The Medium Who Ghostwrote the Dead
A Victorian medium made messages appear on slates and then the conjurers and investigators made him look very exposed, which I am still laughing about.Read More 
How a Secret Society Made Boilers Miserable
A grim little campaign of mucked-up pumps, undercover detectives and one community that treated steam engines like enemy generals.Read More 
Frederick Deeming and the Many Names
An English conman who kept changing his name, married under false pretences, and ended up hung in Melbourne while everyone pretended it was tidy and simple.Read More 
Charles Cora Shot a Marshal and San Francisco Lost Its Mind
A gambler, a saloon, a shot in the street and a city that decided public justice could be done with a rope and a wagging finger.Read More 
the boy who vanished off the porch and left a city obsessed
A four year old vanished from his Philadelphia stoop in 1874 and the whole country went wild, forever changing how people thought about ransom and childhood.Read More 
The Ham That Caused a Huffy Scandal
A provincial butcher, a lifted ham, and a courtroom that preferred paperwork over common sense - ghastly, marvellous, and utterly human.Read More 
The Orange Parade That Tore Manhattan
July 12 1871, an Orange Order march exploded into street warfare and New York learned how thin civility could be.Read More 
The Man Who Paid to Bury a Giant (and People Paid to Stare)
A tobacconist tricked late 1860s America with a fake petrified giant and everyone cashed in like it was a theme park.Read More 
They Turned Trafalgar Into A Punch-Up
A demonstration in 1887 that started like a mooch and ended with policemen swinging sticks everywhere - absolute scenes, me.Read More 
The Skeleton Army That Tore Up Worthing
A seaside town, mock bands, and a mob that treated hymn-singing like a provocation.Read More 