True Crime Historian

The Murder Of William Desmond TaylorAd-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 295 recaps one of Hollywood’s first and most sensational murder cases. After his death, the mysterious past life and personal entanglements of William Desmond Taylor lead in a dozen different directions, but none apparently toward a solution to the case. But there’s a reason the case aroused so much sensation.The victim's mysterious past and a tangled web of relationships made the shocking murder impossible to solve.Culled from the historic pages of the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers of the era.More Falls From GraceBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

Episode 294Ad-Free Safe House Edition Pulp Nonfiction“I’d die before I’d let a man do anything to me,” she said. And she did.Adapted from “Joanna And The Hillbilly Lover Boy,” by George Vedder Jones, True Detective, Vol.73 No.1, May 1960Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

A Rampage In RichmondAd-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 293 may start out like your ordinary love triangle gone awry, but the city of Richmond, Virginia is scandalized by the revelations that come out about the young people of their city during the shocking trial. When the flapper told the dapper young man that it was over between them, she set off a massacre.More Love Triangles Gone AwryBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

Historic Lady KillersAd-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 292, in which we pay our respects to a quartet of murdered wives:Sarah Yargus, murdered by her husband John Yargus, July 13, 1849;Pauline Schmitt, murdered by her husband Germain Schmitt, January 21, 1919;Ida Jech, murdered by her husband Frederic Jech, July 22, 1930;Anna McDowell Gentry, murdered by her husband Sam Gentry, February 1, 1935.Recorded live at Miami University Hamilton Downtown, October 29, 2018.Download the slideshow for headlines and more information. 0292 slideshow.pdfBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

Six Dead At Erland’s PointAd-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 139 is the gruesome story of a home invasion, circa 1934, a case that seemed so random that it took over a year to crack one of the most brutal mass murders witnessed by the Pacific Northwest. The small-town police are at first presented as in over their heads, but they remained dogged in their pursuit, and justice will be served. Eventually.More Mass MurdersBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

Episode 165:Ad-Free Safe House Edition"Murder By Dynamite," by Stewart Whitehouse. An explosion in the mens room of a department store sets off a wave of copycats, including one plot to murder a young lawyer by booby-trapping his car with dynamite. More Big Booms"Terror in La Paz," by Manuelo Martino, is our first trip to South America with the story of a clever serial killer and master of disguise with his mind set on strangling as many young girls as he can. More Serial KillersBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

AKA The Lipstick Killer And His Imaginary AccompliceEpisode 291Ad-Free EditionHang onto your seats, folks, this one is another wild ride down psychopath lane. Folks in a nice Chicago neighborhood are scandalized when a string of murders go from fearsome to gruesome. Police get their man--or men, depending on how you look at it--almost by accident when the culprit is arrested for another crime. His crimes are heinous and involve a child, so tread carefully if your sensitive to that stuff, but I will tell you that the reporting isn’t overly graphic.Culled from the historic pages of the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers of the era.More Botched ExecutionsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

The Unexpected Crimes of Nurse ToppanEpisodes 29 and 30Ad-Free Safe House EditionHistory contains many cases of nurses who turned out to be killers, but there may not be one as bizarre as the case of Jane Toppan, one of the first "angels of death" on record.Because she had such a cheerful disposition, people called her “Jolly Jane,” and so were completely surprised when she was arrested for the murder of a family in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. Once suspicions were aroused, accusations began to fall like rain. The exact count of her death toll remains a mystery, but estimates put it between 31 and 84 murders, although the longer she remained in the asylum, the larger the number grew.More Serial KillersBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

Pulp Nonfiction: A Celebration Of The Pioneers Of True CrimeA Safe House ExclusiveAd-Free Safe House EditionOrphaned at an early age, Pauline Campbell had worked hard for her goal, until a killer ended her dream. Her murder seemed the work of a fiend with a grudge against nurses, then a teenager stepped forward with a shocking clue.Adapted from True Detective, Vol. 56 No. 4, February 1952More Robberies Gone AwryBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

The Pearce Insanity PlotAd-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 289 is a scandalous story that shook two Midwestern cities in the late 1930s when a woman came forward with a bizarre tale of abduction, adultery, assault, addiction and absconsion. That’s why I’m putting this story on my A-list.More Prison BreaksBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

The Brutal Murder Of Mayme ShermanA True Crime Short Story by Richard O JonesAd-Free Safe House EditionOne 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 first decade of the 20th century. The first was the murder of Hannah Knapp by Alfred Knapp in December, 1902. This is the subject of my book, “The First Celebrity Serial Killer.” But even before this crime came to light, Samuel J. Keelor tried to decapitate his wife on Valentine’s Day, 1903. You can read more about that story in my ebook, “The Sleepwalking Slasher.”The following year, just a week after Knapp paid the ultimate penalty for his crime, Charles Victor Sherman commits the horrible crime detailed in this episode.In

The Atrocities Of Albert FishI'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 EditionBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

The Murder Of Mary PhaganEpisode 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 EditionBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

The Reily Mattock MurderEpisode 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

The Real ‘Chicago’ MurdersEpisode 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 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.

The Trial Of Rattlesnake James, The Red-Headed BluebeardEpisode 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.

A Litany of HorrorEpisode 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.Ad free Patreon edition with subscription

A Terrible Reign of MurderAbout 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.

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 AffrayEpisode 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 Morrow’s 1909 History of Howard County.We offer a special thanks to the staff at the Howard County Library’s 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 Kokomo’s criminal past in the case file posted at www.p

SERIAL KILLER CLIPSA reading of Yesterday’s News exploring one of History’s most prolific murderers. 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. A creation Of Pulpular Media Can’t wait for the next episode to drop? Download the new podcast app Himalaya and get all new episodes a day early, and drop a buck in the tip jar for True Crime Historian. Support your favorite podcaster at www.patreon.com/truecrimehistorian. Just a dollar a month reserves your bunk at the safe house and access to exclusive content and whatever personal services you require. *** Opening theme by Nico Vitesse. Some music and sound effects licensed from podcastmusic.com. Closin