Kristen Seavey guides listeners through a tapestry of history, legends, and unsolved mysteries.
Welcome to the Library beneath the Hidden Staircase with Kristen Seavey as our Librarian.
The Sloss Furnace in Birmingham, Alabama is a place filled with strong emotional energy. The Sloss Furnace was the main manufacturer of pig iron in the United States during the Industrial Revolution, providing jobs to the lower class. Unfortunately, the Mill had a high mortality rate with 60 workers losing their lives due to an unsafe and unregulated working environment.
This conversation focuses around not only this notorious furnace but also the man behind many of their deaths, james Robert Wormwood, also known as Slag.
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We often associate unique marriages with the last several decades. Often forgetting that for most of history, marriages have been more of a contract for wealth, comfort, and offspring. Kings would have multiple wives, and wealthy noble’s children were often just pawns to increase the family’s status by marrying them off to the most wealthy single nobles they could. People have continually constructed their own unique ever-afters.
Our story for today involves a platonic marriage formed out of practicality and ended in death. This is no Romeo and Juliet tragic romance. Instead, it’s a victorian tale of one woman who first found marriage, then found love. While her husband found himself six feet under.
They say, “misery loves company,” and Belle Gunness kept quite a lot of company but not for very long. She is known today as Hell’s Belle or Lady Bluebeard. Belle sits among the unnerving rank as one of the few female serial killers in America’s history. She is known to have murdered at least fourteen people, with some of the victims including her several husbands and even her own children. Belle was a professional and deadly insurance scam artist who stopped at nothing to get her payouts.
We all have a relationship with our postal workers. Some of us are even friends with them, often talking daily as they deliver the mail. Over time, a sense of trust develops. I mean, they know where you live. Who wouldn’t be kind?
It would be difficult to imagine that behind that friendly smile and wave could lie a killer. But, unfortunately, that would be the sad reality of one small Ohio town in 1926. When a trusted postman named Harvey Haver gruesomely murdered his wife and attempted to hide her body down a well. Completely shocking the town and causing people to think twice before striking up a conversation with their postal delivery workers.
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The oasis of the Hawaiian islands. They are filled with rich culture, beautiful blue waters, and some of the most fertile volcanic soil that brings life to lush green foliage and unique species of animals. They are heaven on earth.
Today's story will tell us about a young woman named Valerie Ann Warshay who traveled to Hawaii in 1978 for a hiking and camping trip. Sadly, she ended up in a forty-year-old cold case involving her murder.
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The island of Daksa, Croatia was first inhabited in 1281 when a Franciscan monastery was built on it called Saint Sabina. The monks were the island's sole inhabitants and brought in spiritual leaders from all over Europe.
For over 500 years, Daksa was seen as a sacred and holy place. Until a mass execution in 1944 that left the island filled with unburied bodies for decades.
If anyone does ever wishes to visit Daksa Island today, good luck finding a boat to take you there. The spirits and curse that remain in the shade of the overgrown pines are always waiting for the next brave person to stay a while.
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