For our 150th episode, we revisit one of history’s most infamous names: H. H. Holmes. Behind the myths of the ‘Murder Castle’ lies a story of fraud, fear, and fact stranger than legend. Step inside Chicago’s 1890s underworld—and separate truth from folklore.

Source Materials

The Enduring Mystery of H.H. Holmes, America's 'First' Serial Killer

The Toronto link to America's bloodiest serial killer - Spacing Toronto | Spacing Toronto

H.H. Holmes: Biography, Serial Killer, Murderer

Murder Castle - H.H. Holmes, Chicago World's Fair & Layout | HISTORY

H. H. Holmes: Master of Illusion — Swindler — Crime Library

Selzer, Adam. H. H. Holmes: The True History of the White City Devil. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2017.

Geyer, Frank P. The Holmes-Pitezel Case: A History of the Greatest Crime of the Century and of the Search for the Missing Pitezel Children. Philadelphia: Publishers’ Union, 1896.

On New Year’s Day, 1886, Edwin Bartlett was found dead in his Pimlico home — his stomach filled with chloroform, but with no sign of how it got there. Was it murder, suicide, or something science couldn’t yet explain? Step into thePimlico Poisoning Mystery, a case that baffled Victorian doctors, scandalized London, and left one woman forever in the shadows.

Source Materials:

nbtfacsimile.pdf

t18860405-466 | The Proceedings of the Old Bailey

The Trial of Adelaide Bartlett for Murder, Held at the Central Criminal Court from Monday, April 12, to Saturday, April 17, 1886

bmj00471-0054.pdf

AFP937923 35..46

Ambrose Bierce was a Civil War veteran, journalist, and master of the macabre whose razor-sharp pen made him both feared and admired. In 1913, at seventy-one yearsold, he left the United States for war-torn Mexico—and vanished. This episode traces Bierce’s journey from log cabin childhood to battlefield survivor, from satirical journalist to literary legend, before diving into one of the greatestmysteries in American history: what became of Ambrose Bierce?

Source MaterialsIntroduction to A Sole Survivor: Bits of Autobiography by Ambrose Bierce

Why did brothers fight on opposite sides of the Civil War? | HowStuffWorks

Disappearance of Ambrose Bierce - Historic Mysteries

Ambrose Bierce, Hoosier author and Civil War vet, vanished in Mexico

Carey McWilliams. Ambrose Bierce: A Biography. New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1929.

S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz. Ambrose Bierce: The Devil’s Lexicographer. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2002.

In 1928, a Wineville chicken farm became the center of aharrowing investigation into missing boys. Gordon Stewart Northcott and his mother, Sarah Louise, were tied to the disappearances of Walter Collins, the Winslow brothers, and others. This episode follows the crimes, the investigation, and the trials that exposed what really happened on the ranch.

Source Materials:

Wineville Chicken Coop Murders: The Horrifying Crimes of Gordon Stewart Northcott – True Crime Archives

During the 1920s, Boys Became the Prey of a Brutal Killer - Los Angeles Times

The Wineville Chicken Coop Murders — Boomtown — Crime Library

Child Killer: Gordon Northcott and the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders

What Really Happened When Walter Collins Disappeared In 1928

Nothing Is Strange with You: The Life and Crimes of Gordon Stewart Northcott

In 1935, the seaside calm of Bournemouth was shattered by scandal, betrayal, and murder. Alma Rattenbury — a once-celebrated musician — and her teenage lover GeorgeStoner stood accused in a case that gripped Britain with its mix of passion, tragedy, and sensational headlines. In this episode, we trace Alma’s extraordinary life, her ill-fated marriage to architect Francis Rattenbury, and the events that led to one of the most infamous trials of the 20th century.

Source Materials

The Architect & the Lady - Canada's History

2015.173615.Trial-Of-Alma-Victoria--Rattenbury-And George-Percy-Soner.pdf

The British Newspaper Archive Blog Murder of Francis Rattenbury | The British Newspaper Archive Blog

Adultery, jealousy and murder: How the Rattenbury case gripped the nation | Bournemouth Echo

Jack Knox: Out of tragedy, Francis Rattenbury's son became a fine dad - Victoria Times Colonist

The femme fatale who scandalised Britain: Murder at the Villa Madeira that gripped the country | Daily Mail Online

This Week in History: 1935: Sex, drugs, murder and suicide — the Rattenbury case had it all | Vancouver Sun

The Sensational High-Society Murder of Francis M. Rattenbury | The Canadian Encyclopedia

Murder, suicide and the pain of a surviving son

The Fatal Passion of Alma Rattenbury - Sean O'Connor - Google Books

In 1660, the quiet Cotswold town of Chipping Campden was shaken by the disappearance of its elderly steward, William Harrison. Within months, three members of the Perry family were convicted and hanged for his murder — without a body ever being found. Two years later, Harrison returned alive, with a tale of pirates, slavery, and improbable escape. Was it truth, invention, or something stranger still?

Source Materials

The Story - The Campden Wonder

A true and perfect account of the examination, confession, trial, condemnation and execution of Joan Perry, and her two sons, John and Richard Perry, for the supposed murder of Will. Harrison, Gent Being one of the most remarkable occurrences which hath happened in the memory of man. Sent in a letter (by Sir Thomas Overbury, of Burton, in the county of Gloucester, Knt. and one of His Majesty's justices of the peace) to Thomas Shirly, Doctor of physick, in London. Also Mr. Harrison's own account how he was conveyed to Turky, and there made a slave above 2 years, when hismaster (who bought him there) dying, he return'd to England; in the mean while, supposed to be murdered by his man-servant, who falsly accused his own mother and brother as guilty of the same, and were all three executed for it on Broadway-Hills, in Gloucestershire. | Early English Books Online | University of Michigan Library Digital Collections

The Curious Case of the Campden Wonder

The Campden Wonder | Chipping Campden Online

The Campden Wonder - abduction and witchcraft in 17th century Cotswolds | Great British Life

The Campden Wonder; or, The Supposed Murder of William Harrison — Historical Blindness

The Mystery of The Campden Wonder | Amusing Planet

In 1892 Memphis, a secret romance between two young women unraveled in tragedy. This episode traces the story of Alice Mitchell and Freda Ward — from their plannedelopement to a public murder and a sensational trial — and examines how their case shaped early conversations about same-sex love, gender norms, and mental health in America.

Source Materials:

The Trials of Alice Mitchell: Sensationalism, Sexology, and the Lesbian Subject in Turn-of the-Century America Author(s): Lisa Duggan. Source: Signs, Vol. 18, No. 4, Theorizing Lesbian Experience (Summer, 1993), pp. 791-814 Published by: TheUniversity of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3174907 .

Images of Alice: Gender, Deviancy, and a Love Murder in Memphis

Erotomania and Murder in Memphis | by Alexis Coe | The Awl | Medium

Girl Slays Girl: An Excerpt From Alice + Freda Forever

A Love Gone South in 'Alice + Freda Forever' - Deep South Magazine

Alice & Freda: In 1892, Memphis girls' young love ends tragically, creates national headlines | Focus LGBT+ Magazine

Murder by Gaslight: "Girl Slays Girl."

Alice Mitchell: Passion, Murder, and a Scandal That Shook America – True Crime Archives

Mitchell, Alice | Encyclopedia.com

When a young English aristocrat vanished at sea in 1854, his family mourned—except for his mother, who refused to believe he was dead. More than a decade later, a butcher from Australia claimed to be the long-lost heir. What followed was one of the most sensational legal battles of the Victorian era. This week on Historical True Crime, we unravel the strange and sprawling saga of the Tichborne Claimant.

Source Materials:

The Tichborne Trials Archive | Hampshire Cultural Trust Online Collections

The Tichborne case: a Victorian melodrama | State Library of New South Wales

The Mysterious Case of Tichborne and His Stolen Identity - Historic Mysteries

The Man Who Lost Himself: The Unbelievable Story of the Tichborne Claimant

The Tichborne trial

THE TICHBORNE CASE

The Tichborne Case - a Case of Identity Fraud? - Brighton & Hove Museums