Fresh Hell Podcast
Fresh Hell Podcast is an international true crime show hosted by Annie and Johanna, two women living on opposite sides of the Atlantic. They discuss murder, mystery, and the macabre, often covering dark and unsettling cases. The podcast blends their transatlantic perspectives on crime and the strange.
Episodes
E345: MYSTERY - Gef, the Extra, Extra Clever Mongoose (part II)
We are back on the Isle of Man for Part Two of Gef, the ridiculous little wall weasel.
This week, people try to figure out what the hell is going on at Cashen's Gap. We have alleged Gef hair, footprints, photographs, zoologists, witnesses and investigators....spoiler alert: Gef is not impressed!
Welcome back to Spooky Fuckery Month. Let's finish this fucking mongoose.
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E344: MYSTERY - Gef, the Extra, Extra Clever Mongoose (part I)
Spooky Fuckery Month is officially here!
And we're kicking things off on the Isle of Man, where, in 1931, the Irving family began hearing strange noises coming from inside the walls of their isolated farmhouse.
Meet Gef, the talking, swearing, gossiping, possibly supernatural mongoose who lives behind the walls, spies on the neighbors, sings songs, makes deeply questionable claims about himself
Fresh Hell presents: Perplexity - A Mystery Podcast
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E343: The Day the Music Died (part IV)
The plane had crashed. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper had been laid to rest. But the story of The Day the Music Died is far from over.
In the fourth and final part of our series, we look at everything that came after February 1959: the investigation into the crash, the questions that lingered, the families and loved ones left behind, and the strange rumors and theories that start
E342: The Day the Music Died (part III)
This week Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper finally come together for the Winter Dance Party...the infamous tour that was badly planned, brutally cold, and exhausting almost from the moment it began.
We follow them as the ping-pong across the frozen Midwest in a bus that could barely keep them warm, through breakdowns, illness, and a schedule that made very little geographical sense
E341: The Day the Music Died (part II)
playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6weWg42qTGdvmbWZj5Rtfn?si=mRk2RXdpT7G7BJrMRCmbZw&utm_source=copy-link&pi=HYoBjLJpR8ywA
February 3, 1959, would become known as “The Day the Music Died”In Part Two of The Day the Music Died, we continue with Buddy Holly’s story as his career takes off, and introduce the youngest musician who would eventually join him on the Winter Dance Party tour: Ritc
E340: The Day the Music Died (part I)
Playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6weWg42qTGdvmbWZj5Rtfn?si=mRk2RXdpT7G7BJrMRCmbZw&utm_source=copy-link&pi=HYoBjLJpR8ywA
February 3, 1959, would become known as “The Day the Music Died”
But before we get to that frozen field, we need to know the people who ended up on that plane.
In Part One, we look at the lives and careers of Buddy Holly and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson. We f
Fresh Hell presents: The Morbid Curiosity Podcast - Sleep Paralysis
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E339: MURDER - Rosemarie Nitribitt (part III)
Heinz Pohlmann has been acquitted, but Rosemarie Nitribitt’s murder is still unsolved. So in our final part, we look at Rosemarie’s famous notebook, the very real wealthy and powerful men in her life, the rumors of blackmail, missing files, a supposed murder tape, and theories ranging from jealous clients to industrial espionage.
It' s been almost seventy years since the murder, and there are sti
E338: MURDER - Rosemarie Nitribitt (part II)
When Rosemarie Nitribitt's body was discovered in her Frankfurt apartment, the investigation turned into one of the biggest murder mysteries in postwar Germany. In Part 2, we look at what investigators actually knew, what they only thought they knew, why Heinz Pohlmann became their prime suspect, and why this case remains to be a mix of fact, rumor, and conspiracy theories that continues to fascin
E337: MURDER - Rosemarie Nitribitt (part I)
Long before Rosemarie Nitribitt became front-page news, she was just a little girl growing up in poverty. In Part 1, we take a look at her childhood through orphanages, foster homes, and institutions, and follow her to Frankfurt, where she would soon become one of the most infamous women in 1950s Germany.
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E336: MYSTERY - Dorothy Eady
Is reincarnation real, and is it possible that people remember a life that ended more than 3,000 years ago?
From the time she was a small child, Dorothy Eady insisted that ancient Egypt was her home. As an adult, she left England behind, settled in Egypt, and became known as Omm Sety, earning the respect of archaeologists for her meticulous work while claiming that she had once been an Egyptian p
E335: MACABRE - Typhoid Mary (part II)
In the second part we follow Mary through her years on North Brother Island, her legal fight against the city, her release, and the decision that would ultimately send her back into quarantine for the rest of her life.
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E334: MACABRE - Typhoid Mary (part I)
Mary Mallon was simply an Irish immigrant making a living as a cook for some of New York's wealthiest families. But wherever she worked, typhoid fever seemed to follow.
In the first part of our two-part series, we head back to New York at the turn of the twentieth century, where crowded streets, groundbreaking discoveries in public health, and one baffling outbreak after another form the backdrop
E333: MURDER - Starr Faithfull (part III)
In the final part of our series on Starr Faithfull, the investigation begins, and this is where the mystery begins!
Why were parts of her clothing missing? Why did two autopsies reach different conclusions? What was in Starr's diary? And what role, if any, did the powerful former mayor Andrew J. Peters play after years of abusing her?
In this final episode, we walk through the investigation, the
E332: MURDER - Starr Faithfull (part II)
Starr Faithfull finally tells her family the secret she’s been carrying for nearly a decade: she has been sexually abused by a powerful and trusted relative since childhood.
In Part 2, we talk about what happened after that revelation, as her family struggles to help her in an era when trauma was poorly understood and the modern ideas of treatment were more than questionable.
This is Part 2 o
E331: MURDER - Starr Faithfull (part I)
In 1931, the body of 25-year-old Starr Faithfull washed ashore on a Long Island beach. Newspapers and the public speculated whether her death was murder, suicide, or an accident. But before we can answer that question, we need to go back to the beginning: to old Boston money, political power, and the man Starr knew as "Uncle Andrew."
Content note: This episode contains discussions of child sexual
Special: Best of Fresh Hell (Vol. 6)
We're wrapping up our summer break series, and we're leaving murder, mystery, and historical villains behind and head into the strange world of UFO sightings, and things that definitely shouldn't have been lurking outside people's homes after dark. Or before dark. Pretty much at any time!
First, we travel to Scotland in 1979 for the Dechmont Woods Incident, where a respected groundskeeper named R
Special: Best of Fresh Hell (Vol. 5)
While Johanna recovers from surgery and Annie does her best to prevent her from immediately returning to work, we're bringing you another trip into the Fresh Hell archives.
This week features condensed versions of two of our most heartbreaking cases, both were originally released as two-part episodes.
First, we travel to Ashland, Kentucky in 1881, where a horrific crime on Christmas Eve left an
Fresh Hell presents: Horrifying History - Baby Farming...Britain's Darkest Business
This week, we’re doing something a little different. We teamed up with Horrifying History for a feed swap, which means we’re sharing one of their episodes with you. And you know is: this one is absolute Victorian nightmare fuel.
In this episode, host Brenda Ganske explores the horrifying world of Britain’s baby farming industry, a system that preyed on vulnerable women and led to neglect, abuse,
E330: Dear Diary (part IV)
The Hitler Diaries are finally exposed as fake, and the fallout is spectacular!
In the fourth and final part of our series, we talk about the collapse of the biggest media scandal in postwar Germany. What did the BKA find? What was the so called “Folternacht” inside Stern headquarters? And what happened to the Carin II.?
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E329: Dear Diary (part III)
Stern is now spending millions, historians are cautiously warning them, and Konrad Kujau is sitting at home frantically producing more and more volumes while simultaneously convincing everyone that this all makes perfect sense.
What could possibly go wrong?
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E328: Dear Diary (part II)
Gerd Heidemann follows up on the supposed Hitler diaries and finally meets the man behind them. Money starts changing hands in ways that should probably raise a few questions.
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E327: Dear Diary (part I)
This week, we start a story that begins with a boat, takes a detour through a small village in East Germany, and ends up with one of the biggest media scandals in German history.
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E326: A Butcher, a Tailor & an Emperor walk into a Bar
In 1853, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria goes for one of his regular walks in Vienna. It’s something he does often enough that people know where to find him, and on that day, someone does.
A young Hungarian tailor named János Libényi steps forward and tries to stab the emperor in the neck. The attack doesn’t go as planned, the emperor survives, and within seconds, two men step in and stop it.
L
E325: The Great Molasses Flood (part III)
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E324: The Great Molasses Flood (part II)
This week we’re in January of 1919, in Boston’s North End. People are still recovering from the First World War and the 1918 flu, the area is packed with people, noise, and a molasses tank that never should have been there in the first place.
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E323: MACABRE - The Great Molasses Flood (part I)
When we first started Fresh Hell, people kept asking us to cover the Boston Molasses Flood. So…here we are. And because Annie researched this one, we’re not taking the direct route.
Part 1 is less about the disaster itself and more about everything that led up to it, because as always...none of this happened in a vacuum. We’re in Boston’s North End, one of the oldest and most crowded neighborhood
E322: Friedrich Zawrel (part IV)
After everything he survived as a child at Spiegelgrund, Friedrich ends up back in prison in the 1970s, where he is sent for a psychiatric evaluation. It's hard to believe what would happen next!
This is the part of the story where things don’t resolve neatly, and where the idea of justice becomes complicated, delayed, and in many ways incomplete.
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E321: Friedrich Zawrel (part III)
In Part 3 of Friedrich Zawrel’s story, we follow him through detention, sentencing, and a harrowing journey along the Danube as the Third Reich falls apart in its final weeks.
After multiple escape attempts, Friedrich is arrested again...this time landing in the Nazi youth justice system.
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E320: Friedrich Zawrel (part II)
In Part 2 of Friedrich Zawrel’s story, we meet the doctors of Spiegelgrund.
Dr. Ernst Illing and Dr. Heinrich Gross were psychiatrists working inside Vienna’s infamous children’s institution during the Nazi period. Under the banner of “racial hygiene,” they helped run a system that targeted children considered disabled, difficult, or socially undesirable.
In this episode we look at their backgro
E319: Friedrich Zawrel (part I)
Friedrich Zawrel grew up in Vienna during the Third Reich. As a child, he was labeled “difficult” and “unmanageable” by the authorities. That was enough to place him inside the Nazi welfare and psychiatric system...a system that decided which children were worth keeping alive.
In this episode, we look at Friedrich’s early life and how he ended up at Spiegelgrund, the children’s ward in Vienna whe
E318: The Children of Spiegelgrund
Vienna, 1940. On the hills above the city stood a children’s psychiatric institution called Am Spiegelgrund. Officially it was a place for treatment, observation, and care. In reality though, it became part of the Nazi system that classified vulnerable children as “unfit,” subjected them to medical abuse, and in hundreds of cases sent them to their deaths.
This episode focuses on the historical b
E317: The Campden Wonder
In 1660, a respected estate steward left the English market town of Chipping Campden to collect rent and never came home. His bloodstained belongings were soon found by the roadside, and suspicion quickly fell on his servant, John Perry. What followed was a chain of confessions, accusations, arrests, and a trial that ended in execution.
There was only one problem....Nearly two years later, the su
E316: MACABRE - Say What?!
Why do we casually reference pillories, hunger, or medieval tally sticks while talking about our week?
In this episode, we’re digging into the origins of everyday German and English sayings, specifically the ones we use without thinking about what we’re actually saying.
From “spill the beans” to „die Katze im Sack kaufen“...
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E315: Friedrich II. - The Great Escape (part III)
In Part 3, we follow Friedrich after Küstrin.
This episode looks at what Friedrich became once he held absolute power: the military strategist, the administrator, the enlightened absolutist who read philosophy while sending tens of thousands to their deaths. We talk about Sanssouci as a deliberate retreat, his devotion to animals over people, his refusal of intimacy, and the contradictions that
E314: Friedrich II. - The Great Escape (part II)
After being arrested and imprisoned at Küstrin, Friedrich is stripped of rank, freedom, and is forced into isolation, surveillance, and humiliation, while the fate of his closest friend, Hans Hermann von Katte, hangs over everything.
Friedrich knows exactly what’s at stake. He’s seen how this ends for other crown princes. Only a few years earlier, Peter the Great had imprisoned, tortured, and exe
E313: Friedrich II. - The Great Escape (part I)
Friedrich II of Prussia is remembered as “the Great.”But before he became the most famous Prussian king, he tried to run!
In this first part of a two-episode series, we go back to the beginning: to Friedrich II von Preußen’s childhood under the rule of his father, the so-called Soldier King. We talk about Prussia before it was shaped into a European super power, a court ruled by discipline and fe
E312: MACABRE - Edith Kadivez
In 1920s Vienna, a woman calling herself Baroness Cadvé ran what appeared to be a private language school for children. Behind the polite advertisements and the respectable address in the city center was something much darker.
This episode tells the story of Edith Kadivec, the woman at the center of the 1924 Vienna "Sadist Trial,” in which she was accused of abusing children for the sexual gratif
E311: MYSTERY - My Cousin Vanished
If you want to watch Henry's wonderful documentary, you can find the English version here:
https://www.henryhauck.de/en-us
and the German version here:
https://www.henryhauck.de/de
In this episode we speak with filmmaker Henry Hauck, a cousin of one of the "Missing Children of Pirmasens", a series of missing person cases from the 1960s, that have never been resolved and continue to haunt the
Fresh Hell presents: Our True Crime Podcast -Murder of Michele MacNeill
Today we’re sharing an episode from our friends at Our True Crime Podcast, covering the deeply troubling murder of Michelle McNeill.
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Special: Best of Fresh Hell (Vol.4)
We’re back to bridge the space between the holidays and the return of brand-new episodes.
This volume revisits the 1904 murder of Lucie Berlin in a rapidly modernizing Berlin, the still-unsolved killing of Peggy Andrews in Columbus, Ohio, and the controversial 1902 murder of Bertha Schippan in rural South Australia.
If you want the full versions, with expanded background, investigative detail, a
Special: Best of Fresh Hell (Vol.3)
While we take a holiday break, we’re bringing you Best Of, Vol. 3: a condensed revisit to three cases from the Fresh Hell archives.
This episode features the disappearance of the three lighthouse keepers on Eilean Mòr, the chilling crimes of Viennese con man and serial killer Hugo Schenk, and the Victorian-era murder of Anna Evans Skeeters in Bermuda.
If you want the full versions, with all the
E310: The Minneapolis Christmas Bombing
On December 24th 1996, in Minneapolis, a series of escalating disturbances unfolded across the city, leading to an explosion during the city’s Christmas celebrations. What began as isolated incidents at shopping centers and local businesses quickly revealed themselves to be connected, linked by the same individuals.
Jingle Bells Calm by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons At
E309: MYSTERY - Ruth Wilson
In November 1995, 16-year-old Ruth Wilson vanished after leaving her home in Surrey. She didn't go to school as planned though. Instead she ordered some flowers, and took a taxi to a quiet rural lane near Box Hill. Then...she disappeared without a trace. Thirty years later, her family and investigators are still searching for answers. Was Ruth planning to run away? Did she meet someone that day? A
E308: MURDER - Hawley Harvey Crippen (part IV)
In the final part of our Dr. Crippen series, we’re heading into the Old Bailey for one of the most sensational trials in Edwardian history. We’ll walk you through the courtroom, the personalities, the evidence, the theatrics, the “Saul Goodman–before-Saul-Goodman” defense strategy, and the moment the jury returned in just twenty-seven minutes.
Part 4 brings the story to its end… or at least as cl
E307: MURDER - Hawley Harvey Crippen (part III)
In Part 3 of our Crippen series, we follow the case across the Atlantic and back again. After the dramatic arrest aboard the Montrose, Inspector Dew brings Crippen and Ethel to Québec, where the crowds are already waiting and the extradition machinery kicks into motion. We cover their guarded return voyage, the secrecy, and the surprisingly calm behavior of a man accused of murder.
Once back in L
E306: MURDER - Hawley Harvey Crippen (part II)
In Part 2 of our Crippen series, Scotland Yard finally agrees something isn’t right with Dr Crippen. Inspector Dew talks to Crippen, listens politely, and then decides he needs another look inside the house on Hilldrop Crescent. What he finds there ends any hope that Belle simply packed up and left.
At the same time, Crippen and Ethel are already gone, traveling under new names, dressed as father
E305: MURDER - Hawley Harvey Crippen (part I)
London, 1910: Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen and his wife, music-hall performer Belle Elmore, seem to have built the perfect Edwardian life... a tidy house in Holloway, polite manners, and a place in London’s social circle. But behind the facade of 39 Hilldrop Crescent, the marriage is falling apart.
In this first part of the story, we look at who the Crippens really were: Hawley’s small-town upbringi
E304: Fresh Hell Pet Wall of Fame - Pigeons
They’ve delivered love letters and war messages, carried microfilm across battlefields, worn tiny backpacks full of XTC, and been accused of international espionage! Yet somehow, pigeons have become one of the most hated animals in modern cities.
In this episode we take a closer look at the humble pigeon...a bird that’s been by our side for thousands of years.
You’ll hear about decorated pigeon
E303: Halloween Special 2025
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E302: MURDER - Lisa Ann French
On Halloween night, 1973, nine-year-old Lisa Ann French left her home in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, dressed as a hobo and planning to trick-or-treat with a friend. She never made it back. What followed would not only shatter their community, but also forever change Halloween for American families, and spark one of the most shocking parole controversies in Wisconsin history.
In this episode, Annie an
E301: MACABRE - The Great Vampire Epidemic
This week, Johanna takes us back to 18th-century Austria, when terrified villagers were convinced the dead were refusing to stay buried...and the Habsburg Empire responded the only way it knew how: with paperwork!
Hear all about Petar Blagojević and Arnold Paole, and how it lead to Maria Theresia’s no-nonsense vampire ban. This is the true story of Europe’s first documented vampire epidemic. We’l
E300: The Haunting of the RMS Queen Mary
For our 300th episode, we’re boarding one of the most famous ships in the world: the RMS Queen Mary. Once the epitome of 1930s luxury and wartime resilience, she now sits permanently moored in Long Beach, California… and she’s said to be home to over 150ghosts.
We talk about the tragic story of Door 13 and the splendor of the first-class swimming pool, as well as the anger and rage in the infamou
E299: Hex Appeal - The Witches of Austria and Germany
This week on Fresh Hell, we’re taking you to the heart of spooky fuckery month with a deep dive into witch lore and trials in Austria and Germany. You know Salem: twenty people, one tragic year! But compared to what happened in central Europe, Salem was just a footnote. We’ll explore the folklore that fed the fear: Walpurgisnacht on the Brocken, Frau Perchta and her terrifying entourage, witches b
E298: Crickey - It's a Croc!
Crikey! This week we’re taking you to meet crocodiles. The largest living reptiles on Earth, creatures that inspire both awe and terror. We’ll talk about the late, great Steve Irwin, whose passion and humor showed millions of people why crocodiles deserve our respect.
We’ll also tell you the truth about the legend of the Ramree Island “crocodile massacre,” and explain the strange biological truth
E297: The Affair of the Necklace (part II)
Cardinal de Rohan believes he’s secretly helping Marie Antoinette purchase the world’s most extravagant necklace, while Jeanne de la Motte and her accomplices quietly dismantle it and sell the diamonds across Europe. We’ll tell you all about the scheme, the dramatic arrest of Rohan at Versailles during the Feast of the Assumption, and the sensational public trial before the Parlement of Paris. Jea
E296: The Affair of the Necklace (part I)
This week we’re heading to Versailles for one of the most scandalous cons in French history. In Part 1, you'll hear all about the glittering worlds of Versailles and Schönbrunn, the childhood and marriage of Marie Antoinette, and her already fragile reputation as “Madame Déficit.” We’ll meet the main characters in this elaborate scheme: Cardinal de Rohan, desperate for the queen’s forgiveness; Jea
E295: MURDER - To Die in a State of Grace
In the 16th to 18th centuries, hundreds of people across Central Europe engineered their own executions in the hope of dying “in a state of grace.” Suicide was a mortal sin, but murder was a capital crime, and execution after confession was seen as a path to salvation. In this episode we discuss several real cases of so-called “suicide by proxy,” including Agnes Catherina Schickin in 1704, Eva Liz
Special: Best Of Fresh Hell (part II)
We're still on a summer break, but you know we couldn’t stay away from the horror for long.
In this second Best of Fresh Hell special, we’ve got three more unforgettable true crime cases from the archives, all condensed for maximum dread in minimum time.
We start with the heartbreaking murder of Katharina Fellner, a young woman in 1920s Vienna whose brutal death was only kind of solved.
Then we
Special: Best Of Fresh Hell (part I)
We might be on a summer break, but the mystery doesn’t stop. In this first Best of Fresh Hell special, we’re serving up three of our favorite cold cases in condensed form—perfect for when you want the unsettling highlights without the two-hour extra information.
First up: Owen Parfitt, a paralyzed man who vanished from his front porch in 1760s England...without a trace and without anyone seeing a
E294: MURDER - William Desmond Taylor
In the third and final part of this Hollywood murder saga, we talk about the murder scene, all the possible suspects!
Who had a motive? And who may have been protected by the studio system at all costs?We’ll walk you through the possible killers — from studio insiders and jilted lovers to the ones no one saw coming — and look at how the investigation quickly fell apart under pressure from powerful
E293: MURDER - William Desmond Taylor (part II)
In part two of our three-part look at the mysterious murder of William Desmond Taylor, we pick up with the powerful (and possibly romantic) figures in Taylor’s life, and trace the final days leading up to his death.
You’ll hear about his complex relationship with set designer George James Hopkins, the bond he shared with Mabel Normand, and how the evening of February 1, 1922, played out—including
E292: MURDER - William Desmond Taylor (part I)
Before there was Hollywood scandal, there was THE Hollywood scandal.
In this first part of our series on the murder of William Desmond Taylor, we're setting the scene: Los Angeles in the 1920s, the silent film industry at its decadent, chaotic peak, and the lives of the people who would soon be swept up in one of the most notorious unsolved murders in Hollywood history.
We’re talking about the met
E291: In a While Crocodile
This week’s episode covers everything from the grim legacy of racist alligator myths to actual gator attacks, pet alligators ordered through the mail, and that one time a gator rang a doorbell in Florida. You’ll learn why the myth of sewer gators exists (and how Eleanor the Nile crocodile ended up beneath Paris), what black caimans are capable of (spoiler: it’s a lot), and how to keep your pets an
E290: See You Later Alligator
This week, we’re trading murder for mayhem of the ancient reptilian variety. We take a deep dive into the world of crocodilians—those prehistoric apex predators that have been lurking in rivers, swamps, and sometimes swimming pools for millions of years. From the surprisingly gentle Chinese alligator to the misunderstood American alligator and the unexpectedly terrifying black caiman, we explore t
E289: MURDER - Johann Oberreiter
In this week’s solo episode, Johanna takes you to the picture-perfect Austrian town of Werfen — home to falcons, frozen caves, The Sound of Music, and once... a baker with a deadly secret. Johann Oberreiter was a respected businessman, a model Catholic, and even a former town leader. But behind closed doors, he was also a poisoner.
In the mid-19th century, two young women in his household died sud
E288: The Fresh Hell Guide to Almost Being Dead
So... you almost died. Or you technically did—for a moment. And then came the tunnel, the music, the relatives made of light, the surgeons flapping like chickens, or the sudden drop into a shadowy void full of screaming.
Welcome to the Fresh Hell guide to near-death experiences.
In this episode we explore what happens when people come this close to the other side. We cover ancient NDE accounts fro
E287: The Fresh Hell Guide to Being Dead
Congratulations—you’ve died! Now what?
In this our version of the "Handbook For the Recently Deceased" (and the morbidly curious). We take you on a cross-cultural tour of the afterlife. Whether you’re heading for a bureaucratic judgment hall, a tunnel of light, a reincarnation lottery, or just... absolute nothingness, we’ve got you covered.
This episode explores what different religions and belief
E286: Oberst Redl
In this week’s episode, Johanna takes us deep into the shadows of pre-WWI Austria-Hungary to tell the true story of Colonel Alfred Redl, once one of the most trusted man in the Austro-Hungarian military....and also its most infamous traitor.
From his modest beginnings in Lemberg to the very top of the empire’s intelligence apparatus, Redl’s rise was as improbable as his betrayal was devastating. B
E285: MURDER - The Tylenol Murders
In part two of our deep dive into the 1982 Tylenol Murders, we pick up with the immediate aftermath of the cyanide-laced capsules that killed seven innocent people in the Chicago area. As the city and the whole nation started to panic, Johnson & Johnson faced a nightmare scenario.
We’ll walk you through the frantic investigation, the theories that didn’t pan out, the suspect who looked promising b
E284: MURDER - The Tylenol Murders (part I)
In September of 1982, a 12-year-old girl in suburban Chicago took a Tylenol for a cold—and never got back up. Within days, six more people would die the same way. The connection? A bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol and a horrifying dose of potassium cyanide.
In this first part of our two-part series, Johanna and Annie walk through the events that stunned the nation: who the victims were, how invest
E283: MACABRE - Holy Spirit Activate
This week, we’re taking a peel behind the Vatican’s heaviest doors. From popes who put each other on trial...AFTER DEATH...to rumors of devilish deals and sweating tombs. We’ll also tell you about the Vatican’s key master (yes, that’s a real job), the Room of Tears (because popes cry too), and how sometimes it's important that "they hang well"!
Vatican, Vatican Museums, Pope Sylvester II, Cadaver
E282: Nellie Bly (part IV)
In the final part of our Nellie Bly series, we follow her through yet another reinvention ...as wife to industrialist Robert Seaman and, after his death, one of the first female CEOs in the U.S. We look at her lesser-known interviews with a ten-year-old Helen Keller and the terrifying Lizzie Halliday, and how she returned to journalism under William Randolph Hearst after her business collapsed und
E281: Nellie Bly (part III)
In Part 3 of our Nellie Bly series, the whole world starts to pay attention. We’ll follow her from the publication of Ten Days in a Madhouse to her globe-circling race against the fictional Phileas Fogg. Along the way, Nellie becomes a household name, fields marriage proposals from strangers, and gets immortalized on trading cards and weird ads. But fame doesn’t make her lazy. She investigates sha
E280: Nellie Bly (part II)
In 1887, Nellie Bly got herself committed to one of the most notorious mental institutions in the country — not because she needed help, but because she wanted the truth. In Part 2, we follow Nellie through the gates of Blackwell’s Island, where the food was inedible, the baths were freezing, and silence wasn’t just expected — it was enforced. What she found wasn’t a place for healing. It was a pl
E279: Nellie Bly (part I)
Before she became one of the most daring journalists in history, Nellie Bly was Elizabeth Jane Cochran — a smart, stubborn girl from Pennsylvania with very few options and even fewer rights. In this episode, we’re going back to the beginning: the poverty, the abusive stepfather, the letter that launched her career, and the fight to be taken seriously in a newsroom that didn’t want women there at a
E278: MACABRE - See You Next Doomsday
From flood panics and flaming cities to gas masks for comet poison, humanity has always had a flair for predicting the end of the world—with spectacular inaccuracy. In this special palate cleanser episode, Annie and Johanna walk us through some of the weirdest, funniest, and most deeply unserious doomsday predictions in history.
We'll cover the Great Flood that never came in 1524, London’s fire-an
E277: MYSTERY - The Missing Children of Pirmasens
Between 1960 and 1967, three children disappeared without a trace from the small city of Pirmasens, in southwest Germany. Walter Broschat. Klaus-Dieter Stark. Eveline Lübbert. All of them were between 9 and 10 years old. All vanished on a Friday. And to this day, not a single clue has been found.
In this episode, we revisit one of Germany’s most haunting cold cases. We’ll examine what we know abou
E276: MURDER - Dorothy Stratten
In this episode, we look at the brief and heartbreaking life of Dorothy Stratten—Playmate of the Month in August 1979, aspiring actress, and the victim of one of Hollywood’s most disturbing murder cases. We trace Dorothy’s rise from a Dairy Queen in Vancouver to the pages of Playboy, her toxic relationship with Paul Snider, her affair with director Peter Bogdanovich, and the events that led to her
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