Mystery, mayhem, and death followed Michael X all the way back to Trinidad.

Hacked to death and left in shallow graves, the bodies of Gale Benson and Joseph Skerritt were found at Michael X’s house. Whispers of black magic and rumours of espionage rippled through the island.

How could a young, wealthy British socialite like Gale Benson end up buried alive in the Caribbean? And why would Michael X want her dead?
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Intimate and explicit images of A-list celebrities – that’s what the world woke up to on the 31st of August 2014. “The Fappening” saw thousands of leaked celebrity nudes dumped onto 4chan, Reddit, and Twitter. It gave unprecedented access to the most overtly private images anyone could imagine – but how on earth did it happen?

This week on ShortHand we’re taking a deep dive into the grubby world of AnonIB and leaked-nude “collectors”: users who hoard and circulate explicit images without the subject’s consent – celebrity or not. So how do these images come to be online? And how do we stop it from happening?

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Malcolm X was a true revolutionary, Michael X was an imposter.

This con man realised that politics was a lot easier than poetry and rose to the top of the British Civil Rights Movement. All the while violently exploiting the Windrush generation he claimed to be fighting for.

John Lennon and Leonard Cohen were his biggest fans. They donated thousands to Michael X's projects that never actually happened. The press hung on his every word, quoting him as the most powerful black man in Europe.

By the time Michael X's ego unravelled, it was too late for socialite Gale Benson to escape from his web. They would both pay the ultimate price for his lies.

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On the night of 14th April 1912, the ‘unsinkable’ RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank into the icy depths of the Atlantic Ocean – killing almost all of its passengers.

But the real question is: would you make it through that fateful night?

In this special 114th-anniversary ShortHand, we walk through your realistic chances of survival after boarding the doomed ship… And with your sex, class and circumstances all tipping the balance on some seriously sketchy odds, you’d better grab a life jacket just in case.

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When two fighter jets came to check on the unresponsive Helios Flight 522, they were stunned at what they saw: all 115 passengers, lying motionless in their seats. Even worse – the pilot’s seat was empty, and the co-pilot lay slumped over the control panel. The commercial plane was drifting along at 34,000 feet, on autopilot – and fuel was running out.

This is the ShortHand.

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The lead suspect in the Gilgo Beach Killings - 62 year old former architect Rex Heuermann - has now pleaded guilty.

So, with a trial off the table in the Long Island Serial Killer saga, join us for an update on what investigators found that finally nailed Heuermann - forcing him to confess.

Then stick around and revisit our two-part episode on this harrowing case that haunted Long Island for decades.

Plus, join us on next week’s Under the Duvet - over on Patreon - for a look at the impact this has all had on Heuermann’s own family.

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In 2010, Shannan Gilbert made a series of frantic 911 calls as she ran through the streets of Oak Beach, Long Island, screaming: “They’re trying to kill me”. Then she vanished.

A few months later a body was found - but it wasn’t her. And neither were the next 9 sets of human remains they found along Ocean Parkway.

Now, over a decade later, with the arrest of Rex Heuermann - the police believe they’ve found the elusive Long Island Serial Killer.

But the questions still stand; Why did it take so long to catch him - and was this the work of a lone serial killer, or multiple men using the same dumping ground?

We’ll look at Heuermann’s family life, his background - and delve into the 33-page bail document that offers us an in-depth look at how investigators finally caught this notorious, modern American serial killer.

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When Rhode Island native Nicholas Rossi found himself wanted by the FBI and Interpol for a string of assaults and large-scale frauds, he didn’t just run away. He faked his death, fled to Scotland, disguised himself as a wheezing British academic called Arthur Knight, and went on the attack – loudly claiming his innocence in wilder and wilder TV appearances across the international press.

And that isn’t even the half of it. Before the story finally wrapped up a few months ago, Rossi’s winding tale had covered satanic ritual abuse, incel smear campaigns, and somehow, the September 11th attacks. It’s time to enter the dark, disorientating world (and 16 aliases) of Nicholas Rossi.

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With Netflix's new documentary on the modern fundamentalist Mormon church coming out today – we thought it was the perfect time to revisit our episode on Warren Jeffs's FLDS, to give some much-needed context...

Last week, we looked at the formation of the ultra-obedient, bigamist Mormon cult, the FLDS – in which plural marriage to pregnant preteen girls is just the tip of the fundamentalist iceberg. In this second part, we look at how its new prophet, Warren Jeffs, took his so-called religion to ever stricter and more terrifying depths.

With followers so beaten down that they were banned from even laughing; the prophet on the lam, living it up at Disneyland; and a team of ex-faithfuls and dogged investigators closing in – something had to give. But not before the full extent of his evil was laid bare in front of a stunned courtroom.

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Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com