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 Preller-Maxwell Murder of St. Louis This episode spans three years and three continents as a pair of British dandies meet on the steamer ship coming out of Liverpool and make a pact to travel together across the United States and on to Auckland, New Zealand. One of them only makes it as far a St. Louis before his body is found packed in a trunk in a hotel room and his partner gone with all of his traveling money. The case, the chase, the trial and the final reckoning all make national headlines and a celebrity out of the murderer, but that’s not going to make this end any better for him.

SERIAL KILLER CLIPS -- Stories of the world's most prolific serial killers told from historic newspaper accounts in the golden age of yellow journalism -- The Many True Crimes of Tillie Klimek and Nellie Koulik -- __ So a man goes to a doctor because he’s not feeling well and the doctor says, Sounds like arsenic poisoning, and suddenly there are four women in jail who discovered that arsenic is more effective in getting rid of a husband than divorce. The ringleader of them all, however, not only poisoned her husband, but, well, just about anybody who crossed her. Including an annoying dog. Before it was through, more than 20 deaths would be attributed to Tillie Klimek. For our 100th episode, we will take a look at one of Chicagos most prolific serial killers and her disciples. __ Music by Dave Sams www.truecrimehistorian.com/1922klimek

YESTERDAY'S NEWS The Crocodile Tears of Calvin Dellinger ____ Early one brisk fall morning in 1888, a group of railroad men spy the drowned body of Mary Catherine Dellinger on the bank of Conestoga Creek in rural Pennsylvania. The evidence is thin and circumstantial, but it all points to her husband, Calvin, who expertly plays the part of the grieving husband, but his history of cruelty to women leads to a different conclusion. There’s a coda to the murder story that takes place thirty years later, when Calvin Dellinger again gets into trouble for playing with dynamite. Literally.

YESTERDAY’S NEWS -- Tales of classic scandals, scoundrels and scourges told from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism -- The Crescent City Quadrangle Scandal -- This episode is a rare love quadrangle that comes to light when a woman is charged with accessory to the murder of her banker husband, committed by her physician lover and the state’s attorney turns out to be her former fiance. It’s a tangled, tangled web, and you know it’s not going to end well. __ Theme Music by Dave Sams Incidental Music by Chuck Wiggins www.truecrimehistorian.com/1910sayler

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 -- What Happened in the Guttenberg Woods This episode is another story of a honeymoon trip gone awry, but it was likely doomed from the start. For one thing, Mina Muller and Martin Kettler -- if that’s his real name -- were both already married. With children. But they still visit the minister and, well, you know it’s not gonna end well. ___ Theme Music by Dave Sams Incidental music by Richard Wagner, performed by the Unites States Marine Band ___ www.truecrimehistorian.com/1881muller

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 -- 'Billy' Brown's Tragic Affair -- Today’s episode is a tragic story of young love gone bad. Real bad. So bad, in fact, that ended up with the body of a young girl found floating in an up-state New York lake one summer day in 1906. The man she came there went missing, but not for long. Was it a simple accident as Chester Gillette would claim, or a brutal, cold-blooded murder on a honeymoon trip? The answer may be in the tear-stained letters she wrote to him. -- Theme music by Dave Sams. Incidental music by Chuck Wiggins, www.truecrimehistorian.com/1906gracebrown

AN EYE FOR AN EYE -- Exploring the criminal justice system at its most extreme: Inflicting the death penalty -- San Quentin Executioner Amos Lunt -- In this episode we explore a different point of view of capital punishment, a behind the scenes look at the gallows of San Quentin Prison from the hangman. One of the minor characters in the episode “The Belle in the Belfry” was the hangman, Amos Lunt, who seemed quite shaken by the event and was reported as “seeing spooks”. That was enough to get me to look a little deeper into Amos Lunt and his descent into madness. - Theme Music by Dave Sams

YESTERDAY'S NEWS -- tales of classic scandals, scoundrels and scourges told from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism. -- In 1930, the famed diorama artist Henri Marchand created a set of spectacular dioramas for a Buffalo New York Museum, had an affair with one of his models, Lila Jameson, called Red Lilac by her Cayuga tribe. She so fell in love with him, that he tricked a superstitious elderly woman into committing a horrible crime so she and her artist could be together. --- Black Bird Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ _ Theme music by Dave Sams - www.truecrimehistorian.com/1930marchand

YESTERDAY'S NEWS__ Tales of classic scandals, scoundrels and scourges told from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism.__ In this episode, True Crime Historian takes you to the island paradise of Hawaii, not yet a state in 1932 when the wife of a naval officer stationed there is allegedly raped and beaten by four natives. A few months later, her mother, her husband and two of his enlisted men face a jury under the counsel of the famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow in a case that both sides claim puts the territory of Hawaii itself on trial. - Music by Dave Sams www.truecrimehistorian.com/1932massie

PULP NONFICTION__ A tribute to the pioneers of True Crime__ From "The Pinkertons: A Detective Dynasty" by Richard Wilmer Rowan __ After the Civil War, the Reno Brothers explored a new way to rob trains that inspired the James and Younger gangs. But even the wild and wily Reno brothers were no match for Allen Pinkerton and his detectives. Although it takes place in Indiana, this story has the trappings of a tale of the Old West: Daring robberies, fugitives from justice, clever arrests, and a final showdown in the New Albany jail. __ Music by Dave Sams www.truecrimehistorian.com/1868reno

YESTERDAY'S NEWS__ Classic tales of the most notorius scandals, scoundrels and scourges told from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism__ The York Witch Trial __ This episode of True Crime Historian gives us a little lesson in the Pennsylvania Dutch Powwow mysticism traditions. Although it sounds like the Native American word for an intertribal gathering of dancing and feasting, the origins of the term in this context are obscure but refer to more European form of healing and the casting of spells-- and hexes. In this story, a simple minded fellow named John Blymyer tries to rid himself and his friends of an evil curse. Yeah. Not gonna end well. -- Music by Dave Sams www.truecrimehistorian.com/1928rehmyer

YESTERDAY’S NEWS, tales of classic scandals, scoundrels and scourges told from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism. The Escapes and Escapades of Winnie Ruth Judd In the fall of 1931, Phoenix resident shows up in a Los Angeles train depot trying to claim three trunks that she had shipped there. The clerks wouldn’t let her take the trunks because of the foul odor emanating from them. Winnie Ruth Judd said she’d go get the key so they could see there was nothing nefarious in her luggage. She was eventually sentenced to death for the murder of her two best friends, though she would claim insanity. And self defense. Theme music by Dave Sams www.truecrimehistorian.com/1931judd

YESTERDAY'S NEWS __Classic tales of scandals, scoundrels, and scourges from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalilsm... __Family Tragedy in Rising Sun __In a lot of these stories from the old newspapers, the press coverage often takes on the attributes of another character in the drama. In this case, the town of Rising Sun, Indiana, seems to evolve as the story progresses. When one of the town matrons, the spinster Lizzie Gillespie is found assassinated in her parlor, townfolk tell reporters she had no enemy in the world and there could be no logical reason for the murder. Then they start thinking of things, but they don’t want to name names. And when Lizzie’s twin brother Jim goes to trial, he and his co-defendants fear lynching, but the town only wants to be entertained by the scandal. While I recognize the tragedy of a life lost, I find a subtle comedy in this tale of intrigue, betrayal and murder. Theme music by Dave Sams Incidental music by Chuck Wiggins www.truecrimehistorian.com/1903gillespie

Crane Neck Nugent, Prohibition Trigger The Gangster Chronicles Book Two, Chapter Six __Crane Neck gets arrested in a Florida speakeasy, then is quickly in the wind again. Meanwhile, the hunt for his former partner and archenemy Bob Zwick continues. When Zwick’s reign of terror finally ends, details of their worst exploits are revealed in court. __ Music by Dave Sams www.truecrimehistorian.com/1925nugent

EXTRA! Edition ___When I'm researching a story, I always keep my eye out for interesting headlines to see if they lead me to interesting murder cases. __One of the most frustrating things is when I find a good headline and a compelling story, but I can't find any follow-up or back story and there's just not enough information available to make a good episode. __Still, some of them are too good not to share, so I've decided to start putting out occasional "EXTRA!" Editions of some of these orphan newspaper clippings. __This one has all the makings for a really sleazy tale of adultery, betrayal, and of course MURDER! __But alas, this is the only article I could find on it. __It certainly left me wanting to know more about this drama. ___________________________________________________________________ Music by Dave Sams