Sadamichi Hirasawa & The Teigin Incident

Tokyo, Japan, 1948. A man walks into a bank, announces himself to the manager as an official of the local Government Health Department, instructs the staff to take an inoculation medicine and walks out leaving 12 of them dead from poison. Upon first hearing an overview, this might sound like a somewhat unique, but trivial bank robbery. But this is post-war Japan, a country with many secrets and a population with many grievances.

SOURCES:

Gold, H. (2011) “Japans infamous Unit 731: Firsthand Accounts of Japans Wartime Human Experimentation Program”. Tuttle Publishing, HK

Trestrail, J H. (2000). Criminal Poisoning: Investigational Guide for Law Enforcement, Toxicologists, Forensic Scientists, and Attorneys. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ.

Web.archive.org. (2019). The Teikoku Ginko Case. [online] Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20071212101703/http://www.alpha-net.ne.jp/users2/knight9/teigin.htm [Accessed 9 Oct. 2019]. (Japanese)

Gasho.net. (2019). Sadamichi Hirasawa Home Page [online] Available at: https://www.gasho.net/teigin-case/ [Accessed 9 Oct. 2019]. (Japanese)

Japantimes.co.jp. (2018) Teigin Incident: 70 Years on , efforts continue to clear late artist’s name in 1948 Tokyo mass murder. [online] Available at https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/02/02/national/social-issues/teigin-incident-70-years-efforts-continue-clear-late-artists-name-1948-tokyo-mass-murder/ [Accessed 9 Oct. 2019]

Graham Young: The Tea Boy

Harry price & The Séance of Rosalie

Death Raft: The Wreck of The Medusa

As The Medusa sailed from Rochefort in 1816, many aboard saw bright futures ahead for themselves. They were escaping a country torn asunder, harshly divided by war, revolution and eventual restoration. With the French Empire floundering and a band of Hard-Right ultra-royalists creating laws in France, the promise of a new start in a fresh land was enticing for many. Little did they expect to meet such a high degree of incompetency on their voyage, had they foreseen even a fraction of the horrors that lay ahead for them, many might have chosen to stay in France no matter the situation.

SOURCES

Miles, J. (2007). The Wreck of the Medusa: The Most Famous Sea Disaster of the Nineteenth Century. Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, NY.

Savigny, J. B. Henry, and Alexandre Corréard. (1818). Narrative of a Voyage to Senegal in 1816. London: Henry Colburn

McKee, A. (1975). Wreck of the Medusa: The Tragic Story of the Death Raft. Penguin Books, Auckland, New Zealand.

Newworldencyclopedia.org. (2019). Banc d'Arguin National Park - New World Encyclopedia. [online] Available at: https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Banc_d%27Arguin_National_Park [Accessed 28 Aug. 2019].

James Dunham & The McGlincy Murders

Campbell, California. Lying in the heart of Santa Clara County, a periphery city of Silicon Valley and the birthplace of E-Bay. In 1896, 100 years before websites facilitating the auctioning of used underwear and haunted paintings had been dreamt up, Campbell was the scene for a gruesome family killing that saw posses of bounty hunters and bloodhounds, looking to cash in on the reward placed on the head of the murderer, embark on manhunt across mountains and valleys that would span years and eventually, decades.

SOURCES:

Gilman, T. (2018). The McGlincy Killings in Campbell California: An 1896 Unsolved Mystery. The History Press, Charleston, SC

“Hattie B. Wells Dunham (1868-1896) - Find A Grave...” Find A Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10998742/hattie-b_-dunham.

Special dispatches to the Chronicle. (1896) ‘The Sextuple Murder Near San Jose’, The San Fransisco Chronicle, 28 May, p.1-3.

San Jose, Cali, May 27. (1896) ‘Dunham a Maniac’, The San Fransisco Call, 28 May, p.2.

San Jose, Cali, June 01. (1896) ‘Price for Dunhams Body’, The San Fransisco Call, 01 June, p.2.

San Jose, Cali, May 01. (1901) ‘Murderer Dunham or His Double is a Prisoner in San Jose Jail’, The San Fransisco Call, 01 may, p.1.

William Campbell (1793-1885), http://philnorf.tripod.com/william.htm.

William Cragh: The Not So Hanged Man

Lost & Found: The Mysterious case of Pauline Picard

When Pauline went missing in 1922, all hope was initially lost of her return, until a month later, when she showed up 200 miles away. Her parents collected her, took her home and lived with her for several weeks before a body showed up just 800 metres from their house. The body alone was shocking enough, but quickly became doubly so as it was identified as the body of the lost & found Pauline.

SOURCES:

Belle Gunness: Lady Bluebeard & The Murder Farm

When the Altic Farm House, on the outskirts of La Porte, Indiana burnt down in 1908, locals thought it a tragedy that claimed the lives of three children and their heroic mother, who had died trying to protect them from the flames. During the excavation of the debris, the story flipped on its head as far more than the 4 bodies expected were eventually found. Butchered and cast into pits they were victims of Belle Gunness, a woman the newspapers would come to call the La Porte Ghoul, The Indiana Ogress, The Human Vampire, Hell’s Princess & Lady Bluebeard.

SOURCES:

The Dodleston Messages: Ghost in the Machine

On Dark Histories, we hear the words of people lost to history, echoing through the writings of labourers, servants, judges, juries, maids and mistresses exactly as they were written in decades and centuries past. This one way communication with history is always limited by it’s very definition and no matter how much we dig, we can never ask the writers what were they feeling as they wrote each line, and whilst we judge them by the information they give, we can never invite them to ask what they make of the people and things of today in our alien, modern world. In 1984, an Economics teacher living in the small rural village of Dodleston found he had the opportunity to do exactly this, when he was thrust into a strange link that tied him across centuries with a past inhabitant of his home via an early model personal computer and it’s word processing software EDWORD. Both accused the other of trickery, poltergeist activity, witchcraft and devilry, but eventually, a bond between the two was formed. Cross-century communications are never easy, however, especially when the future gets involved.

To take part in the review drive mentioned in the show, send your screenshots to social@darkhistories.com

SOURCES:

Webster, K. (1989). The Vertical Plane. London: Harper Collins.

Hall, William J. & Petonito J. (2018) Phantom Messages: Chilling phone calls, letters, emails and texts from unknown realms. Disinformation Books.

Out of this World. (1996). BBC One Television.

Mercurius Politicus (2010, 1 November). Ghost in the Machine [Article, comments]. Retrived 14 June, 2019, from https://mercuriuspoliticus.wordpress.com/2010/11/01/ghost-in-the-machine/

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/

Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

The Curious Case of Not Townsend

Getting away with murder has always been a difficult, and ultimately, unlikely affair, even in the 19^th Century, before DNA analysis, fingerprint databases, or even any real, proper detective agencies, it was still a challenge that many criminals tried and failed. There were some however, that did manage to achieve the feat, whether it be through cool calculation, or dumb luck, there was always opportunity for the enthusiastic murderer willing to think outside the box. In Canada during the mid-19^th Century, one man, William Turner managed to commit and get away with murder, either through dumb luck, due to an unlikely double being framed for the crime, or through an incredible talent for acting. After more than 150 years, the question has always remained, which was it? Luck, or the long game?

To take part in the review drive mentioned in the show, send your screenshots to social@darkhistories.com

Sources:

Townsend The Murderer. (1857, June 10). The Montreal Gazette, p. 3.

Stewart Wallace, W. (1931, April 15). The Townsend Case. Maclean’s, p. 19.

The Alleged Murderer Townsend - The Singular Circumstances of the case - And the Proofs of his Identity. (1857, June 10). The Montreal Gazette, p. 2.

The Alleged Murderer Townsend - The Singular Circumstances of the case - And the Proofs of his Identity. (1857, June 17). The Montreal Gazette, p. 2.

The Townsend Excitement on the Wane! (1857, September 26). The Montreal Gazette, p. 2.

Arraignment of McHenry alias Townsend. (1857, September 28). The Montreal Gazette, p. 2.

Gault, Robert H. (1918) Journal of the American Institute of Law and Criminology Vol. IX. Chicago. Northwestern University Press.

For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com

Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories

Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast

Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories

& Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/

Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com

or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt

Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017

Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.