5.13: Sweeney Todd escapes … for now! (A Ha’penny Horrid H’episode.) Also — Hanged Today in History: The corpse that testified! — The bloody crime of William Corder.

SHOW NOTES

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EPISODES 11-14

(The third of four episodes aired February 15, 2026)

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Join host Corinthian Finn, a.k.a. Finn J.D. John 18th Baron Dunwitch,* for a one-hour-long spree through the scandal-sheets and story papers of old London!

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"THE HA'PENNY HORRIDS" (Segment 3 of 4):

• 00:30: HANGED TODAY IN HISTORY (February 15, 1688): On this day, Philip Stansfield was hanged for murdering his father. And yeah, he probably did it — there was a lot of circumstantial evidence — but the clincher was an account of how, when the body was found and Philip helped retrieve it, it bled on him. Which, the prosecutor said, “he must ascribe to the wonderful Providence of God, who in this manner discovers murder.” Divine forensics!
• 04:55: SWEENEY TODD, THE BARBER OF FLEET-STREET, Chapter 88: Todd, stuck on the roof, jumps across to the next house and makes his way out through it. As he leaves, he overhears Colonel Jeffery giving a letter to his footman to carry to Sir Richard Blunt … Todd follows him, wondering what’s in that letter … and making plans to find out!
• 19:25: HORRID BROADSIDE: The confession and execution of William Corder, who murdered his onetime sweetheart Maria Martin (1828).

GLOSSARY OF FLASH TERMS USED IN THIS EPISODE:

• PADDINGTON FAIR: Hanging day at the old Tyburn Tree gallows, which was located in Paddington Parish. Many of the convicts hanged there were “pads,” that is, thieves.

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*The Barony of Dunwitch is located in a deep forest glade west of Arkham (where, as H.P. Lovecraft put it, “the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut; there are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight.”) Actually it is a good 3,000 miles west of Arkham. It is not to be confused with Dunwich, the English seacoast town that fell house by house into the sea centuries ago, or Dunsany, the home until 1957 of legendary fantasy author Edward J.M.D. Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany.