1820, at the height of whaling, the Nantucket whale-ship Essex suffered an unheard of tragedy - being attacked and sunk by an 80 foot sperm whale. But unlike the book it inspired, this was far from the end for the captain and crew.

Episode 93: Angels of Death, Part Two - Jane Toppan

Apr 10th, 2023 1h 22m

A major distinction between different types of serial killers - and different types of Angels of Death - is motive. Traditionally, male serial killers are more likely to be motivated by sex and female serial killers more motivated by material c

Episode 92: Angels of Death, Part One - Charles Cullen

Mar 12th, 2023 1h 10m

We expect nurses and doctors to provide knowledge, health, and most of all, safety. But medical professionals compose a distinct subset of serial killers, known as Angels of Death.

Episode 91: The Canadian Plan to Invade the United States

Jan 19th, 2023 1h

For hundreds of years, Canada and the United States have been each others closest neighbours, strongest allies, and largest trading partners... except for all the times they were at each others throats. The Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, t

Episode 90: The Borden Murders -- Part Two

Aug 7th, 2022 1h 41m

Lizzie Borden, despite being acquitted of all charges, has remained the primary suspect in her parents double-homicide for over a hundred years. Was she really the killer? And is there any way to know for sure?Absolutely not.

Episode 89: The Borden Axe Murders -- Part One

Jul 24th, 2022 1h 14m

Lizzie Borden took an axeGave her mother forty wacksWhen she saw what she had doneShe gave her father forty-one [Citation Needed]

Episode 88: Franklin's Lost Expedition

Jun 21st, 2022 1h 27m

The quest for the Northwest Passage -- a navigable sea route through the Canadian arctic -- was long and dangerous. Even so, when Sir John Franklin led two ships, the Erebus and Terror, on a last mission to complete mapping of North America's i

Episode 87: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Part Two - The Fall

Feb 11th, 2022 1h 34m

In 1921, Roscoe Arbuckle was one of the most famous men in the United States and among the wealthiest actors in the nascent Hollywood. That all ended when a lurid murder trial for the death of Virginia Rappe led to him being a persona non grata

Episode 86: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Part One - The Rise

Jan 13th, 2022 1h 35m

Before Leonardo DiCaprio, before Rock Hudson, before Clark Gable, before even Charlie Chaplin, the biggest star in American television was none other than Roscoe Arbuckle. A larger than life character from the age of silent film, Arbuckle was a

Episode 85: The Ghost Ship Mary Celeste

Dec 31st, 2021 2h 3m

There have historically been two kinds of phenomena known as ghost ships -- the first, a mysterious apparition crewed by the souls of the damned, and the second, the sudden and unexplained disappearance of a ship's very real human crew. The Mar

Episode 84: Victor Lustig, the Man Who Stole the Eiffel Tower

Oct 1st, 2021 1h 4m

Built in the waning days of the 19th century, the Eiffel tower was erected as the entrance arch to a world fair and survived two world wars to become a towering beacon of Parisian resilience and French resistance. As a modern icon of romance, e

Episode 83: Baby Merchant Georgia Tann, part two -- A Stolen Generation

Sep 13th, 2021 53m 18s

In the early 20th century, Georgia Tann was perhaps the most famous, most beloved figure in American social work, even receiving a personal invitation to the inauguration of President Truman. But as the reports of stolen children and advances i

Episode 83: Baby Merchant Georgia Tann, part one -- For Profit Kidnapping

Aug 29th, 2021 1h 38m

Adoption has always existed as a human practice, but our modern understanding of adoption, where a child is taken in by complete strangers who legally incorporate that child as a member of the family, is relatively new, originating in the 20th

Episode 82: Timothy Dexter, a Man of Questionable Wealth and Questionable Taste

May 18th, 2021 1h 37m

Timothy Dexter was born poor in 1747. At 8 years old, he dropped out of school to become a farm laborer, then a tanner's apprentice at 16. At 22, he married a rich widow, then invested her money in various business ventures -- primarily based o

Episode 81: Robert Fortune, Tea Thief

Apr 18th, 2021 2h 27m

If there's one thing we associate with the British, it's tea. But for most of their history, the British lacked access to tea except through their highly contentious and often one-sided trade relationship with the far-off nation of China. That

Episode 80: The Hinterkaifeck Murders

Feb 15th, 2021 1h 27m

The family living at the Bavarian homestead of Hinterkaifeck had their share of dark secrets. All were overshadowed, however, by their gruesome deaths at the hands of an unknown attacker -- who had likely been living for several days, unnoticed

Episode 79: The Life and Suicide of Mishima Yukio, part two -- Revolutionary without a Cause

Feb 10th, 2021 1h 42m

Mishima Yukio was a complicated man -- a successful author, celebrity, committed family man, repressed homosexual, and budding fascist paramilitary leader. His attempted overthrowal of the elected government of Japan walks a fine line between f

Episode 78: the Life and Suicide of Mishima Yukio, part one -- Gay for Death

Jan 31st, 2021 1h 32m

Mishima Yukio was a celebrated and prolific 20th century actor, director, model, poet, playright, and especially author. To this day he is considered one of the most important Japanese writers of the era, though many of his works remain untrans

Episode 77: Gone Girl Joan Risch

Jan 11th, 2021 1h 14m

Joan Risch was in many ways your average 60s housewife -- beloved wife, doting mother, and trusted neighbor. She was intelligent and well-read, as a writer and former secretary, and she intended to return to work when her children were older. N

Episode 76: Mens Rea and the Automatism Defense

Dec 22nd, 2020 1h 3m

In 2013, 44 year-old former drug addict David Sullivan attacked and repeatedly stabbed his elderly mother. In 2015, 19 year-old former high school rugby star Thomas Chan brutally murdered his own father. Both suffered severe psychotic breaks t

Episode 75: Halifax Explosion, part two -- The Aftermath

Sep 23rd, 2020 1h 59m

When the munitions ship, the Mont Blanc, exploded in the Halifax harbor, thousands died in an instant, while thousands more were injured, tens of thousands left homeless or buried in the rubble. The devastation took Halifax decades to fully rec

Episode 74: Halifax Explosion, part one -- The Accident

Sep 9th, 2020 1h 16m

During WWI, the deep natural harbour of Halifax, Canada was the most important seaport in North America. All neutral merchant traffic, military convoys, and army recruits coming and going from the eastern seaboard came through Halifax first, in

Episode 73: Ernest Shackleton and the Drift of the Endurance

Aug 25th, 2020 1h 47m

In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton, veteran polar explorer, announced his most daring expedition to date: a land crossing of the Antarctic continent. The journey would be perilous, but fame and fortune would be his likely reward should he make it b

Episode 72: Mary Mallon AKA Typhoid Mary

Jul 4th, 2020 1h 38m

The year is 1907 when the household maid of a wealthy family living on well-to-do Park Avenue in Manhattan suddenly grows ill. Soon after, the family's only daughter likewise grows sick and dies. The cause? Typhoid, a disease associated with po

Episode 71: Race to the South Pole, Part two

Jun 24th, 2020 1h 59m

Before the Cold War race to the moon between the USA and the USSR, there was the purely peaceable race to the South Pole between the British Empire and the recently independent nation of Norway. The Norse were led by Roald Amundsen with his tra