-
Murder, Misadventure and Miserable Ends
- Tales from a Colonial Coroner's Court
- Narrated by: Dr. Catie Gilchrist
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $27.37
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Bloody Century
- True Tales of Murder in 19th Century America
- By: Robert Wilhelm
- Narrated by: Charles Huddleston
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A murderous atmosphere pervaded 19th-century America marked by lurid newspaper accounts and remembered in ballad and verse. The Bloody Century presents 50 of the most intriguing murder cases from the archives of American crime. It is a collection of fascinating stories - some famous, some long-buried - of Americans, driven by desperation, greed, jealousy, or an irrational bloodlust, to take another’s life.
-
-
Fun true crime with many a twist!
- By Lee Pollock on 08-04-21
By: Robert Wilhelm
-
The Battered Body Beneath the Flagstones, and Other Victorian Scandals
- By: Michelle Morgan
- Narrated by: Anne Dover
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A grisly book dedicated to the crimes, perversions and outrages of Victorian England, covering high-profile offences - such as the murder of actor William Terriss, whose stabbing at the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre in 1897 filled the front pages for many weeks - as well as lesser-known transgressions that scandalised the Victorian era. The tales include murders and violent crimes but also feature scandals that merely amused the Victorians.
-
-
Delicious scandals, and murder most foul...
- By katherine shabell on 05-14-19
By: Michelle Morgan
-
Unmentionable
- The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners
- By: Therese Oneill
- Narrated by: Betsy Foldes Meiman
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Have you ever wished you could live in an earlier, more romantic era? Ladies, welcome to the 19th century, where there's arsenic in your face cream, a pot of cold pee sits under your bed, and all of your underwear is crotchless. (Why? Shush, dear. A lady doesn't question.) Unmentionable is your hilarious, scandalously honest (yet never crass) guide to the secrets of Victorian womanhood.
-
-
I hope my review does this book justice.
- By jb11 on 12-13-17
By: Therese Oneill
-
Lady Killers
- Deadly Women Throughout History
- By: Tori Telfer
- Narrated by: Jaime Lamchick
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When you think of serial killers throughout history, the names that come to mind are ones like Jack the Ripper, John Wayne Gacy, and Ted Bundy. But what about Tillie Klimek, Moulay Hassan, Kate Bender? The narrative we’re comfortable with is the one where women are the victims of violent crime, not the perpetrators. In fact, serial killers are thought to be so universally, overwhelmingly male that in 1998, FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood infamously declared in a homicide conference, “There are no female serial killers.”
-
-
recommend to any true crime fans
- By Christina on 05-18-21
By: Tori Telfer
-
The Royal Art of Poison
- Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul
- By: Eleanor Herman
- Narrated by: Susie Berneis
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of poison is the story of power. For centuries, royal families have feared the gut-roiling, vomit-inducing agony of a little something added to their food or wine by an enemy. To avoid poison, they depended on tasters, unicorn horns, and antidotes tested on condemned prisoners. Servants licked the royal family's spoons, tried on their underpants, and tested their chamber pots. Ironically, royals terrified of poison were unknowingly poisoning themselves daily with their cosmetics, medications, and filthy living conditions.
-
-
More fun than poison should be!
- By Leslye Sinn on 01-21-19
By: Eleanor Herman
-
Damnation Island
- Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York
- By: Stacy Horn
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today it is known as Roosevelt Island. In 1828, when New York City purchased this narrow, two-mile-long island in the East River, it was called Blackwell's Island. There, over the next hundred years, the city would build a lunatic asylum, prison, hospital, workhouse, and almshouse. Stacy Horn has crafted a compelling and chilling narrative told through the stories of the poor souls sent to Blackwell's, as well as the period's city officials, reformers, and journalists (including the famous Nellie Bly). Damnation Island re-creates what daily life was like on the island....
-
-
Great look at a dark piece of NYC history.
- By Jess Post on 11-27-18
By: Stacy Horn
-
The Bloody Century
- True Tales of Murder in 19th Century America
- By: Robert Wilhelm
- Narrated by: Charles Huddleston
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A murderous atmosphere pervaded 19th-century America marked by lurid newspaper accounts and remembered in ballad and verse. The Bloody Century presents 50 of the most intriguing murder cases from the archives of American crime. It is a collection of fascinating stories - some famous, some long-buried - of Americans, driven by desperation, greed, jealousy, or an irrational bloodlust, to take another’s life.
-
-
Fun true crime with many a twist!
- By Lee Pollock on 08-04-21
By: Robert Wilhelm
-
The Battered Body Beneath the Flagstones, and Other Victorian Scandals
- By: Michelle Morgan
- Narrated by: Anne Dover
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A grisly book dedicated to the crimes, perversions and outrages of Victorian England, covering high-profile offences - such as the murder of actor William Terriss, whose stabbing at the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre in 1897 filled the front pages for many weeks - as well as lesser-known transgressions that scandalised the Victorian era. The tales include murders and violent crimes but also feature scandals that merely amused the Victorians.
-
-
Delicious scandals, and murder most foul...
- By katherine shabell on 05-14-19
By: Michelle Morgan
-
Unmentionable
- The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners
- By: Therese Oneill
- Narrated by: Betsy Foldes Meiman
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Have you ever wished you could live in an earlier, more romantic era? Ladies, welcome to the 19th century, where there's arsenic in your face cream, a pot of cold pee sits under your bed, and all of your underwear is crotchless. (Why? Shush, dear. A lady doesn't question.) Unmentionable is your hilarious, scandalously honest (yet never crass) guide to the secrets of Victorian womanhood.
-
-
I hope my review does this book justice.
- By jb11 on 12-13-17
By: Therese Oneill
-
Lady Killers
- Deadly Women Throughout History
- By: Tori Telfer
- Narrated by: Jaime Lamchick
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When you think of serial killers throughout history, the names that come to mind are ones like Jack the Ripper, John Wayne Gacy, and Ted Bundy. But what about Tillie Klimek, Moulay Hassan, Kate Bender? The narrative we’re comfortable with is the one where women are the victims of violent crime, not the perpetrators. In fact, serial killers are thought to be so universally, overwhelmingly male that in 1998, FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood infamously declared in a homicide conference, “There are no female serial killers.”
-
-
recommend to any true crime fans
- By Christina on 05-18-21
By: Tori Telfer
-
The Royal Art of Poison
- Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul
- By: Eleanor Herman
- Narrated by: Susie Berneis
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of poison is the story of power. For centuries, royal families have feared the gut-roiling, vomit-inducing agony of a little something added to their food or wine by an enemy. To avoid poison, they depended on tasters, unicorn horns, and antidotes tested on condemned prisoners. Servants licked the royal family's spoons, tried on their underpants, and tested their chamber pots. Ironically, royals terrified of poison were unknowingly poisoning themselves daily with their cosmetics, medications, and filthy living conditions.
-
-
More fun than poison should be!
- By Leslye Sinn on 01-21-19
By: Eleanor Herman
-
Damnation Island
- Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York
- By: Stacy Horn
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today it is known as Roosevelt Island. In 1828, when New York City purchased this narrow, two-mile-long island in the East River, it was called Blackwell's Island. There, over the next hundred years, the city would build a lunatic asylum, prison, hospital, workhouse, and almshouse. Stacy Horn has crafted a compelling and chilling narrative told through the stories of the poor souls sent to Blackwell's, as well as the period's city officials, reformers, and journalists (including the famous Nellie Bly). Damnation Island re-creates what daily life was like on the island....
-
-
Great look at a dark piece of NYC history.
- By Jess Post on 11-27-18
By: Stacy Horn
-
The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth
- And Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine
- By: Thomas Morris
- Narrated by: Thomas Morris, Ruper Farley
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A puzzling series of dental explosions beginning in the 19th century is just one of many strange tales that have long lain undiscovered in the pages of old medical journals. Award-winning medical historian Thomas Morris delivers one of the most remarkable, cringe-inducing collections of stories ever assembled.
-
-
Boring Toilet Humor
- By Nemo on 01-30-20
By: Thomas Morris
-
Woman at the Devil's Door
- The Untold Story of the Hampstead Murderess
- By: Sarah Beth Hopton
- Narrated by: Kate Mulligan
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On October 24, 1890, a woman's mutilated and lifeless body was discovered on a pile of rubbish in Hampstead, North London. Her arms were lacerated, her face crushed and bloodied, and her head almost completely severed from her body. A mile away a blood-soaked stroller was found leaning against a residential gate. The dead baby's body, hidden beneath a nettle bush, was not located until the following morning. So began the incredible story of the Hampstead Tragedy.
-
-
Good book, sloppy audiobook
- By P'an on 10-13-20
-
Ungovernable
- The Victorian Parent's Guide to Raising Flawless Children
- By: Therese Oneill
- Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg, Betsy Foldes Meiman
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Feminist historian Therese Oneill is back, to educate you on what to expect when you're expecting...a Victorian baby! In Ungovernable, Oneill conducts an unforgettable tour through the backward, pseudoscientific, downright bizarre parenting fashions of the Victorians.
-
-
Unexpected and Hilarious
- By M. Huber on 05-21-19
By: Therese Oneill
-
Quackery
- A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything
- By: Lydia Kang, Nate Pedersen
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What won't we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth? Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine - yes, that strychnine, the one used in rat poison - was dosed like Viagra. Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark, knowing humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices.
-
-
Comprehensive is an understatement
- By Amber on 11-08-18
By: Lydia Kang, and others
-
The Wonders
- Lifting the Curtain on the Freak Show, Circus and Victorian Age
- By: John Woolf
- Narrated by: Gavin Osborn
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On 23 March, 1844, General Tom Thumb, at 25 inches tall, entered the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace and bowed low to Queen Victoria. On both sides of the Atlantic, this meeting marked a tipping point in the 19th century - the age of the freak was born. Bewitching all levels of society, it was a world of astonishing spectacle - of dwarfs, giants, bearded ladies, Siamese twins and swaggering showmen - and one that has since inspired countless novels, films and musicals.
-
-
Strikes the right chord
- By CaL Lambert on 04-19-20
By: John Woolf
-
Ten Vintage True Crime Stories Rescued from Obscurity
- Famous Crimes the World Forgot, Book 1
- By: Jason Lucky Morrow
- Narrated by: Charles Huddleston
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook uncovers 10 amazing true crimes that exploded into the national news, shocking Americans from coast to coast - crimes that were eventually forgotten - until now. Many of these incredible cases went unexplored for decades.
-
-
The Narrator Makes It Great
- By Laurie on 03-09-19
-
The Five
- The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
- By: Hallie Rubenhold
- Narrated by: Louise Brealey
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. The person responsible was never identified, but the character created by the press to fill that gap has become far more famous than any of these five women. For more than a century, newspapers have been keen to tell us that "the Ripper" preyed on prostitutes. Not only is this untrue, as historian Hallie Rubenhold has discovered, but it has prevented the real stories of these fascinating women from being told.
-
-
Finally...A Voice for the Voiceless
- By CRF on 10-22-19
By: Hallie Rubenhold
-
Ripped from the Headlines!
- The Shocking True Stories Behind the Movies' Most Memorable Crimes
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bestselling true-crime master Harold Schechter explores the real-life headline-making psychos, serial murderers, thrill-hungry couples, and lady-killers who inspired a century of classic films.
-
-
Fascinating Look at Films Based on True Crimes
- By Admiralu on 08-06-20
By: Harold Schechter
-
Cursed Objects
- Strange but True Stories of the World's Most Infamous Items
- By: J.W. Ocker
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beware...this book is cursed! These strange but true stories of the world's most infamous items will appeal to true believers as well as history buffs, horror fans, and anyone who loves a good spine-tingling tale.
-
-
Good information!
- By Amelia on 07-29-21
By: J.W. Ocker
-
The Domestic Revolution
- How the Introduction of Coal into Victorian Homes Changed Everything
- By: Ruth Goodman
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No single invention epitomizes the Victorian era more than the black cast-iron range. Aware that the 21st-century has reduced it to a quaint relic, Ruth Goodman was determined to prove that the hot coal stove provided so much more than morning tea: It might even have kick-started the Industrial Revolution. Wielding the wit and passion seen in How to Be a Victorian, Goodman traces the tectonic shift from wood to coal in the mid-16th century - from sooty trials and errors during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I to the totally smog-clouded reign of Queen Victoria.
-
-
Zombie Apocalypse
- By PeachPecan on 12-25-20
By: Ruth Goodman
-
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England
- A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century
- By: Ian Mortimer
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagine you could travel back to the 14th century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where are you going to stay? And what are you going to eat? Ian Mortimer shows us that the past is not just something to be studied; it is also something to be lived. He sets out to explain what life was like in the most immediate way, through taking you to the Middle Ages. The result is the most astonishing social history book you are ever likely to read: evolutionary in its concept, informative and entertaining in its detail.
-
-
Detailed, Interesting and Entertaining
- By Marc-Andr? on 05-13-10
By: Ian Mortimer
-
Dr. Mutter's Marvels
- A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine
- By: Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
- Narrated by: Erik Singer
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagine undergoing an operation without anesthesia performed by a surgeon who refuses to sterilize his tools - or even wash his hands. This was the world of medicine when Thomas Dent Mütter began his trailblazing career as a plastic surgeon in Philadelphia during the middle of the 19th century. Although he died at just 48, Mütter was an audacious medical innovator who pioneered the use of ether as anesthesia, the sterilization of surgical tools, and a compassion-based vision for helping the severely deformed, which clashed spectacularly with the sentiments of his time.
-
-
Morbidly wonderful
- By serine on 04-08-16
Publisher's Summary
Murder, manslaughter, suicide, mishap - the very public business of determining death in colonial Sydney. Murder in colonial Sydney was a surprisingly rare occurrence, so when it did happen, it caused a great sensation. People flocked to the scene of the crime, to the coroner's court, and to the criminal courts to catch a glimpse of the accused.
Most of us today rarely see a dead body. In 19th-century Sydney, when health was precarious and workplaces and the busy city streets were often dangerous, witnessing a death was rather common. And any death that was sudden or suspicious would be investigated by the coroner.
Henry Shiell was the Sydney city coroner from 1866 to 1889. In the course of his unusually long career, he delved into the lives, loves, crimes, homes, and workplaces of colonial Sydneysiders. He learned of envies, infidelities, passions, and loyalties, and just how short, sad, and violent some lives were. But his court was also, at times, instrumental in calling for new laws and regulations to make life safer.
Catie Gilchrist explores the 19th-century city as a precarious place of bustling streets and rowdy hotels, harborside wharves and dangerous industries. With few safety regulations, the colorful city was also a place of frequent inquests, silent morgues, and solemn graveyards. This is the story of life and death in colonial Sydney.
Praise:
"Catie Gilchrist draws back the veil on death in nineteenth-century Sydney to reveal life - ordinary, tragic and hopeful." (David Hunt, author of Girt and True Girt)
What listeners say about Murder, Misadventure and Miserable Ends
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Janalyn
- 03-14-20
Australian historical true crime… Awesome!
I was a bit worried when I saw the author of the book also read the book, but usually doesn’t work out well. In this case the doctor had a pleasant wonderful relaxing voice and her tone and delivery was perfect for the genre. The stories are interesting and will be to anyone who likes just Storico true crime as I do. I read this in a couple of days and will probably read it again in a few months there isn’t much in this book left up to conjecture, except your own as most of it or rather all of it is based on facts and Connor reports and Connor inquest transcripts. They do have a little bit of bio which I love. So all in all I really think this was an excellent book.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rocco
- 03-03-20
Interesting and Elightening
The author and narrator are very good and loved hearing the Australian vernacular. Made the lives of ordinary people in 18th and 19th century Australia real and put today's happenings into perspective and gave me even more respect for the work of coroners.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Barbara J Allison
- 08-29-19
very interesting and enlightening
lead a lot about how new laws are made and how Unconcerned some officials can be about public health
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jeff Engel
- 10-30-21
More than I expected
This would have been interesting if it had only been an account of some of the more gruesome or unusual cases of a nineteenth-century coroner, but it is much more. Inquest records are just the starting point for fascinating examinations of medical practices, social mores, living conditions, hazards of life, civic history, and crime and law of that era, all deftly knit together. The author starts with murders, moves on to other crimes (including the sometime crime of suicide), work hazards, bad food, perilous childhood, poverty, domestic violence, botched abortions and the social conditions that made them seem necessary, and more – all connected by the thread of death (because of the coroner's involvement). It was unexpectedly absorbing and satisfying.
The reader, Emma Grant Williams (not Catie Gilchrist), was perfect for this book. As a bonus, I learned the right way to say "Bondi Beach" and the world's cutest place name, Woolloomooloo.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Rose
- 01-30-20
A great insight in to life and death
It must be said that life and liberty were something of a lottery. Some made it to old age, a lot didn’t. This book shows up the imperfections of moral double standards of life in Victorian Australia in the late nineteenth century. It’s a sad tale that might have been told anywhere but in this case Sydney New South Wales during the career of one city coroner. It’s a good book well worth a read though, I think the details as to duration and narrator are wrong.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 05-23-22
Fascinating.
A whole new area of Australian history I had no idea about. The author is a natural story teller. highly recommend to anyone who loves Australian history.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Catherine
- 03-16-22
Great storytelling woven with history
Well researched, very insightful. Voice is pleasant to listen to.
A must for anyone interested in the history of Darlinghurst
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 03-24-21
Brings Sydney’s macabre colonial history to life!
I couldn’t stop listening once I got started.
Dr Gilchrist’s book is a fascinating deep dive into Sydney’s pre-Federation history and the lives of its inhabitants, which, even Sydneyites tend not to know/learn very much about. It paints an interesting picture of Sydney life in the 19th Century, and captures the essence of that old saying “Media vita in morte sumus” or in the midst of life we are in death.
There is a subject of intrigue for everyone interested in history, murder mysteries, legal studies or just general knowledge. I’d particularly recommend it to anyone living in Sydney, Australia who’d like to know more about our city.
Dr Gilchrist also handles each tragic case with respect and non-judgement, and she takes care to frame crimes like infanticide, or situations of suicide, into an appropriate context for modern readers.
I absolutely recommend it!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Magpie
- 07-12-20
Brilliant
Highly recommended. Well researched, thoughtful. Excellent narration as well. Bringing early Australian history to life.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Stephen S
- 05-19-20
Thoroughly Captivating !
I love everything to do with Australia's and especially , Sydney's , Past History . This Audiobook is truly amazing and from start to finish had me totally captivated . Fantastic !