We Would Be Dead

A Wail on the Wind (The Death of Ellen Poe Langley)

In the early morning hours of May 1st 1849 Ellen Poe Langley drew her last breath. Once a wealthy doctor's wife, she passed away alone, locked in a tiny room in a stifling attic. For years Her husband Dr. Charles Langley had gotten away with keeping her locked away, desperately ill and slowly starving, and now it seemed, he would get away with murder. Or would he?  
This year's St. Paddy's day episode shows the importance of one's truth and the miraculous way Ellen's has survived all these years. Oh, and don't forget: if mess with women, you unleash a lifetime of the banshee's cry. Sláinte fiends!
Click To Learn More
Click to purchase The Doctor's Wife is Dead by Andrew Tierney
Irish Times Article: "Diagnosis: murder. How a Tipperary doctor disposed of his wife"
 
WWBD Merch
Buy your WWBD swag here! 
Join the Conversation
    
 

Leprechaun (30 Minute Horror Movie)

Ok fiends, it's almost St. Patrick's day so this month we're recapping the 1993 classic (and this one really is a classic) Leprechaun! This Episode is one that our patrons have had access to since 2021 and we are now very excited to make it available to everyone. We did record a new 30 Minute Horror Movie on Leprechaun 4: In Space and you can find it over on our Patreon! 
Back to this episode on the very first Leprechaun - The film features a very young Jennifer Anniston, the guy that played Francis in Pee Wee's Big Adventure, and Warwick Davis (the hardest working little person in show business) in a horrible mask. Leprechaun takes us on an insane journey that asks the question "what would happen if we made leprechauns awful?" quite a lot, as it turns out. This film was surprisingly funny, whether it meant to be so or not is up for interpretation. Either way, it's great, crazy, seasonal fun and we recommend you give it a watch after listening to us yell about it in a real hurry. Enjoy fiends! 
 
WWBD Merch
Buy your WWBD swag here! 
Join the Conversation
    
 
 

A Tragedy of Errors (The Murder of Abraham Shakespeare)

This is the story of Abraham Shakespeare, the man who won the lottery then disappeared. This case is a rags to riches story, a mysterious disappearance, an episode of Catfish and a murder mystery all rolled up into one. This case case has so many twists and turns that we cab't even summarize it, you just have to hear it to believe it.
Click To Learn More
Hulu Documentary: Web of Death, Jackpot Murder
ABC News article
Probable Cause Affidavit
 
Florida Woman Marries Ferris Wheel
Florida woman accused of attacking man with garden hoe after plans to 'hang out' fell through
Florida man breaks into woman's home to pet family cat
Florida man dressed in Dalmatian onesie outruns troopers, shakes off tasers before he’s caught at girlfriend’s home
Murder suspect confesses to decades-old Florida cold case after DNA leads to arrest, sheriff's office says
 
WWBD Merch
Buy your WWBD swag here! 
Join the Conversation
    
 

Ravenous (Swift Runner & The Wendigo) [REBROADCAST EPISODE 91]

Hey fiends! This week's rebroadcast goes out to all our Yellowjackets fans! If you're knee deep in fan theories but you're unfamiliar with the Wendigo, you need to give this episode a listen! If you have no idea what I'm talking about...listen anyway, this episode is one of our best! Be prepared to sleep with the lights on for a while though, because this is a scary one!
_________________________
"The Wendigo lives in the most frightening of places, a place from which there is no escape. Once the Wendigo awakens, it tears through this place with unimaginable patience and force, creating a path of nightmares, and consuming everything it sees. It is a place so close and familiar, yet so mysterious and difficult to explore that only a fraction of it is known to humankind. "
This week we explore North America's most famous folkloric monster, The Wendigo. We discuss it's human origins and the kind of world that created it. This episode is a deep dive into a monster with surprisingly real and deep roots, culminating in the true story of an horrific event. The wendigo is an extremely fascinating and blurry line between fantasy and reality and we're still not sure what to think of it. Perhaps the scariest thing about a Wendigo is that it is impossible to tell whether it is real, or just a figment of the imagination. Either way, this monster leaves a trail of destruction unlike any other cryptid. 
Click to learn more
 
WWBD Merch
Buy your WWBD swag here! 
Join the Conversation
    
 

One Sneaker (The Disappearance of Mark Himebaugh, Part 2)

It's our 200th episode (part 2) , so today we will be covering our number one most requested case, The Disappearance of Mark Himebaugh. On November 25th 1991, Mark disappeared from the Sunray Beach neighborhood in Del Haven NJ. The only evidence search teams ever found was his left sneaker. He has been missing ever since.
Anyone with Information regarding the disappearance of Mark Himebaugh is urged to contact the Middle Township Police Department at 609-465-8700, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678, the Cape May County Crime Stoppers at 609-463-2800 or the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office at 609-465-1135. You can also leave an anonymous tip by text 888777 and put “tips mtpdtips” in the text field.
"In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state."
In other words, one little thing can change everything.
 
 
Click To Learn More
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/convicted-sex-offender-person-of-interest-mark-himebaugh-thomas-butcavage-video-sex-abuse/60570/
https://people.com/people-magazine-investigates-where-is-mark-himebaugh-7563991
https://www.max.com/shows/people-magazine-investigates-2016/87d7ccf9-ab08-4d22-b216-4ea000fa2eb4
Many of sources used this week are located behind archival news outlet paywalls. We will happily share them upon request. 
 
WWBD Merch
Buy your WWBD swag here! 
Join the Conversation
    
 

One Sneaker (The Disappearance of Mark Himebaugh, Part 1)

It's our 200th episode, so today we will be covering our number one most requested case, The Disappearance of Mark Himebaugh. On November 25th 1991, Mark disappeared from the Sunray Beach neighborhood in Del Haven NJ. The only evidence search teams ever found was his left sneaker. He has been missing ever since.
"In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state."
In other words, one little thing can change everything.
 
Click To Learn More
https://london-overlooked.com/charles-bravo/
https://paulineconolly.com/2013/the-buscot-bride-sydney-born-florence-campbell/
https://www.sueyounghistories.com/2008-07-18-james-manby-gully-and-homeopathy/
https://www.britannica.com/technology/pharmaceutical
 
WWBD Merch
Buy your WWBD swag here! 
Join the Conversation
    
 

Antimatrimony (The Murder of Charles Bravo)

 Tighten up your corsets and starch those high collars because this week we’re going old timey! The mystery of who killed Charlie Bravo has captured the minds of both armchair and career detectives, as well as numerous true crime authors for over a century. This case has it all, money, accents, love affairs, victorian pseudoscience and a murder most foul. 
On April 18th, 1876 Charles Bravo leapt from his bed in the middle of the night and cried out to his wife for hot water. Within minutes he was unconscious on the floor. 6 different physicians visited a deathly ill Charles over the next two days before he mercifully passed away. All 6 doctors came to the same conclusion: Poison! So who killed Charles Bravo? Let's see if we can find out!
Click To Learn More
https://london-overlooked.com/charles-bravo/
https://paulineconolly.com/2013/the-buscot-bride-sydney-born-florence-campbell/
https://www.sueyounghistories.com/2008-07-18-james-manby-gully-and-homeopathy/
https://www.britannica.com/technology/pharmaceutical
 
WWBD Merch
Buy your WWBD swag here! 
Join the Conversation
    
 

The Man, The Myth, The Monster (Count Dracula) [REBROADCAST OF EPISODE 133]

This week we are rebroadcasting our episode on Count Dracula! The Nosferatu craze has gotten ahold of us too.  Enjoy!
----------- There is much about the myth of the vampire that science will never understand. They crawl from their graves, blood running from their mouths trailing mist in search of innocent victims to join them in monstrosity. They are alluring in their terror and terrifying in their allure, and human kind will never cease to wonder if they are simply a legend, or if there is much more.
This week we explore the origins of most famous and enduring vampire of all time: Count Dracula. If you're thinking this will be a whole episode on Vlad The Impaler, think again. There is so much more to the iconic count than one Transylvanian tyrant with a pointy nose. 
Click to learn more
 
 
WWBD Merch
Buy your WWBD swag here! 
Join the Conversation
    
 

Lost in Flames (The disappearance of the Sodder children)

On Christmas Eve 1945 in the quiet little town of Fayetteville West Virginia, Jennie Sodder awoke just after one in the morning to find her little farm house filled with smoke, flames licking the walls of her husband's office. She rushed to wake and alert her husband and 9 children. It was clear that they needed to escape quickly. Once out on the lawn Jennie saw her husband, two daughters and two son's, which left 5 children in the house, trapped, or so they thought. No trace of those five children has been found to this very day.
In the seventy nine years since five of the ten Sodder children disappeared during the fire that destroyed their home, no one can say for sure what happened to them and it has driven devoted true crime fans into the deepest rabbit holes.
 
Click To Learn More
Article 1
Article 2
Local West Virginia Coverage
Smithsonian Article
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
WWBD Merch
Buy your WWBD swag here! 
Join the Conversation
    
 

Haunted (A Christmas Carol) [REBROADCAST]

We promised we aren't becoming a rebroadcast podcast haha. We will be back soon with a brand new episode! Until then, enjoy our holiday spooky cheer with another best of Christmas WWBD episode!-----------There is no phrase one can utter that draws a more visceral christmas response, than Bah, Humbug. And so it is with great joy and depth of feeling that this holiday season we bring you an exploration into this the most famous and meaningful of ghost stories. It may be decked with Holly and frosted with snow, but at it’s heart a Christmas carol is a most glorious ghost story, and we hope all the things you learn today will haunt your house pleasantly forever more.
Click to learn more
Washington Post Tiny Tim article
 
WWBD Merch
WWBD MERCH STORE 
Join the Conversation