Historical True Crime

In December 1811, two households on London’s Ratcliffe Highway were brutally murdered within days of each other. As panic spread through the East End, investigators searched for a killer moving through the dockside streets. A sailor named John Williams soon became the prime suspect but his death would leave the truth uncertain.Source MaterialsP. D. James and T. A. Critchley. The Maul and the Pear Tree: The Ratcliffe Highway Murders, 1811. Faber & Faber, 1971.Judith Flanders. The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime. Thomas Dunne Books, 2011.John Fairburn. Fairburn’s Account of the Dreadful Murder of Mr. Marr and Family, Who Were Barbarously Murdered in Their House on Ratcliffe Highway. London, 1811.Peter Ackroyd. London: The Biography. Nan A. Talese / Doubleday, 2000.The Proceedings of the Coroner’s Inquest on the Marr and Williamson Murders, London, December 1811. The OldBailey Proceedings Online. https://www.oldbaileyonline.org Radzinowicz, L. “The Ratcliffe Murders.” The Cambridge Law Journal 14, no. 1 (1956): 39–66. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4504366

In October 1949, aspiring Hollywood actress Jean Spangler left her Los Angeles apartment and never returned. Despite a major police investigation and decades of speculation,Jean Spangler was never found. In this episode, we examine the evidence behind one of Hollywood’s most enduring unsolved disappearances.Source MaterialsLewis, Jon. Hard-Boiled Hollywood: Crime and Punishment in Postwar Los Angeles. University of California Press, 2017.Charles River Editors. The Disappearance of Jean Spangler: The History of One of Hollywood’s Most Enduring Mysteries. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016.Gilmore, John. Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder. Amok Books, revised edition.Lyons, Arthur. “The Mysterious Disappearance of Jean Spangler.” Palm Springs Life.Patmore, Neil. “Inside The Haunting Hollywood Mystery Of Aspiring Actress Jean Spangler’s Disappearance.” All That’s Interesting.Contemporary reporting from the Los Angeles Times archive.

In 1922, six people were murdered at the remote Hinterkaifeck farm in rural Bavaria. Despite an extensive investigation, the killer was never identified. This episode examines the historical context, evidence, and enduring mystery behind one of Germany’s most famous unsolved crimes.Source MaterialsPeter Leuschner, Hinterkaifeck: Germany’s Most Mysterious Murder Case.Bill James & Rachel McCarthy James, The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery. Scribner, 2017.Jack Rosewood, True Crime Stories, Vol. 4 (2017).Katie Serena, “The Gruesome True Story Of The Unsolved Hinterkaifeck Murders,” All That’s Interesting, August 3, 2023 (updated October 20, 2023).https://allthatsinteresting.com/hinterkaifeck-murdersSonya Vatomsky, “The Chilling Story of the Hinterkaifeck Killings, Germany’s Most Famous Unsolved Crime,” Mental Floss, July 24, 2023.https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/502044/chilling-story-hinterkaifeck-killings-germanys-most-famous-unsolved-crimeRob Shapiro, “How The Hinterkaifeck Tragedy Remains Germany’s Biggest Unsolved Case.”Tharun, “The Hinterkaifeck Murders: My Personal Theories as an Aspiring Forensic Investigator,” Medium.https://medium.com/@tharun318106/the-hinterkaifeck-murders-my-personal-theories-as-an-aspiring-forensic-investigator-5627395ce924If you’d like, I can also give you a shortened “mobile-friendly” version (many podcasters now use one optimized for Spotify’s collapsed show notes).Historical True Crime | Historical true crime podcast | Patreon

In 1857, a prominent New York dentist was found murdered in his Bond Street office. Suspicion fell on Emma Cunningham, the widow who ran the boardinghouse and claimed to be his wife — and heir. Her acquittal did not end the scandal. Adisputed marriage, a claimed pregnancy, and a staged birth kept the city riveted and raised new questions about truth, reputation, and inheritance in mid-19th-century New York.Source Materials:Duke, Franklin. Celebrated Criminal Cases of America. San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Company, 1910.Serratore, Angela. “The Murder of Dr. Harvey Burdell and the Scandal That Gripped 1857 New York.” Smithsonian Magazine.Roberts, Sam. “The Murder That Gripped Bond Street.” The New York Times.The New-York Daily Times (1857), contemporary coverage of the Burdell murder and Emma Cunningham trial.Contemporary inquest and trialreporting in New York newspapers, 1857.

In 1629, the Dutch merchant ship Batavia wrecked on a remote reef off Western Australia. What followed was not just a struggle for survival, but a calculated campaign of violence that left more than one hundred people dead. Drawing on survivor testimony and historical records, this episode examines one of the most disturbing episodes in maritime history.Source MaterialsPelsaert, Francisco. The Journal of Francisco Pelsaert. 1629.Dash, Mike. Batavia’s Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History’s Bloodiest Mutiny. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2002.Drake-Brockman, Henrietta. Voyage to Disaster. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1964.Edwards, Hugh. Islands of Angry Ghosts. New York: William Morrow, 1966.Western Australian Museum — Batavia Collectionhttps://museum.wa.gov.au/This episode was researched using both primary historical documents and modern scholarly works.