Netflix's new drama The Witness has brought the story of Rachel Nickell and her family back into public attention. For the true story behind the murder that rocked the UK, we've resurfaced our episode from February 2023.

--

Rachel Nickell?s brutalised body was found on Wimbledon Common with her two-year-old son Alex wiping her bloodied face and begging her to 'wake up'. The nature of the broad daylight attack and the horrific injuries put enormous pressure on the Met to get the case solved and fast. However, none of that justifies the shoddy police work, cut corners, and tunnel vision that allowed serial rapist Robert Napper to go unchecked for years.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

The 1994 excavation of curious buried ruins in southeastern Turkey might have chucked a big rock through the window of archaeological history ? shattering everything we thought we knew about our ancient ancestors.

With its intricate carvings, and towering megaliths built long before the wheel or even written language, Göbekli Tepe could rewrite the story of civilisation. But who built it? And why? Join us on a journey into the distant past as we attempt to find out.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Two chainsaws and a paddling pool; a very public relationship; along with a litany of texts and Discord messages, all pointing to one thing: David ?D4vd? Burke killed Celeste Rivas Hernandez. In the eyes of the public, it was that simple.

And yet, it took prosecutors seven months to arrest and charge Burke with Celeste Hernandez?s death, even after her body was found decomposing in his car. Why?

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Naked, clutching the telephone receiver, and with a stomach full of prescription meds, Marilyn Monroe was pronounced dead at 4:25am on the 5th of August 1962. 

Today, a century after her birth, the iconic ?blonde bombshell? is still one of the most famous people who has ever lived. She epitomised Hollywood: the fame, the fortune, and the chaos. Rumours placed her in bed with two Kennedys ? and under surveillance from the FBI and CIA. Marilyn Monroe was the tainted American Dream.

Could someone so special really have died from something as simple as an overdose?

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

The KKK are the OG far-right trolls: one of the most evil groups in US history, and the best-known purveyors of white racism in the United States. 

They have been responsible for countless deaths and acts of discrimination ? but where did it all begin? And what do wizards and dragons have to do with it? This is the ShortHand. 

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Dismembered and stuffed into the ?frunk? of David ?D4vd? Burke?s Tesla: 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez's body was found more than four months after she visited the up-and-coming singer?s house in the Hollywood Hills. Immediately, the story exploded across the internet.

Burke had always maintained that he?d only met Celeste once, and that he didn?t know that she was underage. However, Burke?s fanbase knew all too well that this wasn?t the truth.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Shot and killed in front of a crowd of terrified onlookers, Harambe, a western lowland gorilla, will go down in history. His death ? seemingly while trying to rescue a small boy who had fallen into his enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo and Biological Gardens ? caused ripples across the world.

On the ten year anniversary of his death, we try to answer the million-dollar question: did Harambe need to die?

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

She was days away from a major race. A rising star in cycling. Then, she was found shot to death in a friend's apartment.

We're sharing an episode of Clues, a true crime podcast hosted by Morgan Absher and Kaelyn Moore. Each week, Morgan and Kaelyn take you deep into the world of the most notorious crimes, uncovering the hidden details, analyzing the overlooked evidence, and following the trail of clues behind some of the biggest cases in history.

New episodes of Clues drop every Monday. Clues is a Crime House Original, powered by PAVE Studios. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or watch on YouTube. Listen here: https://pod.link/1792283951

What if we told you that the brand responsible for some of your favourite foods and drinks, has also been accused of being responsible for the deaths of over 10 million babies? 

Yes, you read that correctly. 

Nestlé, the biggest food and beverage company in the world, is also at the heart of one of the most heinous corporate crime cases in history. 

This is the ShortHand.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

?Juiced to his gills? on a combination of testosterone, steroids, and god knows what else, three times Olympic medalist James Magnussen put on over 30 lbs of lean muscle in just a few months, risking his health, his reputation and his legacy, all in an attempt to break the 50m freestyle world record, and launch the ?Enhanced Games? into history books. 

Yet, two years later, the classic thought experiment of ?the Olympics ? but  everyone can take whatever substances they want? has struggled to get off the starting blocks. 

Why? Join us, and our friends from The Upshot, to find out some of the wildest stories from the history of doping.

Listen to The Upshot

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, changed the course of English history ? despite being queen for just 1,000 days before her beheading at the Tower of London. And despite being one of the most infamous and influential figures ever to sit the throne, people still get Anne wrong. This is the Tudor ShortHand.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

In 2024, a year on from RedHanded?s episode on the Murdaugh Family Murders, we had the great pleasure of talking to Mandy Matney, the foremost independent expert on the Murdaugh family and their rampant trail of destruction through South Carolina.

Mandy filled us in on everything that happened since we last checked in ? including Stephen Smith?s death being re-classified as a murder and the potential for a retrial.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

BREAKING NEWS: Alex Murdaugh WILL face a new trial. A South Carolina court has overturned the 2023 murder convictions of ex-lawyer Alex Murdaugh. Five out of five Supreme Court judges ruled that he deserved a new trial because the jury had been unfairly biased against him.

Listen to our full episode from 2023, to get the full story on one of the most sprawling true crime cases out there?

--

The Murdaugh murders are not one story; they are a seemingly endless web of lies, entitlement, and confusion. At the centre of the web are the bodies of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, found at their hunting lodge.

But tangled in it are the tragic deaths of three other completely innocent people, dragged in by the most powerful family in South Carolina.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

As wrongful convictions go, the trial of Leo Schofield ? who stood accused of killing his young wife Michelle Schofield ? had it all: bias, speculation, and pure fabrication. And through the years, through a combination of bad luck and bad representation, Schofield stayed behind bars.

In this second part, we look at how this cold case finally warmed up, thanks in no small part to the journalists behind Bone Valley. And, the bigger question: if not Leo, then who?

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Critically lauded dance troupe, or sinister, human-trafficking, brainwashing, child-abusing cult? However you slice it, there is a lot more going on to Shen Yun than the glitzy public posters let on.

This week we open the curtain on Shen Yun, and the cult behind it, Falun Gong ? whose founder Li Hongzhi believes he can levitate, predict the future and read his followers? minds. So: what does Falun Gong want to achieve? What do we make of their claims of torture, at the hands of the Chinese government? And HOW exactly how do they sell out shows of traditional Chinese dancing in every major city across the world?

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

A deadly virus that causes hydrophobia, frothing at the mouth and delirious aggression might sound more like science fiction than real life. But that?s what awaited 15-year-old Jeanna Giese when she was bitten by a rabid bat in 2004. This is the history of one of the oldest and most deadly viruses known to man ? and how a 15-year-old girl and her doctor managed to overcome it, against all odds. This is the ShortHand.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

When the body of 18-year-old Michelle Schofield was found in a canal in Bone Valley, Florida, the police quickly closed in on her guitar-playing, heavy-metal husband, Leo Schofield.

Leo claimed to be innocent, but investigators couldn?t shake the fact that Leo?s own father had been the one to discover Michelle?s body - after receiving ?a message from God??

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Party favours full of drugs, a hose-down rubber sex balcony, and Bianca Jagger on a real horse. It?s often said that the brightest flames burn for the shortest time ? and by god did Studio 54 burn bright. 

Under the helm of Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, 254 West 54th was the single coolest place on the planet ? and set the blueprint for exclusive nightclubs to this day. Bowie, Warhol, the Jaggers, and every other celebrity you could think of felt lucky to set foot on its gigantic dance floor. 

But what comes up, must come down, and it only took three years for the greatest club on earth to come unstuck. This is the story of sex, drugs, and disco ? the rise and fall of Studio 54.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Zombies, incantations and dolls full of pins? the version of voodoo that most of us get has been suffused with decades of Hollywood magic, and a dusting of light xenophobia.

But the reality of Haitian vodou is much more complex ? and way more fascinating. So, how did slaves reconcile their own folklore and religions, with the Catholicism that colonisers were forcing down their throats? Who are the main lwa ? or spirits ? of vodou? And how can an offering of black coffee, rum and cigars help you to commune with the dead?

Find out in this week?s ShortHand!

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Trapped in a soundproof underground bunker, sleeping in a coffin-shaped box, abused and forced to watch news footage of her December 1992 disappearance on a loop, 10-year-old Katie Beers wondered if she?d ever see the world outside her makeshift prison ever again?

But one thing her captor didn?t know? Katie was a survivor. 

This is the story of a little girl who fought against the odds ? and managed to escape a lifetime of abuse. 

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Rage-inducing viruses that spread through bites; a flesh-eating fungus that controls its host like a puppet; deadly pathogens trapped for millennia in Arctic ice? sometimes nature is more gruesome than fiction.

From the Walking Dead to the Last of Us, stories of contagion are never far from our screens. So what are the closest real-life scenarios that could turn our world into a full-on zombie wasteland? (And, what makes insects go on a sex-crazed, amphetamine-fuelled rampage until their literal butts fall off?) This is the ShortHand.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Somehow, perhaps the worst deep-sea diving disaster in history ? one that led to two men being crushed, three men boiling to death, and one man being liquified and shot out of a five-inch hole ? happened above sea level.

How? Well, join us off the coast of Norway for a little explosive decompression ? and find out what can happen when the pressure of diving just gets too much?

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

In the summer of 2017, 26-year-old Anna Sorokin was arrested in Manhattan with a stack of unpaid hotel bills and fraudulent loan requests in her wake. She?d been calling herself Anna Delvey: an uber-wealthy German heiress. In reality? She didn?t have a penny to her (fake) name.

Armed only with an untraceable accent and a passion for fashion, Anna tried to pull the designer wool over the eyes of some of America?s biggest financial institutions, in her bid to secure multi-million-dollar loans? 

And the worst part? She almost got away with it. 

Was Anna a con artist? An inspirational Robin Hood in high heels? An insufferable wannabe? Or all of the above?

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Tens of millions of dollars flowed onto the canvas from the tip of Wolfgang Beltracchi?s brush. His talent? Unquestionable. His methods? Perfect. His ability to recreate the works of other artists? The greatest there has ever been.

Alongside his wife Helene, Wolfgang Beltrachhi sold an unknown number of paintings, passed off as the work of 20th-century artists, to some of the most respected galleries and collectors in the world. In the process they made millions of dollars, and created a scandal so deep that, even today, nobody wants to touch it.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Mystery, mayhem, and death followed Michael X all the way back to Trinidad.

Hacked to death and left in shallow graves, the bodies of Gale Benson and Joseph Skerritt were found at Michael X?s house.  Whispers of black magic and rumours of espionage rippled through the island.

How could a young, wealthy British socialite like Gale Benson end up buried alive in the Caribbean? And why would Michael X want her dead?
--
Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Intimate and explicit images of A-list celebrities ? that?s what the world woke up to on the 31st of August 2014. ?The Fappening? saw thousands of leaked celebrity nudes dumped onto 4chan, Reddit, and Twitter. It gave unprecedented access to the most overtly private images anyone could imagine ? but how on earth did it happen? 

This week on ShortHand we?re taking a deep dive into the grubby world of AnonIB and leaked-nude ?collectors?: users who hoard and circulate explicit images without the subject?s consent ? celebrity or not. So how do these images come to be online? And how do we stop it from happening? 

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Malcolm X was a true revolutionary, Michael X was an imposter.

This con man realised that politics was a lot easier than poetry and rose to the top of the British Civil Rights Movement. All the while violently exploiting the Windrush generation he claimed to be fighting for.

John Lennon and Leonard Cohen were his biggest fans. They donated thousands to Michael X's projects that never actually happened. The press hung on his every word, quoting him as the most powerful black man in Europe.

By the time Michael X's ego unravelled, it was too late for socialite Gale Benson to escape from his web. They would both pay the ultimate price for his lies.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

On the night of 14th April 1912, the ?unsinkable? RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank into the icy depths of the Atlantic Ocean ? killing almost all of its passengers. 

But the real question is: would you make it through that fateful night? 

In this special 114th-anniversary ShortHand, we walk through your realistic chances of survival after boarding the doomed ship? And with your sex, class and circumstances all tipping the balance on some seriously sketchy odds, you?d better grab a life jacket just in case.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

When two fighter jets came to check on the unresponsive Helios Flight 522, they were stunned at what they saw: all 115 passengers, lying motionless in their seats. Even worse ? the pilot?s seat was empty, and the co-pilot lay slumped over the control panel. The commercial plane was drifting along at 34,000 feet, on autopilot ? and fuel was running out. 

This is the ShortHand.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

The lead suspect in the Gilgo Beach Killings - 62 year old former architect Rex Heuermann - has now pleaded guilty.

So, with a trial off the table in the Long Island Serial Killer saga, join us for an update on what investigators found that finally nailed Heuermann - forcing him to confess. 

Then stick around and revisit our two-part episode on this harrowing case that haunted Long Island for decades.

Plus, join us on next week?s Under the Duvet - over on Patreon - for a look at the impact this has all had on Heuermann?s own family.

--

In 2010, Shannan Gilbert made a series of frantic 911 calls as she ran through the streets of Oak Beach, Long Island, screaming: ?They?re trying to kill me?. Then she vanished. 

A few months later a body was found - but it wasn?t her. And neither were the next 9 sets of human remains they found along Ocean Parkway. 

Now, over a decade later, with the arrest of Rex Heuermann - the police believe they?ve found the elusive Long Island Serial Killer.

But the questions still stand; Why did it take so long to catch him - and was this the work of a lone serial killer, or multiple men using the same dumping ground?

 We?ll look at Heuermann?s family life, his background - and delve into the 33-page bail document that offers us an in-depth look at how investigators finally caught this notorious, modern American serial killer.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

When Rhode Island native Nicholas Rossi found himself wanted by the FBI and Interpol for a string of assaults and large-scale frauds, he didn?t just run away. He faked his death, fled to Scotland, disguised himself as a wheezing British academic called Arthur Knight, and went on the attack ? loudly claiming his innocence in wilder and wilder TV appearances across the international press.

And that isn?t even the half of it. Before the story finally wrapped up a few months ago, Rossi?s winding tale had covered satanic ritual abuse, incel smear campaigns, and somehow, the September 11th attacks. It?s time to enter the dark, disorientating world (and 16 aliases) of Nicholas Rossi.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

With Netflix's new documentary on the modern fundamentalist Mormon church coming out today ? we thought it was the perfect time to revisit our episode on Warren Jeffs's FLDS, to give some much-needed context... 

Last week, we looked at the formation of the ultra-obedient, bigamist Mormon cult, the FLDS ? in which plural marriage to pregnant preteen girls is just the tip of the fundamentalist iceberg. In this second part, we look at how its new prophet, Warren Jeffs, took his so-called religion to ever stricter and more terrifying depths. 

With followers so beaten down that they were banned from even laughing; the prophet on the lam, living it up at Disneyland; and a team of ex-faithfuls and dogged investigators closing in ? something had to give. But not before the full extent of his evil was laid bare in front of a stunned courtroom.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

With Netflix's new documentary on the modern fundamentalist Mormon church coming out today ? we thought it was the perfect time to revisit our episode on Warren Jeffs's FLDS, to give some much-needed context... 

According to Warren Jeffs? thousands of followers, he was the leader of a secretive but devoted religion ? their prophet, and the representative of God on Earth. But according to US law, he was a dangerous, totalitarian, child-molesting horror with over 80 wives ? some married off as young as 12. Still, according to the church, Earthly laws are no match for the voice of God.

In this episode, we explore the story behind the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: how the visions of a charismatic, seventeen-year-old farmhand called Joseph Smith grew to become a major world religion; how plural marriage caused a major rift in the church; and how its teachings were warped into a systematic cult of child abuse, underage sex, and absolute power.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

A relentless barrage of oil that killed anything in its path, the disaster that befell the Deepwater Horizon oil rig took the lives of eleven crew members, destroyed an entire oceanic ecosystem, and is still severely affecting the livelihoods of coastal communities to this day.  

Described as ?the largest ecocide in history?, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the response of BP, the company responsible, serves as a testament to corporate greed and profit over people. Hard working crew members lost their lives, fishing towns lost their income, and billions of oceanic organisms perished, all so that BP could get back on schedule. 

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

The Holy Grail is the most sought-after object in human history. The legend goes that the grail could bring whoever finds it unbelievable power, influence, youth and even eternal life. Which is why the hunters have included everyone from the knights of King Arthur to full-blown Nazis, hunting for a secret weapon to win them the war.

We trace the whole story back to the Last Supper, via the Crusades, Heinrich Himmler, Dan Brown and Indiana Jones.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Kouri Richins brazenly murdered her husband Eric, lacing a drink with a lethal dose of fentanyl, hoping to cash in on his business, home, and life insurance policies. 

The only hitch was that Korui Richins? ?girl math? didn?t add up. Most of Eric Richins? wealth was going to end up nowhere near his wife Kouri, and it was going to be very hard to spend from prison. 

In this concluding part of our two-part series on the murder of Eric Richins, we pull apart the trial and discuss how Kouri Richins unwittingly destroyed her own defence, all while trying to outwit the prosecution.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

Jesus of Nazareth: Messiah, Emmanuel, King of Kings, and probably the most widely recognisable figure in human history. So why do so many people believe in the ultimate sacrilege: that he never even existed?

We take a look through all the evidence we have of a historical Jesus, bridge the gap between circumstance and scripture, and go on a journey to find the Gospel truth. This is the ShortHand.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Sudden mental break or hunted by a pack of mysterious men? The disappearance of 28-year-old Lars Mittank has left authorities and armchair sleuths alike, dumbfounded. The only record of his last twenty-four hours being some mysterious calls with his mum suggesting he was being followed, and edited heavily CCTV footage showing him sprinting out of Varna Airport, hopping a fence, and running off into the woods, never to be seen again.

Why did Lars suddenly sprint away? Was he really being followed by some strange men? Where could he be now? Find out on this week?s episode of ShortHand!

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

After Kouri Richins? husband Eric died suddenly in what was ruled to be a tragic accidental overdose, the Utah mum bravely published a children?s book about grief to help their kids cope?

But just a month after appearing on local TV to promote it, Kouri was arrested and charged with murdering Eric herself.

So who is Kouri Richins? A grieving wife trying to rebuild her family?s life? Or a Black Widow who plotted to poison her husband for his money, so she could run off with her secret lover?

We?re reading between the lines of this sensational case: and it?s anything but a cosy bedtime story. 

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

They said she'd mastered a Chinese sex technique that could "make a matchstick feel like a Havana cigar". Top Nazi Joachim Von Ribbentrop allegedly sent her 17 carnations for each night they slept together. After three botched facelifts, she became a bed-bound recluse scammed by her evil French lawyer.

Wallis Simpson ? the woman King Edward VIII famously abdicated the crown for in 1936 ? was no stranger to wild rumours: from exotic bedroom secrets to her not-so-secret love of fascism. But how much of the gossip was actually true? 

In this week's ShortHand, we're uncovering the real story of 'That Woman': the scandalous American divorcee who threatened to topple the British crown forever. 

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

?The Kinsey Reports? ? Alfred Kinsey?s 1950s studies into how people like to have sex, and with who ? did a lot more than ruffle a few feathers. Even acknowledging that some of us like a bit of light biting or partner-swapping was enough to make headlines. The rest was enough to blow conservative America?s minds?

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

In 2017, British glamour model Chloe Ayling went through a terrifying ordeal: abducted from a fake modelling shoot in Italy, held hostage for days by an obsessed stalker, and told she?d been put up for sale into sex slavery on the dark web?

Against all the odds, Chloe escaped ? and lived to tell the tale. The only problem? No one believed her.

With headlines declaring her story a hoax and dismissing her as a fame-hungry wannabe, Chloe was only vindicated when her captors were convicted. But even now, the doubts still haven?t gone away.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes

YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes

TikTok / Instagram

Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

As long as a walking stick. A billiards cue. Thin as a nub of wax at the base, thick as a man?s fist at the tip.

These are just some of the eye-watering descriptions of what King Ferdinand VII ? Spain?s worst ever king ? was allegedly hiding beneath his britches...

This week, H&S are lifting the sheets of the royal bedroom to meet a king who wrecked an empire, traumatised his young brides, and left the Spanish court buzzing with scandal ? all because of his deeply unfortunate anatomical affliction. 

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes

YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes

TikTok / Instagram

Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

With great esoteric power, comes great esoteric responsibility.

Aleister Crowley was considered many things, a poet, an artist, a master of the dark arts, and a prophet of Thelma. But who was the man behind the mask? And how did he go from being a leading figure and social commentator to dying in relative obscurity?

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

Bodies unearthed in the desert seemed like the final piece in the puzzle for McStay Family Murders. However, the four years that had passed left more questions than answers, and a whole lot of people with a whole lot in their pockets.

Despite all the mystery, Chase Merrit found himself firmly on the stand. Rightly or wrongly? Listen to find out.

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes

YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes

TikTok / Instagram

Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

In October 1993, River Phoenix crashed out of Johnny Depp?s exclusive club, fell onto the pavement, and died. An hour earlier, the 23-year-old rising star had snorted a lethal combination of cocaine and heroin known as a ?speedball? in the toilets. As he staggered around the club, no one offered Phoenix anything more than a valium to "take the edge off?. 

How did Johnny Depp?s club become such a den of iniquity and excess? And more importantly, how did it survive after the death of Hollywood?s golden boy?

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes

YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes

TikTok / Instagram

Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

The year was 1917, and revolution was in the air in Russia. After sustaining heavy losses in WW1, the fall of the House of Romanov seemed inevitable. And one night the Tsar, his wife, and their five children, were shot, stabbed, burned with acid, set on fire, blown up with grenades and buried deep in Koptyaki forest. 

But then, rumours began to circulate that there had been survivors of the massacre? And over the years, numerous women came forward claiming to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia. What follows is a story of ?delusion, fabrication, sham, romance, burlesque, travesty and humbug?. Press play to solve the mystery.

Listen to our episode on Rasputin here

?

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

How does a family completely vanish? That was the question that plagued investigators after Michael McStay reported his brother Joe McStay missing on the 15th of February 2010, along with Joe?s wife Summer, and their two children, Joe Jr and Gianni. 

It took four years to discover the fate of the McStay family: a fate that cast a lens across their entire lives. Everyone from Joe?s business associates Chase Merrit and Dan Kavanaugh, to Joe?s own brother Michael, had something to gain from the family?s disappearance ? but who had the mentality to kill them for it?

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes

YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes

TikTok / Instagram

Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

Turning lead into gold and living forever: that?s about the summation of our modern understanding of Alchemy. Informed by high-fantasy films and pop history, it now brings to mind dark, arcane ceremonies in castle ruins, playing God in the pursuit of limitless riches and immortality. 

However, the reality is that Alchemy spanned thousands of years and countless cultures. It was the precursor to modern science, and undoubtedly changed humanity?s understanding of the world around us. This is the ShortHand.

?

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

Alien autopsies, flying saucers, and top secret government programs: three things alleged to be hiding in ?Area 51?. Officially known as Homey Airport or Groom Lake, this secret government testing facility in Nevada has been the epicentre of UFO folklore for over a century ? yet the CIA only admitted its existence in 2013.

So what?s really going on behind those big metal gates? Listen to this week?s ShortHanded to find out!

--

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram

Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com