How much do you know about "The Forgotten War" as the Korean War - technically a UN Police Action - is often called? Sandwiched between WW2 and Vietnam, it's never gotten the attention it's deserved. So let's give it some! Also, do you know how connected Jon Bon Jovi is to the Korean War? You're about to... CLICK HERE TO WATCH MY NEW SPECIAL ON YOUTUBE! Trying to Get Better Get tour tickets at dancummins.tv Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MxXj6iQ6bNs Merch: https://www.badmagicmerch....
Oct 02, 2023•2 hr 50 min
Have you heard of the Briley Brothers? Three young brothers, and a teenage neighbor, went on a vicious murder, robbery, and rape spree in Richmond, Virginia in 1979. And then two of the brothers later planned a historic death row prison escape. Today's episode really again asks the question, "Are some people just born evil?" It sure seems ago with at least Linwood Briley. A wild story that I'm surprised isn't more commonly known. CLICK HERE TO WATCH MY NEW SPECIAL ON YOUTUBE! Trying to Get Bette...
Sep 25, 2023•2 hr 6 min
My favorite episode in months. One that I'm hoping the most curious of the cult of the curious will truly enjoy. Today, we look at the very nature of our existence, how we came to our current theoretical understanding of the universe, what we know about black holes (like how the bend the very fabric of space-time!) and more entertaining and existential mind-candy! CLICK HERE TO WATCH MY NEW SPECIAL ON YOUTUBE! Trying to Get Better Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp tickets are ON SALE! BadMagicMerch....
Sep 18, 2023•2 hr 25 min
Between August of 1979, and May of 1981, convicted serial rapist David Carpenter escalated to murdering his rape victims, and he killed at least seven young women, and likely several other victims. He also killed the fiancé of one victim and nearly killed the boyfriend of another. David's sexually violent crimes began almost 90 years ago in his childhood, and he's still alive today, the oldest inmate on California's death row. CLICK HERE TO WATCH MY NEW SPECIAL ON YOUTUBE! Trying to Get Better W...
Sep 11, 2023•2 hr 33 min
Did the fall and/or destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria really set human progress a thousand years? Would w bee flying around in spaceships and teleporting and doing all kinds of crazy stuff if Julius Ceasar hadn't have burned down the library around 2000 years ago? Or DID Ceasar burn it down? What actually happened? What do we truly know about the contents of a place said to be the greatest house of knowledge of the ancient world? Exploring a historical mystery today - AND - bringing...
Sep 04, 2023•1 hr 57 min
In the early '70s, a man presenting himself as Eugenio Mario Perente-Ramos creates the Eastern Farmworkers Association - an organization purportedly aiming to help migrant workers on Long Island, New York. He then quickly goes national with the National Labor Federation, aka NATLFED, and develops other groups purportedly aimed at helping the poor around the US in other ways. Meanwhile, in the background, all of these groups end up funneling money to a militant communist group in Brooklyn known a...
Aug 28, 2023•2 hr 40 min
On August 9th, 1974, Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th President of the United States of America, while serving his second term (after winning in a landslide), became the first and still only American leader to resign from office. Why? In a word, "Watergate." But Watergate was only the tip of the corruption iceberg. Through the televised Senate Watergate hearings, other members of government and the American public learned that having men break into the Democratic National Headquarters at the Wate...
Aug 21, 2023•2 hr 56 min
In addition to being a serial killer who very likely killed at least 15 young men and boys around London between 1978 and 1983... Dennis Nilsen was also SO WEIRD. Have you ever pretended to pass out in front of a friend or coworker, hoping they'll try to molest you? Dennis did that. Ever strip down naked while working security and rubbed your genitals on a stuffed gorilla? Dennis also did that. Dennis did SO many weird things, fueled by his intensely specific and peculiar sexual fantasies. We ge...
Aug 14, 2023•2 hr 49 min
Early on the morning of August 28th, 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was kidnapped from his great-uncle's home by two white men, Roy Bryant and JW Milam, and several others. Why? He'd allegedly flirted with Roy's wife Carolyn Bryant. Roy, JW, and possibly others proceeded to whip, punch, and pistol whip Emmett, before putting a bullet in his head and dumping his body in the river. And then they were found innocent of his murder, a murder they later publicly admitted to, in a rigged trial. Real his...
Aug 07, 2023•2 hr 25 min
What do we known about William Shakespeare the man? And why are his works still popular today? Who was Billy Shakes? We dive into the legacy of the English language's most important author this week, examine the claims that Shakespeare didn't actually write all that is attributed to him, learn a lot about the time and place he lived in, and so much more in this literary (and kind of true crime?) edition of Timesuck. Also - go get those street team stickers! And watch my new special August 27th o...
Jul 31, 2023•2 hr 30 min
On March 8th, 2014, 227 passengers boarded Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at 12:41 a.m., destined to arrive in Beijing, China at 6:30 a.m. Not only did the flight never land in Beijing, it never made it even close. It turned around and disappeared several thousand miles away over the Indian Ocean and has never been found. What happened? Today we'll go over the details of who was on the flight, how the investigation of the disappearance was handled, and look ...
Jul 24, 2023•2 hr 22 min
Today we take a fascinating look into how Whitey Bulger rose to power in Boston's underworld in the 70's and 80's, with not only the FBI's protection, but also their direct help. No one (that we're aware of publicly, at least) benefitted more from the FBI's Top Echelon Informant Program than Irish-American gangster, Whitey Bulger. Whitey rose through the ranks of Boston's organized crime scene thanks to a combination of cunning, ruthlessness, a little help from his politically connected brother,...
Jul 17, 2023•2 hr 40 min
We got a weird one today! Wow. Jerry Brudos was a serial killer who became completely consumed with sexual fantasies revolving around women's shoes - specifically high heels - and women's undergarments. He wanted women he could control - to dress and pose exactly how he wanted, when he wanted. And if couldn't get them to do that in life, he would use their dead bodies to quench his increasingly kinky desires. How did he become so singularly focused? Where did his obsession with women's shoes, br...
Jul 10, 2023•2 hr 55 min
Today we do a deep dive on the history of witchcraft. What is witchcraft? How does it differ from organized religion? Why did burning witches ever become a thing, and do witch hunts still occur in the modern world? Why do so many of us have such a strong and irrational fear of people we just don't understand? Going back to some of the earliest written words of Western Civilization, we learn today that a belief in magic and a fear of those who practice it in ways different than we do has fascinat...
Jul 03, 2023•3 hr
In the Spring of 1990, when Jack Unterweger was released from prison in Austria after serving fifteen years for strangling an eighteen year-old to death with her own bra (amongst numerous other crimes), many of Austria's literary elite were convinced he was rehabilitated. They'd even tried to get him pardoned years earlier after he'd written a bestselling autobiography, poems, short stories, and children's books that won him the hearts of not just other writers, but people all around Austria. Th...
Jun 26, 2023•2 hr 19 min
From 1095 to 1291 CE, thousands and thousands of knights, peasants, nobles, soldiers, and more left Europe for the Holy Land around Jerusalem to take land and power away from Muslims, and into Christian hands. Pope Urban II issued a speech in 1095 calling Christian to take up arms and reclaim "Christian" lands. As incentive, he promised salvation for all who died fighting for what he said was God's will. But was it ever about God's will? Or was it about Pope Urban's will? Were the Crusades ever ...
Jun 19, 2023•2 hr 21 min
Did R. Kelly truly have a sex cult? For around a quarter-of-a-century Robert Sylvester Kelly wrote hit after hit after hit, becoming one of the most successful musical artists in American history. But also, the whole time it seems, he preyed viciously on young women and girls. He brainwashed them, physically abused them, psychologically abused them, and videotaped himself sexually abusing them in a variety of degrading ways. And he did all of that openly. Why did it take so long for him to be ta...
Jun 12, 2023•2 hr 57 min
On August 28, 2003, a 46 year-old pizza delivery man named Brian Douglas Wells robbed a PNC Bank near his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania, with a bomb locked to his body at his neck. After the bomb detonated a few minutes later, it would take investigators years to figure out who placed the bomb on him and why. Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp tickets are ON SALE! BadMagicMerch.com Get tour tickets at dancummins.tv Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/y5XuZM56Z80 Bad Magic Charity of the Mont...
Jun 05, 2023•2 hr 22 min
Between October 1977 and February 1978, with a nickname originating from the fact that many of the victims' bodies were discovered in the hills surrounding the city, the Hillside Stranglers terrorized the Los Angeles greater metro area, raping and strangling ten young women and girls. Generally posing as police officers, serial killing cousins Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono were originally believed to be just one man. What led to these men coming together to kidnap, rape, and kill? How did the...
May 29, 2023•2 hr 16 min
Did you know that American banana corporations turned almost all of Central America into US satellite states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for roughly half-a-century? It took the massacre of thousands of unarmed, exploited, and striking Columbian banana workers in 1928 to turn the tide against American imperialism. Today we explore just how several central American nations became true Banana Republics. Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp tickets are ON SALE! BadMagicMerch.com Get tour tick...
May 22, 2023•2 hr 34 min
We've covered a lot Los Angeles area cults from the 1960s and 70s, but as it turns out, there were cults in LA long before that. Lots and lots of cults. Today's topic, the WKFL Fountain of the World Cult, more commonly known as The Fountain, formed in the 1940s. And their apocalyptic teachings would influence Charles Manson's vision of Helter Skelter. Today we share an explosive story of robes, sex, visions, and compound madness - from the 1940s and 50s! Cult! Cult! Cult! Wet Hot Bad Magic Summe...
May 15, 2023•2 hr 39 min
In the late 1940s, troubled lovers Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck, ran a scam using dating services commonly known as Lonely Hearts Clubs to con and kill women. Their trial became the most sensationalized of the decade. Today we break down how these dating clubs operated, and get to know these two weirdos and killers in another true crime, deranged lovers edition of Timesuck. Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp tickets are ON SALE! BadMagicMerch.com Get tour tickets at dancummins.tv Watch the Suck ...
May 08, 2023•2 hr 38 min
On May 18, 1980, at 8:32 AM local time, a major explosive eruption took place at a volcano in southwest Washington State. After months of earthquakes and smaller eruptions, Mt. St. Helens exploded. Over 1,000 feet of mountain was gone in just a few moments. And 57 people quickly died as hot volcanic ash, mudslides, and a fast-moving, incredibly hot cloud of death and destruction tore through miles of forest. Why didn't many of these people heed warnings that a deadly explosion was imminent? Toda...
May 01, 2023•2 hr 38 min
Terry Blair. The Prospect Killer. Before he became a serial killer in the Prospect Avenue neighborhood of Kansas City in 2004, his mother, brother, and sister had all been convicted of different murders. He has two nephews in prison for life for murder. He has a half-brother in prison for life for rape and assault. He witnessed his stepdad get murdered. He has several other violent felons for relatives. After serving over two decades in prison for the murder of his children's mother, Terry went ...
Apr 24, 2023•2 hr 8 min
Today we look into a series of murders, mostly occurring in the mid-1980s, in the southeastern US. The bodies of unidentified women kept being found along I-40. Collectively, these killings came to be known as the Redhead Murders. And a possible unknown serial killer thought to be responsible for killing many of these women was named the Bible Belt Strangler. Have any of these murders been solved? Who are the main suspects? And what new forensic advancements have recently made the identification...
Apr 17, 2023•2 hr 9 min
Today we dig into the origins and the history of America's Irish Mob. We begin centuries ago in Ireland, when a series of oppressive, discriminatory laws designed to break the backs of the Irish and leave them too powerless to rebel against British rule, followed by the Great Famine that was greatly intensified by these same laws, led to hundreds of thousands of Irish fleeing the Emerald Isle for America to avoid certain death. Impoverished and often malnourished, these new immigrants were met w...
Apr 10, 2023•2 hr 56 min
The conclusion of the the craziest cult story I had never heard of. This week, things, incredibly, get even weirder and darker than last week. More sexual debauchery. More twisted visions. And mass murder. And then it all comes crashing down after Jeffrey leads his followers into the wilderness where are there are dreams of magical vaginas, additional wives, and a lot more scat play. Want to apply for the Cummins Family Scholarship fund? Click this link! : https://learnmore.scholarsapply.org/cum...
Apr 03, 2023•2 hr 27 min
The craziest cult story I had never heard of. Jeffrey Lundgren was a cult leader and a mass leader before being caught, imprisoned, and executed. What a wild ride he had before it all came to an end. Twisted sexual desires, doomsday predictions, and more. Today I tell the first of two parts of this tale. Who was Jeffrey Lundgren? How did he twist RLDS/Community of Christ teachings to convince his followers that he was the prophet Joseph Smith preached of who would redeem Zion for the faithful? A...
Mar 27, 2023•2 hr 55 min
Skull and Bones has been shrouded in mystery ever since it was founded nearly two centuries ago now, back in 1832. All members take an oath promising NEVER to reveal the group’s activities and secrets. And that oath is taken seriously. According to the traditional narrative, Skull and Bones was founded by a group of Yale juniors who were either angry over that year’s honor society elections or inspired by occult European secret societies, or perhaps both. Is this group a nefarious organization c...
Mar 20, 2023•2 hr 56 min
The Zebra Murders were a series of racially motivated attacks and murders committed in San Francisco, California, by some so-called "Death Angels." From October of 1973 to April of 1974, a group of cold-blooded killers truly terrorized the city. Why? Nation of Islam teachings had convinced them that white people, in general, were truly evil "white devils" who needed to be destroyed. They were also taught that it was time for black men and women to violently start ridding the world of these white...
Mar 13, 2023•2 hr 33 min
