In 1924, George Mallory and Sandy Irvine disappeared high on Mount Everest, leaving behind one of mountaineering’s most enduring mysteries. A century later, new discoveries have added clues but still no definitive answer. Did they reachthe summit nearly 30 years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay? In this episode, we trace the 1924 Everest expedition, Mallory and Irvine’s final climb, the evidence found in the decades since, and the 2024 discovery believed to be linked to Irvine.

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Source Materials

Wade Davis, Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest

E. F. Norton et al., The Fight for Everest: 1924

Noel E. Odell, “The Last Climb of Mallory and Irvine,” The Geographical Journal (1924)

Royal Geographical Society, “The Mount Everest Expedition of 1924,” The Geographical Journal (1924)

Grayson Schaffer, “Exclusive: Remains of Andrew ‘Sandy’ Irvine Believed to Have Been Found on Everest,” National Geographic (2024)

Tessa Wong and Flora Drury, “Family Tells of ‘Relief’ After 1924 Climber’s Foot Found on Everest,” BBC News (2024)

Mark Synnott, “The Mystery of Mallory and Irvine,” Artful Living (2024)

Aberdeen Press and Journal, “More Light on Everest Disaster: Mr Odell’s Last View of Lost Climbers” (1924)

When Sarah Hart died suddenly in 1845, suspicion quickly fell on John Tawell. His attempt to leave by train became one of the earliest famous examples of the electric telegraph being used to track a murder suspect. But behind the technological milestone was a complicated case involving poison, disputedforensic evidence, and a woman whose story was often overshadowed by the method used to catch her killer.

For more exclusive content, check out our Patreon at patreon.com/historicaltruecrime

Source Materials

Carol Baxter, The Peculiar Case of the Electric Constable: A True Tale of Passion, Poison & Pursuit (Oneworld, 2013)

David Skae, Trial of John Tawell for the Murder of Sarah Hart by Prussic Acid: With Remarks (1845)

G. L. Strauss, Remarks and Comments on the Medical and Chemical Evidence Adduced at the Trial of John Tawell (1845)

G. Lathom Browne and C. G. Stewart, Reports of Trials for Murder by Poisoning (1883)

Iwan Rhys Morus, “‘The Nervous System of Britain’: Space, Time and the Electric Telegraph in the Victorian Age,” British Journal for the History of Science, Vol. 33 (2000)

The Sydney Morning Herald, “English News / Trial of John Tawell,” July 11, 1845

The Commercial Journal and Advertiser (Sydney), report on the trial of John Tawell, July 12, 1845

The Melbourne Courier, “Trial of John Tawell,” July 21, 1845

The Australian, “The Convict John Tawell,” July 1845

The Australian, “John Tawell,” July 22, 1845, reprinted from the Hampshire Advertiser

The Launceston Advertiser, “Execution of John Tawell,” July 10, 1845

Contemporary 1845 biographical accounts of John Tawell reprinted in the Australian press

Andrew Wynter, “The Electric Telegraph,” The Quarterly Review (1854)

In 1817, twenty-year-old Mary Ashford was found dead after attending a dance near Birmingham. Abraham Thornton was tried and acquitted of her murder, but the case was far from over. What followed was an extraordinary legal battle involving an ancient appeal of murder, a demand for trial by combat, and a law England had somehow never abolished.

Check out our Patreon at patreon.com/historicaltruecrime

Source Materials

Naomi Clifford, The Murder of Mary Ashford: The Crime That Changed English Legal History (2018)

John Cooper, A Report of the Proceedings Against Abraham Thornton at Warwick Summer Assizes, 1817, for the Murder of Mary Ashford; and Subsequently in the Court of King’s Bench (1818)

John Fairburn, The Affecting Case of Mary Ashford (1817)

John Fairburn, Thornton’s Second Trial: The Whole Proceedings of the Extraordinary Trial of Abraham Thornton, for the Murder of Mary Ashford (c. 1818)

Edward Holroyd, Observations upon the Case of Abraham Thornton, Who Was Tried at Warwick, for the Murder of Mary Ashford: Shewing the Danger of Pressing Presumptive Evidence Too Far (1819)

Ashford v. Thornton (1818), 1 Barnewall & Alderson 405; 106 English Reports 149

Robert Megarry, A New Miscellany-at-Law: Yet Another Diversion for Lawyers (2005)

Michael Lobban, “The Glorious Uncertainty of the Law: Life at the Bar, 1810–1830”

59 Geo. III c. 46 (1819)