I was researching Victorian London for a story and found out they had a real 'Resurrection Men' gang that stole bodies.

I read a footnote in a library book about the 1820s Burke and Hare case, which is way darker than I imagined, so what's the creepiest historical detail you've stumbled on for a writing project?

3 comments

3 Comments

alex30711d ago

Found out about the lead sugar in Roman wine once.

the_stella11d ago

Yeah but wasn't that mostly for the super rich? I've read that the average person drank wine cut with vinegar and water. The lead stuff was a sweetener for fancy table wine, so the exposure was probably pretty limited.

sandraflores7d ago

Wait, the lead was a sweetener? That's insane. I just read about how they'd boil grape juice in lead pots to make this syrup called sapa, and then mix it into the wine. So they were basically cooking poison into it on purpose. Makes you wonder how many headaches or weird deaths were just from the fancy dinner wine.