A “shortcut” that turned into a death sentence. In this Time & Tales dark history episode, we follow the Donner Party into the Sierra Nevada winter of 1846–47: from hopeful departure on the California Trail to the fatal choice to take Lansford Hastings’ cutoff, ignoring Shoshone and Paiute warnings about the Wasatch and the Great Salt Lake Desert—lost weeks that became lost lives once early snows sealed the pass and families at Truckee Lake and Alder Creek turned from boiled hides to cannibalism to survive.

Joined by author K.M. West, we strip away the textbook version and look at what the record actually shows about hunger, choice, and how this story was told.

* KM West Socials

*KM West Book Link

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Sources & Further Reading

• William O. Fallon — April 1847 diary (Fourth Relief; Keseberg encounter). Donner Party Diary
• Forlorn Hope survivor accounts — diaries, statements, and early interviews compiled in Donner Party document collections. Wikipedia
• Daniel James Brown — The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride. Amazon
• Michael Wallis — The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny. National Geographic
• An Archaeology of Desperation: Exploring the Donner Party’s Alder Creek Camp; Truckee / Donner Summit historical & archaeological reports Truckee-Donner Historical Society

Edgar Allan Poe— the writer who invented the detective story— also left behind one of America’s strangest unsolved deaths. In this Time & Tales dark history episode, we follow Edgar Allan Poe’s final week in 1849: from his disappearance in Richmond to his sudden reappearance in Baltimore outside Gunner’s Hall on election day, delirious and dressed in another man’s clothes.

We walk through the scant hospital records and all the main theories, to discover what the evidence really supports—and why no single explanation can close the case.

If you’re drawn to Edgar Allan Poe, 19th-century true crime, and historical mysteries, this episode is for you.

**We had a few sound issues with this episode. Our apologies! We had to use our backup mics and their gain is factory set to broadcast to Mars.

Sources & Further Reading

• Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore — “The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe”; site materials on Gunner’s Hall, Washington College Hospital, and Poe’s grave. Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore
• National Park Service — “The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe’s Death”; “Edgar Allan Poe” biography. National Park Service
• Smithsonian Magazine — “The (Still) Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe.” Smithsonian Magazine
• Maryland Center for History & Culture — “Here at Last He is Happy: The Death and Burial of Edgar Allan Poe.” Maryland History
• R. Michael Benitez, “A Diagnosis of Rabies in Edgar Allan Poe,” Maryland Medical Journal (1996) + contemporary coverage. The Washington Post
• “Death of Edgar Allan Poe” – Wikipedia (overview of events, theories, and burial/reburial). Wikipedia

Further Reading (Books) Kevin J. Hayes, Edgar Allan Poe; John Evangelist Walsh, Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe; Jeffrey A. Savoye, Poe Society papers; Mary Newton Stanard, Edgar Allan Poe: A Biography.

A missing climber’s boot has reopened one of mountaineering’s oldest cold cases. In this Time & Tales dark history episode, we journey to Mount Everest through the story of George Mallory and Andrew “Sandy” Irvine, the 1924 British climbers who vanished high on the north side and may—or may not—have reached the summit decades before Hillary and Norgay. We trace the original expedition, Noel Odell’s last sighting in the storm, Conrad Anker’s 1999 discovery of Mallory’s body, and the recent boot find linked to Irvine that has revived the question: did they stand on the top of the world first, and what exactly happened up there?

If you’re drawn to Everest history, unsolved mountaineering mysteries, and the thin line between evidence and legend, this episode lives right on that ridge.

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**CJ is a mysterious content lurker who doesn't share his socials;)

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Sources & Further Reading

• Wade Davis, Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest
• Walt Unsworth, Everest: The Mountaineering History
• Conrad Anker & David Roberts, The Lost Explorer: Finding Mallory on Mount Everest
• Jake Norton, reports and analyses on the 1924 Mallory & Irvine searches and recent Irvine-boot discovery
• Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster (for later Everest context)
• “George Mallory” and “1924 British Mount Everest expedition” – Wikipedia
• “Mount Everest” – Encyclopaedia Britannica