Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

The subject of today's episode is Henri Landru, the most notorious serial killer in French history. He placed advertisements in Paris newspapers in the late 1910s, preying on lonely women left behind as French soldiers marched off to war. While he would eventually be tried and convicted on twelve counts of murder, Richard Tomlinson, the author of "Landru's Secret: The Deadly Seductions of France's Lonely Hearts Serial Killer", believes the actual murder count to be higher, and he explains why on this final episode of Most Notorious for 2018.   Back again in February of 2019!

Ann Marie Ackermann is my guest on this episode, author of the book "Death of an Assassin: The True Story of the German Murderer Who Died Defending Robert E. Lee".  In 1835, a German mayor is murdered at night as he approaches his own front door. After an extensive investigation, including the first forensic ballistics test in history, the case goes cold until 1871, when it is finally solved in the United States. To make the story even more strange and compelling, the murderer of the mayor ends up dying at the feet of a young Robert E. Lee during a Mexican-American War battle.

My guest is Dr. Emilie La Beau Lucchesi, author of Ugly Prey: An Innocent Woman and the Death Sentence That Scandalized Jazz Age Chicago. She discusses the case of Sabella Nitti, a poor Italian immigrant woman accused by police of murdering her husband, with help from her farmhand lover. Dr. Lucchesi's investigation offers new evidence that she helps further exonerate Nitti, who is probably most well known in modern day culture as one of the characters in the Chicago musical and film. Brought to you by Audible, with the largest selection of audiobooks on the planet. Start your 30-day trial and get your first audiobook free by going to Audible.com/Erik, or texting Erik to 500500. Also, try the commission-free investment app, Robinhood. Go to notorious.robinhood.com to sign up!

I'm pulling a switcheroo this week - in blatant shameless effort to get listeners to try my new podcast, Minnesota's Most Notorious: Where Blood Runs Cold, I'm putting part one of the first episode from that show up here, a mystery surrounding the murder of Louis Arbogast in 1909 St. Paul, and putting a brand new interview (about Duluth's Glensheen murders) on the new podcast. Part two of the Arbogast story is there too, by the way, should you care to finish the tale. Back to the regular Most Notorious next week, with more interviews of true crime authors on their way!

My guest, Michael P. Daley, author of "Bobby Bluejacket: The Tribe, The Joint, The Tulsa Underworld", tells the extraordinary story of Oklahoma criminal Bobby Bluejacket. It's a tale of a young man of Shawnee heritage who turned to crime at an early age, took a life sentence for murder and struggled to redeem himself once freed.

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 tragic murder of Kitty Genovese 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. Brought to you by Audible, with the largest selection of audiobooks on the planet. Start your 30-day trial and get your first audiobook free by going to Audible.com/Erik, or texting Erik to 500500.

Author Jack Kelly joins me to discuss his book, "Heaven's Ditch: God Gold and Murder. He shares some stories of murder and mystery surrounding the great engineering marvel known as the Erie Canal.

Erik Rivenes, host of the Most Notorious podcast, has spent over two decades compiling a file of historical true crime stories from his native state of Minnesota. This introduction explains the format of the new podcast, "Minnesota's Most Notorious: Where Blood Runs Cold", and some of the kinds of stories he will tell when the first episode debuts at the end of September, 2018\. You can subscribe to the new podcast on Itunes and other major podcast platforms now! Also, follow at www.facebook.com/wherebloodrunscold...

Mafia historian and Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Anthony M. DeStefano is my guest this episode. He offers insight into gangster Frank Costello, underboss to Lucky Luciano, whose role and influence in the growth of organized crime in America was immense.  DeStefano's book is called "Top Hoodlum: Frank Costello, Prime Minister of the Mafia".

Stacy Horn, author of "Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad and Criminal in 19th-Century New York", joins me to chat about the infamous New York City island, which housed (among other terrible buildings) the women's notorious lunatic asylum that continued to operate for decades, despite the horrendous abuses committed against the inmates.

Even today, the world is still utterly fascinated with the Romanov family, the last Tsar and Tsarina of Imperial Russia and their famous daughters and son. My guest is Helen Rappaport, a world-renowned expert on the subject. She joins me to discuss her third book about the Romanovs, called "The Race to Save the Romanovs: The Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue the Russian Imperial Family", which answers lingering questions about why the world couldn't save the family from their terrible deaths.

In the early 1900s police were stymied by a series of murders of Italian grocers and fruit vendors in midwest America. Witnesses refused to cooperate, which made the crimes impossible to solve.  Enter the United States Postal Service. Postal Inspector Frank Oldfield finds a man willing to testify, and suddenly the organization is knee-deep in a massive investigation which leads them to one of the first crime rings of Sicilian gangsters in American history. For the first time, law enforcement agencies realize that an organized mafia (known as the Black Hand) exists in the United States.  My guests are William Oldfield and Victoria Bruce, authors of **Inspector Oldfield and the Black Hand Society**, and share some of the most interesting details from their book on this episode.

In November, 1849, Dr. George Parkman, Boston businessman and Harvard Medical School benefactor, disappeared. While many believed he might have been done in by an Irish immigrant, the discovery of his dismembered body in a privy eventually led investigators to a Harvard faculty teacher, John Webster.  Paul Collins, English professor at Portland State University and author of **Blood and Ivy: The 1849 Murder That Scandalized Harvard**, relays this story of debt, greed and rage at one of America's most prestigious colleges, during the era of Longfellow, Emerson, Melville, Hawthorne and Dickens.

My guest, author and journalist Paul Hoffman, discusses the July 1925 abduction and murder of little Buddy Schumacher in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.   He wrote the book, "Murder in Wauwatosa: The Mysterious Death of Buddy Schumacher."

New York Times best-selling author Tom Clavin joins me to talk about his book, "Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American West".