The Triple Confessions Of Willie Lee Jump To AD-FREE Safe House Edition Episode 374 tells the story of an awful family murder in Boonville, Indiana, when a lazy young man takes an axe to his parents and brother on the eve of his wedding day. What offenses the family committed to deserve such a fate seems to be all in the mind of the accused, and it takes him a few tries to get his story straight. Hear more about murders with AXES AND HAMMERS Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreak...
Aug 18, 2025•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 374
The Vanishing Of Clyde Armour Jump To The AD-FREE Safe House Edition Episode 373 tells the story of two young men who go on a road trip together, but only one of them makes it as far as Santa Fe, and he pretends to be the other. In the meanwhile, an Iowa family goes on a desperate hunt for their missing brother. Join In On More MANHUNTS Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support ....
Aug 15, 2025•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 372
La Chataine Juliette And The Perverted Professor Of Magnetic Physiology Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 372 delves into the history of one of the most hideous villains to ever stalk American streets, a predator so vile that he ranks up there with Albert Fish in his depravity. Even if you don’t believe in capital punishment, I think you’ll agree that Etienne Deschamps deserved his punishment, and then some. Hear More Stories From True Crime Pioneer PETER LEVINS Become a supporter of this podca...
Aug 13, 2025•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 372
The Napavine Hatchet Murder Jump To AD-FREE SAFE HOUSE EDITION Episode 371 seems to start out as a salacious story of a seedy sexual situation gone awry, but the sleaze paves the way to a more interesting subplot of a district attorney forced to bring a half-baked case to trial in order to avoid the appearance of his own complicity in a rumored conspiracy. Explore More Murders By HATCHETS & HAMMERS Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--290...
Aug 11, 2025•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 371
A Band-Aid Solution To The Mystery Jump To The AD-FREE SAFE HOUSE EDITION!!!! Episode 370 tells the story of a World War II era veteran whose mental issues earned him an honorable discharge from service, but he slips through the system, wreaking havoc among the women in the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania. What does it take to get creeps like this off the street? Murder, apparently. Explore More CAPITAL CRIMES Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-histori...
Aug 08, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 369
Martha Beck’s Lonely Hearts Club Jump To AD-FREE SAFE HOUSE EDITION Episode 368 tells the tragicomic tale of a romantic and business partnership that goes awry when a woman’s jealousy overpowers her professional detachment. It’s also a love story of a passion so profound that they take their love all the way to the electric chair. Hear More BLUEBEARD Stories Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support ....
Aug 06, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 368
Struck By An Axe And Killed Jump To AD-FREE SAFE HOUSE EDITION Episode 367 is a holiday tale more bone-chilling than heart-warming. It takes place the weekend after Thanksgiving, when family and friends get together for games and good times. The cautionary part of the tale here is, be aware of what topics are best to be avoided. This tJumpime, the touchy subject is not politics, but eyewear. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/suppor...
Aug 04, 2025•57 min•Ep. 366
The Lillian Scheib Mystery Jump To Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 366 tells the sad story of a woman found dead in a bathtub, so decomposed that police first assume it is her husband, as she is sick and convalescing somewhere. When the truth is revealed and the husband found alive, he soon becomes a suspect as officials assume murder. Is the chauffeur a murderer, or a victim of police harassment. Explore More BATHTUB MURDERS!!! Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/pod...
Aug 01, 2025•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 366
The Buffalo Thanksgiving Murder Jump To Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 365 “I’ll get you a Thanksgiving dinner if I have to kill someone to get it!” the young thug promised his girlfriend. Dinner, however, was not forthcoming. Listen To More Episodes Of COURTROOM SHENANIGANS Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support ....
Jul 30, 2025•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 365
The Burning Love Of Elfrieda Knaak Jump To Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 364 tells an unusual story of a broken-hearted young woman found naked and fatally burnt in the basement of a police station. Her family, the police, and the general public find it hard to believe that she could have torched herself in such a horrific manner, so the hunt is on for proof of a murder. Hear About More TORCH MURDERS Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--...
Jul 28, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 364
The Cuba Triple Murder Jump To The Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 363 takes place in rural Ohio, when a woman, her daughter, and her daughter’s suitor are gunned down in front of three young children. The daughter’s ex-husband says he arrived at the scene just after the shots were fired, but in her dying breath his ex-mother-in-law claims he was the culprit. The kids can’t get their story straight, so it’s up to you to put it all together. More BLUEBEARDS Become a supporter of this podcast: ...
Jul 25, 2025•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 363
The Greenlease Kidnapping Tragedy Jump To Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 362 takes on one of the most evil crimes imaginable as told from the point of view of the perpetrator. By the time police caught up with Carl Austin Hall, he had made so many mistakes in the kidnapping and murder of a six-year-old boy that he knew the game was up, so he told the story in a coldly matter-of-fact 36-page confession, here adapted for the first two acts. The third act, we’ll call “the comeuppance”. Become a...
Jul 23, 2025•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 362
The Halfwit Gang Of Golden Gate Avenue Jump To Ad-Free Safe House Edition Although there’s nothing funny about real-life murder, if Episode 361 were fictional, you could shelve it right next to Elmore Leonard or Carl Hiaasen and the wacky characters they create who walk in the realm of dark comedy. The downfall of this gang that couldn’t shoot straight begins when one of its members decides to surrender and deliver state’s evidence when it begins to look like his days are numbered. And, it turns...
Jul 21, 2025•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 361
The Father Stood Trial Jump To Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 359 details one of the most chaotic cases I’ve yet to come across. The investigation left a lot of unanswered questions and the prosecution seems motivated by political pressure and retaliation rather than evidence. Was the youngster murdered by his father or one of his playmates? Let me know what you think. Explore More Cases of Murder By POISON Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-histo...
Jul 18, 2025•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 359
The Terror Of All Toughs Killed By Horse Thief Jump To Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 358 is dedicated to the Safe House Scoundrel Marlene Resch who required a story from her home town of Eugene, Oregon, and we are happy to oblige. The victim in this story was the law enforcement officer in Episode 336, Murder On The McKenzie Trail, and together they sum up the history of capital punishment in Lane County Oregon, the only two executions there. More WILD WESTERNS Become a supporter of this po...
Jul 16, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 358
The Real ‘Chicago’ Murders Episode 352 explores the two murders that inspired the hit musical “Chicago,” which was based on a play by Maurine Watkins, who did some reporting on both cases as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. I’ll 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 ...
Jul 01, 2025•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 352
The Brutal Murder Of Mayme Sherman A True Crime Short Story by Richard O Jones Ad-Free Safe House Edition One of the factors behind my interest in historical true crime is that my hometown of Hamilton, Ohio, seems to have a particularly rich history of crime--murder in particular, but not just murder. I’ve done several local programs about the safecrackers, bandits, and other notorious characters. This short story, “Bacon On The Table,” concerns the third of three “bluebeard” killers in the firs...
Dec 11, 2024•27 min•Ep. 285
The Saga of the Scoundrel Thomas McGehan A true crime short story by Richard O Jones Ad-Free Safe House Edition - Episode 28 takes place on Christmas Eve 1870, when three men attack a local politician with boulders and slungshots, and at least a dozen men scramble for the door while five shots pepper the faro room at the American Saloon in Hamilton, Ohio, the hometown of True Crime Historian Richard O Jones. One of the bullets kills the politician, Thomas Myers, but in their haste none of the ga...
Dec 02, 2024•50 min•Ep. 28
The Atrocities Of Albert Fish I'D TURN BACK IF I WERE YOU!!! Episode 191 is without a doubt the vilest case you'll ever hear on this program because I don't think I could find a worse one if I tried. There's a lot of evil discussed here: torture, cannibalism, and more. Consider this your trigger warning: I'd turn back if I were you! Or at least put the kids to bed and plug in your ear buds. Keep this between us. Ad-Free Edition Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast...
May 27, 2024•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 191
The Murder Of Mary Phagan Episode 183 tells of one of the most infamous cases of an innocent man wrongly accused. When a teenage factory girl is found dead in the basement of an Atlanta pencil manufacturer, blame falls on the mild-mannered Jewish superintendent of the plant, and the jury takes the word of a drunken janitor. It’ll take 70 years for the truth to come out. Ad-Free Edition Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support....
Apr 17, 2024•2 hr 7 min•Ep. 183
The Reily Mattock Murder Episode 198 is centered on one of my favorite murder tropes, the so-called “eternal triangle,” between the cranky old farmer, his fading wife, and the handsome young farmhand. Yeah, that’s not going to end well, but they might have gotten away with it if they had just put the body across the tracks. It’s all in the details. Culled from the historic pages of the Hamilton Journal-News and other newspapers of the era. Ad-Free Edition Become a supporter of this podcast: http...
Jan 05, 2024•1 hr 59 min•Ep. 197
The Trial Of Rattlesnake James, The Red-Headed Bluebeard Episode 192 gets a bit epic, but it’s 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. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support ....
Dec 03, 2023•2 hr 26 min•Ep. 192
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...
Nov 12, 2023•42 min•Ep. 12
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 F...
Jan 15, 2023•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 213
YESTERDAY’S 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...
May 20, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 443
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. There’s 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. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historia...
Jan 22, 2019•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 308
YESTERDAY’S 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 *** Opening theme by Nico Vitesse. Incidental musi...
Jun 26, 2018•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 158
The Avondale Horror Episode 231 is a dark, dark tale of what happens when the population doesn’t 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. Become a supporter of this podcast: htt...
Mar 18, 2018•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 231
A Foul Deed In Ft. Thomas In celebration of our 200th episode, I’m 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 it’s 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 remarkabl...
Dec 04, 2017•2 hr 24 min•Ep. 200
UNSOLVED A special edition of Yesterday’s News exploring one of history’s most baffling murder mysteries. The Murder Of Elizabeth Short By listener request, Episode 196 follows the first month of the investigation of one of Hollywood’s 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 hadn’t been...
Nov 17, 2017•1 hr 7 min
