Sofa King Podcast

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we take a look at the arguments and key cases for and against reincarnation. Reincarnation, of course, is the thought that somehow a personality can survive bodily death and be transferred to another person later on. Some say this is a soul, some say it is only consciousness, and others even give it some quantum informational slant, but in the end there is a lot of evidence suggesting that in some cases, a personality does show up in a different individual after someone’s death. The bulk of the research done on this topic was started by Dr. Ian Stevenson from the University of Virginia. He was an academic prodigy who eventually was bestowed a one million dollar fund to research reincarnation by Chester Carlson, the wealthy inventor of the Xerox copying process. Carlson died of a sudden heart attack and wanted Stevenson’s research to be funded and carry on. So what are do the solid reincarnation cases have in common? Well, for one, they typically involve children ranging from age 2 through 9. Second, the children have memories that can be confirmed about other people’s lives (and deaths). They can recall details of their homes, details of their deaths, names and relationships of loved ones, even extramarital affairs. In the best cases, hidden things (like gold in a wall) can be summoned as proof, or new skills or languages manifest themselves. We cover several of the cases that experts hold up as exemplary, and we take a look at everything from the simulation theory to the human soul to information processing on the quantum level called the ORCH OR hypotheses. So how does reincarnation work? Where do most of the cases come from? What do scientists say about Dr. Stevenson’s work? Listen, laugh, learn.   Article on Reincarnation: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/bering-in-mind/ian-stevensone28099s-case-for-the-afterlife-are-we-e28098skepticse28099-really-just-cynics/   NPR Article: http://www.npr.org/2014/01/05/259886077/searching-for-science-behind-reincarnation

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we get ready to have a bad night’s sleep and talk about all sorts of strange sleep related phenomenon called Parasomnia. From Sleep Paralysis to the Night Hag, from Night Terrors to Astral Projection, and from Shadow Men to Lucid Dreaming, this one has it all. This show is a mix of multiple topics that several listeners have asked us to discuss. One that is probably the most common is Sleep Paralysis. This often terrifying event is when someone wakes up or is partially awake but is unable to move their body. Some call it a lockdown because the mechanism that locks muscles down during dreaming is still active though the mind is conscious (a state called Atonia). This one gets creepy and involves Night Hags, demons, and horrible beings pressing on the victim’s chest. Two other events that many people report while dreaming are Astral Projection (Out of Body Experiences or OBE) and Lucid Dreaming. Astral Projection is the sensation that a “soul” has left the body and is floating free in the world and can observe things. This type of Parasomnia often happens while someone is asleep, meditating, or clinically dead before being revived. Lucid Dreaming is the experience of people being able to recognize and control their dreams. The two are often associated with each other, and we’ll talk about techniques some claim will help you practice them. Lastly, we cover night terrors (when people wake up completely terrified for no known reason) and Shadow Men, beings that some people supposedly see. The creepy thing about Shadow People is the common elements that witnesses share through all of the globe. Dave also tells a creepy story about his own encounter with a Shadow Person when he was in high school and creeps Brent out! So, get your Nyquil ready and lock the doors because on this episode we talk about all the things that go bump in the night. Link on Shadow People and the Hat Man: http://www.nataliakuna.com/shadow-people--dark-beings.html

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we look at the life of the world’s most famous short man, Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon was one of the greatest military minds in human history, and it’s a bit surprising that his wars aren’t considered a world war since they involved almost everyone. He nearly conquered the world thanks to his unique genius. Napoleon was born to a wealthy family on the island of Corsica and was sent to military school at the age of nine. He excelled. At age 16, he was already a lieutenant in the army, and he proved to be an amazing soldier and tactician. Napoleon Bonaparte played a key role in the French Revolution. While the Reign of Terror was beheading the aristocracy, Napoleon’s army kept the royals from taking control of the new French government called the Directory. As a reward for this, he was given promotion after promotion, until by the age of 26, he was in charge of the entire French army. He had a famous romance with his first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais, but it may have been rockier than history makes out, and it ended in annulment when she couldn’t produce a male heir. From this point, Napoleon waged war with the entire European continent, from Spain and England to the Netherlands and Russia. He suffered many defeats and staged many amazing come backs. He was exiled after he was defeated in Egypt, came back and conquered France again, and kept on fighting. But aside from the war, he changed all of France. He introduced a new banking system, fought for religious freedoms, kept out the old monarchy, and erased laws that favored the aristocracy. He even created the Napoleonic Code which contained a fair, modern legal system which is still in place today. So, what happened with his historic defeat in Russia? What was Waterloo, and why did defeat there serve as the end of Napoleon Bonaparte’s reign? Did he die by poison from his enemies as some historians suggested in 1961? Listen, laugh, learn.   Thorough video on the Waterlooo battle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDZGL1xsqzs

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the most important person in the music industry in the past thirty years, the little known (but very influential) Jimmy Iovine. Jimmy was a failed musician who tried his hand at college as a way to avoid the draft to Vietnam. He was an Italian New Yorker from a working class family, and a friend of his sister’s got him a job at a music studio. He got fired. She got him another one. He got fired again. She got him his third job at a studio called the Record Plant, and the rest was history. One day, after he’d worked there for a while, his boss called him to get him to come answer phones on Easter Sunday. It was a ruse and a test. When Jimmy Iovine got there, he found out John Lennon was there, and they needed him as a sound engineer. From there, he started working with some of the biggest in the business. He worked on Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run. He worked with Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, Patti Smith, U2, and a host of major artists. By now, he was one of the top producers in the business, and he eventually opened his own record label, Interscope. Iovine spent a year avoiding all other work except trying to get Trent Reznor out of his contract, so he could sign Nine Inch Nails. He succeeded. Then, he teamed with Death Row and signed Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog, and Tupac. He was so involved with the East Coast/West Coast war that he had to wear a bullet proof vest around LA. He kept working, developing No Doubt, The Black-eyed Peas, Primus, Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar, Marylyn Manson, Eminem, 50 Cent, and endless others. But what really cemented his legacy was the backdoor work he did with Steve Jobs. He predicted the demise of commercial albums and was influential in the birth of iPod and iTunes, and he was the co-founder of Beats along with Dr. Dre. He, in fact, was instrumental in working the deal to sell Beats for $3.2 Billion dollars (half of which is his!). This episode is a must for any music fan. From the Beatles to Gangster Rap, Jimmy Iovine was at the center of it, developing artists, developing sounds, and developing technology that have completely redefined the modern music industry. If you want more info, check out HBO’s The Defiant Ones which was the inspriation for this episode. http://www.hbo.com/the-defiant-ones

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we look at the life, philosophy, crimes, and sexual perversion of the infamous Marquis de Sade. As a warning, don’t read this or watch the episode unless you are ready for some crazy sex acts. The term sadism (gaining pleasure from other people’s pain) came from this man, and his life and ideas were very interesting and controversial. Donatien Alphonse François, best known as the Marquis de Sade, was born in Paris, France on June 2, 1740. His father was a diplomat in the court of Louis XV (and a reported pedophile), and his mother was a lady-in-waiting. He had everything he ever wanted and was said to be a spoiled child. He would hurt his servants and throw tantrums, and while he was six, he beat the Prince of France bloody and was sent away to live with his uncle who was an abbot at a church. However, the uncle was also a pervert who kept a male and female in residence of the church, just for his sexual pleasures. From here, de Sade finally moved back to France where his family was struggling a bit financially. He married a wealthy woman to get his money back, and he started a reign of shocking sex acts. Prostitution, sodomy, and whipping were just the start. He once whipped a hooker until she bled and masturbated in the wounds. He forced prostitutes to eat medicines, so he might be able to catch their feces as part of a sexual act. He also masturbated a woman with a crucifix after putting communion wafers in her vagina. This last one crossed the line and started his life of prison terms. He spent decades in and out of prison, and while locked up, he spent his sexual energies writing books of craven sexual acts and perversion that nobody has ever bested to this day. 120 Days of Sodom and was his most famous, so we spend a lot of time on the show discussing this one. Eventually, he survived the French Revolution and ended up in an insane asylum where he had an affair with a 13 year old girl while he was 70. So, with all this perversion, why is the Marquis de Sade considered one of the great French philosophers? How did he influence literature, surrealism, and even Sigmund Freud? When were his works finally published for reading? What does his surviving family think of the legacy he left their family name? Listen, laugh, learn. Very Funny entry for a kid's webpage about the Marquis de Sade: https://wiki.kidzsearch.com/wiki/Marquis_de_Sade   Great Article on Finding the Right Sex Terms while Translating His Works: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/we-translated-the-marquis-de-sades-most-obscene-work-heres-how-a7393066.html  

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we look into the strange Australian kidnapping cult called “The Family.” Their sinister motto: unseen, unheard, unknown. This cult differs from many modern cults because its leader was a woman instead of a man. Yoga teacher Anne Hamilton-Byrne met up with Dr. Raynor Johnson in Melbourne and started experimenting with LSD in 1963. They started to meet up at a place called Santiniketan Park and would talk about religion and philosophy with other academics and professionals. This turned into a strange group of LSD popping spiritualists, and soon after, The Family was born. Eventually the group banded together and bought some property, and in1968 they constructed a meeting hall, Santiniketan Lodge. From this lodge, the cult spread. They continued to recruit from medical professionals and other intellectuals, and eventually, Anne Hamilton-Byrne realized that her Master (a formless being from the dimension of light) told her a couple things. One thing was that she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ in a female body. The other one was that they needed to start kidnapping children to train, abuse, and give LSD to in order to prepare them for the apocalypse and the coming of the UFOs. (Sigh…) This group got pretty wild and controlled the Newhaven Psychiatric Hospital. This was a place for upper class individuals with mental problems to discreetly go for treatment. Here, they were given LSD and shock treatment and convinced that Anne was Jesus Christ. This place was also good for kidnapping cult members who wanted to escape and give them shock treatment. So, how many children did The Family kidnap? How did they get away with having so many without the Australian government get wind of it? Why did they abuse the children and give them all crazy blonde creepy zombie haircuts? How did they eventually get caught? What was operation Forrest, and how did it get them extradited from New York to Australia? Listen, laugh, learn.

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the life, hits, moves, quirks and lawsuits surrounding the King Of Pop, Michael Jackson. Jackson was born in Gary Indiana in 1958, and due to the often abusive hand of his father Joseph, he and his family were formed into musicians at a very young age. After a couple of rotations in the children, Michael was added to the family musical act, which became known as the Jackson 5. They did small shows at first, but Michael’s incredible vocals and depth got them noticed pretty quickly. They signed with Barry Gordy at Motown, and after spending some time living with Gordy and Diana Ross in LA, the Jacksons became a huge hit. They sold millions of records, and through this process, Michael matured as an artist and eventually started to release solo work. His first big solo album was Off the Wall, and a few years later he released the best-selling album in history, Thriller. With Thriller, he amassed numerous top ten hits, earned a record number of Grammys, and became a worldwide sensation. He was bigger than The Beatles. His showmanship, amazing dance skills, and strong vocals made him into a hit factory. He and Quincy Jones released Bad in 1987, and Michael Jackson was at the top of his game. In this same era, however, he suffered a burn on his scalp and face during an ill-fated Pepsi commercial, and he needed to undergo plastic surgery. That surgery apparently opened the flood gates to multiple surgeries, massive alterations to his nose and chin, and even alleged skin whitening. His success also led to some pretty crazy behaviors. He built Neverland ranch, a giant zoo and amusement park where he lived outside the public eye. Here, he got into legal trouble with multiple allegations of sexual misconduct with underage boys. None of them ever stuck in court, but they ruined his reputation. His decline was gradual and sad. His behavior became more strange, as did his appearance, and he even had multiple children with surrogates who he supposedly never had sex with. Broke and facing legal problems, he announced a worldwide tour in 2009. It sold out in a record four hours, and it was truly going to be a massive comeback. However, he died a month before the tour started. How did he die exactly? What did his doctor have to do with it? Why did his doctor do jail time as a result? Why do his daughter and a prominent German business man think Michael Jackson was murdered? Why does Brad think he was killed by Paul McCartney? Listen, laugh, learn.

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we discuss the wild career of the most famous pirate in history, Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard. Teach was thought to have been born in Britain but moved to Jamaica as a child. From there, he became a privateer (a pirate who worked for England) through Queen Anne’s War. After that, he used his naval skills to become one of the wildest pirates ever to set foot in the Caribbean. Teach was recruited after the war by a pirate named Captain Benjamin Hornigold, and in a very short time, he was promoted to run his own ship in this pirate fleet. Blackbeard earned his stripes and his nickname under Hornigold, and when the senior pirate retired from the life, Blackbeard was left in charge of the ships. He ran his new fleet based on fear of his growing reputation—he even lit his hair on fire before battle to look more fearsome. From there, Blackbeard went on to capture and recruit several ships, adding to his flotilla’s strength. One man, Stede Bonnet (The Gentleman Pirate) was convinced to join instead of run his plantations. Together, they accomplished one of the great feats of pirate history and took a full frigate and flagship from France. They renamed it Queen Anne’s Revenge, armed with 250 men including ex-slaves, and loaded 40 cannons on it. From that ship, Blackbeard ran a two year terror campaign, capturing over 30 ships and being a general scourge of civilized society. Unlike the typical stereotype of a pirate only being in remote waters, Blackbeard spent much of his time sacking the east coast the United States. He once famously held an entire town captive for a prolonged period of time until he could get the mayor to give his fleet medicine he needed (to cure an STD?). The story of Blackbeard is a story of allies turned enemy, cunning piracy, amazing naval tactics, and stunning victories. He died in battle, and the details of his death prove he was the badass that his reputation said he was. Listen, laugh, learn.

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the escapes, magic, ghost busting, and mysterious death of master magician Harry Houdini. Born as Ehrich Weisz in 1874 in Hungary, he moved to the United States with his family while very young. His father ended up moving to New York City, and young Ehrich followed him. It was there that Houdini was introduced to live performance and became a young trapeze artist called "Ehrich, the Prince of the Air.” A few years later, he decided to go into magic, doing card tricks at penny theaters, on the street, and anywhere they would have him. He changed his name to Harry Houdini (after a magician idol of his from childhood), and he struggled to find success as a magician. His real strength lie in his showmanship and his ability as an escape artist, and he eventually got noticed and picked up by a theater. In short time, Houdini became the highest paid vaudeville entertainer in America and started to tour through Europe and the rest of the world. His escape tricks were legendary, and some are still a mystery to this day. From his famous milk jug escape to impossible handcuffs, from being buried alive to hung from wires in a straightjacket, Houdini got away from everything. His most famous trick was the Chinese Water Torture trick, which allegedly only a handful of living magicians currently understand. After Houdini became famous, he was promoted to be the president of the Society of American Magicians. His goal here (at his own expense) was to unite all small magic houses in the country under one umbrella organization. He succeeded, and the SAM is still thriving today. During his tenure as the president, he also went on a campaign to prove that charlatans and so-called mediums and psychics were all a fraud. He spent a lot of time disproving any magical or spiritual abilities, even though some say he did his own séances with his wife. So, what promise did Harry Houdini make to his wife about the afterlife? Why did he sue so many people? How much of his act was a fake instead of really being dangerous? Did he die from a punch to the gut? Was his death murder via poison from a group of assassins working for discredited spiritualists? Listen, laugh, learn. Video on Houdini's Death: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ9lNRAjTQM

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast we talk about the various and deep conspiracy theories that surround the HIV/AIDS Pandemic. So, what’s the difference between HIV and AIDS? Traditional medicine claims that HIV is an immunodeficiency virus that attacks your body’s ability to fight off infection. AIDS is the breakdown of the immune system that causes death by means of other infections. However, with cocktails of drugs that are available in the Western world, people can live with HIV almost indefinitely without it every turning in to full-blown AIDS. Or is that all a lie? The accepted medical origins of HIV are that it is a relative of SIV, a virus that affected primate populations, but it jumped species in around 1930. By the 1960s, cases of it were springing up regularly in Africa, and by the 1980s, it had spread to be common in the USA. Many major celebrities died from AIDS, from Eazy-E to Freddy Mercury, and there was a terrible fear and stigma of the disease early on that still lingers today. One conspiracy theory, questions all of that, though. In fact, some of the key researchers in early AIDS research seem to be changing their concept of the virus. Some of them don’t even think HIV has any connection to AIDS. They follow something called the Duesberg Hypothesis, which argues that AIDS is a global misdiagnosis of other conditions. Also, since the virus targets African-American, Latino, and the LGBTQ communities the most, various population-control conspiracies pop up. Blacks claim it was a designer disease meant to curb their numbers. There is another theory that it came from Hepatitis B vaccines and targeted homosexuals in particular. Many people think it was a bio weapon from the US Government and the CIA. Was the idea that the U.S. created HIV as a bioweapon originally a Soviet cold-war misinformation campaign? Why do so many African Americans believe it is a weapon that targets them? What new cures, vaccines, and genetic manipulations might make HIV a thing of the past? What makes some people think HIV and AIDS aren’t even linked? Listen, laugh, learn.

In this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we discuss the phenomenon of demonic possession and exorcism. Demonic or spiritual possession is something that most people associate with Catholicism, but it spreads to any number of religious faiths, Hindu to Islamic and Judaism. In most faiths, the belief is that the evil that possesses the victim is expelled by a person of faith who calls upon the will of god or angels. Surprisingly, the cases of exorcism are growing rapidly around the world, and in the U.S. While in the 1980s, there was one expert exorcist in America, there are now fifty! So, what are the signs of possession, and how do exorcisms work to alleviate them? The major signs of possession are unnatural strength, speaking of languages a person has no history of learning, and knowing things that a person can’t possibly know (often personal things about the priest or exorcist). Of course, more wild things are attributed to possession such as levitation and telekinetic or poltergeist activity, things flying from the shelves, and even burning of the skin when coming in contact with holy items. The Vatican takes possession and exorcism quite seriously. In the Ritulae Romanum, section XIII deals specifically with the rites of the exorcist and how to identify those who are truly possessed (instead of mentally ill). However, the section is top secret, only known to those who go to Rome to learn the proper techniques. A debate obviously rages about the difference between possession and mental illness. Some experts claim that while thousands of cases in a row will be mental illness, there will be one or two in those thousands that are true possession. What exactly does the rites of exorcism involve, and has Hollywood been accurate in depictions of it? What does the psychologist who is called in by priests to determine the mental health of self-proposed possessed people think? Who was Anneliese Michel, and how could her death have involved exorcism? What parts of the world see more possession and exorcism than others? Is there any truth to the classic 1973 film The Exorcist? How did the devil get Michael Taylor to kill his wife and poodle? Listen, laugh, learn.   Philippines Exorcism: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/philippines_exorcism   Ritulae Romanum: http://www.sanctamissa.org/en/resources/books-1962/rituale-romanum/

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the life and works of one of America’s greatest creators, Walt Disney. Born in 1901, Disney was raised in Marceline, Missouri, which people to this day claim was the basis for Disneyland’s Main Street. Disney developed a love for trains as a child, and he also was identified as a talented artist while he was very young, selling work at the age of seven. While he was only sixteen, he tried to join the Army, but they discovered his age and wouldn’t let him. Instead, he volunteered for the Red Cross, where he became an ambulance driver in France during World War One. Once he returned to the states, he became a cartoonist and shortly after that was experimenting in animation, a relatively new art form and way to film. He started making shorts that showed in a local theater, but they failed, and his studio went bankrupt. Eventually, he, his brother, and a partner created the Disney Brother’s Studios, and they created a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. They met with enough success to hire several animators and grow, but the distributor stole the rights to Oswald as well as most of his employees, and he was back to broke. At this point, he was working on another character named Mickey Mouse. After releasing two silent shorts, his third included sound and was called Steamboat Willie. It was a huge hit, and it gave Walt Disney the money to start his real work. He soon made feature films such as Snow White in 1937, and the movies were all surprise hits, despite the depression in America. Once World War Two started, Disney was recruited for the war effort and made anti-fascist propaganda films for the government. This is interesting because a lot of people accuse him of being a Nazi sympathizer himself. By the 1960’s, Walt Disney was a household name. He launched Disneyworld in California (to a very rocky start) and expanded his reach. Eventually, he started the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) in Florida, but he died of lung cancer before it could be completed. With all of this, comes of course rumors and controversy. Was Walt Disney in fact a secret Nazi? What stance did he take during the anti-communist McCarthy era that hit Hollywood so hard? Was he a monster to his employees? Why did Walt Disney himself claim there were two versions of himself? Was he an anti-Semite? Most importantly, is his body actually frozen, and why do people think this might be the case? You might be surprised by some of the answers. Listen, laugh, learn.   A link for his film, Education For Death: The Making of the Nazi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vLrTNKk89Q A link for the anti-Nazi Donald Duck cartoon called Der Fuehrer’s Face https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzH1iaKVsBM

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the life and works of one of America’s greatest creators, Walt Disney. Born in 1901, Disney was raised in Marceline, Missouri, which people to this day claim was the basis for Disneyland’s Main Street. Disney developed a love for trains as a child, and he also was identified as a talented artist while he was very young, selling work at the age of seven. While he was only sixteen, he tried to join the Army, but they discovered his age and wouldn’t let him. Instead, he volunteered for the Red Cross, where he became an ambulance driver in France during World War One. Once he returned to the states, he became a cartoonist and shortly after that was experimenting in animation, a relatively new art form and way to film. He started making shorts that showed in a local theater, but they failed, and his studio went bankrupt. Eventually, he, his brother, and a partner created the Disney Brother’s Studios, and they created a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. They met with enough success to hire several animators and grow, but the distributor stole the rights to Oswald as well as most of his employees, and he was back to broke. At this point, he was working on another character named Mickey Mouse. After releasing two silent shorts, his third included sound and was called Steamboat Willie. It was a huge hit, and it gave Walt Disney the money to start his real work. He soon made feature films such as Snow White in 1937, and the movies were all surprise hits, despite the depression in America. Once World War Two started, Disney was recruited for the war effort and made anti-fascist propaganda films for the government. This is interesting because a lot of people accuse him of being a Nazi sympathizer himself. By the 1960’s, Walt Disney was a household name. He launched Disneyworld in California (to a very rocky start) and expanded his reach. Eventually, he started the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) in Florida, but he died of lung cancer before it could be completed. With all of this, comes of course rumors and controversy. Was Walt Disney in fact a secret Nazi? What stance did he take during the anti-communist McCarthy era that hit Hollywood so hard? Was he a monster to his employees? Why did Walt Disney himself claim there were two versions of himself? Was he an anti-Semite? Most importantly, is his body actually frozen, and why do people think this might be the case? You might be surprised by some of the answers. Listen, laugh, learn.   A link for his film, Education For Death: The Making of the Nazi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vLrTNKk89Q A link for the anti-Nazi Donald Duck cartoon called Der Fuehrer’s Face https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzH1iaKVsBM

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the crimes of a man who is perhaps the sickest serial killer we’ve ever covered: Albert Fish. We want to warn you that this episode is not for the faint of heart—this is truly horrible stuff! Read on at your own peril. Fish was one of the most brutal people in history, and he is considered the prototypical serial killer, from his sexual fetishes to his delusions and even his very creative cannibalism (which he even left recipes for…). Albert Fish was born in 1870 in Washington, DC. His father was forty-three years older than his mother, and he had a heart attack when Albert was very young. His newly single mother had to send her children to an orphanage until she could find work, which took several years. During these formative years, experts think that Fish was exposed to beatings, cruelty, and even sexual abuse, creating the madman that he later became. When Albert moved back in with his mom, he was ten years old, and by the age of twelve he had his first boyfriend, and he started to enjoy consuming urine and feces as part of his sexual discovery. By the age of 19, he had moved to New York, where he became a male prostitute and started to really go off the rails. In spite of an arranged marriage and several children, he preferred to have sex with men and children and never seemed to care for his wife. According to his own confessions, he was raping young boys this entire time. In 1917, his wife left him for a handyman who rented a room in their house, and Albert was suddenly a single father. He also went totally insane, thinking God was talking to him. During this time, he started to beat himself with a paddle full of nails, stick needles in his abdomen and groin, and eat human flesh. (Like you do…) Soon, he started to abduct and rape children, often mentally ill and African Americans, so there wouldn’t be social outcry if they went missing. He raped and killed an unknown number of people, and he often mutilated and tortured them first. He finally got busted when he sent a bizarre letter to the mother of one his victims. How did the police track Albert Fish using only the letter? What horrible things did he tell the victim’s mother, and how did it involved China, a steamer ship, and cannibalism? How many other murders did eyewitnesses link him to after the Budd killing? Why does he call genitalia “Monkeys and pee-wees,” and what human recipes did he write his attorney about? Listen, laugh, learn. Link of images about Albert Fish: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/1928-murder-grace-budd-albert-fish-gallery-1.1277430

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the crimes of a man who is perhaps the sickest serial killer we’ve ever covered: Albert Fish. We want to warn you that this episode is not for the faint of heart—this is truly horrible stuff! Read on at your own peril. Fish was one of the most brutal people in history, and he is considered the prototypical serial killer, from his sexual fetishes to his delusions and even his very creative cannibalism (which he even left recipes for…). Albert Fish was born in 1870 in Washington, DC. His father was forty-three years older than his mother, and he had a heart attack when Albert was very young. His newly single mother had to send her children to an orphanage until she could find work, which took several years. During these formative years, experts think that Fish was exposed to beatings, cruelty, and even sexual abuse, creating the madman that he later became. When Albert moved back in with his mom, he was ten years old, and by the age of twelve he had his first boyfriend, and he started to enjoy consuming urine and feces as part of his sexual discovery. By the age of 19, he had moved to New York, where he became a male prostitute and started to really go off the rails. In spite of an arranged marriage and several children, he preferred to have sex with men and children and never seemed to care for his wife. According to his own confessions, he was raping young boys this entire time. In 1917, his wife left him for a handyman who rented a room in their house, and Albert was suddenly a single father. He also went totally insane, thinking God was talking to him. During this time, he started to beat himself with a paddle full of nails, stick needles in his abdomen and groin, and eat human flesh. (Like you do…) Soon, he started to abduct and rape children, often mentally ill and African Americans, so there wouldn’t be social outcry if they went missing. He raped and killed an unknown number of people, and he often mutilated and tortured them first. He finally got busted when he sent a bizarre letter to the mother of one his victims. How did the police track Albert Fish using only the letter? What horrible things did he tell the victim’s mother, and how did it involved China, a steamer ship, and cannibalism? How many other murders did eyewitnesses link him to after the Budd killing? Why does he call genitalia “Monkeys and pee-wees,” and what human recipes did he write his attorney about? Listen, laugh, learn. Link of images about Albert Fish: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/1928-murder-grace-budd-albert-fish-gallery-1.1277430