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A podcast featuring a creep and her creep tolerant friend, diving into the background of all things horror. History, sociology, and politics, from zombies to serial killers.
Episodes
Tuesday Dec 03, 2019
Tuesday Dec 03, 2019
It's the first episode of December and we unintentionally did an episode on a recent serial killer who played a mall Santa. Bruce McArthur terrorized the Gay Village of Toronto from at least 2010 to 2017. He was arrested in early 2018, and sentenced early 2019. Sunshine and Alix cover the investigation and the victims, then spend a little time talking about the politics of his particular crimes. It turns out - crime is political.
Promo: 5 and 30 with Ruk
https://fiveandthirtywithruk.podbean.com/
Resources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/08/world/canada/bruce-mcarthur-toronto-sentenced.html
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/07/toronto-serial-killer-bruce-mcarthur-accused-landscaper
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47046262
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47047394
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/08/us/bruce-mcarthur-toroto-serial-killer-sentencing/index.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/23/bruce-mcarthur-toronto-gay-serial-killer
Tuesday Nov 12, 2019
Tuesday Nov 12, 2019
Sunshine is on vacation for the next two weeks, so we're taking it easy and recorded a mini-sode to tide us all over until she gets back! Today we're talking about the CDC's official zombie apocalypse survival guide. It's really more of a "prepare for an emergency situation" guide, but that's fun too, and we take a lot of tangents. So get ready for zombies and hurricanes. And make sure to keep a lot of potable water handy.
Promo: Tone-Deaf https://tonedeafmusical.com/
Resources: https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/zombie/index.htm
Tuesday Nov 05, 2019
Tuesday Nov 05, 2019
That's right! We've finally made it to the end of the road for scary clowns! And this episode is definitely the climax. We take a short stop to talk about the friendly clowns of the 60s before taking a huge downhill dive to tell the (short version) story of John Wayne Gacy, the Clown Killer, Pogo the Dancing Clown. We wrap it all up with some classic and modern horror media (Stephen King's It), and the murder of Marlene Warren.
Promo: https://anchor.fm/private-island
Resources:
https://www.npr.org/2018/03/22/596180089/bozo-the-clown-actor-frank-avruch-dies-at-89
Last Podcast on the Left: Ep. 105-106
Parcast Serial Killers: The Killer Clown parts 1 & 2
Stephen King's It
https://genwhypod.com/blogs/the-generation-why-podcast-blog/killer-clown-cold-case
Tuesday Oct 29, 2019
Tuesday Oct 29, 2019
It's our penultimate episode on clowns, which means we've only got a few more terrible stories to cover. In this episode, Sunshine and Alix talk about two notorious and tragic accidents, and two sad clowns associated with those events. Respectively - Joe Coyle and the Hagenbeck-Wallace train crash, and Emmett Kelly and the Hartford Circus Fire. It's time to feel bad for clowns again, but don't worry, the ride's almost over. Almost.
Promo: https://www.3spookedgirls.com/
Resources:
Borrelli, Christopher. “A Circus Tragedy Lost to History.” Chicago Tribune, 2 May 2011. https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-xpm-2011-05-02-ct-live-0503-showmens-rest-elephants-20110502-story.html
Higgins, Will. “The Truths of the Circus Train Crash of 1918 Are More Horrifying than Myths.” Indianapolis Star, 20 June 2018. https://www.indystar.com/story/entertainment/2018/06/20/hagenbeck-wallace-circus-train-crash-more-horrifying-than-myths/644289002/
Georgievska, Marija. “Emmett Kelly: The First Sad Hobo Clown Who Was Best-Known for His Character Named ‘Weary Willie.’” The Vintage News, 2 May 2017. https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/05/02/emmett-kelly-the-first-sad-hobo-clown-who-was-best-known-for-his-character-named-weary-willie/
“The Hartford Circus Fire: Connecticut History: a CTHumanities Project.” Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project, https://connecticuthistory.org/the-hartford-circus-fire/.
Tuesday Oct 22, 2019
Tuesday Oct 22, 2019
We've finally created the modern clown, but the method is disappointing to say the least. In today's episode, Sunshine and Alix talk about minstrel shows and how they're so immensely tied in to what the modern clown looks like. This is one of those episodes that's fun yet super unfortunate. Sorry, and also not sorry.
Promo: https://www.legionpodcasts.com/frigay-the-13th/
Resources:
Toll, Robert C. “Behind the Blackface.” American Heritage, 1978. https://www.americanheritage.com/behind-blackface
http://black-face.com/minstrel-shows.htm
Time Shift: Black and White Minstrels - BBC Four
Tuesday Oct 15, 2019
Tuesday Oct 15, 2019
It turns out that the history of clowns is huge and nuanced, and Alix may have bit off… well, more than she was expecting to bite. We’re finishing up Victorian Europe with a few legitimately disturbing fictional stories. Then we cross the pond and discuss the history of a few places where clowns are likely to congregate. Freak shows, Circuses, and Carnivals. It’s a little light, a little dark, and as usual: It’s complicated.
Resources for this episode:
Hop Frog, Edgar Allan Poe (1849)
Pagliacci, Ruggero Leoncavallo (1892)
Encyclopedia Britannica baybee!
Promo from: Me, My Demon, and I https://anchor.fm/memydemonandi
Tuesday Oct 08, 2019
Tuesday Oct 08, 2019
Today, Sunshine and Alix are talking about the real horrors and tragedies in first recognizable clowns. In this episode: Commedia Dell'arte, Joseph Grimaldi, Jean Gaspard Deburau.
Promo: Cutting Class Podcast - cuttingclasspodcast.com
Most of the research for this episode came from:
Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, by Joseph Grimaldi, edited and abridged by Charles Dickens.
"The Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi" - Essay by Andrew McConnell Stott. Both found here: https://publicdomainreview.org/2011/11/14/the-memoirs-of-joseph-grimaldi/
Spirits Podcast, Ep 97: Clowns https://spiritspodcast.com/episodes/clowns
Friday Sep 20, 2019
Friday Sep 20, 2019
We're continuing our historical exploration behind the history of Spoooky Clowns this week with a dive into Greek theater traditions and the real proto-clown, the jester. This isn't our scariest episode yet, but stick with us. It will all make sense soon.
Promo from Under The Shroud - Find them here: https://www.undertheshroud.com/
Also check out our buddies from Tone Deaf here: https://tonedeafmusical.com/
Most of the research for the episode came from these sources:
Cartwright, Mark. “Ancient Greek Theatre.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, 14 July 2016. https://www.ancient.eu/Greek_Theatre/
Maitland, Karen. “What Was Life like for a Court Jester?” History Extra, Mar. 2017. https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/what-was-life-like-for-a-court-jester/
Otto, Beatrice K. Fools Are Everywhere: the Court Jester around the World. University of Chicago Press, 2007. https://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/640914.html
Friday Aug 30, 2019
Friday Aug 30, 2019
We're starting a series on "Why the hell are clowns so scary?!" And in classic PomPitchPod fashion, we're starting as close to the beginning as we can get - the archetype: The Trickster.
We also start by discussing some of the fundamental reasons we think might cause our near universal fear of clowns.
A ton of research for this episode and future clown related episodes were from the Smithsonian and Encyclopedia Britannica.
Also the podcast Myths and Legends, specifically episode 40 on the trickster tortoise of West African folklore.
And Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood - A Day at the Circus
Friday Aug 16, 2019
Friday Aug 16, 2019
In the final episode on Dean Corll, Alix and Sunshine tell the rest of the story, complete with several endings. (Most of them, pretty bad). The trio has begun a dissolution, but the way the killing spree comes to a final stop is quite the surprise.
Some victims remain unidentified, others may still have never even been found. If you or anyone you know has any information on unidentified Corll victims you can contact Houston Forensic Investigative Services at 713-796-9292
A huge part of our research was from:
The Lost Boys by Skip Hollandsworth (2011, April). Texas Monthly. Retrieved from https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-lost-boys/
Also - The Dean Corll episodes by Last Podcast on the Left and Parcast's Serial Killers