Dark Histories

In the 1930s a peculiar story began filtering out from the towns and villages surrounding a small farm on the western coast of the Isle of Man. Reports of a talking animal, a local spook that could sing the Manx national anthem, engross itself in the local gossip and hunt rabbits better than any of the local poachers, had made their rounds locally and shot out into the wilder world, confounding anyone who gave the story the time ...

For over a century, 19th century criminal history has been dominated by a single name. With his murders so violent, his acts so senseless, his victims so vulnerable and his legacy so profound, Jack the Ripper is as synonymous with Victorian London as the Queen herself. But whilst Jack was busy ripping, there was another series of murders being carried out that were equally as gruesome, executed by a killer equally as mysterious and...

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The human body is a miracle. But when it’s not working, it can be the stuff of nightmares. On this new series from master storyteller MrBallen, we’re sharing medical horror stories and diagnostic mysteries that are surgically calib...

In 1811 a series of brutal murders on the Ratcliffe Highway in the east end of London shook the locals to the very core with their unrivalled brutality and seemingly random, everyday targets. The murders exposed a fear in the city that had been bubbling away beneath the surface for several years and made some of the first inroads into the long debate over the reform of the way the police operated throughout the country. Considered ...

In the late 1500s, Britain was, spiritually speaking, in something of a confusing place for the average citizen. With the protestant reform in full swing, many old traditions were being unceremoniously cast aside by the officials, whilst still being clung to by the public, leading to a thriving underground trade in charms and trinkets and the quiet trade of conjurers, folk healers and those ministers willing to indulge the old Cath...

In an old estate situated just outside Chichester, on the South coast of England sits the HInton Ampner manor house. Rebuilt several times over its 1000 year existence, its current iteration is an innocuous brick building with little in common with the Tudor mansion that stood before and no hints to its creepy past. Once considered by the locals to be haunted, it was the site of an old gothic style haunting, a hundred years before ...

Amid the opulence of Belle Époque France, a trial took place that threatened to unravel the very meaning of human legal justice. Michel Eyraud and Gabrielle Bompard, two French citizens living their lives quietly in Paris were launched into the spotlight following the discovery of a decomposing corpse, the reconstruction of a destroyed wooden trunk and an international manhunt. Whilst their names eventually disappeared into obscuri...

In the winter of 1922, a bizarre series of events fell across an isolated Nova Scotian farmhouse, leaving the locals grappling with a set of mysteries that were as terrifying as they were exciting. Unseen forces braided horses' tails and moved livestock, while bluish lights danced eerily around the property and soon, the situation escalated to a series of unexplained fires igniting within the farmhouse, forcing the occupants to fle...

In the 1920s as the world reeled from the first world war and the great flu pandemic, people in their collective grief turned to alternative systems of belief. Spiritualism, already making a new rise, was launched into the spotlight as proponents like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle waltzed around the globe giving lectures on the benefits of communicating with the dead. At the same time, there were others who found the subject altogether di...

It's time for a mid-season summer break and to tide us over I've got a couple of tales for you from the genius of M.R. James. I've picked two of my favourites to read, I hope you enjoy them!

Deep in the Pacific Ocean, 350 miles off the coast of Central America sits a small, unimposing island, surrounded in natural beauty. One of the island's lesser known claims to fame is that its tropical climate and lost-world appearance were the original inspiration for Jurassic Park's fictional Isla Nublar. Better known, however, are the myths and legends that pertain to the hoards of pirate treasure, buried beneath the surface an...

During the First World War, the Ottoman Empire established a wide network of camps to house prisoners of war from the allied powers. Like most, the conditions were often poor, the treatment often harsh and the complexes often established in some of the most remote, rural and desolate landscapes. Yozgat was one such camp, comprising a small collection of buildings in a rural town commandeered by the Ottoman Army to house British off...