Fresh Hell Podcast

Is reincarnation real, and is it possible that people remember a life that ended more than 3,000 years ago? From the time she was a small child, Dorothy Eady insisted that ancient Egypt was her home. As an adult, she left England behind, settled in Egypt, and became known as Omm Sety, earning the respect of archaeologists for her meticulous work while claiming that she had once been an Egyptian priestess at the court of Pharaoh Seti I. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the second part we follow Mary through her years on North Brother Island, her legal fight against the city, her release, and the decision that would ultimately send her back into quarantine for the rest of her life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mary Mallon was simply an Irish immigrant making a living as a cook for some of New York's wealthiest families. But wherever she worked, typhoid fever seemed to follow. In the first part of our two-part series, we head back to New York at the turn of the twentieth century, where crowded streets, groundbreaking discoveries in public health, and one baffling outbreak after another form the backdrop for one of the most famous investigations in medical history. As sanitary engineer George Soper begins looking for the source of a mysterious typhoid outbreak at a summer home in Oyster Bay, he starts to notice a pattern everyone else had overlooked! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the final part of our series on Starr Faithfull, the investigation begins, and this is where the mystery begins! Why were parts of her clothing missing? Why did two autopsies reach different conclusions? What was in Starr's diary? And what role, if any, did the powerful former mayor Andrew J. Peters play after years of abusing her? In this final episode, we walk through the investigation, the evidence, and the theories that have been debated for more than 90 years. We also talk about how the press turned Starr into a "party girl," and why we think that completely misses the point. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Starr Faithfull finally tells her family the secret she’s been carrying for nearly a decade: she has been sexually abused by a powerful and trusted relative since childhood. In Part 2, we talk about what happened after that revelation, as her family struggles to help her in an era when trauma was poorly understood and the modern ideas of treatment were more than questionable. This is Part 2 of our 3-part series on Starr Faithfull. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1931, the body of 25-year-old Starr Faithfull washed ashore on a Long Island beach. Newspapers and the public speculated whether her death was murder, suicide, or an accident. But before we can answer that question, we need to go back to the beginning: to old Boston money, political power, and the man Starr knew as "Uncle Andrew." Content note: This episode contains discussions of child sexual abuse, grooming, eating disorders, addiction, suicidal ideation, and mental health struggles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're wrapping up our summer break series, and we're leaving murder, mystery, and historical villains behind and head into the strange world of UFO sightings, and things that definitely shouldn't have been lurking outside people's homes after dark. Or before dark. Pretty much at any time! First, we travel to Scotland in 1979 for the Dechmont Woods Incident, where a respected groundskeeper named Robert Taylor claimed he encountered a bizarre metallic craft and strange spiked objects in the woods near Livingston. To this day, it's the only UFO case in British history to result in a police investigation. Then we head to rural Illinois in 1973, where the tiny town of Enfield found itself at the center of a monster panic after a local man reported an encounter with a strange three-legged creature with glowing eyes. Was it an escaped animal, a case of social contagion, or something far stranger? Finally, we visit a farmhouse near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where an extended family spent an unforgettable August night defending their home from mysterious glowing creatures now known as the Kelly-Hopkinsville Goblins. Nearly seventy years later, it remains one of the most famous UFO encounters in American history. As always, these are condensed versions of our original episodes. If you'd like the full stories, you'll find the complete episodes waiting in our archive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While Johanna recovers from surgery and Annie does her best to prevent her from immediately returning to work, we're bringing you another trip into the Fresh Hell archives. This week features condensed versions of two of our most heartbreaking cases, both were originally released as two-part episodes. First, we travel to Ashland, Kentucky in 1881, where a horrific crime on Christmas Eve left an entire community grieving and searching for answers. The Ashland Tragedy became one of the most sensational cases of its era, complete with false accusations, mob justice, and many questions, that remain debated and unanswered nearly 150 years later. Then we move to California in 2000 for the murder of fifteen-year-old Nicholas Markowitz. What begins as a petty dispute over a drug debt turns into a senseless tragedy that shocked the nation and inspired the film Alpha Dog.  As always, these are streamlined versions of the original stories. If you'd like all the details, historical context, side tangents, and moments where Annie and Johanna become increasingly frustrated with humanity, the full episodes are waiting for you in our archive. Content Warning: This episode includes discussion of sexual assault of minors, child murder, kidnapping, and violence against children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we’re doing something a little different. We teamed up with Horrifying History for a feed swap, which means we’re sharing one of their episodes with you. And you know is: this one is absolute Victorian nightmare fuel. In this episode, host Brenda Ganske explores the horrifying world of Britain’s baby farming industry, a system that preyed on vulnerable women and led to neglect, abuse, and murder on a shocking scale. It’s a dark and heartbreaking story. We know you all enjoy the darker historical side of Fresh Hell, so there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy Horrifying History as well.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Hitler Diaries are finally exposed as fake, and the fallout is spectacular! In the fourth and final part of our series, we talk about the collapse of the biggest media scandal in postwar Germany. What did the BKA find? What was the so called “Folternacht” inside Stern headquarters? And what happened to the Carin II.? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stern is now spending millions, historians are cautiously warning them, and Konrad Kujau is sitting at home frantically producing more and more volumes while simultaneously convincing everyone that this all makes perfect sense. What could possibly go wrong? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gerd Heidemann follows up on the supposed Hitler diaries and finally meets the man behind them. Money starts changing hands in ways that should probably raise a few questions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we start a story that begins with a boat, takes a detour through a small village in East Germany, and ends up with one of the biggest media scandals in German history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices