In July of 1908 the body of twenty-year-old Hazel Drew was found floating in a mill pond in Upstate New York. Her death captured headlines across the nation and around the world, but after a whirlwind investigation lasting less than thirty days (despite a myriad of suspects), the District Attorney abruptly closed the case. Joining me is Jerry Drake, author of "Hazel Was a Good Girl: Solving the Murder that Inspired Twin Peaks". Through meticulous research and new evidence, he focuses on an intri...
Jul 09, 2025•1 hr 30 min
(Original pub date: 6/16/21) In November of 1912, a young woman named Ella Barham journeyed home, on her horse, to her family farm in Boone County, Arkansas, but never arrived. After her body was discovered, murdered and dismembered, suspicions quickly centered on a neighbor, Odus Davidson, who was rumored to have been in love with Ella, a love never returned. My guest, Nita Gould, has a very personal connection to Ella, one that led to her write the book she joins us to discuss, called "Remembe...
Jul 03, 2025•1 hr 27 min
Clem Pellett grew up knowing very little about his grandfather, Clarence Pellett, who was murdered along Montana's iconic Hi-Line in April of 1951. Pellett's father had cut ties with the family, and Pellett didn't even know his grandfather's first name until he started investigating the case as an adult. Through extensive research over many years, Pellett uncovered the details of his grandfather's cold-blooded murder by a hitchhiker named Frank Dryman, as well as the lengthy legal battle that fo...
Jun 30, 2025•1 hr 22 min
On the morning of September 5th, 1917, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Epler was found dead just steps from her home in Alma, Michigan. The investigation into her murder would soon entangle a brothel madam, a traveling theater owner, a local farmer, and a French-Canadian amateur detective. My guest is Allie Seibert, author of Bloodstained: Exploring Michigan's Darkest Murders Forgotten By Time. She walks us through this unsolved mystery and shares some of the strange twists she was able to uncover whi...
Jun 23, 2025•1 hr 34 min
On May 2, 1963, Robert Killins, a former United Church minister, slaughtered every woman in his family but one. She (and her brother) lived to tell the story of what motivated a talented man who had been widely admired, a scholar and graduate from Queen’s University, to stalk and terrorize the women in his family for almost twenty years and then murder them. Through extensive oral histories, Sharon Anne Cook and Margaret Carson painstakingly trace the causes of a femicide in which four women and...
Jun 17, 2025•1 hr 26 min
On the morning of July 3, 1915, John Pierpont Morgan Jr., one of the most famous names in finance, was entertaining guests at his sprawling Long Island estate when the doorbell unexpectedly rang. An armed man forced his way inside. At the same time, authorities in Washington, DC, were investigating a shocking bombing at the US Capitol. While no one had been killed, the blast had destroyed the reception room, and DC citizens were on edge. Nine years earlier, in 1906, Leone Krembs Muenter had fall...
Jun 09, 2025•1 hr 16 min
George Lowther was a mutineer and a pirate, one of the most prolific during the golden age of piracy. His first mate, Edward "Ned" Low, went on to establish himself as perhaps the most sadistic and depraved of all pirate captains. Virtually all popular sources specify Lowther's death being by suicide in 1723, while marooned on the small island of Blanquilla, off the coast of Venezuela. While researching the War of Jenkins' Ear, historian Craig Chapman found repeated references to "Lowther the Pi...
Jun 02, 2025•1 hr 10 min
(Original pub. date: 9/27/2018) Catherine Pelonero, author of "Kitty Genovese: A True Account of a Public Murder and its Private Consequences", is my guest. She walks us through the murder of Kitty Genovese in Kew Gardens, New York in 1964 and its aftermath. The horrific crime is especially infamous because no one called police or stepped in to help, despite being witnessed by dozens of people. Note: I normally post a link to an author's website, but a listener just notified me that Catherine's ...
May 29, 2025•1 hr 10 min
Charles Cowlam stands out as one of the most remarkable con artists of nineteenth-century America. He talked his way into receiving pardons from both President Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. Through deception, he secured a role investigating Lincoln’s assassination. He preyed on lonely widows, attempted to manipulate a Florida election, and created a secret society to steal money. His cons were as bold as they were relentless. My guest, Frank W. Garmon Jr., has written the definitive book ...
May 27, 2025•1 hr 1 min
In November 1945, James Newton, a young World War II veteran, was shot four times—twice in the back—in his room at an Abingdon, Virginia boardinghouse owned by Helen Clark. She would soon stand trial for his murder, as speculation swirled about the true nature of their relationship. Was she a protective, motherly figure trying to prevent Jimmy from taking his own life, or had she killed him in a fit of jealousy? Greg Lilly joins me to disuss the case. He is the author of "Abingdon's Boardinghous...
May 19, 2025•1 hr 11 min
Much like the wheel, the boat, and the telephone, the axe is a transformative piece of technology―one that has been with us since prehistory. And just as early humans used the axe to chop down trees, hunt for food, and whittle tools, they also used it to murder. Over time, this particular use has endured: as the axe evolved over centuries to fit the needs of new agricultural, architectural, and social development, so have our lethal uses for it. Rachel McCarthy James, who wrote "The Man From the...
May 12, 2025•1 hr 9 min
The American sailing vessel Adriatic collided with the French steamship Le Lyonnais on November 2, 1856, off the coast of Nantucket in what can best be described as a maritime hit-and-run. Adriatic’s captain, Jonathan Durham, rendered no aid and left the passenger steamship to fend for herself. 114 people died in the collision and in the days that followed. My guest is shipwreck hunter Jennifer N. Sellitti, author of "The Adriatic Affair: A Maritime Hit-and-Run off the Coast of Nantucket". In th...
May 04, 2025•1 hr 14 min
Just in time for summer! This is an introduction and excerpt from the Slaycation Podcast, hosted by Kim and Adam "Tex" Davis and Jerry Kolber. Pack your body bags for a darkly comic, true crime podcast that looks at murders, mysterious deaths and whodunits that happened while people were on vacation. More here! https://www.slaycation.wtf/ Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/show/6m5al8OnkyVCunFq56qwRE Apple link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/slaycation-true-crimes-murders-and-twisted...
May 01, 2025•24 min
(original pub date 7/19/23) David "Stringbean" Akeman was a singer, clawhammer banjo player and an early Grand Ole Opry star, known for his lanky build and comedic personality. And as a cast member of the nationwide television show Hee-Haw, he was at the height of his popularity when he and his wife Estelle were murdered in their rural Tennessee home in November of 1973. My guest this week is Professor Taylor Hagood, author of "Stringbean: The Life and Murder of a Country Music Legend". He walks...
Apr 29, 2025•1 hr 50 min
On July 24, 1964, twenty-four-year-old Matthew Kerry Smith disguised himself with a mask and a Beatle wig, hoisted a semi-automatic rifle, then held up a bank in North York, Ontario. The intelligent but troubled son of a businessman and mentally ill mother, Smith was a navy veteran with a young Indigenous wife and a hazy plan for violent revolution. Outside the bank, Smith was confronted by Jack Blanc, a former member of the Canadian and Israeli armies, who brandished a revolver. During a wild s...
Apr 26, 2025•58 min
The American government was faced with an unprecedented challenge: where to house the nearly 400,000 German prisoners of war plucked from the battlefield and shipped across the Atlantic. On orders from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Department of War hastily built hundreds of POW camps in the United States. Today, traces of those camps—which once dotted the landscape from Maine to California—have all but vanished. Forgotten, too, is the grisly series of killings that took place within them...
Apr 18, 2025•1 hr 14 min
Shortly before dusk on November 3, 1870, just as the ferryboat El Capitan was pulling away from its slip into San Francisco Bay, a woman clad in black emerged from the shadows and strode across the crowded deck. Reaching under her veil, she drew a small pistol and aimed it directly at a well-dressed man sitting quietly with his wife and children. The woman fired a single bullet into his chest. “I did it and I don’t deny it,” she said when arrested shortly thereafter. “He ruined both myself and m...
Apr 13, 2025•1 hr 10 min
On a nearly moonless night in October 1943, a single gunshot rang out in Littlefield, Texas. A prominent Texas doctor and his wife were found bound, shot, beaten, and murdered. The only witness: their five-year-old daughter, who was bound to silence and refused to speak about what happened for 70 years. Christena Stephens is my guest, and her book is called "Bound in Silence: An Unsolved Murder in a Small Texas Town". She shares details about the horrific case and talks about her experience inte...
Apr 06, 2025•56 min
(Original pub date: 3/11/20) While the Coen brothers refuse to confirm it, many believe that their movie "Fargo" was inspired by the Carol Thompson murder case. She was viciously killed in her comfortable Saint Paul home by a hitman hired by her eccentric husband, T. Eugene Thompson, in March of 1963, leaving behind four small children. It was an absolutely sensational case, one not only covered extensively by local press, but by national and international press as well. Longtime journalist Will...
Mar 28, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Molly Zelko was the crusading editor and publisher of the Spectator, a newspaper devoted to battling local gangsters operating slot machines and other rackets in Joliet, Illinois. In the late night hours of September 25, 1957 she vanished, with only her shoes and signs of a struggle left as evidence that something sinister had likely happened to her. My guest is reporter and author Rod Kackley, whose book "Murder! Molly And The Mob: A (1950s) Shocking True Crime Story" is the focus of today's ep...
Mar 22, 2025•58 min
On September 13, 1868, the bodies of Jacob and Nancy Young were discovered brutally murdered along the bank of the White River in Cold Spring, Indiana. Police would eventually set their sights on a charming and fascinating confidence woman named Nancy Clem, who happened to be involved in some extremely shady business dealings with Jacob Young at the time. My guest is Wendy Gamber, author of "The Notorious Mrs. Clem: Murder and Money in the Gilded Age". She tells us all about the colorful Nancy C...
Mar 16, 2025•1 hr 20 min
Close to midnight on May 17, 1951, four north Alabama lawmen drove to a bootlegger’s home to serve an arrest warrant. Before the clock struck twelve, the bootlegger lay dead in front of the house he shared with his wife and eight children, and three of the four officers were also dead. Afterward, a sixteen-year-old boy would face a series of trials that would divide a county and thrust the state of Alabama into the national spotlight. My guest is Professor Lesa Carnes Shaul, author of "Midnight ...
Mar 08, 2025•1 hr 28 min
My guest today is Dr. Amy Helen Bell, author of "Under Cover of Darkness: Murders in Blackout London". She shares accounts of the terror, tragedy and crime experienced by Londoners during the blackout and the blitz in 1940s wartime Britain. More about the author here: https://amyhelenbell.com/ Interested in revisiting the serial killers mentioned in this episode? John Reginald Christie: https://www.mostnotorious.com/2022/12/17/serial-killer-john-reginald-christie-the-great-london-smog-w-kate-win...
Mar 01, 2025•59 min
My guest this week is award-winning journalist Ken Fortenberry, author of "Flight 7 Is Missing: The Search for My Father's Killer". He walks us through the ill-fated flight of Pan Am's luxurious "Romance of the Skies", a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser that mysteriously crashed into the Pacific Ocean in November of 1957. Forty-four people were killed, including his own father, who copiloted and navigated the plane. His decades long investigation of the crash has led him to the conclusion that the victi...
Feb 21, 2025•1 hr 24 min
(Original publish date: 6/7/22) In this third and final part of my interview with Dr. Edgar Epperly, the "little minister" Lyn George Jacklin Kelly is examined as a primary suspect in the 1912 Villisca Axe Murders. Although Kelly spoke obsessively about the case and even confessed to the murders, many believed that the confession was the result of mental illness and police coercion. Dr. Epperly also offers his thoughts on whether the murders might be the work of a serial killer named Paul Muelle...
Feb 15, 2025•1 hr 19 min
(Original Publish Date: 5/31/22) Frank Fernando (F.F.) Jones seemed to be one of the most obvious suspects in the aftermath of the horrific 1912 Villisca Axe murders. He had a contentious business rivalry with the patriarch of the slain Moore family, Josiah (Joe) Moore, intensified further because Moore was having an affair with his daughter-in-law. However there was no direct evidence linking him to the crime. Enter James Wilkerson, a pugnacious and cunning private detective who made it his mis...
Feb 14, 2025•1 hr 18 min
One of my absolute favorites! This is the first of a three part interview I did with Dr. Ed Epperly about the notorious 1912 Villisca Axe Murders. (Original publish date 5/23/2022) This episode is sponsored by Strawberry .me. Get a $50 credit when you use our link: https://strawberry.me/notorious On June 9th (or) 10th, 1912, America experienced of the most notorious crimes in its history - the brutal axe murders of Josiah and Sarah Moore, their four children (Herman, Katherine, Boyd and Paul) an...
Feb 14, 2025•1 hr 17 min
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Jenny Maxwell was one of Hollywood's "it girls", appearing in countless television shows and films. Arguably her most memorable role was that of Ellie Corbett in Elvis Presley's 1961 movie "Blue Hawaii", where she stole every scene she was in. But despite her professional success, her personal life was a mess, much of it due to alcohol, drugs and wild Hollywood parties. By 1981 she was seeking a divorce from her second husband (mob lawyer Tip Roeder) when they ...
Feb 06, 2025•1 hr 17 min
Late one evening in the summer of 1922, Henry Wilkens burst through the doors of the emergency room covered in his wife's blood. But was he a grieving husband or a ruthless killer who conspired with bandits to have her murdered? To find out, the San Francisco police turned to technology and a new machine that had just been invented in Berkeley by a rookie detective, a visionary police chief, and a teenage magician with a showman's touch. John Larson, Gus Vollmer, and Leonarde Keeler hoped the li...
Jan 30, 2025•58 min
On February 8, 1911, the Scott Mausoleum, a symbol of wealth for the Scott and Strong families in Erie, Pennsylvania, was desecrated by unknown vandals, coined by nationwide papers as ghouls. With the inside of the mausoleum heavily damaged - and a body missing - the crime set off shockwaves throughout the country during a time in which grave robbery, extortion and murder reigned supreme. Hundreds of reporters and newspaper correspondents throughout the country and world descend upon the Great L...
Jan 28, 2025•57 min
