Prepare to venture to venture to the darkest most haunted locations once again.

About 4 o'clock in the morning it felt like the hand of God touched the castle.

The whole thing just shook. Brace yourself for a

supernatural journey unlike any other. It felt like there were other guests go

staying with us that we could not see.

Listen to Haunted Road season five on the I Heart Radio app, Apple

Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows.

Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I-Heart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky.

Listener discretion advised.

There was barely any breathing room in the courtroom as the proceedings were set to begin.

The French town of Perigu was by no means a major city, but people from all across the entire region, from all

across the entire country, had come to town in order to see firsthand the proceedings in what was sure to be the story of the year.

Villagers and notables, lawyers and witnesses, all jammed into every corner of the courthouse.

And on a cool December day in 1870, Bernard Mathieu took the stand and appeared before the raucous audience.

Bernard Mathieu was the mayor of a nearby town called Ulfai, where a horrific crime had taken place,

the lynching of a man.

No, not just a lynching, the prosecution reminded the audience.

Bernard Mathieu had to answer for a carnival of torture, a four-hour procession of brutality,

an ungodly murder, and not just the murder of any villager but of a young nobleman who

had served his country. A total of 21 men including Mathieu ranging from 16 years old to well past 60, were charged with this crime,

which had occurred four months before the trial, and the press had spent the intervening months gleefully recounting the most horrific details of the atrocity.

These weren't any ordinary villagers, the stories made clear, but savages, animals possessed by their

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