Dark Histories

This episode explores the Philip experiment, in which a Toronto psychical research group in the early 1970s tried to prove ghosts existed by communicating with a poltergeist they had invented. The intrigue lies in how a tightly controlled paranormal test led to phenomena centered on something the group knew was fictional.

This episode explores the 1914 murder of five-year-old Willie Starchfield, whose body was found hidden beneath a third-class railway seat in north London. It follows the troubled investigation, the intense press attention, and the arrest of Willie’s father as the case moved toward an uncertain courtroom reckoning.

This episode explores the Harpe Brothers and the violence tied to early America’s unsettled frontier after the Revolution. It frames their story as a mix of legend, documented crime, and lingering mystery that shocked readers from the moment it was first published.

This episode follows the 1864 wrecks of the Grafton and the Invercauld on the remote Auckland Islands. Stranded only miles apart, the survivors faced the same cold, hunger, and isolation, yet their stories diverged through ingenuity, endurance, and the darker edges of human behavior.

This episode explores ghost-laying in early modern England and the Cornish traditions that grew around it. It looks at how religious upheaval reshaped ideas about death, why communities turned to clergy against restless spirits, and how later Victorian writers may have complicated the story.