We Would Be Dead

Six Loops and Hellfire (The Legend of Darkey Kelly)

"Today Copper Alley will mourn its best mistress, and wives the town over will breathe a small sigh. Today is a sad day for vandals and misfits, today Darkey Kelly is going to die"
Happy St Patrick's Day Fiends! This year we bring you the dark and stormy Legend of Darkey Kelly, A brother owner and murderess who was hanged and burned at the stake (that's right, hanged AND burned at the stake) for sacrificing her baby in a deal with the devil. 
Dorcas AKA "Darkey" Kelly's story takes us into the brothels of eighteenth century Dublin, down the poverty stricken gutters known as "Hell" behind Copper Alley, through the rich hunting dens of the mysterious Hellfire Society, deep into the woods near St. Stephens Green and along the narrow cobblestone road to the Gallows where a crowd has gathered to watch the most notorious execution of it's time. Pour yourself a Guinness Slammer and leave some treats our for the fairies, because we have a wild one for you this year!
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This two part podcast special is THE top source for information on Darkey Kelly, these guys went into every newspaper and historical record available in Dublin to find the true story that had been wrapped in years and years of legends. They really did the damn thing.
No smoke Without Hellfire Podcast
 
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Harsh Mistress (Delphine LaLaurie)

On April 10th 1834 a fire broke out at 1140 Royal Street in the city of New Orleans. The estates mistress, local socialite Delphine Lalaurie was attempting to retrieve her most valuable possession in a hysterical daze. Meanwhile, a crowd had formed to behold the spectacle, and sensing nothing had been done to stop it, they sprang into action. Soon the police and fire department arrived, and what they discovered in that house would go down as one of the most gruesome scenes in US history. The actions carried out by Madame Delphine therein haunt the land underneath her historic manse to this very day. This week we explore cruelty, entitlement, the history of the enslaved people of Louisiana, and just for good measure, the youngest doctor ever. 
 
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Jazz It Up (The Axeman of New Orleans)

This week Leslie tells us the tale of the Axeman of New Orleans, who was possibly an American serial killer active in New Orleans, Louisiana, and surrounding communities, including Gretna, from May 1918 to October 1919. However, similar murders occurred as early as 1911 that may hold some connection. He mainly targeted Italian immigrants and Italian-Americans. The Axeman was never identified, and the murders remain unsolved. But one thing is for certain, the Axeman was fond of Jazz Music. 
 
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The Axeman of New Orleans: The True Story by Miriam C. Davis
 
Axman Jazz (Don't Scare Me Papa)
 
 
 
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Based on a Fictional Story (Goosebumps Inspired True Tales)

Time for some fun fiends! This week we telling you true tales that we were inspired to find by Goosebumps novels! These are not the stories RL Stein based his work on but they are similar and the exercise took us on quite the wild ride. Leslie takes on "Piano Lessons Can Be Murder" with the mysterious and multilayered case of the murder of Darlene Sitler. Holly was inspired by "Say Cheese and Die" to share with us a true ghost story from the Myrtles Plantation in St. Francis Louisiana. Holly can never choose just one story so she was also inspired but "Night of the Living Dummy" to tell us about a famously haunted ventriloquist's dummy named Mr. Fritz.  And, it wouldn't be an episode about WWBD without s few little extras along the way, so look for a fun little bio on RL Stein, A random exploration of the Whiskey rebellion and a game! Cheers to nostalgia!
 
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Click here to purchase Night of the Living Dummy
 
Click here to purchase Say Cheese and Die
 
Click here to purchase Piano Lessons Can Be Murder
 
 
 
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Less Than 1,000 Days (The Life and Death of Kurt Cobain, Part 2)

It's our 100th episode and you picked this absolute beast of a topic! Kurt Cobain, the iconic and ephemeral alternative rock deity meant and continues to mean a great deal to a great many people. As the front man of ground breaking nineties  band Nirvana, Kurt changed the landscape of music. We have done our best to tell the emotionally complicated story of his misunderstood childhood, meteoric rise to fame and tragic death. Someone killed Kurt, whether that person existed within his own head or outside of it is what the grieving multitudes want to know. We think the only way to make a fair assessment is to know as much about the man himself as humanly possible. 
This week we look at Fame, Family and Kurt's final days, AND you'll get an in depth look at some of Nirvana's music, the grunge era, and why not all journalism can be trusted. We hope we've honored Kurt's memory with truth and candor, and that you, our dear fiends will listen to a little Nirvana and meditate on everything we learned on this long and winding journey. 
"What else could I write? I don't have the rightWhat else should I be?All apologies"
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*Affialated Links
*Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain
 
*Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana
 
*Journals
 
My Time With Kurt Cobain, Article in the New Yorker by Michael Azerrad
 
 
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Peace Love, Empathology (The Life and Death of Kurt Cobain, Part 1)

It's our 100th episode and you picked this absolute beast of a topic! Kurt Cobain, the iconic and ephemeral alternative rock deity meant and continues to mean a great deal to a great many people. As the front man of ground breaking nineties  band Nirvana, Kurt changed the landscape of music. We have done our best to tell the emotionally complicated story of his misunderstood childhood, meteoric rise to fame and tragic death. Someone killed Kurt, whether that person existed within his own head or outside of it is what the grieving multitudes want to know. We think the only way to make a fair assessment is to know as much about the man himself as humanly possible. Stay tuned next week for part 2!
"What else could I write?I don't have the rightWhat else should I be?All apologies"
click here to learn more
*Affialated Links
*Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain
 
*Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana
 
*Journals
 
My Time With Kurt Cobain, Article in the New Yorker by Michael Azerrad
 
 
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Burning Bridges (The Murder of Sarah Lee Stern)

It's a Leslie Episode!
In the early morning hours of December 3rd, 2016, police found an abandoned car with the keys left in the ignition on the Route 35 bridge, crossing the Shark River in Belmar, NJ. The car belonged to 19-year-old Sarah Stern, but she was no where to be found. Sarah Stern was a local, who was attending college nearby and planning to move to Canada to pursue an education and career in the arts. Unfortunately, with not much to go on, investigators feared that Sarah may have jumped off the bridge into the freezing waters where her body would have been pulled out to the Atlantic Ocean. But after talking to friends and family, the investigators were left with more questions than answers. Especially once they learned that Sarah had found a large sum of money that only a select few knew about, not including her father. Could this money have more to do with Sarah's disappearance? Did she run away to start a new life? was this life to much for her? or did something much more sinister happen to her? This is a tale of friendship, betrayal, and karma. 
 
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Dateline's Episode on Sarah Sternhttps://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-betrayal-of-sarah-stern-s-27-ep-33/id1244348213?i=1000439125577
20/20's Episode on Sarah Sternhttps://abc.com/shows/2020/episode-guide/2019-03/01-with-friends-like-these
Liam McAtasney Confession Videohttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1859252/Video-Murder-suspect-Liam-McAtasneys-secretly-recorded-confession.html
 
 
 
 
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Happily Never After (Armin Meiwes, The Consensual Cannibal)

Once upon a time, there was a boy who lived in the rolling hills of Germany's Black Forest. For a time he had a charmed life, he lived in a huge manor house, he had many friends, a doting father and brothers who he looked up to and loved. Then one day, everything vanished, everything except the boy and the manor house, and the boy began to change. It seemed that everyone he loved wanted to leave him, and this frightened the boy, which would not do. The boy thought and thought and thought,  and in the end it seemed that the only way he could keep someone forever.... would be to eat them. 
This week we take a deep dive into the graphic and startling case of Armin Meiwes, the German internet cannibal who killed, butchered and ate a willing victim. We're walking a strange moral tightrope this week fiends, so try to keep your balance.
 
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This Week's main source "Interview With a Cannibal: The Secret Life of the Monster of Rotenburg" By Gunter Stampf
 
 
 
 
 
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”Perfectly Unkept Hope” (The Disappearance of Brian Shaffer)

R E Q U E S T! (we hope you sung that in your head to the tune of Respect by Aretha Franklin) You asked, we listened, this week we cover our first true missing persons case, the frustrating and yet unsolved disappearances of Brian Shaffer. 
On March 31, 2006 second year medical student at Ohio State University, Brian Shaffer, went out to celebrate the beginning of spring break with a few friends and was never seen again. In the span of just 4 minutes Brian seems to have evaporated into thin air, to this day no evidence has been found and no theories can be confirmed. 
Anyone with information about this case can call the Columbus Division of Police at 614-645-2358
*Quotation in the title is from the song "Off He Goes" by Pearl Jam.
 
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FBI listing for Brian
 
 
 
 
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Party At My House (Tyler Hadley)

On July 16th, 2011, a troubled 17 year old named Tyler Hadley managed to throw the house party of the year and every high school / college aged kid in Port St. Lucie Florida was talking about it. At this party, anything went. No rules, no restrictions, no parents, it was a teenage paradise, but one question remained, where were Tyler's parents? Tyler told anyone who asked that they had gone out of town, knowing full well that in reality, his parents had never left the house, and that nearly a hundred people had been unknowingly dancing on their grave.
Tyler Hadley's case may sound like the story of another run of the mill angry young man, but it's much more than that. It poses terrifying question, how well do any of us know our own kids? 
 
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Tyler Hadley's Killer Party by Nathaniel Rich
Link to purchase 1000 Fireflies by Ryan Hadley and Dan Yearick
 
 
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