In early September 1857, the Baker–Fancher party found themselves trapped in a remote mountain valley in southern Utah, under siege and running out of options. What had begun as suspicion and rumor had now turned deadly.

In Part II, we follow the final days at Mountain Meadows... the failed negotiations, the desperate decisions, and the massacre itself. We examine how fear, obedience, and silence shaped the choices made by local Mormon leaders and militia men, and what happened in the immediate aftermath as survivors were scattered, and the truth was buried.

See why there is a long shadow cast over the American West from this incident.

In the late summer of 1857, a well-equipped wagon train of emigrants known as the Baker–Fancher party rolled into Utah Territory on their way to California... They were exhausted, hopeful, and unaware that they were arriving during one of the most dangerous moments in early Mormon-American history.

What followed would become one of the most shocking and disputed tragedies of the nineteenth century: the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

In Part I, The Road to Murder, we trace the rising tensions that set the stage long before a single shot was fired.

From early Latter Day Saint tragedies, pioneer identity and the U.S. government’s standoff with Brigham Young, that shaped the paranoia gripping frontier settlements...

In Part II, we examine the final hours of the Romanov family in Ekaterinburg...what unfolded in the basement room, why the execution became so chaotic, and how the hidden jewels sewn into the grand duchesses’ clothing affected the brutal scene. We follow the cover-up that followed, the search for the bodies, and the decades-long mystery surrounding the investigation.

* You may hear a bit of audio distortion toward the end. I'm traveling for the holidays, but I still wanted to bring you this week’s episode! Thanks for understanding!

Before revolution swept Russia into chaos, the Romanov dynasty was at a crossroads. Nicholas II inherited a vast empire he was never fully prepared to rule, and the entire family found themselves at the center of a storm they couldn’t escape.

The stage was being set for terrible crimes to come...

The murders of Andrew and Abby Borden shocked Fall River...but the trial that followed would capture the entire nation.

In Part II, we step inside the packed courtroom to unravel the evidence, the contradictions, and the spectacle that turned a family tragedy into America’s first true “media crime.”

Through Victorian criminology and social ideas of gendered crime, we follow how Lizzie Borden went from a quiet churchwoman to a national headline....and why the jury’s decision remains debated more than a century later.

Long before the murders that made her a household name, Lizzie Borden lived in a world shaped by Victorian rules. The strict gender expectations, family duty, and an obsession with reputation. Fall River’s elite valued quiet conformity, and the Borden household embodied those values almost to a fault.

But under that stillness, resentments were simmering. Money, inheritance, a strained step-mother relationship, mysterious illnesses, and rumors of break-ins all chipped away at the peace of 92 Second Street.

In Part II, of the Witch Trials in Würzburg... Terror reaches a new height. The city’s prisons overflow, and families vanish overnight. Even noble blood can’t save you when suspicion becomes divine truth.
We’ll trace how fear turned systematic.... and read the chilling letters left behind by those condemned.
How could an entire city lose itself so completely in the name of righteousness?

Amazon.com: The Hangman's Daughter (US Edition) (Hangman's Daughter Tales Book 1) eBook : Pötzsch, Oliver, Corley, M.S., Chadeayne, Lee: Kindle Store

In the early 1600s, the city of Würzburg stood at the crossroads of faith and fear. As famine, plague, and war closed in, suspicion took root... and soon, neighbor turned against neighbor. Witch trials spread like wildfire across Franconia, fueled by rumor, zealotry, and the iron grip of the Counter-Reformation.