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PODCAST

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of historical crime

Welcome to News of the Times!Step into the shadowed alleyways and gaslit parlours of the 18th and 19th centuries with News of the Times — a meticulously curated journey through historical crime. Each episode draws from authentic reports and court records, bringing you the darkly fascinating tales that gripped Georgian, Victorian, and Edwardian Britain.With over 500 episodes and counting, we explore true accounts of mischief, murder, and mayhem from days gone by — all delivered with a wry nod and a

true crime

All Episodes

01:02:51

The St Mellons Mystery: The Murder of Susan Gibbs (1874)

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/02/13

Step back into Victorian Wales, where quiet lanes and morning mist concealed one of the era’s most disturbing disappearances. In 1874, Susan Gibbs — a hardworking Cardiff housekeeper — travelled to St Mellons to meet her young husband, James, a butler with ambition and secrets to protect. Three weeks later, her body was discovered beneath a tangle of briars, so hidden and decomposed that even the cause of death was uncertain.What followed was a landmark investigation built not on forensics, but on

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00:55:58

The Churchill Cottage Murder: Fire, Blood & a Fatal...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/02/11

In the winter of 1879, the quiet Somerset parish of Knowle St Giles was shaken by a death that seemed, at first glance, to be nothing more than a tragic household accident. Eighty-three-year-old Samuel Churchill was found burned beside his hearth, his wife insisting he had fallen into the fire during a fit.But the scene told a different story.There was blood on the walls.Defensive wounds on Samuel’s hand.A bill-hook hidden beneath a chair.And the very morning he died, Samuel had dressed in his best

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00:39:07

The Dunn Case: The Evidence That Exposed a Deadly Lie...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/02/09

In 1927 County Durham, a miner calmly declared that his wife had taken her own life.But from the moment police stepped inside the cramped kitchen of 2 Lumsden Buildings, nothing about his story made sense.A rope that didn’t fit.A noose too small to pass over the victim’s head.A bed he claimed to have slept in—yet had never been touched.And the quiet, devastating testimony of a child who heard far more than any child ever should.This episode unravels the forensic evidence, contradictions, and

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00:49:06

The Meader Case: The Death of Mabel Meader & the...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/02/06

The Meader Case (1922) is one of those rare British true-crime stories where everything feels uncertain: a troubled marriage, a blind ex-soldier, a fatal struggle behind a closed door — and a courtroom battle led by the legendary Sir Edward Marshall Hall.Was Mabel Meader the victim of murder?A tragic accident?Or did early 20th-century medical science misunderstand a death that hinged on a single, extraordinary detail?In this episode, we explore:• The Meaders’ strained post-war marriage• Alfred

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00:40:48

The One-Penny Wife: Starvation, Poison, and the Law...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/02/04

In 1829, English law allowed for a remarkable—and troubling—possibility: a person could be condemned for murder even when the victim survived.This week we explore the case later known as The One-Penny Wife, a story in which domestic hardship, early forensic science, and a deeply unusual legal statute entwined to produce one of the strangest verdicts of the late Georgian era.Mary Jardine lived on a starvation allowance of a single penny a day. When she collapsed after drinking her morning tea, her

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01:13:17

The Ashton Love Triangle Murders: A Victorian...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/02/02

A quiet Victorian street. Three sudden deaths. One woman at the centre of them all.In the spring of 1886, Turner Lane in Ashton-under-Lyne was the sort of place where neighbours knew everything — or believed they did. But when a daughter, a husband, and finally a well-liked young wife died in violent, agonising circumstances, the small community began to sense a pattern too troubling to ignore.Their suspicions would spark one of the most striking poisoning cases of the Victorian age.In this episode,

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01:05:42

The Car Murder That Stunned Britain: Alfred Rouse and...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/01/30

On a cold November night in 1930, a small saloon car was found blazing on a quiet Northamptonshire lane. Inside lay the charred body of a man, burned beyond recognition. But when police traced the registration number, the supposed victim walked into a London police station — very much alive.So began one of the most extraordinary investigations of the early 20th century.Tonight, we follow the case of Alfred Rouse, the travelling salesman with a tangled private life, mounting financial pressures, and

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01:04:39

The Murder That Changed British Executions: The...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/01/28

In March 1872, a quiet domestic tragedy in Boston, Lincolnshire became one of the most consequential moments in British criminal justice. When William Horry shot his estranged wife, Jane, the case was tragic enough — but what followed would transform the future of capital punishment in Britain.This episode explores how Horry’s crime became the first test of William Marwood’s new “long drop” method, a calculated attempt to make executions swift, scientific, and far less agonising than the old

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00:51:16

Britain’s First Private Execution: The Murder of the...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/01/26

A landmark case that reshaped Victorian justiceIn the spring of 1868, Britain crossed a threshold it could never uncross. For centuries, executions had been public events — spectacles that drew tens of thousands, shaped moral debates, and filled the columns of Victorian newspapers. But with the passing of the Capital Punishment Amendment Act, everything changed. For the first time, a condemned prisoner would die behind the closed gates of a prison, witnessed only by officials.The case that carried

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00:55:57

The Quaker Poisoner: Britain’s First Telegraph...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/01/23

In 1845, Britain witnessed a murder investigation unlike anything seen before.When Sarah Hart died suddenly in the quiet village of Salt Hill, suspicion fell upon a seemingly respectable Quaker gentleman, John Tawell. What followed became the first manhunt in history conducted through the electric telegraph, racing ahead of a fleeing suspect along the Great Western Railway line.In this episode, we explore the extraordinary case that blended poison, secrecy, telegraph wires, and Victorian morality,

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00:43:30

Calcraft’s First Execution of a Murderess (1829) -...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/01/21

London, 1829.A city of industry, elegance, poverty, and hidden brutality.In this episode, we uncover the shocking case of Frances Colpit, a ten-year-old parish apprentice sent to learn tambour embroidery — and instead drawn into a household where overwork, starvation, and violence were woven into everyday life. When the child’s suffering finally came to light, the courts uncovered a pattern of cruelty that stunned the nation.At the centre of the scandal stood Esther Hibner, whose trial at the Old

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00:55:35

The First Private Execution: The Poisoning of Richard...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/01/19

In 1868, a cramped labourer’s cottage in the village of Stickney, Lincolnshire became the centre of one of Victorian Britain’s most dramatic murder cases. When farm labourer Richard Biggadike suddenly fell violently ill after tea and shortcake prepared by his wife Priscilla, suspicion spread through the community with astonishing speed. What followed was a tangle of marital resentment, rumours of impropriety, forensic certainty — and a legal outcome that made national history.This episode explores

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01:04:11

The Parcel of Death: How a Handwriting Clue Solved a...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/01/16

The Parcel of Death: How a Handwriting Clue Solved a Victorian Murder (1873)Horfield, near Bristol, 1873 — a small parcel arrives at a cottage, addressed in a neat feminine hand. Inside: a polite note, a shilling’s worth of stamps, and three teething powders marked Steedman’s. Within minutes of taking one, a healthy ten-month-old child is dead.What followed became one of Victorian Britain’s most unsettling murder investigations: a case of postal deception, disputed toxicology, forged identities, and

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01:08:25

The Clerkenwell Explosion: The Outrage That Shocked...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/01/14

The Clerkenwell Explosion: The Outrage That Shocked Victorian Britain (1867)A quiet December afternoon in 1867 — and then a blast so powerful it shattered windows for half a mile, reduced homes to rubble, and sent shockwaves through Victorian London. What unfolded at Clerkenwell was far more than an attempted prison rescue. It became one of the most notorious tragedies of the era, triggering public panic, political fury, and the final public execution in British history.In today’s episode, we

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00:55:15

The Doctor, The Brothers, And the First Great Failure...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/01/12

The Doctor, The Brothers, And the First Great Failure of Forensic ScienceNews of the Times | Episode 603| 1823 Paris, 1823: Two wealthy brothers die months apart. A respected young doctor attends both deaths. Symptoms point to poison — but toxicology finds nothing at all.In today’s episode, we uncover one of the most unsettling cases in early forensic history — the story of Dr Edmé Castaing and the Ballet brothers, a case that forced Europe to confront a chilling truth:👉 Science, in 1823, was

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01:03:17

The Office Murder That Shocked Edwardian Britain —...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/01/09

The Office Murder That Shocked Edwardian Britain — And the Detective Who Died Investigating It | True Crime 1911News of the Times | Episode 602 | 1911On a quiet September afternoon in 1911, a respected Hastings building society manager sat down to continue his paperwork. Minutes later, gunshots echoed through the office — and one of the town’s most trusted citizens lay dying on the floor. What followed was one of the most baffling cases in Edwardian true crime history: a double tragedy involving

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00:44:12

The Last Aristocrat Hanged: The Shocking Case of Earl...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/01/07

What happens when privilege, violence, and the full weight of Georgian justice collide?In today’s episode, we uncover one of the most extraordinary moments in British criminal history: the 1760 execution of Laurence, Earl Ferrers — the last aristocrat ever hanged at TyburnThis astonishing case has everything that captivates lovers of historical true crime:• a nobleman whose violent temper shook his household,• a murder that shocked Georgian society,• a sensational trial before the House of Lords,

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00:49:15

Catherine Wilson: Britain’s Female Borgia — The Last...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/01/05

Catherine Wilson: Britain’s Female Borgia — The Last Woman Publicly Hanged in LondonNews of the Times | Episode 600 | 1862A quiet lodger. A trail of unexplained deaths. And the last woman ever publicly hanged in London.In this episode, we investigate Catherine Wilson — the Victorian poisoner newspapers called “Britain’s Female Borgia.” Her story begins with a near-fatal “soothing draught” in a Kennington sickroom and unfolds into one of the most disturbing murder investigations of the 19th

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00:57:07

The Wheelbarrow Murder: The Case That Led to...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2026/01/02

The Wheelbarrow Murder: The Case That Led to Hereford’s Last Execution (1903)News of the Times | Episode 599 | 1903#HistoricalTrueCrime #VictorianCrime #EdwardianHistory #TrueCrimeUK #NewsOfTheTimesTonight’s episode opens our Firsts and Lasts of January series with a case that shook rural Herefordshire — and ended with the final execution ever carried out at Hereford Gaol.In July 1903, a quiet quarry near Aymestrey became the scene of one of the most unsettling crimes in Edwardian England. A

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00:53:49

The Arsenic Exhumation: How Mary Bailey’s Body...

News of the Times - Unlocking the vaults of... ·

2025/12/31

The Arsenic Exhumation: How Mary Bailey’s Body Exposed a Killer | True Crime 1863News of the Times | Episode 598 1863In 1863, a quiet Stockport household became the centre of one of Victorian Britain’s most chilling poisoning investigations.When Mary Bailey died after days of violent sickness, her daughter insisted it was illness… but a newly taken life-insurance policy, two purchases of arsenic, and growing neighbourhood whispers told a very different story.What followed was extraordinary:a rare

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