A Medieval Serial Killer in France

Hello and welcome to Medieval Murder, the podcast that brings all things gruesome and historical to the comfort of your own home or car or wherever it is you’re listening from. My name is Hannah Purtymun and I’m here with my father Kevin Purtymun to discuss some of the most famous and infamous murders that took place in the Medieval and Early Modern periods.

Medieval Murder came to be, first as a blog, then as an instagram and now as a podcast after I finished my master’s dissertation on homicide in early medieval England. The podcast will feature some of the most famous murders in medieval history, some mini-episode series on different types of medieval murders and interviews with historians and history enthusiasts alike.

Today we will be talking about a man who has been known as the inspiration for the folktale Bluebeard but his real name was Gilles de Rais and he was a french serial killer during the fifteenth century.