The Kidsgrove Tragedy: Murder, Madness & the Vanished Mind | Staffordshire, 1911
News of the Times | Episode 582 |1911

In October 1911, the quiet mining town of Kidsgrove was shaken to its core.
Inside a secluded villa, three people — a widow, her four-year-old daughter, and their 16-year-old servant — were found brutally murdered. No forced entry. No screams. Just silence… until an eight-year-old child came running for help.

The prime suspect? Karl Kramer — a German labourer with a forged identity, a borrowed bicycle, and a suspicious amount of stolen silver jingling in his pockets.
But when the police finally caught him, a disturbing question emerged:

Was Kramer a calculated killer… or a man whose mind had simply vanished?

This episode follows the manhunt across counties, the extraordinary behaviour of the accused in custody, and the courtroom spectacle that left a jury trying not what the man had done — but whether he knew anything at all.

A chilling story of murder, madness, and a fugue state that baffled doctors, magistrates, and the Edwardian press.

🔎 Featuring:
• The shocking crime at Avenue Villa
• Witness sightings and the frantic police chase
• Kramer’s shifting identity and sudden “collapse”
• Courtroom confusion over sanity vs. shamming
• The extraordinary decision that sent him to Broadmoor

If you enjoy intelligent historical true crime, forensic missteps, and strange Edwardian tragedies, this episode will be right up your cobblestone street.

Stay to the end for today’s Further Particulars:
A nine-year-old boy, a bit of pocket money, and one extremely deceased mother —
proving that some Edwardian “playdates” should really come with a parental advisory.

It’s grim… but in a way the Victorians would have confidently labelled “character-building."

👤 Narrated by Robin Coles

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Yarmouth’s Darkest Day Since the Plague | The 1845 Bridge Disaster
News of the Times | Episode 581 | 1845

What began as a light-hearted Victorian spectacle — a clown in a tub drawn by four geese — became one of the worst civilian disasters in British history.

In 1845, hundreds gathered on Great Yarmouth’s suspension bridge to witness a novelty act. Within minutes, the bridge collapsed, sending a crowd — mostly women and children — plunging into the River Bure. Nearly 100 people lost their lives in a tragedy the press would call “a judgment too dreadful to be forgotten.”

In this episode, we uncover:
The bizarre origins of the event
Eyewitness horror and miraculous escapes
The haunting aftermath: legal confusion, public grief, and buried truths
How one young survivor described stabbing his way to safety beneath the water

And in this week’s Further Particulars, we leave tragedy behind to share the most curious Victorian headlines of 1845 — from exploding cotton bales to a pheasant illegally entering a workhouse.
Frankly, it's the best Victorian Twitter feed we’ve ever read.

📜 Join us as we walk the fog-bound quays of Yarmouth on its darkest day. A story of broken chains, a grieving town, and a spectacle gone terribly, fatally wrong.

👤 Hosted by Robin Coles

📅 New episodes: Monday, Wednesday & Friday
🎞️ Long-form historical crime compilations: Final Sunday of every month

📚 Related cases from the archive:
1845: The Shapwick Poisoner - Sarah Freeman | Ep175
https://youtu.be/NfR4QR2uqGE
1845 - 1895: Fatal Attractions | Ep177
https://youtu.be/CHRQZJ486mo
1842: Bad Daniel Good | Ep188
https://youtu.be/B4YxkMmmpDU

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We’re an independent team of historical researchers and narrators specialising in 18th to early 20th century British true crime. Each episode is based entirely on archival material — from

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Murder in Uniform: The Death of William Glass and the Hanging of Inspector Montgomery
News of the Times | Episode 580 | [1871 - 1873
🔍 A Victorian bank clerk found butchered. £1,600 in notes vanished. And standing at the centre of the storm? A decorated police inspector with debts, secrets... and a very damp coat.

In 1871, the quiet Irish town of Newtownstewart was shattered by a murder so brutal — and so unexpected — it dominated headlines across the Empire. But when the evidence began to point not to a stranger… but to the very man charged with protecting the town, the story turned from tragedy to national scandal.

👮‍♂️ Three trials. A buried cache of bloodstained notes. A murder weapon pulled from the undergrowth. And one of the most extraordinary prosecutions in British legal history.

In today’s News of the Times, we dive deep into the case of Inspector Thomas Hartley Montgomery, the only serving Irish police officer ever executed for murder.

And in today's end of episode further particulars story...
At the end of this harrowing tale of betrayal and bloody justice, we bring you a story of crime on a very different scale:

A Halloween prank. A Glasgow cinema display. And a gang of 13-year-old fashion bandits who left poor Harold Lloyd trouserless in a shop window.

Because nothing says “festive mischief” quite like grand theft flannel.

☕ Settle in with a strong brew and join us for this atmospheric journey into betrayal, justice, and the terrifying question: What happens when the murderer wears the uniform of trust?

👤 Narrated by Robin Coles

📅 New episodes: Monday, Wednesday & Friday
🎞️ Long-form historical crime compilations: Final Sunday of every month

📚 Related cases from the archive:
1874: Family Killings in Ripon | Ep210
https://youtu.be/pl8viuZayD4
1872: The Bermondsey Tragedy | Ep212
https://youtu.be/R5Xo4gsu4Ig
1872: The Murder at Great Coram Stree | Ep224
https://youtu.be/lXJWjOTjNM8

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The Ardlamont Mystery: Murder, Money, and the Missing Man
News of the Times | Episode 579 | 1893

Scotland, 1893 — A young aristocrat lies dead on a hunting estate. His tutor claims it was a tragic accident. But as investigators dig deeper, a tangled web of insurance policies, disappearing witnesses, and suspicious identities begins to unravel.

🔍 Who was the enigmatic "Edward Scott"?
💼 Why was a life insurance policy taken out just days before the death?
🧠 And what did the famed Dr Joseph Bell — the real-life inspiration for Sherlock Holmes — conclude when he examined the evidence?

In this gripping tale of privilege, planning, and misdirection, we uncover the true story behind one of the most mysterious deaths of the Victorian age — and the courtroom drama that followed.

📜 Featuring:

Greedy tutors
Vanishing witnesses
An inheritance at stake
And the curious forensic mind of Dr Bell…

💀 Did justice prevail — or did a killer walk free?

🐇 Further Particulars: The Ghost Rabbit That Shoots Back
And finally — as a curious footnote to our tale of hunting and misadventure — we bring you a moonlit story from Cornwall involving a haunted churchyard, a full pub, and a white rabbit that absolutely refuses to be shot.

One poor soul tried.He lost.To a rabbit.
True story. Victorian weirdness at its finest.

🎩Hosted by Robin Coles

📅 New episodes: Monday, Wednesday & Friday
🎞️ Long-form historical crime compilations: Final Sunday of every month

📚 Related cases from the archive:
1896: The Murder of Emma Hunt: Cold Case or Victorian Injustice? | EP514
https://youtu.be/WHgRw1RSC9w
1893: The Inheritance Scandal of Lady Gooch: Fake Pregnancy, Stolen Baby, and a £3.8 Million Estate | EP533
https://youtu.be/t59vycUkFP0

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🕯 About the Channel
We’re an independent team of historical researchers and narrators specialising in 18th to early 20th century British true crime

Hear about our ad-free archive on Patreon – 650+ episodes and counting! 🎩 https://www.patreon.com/c/NewsoftheTimesHistoricalCrime

Fancy a chuckle between corpses? Discover our first lovingly illustrated volume of wildly unreliable memoirs.

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Spectral Evidence: The Chilling Case of Anne Walker’s Ghost | A Notorious November Episode
News of the Times | Episode 579 | 1631
In 1630s County Durham, the dead didn’t just whisper… they testified.

This is the gothic true crime story of Anne Walker — a young servant girl who vanished, only for her ghost to return, describe her murder, name her killers, and send shockwaves through a superstitious society. Incredibly, the courts listened. And a conviction followed.

In an era before fingerprints or forensics, “spectral evidence” was taken seriously — and in this case, it led to the gallows. Was it justice? Superstition? Or something stranger still?

Join us as we uncover a forgotten case where the veil between life and death thinned just enough… for a voice to cross it.

🕯️ Part of our Notorious November series exploring infamous, eerie, and unjust cases from the past.

👻 Further Particulars:
If you think a ghost naming her killer is the strangest thing you’ll hear today, wait until a reaper with a sickle meets a Welsh clergyman, a vanishing horseman, and a suspiciously well-timed “Amen.”

There’s divine intervention, roadside skulduggery, and possibly the politest haunting on ecclesiastical record. The Lord moves in mysterious ways. So, it seems, do mysterious men on white horses.

📌 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share with someone who still refuses to close their cupboard door at night.

Unlock full access to our ad-free archive — hundreds of historical true crime cases from Georgian jealousy to Edwardian scandal — for just £5/month:
👉 newsofthetimeshistoricalcrime@Patreon.com

👤 Hosted by Robin Coles

📅 New episodes: Monday, Wednesday & Friday
🎞️ Long-form historical crime compilations: Final Sunday of every month

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🕯 About the Channel
We’re an independent team of historical researchers and narrators specialising in 18th to early 20th century British true crime. Each episode is based entirely on archival material — from coroners’ inquests to forgotten newspaper columns.

Hear about our ad-free archive on Patreon – 650+ episodes and counting! 🎩 https://www.patreon.com/c/NewsoftheTimesHistoricalCrime

Fancy a chuckle between corpses? Discover our first lovingly illustrated volume of wildly unreliable memoirs.

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A Most Inconvenient Pregnancy: Class, Murder, and the Doddinghurst Tragedy of 1850
News of the Times | Episode 577 | 1850
Step into the shadows of rural England, where a quiet field near a stile becomes the setting for a grim discovery.

A young woman is found face-down in the grass. She was pregnant. And someone wanted her silence — permanent.

As whispers ripple through the small 1850s community of Doddinghurst, a troubling picture emerges: a man with much to lose, a secret love affair, and the desperate measures taken to protect a fragile reputation.

This haunting case from the Victorian era unfolds through inquest records, witness accounts, and a telling web of circumstantial evidence — revealing how reputation could be deadlier than truth.

📜 Join us as we delve into the social pressure, forensic limitations, and moral contradictions of 19th-century England in a case that shocked its time.

And in today’s “further particulars”…
Where the Doddinghurst tragedy gave us scandal and sorrow, our next tale offers no secret liaisons, no blackmail, and no lace-bound arsenic.

Just one man.
One mousehttps://youtu.be/VFjhBenGoZw.
And a coroner’s report that should really come with a lunchtime warning.

🐭 From the Manchester Evening News, we bring you a story quite literally swallowed whole… and still squeaking.

🎩 Hosted by Robin Coles

📅 New episodes: Monday, Wednesday & Friday
🎞️ Long-form historical crime compilations: Final Sunday of every month

📚 Related cases from the archive:
1856: The Murder of George Samuel Little - A Locked Room Mystery | EP469
https://youtu.be/UeoyQsJtEbU
1854: He Brought a Gun to His Own Arrest: The Shocking Case of James Tucker | EP530
https://youtu.be/nGWHRjedwgE

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🕯 About the Channel
We’re an independent team of historical researchers and narrators specialising in 18th to early 20th century British t

Hear about our ad-free archive on Patreon – 650+ episodes and counting! 🎩 https://www.patreon.com/c/NewsoftheTimesHistoricalCrime

Fancy a chuckle between corpses? Discover our first lovingly illustrated volume of wildly unreliable memoirs.

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The Murder of Vera Page: A Case That Science Couldn't Solve
News of the Times | Episode 576 | 1931

In 1931, the disappearance of 10-year-old Vera Page sent shockwaves through Hammersmith, West London. When her body was discovered days later, concealed in a garden mere yards from her home, public outrage erupted — and police turned to their most famous forensic expert, Sir Bernard Spilsbury, to help secure a conviction.

Confident in his findings, Spilsbury offered precise testimony on time of death and fibre analysis. But despite his assertions, the case never led to a conviction. In later years, his conclusions were heavily criticised, with modern experts pointing to serious flaws in his methods — raising troubling questions about how justice was pursued, and at what cost.

Featuring:• The tragic death of Vera Page• Spilsbury’s courtroom dominance• Fibre and pathology claims that didn’t hold up• An enduring mystery, and a legacy of doubt

This week’s Further Particulars takes us back to 1893 Soho, where one envelope cutter discovered — too late — that not every conversation starter needs to be followed by demonstration.

What began as a night of friendly boasting at the Carlyle Arms quickly turned tragic when someone posed the eternal question:“Do you think a billiard ball would fit in my mouth?”
🎩Hosted by Robin Coles

📅 New episodes: Monday, Wednesday & Friday

📚 Related cases from the archive:
1930: The Blazing Car Murderer | EP407
https://youtu.be/qqspUfNxmsA
1930: The Case of the Body in the Wall Murder | EP424
https://youtu.be/JgMZHtDud88
1933: The Morton Murder | EP452
https://youtu.be/u5mrp3tbB-Y

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🕯 About the Channel
We’re an independent team of historical researchers and narrators specialising in 18th to early 20th century British true crime. Each episode is based entirely on archival material — from coroners’ inquests to forgotten newspap

Hear about our ad-free archive on Patreon – 650+ episodes and counting! 🎩 https://www.patreon.com/c/NewsoftheTimesHistoricalCrime

Fancy a chuckle between corpses? Discover our first lovingly illustrated volume of wildly unreliable memoirs.

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Murder on Wimbledon Common: The Fireside Poker Killing | 1917 True Crime
News of the Times | Episode 575 | 1917
A quiet house. A brutal assault. And a killer hiding in plain sight.

In November 1917, wartime London was still reeling from Zeppelin raids and rations — but nothing prepared the residents of Wimbledon Common for the horror inside Winkfield Lodge. When a maid opened the bedroom door that morning, she found her employer, Captain Edward Tighe, barely clinging to life — his skull shattered by a bent and bloodied poker.

🕯️ Four days later, the retired army officer was dead. The hunt began

📜 This gripping episode includes:
• The violent murder of a decorated army veteran
• A string of burglaries, a false identity, and a fateful pawnshop visit
• Trial coverage from the Old Bailey courtroom
• The final walk to the gallows, under the hand of hangman John Ellis
• And a rare look into wartime London's underworld of crime

📰 Further Particulars:
And finally, from fireplace pokers to broken hearts, we turn now to the treacherous world of Edwardian romance — a time when courtship was conducted not by swiping right, but by cautiously wording your larder habits in the Matrimonial Advertiser.

In 1917, one hopeful woman of fifty dared to make the first move — only to be met with a red silk handkerchief rendezvous, a suspected poacher offering to keep her larder full, and a musical "gentleman" whose publishing credentials turned out to be as fictional as his hairline.

If you thought modern dating was unforgiving, wait until you hear how leap-year love fared when advertised by the column inch. 🕯️💔📬

👤 Narrated by Robin Coles

📅 New episodes: Monday, Wednesday & Friday

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🕯 About the Channel
We’re an independent team of historical researchers and narrators specialising in 18th to early 20th century British true crime. Each episode is based entirely on archival material — from coroners’ inquests to forgotten newspaper columns.

If you like your true crime thoughtful, atmospheric, and rooted in r

Hear about our ad-free archive on Patreon – 650+ episodes and counting! 🎩 https://www.patreon.com/c/NewsoftheTimesHistoricalCrime

Fancy a chuckle between corpses? Discover our first lovingly illustrated volume of wildly unreliable memoirs.

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Support us on Patreon for ad-free early access and exclusive bonus episodes.

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