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What can I say about our show this week, we go back to the early days of the 1800's and meet a woman who became known as "The Beautiful Cigar Girl" and her mere presence drew celebrities of the time like James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving to the famous tobacco shop on Broadway in the young days of New York. We dig into her life, her family, her world and eventually, her unsolved murder. We detail how and where she was found (Hoboken, New Jersey go figure...sorry Courtney) and the theories about how she came to be deceased. We talk about how her fiance poisoned himself with Laudanum out of grief and how Edgar Allen Poe even composed a short story based upon the case. Finally we discuss the hauntings at Sybil's Cave, the place where her body was found in this spooky season episode of the Family Plot Podcast! Chi! Chi! Chi! Ah! Ah! Ah! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This week we are joined by Hopper of the Brilliant Final Trace Podcast to discuss the mysterious disappearance of Brandon Swanson on May 14th 2008. We cover the histroy of the world around him, the events in his life and the events that led up to him going missing and openly discuss what we found in this truly mysterious disappearance spooky season episode of the Family Plot Podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we dive deep on the man who would become The Great Beast, the self proclaimed 'wickedest man in the world' and the founder of his own religion, Aleister Crowley. Celebrated by pop culture, the man who is involved in dozens of conspiracy theories and who was believed by some to be a spy, we cover the birth of the boy that would grow up to be the man that influenced bands like the Beatles, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Celebrated by pop culture of the sixties and seventies, reviled by the papers of his own time and his parents, and a champion for magical thought, we dig deep onto both the real and spooky history of this legendary mountaineer, traveller and philosopher in this latest spooky season epiosde of the Family Plot Podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we dig into a mystery from the early days of Hollywood. This Wholly Odd case (what we did there, did you see it) looks into the death of film legend Thelma Todd. Signed to Paramount, on loan to Hal Roach studios, she was hired to be a 'Greta Garbo-Type' but Thelma had a talent. She was naturally funny and wore comedy as easily as she wore a dress. She made regular appearances in Laurel and Hardy short films, was paired with Zasu Pitts and Patsy Kelly. Thelma was also the face of the Sidewalk Cafe, and it's downstairs nightclub, the Joya's Room. She ran the club along with possible romantic partner; director Roland West and his estranged wife Jewel Carmen. Eventually, Thelma would be found dead in her car in Jewel's Garage. It was ruled an accident, but the truth is so much stranger in this early Hollywood Mystery episode of the Family Plot Podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What an episode do we have for you! This episode we drift over the 19th and 20th century to pick out the worst medical products, quacks and crazy health trends we could find. We discuss the man who is responsible for the term 'Snake Oil Salesman', we discuss a surgeon with a degree HE PURCHASED who installed bits of goat testicle (or sometimes the whole darn thing) into his patients scrota...scroti? scrotito? We talk about dentist Painless Parker, a man who barely had a degree, but he had a circus, a gimmick and diluted cocainse, plus we talk about Radithor the energy drink with ACTUAL RADIUM (as well as a brief history of colas and energy drinks), the Pandiculator and the Fluoroscope in this it's good for what ails ya episode of the Family Plot Podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laura, Arthur and Dean gather round the mic to discuss the 1900 Unsolved Murder and Dismembertment of Ernst Winter in 1900 in the Prussian City of Konitz (these days, the modern Polish city of Chojinice). The crime itself was never solved. In a town with German officials and a culturally Polish populace with an influx of Jewish residents and no modern investigation techniques, a solution was by and large impossible. What occurred in the place of solution was blame based on nothing at all, antisemitic accusations, fear and riots. We discuss how all this came to pass AND how these things still linger and there for still matter now over 125 years later in this, unsolved mystery, can't we all just get along episode of the Family Plot Podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our latest episode and we are joined by Courtney from the Book of the Dead Podcast to discuss the New England Vampire Panic. We discuss the discovery of a body ritually staged to prevent rising in Burial #4 in the Jewett City area. We also discuss the case of Mercy Brown and other vampire shenanigans that all happened 200 years AFTER the Salem Witch Trials. We then briefly discuss vampire panics in other parts of the world including some that happened recently in the days of satellites and cell phones. We then break down why these panics happen and how they're echoed even today. Vote NO on Amendment 3 in Missouri! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What an episode. This week we ride the Elevator of History TM (patent pending) down to the 1700's to discuss the birth of Dolley Madison. We discuss her upbringing among the Quakers her first marriage, the birth of her sons and how she lost her husband, one of her children,and so many other members of her family to yellow fever. She eventually was introduced to James Madison by Alexander Hamilton. She married him served as the unofficial hostess for Thomas Jeffersson and then then 8 years as the first lady where she truly defined what it means to be a First Lady. As much as she defined the best things about being a First Lady she also kept slaves as we deal with the the complicated history of Dolley Madison in this man she was a heck of a woman episode of the Family Plot Podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There is so much in this episode. We are not a family of sports fans but we do go back to 1919 in the Elevator of History to discuss the 1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinatti Reds. We talk about how some players agreed to lose for money, some players weren't entirely sure what they agreed to and eventually saw baseball install a commissioner that banned all eight men involved forever. It changed the sport of baseball and while there have been other scandals in the sport, none felt as big or as impactful. All this and tangents on Batman cartoons and the movie Big Trouble in Little China among others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is our longest episode yet. Today we dig into the origins of the Batman. Gotham's darkest Caped Crusader, the man who puts fear into the criminal underworld. We discuss his creators, his origin, his allies, his rogues gallery and the city he was born into, Gotham. We talk about how the world influenced him and how he influenced the world in this comic book history, nerdy deep dive episode of the Family Plot Podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What an episode.  This time we go back to the 1830's when America had lied to the Indigenous People of America, forced them to sign removal treaties, even though the Supreme Court had just declared that the Cherokee were a sovereign culture.  Indigenous people were rounded up, often at gunpoint, taken with just the clothes on their backs in many cases and marched thousands of miles into what would come to be called 'Indian Territory', a land where the tribes had to start over from scratch and rebuild everything that had been taken away from them.  We  cover why these cultures were so mistreated and maligned,. how they were lied to and manipulated and just how brutal these death marches were in this we really wish this hadn't happened episode of the Family Plot Podcast.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here we are with another 'Summerween' episode.  this time we are digging into musicians who supposedly made deals with the devil for their skill and fame.  We start with the Mississippi Delta's favorite crossroads legend, Robert Johnson.  We tell both the legendary version of his tale and then we dig down to what is likely the truth behind his life.  Then we jump back to Europe in the 1700's where we meet a slightly strange man named Niccolo Paganini and hear about his deal with the devil.  Then we dispense with the legend and tell the truth of his life, at least as much as we know,  Finally, we tell the legend of Petey Wheatstraw, the Devil's Son-In-Law and then again, contrast that with the real life of Blues musician William Bunch, who used the name to perform and leaned into the legend hard.  We examine the legacy of these tales and even discuss how their represented on the modern internet where, under their videos, you can read comments of people openly accusing people like Katy Perry and Taylor Swift of having sold their souls for fame and fortune in this don't look now but the devil's watchin' episode of the Family Plot Podcast!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, this week we head to what would eventually become the state of Connecticut in the 1600's where we discover that the people of Hartford and multiple other Connecticut villages had their own witch trials complete with Minister's weighing in, a code that included witchcraft as a capital crime and spectral evidence and these trials, in the days before America was a thing, in the days before Salem had quite the body count.  The sad thing is that so little information survives in regards to the actual events.  No recorded conversations, or recorded trials.  We have scattered incomplete records whereas the people in Salem wrote down EVERYTHING.  So we dive as deep as we are able in this exhaustive search of fragmentary evidence as we look into the Connecticut witch trials.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Man, what an episode!  We are joined by our spooky Friend Brenda from Horrifying History to dig into the life of liar, cheater and serial killer (meaning he killed more than one person for a similar reason, he was not a pattern killer) known as HH Holmes.  He was born Herman Webster Mudgett and as a child he was quiet, smart and studious.  He tried to claim a legacy as a devil or a fiend who murdered unfortunate souls in turn of the 20th Century Chicago and all across the country.  The truth is he started as a con man, using cadavers to cheat insurance companies out of money.  He had training as both a doctor and a pharmacist and could have easily built a lucrative career out of those two things but instead, he hatched scheme after scheme, took out loans under fraudulent names and just did as much as he could to make himself wealthy while doing the least amount of work.  He only began to kill people to cover up his lies and support his scams and we cover it all in this special episode discussing the life and crimes of HH Holmes!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-plot--4670465/support. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices