Serial killers, gang violence & death squads
The Dexter Killer
One of the many effects of the pandemic is that we all watched way too much TV. With Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Shudder, AppleTV and more all competing for our attention, it can feel like all the visual content is scrambling our brains. Perhaps our grandparents were right for calling it the idiot box. Well,…
Dolly Oesterreich & Otto Sanhuber
Couples across the globe celebrated Valentine’s Day this week, and so I thought to myself ‘why not do a romantic story?’ Well, this story doesn’t feature any Montagues or Capulets, but it does feature a whole lot of love… of a sort. In April 1930, local newspapers in Los Angeles were abuzz with the lurid…
The Monster with 21 Faces
Today’s tale is one of the most famous – and spooky – true crime stories to come out of Japan! In 1984, Japan was in the midst of its ‘economic miracle’ a period of massive growth in GDP and standards of living that had lasted since the end of WW2. Japanese car companies were famously…
The Real Candy Man
In our penultimate creepy-crawly Halloween story we’re looking at the tale of the Candy Man. You may have heard of The Candyman (1992), a classic slasher flick in which Tony Todd plays the titular Candyman, a vengeful spirit haunting a local town after he’s murdered in a lynching. The story we’ll learn about today bares…
The Bloody Benders
We’re continuing our October spookfest with a look at one of America’s most successful family businesses… as long as you use a very peculiar form of the word ‘success’. In the 1870s the United States of America is trying to rebuild itself. The wounds of the American Civil War are still fresh, and in much…
Sabrina & Ursula Eriksson
Content warning: This post discusses self-harm and suicide attempts. Although not embedded in this post, one of the sources used for this story includes an audio recording of a roadside accident and people in distress. It’s October and Halloween will soon be upon us, so celebrate this most morbid of holidays we’ll be examining some…
Black Metal Mayhem
Metal music has always had a fascination with the occult and the satanic. For most metal bands, the whole Satanism thing is more of a vibe — a way to court controversy, boost sales and upset the parents of rebellious teenagers. However, some artists belonging to one sub-genre take devil worship more seriously — these…
Murder on the Football Pitch: 9 July
I don’t like football. When I was twelve I was hit in the face by a poorly aimed attempt at a goal. Ever since, my amygdala releases a twinge of epinephrine and cortisol when I see kids playing keepy-uppy. Worse, whenever England competes in a tournament the whole country goes a bit mad and I…
The Vampire of Cinkota: 28 May
This Wednesday was the 124th anniversary of the publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and in celebration I thought that I’d write a vampire-themed edition of Morbid Fact Fridays. Everyone knows the story of the blood-sucking Count of Transylvania, but you may not have heard the true tale of the Vampire of Cinkota. So grab your…
Coke, Fruit & The Death Squad: 21 May
The world’s best-selling soft drink may have blood on its hands. In 2001, a US Steelworkers’ union and an American labour-rights group sued Coca-Cola and three associated bottling companies in a Miami court on behalf of workers in Coke’s Colombian bottling plants. The accusation? MURDER. This suit is called Sinaltrainal v. Coca-Cola Co.1 The plaintiffs…
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