RedHanded the podcast jumps head first into all manner of macabre madness. We cover everything from big time serial killers (and those you may never have heard of), to hauntings, possessions, disturbing mysteries, bizarre whodunits and basically anything that tickles our creepy fancy. So, join us, plug in, sit back and prepare for scares.
Turning lead into gold and living forever: that’s about the summation of our modern understanding of Alchemy. Informed by high-fantasy films and pop history, it now brings to mind dark, arcane ceremonies in castle ruins, playing God in the pursuit of limitless riches and immortality.
However, the reality is that Alchemy spanned thousands of years and countless cultures. It was the precursor to modern science, and undoubtedly ...
Alien autopsies, flying saucers, and top secret government programs: three things alleged to be hiding in ‘Area 51’. Officially known as Homey Airport or Groom Lake, this secret government testing facility in Nevada has been the epicentre of UFO folklore for over a century – yet the CIA only admitted its existence in 2013.
So what’s really going on behind those big metal gates? Listen to this week’s ShortHanded to find out!
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Amid the chaos now unfolding in Mexico after the February 2026 assassination of drug cartel boss El Mencho, we’re throwing it back to the 1985 torture and murder of American DEA agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena at the hands of the ruthless Guadalajara Cartel… and how Kiki's death triggered the chain reaction that led to the drug wars raging in Mexico today.
With whispers of a Cold War CIA conspiracy that still refuse to die, was ...
In the darkest hour of WWII, as bombs threatened Europe’s historic cities, a small unit was sent to the front lines – not to fight, but to save art history itself. The 'Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives' section of the US Army, known as the Monuments Men, was tasked with protecting Europe's centuries of culture from destruction.
And then, when Hitler was cornered, the Monuments Men had a new mission: track down the vast hoard...
“On that day, there were no flies on the dead. The flies were dead too.”
On the 21st of August 1986, 1746 people and 3500 livestock died in the Cameroonian village of Nyos, died suddenly, and all at once.
Ancient folklore had long cautioned the inhabitants of Nyos about evil spirits that lurked deep within their crater lake, but the grim reality far exceeded the unsettling myths.
What took place that evening, was one ...
In December 2006, the town of Ipswich was rocked by a spree of brutal murders targeting sex workers in its notorious red light area. But the story didn’t end with the capture of the so-called ‘Suffolk Strangler’, Steve Wright…
The murders of Tania Nicol, Gemma Adams, Anneli Alderton, Annette Nicholls and Paula Clennell would go on to transform policing strategies for prostitution in the UK (and even inspired a tone-deaf music...
EmptyHanded is back! We’re joined by comedian Abi Clarke to discuss all things racy, risky and romantic – and read out some of the most scandalous listener-provided stories we’ve ever heard.
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Valentine's Day is the perfect time to dive into the surprising, and at times horrifying, history of contraception through the ages; from crocodile-dung pessaries and mercury-tadpole concoctions to penis sheaths made of turtle shells, humanity has come a long way in its efforts to outsmart the stork. This is the ShortHand.
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When Brendan Banfield frantically called 911 in February 2023 to report a double murder at his million-dollar suburban home in Virginia, it seemed like an extramarital sex game gone wrong.
But as police dug deeper, the deaths of Christine Banfield and Joe Ryan – the stranger found beside her – proved even weirder than they once appeared. And all the evidence pointed to a dastardly plot between Brendan and the family’s Brazilia...
For all the centuries of slavery throughout human history, you might think one group came through mostly unscathed: white Europeans. But for more than a thousand years, Barbary pirates from North Africa (funded by the Ottoman Empire) prowled European coastlines, snatching unsuspecting Christian folk and taking them to be slaves in the Islamic world.
At their height, huge fleets of privateers were raiding coastal towns, sliding...
The ever-changing story of neonatal nurse Lucy Letby, and the Countess of Chester baby deaths, has been given the Netflix treatment – and We. Have. Thoughts.
For our coverage of the full story, check out our previous deep-dive just before this one in the feed. But in this week’s second-ShortHand, we talk about missed evidence, digital anonymisation, and decide whether or not it changed our minds.
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In light of the new Netflix documentary about Lucy Letby, we're dipping into the RedHanded archives to revisit our own coverage of this controversial case – following an expert panel's findings in February 2025...
Want even more up-to-date analysis? Listen to our new ShortHand episode now: 'ShortHand: Lucy Letby – What Netflix Left Out'.
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An independent panel of experts has concluded that NO murders took place...
In January 2016, a coffee date between three glamorous Indonesian gal pals turned deadly – when Mirna Salihin, a wealthy and beautiful newlywed, took a sip of a Vietnamese iced coffee that had been laced with a lethal dose of cyanide. The culprit? Her ex-bestie Jessica Wongso. The motive? A toxic case of the green eyed monster: with revenge served ice cold.
At least, that’s how the Indonesian courts said it went down. But was ...
From faking insanity to go undercover in an asylum, racing around the world in 72 days, and reporting from the front lines of deadly war zones, this fearless investigative reporter risked everything to expose the truth… and she did it all in a corset.
The unstoppable Nellie Bly rewrote all the rules to smash her way into the boys’ club of Victorian journalism, and blazed a trail for all the ladies who followed in her footstep...
Behind the façade of the white-picket-fence dream and adventurous childhoods of suburban, late-70s Michigan, lay a web of depravity that law enforcement was not remotely prepared for. Over the course of just one tragic year, the town of Oakland was terrorised: four children vanished, only to turn up dead. Chillingly, one had even been fed his favourite food, just before his murder.
Was this the work of a lone killer? Or an organised...
Not many of us need convincing that Sesame Street is good; the Muppets have been chaotic TV icons for more than 50 years. But what not many people know is just how much good it did.
Not just unmissable TV, but a revolutionary, massive-scale outreach program. One that used ad-land tactics and groundbreaking psychological research, to reset the balance of educational privilege – and teach disadvantaged, inner-city kids how to read. It...
With 2026 bringing widespread anti-government protests to Iran, and the government’s brutal crackdowns leading to thousands of people killed and arrested, we’re rereleasing our coverage on the current regime – and how we got here – through the lens of Mahsa Amini’s murder.
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On 19 May 2024, Ebrahim Raisi – “The Butcher of Tehran” and President of the Islamic Republic of Iran – died in a helicopter crash. Immediately, theories of who...
In 2000, Christine Lundy and her seven-year-old daughter Amber were brutally hacked to death in their New Zealand home. Their husband and father, Mark Lundy, had a seemingly watertight alibi: he was over 90 miles away.
But that didn’t stop the New Zealand courts from convicting him. Twice.
With a controversial case built on junk science, shifting timelines, and a microscopic speck of what prosecutors called ‘brain tissue’ (but might ...
‘Anal seepage’ is one of the many potential risks to the consumer due to seafood fraud, a multi-layered conspiracy that goes as deep as the Mariana Trench.
The stats speak for themselves: if you’re in the UK, there’s a 55% chance that the fish you’re eating has been deliberately mislabeled. In the US, 120 samples of ‘Red Snapper’ were tested, and only 7 turned out to be the real thing.
Clearly there’s something fishy going on.
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When Luigi Mangione was charged as the UnitedHealthcare shooter – it changed everything. The public knew this was a political act, but Luigi was not the crackpot vigilante many had pictured. He had no clear personal link to UnitedHealthcare (or CEO Brian Thompson) – and he had everything to lose. To many, he became a certified, revolutionary, anti-capitalist heartthrob.
But there’s also a lot more to Mangione than the selfless marty...
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
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