The Strange Tale of The Campden Wonder

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore

History

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 June 2020

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When William Harrison left his house on a calm midsummer evening of 1660, no one expected him to not return for two years, Except maybe William himself… Or maybe not. Equally surprising would have been the confessions that would follow of his murder from a trio of servants, one of whom was an alleged witch and none of whom can possibly have been guilty, given that the victim was very much alive. Later to become known as the Campden Wonder, this is the tale of a tightly bound mystery made up of lies, superstition and sensationalism that after 350 years is as bizarre today as it was in the seventeenth Century. SOURCES Clark, George (1959) The Campden Wonder. Oxford University Press, UK. Lang, Andrew (1904) Historical Mysteries: The Campden Mystery. T. Nelson & Sons, UK Overbury, Thomas (1676) A True and Perfect Account of the Examination, Confession, Trial, Condemnation, and Execution of Joan Perry, and her Two Sons, John and Richard Perry… Rowland Reynolds, London, UK Tyus, Charles (1662) The Power of Witchcraft. The Three Bibles on London Bridge, London, UK Clifford, P., 2020. The Campden Wonder - The Strangest "Murder" Case In English Legal History. [online] Campdenwonder.plus.com. Available at: [Accessed 26 June 2020]. ------ For extended show notes, including maps, links and scripts, head over to darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories & Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/ Or you can contact us directly via email at [email protected] or via voicemail on: (415) 286-5072 or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/6f7e2pt Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017 Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Transcript

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0:36.4	All right, enough of this.
0:38.3	Let's crack on with the episode.
0:40.8	When William Harrison left his house on a calm mid-summer evening of 1660,
0:46.0	no one expected him to not return for two years, except maybe William himself, or maybe not.
0:54.2	Equally surprising would have been the confessions of murder that followed from a trio of servants,
1:00.5	one of whom was an alleged witch, and none of whom could possibly have been guilty
1:05.2	given the fact that the victim was very much alive.
1:08.3	Later to become known as the Camden Wonder, this is the tale of a tightly bound mystery made
1:15.1	up of lies, superstition and sensationalism that after 350 years is as bizarre today
1:22.4	as it was in the 17th century. This is Dark Histories where the facts
1:28.0	are worse and fiction. Hello and welcome to Dark History season 4 episode 13. I'm Ben as always and it's
1:38.5	fantastic to be back. I hope you're all well. This episode is absolutely bunkers so I want to get going as
1:47.8	quick as possible but as always it's got a little bit of ramble. Well over a year ago I
	...

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