The Paris Morgue's Dark Story

The Paris Morgue's Dark Story

Citizens of Paris in the 19th century could stroll down to the Morgue to try to identify the unknown dead or to gawp at celebrity murder victims. Though its most famous resident of all was perhaps not dead at all...


Our guest today is the marvellous Cat Byers, who is a writer, photographer and historian based in Paris. She’s currently finishing a PhD on the nineteenth-century morgues of Paris and New York. Get ready for a story full of poignant humour, Donald Trump, and party hats.


Edited and produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.


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Episoder(262)

The Man Who Hanged Nazis: Albert Pierrepoint

The Man Who Hanged Nazis: Albert Pierrepoint

For Albert Pierrepoint, execution was a family affair. His father and uncle were hangmen and from the 1940s until the late 1950s Albert was Britain's "Number One" executioner. Which meant he was the o...

12 Nov 202337min

Ghost Fetishes: From Ancient World to Victorians

Ghost Fetishes: From Ancient World to Victorians

What is spectrophilia? Well, it's a fetish for ghosts (as well as mirrors), so being turned on by anything lurking in the non-physical realm. What are the historic origins of this fetish and phenomeno...

9 Nov 202325min

Origins of the Loch Ness Monster

Origins of the Loch Ness Monster

What lurks beneath the dark waters of Loch Ness? The legendary monster? A piece of Celtic folklore? A warning of the Nazis' rise to power? A fraudster?Today Anthony and Maddy are examining grainy phot...

6 Nov 202341min

Guy Fawkes & the 1605 Gunpowder Plot

Guy Fawkes & the 1605 Gunpowder Plot

Other countries celebrate their victories and independence. But in Britain, we celebrate a bungling terrorist from the 17th century. Why? Who was Guy Fawkes? What was the Gunpowder Plot? And why must ...

1 Nov 202349min

Hammersmith Ghost: How to Murder a Poltergeist

Hammersmith Ghost: How to Murder a Poltergeist

Can it be murder if you think you're killing a ghost? In 1804 the London suburb of Hammersmith was being terrorised by a ghost. One man set out to hunt down whoever, or whatever, this was. He almost s...

29 Okt 202331min

Hauntings, Hangings & a Beast: Bodmin Jail

Hauntings, Hangings & a Beast: Bodmin Jail

Bodmin Jail can claim to be one of the most haunted buildings in Britain. Perhaps that's because of all the hangings that took place here. Or the postmortem punishment the jail dolled out to prisoners...

26 Okt 202342min

Last Witch of Scotland

Last Witch of Scotland

In 1727, Janet Horne of the Highland community of Dornoch became the last person in Britain to be tried and executed for witchcraft.As the poet Edwin Morgan put it; They tarred her and feathered her, ...

23 Okt 202329min

Banshees: Ireland's Harbinger of Death

Banshees: Ireland's Harbinger of Death

Today Siobhán McSweeney (Derry Girls) joins Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling for the story of the Banshee. In Irish folklore the Banshee heralds the death of a family member, usually by shrieking, or...

19 Okt 202341min

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