The Morbid History Podcast
A nonfiction podcast that delves into the darker, stranger, and more mysterious aspects of history, exploring morbid and unusual events from the past.
Episodes
MM#18 Without Consent
She walked into one of the only hospitals in Baltimore that would treat her.
A surgeon took a sample of her tissue without asking.
Without telling her.
She never knew.
Her name was Henrietta Lacks. Her cells went on to help develop the polio vaccine, the COVID-19 vaccine, and countless other medical breakthroughs. They generated billions of dollars in profit.
Yet, her own family couldn't
Episode 18: Dead Reckoning
A dead man's satchel.
Nine handwritten pages.
Thirty-eight years of silence.
In this episode: the people who bet everything on the grave keeping their secrets. A knighted BBC icon who groomed an entire nation while institutions looked away, protected by charity and fame until fourteen months after his funeral. A quiet librarian who confessed to murder the same night he committed it, then carri
MM#17 Random Acts Of Evil
He buried the weapons before he even had a victim in mind.
That was the system.
Israel Keyes spent over a decade crossing the United States... flying into cities far from his targets, renting cars, driving hundreds of additional miles, paying cash for everything, turning his phone off while he drove. He had no victim type. No preferred location. No signature.
Just buckets. Up to twelve of them
Episode 17: Danger In The Toy Aisle
They were approved, tested, wrapped, and put under Christmas trees.
In this episode, we examine the dangerous, baffling, and occasionally radioactive history of American toys.
From a 1950’s science kit that came with actual uranium ore and a government seal of approval, to a beloved Cabbage Patch doll with a motorized jaw, no off switch, and no ability to distinguish between a plastic carrot and
MM#16 Behind Confederate Lines
In 1861, Alabama seceded from the United States.
Not everyone went along with it.
Deep in the hill country of northwest Alabama sat Winston County—a place of shallow soil, steep ridges, and small farmers who had no slaves, no plantations, and no interest in dying for a cause that wasn't theirs. When the state sent a delegate to the secession convention, Winston County sent a 21-year-old schoolte
Episode 16: The Poison Parlor
Progress has a price tag.
And in Victorian America, it was usually fifty cents.
In this episode, we pull back the ornate wallpaper of the nineteenth century and look at what was underneath. From the snake oil industry that dosed babies with morphine and sold radium water as a health tonic, to the Civil War physician who turned embalming into a national institution—and left one very specific instr
MM#15 Run Like Hell
She just wanted to run. That's all.
Twenty years old, bib number 261, tucked into the middle of the pack on a cold, rainy morning in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. She had trained over a thousand miles for this. She was ready.
The men in charge had other ideas. She finished anyway.
In this episode, we lace up and follow Kathrine Switzer through the 1967 Boston Marathon that changed women's sports
Episode 15: Justice, Adjusted
Some crimes have consequences.
Others have currency.
In this episode, we examine history's untouchables—the scientists, executives, kings, and killers whose genius, wealth, or strategic value placed them beyond the reach of ordinary justice. From the Japanese bioweapons unit whose commanders were handed immunity in exchange for their data (Unit 731), to the Nazi rocket engineer America gave a n
MM#14 New Deal, Same As The Old Deal
They called it the New Deal.
A promise. A lifeline. It was the most ambitious expansion of federal protection for working Americans in the nation's history, and was designed to pull a broken country back from the edge of collapse.
But buried in the fine print were some sneaky words that changed everything.
In 1935 and 1938, Southern Democrats struck a deal with the Roosevelt Administration.
Episode 14: The Promised Land Lie
Every utopia has a founder.
Every founder has a vision.
And someone always pays for it.
In this episode, we examine the dark history of intentional communities — promised lands built on someone else's labor, someone else's body, or someone else's silence. From a New York commune that ran America's first eugenics program and pivoted to silverware, to a 64,000-acre Oregon ranch whose vision of e
MM#13 When Mama Sued The KKK
He was just going to the corner store.
In 1981, Michael Donald never made it home.
Two members of the Ku Klux Klan had been driving the streets of Mobile, Alabama with a gun and a rope — looking for any Black man they could find.
But this isn't just the story of a murder.
It's the story of what his mother did next.
In this episode, we follow Beulah Mae Donald — a single mother from a Mobil
Episode 13: The Version They Cut
Some stories are too strange for fiction.
Others are just too inconvenient for runtime.
In this episode, we go behind the screen — examining the true events Hollywood borrowed, polished, and quietly edited before selling them back to us. From Hugh Glass, mauled by a grizzly and left for dead in the Dakota wilderness, to twenty-one men adrift in the Pacific after a sperm whale sank their ship —
MM#12 They Were Small Enough To Fit
They were small enough to fit.
That’s why they chose them.
In 18th- and 19th-century England, thousands of young boys were forced to climb inside narrow chimneys to scrape away soot. They were underfed to keep them small. Burned if they hesitated. Suffocated if they slipped.
But the worst horror didn’t come in childhood.
Years later, many of these former climbing boys developed a brutal and
Episode 12: The Art Of Theft
Some crimes are chaotic.
Others are calculated.
In this episode, we examine history’s most notorious heists—beginning with the 1990 robbery at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where thieves walked out with priceless masterpieces that have never been recovered. From there, we trace legendary robberies across trains, sewers, skies, and vaults—culminating in the audacious Antwerp Diamond Heist,
Episode 11: Institutional Cruelty
For centuries, mental illness wasn’t treated… it was controlled.
In this episode, we step inside the brutal history of insane asylums and early psychiatric “care,” beginning with Bethlem Royal Hospital, where madness became public spectacle.
From there, we trace the rise of lobotomies in the United States and examine the therapies that promised healing while delivering silence: insulin comas,
MM#11 Blood On The Senate Floor
He didn’t die on the Senate floor.
But a part of him never left it.
In this episode, we examine the life and legacy of Charles Sumner—an abolitionist senator who stood against slavery, demanded Black equality, and bled in the halls of Congress after a brutal caning by Representative Preston Brooks in 1856.
The attack left him with brain trauma and what we now call PTSD. But it didn’t end his m
MM#10 Selling The Supernatural
Ghost stories used to be whispered around campfires.
Now they’re printed on mugs.
In this episode, we explore how ghost lore in America went from local legends to full-fledged tourism industry... complete with haunted hotels, cemetery tours, and “spirit weekend packages.” From Victorian mourning rituals to Stephen King’s night at the Stanley Hotel, from Salem to Savannah, we follow the ghostly
Episode 10: Fatal Frames
Hollywood loves a good curse.
But what if the real horror isn’t supernatural at all?
In this episode of Morbid History, we step behind the camera to examine the films said to be “cursed”—from The Twilight Zone: The Movie, where a fatal on-set disaster changed Hollywood forever, to The Omen, a production haunted by a trail of eerie coincidences and tragedy.
Along the way, we explore the chaos s
MM#9 How Not To Train A Dolphin
It started with a flooded house and a dolphin named Peter. It ended in LSD, obsession, and death.
In the 1960s, a young woman named Margaret Howe Lovatt moved into a house filled with water to teach a dolphin how to speak. Backed by NASA and fueled by fringe science, the experiment soon spiraled into something far more disturbing.
LSD got involved, and what followed was a bizarre and tragic ch
Episode 9: Maritime Nightmares
The sea is beautiful... until it isn’t.
In this episode, we plunge into the darkest waters of maritime history: the doomed Franklin Expedition, frozen in the Arctic and driven to madness and cannibalism, and the Batavia, where a shipwreck unraveled into a brutal cult of murder and terror on a barren island.
Along the way, we examine ghost ships drifting without crews, lighthouse keepers who va
MM#8 Ice Cold Negligence
She didn’t die because of the cold.
She died because no one fixed the door.
In 2023, 63-year-old Nguyet Le was found dead inside the walk-in freezer of an Arby’s restaurant in Louisiana.
In this episode, we examine a horrifying case of corporate neglect, corner-cutting, and quiet cruelty... and how it led to one of the most preventable workplace deaths in recent memory.
Horror doesn’t alway
Episode 8: The Thinning Veil
Every October, the air grows colder, the nights stretch longer, and the boundary between the living and the dead begins to fade.
In this Halloween special, we'll trace the haunting origins of the holiday. From the fires of ancient Samhain and the prayers of All Hallows’ Eve, to poisoned candy panics, witch trials, and the worldwide traditions that still honor the dead today.
It’s a story of ma
MM#7 Mountain Meadows Massacre
In 1857, over 120 emigrants were slaughtered in the Utah desert under a white flag of peace. The killers? Mormon militia. The blame? Pinned on Native tribes.
In this episode, we uncover the dark and deliberate horror of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. It was an ambush cloaked in religious fear and racial scapegoating.
We explore how a brutal execution of men, women, and children was carefully sta
Episode 7: Bloody Betrayals
Samurai dramas paint feudal Japan in gleaming armor and noble duels.
But the truth was far darker.
In this episode, we descend into the Sengoku era, which was a century of civil war, betrayal, and blood. From Oda Nobunaga, the self-styled “Demon King of the Sixth Heaven” who burned monks alive on a mountain, to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the peasant who rose to power only to fall to ambition, to Tokug
MM#6 Last Woman Hanged
In 1955, Ruth Ellis shot her lover in broad daylight. Three months later, she became the last woman in Britain to be executed.
But behind the headlines was a woman already broken.
In this episode, we uncover the tragic life of Ruth Ellis (a nightclub hostess turned convicted murderer) whose story was shaped as much by violence and betrayal as by the bullet she fired.
From glamour to scandal, f
Episode 6: Unsolved
Some crimes end in a trial.
Others end in silence.
In this episode, we descend into the eerie world of the unexplained. A place where locked rooms hide secrets, bodies are found with coded notes, and the truth remains just out of reach.
From the brutal and baffling death of Artemus Ogletree in a Kansas City hotel… to two Brazilian men found on a hillside wearing lead masks and waiting for a s
MM#5 Marble & Madness
She was everywhere. But no one knew her name.
Audrey Munson was the most visible woman in America. She was immortalized in bronze, marble, and stone. Her face still crowns city halls, fountains, and public parks across the country.
But behind the statues was a woman who fell from fame into scandal… and then into silence.
In this episode, we trace the haunting rise and ruin of America’s first
Episode 5: Deadly Devotion
Faith can inspire. Faith can heal.
But blind faith can kill.
In this chilling episode, Thomas Gloom descends into the world of religious cults. A place where devotion turns deadly and salvation comes with a price.
Whether it's the eerie calm of Heaven’s Gate, the poisoned jungle of Jonestown, or the ritual fires of the Order of the Solar Temple, this episode explores the dark places where beli
MM#4 Perfume & Pestilence
They came cloaked in black.
Beaked. Faceless. Feared.
But behind the mask was something even stranger: an attempt at science.
Join me, as we examine the eerie history of the plague doctor costume—where it came from, why it looked the way it did, and how it became a walking symbol of death.
From waxed leather robes to beaks stuffed with flowers, this strange uniform was meant to protect... but
Episode 4: Drowned Dreams
Some disasters are natural. Others are man-made. And then there are the ones we build ourselves—one arrogant decision at a time.
In this episode, we plunge into the catastrophic consequences of human hubris—disasters not born of nature, but of negligence.
We begin with the Johnstown Flood of 1889, where America’s wealthiest men turned a failing dam into a private playground—until it burst and
MM#3 Rotting Riviera
A desert paradise.
A shimmering sea.
A dream built on a mistake.
Bombay Beach once lured Hollywood stars and hopeful tourists to its sunny shores. Water-skiing. Fishing. Cocktails beneath the palms. But beneath the glittering surface, the Salton Sea was dying.
As the water turned toxic, the fish began to rot. The birds followed. The dream decayed.
Today? The Riviera of the West is a gravey
Episode 3: Foul Fathers
Fathers are meant to protect. But history remembers the ones who didn’t.
In this episode, we descend into the dark legacies of dads who became monsters—locking children in basements, stacking bodies like firewood, and turning holidays into horror scenes. From Fritzl’s underground prison to Simmons’s Christmas killing spree, we explore what happens when fatherhood curdles into control, cruelty, a
MM#2 The Man Who Sold The Dead
Bodies donated to science.
Trusted hands.
Unthinkable betrayal.
Cedric Lodge managed the Harvard Medical School morgue—until investigators uncovered a macabre black market of human remains.
Skulls mailed in bubble wrap.
Tattooed skin turned to leather.
A network of buyers… hungry for the grotesque.
This isn’t just true crime. It’s body horror—ripped from reality.
🎧 Take a bite of this Morbi
Episode 2: Consumed
Food is supposed to nourish—but history tells a darker tale.
In this episode, we bite into the morbid side of food production: poisoned candy, hallucinogenic bread, and deadly dinners.
These are the meals that killed, the ingredients that maimed, and the appetites that cost lives. Bon appétit.
Welcome to the second episode of the Morbid History podcast...
Go ahead and grab a snack, but be caref
MM#1 The Scottish Speed Surgeon
In the 1800s, surgery was pain.
The only relief? A surgeon fast enough to beat the scream.
Robert Liston was that surgeon.
Until one operation claimed the lives of three.
Was it legend… or a horrifying truth?
🎧 Take a bite of this Morbid Morsel.
www.MorbidHistoryPod.com
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:
SHDWLRKR
Episode 1: Prowlers
History’s darkest visitors don’t always come with warning.
In this debut episode, we step into the shadows to uncover stories of mysterious intruders—from the Phantom Barber of Pascagoula to the chilling Smiley Face Killer theory and beyond. These are the prowlers who slipped through locked doors, left behind questions, and were never seen again.
Lock up, listen close, and prepare for the unease
Trailer: Introducing MORBID HISTORY
Morbid History is a nonfiction podcast focused on the darker, stranger, and more mysterious aspects of history.
Join your host, Thomas Gloom, for a journey into the pages of humanity's near and distant past. Exhume weird, scary, or forgotten events--one intriguing tale at a time.
New episodes are released every other Wednesday.
For more, visit www.MorbidHistoryPod.com
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