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This episode asks a simple question: if someone really discovered a cure for cancer, would the medical industry suppress it? Brian begins with a clear disclaimer that he is not a doctor and is making no medical claims, then looks at the history behind one of the most persistent conspiracy theories in modern medicine. The episode briefly examines Brown’s Gas, Yull Brown’s 1977 welding patent, and early research involving hydrogen and oxygen inhalation before turning to the larger claim of medical suppression. It starts with the infamous 2018 Goldman Sachs report that asked whether curing patients was a sustainable business model, using Gilead’s hepatitis C treatment as an example of what happens when a highly effective therapy eventually reduces its own customer base. From there, Brian traces more than a century of controversial cancer treatments and alleged suppressed cures, including William Coley, Royal Rife, Harry Hoxsey, Max Gerson, Krebiozen, Laetrile, Linus Pauling’s vitamin C research, Stanislaw Burzynski, and several alternative cancer clinics. Some were dismissed too quickly, others became major scientific disputes, and many ultimately failed when tested under controlled conditions. The episode also examines cases where powerful industries really did hide dangerous information, including the tobacco industry’s decades-long campaign to obscure the health risks of smoking, asbestos companies suppressing evidence, the sugar industry abandoning research that produced troubling results, and DuPont’s history with C8 contamination. Then Brian looks at what successful cancer treatments actually look like when evidence holds up. Cisplatin transformed survival for testicular cancer. Childhood leukemia went from nearly hopeless to highly treatable. Taxol emerged from a federal plant-screening program. Gleevec revolutionized treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia, and modern checkpoint inhibitors grew from ideas about using the immune system to attack cancer. The episode closes by asking where the line should be drawn between skepticism of powerful institutions and claims that cannot survive scientific testing. History shows that corporations and medical institutions have sometimes hidden inconvenient truths. It also shows that when a treatment truly works, repeated evidence has a way of becoming impossible to ignore. Email Brian Get Brian's Books Leave Us A Voicemail Visit Our Website Have a forgotten historical mystery, disturbing event, unsolved crime, or hidden conspiracy you think deserves investigation? Send your suggestions to [email protected]. Disturbing History is a dark history podcast exploring unsolved mysteries, secret societies, historical conspiracies, lost civilizations, and the shadowy stories buried beneath the surface of the past. Follow the show and enable automatic downloads so you never miss a deep dive into history’s most unsettling secrets. Because sometimes the truth is darker than fiction.

This episode asks a simple question: if someone really discovered a cure for cancer, would the medical industry suppress it? Brian begins with a clear disclaimer that he is not a doctor and is making no medical claims, then looks at the history behind one of the most persistent conspiracy theories in modern medicine. The episode briefly examines Brown’s Gas, Yull Brown’s 1977 welding patent, and early research involving hydrogen and oxygen inhalation before turning to the larger claim of medical suppression. It starts with the infamous 2018 Goldman Sachs report that asked whether curing patients was a sustainable business model, using Gilead’s hepatitis C treatment as an example of what happens when a highly effective therapy eventually reduces its own customer base. From there, Brian traces more than a century of controversial cancer treatments and alleged suppressed cures, including William Coley, Royal Rife, Harry Hoxsey, Max Gerson, Krebiozen, Laetrile, Linus Pauling’s vitamin C research, Stanislaw Burzynski, and several alternative cancer clinics. Some were dismissed too quickly, others became major scientific disputes, and many ultimately failed when tested under controlled conditions. The episode also examines cases where powerful industries really did hide dangerous information, including the tobacco industry’s decades-long campaign to obscure the health risks of smoking, asbestos companies suppressing evidence, the sugar industry abandoning research that produced troubling results, and DuPont’s history with C8 contamination. Then Brian looks at what successful cancer treatments actually look like when evidence holds up. Cisplatin transformed survival for testicular cancer. Childhood leukemia went from nearly hopeless to highly treatable. Taxol emerged from a federal plant-screening program. Gleevec revolutionized treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia, and modern checkpoint inhibitors grew from ideas about using the immune system to attack cancer. The episode closes by asking where the line should be drawn between skepticism of powerful institutions and claims that cannot survive scientific testing. History shows that corporations and medical institutions have sometimes hidden inconvenient truths. It also shows that when a treatment truly works, repeated evidence has a way of becoming impossible to ignore. Email Brian Get Brian's Books Leave Us A Voicemail Visit Our Website

On July 16, 1990, Time magazine put a group of young adults on its cover beneath the word “twentysomething” and asked whether they were laid back, late blooming, or simply lost. The story said they struggled to make decisions, would rather hike the Himalayas than climb the corporate ladder, and had no anthems, no heroes, and an attention span as short as one click of the remote. Those young adults were the same kids who had been labeled “at risk” in the 1980s.  Now they were entering adulthood under a new set of warnings. This is the fifth episode in the Disturbing History series on the American decades, and this time Brian looks back at the 1990s, the decade he grew up in. The story begins just before the decade officially started, on November 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down. From there, the episode follows the same path as the rest of the series: beginning with the version of the decade America remembers, then digging into the stories it often forgot. And there was plenty to celebrate. Unemployment fell from 7.8 percent in 1992 to 4 percent by the end of 1999. The Dow climbed from 2,753 to 11,497. The federal government recorded its first budget surplus since 1969. Homicides dropped dramatically.  Teen birth rates declined. Juvenile murder arrests fell by roughly two-thirds.And the generation supposedly unable to make decisions helped build the internet. Then the story moves beneath the surface. Brian examines the 1990s panic over so-called juvenile “super-predators,” a prediction that helped reshape laws across the country even as youth violence was already falling.  He follows that fear into a string of school shootings in Pearl, West Paducah, Jonesboro, and Springfield before arriving at Columbine on April 20, 1999.The episode looks at the propane bombs that were intended to be the real centerpiece of the Columbine attack, the music and video games blamed afterward, and a search warrant affidavit drafted against one of the shooters more than a year earlier that was never presented to a judge. The decade’s fear of the internet gets similar treatment. A 1995 Time cover story warning about cyberporn relied heavily on a flawed undergraduate study. The panic helped fuel the Communications Decency Act. Most of that law was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1997, but 26 words survived and became Section 230.Brian also follows the internet boom itself, from Netscape’s 1995 IPO to the rise of Amazon, eBay, Google, and Napster. Then comes the money underneath it all: the 1998 collapse of Long-Term Capital Management, the emergency meetings in New York, and the 1999 repeal of Glass-Steagall.From there, the episode turns to what the government was not saying. In March 1991, U.S. forces demolished an Iraqi nerve agent depot at Khamisiyah. Nearly 100,000 American troops may have been downwind. The Pentagon denied the exposure for years.In Albuquerque, reporter Eileen Welsome uncovered the story of people secretly injected with plutonium during the early Cold War. Once government files were opened, investigators found thousands of radiation experiments, including radioactive oatmeal fed to schoolboys and radioactive iron given to pregnant women. President Bill Clinton formally apologized in 1995.Then there was Waco. Federal authorities denied for years that incendiary tear gas rounds had been used during the final assault on April 19, 1993. That admission did not come until 1999.And in December 1995, the FDA approved a new painkiller called OxyContin with language on its label that would later become central to one of the largest pharmaceutical scandals in American history. The episode also revisits the seven tobacco executives who raised their hands before Congress in 1994 and denied that nicotine was addictive, followed by the $206 billion tobacco settlement four years later.It covers the deadly Chicago heat wave of 1995, when hundreds died in a single week. It examines the mislabeled oxygen generators that contributed to the crash of ValuJet Flight 592 in the Everglades in 1996. Brian also looks at the West Memphis Three, the Y2K panic, the satellites that really did experience problems at midnight, and the customs inspector in Port Angeles, Washington, who stopped a rental car in December 1999 and discovered explosives intended for Los Angeles International Airport. The decade ends where it began: with Time magazine judging a new generation.On May 20, 2013, the magazine ran another cover story asking what was wrong with young adults. This time, one of the people doing the judging belonged to the very generation Time had questioned back in 1990. Different decade. Different generation. Email Brian Get Brian's Books Leave Us A Voicemail Visit Our Website Have a forgotten historical mystery, disturbing event, unsolved crime, or hidden conspiracy you think deserves investigation? Send your suggestions to [email protected]. Disturbing History is a dark history podcast exploring unsolved mysteries, secret societies, historical conspiracies, lost civilizations, and the shadowy stories buried beneath the surface of the past. Follow the show and enable automatic downloads so you never miss a deep dive into history’s most unsettling secrets. Because sometimes the truth is darker than fiction.

On July 16, 1990, Time magazine put a group of young adults on its cover beneath the word “twentysomething” and asked whether they were laid back, late blooming, or simply lost. The story said they struggled to make decisions, would rather hike the Himalayas than climb the corporate ladder, and had no anthems, no heroes, and an attention span as short as one click of the remote. Those young adults were the same kids who had been labeled “at risk” in the 1980s.  Now they were entering adulthood under a new set of warnings. This is the fifth episode in the Disturbing History series on the American decades, and this time Brian looks back at the 1990s, the decade he grew up in. The story begins just before the decade officially started, on November 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down. From there, the episode follows the same path as the rest of the series: beginning with the version of the decade America remembers, then digging into the stories it often forgot. And there was plenty to celebrate. Unemployment fell from 7.8 percent in 1992 to 4 percent by the end of 1999. The Dow climbed from 2,753 to 11,497. The federal government recorded its first budget surplus since 1969. Homicides dropped dramatically.  Teen birth rates declined. Juvenile murder arrests fell by roughly two-thirds.And the generation supposedly unable to make decisions helped build the internet. Then the story moves beneath the surface. Brian examines the 1990s panic over so-called juvenile “super-predators,” a prediction that helped reshape laws across the country even as youth violence was already falling.  He follows that fear into a string of school shootings in Pearl, West Paducah, Jonesboro, and Springfield before arriving at Columbine on April 20, 1999.The episode looks at the propane bombs that were intended to be the real centerpiece of the Columbine attack, the music and video games blamed afterward, and a search warrant affidavit drafted against one of the shooters more than a year earlier that was never presented to a judge. The decade’s fear of the internet gets similar treatment. A 1995 Time cover story warning about cyberporn relied heavily on a flawed undergraduate study. The panic helped fuel the Communications Decency Act. Most of that law was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1997, but 26 words survived and became Section 230.Brian also follows the internet boom itself, from Netscape’s 1995 IPO to the rise of Amazon, eBay, Google, and Napster. Then comes the money underneath it all: the 1998 collapse of Long-Term Capital Management, the emergency meetings in New York, and the 1999 repeal of Glass-Steagall.From there, the episode turns to what the government was not saying. In March 1991, U.S. forces demolished an Iraqi nerve agent depot at Khamisiyah. Nearly 100,000 American troops may have been downwind. The Pentagon denied the exposure for years.In Albuquerque, reporter Eileen Welsome uncovered the story of people secretly injected with plutonium during the early Cold War. Once government files were opened, investigators found thousands of radiation experiments, including radioactive oatmeal fed to schoolboys and radioactive iron given to pregnant women. President Bill Clinton formally apologized in 1995.Then there was Waco. Federal authorities denied for years that incendiary tear gas rounds had been used during the final assault on April 19, 1993. That admission did not come until 1999.And in December 1995, the FDA approved a new painkiller called OxyContin with language on its label that would later become central to one of the largest pharmaceutical scandals in American history. The episode also revisits the seven tobacco executives who raised their hands before Congress in 1994 and denied that nicotine was addictive, followed by the $206 billion tobacco settlement four years later.It covers the deadly Chicago heat wave of 1995, when hundreds died in a single week. It examines the mislabeled oxygen generators that contribut

Listener discretion is advised. This episode contains descriptions of real-life violence and death, including the shooting deaths of a fourteen-year-old boy, his mother, and a federal law enforcement officer. It also includes direct quotations expressing racist and extremist beliefs. Some listeners may find this material disturbing or offensive. On August 22, 1992, an FBI sniper positioned roughly two hundred yards above a remote cabin in northern Idaho fired two shots. The first struck Randy Weaver as he moved near the shed where the body of his fourteen-year-old son, Sammy, had been placed after being killed the previous day. The second bullet passed through the curtained window of the cabin door and killed Weaver’s wife, Vicki, as she stood inside holding their ten-month-old daughter. At the time, no one had formally told the family who surrounded the cabin or ordered them to surrender. Federal authorities would not learn that Vicki Weaver had been killed until days later. This episode of Disturbing History takes a deep look at Ruby Ridge—not the simplified version that became a political slogan, but the complicated chain of decisions, mistakes, intelligence failures, disputed gunfire, and deadly consequences documented in the government’s own investigations. Brian traces the story back years before the siege, beginning with Randy and Vicki Weaver’s decision to leave Iowa and move their family into the mountains of Idaho. From there, the episode follows the growing interest of federal authorities, allegations made by a neighbor, Weaver’s contact with white separatist circles, and an undercover ATF investigation involving two illegally shortened shotguns. Government investigators would later question parts of that operation and acknowledge they could not completely rule out whether Weaver had been improperly encouraged into committing the offense. Then came the bureaucratic mistake that helped transform a firearms case into a federal fugitive operation.A probation officer sent Weaver a letter listing the wrong trial date—March 20 instead of February 20. By the time the mistake was discovered, a bench warrant had already been issued. Despite knowing Weaver had received incorrect information, the warrant remained active, and prosecutors later indicted him for failure to appear before the erroneous date he had been given had even arrived. The Justice Department would later describe the situation as creating an “appearance of governmental overreaching.” The episode also examines how letters written by Vicki Weaver and references to extremist figures helped shape the government’s threat assessment of the family, eventually contributing to comparisons between Weaver and violent white supremacist organizations. Then, on August 21, 1992, six deputy U.S. marshals conducting surveillance encountered the Weaver family’s dog, Striker. What followed at a trail junction known as “the Y” remains one of the most disputed moments of the entire case.Within seconds, Deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan and fourteen-year-old Sammy Weaver were dead. Investigators were ultimately unable to conclusively determine who fired the first shot. The next day, the FBI arrived.Special rules of engagement were drafted during the flight to Idaho—rules that would later become one of the most controversial aspects of the operation. Within hours, FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi fired the shots that wounded Randy Weaver and killed Vicki Weaver. From there, the episode reconstructs the extraordinary details of the siege: failed communications, surrender announcements broadcast after Vicki was already dead, FBI snipers suffering from exposure because they were not equipped for the mountain weather, armored vehicles approaching the cabin, negotiations conducted over loudspeakers, and the eventual arrival of former Green Beret and presidential candidate Bo Gritz, who helped establish direct contact with the family. The final portion of the episode examines what happened when Ruby Ridge reached the courtroom and eventually Congress. The forty-two-day criminal trial resulted in acquittals on most of the major charges.  A Justice Department task force concluded that the sniper’s second shot did not meet constitutional standards. An FBI official later went to prison for destroying an internal report related to the case. The Weaver family received a $3.1 million civil settlement from the federal government. Years later, FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi would face a state manslaughter charge over Vicki Weaver’s death, leading to a lengthy legal fight in the federal courts before the case was ultimately dropped. And in 1995, Randy Weaver appeared before the United States Senate carrying the cabin door through which the bullet that killed his wife had passed. Email Brian Get Brian's Books Leave Us A Voicemail Visit Our Website Have a forgotten historical mystery, disturbing event, unsolved crime, or hidden conspiracy you think deserves investigation? Send your suggestions to [email protected]. Disturbing History is a dark history podcast exploring unsolved mysteries, secret societies, historical conspiracies, lost civilizations, and the shadowy stories buried beneath the surface of the past. Follow the show and enable automatic downloads so you never miss a deep dive into history’s most unsettling secrets. Because sometimes the truth is darker than fiction.

Listener discretion is advised. This episode contains descriptions of real-life violence and death, including the shooting deaths of a fourteen-year-old boy, his mother, and a federal law enforcement officer. It also includes direct quotations expressing racist and extremist beliefs. Some listeners may find this material disturbing or offensive. On August 22, 1992, an FBI sniper positioned roughly two hundred yards above a remote cabin in northern Idaho fired two shots. The first struck Randy Weaver as he moved near the shed where the body of his fourteen-year-old son, Sammy, had been placed after being killed the previous day. The second bullet passed through the curtained window of the cabin door and killed Weaver’s wife, Vicki, as she stood inside holding their ten-month-old daughter. At the time, no one had formally told the family who surrounded the cabin or ordered them to surrender. Federal authorities would not learn that Vicki Weaver had been killed until days later. This episode of Disturbing History takes a deep look at Ruby Ridge—not the simplified version that became a political slogan, but the complicated chain of decisions, mistakes, intelligence failures, disputed gunfire, and deadly consequences documented in the government’s own investigations. Brian traces the story back years before the siege, beginning with Randy and Vicki Weaver’s decision to leave Iowa and move their family into the mountains of Idaho. From there, the episode follows the growing interest of federal authorities, allegations made by a neighbor, Weaver’s contact with white separatist circles, and an undercover ATF investigation involving two illegally shortened shotguns. Government investigators would later question parts of that operation and acknowledge they could not completely rule out whether Weaver had been improperly encouraged into committing the offense. Then came the bureaucratic mistake that helped transform a firearms case into a federal fugitive operation.A probation officer sent Weaver a letter listing the wrong trial date—March 20 instead of February 20. By the time the mistake was discovered, a bench warrant had already been issued. Despite knowing Weaver had received incorrect information, the warrant remained active, and prosecutors later indicted him for failure to appear before the erroneous date he had been given had even arrived. The Justice Department would later describe the situation as creating an “appearance of governmental overreaching.” The episode also examines how letters written by Vicki Weaver and references to extremist figures helped shape the government’s threat assessment of the family, eventually contributing to comparisons between Weaver and violent white supremacist organizations. Then, on August 21, 1992, six deputy U.S. marshals conducting surveillance encountered the Weaver family’s dog, Striker. What followed at a trail junction known as “the Y” remains one of the most disputed moments of the entire case.Within seconds, Deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan and fourteen-year-old Sammy Weaver were dead. Investigators were ultimately unable to conclusively determine who fired the first shot. The next day, the FBI arrived.Special rules of engagement were drafted during the flight to Idaho—rules that would later become one of the most controversial aspects of the operation. Within hours, FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi fired the shots that wounded Randy Weaver and killed Vicki Weaver. From there, the episode reconstructs the extraordinary details of the siege: failed communications, surrender announcements broadcast after Vicki was already dead, FBI snipers suffering from exposure because they were not equipped for the mountain weather, armored vehicles approaching the cabin, negotiations conducted over loudspeakers, and the eventual arrival of former Green Beret and presidential candidate Bo Gritz, who helped establish direct contact with the family.

The 1980s began with 52 Americans still being held hostage in Tehran and ended with crowds tearing open the Berlin Wall. Between those two moments came one of the most turbulent, contradictory decades in modern American history. In this fourth episode of the Disturbing History decades series, Brian looks back at the decade he grew up in—beyond the neon, MTV, blockbuster movies, and nostalgia. The episode moves through the moments everyone remembers: the Miracle on Ice, Mount St. Helens, the shooting of John Lennon, the launch of MTV, the Macintosh, Live Aid, the MAS*H finale, Reagan’s presidency, and the Challenger disaster. Then it turns the decade over.Behind the economic recovery were recession, mass unemployment, the firing of 11,359 air traffic controllers, a frozen minimum wage, the farm crisis, a soaring national debt, and the savings-and-loan collapse.  The decade also saw deadly failures at the Hyatt Regency, Air Florida Flight 90, and Challenger—disasters where warnings, design changes, or ignored risks became part of the story.Fear shaped the culture as much as prosperity did. The Tylenol murders changed product safety forever. Missing children appeared on milk cartons. The McMartin preschool case fed the satanic panic. Dungeons & Dragons, heavy metal, and supposed occult networks became national anxieties. At the same time, Cold War tensions pushed the United States and Soviet Union dangerously close to catastrophe. The episode also revisits stories the decade nearly forgot: Lawnchair Larry, the buried E.T. cartridges, the Titanic discovery’s secret Navy connection, Al Capone’s empty vault, Cleveland’s disastrous balloon release, Baby Jessica, cold fusion, and a garbage barge that became a national spectacle. Then come the scandals and secrets: Iran-Contra, presidential astrology, Iran Air Flight 655, the USS Iowa explosion, and other moments where the official story raised as many questions as it answered. Beneath all of it were the quieter death tolls that rarely defined the decade on television: heart disease, cigarettes, drunk driving, gun violence, the crack epidemic, the early AIDS crisis, and tens of thousands of suicides every year. The 1980s also handed the future some of its foundations—the early internet, the World Wide Web proposal, cellular phones, modern talk radio, sentencing laws that reshaped American prisons, major environmental agreements, and early warnings about climate change. And once again, the episode ends with the same recurring pattern: the generation everyone complained about grew up and started complaining about its own children. Four decades in a row. Email Brian Get Brian's Books Leave Us A Voicemail Visit Our Website Have a forgotten historical mystery, disturbing event, unsolved crime, or hidden conspiracy you think deserves investigation? Send your suggestions to [email protected]. Disturbing History is a dark history podcast exploring unsolved mysteries, secret societies, historical conspiracies, lost civilizations, and the shadowy stories buried beneath the surface of the past. Follow the show and enable automatic downloads so you never miss a deep dive into history’s most unsettling secrets. Because sometimes the truth is darker than fiction.

The 1980s began with 52 Americans still being held hostage in Tehran and ended with crowds tearing open the Berlin Wall. Between those two moments came one of the most turbulent, contradictory decades in modern American history. In this fourth episode of the Disturbing History decades series, Brian looks back at the decade he grew up in—beyond the neon, MTV, blockbuster movies, and nostalgia. The episode moves through the moments everyone remembers: the Miracle on Ice, Mount St. Helens, the shooting of John Lennon, the launch of MTV, the Macintosh, Live Aid, the MAS*H finale, Reagan’s presidency, and the Challenger disaster. Then it turns the decade over.Behind the economic recovery were recession, mass unemployment, the firing of 11,359 air traffic controllers, a frozen minimum wage, the farm crisis, a soaring national debt, and the savings-and-loan collapse.  The decade also saw deadly failures at the Hyatt Regency, Air Florida Flight 90, and Challenger—disasters where warnings, design changes, or ignored risks became part of the story.Fear shaped the culture as much as prosperity did. The Tylenol murders changed product safety forever. Missing children appeared on milk cartons. The McMartin preschool case fed the satanic panic. Dungeons & Dragons, heavy metal, and supposed occult networks became national anxieties. At the same time, Cold War tensions pushed the United States and Soviet Union dangerously close to catastrophe. The episode also revisits stories the decade nearly forgot: Lawnchair Larry, the buried E.T. cartridges, the Titanic discovery’s secret Navy connection, Al Capone’s empty vault, Cleveland’s disastrous balloon release, Baby Jessica, cold fusion, and a garbage barge that became a national spectacle. Then come the scandals and secrets: Iran-Contra, presidential astrology, Iran Air Flight 655, the USS Iowa explosion, and other moments where the official story raised as many questions as it answered. Beneath all of it were the quieter death tolls that rarely defined the decade on television: heart disease, cigarettes, drunk driving, gun violence, the crack epidemic, the early AIDS crisis, and tens of thousands of suicides every year. The 1980s also handed the future some of its foundations—the early internet, the World Wide Web proposal, cellular phones, modern talk radio, sentencing laws that reshaped American prisons, major environmental agreements, and early warnings about climate change. And once again, the episode ends with the same recurring pattern: the generation everyone complained about grew up and started complaining about its own children. Four decades in a row. Email Brian Get Brian's Books Leave Us A Voicemail Visit Our Website

On the night of May 18, 1910, people across the world waited for Halley’s Comet to kill them.Hotels in New York opened their rooftops. Miners in Pennsylvania refused to go underground. A religious sect outside Atlanta reportedly barricaded itself inside a cave. In Chicago, people sealed their doors and windows against a poisonous gas they believed was coming from space.Then Earth passed through the comet’s tail.Nothing happened. In this episode of Disturbing History, Brian explores how a scientific discovery became a worldwide panic. In February 1910, astronomers detected cyanogen in the comet’s tail—a chemical related to cyanide. Newspapers seized on the finding, and alarming comments from famed astronomer Camille Flammarion helped fuel fears that the gas might poison Earth’s atmosphere and wipe out humanity. The result was a strange mixture of science, superstition, opportunism, and outright hysteria .Brian follows the story from Halley’s approach and the unexpected appearance of the Great Daylight Comet, through the deaths of Mark Twain and King Edward VII, and into centuries of older beliefs that treated comets as warnings of war, plague, and death. Then came the profiteers. Businesses sold comet-themed products. Bartenders offered whiskey as protection from cyanogen.  A Los Angeles broker reportedly sold comet insurance. Men in Texas marketed sugar-and-quinine “comet pills” and leather gas masks. Farmers refused to plant crops, and one California prospector reportedly nailed himself to a cross in preparation for the end. The episode also investigates one of the most famous stories from the panic: an alleged Oklahoma cult that supposedly planned to sacrifice a teenage girl to stop the comet—a story later researchers found had almost certainly never happened. Finally, the story ends more than a century later inside a cave in Puerto Rico, where researchers discovered a charcoal drawing dated May 23, 1910: a comet descending toward a grave, apparently drawn by a 15-year-old boy who had lived through the fear. This is the story of the night humanity waited for poison from the sky—and the panic that arrived long before the comet ever did. Email Brian Join Our FREE Newsletter Get Brian's Books Leave Us A Voicemail Visit Our Website Have a forgotten historical mystery, disturbing event, unsolved crime, or hidden conspiracy you think deserves investigation? Send your suggestions to [email protected]. Disturbing History is a dark history podcast exploring unsolved mysteries, secret societies, historical conspiracies, lost civilizations, and the shadowy stories buried beneath the surface of the past. Follow the show and enable automatic downloads so you never miss a deep dive into history’s most unsettling secrets. Because sometimes the truth is darker than fiction.

On the night of May 18, 1910, people across the world waited for Halley’s Comet to kill them.Hotels in New York opened their rooftops. Miners in Pennsylvania refused to go underground. A religious sect outside Atlanta reportedly barricaded itself inside a cave. In Chicago, people sealed their doors and windows against a poisonous gas they believed was coming from space.Then Earth passed through the comet’s tail.Nothing happened. In this episode of Disturbing History, Brian explores how a scientific discovery became a worldwide panic. In February 1910, astronomers detected cyanogen in the comet’s tail—a chemical related to cyanide. Newspapers seized on the finding, and alarming comments from famed astronomer Camille Flammarion helped fuel fears that the gas might poison Earth’s atmosphere and wipe out humanity. The result was a strange mixture of science, superstition, opportunism, and outright hysteria .Brian follows the story from Halley’s approach and the unexpected appearance of the Great Daylight Comet, through the deaths of Mark Twain and King Edward VII, and into centuries of older beliefs that treated comets as warnings of war, plague, and death. Then came the profiteers. Businesses sold comet-themed products. Bartenders offered whiskey as protection from cyanogen.  A Los Angeles broker reportedly sold comet insurance. Men in Texas marketed sugar-and-quinine “comet pills” and leather gas masks. Farmers refused to plant crops, and one California prospector reportedly nailed himself to a cross in preparation for the end. The episode also investigates one of the most famous stories from the panic: an alleged Oklahoma cult that supposedly planned to sacrifice a teenage girl to stop the comet—a story later researchers found had almost certainly never happened. Finally, the story ends more than a century later inside a cave in Puerto Rico, where researchers discovered a charcoal drawing dated May 23, 1910: a comet descending toward a grave, apparently drawn by a 15-year-old boy who had lived through the fear. This is the story of the night humanity waited for poison from the sky—and the panic that arrived long before the comet ever did. Email Brian Join Our FREE Newsletter Get Brian's Books Leave Us A Voicemail Visit Our Website

This episode discusses sexual violence against children and teenagers, torture, and murder and is not suitable for younger audiences. Listener discretion is strongly advised.  On the night of June 11, 1980, plainclothes officers who had been following a Ford Econoline van through Hollywood watched its driver approach a series of young men along Santa Monica Boulevard.  Five refused to get inside. The sixth was a 15-year-old runaway.When the van eventually stopped in a vacant lot and officers heard screams coming from inside, they moved in. Behind the door they found 33-year-old truck driver William Bonin assaulting a bound teenager.  The arrest ended one of the most brutal murder sprees in Southern California history. In this episode of Disturbing History, Brian examines the complete story of the man the press dubbed the Freeway Killer, using court opinions, federal appeals records, corrections documents, contemporary reporting, and testimony from the people who survived him. The story begins decades before the murders, with Bonin's deeply troubled childhood, institutionalization, military service in Vietnam, and a disturbing pattern of sexual violence that began almost immediately after his 1968 discharge.Authorities had multiple opportunities to see what he was becoming. After attacking several teenage boys, Bonin was committed to Atascadero State Hospital, where records documented sexual sadism, antisocial behavior, and his own warning that future victims might not be left alive. Released in 1974, he attacked again the following year. After another conviction, he was paroled in October 1978. Within months, boys and young men began disappearing.From 13-year-old Thomas Lundgren in May 1979 to 18-year-old Steven Wells in June 1980, Bonin would later describe the murders of 21 victims. Bodies were abandoned beside freeways, dumped along roads, and left in isolated areas across Southern California. The episode reconstructs the murder spree in chronological order while examining the evidence that eventually connected Bonin to the crimes, including distinctive carpet fibers from his van, witness testimony, physical evidence, confessions, and the investigation led by LAPD homicide detective John St. John. It also examines the four younger men drawn into Bonin's orbit—Vernon Butts, Gregory Miley, William Pugh, and James Munro—and the very different roles they played in the murders and in the case that eventually brought Bonin down. Then came two murder trials, controversial defense decisions, disputes over confessions and plea negotiations, death sentences, and nearly fourteen years of appeals.On February 23, 1996, William Bonin became the first person executed by lethal injection in California.But one part of the story remains unfinished. Among the victims Bonin admitted killing was a young man whose body was discovered beside Route 99 south of Bakersfield in November 1979. More than four decades later, his identity remains unknown.  Email Brian Join Our FREE Newsletter Get Brian's Books Leave Us A Voicemail Visit Our Website Have a forgotten historical mystery, disturbing event, unsolved crime, or hidden conspiracy you think deserves investigation? Send your suggestions to [email protected]. Disturbing History is a dark history podcast exploring unsolved mysteries, secret societies, historical conspiracies, lost civilizations, and the shadowy stories buried beneath the surface of the past. Follow the show and enable automatic downloads so you never miss a deep dive into history’s most unsettling secrets. Because sometimes the truth is darker than fiction.

This episode discusses sexual violence against children and teenagers, torture, and murder and is not suitable for younger audiences. Listener discretion is strongly advised.  On the night of June 11, 1980, plainclothes officers who had been following a Ford Econoline van through Hollywood watched its driver approach a series of young men along Santa Monica Boulevard.  Five refused to get inside. The sixth was a 15-year-old runaway.When the van eventually stopped in a vacant lot and officers heard screams coming from inside, they moved in. Behind the door they found 33-year-old truck driver William Bonin assaulting a bound teenager.  The arrest ended one of the most brutal murder sprees in Southern California history. In this episode of Disturbing History, Brian examines the complete story of the man the press dubbed the Freeway Killer, using court opinions, federal appeals records, corrections documents, contemporary reporting, and testimony from the people who survived him. The story begins decades before the murders, with Bonin's deeply troubled childhood, institutionalization, military service in Vietnam, and a disturbing pattern of sexual violence that began almost immediately after his 1968 discharge.Authorities had multiple opportunities to see what he was becoming. After attacking several teenage boys, Bonin was committed to Atascadero State Hospital, where records documented sexual sadism, antisocial behavior, and his own warning that future victims might not be left alive. Released in 1974, he attacked again the following year. After another conviction, he was paroled in October 1978. Within months, boys and young men began disappearing.From 13-year-old Thomas Lundgren in May 1979 to 18-year-old Steven Wells in June 1980, Bonin would later describe the murders of 21 victims. Bodies were abandoned beside freeways, dumped along roads, and left in isolated areas across Southern California. The episode reconstructs the murder spree in chronological order while examining the evidence that eventually connected Bonin to the crimes, including distinctive carpet fibers from his van, witness testimony, physical evidence, confessions, and the investigation led by LAPD homicide detective John St. John. It also examines the four younger men drawn into Bonin's orbit—Vernon Butts, Gregory Miley, William Pugh, and James Munro—and the very different roles they played in the murders and in the case that eventually brought Bonin down. Then came two murder trials, controversial defense decisions, disputes over confessions and plea negotiations, death sentences, and nearly fourteen years of appeals.On February 23, 1996, William Bonin became the first person executed by lethal injection in California.But one part of the story remains unfinished. Among the victims Bonin admitted killing was a young man whose body was discovered beside Route 99 south of Bakersfield in November 1979. More than four decades later, his identity remains unknown.  Email Brian Join Our FREE Newsletter Get Brian's Books Leave Us A Voicemail Visit Our Website

The 1970s opened in conflict.On April 30, 1970, President Richard Nixon announced the expansion of U.S. military operations into Cambodia. Days later, four students were killed by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State. On May 8, construction workers attacked antiwar demonstrators in what became known as the Hard Hat Riot, one of the defining images of a country bitterly divided over Vietnam, protest, and generational change. In the third installment of Disturbing History’s series on the American decades, Brian turns to the 1970s—the decade when the young people everyone had spent years worrying about finally began inheriting the country. The voting age dropped to eighteen with the 26th Amendment. The military draft ended. American prisoners of war came home. Smallpox was pushed toward eradication. The microprocessor arrived, environmental protections expanded, and Voyager carried a golden record filled with sounds and greetings from Earth toward the stars. Then Brian turns the photograph over.The decade exposed extraordinary abuses of government power. The burglary of an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania helped reveal domestic surveillance programs. Congressional investigations uncovered CIA and FBI misconduct, while the Church Committee documented intelligence programs including NSA access to international telegram traffic. The Pentagon Papers further exposed how successive administrations had privately understood the Vietnam War very differently from the way it was often presented publicly. The episode also examines the disasters, scandals, panics, and strange cultural moments that defined the decade: Buffalo Creek, the Teton Dam collapse, deadly aviation failures, the Browns Ferry nuclear fire, the Legionnaires’ outbreak, the 1976 swine flu vaccination campaign, the Chowchilla school-bus kidnapping, fears surrounding youth culture, the rise of deprogramming, the Dungeons & Dragons panic, the Amityville story, the Howard Hughes autobiography hoax, and Chicago’s infamous Disco Demolition Night. And running beneath it all is the same question this series keeps returning to: Was the generation coming up really destroying America—or was an older generation simply watching the country change? By the end of the 1970s, the first baby boomers were entering their thirties and raising children of their own.  Those children would grow up with seat belts, car seats, lower lead exposure, computers, and a very different America. And eventually, they too would grow old enough to complain about the generation coming behind them. Email Brian Join Our FREE Newsletter Get Brian's Books Leave Us A Voicemail Visit Our Website Have a forgotten historical mystery, disturbing event, unsolved crime, or hidden conspiracy you think deserves investigation? Send your suggestions to [email protected]. Disturbing History is a dark history podcast exploring unsolved mysteries, secret societies, historical conspiracies, lost civilizations, and the shadowy stories buried beneath the surface of the past. Follow the show and enable automatic downloads so you never miss a deep dive into history’s most unsettling secrets. Because sometimes the truth is darker than fiction.

The 1970s opened in conflict.On April 30, 1970, President Richard Nixon announced the expansion of U.S. military operations into Cambodia. Days later, four students were killed by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State. On May 8, construction workers attacked antiwar demonstrators in what became known as the Hard Hat Riot, one of the defining images of a country bitterly divided over Vietnam, protest, and generational change. In the third installment of Disturbing History’s series on the American decades, Brian turns to the 1970s—the decade when the young people everyone had spent years worrying about finally began inheriting the country. The voting age dropped to eighteen with the 26th Amendment. The military draft ended. American prisoners of war came home. Smallpox was pushed toward eradication. The microprocessor arrived, environmental protections expanded, and Voyager carried a golden record filled with sounds and greetings from Earth toward the stars. Then Brian turns the photograph over.The decade exposed extraordinary abuses of government power. The burglary of an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania helped reveal domestic surveillance programs. Congressional investigations uncovered CIA and FBI misconduct, while the Church Committee documented intelligence programs including NSA access to international telegram traffic. The Pentagon Papers further exposed how successive administrations had privately understood the Vietnam War very differently from the way it was often presented publicly. The episode also examines the disasters, scandals, panics, and strange cultural moments that defined the decade: Buffalo Creek, the Teton Dam collapse, deadly aviation failures, the Browns Ferry nuclear fire, the Legionnaires’ outbreak, the 1976 swine flu vaccination campaign, the Chowchilla school-bus kidnapping, fears surrounding youth culture, the rise of deprogramming, the Dungeons & Dragons panic, the Amityville story, the Howard Hughes autobiography hoax, and Chicago’s infamous Disco Demolition Night. And running beneath it all is the same question this series keeps returning to: Was the generation coming up really destroying America—or was an older generation simply watching the country change? By the end of the 1970s, the first baby boomers were entering their thirties and raising children of their own.  Those children would grow up with seat belts, car seats, lower lead exposure, computers, and a very different America. And eventually, they too would grow old enough to complain about the generation coming behind them. Email Brian Join Our FREE Newsletter Get Brian's Books Leave Us A Voicemail Visit Our Website

On March 27, 1964, The New York Times published a story that would become one of the most famous examples of human indifference ever told. According to the report, 38 people in Queens watched as 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was stalked and attacked for more than half an hour, and not one of them called police or came to help. The story spread across the country and eventually helped inspire decades of research into what became known as the bystander effect. But much of the story was wrong. In this episode of Disturbing History, Brian goes back to the night of March 13, 1964, and separates the legend from what the evidence actually shows.Kitty Genovese was a 28-year-old bar manager living in Kew Gardens with her partner, Mary Ann Zielonko.  She was attacked outside her apartment building, but the idea that dozens of people simply watched and did nothing does not match the record. One neighbor shouted and frightened the attacker away. Another, Sophia Farrar, went downstairs, found Kitty, and stayed with her until the ambulance arrived. So where did the number 38 come from? How many people actually witnessed the attack? And how did a complicated crime become a lasting story about an uncaring crowd? The episode also explores the psychology that grew out of the case, including John Darley and Bibb Latané’s famous seizure and smoke-filled-room experiments, diffusion of responsibility, audience inhibition, and the tendency to look to other people before deciding whether something is really an emergency. Then the science takes another turn. Later studies found that the bystander effect is far from universal. In real emergencies, people often do help. A major 2019 study of 219 public conflicts caught on security cameras found that someone intervened in roughly nine out of ten incidents. So why do some crowds freeze while others act? This episode examines the history, the science, and the myth surrounding Kitty Genovese—and what decades of research really tell us about how ordinary people behave when someone needs help. Email Brian Join Our FREE Newsletter Get Brian's Books Leave Us A Voicemail Visit Our Website Have a forgotten historical mystery, disturbing event, unsolved crime, or hidden conspiracy you think deserves investigation? Send your suggestions to [email protected]. Disturbing History is a dark history podcast exploring unsolved mysteries, secret societies, historical conspiracies, lost civilizations, and the shadowy stories buried beneath the surface of the past. Follow the show and enable automatic downloads so you never miss a deep dive into history’s most unsettling secrets. Because sometimes the truth is darker than fiction.