My Victorian Nightmare

Ep. 30 - Welcome to the Cabaret of Death Feb 17, 2025

On today’s episode, Genevieve will be discussing the very macabre ways in which French Victorians would entertain themselves: the death-themed cabarets, horror shows in old gothic chapels, and the very upsetting and morbid curiosities that Parisians would literally trample over each other to get a glimpse of.

References for today's episode:

https://daily.jstor.org/the-cabarets-of-heaven-and-hell/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Guignol

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/paris-morgue-public-viewing

https://dianamarin.com/tag/the-uncanny-cabaret-du-neant/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabaret_de_L%27Enfer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabaret_du_Ciel

Ep. 29 - Butchery with Banjos and Vinegar Valentines Feb 10, 2025

On today's episode, we will have butchery with banjos, naked maniacs decapitating people, Lesbians, more butchery, some charming insults that Victorians liked to send to one another on Valentines day, and a very special love poem.

References for today's episode:

“A Naked Man's Horrible Deeds,” Illustrated Police News, December 18, 1880

"Butchered" With a Banjo,” Illustrated Police News, July 3, 1880

“Bloody Butchery,” Illustrated Police News, January 31, 1880

https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/misogyny-created-a-space-for-women-to-f-ck-in-the-19th-century-d32f6ab34e48

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/victorian-same-sex-valentines-day

Ep. 28 - Horrors of the Victorian Lunatic Asylum Feb 03, 2025

On today's episode, Genevieve takes you on a tour of the Victorian Lunatic Asylum. She'll discuss the history of the institution, surprising and spine-chilling facts, as well as her very own terrifying experience of the time she broke into the Overbrook Asylum in New Jersey.

References for today's episode:

https://cpp-college.netlify.app/programs/education-blog/victorian-mental-health-and-women-part-one-american-asylums

https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/medicine/victorian-mental-asylum

https://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/netflix-2017/how-victorian-women-were-oppressed-through-the-use-of-psychiatry/1607/

https://www.talkspace.com/blog/history-inhumane-mental-health-treatments/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly

https://usghostadventures.com/haunted-places/americas-most-haunted-hospitals-and-asylums/overbrook-asylum/

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/8bcb0263e26f4ceeb6d41a00cfc72b7a?item=1

Ep. 27 - Curious Capers and Spiritual Speculations Jan 27, 2025

On today's episode, Genevieve will discuss the 5 Points slum, a church lunatic, a woman that takes investment advice from her dead husband, a cannibalistic affair between 2 ladies, the curious caper of an unruly cow, a locomotive disaster, mayhem, mysterious tragedies and a man who saved an entire New Hampshire town because he loved his girlfriend a little too much.

References for today's episode:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Our_Lady_of_the_Scapular%E2%80%93St._Stephen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Points,_Manhattan#:~:text=The%20local%20politics%20of%20%22the,racial%20integration%20in%20American%20history

Ep. 26 - The Grave Trains of London Jan 20, 2025

In today’s episode, Genevieve will discuss the grisly history of the graveyard that is London, and the subterranean train system built in the Victorian era within and around the final resting places of literally millions of tightly packed Londoners.

References for today’s episode:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enon_Chapel

https://gizmodo.com/how-corpses-helped-shape-the-london-underground-1493312117

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-66507599

https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/london-crossrail-bedlam-big-dig

https://www.timeout.com/london/news/londons-victorian-necropolis-railway-station-is-for-sale-060424

https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/london-underground-station-built-right-21001175

https://www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk/where-we-go/blog/the-forgotten-story-of-london-necropolis-railway

https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/the-forgotten-men-of-the-london-underground/

Ep. 25 - Murder, Blackmail, and Raving Maniacs Jan 13, 2025

On today's show, Genevieve has a robber who becomes a raving maniac in prison, a very shocking confession followed by a very grisly request, a woman poisoned by laudanum and nearly frozen to death, a footrace between a phrenologist and a zippy young lady, a thief who nearly blows his own head off, a wife’s vengeance with a pen knife, murder, blackmail, and an unfortunate sled accident on an historic Boston Street, among a few others.

References for today's episode:

https://www.murderbygaslight.com/2015/06/the-murder-of-pet-halsted.html

https://pages.vassar.edu/realarchaeology/2017/03/05/phrenology-and-scientific-racism-in-the-19th-century/

https://www.schenectadyhistory.org/families/hmgfm/shields.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Exposition

Ep. 24 - Welcome to the Murder Castle Jan 06, 2025

In this week's episode, Genevieve gives a full, very dramatic review of Nosferatu, and dives into the truly diabolical murders of H.H. Holmes.

References for todays episode:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._H._Holmes

https://www.newspapers.com/image/668069816/?terms=h.h.%20holmes

https://www.history.com/news/murder-castle-h-h-holmes-chicago

https://www.ranker.com/list/hh-holmes-origin-story/hannah-gilham

https://www.bustle.com/p/quotes-from-hh-holmes-memoir-provide-insight-into-the-american-ripper-69194

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/enduring-mystery-hh-holmes-americas-first-serial-killer-180977646/

Ep. 23 - Hatchets, Razors, Narrow Escapes, and Nosferatu Dec 30, 2024

Today, Genevieve will discuss a Lunatic Asylum escapee in a washtub boat, a steamboat slaughter, a tragic murder on a lovely evening, a clergyman’s narrow escape from certain death, a fit of apoplexy, hatchets, razors, insanity, and a somewhat tragic ice skating accident that luckily has a meet-cute happy ending.

References for Today's Episode:

https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2022/11/nellie-bly-blackwells-island/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultana_(steamboat)

https://genealogytrails.com/ill/woodford/tradgies.html

Ep. 22 - Sweet Messages of Calm Decay Dec 23, 2024

On today's episode, we’re still celebrating the Holiday season with some weird, wonderful, and downright irresponsible Victorian Christmas traditions!

References for today's episode:

https://www.history.com/news/christmas-tradition-ghost-stories

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/652043/victorian-christmas-traditions

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/dec/12/shock-of-the-old-11-murderous-and-macabre-victorian-christmas-cards

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-34988154

https://historycollection.com/strange-and-delightful-holiday-traditions-of-the-victorian-era/

https://www.marthastewart.com/1097532/decorative-past-tradition-christmas-pickle-ornament

Ep. 21 - A Chamber of Horrors Dec 16, 2024

Today's episode is Christmas themed! Genevieve will be discussing a family hatchet fight, an assault with a pot roast, an assault with a teapot, a fruit and nut plundering, an insane chimney sweep, a grizzly Christmas day murder, A tragic Christmas Day train disaster, a Chamber of Horrors, and a few more truly horrific Christmas day events.

References for today's episode:

https://www.measuringworth.com/blog/?p=256

https://www.postalmuseum.org/blog/victorian-christmas-boxes/#:~:text=These%20tokens%20were%20known%20as,form%20of%20money%20or%20alcohol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_railroad_accidents

https://sites.dartmouth.edu/toxmetal/arsenic/arsenic-a-murderous-history/#:~:text=Beginning%20in%20the%20eighteenth%20century,common%20in%20the%20market%20place

Ep. 20 - They'll Be Scary Ghost Stories Dec 09, 2024

In today's episode, Genevieve keeps with Victorian Christmas tradition, and tells a terrifying ghost story: The Signal Man, by Charles Dickens.

Ep. 19 - Killed By a Coffin Dec 02, 2024

On today's episode, Genevieve dives back into the salacious, at times terrifying, at times, grisly, at times charming Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record, from which she will read about Bleecker Street harpies punching cops in the face, some discomfiture of an older gentleman who gets a parasol stuck in his mouth, a madhouse ax murder, a man on a smashing spree, a saloon slaying, a murderously jealous lover, and a man killed by a coffin.

References for today's episode:

https://cemeteryclub.wordpress.com/2020/03/02/killed-by-a-coffin/

https://www.loc.gov/item/ca07000366/

Ep. 18 - Until You Are Dead Nov 25, 2024

In today's episode, Genevieve digs deep into the murder trial of Mary Ann Mailman at the hands of her husband, Peter Mailman in 1873. The trial was full of salacious accusations of affairs, jealous husbands, heartbreaking testimony, flagrant slut shaming from the defense, and details of the murder that shook Nova Scotia to the core.

The Trial of Peter Mailman:

https://ia600201.us.archive.org/10/items/cihm_09620/cihm_09620.pdf

Minisode 3 - The Miniest of Sodes Nov 11, 2024

In this very short episode Genevieve waxes on the current state of affairs. We will return to the 1800s next week, and especially in 2 months.

Ep. 17 - Marvelous and Alarming Madness Nov 04, 2024

On today's episode, Genevieve pulls out a few articles from the Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record: volumes between 1871 and 1875. She'll provide you with your Weekly Dose of Blood, a very concerning case of 2 men either infected with rabies, or turning into werewolves - it’s a bit unclear, a Frenchman nearly eaten alive by rats, a grizzly wedding party, a blood-thirsty maniac, a woman melting down exquisitely on stage, and a damsel giving an impromptu acrobatic performance on the streets of Chicago

Bonus Episode! - A little Hallowe'en Candy Oct 31, 2024

On today's minisode, Genevieve reads her 3 favorite spooky Victorian Halloween poems! Edgar Allan Poe's, The Raven, Lake of the Dismal Swamp by Thomas Moore, and The Broomstick Train or the Return of the Witches by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Ep. 16 - Happy Hallowe'en! Oct 28, 2024

Today’s episode will contain absolutely delightful, bone-chillingly fascinating Victorian Halloween traditions, as well as a few more creepy-eepy Victorian house histories and hauntings.

References for today's episode:

https://gaslampfoundation.org/victorian-halloween-traditions-now-thats-scary/

https://www.grunge.com/1056548/what-victorian-halloween-was-really-like/

https://mix108.com/is-this-home-the-most-haunted-estate-in-minnesota/

https://www.huntingdondailynews.com/daily_herald/news/spooktacular-stories-the-haunting-of-baker-mansion/article_7370709e-6ff2-5d04-a92a-9853bc26b288.html

https://hauntedhouses.com/minnesota/forepaughs-restaurant/

Ep. 15 - Among the Dead Men Oct 21, 2024

In today's episode, Genevieve will be diving back into your favorite grisly, hideous, at times very witty, and fabulously illustrated Victorian publication - The Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record. She'll discuss a creepy German law, Revolutionary war skeletons found in walls, coffins for lifeboats, and a journalist’s detailed report on what it was like to walk around a surgical school in the middle of the night in 1871.

Ep. 14 - Mannequins in the Attic Oct 14, 2024

On today's episode, Genevieve discusses the creepiest Victorian haunted house she could find: The Villisca Axe murder house. She talks about both the chilling backstory and the hauntings.

References for today's episode:

https://adelaidehauntedhorizons.com.au/haunted-villisca-ax-murder-house-ghosts/

https://murderhouse.com/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ghosts/comments/eldrm7/stayed_the_night_at_the_villisca_axe_murder_house/

https://usghostadventures.com/haunted-places/villisca-ax-murder-house/

https://villisca.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?k=moore&i=f&d=06011912-12311929&m=between&ord=k1&fn=the_villisca_review_usa_iowa_villisca_19120613_english_6&df=1&dt=10

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villisca_axe_murdershttps://coronertalk.com/28

Minisode 2 - Coffin-Shaped Boxes and Unbearable Cliffhangers Oct 07, 2024

On today's episode, Genevieve will discuss coffin-shaped boxes in mysterious huts, a case of suspended animation, a struggle in an elevator with a lunatic, and some other disturbing, little “Items of interest” as they’re called in the 1878 volume of The Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record which are indeed very interesting items. We’ll also enjoy a pumpkin smash.

Ep. 13 - The Most Haunted House in America Sep 30, 2024

On today's episode, Genevieve discusses "America's most haunted house®" - The Whaley House of San Diego California. She'll dive into the bone chilling back story, as well as the spooky hauntings that delight (and seriously creep out) visitors today.

References for today's episode include:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaley_House_(San_Diego,_California)

https://yourtahoeguide.com/2021/07/gold-rush-vigilantes-jim-ugly-and-yankee-jim/

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Whaley-1836

https://www.kcghosts.com/california-whaley-house

https://sdghosts.com/the-whaley-house/

https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2017/jul/03/history-san-diego-1850/

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SDDU18850820.2.29&srpos=26&e=-------en--20-SDDU-21--txt-txIN-thomas+Whaley-------

Minisode 1 - Broad Blown as Fresh as Hell Sep 23, 2024

In today's (first!) minisode, Genevieve reads articles from the "Weekly Dose of Blood" in an 1873 volume of The Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record publication, as well as a spooky little article about a thieving somnambulist.

Ep. 12 - Morbid Curiosity and Murderous Spirits Sep 16, 2024

In today's episode, Genevieve will discuss Mediums getting attacked by spirits, men drinking their own blood, live burials, nuns getting struck with lightning and rising from the dead – it’s going to be a spooky rollercoaster.

Ep. 11 - Horrors of the Victorian Circus Sep 02, 2024

In today's episode, Genevieve talks about Victorian circus horrors.

References for today's episode:

https://www.notesfromthefrontier.com/post/freak-shows

https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/septemberoctober/statement/the-circus-you-never-knew

https://victorian-era.org/victorian-era-circus-performances.html

https://boroughsofthedead.com/barnum-museum-fire-july-13-1865/

https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/greatest-show-earth-freak-shows-pt-barnum-tom-thumb/

https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=DMST18851009.2.46&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------

https://www.historyireland.com/the-wee-est-little-man-that-ever-was-general-tom-thumb-in-ireland/

https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-lost-original-madison-square-garden.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiji_mermaid

https://jvc.oup.com/2021/05/20/lost-circuses-of-victorian-leeds/

Ep. 10 - Body Snatchers and Women on the Rampage Aug 19, 2024

In today’s episode, Genevieve dives back into the Illustrated Police News from 1871 - the insane Victorian publication full of grisly murders, body snatchers, mice in donuts – it was a publication full of complete chaos.

Ep. 9 - Dangerous and Deadly Victorian Fashion Aug 07, 2024

In today's episode, Genevieve discusses how Tuberculosis influenced fashion, hazardous beauty routines, deadly hatpins, the dangers of corsets, and strange, kind of gross beauty trends, as well as some really weird and intriguing facts about Victorian fashion.

References for today's episode:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-tuberculosis-shaped-victorian-fashion-180959029/

https://www.thecollector.com/tuberculosis-art/

https://thevictorianhistorian.com/beauty-fashion/

https://nyamcenterforhistory.org/2015/05/29/did-corsets-harm-womens-health/

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-leeds-mercury-death-of-matilda/30613252/?locale=en-US

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/hatpins-mashers-self-defense-history-women-hats-fashion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheele%27s_green

https://hyperallergic.com/329747/death-by-wallpaper-alluring-arsenic-colors-poisoned-the-victorian-age/

Ep. 8 - Coffin-Shaped Tables Jul 29, 2024

Today’s episode is going to be a little different. Genevieve will be reading horrifying stories from the Illustrated Police News from 1871, and giving context to the stories.

References for today's show:

https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-875?d=%2F10.1093%2Facrefore%2F9780199329175.001.0001%2Facrefore-9780199329175-e-875&p=emailAamzPoP9dB6io

https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/266/oa_monograph/chapter/3065998#:~:text=This%20doctrine%2C%20called%20%E2%80%9Cspiritual%20affinity%2C%E2%80%9D%20swept%20the%20ranks%20of%20spiritualism%20in%20the%20early%201850s.&text=As%20sages%20of%20this%20world%20and%20the%20next%20one https://time.com/6107025/victoria-woodhull-free-love-movement/

Ep. 7 - The Dawn of Victorian Spiritualism Jul 15, 2024

In today's episode, Genevieve dives into the spine tingling world of Victorian Spiritualism. She'll talk about where it all began, what a Victorian materializing seance would entail, the ways mediums would trick people into believing they were talking to dead people, and the history of the Ouija board.

References for today's episode:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-john-brown-was-queen-victorias-channel-to-alberts-ghost

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-fox-sisters-and-the-rap-on-spiritualism-99663697/

https://www.grunge.com/665457/the-strange-truth-about-ectoplasm-explained/

https://www.ranker.com/list/victorian-medium-seance-tricks/olivia-pasquarelli

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritualism_(movement)

https://husheduphistory.com/post/653477933416120320/calling-the-unknown-by-name-helen-peters

Ep. 6 - The Wild World of Victorian Vampires Jul 08, 2024

In today’s episode, Genevieve will discuss the wild world of Victorian vampires. She'll discuss vampire panic and vampire autopsies of the 1800s, real vampires - or at least, folks who were believed to be real vampires, and the inspirations for everyone's favorite vampire, Dracula.

References for today's episode:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_vampire_panichttps://www.cdc.gov/tb/worldtbday/history.htm

https://www.queensu.ca/gazette/stories/vampire-myths-originated-real-blood-disorder

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Westenra

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Paolehttps://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/dracula-bram-stoker-inspiration

https://lithub.com/on-the-victorian-science-and-prejudices-behind-bram-stokers-dracula/

Ep. 5 - The Life and Times of Typhoid Mary Jul 01, 2024

On today's episode, Genevieve talks about the life and times of a Ms. Mary Mallon, otherwise known as Typhoid Mary – much to her chagrin.

References for today's show:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mallon

https://the-line-up.com/north-brother-island

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/north-brother-island

https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2019/03/28/are-victorian-diseases-making-a-comeback/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/typhoid/letter.html

https://www.americanhauntingsink.com/typhoid

Ep. 4 - The Horror of Victorian Children’s Stories Jun 24, 2024

In today's episode, Genevieve talks about the deeply disturbing world of Victorian Children’s stories and the twisted origins of some nursery rhymes of the time that we still enjoy today.

References for today's episode:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2019/04/the-creepy-and-harsh-lessons-of-early-childrens-books/

https://news.ufl.edu/archive/1996/10/todays-scary-stories-are-tame-compared-to-victorian-age-tales.html

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/penny-dreadfuls-victorian-children-literacy

https://www.representingchildhood.pitt.edu/victorian.htm

https://writingtoberead.com/2023/04/26/dark-origins-the-creepy-true-story-behind-alice-in-wonderland-darkorigins-aliceinwonderland/

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/meet-springheeled-jack-the-leaping-devil-that-terrorized-victorian-england

Ep. 3 - The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe Jun 17, 2024

In today's episode, Genevieve covers the life and mysterious death of beloved gothic fiction writer, Edgar Allan Poe.

My Main References:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Edgar_Allan_Poe

https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/a45782209/edgar-allan-poe-death-mystery/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/still-mysterious-death-edgar-allan-poe-180952936/

Ep. 2 - The Victorian Cult of Death Jun 10, 2024

In this week's episode, Genevieve talks about elaborate Victorian funeral traditions, what was, and was not, acceptable mourning fashion of the day, Queen Victoria’s obsession with her dead husband that sparked the trends, the hardship and power of 19th-century widowhood, as well as the almost fetishistic keepsaking of the deceased.

Ep. 1 - The Legend of Octavia Hatcher Jun 03, 2024

In this episode, Genevieve covers the mysterious death of Octavia Hatcher – a women who died in 1891 who, according to legend, was buried alive.

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