RedHanded

For our second Halloween special we’ve teamed up with I Could Murder A Podcast for a super-spooky fancy dress edition of RedHaunted recorded in a magician’s house. So, join us by the hearth for tales of faceless ghosts, disappearing babies, and “wet maps of Africa” on the front of a man’s trousers. For the full spooktacular experience, head to youtube.com/@redhandedthepod from the 30th of October. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the last 13 days before Halloween, a different ShortHand will rise from the archives for 24 hours only – before disappearing back into the vault. Get exclusive access to every ShortHand episode ad free only on Amazon Music Unlimited. -- The dead live among us: walking, talking corpses who appear normal, but are rotting from the inside out. Or at least, that’s what sufferers of Cotard’s syndrome will have you believe. Cotard’s is a rare condition in which the affected (and very much alive) person is certain that they are already dead and decaying, with their blood frozen in their veins. The delusion is so great that some stop eating, and starve to death. Here’s the ShortHand. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the last 13 days before Halloween, a different ShortHand will rise from the archives for 24 hours only – before disappearing back into the vault. Get exclusive access to every ShortHand episode ad free only on Amazon Music Unlimited. -- With great esoteric power, comes great esoteric responsibility. Aleister Crowley was considered many things, a poet, an artist, a master of the dark arts, and a prophet of Thelma. But who was the man behind the mask? And how did he go from being a leading figure and social commentator to dying in relative obscurity? Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the last 13 days before Halloween, a different ShortHand will rise from the archives for 24 hours only – before disappearing back into the vault. Get exclusive access to every ShortHand episode ad free only on Amazon Music Unlimited. -- The great literary pantheon of horror would be nothing without the master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. His life was every bit as dark and melancholy as all his best writing. And as for his death? Fittingly for the inventor of the mystery novel, it’s shrouded in secrets… Found in a Baltimore pub, wearing someone else’s clothes, Poe was rushed to hospital – where he hallucinated and screamed incoherently for days, then died before he could say a word of explanation. We take a look at Poe’s greatest mystery of all. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the last 13 days before Halloween, a different ShortHand will rise from the archives for 24 hours only – before disappearing back into the vault. Get exclusive access to every ShortHand episode ad free only on Amazon Music Unlimited. -- In 2013, horror blockbuster The Conjuring packed out cinemas worldwide, terrifying moviegoers with its alleged ‘true story’ of a house haunted by malevolent demons. But the real truth behind the tale is far sketchier than we might think – with marital discord, pissed-off neighbours, and a ghost-busting power couple spearheading a very unfair smear campaign against a 19th century farmer’s wife. This is the ShortHand. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the last 13 days before Halloween, a different ShortHand will rise from the archives for 24 hours only – before disappearing back into the vault. Get exclusive access to every ShortHand episode ad free only on Amazon Music Unlimited. -- A fire has been raging under the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, for more than 60 years – and it’s nowhere near done. After the vast underground coal deposits under the former mining town caught alight, sinkholes in the road opened up into flaming pits, billowing thick smoke through town. Toxic fumes seeped up through the floorboards and poisoned people in their homes. And in the town’s cemeteries, the flames even reached up from below and swallowed up the dead themselves… Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the last 13 days before Halloween, a different ShortHand will rise from the archives for 24 hours only – before disappearing back into the vault. Get exclusive access to every ShortHand episode ad free only on Amazon Music Unlimited. -- For almost as long as we’ve made films, we’ve made horror films – but what happens when the terror isn’t just on screen? Movie-making lore is riddled with stories of bizarre accidents on set, creepy coincidences and even murders, all of which can give rise to cult followings and, in some cases, rumours of a curse over the whole production. From Indian ghosts to demonic hauntings, we run through a ShortHanded historical horror archive and investigate whether these sinister events were the result of supernatural curses, coincidence or just bloody good PR. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the last 13 days before Halloween, a different ShortHand will rise from the archives for 24 hours only – before disappearing back into the vault. Get exclusive access to every ShortHand episode ad free only on Amazon Music Unlimited. -- For over a thousand years, witches were believed to be local soothsayers who used their powers for everyday charms and spells. But in the 16th and 17th centuries, Europe was suddenly gripped by a new idea: that witches were part of an organised demonic network, plotting with the devil himself to cloud the whole world in evil. And to stop the armies of darkness, more than 200,000 people were executed across Europe for the crime of witchcraft. In the first half of our two-parter on Europe's witch hunters, H&S look at how it grew into a state-sanctioned frenzy, why it lasted for over 200 years, and some of the more gruesome torture methods they used to extract confessions... In part two, we take a look at how the insanity spread to the UK thanks to a paranoid new king and a 19-year-old, self-styled Witchfinder General. Plus: what really goes down at a witches’ sabbath, and why did women make up 90% of the thousands killed? Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For our first of two Halloween specials we set off on a spooky adventure ghost hunting with Ghost Huns at Clophill, allegedly the one of the most haunted and evil locations in the UK. Today we’re going to tell you the dark history of Britain’s most horrifying church, including satanic rituals, and the local priest driving around with a dead woman’s bones in the back of his car. For the full video of our freaky frolics, including a run in with a most definitely haunted cat, head to youtube.com/@redhandedthepod from the 23rd of October. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the last 13 days before Halloween, a different ShortHand will rise from the archives for 24 hours only – before disappearing back into the vault. Get exclusive access to every ShortHand episode ad free only on Amazon Music Unlimited. -- Black magic, or ‘Sanguma’, is often used to explain everything from minor illnesses to sudden deaths in Papua New Guinea. Horrifyingly, it’s also behind the recent rise of brutal witch hunts sweeping the nation. An epidemic of violence in which, predominantly, women and girls are being publicly tortured and murdered. Why? Find out on this week’s ShortHand. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the last 13 days before Halloween, a different ShortHand will rise from the archives for 24 hours only – before disappearing back into the vault. Get exclusive access to every ShortHand episode ad free only on Amazon Music Unlimited. -- Zombies, incantations and dolls full of pins… the version of voodoo that most of us get has been suffused with decades of Hollywood magic, and a dusting of light xenophobia. But the reality of Haitian vodou is much more complex – and way more fascinating. Join H&S for some all-important extra context behind this week’s main feed episode on Papa Doc: How did slaves reconcile their own folklore and religions, with the Catholicism that colonisers were forcing down their throats? Who are the main lwa – or spirits – of vodou? And how can an offering of black coffee, rum and cigars help you to commune with the dead? Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the last 13 days before Halloween, a different ShortHand will rise from the archives for 24 hours only – before disappearing back into the vault. Get exclusive access to every ShortHand episode ad free only on Amazon Music Unlimited. -- First, children started to go missing in the villages around the Black Baron’s castle. Then, word spread of his dabbling in sinister, arcane rituals to conjure the Devil himself. And soon, in the dead of night, villagers reported hearing screams from a high castle window. Some say Medieval French nobleman Gilles de Rais was the first recorded serial killer in history, responsible for the gruesome torture and murder of hundreds, if not thousands, of children. Join us to find out what really happened high up in the dark towers of the Black Baron. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the last 13 days before Halloween, a different ShortHand will rise from the archives for 24 hours only – before disappearing back into the vault. Get exclusive access to every ShortHand episode ad free only on Amazon Music Unlimited. -- Recorded under a full moon, RedHanded’s guide to all things lycanthropic tells the whole hairy story: from Ancient Greek tales of curses, through the gruesome wolf trials of the Middle Ages, all the way through to whatever yassified teen-heartthrob vibe we’ve got going on nowadays. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the last 13 days before Halloween, a different ShortHand will rise from the archives for 24 hours only – before disappearing back into the vault. Get exclusive access to every ShortHand episode ad free only on Amazon Music Unlimited. -- Few places live up to their reputation like Aokigahara, known in the West as Japan’s ‘Suicide Forest’. Dense woodland, purported magnetic interference and tales of ghostly Yurei make navigating the forest difficult – but finding a secluded place to contemplate your existence is all too easy. Every year, dozens of people travel to Aokigahara to take their lives. But why? This week, we discuss the dark Japanese folklore and sinister realities behind one of the world's most tragically disturbing places… Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The police knew their suspect was a sexual sadist – one who had trapped a young boy for days and took great pleasure in slowly, methodically, snapping every bone in his legs. What they didn’t expect was that this ghastly resident of Baraboo, Wisconsin was still just 17 years old. And it wasn’t his first time. H&S spin the sinister tale of a twisted young psychopath, hiding in plain sight in an unassuming Midwestern town. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

*Update* Ian Watkins has been stabbed to death in Wakefield Prison by two fellow inmates, on Saturday 11th November 2025. He was previously stabbed in 2023, when he was taken hostage for six hours by a group of inmates. Here is our full episode from 2019. -- Ian Watkins was the lead singer of Welsh rock band Lostprophets. He toured all over the world, playing to sold out stadiums of adoring fans - so in 2012 when he was arrested and charged with 13 counts of child sex offences, including against a child as young as 11 months old, the world was shocked. This is a particularly troubling case because it of course covers the abuse this depraved man doled out to incredibly young victims, but there are also deeply troubling questions raised about why authorities missed chance after chance to catch Watkins. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

One of WWII’s lesser-known horrors, Japan’s secret biological warfare testing program is so brutal and inhumane that it’s hard to believe it could ever happen. And at its helm was a twisted microbiologist Shiro Ishi. Victims, known inside as “logs”, were injected and exposed to countless pathogens including typhoid, cholera, and the plague, then watched like lab rats as they were gripped by the diseases. Even in their last moments, the poor souls stuck inside Unit 731 weren’t safe, as they were cut open and examined, while they were still alive… Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Boiled in blood, hacked at by knives, torn apart by iron dogs… the world’s religions differ on what exactly might await sinners in the afterlife. But one thing they can all agree on is that if you were naughty on Earth, you are in for one hell of a horrible time. We take a quick tour of history’s grimmest netherzones: from freezing poison rain in the Norse Helheim, to a river of excrement, where monstrous aquatic beings eat your flesh, down in the Hindu Narakas. Welcome to Hell. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In 1981, nineteen-year-old Arne Cheyenne Johnson stabbed his landlord to death – but claimed he wasn’t guilty. Why? Because he was possessed by the literal Devil. With a wild alibi starring a possessed tween, budget exorcisms and even a cameo from America’s most notorious spooky grifters Ed and Lorraine Warren, Satan was going on trial... But would a judge believe that the horned guy himself was roaming small-town Connecticut in the early eighties? Find out as we explore the case that shocked a nation – and almost changed US law forever. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Almost immediately after 13-year-old Madeline Soto was reported missing in February 2024, something didn’t seem quite right. Her mother Jennifer Soto – and Jennifer’s boyfriend Stephan Sterns – gave a series of strange interviews in the press. And over the next five days, as investigators picked apart the lives (and sleeping arrangements) of those who lived in the Soto home, bombshells kept on rocking the people of Osceola County, Florida. Until finally, the horrific reality of what Maddy endured was revealed to the world. Exclusive bonus content: Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes Follow us on social media: YouTube TikTok Instagram Visit our website: Website Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.