history
Hosted by James Crossland · history · EN-US
What makes someone evil? HISTORY'S DEVILS is a weekly deep-dive podcast that investigates the world's most infamous historical figures. Each episode explores the life, actions, and legacy of a terrible person from history, sorting through myths to examine the facts behind their reputation and to judge just how wicked they truly were. Hosted by Professor James Crossland, HISTORY'S DEVILS covers dictators, tyrants, war criminals, cult leaders, revolutionaries, con-artists, conspiracy theorists and just plain terrible people, combining deep research with compelling storytelling to reveal the darker side of human history. A show for fans of dark history, historical biographies and in-depth explorations of people who changed the world for better - or for worse. All the devils are here. And we are ready to tell their stories.
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Contact path
Public web form
Booking probability
31%
Guest openness
Selective
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Signup to Generate a PitchWhat makes someone evil? HISTORY'S DEVILS is a weekly deep-dive podcast that investigates the world's most infamous historical figures. Each episode explores the life, actions, and legacy of a terrible person from history, sorting through myths to examine the facts behind their reputation and to judge just how wicked they truly were.
History's Devils is hosted by James Crossland. The show has published 46 episodes to date.
Recent episodes include "Before Dracula: Sava Savanović and the Great Vampire Panic" (27 October 2026, 49 minutes), "At War With Mankind: The True Story of the Murderous Harp Brothers" (20 October 2026, 57 minutes), and "The USS Indianapolis Disaster, Pt.2 - How The US Navy Sent 800 Sailors to their Deaths and Scapegoated a Captain" (14 October 2026, 44 minutes).
History's Devils publishes roughly weekly, with episodes averaging 57 minutes across 46 episodes.
Booking probability for History's Devils is 31%, and the host is rated Selective on guests. History's Devils requires a Pod Score of 80 or higher. History's Devils's contact route on record: public web form.
James Crossland hosts History's Devils, a history podcast with 46 episodes published.
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Episode #46
This episode of History's Devils explores the largely forgotten history behind the Western vampire legend and the tropes of Bram Stoker's Dracula, by looking at the great vampire panic that swept across Europe in the...
Episode #43
In this week’s episode, James Crossland is joined by Katherine Grandjean (author of Kingdom of Devils: A Tale of Murder in the Shadow of the American Revolution ) the explore the story of Micajah “Big Harp” and Wiley...
Episode #45
The second part of History’s Devils’ investigation into the sinking of USS Indianapolis examines why more than 800 sailors were left in the Pacific for four days after the Japanese submarine I-58 torpedoed the cruiser...
Episode #44
In the final weeks of the Second World War, the USS Indianapolis secretly transported components for the "Little Boy" atomic bomb from San Francisco to Tinian Island, for assembly ahead of it being dropped over...
Episode #41
In part one of this week’s episode, James Crossland and Jayne Friend examine the foremost religious grifter of his age – Jim Bakker, and his marriage to the charismatic Tammy Faye Messner, who together created a TV...
Episode #42
In episode two, James and Jayne discuss how Jim Bakker's evangelical empire reaches its peak in the 1980s with the PTL network and Heritage USA, but reckless spending, fraudulent fundraising and the sexual assault of...
Episode #40
Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are remembered as legendary lawmen and gunfighters of the American Old West, but their real lives were far more complicated than the heroic images created by films such as Tombstone? In this...
Episode #38
Can a single bullet change history? This episode examines Gavrilo Princip’s path from Pan-Slavic radical to the assassin who on June 28, 1914, murdered Archduke Franz Ferdinand, providing the catalyst for the First...
Episode #39
In episode two of our examination of Gavrilo Princip, Tim Wilson is back to help James piece together the events leading up to the fateful summer afternoon in Sarajevo in 1914, when Princip and his conspirators attacked...
Episode #37
This week, James Crossland is joined by Nicholas Morton (Author of The Crusader Storm: A Global History of the Wars for the Middle East ) to discuss the life and times of the most notorious crusader of his age, Reynald...
Episode #36
On this week’s episode of History’s Devils, we’re asking a difficult question – how do you find the devil in a hero? We’re talking about Claus von Stauffenberg, the man who on 20 July 1944, tried to assassinate Adolf...
Episode #35
In part two of the Timothy McVeigh episode, James is joined once again by Craig Johnson , host of 15 Minutes of Fascism , to explain how the Oklahoma City bombing was planned and executed. James and Craig also break...
Episode #34
This week's episodes explores how Timothy McVeigh became the Oklahoma City bomber, tracing his path from disillusioned Gulf War veteran to the deadliest domestic terrorist in American history, while examining the...
Episode #33
In this episode of History’s Devils , James is joined by Bob Whitaker of the History Re-Spawned Podcast to explore the real American history behind the Grand Theft Auto video game series, focusing on how GTA depicts...
Episode #32
James Crossland is joined by aerospace historian and author Mark Piesing – author of N-4 Down: The Hunt for the Arctic Airship Italia – to explore the extraordinary life and legacy of British inventor and “father of...
Episode #31
In part two of our Charles Manson episode, James and Jayne discuss how the Manson Family spiralled out of control in the summer of 1969, leading to the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders. Picking up where the previous...
Episode #30
For this episode, James is joined by the ever-game Jayne Friend to explore the early life of Charles Manson, how he built the Manson Family, his connections to the 1960s counterculture and his bizarre relationship with...
Episode #29
Who was Basil Zaharoff and how did he lay Europe's path to the First World War? This week, James Crossland is joined by military historian and Not So Quiet on the Western Front co-host Spencer Jones to examine the...
Episode #27
James Jesse Strang, the only man in U.S. history to crown himself a king, is the focus of this podcast episode exploring his rise as a Mormon schismatic leader, cult founder, and self-declared monarch on Beaver Island...
Episode #26
James is joined once again by Jayne Friend for part two of our exploration of Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA chemist who led MK-Ultra, developed Cold War mind control experiments, and became involved in some of the agency's...
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