Got the Morbs: An Oddcast

Join us for part two as Beth explores more quack medicine and horrifying medical experiments. REFERENCES• Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything: https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780761189817• https://www.aamc.org/news/grave-errors-spooky-cures-and-creepy-medical-missteps-past • https://time.com/4982099/quackery-medicine-history • https://www.nytimes.com/video/well/100000010831025/the-internets-latest-wonder-drug-nicotine.html• https://www.mdlinx.com/article/how-docs-are-responding-to-the-maha-linked-trend-pushing-nicotine-as-an-anti-dementia-hack/3KjgIchHjyeX6e6EDf3B4B• https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2022/04/10-strange-medical-practices-from-history• https://www.ohsu.edu/historical-collections-archives/theres-cure-historic-medicines-and-cure-alls-america• https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/our-stories/old-fashioned-medicine-still-in-use• https://www.healthline.com/health/old-medical-treatments-make-your-stomach-turn• https://www.businessinsider.com/yes-bayer-promoted-heroin-for-children-here-are-the-ads-that-prove-it-2011-11?op=1• https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/-cure-all-medication-caused-death-in-thousands-of-babies• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sqBr4vJHaY• https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/hole-in-the-head-trepanation• https://www.vice.com/en/article/drilling-a-hole-in-your-head-for-a-higher-state-of-consciousness• https://bcmj.org/mds-be/brief-reflection-not-so-brief-history-lobotomy

Ever heard of the rheumatism hotel? Wondered how George Washington really died? Considered adorning your bosom with weasel testicles?We certainly hadn’t.As it turns out, medicine was once more of an art than a science. After this episode, you'll be eternally grateful that someone figured out that science part.Please don’t send this episode to RFK, Jr.Sources:Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780761189817https://www.aamc.org/news/grave-errors-spooky-cures-and-creepy-medical-missteps-past https://time.com/4982099/quackery-medicine-history https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2022/04/10-strange-medical-practices-from-historyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodlettinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barber_surgeonhttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/prescription-rheumatism-used-be-sit-inside-rotting-whale-30-hours-180950335https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-26807485https://www.fibonaccimd.com/post/the-history-of-the-whale-cure-for-rheumatismhttps://magicsilverbullet.substack.com/p/the-whale-hotel-for-rheumatismhttps://www.bbc.com/bbcthree/article/e671cb02-4e5e-4f52-a835-25a5dd2a5963https://www.webmd.com/sex/birth-control/ss/slideshow-birth-control-historyhttps://www.livescience.com/11376-history-future-birth-control/2.htmlhttps://www.history.com/articles/7-unusual-ancient-medical-techniques

Got the Morbs takes on its first serial killer case (with an Ohio connection). This is one of the most brutal stories we’ve told to date - not just for the murders but for the prolonged torture these poor victims endured. This is the story of the Kansas City Butcher.Sources:https://crimelibrary.org/serial_killers/predators/bob_berdella/https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6139717/robert_andrew-berdellaRobert Berdella - Wikipedia

Once upon a time, in rural Massachusetts, a creepy, stinky teenage boy called Danny escalated from petty theft to stalking to triple homicide in the span of two years. This is his story.

A case with three gruesome murders and one twisted abduction from our home state of Ohio. We promise you’ll never look at a pile of crisp autumn leaves in the same way again. P.S. We have an update on the Villisca murder bacon, courtesy of a patron and a former butcher we met at a bar recently. (It’s a little worse than we thought.)Sources:https://www.truecrimeavenue.com/2024/10/the-case-of-matthew-hoffman-he.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Hoffman_(murderer)https://inews.co.uk/culture/matthew-hoffman-now-what-happened-to-tina-herrmanns-killer-and-how-long-hes-in-jail-3628368https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/knox-county-detective-recounts-one-of-ohios-most-horrific-murder-cases-15-years-later-matthew-hoffman/530-7b709ec6-f783-4079-b418-8c7c4ddf60fbhttps://moviedelic.com/matthew-john-hoffman/https://abcnews.com/US/killer-matthew-hoffman-stockpiled-leaves-ohio-home-made/story?id=12877942https://www.oxygen.com/twisted-killers/crime-news/why-matthew-hoffman-is-known-as-leaf-killerhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1354984/Matthew-Hoffmann-Confession-burglar-murdered-3-raped-girl.htmlSarah Maynard: What Happened to the Survivor?

The unfortunate life of Maria Marten and The Red Barn of PolsteadReferences:Listen to “Murder in the Red Barn” by Tom Waits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD5ycbCKg7Yhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYYjhbpqKQshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3ocyLyAKEhttps://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjwvl93ywlpohttps://www.mentalfloss.com/crime/red-barn-murderhttps://www.google.com/books/edition/An_accurate_account_of_the_trial_of_Will/cUDw7ut9RK4Chttps://digital.nls.uk/broadsides/view/?id=15013https://visit-burystedmunds.co.uk/blog/red-barn-murderhttps://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27903742https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-real-electric-frankenstein-experiments-of-the-1800shttps://www.nps.gov/articles/000/phrenology-in-victorian-america.htm

Today’s episode combines two of our interests: true crime and the supernatural. WHY IS THERE BACON?!?!https://bestattractions.org/usa/iowa/villisca-axe-murder-house-ia/https://usghostadventures.com/hauntings/https://iowacoldcases.org/case-summaries/villisca-axe-murders/The Unsolved Mystery Of The Villisca Axe Murders

Oh look, our first explicit content warning! (Thanks, Beth!)Join us for our most juvenile episode to date, as we learn about five famous men and their... eccentricities.Much of my research came from “The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People”Link to buy: https://feralhouse.com/the-intimate-sex-lives-of-famous-people· https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/02/02/james-joyces-love-letters-dirty-little-fuckbird· https://web.archive.org/web/20140707230101/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/13/magazine/letters-warren-g-harding.html· https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/warren-harding-child-sex-sandal-121404· https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/11/talking-tough-martin-luthers-potty-mouth· https://www.sacerdotus.com/2025/11/martin-luthers-fart-fetish.html· https://www.history.com/articles/what-is-seppuku· https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/02/archives/japans-student-army-disbands.html· https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20201124-yukio-mishima-the-strange-tale-of-japans-infamous-novelist· https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/11/28/mark-twains-disturbing-passion-for-collecting-young-girls· https://marktwainstudies.com/the-study/a-disturbing-passion-mark-twain-the-angelfish· https://medium.com/timeline/mark-twain-collected-little-girls-55abc82a41b3· https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/appraisals/angel-fish-pin-from-mark-twain-ca-1895

The baffling case of Carl Eric “Charlie” BrandtSources: https://murderpedia.org/male.B/b/brandt-carl.htmhttps://allthatsinteresting.com/charlie-brandthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Brandt

Beth teaches us about the customs and traditions of Victorian mourning culture, from funeral cakes to post-mortem photography. Ken instigates. Erin absolutely loses her shit. Join us!References:https://www.hrm.org/events/curator-tour-from-home-mourning-in-glenviewhttps://www.hrm.org/mourning-in-the-victorian-era-and-glenviewhttps://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/queen-victoria-influencehttps://artsci.case.edu/dittrick/2014/04/29/deadly-diphtheria-the-childrens-plaguehttps://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/great-unwashedhttps://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/100519https://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/england/englishness-funeral-objects.htmlhttps://thevictorianbookofthedead.wordpress.comhttps://www.ericaweiner.com/history-lessons/hair-jewelryhttps://burialsandbeyond.com/2019/03/21/in-praise-of-death-stationaryhttps://nmfh.orghttps://www.museumofdeath.nethttps://www.facebook.com/p/Anatomy-Of-Death-Museum-100035441096317https://clements.umich.edu/exhibit/death-in-early-america/post-mortem-overviewhttps://www.sideshowgallerychicago.com/shop/p/beyond-the-dark-veil-post-mortem-mourning-photographyfrom-the-thanatos-archive

The troubled life and tragic death of American socialite Barbara Daly Baekeland.Sources:https://allthatsinteresting.com/barbara-daly-baekelandDeath of a socialite: the Barbara Baekeland casehttps://www.factinate.com/people/facts-barbara-baekeland/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite

Join us as we recount the history and hauntings of Beth and Ken’s childhood home—from apparitions of long dead German immigrants to remnants of an attempted self-cancellation and all the strange phenomena in between. The perfect soundtrack for scraping your booger wall to!Sources:https://www.familysearch.orghttps://www.findagrave.com https://www.ancestry.com https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/violet-h-bower-24-2q3w70 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garfield_Heights,_Ohio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defunct_townships_of_Cuyahoga_County,_Ohio#Newburgh_Townshiphttps://pgsgc.org/garfield-heightshttps://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/garfield-hts-church-founded-in-1854-celebrates-anniversary-with-special-worship-servicehttps://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/11806-Granger-Rd_Cleveland_OH_44125_M49296-55362https://www.angelfire.com/punk2/staypunkstayfree/house.html

The senseless Cleveland, Ohio murder of Jacob Feichtner on 4th of July 2007.Sources:https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/143080951/debra-marie-feichtnerhttps://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/8/2010/2010-ohio-2770.pdfhttps://www.cleveland.com/metro/2008/05/july_4th_shooting_victims_had.htmlhttps://www.cleveland.com/metro/2007/07/firefighter_suspected_in_shoot.htmlhttps://thecinemaholic.com/jacob-feichtner-katherine-rosby-and-bruce-andersons-murders/https://www.cleveland.com/pdextra/2007/12/a_deadly_six_hours.html

In 1964, 16-year-old Beverly Jarosz was found murdered in the bedroom of her Garfield Heights, Ohio home. We are still waiting for justice today.References:https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2014/12/beverly_jarosz_murder_50_years.htmlhttps://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/1nvbe1t/today_would_be_beverly_jaroszs_77th_birthday_shehttps://issuu.com/lj719/docs/tri-c_times_summer_2019_19-0303_for?fr=sODg5NTQ3Mjkhttps://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/10921-Thornton-Ave_Cleveland_OH_44125_M39651-56613https://www.cleveland.com/whateverhappened/2004/12/police_armed_with_new_tools_re.htmlhttps://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/cold-case-spotlight/beverly-jarosz-1964-murder-ohio-cold-case-rcna185435https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1YfYwFBKCb/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAAq8_L4jkohttps://www.cleveland.com/metro/2016/10/beverly_jarosz_a_voice_preserv.htmlhttps://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Files/Law-Enforcement/Investigator/Cold-Case/Homicides/Jaroszhttps://morbidology.com/who-killed-beverly-jarosz

Meet your hosts and let’s get some morbs!