Dark Histories
Fortnightly narratives on the unsolved and the unexplained, mysteries, historical true crime, touches of the paranormal and cultural peculiarities.
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Episodes
Monday Jun 20, 2022
Monday Jun 20, 2022
“The manifestations described in this story commenced one year ago. No person has yet been able to ascertain their cause. Scientific men from all parts of Canada and the United States have investigated them in vain. Some people think that electricity is the principal agent; others, mesmerism; whilst others again, are sure they are produced by the devil. Of the three supposed causes, the latter is certainly the most plausible theory, for some of the manifestations are remarkably devilish in their appearance and effect.” The opening lines of an account that describes an event that perplexed, excited and angered the citizens of the small, Canadian town of Amherst in the 19th Century. It probably comes as no surprise that the man who wrote them had a professional flair for dramatics, though the events were hardly short of drama to begin with. A young girl, haunted by demons, whose story book-ended a series of supernormal events with an assault and a conviction for arson.
SOURCES
Hubbell, Walter (1879) The Great Amherst Mystery. "Daily News" Steam Publishing Office, Canada.
Prince, Walter F. (1919) A Critical Study of The Great Amherst Mystery. Journal of the American Society of Psychical Research, Vol. XIII. NY, USA.
Carrington, Hereward (1913) Personal Experiences in Spiritualism. Read Books Ltd. UK.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1897) Long Island’s Hamlet. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 15 Dec. 1897, p.7, NY, USA.
The Montreal Star (1881) Strange Doings. The Montreal Star, 25 May. 1881, p.3, Montreal, Canada.
The Daily Expositor (1879) Esther Cox The Medium: Is She A Humbug? The Daily Expositor, 15 Jul 1879, p.1. Ontario, Canada.
The Montreal Star (1879) The Amherst Mystery. The Montreal Star, 18 Jul 1879, p.2, Montreal, Canada.
The Montreal Star (1879) The Amherst Mystery. The Montreal Star, 10 May 1879, p.3, Montreal, Canada.
The Montreal Star (1879) The Amherst Mystery. The Montreal Star, 19 May 1879, p.3, Montreal, Canada.
Ottawa Daily Citizen (1879) The Amherst Mystery Revived. Ottawa Daily Citizen, 7 May 1879, p.1, Ottawa, Canada.
The Montreal Star (1879) The Amherst Mystery Further Developments. The Montreal Star, 25 Jan 1879, p.3, Montreal, Canada.
The Montreal Star (1878) The Amherst Mystery A Puzzle For Scientists. The Montreal Star, 21 Nov 1878, p.3, Montreal, Canada.
Ottawa Daily Citizen (1878) The Amherst Mystery. Ottawa Daily Citizen, 23 Nov 1878, p.1, Ottawa, Canada.
The Montreal Star (1878) The Amherst Mystery. The Montreal Star, 13 Dec 1878, p.3, Montreal, Canada.
Evansville Courier and Press (1888) A Wonderful Book. 23 Apr 1888, p.1. Indiana, USA.
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For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at 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
The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories
Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9
Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast
Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories
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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.
Monday Jun 06, 2022
Monday Jun 06, 2022
The belief of extraterrestrial life is one of the most exotic, exciting and long endearing throughout human history. Mars in particular has always proven to be of particular interest. One of our nearest planetary neighbours, the red planet has inspired thousands of works ranging from the earliest science fiction, all the way to contemporary fringe theology. In the late 19th Century, interest in the planet saw a boom, as astronomers battled with one another over their beliefs of the existence of a great Martian civilization, creating a scientific debate that crossed over into far more fringe elements. Spiritualism, with it’s equal boom, became far more interested in the interstellar than one might expect and one case in particular, of a young, Swiss medium named Catherine Elise muller, would charge out in front, presenting the world with not only surreal images of the hypercolour martian landscape, but with descriptions of an alien society and a working language to boot.
SOURCES
Flournoy, Theodore (1900) From India to the Planet Mars. Harper & Bros, London, UK
Keep, Christopher (2020) Life on Mars?: Hélène Smith, Clairvoyance, and Occult Media. Journal of Victorian Culture , Volume 25 (4) – Nov 16, 2020. Leeds Trinity University, Oxford University Press, UK.
Clerke, Agnes Mary (2011) A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, UK.
Greg, Percy (1880) Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked Record. Ballantyne Press, London, UK.
Crossley, Robert (2011) Imagining Mars: A Literary History. Wesleyan University Press, CT, USA.
Tipler, F.J. (1981) A Brief History of the Extraterrestrial Intelligence Concept. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 22, P. 133, 1981.
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For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at 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
The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories
Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9
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.
Wednesday May 18, 2022
Wednesday May 18, 2022
In the 19th Century, the Elysian Fields in New Jersey, lay just a short boat trip away for New Yorkers looking to stretch their legs, take in some rural, countryside air or relax on the lawn of a riverside refreshment house with a glass of lemonade. Mostly famous for being the birthplace of modern baseball, the fields have another, somewhat less well-known story connected to their dense thickets and green walkways. Far from the straightforward drubbing of that first game of baseball, this story is, of course far darker, full of more twists and turns and has no winners. Hailed as one of the greatest criminal mysteries of 19th Century New York, the case of Mary Rogers is at once perfectly well solved and at the same time, completely wide open.
SOURCES
Stashower, Daniel (2006) The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allen Poe & The Invention of Murder. Berkley Publishing Group, NY, USA
Bowery News Office (1841) Trial of Madame Restell, alias Ann Lohman, for abortion and causing the death of Mrs. Purdy : being a full account of all the proceedings on the trial, together with the suppressed evidence and editorial remarks. Bowery News Office, NY, USA.
Poe, Edgar Allen (2014) The Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allen Poe. Race Point Publishing, NY, USA
Abbot, Karen (2012) Madame Restell: The Abortionist of Fifth Avenue. Smithsonian Magazine [online] Smithsonian Magazine. Available at: [Accessed 6 May 2022].
The Buffalo Daily Republic (1851) Riot In Hoboken. The Buffalo Daily Republic, Thursday 29 May, 1851, p.2. NY, USA.
New York Daily Herald (1838) Beautiful Girls Serving In Stores. New York Daily Herald, Monday 8 October, 1838, p.2. NY, USA.
The Evening Post (1841) The Mysterious Death of Miss Rogers. The Evening Post, Monday 16 August, 1841, p.2. NY, USA.
The Evening Post (1841) Murder of Miss Rogers. The Evening Post, Saturday 21 August, 1841, p.2. NY, USA.
The New York Tribune (1842) The Mary Rogers Mystery Explained. 18 November, 1942. P.2. NY, USA
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For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at 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
The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories
Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9
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.
Monday May 02, 2022
Monday May 02, 2022
When the Allied forces hit the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, in June of 1944, everyone was well aware of the importance of success. Gaining a foothold on the beaches was the first step in the liberation of France, placing a force on the ground that would go on to steamroll to Berlin, ending the war outright. The plan was vast. multi-faceted and was as audacious as it was complicated, hinging on the cooperation of every level of the joint military system. Included in this system was a man named Garbo, a man who, squirrelled away in a London office, not only had the job of convincing the Nazis that the invasion force didn’t exist but of also conjuring an entirely fictional force one million strong from thin air and presenting them as living and breathing, flesh and blood. Of course, one man could not hope to do such a thing alone, fortunately, Garbo had 27 spies under his command to help him. That was the story as far as the Nazis were concerned at least. In truth, Garbo's agents were only as real as the stories that he, himself created for them. Out of sight, in his small office, Garbo weaved a cast of characters into a plausible tapestry of espionage that, even years after the war had ended and the truth was out, many of the people involved struggled to believe.
SOURCES
Talty, Stephen (2012) Agent Garbo: The Brilliant, eccentric secret agent who tricked Hitler and saved D-Day. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, USA.
West, Nigel & Pujol, Jean (1985) Operation GARBO: The Personal Story of the Most Successful Double Agent of World War II. Random House, London, UK.
Liverpool Daily News (1942) Deaths. Liverpool Daily News, 24 Nov. 1942, p.4. Liverpool, UK.
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For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at 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
The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories
Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9
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.
Monday Apr 11, 2022
Monday Apr 11, 2022
Some time around the turn of the fifteenth century, a Cistercian monk of Byland Abbey took it upon himself to pen a series of ghost stories on the empty pages of a folio containing some of the library's more prestigious works. A medieval monk scribbling down ghost stories was, in truth, not entirely unusual. In the case of the Byland monk, however, the stories seemed to be less concerned with religious matters and more with grisly details of the spirits themselves. Undead rising from the graves, shapeshifting from human to animal and back again, hunting down the living to gouge their eyes from their skulls. The monk was, in his way, reporting on the folklore of the day, leaving behind one of the middle ages' more unique documents on belief in the afterlife. Republished in its original Latin by medievalist and author M.R. James in 1922, the stories had, perhaps, more in common with his own writings than they did that of the church and opened a window on the prevalence of Pagan beliefs and folklore tradition that maintained throughout medieval Europe.
SOURCES
Scmitt, Jean-Claude (1998) Ghosts in the Middle Ages: The Living and the Dead in Medieval Society. The University of Chicago Press, London, UK.
Bartlett, Robert (2008) The Natural and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages. Cambridge Universtoy Press, Cambridge, UK.
Joynes, Andrew (2001) Medieval Ghost Stories. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, UK.
Grant, A.J. (1924) Twelve Medieval Ghost Stories. Yorkshire Archeological Journal, Vol. XXVII. Yorkshire, UK.
Fleischhack, Maria & Schenkel, Elmar (2016) Ghosts - or the (Nearly) Invisible: Spectral Phenomena in Literature and the Media. Peter Lang, NY, USA.
Harrison, Stuart (2022) History of Byland Abbey. [online] English Heritage. Available at:
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For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at 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
The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories
Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9
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.
Tuesday Mar 29, 2022
Tuesday Mar 29, 2022
Depression-era New York was a tough time for a guy just looking to get by. The pressure of feeding a family, the lack of available work, the poor conditions suffered from much of the work that was available and at the end of the day, you couldn’t even relax with a drink or drown your sorrows in the bottom of a bottle. At least, not legally. Whilst laws attempted to stop people from drinking alcohol, the culture of the speakeasy ripped through the underground. It was a place where one could relax and unwind, listen to some live music, play some cards, or set up an insurance fraud with a few of the friendly locals. It was the latter that took place in a small dive in The Bronx over several months in 1933 that would highlight how desperate the times could really be. It would also prove to be one of the most catastrophic displays of disorganised crime that the 19th-century newspapers would ever write about in what was dubbed as New York’s “most fantastic” murder. SOURCES
Read, Simon (2005) On The House: The Bizarre Killing of Michael Malloy. Berkly Publishing Group, NY, USA.
Funderburg, Anne (2014) Bootleggers and Beer Barons of the Prohibition Era. McFarland Incorporated Publishers, NC, USA.
Brooklyn Times Union (1933) Gang Murderers “Rub Out” 4 Men, Wound Another. Brooklyn Times Union, 20 March, 1933. P.3. NY, USA.
Brooklyn Times Union (1933) Two Gun Girl Seized In Bronx Holdup. Brooklyn Times Union, 17 April, 1933. P.1. NY, USA.
Daily News (1933) 5 Indicted As Murderers In Insurance Ring Probe. Daily News, 17 May, 1933. NY, USA.
Daily News (1933) When Justice Triumphed. Daily News, 29 October, 1933, P.42. Daily News, NY, USA.
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For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at 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
The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories
Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9
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.
Monday Mar 14, 2022
Monday Mar 14, 2022
An evolution of centuries-long efforts to contact and communicate with the dead, the practice of recording voices from the great beyond was attempted almost as soon as radio and tape recording technology became widely available in consumer devices. From garbled electrical chirps emanating out of swathes of white noise, to perfectly clear, eloquent speech, the results across the years have been as varied as they have been numerous. Up there with the capturing of “orbs” on camera in regards to its plausibility, EVP Research has somehow survived sceptical analysis and become a surprisingly persistent area of parapsychology. Though there were several pioneers in the space, there was one man who was supposedly so invested in the subject by the time of his death that he decided to come back and continue the job from the afterlife, through the medium of the telephone.
SOURCES
Jürgenson, Friedrich (1967) Voice Transmissions with the Deceased. Firework, Sweden.
Raudive, Konstantin. (1971) Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead. Smythe, UK.
Roach, Mary. (2005). Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. W.W. Norton & Co. UK.
Banks, Joe (2001) Rorschach Audio: Ghost Voices and Perceptual Creativity. Leonardo Music Journal, Vol. 11, pp 77-83. MIT Press, USA.
Estep, Sarah (1988) Voices of Eternity. Fawcett Gold Medal, NY, USA.
Estep, Sarah (2005) Roads to Eternity. Glade Press, MN, USA.
Moreman, Christopher M. (2013) The Spiritualist Movement: Speaking with the Dead in America and Around the World. ABC-CLIO, CA, USA.
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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
The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories
Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9
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.
Wednesday Mar 02, 2022
Wednesday Mar 02, 2022
Given a certain degree of infamy thanks to Charles Darwin, the Galapagos Islands are far less famous for their role in playing host to a tiny, isolated German ex-pat community in the 1930s, living quietly, surrounded by the unending blue of the Pacific Ocean. The motley crew of settlers included a doctor with philosophical aspirations, a pregnant housewife and an eccentric Baroness bent on creating a hotel for millionaires, complete with her doting entourage of love interests. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the ideologically disparate factions often failed to see eye to eye whilst they precariously shared the island's few natural springs, a situation that rose more than a few suspicions to those that watched on from the outside, after a series of unexplained deaths and disappearances tore the quiet island life apart from the inside, leaving the survivors to shrink off into quiet obscurity.
SOURCES
Treherne, John (1983) The Galapagos Affair. Random House, NY, USA.
Beebe, William (1924) Galapagos: World’s End. G. P. Putnam's Sons, NY, USA.
Strauch, Dore (1936) Satan Came to Eden: A Survivor's Account of the "Galapagos Affair". Harper & Bros, London, UK.
The San Fransisco Examiner (1930) Two Modern Robinson Crusoes. Sun 06 April, 1930. P103. CA, USA.
The Montreal Star (1932) Hunt For Priates Hoard. 29 December, 1932. Quebec, Canada.
The Miami News (1934) Ritter, Galapagos Nudist, Dies Without Telling Orgy secrets. 06 December 1934, P.21. FL, USA.
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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
The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories
Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9
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.
Monday Feb 14, 2022
Monday Feb 14, 2022
In the 1940s the Bahamas was something of a tropical paradise for the world’s rich. Used as a tax haven and an island getaway far removed from the battlefields of war, it was an idyllic retreat for those that could afford it. Its society had a somewhat darker underbelly, however, with ties to money launderers, smugglers, spies and mobsters. At least, that was how it started to appear in stories after one of the richest men in the world wound up dead in his Bahamian home in the summer of 1943. The fact that all of this happened under the nose of the island's governor, the one time King of England, Edward, the Duke of Windsor, who was at the time a suspected Nazi sympathiser, made it all the more intriguing, becoming the only story to ever knock the news of the war from the front pages of the Daily Telegraph.
SOURCES
Craton, Michael (1962) A History Of The Bahamas. Collins, UK.
Owen, James (2008) A Serpent In Eden. Hachette Digital, UK.
Daily News (1943) Didn’t Murder Oakes. Daily News, 11 July, 1943, P1. New York, USA.
The Province, (1944) Acquittal Of De Marigny Leaves Oakes Murder Unsolved Mystery. The Province, 12 November 1944. P1. Vancouver, Canada.
Le Grand, Cathleen (2010) Another Look at a Bahamian Mystery: The Murder of Sir Harry Oakes: A Critical Literature Review. International Journal of Bahamian Studies, Vol.16, The College of The Bahamas, The Bahamas.
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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
The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories
Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9
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.
Sunday Jan 23, 2022
Sunday Jan 23, 2022
High up in the peaks of the Himalayas, a footprint in the snow baffles a mountaineer as he attempts to climb Everest for the first time. Pulling out his camera, he prepares to snap a shot, eyeing the horizon nervously before placing his icepick down alongside the print for scale and bringing the viewfinder up to his eye. In India, a tea planter reads about the photograph in a local newspaper and turns over the idea of going to hunt the creature that made the tracks, completely unaware that he was about to start what would eventually become a lifelong mission. On the other side of the world, a Texas oil baron reads about tales of adventure high up in the mountains of Nepal, a mystical land of incense and meditation, and dreams of uncovering the mysteries of the wilds. The trio was, it's safe to say, a fairly unlikely crew, but their fates would become intimately linked by a search that would carry them halfway around the world, hole up in damp caves for days on end and pull off one of the most unusual heists in all of history. It was a search for a myth, a symbol and a monster. It was a search for the Yeti.
SOURCES
Coleman, Loren (2002) Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology. Craven Street Books, Fresno, CA, USA.
Taylor, Daniel C. (2018) Yeti: The Ecology of a Mystery. Oxford University Press, UK.
Waddell, Laurance A. (1899) Among The Himalayas. Archibald Constable & Co. UK.
Liechty, Mark (2017) Far Out: Countercultural Seekers and the Tourist Encounter in Nepal. The University of Chicago Press, IL, USA.
McGarr, Paul M. (2013) The Cold War in South Asia: Britain, The United States & The Indian Subcontinent, 1945-1965. Cambridge University Press, UK.
Princep, James (1832) The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Volume 1. Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta, India.
Redfern, Nick (2016) The Bigfoot Book: The Encyclopaedia of Sasquatch, Yeti, and Cryptid Primates. Visible Ink Press, MI, USA.
Dundee Courier (1951) Everest Has A Monster: Britons Find Footprints. Dundee Courier, Tuesday 04 December 1951, Page 3. Dundee, UK.
Star Tribune (1921) Snowman! Star Tribune, Saturday 17 December 1921, p.20. Minneapolis, MN, USA.
The Sphere (1954) The Abominable Snowman. Saturday 02 January 1954, p14. London, UK.
The Press and Sun Bulletin (1961) Yeti Belongs in Legend Says Hillary, Disposing of Track, Scalp Evidence. The Press and Sun Bulletin, 10th January 1961, p.49. New York, USA
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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
The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories
Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9
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.