History Hit Guide to Spooky Season

Join Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney on the dark streets of Edinburgh as they investigate the infamous nineteenth century case of Burke and Hare: Scotland’s most notorious serial killers.

William Burke and William Hare murdered for money, killing in cold blood at least 16 times, so that they could sell the bodies of their victims to the anatomist table.

Anthony follows the story of their horrific crimes right up to Edinburgh’s high society, to the medical establishment so bent on scientific progress it fuelled a clandestine trade in bodies.

Maddy examines the evidence we have about the victims’ lives, the poor and itinerant people who made their livings in Edinburgh’s crowded Old Town. Those unlucky people who tragically crossed Burke and Hare’s murderous path were targeted because of their isolation… but there was always more to their stories…

The murders could only go on for so long… and Burke and Hare’s downfall, trial and the public execution of Burke caused a media storm. The killings made headlines and haunted the public in Edinburgh and across the world.

Anthony and Maddy consider the unanswered questions of the case: how much did flamboyant Doctor Knox, who bought the bodies, know about where they had come from, how complicit were the men’s partners in their crimes… and what happened to William Hare.

If you’d like to hear more from Anthony and Maddy, check out their podcast for History Hit: ‘After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal’. https://podfollow.com/1705694900/view

Get ready for carriages pulled by headless horses, spooky palaces, a weird floating cylinder thing…and a single moment in history that has haunted England, and now Britain’s, imagination for hundreds of years.

In this episode of After Dark, Anthony and Maddy talk the ghost of Anne Boleyn, Queen of England before Henry VIII chopped off her head, with the marvellous Tracy Borman.

Tracy’s new book “Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Changed History” is out now.

Ghosts, ghouls and things that go bump in the night! Dr Eleanor Janega delves into the medieval phantasmic to find out what their restless dead can tell us about the worries of the living. Because if we want to understand what makes another society tick, it helps to take a look at what makes them scared.

In this show, Eleanor visits the ruins of Byland Abbey to explore some of the most terrifying stories to survive the medieval period. The 12 ghostly tales written by a monk on the blank back pages of a religious manuscript, share traits with our own modern ghost stories but we learn that medieval perceptions of ghosts may be very different to our own.

Then at one of the most important religious sites in medieval England, Canterbury Cathedral, Eleanor investigates how the church uses ghost stories for political gain and reinforcing religious values. Archivist Cressida Williams shows us some of the memento mori tropes implemented by the church, like Cadaver tombs and the ‘Three Living and Three Dead’ Illustrations, which acted as warnings against sin and reminders of the death that awaits us all.

Eleanor comes face to face with the dead at the University of Bradford, which houses one of the UK’s largest collection of human skeletal remains, Dr Jo Buckberry, explains why adhering to proper burial practices were crucial for making it into the afterlife and describes some of the gruesome ways they prevented the revenant dead from rising from the grave to haunt their communities.

And to complete her journey, Eleanor braves Chillingham Castle, once used as a border stronghold staving off invasion from Scotland, it’s now home to a gathering of ghosts. First recorded over a hundred years ago by Lady Leonora Tankerville in the “golden age of horror” we discover the Victorian and Edwardian obsession with the supernatural… something that haunts us still….

In 2013, a survey around the UK identified 199 different assemblages of hulks, remains of craft. These included paddle ships, ferries, steamboats, sail ships, submarines and fishing boats.

All around the UK, in rivers and streams, and in the mud on the side of riverbeds are the remains of our maritime past, which helps us understand who were are today.

In this stunning documentary, historian and archaeologist Dr Sam Willis travels along the River Dart, from Totnes to Dartmouth, to explore the wreckage of ships of our maritime past.

Medievalist Eleanor Janega takes a deep historical dive into the 7 Deadly Sins. When did they begin, what’s the worst sin, and should we be so anxious about our vices? And who decided what was evil anyway? Joined by Dr Rachel Stone, an expert in mediaeval morality, and Dr Joost Joustra, curator of Sin and Art at the National Gallery, they delve into the circles of Hell to find those answers.

So don’t sit there green with envy, join our sinfully insightful panel of experts!

Mike Loades goes behind the mask to uncover the brutal truth about the myth of the highwayman. Unlike many other criminals, they’ve been glamorised and idolised, their names enduring as legends. They are considered by many as dashing romantic heroes, courageous adventurers and champions of the underdog in an unjust society.

The reality was very different. Between the end of the English Civil Wars and the first decades of the 19th century, there was an epidemic of highway robbery in Britain. It was a crime wave that lasted over 100 years.

To carry out his investigation, Mike gets his hands on the tools of the Highwayman’s trade, the horse and the pistol, and explores the huge part popular fiction has played in glorifying these so-called “gentlemen of the road”.

And finally, Mike discovers how society finally got the scourge of highway robbery under control.

Sit back and enjoy an exciting canter through the fascinating real story of highwaymen!

Ever been Mummy-curious? Egyptologist Chris Naunton joins us to demonstrate the ancient Egyptian art of mummification.

In 1888 and 1889, a vicious serial killer haunted the streets of London. Five women were brutally murdered in Whitechapel, and all except one of the five victims – Elizabeth Stride – were horribly mutilated. And those are only the murders officially linked to the killer; it’s likely he took the lives of many more. To this day the identity of the murderer is unknown, but he has a name – Jack The Ripper. One theory is that he was the convicted killer William Bury. Unlike most of the suspects, Bury was hanged for murder after brutally killing and disfiguring his wife. The similarities between the brutalities inflicted on Mrs Bury and those suffered by the Ripper victims are remarkable. And when Bury handed himself in to police in Dundee, claiming that his wife had committed suicide, he said he was worried that people might think he was Jack the Ripper. Today we restage the trial with new witnesses and new evidence. In the very same courtroom that Bury was tried in, we sit as the jury on the case with modern technology and forensic experts. HistoryHit.TV have teamed up with the forensic science unit at the University of Dundee, and legal teams from the University of Dundee and the University of Aberdeen to see if we can, at long last, find the truth. Did William Bury, hanged for the murder, kill his wife? And was he Jack the Ripper?