Criminalia

Train robberies are often thought of as a 19th century problem, like when Jesse James and his gang of outlaws famously pulled off the world's first robbery of a moving train, on July 21, 1873, in Iowa...

13 Aug 202425min

One of Truman Capote's most famously told anecdotes about his childhood involves his running away with his neighbor, Martha Seabrook, when he was about 10 years old and she, roughly 15. They made a br...

6 Aug 202435min

Welcome to a brand new season of Criminalia, where we'll be talking about criminal duos. Partners in crime. Now, your partner in crime could be platonic; others may be romantic. They're someone who ha...

30 Juli 20243min

Welcome to the final episode of our season exploring worthless and often dangerous remedies that were promoted as good for whatever may ail you – and, by extension, the patent medicine salesmen, a bun...

30 Juli 202441min

In the Victorian era, the menstrual cycle was considered a disease. A Victorian era woman going through menopause was considered to be emotionally unstable, and a physician would likely have prescribe...

23 Juli 202430min

Known as tonics, cocaine wines were a hit when introduced in the late 1800s -- Angelo Mariani, a wealthy chemist from the island of Corsica, formulated his popular version, Vin Mariani -- in 1863. Coc...

16 Juli 202427min

In the mid-1890s, Harry Kramer’s Sterling Remedy Co. introduced a product called, Cascarets Candy Cathartic. Cascarets were just laxatives, but the product blew away the competition. And a lot of that...

9 Juli 202428min

Talking about the United Society of True Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing – a religious group commonly known as Shakers -- doesn't mean this is an episode about religion. They were disciplined a...

2 Juli 202431min