Dark Poutine - True Crime and Dark History

Every disaster begins as an ordinary day. Until it isn't.

Introducing DAY OF DISASTER , a new documentary podcast series by DARK POUTINE, reconstructing history's most devastating catastrophes, one day at a time.

From the explosion at Chornobyl to the tragedy of Aberfan, the eruption of Krakatoa and the disaster at Bhopal, each episode takes you inside the moments, decisions and failures that changed lives, destroyed communities and altered history.

The warnings. The turning points. The human cost.

Because history remembers the disaster. We go back to the day it happened.

DAY OF DISASTER.

COMING 11.02.2026 only on Amazon Music

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Episode 442: To mark our ninth anniversary, we're going back to where Dark Poutine began: the mystery of the Salish Sea floating feet. Since 2007, more than twenty disembodied human feet — most still laced into running shoes — have washed ashore along the coastlines of British Columbia and Washington State, sparking theories of serial killers, trafficking rings, and worse. This time we bring the full research the story always deserved: the science that finally explained how it happens, the named victims behind the headlines, and the case that, as of this recording, still hasn't been closed.

Sources:

The Vancouver Sun — "Human Leg is Found Encased in a Boot" (July 30, 1914)

South China Morning Post — "A 14th human foot, this one in a hiking boot, washes ashore in British Columbia"

Wikipedia — "Salish Sea human foot discoveries"

National Geographic — "How science solved the mystery of feet washing ashore in the Pacific Northwest"

Longreads — "The Curious Tale of the Salish Sea Feet"

BC Coroners Service — Special Investigations Unit foot map (archived)

DNASolves.com — "After 17 years, Clallam County Doe (2008) is Identified"

CBC News — "DNA analysis confirms remains as Mission, B.C., teen missing since 2007"

King 5 — "Feet in shoes have washed up in the Salish Sea for decades... but not Antonio Neill's"

CBC News — "Foot found in B.C. lake identified after 25 years"

KOMO News — "Mystery of remains found in shoe on Sequim beach solved"

Richmond News — "Shoe found on Victoria beach contains human remains: coroner"

All That's Interesting — "The Strange Mystery Of The Salish Sea Feet..."

ExplorersWeb — "Exploration Mysteries: Human Feet of the Salish Sea"

The Tyee — "In False Creek, the Case of the Leg in the Boot"

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Episode 441: In January 1815, the keeper of Toronto's Gibraltar Point Lighthouse vanished, and John Paul Radelmüller was never seen alive again. Within weeks, two soldiers from a nearby garrison were under arrest for his murder. Months later, a jury acquitted them both. Over two centuries later, the case remains legally unresolved, and the lighthouse where Radelmüller spent his final years has become the basis for Toronto's oldest and most enduring ghost story—one that's grown so far beyond the documented record that most people who know it can't say which parts actually happened. This episode goes back to the original sources — the coroner's inquest, the trial record, the earliest newspaper account — to find out.

Sources:⁠York Gazette | Sat, Jan 14, 1815 | Page 3⁠⁠Gibraltar Point Lighthouse — Wikipedia⁠⁠New Light on Toronto's Oldest Cold Case: The 1815 Murder of John Paul Radelmüller — Eamonn O'Keeffe⁠⁠Toronto's First Murder at Gibraltar Point Lighthouse — my-toronto.ca⁠⁠The Ghost of the Rock: Toronto's 200-Year-Old Lighthouse Cold Case — Sofistikateit⁠⁠Gibraltar Point Lighthouse — Toronto Island Investigation — The Paranormal Seekers⁠⁠Glengarry Light Infantry — Wikipedia⁠⁠Battle of Ogdensburg — Wikipedia⁠⁠Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles, 1812–1816 — regimental history⁠⁠Lighthouses in Canada — Fisheries and Oceans Canada⁠⁠Sambro Island Light — Wikipedia⁠⁠Sambro Island's Haunted History — Pinecone Diaries⁠⁠Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Site — Wikipedia⁠⁠Gibraltar Lighthouse Toronto | Ghost of Accident or Murder | Article⁠⁠https://ghostwalks.com/articles/gibraltar-lighthouse-toronto⁠⁠The true story of Toronto's island ghost - Spacing Toronto⁠
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Episode 440: In 1879, Montreal’s Griffintown was a crowded working-class neighbourhood shaped by Irish immigration, heavy industry and life along the Lachine Canal. On June 27, Mary Gallagher entered a tenement at the corner of William and Murray streets, where a morning of drinking with her friend Susan Kennedy ended in a brutal killing for which Kennedy was accused.

The crime became one of Montreal’s most enduring ghost stories. For generations, residents have said that Mary returns to the corner every seven years, searching for her missing head. In this Spooktober episode, we examine the documented case, the legend it inspired and the changing neighbourhood that kept her story alive for nearly 150 years.

Sources:The Ghost of Griffintown: Mary Gallagher's Haunting LegendMary Gallagher | Haunted MontrealMary Gallagher – The Ghost of Griffintown / WKT2 26Calling all ghost hunters: Headless Mary may return to Montreal tonight | CP24Headless Mary | ScholasticMeurtre de Mary Gallagher | WikipediaThe Gazette, Montreal, Quebec, Canada · Tuesday, July 08, 1879The British Whig, Kingston, Ontario, Canada · Monday, June 30, 1879Montreal Gazette, Quebec, Canada · Wednesday, October 01, 1879Montreal Gazette, Quebec, Canada · Saturday, October 04, 1879The Gazette, Montreal, Quebec, Canada · Thursday, July 03, 1879The Montreal Star, Quebec, Canada · Saturday, July 05, 1879The British Whig, Kingston, Ontario, Canada · Saturday, November 29, 1879The Gazette, Montreal, Quebec, Canada · Tuesday, October 07, 1879The Montreal Gazette Thu, Oct 02, 1879 ·Page 4Ottawa Daily Citizen • Mon, Jun 30, 1879 • Page 1 • (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)The British Whig, Kingston, Ontario, Canada · Monday, July 07, 1879St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Missouri · Thursday, October 02, 1879Ottawa Daily Citizen, Ontario, Canada · Thursday, October 02, 1879Ghost of Griffintown | ConcordiaLes origines d’une légende irlandaise… montréalaise ! | banq.qc.ca
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Episode 439: In September 1632, plague was tearing through Loudun, France, when the Ursuline nuns began reporting apparitions, unexplained blows and violent physical attacks. During a series of exorcisms, the voices speaking through the women named a local priest: Urbain Grandier.

Grandier was intelligent, outspoken and surrounded by scandal. He had also made powerful enemies. As clergy, physicians and royal officials entered the case, reports from inside the convent became part of a much larger struggle involving religion, medicine, politics and the law.In this episode, we examine the Possessions at Loudun and the people who tried to explain them. Were the nuns experiencing a supernatural attack, a shared psychological illness or something shaped by suggestion and institutional pressure? What happens when investigators settle on an answer before they finish asking questions?

Sources

The Possession at Loudun by Michel de CerteauThe Devils of Loudun by Des NiauDocuments pour servir à l’histoire médicale des possédées de Loudun by Gabriel LeguéSœur Jeanne des Anges, supérieure des Ursulines de Loudun: autobiographiePossédées de Loudun, Affaire des (1632–1634)“The Possessions at Loudun” by Craig E. Stephenson“La possession de Loudun (1632–1637) by Sophie Houdard“Mass Sociogenic Illness” by Robert E. Bartholomew and Simon Wessely“Divine Punishment or Disease?”The Devils of Loudun by Aldous HuxleyJeanne des Anges bibliography and manuscript record“Edict of Nantes”“Tarantism, Dancing Mania and Demonopathy: The Anthro-political Aspects of ‘Mass Psychogenic Illness’”Looking Back: The possessions at Loudun | StephensonThe Possession at Loudun by Michel de CerteauMalleus Maleficarum Index | Internet Sacred Text ArchiveThe Devils of Loudun by Edmund Goldsmid, free ebook download | Global Grey
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