RedHanded - DAY 3: Gilles de Rais (ShortHand’s 13 Days of Halloween)

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

In the last 13 days before Halloween, a different ShortHand will rise from the archives for 24 hours only – before disappearing back into the vault. Get exclusive access to every ShortHand episode ad free only on Amazon Music Unlimited.--First, children started to go missing in the villages around the Black Baron’s castle. Then, word spread of his dabbling in sinister, arcane rituals to conjure the Devil himself. And soon, in the dead of night, villagers reported hearing screams from a high castle window.Some say Medieval French nobleman Gilles de Rais was the first recorded serial killer in history, responsible for the gruesome torture and murder of hundreds, if not thousands, of children. Join us to find out what really happened high up in the dark towers of the Black Baron.Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesFollow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, Please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600, to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Scams are everywhere. On your phone, in your inbox, even on your television screen. Looking at you, Tinder Swindler. What is it about scams that has pop culture so obsessed? Maybe it's because it could happen to anyone. Or maybe it's because we're all so deeply fascinated by the psyche of someone who can lie with ease, cheat with no guilt, and convince the world that they are who they say they are, even when they're not. Scamfluencers is a weekly podcast that takes you into the world of deception, sharing the stories of today's most notorious scams.

Like the recent episode of Natalie Cochran, the pharmacist Fem Fetal. It seemed like she had it all. A good job, loving husband, and two kids. But behind the scenes, Natalie was scamming friends and family using fake contracts, fake government emails, and she even faked cancer. But when the wall start closing in, she'll do anything to keep the lie alive until someone ends up dead. Listen to scam influencers now, wherever you get your podcasts. Scams are everywhere, on your phone, in your inbox, even on your television screen. So what is it about scams that has pop culture so obsessed? Maybe it's because it can happen to anyone. Or maybe it's because we're all deeply fascinated by the psyche of someone who can lie with ease and cheat with no guilt.

Listen to scam influencers now wherever you get your podcasts. Hello there, spooky listener. It's October, our favorite time of the year. And so to celebrate and give you all a well-deserved treat, we're bringing you the 13 days of Halloween. Shorthand edition. Usually, every single week over on Amazon Music, we release brand new episodes of our bite-sized sister show, shorthand. It's like red-handed's little friend. Where we delve into all sorts of fascinating topics.

From hell in different religions, Haitian voodoo, the death of Edgar Allan Poe, Qatar's syndrome, Japan's suicide forest, and so much more. And this Halloween, from the 19th of October to the 31st of October, we are going to be pulling out 13 of our most terrifying episodes of Shorthand to drop straight into your red-handed feed every single day. But beware. Each episode will only be available for 24 hours.

So get listening or abandon or hope. Enjoy. Hello. Hello. Welcome to Shorthand October edition. Hallam O'Neween. Exactly. Our favourite. Halloween on the Saxon of my phone. Our favourite holiday.

It's on a Friday this year. Should we count it as that, the weekend off for Halloween? We're going on a boat. We are going on a boat. Going on a ghost boat. Can't wait. It's going to be fantastic. And hopefully I don't get seasick and throw up all over everybody.

I don't think it moves anywhere. I think it's like one of those, a stationary ship. My favourite kind. Maud. Perfect. And this is something I have wanted to cover for a long time. I believe you. We touched upon it in the book.

And it's finally time for a short hand. Everyone get excited. In the early 15th century, sinister rumours spread like wildfire throughout the hamlets and farming communities around the chateau-refuge. Don't care if that's how you say it or not. I like it. I like it. Because, as we know, hate the French.

And this particular chateau is in northwestern france. Children had been going missing at a horrifying rate. And it was said that some children had approached the castle to beg for food and were never seen again. Others had been outpicking fruit and snatched by castle guards in broad daylight. Some villagers even reported hearing children's screams coming over the wind from the castle towers in the dead of night. And all these rumours were focused.

on one man, the mysterious, unthinkably wealthy baron, who rarely appeared outside the castle walls. The decorated nobleman who had fought side by side with Joan of Arc. Night Joan. Uh-huh. And then abandoned military life in favour of sinister, arcane, black magic rituals. You and me both, buddy. And his hope in doing this was to summon untold riches and conjure the devil himself. This man's name was Gilderay

But he was known as the Black Baron Is he Bluebeard? I'll ask the internet, don't worry My brain is like that scene in SpongeBob Where it's just like rifling through Filing cabinets It's like there was a connection here Oh, it's kind of like a Dracula

and Vlad the Impaler thing In that Blue Bair's based on Gilderabeer wasn't actually home I see, there we go That makes sense Yes, because Blue Bid wasn't real, Black Bid was. Black Bid's a pirate. Blue Bid, King, killed wives, hung them from a war. Peanut Bouch had a ballet about it.

Got it. Thank you. So that's all you need to know, because that's all we know. That's the short hand. So yes, Gilderay, his nickname was also the Black Baron. And some say that he is the first recorded serial killer in history. Responsible for the gruesome torture, a murder of hundreds. if not thousands of children. So what happened in those dark rooms way up in his castle towers?

This is the shorthand. Gilderay was born in about 1404 in Shantos, northwest France. And Gil was, how you say, treetre fucking loaded. Pretty much everyone in his close family was a very privileged feudal lord of some type. His father belonged to the esteem house. of Laval and his mother from the historic house of Crohn. And when those houses combined, it was a big fat payday for everyone. Everyone talks shit about the Hapsburgs, right?

They did unite Europe. And those giant chins. And moulded their own jaws. I listened to quite a horrifying documentary the other day. And I was such a weird way to say it, but it's because I just have things playing on YouTube and I'm not looking at it. And it was all about, I want to say, king. Was it Philip the second in his huge dick?

Yes! I knew it. Yes. I was cooking and I had to turn it off before I could eat. It was making me feel physically ill. Club like. Oh my God. Like thin at the top and then thick at the bottom.

Okay, we'll come back to that. I don't want to. We're doing a shorthand on it. I don't want to. I was already writing the short hand in my mind as I chopped on. It's happening. That's what his wife said. They were like, shut up, take these drugs, this stupid bitch.

Spread them. Awful, awful. I'll get you some laudan them. Anyways, actually. Great. Anyway, we're not talking about him today. Let's stick with this story. We'll leave the Hapsburgs where they are for now. When little gilly was 11, his father inherited an even more stupendous fortune before promptly dying in a gnarly hunting accident. which, upsettingly, Gilderay was present for.

And worse than that, it was only a few months before his mother died as well of being a medieval woman. Can't escape it. It'll get you. It will get 51% of the population. But the silver lining to all this was that before his 12th birthday, Gilderay became one of the most powerful nobles in Brittany and among the wealthiest people in all of France. and back then people like him didn't lift a finger they just lay around doing whatever they like directing courtiers to take care of their every whim

but slightly harshing this vibe was the fact that Gilda Ray was put into the care of his grandfather Jean de Crayon and don't let the name for you de Crayon was not a colourful character he was scheming miserly and pretty cruel to the core kind of guy and pretty much the only lesson he impressed upon Gilderay

was how to screw the little guy to get ahead. It mainly served to warp the young Gilderay into a self-serving, hot-headed, entitled Little Rebel. DeRae even wrote himself that when he was young, he, quote, pleased himself with every illicit act and perpetrated many high and enormous crimes against God and his commandments. Another reason why, Gil, couldn't just sit around,

and revel in the lap of infinite luxury, was that war was a bubbling because after all we are in France. By 1420, when De Re was about 16, France had been at war for almost 100 years, and we're not going to do all of that again. So for everything you need to know about the 100 years, well, which wasn't 100 years,

including the king who thought he was literally made of glass, you can take yourself over to our episode on Jean-Dark Knight-Jones. She's waiting for you. The main thing is France was on its... Knees. English armies were tearing through the country, burning villages as they went. There was a deep, deep famine plus plague, pestilence and just bad vibes. Some people even gave up on society completely, throwing down their tools and running off into the woods to live like walls, which like, I'm pretty close.

Also, I get it or wasn't there, but kind of extreme. I don't know, man. I guess was it really any better living in the medieval village? It's terrible that I actually can't decide. I could go and be a wild woman, live in a cave, two spells and stuff. By 1420, the war got so bad that even the Fancy Pants Barents had to get involved. So, still in his teens, Gil started his military career and against all odds. He was really good at it.

He led a successful career campaign against English garrisons, captured a fortress at Jen, and recaptured the castle of Malikong. In 1421, a 13-year-old peasant girl called Joan of Argue was driven by visions of the angel Gabriel to somehow get in front of the king, which she did, and then managed to convince that king that she was sent by God to lead his armies to victory, which she also did at 13.

And the king, well, Dauphar, technically, assigned none other than Gilda Ray to accompany her. You know in films when halfway through a character is like, are you kidding? I was there the whole time. And then it shows a compilation of scenes with them superimposed in the background. Think that, but with Gilda Ray in the background of Arjone of Arc episode. He was at her side for all her major battles, and together they accomplished some astounding military feats.

Gilda Ray was there at the lifting of the siege of Orillian. And they went on together to recapture a series of towns, from the English. It was largely thanks to all these victories that Charles VIII went from Dauphin to proper King of France. So he gave Gildare the esteemed title of Marshal of France. In 1431, Jonah Bark was executed, and for Gilder Ray,

battening just wasn't the same without his little pal. So after a couple more massive victories reclaiming towns around France, pretty soon he stepped away from the army and went back to his estate in Brittany. Still, it has been said that, the bloodlust never really left him. All that raping and pillaging and bloodshed all over the years might have awakened something. How hard is it to kill a planet? Maybe all it takes is a little drilling, some mining,

and a whole lot of carbon pumped into the atmosphere. When you see what's left, it starts to look like a crime scene. Are we really safe? Is our water safe? You destroyed our town. And crimes like that, they don't just happen. things accidents, there is no accident. This was 100% preventable. They're the result of choices by people, ruthless oil tycoons, corrupt politicians, even organized crime. These are the stories we need to be telling about our changing planet. Stories of scams, murders, and cover-ups that are about us, and the things we're doing to either protect the Earth or destroy it. Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can

listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. All right, should we talk about the Signal Awards? Sure. Sure. That is the level of enthusiasm. We would love you guys to have for us, too. Because if you remember, we made the podcast series, Flesh and Code, with Wondry.

We were super excited like the minute they brought that story to us. Because if you haven't listened to Flesh and Code, it's essentially. about following people who essentially fall in love with their like AI companions. It's about Russian interference and all sorts of crazy things and about how these AI companions are to be trusted, whether this is a good thing, how it was impacting on a larger scale, and the ramifications when a replica that was the company at the heart of it took away the erotic role play function and didn't go well. Spoilers. So we loved making it. We spent what, 18 months making that show? And we worked so, so hard.

on it. And so we are going to ask a very small favour of you guys, shockingly to us. Flesh and Code has been put up for the listener's choice category of the Signal Awards 2025. So we would love you guys to please help us out and basically try get some more eyes and ears on Flesh and Code because it was a real labour of love for us. What you guys need to do is go to the Signal Awards website and vote for Flesh and Code. Again, it's in the listener's choice category and you can find us under documentaries, that's the category you're looking for, and then under limited series and specials. Voting is open until the 9th of October, so you really don't have much time, like literally go do this now. And we would just be so incredibly grateful because if we

did win the listener's choice for Flesh and Code at the Signals Award, then it would just mean the world to us. Thank you. Anyway, at this stage, he just went back to opulence. Because the only thing GDR loved more than having money was spending it. He hired tons of servants, more than 200 private guards, chaplains, train chefs, singers and astrologers. My brain really had to think about the word chaplain then. Chapalais? Why has he got an army of Charlie Chaplains all under his spell?

Classic French. Guderay spent absolute packets on decorating and redecorating his house. Every year he put on a play recreating his victory at O'Leon, for which he brought new costumes every year. For a brief period,

he got very goddy and paid for an entire chapel to be built on his grounds for the bliss of his soul. It was decorated with silk and gold tapestries and vessels encrusted with gems, and he even hired a boy's choir,

for which he picked the boys himself. To fund all of this extravagance, he started selling off family land to pay for it all, and his family were not happy. Worried about all this spending, the family did what rich families do. They asked the king to pass the decree, preventing Gilderay from selling land. Gilderay was disgraced. The place stopped, and he withdrew from public life.

And he soon found another little hobby, the occult. One day, Gilda Ray came across a soldier who said that he had a book which held the secret to unlimited wealth. And that DeRay could borrow the book for the low, low price of just 50 crowns. So he did, being a mug, snap up that deal. The book was bound in heavy leather and fastened with an iron lock.

Its pages were made of jet black parchment, inked with red ink. That's a nightmare to read. What the fuck? And inside was a mad scrawl of symbols, pentacles and mysterious incantations. Gilderay read about various esoteric theories in mystical law. Like a vulture's heart split in two and well dried,

carried in a do-skin belt, causes the wearer to shiver in the presence of poison. Or if you bury a lion's heart in the kitchen, it wards off lightning. There are experiments in there to raise demons, protective spells, love spells, and bingo. The alchemic formula for gold. How many lions are you got lying around? Why a kitchen's getting a tap by light?

We will come back to a shorthand on alchemy, but essentially it was a belief in the olden times that with the right kit you could science up gold and you know who really, really, really believed it. Someone unexpected. I remember us talking about this. It's gone. Ow, there's an apple that's on my head and I know what gravity is now. Oh, Newton.

Isaac Newton. Oh, thank you. Alchemist. Obsessed. so much so that his family have tried to hide it for centuries because it's so embarrassing. I'm just like, he's having a go. Look, they can't all be bangers. You've got to be brave and put some crazy ideas out there.

I think they should lean into it. I think they might be now. Now all that gravity money's drived up. Durey built himself a lab full of furnaces, crucibles and alchemical tools. But as he read on in this book, He became a bit unstuck The ingredients list included some tricky items Lion's Heart at least exists

He needed to find the eye of a basilisk And three pinches of powdered unicorn horn Kind of like the arcane medieval version Of making Otolengi recipe See I don't mind Otolengi I'm not big on following recipes But I bought his book And I was like, it's pretty straightforward

Should know what book is fucking hard? Disham Oh, I believe that I bought their book And I was like, let's, you know, one Sunday I'll just make the Ruby curry. And you're like, I'm a brown. I can do this. Let's see what's up, you know?

And I was like, let's do the Ruby curry. And you open it up and it's like a page. It's just like a few things. And you're like, it seems the ingredients list is long, but the instructions look very simple. I was like, okay, my mom's got most of these things in the cupboard. I can do this. Start reading. And it's like a fucking nightmare because you read it and it's like, okay, great, done

this, done this stuff. And it's like, now turn to page 27 and follow the red sauce recipe that's there to come back here and then carry on with the steps. And you're like, okay, you go there. It's like six fucking pages. So it tricks you into thinking it's going to be doable and it is not. I'm not telling people not to try. But you've got to have a whole fucking day to make one curry. And it's too long. It's not for me. And Dishoom's on Deliveroo. Exactly. Why would you even bother? You could just turn the container out into your pot and be like, here you go. darling. Why would you even bother? You're so right to make a substandard version of that

curry and spend all day doing it. I'll never forget. Watching Bake Off, this was years ago. And my friend was like watching Bake Off and it was pastry week. You can buy pastry. Someone should tell them. I know. No, I completely agree. Why? I watched a video the other day of how to make rough puff pastry and I was like... Rough puffs are con. You can just buy puff pastry. Why are we doing this? No, fuck it. I'm not interested. Don't want it. Not just any odd unicorns, neither.

You had to go to page six in the disheum book to find out that the unicorn had to be captured by virgins of noble birth, not just your bog standard virgin. That's literally exactly what it is. Fuck it, no. Also, the basilisk didn't just be like hoiked out of the sewers of Hogwarts. You had to conjure it yourself. Oh, great.

See, turn to basilisk-cundering recipe to conjure the basilisk to continue with this recipe. You've just added three days to your fucking meal. Oh, man. Or whatever the fuck he's trying to do here, make some gold. And there was a whole lot of other faff as well, like placing a large rooster in a heated dungeon and feeding it fermented barley until it gets really hot and really fat and lays a singular egg. That egg you then bury out midnight on consecrated ground. And then that's when the basilisk appears. Great.

Then you have to kill the basilics, getting its eye, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Huge amount of effort for Gilderay, so he's sent for alchemists to come and do it for him. Bring your own basilisk, please. See, it's just getting takeaway. Which is how Gilderay got mixed up with a 22-year-old Florentine, a cleric slash sorcerer slash mystic called Father Francois Prilati. A friend brought Pralati back from Florence, saying he fears neither God nor Satan, while his skill and erudition are the marvel of this city.

And Pralati became a real fixture at the castle of Gilderay. It's even quite heavily implied that he and Dere were actually lovers, giving the whole thing a very heavy, Rasputin-y vibe. If it was true, which it wasn't... Peter never fuck the emperors didn't happen. He didn't fuck any of the children. He didn't fuck the czar. Go listen to our episodes on Rasputin for more information on that.

Anyway, the two of them set about trying to cough up some extra funds through black magic. And soon enough, one thing led to another. And they started trying to summon the devil himself. That's where it's always going to end up. You start off with a little bit of a cult. end up trying to summon the devil himself. Yeah, love of money is the root of all evil.

At one of these summonings, Prolati made circles in the dirt and invited anyone that wanted to make a pact with the devil to step inside, said Circle. And then Gildare stepped in holding a note that said, come at my bidding and I will give you whatever you want, except my soul.

And the curtailment of my life. Everything else, anything else in the world. But nothing happened. Some report that the devil wouldn't appear to Gilder Ray because even the Prince of Darkness was horrified by Gilderay's predilections. Because for a few years, Ray had been getting up to all sorts of vile, unforgivable sins in a dark room way up in his castle tower. That's when villages nearby reported hearing screams in the dead of night,

and right about the time all those children started to go missing. Like we said at the start of the episode, children would occasionally be sent up to Gilderay's castle by their parents to beg for food at the gates. Servants were known to sometimes come out and meet those children to hand out clothes, money, or food. But it was said that sometimes they would pick out a beautiful boy from the crowd and promised the boy a treat if he came into the castle kitchen.

And then that child would never be seen again. Story spread of children in town being asked by servants to carry a message up to the castle and then again not coming back. Children outgathering fruit, tending sheep, guarding cows or chasing butterflies in the woods near the castle would also vanish without a trace. Some witnesses even said that they had seen Ray's men snatch boys in broad daylight

and just drag them into the castle. So what was waiting for them there? Nothing good! As DeRay delved further into black magic, he started to push the boundaries like a toddler. He wrote, My life has always been lived. It is too late to worry over consequences.

When the mortal end arrives, I shall be ready. He hired a witch to tempt children from nearby villages using cakes and gifts. His valet, Corillout and Gil de Sille, joined in as well, snatching and inviting children into the castle. Some say that he was carrying out black masses up there, sacrificing children to the devil, in the hopes of gaining, power and or wealth or both. He would conduct dark rites and experimental alchemical rituals, those that asked for human remains as an ingredient,

and his desire to meet the devil had grown into an obsession. So he prepared another offering. One report says that in 1439, Gilda Ray slaughtered a boy and butchered his body. He extracted the boy's heart, eyes and hand, and placed them on a sheet of linen, draped over a pane of glass, and he offered it up to the devil. Reports from his later trial tell of extended torture sessions with nine. and mechanical devices made to prolong suffering in his young victims

before eventually killing them by decapitation or strangulation. His walls were said to be decorated with children's body parts and skulls, and whatever he was doing was definitely sexually motivated. He was a nailed-on sexual sadist with a well-known interest in young children, and he writes himself of ill deeds with each child before the torture began. With children disappearing left, right and centre, screams coming from over the ramparts, why wasn't anything done?

Firstly, most of the children who disappeared weren't really snatched. They went voluntarily. If children took up positions as servants or pages or choir boys, it was understood that they would be separated from their parents for good. Parents would willingly snap up on the offer of room and board for the rest of their child's life, plus one less medieval mouth to feed.

And then, once the rumours spread of the more nefarious disappearance, many villagers just wouldn't speak up for the fear of violence from Ray's men. And this combination of fear and the inescapable mark of social status meant that there was just nothing a peasant could do. The victims were young and they were poor, totally invisible to the elites back then.

And in the end, it wasn't actually the wanton slaughter of hundreds of boys and girls that got the attention of the authorities. In 1440 to drum up yet more funds, DeRay decided to sell yet another castle. But then, after the sail had gone through,

he had second thoughts, so he tried to storm it. First he burst into the village church, mid-service, screaming his head off. He knew the priests there had been entrusted with protecting the castle. Ray and his men dragged the priest to the castle, forced him to open the doors, and locked him in irons within the walls.

Now, all this was not on, especially since the guy who'd bought the castle, fair and square, was, as you'd imagine, a very powerful man. So he sent his own army to free the priest and take back the castle. And with dark rumours having swirled about Ray for years, church authorities finally dug deeper. Dozens of parents were brought forward to tell their stories. They were asked to kneel before the commissioner,

make the sign of the cross, and swear to tell the truth before testifying. One villager even said that he had seen De Reyes' men disposing of the skeletons of dozens of children. In September 1440, DeRay was four, finally arrested, for heresy, sodomy, and the abduction, torture and murder of at least 140 children. But in some reports, the true number was potentially over a thousand. Gilderay was tried in both a civil court and an ecclesiastical one, otherwise known as an Inquisition.

The Inquisition saw Gilda Ray tried for doctrinal heresy. years of actively trying to summon the devil and messing with black magic. Court records say this. The said Gilda Ray, forgetting his creator and giving himself over to the devil, did horribly abuse the bodies of children, committing sodomitical sins with them, and afterwards cruelly putting them to death. As well as villages, witnesses included many of DeRay's own staff,

his accomplices, including the sorcerer, Rolatti from Florence and his child snatching witch. And they testified against him in shocking, devastating detail. They told of prolonged brutal torture and even acts of cannibalism and bathing in children's blood. Before you said that, long before you said that, it just reminds me so much of Elizabeth Bathory. Uh-huh, mm-hmm. Ray said nothing. He was threatened with torture if he didn't confess.

So he did. Records show that with great contrition of heart and a great effusion of tears, years, he confessed to all of it. He described how he tortured children by hanging their bodies with cords or on hooks, how he rubbed or erected the boy's penises, and how he slashed children's throats and severed their heads, how he ejaculated on their dying bodies while laughing, and how he tenderly kissed the most beautiful decapitated heads of the children that he killed. And then, he asked for God's forgiveness. The deathbed confession will save everyone. Obviously, Gilderay was then sentenced to death, as were all his accomplices.

A massive crowd gathered and a procession was led out of the castle, singing and praying all the way, until they got to a series of gallows in a meadow nearby. Since hanging was considered too good for the sinners, a fire was lit at the base of each of the gallows, and they were all burnt alive as they swung. Eventually the flames burned through De Reyes' rope, and he fell into the fire.

His body was retrieved and put in a coffin, and then taken to a chaplain nun. and buried in October 1440. Weirdly, it gave rise to a very grim tradition. Every year on that same date, parents marked the occasion by giving their children a good whipping. This tradition of beating your kids extra hard on the anniversary of Gilderay's death

survived for more than a century. And that's almost it for the story of Gilderay, Black Magic Pido Torturer, extraordinaire. Except it is time for the traditional last-minute party-pooping fact-check that we love, so much. This entire story has come from historical accounts from the time and since, but how far can we really trust them? This happened at about the same time as the European witch craze, and if you've listened to our shorthand on that, you'll know how unreliable those

trials could be. No physical evidence was ever brought against Gilderet. And we know that the prosecuting lawyers literally made up some of their evidence, and predictably his full confessions and his witness's graphic testimony were all made after a hefty amount of torturing. And lest we forget Gilderay was rich. You don't get to be a wealthy reclusive baron without having plenty of enemies plotting to seize your shit. Still, most experts land somewhere in the middle.

There certainly were plenty of strange dark magic rituals to try and conjure gold or the devil, playing about in that castle. We also know that Gilda Ray was a sexual sexual, who was definitely attracted to children. And it's extremely likely he was guilty of the assault and murder of children. Maybe just not a thousand. And as for his grim laboratory of horror,

most of those details seemed to only be introduced into the reports centuries later. But these days, Gildare lives on in infamy. He inspired all sorts of French folk legends and fairy tales, including, as Hannah said, Bluebeard. The murderous nobleman with a secret room whose wives disappeared one by one. And whatever happened up in that power, high up in the castle walls,

the shadow of Gildare will loom over France for centuries to come. Halloween. Such an interesting story and, yeah, very, very reminiscent of the Elizabeth Bathory situation, which the same reasons can be come to, that she had a lot of money, she was a very wealthy woman, and she was standing in the way from a lot of other people

having that power and money, so was it just like this made up thing to get rid of them? But I'm also like, I guess there's easier ways to get rid of people than to say that like a satanic black magic pito. But then I guess this way like decimates them and their legacy and stops anybody like sticking up for them or defending them or coming to their aid. I don't know.

I think it's very of the time as well. Like this is very much a time in history where like certainly in Europe, all of the Christians were like, oh wait, I still hate you. Even though you're the same religion as well. me. I just have to find other things. I just have to find things within Christianity to not like. And that's where a black masses come from. Like it's, it's essentially the Crusades were quite far away. It's like the worst of the worst, isn't it? So there you go, guys. That is the story of Gilda Ray.

We hope you enjoyed it. Go listen to our shorthand, which we also did. I think maybe last year, maybe the year before on Elizabeth Bathory. Very, very interesting story, what she called the Countess of Blood or something. And we will see you next week for another shorthand. Goodbye. You know those creepy stories that give you really the ones that make you really question what's real. Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests,

but instead, in hospital rooms and doctor's offices. Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling, they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories, and mysteries. Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show. Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime, part spooky and part comedy. The stories we cover are well researched. Of the 880 men who survived the attack, around 400 would eventually find their way to one another and merge into one larger group.

With a touch of humor. Shout out to her. Shout out to all my therapists out there's been like eight of them. A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. That mother f***er is not real. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tail of the paranormal, or you love to hop in the way back machine and dissect the deep. details of some of history's most notorious crimes.

You should tune in to our podcast. Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad free by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.