In November of 2016, a 16 year old girl from Knoxville, Tennessee was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. Emma Jane Walker had been a victim of coercive control for two years before he killed her. Emma’s parents saw the signs and did everything right. The United States needs to follow the lead of many UK countries who have passed coercive control laws. Coercive control is the cornerstone of intimate partner violence and usually the starting point, especially in abusive teenage relationships. US Nation...
Nov 08, 2019•50 min
In 1985, a nineteen year old girl was picked up on a deserted road, handcuffed, shackled and ghostly pale. The story she told her rescuer and law enforcement was unbelievable. She had been held captive and repeatedly raped by a sexual sadist. But he didn’t just violate her sexually, he drained her blood. And drank it in front of her. Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/75-the-vampire-rapist Written, hosted & produced by Erica Kelley Researched by Haley Gray Edited By Chaes Gray O...
Oct 31, 2019•53 min
One of Charleston’s most enduring legends and ghost stories is that of Lavinia Fisher. Her ghost is said to haunt the grounds of the Old City Jail, where she was imprisoned for a year, before being hanged with her husband from the gallows, for highway robbery. She also carries the dubious title of America’s first female serial killer. But it’s not true. Much of what is known about Lavinia Fisher is legend, told for over 200 years, growing more bloody and salacious as time goes on. But her real s...
Oct 26, 2019•47 min
In 2004, a man named John Paul Chapman was arrested for the brutal rape and murder of Lisa Marie Nichols, in Mobile, Alabama. Authorities soon realized that the man they had in custody was not the real John Chapman, who was incarcerated in Missouri. They had Jeremy Bryan Jones, a drifter from Oklahoma, who they would soon find out was a serial rapist and murderer. The failure of the FBI’s fingerprint database, IAFIS, would let this monster go undetected for four years. Case suggested by Aaron of...
Oct 20, 2019•58 min
In 1984, a vicious sexual sadist was terrorizing the Tampa Bay Area of Florida. He preyed on sex workers, and other vulnerable women, murdering at least ten young women before he was caught. He oddly let one girl go in November and she would be the break law enforcement needed to unmask the Tampa Bay Serial Killer. Police didn’t realize when they arrested Bobby Joe Long that was he was also a brutal serial rapist who had attacked around 50 women over 4 states and was known all over Florida as th...
Oct 13, 2019•1 hr 5 min
The public is fascinated by love triangles. Add in betrayal and murder and you’ve got the plot to a novel, a movie or a soap opera. People cannot get enough of the romantic notion of a beautiful woman, torn between her love of two men. In 1999, Dr. Michelle Theer had been leading a secret life on the internet. She was married to Air Force Captain Marty Theer, who had no idea his wife was posting a dating profile online and meeting many men for anonymous sex. By the year 2000, Michelle was in a s...
Oct 05, 2019•1 hr 5 min
In 2010, a Georgia Glynn County police officer, Lieutenant Cory Sasser, was involved in the shooting of an unarmed woman. Though he was cleared of wrong doing by a grand jury, the decision was controversial and the bad press followed him for years. In 2018, his wife Katie Sasser, could no longer deal with his mental health issues. When she left him, he became suicidal and then full of rage. His colleagues at the police department would give him the benefit of the doubt every time, despite many r...
Sep 30, 2019•53 min
In 1969, the mysterious death of a beautiful Houston socialite would captivate Texas. Soon it would become a national scandal. Joan Robinson Hill’s father, a rich and powerful oilman, would set set in motion a chain of events so incredible, it seems like fiction. All in the name of grief and revenge. Suggested Reading: Blood and Money by Thomas Thompson Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/69-joan-robinson-hill Written, hosted, produced by Erica Kelley Researched by Erica Kelley Edite...
Sep 22, 2019•1 hr 10 min
In May of 2010, the mistress of an Alabama County Commissioner was found shot to death in her driveway. It looked like suicide and Angel Downs did have a prior suicide attempt. But her boyfriend, Commissioner Stephen Nodine, was seen driving away from her house right after neighbors heard the shot. Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/68-the-politicians-mistress-angel-downs Written, hosted, produced by Erica Kelley Researched by Haley Gray Edited by Chaes Gray Original Graphic Art by ...
Sep 12, 2019•50 min
In 1987, an ambitious rookie FBI agent came to Pikeville, Kentucky for his first posting out of the academy. He soon met a girl from the nearby holler who worked as an informant. Susan Daniels Smith lived a life of poverty, violence and misery. And then she met Mark Putnam and became obsessed. Major Source: Above Suspicion by Joe Sharkey Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/67-the-killing-of-fbi-informant-susan-daniels-smith Written, hosted, produced by Erica Kelley Researched by Eric...
Sep 07, 2019•1 hr 6 min
Late on a Sunday night in September of 2016, Atlanta power couple, Tex and Diane McIver, were driving back into the city and got caught in Atlanta’s notorious traffic. Diane’s best friend was driving as Diane rode in the passenger seat and her husband, Tex, sat directly behind her. When they were stopped in what they considered a dangerous part of town, Tex asked for his gun, and then fell asleep. What happened next would cause one of the most hotly debated criminal cases in recent Atlanta histo...
Aug 30, 2019•51 min
In the early morning hours after the 4th of July in 2004, A young couple was brutally stabbed to death on Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. There was another friend in the house who was also stabbed but escaped and miraculously survived. This vicious blitz was carried out by a fellow airman. What led to the gruesome attack after the 4th of July celebrations? Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/65-double-murder-on-robins-air-force-base Case Suggested by Kelly & Alaina Coates Writt...
Aug 23, 2019•50 min
In 1980, a sixteen year old white girl named Cheryl Dee Fergeson was raped and murdered in a high school auditorium in Conroe, Texas. Suspicion immediately fell on the only black janitor, though three other white janitors were present. A Texas Ranger looked Clarence Brandley in the face and said “One of you is gonna hang for this. Since you’re the ni**er, you’re elected”. What followed was more than just a miscarriage of justice. The police, prosecutor and three judges colluded to frame Clarence...
Aug 18, 2019•1 hr 4 min
In 2003, eighteen year old freshman, Katie Autry, was raped, beaten and set on fire in her dorm room at Western Kentucky University. Two suspects would soon emerge. One white, from a wealthy family. The other mixed race, from a poor family. The case would consume WKU, Bowling Green and the rest of Kentucky, with loyalties on both sides. To this day, many locals believe that one of those boys got away with murder. Suggested Reading: Bluegrass: A True Story of Murder in Kentucky by William Van Met...
Aug 02, 2019•1 hr 1 min
In July of 1999, a day trader named Mark Barton went on a killing spree in Atlanta’s financial district. He murdered 9 people that day, wounding 13 more. Two days before this massacre, he murdered his second wife and two children. But he was also suspected of murdering his first wife and her mother six years earlier. Mark Barton is a family annihilator, spree killer, mass murderer and possibly, a serial killer. He fits into every classification or none of them. Sources: https://www.southernfried...
Jul 26, 2019•44 min
In 1982, America got their own Ken and Barbie killers a decade before the Canadian couple, Paul Bernardo and Karla Holmolka horrified the world with their depraved crimes - kidnapping, torturing and murdering young girls. Americans Alvin and Judith Neelley started out with petty crimes, dubbing themselves Boney and Claude. And then they escalated. Unlike Karla, Judith didn’t get a deal with the devil. Instead, at 18 years old, she became the youngest woman in the US to be sentenced to the death ...
Jul 12, 2019•1 hr
Today is a very special cross over episode with my friends from Trashy Divorces. We are discussing the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, as well as OJ Simpson’s two trashy divorces. This is not my usual format and there is indeed the explicit language I’m always warning you about. Suggested Reading: Without a Doubt by Marcia Clark The Run of His Life by Jeffrey Toobin In Contempt by Christopher Darden Suggested Viewing: ESPN’s documentary: OJ Simpson: Made in America American Crime Story’...
Jul 04, 2019•1 hr 20 min
This is the conclusion to Miami Beach Royalty: The Novack Murders. Within three months of each other, Bernice and Ben Novack Jr were brutally murdered. These were gruesome, vicious attacks and they were meticulously planned and executed. But the conspirators weren’t as smart as they thought. And after the criminal proceedings finally ended, the fight over Ben Novack Jr’s fortune became another epic battle. Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/57-58-the-novack-murders-parts-1-2 Suggest...
Jun 28, 2019•1 hr 5 min
The history of the infamous Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach is fascinating. Mobsters, movie stars and and scandal helped the brilliant and ruthless hotelier Ben Novack Sr. propel his hotel onto the world stage, where it remains today. But the brutal murders of his ex-wife Bernice and son, Ben Jr. rocked America and the squabble over the Novack fortune is still winding through the Florida probate courts to this day. Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/57-58-the-novack-murders-parts...
Jun 21, 2019•59 min
In October of 1987, a beautiful Texas socialite and businesswoman was poisoned with strychnine. It was in the bottle of NyQuil she often used to help her go to sleep. Patsy Bolton Wright was a share holder in the Southwest Historical Wax Museum in Grand Prairie, Texas. Less than a year after her murder, the wax museum was burned to the ground by an arsonist. Neither crime has ever been solved. Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/56-poisoning-patsy Written, hosted, produced by Erica K...
Jun 14, 2019•48 min
In 1973, a horrific fire killed 32 people in the gay bar, the Upstairs Lounge in New Orleans. When city and state officials and the churches turned their backs on the victims and survivors of the tragedy, the gay community rallied together. Today it is known as the beginning of the Gay Rights Movement in New Orleans. Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/55-the-upstairs-lounge-fire Suggested Reading: The Up Stairs Lounge Arson: Thirty-Two Deaths in a New Orleans Gay Bar, June 24, 1973 ...
Jun 06, 2019•1 hr 10 min
Barbara Ford Stager is known as the Black Widow of North Carolina. She shot two husbands, ten years apart, as they lay sleeping in their marital beds. Her trial was an international sensation, with the media capitalizing on her femme fatale, man eating image. But is that all there is to Barbara’s story? Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/54-barbara-stager Suggested Reading: Before He Wakes: A True Story of Marriage, Sex & Murder by Jerry Bledsoe Written, hosted, produced by Eric...
May 24, 2019•1 hr 17 min
In 1999, a seventeen year old girl named Jessica Dishon was abducted out of her driveway in Shepherdsville, Kentucky as she was leaving for school. Though a rookie sheriff’s deputy tried to sound the alarm, a senior detective refused to come to the scene, dismissing her as a runaway. That mistake would kick off an egregious mishandling of the case, that included accusing an innocent neighbor with no real evidence. It would take fifteen years to bring Jessica’s real killer to justice. He was a se...
May 17, 2019•45 min
In 1948, a Delta Mississippi socialite named Ruth Thompson Dickins, hacked her mother to death with gardening shears. She blamed the murder on a “negro” man she claimed attacked her as well. But a jury of 12 white men didn’t believe her, in Mississippi, in 1949. That fact alone is incredible. But with her prominent family, wealthy and aggressive “cotton man” husband and the backing of the elite white people of her town and county, the governor of Mississippi was finally badgered into suspending ...
May 10, 2019•53 min
In August of 2008, the small town of Springfield, Georgia was shaken by a double murder in one of the town’s most prominent families. Soon, the full story would come out. That one brother was sleeping with another brother’s wife, causing a family tragedy of almost Biblical proportions. Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/51the-heidt-double-murder Written, hosted, produced by Erica Kelley Researched by Erica Kelley Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner Original Music by Rob Harrison-Ga...
May 03, 2019•44 min
In June of 2013, a 21 year old Vanderbilt student was gang raped in a dorm room by four football players. She was an unofficial hostess, one of the pretty girls coaches use to “assist” in player recruiting. She had no memory of the event, but her attackers had filmed and photographed it on their cell phones. They were also caught on security footage carrying her unconscious body into the dorm. The implications of this case affected Tennessee state law regarding public records, caused a Title IX ...
Apr 26, 2019•56 min
In June of 1985, residents of the Midland area of South Carolina were frozen in fear. Two girls were kidnapped and murdered and the sadistic man responsible relished in making phone calls to one of the families. This is part two of the case of serial killer Larry Gene Bell, covering the abduction and murder of nine year old Debra May Helmick and the investigation into both murders. I also discuss the trials for both murders, and the execution of Larry Gene Bell. Sources: https://www.southernfrie...
Apr 20, 2019•1 hr 3 min
In June of 1985, residents of the Midland area of South Carolina were frozen in fear. Two girls were kidnapped and murdered and the sadistic man responsible relished in making phone calls to one of the families. This is part one of two episodes on the crimes of Larry Gene Bell. Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/48-49-larry-gene-bell-part-1-2 Special thanks to author and former SLED Lieutenant, Rita Shuler, who gave me permission to use her book as a major source for this episode: M...
Apr 12, 2019•42 min
In December of 2004, a beautiful young graduate student was brutally stabbed in her apartment. Her roommate was also attacked. He ran to a convenience store and called 911. Johnia Berry crawled, bleeding from her own apartment, and knocked on the five neighbor’s doors around her. No one answered. Paramedics got there while she was still alive but she died at the hospital. Unknown DNA was found at the crime scene. But there was no match in the database. There wouldn’t be a match made for almost t...
Apr 05, 2019•45 min
My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder? These words, from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, spurred a confession from a teenage murderess. Sixteen year old Marie Robards, of Fort Worth Texas, poisoned her own father, because she preferred to live with her beloved mother. Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/46-patricide-thy-name-is-marie Suggested *fictional* reading: Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott -- it is a novel based on Marie's case. I en...
Mar 28, 2019•39 min
