Mania
The Mania Podcast explores dark, historical stories, casting light on wicked events and individuals from before modern times. From Victorian superstitions to bizarre, Medieval witchcraft, our labyrinth of iniquity, mystery, and nightmares await. Here, the dead return to share their tales, only now the living listen.
Episodes
This the first episode in the two part series of The Vampire of Düsseldorf. We find ourselves in early 20th century Germany to pursue a killer whose entire life and crimes were instrumental in helping the psychologist Carl Berg define the term 'sadism'.
For this half, we will focus on the shocking nature of Peter Kürten's upbringing, his adolescence, and his first brushes with murder.
After the Bender family settles in the Osage township in 1871, bodies begin popping up in nearby creeks. As suspicions mount amongst the neighbours, the truth starts rearing its head, but it will be more shocking than anybody could have imagined.
Music by Luella Gren.
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As nuns go missing in a late 17th century Benedictine convent, Abbess Agatha must root out the evil lurking in her priory. With one particular sister's behaviour becoming terribly erratic, she suspects the Devil himself is at work. The aftermath will leave a cypher so inhumanly complex—it wouldn't be deciphered for nearly four centuries.
In Italy, that letter is still safeguarded today.
Thank you to Luel...
Lives held by single threads. Beating hearts clutched in hands. For this Halloween finale to the second season, we pursue three remarkable procedures catalogued from the 19th century. Surgeries so groundbreaking that they were published, discussed, (and sometimes scorned), amidst scores of Victorian medical professionals.
In the previous episode, we discussed dubious and downright comical remedies, but today's narrati...
We've all heard of bloodletting and leeches, but what of tobacco smoke enemas, crow vomit ointments, and magic pigeons? In this surprisingly educational excursion, we explore three curious remedies from the annals of 19th and 18th century medicine. This topic was voted for by patrons of the show!
Research for this episode would not have been possible without "The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth & Other Curiosi...
Appearing after the wake of Lavinia Fisher is one of America's deadliest serial killers from the mid 19th century. Arising from the tragic demise of her mother and subsequent abandonment by her father, Honora Kelley, (more infamously regarded as Jane Toppan), entered the world of medicine only to use her training to exact ruthless destruction upon innocent lives. Though grand, Jane's aspirations were simple: "to have...
Lavinia and her Six Mile Wayfarer House were a match made in Hell. Hers is a vital, bloody piece of American history that showcases the dangers of oral tradition, and how truth becomes twisted with fiction. Follow this femme fatale down a path of wanton destruction where no regret or shame follows.
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A mother in rural Ireland carries the burden of a curse that she may not survive.
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A family of eight in Wattisham, England is plagued with a deadly disease with no solution, but the real illness is paranoia.
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Uncovering the sudden murder rampage of Charles Whitman.
Beneath this dumbfounding act of terror are poignant questions concerning free will, the justice system, and the complex moral discussions sparked by murderers like Whitman.
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Some demons do their most gruesome work in churches.
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Painter Richard Dadd is the embodiment of a tragic tale, containing a bright future dashed too soon and an irreconcilable event which darkens his fate forevermore.
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Rumours of a werewolf are spreading in a rural town in France. Gilles Garnier, a hermit on the outskirts, becomes closer to the drama than he'd like.
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The city of Edinburgh undergoes a rash of killings in 1828, though the killers aren't men of passion, but enterprise.
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The soulless killings of Elizabeth Dyer, the "Ogress of Reading".
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The tragedy of a servant working for a very bloody establishment.
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A professor and spiritualist conducts a harrowing experiment.
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A small, forgettable village in 1665 England makes an unforgettable sacrifice.
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The full killing career of H.H. Holmes, summarised and dissected. The infamous Chicago serial murderer who confessed to twenty-seven homicides is nothing sort of mysterious, diabolical, and depraved to a comical degree. On the outside, a well-to-do 1800's entrepreneur with an eye for investment opportunity, as long as he can take a shortcut: murder.
After his precious trunk is discovered by local authorities, H.H. Holmes' story only gets more strange. This episode features the unbelievably true recount of a serial killer's chase with a detective, all the while carting around a ticking time bomb of a decomposing corpse worth a fortune.
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