{"podcast":{"title":"Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast","slug":"foul-play-a-historical-true-crime-podcast-51278","podcast_index_feed_id":51278,"rss_url":"https://feeds.redcircle.com/4cf5f57c-0bea-454e-8dc3-f263c362d278","website_url":"https://redcircle.com/shows/foulplay","image_url":"https://media.redcircle.com/images/2026/2/16/21/cbfd1140-ea5b-4393-97e9-8f2f9ac2f953_00-main-artwork-original.jpg","author":"Shane L. Waters, Wendy Cee, Gemma Hoskins","episode_count":315,"summary":"Foggy gaslit streets. A quiet courtroom. And crimes that history tried to bury. Foul Play is a historical true crime podcast that investigates the most chilling murder cases from the 1800s and early 1900s across the United States and the United Kingdom. Hosted by investigative crime journalists Shane Waters — who pioneered crime podcasting in 2008 — and Wendy Cee, each season unravels one complete criminal case through original research, court records, and primary source material. This isn't sensationalized true crime. Every season of Foul Play puts victims first — their names, their stories, their humanity — before examining how murder investigations unfolded in an era before modern forensics, when justice was far from guaranteed. From Victorian poisoners in London to Gilded Age killers in America, Foul Play brings historical true crime to life with cinematic storytelling and relentless accuracy. Every fact is verified. Every claim is sourced. Every story is told with the gravity it deserves. New seasons of this historical true crime podcast release throughout the year, with episodes dropping weekly on Tuesdays. Hello, friend. Welcome to Foul Play.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/foul-play-a-historical-true-crime-podcast-51278"},"episode":{"title":"Massachusetts & Tennessee: Two Axe Murders, 1893 & 1897","slug":"massachusetts-tennessee-two-axe-murders-1893-1897","published_at":"2026-05-19T09:00:12+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/foul-play-a-historical-true-crime-podcast-51278/massachusetts-tennessee-two-axe-murders-1893-1897","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/foul-play-a-historical-true-crime-podcast-51278","url":"http://mythsandmalice.com","audio_url":"https://audio3.redcircle.com/episodes/3a8d9687-c131-49d1-aebc-25efbafe855a/stream.mp3","summary":"This episode contains detailed descriptions of violent death, including axe murders and decapitation. If you need to skip this content, advance to the chapter markers below. Support resources are listed at the end of these notes. This Episode Season 40 of Foul Play marks America's 250th anniversary with a series of Twin Portraits — two true crimes from two different states, set in the same decade, examined side by side. This week: two axe murders from the 1890s, one in Massachusetts, one in Tennessee, both forgotten by history. On May 30, 1893, twenty-two-year-old Bertha Manchester was killed in her father's farmhouse outside Fall River, Massachusetts — six days before the Lizzie Borden trial opened fifteen miles away in New Bedford. In March 1897, five members of a German immigrant family were slaughtered on a Tennessee ridge, their house burned to the ground, their case never solved. Two women named in this episode lived into their nineties and never saw justice. Shane and Wendy tell both stories. The Victims (Case A — Massachusetts ) Bertha Mabel Manchester was born May 7, 1871, in Fall River, Massachusetts. She was twenty-two years old. Her mother had died when she was young, and she helped run the family dairy farm on New Boston Road — the quiet, rural edge of a city better known for cotton mills and crowded streets. She was home alone on the morning of May 30, 1893, when her father Stephen and her twelve-year-old brother Freddie left with the milk wagon. She fought back. The medical examiner found twenty-three wounds to the back of her skull, defensive cuts on her hands and arms, and clothing torn in the struggle. Five teeth had been knocked out. The same doctor who performed those wounds had examined two other bodies less than a year before — Andrew and Abby Bor…","meta_description":"This episode contains detailed descriptions of violent death, including axe murders and decapitation. If you need to skip this content, advance to the cha…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2208,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/foul-play-a-historical-true-crime-podcast-51278/episodes/massachusetts-tennessee-two-axe-murders-1893-1897/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/foul-play-a-historical-true-crime-podcast-51278/massachusetts-tennessee-two-axe-murders-1893-1897.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}