Boiled in blood, hacked at by knives, torn apart by iron dogs… the world’s religions differ on what exactly might await sinners in the afterlife. But one thing they can all agree on is that if you were naughty on Earth, you are in for one hell of a horrible time.

We take a quick tour of history’s grimmest netherzones: from freezing poison rain in the Norse Helheim, to a river of excrement, where monstrous aquatic beings eat your flesh, down in the Hindu Narakas. Welcome to Hell.

Exclusive bonus content:

Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes

Follow us on social media:

YouTube

TikTok

Instagram

Visit our website:

Website

Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

*Update* Ian Watkins has been stabbed to death in Wakefield Prison by two fellow inmates, on Saturday 11th November 2025. He was previously stabbed in 2023, when he was taken hostage for six hours by a group of inmates. Here is our full episode from 2019.

--

Ian Watkins was the lead singer of Welsh rock band Lostprophets. He toured all over the world, playing to sold out stadiums of adoring fans - so in 2012 when he was arrested and charged with 13 counts of child sex offences, including against a child as young as 11 months old, the world was shocked.

This is a particularly troubling case because it of course covers the abuse this depraved man doled out to incredibly young victims, but there are also deeply troubling questions raised about why authorities missed chance after chance to catch Watkins.

Exclusive bonus content:

Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes

Follow us on social media:

YouTube

TikTok

Instagram

Visit our website:

Website

Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

One of WWII’s lesser-known horrors, Japan’s secret biological warfare testing program is so brutal and inhumane that it’s hard to believe it could ever happen. And at its helm was a twisted microbiologist Shiro Ishi.

Victims, known inside as “logs”, were injected and exposed to countless pathogens including typhoid, cholera, and the plague, then watched like lab rats as they were gripped by the diseases. Even in their last moments, the poor souls stuck inside Unit 731 weren’t safe, as they were cut open and examined, while they were still alive…

Exclusive bonus content:

Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes

Follow us on social media:

YouTube

TikTok

Instagram

Visit our website:

Website

Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In 1981, nineteen-year-old Arne Cheyenne Johnson stabbed his landlord to death – but claimed he wasn’t guilty. Why? Because he was possessed by the literal Devil.

With a wild alibi starring a possessed tween, budget exorcisms and even a cameo from America’s most notorious spooky grifters Ed and Lorraine Warren, Satan was going on trial...

But would a judge believe that the horned guy himself was roaming small-town Connecticut in the early eighties?

Find out as we explore the case that shocked a nation – and almost changed US law forever.

Exclusive bonus content:

Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes

Follow us on social media:

YouTube

TikTok

Instagram

Visit our website:

Website

Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Almost immediately after 13-year-old Madeline Soto was reported missing in February 2024, something didn’t seem quite right.

Her mother Jennifer Soto – and Jennifer’s boyfriend Stephan Sterns – gave a series of strange interviews in the press. And over the next five days, as investigators picked apart the lives (and sleeping arrangements) of those who lived in the Soto home, bombshells kept on rocking the people of Osceola County, Florida. Until finally, the horrific reality of what Maddy endured was revealed to the world.

Exclusive bonus content:

Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes

Follow us on social media:

YouTube

TikTok

Instagram

Visit our website:

Website

Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We’re finally diving into the case of infamous bodysnatcher, human-skin-furniture-maker, and OG mummy’s boy...Ed Gein.

A shy bachelor who terrorised a tiny Wisconsin town with his nightmarish farmhouse of horrors in the 1950s, Ed Gein inspired some of the creepiest characters in scary-movie history: from Psycho’s Norman Bates to Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs.

And with the third season of Ryan Murphy’s Monsters turning the Netflix spotlight on Gein, what better time for us to explore the twisted true story behind it all? Here’s everything you need to know about the terrifying ‘Butcher of Plainfield’.

Exclusive bonus content:

Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes

Follow us on social media:

YouTube

TikTok

Instagram

Visit our website:

Website

Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Due to a huge number of requests following a new Netflix doc on Thabo Bester, we're re-releasing our 2023 episode on the shocking, shameless, madder-than-fiction South African saga.

--

At 2am, on the 3rd of May 2022 – inmates at Mangaung prison in Bloemfontein, South Africa, were woken up by an explosion. Word spread that Thabo Bester, the infamous “Facebook Rapist”, had set himself and his cell on fire. And all that remained after the dramatic blaze were a lighter, and a body, burnt beyond recognition. But that’s far from the end of the story.

With daily revelations from the trial still hitting headlines, expect a farcical morgue-robbing scheme, a massive-scale web of fraud conducted from inside a prison cell, and a glamorous celebrity doctor who’s not quite what she seems.

--

Exclusive bonus content:

Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes

Follow us on social media:

YouTube

TikTok

Instagram

Visit our website:

Website

Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

With cyberbullying and catfishing stories back in the news it felt like the perfect time to revisit this early episode from back in 2019.

--

Someone was cyberbullying Jenelle Potter: hurling online abuse and threatening her life with claims that she was "too pretty to live". As things escalated, inexplicably, the CIA seemed to become involved and Jenelle's parents felt the only way to save their vulnerable daughter was to take matters into their own hands.

But once her "bullies" were dead questions quickly surfaced about Jenelle's behaviour...

Exclusive bonus content:

Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand

Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes

Follow us on social media:

YouTube

TikTok

Instagram

Visit our website:

Website

Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.