True Crime Historian

AN EYE FOR AN EYE -- A special edition of Yesterday’s News exploring the criminal justice system at its most extreme: Inflicting the Death Penalty... The Botched Execution of Eva Dugan ___ Episode 131 concerns the murky relationship between the mysterious hired wife, a Tuscon rancher, and a young man who came to stay. It’s also about the dogged chase for the fugitive conducted by a determined sheriff, but the scene that strikes me most takes place in the office of a prison warden when they confront the suspected murderer with an unsettling relic of her crime. ___ Theme Music by Dave Sams Media management by Sean R. Jones Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun ___ bit.ly/1927mathis

A Collection of True Crime Short Stories -- A Trio of Pernicious Characters: A Murderer, A Bigamist, And A Bank Robber ___ First up, a frightful scream in the night leads police to gruesome torch slaying and a scandalous love triangle in “Murder by Fire” by Brandon Wright, from the pages of the classic pulp magazine Master Detective. ___ At the 39-minute mark, we have “The Abominable Mr. Yelverton,” a cheeky tale by Edmund Pearson, one of my favorite early true crime writers, tells the story of a British aristocrat caught in a bigamy scandal. And finally, at precisely the one-hour mark, “The American Exchange Bank Robbery” by Cleveland Moffett, another of our Pulp Nonfiction favorites, comes from the files of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. They got the money back, they know who did it, but mysteries still abound. ___ Theme Music by Dave Sams The Colonel Bogey March by Kenneth Alford, performed by the U.S. Navy Band, courtesy musopen.org. The Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg, performed by the Musopen Symphony. Media management by Sean R. Jones Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun ___ bit.ly/2017magazine04

UNSOLVED: A special edition of Yesterday’s News exploring one of history’s most baffling murder mysteries. Pittsbugh’s Feely Murder Mystery Put on your thinking caps for this one, friends. It’s about as cold a case as you can get, about 80 years cold, and officials at the time couldn’t even agree on what exactly happened in the back room of that family home, whether it was a murder or a murder/suicide. I don’t expect we can solve it from a few newspaper clippings, but there does seem to be some irregularities. Certainly, some political undertones. I dunno. What do you think? ___ Theme Music by Dave Sams Additional music by Chuck Wiggins Media management by Sean R. Jones Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun ___ bit.ly/1936feely

YESTERDAY’S NEWS -- Tales of classic scandals, scoundrels and scourges told from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism... What The Dog Saw At Beekman Place __ This episode is one of the creepiest and sleaziest yet, when the mad Bohemian debauchery that made Greenwich Village famous spills over into the posh East Midtown. The colorful cast of real-life characters includes a woman who ran a prohibition speakeasy, her beautiful model daughter and her artistic friends, and an estranged husband who is disgusted by the whole thing, but addicted to pornography. And wait til you hear the eerie confession! You’re gonna love it. ___ Theme Music by Dave Sams Media management by Sean R. Jones Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun ___ bit.ly/1938gedeon

AN EYE FOR AN EYE -- A special edition of Yesterday’s News exploring the criminal justice system at its most extreme: Inflicting the Death Penalty... The Botched Execution of Tom Ketchum ___ This episode takes us back to the Old West with the tale of the Black Jack gang, terrors of the Southwest from about 1896 to 1991 when its leader, Tom Ketchum, was finally captured trying to pull off a train robbery solo. He didn’t know the conductor had been robbed once before and carried a sawed off shotgun. Yeah. That’s not gonna end well. ___ Theme Music by Dave Sams Additional incidental music by Chuck Wiggins Media management by Sean R. Jones Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun ___ bit.ly/1901ketchum

SERIAL KILLER CLIPS -- A reading of Yesterday’s News exploring some of History’s most prolific murderers... Rampage At Valdosta ___ For this episode, True Crime Historian presents its first non-human perpetrator, a great big crazy brilliant elephant first known as Empress when imported into the United States in 1871. She killed so many handlers that she was sentenced to death many times, but doing so was so difficult that she was just passed from show to show. Along the way someone changed her name to Gypsy, and she spent the last decade of her tragic life with the Harris Nickel Plate Circus. She claimed at least seven victims, but she was crazy for a reason, and if you’re an animal lover, I’ve got to warn you that you’re about to get a big dose of outrage and indignation. ___ Theme Music by Dave Sams Carnival of the Animals: Elephants by Camille Saint-Saëns courtesy Creative Commons. Media management by Sean R. Jones Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun ___ bit.ly/1895gypsy

AN EYE FOR AN EYE -- A special edition of Yesterday’s News exploring the criminal justice system at its most extreme: Inflicting the Death Penalty... The Saga of Ida and Paul V. Hadley ___ Ida Hadley was so passionate for her husband Paul that they called her a nymphomaniac in court. But I get ahead of myself. Their trouble really started in Beaumont, Texas, when a man makes eyes at Ida and Paul shoots him. This steamy story spans five years and includes three trials, attempted and successful jailbreaks, multiple flights from justice across five states, and two murders -- one of them from a moving train! ___ Theme Music by Dave Sams Research Assistance by Anna from AGP Stories Media management by Sean R. Jones Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun ___ bit.ly/1916hadley

PULP NONFICTION -- A reading from the pioneers of true crime... The Minot Redemption ___ This classic potboiler from the pages of True Detective Mysteries Magazine concerns a party of sailors landing in a private speakeasy in the San Pedro Harbor during prohibition. Told from the perspective of a detective on the case, this is a tale of sin and redemption, of an escape from justice and ill-fated love, and the efforts of an amateur sleuth in discovering the fugitive. Theme Music by Dave Sams Research Assistance by Anna from AGP Stories Media management by Sean R. Jones Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun ___ bit.ly/1925desilva

AN EYE FOR AN EYE -- A special edition of Yesterday’s News exploring the criminal justice system at its most extreme: Inflicting the Death Penalty... Death of a Teenage Stenographer ___ Fifteen year old Ruth Wheeler, recent graduate of a secretarial school, excitedly picked up a referral from her alma mater and headed to her first job interview in a building on East 75th Street in New York City. She was not seen again alive. Two days later, a man living in the same building discovered that someone had dumped a gunny sack full of trash on his fire escape. But there was something not quite right about that bundle of garbage. ___ Theme Music by Dave Sams Research Assistance by Anna from AGP Stories Media management by Sean R. Jones Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun ___ bit.ly/1910wheeler

YESTERDAY’S NEWS -- Tales of classic scandals, scoundrels and scourges told from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism... The Kentucky Conspiracy ___ The Commonwealth of Kentucky was thrown into political turmoil over the election of its governor in 1899. The Republican candidate, William S. Taylor, first appeared to win the election by a narrow margin, but the votes were challenged by his opponent, William Justus Goebel, who eventually won the seat by an act of the legislature. ___ Tensions run high in the days before his inauguration, and as you can tell by the prologue, these Kentuckians took their politics seriously. Deadly seriously. ___ Theme Music by Dave Sams Research Assistance by Anna from AGP Stories Media management by Sean R. Jones Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun ___ bit.ly/1900goebel

YESTERDAY’S NEWS -- Tales of classic scandals, scoundrels and scourges told from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism... The Brutal Crimes and Punishment of Jesse Pomeroy This episode concerns one of the most heinous crimes ever committed by a teenager. Jesse Pomeroy was but 14 years old when he was arrested for abducting and torturing young boys and sent to the state reformatory. He was released after a little more than a year, due either to the pleading of his mother or some kind of bribery, you be the judge. But anyway, you know it’s not gonna end well. At 15 years old, Jesse Pomeroy was the youngest person to be convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to die. Theme Music by Dave Sams Research Assistance by Anna from AGP Stories Media management by Sean R. Jones Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun ___ bit.ly/1874pomeroy

YESTERDAY’S NEWS -- Tales of classic scandals, scoundrels, and scourges told from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism... The Brutal Murder of Alberta Meadows ____ Once upon a time, 1922 to be exact, Clara Phillips, a former Hollywood bathing beauty and chorus girl, decides she wants to have a chat with a young lady whom she believes is canoodling with her husband. She stops and buys a brand new hammer on the way. Yeah. That’s not gonna end well. This episode is filled with a lot of poignant stories of the incident from a variety of points of view, including a daring escape from justice. The Bathing Beauty’s New Hammer Theme Music by Dave Sams Research Assistance by Anna from AGP Stories Media management by Sean R. Jones Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun ____ bit.ly/1922phillips

YESTERDAY’S NEWS -- Tales of classic scandals, scoundrels and scourges told from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism... A Double Dose of Arsenic When Edith Carew, an English society woman living in the British expatriate community in Yokohama, went to trial for poisoning her husband, the press couldn’t help but compare it to the case of Florence Maybrick, which took place in Liverpool a few years earlier. And after her conviction, Mrs. Carew was sent back to Britain to serve out her sentence and was placed in the same cell as Mrs. Maybrick. Very interesting... There’ll be a compare and contrast quiz later, so pay attention. ___ Theme Music by Dave Sams Research Assistance by Anna from AGP Stories Media management by Sean R. Jones Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun

True Crime Short Stories -- As I do my research in the dark dusty archives trying to find exciting stories of the scandals, scoundrels and scourges of the past, I often come upon feature stories about interesting crimes and criminal personalities in Sunday magazine sections. They’re not enough for an entire episode, so I’ve strung a few of them together for you. The first two are of a piece: -- Murder for $2.45, which tells of how a newsboy finds the clue to solving a professional, sorta, murder, while ... -- The Waitress and the Death Row War Hero ties in the murder of a theater tycoon with a bit of romantic intrigue. -- Following that, Love and the Counterfeiters is an exciting tale of counterfeiters and double-crossers in the old school Italian mob. -- The next article is titled, When The Ouija Board Spelled “DADDY MUST DIE”, the tragic story of a teenage girl falling into her mother’s web of betrayal and murder. -- And finally, from the classic pages of Master Detective magazine, I give you comes Phantom in the Window: The Murder of Mary Louise Stammer, a heartbreaking tale of another teenager. ___ Theme Music by Dave Sams Research Assistance by Anna from AGP Stories Media management by Sean R. Jones Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun I’m True Crime Historian Richard O Jones signing off for now

PULP NONFICTION -- A reading from the pioneers of true crime... The Murder Of The Butcher Pops Wagner ___ This episode Sweet 16-year-old Lena Theresa Neinstedt, known as Terry, a pretty eighth-grade dropout with a habit of stealing government checks out of neighborhood mailboxes. A wild child of the streets of New York, young Terry also had a habit of carrying a knife -- to keep the wolves from pawing her, she said. When she lost the knife, she discovered a small hatchet around the house that fit nicely in her patent leather handbag. Yeah, that’s not gonna end well. This story comes from the pages of the classic Master Detective magazine, April 1946. ___ If you’re looking to make the perfect hire, visit www.ziprecruiter.com/first and place your ad for free. ___ Theme Music by Dave Sams Research Assistance by Anna from AGP Stories Media management by Sean R. Jones Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun ___ bit.ly/1945wagner