2017...
Dec 04, 2019•41 min
In the early hours of 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales died in hospital after being injured in a car crash in a road tunnel in Paris , France. Her partner, Dodi Fayed , and their driver, Henri Paul , were pronounced dead at the scene. Their bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones , survived serious injuries. --- Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for mor...
Nov 27, 2019•53 min
William Penn Patrick (March 31, 1930 – June 9, 1973) was an American entrepreneur and businessman. He was the owner of Holiday Magic , Leadership Dynamics , and Mind Dynamics . Patrick was a proponent of the sour grapes philosophy, and has been widely quoted as stating: "Those who condemn wealth are those who have none and see no chance of getting it." [4] Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon ...
Nov 20, 2019•39 min
This list of confidence tricks and scams should not be considered complete, but covers the most common examples. Confidence tricks and scams are difficult to classify, because they change often and often contain elements of more than one type. Throughout this list, the perpetrator of the confidence trick is called the "con artist" or simply "artist", and the intended victim is the "mark". Particular scams are mainly directed toward elderly people, as they may be credulous and sometimes inexperie...
Nov 13, 2019•42 min
USS Indianapolis (CL/CA-35) was a Portland -class heavy cruiser of the United States Navy , named for the city of Indianapolis, Indiana . Launched in 1931, the vessel served as the flagship for the commander of Scouting Force 1 for eight years, then as flagship for Admiral Raymond Spruance in 1943 and 1944 while he commanded the Fifth Fleet in battles across the Central Pacific during World War II . In July 1945, Indianapolis completed a top-secret high-speed trip to deliver parts of Little Boy ...
Nov 06, 2019•40 min
Franklin Delano Roosevelt ( /ˈroʊzəvəlt/ , [1] /-vɛlt/ ; [2] January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), often referred to by the initials FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A member of the Democratic Party , he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the G...
Oct 30, 2019•48 min
he Battle of the Crater was a battle of the American Civil War , part of the Siege of Petersburg . It took place on July 30, 1864, between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia , commanded by General Robert E. Lee , and the Union Army of the Potomac , commanded by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade (under the direct supervision of the general-in-chief, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant ). --- Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, y...
Oct 23, 2019•46 min
Coney Island is a residential and commercial neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City . The neighborhood is bounded by Sea Gate to its west, Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south, and Gravesend to the north. Coney Island was formerly the westernmost of the Outer Barrier islands on the southern shore of Long Island , but in the early 20th century it became a peninsula , connected to the rest ...
Oct 16, 2019•50 min
On this week's episode, we discuss several failed publicity stunts, like the one in "Crush, Texas." Crush, Texas was a temporary "city" established as the site of a one-day publicity stunt in the U.S. state of Texas in 1896. William George Crush, general passenger agent of the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad (popularly known as the "Katy", from its "Em-Kay-Tee" initials), conceived the idea in order to demonstrate a staged train wreck as a public spectacle . No admission was charged, and train fa...
Oct 09, 2019•45 min
Enron Corporation was an American energy , commodities , and services company based in Houston , Texas . It was founded in 1985 as a merger between Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth , both relatively small regional companies. Before its bankruptcy on December 3, 2001, Enron employed approximately 29,000 staff and was a major electricity , natural gas , communications and pulp and paper company, with claimed revenues of nearly $101 billion during 2000. [1] Fortune named Enron "America's Most Inn...
Oct 02, 2019•54 min
There is no way to summarize this episode. --- Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here . Be sure to check our website for more details.
Sep 25, 2019•38 min
The Voyager program is an American scientific program that employs two robotic probes , Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 , to study the outer Solar System . [1] The probes were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable alignment of Jupiter , Saturn , Uranus and Neptune . Although their original mission was to study only the planetary systems of Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 2 continued on to Uranus and Neptune. The Voyagers now explore the outer boundary of the heliosphere in interstellar space ; t...
Sep 18, 2019•50 min
There are many conspiracy theories that attribute the planning and execution of the September 11 attacks against the United States to parties other than, or in addition to, al-Qaeda [1] including that there was advance knowledge of the attacks among high-level government officials. Government investigations and independent reviews have rejected these theories. [2] [3] Proponents of these theories assert that there are inconsistencies in the commonly accepted version, or evidence that was either ...
Sep 11, 2019•47 min
Vlad III Dracula, known as Vlad the Impaler ( Romanian : Vlad Țepeș , Bulgarian : Влад Цепеш, pronunciation: [ ˈ v l a d ˈ ts e p e ʃ ] ) or Vlad Dracula ( /ˈdrækjələ/ ( Romanian : Vlad Drăculea , pronunciation: [ ˈ d r ə k u l e̯a ] , Bulgarian : Влад Дракула); 1428/31 – 1476/77), was Voivode of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death. He is often considered one of the most important rulers in Wallachian history and a national hero of Romania. Our theme song was written and performed b...
Sep 04, 2019•40 min
The Bhopal disaster, also referred to as the Bhopal gas tragedy, was a gas leak incident on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal , Madhya Pradesh, India. It is considered to be the world's worst industrial disaster . [1] [2] Over 500,000 people were exposed to methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas. The highly toxic substance made its way into and around the small towns located near the plant. [3] --- Our theme song was written and performed by ...
Aug 28, 2019•55 min
Washington Irving Bishop, also known as Wellington (4 March 1855 – 13 May 1889) was an American stage mentalist . He started his career as an assistant under the muscle reader J. Randall Brown , but was most well known for his performance of the blindfold drive . [1]...
Aug 21, 2019•40 min
Gunslinger /ˈɡʌnslɪŋər/ and gunfighter are words used historically to refer to men in the American Old West who had gained a reputation of being dangerous with a gun and had participated in gunfights and shootouts. Gunman was a more common term used for these individuals in the 19th century. Today, the term "gunslinger" is more or less used to denote someone who is quick on the draw with a pistol, but can also refer to riflemen and shotgun messengers . The gunfighter is also one of the most popu...
Aug 14, 2019•41 min
Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera ( /ˈɡʊzmæn/ ; [6] Spanish: [xoaˈkin aɾtʃiˈβaldo ɣusˈman loˈeɾa] ; born 4 April 1957), [7] known as "El Chapo" ("Shorty", pronounced [el ˈtʃapo] ) because of his 168 cm (5 ft 6 in) stature, is a Mexican drug lord and former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel , an international crime syndicate. He is considered to have been the most powerful drug trafficker in the world. [8] [9] Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you'd like to support the show on...
Aug 07, 2019•41 min
