Madame Delphine LaLaurie was considered one of New Orleans' most respected socialites — hosting lavish parties and, in public, treating her enslaved staff with apparent kindness. But behind the doors of her Royal Street mansion, a horrifying truth was hidden.

When a fire broke out in April 1834, neighbours and firefighters rushed in to help, what they found in a locked attic room shocked the city to its core. Bodies, mutilation, and enslaved people beaten and restrained, close to death.

In this episode, we separate rumour from reality and look at the woman many consider America's first female serial killer.

Murder Mayhem UK is an independent crime and history podcast hosted by Sam H Arnold, based in the UK. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and check out additional stories on the Murder Mayhem UK Substack.

On 10 May 1941, as London endured another relentless night of Blitz bombing, one of the strangest events of the Second World War unfolded in the skies over Scotland. Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess secretly took off from Bavaria in a Messerschmitt Bf 110, embarking on a solo 900-mile flight across the North Sea.

Navigating low to the ground with only a compass and a map, Hess evaded RAF detection and parachuted into Renfrewshire, intent on brokering a separate peace with Britain. What followed was a surreal sequence of events: a local farmer’s mother serving the captured Nazi pilot a cup of tea, a false identity, and a stunned Winston Churchill dismissing the flight as the act of a lunatic.

This episode traces Hess’s trajectory from his early days as Hitler’s loyal secretary and prison scribe to his bizarre unilateral peace mission. It examines the mystery surrounding his flight, including whether British intelligence lured him using his connections to the Duke of Hamilton, and explores Hitler’s fury, or potential complicity, in the scheme.

Finally, the narrative follows Hess from his internment in the Tower of London through the Nuremberg Trials to his 46-year imprisonment at Spandau, concluding with the persistent conspiracy theories surrounding his death in 1987.

On Christmas Eve 1945, the Sodder family home in West Virginia went up in flames. Parents George and Jennie escaped with four of their children, but five middle children remained trapped upstairs. Yet when the ashes settled, something terrifyingly unexpected happened: no human remains were ever found.

In this episode of Murder Mayhem UK, host Sam H Arnold delves into one of the most haunting and enduring mysteries in American true crime history. Was it a tragic accident caused by faulty wiring, or a calculated kidnapping orchestrated by the Sicilian Mafia? From cut phone lines and missing ladders to mysterious late-night phone calls and a cryptic photograph arriving two decades later, join us as we unravel the chilling evidence surrounding the disappearance of the Sodder children.

Did five young children perish in the flames, or were they taken into the night?

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Thanks for listening. Until next time - stay safe, and stay curious.