SHOW NOTES:

(For complete show notes, including art and links, go to pennydread.com/discord and look in the Season 6 feed)

————

01:40: HANGED TODAY IN HISTORY (June 2, 1621): Former fishmonger John Rowse came into a small fortune, which he squandered so completely that his wife and two young daughters were in danger of being made to beg. He decided that rather than going back to work as a fishmonger to earn a living for his family, he’d solve the problem by murdering them. (Special thanks to executedtoday.com, at which much more about this story can be found)

09:45: SWEENEY TODD, THE BARBER OF FLEET-STREET, Chapters 103-105: Todd returns to his shop all smiles, and Johanna is convinced he has murdered Mrs. Lovett. Meanwhile, over at that worthy’s pie-shop, she has hired a neighbour to watch the place, and put the captive cook off with a bottle of wine and a promise to free him within 24 hours after the 4:00 batch of pies goes up. The cook, after seeing the letter, eyes the pie elevator speculatively, seeming to be hatching a scheme … what’s he got in mind, do you think?

52:15: HORRID BROADSIDE: “The Execution of James Bloomfield Rush.” (April 23, 1849) The crime, trial, and execution of a murderer whose scheme to get title to his landlord’s property by murdering the whole family and blaming the relatives with which they were feuding collapsed when his would-be victims recognized him through his false beard and wig.

GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:

• FLY MOTS: Cool chicks.
• MILLERS: Prizefighters.
• KNIGHTS OF THE BLADE: Swaggering companions who are boastful of their prowess and may also claim a military rank — Captain, Major, Colonel — that they don’t really have a right to.
• SNICKER: Large liquor glass.
• OLD TOM: Top-shelf gin.
• PRATE ROAST: A loquacious fellow.
• PINKS OF FASHION: Sharp-dressed men.
• GRAANUM GOLD: Old hoarded money.
• TIP OUR RAGS A GALLOP: Run away as fast as we can.
• GRABS: Law enforcement personnel.
• TOUCH, or PUT THE TOUCH ON: To arrest.
• HELL CATS: Dangerous ladies who frequent the “hells” (gambling dens).
• BLACKLEGS: Professional gamblers who cheat to win.
• SPICE ISLANDERS: Swindlers. A double pun: Mace is a spice; a mace-man is a swindler; so a Spice Islander is, as it were, a resident of Swindle Island.
• SPEELING-CRIB: A “hell” (gambling den).
• COVENT GARDEN: London neighbourhood that was, in the Regency and early Victorian, famous as a place where bloods, bucks and choice spirits went to sport their blunt. Upscale gambling hells and brothels were conveniently close by the Royal Opera and Drury-lane Theatre.

SHOW NOTES — for — EPISODE THREE (Season Six)

(May 24, 2026)

• 00:45: A local legend from HAUNTED ENGLAND: THE PENGUIN BOOK OF GHOSTS: Remember the scene in Black Bess where Dick Turpin and Tom King find the skeletons of the two lovers locked in the vault in the abandoned mansion? Turns out that story was based on a real ghostly legend from the village of Apsley Guise, in Bedfordshire! Dick Turpin himself is involved in the legend and is one of the ghosts said to haunt Woodfield House.
• 05:15: EARLY VICTORIAN GHOSTLY SHORT STORY, to-wit: WAS IT AN ILLUSION?, by AMELIA EDWARDS (1881), Part 1 of 2 parts: A Church of England cleric and inspector of parochial schools named Mr. Frazer travels to a far-distant corner of his “beat” to a town called Pit End. On the road he sees only two people: a limping man who looks right through him as if he weren’t there, and a youth with a fishing pole who seems to appear out of thin air. The cleric arrives in Pit End, and meets the master of the local school … it’s the limping man. He swears he didn’t leave the village the day before, and when the cleric asks about the fishing lad, he’s visibly frightened. — Then a seam opens up, and the lake drains into one of the mines, and reveals something horrible ….
• 31:15: GHOSTLY POETRY, to-wit: THE RISING OF THE DEAD and THE BINDING OF THE LOST, by EUGENE LEE-HAMILTON (1883).
• 36:00: DRACULA, by BRAM STOKER (1897), Chapter 1: We start out reading Jonathan Harker’s journal recounting his trip to the Carpathians to meet Count Dracula, who has invited him thither. It reads like a well-written travelogue as Harker remarks on local costumes and cuisine and complains about the unpunctuality of the trains as he makes his way on them through Austria and Hungary and into Transylvania, and then to Bistritz, the nearest town to Castle Dracula, and on to the castle … but all the local seem terrified for him, and frequently cross themselves. They mutter to each other and he catches words like “Satan” and “hell” and “witch” and “vampire” ….
• 1:12:30: An anecdote from LORD HALIFAX’S GHOST BOOK: Mr. Drury, the clergyman at Chilton Polden in Cornwall, was injured and unable to preach one Easter, so his brother came to town to pinch-hit for him. Upon arriving, he had a vivid dream of his own coming death ….

GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:

• COUNT-CARDS: Fine fellows.
• GNOSTICS: Knowing coves, or “wise guys.”
• KNIGHTS OF THE BRUSH AND MOON: Drunken fellows running amok in fields and ditches late at night, trying to stagger home.
• SHERRY OFF: Run away.
• FLATS: Suckers.
• GET FLY TO THE FAKEMENT: Get wise to the swindle.
• MOABITES: Bailiffs.
• PHILISTIES: Also means bailiffs.
• CRAPING COVES: Hangmen.
• YE OLD STONE PITCHER: Newgate Prison.
• PADDINGTON FAIR: Execution day at Tyburn, which is in Paddington Parish. Paddington is also a pun, as “pad” was a flash word for “thief” or “robber.”
• BRUSH OFF: Leave. Note this phrase means something slightly different today.

Thank you for your support! Please, if you have a moment, rate us on your podcatcher network. If you’d like to do more, we do have a Patreon page; it’s here: https://patreon.com/pennydread

SHOW NOTES — for — EPISODE 2 (Season Six)

(May 17, 2026)

————

• 01:55: STREET POETRY: From a broadside ballad: “I Shall be Married on Monday Morning,” about a very young milkmaid looking forward eagerly to her wedding night. (1845).
• 04:40: BLACK BESS; or, THE KNIGHT OF THE ROAD (starring HIGHWAYMAN DICK TURPIN), Chapter 71-73: Tying up the sentry, Dick Turpin and Tom King hurry out into the storm — and when they arrive, they see a great light burning at the summit of the highest rock. It’s a decoy lighthouse! The smugglers aren’t just smugglers, they’re ship wreckers! And now a ship has fallen prey to them, decoyed onto the rocks! Scrambling over the dark rocks in the pitch darkness with the storm raging around them, the highwaymen try to get close enough to the wreck to save whoever they can … and avenge whoever they can’t.
• 44:55: INTRODUCING MISS READ: One of the “ladies of the evening” listed and described in Harris’s List of Covent-garden Ladies, a directory for bucks and bloods out on the town in the early 1800s. Miss Read is described as 22 years old, very pretty, with dark eyes and eyebrows and a remarkable enthusiasm for fox-hunting and other sports of the field.
• 48:10: A RATHER NAUGHTY COCK-AND-HEN-CLUB SONG: "The Milk-maid” (about a milkmaid who decides to try her skill upon a local swain. Set to the tune of “Let’s Haste to the Wedding.”)
• 51:00: A FEW MILDLY DIRTY JOKES from what passed in 1830 for a dirty joke book: "The Joke-Cracker" by Martin Merryman, Esq.

GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:

• KEN-CRACKERS: (from intro) Housebreakers.
• ANGLING COVES: (ibid) Receiveers of stolen goods.
• KNIGHTS OF THE ROAD: (ibid) Highway robbers.
• CORINTHIAN: (ibid) Sporting man of rank and fashion, most famously represented by Corinthian Tom from Pierce Egan’s “Life in London,” the story of the adventures of a wealthy Regency rake named Tom and his country cousin Jerry as they rampage through the streets of London on a continual spree.
• CYPRIANS: (From the introduction to Hostess Miss XXX) Ladies of easy virtue, a classical reference to the island of Cyprus, supposedly peopled with sexually frisky ladies.
• SPORTING THEIR BLUNT: (ibid) Throwing money around.
• FLICKER: (ibid) Liquor glass.
• JACKY: (ibid) Gin.
• SLUICE YOUR IVORIES: (ibid) Take a big drink.
• MORRIS OFF: (from outro) Run away at top speed.
• BEAKS ON THE NOSE: Police detectives or magistrates on an investigation.
• DIDDLE COVES: Bartender or landlord in a gin palace or dram shop.
• DAFFY DOXIES: Racy ladies who enjoy drinking daffy (gin).
• CAPTAIN LUSHINGTONS: Habitual drunks.
• BOOZING-KEN: Drinking den.
• SMITHFIELD: In the early 1800s a notoriously crowded and dangerous neighborhood in which a very unsanitary open-air livestock market was regularly held until the 1850s.

SHOW NOTES — for — MINISODE 38 (Season 5)

(May 7, 2026)

————

00:40: THE TERRIFIC REGISTER: An account of a widow living in Rome who in 1774 became a prophetess, and predicted the deaths of the kings of Sardinia and France as well as the Pope himself. Her predictions came true.

05:35: EARLY VICTORIAN GHOSTLY SHORT STORY, to-wit: LEIXLIP CASTLE, by CHARLES MATURIN: In which, we meet the family of Sir Redmond Blarey — the baronet and his daughter, Miss Anne. Miss Anne wants to know who she is destined to marry, as aristocratic girls often did back then; so she lets an old crone, a servant of the family named Collogue, cast a spell that will show him to her. —— The spell works, sort of; a demonic figure appears, casts a bloody dagger down at her feet, and tells her she will know her future husband by that; and disappears. —— Then a pale, corpse-like suitor comes to call at the family manse …

35:45: A SHORT GHOST STORY from the scrapbook of Charles Lindley, Viscount Halifax. In which: Lady Goring had a vivid dream of a man murdering an elderly lady, then staging the scene to look like a suicide, in a room of a house she’d never seen. A few months later, she was touring houses to rent, and recognized the house! The previous tenants had left it … after the wife’s mother shot herself, they said.

39:25: A STREET BROADSIDE on the topic of ghosts, death, and ruin: “The Queer Little Man” (about a ghost, or so he thought) and “Stay a Little Longer” (a merry shopkeeper’s ditty).

GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:

• ROMONERS: (from intro patter) Swindlers who pretend to have occult powers.
• OWLERS: (ibid) Smugglers, who move goods about by night when owls are out and about.
• KNIGHTS OF THE BRUSH AND MOON: (ibid) Drunken fellows running amok in fields and ditches late at night, trying to stagger home.
• RAG: (From broadside ballad) Money.
• IT’S ALL MY EYE: (ibid) It’s all nonsense.
• DUN: (ibid) Bill-collector.
• NAILED: (ibid) Arrested.
• SHERRY OFF: (from outro patter) Run away.
• FLATS: Suckers.
• GET FLY TO THE FAKEMENT: (ibid) Get wise to the con.
• CORINTHIAN: (ibid) A fancy toff or titled swell. Used here as a reference to Corinthian Tom, the quintessential Regency rake depicted in Pierce Egan's "Life in London" (usually referred to as "Tom and Jerry").
• MOABITES: (ibid) Bailiffs.
• PHILISTINES: (ibid) Another word for Moabites.
• CRAPING COVES: (ibid) Hangmen. “Crape” is a reference to the mourning worn by “hempen widows” after their husbands have been executed.
• YE OLD STONE PITCHER: (ibid) Newgate Prison.
• PADDINGTON FAIR: Execution day at Tyburn, which is in Paddington Parish. Paddington is also a pun, as “pad” was a flash word for “thief” or “robber.”

Thank you for your support! Please, if you have a moment, rate us on your podcatcher network. If you’d like to do more, we do have a Patreon page; it’s here: https://patreon.com/pennydread

SHOW NOTES — for — MINISODE 37 (Season 5)

(May 3, 2026)

————

• 00:01: HANGED TODAY IN HISTORY (April 3): One of the most notorious men to ever serve as a public executioner in England got that way by engaging in a shocking murder himself … that would be John “Jack Ketch” Price, launched into eternity at Tyburn On This Day 308 years ago!
• 08:45: SWEENEY TODD, THE BARBER OF FLEET-STREET, Chapters 101-102: The boat with Todd and Mrs. Lovett in the stern makes great headway down the Thames. When it gets to London Bridge — the old bridge, with the narrow abutments that choked the river down to a roaring cataract at ebb tides — both passengers insist on being ferried through rather than getting out on the upstream side. While they are shooting the rapid, Todd knocks Mrs. Lovett overboard with a heavy blow to the head. … is this curtains for Mrs. Lovett? Will Sweeney Todd get away with this? We shall see.
• 37:00: HORRID BROADSIDE: “Account of the TRIAL AND EXECUTION of JOHN AUSTIN Convicted at the OLD BAILEY on Saturday, Nov. 1st, 1783, of a Cruel Highway Robbery on JOHN SPICER, a Poor Man.” (1850s) The headline about covers it — but Mr. Austin played an unusually long game in setting his mark up for this dreadful crime, which he executed with an accomplice and a cutlass.

GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:

• SHARKS: Lawyers.
• TOPPING COVES: Hangmen.
• KNIGHTS OF THE WOODEN RUFF: Prisoners serving a sentence in the pillory.
• RUM BEAKS: Judges and magistrates who can be bought off.
• RESURRECTION MEN: Body snatchers — fellows who dig up fresh-buried corpses to sell for a few guineas at the nearest medical college as cadavers.
• TIP OUR RAGS A GALLOP: Run away as fast as we can.
• GRABS: Law enforcement personnel.
• TOUCH, or PUT THE TOUCH ON: To arrest.
• HELL CATS: Dangerous ladies who frequent the “hells” (gambling dens).
• BLACKLEGS: Professional gamblers who cheat to win.
• SPICE ISLANDERS: Swindlers. A double pun: Mace is a spice; a mace-man is a swindler; so a Spice Islander is, as it were, a resident of Swindle Island.
• SPEELING-CRIB: A “hell” (gambling den).
• COVENT GARDEN: London neighbourhood that was, in the Regency and early Victorian, famous as a place where bloods, bucks and choice spirits went to sport their blunt. Upscale gambling hells and brothels were conveniently close by the Royal Opera and Drury-lane Theatre.

SHOW NOTES — for — MINISODE 36 (Season 5)

(April 30, 2026)

————

• 01:30: STREET POETRY: From broadside ballad sheets: “Seventeen Come Sunday,” about a soldier who seduces a neighbourhood lass; “Lark in the Morning,” about the life of a country plough-boy (racy pun intended); and “Fanny Gray,” about love and jealousy. (1840s).
• 07:30: BLACK BESS; or, THE KNIGHT OF THE ROAD (starring HIGHWAYMAN DICK TURPIN), Chapter 68-70: Tom King settles in and tells his story. It turns out he actually is a man of some rank. But, a lifelong misunderstanding over how high a rank he occupied — involving the unexpected appearance of a previously unknown older half-brother — upended everything for him. Bitterly he went to London to lose himself in the crowds, and there became friends with — a man you don’t meet every day, let’s say, and leave it at that. — A few days later, a terrible storm comes in, and the smugglers put oilskins on and prepare to go out in it for some reason. By now, Dick and Tom suspect they know what that reason is, and it’s a very sinister one indeed ….
• 37:45: INTRODUCING MISS PAGE: One of the “ladies of the evening” listed and described in Harris’s List of Covent-garden Ladies, a directory for bucks and bloods out on the town in the early 1800s. Miss Page is described as a zestful woman of 20 and very pretty except for her mouth, which is a bit too wide when she laughs, as she often does.
• 42:00: A RATHER NAUGHTY COCK-AND-HEN-CLUB SONG: "The Crab-fish” (about an unfortunate accident that befalls a lady when she tries to use the chamber-pot, only to find out the hard way that her husband has filled it with cold water and put a live crab in it, intending to cook it for breakfast.)
• 45:00: A FEW MILDLY DIRTY JOKES from what passed in 1830 for a dirty joke book: "The Joke-Cracker" by Martin Merryman, Esq.

GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:

• BON VIVANTS: (from intro) Happy-go-lucky partiers.
• HELL CATS: (ibid) Dangerous ladies who hang around in gambling “hells.”
• KNIGHTS OF THE ROAD: (ibid) Highway robbers.
• CORINTHIAN: (ibid) Sporting man of rank and fashion, most famously represented by Corinthian Tom from Pierce Egan’s “Life in London,” the story of the adventures of a wealthy Regency rake named Tom and his country cousin Jerry as they rampage through the streets of London on a continual spree.
• CYPRIANS: (From the introduction to our Ninepenny Naughties hostess) Ladies of easy virtue, a classical reference to the island of Cyprus, supposedly peopled with sexually frisky ladies.
• SPORTING THEIR BLUNT: (ibid) Throwing money around.
• BUMPER: (ibid) Liquor glass.
• BLUE DEADLY: (ibid) Gin.
• SLUICE YOUR TOMBSTONES: (ibid) Take a big drink.
• MORRIS OFF: (from outro) Run away at top speed.
• BEAKS ON THE NOSE: Police detectives or magistrates on an investigation.
• DIDDLE COVES: Bartender or landlord in a gin palace or dram shop.
• DAFFY DOXIES: Racy ladies who enjoy drinking daffy (gin).
• CAPTAIN LUSHINGTONS: Habitual drunks.
• BOOZING-KEN: Drinking den.
• SMITHFIELD: In the early 1800s a notoriously crowded and dangerous neighborhood in which a very unsanitary open-air livestock market was regularly held until the 1850s.

SHOW NOTES — for — EPISODE 35 (Season 5)

(April 26, 2026)

————

Join host Corinthian Finn, a.k.a. Finn J.D. John 18th Baron Dunwitch,* for a one-hour-long spree through the scandal-sheets and story papers of early-Victorian London!

This show cycles through four segments over a two-week cycle, two shows per week. This is the main show, including the "Penny Dreadfuls" segment. It will be followed by ...

• The “Twopenny Torrids” minisode, coming this Thursday eve;
• The “Ha’penny Horrids” minisode, to be posted next Sunday (one week from today); and finally—
• The “Sixpenny Spookies” minisode, which posts two Thursdays hence.

For COMPLETE SHOW NOTES, including art and links to resources, see ⁠⁠pennydread.com/discord.⁠⁠

————

• 01:40: ON THIS DREADFUL DAY (April 26, 1855): A woman drew a five-month prison stretch for swindling a man out of 5 shillings by pretending her baby had died.
• 04:15: VARNEY THE VAMPYRE; or, THE FEAST OF BLOOD, Chapter 52-54: While Sir Francis Varney’s servants are battling to defend the house from the mob, a shout from upstairs lets everyone know that the townies have figured out another way in, and are inside the house. They soon find Varney himself. That worthy, with very provoking coolness, steps behind a curtain and vanishes. — A thorough search of the house for the vampire ensues, which is unsuccessful, although it does lead to the wine cellars. Then someone gets the bright idea of burning the vampire out ….
• 32:32: “CATCHPENNY” BROADSIDE: A soldier arrested for playing cards in church has a very thorough explanation for how he uses a pack of standard gambling accoutrements as Bible, almanac and prayer book.
• 41:55: THE LIVES OF THE HIGHWAYMEN: Being a sort of posthumous collaboration with Arthur Griffiths, the late inspector of Her Majesty’s prisons, to describe some of the more subtle and respectable highwaymen of the Georgian and Regency period — the government officials and aristocrats who shamelessly plundered the public cookie jar.
• 54:00: A FEW SQUEAKY-CLEAN DAD JOKES from the early-1800s' most popular joke book: "Joe Miller's Jests; or, The Wit's Vade-mecum."

GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:

MACE COVES: Well-dressed young pickpockets.

PRATE ROASTS: Pretty, high-spirited young maidens.

KNIGHTS OF THE BRUSH AND MOON: Drunken fellows wandering amok in meadows and ditches, trying to stagger home.

CORINTHIAN: A fancy toff or titled swell. Used here as a reference to Corinthian Tom, the quintessential Regency rake depicted in Pierce Egan's "Life in London" (usually referred to as "Tom and Jerry").

CHAFFING-CRIB: A room where drinking and bantering are going on.

SHE-LION: A shilling.

GUNPOWDERS: Imperious dowager ladies.

FLOWERS OF SOCIETY: Slightly contemptuous reference to the rich and famous.

CLANKER: A pewter drinking pot usually used for ale.

HEAVY BROWN: Strong ale.

PIKE OFF: Run away.

RED WAISTCOAT: The traditional uniform of the Bow-Street Runners, London’s first real professional police force.

GAMMONERS: Swindlers or gamblers who cheat.

ROMONERS: Fake occultists and fortune tellers.

SHARPS: Swindlers.

OLD ST. GILES: The neighbourhood of St. Giles in the Fields parish, which in the early Victorian age was a notorious slum.

RUM TE TUM WITH THE CHILL OFF: Most emphatically excellent.

* The Barony of Dunwitch is located in a deep forest glade west of Arkham (where, as H.P. Lovecraft put it, “the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut; there are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight.”) Actually it is a good 3,000 miles west of Arkham. It is not to be confused with Dunwich, the English seacoast town that fell house by house into the sea centuries ago, or Dunsany, the home until 1957 of legendary fantasy author Edward J.M.D. Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany.