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PODCAST

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast

Shane L. Waters, Wendy Cee, Gemma Hoskins

Foggy gaslit streets. A quiet courtroom. And crimes that history tried to bury.Foul Play is a historical true crime podcast that investigates the most chilling murder cases from the 1800s and early 1900s across the United States and the United Kingdom. Hosted by investigative crime journalists Shane Waters — who pioneered crime podcasting in 2008 — and Wendy Cee, each season unravels one complete criminal case through original research, court records, and primary source material.This isn't

true crime

All Episodes

22:10

Staffordshire: The Rugeley Poisoner's First Victim

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2026/02/10

In the fog-laden lanes of Victorian Staffordshire, William Palmer found his first victim, igniting a path of sinister intent that would crown him the notorious Rugeley Poisoner. Season 38 of Foul Play delves deep into the life and crimes of William Palmer, unraveling the chilling narrative from his humble beginnings to the peak of his criminal exploits. Long before William Palmer was branded a murderer, he was a doctor known for his charisma and skill in horse racing circles. He was a family man in

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20:58

Devizes: Constance Kent's Confession and Second Life

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2026/02/03

This is the fourth and final episode of our series examining the 1860 Road Hill House murder, the case that gave birth to modern detective fiction. Previous episodes covered the murder of three-year-old Francis Saville Kent, Detective Inspector Jonathan Whicher's groundbreaking investigation, and the five years of cold case torment that preceded Constance Kent's confession.The gallery was packed to suffocation. July 21, 1865. Five years they'd waited for this moment. Five years since

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24:30

Brighton: Constance Kent's Five Years of Silence

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2026/01/27

Road Hill House was no longer home. It was a crime scene that everyone recognised and no one could forget. The servants whispered in corners. New staff refused positions. And somewhere across England, a teenage girl carried a secret that would rattle the nation.Three-year-old Francis Saville Kent had been dead for five years, but his presence haunted everyone connected to Road Hill House. His wicker cot had been moved to the attic. His toys—the wooden rocking horse, the tin soldiers, the stuffed

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47:46

Wiltshire: Detective Whicher and the Road Hill House...

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2026/01/20

This is Episode 2 of 4 in Foul Play's Road Hill House Murder series, covering Victorian England's most notorious family crime. Episode 1 established the Kent family's toxic dynamics and the discovery of three-year-old Francis Saville Kent's body. This episode follows Detective Inspector Jonathan Whicher's revolutionary investigation and his tragic downfall at the hands of Victorian class prejudice.On July 16, 1860, a train departed Paddington Station carrying a middle-aged man

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35:37

Wiltshire: The Road Hill House Murder of 1860

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2026/01/13

Season 37, Episode 1 of 4This is the first episode in Foul Play's four-part investigation into Victorian England's most notorious family murder and the case that birthed modern detective fiction.Elizabeth Gough checked Francis Saville Kent's cot at five in the morning on June 30, 1860. The blankets were gone. The three-year-old was gone. And somewhere in Road Hill House, someone who knew exactly what had happened was waiting for the search to begin—On the last night of June 1860,

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24:54

Silesia: The Forgotten Cannibal of Münsterberg

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2026/01/09

This episode is part of Season 36: Serial Killers in History—a single-episode deep dive into one of the most disturbing and least-known serial killers of the Weimar era.December 1924. A homeless stonemason narrowly escapes death in a small Silesian town. What police discover in the aftermath reveals twenty-one years of murder hidden behind the most respectable facade imaginable—a church organ blower who sold his victims as pork at public markets. The story of Karl Denke forces us to confront how

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23:18

Hungary: Béla Kiss and the Lonely Hearts Murders

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2025/12/30

Episode 14 of 15 | Season 36: Serial Killers in HistoryIn a locked storage chamber in rural Hungary, seven sealed metal drums waited to reveal their terrible secrets—each containing the perfectly preserved body of a woman who had answered a marriage advertisement.The investigation into Hungary's most prolific lonely hearts killer reaches its chilling conclusion as we trace Béla Kiss's extraordinary escape from justice during the chaos of World War One.VICTIM PROFILE:Katherine Varga sold her

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26:23

Marrakesh: The Shoemaker Who Buried 36 Women

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2025/12/23

Season 36, Episode 13 of our Serial Killers in History series. This episode examines one of North Africa's most notorious crimes and the execution that shocked the world.In the spring of 1906, authorities in Marrakesh make a discovery that will reverberate across continents. Beneath the packed-earth floor of a modest shoemaker's workshop, they uncover the remains of twenty-six women. Ten more bodies lie buried in a garden nearby. Thirty-six victims in total—women who came to a trusted

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32:32

Netherlands: The Angel of Death's 27 Victims

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2025/12/16

In the fog-shrouded streets of 1880s Leiden, a woman everyone called "Good Mary" brought food to the sick, consoled the grieving, and prepared the dead for burial. For three years, she was the angel of her neighborhood—the trusted caregiver who helped when no one else would. No one suspected that the porridge she served was laced with arsenic. No one questioned why so many of her patients died. Until a doctor noticed somethingMaria Swanenburg's victims included 27 confirmed deaths among

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44:13

El Chalequero - Francisco Guerrero Pérez

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2025/12/10

The shepherd saw everything—watched as El Chalequero dragged an elderly woman toward the Consulado River, pulled a knife from hisEpisode 11 of 15 | Season 36: Serial Killers in HistoryMexico City's first documented serial killer hunted working-class women for nearly three decades. This episode examines the systemic failures that allowed Francisco Guerrero Pérez to operate freely while authorities looked the other way.The Women History ForgotMurcia Gallardo was 47 years old when she died—a market

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31:19

Finland: Matti Haapoja and the Great Famine Murders

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2025/12/02

Episode 10 of 15 | Series 36: Serial Killers in HistoryFinland's first documented serial killer terrorized two continents across three decades. This episode traces Matti Haapoja's brutal journey from famine-ravaged Finland to Siberian exile and back—a life defined by escape, violence, and ultimately, one final act of defiance.Victim HumanizationHeikki Impponen was forty-two years old when he walked along that frozen road in December 1867. A farmer with a wife named Kaisa and three children

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30:30

Geneva: The Nurse Who Poisoned Her Patients

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2025/11/18

On a warm June afternoon in 1868, a 24-year-old woman accepted a glass of lemonade from her nurse at a Geneva boarding house. Within moments, her pupils dilated grotesquely, her heart pounded violently, and reality dissolved into nightmare. That glass of lemonade broke open one of Switzerland's most disturbing criminal cases.SEASON & EPISODE CONTEXTThis is Episode 9 of Foul Play Season 36: "Serial Killers in History," examining murderers from ancient times through the early 1900s

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35:28

Philippines: The Priest Who Murdered 57 Parishioners

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2025/11/11

In 1826, fellow priests caring for an ailing Father Juan Severino Mallari made a horrifying discovery in his residence: bloodstained clothing belonging to dozens of missing parishioners. Over the next ten years, investigators would uncover fifty-seven murders committed by the parish priest of Magalang, Pampanga—a man who believed killing his congregants would break a curse afflicting his mother. Father Mallari's victims trusted him completely. They came to him for confession, for blessings, for

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36:35

Australia: The Berrima Axe Murderer of 1842

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2025/11/04

In February 1842, a dingo unearthed a shallow grave near Ironstone Bridge, revealing the decomposing body of an Irish immiKearns Landregan was twenty-seven years old when he died on a dusty colonial road seven miles from Berrima. An Irish immigrant who'd traveled halfway around the world seeking opportunity in Australia, Landregan worked as a carrier—hard labor that required strength, reliability, and trust. On February 19th, 1842, he was driving his cart to market when he accepted what seemed

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13:56

India's Most Prolific Killer: Thug Behram's 931...

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2025/10/30

In 1790s colonial India, a secret brotherhood known as the Thuggee cult perfected the art of ritual murder. At its center stood Thug Behram—history's most prolific serial killer with 931 confirmed victims over a 40-year career.From the roads of Madhya Pradesh, Behram built a shadow empire of organized killers who used deception, patience, and sacred devotion to the goddess Kali to strangle travelers with silk handkerchiefs. His victims never saw death coming—they were murdered by the companions

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142:50

A Nightmare Before Halloween, Part 1

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2025/10/24

This is a re-release of a special Holiday collaboration episode I put together a few years ago. I have gotten a lot of requests to hear it again and thought now would be a great time to share it.…1 campfire……1 dark forest……31 bone-chilling stories……Will YOU survive the night?This Halloween season, enter the woods for a unique and truly epic podcast experience! Around the campfire Shane Waters will introduce 31 crime podcast hosts. Each host brings a new, nerve-wracking true story to the circle. It’s

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139:29

A Nightmare Before Halloween, Part 2

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2025/10/24

…1 campfire……1 dark forest……31 bone-chilling stories……Will YOU survive the night?This Halloween season, enter the woods for a unique and truly epic podcast experience! Around the campfire Shane Waters will introduce 31 crime podcast hosts. Each host brings a new, nerve-wracking true story to the circle. It’s an extra special, two part, five-hour, Halloween event, but before hitting play you might want to ask yourself…can you really handle this much murder and mayhem?So, pull up to the fire and brace

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18:36

Ghosts of the Past: Amy Bruni on True Crime Hauntings

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2025/09/24

This week we step into the shadows with a very special bonus episode. Shane sits down with paranormal investigator, author, and TV star Amy Bruni (Ghost Hunters, Kindred Spirits, Haunted Road).Amy shares chilling stories of hauntings rooted in real tragedies—from childhood encounters with “Mr. Green Jeans” to cases where skepticism gave way to the unexplained. Together, Shane and Amy explore the intersection of crime, history, and the paranormal—and why treating the dead with dignity is as important

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37:28

S36 Ep4: Serial Killers in History – The Foundling...

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2025/07/17

Quick Synopsis (appears in most podcast apps)In 1772 Portugal, an 18-year-old caregiver named Luísa de Jesus turned the era’s child-welfare “foundling wheel” into a murderous money scheme. Before authorities intervened, at least 33 abandoned infants lay buried on Monte Arroio or hidden beneath her cottage floorboards. We expose the systemic cracks, the killer’s psychology, and the reforms her crimes set in motion. Episode Breakdown00:00 Opening scene on Monte Arroio04:15 How foundling wheels

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21:41

S36 Ep3: Serial Killers in History – The Mad Master...

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast ·

2025/06/26

In the 18th century paradise of Jamaica, Lewis Hutchinson, an immigrant from Scotland, became the island's first documented serial killer.Known as the Mad Master of Edinburgh Castle, Hutchinson's strategic property in Saint Ann Parish became a deathtrap for wealthy travellers. He would invite them into his home or shoot them from his gunports, dispose of their bodies in underground chambers, and proudly display their possessions.His reign of terror ultimately resulted in a manhunt, arrest,

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