Show Notes for

'Til Death: Poison and Badmashes in 1911 Agra

This episode follows Augusta Fullam and Dr. Henry Clark, whose affair leads to a murder plot in colonial India. As their plans unfold, poisoned meals, hired attackers, and incriminating letters expose the lovers and draw their families into tragedy.

Sources:

Arnold, David. Toxic Histories: Poison and Pollution in Modern India (Cambridge: University Printing House, 2016.)

McDougal, Iain. “The Memsahib was a Poisoner” in Cavalcade Magazine, Dec. 1952. Vol. 17, No. 1.

Nash, Jay Robert. Look for the WOman: A Narrative Encyclopedia of female poisoners…(New York: M. Evans and Company, 1981).

Pearson, Edmund. Instigation of the Devil (New York: Charles Scriber’s Sons, 1930).

“The Tragic Affair at Meerut” in Mystery Magazine, June 1934. Vol. IX, No. 6.

Sandford, Charles. India: Land of Regrets (London: The Fenland Press, 1934).

Whittington-Egan, Molly. Khaki Mischief: The Agra Murder Case (London: Souvenir Press, 1990).

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

The internet will tell you that Catherine Hayes was a monster who slept with her son and convinced him to murder her husband, John Hayes, but the internet is wrong. This is the true story of the life and death of Catherine Hayes.

Sources:

“A Narrative of the barbarous and unheard of murder of John Hayes…” 1726.

“Broadside: A true copy of the paper, which Mrs. Catherine Hayes deliver'd to a particular friend, on Sunday last, the 8th day of May, which was the day before her execution,” Kent State University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives, accessed September 16, 2026, http://omeka.library.kent.edu/special-collections/items/show/11482.

“Catherine Hayes Burnt for Petty Treason.” Capital Punishment UK. 3 June 2025. https://capitalpunishmentuk.org/catherine-hayes-burnt-for-petty-treason/

Enright, Mairead. “Catherine Hayes: ‘The sexual predatorburnt at the stake for her life of sin’” University of Birmingham. 18 March, 2018. https://blog.bham.ac.uk/legalherstory/2018/03/18/catherine-hayes-the-sexual-predator-burnt-at-the-stake-for-her-life-of-sin/

Gribble, Leonard. Queens of Crime (London: Hurst & Blackett, 1932).

Lane, Brian. The Butcheres: a casebook of macabre crimes and forensic detection. (London: BCA, 1991).

Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 9.0) Ordinary of Newgate's Account May 1726 (OA17260509). Available at: https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/OA17260509 (Accessed: 16th September 2026).

Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 9.0) April 1726. Trial of Katharine Hays (t17260420-42). Available at: https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t17260420-42 (Accessed: 16th September 2026).

Saxton, Kirsten. Narratives of Women and Murder in England, 1680-1760. (Surrey: Ashgate, 2009).

Newspapers:

London Journal

Mist’s Weekly Journal

Weekly Journal, or the British Gazetteer

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

When Ruth Cruger went missing in 1917 and the New York Police Department failed to search for her adequately, the girl's family hired Grace Humiston, AKA “Mrs. Sherlock Holmes,” to find her. Mrs. Sherlock not only found Ruth, but uncovered a conspiracy that rocked New York City–and America–to its core.

Episode 86- The Gotham Gobbler: Mrs. Sherlock and the Murder of Ruth Cruger is now live on all major platforms.

Sources:

Kahler, Abbott. “‘Mrs. Sherlock Holmes’ Takes on the NYPD.” Smithsonian magazine. August 23, 2011. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/mrs-sherlock-holmes-takes-on-the-nypd-60624549/

“Addressing the Epidemic of Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls Through Legislation.” Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. May 28, 2026. https://americanhealth.jhu.edu/news/addressing-epidemic-missing-and-murdered-black-women-and-girls-through-legislation

Ricca, Brad. Mrs. Sherlock Holmes: The True Story of New York City’s Greatest Female Detective and the 1917 Missing Girl Case That Captivated a Nation (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2016).

Ricca, “Searching for Grace Humiston: Mrs. Sherlock Holmes.” The History Reader. https://www.thehistoryreader.com/historical-figures/grace-humiston/

Roth, Tanya. “Women’s Work, the Story of the Murder-Solving, Peonage-Busting, Justice-Seeking ‘Mrs. Sherlock Holmes.’” Saturday Evening Post. August 21, 2024. https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/08/womens-work-the-story-of-the-murder-solving-peonage-busting-justice-seeking-mrs-sherlock-holmes/

Newspaper articles from:

The New York Tribune

The New York Times

The Daily News (NY)

The Evening World (NY)

The Elmira Gazette (NY)

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

In 1923, five-year-old Arthur Martinez’s body was discovered in an abandoned Pasadena factory. As detectives dig deeper, two teenage boys become central to a story that is tragic, disturbing, and impossible to ignore.

Sources:

In the Matter of the Application of PAUL DAEDLER, a Minor, for Writ of Habeas Corpus. Supreme Court of California, Aug 13, 1924

Mares-Tamayo, Michaela Jeanette Lopez. “Chicana/o Historical Counterstories: Documenting the Community Memory of Junipero Serra and Clark Street Schools.” Dissertation, University of California Los Angeles, 2014.

Pasadena Unified School District. Annual Report of the Pasadena Unified School District. Pasadena, CA. 1917-1924.

This episode consists mostly of original research from the following papers:

The Pasadena Post

The Pasadena Star

The Los Angeles Times

The Nevada State Journal

The Whittier News

The Oregon Daily Journal

The Emporia Gazette (Kansas)

The Tucson Citizen

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

After poet Nora May French committed suicide in the artist’s colony of Carmel-by-the-Sea, a “cavalcade of death” followed. But how responsible was Nora for the bizarre deaths of her Bohemian friends, and was her death truly a suicide?

Sources:

Denouden, Jeremy. “‘Great Nature, Refuge of the Weary Heart:’ A Regional and Literary Exploration of the Early Grove Plays of the Bohemian Club.” Master’s Theses. San Jose State University, Fall 2015.

French, Nora May. Poems (San Francisco: The Strange Company, 1910).

Lanzendorfer, Joy. “Bohemian Tragedy: The rise, fall, and afterlife of George Sterling’s California Arts Colony.” Poetry Foundation. February 25, 2018. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/146051/bohemian-tragedy

Prendergast, Catherine. The Gilded Edge: Two Audacious Women and the Cyanide Love Triangle that Shook America (New York: Dutton, 2021).

Starr, Kevin. Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985).

Stewart, George R. Footloose in Arcadia: A Personal Record of Jack London, George Sterling, Ambrose Bierce.by Joseph Noel. American Literature, vol. 12, no. 3, 1940, pp. 380–81.

Articles from the San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Call, Los Angeles Times, Oakland Post Enquirer, and Sunset Magazine.

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

Salem, Massachusetts, is famous for its witch trials, but did you know that it also hosted a murder mystery so twisted that it inspired literary legends like Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne? The mystery began with an old ship captain murdered in his bed and ended with the deaths of three more prominent citizens. Was the motive love, greed, or something more sinister?

Sources:

Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. “The Murder of Captain Joseph White.” History of Massachusetts Blog. July 25, 2025. https://historyofmassachusetts.org/captain-joseph-white-murder/

“Captain Joseph White.” Salem Public Library. https://salempl.org/captain-joseph-white/

Curtis, Charles P. “The Young Devils and Dan’l Webster.” American Heritage, Vol. II, Issue 4. June, 1960.

Duke, Thomas. Celebrated Criminal Cases of America (San Francisco: The James H. Barry Company, 1910).

Second trial of John Francis Knapp by a new jury: Recommenced at Salem, August 14, 1830, for the murder of Capt. Joseph White, before the Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at a special session, commenced at Salem, July 20, 1830… (Boston: Dutton and Wentworth, 1830).

Trial of George Crowninshield, J.J. Knapp, Jun. and John Francis Knapp. reported by John W. Whitman. (Boston: Beals and Homer, and Frances Ingraham, 1830.)

Lewis, Walker. “The Murder of Captain Joseph White: Salem, Massachusetts, 1830.” American Bar Association Journal. Vol. 54. May, 1968. Pp. 460-466.

Wagner, E. J., “A Murder in Salem.” Smithsonian Magazine. November 2010. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-murder-in-salem-64885035/

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

The Ku Klux Klan controlled the state of Indiana in 1924. They believed themselves invincible and were moving to expand their organization when they encountered resistance from Irish Catholic Notre Dame students. Notre Dame students halted the Klan’s advances in South Bend, Indiana, but it was Madge Oberholtzer who killed the Klan for good.

Sources:

“A Clash Over Catholicism.” University of Notre Dame. August, 2018. https://stories.nd.edu/stories/a-clash-over-catholicism/

“The Dying Declaration of Madge Oberholtzer.” Famous Trials by Professor Douglas O. Linder. https://www.famous-trials.com/stephenson/86-dyingdeclaration

Egan, Timothy. Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them (New York: Viking, 2023).

Kahler, Abbott. “‘Murder Wasn’t Very Pretty’: The Rise and Fall of D. C. Stephenson” Smithsonian Magazine. August 30, 2012. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/murder-wasnt-very-pretty-the-rise-and-fall-of-dc-stephenson-18935042/

Milz, Mary. “How Notre Dame Students Battled the Klan 100 Years Ago.” Indianapolis Monthly. May 16, 2024. https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-and-culture/how-notre-dame-students-battled-the-klan-100-years-ago/

Tucker, Todd. Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2004).

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

Historian Alyse takes the Borden murders very seriously. Join her as she investigates primary sources from 1892 and concludes the Lizzie Borden mystery once and for all.

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Shoutout to the bird who decided to be a special guest on this episode.

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Sources: For this episode, I read only primary sources. These include witness statements, preliminary hearing and inquest documents, and trial transcripts.

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Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston