Criminal Records Podcast

Thanks to Demetria's brilliant decision to get as many vaccines as possible on the same day, there's no new episode this week. Instead, we're releasing a bonus episode from our Patreon archives about one of our all-time favorite works of historical fiction. We'll be back on our regular posting schedule in 2024!

Content warning: Babylon Berlin is set in the Weimar Republic and contains some admirably frank depictions of the rise of fascism, so there's a lot of discussion of antisemitism and Nazis in this episode and on the show.

On one side, a crooked saloon owner with a side business running brothels and opium dens. On the other side, a moralistic tycoon with rail car full of beautiful vegetables. Which one of them did more damage to a frontier town in Montana?

Sources and show notes at this link

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Want to crown yourself the king of Germany? Want to conquer Europe because you have really strong opinions about public transit? Want to get rich quick selling fake government ID cards? With this one completely nonsense legal strategy, you too can claim the government of Germany isn't real and join the ranks of some very iffy far-right extremists.

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Hi everyone,

Owing to a bout of illness, we're bumping back the release date for this week's episode by 24 hours. We expect to still be able to get it out there by Friday morning (Pacific Time). Sorry for the delay!

To crown the monarch of the United Kingdom, you need a 336-pound block of sandstone. But who really owns that big chunk of stone, and who was the thief who stole it from its rightful place?

Sources and show notes at this link

Support the show and find our bonus episode about Braveheart on Patreon

If you're going to accuse a gang of spirit mediums of practicing a banned religion on the down low, you have to prove they're actually members of that religion. But what if your only understanding of how this religious group worships comes from stories about outrageous magical villains?

Sources and show notes at this link

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A group of spirit mediums found a way to use their psychic prowess to get rich in the physical realm. But when an investigator started looking into a suspiciously successful prosperity scheme, he uncovered a case of divine fraud.

Sources and show notes at this link

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Let's dive into the dangerous, divine, and occasionally kinky history of trying to figure out who's telling the truth.

Sources and show notes at this link

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In the second part of our story, the Baron of Arizona has to create a Baroness so he can rise to great heights in Europe and use his connections to keep swindling in America. But while the upper crust in the old country buy into his wild story, Americans are starting to unravel his fraud.

Sources and show notes at this link

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James Reavis was a failed real estate investor, but he had a knack for document forgery. And if you lose all the land you own legally, why not acquire some more with the help of a few doctored papers?

Sources and show notes at this link

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A North Korean plot to sabotage the Olympics and possibly derail a crucial South Korean election hinged on a pair of very unusual spies. When one of the bombers survived after swallowing a cyanide capsule, she told investigators her whole world was a lie.

Content note: This episode concerns a terrorist attack, a plane crash, mass murder, and a death by poisoning. It also contains discussions of police brutality and torture.

Sources and show notes at this link

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Mirror mirror on the wall, who really killed Thomas Overbury? We're getting deep into what might just be the weirdest trial we've ever covered on this show, with accusations flying about witchcraft, a poisoned enema, Spanish treachery, and a cameo from Sir Francis Bacon.

Sources and show notes at this link

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We begin a twisted tale of witchcraft, poison, and legal arguing over magically cursed genitals in the court of King James I. Sir Thomas Overbury tried his best to climb to a coveted position at court, but he made a lot of enemies along the way.

Content note: I'm going to throw an explicit label on this one just in case because it involves a discussion of a legal case revolving around the mechanics of impotence.

Sources and show notes at this link

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In life, they were poor hooligans. In death, they became five of Japan's greatest folk heroes. Join us for a journey into Japan's 17th-century true crime puppet shows, time-traveling heroic tales, and kabuki romance.

Sources and show notes at this link

Support the show and find bonus episodes on Patreon

You've heard jokes about the Iran-Contra affair, but have you heard the actual legal arguments of the defendants? To understand the true scope and purpose of these complicated financial shenanigans, we've got to cover a whole lot of history.

Sources and show notes at this link

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This Pride month, we’re gearing up for a fight. As we battle over “Don’t Say Gay” bills in the US today, we’re looking back to the 1980s to see how a similar legal effort played out in the United Kingdom. No one was ever successfully prosecuted under Section 28, but that doesn’t mean it was harmless.

Content note: This episode contains in-depth discussion of homophobia and transphobia in the recent past and today. I’m also going to have to throw an explicit label on this episode just to be safe since we do go over some of the technical details of legal debate over the Buggery Act and more recent debates over obscenity and sex education.

Sources and show notes

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A man named Martin Guerre left his wife and child. Eight years later, a man who called himself Martin Guerre returned. Why would his wife accept her not-quite-the-same husband without raising any questions, and what happened when one member of the family became convinced his nephew had been replaced by an imposter?

Sources and show notes

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Is the rule that made the modern internet to blame for breaking it? Is a forum legally analogous to a bookstore that might have a dirty book in it somewhere? Who's responsible for all this junk everyone's been putting in the internet tubes? And if we're heading for a massive change in the way we handle illegal content online, are we at risk of destroying the best parts of the system we're trying to fix?

Content note: This episode contains discussion of illegal speech, including hate speech, incitement to terrorism and genocide, child sexual abuse material, and revenge porn. We will not be discussing any graphic details or closely examining the events of any specific case, but we're putting an explicit flag on this episode just to be safe.

Sources and show notes at this link

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We're back with a new recording of one of the first cases we covered on Criminal Records. Bo Xilai was one of the rising stars of China's Communist Party, but his political dreams came crashing down when a close business partner was found dead in mysterious circumstances.

Sources and shownotes at this link

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We're out of the country for the week, so we've released one of our Patreon bonus episodes into the regular podcast feed. We've talked about Marie Antoinette's real life and death, but how does the 2006 Marie Antoinette movie choose to frame her story?

This is part of a much longer discussion in our bonus episodes about movies depicting (or claiming to depict) historical events. You can find the full series on our Patreon.

A half-baked plot to replace the true king of England with an impostor involved mind-controlling ointment, a loyalist uprising that never materialized, and some of the biggest political powers in Europe.

Content note: The backstory of this episode involves the likely murder of two children, although the focus of this case is a different crime.

Sources and show notes

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One of the western canon’s greatest poets was a real horndog. Was his banishment from Rome really about making Rome great again by returning to purity culture, or did Publius Ovidius Naso get caught up in a complicated web of politics at the dawn of the Roman empire?

This episode is marked explicit for some seriously steamy poetry quotations.

Sources and show notes at this link

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One would-be hero of the American revolution wasn't American, heroic, or particularly good at helping the revolution. His plan to burn down the British navy's most strategic dockyards had just one fatal flaw: he wasn't actually any good at starting fires.

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One Soviet convict impressed his own jailors so much that he ended up completely transforming the Soviet Union's gulag system. But how much of what we know about the life of Naftaly Frenkel is real, and how much is a right-wing attempt to link the Communist party to a conspiracy theory about greedy Jews?

Content note: Discussion of mistreatment of prisoners and antisemitism.

Sources and show notes

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We're exploring the history of crime fiction with Reynard, a rascal whose exploits are definitely not the sort of behavior you'd expect from a cute talking fox today. How did our vulpine antihero go from a murderous rapist to a cuddly kids' character? Why did Walt Disney keep trying to make a movie about one of fiction's nastiest criminals? And how long is Isaac willing to listen to descriptions of medieval butt jokes before he begs Demetria to wrap up this episode?

Content note: This episode is marked explicit for discussions of fictional sex, violence, animal deaths/murder, scatological humor, and very crude use of religious symbols. There is a detailed discussion of a trial revolving around a fictional situation that modern audience would probably consider a charge of sexual assault, but medieval audiences may have read as a false accusation.

Sources and show notes (and lots of pictures of foxes) at this link

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We’re heading to the Roman Republic for two stories about women getting their day in court. Asking the gods to put a supernatural hit out on your illicit lover, that’s a-okay according to the Romans. But being a sugar baby? That’s against the law.

Show notes and sources at this link

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We're starting the year off with a civil law case involving some very uncivil language. One of our nation's most important legal battles over the First Amendment was a battle between a Nyquil-chugging preacher and an American flag diaper-wearing porn publisher. Does the right to free speech protect your right to be really, really gross?

Content note: This episode is labeled explicit for graphic descriptions of fictional incest. There will also be some quotes from primary sources containing racist, sexist, homophobic, and antisemitic language.

Sources and show notes at this link

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On a lonely island off the coast of North America, one man shot another man's pig for eating his potatoes. The legal question of who had the right to arrest him nearly upset the fragile peace between two nations.

Sources and show notes

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While Japanese officials were investigating a case of illegal baseball betting, they uncovered a shocking secret about the integrity of one of the country's most famous sports. Who actually runs the world of sumo, and why would some of the most elite athletes in the world feel so much pressure to fix their matches?

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In the Soviet Union, snitches got statues. But was the story of a brave little Communist who was murdered by his own family just a little too good to be true? And if the famous campfire tale was a fabrication, who really killed the Morozov boys?

Content note: This episode contains descriptions of the murders of two children, torture of suspects, execution by shooting, and millions of deaths due to famine.

Sources and show notes here

Are people really being fined thousands of dollars for smuggling a sweet treat across the US border? Demetria goes deep (maybe a little too deep) on an investigation into why American stores can't sell one of Europe's favorite chocolates.

Content note: Deaths of children by asphyxiation and poisoning will be mentioned in this story but are not discussed in detail.

Sources and show notes here

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Was one of Seattle's most notorious killers murdering her patients and stealing their fortunes on purpose, or did she really believe that starvation was the cure for every disease? Welcome to the world of Dr. Linda Burfield Hazzard, one of alternate medicine's most notorious quacks, who always seemed to end up with power of attorney over her wealthy victims shortly before they died under mysterious circumstances.

Content note: This episode involves detailed discussion of disordered eating, medical malpractice, and death by starvation.

Sources and show notes here

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One man lived the dream of every hockey fan when he bought a 50% stake in the ownership of the New York Islanders. There were just a few problems with his plan to save the struggling underdogs: He didn’t know anything about how to run a hockey team, he couldn’t fulfil any of his grand promises, and he didn’t actually have any money.

Sources and show notes here

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When Washington State went dry, one baby-faced cop decided to start moonlighting as a bootlegger. His alcohol empire involved crooked mayors, bootlegging conventions, airplane engines strapped to boats, and a conspiracy theory about secret messages for rum-runners hidden inside children's bedtime stories.

S.A. Chant generously stepped up to guest while Isaac's out sick this week. I highly recommend checking out their work!

• S.A. Chant on Twitter
• Buy Peter Darling, Coffee Boy, or Caroline's Heart on Amazon

Sources and show notes here

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On one fateful week in 1902, Old Country systems of oversight of meat production met New Country price collusion. With the price of kosher meat skyrocketing in New York City and the Jewish population entering its hangriest period of the year, tensions spilled over into a pandemonium involving naked butchers, flying fish, and cops getting slapped in the face with raw liver.

Sources and show notes at this link

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A man, a plan, a violation of controlled airspace. Larry Walters was an ordinary truck driver, but he hatched an extraordinary scheme to take to the sky in a lawn chair tied to weather balloons. His stunt made international headlines, inspired movies, and launched an extreme sport. 

Content note: This episode includes a discussion of suicide.

Sources and show notes here

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What should you do when two different governments claim to have authority over your country? Tell everyone that a third government secretly has the real claim to power! Then, start taking people's money so you can issue your own license plates and government ID cards. What could go wrong?

Sources and show notes here

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An attempt to get to the bottom of steroid abuse in Major League Baseball spun out so badly that one of the lawyers involved ended up in prison. But why is punishing people for the misuse of regulated drugs in sports left up to private organizations in the first place? And wouldn't baseball be so much more fun if everyone was still injecting meth and goat testicle juice?

Content notes: Discussion of drug abuse including meth, anabolic steroids, and goat testicle extract (yes, really)

Sources and show notes here

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The target: The British Museum of Natural History. The payload: A suitcase full of dead birds. The criminal: A flute player obsessed with the rare art of Victorian fly tying.

Content note: This episode contains discussion of the "Asperger's defense," a controversial mental health defense in the British court system. We're discussing the legal and medical terminology that was used at the time; understanding of the autism spectrum has evolved since then.

Sources, show notes, and a whole lot of pictures of wild feather art here

Purchase The Feather Thief here

We’re tackling one of our most confusing legal systems yet in a case so complicated no one could even figure out which jurisdiction covered it. Because there was no law covering criminal negligence, the accidental sinking of the warship Chishima was tried in a civil court–but Japan’s bizarre treaty system forced the emperor of Japan to personally take his suit to a British court on Chinese soil. Mix in a little debate over maritime law, a dash of confusion over precedent, and a lot of nations with an interest fighting for their share of Japanese trade for a truly nonsensical court battle.

Sources and show notes at this link

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We’re closing out Pride month with a look at a country where Pride demonstrations are banned. How did Russia go from relative tolerance to extreme repression? Why did so much Soviet propaganda feature men kissing? And how did a law about kids’ media turn into a human rights violation?

Note: While this episode is not particularly sexually graphic, I’ve marked it as explicit just in case because it contains discussion of the legality of performing and depicting sex acts.

Special thanks to KTP, just peace, Nevi, and kapyushonchan for helping me with finding reliable sources and translating news articles and legal terms. (My pronunciation flubs are 100% on me. I think I might also have referred to the book "Summer in a Pioneer Tie" as "Love in a Pioneer Tie" by accident.)

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Can you break the law by reincarnating in the wrong body? We get into Tibet’s complicated battle with China over its reincarnation lineages, including a government-mandated ceremonial golden urn, a legal precedent that requires time travel to make sense, and an inheritance dispute involving a parent who’s younger than his own child.

Sources and show notes here

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Get ready for more discussion of of glory holes than you’ve ever heard in a civics lesson before. This landmark case invalidated sodomy laws across the United States. But did the plaintiffs involved actually commit any sodomy with each other? And is the Supreme Court’s legal reasoning at risk today?

Sources and show notes

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This secret society of criminals had a fake leader, but their grievances were very real. Were the Luddites just a bunch of anti-technology cranks, or was there more to their machine breaking movement?

Sources and show notes

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Sources and show notes

Support us on Patreon

One of the most important trials in recorded history might not have happened. But the story of a Roman hero fighting treason charges is still a wild ride that included public murder, monkey-based punishments, and a legal decision so novel that it changed the western world's court systems forever.

Sources and show notes

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Sources and show notes

Support us on Patreon

The interrogation records of three criminals tell part of the story of a secret religious movement that tried to topple a dynasty. This sect of apocalyptic Buddhism was so secretive, and so completely quashed by government authorities, that criminal cases are some of our only sources about the extent of their activity.

Sources and show notes

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Sources and show notes here

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What happens when you put a bunch of philosophers in charge of investigating crimes? You end up with one of the most organized and longest-lasting criminal codes in human history. We're going back to Imperial China to examine the case of a deadly dispute over a handful of beans.

Show notes and sources at this link

Richard Lawrence was full of lead. On one fateful day in 1835, he decided to fill President Andrew Jackson with lead too. Why did the course of American history nearly hinge on a once-common house paint additive, and why have people throughout history been consuming and working with this poisonous metal?

Content note: This episode contains some outdated medical terms about mental illness.

Show notes and sources at this link

Sources and show notes at the link

In 1969, a group of graduate students had a great time smashing up a car. Their very strange psychology experiment is responsible for some of the most racist policing practices in America today. How did the broken windows theory go from textbooks to police departments? And will we ever know what actually solved America's biggest crime wave?

Content note: This episode discusses a lot of racist practices specifically targeting Black, Latino, and other marginalized groups in America.

Sources and show notes at this link

A group of thieves set their sights on the greatest wealth stockpile of them all: the Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve. All they needed was a network of truckers, black market syrup smugglers, and shady dealers willing to get their fingers sticky for a sweet payoff.

Show notes and sources at this link

Was a poor Jewish kid from Massachusetts the real inspiration for Professor Moriarty? Meet Adam Worth, the gentleman thief so daring his crimes created fashion crazes, inspired private detectives, and nearly caused an international diplomatic incident.

Show notes and sources at this link

Want to take your gang war to the next level? Try buying a rocket launcher! In this wild episode, we learn about the history of one of the world’s best-known criminal organizations, the split that launched a bloody turf war, and the linguistic complications of saying “yes” to arms dealers.

Show notes and sources at this link

How did one of the most famous political prisoners of all time end up in prison? What system did he have a part in taking down? This week, we discuss the strange legal maneuvers South Africa’s racist government used to stay in power, and the court case that changed the way the world reacted to the apartheid system.

Content notes: This episode contains discussion of the South African apartheid system, which includes some language in its legal divisions of race which would not be acceptable terms today.

Show notes and sources at this link

One gang of women terrorized London's merchants for more than a century. From smashing cars through shop doors to stuffing fur coats down their pants, learn the secrets of the lady gang of master criminals.

Content note: This episode includes discussion of domestic violence. 

Show notes and sources at this link

What do you do when your country won't let you leave? One group of defectors from the Soviet Union hatched a desperate plan: they'd pretend they were on their way to a wedding, then they'd hijack their plane and fly it out of the country.

Content note: This episode discusses antisemitism in the Soviet Union and the Zionist movement.

Sources and show notes at this link

A Salvation Army-inspired preacher decided to turn a small Oregon town into a new Eden. His method for achieving this: public nudity, floggings, bonfires, and sex rituals. When the worried families of his victims tried to stop him, they set off a chain of deaths.

Content notes: Murder, sexual exploitation of women and girls, suicide.

In case it's not clear from our discussion in the episode, we don't believe there's anything inherently wrong with the enthusiastic methods of worship that Protestant movements descended from the wider movement once called "Holy Rollers" practice today. However, in this case, Creffield was taking those methods to extremes as a thought-stopping technique in combination with isolating his followers and depriving them of food, sleep, and appropriate clothing. We do, however, want to put the Salvation Army on blast for its history and its current discriminatory practices.

Show notes and sources at this link

Sorry folks, Isaac is in the middle of a covid scheduling shakeup and Demetria is sick. We should have a new episode for you next week!

What if a legal trial was also a battle to the death? In this episode, we look at the strange phenomenon of the judicial duel, in which a plaintiff and defendant would try to kill each other to win a court case. In the “last duel” of medieval France, one man made his fight for justice into a literal fight, and used his weapons to prove that God was on his side.

Content notes: This episode is about a trial for violent rape. It contains discussion of some of the incorrect assumptions that medieval doctors had about rape and conception. It also contains descriptions of the deaths of animals.

Sources and show notes at this link

We've talked about cultures that had a formalized, bureaucratic process for getting revenge. But what do you do when you're not legally allowed to retaliate against the man who killed your father? Shi Jianqiao devoted her life to revenge, captivating the Chinese populace with her filial piety and her poetry justifying her crime.

Show notes and sources at this link

London’s greatest thief-taker had a secret: he was also the leader of its best-organized gang of thieves. For years, Wild turned one of the most brutal criminal justice systems in the world to his advantage—but even the self-styled Thief-Taker General ended up on the gallows.

Content note: This episode contains a graphic description of execution by hanging.

Show notes and sources at this link

Is it a crime to be well-dressed? In this week's episode, we return to the French revolution to find out why one of the world's most fashionable women became the symbol for everything that was wrong with the aristocratic system. Did Marie Antoinette really bankrupt the country with her dresses and jewels, or was she the victim of an angry, desperate populace looking for a scapegoat?

Sources and show notes at this link

The people of France tried to do just a little bit of revolution, but things got out of hand when their king didn't play along. Louis XVI's accusers needed to convict France's disgraced figurehead to cement the legitimacy of their own government. They just had one little problem: how do you prosecute a man who committed no crimes, because he was the law?

Show notes and sources at this link

The hunt for a spy within the French military went off the rails when an amateur graphologist fingered the wrong suspect. A closed military trial turned into an national scandal involving forged evidence, multiple moles, and two separate failed assassinations.

Content warnings: Discussions of antisemitism, suicide, pogroms, and the origins of the Zionist movement. The show notes contain several antisemitic caricatures of Dreyfus and his family.

Show notes and sources here

Two women entered Kuala Lumpur International Airport to film a prank show. Their target: an unassuming business traveler. The result: the assassination of the former heir apparent of the North Korean government. How did two aspiring actresses end up caught in the middle of the biggest diplomatic incidents of the decade? And why did Kim Jong-nam go from North Korea's future leader to its top target?

One man's quest for vengeance against Wells Fargo turned into a massive crime spree—with occasional poetry breaks. Returning guest Amanda Jean joins us to fall in love with Black Bart, the gentleman robber who bluffed his way through a criminal career with no horse, no accomplices, and no bullets.

Show notes, sources, and guest information at this link

Welcome to the seedy underbelly of Pittsburgh, where the battle for control over the sex trade turned into an all-out gang war. Caught in the middle: A trans horse riding instructor who turned to a life of crime when he needed money to care for his ailing mother. S.A. Chant joins us today for a conversation about money laundering through paint-your-own ceramics, fighting the cops with birthday cake, and the way respectability politics changes the stories we tell about queer history.

Many thanks to S.A. Chant for being our guest host on this episode. You can find S.A.’s work under their pen name Austin Chant:

• Website
• Twitter
• Caroline’s Heart

Sources and show notes at this link

One of Japan’s most famous murderesses took a very intimate souvenir from the lover she murdered. Was she the sex-crazed nymphomaniac portrayed in the media? Was she the symbol of female empowerment described by her supporters? Or was she an abuse victim who broke down after making one terrible mistake?

Content notes for this episode: Sexual assault, sexual exploitation of young girls, murder, genital mutilation, suicide.

Show notes and sources here

If you want to tackle the crime problem, why not just get rid of all the laws? In this episode, a group of free thinkers take a utopian experiment to the extreme, and discover in the process that some laws exist for a reason. One of those reasons: preventing bears from eating everyone.

Content note: This episode mentions several instances of libertarians arguing in favor of pedophilia or being caught with child pornography. It also includes descriptions of animal attacks and hunting.

Show notes, sources, and pictures of bears here

While the United States was panicking about a communist conspiracy, the Soviet Union was in the middle of its own panic about a cabal of evil conspirators at the very heart of the communist party. Was Joseph Stalin really surrounded by secret fascists? Or did he perhaps have an ulterior motive for accusing his own party members of murder?

Show notes and sources at this link

Demetria and Isaac are in the middle of a move, and we don't have things set up to record like we normally would! See you in two weeks as we resume our regularly scheduled programming.

Jack Johnson was so good at boxing that he scared an entire generation of racists. White authorities chose to make an example of him with one of America's most infamous laws.

Sources and show notes at this link

Our first episode about South America gives us a very different perspective on the American fight against Communism. Was promoting America's interests in the Cold War really worth propping up a brutal dictatorship? And why did the international attempt to bring Pinochet to justice involve British Law Lords, a fake case of dementia, and a law that gave Spain carte blanche to prosecute all crimes against humanity... except for the ones that happened in Spain?

Content note: This episode includes a discussion of what Pinochet's regime did to dissenters and suspected leftists. This included torture, sexual assault, and mass murder. The facts of these cases may be disturbing. Please be aware that there are detailed victims' testimonies about these events in the source links.

Show notes and sources at this link

Get your flags and your bibles, we’re hunting Communists. The Red Menace could be lurking anywhere: in your unions, in your movies, maybe even in the very halls of Congress.

Show notes, sources, and patriotic films and sources at this link

Take a tour around the swamp with America's favorite rascal. Florida Man's always making headlines for punching alligators, stealing meat, and fighting cops in the buff. But does Florida really deserve its reputation as the weirdest state in the union? And is our nation's most beloved rapscallion the villain of our story, or is he the victim of a legal system that accidentally created a media monster?

Show notes, sources, and speeches from some of Florida's best humorists at this link

Meet the man who used his artistic talents to resist Nazi occupation, then planned an elaborate scheme to destroy a public records building by posing as a German official. In the occupied Netherlands, a group of artists fought the law with typography and tailoring. Why did Willem Arondeus go from a little-known WII resistance fighter to a hit with Tumblr teens, and what can his story teach us about resisting fascism today?

Show notes and sources at this link

Was Mao Zedong's fourth wife one of history's deadliest criminals, or was she a scapegoat for a country that needed to preserve the image of its founding father? The answer is complicated, tragic, and involves a surprising amount of high-stakes theater criticism.

Show notes, sources, and sacred mangoes at this link

Happy New Year! We're taking a week off so we can enjoy the end of 2020 (and because Isaac needs to prep for teaching more online courses). We'll be back in the new year with more of history's weirdest criminal cases.

China’s last emperor ended up becoming one of history’s strangest political pawns, and ended his life as an avowed communist. How did a man born into unbelievable wealth end up penning a memoir about the evils of the landlord class? And was his disavowal of his privileged upbringing genuine, or was he the victim of a justice system that perfected the art of brainwashing prisoners?

Show notes and sources here

Meet Harry Allen, the sporty gentleman who scandalized Seattle by wooing ladies, biting cops, and making sure to give his side of the story to the press. Harry left an extraordinary legacy in the public record: He was a transgender man who talked directly to newspapers about his gender identity. But was he really the incorrigible hoodlum the papers made him out to be, or was he forced to the margins of society by police harassment?

Content notes: There is one transphobic quote at the beginning of the article, when we discuss the incorrect claims about transgender history in Abigail Shrier's book. For all other quotes used in this episode, I've trimmed around names and pronouns to avoid misgendering Harry on air.

Show notes and sources at this link

How to get the zine mentioned in this podcast: Contact Elijah through his Instagram @elijahjanka. Make sure to include a donation screenshot to For The Gworls (suggested $8-10 and up) & a mailing address.

This week, we explore a hapless revolutionary group's failed attempts to start the Communist revolution with pachinko ball bombs, a one-way flight to North Korea, and random attacks on civilians. Why did a group of Japanese students end up deciding that the best way to kick-start the revolution was getting involved in a war in the middle east? And how does an idealistic young student end up believing that mass murder is morally justified?

Content note: This episode is about various acts of terrorism, culminating in a mass shooting. We don't go into graphic detail about the shooting but a recounting of the facts may be distressing.

Hey, is anyone having trouble concentrating this week? Maybe there's something in the news that might make it hard to focus on a deep dive into serious crimes? Well, we've got a episode that moves as fast as the news cycle. Take a quick spin through criminal history with us as we cover some short cases about cool bicycle tricks, nasty ponds, and the fine tradition of messing with tourists.

Show notes and sources at this link (no actual photographs of leeches, I promise!)

Isaac tells a story about Judaism’s weirdest would-be messiah. Demetria adds ambiance by constantly arguing with him. This is the story of Sabbatai Zevi, whose quest to save the Jewish people turned him into a dangerous liability.

Show notes and sources at this link

Do you think Canada is just America's conflict-adverse northern neighbor? Think again! This week, we go on a journey through some of Canada's strangest history, including a territory governed by an employee handbook, a polite uprising derailed by one rude man, and an exiled politician whose very understandable quest for a fairer legal system spiraled into delusions of messianic salvation.

Show notes and sources at this link

Han van Meegeren might not have been loved by art critics, but his descent into the world of art forgery accidentally turned him into one of his country's least likely heroes. Join us for the twisted tale of an expert art forger, a high-ranking Nazi art thief, and a Jewish Dutch resistance hero whose espionage investigation turned into a friendship with one of the Netherlands' most flamboyant criminals.

Show notes and sources at this link

As we gear up for one of America’s most momentous presidential elections, we look back on the man so bad at politics that he changed the way our country's elections worked forever. Meet Aaron Burr, the guy who caused so much chaos that America not only had to amend its own constitution to stop his shenanigans, it had to set its legal definition of treason after he attempted to create a new country just to rule it. Hamilton fans, get ready for the wild story of what happened after the musical ended. Politics junkies, enjoy the story of the man whose misbehavior set many of the precedents we’re still fighting about in presidential elections today.

Show notes and sources

This week, we're joined by Nikki Brueggeman for a discussion of two horrific hate crimes in early 20th century America. As we discuss the deaths of Mary Turner and Jesse Washington, we look at the way the NAACP worked to publicize the horrific injustice of lynchings, the reason we tell these stories with a focus on the victims first, and the way modern oral historians like Nikki are continuing the work of documenting Black stories.

Content note: This episode contains descriptions of two hate crimes against Black Americans. We talk about the intense violence perpetuated against them, including racist violence, mutilation, torture, murder, and the killing of an infant. Some of the sources linked in our show notes contain graphic images of a mutilated corpse.

Show notes, sources, and information about where to find Nikki's work

This Italian family's secret recipe requires a special ingredient: a fatal dose of arsenic. Join us for a story of murder most foul, corrupt priests, saleswomen with pockets full of poison, secret cabal of witches moving through European courts, a ceiling alligator, and Santa Claus's special bone juice.

Show notes and sources at this link

Did an ancient Greek party girl get off on a capital charge because she flashed the judge? Or was this story just an excuse for artists to get away with painting bare breasts? This week, we dig into trial records, archeological evidence, and ancient gossip to try to get a sense of the woman behind the legend.

Content note: This episode is about a historical figure who may or may not have been a sex worker. Some of the sources we quote from translate her profession as “prostitute”–academic translations tend to lag a bit behind commonly accepted language.

Show notes and sources at this link (HEADS UP, the images in this are not safe for work)

We're heading back to the wild west to meet one of America's smoothest criminals. Let Charles "Doc" Baggs teach you the art of stealing from the rich, giving great speeches, and staying one step ahead of the law. What do we learn when we listen to a criminal telling his side of the story reporters? Who shaped our understanding of the moral landscape of the American west? How cool is this dude, seriously?

Show notes and sources at this link

You've heard of Rosa Parks—but do you actually know the full story? This week, we dig into the brutal history of segregation in the United States, the difficult work of activism, and the way black civil rights leaders' stories are often taught as part of a whitewashed narrative that minimizes their agency and fails to engage with their actual political views.

CONTENT NOTE: A lot of the advocacy work that Rosa Parks and other activists we discuss in this episode took on involves attempting to get justice for acts of extreme violence, including sexual violence, against black Americans. We don't go into any graphic details but even a dry recounting of the facts may be disturbing.

Show notes and sources at this link

Feel like donating to a good cause after listening to this episode? Here are some charities we recommend:

• The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute
• Black Lives Matter
• The Anti-Racism Fund
• NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
• Amistad Law Project
• The Marshall Project
• Unicorn Riot
• Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting
• Black Voters Matter
• The Collective Political Action Committee

It's Pride month, and you know what that means: It's time for a deep dive into the structural oppression of queer people in America, the exploitative underbelly of New York's mob-owned gay bars, and the night those tensions boiled over in 1969. What exactly was banned by sodomy laws and other laws used to target queer New Yorkers? Why was the mafia paying the police to keep gay bars open? And what was the movement that came out of Stonewall fighting for on the streets and in the courts?

Show notes, sources, and places to donate at the link (Heads up: Might be NSFW depending on how your work feels about cartoon penis costumes)

Feel like donating to a good cause? Might we suggest these charities:

• WA Black Trans Rights Force
• TransWomen of Color Collective
• Sylvia Rivera Law Project
• Trans Lifeline
• Transgender Law Center
• Entre Hermanos
• True Colors United
• Youth Futures Law Project
• Queer the Land
• Somos Seattle

This week, we cover one of the most shameful war crimes in American history--and the shockingly light sentence of the only man successfully convicted for it. What happens when business tactics are applied to warfare? Why did it take so long for William Calley's crimes to come to light? And why did so many Americans, including the president, believe he was justified in murdering hundreds of civilians?

Content notes: This episode is about a war crime trial involving firing on unarmed civilians, mass murder including the murder of children, and sexual assault. We don't go into gory details, but even a dry recounting of the facts may be distressing.

Show notes, sources, and information about places to donate to bail funds at this link (note: While we've decided not to post photos of the victims during and after the massacre on this page, there are some photographs of soldiers burning houses that may be disturbing)

This week, we bring you a story about a suspicious suicide, a vengeful spirit, and the wrath of the emperor. Why was a ghostly accountant out for revenge? How good was the Qing dynasty CSI team? And how did one of the most regimented legal systems in history end up with such a weird, orientalist misrepresentation in the English-speaking world?

Show notes and sources at this link

In our first court case from the Islamic world, we meet one of history's greatest bureaucrats. Midhat Pasha was fantastic at taking control of troubled territories and coming up with grand new legal ideas, but he wasn't so great at playing politics. Meet the scholar who rose to be the Grand Vizier of an empire before he became the defendant in an unwinnable show trial.

Show notes and sources at this link

Meet the woman who claimed to be a German princess, scammed a handful of husbands, palled around with pirates, and played her scandalous self on the stage. Why were so many English men so easy to dupe when a stranger showed up claiming noble heritage? How did a con artist become a celebrity? How much do we really know about Mary as a person, and how much did this self-made woman construct herself as a character?

Show notes and sources at this link

This week, we're covering the strange, sad case of Mary Mallon, one of America's most notorious killers—who never technically committed a crime. When is it illegal to spread a disease? Why did the Health Department have the power to detain people indefinitely? Does Mary deserve her infamy, or was she a victim of a system that was stacked against her from the start?

Content note: This is mostly about an epidemic of typhoid fever, but it will also touch on other disease outbreaks and US laws around quarantining people and charging people for spreading diseases. We'll be discussing the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of this episode. The death of a child is mentioned.

Show notes and sources at this link

This week, Isaac and Demetria go back to the Wild West for our very first outlaw of the American frontier. There's rootin', there's tootin', there's plenty of shootin', and also a truly astonishing amount of...soap?

Show notes, photos, and sources at this link (Note: This page contains a photograph of a dead body)

Disease! Rebellion! Weeb stuff! This week, we have it all, as we journey back to Wat Tyler's rebellion.

Show notes and corrections at this link - We were on a lot of cold medicine while recording and made some mistakes, apologies!

This week, Isaac and Demetria talk about their first regicide. It's time for the trial and execution of King Charles I -- who denies that you have any legitimacy to listen to this podcast and proclaims that only God has the right to press the play button.

Link to the show notes

This week, Isaac and Demetria talk about a workplace mass shooting and its relationship to employment in America. Expect a conversation ranging from gun regulation to the tenure system and beyond. 

(Content note: This episode contains discussion of a mass shooting in a workplace, an attempted bombing, and a shooting in a private home)

Show notes and sources

This week, Isaac and Demetria discuss the white nationalist murderer David Lane, who was inspired to join a radical neo-Nazi group called the Order which went on a year long crime spree up and down the West Coast in 1984-85. 

This week, we're covering the trial of Chinese swinger Ma Xiaohai, who was arrested for violating Chinese laws against "group licentiousness" as a crime that violates good social order. 

Unfortunately, due to extenuating circumstances the episode will be delayed a bit further. New plan is to release on Monday; sincere apologies for the further delay. 

The next episode will release on 1/17 instead of 1/16 due to a scheduling issue that's preventing us from recording. 

Demetria and Isaac continue their deep dive into the world of obscenity laws with a look at one of Japan's most infamous bad boys of porn, the AV director Muranishi Tooru. 

This week (and somewhat late), Isaac and Demetria talk about the trials (literally) and tribulations of the great American comedian Lenny Bruce, whose boundary-pushing comedy landed him in hot water on charges of obscenity around the United States.

Show notes are linked here (Content note: While there's no visual material at the link that is sexual or shocking, some of the embedded content includes comedy sets by Bruce that listeners may find disturbing in their discussion of race and sexuality)

Hey all, sad news. Demetria and Isaac are both down sick and can't record, so we're going to miss our deadline to get an episode to you tomorrow. Sorry for the late notice but we wanted to be absolutely sure that we couldn't record before making the call.

Instead, the new plan is to record an episode this weekend and post it on the 23rd, and then resume our regular schedule with an episode on January 2.

This week, journey back to the first murder case in recorded history (at least that we were able to find). Who killed a temple functionary in the city of Nippur? Why was it definitely these three guys? Why are we putting the dead guy's wife on trial too? Partial answers to some of these questions, plus lots of complaining about the lack of user-friendly scholarship on ancient Sumer, all coming your way this week!

Show notes are at this link

It's time for our first case on the history of American slavery, featuring the bizarre legal and moral mess that allowed black Africans fighting for their freedom to be accused of kidnapping themselves.

Our show notes are linked here

Come celebrate the big 3-0 with a con for the ages as Jeanne de Valois will try to get her hands on a 2 million livre necklace, and end up implicating -- and slandering -- one of the world's most famous and powerful monarchies.

This week, Demetria takes us through the story of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, a prolific serial killer who used her noble status to murder peasant girls at her whim.

Join us as we demystify even more American history! No sacred cow of the American past is safe!

This time, Isaac and Demetria go back in time to answer the age old question: if Socrates was such a great philosopher, why couldn't he figure out not to drink all that poison? That plus long digressions about the nature of democracy and medieval theology (of course)!

This week, grab your tommy guns and fedoras as we make our way to Chicago to cover the meteoric rise (and equally meteoric fall) of one of America's most famous gangsters, Al Capone!

This week, it's time for a fun case of ancient Roman slander as we talk about the corrupt politician Gaius Verres. What was he accused of? Are the charges real, or were they embellished to help the career of an upjumped lawyer named Cicero? And what's up with everyone always making analogies between Rome and America?

This week, Isaac and Demetria discuss the gruesome series of child murders that took place in Kobe in 1997, and the circumstances surrounding the eventual capture and trial of the killer -- a 14 year old high school boy. 

This week, Isaac and Demetria unpack the career of the firebrand revolutionary playwright Olympe de Gouges. Along the way, we tackle such important questions as: what was the French Revolution about? What even is feminism? And why is Isaac's French accent so bad?

This week, we're talking about Fred Korematsu, whose great crime was being in the place where he was born.  How did America get to the point of incarcerating its own citizens in the 1940s? And what does that story have to tell us about today? 

This week, Demetria and Isaac investigate the serial killer Nannie Doss, whose husbands kept mysteriously dying after eating things she'd prepared. Surely that must be some sort of unfortunate coincidence!

We're releasing this one a day early since the American crowd will be celebrating on July 4th. Watch out for any suspicious pies!

This week, Isaac and Demetria discuss an infamous blood libel trial: the story of St. Simon of Trent, and the Jews who were tortured and executed after the city authorities blamed them for the boy's murder.

This week, we cover our first fictional criminal, the famous Robin Hood! Where do his stories come from? How have they changed? What can they tell us about the relationship between anachronistic fictional criminals and the people who wrote about them?

This week: what do painted clothing, fake coins, and dildoes have in common? All of them factor into the career of one of England's most fascinating conmen, the forger William Chaloner!

Amanda Jean of the Red Pen Podcast joins Demetria for the story of France's most notorious criminal turned cop. If you enjoy fiction about crime today, you're probably reading something inspired by Vidocq's legacy.

Where to find more from our lovely guest:

• The Red Pen Podcast: RSS feed
• The Red Pen Podcast: Patreon
• Less Than Three Press's Creature Feature fiction call

This week, Isaac tortures Demetria by forcing her to listen to him talk about baseball. But really, baseball is fun so we should all take joy in her learning about it.

Oh also we'll cover one of the biggest sporting scandals in American history or whatever. It's a tale of labor laws, sports gambling, legal shenanigans, and all other things classically American as we all go out to the ball game!

This week, Isaac and Demetria make use of a tale of revenge from 1820s Japan to discuss one of the most interesting legal practices we've ever seen: kataki-uchi, the system of legally permitted revenge of Japan's samurai era. Why turn revenge into something akin to getting your license renewed at the DMV? What are the rules? And what can we learn about the nature of justice from thinking about this?

This week, Isaac and Demetria investigate the case that grabbed headlines across 1920s America. We'll talk about the intersection of xenophobia, violent anarchism, and the American legal system, and how all of them manifested in a bungled case that remains divisive to this day. 

Sacco and Vanzetti's letters from prison are available here.

This episode has it all: Pope-on-pope legal drama! Corpse desecration! 3 separate French kings named Charles! Come for an explanation of the corpse synod, stay to find out why it's not easy being pope.

This week, Demetria and Isaac tackle America's great traitor! Who was Arnold, and what did his trial for a series of ridiculous charges have to do with his decision to betray his country? 

This week, Isaac and Demetria discuss the story of Margaret Clap, proprietor of a coffee house with a big secret. What was a molly house, why was the government prosecuting men for buggery, and why are trial records some of our best surviving documents about gay culture in 1720s England?

This week, Isaac and Demetria tackle the case of Govinda Mainali, a Nepalese man accused in Japan of a murder he obviously didn't commit. But obviously he didn't do it, so there's no way he could end up serving 12 years in prison just to make the Japanese government look more efficient at solving crimes than it really is, right?