Episode 650: Plagues of Hysteria with Andrew McMahon

In April 1834, a massive fire broke out at the mansion of Delphine LaLaurie on Royal Street in New Orleans French Quarter. LaLaurie was known to have kept several slaves as servants in the home, but when bystanders attempted to enter the house to rescue those trapped inside, they found the doors barred. After forcing the doors open and making their way inside the house, the rescuers were horrified to find the “horribly mutilated” bodies of at least seven of LaLaurie’s slaves. Delphine LaLaurie was known to treat her servants very badly, including physically abusing them, but no one in New Orleans had imagined she was a sadistic murderer.

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.

On October 14, 1987, Reba McClure and her eighteen-month-old daughter, Jessica, stopped by the Midland, Texas home of her sister for a visit. As Reba sat in the backyard watching Jessica play with some neighborhood children, she heard the phone ring and went inside to answer it. When McClure returned to the backyard a few minutes later, she saw the other children staring at the ground on the far-side of the yard, but Jessica was nowhere to be seen.

When Carolyn and Roger Perron moved into a small farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island, they thought they’d found the perfect house in which to raise their five daughters and enjoy the rest of their lives. Before long, the Perron’s dream home turned into a nightmare. It started small—disembodied voices, unpleasant odors—but soon the unpleasant and obnoxious experiences developed into an all-out attack of ghostly apparitions, assaults from unseen hands, and the presence of something far worse than the spirits of the undead. At first, the Perron family ignored or dismissed the various incidents that disturbed them, but after several years in the house, the experiences had become too numerous and too severe to dismiss. Faced with the unimaginable scenario of losing their house to forces beyond their comprehension, the Perron’s decided to fight back.

We are THRILLED to invite to you join our Morbid Book Club in this bonus episode that is #sponsored by our friends at @ashleyofficial. This quarter, we are serving up forensic chills with a side of culinary chaos as we dive into Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell! And the best part? We’re joined our new best friend Chef Reilly Meehan who helps us break it all down! #Morbidbookclub #ashleypartner