After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal
History Hit
This is After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal. The podcast that takes you to the shadiest corners of the past, unpicking history’s spookiest, strangest, and most sinister stories.Join historians Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling, every Monday and Thursday to take a look at the darker side of history. From haunted pubs and Houdini, to witch trials and weird UFO sightings.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal - a podcast by History Hit, the world's best history channel and creators of award-winning podcasts Dan Snow's History Hit, Gone Medieval, and Betwixt the Sheets.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.
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Episodes
Mentioned books
Feb 26, 2026 • 44min
Origins of Victorian Murder Detectives
A lively tour of early Victorian policing and how prevention-first constables evolved into plain‑clothes detectives. Tales of bungled manhunts, press fury and the Jade Jones fiasco contrast with the coordinated Manning case and the rise of forensics. Listeners hear about social class, recruitment quirks, early methods like footprint matching, and the slow path to fingerprint science.
4 snips
Feb 23, 2026 • 46min
Who Was the Man In The Iron Mask?
A decades-long French mystery about an anonymous prisoner kept hidden under Louis XIV. Investigations into prison records, Saint-Mars' letters, and shifting rumors. Debates over a velvet versus iron mask and why the man was moved between fortresses. How Voltaire, Dumas and revolutionary prints turned sparse facts into a lasting myth.
Feb 19, 2026 • 57min
The Dark Truth about the Haitian Revolution
Marlene Daut, a Yale professor of French and African Diaspora Studies and author on Haitian history, narrates the origins and scale of the 1791 uprising. She explores plantation brutality, the role of Vodou ceremonies, shifting international alliances, and leaders like Toussaint, Dessalines and women fighters. The conversation traces how abolition, betrayals and global politics forged the first permanent Black republic.
70 snips
Feb 16, 2026 • 58min
The French Revolution's Reign of Terror
Dr Michael Rapport, Reader in Modern European History at the University of Glasgow, discusses the Reign of Terror and its backdrop. He traces how war, economic collapse and emergency institutions drove mass repression. Conversation covers the Law of Suspects, local surveillance systems, the guillotine’s shift from reform to spectacle, roles of women, and why key figures like Robespierre fell.
Feb 12, 2026 • 33min
The Dark Truth about Wuthering Heights
A dive into the wild Yorkshire moors, family tragedy and the Parsonage that shaped gothic imagination. They trace childhood imaginary worlds, folklore of wailing women and corpse candles, and the Brontës’ struggles with isolation, loss and societal backlash. The conversation links industrial Victorian change, Branwell’s decline and the novels’ controversial reception.
87 snips
Feb 9, 2026 • 53min
Bloody Beginning of the French Revolution
Michael Rapport, Reader in Modern European History at the University of Glasgow, guides a vivid retelling of 1789 Paris. Short scenes cover why revolution caught France off guard. He unpacks the Bastille’s military role and symbolic power. Listeners hear how crowd action, troop movements and political crisis turned a royal fortress into a spark for nationwide upheaval.
Feb 5, 2026 • 37min
Al Capone and the Valentine's Day Massacre
Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer-winning biographer and historian of Al Capone, brings Prohibition-era grit. He traces how bootlegging, corrupt police and rival gangs set the stage. He recreates the massacre night, the shocking press coverage, theories about cops in uniforms, and how investigators ultimately built a tax case that toppled Capone.
63 snips
Feb 2, 2026 • 49min
Dark Truth About Victorian 'Freak Shows'
A haunting retelling of Julia Pastrana’s life and how Victorian curiosity turned people into public spectacles. They trace the rise of cabinets of curiosity into live shows, medicalized racism, and the business of selling otherness. The story follows marketing, exploitation, macabre postmortem display and eventual repatriation and reclamation efforts.
8 snips
Jan 29, 2026 • 45min
Essex's Darkest Witch Hunt
Marion Gibson, historian and author of Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials, specialises in early modern witchcraft cases. She recounts the St Osyth hunt: a cunning woman accused, children's testimonies, coercive interrogations, grisly trial details, and how local power, folk healers and pamphlets shaped wider witchcraft persecutions.
Jan 26, 2026 • 50min
Who Was the Witchfinder General?
A deep dive into 1640s England and how civil war, Puritan zeal, and a legal vacuum enabled a fevered witch hunt. Exploration of the methods used to accuse and torture suspected witches, including swimming, pricking, and searches for devil marks. A chilling case study of an accused woman and the era's print culture that amplified fear and shaped later trials.
