Soon after London bade farewell to 1885 and welcomed the new year, a woman named Adelaide Bartlett roused her sleeping house with screams. Her husband, Edwin, who had seemed to have turned a corner on his recent illness, was dead. Housemates who arrived in a panic immediately noticed a chemical smell in the room that suggested Edwin hadn't died of natural causes. The case, which would soon be dubbed the Pimlico Poisoning, proved to be one of the most sensational in 19th-century England. " Crimes...
Jul 15, 2024•43 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast Hey, Crimes of the Centuries listeners! COTC is dark for the next two weeks, but as a special bonus, here is another episode of The Catalyst, a true-crime podcast that publishes every other Friday exclusively to patreon.com/grabbagcollab . U.S. Air Force, Stalking, and Camping Trips. This is the story of The Boy Scout. Dive deep into the upbringing and backstories of individuals who committed history's most notorious crimes, shedding light on the psychological factors that shaped their paths. Wi...
Jul 01, 2024•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the 1970s, an aerospace firm in Redondo Beach, California, had the clever idea of handing over access to highly classified spy satellite secrets to a 20-something named Christopher Boyce. It didn't end well. Boyce and his high school buddy -- a drug dealer named Daulton Lee -- soon began selling that classified info to the Russians in a scheme that's still regarded today as one of the most damaging acts of espionage in U.S. history. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Colla...
Jun 24, 2024•42 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast After World War II stole a great many men from their loving wives, Lonely Hearts clubs were all the rage for lonely widows looking for love. A number of them thought they'd met their soul mates when they traded letters with a man calling himself Chris Martin who was so devoted to his family, he often had his sister in tow. In truth, those unsuspecting women were communicating with Ray Fernandez and his lover, Martha Beck, who would come to be known as the Lonely Hearts Club Killers. " Crimes of ...
Jun 17, 2024•39 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast Randy Ayers was a 17-year-old high school senior when he was spotted at school and identified as the man who raped and tried to kill a 15-year-old girl in November 1981. It would take nine agonizing years -- and an unsolicited confession from a serial killer -- before Randy's case would change how prosecutors in Hamilton County, Ohio, treated eyewitness identification. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and he...
Jun 10, 2024•37 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast The 937 passengers aboard the M.S. St. Louis had every reason to be optimistic as they left Hamburg, Germany, on May 13, 1939. After years of their rights being slowly stripped away, the Jewish men, women and children felt lucky to be sailing off to start anew in Cuba. But once they spotted their destination, a new nightmare began. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history DON'T FORGET ABOUT...
Jun 03, 2024•40 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast When 26 California schoolchildren and their bus driver failed to show up after a swimming trip on the penultimate day of summer school, authorities launched a search that grew much more frantic after the school bus they'd been traveling in was discovered hidden in 20-foot-tall bamboo. What happened next shocked and befuddled the nation. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history DON'T FORGET ...
May 27, 2024•36 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast In 1898, a pair of killers stalked a worksite in the Tsavo region of Kenya. They evaded blockades and booby traps to torment hundreds of men who'd simply signed up to do a job but instead found themselves marked as prey for a seemingly unstoppable deadly duo. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE CENTURIES BOOK! Order today at www.centuriespod.com/boo...
May 20, 2024•37 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast In the 1960s, after losing all 10 of the babies they'd conceived, Marie Noe and her husband, Arthur, became the most famous bereaved parents in America, with most of the deaths attributed to "crib death," later called Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). After a journalist revisited the case in 1998, investigators took another look at the mysterious series of deaths, prompting Marie Noe to share a horrifying secret that had been weighing on her for more than 30 years. " Crimes of the Centuries "...
May 13, 2024•39 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast On September 6, 1949, 28-year-old World War II veteran Howard Unruh ate the breakfast his mother made him, then armed himself with a Luger pistol and walked calmly through his Camden, New Jersey, neighborhood, shooting everyone in sight. He told police afterward he'd had a kill list of specific people he'd felt had wronged him, but by the end of his 12-minute rampage, 13 would be fatally wounded, three of them innocent children. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab explo...
May 06, 2024•37 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast While the grift he deployed had been named for another man, Bernie Madoff took the concept of a Ponzi scheme and pumped it full of steroids, allowing it to keep him -- and plenty of others -- filthy rich for literally decades. In the end, Madoff bilked some $65 billion from thousands of clients, all while maintaining such a sheen of respectability that he was charged with helping write the very rules he himself eschewed. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring for...
Apr 29, 2024•42 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast Italian-born Charles Ponzi had grown up hearing from his mother that he was destined for greatness, so it was no surprise to her when she visited him in America to find him wealthy beyond her wildest dreams. Ponzi had come up with a get-rich-quick scheme that he insisted was legal. To his credit, it took federal authorities a good seven months to figure out how it wasn't. In this episode, meet the man whose name would go down in history to be synonymous with "grifter." " Crimes of the Centuries ...
Apr 22, 2024•42 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast In the midst of nationwide bombings that pit union backers against anti-union bosses, an explosion at the Los Angeles Times building crossed a line that changed everything. At 1:07 a.m. on Oct. 1, 1910, a blast tore through the Times building, killing 21 people. Times officials immediately blamed organized labor, which ultimately bore out: Not only were three union-affiliated co-conspirators convicted soon after the bombing, but nearly 40 other union officials would eventually be convicted on ch...
Apr 15, 2024•38 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast In September 1944, a 24-year-old married woman named Recy Taylor was walking home with friends from church when a carload of seven men stopped her. Forced into the car, Recy, a Black woman, was repeatedly raped by six white men at gunpoint, then tossed roadside with a warning: Tell anyone about this, and you're dead. Recy ignored the threats and her tale soon galvanized activists throughout Alabama -- including a woman whose name would eventually become synonymous with the Civil Rights movement....
Apr 08, 2024•43 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast Hey, Crimes of the Centuries listeners! COTC is now part of Grab Bag Collab, a Patreon-based podcasting network. You can find our other shows available at patreon.com/grabbagcollab Alcoholism, multiple husbands and boarding houses. This is the story of The Landlady. Dive deep into the upbringing and backstories of individuals who committed history's most notorious crimes, shedding light on the psychological factors that shaped their paths. With a suspenseful twist, the identities of these indivi...
Apr 01, 2024•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast When luggage leaking blood arrived at a Los Angeles train depot in 1931, the woman who'd traveled with the items feigned ignorance -- and then disappeared, leading to a nationwide manhunt that captivated the nation. Because one of the two victims found inside the Winnie Ruth Judd's trunks had been dismembered -- and because both she and the victims were beautiful women -- the case generated hundreds of headlines and a memorable moniker: The Trunk Murderess. But were prosecutors' theories about t...
Mar 25, 2024•41 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast The morning of Aug. 1, 1966, 25-year-old Charles Whitman called his wife's boss to say she'd be out, then did the same for his mother. After killing the two women, he climbed atop the observatory tower at the University of Texas and relentlessly began picking off pedestrians below in an attack unlike any before witnessed in America. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. AND DON'T FORGET...
Mar 18, 2024•33 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast Every parent has worried about their children hauling home tainted candy on Halloween, but not everyone knows where that fear originated. On Halloween in 1974, an 8-year-old boy named Timothy O’Bryan was granted one pick from his basket before bed — and soon after downing the contents of his Pixy Stix, he went limp in his father’s arms. The investigation threw parents into a panic, prompting tons of candy to be taken to sheriff’s offices for inspection. As horrifying as the case appeared to be a...
Mar 11, 2024•41 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast Notorious labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa had for decades been a polarizing figure, with his ties to organized crime investigated as early as 1957 by future U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy. A jury tampering conviction eventually took him out of official power, but Hoffa worked tirelessly behind the scenes to reclaim his position -- until his disappearance in 1975. Despite countless theories about what happened to him, Hoffa's fate remains one of the most infamous unsolved mysteries in America...
Mar 04, 2024•36 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast Living in Occupied Paris during World War II was utter chaos, with the Gestapo police constantly changing rules, kidnapping people from the streets and sidelining the Parisian police. A physician named Marcel Petiot claimed to be among the brave men and women working for the Resistance — a group determined to help smuggle endangered people to safety, far from the reach of the Third Reich. But when neighbors reported a fire at a townhouse Petiot owned, police arrived to uncover a scene so horrifi...
Feb 26, 2024•39 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Random offenses, Institutions and Orange Socks. This is the story of The Drifter. Dive deep into the upbringing and backstories of individuals who committed history's most notorious crimes, shedding light on the psychological factors that shaped their paths. With a suspenseful twist, the identities of these individuals won’t be unveiled until the end of each episode. ‘The Catalyst’ will unravel the complex narratives behind these disturbing cases and try to understand what triggered them....
Feb 23, 2024•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast For years, the violence that occurred in the area known as "Black Wall Street" in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921 was remembered as the "Tulsa Race Riot" - when it was even remembered at all. But that name, promoted by the media and government officials, was at best a misleading description of what we've now started to reveal over the past few decades as a massacre perpetrated on a thriving Black community that took generations to recover. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab e...
Feb 11, 2024•38 min•Ep 42•Transcript available on Metacast Handsome and charismatic, the actor Bob Crane led the cast of the hit sitcom "Hogan's Heroes" for six seasons from the mid-sixties into the beginning of the next decade. The show ended in 1971, and Crane began traveling the country in a touring play. When he was found dead in his hotel room in Arizona in 1978, was it due to a secret life that he kept hidden from public view? " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark ...
Feb 05, 2024•43 min•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast Her story seemed innocent at first, if not charming. A young immigrant woman from Germany befriending older gentlemen in Cincinnati's German community and providing them memories of home with her Old World cooking. But as these men fell ill - or worse, starting dying - the motives behind Anna Marie Hahn's friendly overtures proved to be far more devious. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change his...
Jan 29, 2024•36 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast It's a story every American grade school student learns - how the actor John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln in his box at the Ford's Theater, jumped down to the stage, and fled Washington DC until he was killed by the authorities in a barn in rural Virginia. But it's not widely known that Booth wasn't acting alone, and that President Lincoln was only one of several targets he and his conspirators planned to murder on the night of April 15, 1865. In today's episode, we tell the story...
Jan 22, 2024•39 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast After the murder of the Defeo family, the house known as "High Hopes" where the murders occurred was purchased by the George and Kathy Lutz. But the Lutz family soon fled the property, claiming frightening paranormal activity. Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren arrived and began studying the scene. But did they find evidence of supernatural occurrences - or were they perpetrating a fraud on a too-credulous public? " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from the Obsessed Network ex...
Jan 15, 2024•37 min•Ep 38•Transcript available on Metacast The word "Amityville" has practically become synonymous in popular culture with the eerie and supernatural. But behind the books and movies is a true story of the Defeo murders, and in today's episode, we're joined by fellow Obsessed Network podcaster Daisy Eagan to tell their story. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from the Obsessed Network exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. AND DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE CENTURIES BOOK - COM...
Jan 08, 2024•35 min•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast Having one husband die under suspicious circumstances may not cause alarm bells to ring, but what if a second husband also meets an unfortunate fate? The so-called "American Black Widow" Sharon Harrelson may have considered herself cursed when it came to love, but in today's episode we dive into her story of deception, betrayal, and ultimately murder. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from the Obsessed Network exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change h...
Jan 01, 2024•34 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast There were seven men guarding the notorious criminal Frank Nash as he moved through Kansas City Union Station to a car waiting outside. But these officers couldn't stop the onslaught that faced them as they attempted to transfer Nash into the car. In today's episode, we'll explore how this bloody shootout changed the way American law enforcement fought crime. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from the Obsessed Network exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped ...
Dec 11, 2023•41 min•Ep 35•Transcript available on Metacast The story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow is probably familiar to many of our COTC listeners. But this story of young outlaws terrorizing the country is one that has been romanticized and practically turned into an American myth. In today's episode, we shake off the romantic sheen and look at the real events behind one of the most notorious duos in history. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from the Obsessed Network exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped ...
Dec 04, 2023•39 min•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast 
