Ep. 80 - The MYSTERIOUS Exhumation of Elizabeth Siddal

Summary

My Victorian Nightmare – Ep. 80

The MYSTERIOUS Exhumation of Elizabeth Siddal

Host: Genevieve Manion
Date: February 2, 2026

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Episode Theme & Purpose

Genevieve Manion explores several vivid tales from Victorian England, with a special focus on the life, death, and legendary exhumation of Pre-Raphaelite muse Elizabeth Siddal. The episode blends the tragic, the mysterious, and the morbidly fascinating—ranging from legal cases about haunted houses, the myth of hair growth after death, spiritualist fraud, and the chilling Bradford Sweets arsenic poisoning. Manion’s signature mix of poetic melancholy, dark humor, and empathy for the era’s sufferers suffuses the telling.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Haunted House Law and the “Ghostbusters Ruling”

[03:11-07:40]

• Strange Legal History: Only four U.S. states (NY, NJ, MA, MN) require haunted home disclosures during property transactions.
  • Origin Story: Listener shares that NY’s requirement was sparked by the famous Stambovsky v. Ackley case, a.k.a. the “Ghostbusters ruling.”
  • Helen Ackley, the Haunted Homeowner: Ackley publicly claimed poltergeists resided in her Nyack, NY home; stories included lost and found rings and full-bodied apparitions.
  • Buyer's Lawsuit: Ackley’s buyer, Jeffrey Stambovsky, attempted to have the sale rescinded after learning of the hauntings, but the court ruled against him, setting disclosure precedent.

Memorable Quote:
"Plaintiff hasn't a ghost of a chance. I am moved by the spirit of equity, and the notion is a hobgoblin, which should be exorcised from the body of legal precedent." — Quoted from the court’s majority opinion, [07:11]

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2. Elizabeth Siddal’s Life, Death, and Exhumation

[09:32-14:06]

• Who Was Elizabeth Siddal?:
  • Model for Millais' painting Ophelia—famously posed in freezing water, possibly harming her health.
  • Married to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Pre-Raphaelite painter and poet, who created hundreds of images of her.
  • Suffered from depression, two stillbirths, laudanum addiction, and possible tuberculosis—ultimately dying at 32.
• Seven Years Later—A Morbid Retrieval:
  • In 1869, Rossetti had her body exhumed to retrieve a manuscript of his poetry placed in her coffin.
  • Rumors spread (by art dealer Charles Howell) that Siddal’s hair had grown fantastically and filled the coffin, and her body was well preserved.
• Debunking the Hair Myth:
  • Genevieve clarifies: Hair does not grow after death; it only appears longer as skin shrinks.
  • The “hair like Ophelia” myth was a fabrication—but it reignited interest in her as a poet.

Memorable Quote:
"Charles would go on to spread this detail… ignited interest in her again as a poet, which is good. But this, it was just a lie." — [13:07]

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3. Elizabeth Siddal’s Poetry: “The Silent Wood”

[14:12-15:14]

• Host reads full text of Siddal’s “The Silent Wood”
  • Lush, forlorn, gothic mood highlighting the show’s reverence for Victorian poetry.

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4. First-hand Victorian Ghost Hunt — “With Their Own Eyes”

[15:21-20:03]

• Reading from the Jeffersonian, 1859:
  • Reporter and his servant spend a night in a haunted house: eerily behaving dog, childlike footprints materializing in dust, self-opening/closing doors, and a floating, glowing “ghost globule.”
• Host’s Observations:
  • Empathizes with the dog’s terror; muses on ideas of ghosts attached to art and family heirlooms.

Memorable Quote:
"Great use of the word globule. I'll say ghost globules. I can see in my mind exactly the spirit glob that he's describing." — [20:15]

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5. Seance Room: The Truth of Spirit Photography

[21:11-27:09]

• 1870 Article on Spirit Photographer William Mumler:
  • Mumler creates “spirit photos” (double exposures), duping clients including Abraham Lincoln’s widow.
  • Spiritualists speculate on how spirits might imprint images via invisible rays.
• Fraud Exposed:
  • Host explains Mumler’s hoax (double-exposure), trial against P.T. Barnum, and legal acquittal.
  • William Hope, another famed spirit photographer, is revealed as fraudulent, despite defenders like Arthur Conan Doyle.
  • Early X-rays also believed to reveal the human spirit.

Memorable Quote:
"P.T. Barnum himself sued Mumler out of sheer disgust for what he was doing." — [24:52]

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6. Victorian Food Horrors: Bradford Sweets Poisoning, 1858

[27:34-38:56]

• Event Summary:
  • Over 200 poisoned, 20 dead (mostly children), after arsenic-laced peppermint “humbugs” sold on Halloween.
  • Cause: a pharmacy apprentice accidentally sells 12 pounds of arsenic instead of sugar filler (plaster of Paris) to local candy seller “Humbug Billy.”
  • Arsenic candy distributed widely; initial symptoms mistaken for cholera.
  • Newspapers halted presses to warn: “Don’t eat the candy.”
• Aftermath:
  • All involved nearly died themselves but survived with life-altering guilt or injury.
  • No criminal convictions; prompted the Pharmacy Act of 1868 and the Sale of Food and Drugs Act of 1875.
  • Public shocked to learn candy (and other foods) frequently adulterated with fillers like plaster of Paris.

Memorable Quotes:
"They were already not great to ingest… Each candy had enough arsenic to kill two people each." — [30:55]
"The police were in complete shock and terror at the thought and didn't know what to do straight away other than run into the streets, begin ringing bells and screaming don't eat the candy." — [32:42]

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7. Christina Rossetti’s Poem “In an Artist’s Studio” — On Siddal

[39:06-40:48]

• Poem reflects Siddal’s role as muse, her suffering, and perhaps the blindness of her husband, Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
• Genevieve interprets the poem as both elegy and subtle critique.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “Plaintiff hasn’t a ghost of a chance. I am moved by the spirit of equity, and the notion is a hobgoblin, which should be exorcised from the body of legal precedent.” — Court opinion on haunted house case [07:11]

• “She lay close to death for several weeks after that.” — Genevieve on Siddal after modeling for Ophelia [10:27]

• “Charles would go on to spread this detail… ignited interest in her again as a poet, which is good. But this, it was just a lie.” — On the hair-growth-in-coffin myth [13:07]

• “Great use of the word globule. I can see in my mind exactly the spirit glob that he’s describing.” — Genevieve after ghost hunt account [20:15]

• “P.T. Barnum himself sued Mumler out of sheer disgust for what he was doing.” — On spirit photography fraud [24:52]

• “Each candy had enough arsenic to kill two people each.” — On the Bradford sweets poisoning [30:55]

• “The police… were literally running down the streets ringing bells and telling everyone who could hear them to spread the word.” — [32:42]

  See [39:40-40:48] for Christina Rossetti’s poem, “In an Artist’s Studio” — read in full, with Genevieve’s interpretation.

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Flow & Tone

Genevieve maintains a voice that’s equal parts wry, compassionate, and morbidly enthralled by Victorian tragedies. She immerses listeners, moving smoothly from dark anecdotes to historical context, poetic appreciation, and present-day observations. The show is both informative and emotionally resonant—appreciating not just gothic misery for its own sake, but as a lens on art, gender, social reform, and the strange comforts of shared human sorrow.

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Suggested Listen Timestamps

• Haunted house law history: [03:11-07:40]
• Elizabeth Siddal’s exhumation legend: [09:32-14:06]
• Siddal’s poetry (“The Silent Wood”): [14:12-15:14]
• Victorian ghost hunting narrative: [15:21-20:03]
• Spirit photography hoax unraveled: [21:11-27:09]
• Bradford arsenic candy poisoning: [27:34-38:56]
• Christina Rossetti’s “In an Artist’s Studio”: [39:06-40:48]

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If you are drawn to a blend of Victorian true crime, gothic art, and the haunted, this episode is rich in atmospheric detail and surprising history, all delivered with Genevieve Manion’s uniquely comforting-yet-chilling narrative style.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Hello and welcome to My Victorian Nightmare. I'm your host Genevieve Manion and I'm here to talk about mysterious deaths, morbid fascinations, disturbing stories, and otherwise spirit spooky events from the Victorian era. Because to me there's just something especially intriguing, creepy and oddly comforting about horror and mayhem from the 19th century. So listener discretion is advised.

[C]

Hello friends and welcome to this, my 80th and episode. I hope that you had a warm and safe week. I hope that you are holding it together despite the many reasons that you shouldn't be. The many end mounting horrors of daily life in the modern era.

[B]

I will be doing my very best to provide a safe space somewhere where you can take a nice deep sweet.

[C]

Breath and offer comfort in the form.

[B]

Of horrors from another era.

[C]

Today for you, dear listener, I will.

[B]

Be discussing legal cases brought about by hauntings, the legendary and mysterious exhumation of.

[C]

Elizabeth Sidal, otherwise known as Ophelia, ghost.

[B]

Globules, spirit photography, and the utterly tragic.

[C]

Bradford Sweets poisoning of 1858. But first, thank you to Krystal, Ashton.

[B]

Erin, Mia, Javi, Samantha, Wendy, Cat and Lizzie for subscribing to the Patreon this week.

[C]

You and everyone who has joined are the reason why my show can continue without you. It would not.

[B]

If you would like to support the.

[C]

Show and receive witchy weekly content, true.

[B]

Grime extras and 13 episodes of Dark.

[C]

Poetry, click the Patreon link in the show notes or go to myvictorianightmare.com to find out more.

[B]

And also thank you to those of you who have rated the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Thank you for your comments that you leave me. They make me so happy and your ratings mean the world to me.

[C]

So again, thank you.

[B]

Okay, before we get to our first official segment, I need to discuss something. Last week I shared a fascinating fact that it is illegal to rent or sell a property if it is haunted.

[D]

In New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Minnesota.

[B]

Only four states have those laws on the books.

[D]

Now I'm sure like Me you wondered.

[B]

What events could possibly lead to laws like those being passed.

[D]

And you will be pleased to know that a listener commented on that episode.

[B]

And informed me that she knows exactly what led to the New York law being passed.

[D]

And it involved her grandma, a lady named Helen Ackley. And Guys, guys, get ready for this. This is amazing. The New York State law came about.

[B]

After a lawsuit officially Stambosy v. Ackley, but it is unofficially referred to as the Ghostbusters ruling.

[D]

This was a case that went to.

[B]

The Supreme Court of New York regarding a house where the previous owner, Ms. Ackley, claimed very publicly that her house was haunted by numerous poltergeists in Nyack, New York. Ms. Ackley had claimed that her place was haunted and her home was reported on by numerous publications, including Reader's Digest, between 1977 and 1989. She claimed that ring would be left next to her grandchildren that she would find, and then they would disappear the next day. She considered these gifts that the ghosts were giving. She claimed that her son came, quote.

[D]

Unquote, eyeball to eyeball with the figure.

[B]

Of a Revolutionary Navy lieutenant in the home. And the fiance of her daughter that stayed in the house said this about his experience in the sin. Had already fallen asleep and I was drifting. Then I heard the bedroom door creak and the floorboards squeak. My back was to the edge of the bed. Suddenly, the edge of the bed by my midsection depressed down and I felt something lean against me. I went literally stone stiff.

[C]

I was speechless and could hardly move.

[B]

I was able to twist my neck around enough to see a womanly figure.

[C]

In a soft dress through the moonlight from the bay windows.

[B]

I felt like she was looking straight at me. After about a minute, the presence got.

[C]

Up and walked back out of the room.

[B]

I finally relaxed enough to shake my wife out of sound sleep, acting like.

[D]

A TOD who had just had a nightmare. End quote.

[B]

Ms. Ackley also claimed that the ghost would daily wake up her daughter when she was younger by shaking her bed. And one time her daughter screamed that it was spring break and she did not want to be woken up early. And the ghosts left her alone. They didn't shake her bed again until vacation was over. Ms. Ackley sold the house to a.

[C]

Man named Jeffrey Stamboski, and she claimed.

[B]

That she would not sell the house until it was made clear to the buyer by the realtor that it was haunted. She said that she wouldn't even sign the contract until she was certain that this was done. The realtor claimed that she did in Fact, tell the buyer that it was haunted. And his response was that he laughed and said, quote, unquote, we'll have to.

[D]

Call in the Ghostbusters before signing. After one week of owning the house and having moved in, this guy was not happy. The place was indeed completely full of ghosts, according to him.

[B]

He claimed that the conversation never happened between him and the realtor. He invited the previous owner to his new home to tell him directly about the ghost house, which she did. And then he sued to rescind the sale of the house. Long story short, he lost the case. He was now stuck with a haunted house. But this case led to a new.

[D]

Law that says that if your house.

[B]

Is haunted and has been publicly stated to be haunted, or if essentially any documentation exists that your home is haunted.

[D]

You must in writing disclose this to.

[B]

The buyer or renter.

[D]

You gotta get it in black and white, otherwise they can sue you and.

[B]

Potentially get a contract of sale rescinded.

[D]

And it doesn't say specifically, but you.

[B]

Could likely break a rental contract as well.

[D]

Incidentally, the majority opinion in this case is filled with ghostly wording. They had a lot of fun with this case. Again, the guy lost. And it says things like this in the majority opinion. It says, quote, plaintiff hasn't a ghost of a chance. I am moved by the spirit of equity, and the notion is a hobgoblin goblin, which should be exercised from the body of legal precedent.

[B]

The home is a lovely Victorian, built.

[C]

In the late 1800s.

[B]

It's got five bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms. Since the 90s, there has been no more paranormal activity reported by the three subsequent owners of the home. I think we can all say that the new year may not be feeling as stress free as we hoped it would as we watched the ball drop.

[C]

On New Year's Eve.

[D]

In fact, I think we should all.

[B]

Be considering fortified our mental health more than ever before. This is why I love Rula.

[C]

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[B]

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[C]

Session to only $15.

[B]

You get licensed in network care from a mental health professional that is not just whoever is available next in a queue, but who is selected based on your specific needs. Maybe you want to work through an anxiety issue.

[C]

Maybe you're experiencing depression.

[B]

Maybe you just need someone to help you process living in the world as it is today. Frankly, who doesn't need that?

[C]

Rula will find the professional who best suits your needs.

[B]

Rula partners you with a caring therapist based on your goals, your background and your preferences. And if you think you may require.

[C]

Medication, they can also partner you with.

[B]

A doctor who can help you with.

[C]

Finding the right medication for you.

[B]

There are no wait lists, no endless searching that just leads to a dead end, a situation I've found myself in plenty of times in the past, looking for the right therapist, one that I can afford that also gets me and understands how I want to be guided toward a more healthy life.

[C]

This here make one change you can actually stick with. Visit rula.comVictorian to get started. That's R U L A.comVictorian Mental Health Care that's actually built to last.

[B]

Okay, I have one more thing to share before we get to our regularly scheduled segments.

[C]

Won't you follow me through this cemetery gate here? I want to show you something. I don't think I've taken you on.

[B]

A field trip this early in a show before, but there's a particularly mysterious.

[C]

And creepy event that I wanted to.

[B]

Check out for myself, and I thought.

[C]

You might enjoy tagging along. We are in the lovely Highgate Cemetery, the west side, and it is a simply lovely October day in 1869.

[B]

We are making our way to the.

[C]

Grave of a woman named Elizabeth Sidal, who you may know as Ophelia.

[B]

You know that beautiful pre Raphaelite painting.

[C]

Of Ophelia floating in the water surrounded by flowers by Everett Millais? I put it on the Instagram link in the show notes. Elizabeth was the model for that painting.

[B]

She also developed pneumonia by laying in freezing cold water for hours on end.

[C]

Posing for that painting.

[B]

Little known fact, she lay close to.

[C]

Death for several weeks.

[B]

After that.

[C]

She married a poet and a painter named Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His sister was Christina Rossetti, one of the foremost Gothic poets of the Victorian era.

[B]

And in his own right, he was.

[C]

A very successful poet and artist. Elizabeth was his muse.

[B]

It's believed that he created at least a thousand paintings and sketches of her.

[C]

She became severely addicted to laudanum toward the end of her life.

[B]

It's believed that she may have had tuberculosis or an intestinal illness, maybe both.

[C]

And laudanum, a very strong and addictive opiate, was the treatment for these issues in the 1800s.

[B]

Not that it treated the illnesses, it.

[C]

Just numbed the pain. She also had severe depression.

[B]

It's believed that her death was likely a suicide. She died at the age of only.

[C]

32 of an overdose of laudanum after.

[B]

Years of depression brought on by her husband's chronic infidelity and she gave birth to two stillborn children in the last three years of her life.

[C]

It's all quite tragic, but the reason.

[B]

That we're here seven years after her death.

[C]

Ah, yes.

[B]

Over there you can see the group is. She is being exhumed for a very strange reason. Her husband, Dante would like to retrieve a book of his poetry that he placed beside her head when she was buried. And he and his friends are digging her up so that they can retrieve the book that has been beside her decomposing body for seven years. He's decided that he wants it back. Art dealer Charles Howell is here to.

[C]

Help with the process, along with two other gentlemen.

[B]

Gentlemen, we're gonna go up here on this high hill. Sorry, I know it's steep. They won't see us up here, but.

[C]

We'Ll have a bird's eye view of the exhumation.

[B]

Now, to be clear, I'm not here just to take you to see a dead body. I want to confirm if the rumors of what they found when they opened her casket were true. Okay, take a look. Just down there. They're removing the lid. Yes, okay. Of course. So Charles Howell, the art dealer, claimed that when they opened the casket, Elizabeth's hair had grown so much after her death that it entirely filled her coffin. Also that she was barely decomposed and still looked just as beautiful as the day that she was buried.

[D]

But as you can see, no, her.

[B]

Coffin is not filled with her luxurious red hair. And she's a lovely skeleton, I'd say. But no, she is quite decomposed. Oh, darling. Okay, let's step away over here. I just wanted to confirm that an.

[C]

Aberration of science didn't actually occur.

[B]

Charles would go on to spread this detail, this rumor that her hair literally filled her coffin. And this lie that he spread actually ignited interest in her again as a poet, which is good. But this, it was just a lie. In truth, did you know that your hair does not continue to grow once you have died? For some reason, people believe that it does. Maybe because of situations like this. It may appear to be longer because your skin dehydrates and shrinks, pulling back to expose more of the hair shaft. But no, your hair does not grow after you have died. Hair growth requires active cell division, something that stops when you die. So he lied about this for some reason. But again, I just wanted to make sure, because that would have been pretty wild. Dante would go on to publish that book that he removed from beside her skeleton. He would call it the House of Life. There are some lovely poems about her inside of it, but I would love.

[C]

To share with you one of her poems. She was a magnificent poet as well.

[B]

Her work is all quite darkly gothic, but this one is so beautiful in its blackness.

[C]

This is the Silent Wood by Elizabeth Siddal. O silent Wood, I enter thee with.

[E]

A heart so full of misery for all the voices from the trees and the ferns that cling about my knees.

[B]

In thy darkest shadow let me sit.

[E]

When the gray owls about thee flit, There will I ask of thee a boon that I may not faint or die or swoon Gazing through the gloom.

[C]

Like one whose life and hopes are.

[E]

Also done Frozen like a thing of stone, I sit in thy shadow but not alone can God bring back the day when we two stood beneath the.

[C]

Clinging trees in that dark wood. Ah, so beautiful the poetry of Ophelia herself.

[B]

Now let us have our first official.

[C]

Segment with their own eyes.

[B]

Where I share with you the personal, haunting accounts.

[D]

Of petrified Victorians and oh my goodness, folks, I hit the jackpot with this.

[C]

Article from the Jeffersonian from 1859.

[D]

This article is very long. I'm not reading the whole thing because.

[B]

This man, the reporter, was a ghost hunter.

[D]

And the beginning of the article is.

[B]

How he found this haunted house, how he made an agreement with the owner to stay there overnight, how he got someone to, like, agree to join him on the hunt. It's got a bit of a long buildup, so I'm going to cut to the chase and get right to the hunt. And what he said he experienced while staying in this purportedly haunted house.

[C]

And the article reads, we were in the hall, the street door closed, and my attention was now drawn to my dog.

[B]

He had at first ran in eagerly.

[C]

Enough, but had sneaked back to the door and was scratching and whining to get out.

[B]

After patting him on the head and.

[C]

Encouraging him gently, the dog seemed to reconcile himself to the situation and followed me and Franklin through the house, but keeping close at my heels instead of.

[B]

Hurrying inquisitively in advance, which was his usual and normal habit in all strange.

[C]

Places there was a gloomy backyard with very high walls. The stones of this yard were very damp, and what with the damp and what with the dust and smoke grime on the pavement, our feet left a slight impression where we passed and now appeared the first strange phenomenon witnessed by myself in this strange abode. I saw just before me the print of a foot suddenly form itself, as it were.

[B]

I I stopped, caught hold of my.

[C]

Servant, and pointed to it in advance of that Footprint. As suddenly dropped another. We both saw it. I advanced quickly to the place.

[B]

The footprint kept advancing before me.

[C]

A small footprint, the foot of a child. The impression was faint, though easy to distinguish the shape. But it seemed to us both that it was the print of a naked foot. This phenomenon ceased when we arrived at the opposite wall. Nor did it repeat itself. On returning, having finished the survey of the apartments, warmed myself a few moments and lighted my cigar, I then, still accompanied by Franklin, went forth to complete my mission. In the landing place there was another door. It was firmly closed. Sir, my servant said in surprise, I unlocked this door with all of the others when I first came. It cannot have gotten locked from the inside. Before he had finished his sentence, the door, which neither of us then was touching, opened quietly of itself.

[B]

We looked at each other a single instant.

[C]

The same thought seized both. Some human agency might be detected here. I rushed in and my servant followed. A small, blank, dreary room without furniture. A few emperor, empty boxes and hampers. In a corner a small window, the shutters closed. Not even a fireplace nor other door but that which we had just entered.

[B]

No carpet on the floor, and the.

[C]

Floor seemed very old, uneven, worm eaten, mended here and there, as was shown by the whiter patches on the wood. But no living being, and no visible place in which a living being could have hidden. As we we stood gazing round, the door by which we had entered, closed as quietly as it had opened before we were imprisoned for the first time, I felt a creep of undefinable horror. I then tried to open the door in vain. As I ceased from the effort, again that creep of horror came over me, but this time it was more cold and stubborn. I felt as if some strange intelligence and ghastly exhalation was rising up from the chinks of that rugged floor and filling the atmosphere with a venomous influence hostile to human life. The door now very slowly and quietly opened as if of its own accord. We precipitated ourselves into the landing place, and we both saw a large pale light, as large as a human figure, but shapeless as and unsubstantial, move before us and ascend the stairs that led from the landing into the attics. I followed the light, and my servant followed me. It entered to the right of the landing, a small garret of which the door stood open. I entered in the same instant.

[B]

The light then collapsed into a small.

[C]

Globule, exceedingly brilliant and vivid, rested a moment on the bed in the corner, quivered and vanished.

[B]

End quote this article is not finished.

[D]

It takes up an entire page of the paper. They had a number of horrifying and.

[B]

Beautifully written encounters in this house that.

[C]

I will share in weeks ahead.

[B]

Great use of the word globule. I'll say ghost globules. I can see in my mind exactly the spirit glob that he's describing. I always feel so sad for the.

[D]

Poor dogs in these stories.

[B]

Every once in a while Toby, my dog, will bark at a random corner of my apartment and then like shuffle away. And I never know if he's just being a Pomeranian with tiny body, big feelings, or if the ghosts who have come to me in my dreams in this place to ask me to help them leave are actually real and hanging.

[D]

Out in my living room.

[B]

I do have a number of paintings that my grandfather made and others that I found at like estate sales hanging in that spot and I wonder sometimes if he or other artists spirits are maybe coming to stop by and admire their work.

[D]

When Toby gets upset.

[C]

This is one of the reasons why I don't sleep.

[B]

I make up scenarios like this in.

[D]

My head and think long and hard.

[B]

About them and share them on a podcast.

[C]

Okay, won't you follow me into the.

[B]

Seance room where we discuss the goings on in the Spiritualist society of the 1800s? This is an interesting article here from the spiritualist newspaper from 1870. I'll read the short article and then we will discuss.

[C]

The article reads, Mr. Mumler is as.

[B]

Busy as ever producing spirit photographs and defying all the photographers in New York to detect imposture, as Judge Edmonds and Mr. Livermore, the banker pronounce Mr. Mumler to have produced accurate portraits of their departed friends. We presume them to be right in.

[C]

Considering it a case of genuine mediumship.

[B]

Assuming the pictures to be genuine spirit.

[C]

Photographs, the question arises, how do the spirits produce them? Short waves of ether, too short to be visible to the eye, act upon photographic films.

[B]

It is being therefore possible for photographs.

[C]

To be taken very slowly indeed in a peculiar kind of pitch darkness which the philosopher knows how to produce.

[B]

The editor of the British Journal of.

[C]

Photography once suggested that perhaps the bodies.

[B]

Of spirits can be materialized sufficiently to.

[C]

Reflect these short invisible waves, by which means a photograph can be taken.

[B]

But the fact is that in Mr.

[C]

Mumler's pictures the spirit forms produce more.

[B]

Photographic action on the plates than the.

[C]

Human forms in the same space of time, which could not be the case.

[B]

If the spirit bodies set up an action upon the sensitive film by means.

[C]

Of the extraviolet rays.

[B]

Since These rays act very feebly.

[D]

In short, the way in which these.

[B]

Pictures are produced is as great a mystery as ever. Okay.

[D]

As we know, it wasn't mysterious as.

[B]

Much as just a little double exposure and fraud that created spirit photography. William H. Mumler, the photographer who captured the spirit of Abraham Lincoln himself. Standing behind Mary Todd Lincoln with his hands upon her shoulders, was a fraud who created spirit photography again, double exposed photographs that appeared to show the spirits of the dead floating around high paying clients. His very spirit photograph he made by mistake. He took a photograph and when he went to develop it, he noticed the spirit of his dead cousin was floating in the background. His cousin had just recently died and he knew exactly when he took that photo of his cousin himself. Before he died, he had simply double exposed a photograph that was already taken. His wife was also a fraud. She was a professional fraud medium. And together they made quite a lucrative business for themselves. P.T. barnum himself sued Mumler out of sheer disgust for what he was doing. He wasn't the first person to double expose photographs. There were other folks who already knew how to do this and knew why it happened. They just didn't think to make an unscrupulous, predatory business out of creating them. PT Barnum had one of his photographers, a man named Abraham Bogardus, take a.

[D]

Picture of him with a floating image.

[B]

Of Lincoln above him to show the court how this process was done. And he had the photographer explain it. But unfortunately Mumler was acquitted because the prosecution couldn't prove that this exact process was what Mumler was actually doing. Just because Lincoln could be added to a photo in this double exposed manner, who's to say his spirit can't also just show up in another manner? Mumler continued to be successful, but he pivoted away from spirit photography eventually, despite the fact that his acquittal actually made him more sought after than before.

[D]

This is the tragic and predatory side of spiritualism.

[B]

That really breaks my heart. Some people would hand over everything that they had to this man to create these photos for them. I've said it before, even though I.

[C]

Do not believe in hell, I sure.

[B]

Wish there was one for folks like this. Incidentally, spirit photography continued to be created and believed until about the 1920s, 1930s. This is when folk like Vincent Price, a paranormal investigator, exposed the most prominent spirit photographers of the day.

[D]

Like a man named William Hope.

[B]

Price went on a crusade to get this guy exposed.

[D]

Hope's photographs are amazing.

[B]

Usually when you see spirit photography apart from Mumlers, it's William Hope's work.

[D]

They look, awesome.

[B]

I'll put a couple on the Instagram. He was another unscrupulous fraud who was savagely defended by famous spiritualists of the day, despite all of the evidence that Price used to prove that he was a fraud. Arthur Conan Doyle, who was an ardent spiritualist, threatened Price for writing about William Hope's fraudulent photographs and told him that, quote, if he didn't shut up about it, he would meet the same fate as Harry Houdini. But again, by this time, the 1920s, cameras were becoming less expensive. Regular folks, not just professional photographers, were using them. And so more and more people were finding just how easy it was to create double exposure photography themselves. So spiritualists in this era were really.

[D]

Fighting for their lives to continue defending.

[B]

People like Mumler and Hope. But they still tried. And when X ray technology was invented in the 1890s by Wilhelm Conrad Rotkin, who was a spiritualist himself, spiritualists believed that they were witnessing science proving the existence of a spirit inside the body. They thought that X ray photos confirmed that the visible world was simply a.

[C]

Veil and the photos were showing the animated spirit within.

[B]

Mediums would have themselves X ray photographed and would bring them to their own seances to show as proof that we.

[C]

Are not seeing all with our own eyes.

[D]

In a way, they thought X rays.

[B]

Were simply a scientific way of proving that spirits are among us in many ways, and science is only only just beginning to prove it. Mr. Rotkin also believed this himself to a degree, along with many practicing scientists of the time. So that's just a little more detail regarding the article from the spiritualist about spirit photography. Okay, let us now discuss the Bradford.

[C]

Sweets poisoning of 1858.

[B]

This tragic event involved the accidental arsenic poisoning of more than 200 people and the deaths of 20 people, mostly children. It's actually shocking that more people did not die from the amount of arsenic found in the Bradford Candy Shop.

[C]

Humbug candies.

[B]

Humbug candy, by the way, is a candy popular in the uk. It's striped with brown and white and it has like a pyramid shape, typically peppermint flavored with a chewy center. They predate Dickens Christmas Carol, so their name did not originate from there. Incidentally, I know I. I'm falling down rabbit holes here, but when Scrooge says humbug.

[D]

Bah, humbug.

[B]

Again, he's not referring to the candy as in this is silly like candy. The term at the time wasn't just used for candy. It was 18th century slang for a sham hoax or deceptive trick. Just a fun little Fact, and painfully ironically, folks who thought they were getting just a tasty little candy got something else entirely in 1858. At this time, sugar was very expensive in England. Sugar cane couldn't grow in British climates, and people were getting sweeter and sweeter tooths in England. England didn't taste sugar until the 14th century. That was the first time that it was imported into the country. And then only the exceedingly wealthy could afford it. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the British got their sugar from pillaging the West Indies. And by the late 1700s, there were over 120 sugar refineries operating in Britain. But even still, demand far outpaced supply. Because sugar was so expensive, candy was often mixed with cheaper substances, something called daft, which was a mixture of powdered limestone and plaster of Paris, which I wouldn't imagine was sweet, but they were fillers. So candy wasn't pure sugar. It was only half sugar. And then this awful stuff that causes intestinal blockages.

[D]

Ugh. Like, even without the poison that ended.

[B]

Up in the candy, they were already not great to ingest. A man named William Hardacre, known locally as Humbug Billy, owned a candy shop in Bradford. It was actually more of a little candy stall in the Green market in central Bradford. He got his daft ingredients from a drugstore in Shipley. This ingredient was used for more than just adulterating candy. It was used in cosmetics and medicinal lozenges as well. So that's why it was found in the pharmacy. Pharmacies also carried arsenic, and on the day that William ordered his daft, the employee at the pharmacy mistakenly sold him a 12 pound container of arsenic that wasn't labeled properly and stored next to this other product. To make the Candy, William combined 40 pounds of sugar, 12 pounds of straight arsenic, 4 pounds of gum, and peppermint oil. This created about 55 pounds of peppermint humbugs. He admitted that they looked a little strange. They had a slightly different color than usual, but he didn't investigate any further. Each candy had enough arsenic to kill two people each. That evening, the candies went on sale. It was Halloween, so he sold a.

[C]

Lot of them that night.

[B]

And by the following day, several people were already dead. One of the first victims was a.

[C]

Boy named Elijah Wright.

[B]

His visiting doctor thought that he had died of cholera, which was a reasonable guess. Cholera was highly prevalent in this area at this time, and the symptoms of arsenic poisoning are very similar to cholera symptoms, those being vomiting and convulsions.

[C]

Poor little guy.

[B]

One hour later, after the Doctor saw this boy. He was called to the home of a boy named Joseph Scott by his father. Their 14 year old son suddenly became violently ill. He died not long after he arrived. They had not yet made the connection to the candy and his cause of death was also list tested his cholera later. The next day, a doctor, John Henry Bell, was busy going from home to home, visiting child after child, realizing that no one else in the homes was sick with cholera. So he decided to investigate. Did these children eat anything, go anywhere, drink anything? Parents said yes, candy. He couldn't yet be sure and sadly there was no candy left to test. He was then called to a home where two children had already died and a parent was seriously ill. The seriously ill father pointed to the candies that they all had eaten. There was still some left. The doctor ran it to a chemist.

[C]

To test as fast as he could.

[B]

Who quickly rendered the results. The candy was filled with arsenic. This doctor ran to police and told them the situation and told them where this very sick family got their candy. Police ran to the home of the candy maker William Hardaker, who was also violently ill.

[C]

He had eaten the candy as well.

[B]

And was well enough enough just to tell the police that he had sold about 1,000 of the candies the day before. The police were in complete shock and terror at the thought and didn't know what to do straight away other than run into the streets, begin ringing bells and screaming don't eat the candy. In the district. Like literally running down the streets ringing bells and telling everyone who could hear them to spread the word. They were running into pubs and screaming don't eat the candy. Warning notices were quickly printed and hung everywhere in the town. By five days later, 18 people were already dead and hundreds seriously ill, with the youngest being a 17 month old little boy. The presses were stopped at all of the local newspapers. Front page headlines were changed to don't eat the candy. Articles describing the situation as, quote, the most dreadful calamity that perhaps ever befell the district, spreading suffering, mourning and woe.

[C]

End quote.

[F]

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[G]

50% off regular price for new customers. Upfront payment required $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for 12 month plan taxes and fees. Extra speeds may slow after 50 gigabytes per month when network is busy see terms.

[B]

Detectives were dispatched to discover how the candy could possibly be tainted with this level of arsenic. It was quickly determined that William Hardaker did not do this on purpose. He was barely alive as it was. He also gave them all of the information he possibly could about how this could have happened. Where he got the ingredients, what exactly was inside? Before he lost consciousness, the police followed the trail to the pharmacy where William bought the other very unhealthy ingredients for his candy, the plaster of Paris. They learned that the head druggist was sick on the day that the products were sold. And a new apprentice named William Goddard, who was untrained, gathered the ingredients to sell to Mr. Hardaker. The detectives were led to the area where the products were stored, and they found two unmarked canisters of white powder that were seemingly identical. But when tested, it was found that one contained plaster of Paris powder and the other arsenic. It turns out that the man who did this, the young man, was also violently ill at home after scooping 1212 pounds of arsenic powder into a bag to sell to Mr. Hardacre. When the chemist was done analyzing the Candy, he found 16 grains of arsenic in one piece. This is actually about four times the amount considered a poisonous dose. And side note, what made this poison so useful in murder cases, apart from the fact that the symptoms that come from arsenic poisoning presented as symptoms of other common illnesses at the time, is that it is odorless and virtually tasteless. Although I've read that it has a slight sweetness to it. So just by tasting the candy, it wouldn't have even been suspected that it was poisoned. And because it couldn't be determined at what point of the distribution line those labels were removed. It was ruled an accident. Neither of those men, the candy maker or the man who sold the arsenic, died. But I'm sure that they lived with terrible guilt for the rest of their lives. It is also believed that far more than 200 people got sick. The candy was found all over the country. Folks bought it and went on trips, places where the news didn't spread the way that it did locally. Many people were probably just given cholera diagnoses when they died. This event caused a public outcry and helped to usher in the Pharmacy act of 1818 68, which not only limited the sales of poisons and dangerous drugs to qualified pharmacists and druggists, but established a regulatory framework for the sale of poisons. That to this day requires drugs to be appropriately labeled. It also opened up the conversation about.

[D]

What exactly was going into food.

[B]

When people learned about this story, they, like me, were rightly shocked and appalled. Appalled to find that plaster of Paris was being used in their candy. People didn't know this because there were no laws stating that any seller of food, cosmetics, or even medications had to label exactly what was in their products. A law preventing unadvertised adulteration of foods and drugs, not cosmetics, was eventually passed in 1875 with the sale of Food and Drugs Act. But people still did it. It wasn't an easy bill to enforce. Milk, flour, beer and cand Dundee continued to be routinely tampered with for decades to come.

[C]

Humbug.

[B]

Billy, like I said, wasn't arrested, but he was permanently paralyzed from the poisoning. Prosecutors tried to levy manslaughter charges against the pharmacy employees, but the case was dismissed. They tried to appeal the ruling and even tried to get William Hardacre charged. They just really wanted to push for a guilty charge for someone. After all, so many children died because of this. And people were outraged at the idea.

[C]

That no one would be held responsible.

[B]

But the judge in the appeal case dismissed it completely. There was simply no evidence to show that anyone knew what was being done. There was no evidence to determine when the labels were removed. They could have been removed by the people who delivered the products. The labels may have gotten wet and fallen off the canister during delivery. There was no way to trace guilt or even negligence for certain to anyone. The judge in that case said that the real criminality was the lack of laws preventing adulteration of foods in general with inedible ingredients. But none of the folks involved in this particular situation should be held responsible for that.

[C]

Before we go, I want to end.

[B]

With a poem about Elizabeth Sedal, not by her husband. Again, there are quite a few that he wrote about her.

[C]

But in Maya opinion, the most beautiful.

[B]

Poem about her was written by his sister, Christina Rossetti. She knew and loved her sister in law, Elizabeth. And although I couldn't find a detailed description of their relationship, this poem reveals.

[E]

To me that she saw so much.

[B]

Beauty in her and also recognized her pain. And I sense that she didn't believe that her brother truly did.

[C]

I think it is so beautiful how.

[B]

She humanizes Elizabeth in this poem called.

[C]

In an Artist's Studio. And it reads, one face looks out.

[E]

From all his canvases. One self, same figure sits or walks or leans. We found her hidden just behind those screens. That mirror gave back all her loveliness. A queen in opal or in ruby dress, a nameless girl in freshest summer greens, a saint, an angel. Every canvas means the same one, meaning.

[C]

Neither more nor less. He feeds upon her face by day.

[E]

And night, and she with true kind eyes looks back on him, Fair as the moon and and joyful as the light. Not one with waiting, not with sorrow dim, not as she is, but was when hope shone bright. Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.

[C]

If you enjoyed this podcast and would.

[B]

Like to hear more, please rate the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

[C]

Leave me comments because I love them.

[B]

So much and join the fan coven to directly support my show. Listen ad free and for even more.

[C]

Creepy and witchy content until next time.

[B]

Be kind to yourselves and I will.

[C]

See you in your nightmares.