True Crime Historian

The Australian Aviatrix And Her Suitors Jump To The AD-FREE SAFE HOUSE EDITION Episode 341 tells the scandalous story of one of Miami, Florida’s most sensational murders when a young writer is found dead in a sleeping porch, a bullet in his head and two suicide notes on the table. Public interest is high because the other two sides of the fatal triangle are two world-famous, record-holding aviator...

The Murder Of The Butcher Pops Wagner  Jump To The AD-FREE SAFE HOUSE EDITION Episode 117 tells the story of 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,...

Episode 118 Jump To The AD-FREE SAFE HOUSE EDITION " Murder For Two Dollars And Forty-Five Cents " tells the story of how a newsboy finds the clue solving a professional (well, sorta) murder. " The War Hero's Love Letters Sentenced Him To Die " (14:26) ties in the murder of a theater tycoon with a bit of romantic intrigue. " Love And The Counterfeiters " (28:07) is the exciting tale of, well, coun...

A Double Dose Of Arsenic Jump to the AD-FREE SAFE HOUSE EDITION Episode 119 tells the sordid tale of Edith Carew, an English society woman living as an expatriate in Japan, who goes to trial for poisoning her husband. The the press couldn’t help but compare it to the case of Florence Maybrick, which took place a few years earlier in Liverpool. More Cases Of POISON Become a supporter of this podcas...

The Brutal Crimes and Punishment of Jesse Pomeroy  Jump to the AD-FREE SAFE HOUSE EDITION Episode 121 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...

The Brutal Murder Of Alberta Meadows Jump to the AD-FREE SAFE HOUSE EDITION Once upon a time, 1922 to be precise, Clara Phillips, a former Hollywood bathing beauty and chorus girl, decided she wanted to have a chat with a young lady she suspected of canoodling with her husband. She stopped at the dime store and bought a brand new hammer on the way. Yeah. That's not going to end well. This episode...

The Kentucky Conspiracy Jump to the Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 122 The Commonwealth of Kentucky was thrown into political turmoil over the election of its governor in 1899, and the winner's murder. 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 Justice Goebel,  who eventually won the...

The Diabolical Meeks Family Massacre Ad-Free Safe House Edition Scoundrels abound in Episode 337, when an ex-convict is assassinated in cold blood by the men he’s about to turn state’s evidence on. That would be bad enough, but what makes it intolerable is the fact that the turncoat’s wife and daughters are with him when the attack takes place, and his assailants don’t care. Become a supporter of...

The Campfire Cremation Of John Linn Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 336 is dedicated to True Crime Historian patron Marlene Resch, who wanted to hear a historic case from her hometown of Eugene, Oregon. So I dug around a bit and found this cowboy story which turns out to have been the first execution in Lane County. More WILD WESTERNS Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com...

The Lumberjack And The Boatman’s Wife Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 335 tells of another scandalous eternal triangle that ends in murder. The victim this time is the husband, and both his comely wife and the illiterate man who cuckolded him go on trial for his murder. More LOVE TRIANGLES GONE AWRY  Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909...

The Crimes Of The Citrus King Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 332 tells the story of a prominent businessman and his relationship with a young woman that gets him in all kinds of hot water. But the remarkable thing about this story is how history repeats itself, and twenty years later, he finds himself in another fine mess. More FALLS FROM GRACE Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.s...

Emil Sanger’s Rage  Ad-Free Safe House Edition Like all episodes of True Crime Historian, Episode 333 is a cautionary tale, this time about rage, when a normal businessman gets so  heated about a squabble mixing family and business that he lays out his own ruin. I wouldn’t go so far as to say anyone was asking to be murdered, but... I’ll let you be the judge. More FALLS FROM GRACE Become a support...

The Trial Of Arthur Sargent Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 334 is a simple tale: Three men go fishing on a boat, one man comes back the next day saying the other two were drowned in an accident on the pond. But was it an accident? We’d let the jury decide but for a rare motion with unusual timing by the prosecuting attorney that makes the outcome a certainty.  More COURTROOM SHENANIGANS Become...

The Saga Of Ida & Paul V. Hadley Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 125 concerns Ida Hadley, who was so passionate for her husband Paul that they called her a nymphomaniac in open court. Their trouble started much earlier, in Beaumont, Texas, when a man made eyes at Ida, and Paul shot him. This steamy story spans five years and includes three trials, attempted and successful jail breaks, multi...

Death of a Teenage Stenographer Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 123 is the story of fifteen year old Ruth Wheeler, recent graduate of a secretarial school, who 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 alive again. Two days later, a man living in the same building discovered that...

The Minot Redemption Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 124 is classic potboiler adapted from the pages of True Detective Mysteries Magazine, concerning 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...

The $2.35 Murder Ad Free Safe House Edition Episode 331 is dedicated to listener Kalie Jansen who recommended this strange story of a  Syracuse, New York woman who came up missing during a brutal snowstorm, and the surprising way in which the mystery unfolded. Culled from the historic pages of the Syracuse Herald and other newspapers of the era. More CAPITAL CRIMES Become a supporter of this podca...

The Jailer's Wife's Betrayal Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 330 is the exciting story of the Biddle Brothers of Pittsburgh, whose ransack of a humble home turns to homicide and leads to the line-of-duty death of one of the city's beloved officers. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support . You can pay more if you want to, but re...

The Tragic Typhoid Conspiracy Commerc ial Free Safe House Edition Episode 329 tells of an unusual modus operandi, the use of typhoid germs as a method of poisoning when an Illinois attorney goes on trial for the murder of a young man he raised after the death of his mother, who happened to leave her son a million dollar estate. A big welcome back to our friend Susan Ferman, who will read passages...

Rampage in Valdosta Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 126 concerned this podcast’s 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 n...

The Botched Execution of Tom Ketchum Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 127 takes us back to the days of the Old West with the tale of “the Black Jack Gang,” terrors of the Southwest, from about 1896 to 1891 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...

What The Dog Saw At Beekman Place Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 128 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...

The LaBoeuf Triangle Ad-Free Safe House Edition Episode 328 revisits one of our favorite tropes: The Love Triangle Gone Awry. The people involved here weren't rich and famous, but just ordinary people, tragically caught up in their passion. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support . You can pay more if you want to, but rent at the S...

The Exploits Of The Outlaw James Gang Ad Free Safe House Edition Episode 326 finishes off Wild West Month with the epic tale of one of the most notorious bands of outlaws to plague the American frontier. It’s a wild ride, so hang on. More WILD WESTERNS Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support . You can pay more if you want to, but r...

The Thorny Rose Of The Wild Bunch Ad Free Safe House Edition Episode 324 tells the tale of a young woman who would do anything for the man she loves, even go to prison for him. The couple were associated with the gang known as the Wild Bunch, featuring such notorious characters as Black Jack Ketchum, Butch Cassidy, and Harry Longbaugh, also known as the Sundance Kid. More WILD WESTERNS Culled from...