Dark History - 168: Britain's FIRST Female Serial Killer & A Gangster Mastermind??: DH of MOMSTERS

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

Hi friends, happy Wednesday! The other day I was watching Monster In Law - remember that movie? It starred J Lo, her character falls in love with this dream guy, they get engaged, and everything is perfect until… she meets her mother-in-law.  The mother in law is played by Jane Fonda by the way, she’s so good in it. And the whole movie is essentially about how this mother in law makes her future daughter in law’s life hell, so she can break up the marriage.  I caught this movie on TV, around mother’s day. Which made me laugh, because when most of us think of mother’s day, we think of flowers, chocolate, cards that say I love you. But for so many people, that’s not the case.  Sometimes moms can be the worst. Which got me thinking… who *are* the worst mothers in history? And what did they do to be considered *so* bad?  Well, let me just say, I wasn’t expecting to find *so* many crazy stories. I had to keep it to two. So let’s get into it. Welcome to the Dark History of Momsters. Get it? Moms who are Monsters?!  I appreciate you for coming by, and tune in next week for more Dark History. I sometimes talk about my Good Reads in the show. So here's the link if you want to check it out. IDK. lol: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/139701263-bailey ________ FOLLOW ME AROUND Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d Discord: https://discord.gg/BaileySarian* RECOMMEND A STORY HERE: [e-mail] Business Related Emails: [e-mail] Business Related Mail: Bailey Sarian 4400 W. Riverside Dr., Ste 110-300 Burbank, CA 91505 ________ Credits: This podcast is Executive Produced by: Bailey Sarian & Kevin Grosch and Joey Scavuzzo from Made In Network Head Writer: Allyson Philobos Writer: Katie Burris Additional Writing: Jessica Charles Research provided by: Dr. Thomas Messersmith Special thank you to our Historical Consultant: Terry Turner, tour guide at Bradford-Ma Barker House Director: Brian Jaggers Edited by: Julien Perez  Additional Editing: Maria Norris Post Supervisor: Kelly Hardin  Production Management: Ross Woodruff Hair: Angel Gonzalez Makeup: Roni Herrera ________ For a very limited time only, shop the HexClad Mother’s Day Sale for up to 49% OFF sitewide AND a free gift with purchase when you order one of their best-selling bundles with our exclusive link. Just head to https://www.hexclad.com/darkhistory. Bon Appetit, Let’s Eat with Hexclad’s revolutionary cookware. I love Hungryroot. Take advantage of this exclusive offer: For a limited time get 40 percent off your first box PLUS get a free item in every box for life. Go to https://www.hungryroot.com/darkhistory and use code darkhistory.  Dogs deserve the best, and that means fresh, healthy food. Head to https://www.ollie.com/darkhistory, tell them all about your dog, and use code DARKHISTORY to get 60 percent off your Welcome Kit when you subscribe today! Plus, they offer a Clean Bowl Guarantee on the first box, so if you’re not completely satisfied, you’ll get your money back. Stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to https://www.zocdoc.com/darkhistory to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today. 

If it's a flat or a squeal, a wobble or peel, your tread's worn down or you need a new wheel, wherever you go, you can get it from our tread experts. Toyo's open country family of tires will get you through tough weather in a variety of terrains. Until May 31st, save up to $100 in rebates on select Toyo tires. Find a Toyo tread experts dealer near you at treadexperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there at treadexperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair we're always there. TreadExperts.ca. The other day I was watching the movie Monster in Law. Do you remember?

It has JLo in it. Her character falls in love with this dream guy. They get engaged and everything is like, oh my God, magic, perfect. Until she meets her mother-in-law. Mm, mm, mm, mm. You know? The mother-in-law is played by Jane Fonda. Fantastic. And the whole movie is essentially about how this mother-in-law is making her future daughter-in-law her life a living hell,

you know? So she could break up the marriage. What a storyline. And I was thinking about it because like the last time I watched it it was around Mother's Day and I was like oh lol that's funny because when you think of Mother's Day you think of like love and flowers and chocolate and cards and all that stuff, but this movie was like, nah, F that, you know, that's not the case for everyone. Show them this. And listen, like sometimes maybe mothers can be the worst. So it got me thinking, who are the worst mothers in history? Are there any? Well, let me just say I wasn't expecting to find so many crazy stories. Ugh, it was so fun.

Was it? Yeah. I had to keep it just to two. Alright? So, today, welcome to the dark history of momsters. You get it? Momsters. Moms who are monsters.

Eh? Eh? That was my idea. Give me some credit. Thank you. Ah! Ah! Ah!

Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Hi friends, I hope you're having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to my podcast, Dark History. Here we believe history does not have to be boring. It might be tragic. Rarely, it's happy.

But either way, it's our dark history. Now before we get into it, don't forget to like and subscribe because I'm always posting new content for you. And let me know what you think down below in the comments section, I'd love hearing from you. And then at the end we talk, we read some comments just in case you didn't know. Some of you don't make it to the end, but that's okay.

Now let's get into it, huh? So I, you know, when I was doing research for this story, I kept coming across this woman named Mary Ann Cotton. And I was like, what's her deal, you know? Because they kept saying that this woman had really bad luck. Just the worst luck out there. All because 21 people died around her mysteriously. I mean, like, what are the odds of that, you know?

That is until finally someone asked why. So Miss Mary Ann, she was born in 1831 in a small village called Low Morsley in England. Her father was the main provider for the family of four, but when Marianne was just 10 years old, daddy had fallen. He slipped and fell at work, which had led to his death. Very traumatic for the family. At the age of 14, Marianne started picking up jobs

in order to help out the family. She did many things. She worked as a dressmaker, a nanny, and she was even a Sunday school teacher. As Mary Ann grew up, one thing was becoming very clear to her. She was a total babe. Yeah, it wasn't hard for her to attract male attention.

She loved it. I mean, just look at her. Stunning woman. Beautiful eyes, gorgeous locks of hair. V-squint, she looks like Farrah Fawcett. So she's getting all the male attention. She loves it. And then when she's 18 years old,

marry, she would end up meeting a man named William Malbury. So they start hooking up. And then kablam, she's pregnant. Now, remember, this is like 18 whatever and getting pregnant before marriage, heavily frowned upon, okay. And then on top of that to add an extra layer of complications, Miss Mary was also a Sunday school teacher.

Ooh, God was watching Mary. So naturally William and Mary, they have to get married ASAP. So they do. So Mary would end up giving birth to her first daughter. She named her Margaret Jane. And it seemed like after a tough upbringing, Mary Anne finally had her little dream life.

But then sadly at the age of four, her first born baby, Miss Margaret Jane, dies. Very, very devastating to the family. Time did go on though. Mary and William, they went on to have another baby girl. They also named this baby Margaret Jane in memory of the OG baby. But then Margaret Jane, the second one too, she suddenly dies. And this was devastating. But this is a time when like people are just dropping dead all the time and it's like you

don't really have time to sit and grieve. You move on, you move forward. So Mary and William, they do and they would welcome two more babies into their lives. They had a son named John and then a daughter named Isabella. Well sadly sadly, their son John would suddenly pass away. None of these deaths were making sense to the family, right? And they were looking for answers. And finally, they were given some. They were told that the children were all hit by gastric fever, it's like a 19th century term,

often used to describe typhoid fever, a bacterial infection. So with this, it had symptoms. You would have symptoms of like vomiting, diarrhea, high fever, and then in these cases, it led to their death. So after all this, I mean, geez, Mary Ann was left with just one child,

her daughter Isabella, who was around nine years old at the time. Mary Ann never like gave a statement about how she felt with these deaths, but I'm sure we can imagine it was just devastating to lose three children, you know? I mean, that's... but then things went from bad to worse. The other day I made some scrambled eggs. I mean, easy peasy, no problem. But my pan, you know, whoo, she's a problem. The baked on, fried on, can't remove residue. Yeah, I can't seem to get it off.

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Yeah. Bon appetit. Let's eat with Hexclad's revolutionary cookware. So Mary Ann, her husband, William, he started having like severe stomach issues. He was in constant pain. He was not looking good and he was sick. He too would end up passing away.

Even though Mary Ann lost everything, luckily at this time in the 18 whatevers, she was able to actually collect life insurance on her husband's death and also on her children's deaths, which might sound weird that the kids have life insurance, but at this time, like your kid was lucky to make it to 10. So it was kind of normal, because I know it's kind of like,

why do the kids have insurance? They did. Anywho, so she was able to get you know some some money out of that out of these desks and to her this was a relief knowing that she and her her daughter Isabella wouldn't be homeless. So soon after Mary has to start working she has to get a goddamn job okay so she starts working as a nurse. I guess you could just show up and be like I I'm a nurse. And then you would get hired.

You know, it was a little easier back then. Hey guys, I'm a nurse. Yeah, I can do nurse things. I'm a nurse. So she gets a job as a nurse. And you know, when she's at this new job, she meets a new man, his name's George Ward. And you know, they hit it off from the start.

And Mary is quick to lock it down. This is during a time when you needed a man to even survive. So like she gets, she meets this man, falls in love. They get married within months of meeting. After they get married, Mary decides to send her daughter, Isabella, send her away. She's like, you're gonna go live with your grandmother, goodbye.

Now it just kind of seems like Mary wanted to start new with her new husband, George, and her daughter was kind of like reminding her of the past. So, you know, she needed to do away with her. So the couple, you know, they're in their newlywed stage. They just, just a year into the marriage, George, Mary's new husband, started to show signs of health issues.

Mary's like, oh my God, no, no. I guess George was having these weird spells where like his nose would bleed out of control, like a freaking faucet. And the doctors at the time, they were like, I don't know, I'm just a doctor. I just walked in here one day and said, I'm a doctor, but I don't know why your nose is bleeding at all, you know?

So they tell Mary to put leeches on him. You know, back then in the Victorian era, they would do a bloodletting. So they'd put leeches on you. The leeches would like suck your blood and they believed it was very healing. So Mary, she does this and nothing, nothing was working. He wasn't responding to anything.

Now George, he continued having these horrible stomach problems. He was having like high fevers until really his body just couldn't take it anymore. George, who was only 33 years old, died. Death wasn't surprising to many people because at the time there were several cholera pandemics. Antibiotics were nothing. People died all the time there were several cholera pandemics, antibiotics weren't a thing, people died all the time. The same way as George did. And honestly, him making it to 33, he lived a long life. You know, so it was all right.

So once again, Mary finds herself screwed. She's like, shit man, another husband is dead because of some freaking Victorian disease. Well, thankfully she was able to once again collect a big insurance payout. We don't really know how much it's for, but it was enough for Mary Ann to like stay off the streets and have a roof over her head.

After George's death, Mary decides to once again move on with her life. She has to, okay? What else is she gonna do? So she packs up her things and She has to, okay? What else is she gonna do? So she packs up her things and she moves to Sunderland to start over, brand new. So it's the year 1866. Trying to imagine what that looks like. But it's just before Christmas. In Marianne, she ends up getting a job as a housekeeper for a very wealthy man who

built ships. His name was James Robinson and he, he was also going through it. Listen, James, poor guy, he's building ships being incredible. And unfortunately his wife had died and he was left to raise his five kids all by himself. And the kids were between the ages of like nine months up to nine years old.

So James, he needed all the help he could get. So Mary Ann shows up, she's like, yeah, she's kind of like Mary Poppins in a way. The murderer though, like if Mary Poppins was a murderer, I gave it away, didn't I? It's okay. So Mary Ann shows up with her bag of tricks, I'm sure, and she and she's here to help James.

And right off the bat, her and James had like a really strong connection, especially because they both had lost, they have had a major loss in their life and it really brought them together, you know? So at first they were just keeping healthy boundaries, that was her boss, she was just the worker. So on Mary's first day tragedy

strikes. James's nine-month-old son dies from convulsions. Talk about it's their first day and someone dies on your watch not great you know shit. Anyway so James's son dies you know super devastated and Miss Marion was there for James as like emotional support or just like whatever he needed. And the two of them grew really close and it led to them becoming intimate lovers. So just a few months after Mary Ann started working

for James, she got a message saying that her mother was actually sick and she needed to come home ASAP. So Mary packs up her bags and she heads back home. When she gets there, it wouldn't take long for her mother to pass away from hepatitis. God, what a life, huh? Everyone's just dying all the time.

Yeah. Well, her mom passes away and now Mary has to like take responsibility of her daughter Isabella. Yeah, remember her? Yeah. So Mary's like, pack your bags, we're moving. We're gonna go live with this guy named James. So Isabella is now living with the family.

And this poor girl, she has been moved all over by this point, you know? She's just all over the place, poor thing. And sadly, this would be, it would be her last, her last move. Isabella gets very sick. She was just like barfing everywhere, nonstop. She even threw up in her mom's face, you know, party.

And then in April of 1867, sadly, Mary's daughter, Isabella, passed away. Well, after this, it wasn't looking good. It seemed like whatever illness Isabella had seemed to be spreading to everyone in the household. One by one, over the next 10 days, two of James' kids go down. They've got all stomach pains, they're throwing up,

some are having seizures and very high fevers. Mary Ann even got sick, but she was able to recover. Sadly, two of James's kids would die of this sickness. So he lost the baby, he lost two of his kids, he lost his wife. It's not a good time, not a good time. But something that was a little odd was that after Isabella died, Mary's daughter,

literally like five minutes later, Mary was ready to collect the life insurance that she had on her daughter. And then right after James' two kids pass, Mary Ann was trying to collect life insurance on them. James was like, hmm, that's a little odd. And honestly, like, James was just kind of getting some weird vibes. He was like, it seemed like he was kind of hypnotized by Mary's gorilla grit pussy, but you know, he was starting to catch on that something just,

something was up with her. You know, his perfectly healthy children died as soon as this woman showed up. Now before he could investigate on his his feelings his suspicion, Mary has an announcement. She's like ding ding ding ding ding. Everyone I just want to let you know I'm pregnant. So James and Mary were not married and you know how it goes if you're not married and you're pregnant, bitch, it's over for you. So James is like, shit, I gotta marry her.

So before it could become a huge scandal in town, he marries Mary Ann. And then a few months later, she gives birth to their daughter. But just a few months later, the baby died of convulsions. And just like with all the other children, Marianne collects life insurance on her baby. And then about a year later, Marianne has another child with James, a son named George.

At this point, James had like a hunch that something was going on with his wife. Who is this unlucky? You know, like it's just a little bizarre. But James looks the other way for whatever reason. Marianne can tell like there's tension between her and her husband, something's up. So she asked to take out life insurance on him

and their child, George. But James refuses and then the two of them become kind of distant. So Mary Ann kind of takes advantage of the situation. She begins to control the family's money and pay the bills while James was off like at work. And he's just assuming everything is being taken care of, right? But James, he starts getting bill notices saying, Hey, you haven't paid your bill in months.

You know, like you have an outstanding balance. And James is looking at this. He starts looking at his accounts and he is shooketh. He finds out that Mary had completely wiped him out. She hadn't been paying anything, nothing. So James starts looking around. He's realizing like everything had been a lie. He then finds out that Mary had secretly been taking trinkets from the home

and was like pawning it off for money. I don't know who was the psycho right? James was the who the fuck did I marry TikTok series of his time. Yeah he's like I don't know where this woman is. Listen once he found out this woman's stealing from him she took all of his money this was the last straw right? So he was like I'm gonna head home and confront this woman. Is her name even Mary? He gets home or whatever. And Marianne must've known something was up because she took their son George,

took all the money and then fled town. No one knew where she went. There were rumors going around that she was having an affair with a man named Joseph Natras. Some say Marianne had been stashing money so that the two of them could start their life There were rumors going around that she was having an affair with a man named Joseph Natras. Some say Mary Ann had been stashing money so that the two of them could start their life over together.

But there was one problem. Her son George. So she comes up with a little plan. She goes to a friend's house. She's like, hey, can you guys watch my baby George? And she's like, I'll be right back. I'm gonna do some errands. So the friends are like, sure, no problem, you know, thinking it's just gonna be a few hours,

but Mary, she never returns. She full on abandoned her baby, George, at her friend's house. And honestly, in this case, at this point, that's probably the best situation for the baby, right? I'm surprised she didn't, like, throw him off a bridge or something. So Mary Ann's living her life with this man, Joseph,

when out of nowhere, she's contacted by an old childhood friend named Margaret Cotton. I guess they go way back, okay? They're old friends. Margaret shared that her brother, Frederick, had recently lost his wife and his two children to some kind of disease, okay? And he was really struggling,

like raising the rest of his kids and just being on his own, right? So Margaret asked if Mary could essentially be a nurse for the family. Mary Ann's like, ah, yes, my specialty. She accepts this lovely offer to help out the Cotton family. So Mary gets there, she's helping out her friend Margaret and Margaret's brother Frederick to raise the children,

keep the place clean, just be helping hands. Naturally, while being there, Mary starts learning some interesting things about the family. For example, Margaret reveals that she is the beneficiary of Frederick, her brother's big life insurance policy. I mean, she's helping raise the kids, that's her brother. It makes sense. So Marianne is like, oh, that's interesting. That's crazy.

Wow, that's crazy. And then weirdly enough, just a few months later, Margaret dies. My God, this woman, you know? Like, geez. So Frederick, grieving the loss of his wife and children, now his sister. He just wants some comfort.

He wants a hug. So he turns to Marianne for comfort. And then soon after, Marianne had some very exciting news. She's with child! Uh, in the winter, I kind of like reschedule everything because you know, I just wanna like hibernate and stuff, eat snacks and be in my sweatpants. But then when spring comes around, it's like, bam.

All those things I rescheduled and then pushed off, they all like are starting to hit me at once. So every year, I can always forget how busy spring can be, you know? And I have like no time for my personal life. That's okay, I guess. And meal planning, right? But that's when I rely on Hungry Root.

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and a free item of your choice for life. Hungryroot.com slash dark history, code dark history. So Marianne is getting closer to Frederick Cotton while she helps take care of his family. And then her gorilla grip pussy strikes again. On September 17th, 1870, Mary Anne and Frederick, they got married. And I know what you're thinking, Bailey, Bailey, Bailey, Bailey, what's your favorite color?

I don't know. What about her other husbands? Wasn't she married before? Yes, she was. She didn't care. You see, if you move to a different city, the marriage doesn't follow in her mind. She's like, it doesn't count.

It's only invalid in that place. Yeah. She essentially like was committing bigamy, which is like marrying someone while you're still legally married to someone else. Yeah, you can't do that, but obviously no one's really looking into her. In February of 1871, she gave birth to a son named Robert.

But this time things were kind of different because before like no one really questioned her what she was doing whatever but all of a sudden people were like hmm it's marry woman something is not right for one she gave birth just a few months after she got married people are like i know how to do math barely but it ain't adding up you know but it didn't matter what people thought, you know? Frederick was like, this is my woman. Shut up. On September 2nd, 1871, Mary's new husband Frederick suddenly dropped dead. He died of the symptoms that seemed to strike everyone else at the time. Diarrhea, stomach pain, fever. It was a death sentence.

Like you got diarrhea and you're like, this is it. Damn it, it got me, diarrhea. So after Frederick dies, it's now just Mary and three children living in Frederick's home. Now that she's available, she picks up the phone and she calls her previous lover, Joseph, Joseph Natress. She's like, hey, remember me? Hey, that's so funny, it's crazy. So you should like come over sometime.

So Mary Ann had convinced Joseph to come and stay and live with her in Frederick's home with the kids. So when Joseph gets there, she ends up convincing him to change or update his will so that she would be the main beneficiary. Because she's got that gorilla grip pussy, he's like, baby girl, listen, I'll do it for you. I'll change the will.

So then in March of 1872, two of Friedrich and Mary Ann's children both passed away after a quote, quick and violent illness. And then just days later, it got Joseph. He ended up passing away from the same thing. All three of them had died within just 22 days of each other. It happened so fast that Joseph actually died while the bodies of Mary Ann's kids were still in the house. There hadn't even been time to bury them yet. By July of 1872,

the only person left standing in Mary Ann's life was Frederick's son, Charles Edward Cotton. Charles had miraculously survived whatever illness had taken over that household. So Mary once again has lost everyone except for her one child, Charles. I don't know if you've noticed yet, but she doesn't seem to really like to take care of kids. So she has this kid, Charles, and she's like,

I don't know what to do with him, I don't want him. So she's like trying to pawn him off onto family members. And they're like, no. So she goes to this man in town, his name is Thomas Riley. She goes to him and she's complaining about Charles. I guess she was just like complaining, wishing that Charles could just move out of the house and be committed to a place called a workhouse that Thomas actually ran.

Now a workhouse is where you would go if you were homeless and literally had nowhere else to go and you would just work in return for room and board. So she's like, oh my God, that's crazy you run one of those because, you know, it'd be cool if my kid could go there. Yeah, kind of just like, I'm not gonna ask. Thomas asked Mary, like, why do you wanna send of those because, you know, it'd be cool if my kid could go there. Yeah, kind of just like, I'm not gonna ask. Thomas asked Mary, like,

why do you wanna send your kid here, you know? Well, Mary came up with some excuse about she's trying to rent her place out and renters were not wanting to board at her home if like any kids live there. That's what she told him. But the gossip, the hot gossip was that Mary was actually like in a relationship

with like another rich man named John and it's believed that she just needs to get rid of this kid. You know what I'm saying? Well, this Thomas guy, he actually was like, oh, this isn't, like something's not right. You know, he had a little like, boop, something ain't right. Mary Ann asking him to take Charles was essentially like giving up your stepchild to an orphanage

after you found a new man. Thomas said he couldn't accept Charles into the workhouse. And then he asked if she was getting married to her rumored lover John. And Mary Ann replied, quote, I wish I could speak their language because I'm sure this made sense but as it's coming out of my mouth it feels so wrong. Perhaps it might be so, but the boy is in the way, but he will go on like the rest." So listen, Marianne was essentially telling this guy,

like, look, my boy, he's gonna die like the rest of them. So take him. Thomas said, nonsense. He appears to be a very healthy little fellow. Thomas remembered this, okay? He's like, it's kind of weird that she's trying to shove her kid on me, but okay. On July 12th, 1872, just six days after this conversation,

Charles suddenly died. It was reported that he died of natural causes. But as soon as Thomas heard this, he was like, mm, no. He ends up going to the coroner and tells them that there is no way this kid died naturally. So Thomas goes to the authorities and tells them about the conversation he had with Mary Anne.

He was like, this bitch is weird. Something is up. Even before the police started making moves, people around town were talking. People are like, dude, this woman is a murderer. She's shady. Watch out for her. Something's up with her. Mary gets wind of this and rather than defend herself,

she ends up packing up her stuff, she sold what she could and then she got the hell out of town. So she ends up burying Charles and then she's getting ready to skip town. But little did she know that the coroner secretly kept Charles' stomach contents before he buried him.

You know, so he could test the stomach contents. When the coroner's test results for Charles came back in, it was discovered that Charles didn't die of natural causes. Nay, nay. He was poisoned with arsenic. And after Thomas' statement, the only suspect was Marianne. She was arrested on July 18th, 1872 on the charge of murder.

While she was awaiting trial in jail, it was discovered that Marianne was once again pregnant. Because of this, it allowed her to delay her trial. In January of 1873, Marianne gave birth to her 13th child. She ended up naming her daughter Margaret Edith Quickmanning Cotton. Yeah, that's a long name. Well, not long after the case was presented

to the authorities, Mary Anne was charged with Charles's murder. Now this case was so horrifying, news had spread all over England. I mean, it was unheard of at this time a mom who killed children? Like what? What? People, their heads were exploding. They could not comprehend. Her story was spreading around. People were talking and the towns that she lived in, people there were starting to put some shit together.

They're like hey remember when she was here like a bunch of people died, that was weird, huh? Hey, we should circle back to that. Three of her four husbands, her mom, her friend, most of her stepchildren, her own kids, all of them had the same symptoms and all of them had died. Even though she hadn't been convicted of those murders, this case became a nationwide sensation. I mean, every newspaper was running a story on this.

By March 5th, 1873, Mary Ann was put on trial for the death of Charles. When asked to explain why there was arsenic in his body, she blamed the wallpaper in his house, saying he must've inhaled it. The wallpaper, it has arsenic in it. He was sniffing it. He was a little weirdo like that.

He liked to go around smelling wallpaper. He was a weird guy. I'm not a murderer. So she's trying to make everyone believe that he died from sniffing wallpaper. But like nobody was buying this excuse, especially with like the rumors circulating around about like, hey, what about everyone else though? Were they sniffing wallpaper too? Like what is going on? It would make sense if she was like, putting up wallpaper, Mary. You gotta think of the story that you're giving. It's gotta make sense, Mayor. Geez.

Anyways, after only 90 minutes, the jury found Mary Ann Cotton guilty of the murder of Charles Edward Cotton. She was sentenced to death. Mary Ann was believed to have killed 11 of her 13 children and three of her four husbands. And those are just like good guesses. There could have been so many more.

On March 24th, 1873, Marianne was led to the gallows where a noose was placed around her neck. Very dramatic, huh? I wonder if they did the whole, like, you would stand on the wood and then, like, the bottom would open and then you'd fall, or if they just pushed her. I wonder what the technique was there.

Just curious. People are there to watch, because that's all they had to do back then. I'd watch. Wouldn't you? You'd be there too. You'd be like, let me see. Oh, that's weird.

So, whatever they did, they hang her, okay? But I guess be like, let me see. Oh, that's weird. So whatever they did, they hang her. Okay. But I guess like her neck didn't break right away. The man who tied the noose, it was too short. There was some kind of issue. So normally when you are, are hanged, your neck will break and then you die, right? Well, so hers didn't, which ended up leading to her like suffocating to death in front of a crowd. I don't feel bad about that though, Mare. You killed a bunch of people. You could suffocate a little bit.

My God, get over it. I think the bummer part was they killed her, but she never confirmed like if she was responsible for killing anyone else. Some people say that she didn't kill every single person who died around her. You know, there's no way, since deadly diseases were so common at the time.

But most believe that Marianne was a like psycho serial killer. Some say that she was even Britain's first serial killer. But what we know for sure was that she was probably the worst mother ever. I love dogs. Oh, I love dogs so much. My coworker has this adorable dog named Diane Keaton.

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fresh lamb with cranberries, and Diane's favorite, fresh turkey with blueberries. These dogs are eating better than me, honestly. Good for them, they deserve it. Ollie is great because they're the only fresh dog food that comes with unlimited routine health screenings with the subscription. That way you and your pup can live

your healthiest, happiest life, and your dog can continue to be the king or queen that they were born to be. Dogs deserve the best. And that means fresh, healthy food. Head to ollie.com slash dark history, tell them all about your dog, and then use code dark history to get 60% off

your welcome kit when you subscribe today. Plus they offer a clean bowl guarantee on the first box, so if you're not completely satisfied, you'll get your money back. That's ollie, O-L-L-I-E, dot com slash dark history, and enter code dark history to get 60% off your first box. Our next story is about a woman who has her very own song. Okay, have you heard this song?

I love this song. You know that song Rasputin that everyone was doing on TikTok and all that? So those guys, they in his eyes and made me go. So those guys, they actually have another song called Ma Baker and this song slaps. Put it on. This is the story of Ma Baker, the Venus cat from old Chicago town. It's so fun.

And I always like jam out to it in traffic. And then I realized he was actually based off of a real person. On October 8th, 1873, a woman named Arizona, Donnie Clark was born into the world. Whoa. And then she invented iced tea. 99 cents.

She grew up, sorry. She grew up on a farm in Greene County, Missouri with her parents and her three siblings. Now she had lots of names. It feels like, I'm not sure. Because some people called her Kate. Like how do you get Kate from Arizona? I don't know.

But I'm just going to call her by the name that most people know her by in today's story, which is Ma. So when Ma was just seven years old, tragedy struck, her father died. I know, they always do, huh? No, it's actually usually the moms in Disney movies, but this is not a Disney movie really.

So then her mother remarries pretty soon after his death, you know, so she can make sure like the family is supported, they have money and they can stay together. So her mom marries a man named Ruben J. Reynolds and they ended up moving to Oklahoma. It's said that Ma didn't have a good relationship with this stepdad, like there was friction. He worked in law enforcement and Ma,

she loved to hang out with, you know, the bad boys. Eventually, she falls in love with one of these bad boys, a man named George Barker. On September 14th, 1892, the two of them tie the knot. They move back to Missouri and they set up a little homestead on a farm where George planted and harvested corn and beans. And Ma was said to just like, live out her tradwife dreams.

She was making bread, waiting for the bread to rise. You see when people do those cute little sourdough carvings in the bread with the fork? Love that, she was probably doing that. I don't know, but I imagine she was. They ended up having four sons together, Herman, Lloyd, Arthur, who went by the name Doc, and Fred. So Ma is raising the boys, being a faithful, trad wife, she was also known to attend church,

you know, doing all the things that you're quote-unquote supposed to do. And from the outside looking in, it seemed like a perfect little family. I mean, they had everything. Except for one thing. The Barkers were struggling big time financially. They were drowning. Despite the fact that George was working multiple jobs, it just wasn't enough. It seemed like no matter how hard they worked, they could just never get ahead. As the Barker boys grew up, they really loved hanging out with the bad kids.

Getting into shenanigans, having fun, being little brats. From the time they were kids, the Barker boys were known to get into like violent fights, vandalize houses in the area, and even rob people. They were even known to steal money from the church collection plate. I mean, they had no shame. And this led to them constantly getting arrested.

Eventually the family decides to get the hell out of Missouri and move to Tulsa, Oklahoma, hoping for a fresh start. So they get to Tulsa and then they realize that it's just absolute mess over there. During this time, tons of people were actually coming to Oklahoma for a better life, for work opportunities, okay? It was booming out there, especially in the oil industry. So there was like some major money happening in this area

and everyone wanted to be a part of it. Now this drew in a lot of criminals to the city because they knew that there was a good chance that there was rich people in town, most likely to rob. So essentially this was like open season for the Barker boys. They started getting deeper and deeper into the criminal scene in Tulsa,

robbing people left and right. I guess the Barker boys. They started getting deeper and deeper into the criminal scene in Tulsa, robbing people left and right. I guess the Barker Boys and their criminal friends would take meetings in the Barker House or in Tulsa's Central Park. So the boys become part of something called the Central Park Gang. Now you would think, Ma, as a mother, she would be clutching her pearls.

My sweet baby boys, how could you be doing this? You know? She was known as a humble church going woman. How could she raise such awful children? She may have been mad at first, but things changed. The boys, they stole things that Ma actually wanted. She's like, hey, I want a Blu-ray DVD player. And then they go out and they would get one. They allegedly would steal fur coats, find jewelry

and the best silverware for their mother. Rumor has it, mom would do some digging in town to find out where all the rich people with the good stuff lived. She's like, do you guys give out full-sized candy bars at Halloween? Good to know, noted. Then she would attack, well have her boys attack them.

She would figure out the names and addresses and point the boys to the homes. Well, homes were getting robbed so often that the Barker family became local criminal celebrities. And pretty soon, it was understood that Ma was the mastermind behind most of the hits. She became known in town as Ma Barker. Now for several years, the boys really seem untouchable. They're getting away with everything. But on November 4th, 1915, Herman Barker was arrested for attempted theft.

Now you'd hope this would scare him straight, but it sure did not. For the next 12 years, Herman, he was in and out of jail, getting caught, locked up, in, out, in and out of jail, getting caught, locked up, in, out, in, out. And this devastated his mom. Ma.

Not because she was disappointed in him. She was disappointed that he got caught. Every time the boy's got in trouble, she would go to the authorities and you know, she'd put on a performance. Officer, please, my son, we're just such good humans and we're just dirt poor. Please don't arrest my sons. You know, just a whole, please, Mr. Officer.

And sometimes it would work, but if that didn't work, then she'd stop crying and be like, here's a wad of cash, leave my sons alone. But then there came a time where Ma could not bribe Herman out of jail. She wanted to make her own little safe house for criminals, you know, so that they could rob and hide in peace, for a small fee, of course.

Because she was already well known in the crime community, people really trusted her and soon her house was packed with criminals on the run, who needed a place to stay. If they needed something, the doors were open. Now, Ma's husband, George, he had been going along with this for quite some time. I mean, the money was nice, sure, you know.

But once Ma decided to bring the criminals into their home, his home, he was like, no, no, you're crossing a line. Plus there were rumors going around town that Ma wasn't just hiding these criminals. She was also getting a little, you know, with them too. Ma wanted love and Ma loved bad boys. Well, George, her husband, he, ooh, ah, with them too. Ma wanted love and Ma loved bad boys.

Well, George, her husband, he decided he had enough. He had enough, he was done, and he packed up and he left her. Honestly, we don't know how Ma felt, but she probably was relieved in a way because she's surrounded by all of these criminals. I'm sure that's probably the safest you're ever gonna feel, right?

Like everyone was protecting Ma. Around this time, Ma's oldest son, Herman, he managed to get out of prison again. He tried to join, I guess a more respectable form of crime, you know, bootlegging liquor, other things, but it just wasn't doing it for him. He liked the drama and the risk involved in his true passion, robbery. In 1925, Herman and his younger brother, his name's Lloyd, they joined forces to rob a bank vault. Now this was a huge job with a ton of risk involved, but somehow they pull it off

and they were able to get away with $7,000 and they didn't even get caught. Allegedly around this time, Herman decides to get a tattoo that would capture the love he had for his mom. Right across his chest, he got a tattoo that said, a boy's best friend is his mom.

That's a big, that's a lot of words for a tattoo, okay. I guess people were really weirded out by this tattoo. There were rumors going around that like, Ma liked her boys a little too much. There were rumors and allegation, not allegations, but rumors going around that she was involved with her her sons sexually. But there isn't any like evidence or anything to support this. Despite having this tattoo, Herman managed to find a woman that would marry him. Now Ma, she notoriously hated any girl

that the boys brought around. She would try everything she could to break up her sons and their girlfriends. And if that didn't work, Ma was just really mean to the girlfriends. She would tell them that she hated them to their face. She would act like they didn't exist. She was just a bitch.

For once, Herman stood up to his mom and actually decided to marry one of his girlfriends, a woman named Carol. She was into crime too, so you could say it was a good fit. Herman and Carol start robbing people all across Oklahoma and Missouri. Now these were violent robberies that usually ended in murder. Carol and Herman were ruthless during these crime sprees and they were killing people on the regular. On August 29th, 1927, Herman robbed a store in Kansas, this time

without Carol. Now somehow Herman had like he botched the robbery and he ends up getting caught by a police officer. Usually he would be able to sneak away or like shoot his way out, but this time it was different. I guess Herman somehow gets cornered by law enforcement and he's terrified, okay? He ends up taking out his gun and he shoots a cop in the face and oops, can't do that.

He knew he had crossed a line. Well, after the shootout, Herman realizes that he fucked up big time. So it's either he wait and gets arrested or killed by a police officer, or he could just get ahead of it. He turned the gun on himself and he ended his life. He was only 34 years old.

Now you'd think after this death, the rest of the Barker boys would learn their lesson and lay low for a while. But no. I mean their mom was running a safe house for convicted criminals. They knew they always had a place to go. Especially Doc Barker. Apparently he had this thing for stealing cars.

One day he stole a government employee's car so his ass was sentenced to jail really fast. And just like his brother Herman, before he died, right after Doc was put behind bars, he broke out of jail. So Doc has escaped and then he gets found and recaptured and put in jail, put back in jail. During this time, law enforcement had really caught on and discovered that Ma's house was actually one big hideout for all the criminals.

This time, Ma wasn't just gonna wait for Doc to break out of jail, so she decided to form an alliance with a corrupt judge slash attorney named QP McGee. QP McGee! What's my name, QP McGee? Oh, that's so fun, I love that name. QP was known to help out criminals in the area. Even though he was an attorney,

allegedly he would break the law all the time by using fake money to bail his clients out of jail. He would also use fake warrants from other cities to bail his clients out. And with the help of QP, Ma was able to bribe her kids out of jail. So the boys are taking more and more risks because they feel like they can get away with literally anything.

That's because they can. So Doc gets bribed out of jail by QP. Mysteriously, all the evidence in Doc's case was destroyed. Coincidence? Maybe. And then, when you know it out of nowhere, the owner of one of the stolen cars decides to drop his charges. So Doc was free to go.

You know, at some point Doc develops a drinking problem. He became known as, quote, a dimwit and a drunk. He took extreme risks without really thinking them through. And he decides to rob a bank, but doesn't plan it very well. I guess the guard of the bank wasn't cooperating, so Doc and his army of robbers just shoot and kill the man. The gun gets traced back to Doc and he's immediately arrested

and sentenced to life in prison. Ma was devastated. Her favorite son that she won't say is her favorite son, but it wasn't her favorite son, Herman, was dead. Doc was in prison and her other two sons, she's like, I forget their names, they're all right, Lloyd and Fred, they were facing charges too. Even with all her connections, shit was hitting the fan.

Ma did have someone keeping her company, keeping her warm at night though, a man named Arthur Dunlop. And unlike her ex-husband, Arthur didn't mind being involved in the criminal world. He was a real man. So Ma's other son, his name is Fred, he was in prison for some other shenanigans, okay? He was in prison and while he was in prison he met this guy named Alvin Karpis. Alvin went by the nickname

Creepy because I guess he had a creepy smile. So Creepy and Fred were like little criminal besties who bonded over breaking the law. Literally the same year they were released from prison they started committing more robberies together. Eventually Doc gets out of prison too and the gang is really just all back together. Well except for the one that's dead Herman. Doc jumps right back into the life of crime again joining Creepy and Fred. So the three of them form a gang that they call the Barker Carpus Gang. And right away their reputation was brutal. It didn't matter who you were. If the gang didn't like you, pfft, bye. And the gang apparently did not like Ma's boyfriend, Arthur. Arthur was apparently an alcoholic,

and he had a tendency to let family secrets out when he was drunk. One night, I guess Arthur had a few too many, and he decided to spread a little gossip. Well, Arthur didn't like these shit heads either, all right? So he's drinking, you know when you're drinking, you start getting a little sloppy, and he starts talking shit on the Barker boys.

He's like, they're not even that scary. They're not even that great. They're not even that great. They're like obsessed with their mom. Yeah, being a little dick. So Arthur is out at a bar being drunk and talking way too much. And when he was talking, he actually kind of revealed the location

of where the Barker Carpus gang had been hiding. So someone at the bar, pretending to clean the counters was like, hmm, you know, what's that? So he's drunk, he's at the bar, he's like, well, these guys suck, blah, blah, blah, blah. And while being drunk, he actually revealed pretty loudly where the Barker Carpus gang had been hiding,

AKA at Ma's house. Well, someone at the bar was listening and knew the brothers personally. So that person, being a little brat, went to the boys and was like, hey, guess what, this guy Arthur, he's talking mad shit on you guys. The brothers, they already hated him.

So they saw this as like their opportunity to take him out. They killed him and dumped his naked body out in the open for everyone to see. Well, Ma and the boys realized that they needed to tighten their ranks, AKA get rid of anyone they couldn't trust. They had plans to expand their operation. At this point, they were operating across state lines

around Missouri, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and other places that I can't remember. And they weren't doing petty robberies or stealing necklaces for Ma anymore. Nay, nay. They were robbing big banks and bringing home tens of thousands of dollars at a time. The boys, of course, gave Ma a cut of the money.

They, you know, she was their mother. And other than that, you know, with this, all this money, they would just go on these lavish vacations. For example, they went to Reno, because when I think lavish, I think Reno. So Ma met Fred and Alvin in Reno. They hid out after a bank robbery. One time, Ma met Fred and Creepy in Reno

while they hid out after a bank robbery. They rented a house and had like the time of their life while hiding out from the cops. They hung out, they went to see some shows, they went to the casinos, they drank, drugs, sex, cocky. Woo! But little did they know for months, the Barkers were being tracked by people

at the highest level in the government. The FBI. The other day I was at lunch with my friend and she was telling me all about how she's been getting all these like allergic reactions to certain foods. But this has been happening for months. And I was like, girl months, what's going on? Go to the doctor, what's going on?

You need to go, what's happening? And then that reminded me, hello, hi, ZocDoc. So I pulled out my phone in the middle of lunch and was like, look, this is gonna help you out tremendously. Let me just show you how easy ZocDoc is to use and then you get this figured out, okay? I love ZocDoc, I use it all the time. If you don't know, ZocDoc is a free app and website

where you can search and compare high quality in-network doctors and click to instantly book an appointment. They make it so easy to find and book a doctor who's right for you. They offer in-network appointments with more than 100,000 doctors across every specialty from mental health, dental health, urgent care,

eye care optometry, the allergist people. I mean, there's so many different doctors. You can filter for doctors who take your insurance and who are located near you. So you don't have to go back and forth on Google Maps to figure out where they are, you know. It's just all in this nice app. Once you find the right doctor,

you can see their actual appointment openings, choose a time slot that works for you, and then click to instantly book a visit. You can even score same-day appointments. Yeah, no more painful receptionist calls required, and no more excuses, really. Stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to zocdoc.com slash dark history

to find and instantly book a top rated doctor today. That's zocdoc, z-o-c-d-o-c dot com slash dark history. Zocdoc.com slash dark history. Well, let me explain why the FBI got involved. You see, once you start committing crimes across state lines, it opens the door to having the FBI come into your place, into your life. And since the gang was committing crimes across state lines, their petty little robberies turned into federal crimes. So the FBI knew arresting

the boys and throwing them into prison would basically do nothing. They always managed to find a way to escape. Plus the gang would still continue on even if one or two of them are locked up, you know? It was just a matter of time until they committed a crime that was so bad there's no way they could get out of it. The FBI believed that it would be just a matter of time until this gang committed a crime that would be so bad, that there would be no way that they could get out of it. So they kept tabs on the fam, okay, while they were quote unquote laying low.

In the meantime, the family had come across a man named William Hamm Jr. Now William, he was the head of like a famous brewery in town. That's a hard one, brewery. But he was popular and he was like, worked a lot of money. So rather than robbing the brewery, the family, they decided to do something a little bit more bold.

The gang kidnapped William and demanded a huge ransom from his family. With the help of a local crooked cop, they were able to collect a ransom of $100,000, which in today's money would be like $2.4 million. William was returned to his family, perfectly safe, but this gave the gang confidence to try it again. They're like, wasn't that fun? That was so fun.

This time they were going to make even more money. So they stalked a banker named Edward G. Bremer. After learning his daily routine, they decided to snatch him after he dropped off his kid at school. What they didn't know was that this time they kidnapped a very important banker. And people weren't just going to pay a ransom and look the other way. They wanted to find and arrest these people. Now the family, they ended up holding Edward for 20 days before finally someone caved and paid his $200,000 ransom. So after this, the boys were all high-fiving each other like, yeah, fuck you, you know? Little did they know, the FBI had tracked the money

and it led right to the gang's hiding spots. At this point, the boys had like split up to different places, but they were able to trace Doc to his apartment in Chicago. Oh, the police get there and I guess there was a shootout because Doc refused to go down without a fight. So they're going back and forth. He's shooting at them.

They're shooting at him. Eventually, the police are able to get, control the situation, and they're able to get Doc into custody. And he would be convicted of his many crimes and was sentenced to life in Alcatraz. Cool, huh? I love Alcatraz. Ah, huh? I love Alcatraz.

Ah, you ever go on the tour? So fun. Ghost, I'm there. It's so spooky, isn't it? Love. On his very first night in prison, Doc does what he does best. He tries to escape.

Are you familiar with Alcatraz? No? Well, it's a jail on an island and there's water surrounding it. So even if you do escape, you gotta swim across all that water that has sharks in it and make it back to land. So good luck, you know?

Well, he's like, I'm gonna try. So he tries and he gets out or he something and guess what? He gets caught. When he was trying to escape, Doc was shot in the back of the head and killed. When police had searched Doc's apartment, they found letters and a map leading to where Ma

and his brother, Fred, were hiding out. These two were the final piece of the puzzle, so the FBI knew that they could not screw this up. On January 16th, 1935, the FBI arrived in Oclo, Oaxah, Florida. Well, they're able to locate where Ma and Fred's hideout is. Turns out they were laying low

in a place called the Bradford House. A total of 14 FBI agents surround the house. They knew Fred was extremely violent and most likely armed, so they were not gonna be taking any chances. Immediately, agents shout, surrender or we'll tear gas you. Of course, Ma and Fred are like, go ahead. So the second Fred realizes that they release the tear gas,

he starts firing. Pfft. Think like mafia movie, cause that's how it kind of freaking felt. Like just psycho. Fred was armed with three machine guns, three pistols, two shotguns, and one rifle. And on the fifth day of Christmas,

my husband gave to me three pistols, two shotguns, one rifle. This house is actually still around today, and they even offer guided tours. Yeah, you wanna come see some bullet holes in the wall? Well, come on over, I'll show you. I'll link the information for you down below. And some of the tour guides were experts on this episode.

So shout out to them. Even though he was just one man, he was given the FBI a run for their money. The agents immediately returned fire back. This shootout started in the early hours of the morning. At a certain point, law enforcement, they just start shooting, shooting their guns anywhere at the house

to try and take Fred down. And this went on for hours. At about 12 p.m., after the longest shootout in FBI's history, agents noticed it was pretty quiet in the home. So they sent someone to check the house. And that's when they realized that Ma and Fred were dead. So over 600 rounds were fired.

Fred had nine gunshot wounds to his left shoulder and three to his head, two penetrating his skull. Ma had three wounds in her chest area. Ma and Fred's bodies were put on display at a local funeral home for 30 days. And honestly, it kind of felt like it was performative. It was kind of like, hey, don't fuck with us, the FBI, or this could be you.

You know, it was kind of a flex, but not really, but kind of. The director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, I know. I didn't know he was gonna be here today. He called Ma Barker, quote, the most vicious, dangerous, resourceful criminal brain of the last decade, end quote. I think that was you, sir.

The only good thing Hoover did was make a good vacuum. Other than that, I think he's projecting. But anyway, so he makes this quote, right? And a lot of people actually found this quite strange. We know now that Ma was behind many of the Barker Boys crimes, but technically, legally, she had never been arrested. She had never been fingerprinted. She was never seen at any crime scene. She was the Charles Manson of her time. Some people say that this shows that she was actually a brilliant criminal.

I think she was just lazy. I don't want to have everyone else do it. Have your minions do it. Other people say this was a political move, that J. Edgar Hoover, he just wanted to pin all the crimes on her, so it looks like he's a hero, vote for me, I'm hard on crime, you know?

Well, it ended up taking about eight months for someone to come down to Florida to claim Ma and Fred's bodies. No one wanted to claim them, because if you did, then people would associate them with the crimes. It was just sketchy, so people didn't want to like, claim the bodies. Finally, on October 1st, 1935, they were both claimed and buried near Ma's oldest son, Herman.

And I know what you're thinking, wasn't there another son? Yes, I'm glad you were paying attention. There was. Ma had another son named Lloyd. Lloyd was heavily involved in the family gang for most of his life. At some point, he gets in a shootout with police after a robbery. He ended up getting caught and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Lloyd ends up being released in 1938 and unlike the other brothers, you could tell it seemed that prison changed him. He was done with crime. He ended up moving away from his family, he enlisted in the army, and he served as a cook

in World War II. He falls in love with a woman, they get married in 1944, they go on to have kids together, and honestly it seemed like Lloyd was the only brother who broke the cycle, right? But sadly in 1949 after struggling with mental health issues his wife ends up shooting and killing Lloyd as he tried to enter the family home. We don't know why she killed him but allegedly she was having it's believed she was having some kind of mental episode. Maybe she was confused thinking someone was trying to break in and she ended up shooting Lloyd.

She was sent to an insane asylum after his murder. I know, I was like, bummer. Even after he tried to live like an honest life, Lloyd ended up getting screwed over too. The only person who died of natural causes was the dad, the one who left in the very beginning, George. You know, I try not to judge people who are called quote unquote bad mothers,

but sometimes their actions speak louder than words. Happy Mother's Day. The end. Okay, now let me tell you about our next episode of Dark History. Picture it, Los Angeles, 1871. Back in the day, LA was basically the wild, wild west.

There was no real law and order, and people basically never had to face consequences for their crimes. And this led to one of the worst mass lynchings in American history, one that no one really talks about. I had never heard of it, and I wanted to learn more, and boy did I learn a lot. So join us next week as we talk about the Chinese Massacre of 1871.

I'd love to hear your guys' reactions to today's story, so make sure to leave a comment down below so I can see what you guys are saying. And your comment might even be featured in a future episode. Now let's read a couple of comments that you guys have left me. Donna119 said, I don't even mind the bits where Bailey tries to sell me stuff and I'm a grumpy Scottish woman who currently has the flu skills. Donna, first of all I hope you feel better the flu sucks ass. Was it coming out both ends? Cause that's the worst type of flu in my book, right?

You're like, I would rather be taken out. I don't need to be here anymore. Okay, thank you. I am taking a bow. I am done. So I hope you're feeling better. I know a lot of people complain about ads. They are annoying.

I understand. As someone who reviews and watches YouTube videos all of the time, I about ads. They are annoying. I understand. As someone who reviews and watches YouTube videos all of the time, I get it. Ads are annoying. But without ads, then we can't create. You need funding, you need money, and there's no way in hell I would ever ask you guys for your own money.

I hope you feel better. Sarah78119 left a comment on our board games episode. She said, this is my favorite episode ever. I have around 100 board games and I love them all. Tip, I put felt inside of my dye tumbler because I also hate the sound. P.S. I love you. Duh, duh, duh, duh.

That's so smart, Sarah, Sarah. Changing my life over here. Put felt inside the Yahtzee Tumbler. But yeah, I mean, you know, do they sell one with the felt on the inside? They should, I think they do. Great idea, thank you so much. I'm gonna give it a try.

But what other games do you have? 100? That's a lot. Which one's your favorite? Let me know down below. I really like Scrabble. Scrabble's kind of low key my favorite. You wanna play?

I love Scrabble. Kristy Moore, 7858 left us an episode suggestion. Dark history on photography. I personally think would be super interesting. Kristy, Kristy, Kristy. I like that idea. That's actually a really good idea that I haven't even thought about

because when the camera was invented, and like, what was that like, right? And I don't know anything about, I think that's a great idea. I really like it. Thank you so much for that suggestion. I'm definitely gonna add it to my list of recommendations, photography, I think that's a good one.

I like it. I'll look into it. Well, you guys, thank you so much for watching and hanging out with me. Make sure to keep on commenting because maybe you'll be featured in a future episode. Or maybe you will. But maybe you will! Also you can join me over on my YouTube where you can actually watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs.

And while you're there you can also catch my murder, mystery, and makeup. Oh don't forget to subscribe because I'm here for you all the time baby. And hey if you don't know, Dark History is an audio boom original. I want to say a big special thank you to our expert Terry Turner, tour guide at Bradford Ma Barker House. And I'm your host Bailey Sarian. Hi! I hope you have a good day, you make good choices. Please be safe out there. And I'll be talking to you guys later.

Goodbye!