History of Gore

Across the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, West Africa's colonial elites quaked in their khaki at the thought of the Leopard Society, a cult who struck seemingly at random, cutting open their prey with steel claws and consuming their innards.

Back after a hiatus for *reasons*, James Hoare explores the gruesome battlefield rituals of Zulu warriors, the role of magic medicines and war doctors, and how a snuff box filled with semen killed a king.

Professor Malcolm Gaskill, co-curator of Spellbound: Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft, discusses the exhibition highlights and perceptions of magic, cunning folk and witch trials over the Early Modern era. Spellbound runs until 6 January 2019 at the Ashmoleon Museum, Oxford.

In the third episode of History of Gore, James Hoare follows the strange death and resurrection of "Santa Evita", from her lobotomy to her embalming, to her disappearance and worse...

In the second episode of History of Gore, James Hoare reveals the East Slavic answer to Vlad the Impaler, a Medieval prince locked in a Russian Game of Thrones. His advantage? Sorcery and shapeshifting as he takes to the battlefield in the form of a wolf...

In the first episode of History of Gore, James Hoare explains how Otto Rahn, remembered as the "real Indiana Jones", let his quest for the fabled Holy Grail blind him to the horrors of the Third Reich. Seduced by SS leader Heinrich Himmler, Rahn's researched was used to further the hateful creed of the Nazi party... but was he really an innocent or was he willing accomplice?