RedHanded

In Part 2 of our special spooky series on all things witchy, we take a look at how the hag-hunting insanity spread to the British Isles: thanks to a paranoid new king and a 19-year-old, self-styled Witchfinder General.Plus: what really goes down at a witches’ sabbath, and why did women make up 90% of the thousands killed?--Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesYouTube - Full-length Video EpisodesTikTok / Instagram

Believed for over a thousand years to be local soothsayers who used their powers for everyday charms and spells, European witches' PR machine finally turned against them in the 16th and 17th centuries: when the continent suddenly became gripped by the idea that they weren't so wholesome after all...In fact, they might just be part of a demonic army on a mission to cloud the whole world in evil.For spooky season, we're treating our listeners to a redux of our epic two-parter ShortHand exploring the witch-hunting mania that gripped Europe for a huge chunk of its history – and led to the state-sanctioned executions of over 200,000 people. --Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesYouTube - Full-length Video EpisodesTikTok / Instagram

Boiled in blood, hacked at by knives, torn apart by iron dogs… the world’s religions differ on what exactly might await sinners in the afterlife. But one thing they can all agree on is that if you were naughty on Earth, you are in for one hell of a horrible time.We take a quick tour of history’s grimmest netherzones: from freezing poison rain in the Norse Helheim, to a river of excrement, where monstrous aquatic beings eat your flesh, down in the Hindu Narakas. Welcome to Hell.--Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesYouTube - Full-length Video EpisodesTikTok / Instagram

Today we're sharing an episode from the true crime podcast Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, hosted by Vanessa Richardson and forensic psychologist Dr. Tristin Engels. Each episode, Vanessa and Dr. Engels take you deep into the psychology of history’s most chilling murderers. They blend gripping true crime storytelling, with expert analysis to uncover what drives people to kill.In this episode, Vanessa and Dr. Engels untangle a murder case that began in 2012, when Dave Kroupa met a woman named Liz Golyar on a dating app. Months later, Dave started seeing someone else, a woman named Cari Farver. Cari vanished overnight, and a flood of threatening messages began arriving in her name. As the harassment escalated from digital terror to arson, investigators began to realise the truth was far darker than a jealous ex...Follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds on your favourite podcast app to hear Part 2 of this story.Follow and listen to Serial Killers & Murderous Minds here: https://link.pscrb.fm/f4487/skmm73adq1

With the release of the Amazon Prime documentary about the murder of Caroline Crouch, we're reaching into the vault to bring you H&S' coverage of this tragic case. When the body of 19-year-old Caroline Crouch was found in her attic room after an apparent home invasion – with her 11-month-old daughter crying next to her, and her puppy hanging from the bannister – the nation of Greece mourned with her widower, Babis Anagnostopoulos.A handsome helicopter pilot, Anagnostopoulos had led the tributes since her death. But one month on, at a clifftop memorial service, Athenian police revealed that new analysis of the couple’s smart devices revealed a new culprit. One who’d fooled not just the police – but the whole nation.--Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesYouTube - Full-length Video EpisodesTikTok / Instagram

When videos of a gruesome beheading and dismemberment surfaced on gore-fetish websites across Vietnam in 2025, the internet was shaken to its core. Not because it was the first time anyone had seen disturbing videos online. But because this time, the victim seemed to have been actively involved in planning his own murder.But is it less of a crime if you have the victim’s consent? And could this be the world’s first ever real snuff film?Enter one of the most insane open-source murder investigations in history, as a community of crime-addicted cybersleuths tried to crack this grisly case themselves…--Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesYouTube - Full-length Video EpisodesTikTok / Instagram

To round launch our month of spooky eps, our Halloween ShortHand covers the life and afterlife of one of the most sinister, blood-thirstiest bastards in all of human history: Vlad the Impaler, otherwise known as Vlad Dracula.We dig into the legends surrounding the savage ruler – including an al fresco lunch among hundreds of thousands of twitching, impaled enemies – and see how they tie into the modern, blood-sucking vampire legend. Happy Halloween…--Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesYouTube - Full-length Video EpisodesTikTok / Instagram

From the BBC and Westminster Cathedral to Penguin paperbacks, typeface creator Eric Gill was once lauded as the eccentric genius behind some of Britain’s most iconic visual landmarks. But behind the scenes, he was also a sex-mad monster who shamelessly abused his own daughters within the rural Catholic artisanal communes where he lived and worked…And the art world covered it all up for decades. TL;DR – Did you know one of the UK’s most celebrated sculptors and graphic designers was actually a notorious nonce? Neither did we.--Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesYouTube - Full-length Video EpisodesTikTok / Instagram

Fetal abduction is incredibly rare, so it’s no surprise that it wasn’t top of the list of possible motives when a heavily pregnant 22-year-old Rebecca Park first went missing. Yet when looking back over the countless livestreams and interviews given by Rebecca’s biological mother, Cortney Bartholomew, along with Bartholomew’s husband, Bradley, the pieces quickly fall into place — a mother jealous of her own child and willing to kill her for her baby.Join us in the concluding episode of our deep dive into the murder of Rebecca Park and her unborn child, as we comb through hours of bizarre Facebook livestreams and police interviews to try and piece together not just what happened on the day Rebecca and her unborn baby were killed, but also what on earth her killers were trying to achieve and the pathetic tale they tried to tell the authorities.--Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesYouTube - Full-length Video EpisodesTikTok / Instagram

This week, we’re taking you back to 1974 for a rollocking royal story that The Crown won’t tell you - the time a young Princess Anne was almost kidnapped by a gun-toting loner outside Buckingham Palace, in a shower of bullets and stiff upper lips.The Anne-cident changed royal security protocols forever. But would The Firm be changing their ways? Not bloody likely.Featuring an ex-boxer vigilante, a somersaulting princess and an outrageous extortion plot, you don’t wanna miss this one.--Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesYouTube - Full-length Video EpisodesTikTok / Instagram

In just seven years, the bubonic plague killed half of all Europeans – more than 50 million people. We look at its surprising origins on the Mongolian battlefield (where diseased bodies were literally catapulted at the enemy); its unstoppable spread through a terrified Europe; and how it turned cultural, religious and social life in the 14th century completely upside down.--Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesYouTube - Full-length Video EpisodesTikTok / Instagram