This episode contains discussions of suspected sexual abuse.

If that's not something you want to hear about, this may be a good episode to skip. Humans are fascinated by gore and violence, but even more so the mysterious and unsolved.

Interest in these disturbing and unpleasant subjects is called morbid curiosity,

and it has gripped hundreds of people throughout the ages.

I am one of those people.

My name is Hallie, and this is the Morbid Curiosity podcast.

I'm a bit discuss a famous allegation of murder. The mystery and brutal nature of this story have fascinated me for a long time, which is why I chose it for the first

episode of the Morbid Curiosity podcast. Without further ado, let's begin.

The day was hot in the small town of Fall River, Massachusetts.

It was August 4, 1892,

and the social climate of Fall River was on a downhill slope.

The streets were full of horses and the river full of raw sewage.

In the 100 degree Fahrenheit weather, the stink must have been unbearable. The aristocracy of

the city lived in an area known as the hill, which sat high above the rest of the city, while the

less fortunate lived closer to the stinking river.

Business was beginning to turn sour, and financial tensions were running high.

In February of that year, a man was shot five times by his son during an argument over money.

Weavers in some of the textile mills that served as the main industry of the city were not allowed to speak during their shifts, possibly to prevent the formation of unions.

Not only was money short, but the local police were enforcing strict regulations on the sale of alcohol, thanks to the slowly building temperance movement.

This made it hard for people to drink their rising sorrows away.

Without alcohol, people turned to other more violent forms of entertainment.

Rat baiting was on the rise, a blood sport that involved putting terriers into pits with rats

...