Cursing the courtroom and then slashing his own throat with a contraband shiv, Aubrey Trail had lived up to his promise, turning the trial of Bailey Boswell and himself into a complete circus. Although the pair’s bizarre relationship, full of kinks, vampires and witches, had already seen to that.

Boswell and Trail had murdered 24-year-old Sydney Loofe six months previously before dismembering her and draining her body entirely of its blood. Why? According to Boswell, her partner in crime, Trail, was an ageless vampire who controlled a coven of witches. Killing Loofe and “breathing in her last breath” was all Boswell needed to do to become the sacred 13th witch, before being granted the magical ability to turn into a cat.

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In 2013, horror blockbuster The Conjuring packed out cinemas worldwide, terrifying moviegoers with its alleged ‘true story’ of a house haunted by malevolent demons.

But the real truth behind the tale is far sketchier than we might think – with marital discord, pissed-off neighbours, and a ghost-busting power couple spearheading a very unfair smear campaign against a 19th century farmer’s wife.

This is the ShortHand.

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With the release of the Amazon Prime documentary about the murder of Caroline Crouch, we're reaching into the vault to bring you H&S' coverage of this tragic case.

When the body of 19-year-old Caroline Crouch was found in her attic room after an apparent home invasion – with her 11-month-old daughter crying next to her, and her puppy hanging from the bannister – the nation of Greece mourned with her widower, Babis Anagnostopoulos.

A handsome helicopter pilot, Anagnostopoulos had led the tributes since her death. But one month on, at a clifftop memorial service, Athenian police revealed that new analysis of the couple’s smart devices revealed a new culprit. One who’d fooled not just the police – but the whole nation.

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Vanquishing demons lingering in a tainted soul might sound like a very Christian idea – but exorcisms are prevalent in almost every culture across the globe. From ancient China to modern Islam, there are hundreds of ways to free someone from the grips of an evil spirit. This week Hannah and Suruthi run down a few of the most interesting – and discuss why, before modern medicine, possession seemed like such a likely explanation.

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When videos of a gruesome beheading and dismemberment surfaced on gore-fetish websites across Vietnam in 2025, the internet was shaken to its core.

Not because it was the first time anyone had seen disturbing videos online. But because this time, the victim seemed to have been actively involved in planning his own murder.

But is it less of a crime if you have the victim’s consent? And could this be the world’s first ever real snuff film?

Enter one of the most insane open-source murder investigations in history, as a community of crime-addicted cybersleuths tried to crack this grisly case themselves…

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Black magic, or ‘Sanguma’, is often used to explain everything from minor illnesses to sudden deaths in Papua New Guinea.

Horrifyingly, it’s also behind the recent rise of brutal witch hunts sweeping the nation. An epidemic of violence in which, predominantly, women and girls are being publicly tortured and murdered.

Why? Find out on this week’s ShortHand.

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To round launch our month of spooky eps, our Halloween ShortHand covers the life and afterlife of one of the most sinister, blood-thirstiest bastards in all of human history: Vlad the Impaler, otherwise known as Vlad Dracula.

We dig into the legends surrounding the savage ruler – including an al fresco lunch among hundreds of thousands of twitching, impaled enemies – and see how they tie into the modern, blood-sucking vampire legend. Happy Halloween…

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