The index / Dark History
Careful, contextual coverage of the darker and stranger side of history, crime, culture, and the unexplained.
News · Movies
Molepeople opens August 27, 2027 with LaKeith Stanfield and Ben Mendelsohn. Separate Rob Savage's fictional horror film from New York's real tunnel history.
Oct 10, 2026
News · TV & Streaming
Netflix’s Bass X Machina now premieres November 3, replacing October 6. Separate its steampunk fantasy from the documented history of Bass Reeves.
Oct 6, 2026
The Index · Dark History
Marie Laveau was a real New Orleans religious leader. Archival records reveal her family, Catholic life, Voudou practice, and the legends added after her death.
Sep 27, 2026
The Index
Edinburgh's South Bridge vaults were built as working spaces, not a hidden medieval city. Explore the history beneath the ghost-tour reputation.
Sep 25, 2026
The Index
Behind Eastern State's haunted reputation is a real experiment in isolation. Explore its prison design, Dickens's visit and the staged scares.
Sep 25, 2026
The Index
Sedlec's bone chapel is a Christian ossuary, not a death cult. Explore its cemetery origins, famous decorations and the history behind the skulls.
Sep 25, 2026
The Index
Why are there bones beneath Paris? The Catacombs began as a solution to cemetery overcrowding, not a secret burial cult or an ancient underground city.
Sep 25, 2026
Lore & Explained · Folklore
Werewolf traditions range from ancient transformation stories to early-modern trials and modern horror rules. The full moon was not an original universal feature.
Sep 21, 2026
Lore & Explained · Folklore
Vampire traditions were never one universal mythology. Balkan revenant beliefs, New England practices and later fiction each have different histories.
Sep 21, 2026
Lore & Explained · Occult History
Aleister Crowley was an influential and controversial occult writer. His actual work, organizations and self-mythology differ sharply from tabloid legend.
Sep 21, 2026
The Index · Haunted Places
Poveglia has a documented Venetian quarantine history. Its global reputation as a haunted asylum island is largely a much newer media narrative.
Sep 21, 2026
The Index · Haunted Places
The Myrtles Plantation has a real history of slavery, family loss and William Winter's 1871 murder. The Chloe tale and 'ten murders' claim are much less securely documented.
Sep 16, 2026
The Index · Haunted Places
The Queen Mary's wartime service, collision with HMS Curacoa and Long Beach afterlife are documented. Its ghosts and Room B340 reputation belong to a different kind of history.
Sep 16, 2026
The Index · Occult History
Kate and Maggie Fox's 1848 Hydesville raps helped launch modern Spiritualism. Their 1888 confession matters, but it does not reduce a major movement to one neat sentence.
Sep 16, 2026
Lore & Explained · Urban Legends
Spring-Heeled Jack emerged from 1830s London reports of assaults, frightening disguises and impossible leaps. What is documented, what newspapers shaped, and how a Victorian scare became a monster.
Sep 16, 2026
Lore & Explained · Folklore
Between 1764 and 1767, a series of deadly animal attacks terrified Gévaudan. Here is what the records say about the Beast, the hunts, Jean Chastel, wolves and later werewolf legend.
Sep 16, 2026
The Index · Dark History
The Donner Party was trapped by early snow in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846-47. Some survivors did resort to cannibalism -- the specific murder accusations against Lewis Keseberg were never proven.
Sep 13, 2026
The Index · Dark History
John White returned to Roanoke in 1590 to find his colony gone and one word carved into a post: CROATOAN. That was the name of a real, allied Indigenous community and their island -- not a curse.
Sep 13, 2026
The Index · Dark History
Elizabeth Báthory was investigated for servant deaths and confined without trial in 1611. The 'blood bathing' story didn't appear in print until over a century later.
Sep 13, 2026
The Index · Unsolved Cases
Andrew and Abby Borden were killed with a hatchet in their Fall River home on August 4, 1892. Lizzie Borden was tried and acquitted -- the case was never legally resolved beyond that.
Sep 13, 2026
The Index · Dark History
In July 1518, a woman began dancing uncontrollably in Strasbourg. Within a month, hundreds had joined her, some reportedly dying of exhaustion. The city's own records are real; the diagnosis still isn't settled.
Sep 11, 2026
The Index · Dark History
H.H. Holmes was convicted of one murder, in Philadelphia. The Chicago 'Murder Castle,' its torture chambers, and its 200 victims are a legend built mostly after his death.
Sep 11, 2026
The Index · Dark History
The Malleus Maleficarum is real, and its author really did fail as a witch-hunter first. What's exaggerated is how influential this one condemned, controversial book actually was.
Sep 11, 2026
Lore & Explained · Folklore
Robert Johnson really did disappear and come back a far better guitarist. The deal-with-the-devil story wasn't originally his -- it belonged to a different bluesman first.
Sep 11, 2026
The Index · Dark History
Radiocarbon dating places the Voynich Manuscript's vellum in the early 1400s. Its script has never been deciphered, and every proposed solution, including recent viral claims, has been rejected by scholars.
Sep 11, 2026
The Index · Dark History
Bram Stoker's own notes show he took Vlad's name and a scrap of geography, not his biography. There's no evidence Stoker even knew Vlad was called 'the Impaler.'
Sep 10, 2026
The Index · Dark History
Anneliese Michel died in 1976 after 67 Catholic exorcism sessions, weighing 68 pounds. Her parents and two priests were later convicted of negligent homicide.
Sep 9, 2026
The Index · Dark History
Nineteen people were hanged, one was pressed to death, and no one was burned. Here's the documented history of the Salem witch trials, separated from The Crucible.
Sep 9, 2026
The Index · Dark History
Sarah Winchester spent 36 years renovating her San Jose mansion. The story that she did it on a medium's orders to appease rifle victims has no contemporary evidence behind it.
Sep 9, 2026
The Index · Dark History
Six members of the DeFeo family were shot dead in their Amityville home in November 1974. Here is the documented criminal case, before any haunting story existed.
Sep 2, 2026