Spilt
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Why do we celebrate Christmas with cards, crackers and a tree? Join us as we travel back and explore the weird and wonderful history of the Victorian Christmas.
Just who the Dickens had the idea to bring trees indoors? Can a soft-drinks firm really take credit for Father Christmas’s red suit? And why did the Victorians send each other such bizarre Christmas cards?
Greg Jenner is joined in the studio by historian Dr Fern Riddell and comedian Russell Kane.
Produced by Cornelius MendezScripted and researched by Greg Jenner
A Muddy Knees Media production for BBC Radio 4
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When he died, Oliver Cromwell was embalmed and given a funeral befitting a head of state. However, upon restoration of the British monarchy, Cromwell was exhumed and given a postmortem execution. His severed head was placed on a spike over […]
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Robert Maudsley casually walked into the cell of another inmate, who was sleeping on his bunk facedown. A savage rage quickly took over, and Maudsley started stabbing the back of the man’s head. There was blood, pieces of brain, and chunks of hair flying in a fury. After the man went limp, Maudsley grabbed the man’s head and held it in both palms and started to smash it against the walls of the cell, so hard that the plaster began to fall off the ceiling.
Nurses and guards had to watch on, not being able to get into the cell, hearing the victim’s head crack each time it was smashed against the wall. After Maudsley finished with the attack, he sat the limp body up against the bed, got down on his knees, and started to eat chunks of the brain with his home-made knife.
Robert Maudsley was dubbed “Hannibal the Cannibal’ on account of his thirst for eating the brains of his victims. He is one of the most interesting and thought-provoking murderers in prison. He is housed in a bulletproof cage, in the basement of Wakefield Prison, England, where Britain holds it's most savage, high-profile convicts. He is known to be such a danger to others, even inmates, he lives in a specially designed cell that doesn’t allow him any contact with anybody, except for guards that slide his food through a small hole at the bottom of his cell.
Robert Maudsley is deemed to be the ‘Most Dangerous Prisoner in Britain.’ Even though he only killed one person outside of prison, his remaining victims were claimed while incarcerated. This book reviews Maudsley’s life from his tormented childhood, his rage-filled murder outside of prison, and the planned torturous murders of three convicted pedophiles. HANNIBAL THE CANNIBAL: The True Story of Robert Maudsley-Alan R. WarrenFollow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510
Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com
