Devil Books and Murder Ballads: The Myth of the Arch-Killer

Historical Blindness

Nathaniel Lloyd

Politics, News, Religion & Spirituality, History, Religion

4 • 839 Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In my last episode of October, I consider the legends of 16th-century arch-killers, or what we might consider serial killers today, cave-dwelling highway robbers who were also said to be cannibals and sorcerers, like Sawney Bean and Christman Genipperteinga, whose kill count reached the thousands according to the cheap and lurid chapbooks and ballads that spread their tales to terrified readers. But how much of their stories was pure folklore? Direct all advertising inquiries to [email protected]. Visit www.airwavemedia.com to find other high-quality podcasts! Find a transcript of this episode with source citations and related imagery at www.historicalblindness.com. Pledge support on Patreon to get an ad-free feed with exclusive episodes! Check out my novel, Manuscript Found! And check out the show merch, which make perfect gifts! Some music on this episode was licensed under a Blue Dot Sessions blanket license at the time of this episode's publication. Tracks include "Black Ballots," "Game Lands," "Invernen," "Winter in Black," and "Cicle Gerano." Other music is copyright Alex Kish. Visit alexkishmusic.com to contact him for musical compositions. Additional music, including "Remedy for Melancholy," is by Kai Engel, licensed under Creative Commons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.
0:04.3	Hey, history fans. If you enjoy shows like historical blindness, then you'll love Airwave
0:09.2	History Plus, now available on Apple Podcasts. Airwave History Plus is your ticket to
0:13.9	ad-free listening to historical blindness plus bonus content in early episodes from dozens of
0:18.9	the most popular history shows, including History
0:21.3	That Doesn't Suck, The Explorers Podcast, Redacted History, The Box of Oddities, History of Everything,
0:27.8	Queen's podcast, the history of World War II, The Age of Napoleon, and more. To get your free
0:33.2	seven-day trial, go to the Apple page for historical blindness and hit subscribe or search Airwave
0:38.5	History Plus on Apple Podcasts. Airwave History Plus, the essential audio destination for history
0:44.5	lovers. Content warning. As I probably should have warned before the previous episode on
0:51.4	cannibalism, this episode contains the gruesome and violent details of
0:57.3	heinous crimes. Whether these crimes were real or simply alleged, the listener should beware.
1:18.6	When we have come to recognize that witches, werewolves, and vampires are nothing but myths, we begin to look elsewhere for monsters.
1:22.6	Much as explorers who failed to find dog-headed people,
1:27.6	nevertheless came to believe that the indigenous people they encountered
1:31.8	must also engage in the same monstrous acts attributed to the creatures of their imagination.
1:39.3	In the absence of true monsters, people who are thought to commit evil acts prove handy stand-ins,
1:48.7	and there are none more monstrous in our eyes than those who commit murders,
1:55.6	and especially many murders. Like the notion of everyday culinary cannibalism, the notion of the habitual or
2:05.0	serial killer chills us, and there is overlap here, as many a serial killer may be driven by
2:13.2	their pathology to consume the flesh of their victims.
2:24.9	Especially monstrous are those said to have claimed a huge number of victims.
	...

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