With Ross Ulbricht now a free man thanks to his recent presidential pardon we thought it would a good idea to look back at who he is, what he did, and what he represented as "The Dread Pirate Roberts". So enjoy our episode from all the way back in March 2023 for some all important context on the internets iconic drug kingpin, and decide for yourself: Should he be walking free? -- For some, the end of the world's most infamous online marketplace was a major victory in the never ending war on drug...
Jan 28, 2025•55 min•Ep. 10012
The world’s media painted Brock Turner as a promising young swimmer – an Olympic hopeful with everything to lose. Whereas his anonymous victim was identified only from the police report: a blackout-drunk girl, passed out by some bins at a frat party, claiming sexual assault. Turner’s expensive team of lawyers did everything they could to further debase and defame the victim’s testimony. But they hadn’t counted on coming up against Chanel Miller. Miller’s unflinching impact statement started a mo...
Jan 23, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 383
Ellen Greenberg was murdered, or at the very least died under very suspicious circumstances. To us, and to almost everyone who has even so much as glanced at this case, that much is obvious. Yet as of this episode the state of Pennsylvania refuses to view the 27-year-olds death as anything but suicide. In our second of two parts on Ellen’s brutal murder we’re going to tell you how incompetent policing, shambolic coverups, and institutional corruption led to this case being put on ice. Despite cl...
Jan 16, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 382
With the release of Gypsy Rose Blancharde’s memoir just around the corner, we thought it was high time we revisited the full story, from Episode 26 of RedHanded. And, to hear our thoughts on the book, check out this week’s Under the Duvet on Patreon.com/redhanded . -- Things aren't always what they seem... To the world Dee Dee Blancharde was the perfect mum. She dedicated her life as a single mother to taking care of her incredibly ill and disabled child. But one night Dee Dee was brutally murde...
Jan 13, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 10011
If you believe the official report, Ellen Greenberg stabbed herself: at least 20 times in the back, neck, stomach, chest, and through her scalp, hard enough to pierce her own brain. And only after all that – say the authorities – did she plunge the knife four inches into her own stomach. In 2011, despite blindingly obvious evidence to the contrary, Philadelphia’s police ruled the 27-year-old schoolteacher’s death as a suicide. And – thanks to a few suspicious decisions and the very shoddiest of ...
Jan 09, 2025•59 min•Ep. 381
As RedHanded takes a festive pause, we've picked two of our favourite Patreon Bonus episodes from 2024. To get a full-length, bonus episode of RedHanded every month – plus weekly video episodes of Under the Duvet and much more besides – head to Patreon.com/redhanded and sign up. Or, head to patreon.com/redhanded/gift to buy a membership for someone else! -- For our second upcycle, we dive into the dark and twisted tale of Elizabeth Báthory: Hungary’s infamous ‘Blood Countess’. Was she, as the sp...
Jan 02, 2025•36 min
As RedHanded takes a festive pause, we've picked two of our favourite Patreon Bonus episodes from 2024. To get a full-length, bonus episode of RedHanded every month – plus weekly video episodes of Under the Duvet and much more besides – head to Patreon.com/redhanded and sign up. Or, head to patreon.com/redhanded/gift to buy a membership for someone else! -- The world was gripped in the summer of 2023 when a 49-year-old Australian woman was accused of poisoning four members of her own family via ...
Dec 26, 2024•44 min
Last week we told you how over 1,000 people ended up in the Guyanese jungle following the orders of a meth-head with a god complex. Short answer: Nobody knowingly joins a cult. This week we’re here to tell you how the arrival of US Congressman Leo Ryan inadvertently set off a chain of events that led to the chaotic end of Jonestown and the tragic loss of nearly 1,000 lives. This is part two of their story Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Ep...
Dec 19, 2024•40 min•Ep. 380
In February 1986, the prime minister of Sweden was walking home from the cinema, when a man stepped out of a shop doorway and shot him in the neck with a .357 Magnum. The killer ran down a side street – and disappeared without a trace. The mystery surrounding Olof Palme’s death is a Swedish national obsession that's barely left the headlines in the decades since. Hundreds of theories, from international hitmen to lone gunmen and police conspiracies, have swirled around one of the most extensive ...
Dec 13, 2024•59 min•Ep. 10010
On the 18th of November 1978, 909 men, women, and children were killed by chemical-laced Flav-Or-Aid in the Guyanese jungle, all at the will of one man - Jim Jones. It was the largest loss of American lives since the Second World War. That’s what everyone remembers. But despite the notorious “Jonestown Massacre” being forever etched into the public consciousness, few people know how almost 1000 people ended up living in the jungle, thinking they were fighting the Capitalist machine, whilst starv...
Dec 12, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 379
In this episode, we unravel the mystery of the Isdal Woman, Norway’s most notorious cold case. Was it murder, suicide, or something even more sinister? With whispers of Cold War espionage, coded notes, fake identities - and the persistent smell of garlic - this bizarre tale will leave you questioning everything. Wrap up warm: it’s time to enter the Ice Valley. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikT...
Dec 05, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 378
One of the most prolific serial killers in America's so called 'golden era', Rodney Alcala is responsible for the deaths of at least eight people, although the true number is likely much higher. Yet few people have even heard of him. In fact his ability to narrowly avoid any real consequence for his multiple sexual assaults and violent murders, often on young girls, was so prolific that he even had the chance to appear on one of America’s biggest TV quiz shows... which he won. Hannah and Suru...
Nov 28, 2024•59 min•Ep. 377
With Netflix releasing a brand new documentary on the tragic and suspicious death of JonBenét Ramsey, we thought it would a good time to have a little recap on the case that shook the nation. So here's us from way back in December 2019... When 6 year old beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey was found dead in the basement of her family’s mansion on Boxing Day 1996 - it sparked a relentless mystery that still endures 25 years later. Leave what you think you know behind and join Hannah and Suruthi to try a...
Nov 22, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 10009
Through the 2000s, three neo-Nazi terrorists and serial killers rampaged across Germany – bombing and shooting immigrants in broad daylight, with total impunity. And despite plenty of evidence, investigators failed to join the dots time and time again. Worse still, the German government was, unknowingly, actively funding the bloodshed. To find out why – a half century after the Holocaust – German authorities refused to believe there was any white supremacist threat, we’re joined by investigative...
Nov 21, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 376
In 1994, Zhu Ling – a brilliant chemistry student at China’s most prestigious university – fell mysteriously ill. A desperate SOS call by her friends on the fledgling Internet brought a chilling discovery: Zhu had been poisoned with thallium. And despite the evidence all pointing in one direction, the investigation ground to a suspicious halt, and nobody was ever charged. Join us for a story of jealousy, digital manhunts and seriously toxic friendship. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free ...
Nov 14, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 375
Richard Allen has been found guilty on all charges relating to the 2017 murders of Abby Williams and Libby German. But if anyone thinks that this story is over, think again - there is a lot of controversy around this trial and people are hugely divided over the outcome. In this update we’ll look at what convicted Richard Allen, what the jury didn’t hear, and why people are quite so angry… For the full story, listen to our deep-dive episodes below: The Delphi Murders: In Plain Sight - Part 1 The ...
Nov 13, 2024•32 min•Ep. 60
Of the 83 men who had raped Gisèle Pelicot, she recognised only two faces. One was a neighbour – and the other was her beloved husband of over 50 years. Dominique Pelicot had been using a chatroom to invite total strangers over to assault his wife, without her knowledge, for almost a decade. And she had had no idea. We peel back every layer of this unfathomable case: the shockwaves it sent through France and the Pelicot family; the rapists’ jaw-dropping attitudes to their crimes; Gisèle’s astoni...
Nov 07, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 374
This week, we continue our spooky tradition of swapping stories on All Hallows Eve, with two chilling cases of betrayal and deceit. From a death in the dorms to a long-buried family secret that changed a Midwestern teenager’s life forever, we’ll have you looking at your inner circle with a healthy dose of suspicion: how much can we really trust those closest to us? Happy Halloween! Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on soci...
Oct 31, 2024•51 min•Ep. 373
The winter solstice is almost here – the time when the threshold between the living and the dead is at its weakest. And here at RedHanded towers, that only means one thing: spooky story swap time! Hannah and Suru have once again searched high and low for the spookiest, most bone-chilling cases they can find, to tell each other for the first time. For the first of our two story-swaps this year, Hannah takes us through the gates of the monstrous (and monstrously haunted) Pennhurst Asylum, and Suru...
Oct 24, 2024•51 min•Ep. 372
Incest runs in the family – and Eddie Lee Sexton’s depravity knew no bounds. From his own teenage daughters right down to the children he had fathered with his own kin – nobody was safe from him, or the sons he’d raised in his image. With the authorities breathing down his neck, Sexton fled with his miserable menagerie in tow. By the time the law caught up to them, at least two people had been murdered in cold blood. Terrifyingly, Eddie Lee Sexton’s grip over his family was so strong that a conv...
Oct 17, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 371
We're digging deeper than ever into the dark recesses of the RedHanded vault – seven years to be exact – to bring you our first EVER Halloween special from 2017... For Halloween, the girls bring you the most disturbing cases they could find for their very own treehouse of horror, filled with kidnapping, a Buffalo Bill copy cat and shivers for days. Get cosy and grab the dog as Hannah & Suruthi take you through 2 harrowing cases, told to each other for the first time. Exclusive bonus content:...
Oct 14, 2024•35 min•Ep. 10008
Neglect has a smell – and it clung to the walls of 1849 Caroline Street, Stark County, Ohio. As a litany of horrors unfurled, the stench was dwarfed only by the darkness emanating from its owner – Eddie Lee Sexton. Over the next two episodes, we reveal a multi-generational secret; one that haunted Sexton’s 12 children for the rest of their days. The DHS, the Police and the Sheriff’s department all had their suspicions for years. But in 1991, a tip came in and the race was on to get those childre...
Oct 10, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 370
At first, police thought they were only looking for a double murderer. Nicknamed the ‘Bedsit Killer’ in the press, the suspect’s reputation for savage violence already loomed large in the town of Tunbridge Wells in the late 80s. But it was only when they caught David Fuller – more than 30 years later – that they learnt the blood-curdling truth: that for years, the mortuary worker had been acting out his sick fantasies with the bodies of the dead. These exploits were so shocking, and so extensive...
Oct 03, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 369
We now know that the CIA quietly tested mind-bending psychedelics on unwitting American citizens. But how do we know? In Part 2 of our series on MK-Ultra, we're going to tell you the story of how one of the CIA's many dirty secrets was revealed to the world, and how they were forced not only to hand over damaging information about their mind-bending escapades but also to inadvertently help promote the book that followed. More importantly, what does any of this have to do with Fidel Castro's bear...
Sep 26, 2024•42 min•Ep. 368
ShortHand is available exclusively for Amazon Music and Wondery+ subscribers. Rumours about NASA scientists trying to teach dolphins to talk and getting frisky in the process have long been internet lore. But what really happened when Margaret Howe took on the task of training a sexed-up sea mammal to speak? And how on earth did they get it funded? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Sep 23, 2024•33 min•Ep. 10007
In the wake of an Allied victory, the threat of a communist New World Order loomed over the West. Desperate to beat the Soviets at their own game, the USA gave the secret service all the money and drugs they needed to create a real-life Manchurian Candidate. Left with their minds in tatters and their relationships all but destroyed, the subjects of the CIA program ‘MKUltra’ were unwitting lab rats in the USA’s never-ending search for a truth serum. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free &...
Sep 19, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 367
Kirk Anderson was abducted from an LDS meeting house in Surrey by his ex-partner – and ex-beauty queen – Joyce McKinney. He said he was taken to a small rural cottage, tied to a bed, and sexually assaulted for three days. According to McKinney, everything was above board – Kirk just liked things kinky. But the British tabloids only cared about one thing: the wisecracking Southern belle Joyce McKinney made for great headlines. All the papers needed was a picture of her naked, to sell the story of...
Sep 16, 2024•47 min•Ep. 10006
When the body of a weeks-old baby was found in a plastic bag in a shed, covered in soil and rubbish, it marked the end of one of the UK’s strangest and most tragic criminal manhunts. The baby’s parents were Constance Marten and Mark Gordon – an aristocratic heiress and an American convicted rapist. As a jury wrestled for months over the couple’s guilt, more and more shocking details came out. Details of nights spent in a cheap tent out on the freezing moors. Of Gordon’s brutal criminal history. ...
Sep 12, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 366
Nicknamed "Artemis" and "The Limping Lady" by Nazi Germany, Virginia Hall was, without a doubt, one of the most effective—and certainly the most feared—Allied spies during the Second World War. She helped countless POWs escape and funneled a constant stream of weapons into and information out of Nazi-occupied Europe. Her contribution is almost unfathomable, yet most people don't even know her name. This is her story. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free &a...
Sep 05, 2024•47 min•Ep. 365
When the son of Mormon family vlogger Ruby Franke turned up bound, emaciated and apparently covered in blood – it horrified the police, the internet and Franke’s millions of followers. The uber-strict brand of parenting advice she preached on her YouTube channel, “8 Passengers”, had been drawing online criticism for years. But even her loudest detractors couldn’t know how despicable and unhinged her punishments had grown. That is, until a diary, found among evidence of torture in a windowless ba...
Aug 29, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 364
