Episodes
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Evelyn Ramadka, Queen Of The Chicago Vampires
Episode 225 at first seems like a run-of-the-mill burglary case, a good girl gone bad, until we start getting to know the defendant as the story takes careen plot turns, compounded by the sensational press coverage--and a mysterious surprise ending.
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The Trial Of The Rev. Ephriam Kingsbury Avery
Episode 24 takes place 60 years before Lizzie Borden put the town of Fall River, Massachusetts, on the murder map. The body of Sarah Maria Cornell, a 30-year-old mill worker, was found hanging from a haystack pole in the nearby town of Tiverton, just across the Rhode Island border. The first coroner's jury ruled the death a suicide, but a note later found in the woman's boarding house led to the first of two exhumations of the body and the arrest of the Rev. Ephraim Kingsbury Avery for her murder. It is believed to be one of the first trials of a minister for murder in America, and it was a scandalous one.
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Missing episodes?
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Murder And Arson At Brandywine Springs Park
Episode 448 is a sad and sordid tale of a passionate frenzy, when a young womanâs divided attention puts one man in a rage and leaves another to grieve.
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The Lawrence/Foster/Disbrow Affair
Episode 423 delves into a love triangle gone awry. When two sides of the triangle, including an expert swimmer and sailor, are found drowned dead in a Long Island bay, suspicion immediately falls upon the third, even though the coroner declares the whole thing an accident.
Culled from the historic pages of The New York World, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, The New York Tribune, and other newspapers of the era.
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Amos Lunsford Meets His Match
Episode 175 comes by the way of a request from a listener in North Carolina who wanted to know more about this incident, a fight about a horse at a church revival camp that gets out of hand. There might have been whiskey involved. Go figure.
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The Scoundrel Gershon Marx
Episode 447 retains a lot of the discrepancies in the reporting of the story, so donât be alarmed at conflicting versions of the same incidents. I canât say for certain that they ever got some of the names right, but nothing could be more wrong in so many ways than the theatrical adaptation of the case that takes place at the denouement.
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The Bloody Record Of Henry Plummer And His Gang
Episode 422 hearkens back to the wild wild West, in the days following the great gold rush. Much of the story takes place in Bannack, Montana, which is now a state park and ghost town, and follows the career of one of the most notorious gangs of the day and the rise of the citizen's committee that puts an end to it.
Adapted from the books "The Story of the Outlaw" by Emerson Hough and "The Montana Vigilantes, Or Popular Justice In The Rocky Mountains" by Thomas J. Dimsdale, the first newspaperman in Montana.
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The Reily Mattock Murder
Episode 198 is centered on one of my favorite murder tropes, the so-called âeternal triangle,â between the cranky old farmer, his fading wife, and the handsome young farmhand. Yeah, thatâs not going to end well, but they might have gotten away with it if they had just put the body across the tracks. Itâs all in the details.
Culled from the historic pages of the Hamilton Journal-News and other newspapers of the era.
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The Real âChicagoâ Murders
Episode 352 explores the two murders that inspired the hit musical âChicago,â which was based on a play by Maurine Watkins, who did some reporting on both cases as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Iâll be joined by my colleague Susan Ferman, whose own podcast Catastrophic Calamities, will premiere next week on the Pulpular Media network. Susan will read about the case of Beulah Annan, who became Roxy Hart on stage. I will read the case of Belva Gaertner, who became Velma Kelly.Culled from the historic pages of the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, and other newspapers of the era.This episode includes a reference to a fellow murderess Sabela Nitti, whose story you can hear about in True Crime Historian 230, The Ugly Duckling Murderess.
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The Trial Of Rattlesnake James, The Red-Headed Bluebeard
Episode 192 gets a bit epic, but itâs the story that keeps on giving, with two botched murders and moral charges to boot, and things go from crazy to crazier when they bring a pair of rattlers named Lethal and Lightning into the courtroom.
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A Litany of Horror
Episode 12 is a reading of the chilling confession of Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as H.H. Holmes, one of the most remarkable serial killers in American History. The whole nation was shocked and outraged in the waning years of the nineteenth century by the gruesome deeds of one Herman Mudgett, the arch fiend who took on the pseudonym H.H. Holmes as he prepared his famous "Castle of Death" in downtown Chicago. He was arrested for an insurance fraud in November 1894, but his string of murders, perhaps 200 in all, were soon revealed. He was convicted of one capital crime in Philadelphia, and while he awaited execution, he penned a confession detailing 27 murders that was published in newspapers across the country. He would recant this confession before he hanged, but really, you can't make this stuff up.
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A Terrible Reign of Murder
About the murders that inspired Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon"
Episode 214 digs deep into the files of the FBI and one of its early successful investigations during the tenure of J.Edgar Hoover, when the Bureau of Investigations looked into the murder of as many as 60 to 70 Osage Indians. The file includes a report by Agent Frank Smith as well as statements by informants who helped break the conspiracy. True Crime Historian welcomes guest reader Susan Ferman as Katherine Cole, one of these informants.
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YESTERDAYâS NEWS -- Tales of classic scandals, scoundrels and scourges told through vintage newspaper accounts from the golden age of yellow journalism...
The Gillooly/Lannon Affray
Episode 443 tells the story of the first officer to be killed in the line of duty in Kokomo, Indiana. But was the violent action against him provoked, or spurred on by a notorious local gang? The question divided the growing Indiana town.
Culled from the historic pages of the Kokomo Saturday Tribune, the 1882 History of Howard County, and Jackson Morrowâs 1909 History of Howard County.
We offer a special thanks to the staff at the Howard County Libraryâs genealogy room and listener Anthony R Jones, no relation, who saw the mobile production unit outside that library, where I was engaged in research on another matter. After I got his message telling me to look into the Mollihan gang, I dug around and came up with this episode.
Residents of the Safe House can take a deeper dive into Kokomoâs criminal past in the case file posted at www.patreon.com/truecrimehistorian.
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Also from Pulpular Media:
Portals to Possibility, an improvised mock-talk show that proves you donât have to be human to be good people. Visit pulpular.com/portals2 for a brand-new episode.
Catastrophic Calamaties, Exploring the famous and forgotten disasters of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!
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Musical contributors include Nico Vitesse, Lucia La Rezza, Joyie, Danielle Mo, Dave Sams, Rachel Schott and David Hisch.
Some music and sound effects licensed from podcastmusic.com.
Media management by Sean Miller-Jones
Richard O Jones, Executive Producer
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The Mysteries Of Belle Gunness
Episode 308 examines the strange story of Belle Gunness, which came to light only after her house burned down with her body presumably inside and a dozen or so bodies buried in the yard. Thereâs a lot of conjecture and debate about this case still going on today.
Culled from the historic pages of the Chicago Tribune, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, and other newspapers of the era.
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YESTERDAYâS NEWS --
Tales of classic scandals, scoundrels and scourges told from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism...
The First Mrs. Kinkead
Episode 258 tells the sad story of a nurse who fell in love with her patient. If you can believe her story, she may have been led on a bit, maybe outright deceived by his promises of marriage. But then, he marries another and the nurse turns stalker.
For your delight and indignation
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Opening theme by Nico Vitesse.
Incidental music by Nico Vitesse.
Closing theme by Dave Sams and Rachel Schott, engineered by David Hisch at Third Street Music.
Media management by Sean R. Jones
Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun
Richard O Jones, Executive Producer
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support. -
Episode 256 we return to the mother of all murder mysteries, the case of Lizzie Borden in commemoration of the 125th anniversary of the verdict in her sensational trial, June 20, 1893. We again turn to the godfather of American True Crime, Edmund Pearson, the librarian who wrote slyly humorous takes of famous murder cases. His landmark essay, simply titled The Borden Case, makes up the first 119 pages of Pearsonâs Studies in Murder, from which this episode is adapted.
Bewilderment and indignation
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A creation Of Pulpular Media
Opening theme by Nico Vitesse.
Incidental music by Nico Vitesse.
Closing theme by Dave Sams and Rachel Schott, engineered by David Hisch at Third Street Music.
Media management by Sean R. Jones
Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun
Richard O Jones, Executive Producer
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The Avondale Horror
Episode 231 is a dark, dark tale of what happens when the population doesnât die fast enough to keep the medical schools supplied with cadavers for dissecting: The resurrectionists start hitting people over the head to hasten the process and get their points. The reporting also includes some interesting stories about the craft of the grave robber.
Culled from the historic pages of the Cincinnati Enquirer and other newspapers of the era.
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AN EYE FOR AN EYE --
A special edition of Yesterdayâs News exploring the criminal justice system at its most extreme: Inflicting the Death Penalty...
A Foul Deed In Ft. Thomas
In celebration of our 200th episode, Iâm going to share one of my favorite local stories. The murder itself took place a state over, but one of the convicted murderers lived for a time in my hometown, and the sad story of Pearl Bryan is well-known in the three states involved, with many dubious legends and rumors abounding, and itâs said that her spirit haunts a Northern Kentucky nightclub. But what I really like about this story is that it has one of the most remarkable descriptions of an execution that Iâve come across. Enjoy.
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Hosted by Wondery. @wonderymedia
Member of the BombPod Media Network. @bombpod
Simple Contacts. They donât call it simple for nothing.
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Incidental music by Nico Vettese
Theme music performed by Dave Sams and Rachel Schott, engineered by David Hisch at Third Street Music.
Media management by Sean R. Jones
Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun
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UNSOLVED
A special edition of Yesterdayâs News exploring one of historyâs most baffling murder mysteries.
The Murder Of Elizabeth Short
By listener request, Episode 196 follows the first month of the investigation of one of Hollywoodâs most celebrated murder mysteries that begins when of a 22-year-old party girl turns up tortured, murdered, and mutilated by the side of a busy boulevard. She was such a runabout that when her body was identified by fingerprints, no one had realized she hadnât been seen in five days. But the body was fresh.
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Hosted by Wondery. @wonderymedia
Member of the BombPod Media Network. @bombpod
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Theme music performed by Dave Sams and Rachel Schott, engineered by David Hisch at Third Street Music.
Some incidental music by Chuck Wiggins
Media management by Sean R. Jones
Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support. -
The Great Borden Hearing Begun.
While Lizzie Borden waits in the Taunton jail for her preliminary hearing to see if she is to go on trial for the murder of her father and stepmother, the communityâs sympathy is expressed in interviews to people close to her and the appearance of âa wild-eyed manâ ready to take the blame from her shoulders.
We will continue âThe Lizzie Editionâ in June 2018, the 125th anniversary of the famous trial of Lizzie Borden.
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Theme music âMy Ain Countrieâ by Mary Lee Demarest, 1861, performed by Davide Severi with Plava Kuca on Violin.
Media Management by Sean R. Jones
Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun
Dedicated to Rachel Michelle Jones, whose enthusiasm for the case prompted this monumental treatment.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support. - Show more