Dark Histories

The East London district of West Ham might be best known globally for the football team of the same name, but in the late 19th century, the area became famous for something much darker. West Ham, and in particular, a single road within the district, became the scene for a series of unusual disappearances that took place over more than a decade, as young girls were vanished away from the streets,...

In the early 1700s, when maps still had blank spaces and “here be dragons” felt like a reasonable warning, a stranger arrived in Europe with a fantastic story to tell. Calling himself George Psalmanazar, and claiming to be a native of far-off Formosa, where people lived in underground houses and dined on human meat. He translated scriptures into a language no one had ever heard and tutored...

At the turn of the twentieth century, a pattern of unusual deaths began to surface, when three unrelated women were found drowned in their bathtubs, following a fit or a feinting. The cases seemed unconnected, scattered across towns and surnames, until the similarities grew too precise to ignore. At the center of the widening suspicion was a man named George Joseph Smith, though very few actually...

In 1933 when a young, London inventor died under suspicious circumstances, his two surviving brothers turned to the talents of spiritualist mediums in the hopes of finding some answers to the many questions they had following the wholly satisfying inquest. Over a period of six months, the two men sat for several well known mediums, but by the end of it all, were given no hard answers to any of...

Happy New Year! Here is part two of the Christmas Campfire for 2025, though I guess it's more of a New Years Campfire! I hope you enjoy it, it's been another great year for the Christmas Campfire and a huge thank you for everyone for taking part and being brave enough to put there stories out there for our entertainment! I'll be back in January for Season 10, but until then, Happy New Year,...

It's Christmas Eve, so it must be time for the Christmas Campfire! Thank you so much to everyone that submitted their stories this year, it's been another great year for entires and there's plenty enough for two episodes. I'll release the second part sometime after Christmas and before the New Year when I return home after visiting family and whatnot. I hope you enjoy this episode, and have a...

Over the Christmas of 1716, during a time of political tension and uncertainty in England, strange events began to trouble Epworth Rectory. After nightfall, the home of Reverend Samuel Wesley was disturbed by unexplained sounds. Soft footsteps thumped in hallways, as dull thuds knocked on the walls and door latches rattled in their housings. The Wesley family spoke cautiously of a presence they...

In the summer of 1819, the whaleship Essex set sail from Nantucket, chasing fortune across the vast and indifferent Pacific. What began as a routine whaling voyage soon veered into a nightmare, however, when the hunted became the hunter, and the ship, until now known as one of the luckiest around, was smashed to splinters, leaving her crew adrift in an ocean without mercy. Their struggle was a...

In the autumn of 1954, France found itself gripped by a strange and unnerving spectacle. From quiet rural villages to bustling towns and cities, witnesses reported everything from flying discs, cigars and carrots, to little creatures in diving gear waddling beneath a glowing sphere. Newspapers buzzed with excitement as sightings unfolded night after night, spreading across the country like a...

In this week's episode of Yesterday Today I had a bit of a dive into teh murder of Mary Jane Kelly and how it was presented in the London papers, along with a few other oddities, like Barnaby and Burgho the bloodhounds and the insistence of drunk people to pretend they were a heavily hunted serial killer...------For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at ⁠⁠⁠darkhistories.com ⁠⁠⁠Support...