My Victorian Nightmare

Dive into the intriguing life of Mary Shelley, the mother of science fiction and gothic horror. Explore her poetic romance with Percy Shelley and their tragic losses, which deeply influenced her writing. Discover the haunting beginnings of Frankenstein, born from a ghost-story challenge during the infamous Year Without a Summer. Learn how personal grief shaped her creations and the profound themes of loss and yearning in her work. Mary’s journey is a powerful testament to resilience and the creative process.

The Fan Coven is officially available at myvictoriannightmare.com! And on this week’s episode, Genevieve will be discussing a particularly terrifying seance held in 1869, murderously presumed witchcraft, a deadly lesbian love affair, love-cracked raving lunatics, collapsing floors, revolting decapitations, and a lady who dressed up as a ghost and nearly scared someone else, and herself, to death. She will also explain why you don’t see caveman ghosts anymore and why rooms go cold when a spirit has arrived. References for today’s episode: https://www.murderbygaslight.com/2010/01/freda-ward-girl-slays-girl.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Germany#:~:text=Capital%20punishment%20in%20Germany%20has,at%20Leipzig%20Prison%20in%201981. “Two Spectral Lodgers : Ghosts in a Fourteenth-Street Boarding House” - The New York Times, Jun. 24, 1881. The Spiritualist - Nov. 19th, 1869. “THE COLD RIGHT HAND!” - The Illustrated Police News, Feb. 15th, 1872. “Has No Use For Men - Miss Alice Mitchell’s Perverted Love for Miss Freda Ward”- The Illustrated Police News, Jul. 30th, 1892. “The Floor of a Millinery Establishment at Hornellsville, NY Falls Through During an Auction Sale and Precipitates a Dense Crowd of Women into the Cellar” - The Illustrated Police News, Feb. 15th, 1872. “Love-Cracked Solomon Waring” - The Illustrated Police News, Jan. 4th, 1872. Sickening Scene on a Scaffold at Desau, Germany - Two Female Murderers Decapitated - Piteous Appeals of the Condemned Ones for Mercy - Aug. 28th, 1873. “A Companion of the Murdered Professor Panormo Commits Suicide in Brooklyn, NY.” - The Illustrated Police News, Feb. 15th, 1872. “A Female ‘Makes Up’ in Ghostly Apparel, Frightens Another Woman Almost to Death, and Collapses in a Swoon at Davenport, Iowa” - The Illustrated Police News, Feb. 15th, 1872. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week’s episode, Genevieve will be discussing the Woolfolk family massacre: the annihilation of a family of 9 that occurred in 1887. The details are harrowing, horrible, heartbreaking, and some are truly…strange.  Get better sleep, hair and skin with Blissy and use MVNPOD to get an additional 30% off at http://blissy.com/MVNPOD References for today's episode: https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/woolfolk-murder-case/ https://murderpedia.org/male.W/w/woolfolk-thomas.htm https://www.gpb.org/news/2024/07/19/macon-graves-linked-infamous-georgia-murder-were-vandalized-investigation-underway https://rosehillcemeterymacongeorgia.blogspot.com/2010/10/remarkable-funeral-burial-of-victims-of.html “The Red Hand” - The Atlanta Constitution, Aug. 7th, 1887. “Bloody Woolfolk” - The Atlanta Constitution, Aug. 8th, 1887. “Two Spectral Lodgers : Ghosts in a Fourteenth-Street Boarding House” - The New York Times, Jun. 24, 1881. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week’s episode of My Victorian Nightmare, Genevieve will discuss a man mangled with a carving knife, another skeleton where it does not belong, the growing evil that is young women leaving their homes, a rum-crazed lunatic dentist, a man killed by a jar of peaches, and a couple of rats that exhibited an admirable commitment to teamwork. References for today's Episode: “Two Spectral Lodgers : Ghosts in a Fourteenth-Street Boarding House” - The New York Times, Jun. 24, 1881. “Charge of Imposture” - The Spiritualist, Nov. 19, 1869. “John Costello Encounters Jack Glass and Mangles Him with a Carving Knife in a Saloon on Nassau Street, New York,” - The Illustrated Police News, Feb. 1st. 1872. “Whose Girls Are They” - The Illustrated Police News, Dec. 14, 1871 “Discovery of a Skeleton at Oxford” - The Illustrated Police News, Aug. 5th, 1871. “Effect of David Dicky’s Victory Eating for a Wager - The Coroner’s Name was Smith” - The Illustrated Police News, Feb. 1st, 1872. “A Baby Boiled by an Insane Mother” - The Illustrated Police News, Feb. 1st, 1872. “Death of a Woman From Starvation”- The Recorder, May 27th, 1872. “A Rum-Crazed Dentist Shoots Four of his Neighbors” - The Illustrated Police News, Feb. 1st, 1872. “How a Kalamazoo Grocer Lost His Eggs and Where They Went” - The Illustrated Police News, Feb.1st, 1872. https://nyupress.org/blog/2009/10/27/the-ghosts-of-14th-st/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_writing https://courses.lumenlearning.com/adolescent/chapter/history-of-developmental-psychology/ https://nemasket.blogspot.com/2010/02/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode, Genevieve will be discussing not one, but two of the most haunted Victorian homes in England: The Borley Rectory as well as a little unsuspecting cottage in Essex that was once known as The Cage of St. Osyth, which was once the site of a medieval witch prison. We will also learn exactly what happens when you die, according to a Spiritualist newspaper from the 1800s. References for today's episode: “The Ghost of Sarah Duckett - Shropshire” - The Illustrated Police News, Nov. 25th, 1882. “Mystery of the Walled-Up ‘Spook’ of Borely Rectory” - The San Francisco Examiner, Sep. 29th, 1929. “The Bogey of a ‘Walled-Up’ Nun” - The Catholic Weekly,  Dec. 5th, 1929. “Bating Tragedy” - The Essex County Standard, Etc., Aug. 08th, 1862 “The Philosophy of Death” - The Spiritualist, Nov. 19th, 1869. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borley_Rectory https://burialsandbeyond.com/2021/01/15/the-most-haunted-house-in-england-borley-rectory/ https://www.ufoinsight.com/supernatural/ghosts-hauntings/the-english-amityville-house https://iapsop.com/archive/materials/spiritualist/#:~:text=Summary:,%2C%20William%20Crookes%2C%20Alfred%20R. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today’s episode, Genevieve will discuss a family that is a complete disaster, the absurdities of hypnosis, a hatchet murder, a man who luckily couldn’t quite properly operate a firearm, utter pandemonium at a spiritualist lecture, a corpse sent to a candy maker, a man frozen to a boat, yet another man killed by a coffin, and the single worst death ever discussed on any show up until today, hands down. Nothing comes close. Consider yourselves warned. “True Stories About Ghosts” - The Illustrated Police News, Oct. 29th 1881. “A Very Unfortunate Family” - The Illustrated Police News, Jul. 6th, 1876. “One of the Absurdities of the Age - Pretended Effects of Mesmerism as Exhibited at Brackett Hall” - The Illustrated Police News, Feb 1st, 1872. “A Horrible Death” - The Illustrated Police News, Jan. 25th, 1872. “A Man Frozen to the Cross-Trees of a Chicago Vessel” - The Illustrated Police News, Jan. 4th, 1872. “Ineffectual Attempt of a Discarded Lover to Shoot Himself in Chicago” - The Illustrated Police News, Feb 1st, 1872. “A Row Among the Spiritualists at Cooper Institute” - The Illustrated Police News, Feb. 1st, 1872. “Murder of a Wife and Child by a German in Ann Arbor Michigan” - The Illustrated Police News, Nov. 9th, 1871. “A Corpse Sent to a Cincinnati Candy Maker” - The Illustrated Police News, Feb. 15th, 1872. “Edmund Sweeny Falls Dead While Lifting the Coffin Lid from the Body of His Father” - The Illustrated Police News, Feb. 1st, 1872. “A Chambermaid Turns an Involuntary Somersault Out of a Second Story Window at Bangor” - The Illustrated Police News, Feb. 1st, 1872. https://www.bbc.com/bbcthree/article/f8ce7277-5945-470a-b1ad-0c637d8265c1 https://historyofhypnosis.org/19th-century/ https://vintagehairstyling.com/bobbypinblog/2019/11/adding-hair-pieces-to-your-vintage-hairstyle-a-history-of-the-hair-switch.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davenport_brothers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this very special collaborative episode between SIGHTINGS and MY VICTORIAN NIGHTMARE, venture into an eerie haunted house from the 19th century, and discover why some doors were meant to stay sealed shut.  Check out SIGHTINGS on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to Podcasts! Story Music tracks used by kind permission of CO.AG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Monday’s episode, Genevieve will discuss not 1, not 2, but FOUR grisly train murders from the Victorian era – one with a wild twist! All complete with frick’n sound effects and everything: The murder of Issac Gold (1881), William Pearson (1901), Elizabeth Camp (1897), and Mary Money (1905). References for Today's Episode: https://www.btp.police.uk/police-forces/british-transport-police/areas/about-us/about-us/our-history/crime-history/murder-of-issac-gold/ https://www.btp.police.uk/police-forces/british-transport-police/areas/about-us/about-us/our-history/crime-history/murder-of-william-pearson-1901/ https://www.btp.police.uk/police-forces/british-transport-police/areas/campaigns/our-history/crime-history/murder-of-elizabeth-camp-1897/ https://www.btp.police.uk/police-forces/british-transport-police/areas/campaigns/our-history/crime-history/murder-of-mary-money-1905/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hicks_Murray “True Stories About Ghosts” - The Illustrated Police News, Oct. 29th 1881. "Miss Money's Funeral" - The Daily Telegraph, Oct. 4th, 1905. "Funeral of Miss Camp" - Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, Feb. 21st, 1897. "The Murder on the Brighton Railway" - The Morning Post, Jul. 5th, 1881. "The Railway Murder" - Evening Post, Jan. 23rd, 1901. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s our 1 year anniversary episode!!!! Today, Genevieve will have some brutal vigilante justice, deadly vengeance, another spooky skeleton discovery, a hammer murder, 1800s red pill propaganda, a mysterious murder-suicide, a clairvoyant shot by a spirit hand, and a devout, salvation-seeking rooster, named Cochin - all courtesy of the Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record, our favorite goopy, gloppy, murdery, marvelous tabloid from the 1800s. References for Today's Episode: “The Summary Execution of a Murderer” - The Illustrated Police News, Apr. 3rd, 1873. “A Frontier Horror” - The Illustrated Police News, Jan. 25th, 1872. "Deadly Vengeance of a Woman's Relatives Upon Her Husband" - The Illustrated Police News, Jan. 11th, 1872. "A Couple of Skeletons Found at Bradford" - The Illustrated Police News, Jul. 30, 1870. “Terrible Tragedy - Dr. Merriman Cole Found Murdered in His Office” - The Illustrated Police News, Jan. 18th, 1872. “A Young Man Belabored by Two Young Ladies for Endorsing Victoria Woodhull's Free Love Sentiments” - The Illustrated Police News, Dec. 21st, 1871. “Mysterious Taking Off of a Young Housekeeper, He Drowns Himself” - The Illustrated Police News, Dec. 14st, 1871. “Shot by a Sprit Hand” - The Illustrated Police News, Oct. 28th, 1876. “Avarice Kills a Man, and Then Follows the Corpse Several Hundred Miles”  - The Illustrated Police News, Dec. 21st, 1871. “A Rooster Attends Religious Worship in a Family at Cayuga NY” - The Illustrated Police News, Jan. 11th, 1872. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today’s episode, Genevieve will be discussing corpse medicine; the century’s old practice of using dead bodies to treat everything from jaundice to infertility to cataracts – and when you hear about how they specifically treated that last one, it’s really gonna bum you out. References for today’s episode: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-gruesome-history-of-eating-corpses-as-medicine-82360284/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/mummy-eating-medical-cannibalism-gory-history https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/corpse-medicine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_cannibalism https://theconversation.com/why-did-people-start-eating-egyptian-mummies-the-weird-and-wild-ways-mummy-fever-swept-through-europe-177551 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummia https://www.mdlinx.com/article/ancient-medicines-and-procedures-still-used-today/lfc-4453 https://www.texaschildrens.org/content/wellness/7-myths-about-placenta-consumption https://burialsandbeyond.com/2023/11/05/the-weird-world-of-mummy-parties Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices