Tillie Klimek: Mrs. Bluebeard of Chicago

Morbid

Ash Kelley & Alaina Urquhart

Comedy, Paranormal, True Crime, Dark History

4.4 • 100.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Chicago in the 1920s is often remembered for the rise of organized crime and it’s larger than life leaders like Al Capone and Johnny Torrio. While these men and their organizations surely shaped the city’s identity, their infamy and influence were, at least for a short time, rivaled by a group of young women whose murderous acts would dominate headlines in papers around the country throughout the decade. While Beulah Annan and Belva Gardner—the real-life inspiration for the musical Chicago—were arguably the most well known of the female murders from this era, their famous murders were preceded by the equally sensationalized murder spree of Tillie Klimek. Between 1914 and 1921, Klimek was believed to have killed as many as seven people including four husbands. While her crimes would ultimately land her in the Illinois State Penitentiary for the rest of her life, her exploits and criminal trial were sensational and occupied the front pages of city newspapers for years.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash.
0:02.0	And I'm Elena.
0:03.3	This is Mawbid.
0:05.2	This is Mold.
0:25.6	This is Mold. How's it hanging? It's hump day, everybody.
0:26.4	Hump day!
0:30.4	Remember when that was like an office culture thing?
0:36.2	There was like a commercial. Yeah, that had a camel, I think. It was a man who turned into a camel, I believe.
0:38.6	Oh, it was? Maybe my brain made that. I didn't know the dark history of that. I thought it was just a camel. I think the man became a camel, because he kept saying, oh, no? Deb is, Deb, Deb is shaking her head, too. I don't know. I don't know about that. I'm going to go that. I think it was just him being like, Mike, Mike, Mike.
0:56.3	Wow.
0:56.9	Yeah, I think he just being in this. Fuck. I thought. I both were like, what? There's dark history behind this commercial. I didn't think it was dark history. I just thought it was like... I mean, a man becoming a camel. That's a bit. That's dark. It's a bit. It's dark, man. I don't want it was dark history. I mean, a man becoming a camel. That's a bit.
1:11.5	That's dark.
1:12.5	It's a bit.
1:13.3	It's dark, man.
1:14.2	I don't want to be a camel.
1:14.9	It's a dark bit, you know. Exactly. I thought. I should know. You thought, I guess. I don't know. There's a lot that I thought that I thought. There's a lot that I think. There's a lot that I thought.
1:24.6	I thought that I thunk that I think.
1:26.3	And I thunk.
1:27.3	All right.
1:27.6	So now that we figured that out, everybody.
1:29.6	Yeah, I guess.
1:30.8	You just keep. There's a lot that I thought. I thought that I thunk that I think. And I thunk. All right. So now that we figured that out, everybody. Yeah. I guess. He began the commercial as a camel. He began and ended as a camel. We can get into what I do know. Oh, man. Which is this case? Which is this case? I do know about this case. Also, buy tickets to the Radio City Musical.
	...

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