Episode 252 tells two stories of when the wheels of justice had a blow-out and people were convicted of crimes they didn't commit. Ad-Free Safe House Edition "Uncle Amos Dreams a Dream," by Edmund Pearson, the story of two brothers accused of murder after the discovery of two clipped toenails. "Twenty-Three Years Skidoo: What Was Justice In This Ca…

The Kidnapping Of Brooke L. Hart Ad Free Safe House Edition Mob rule threatens the city of San Jose, California in Episode 279 when the scion of a beloved wealthy family, the owners of the town’s biggest department store, is kidnapped by a pair of opportunistic thugs. When the young man’s body is recovered from the waters of the San Francisco Bay, …

The Tri-State Head and Hands Murder Plot The cast of characters in Episode 147 includes a previously convicted murderer who works as a driver and a “sort of secretary” for an eccentric former opera singer, three thugs that he met in prison, and a fire captain who often bragged of his success in the stock market after his retirement, amassing a fort…

Episode 233. "The Case Of The Smoking Corpse" By Peter Levins. When a young man stumbles upon a pair of corpses in a park, police not only solve a murder, but break up a caper to rid all of the banks in Indianapolis of their cash. And it all starts with a clue from a horseshoe. "A Clue At The Kitchen Window: A Strangulation in Apartment 16" By Quin…

The Approximately 55 Wives of Johann Hoch Episode 148 tells the unlikely story of a German immigrant who managed to wed dozens of women, mostly widows that he met through personal ads in German newspapers in several American cities. Soon as he could get his hands on their money, he’d run. Sometimes, his cons wouldn’t work, and he’d resort to murder…

Episode 278 Celibate Farmer Ruins The Romance So what happens when a bachelor farmer is determined that his 52-year-old sister stay a spinster and she falls in love with the farm hand? Nothing good, you can bet on that, especially when the bachelor farmer discovers the suitor slinking around his house. I found this story interesting not only for th…

Episode 163: Magazine #13 "The Man Who Owned Manhattan" is the story of a determined private detective who sets out to solve one of the classic con game and match wits with "the man with an educated laugh." "Love And Money: Two Motives," a tale from the 1870s about a blackmail scheme that goes way over the top. "Mister Bravo's Burgandy" by Edmund P…

The Atrocities Of Albert Fish I'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 Murder Of Mary Phagan Episode 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 Reily Mattock Murder Episode 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.…

The Real ‘Chicago’ Murders Episode 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 Pulp…

The Trial Of Rattlesnake James, The Red-Headed Bluebeard Episode 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. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.sprea…

A Litany of Horror Episode 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 t…

A Terrible Reign of Murder About 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…

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 Affray Episode 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 …

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, …

YESTERDAY’S NEWS -- Tales of classic scandals, scoundrels and scourges told from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism... The First Mrs. Kinkead Episode 258 tells the sad story of a nurse who fell in love with her patient. If you can believe her story, she may have been led on a bit, maybe outright deceived by his promises of m…