Synodus Horrenda

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Episode 9b "I Speak My Own Sins" Jul 31, 2020

Show notes

In this episode we look at the Kishinev Pogrom of 1903, two days of looting, rape and murder directed at the Jewish community of an agricultural city in the western part of the Russian empire. The carnage of the even shocked the world and led to an outpouring of support for the victims, but also caused darker and more sinister ripples through world culture.

My primary source for this episode was "Pogroms: Kishinev and the Tilt of History" by Steven J. Zipperstein. For the intro I used the article "Spring-Heeled Jack: To Victorian Bugaboo from Suburban Ghost" published in "Fortean Studies No. 3" (1996)

Music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org

You can support the show on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/SynodusHorrenda where for $5 a month you will receive access to short monthly bonus episodes. You can also follow us on twitter @SynodusPod and on Instagram at SynodusHorrendaPod

Episode 9a "I Speak My Own Sins" Jul 17, 2020

Show notes

In this first part of a three part series about deaths caused in mass hysteria, I look at the most famous act of mass panic in American history, the Salem Witch Trials. Lasting through most of 1692 and into 1693 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the trials were set off when two young girls, the daughter and niece of a minister, began throwing fits and claiming to be bewitched. From there a mass panic grew that would eventually lead to 19 executions, as well as other dying in prison or under torture. But the conditions that led to this hysteria numerous, and the story is much more than one of the many moral tales it's been turned into.

The primary source for this episode was "A Storm of Witchcraft" by Emerson W. Baker.

Music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org

Episode 8 "Death and Art - In Memoriam" Jul 03, 2020

Show notes

In this episode I look at works of art created when famous artists attempted to paint after the death of a spouse. First we look at Rembrandt, whose wife Saskia died of tuberculosis in 1647 at the height of his career, which then went into a humiliating downslide from which he never recovered. Then we look at Claude Monet, who's wife Camille died in 1879 when his own career was already at its nadir.

Sources for this episode

"Rembrandt: A Life" by Charles L. Mee Jr.

"The Private Lives of the Impressionists" by Sue Roe

Music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org

Episode 7 "Bury Me Not" Jun 19, 2020

Show notes

In this episode I look at the panic over premature burial that inflamed Western culture from the mid-1700s all through the 19th century. We'll look at the waiting mortuaries of the German states, where bodies were sent to wait until putrification set in just in case the revived, the creation of "security coffins" to protect against being buried alive, and how the fear manifested in different ways in different counties.

Our primary source for this episode is "Buried Alive" by Jan Bondeson. The following articles were also used:

https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/153726

http://www.themagicdetective.com/2011/03/strange-life-death-of-washington-irving.html

Music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org

Episode 6b "Sordid Business" Jun 05, 2020

Show notes

In the second of our two-part series looking at people who profited from bodies, I look at the life of Herman Webster Mudgett, aka H.H. Holmes, a swindler, bigamist, quack doctor and murderer who operated mostly around Chicago in the 1880s and 90s. In this episode we look both at the legend of H.H. Holmes and the actual life of H.H. Holmes and find two very different stories.

The primary source for this episode is "H.H. Holmes: The True History of the White City Devil" by Adam Selzer.

The following articles were also used:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/heres-how-much-your-identity-goes-for-on-the-dark-web

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/05/07/man-faked-his-death-his-ex-wife-faked-his-funeral-then-their-son-found-him-alive/

Music for this episode is courtesy of musopen.org.

You can follow us on twitter at SynodusPod and on Instagram and SynodusHorrendaPod. You can support the show on Patreon, where for $5 a month you will received access to monthly bonus episodes.

Episode 6a "Sordid Business" May 22, 2020

Show notes

In the next two episode I look at stories of people who made profit off of corpses. We start here with the story of Burke & Hare, a pair of Irish emigres to Scotland who in 1828 began a string of 16 murders, all done for the purpose of selling the corpses to a local anatomy lecturer. We'll look at two men's history and the social and economic forces that created the environment they thrived in.

Our primary source for this episode is "Burke & Hare" by Owen Dudley Edwards.

The following series of articles, a look into the modern body trade, was also used:

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/usa-bodies/

Music for this episode is courtesy of musopen.org.

You can follow us on twitter at SynodusPod and on Instagram and SynodusHorrendaPod. You can support the show on Patreon, where for $5 a month you will received access to monthly bonus episodes.

Episode 5b "The Great Deceiver" May 08, 2020

Show notes

In the second and final part of our series about death revealing secrets, we look at the murder of Bob Crane, who in the 1960s was a popular sitcom star, but by 1978 was working the dinner theater circuit while going through his second divorce. When he was found bludgeoned to death in an Arizona apartment, it opened to the public a world of sexual obsession that had only barely been hidden behind a facade of charm and wholesomeness.

The primary source for this episode is "The Murder of Bob Crane" by Robert Graysmith.

Other sources include:

https://americanart.si.edu/artist/james-hampton-2052

https://psmag.com/social-justice/cracking-code-james-hamptons-private-language-96278

Music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org

Episode 5a "The Great Deceiver" Apr 24, 2020

Show notes

In the next two episodes, I look at stories about deaths that revealed secrets. In this episode we'll look at the story of Chung Ling Soo, billed as the "Marvelous Chinese Conjurer," one of the most famous magicians in the world at the beginning of the 20th century. I'll also look at his origins as a white American named William Robinson, and how his untimely death led a web of secrets, lies, and illusions to finally fall apart.

The primary source for this episode is "The Glorious Deception," by Jim Steinmeyer.

Music in this episode is courtesy of musopen.org

Episode 4 "Death and Art - Children of the Revolution" Apr 10, 2020

Show notes

In this episode I look at two paintings that depict murders and executions, both born of moments of revolution. The first is Jaques-Louis David's "The Death of Marat." The second is Francisco Goya's "Third of May, 1808." I'll be looking at the history of these paintings, the men who painted them and the people and moments they depict.

Sources for this episode include:

Evan S. Connell, "Francisco Goya: A Life"

Gregory Fremont-Barnes, "Encyclopedia of the Age of Political Revolutions and New Ideologies, 1760-1815"

https://www.jacqueslouisdavid.org/biography.html

Music for this episode is courtesy of musopen.org.

You can follow us on twitter at @SynodusPod and on Instagram at SynodusHorrendaPod. You can support the podcast at https://www.patreon.com/SynodusHorrenda where for $5 a month you will receive access to free monthly bonus episodes.

Episode 3 "The She-Hound of Heaven" Mar 27, 2020

Show notes

In this episode I'll be looking at our relationship with animal life, and different ways the deaths of animals have affected our history and culture. We'll be looking at a macabre massacre of stray cats at an 18th century Paris print shop, the execution of an elephant, and the first animals to cross the bounds into outer space.

Our primary sources for this episode include:

"The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History" by Robert Darnton

"Topsy: The Startling Story of the Crooked-Tailed Elephant, P. T. Barnum, and the American Wizard, Thomas Edison" by Michael Daly

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/sad-story-laika-space-dog-and-her-one-way-trip-orbit-1-180968728/

Music is courtesy of musopen.org

You can support the show on Patreon, where for $5 a month you will receive access to short monthly bonus episodes. You can follow us on twitter at SynodusPod and on Instagram at SynodusHorrendaPod

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