This week, Isla takes the lead in her first ever Switchblade Sisters case presentation! Brace yourself for a tale of murder, manipulation, and mushroom soup as we plunge into the poison-laced life of Polish-American serial killer Tilly Klimek.

Operating in Chicago’s Little Poland in the early 1900s, Tilly claimed to be clairvoyant, predicting the deaths of her husbands, neighbours, and even dogs, conveniently just before they were struck down by arsenic poisoning. What started as eerie foresight soon turned out to be cold-blooded calculation.

Isla walks us through Tilly’s many suspicious marriages, her poisoned candy campaigns, and her final downfall thanks to some suspicious garlic breath.

Things you will learn about:

• Why Chicago in the 1920s was apparently the place to get away with murder (especially if you were attractive)

• The history of arsenic, and why Victorian women loved it (and used it)

• The sociopolitical context behind poisoner-widows and the twisted, systemic forces at play

• Some unfair courtroom double standards ( if you're hot, you walk free)

• How Dee has too many tattoos planned and not enough body space

• Wiggles the Party Vulture 🦃
  

👩‍⚖️ The Ink-Quisition:

Submit your own tattoo for judgment, adoration, and possibly ridicule 💀💋

Sources

• Lady Killers by Tori Telfer

• She Kills Me by Jennifer Wright

• League of Lady Poisoners by Lisa Perrin

• A is for Arsenic by Kathryn Harkup

• ChicagoHistory.org

• Murderpedia
  

Want more murderous women, poisoned pastries, and dark history?Come find us at events in York and Harrogate this summer. Check out all upcoming live dates at Criminally Good Books.

Welcome back, sisters and sinners! This week, Dee and Isla take a dark and winding stroll down the towpaths of 1960s London to unpick the grim mystery of Jack the Stripper — no, not a misbehaving hen party guest, but the nickname for one of Britain’s most elusive serial killers.

Between 1959 and 1965, eight women, all sex workers, were found murdered and dumped near the Thames. All were undressed. All were petite. All were preyed upon in an era when London was loosening up morally… but still tightening the noose on working-class women.

As always, we take you through the crimes, the investigation, and the infuriating dead ends. including the time a nightclub caretaker just wandered into the police station and confessed. (He changed his mind. As you do.)

Also, brace yourselves — Dee drops her most controversial opinion yet: soya milk is the worst of all milk alternatives. We’ll give you a moment to recover.

Join The Ink-Quisition!Do you have a tattoo you'd like us to lovingly judge at the end of an episode? Whether it's your nan's name, a haunted doll, or just a regretful dolphin from Magaluf 2004, submit your ink to The Ink-Quisition. Link in bio.

Sources:

• UK Unsolved Crimes – Jack the Stripper
  

• True Crime All The Time Unsolved
  

• Blood Ties Podcast
  

• Mysteries and Histories – Hammersmith Nude Murders
  

• The Student’s Verdict – Jack the Stripper (yes, not a typo)
  

• The Ministry of History
  

• Wikipedia (obviously, we’re not monsters)

What do you get when you cross a morgue attendant with a Satanist, a bad artist, and a 90s French internet hookup? A cannibal with a YouTube following, apparently.

Join Dee and Isla as we plunge fang-first into the gore-splattered legacy of Nicolas Claux, the Vampire of Paris, a convicted murderer, confessed cannibal, corpse desecrator, and, somehow, international curator.

It all started with a seemingly innocent visit to a Serial Killer Exhibition in London, until one donor’s name kept creeping up like a resurrected corpse.

Trigger warnings galore: corpses, cannibalism, blood-drinking, grave desecration, and very, very bad art. (Seriously. We Googled it. It’s awful.)

Shout outs:

Nominal

https://www.instagram.com/nominal/

Hoodies for Heroes

https://www.instagram.com/hoodies_for_heroes/

Wear the Peace

https://www.instagram.com/wearthepeace/

Britain Palestine Project

https://www.instagram.com/britainpalestineproject/

Dee’s Save the Children webinar on Palestinian children in military detention

https://britainpalestineproject.org/injustice/

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs - Dee’s articles

https://www.wrmea.org/search.html?searchword=Diana%20safieh&searchphrase=all

Sources:

• Murderpedia (obvs)
  

• Le Parisien
  

• University of Wikipedia, majoring in Morbid Curiosity
  

• Unforbidden Truths Podcast
  

• Uneasy Terrain Explorers Club Podcast
  

📣 CALL TO ACTION: Send us your tattoos for judgement for this week’s Ink-Quisition!

🖤 #TrueCrimeEthics #InkQuisition #VampireOfParis