New York City, 1829. The kings of New York's organized crime world were the notorious Roach Guard Gang, and their founder, murderer and extortionist Teddy Roach. Roach was nicknamed The Devil for his unfiltered brutality, said to have been of Biblical proportions. But as bad as The Devil was, his deeds paled in comparison to that of his right hand man, Bill O'Malley, a murdering, hulking psychopath known throughout the 5 points area of the city as The Basher. Rich or poor, man or woman, no one was safe from the murder and mayhem dished out by the gang. And anyone crossing Teddy Roach personally could count on a visit from The Basher. It was usually the last visit of their lives. 

Our 2021 Halloween special edition celebrates the 83rd anniversary of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater on the Air broadcast that panicked the country, and lead to changes in broadcast rules for terrestrial radio worldwide. The First Fake News story in modern media history: The War of the Worlds. 

On this episode, Fatal Gothic hosts Julia Parker and Stephen Savage interview actress Mhairi Calvey and director Paul Dudbridge about filmmaking, their upcoming film, "Fear The Invisible Man", H.G. Wells and Jules Vern, and how the SteamPunk movement has brought Gothic Sci-Fi back into vogue. 

France, 1573. A number of children have been abducted and eaten by what local villagers believe is a Werewolf. Gilles Garnier, a local hermit, is caught red handed with a murdered child and put on trial. But no one is willing to step forth to act as his defense attorney before the dreaded "Witch Hunter Judge", Henri Bouget. No one that is except a 26 year old nun from Paris called Sister Marie Arquette. Sister Marie's task is to prove that, though the man is obviously insane, he is not a werewolf, and certainly doesn't deserve to be burned alive at the stake. 

Australia, 1835. The entire continent was at this time, for all intents and purposes, one giant prison colony. From the late 18th century until 1900, convicts from England, Ireland, and all of Great Britain’s worldwide domain, were routinely shipped off to the mysterious “Land Down Under” to serve out their sentences for crimes ranging from petty theft to murder. A prison break in '35 led to Australia’s first ever case of serial murder. Over the course of less than a year, ten innocent people, and perhaps as many as 5 more, were murdered in cold blood by an escaped convict named John Lynch, who would in time become known throughout Australia as the Berrima Ax Murderer.

England, 1657. The Civil War and the beheading of King Charles I has forced many Noble families into desperate straights, as Oliver Cromwell's Round Heads, along with the radical parliament, confiscated lands and fortunes that had been secure for centuries. Into this chaos arose a phenomenon known as The Highwaymen, former titled gentlemen who took to robbing pay wagons and travelers along the country's narrow roads after dark. The worst of these was no gentleman at all, but a woman who became known as The Wicked Lady Skelton, a Royalist aristocrat's daughter who murdered over 50 innocent souls during her three year reign of terror.