Timesuck with Dan Cummins

Short Suck #47: The Business Plot - When Bankers Tried to Topple the White House

12 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this Short Suck, we dive into the almost-forgotten story of The Business Plot - when a group of powerful bankers and corporate bigwigs allegedly tr...

484 - The King of Beaver Island

08 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You read that title right. Are you familiar with the story of James Strang? A blatant con artist who converted to Mormonism shortly before Joseph Smit...

483 - Addiction: Most Misunderstood Condition Ever?

01 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this deeply informative episode of Timesuck, we explore the history of addiction, how different cultures have tried to understand and control it, a...

Short Suck #46: Mutiny on the Bounty!

28 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We sail back to 1789 and find out why the real Mutiny on the Bounty was way less “noble sailors vs brutal tyrant” and way more “horny, possibly ...

482 - The Hunger Killer: Inside the World of the Starvation Doctor

24 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Linda Hazzard - self-proclaimed “fasting specialist” and actual sadistic fraud - ran one of the most disturbing medical scams in American history....

481 - Go Ask Alice: When a Fake Diary Helped Launch a Real War on Drugs

17 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1971, Go Ask Alice shocked parents across America - marketed as the real diary of a teenage girl swallowed alive by drugs, addiction, and death. Te...

Short Suck #45: The Great Molasses Flood

14 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On January 15th, 1919, a massive molasses tank in Boston’s North End burst, unleashing a 25-foot wall of sticky destruction that toppled buildings, ...

480 - Old Blood and Guts: The Life and War of General Patton

10 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Happy Veteran's Day! George S. Patton was a war-winning, poetry-writing, reincarnation-believing chaos machine. The Allies needed him. The Nazis feare...

479 - Rumble, Meatsack, Rumble! The Story of Muhammad Ali

03 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

He was brash, beautiful, bold, flawed, and unapologetically himself. From Olympic gold to global fame, Muhammad Ali’s story is one of rebellion, red...

Nightmare Fuel 37: Dissonance (2 of 2)

31 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Happy Halloween, Meatsacks! The conclusion of our Halloween week fictional horror! In this conclusion to yesterday's release, Duncan Briggs just wants...

Nightmare Fuel 36: Dissonance (1 of 2)

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hello again Meatsacks! The beginning of our last bit of Halloween week fictional horror! This one was originally released back in July. In this first ...

Nightmare Fuel 30: Operation Wandering Soul

29 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hello Meatsacks! Time for more Halloween week horror! This one was, as you can guess, released the week before yesterday's story, from this past May. ...

Nightmare Fuel 31: The House of Hurt

28 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Time for another Halloween week Nightmare Fuel! This one is from this past May. And in it, we head to Upstate New York's Woodhull Mountain, where Gabe...

Nightmare Fuel 28: He'll Make You Whole

27 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This isn't a mistake, meatsacks! I've been wanting to show you some of the new fictional content I've been working on for awhile now. And the week of ...

478 - The Hog Trail Killer

27 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the mid-1990s, the quiet backwoods of southwest Florida became the hunting grounds of a sadistic killer the media would dub “The Hog Trail Killer...

Short Suck #44: The Victorian Monster of Spring-Heeled Jack

24 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From ghostly prankster to urban legend, Spring-Heeled Jack terrorized Victorian London with blue flames, metallic claws, and impossible rooftop leaps—...

477 - The Ogress of Reading and the Horrors of Baby Farming

20 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In Victorian England, “baby farming” turned unwanted infants into a deadly business. Amelia Dyer, known as The Ogress of Reading, used it to hide ...

476 - The Backpacker Killer: Ivan Milat

13 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When seven backpackers vanished in the early 1990s, the vast Australian bush became the hunting ground of a sadistic killer. For years, hikers stumble...

Short Suck #43: Crescent Hotel Horrors: From Healing Springs to... Hauntings?

10 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Once hailed as a luxurious spa retreat in the Ozarks, the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs would earn a far darker reputation - one of fraud, tragedy....

475 - Dragon vs. Eagle: Will China Dethrone the US?

06 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From AI breakthroughs and supply chains to TikTok and military might, China’s rise has reshaped global power over the past few decades. Can the U.S....

474 - Krumping for Christ! The 7M Cult & Christian Nationalism

29 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we deep dive into Pastor Robert Shinn, his Shekinah Church, and his management company 7M Films - and examine how a modern cult has (allege...

Short Suck #42: The Dingo Took the Baby: The Lindy Chamberlain Saga

26 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1980, a camping trip at Australia’s magical Uluru sandstone monolith turned into an international media storm when nine-week-old Azaria Chamberla...

473 - Selena! When Fame Turns Fatal

22 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Selena rose from an impoverished Texas childhood to become the Queen of Tejano music, breaking barriers and inspiring millions before her life was cut...

472 - The Girl in the Box

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On May 19th, 1977, 20-year-old Colleen Stan was hitchhiking from her home in Eugene, Oregon, to a friend's birthday party in the little Northern Calif...

Short Suck #41: Stalin's Cannibal Gulag: Nazino Island

12 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1933, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin had his secret police goons round up hundreds of thousands of former farmers and he sent them into Siberia to c...

471 - South Africa's Ted Bundy: Moses Sithole

05 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the mid-1990's, convicted rapist Moses Sithole went on a murderous rampage in South Africa. He would blame his sadistic crimes on being falsely imp...

470 - Trial of the Century: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping

01 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In many ways, America's modern obsession with true crime began on March 1st, 1932, when the 20th-month-old-son of the most famous man in America, avia...

469 - Action Park: America's Most Dangerous Amusement Park

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If you were lucky enough to have gone to New Jersey's Action Park before it closed in the '90s, you probably have the scars to prove it. This place wa...

Short Suck #40: 764 The Real Global Satanic Pedophile Cabal

22 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

I have long dismissed whisperings of secret Satanic pedophile networks. But, it turns out there truly is an international group associated with a kind...

468 - Richard Cottingham: The Times Square Killer

18 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Times Square Killer didn't just kill in Times Square. Richard Francis Cottingham committed at least six murders in New York State between 1972 and...

467 - Russian Wizards, Witches, and Folk Magic, Oh My!

11 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Did you know that roughly a million people in Russia today make their living as some kind of wizard, witch, or folk healer? And that some of the most ...

Short Suck #39: The Abolitionist John MF'n Brown

08 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You'll be hard pressed to find a man who stood for his convictions more firmly than John Brown. John was an white abolitionist willing to do more to e...

466 - Acres of Skin: Inside the Terrordome

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Philadelphia's Holmesburg prison, before it was officially shut down in 1995, had been a house of horrors for much of its history. In addition to bein...

465 - OneTaste: The Orgasmic Meditation Cult

28 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Did you know that women's clitoral orgasms have the power to completely transform the world and turn it into a blissful nirvana free from pain and suf...

Short Suck #38: Hollywood’s Biggest Forgotten Scandal: Patricia Douglas

25 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Patricia Douglas was a young dancer and an extra working in Hollywood during its so-called Golden Era when she was tricked into attending a party Tins...

464 - The Night Caller: Eric Edgar Cooke

21 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Eric Edgar Cooke, nicknamed the Night Caller and the Nedlands Monster, was a serial killer who terrorized Perth, Australia from 1958 to 1963. He was i...

463 - The Tuskegee Study (Secret, Deadly Medical Testing on American Citizens)

14 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From 1932 to 1972, six hundred poor, black sharecroppers in Alabama were told they were being treated for "bad blood," when in reality, the US governm...

Short Suck #37 - The Very Avoidable Oceangate Disaster

11 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On June 18th, 2023,  a deep-sea submersible called The Titan operated by the private company OceanGate mysteriously vanished while its CEO piloted fo...

462 - Murder, Inc.

07 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1930s, an association of primarily Italian mafiosos and Jewish organized crime gangsters, based in Brooklyn, was formed for the purpose of putt...

461 - The University of Cosmic Intelligence

30 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Did you know that US government is engaged in efforts to close stargates to other dimensions? Did you know that they engage in weather modification? O...

Short Suck #36 - The Shocking Case of Mary Bell

27 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the summer of 1968, two young children, both under the age of five, turned up dead in Scotswood, a run down neighborhood of primarily government ho...

460 - Real Life Supervillain Mike DeBardeleben

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ever heard the name Mike DeBardeleben? I hadn't either until very recently. This guy was something else. A prolific counterfeiter the Secret Service s...

459 - The Acid King, the Grateful Dead, and the Birth of the Counterculture Revolution

16 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Do you recognize the name, Owsley Stanley? If you're not a devoted Dead Head, probably not. But he's the guy who met the Dead when they had just forme...

Short Suck #35 - Issei Sagawa: The Unrepentant Cannibal

13 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Issei Sagawa aka the Kobe Cannibal, made a living for most of his life off of the infamy he attained... for murdering and then eating a young Dutch wo...

458 - WTFF? The Madness of the Zizian Cult

09 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Do you believe that all non-vegans should die? In part for their needless murder of senseless people like.... cows? And in part because their predator...

457 - Samuel Little: The Choke-and-Stroke Killer

02 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This week we cover the life and crimes of the most prolific serial killer in US history, Samuel Little. A monster the LAPD once dubbed "The Choke and ...

456 - The Staircase Murders

26 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Did you ever watch the Staircase docu-series on Netflix? Or the 2022 HBO MAX adaptation? I watched both, and still wanted to learn more about the divi...

Short Suck #34 - The Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood

23 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1960s, Natalie Wood was one of the world's leading actress, her star shining as bright as Elizabeth Taylor's. She'd been acting since she was a...

455 - The Bone Wars

19 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Bone Wars, also known as the Great Dinosaur Rush, is what a period of intense fossil hunting in the late 19th century came to be called, thanks pr...

454 - The Light of the World Sex Cult

12 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever heard of La Luz Del Mundo? a.k.a., LLDM? a.k.a., The Church of the Living God, Pillar and Support of Truth The Light of the World? Naasó...

Short Suck #33 - The Great Race of Mercy

09 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Remember when a bunch of dogs saved hundreds of human’s lives in Alaska a century ago? In January of 1925, diphtheria, a deadly disease, swept throu...

453 - The House of Horrors Killer Gary Heidnik

05 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ever heard of Gary Heidnik? Pop culture wise, he's made a much bigger impact than most murderers, but few seem to know his story. This literal genius,...

452 - The Life and Works of Dr. Seuss

28 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You've undoubtably heard of Dr. Seuss. The author of The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Green Eggs and Ham, Horton Hears a Who! The ...

Short Suck #32 - The Identical Deaths of the Identical Marcus Twins

25 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Would you choose to have an identical twin? Someone who looked so much like you, that even your own mother couldn’t always tell the two of you apart...

451 - Panic on the TV! Do Violent Movies Create Violent Children?

21 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today we talk about moral panics. Specifically, the "Video Nasty" moral panic that happened in the UK in the early 1980s, and then again in the 1990s,...

450 - Serial Killer Pee Wee Gaskins: Meanest Man in America

14 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Pee Wee Gaskin's diminutive size of 5'2" tall and 130 pounds soaking wet didn't stop him from brutally killing at least eleven people, and possibly up...

Short Suck #31 - Why Do We Do That?

11 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today we're we’re gonna tackle a bunch of questions you never knew you needed answering, questions like: Why does the middle finger mean “fuck you...

449 - Russia's Terrifying Cyberwar Against the West

07 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How much of what you read online has been planted there by Russian propagandists? How many times have you followed a social media account, or reposted...

448 - The Delphi Murders

31 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On the afternoon of February 13th, 2017, in the sleepy little 3000(ish) person town of Delphi, Indiana, two local junior high girls and best friends, ...

Short Suck #30 - Sherlock Holmes and Spiritualism

28 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today we take a peek at the interesting life of author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the man who invented the world's most famous and influential literary d...

447 - Falun Gong: The Cult Behind The Epoch Times and Shen Yun

24 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever been to one of those Shen Yun traveling traditional Chinese dance performances? Have you ever seen one of their blitz marketing campaign...

446 - Who Was The Real Mr. Rogers?

17 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today we examine the beloved host of the long-running children's television show, Mr Rogers' Neighborhood. Was Fred McFeely Rogers truly as wholesome ...

Short Suck #29 - Luis Garavito: The World's Most Prolific Serial Killer

14 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos was a ruthless, sadistic Colombian rapist and serial killer who became known to the task force searching for him as… ...

445 - Anders Breivik & the 2011 Neo-Nazi Norway Attacks

10 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On July 22nd, 2011, Norwegian alt-right gamer Anders Behring Breivik carried out the deadliest attack on Norwegian soil since WW2, when he detonated a...

444 - Nelson Mandela: From Prisoner to President

03 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How much do you know about Nelson Mandela and South Africa's brutal, racially oppressive system of apartheid? Mandela became the first black president...

Short Suck #28 - The Pirate Queen

28 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ching Shih, born as Shi Yang, was quite possibly the most powerful pirate of all time. While famous UK pirates like Blackbeard, Black Bart, Calico Jac...

443 - The Long Island Serial Killer

24 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On November 20th, 1993, the sexually violated and mutilated corpse of a young woman is found on Long Island, New York. The first of over ten bodies fo...

442 - Ganas: Intentional Community? Or Cult?

17 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ganas is an intentional community founded in 1979 in Tompkinsville, Staten Island that is still active. Is it also a cult? What is an "intentional com...

Short Suck #27 - The History of Castration

14 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Happy Valentine's Day! Let's talk about love. Kind of. But not really. Not all actually. Let's instead, talk about how and why we humans have castrate...

441 - Never Surrender! The WW2 Soldier Who Kept Fighting Until 1974

10 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Have you heard of Hiroo Onoda? The Japanese 2nd Lieutenant was sent to the island of Lubang in The Philippines at the end of 1944. And he kept fightin...

440 - The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann

03 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On the night of May 3rd, 2007,  three year-old British girl Madeleine vanished from her bed in her parents villa at a Portuguese vacation resort. Wha...

439 - Bill Cosby.... America's Dad?

27 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Comedian, actor, author, and producer Bill Cosby... affectionately nicknamed as "America's Dad" for his portrayal of Dr. Cliff Huxtable on the hit, ic...

Short Suck #26 - Castaway! Stranded on an Island...

24 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Can you imagine being stranded for years on a remote uninhabited island with almost nothing but a few simple tools and the clothes on your back? Some ...

438 - The Octopus Murders & Conspiracy

20 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Was aspiring investigative journalist Danny Casolaro murdered in his Sheraton hotel room in Martinsburg, West Virginia on August 10th, 1991 because he...

437 - The Yorkshire Ripper

13 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Sutcliffe, dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper in the press, attacked woman after woman with a hammer and a knife (and sometimes also a screwdriver), pr...

Short Suck #25 - Prison Breaks!

10 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A look at how we humans have chosen to incarcerate those who break the rules and how certain rule breakers have busted out of incarceration over the y...

436 - The History of Sh*t (Literally)

06 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Do you ever think about where your poo goes once you flush it down the toilet? Or about how not having access to toilets... or the sewer systems benea...

435 - Dolly Parton: WWDD?

30 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Time for some year end inspiration from the incomparable Dolly Parton! A true living legend. If all you think about when you think of Dolly is big hai...

Short Suck #24 - The Improbable Survival of Phineas Gage

27 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On September 13th, 1848, a dynamite blast rocketed a 43-inch long, 13-pound iron bar completely through the skull of 25-year-old railway worker Phinea...

434 - Shelby Hewitt: The 32-Year-Old 7th Grader

23 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Have you heard about the recent case of Shelby Hewitt? The 32 year-old Massachusetts Social Worker enrolled in two different Boston area public high s...

433 - The Vatican Girl Disappearance

16 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On June 22nd, 1983, 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi disappeared after attending a music lesson in Rome. Following her disappearance, a mystery surroundin...

Short Suck #23 - The Weird But True Dancing Plague of 1518

13 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What a tale I have for you today! In 1518, a very peculiar form of madness fell over the people of the city of Strasbourg (modern day France) in the H...

432 - Gerald Stano: Florida's Forgotten Monster

09 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever heard of serial killer Gerald Stano? For years, he sat on death row in Florida, just a few cells down from Ted Bundy. He's also believed...

431 - 400+ Dead in the Forest: The Malindi Doomsday Cult

02 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We take a look at the recent, tragic final act of a doomsday cult in Kenya that left 448 dead and another 613 missing in March of 2023. How did cult l...

430 - Sigmund Freud: The Sex Crazed Father of Psychoanalysis

25 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Does not having a penis make you feel inferior due to a bad case of penis envy? Do you or have you ever wanted to have sex with your mother? Or your f...

Short Suck #22 - The Kentler Experiment: That One Time Germany Intentionally Hired Pedos To Be Foster Parents

22 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today I'm sharing a wild story that I'm surprised isn't much more known - that one time Germany intentionally hired known pedophiles to be the foster ...

429 - Serial Killer Aileen Wuornos: Damsel of Death

18 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The true story behind the incredible 2003 film, Monster, about sex worker and serial killer, Aileen Wuornos, who killed seven men over the course of o...

428 - Andrew Higgins: D-Day's Secret War Hero

11 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Happy Veteran's Day! On D-Day, June 6th, 1944, over 150,000 Allied troops stormed Nazi-defended beaches in northern France in the largest military amp...

Short Suck #21 - The Servant Girl Annihilator aka The Midnight Assassin

08 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today I'm sharing the little known Servant Girl Annihilator murders. A series of crimes just as shocking as the crimes of London's Jack the Ripper mur...

427 - McCarthyism: When Red Scare Paranoia Destroyed Innocent Lives

04 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Back in the 1950s, America was very afraid of Soviet spies and communist sympathizers infiltrating the government and destroying the United States fro...

426 - The San Francisco Witch Killers

28 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 1980s, Suzan and Michael Carson were very worried about witches. They thought there witches all over America, even the President, Ronald ...

Short Suck #20 - Are Tulpas Real? The Spooky Story of Olivia Mabel

25 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today I’ll be sharing the strange and spooky story of Olivia Mabel. It's a story presented as a true story, centered around the unsettling concept o...

425 - Ireland's True Houses of Horror

21 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1975, two young boys in Tuam were exploring the grounds of one of Ireland's abandoned Mother and Baby Homes when they lifted up a loose concrete sl...

424 - The Puppet Master: Robert Hendy-Freegard

14 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I highly doubt you have ever been conned by anyone to the degree Robert Hendy-Freegard conned his victims. This 21 year-old pub bartender, waiting to ...

Short Suck #19 - Magdalena Solís: The High Priestess of Blood

11 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Magdalena Solís was a Mexican cult leader and the extremely rare sexually motivated female serial killer. She was recruited to help a couple of grift...

423 - Serial Killer Carl Panzram: One Man Apocalypse

07 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Carl Panzram is one of the most interesting serial killers we've ever covered. He was incredibly self-aware. He knew he was bad. He didn't pretend, fo...

422 - The Snowtown Murders: Seven Years of Insanity in South Australia

30 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In an episode about the most infamous series of murders in the history of the state of South Australia, somehow the murders are the least interesting ...

Short Suck #18 - The War of the Worlds

27 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On the evening of October 30th, 1938, the CBS Radio Network broadcasted Orson Welles's live adaptation of the 1897 HG Wells classic, groundbreaking sc...

421 - The Yakuza: Japan's Notorious & Inked Up Gangsters

23 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Who are the Yakuza? How similar are they to the Mafia? What's up with all the tattoos they have? And why are so many of them missing one of their pink...

420 - Existentialism and Weed: I'm High and We're All Gonna Die!

16 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In honor of the 420 episode, I decided to smoke a nice strong joint for this one while recording. And the topic pairs perfectly with weed: a philosoph...