The Morbid History Podcast

Every October, the air grows colder, the nights stretch longer, and the boundary between the living and the dead begins to fade.
 
In this Halloween special, we'll trace the haunting origins of the holiday. From the fires of ancient Samhain and the prayers of All Hallows’ Eve, to poisoned candy panics, witch trials, and the worldwide traditions that still honor the dead today.
 
It’s a story of masks and memory, fear and fire, life and death... and the one night a year when both worlds meet.
 
Because Halloween isn’t about celebrating death.
It’s about remembering it.
 
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR
www.MorbidHistoryPod.com

In 1857, over 120 emigrants were slaughtered in the Utah desert under a white flag of peace. The killers? Mormon militia. The blame? Pinned on Native tribes.
 
In this episode, we uncover the dark and deliberate horror of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. It was an ambush cloaked in religious fear and racial scapegoating.
We explore how a brutal execution of men, women, and children was carefully staged to look like a Native attack… and how the truth was buried for decades under silence, scripture, and lies.
 
It wasn’t just a massacre of people.
It was a massacre of truth.
 
🎧 Take a bite of this Morbid Morsel.www.MorbidHistoryPod.com
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR

Samurai dramas paint feudal Japan in gleaming armor and noble duels.
But the truth was far darker.
 
In this episode, we descend into the Sengoku era, which was a century of civil war, betrayal, and blood. From Oda Nobunaga, the self-styled “Demon King of the Sixth Heaven” who burned monks alive on a mountain, to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the peasant who rose to power only to fall to ambition, to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the patient schemer who built an empire on the ashes of his rivals.
 
Along the way, we'll uncover massacres, betrayals, ninja shadows, and curses that linger to this day.
 
This is the true story of how Japan was unified... through fire, treachery, and rivers of blood.
 
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR
www.MorbidHistoryPod.com

In 1955, Ruth Ellis shot her lover in broad daylight. Three months later, she became the last woman in Britain to be executed.
 
But behind the headlines was a woman already broken.
 
In this episode, we uncover the tragic life of Ruth Ellis (a nightclub hostess turned convicted murderer) whose story was shaped as much by violence and betrayal as by the bullet she fired.
From glamour to scandal, from abuse to execution, Ruth wasn’t just a criminal. She was a victim of love, class, and a justice system with no room for mercy.
 
This isn’t just about a murder.
It’s about how a country turned its back…
and a woman paid the ultimate price.
 
🎧 Take a bite of this Morbid Morsel.www.MorbidHistoryPod.com
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR

Some crimes end in a trial.
Others end in silence.
 
In this episode, we descend into the eerie world of the unexplained. A place where locked rooms hide secrets, bodies are found with coded notes, and the truth remains just out of reach.
 
From the brutal and baffling death of Artemus Ogletree in a Kansas City hotel… to two Brazilian men found on a hillside wearing lead masks and waiting for a signal that never came. These are stories that refuse to be solved.
 
Because sometimes, what haunts us most… isn’t what we don’t know.
It’s that someone, somewhere, might.
 
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR
www.MorbidHistoryPod.com

She was everywhere. But no one knew her name.
 
Audrey Munson was the most visible woman in America. She was immortalized in bronze, marble, and stone. Her face still crowns city halls, fountains, and public parks across the country.
 
But behind the statues was a woman who fell from fame into scandal… and then into silence.
 
In this episode, we trace the haunting rise and ruin of America’s first supermodel. From museum galleries and silent films to a psychiatric hospital where she lived in obscurity for over six decades.
 
This isn’t just a story about forgotten fame.
It’s about what we do to the women we turn into symbols.
 
And what’s left when the sculptor walks away.
 
🎧 Take a bite of this Morbid Morsel.www.MorbidHistoryPod.com
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR

Faith can inspire. Faith can heal.
But blind faith can kill.
 
In this chilling episode, Thomas Gloom descends into the world of religious cults. A place where devotion turns deadly and salvation comes with a price.
 
Whether it's the eerie calm of Heaven’s Gate, the poisoned jungle of Jonestown, or the ritual fires of the Order of the Solar Temple, this episode explores the dark places where belief becomes a weapon.
 
Some promises lead to paradise.
These led to mass graves.
 
www.MorbidHistoryPod.com
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR
www.MorbidHistoryPod.com

They came cloaked in black.
Beaked. Faceless. Feared.
But behind the mask was something even stranger: an attempt at science.
 
Join me, as we examine the eerie history of the plague doctor costume—where it came from, why it looked the way it did, and how it became a walking symbol of death.
 
From waxed leather robes to beaks stuffed with flowers, this strange uniform was meant to protect... but ended up haunting the centuries.
 
And long after the plague passed, the mask remained... lingering in art, horror, and pop culture.
 
Because death may not wear a face… but sometimes, it wears a beak.
 
🎧 Take a bite of this Morbid Morsel.www.MorbidHistoryPod.com
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR

Some disasters are natural. Others are man-made. And then there are the ones we build ourselves—one arrogant decision at a time.
 
In this episode, we plunge into the catastrophic consequences of human hubris—disasters not born of nature, but of negligence.
 
We begin with the Johnstown Flood of 1889, where America’s wealthiest men turned a failing dam into a private playground—until it burst and killed over 2,200 people. Then, we travel to California’s St. Francis Dam, where one engineer’s overconfidence drowned entire towns overnight. Along the way, we uncover other tragedies: beer floods, collapsing dams, and the lives lost when ambition outweighs caution.
 
These weren’t accidents.
They were warnings—ignored.
And dreams—drowned.
 
www.MorbidHistory.com

A desert paradise. A shimmering sea. A dream built on a mistake.
 
Bombay Beach once lured Hollywood stars and hopeful tourists to its sunny shores. Water-skiing. Fishing. Cocktails beneath the palms. But beneath the glittering surface, the Salton Sea was dying.
 
As the water turned toxic, the fish began to rot. The birds followed. The dream decayed.
 
Today? The Riviera of the West is a graveyard of rusted trailers, junkyard art, and the stench of death that never left.
 
This is no vacation story. It’s the haunting collapse of a man-made mirage.
 
🎧 Take a bite of this Morbid Morsel.www.MorbidHistoryPod.com
Original music in this episode is provided by the talented:SHDWLRKR