Dark Histories

The Homunculus: From Science Fact to Gothic Fiction

 
With a long and winding path through history from ancient times, to the renaissance and beyond, Alchemy was a vast subject with a multitude of practitioners, from the legendary and mythical to established medical gentry and scholarly clergy. In fact and fiction, they were men and women obsessed by the magical bending of the laws of nature to their will, creating gold, the elixir of life, stones that shone like the sun or offered immortality. Another sect of the sprawling tradition, however, found its interest in a far stranger creation, that of the homunculus, or “the little man”. Their writings can today be seen as some of the strangest works to exist in the history of scientific advancement and have far more in line with the publications of Gothic Horror that would eventually follow, centuries later.
 
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SOURCES
 
Maxwell-Stuart, P.G (2012) The Chemical Choir: A History of Alchemy. Continuum International Publishing, London, UK.
 
Lindsay, Jack (1970) The origins of alchemy in Graeco-Roman Egypt. Barnes & Noble, NY, USA.
 
Saif, Liana (2016) The Cows and the Bees: Arabic Sources and Parallels for Pseudo-Plato's Liber Vaccae (Kitab al-Nawamis). Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 2016, pp. 1-47(47). Warburg Institute, University of London, UK.
 
Van Der Lugt, Maaike (2009) Abominable Mixtures: The Liber Vaccae in the Medieval West, or the Dangers and Attractions of Natural Magic. Traditio: Studies in Ancient and Medieval History, Thought, and Religion, Vol. 64 (2009), pp. 229-277. Cambridge University Press, UK
 
Newman, William R. (2005) Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature. University of Chicago Press, USA.
 
Grafton, Anthony. Siraisi, Nancy (1999) Natural particulars: nature and the disciplines in Renaissance Europe. MIT Press, USA.
 
Besetzny, Emil (1873) Die Sphinx Freimaurerisches Taschenbuch. L. Rosner, Vienna.
 
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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 via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072
or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf
The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye
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. 
 

William Dove & The Wizard

The mid 19th Century newspaper headlines saw no shortage of cases involving poison. Unsurprisingly, given the relative ease of obtaining such deadly materials, a long narrative of death, whether by accident or design, formed throughout the period and still today the Victorian period is often characterised as something of a heyday for poisons and poisoners. From time to time, salacious stories of a murderer utilising these violent compounds broke out and captured the public's attention, stacking up a list of names of cold, calculated criminality. In 1855, William Doves name was added to the list after he killed his wife, Doves name drew attention over many of his fellow poisoners, however, when it was uncovered that he had killed her after taking advice from a local wizard, had sold his soul to the devil at a young age and later went on to write a letter to the Prince of Darkness in his own blood, inviting him to collect on his side of the bargain.
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SOURCES
The Leicester Journal (1856) Execution of William Dove. The Leicester Journal, Friday 15th August, 1856. 
Sheffield Daily Telegraph (1856) The poisoning of a Lady By Strychnine, At Leeds. Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Thursday 13th March, 1856.
The Morning Post (1856) Serious Charge Of Slow Poisoning From Strychnine, At Leeds. The Morning post, Monday 10th March, 1856. 
Davies, Owen (2005) Murder, Magic & Madness: The Victorian Trials of Dove and the Wizard. Pearson Education Limited, UK
Davies, Owen (2008) Cunning-Folk in England and Wales during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Rural History, Volume 8, Issue 1, April 1997, pp. 91 - 107
Davies, Owen (2007) Popular Magic: Cunning-folk in English History. Hambledon Continuum, UK     
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If you'd like to send in a submission for the Christmas Campfire episode this year as I mentioned at the start of the episode, the email address to send to is: social@darkhistories.com
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 via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072
or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf
The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye
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. 
         

Christmas Campfire 2020 (Part 2)

Heya! I hope you had a great Christmas and are relaxing and taking it easy before the New Year. Here's the second part to this years Christmas Campfire. I messed up the timing a little bit and so this episode is not as long as I thought it was going to be, but it was nice to have it in two parts anyhow! I hope you enjoy it, here's to 2021 and a much better year than the mess that was 2020!

Christmas Campfire 2020 (Part 1)

Merry Christmas everyone! It wouldn't be Christmas in 2020 if it wasn't at least a bit of a cock-up right?! Half way through recording this episode, the heart of my recording setup completely gave up on me and crapped out, so I had to re-record it the only way I had available, which means the audio quality is a little diminished, though I think I did a reasonable job on it in the end. Hopefully you'll not find it too bad!
Anyway, enough of all that, here's the Christmas Campfire, or at least, the first part! The second part will be out in a few days, to help ease the boredom between Christmas and New Year where we're all feeling a bit fat, a bit sleepy and nothing much is happening! I hope you enjoy it, I hope you have a wonderful holiday, take care!

Loup-Garou: Witches, Cannibalism & The Werewolves of France

From Salem to East Anglia, Bordeaux to the black forest of Germany, it seems there is no end of infamous witch trials that took place in history, spanning hundreds of years and thousands of miles. Somewhat less well known are the many hundreds of werewolf trials that took place alongside them and with such a degree of crossover, that made them ultimately, synonymous with the occult world of demons and the Devil, with witchcraft and the sabbath. Whilst witches may have been feared for the damage they could cause to the crops, or the corruption they could sew within their communities, werewolves were feared on a far more primal level. Their danger came not from their insidious scheming, but their brutal ferocity, attacking, maiming and devouring the flesh of anyone who might find themselves alone on a dusty path at the wrong time. A predator, stalking in the shadows, werewolves struck fear into the rural communities of France for over two hundred years and whilst they may be considered hard to believe now, for many, they were once as real as the blood stains they left on the ground.
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SOURCES
Elspeth, Whitney (2007) “On the Inconstancy of Witches: Pierre de Lancre's Tableau de l'inconstance des mauvais anges et demons (1612)”. Renaissance Quarterly, Renaissance Society of America, Volume 60, Number 4, Winter 2007, pp. 1405-1406, USA
De Lancre, Pierre (2012) “On the Inconstancy of Witches: Pierre de Lancre's Tableau de l'inconstance des mauvais anges et demons”, Paris, France
De Blecourt, Willem (2015) “Werewolf Histories (Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft & Magic)”, Palgrave Macmillan, London, UK
Baring-Gould, Sabine (1865) “The Book of Were-Wolves.” Smith, Elder & Co., London, UK
Danjou, F. (1839) “Archives curieuses de l'histoire de France depuis Louis XI jusqu'à Louis XVIII, ou Collection de pièces rares et intéressantes. Publiées d'après les textes conservés à la Bibliothèque Royale, et accompagnées de notices et d'éclaircissemens; ouvrage destiné à servir de complément aus collections Guizot, Buchon, Petitot et Leber., ser.1 v.8 1836.”, Paris, France
Evans, Hilary & Bartholomew, Robert. (2009) “Outbreak! The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behaviour”, Anomalist Books, New York, USA
Rosenstock, Harvey A. Vincent, Kenneth R. (1977) “A Case of Lycanthropy”, The American Journal of Psychiatry, 134(10), 1147–1149. USA
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If you'd like to send in a submission for the Christmas Campfire episode this year as I mentioned at the start of the episode, the email address to send to is: social@darkhistories.com
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 via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072
or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf
The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye
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. 

A Small Amendment

Wrong email address for the submissions! My apologies! The link in the shows original notes should be right, so if you went by that rather than my nonsense, then you'll be fine anyhow, but just in case, the email address for all Christmas Campfire submissions is: social@darkhistories.com

Nandor Fodor & The Alma Fielding Poltergeist

(There was a bit of an issue with the sound getting scrambled in the original upload of this episode. If you find you bump into this, please delete the file and re-download and you should get the updated, fixed version! Apologies!)
The interwar years saw a sharp rise in followers of Spiritualism throughout Europe and the wider world. Family houses in the most benign suburban neighbourhoods curtains hid seance circles, congregated in dark rooms, as mediums addressed the realm of the spirits, pulled objects from flowers to live animals out of thin air and delivered messages from those long deceased. In 1938, the Fieldings from South London became the latest in a long line of victims of ghostly disturbances that ramped into a full blown investigation, as Alma, the young brunette matriarch found herself quickly sucked into a world of mediumship, complete with multiple spirit guides, apparating terrapins and phantom tigers. As the supernormal world around her got more extreme, Nandor Fodor, acclaimed psychical investigator, dug for more earthly explanations into phenomena that he’d later describe as “sending shivers down his spine.”
If you'd like to send in a submission for the Christmas Campfire episode this year as I mentioned at the start of the episode, the email address to send to is: social@darkhistories.com
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 via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072
or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf
The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye
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. 

James Eugene Harrison: The Murder That Never Was

The disappearance of James Eugene Harrison, a young entrepreneur who set out on a business trip in the winter of 1958 and never returned, signalled a tragic loss for his family. Their life suddenly flipped on its head. Mrs Harrison slowly came to terms with the difficult life of a widow with two young sons to raise. A Californian convict admitted to the murder, complete with a detailed confession and the whole sorry affair was tied up neatly for police. That was until James Eugene Harrison showed up on the driveway of a suburban house one night, three months later, confused and unsure of how he had moved halfway across the country and very much alive.
 
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 via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072
or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf
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 Lindley Street Poltergeist

In the mid-1970s, a series of purported supernatural events took place in a small, yellow, wooden slatted house in a suburb of Bridgeport, Connecticut. At a time when demonic forces were very much in vogue, the Goodin family were plagued by all manner of phenomena that quickly drew the attention of the national press, along with thousands of curious onlookers. Despite the contemporary fervour that it sparked and the similarities to several other, far more well traversed, supernatural tales such as Amityville in America, or Enfield in the UK, the events that took place in Bridgeport in the mid-70s have, remarkably, managed to slip largely under the radar, cloaked from wider public attention. Less glamorous but no less fantastic, the case of the Lindley Street haunting, officially struck off as a hoax before a swift U-turn by the authorities, remains as one of the most dramatic and well documented cases in the history of the American Supernatural to this day.
The email link I mentioned at the start to send in your urban legends, if you want to, is social@darkhistories.com
For the Dice Bags mentioned in the ads, the link to Mayfly December Design is: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MayflyDecemberDesign
Use the code DARKHISTORIES10 at checkout for the discount.
SOURCES
“The Fear of God: 25 Years of The Exorcist” Dir. Nick Freand Jones. BBC, 1998. Documentary.
“Family Haunted No Longer; Cops Say Girl Tells of Hoax” (1974) The Bridgeport Post, 26 Nov, 1974, p.1
“Poltergeist?” (1974) The Kokomo Tribune, 26 Nov, 1974, p.1
“Haunted House or Hoax at 966 Lindley Street” (1974) The Bridgeport Post, 2 Mar, 1974. p.65
“Lindley Street Happenings For Real and Still going On, psychic Asserts” (1975) The Bridgeport Telegram, 9 Jan, 1975, p.11
“None Buy House of Happenings On Lindley Street” (1975) The Bridgeport Post, 30th Jan 1975, p.3
“Exorcist: Repulsive, Not for the Feint of Heart” (1974) The Capital Times, 07 Feb, 1974, p.41
“Occult Fascination Growing” (1974) Northwest Arkansas Times, 02 Feb, 1974. p.5
Hall, William J. (2014) “World’s Most Haunted House: The True Story of the Bridgeport Poltergeist on Lindsey Street” New Page Books, USA Teller, Herbert F. (1975) “Haunted House or Hoax at 966 Lindley Street?”. The Bridgeport Post, 02 March, 1975. P.65
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 via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072
or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf
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 Mysterious Death of Joseph Elwell

Rumoured as a top contender as the inspiration for F. Scott Fitzgeralds most enigmatic of characters, Jay Gatsby, Joseph Bowne Elwell was among other things, a property developer, race horse owner, author, socialite, broker, tutor and, last but certainly not least, thoroughly famous  card player. Winning sums that totalled into the tens of thousands on a nightly basis, he built both wealth and a social circle that placed him firmly in the upper echelons of New York Cities elite. That was until, one morning in June, 1920, when his maid found him, shot in the forehead, dressed in his Pyjamas, sitting in an armchair of the reception room of his Manhattan residence. Perplexing for the police was not only the fact that he was a man with no known, but potentially thousands of, enemies, but also that his house had been locked shut, the windows barred and no gun ever found at the crime scene.
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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 via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072
or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf
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.