Retro Crime Story Time

We visited the former Ma's Tea House in Key West, Florida for this episode. It used to be a brothel owned by longtime local madam Alice Reid. Almost exactly 85 years before we arrived, resident Cecelia Thompson Tunks had been murdered with her own undergarments. The exact same incident happened again 6 months later in Philadelphia. Yet one case went cold, and the other didn't. We explore the crime...

On Christmas Eve in 1963, Lucille Chester shot her husband Elmer in the small town of Jeanette, Pennsylvania. What kind of woman spends Christmas Day in jail? I'll tell you what kind, and where that kind came from.

Before Bonnie and Clyde, there was a less sexy duo of robbers. Irene and Glenn had clean records then quickly escalated to crime once they met. They killed their way to the electric chair, and Irene became the first woman in Pennsylvania to die by one. The mystery remains: what motivated them suddenly?

Goldie Mae Richmond grew up in the mountains of West Virginia among alcoholics and violent criminals. In 1959, she became one herself when she shot and killed her father. Was she protecting her child? Or was she no more innocent than the people she grew up with.

Happy Halloween! On our latest visit to Sleepy Hollow, New York, we researched the village's second most popular ghostly resident. Isaac Van Wart Buckhout killed his wife Louisa and neighbor Arthur Rendall on New Year's Day in 1870. He was hanged and has become a part of the region's haunted folklore.

In Clearwater, Florida in 1915, the charred remains of 19 year old Susie Eliot and her mother Bessie were found in a car that had been set on fire. The chauffeur pointed the finger at the Citrus King of Pinellas County, John Mendenhall, who pointed the finger right back at the driver. The investigation revealed a story of misogyny, immorality, and all three traits of the dark triad.

In September of 1959, Kitty Harrig killed her husband and his mistress in their apartment in the Catskills. The town was shocked because Howard had been philandering for years, and Kitty had always handled it well. What made such a lovely person snap?

In 1926, Margaret Foley died from an illegal abortion in Washington, Pennsylvania. Who was responsible for her death? If you know a single mother, then her sacrifice wasn’t in vain.

On December 30th of 1918, a woman’s body was found in the James River. Families across the county insisted it was their daughter who had gone missing in that part of Virginia. Clue after clue unraveled a story of extreme selfishness and desperation.

In the 1930s, Squire Westwood was the most powerful man in The Bottoms of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. When he was on trial for killing his wife, his alibi was the lead detective on his case and a parade of beautiful women. He was a dirty, philandering, cheating judge, but did he do it?

In 1957, Lena Trappin was the oldest woman in Pennsylvania to be tried for murder. The 75 year old was charged with strangling her neighbor with a belt and dragged him downstairs into his yard in the middle of the night. What motive could she have had?

In East Liverpool, Ohio in 1948, Goldie Adams is found shot dead on Christmas morning by her common-law husband, John Adams. They lived in a shack at the dump. Her ex-husband Ross Adams was sleeping on their couch. All of them had been drunk and no one remembers what happened. Who did it?

In 1919, Wheeling, West Virginia, Margaret Clator shot her husband John Clator in self-defense. She claimed he caught her trying to kill herself and became so angry that he tried to kill her. Despite evidence against her and a confession, she outsmarted the prosecution who thought this was a simple death penalty case.

I discovered the British expression "I'm all right, Jack". It's used to describe another person who is selfish, smug, and doesn't care about anyone but themselves. This episode is about a murder in December of 1916. Jack Nolte shot his young lover Lee Ritz in Wheeling, West Virginia. Lee was a local celebrity for his talent on the football field. He had recently accepted a scholarship to Cornell,...

Thanksgiving of 1935 was peak drama at Chessie Tomlin's home. There was booze, adultery, and murder- all before the meal was ready! In my attempt to find a wild Thanksgiving story outside of my city, Pittsburgh once again proved to have the craziest crime.

For our Halloween episode, we went to the historic Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York to find a ghost. Despite the prison being secretive about the supernatural, we were able to find one. William Caesar killed his common-law wife Mary Martin in 1894, and his blundering of the cover-up lead the police to him.

My six year old Zach and four year old Kate join me on this episode about kids who committed crimes in our neck of the woods. We also have a story about ten year old boy who protected his brother from a kidnapper in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

In Ambridge, Pennsylvania in 1949, 15 year old Margaret Bankowski was found murdered on a slag pile off a lovers' lane near the Ohio River. The case went cold until Catherine Smutko was arrested for murder. She allegedly wanted Margaret’s dad Ziegfeld all to herself and mistook his daughter for his wife.

In the summer of 1939, the bodies of Eddie Dombrowski and his uncle Ignatz were found outside of Eddie's car on a lone country road in New Castle, Pennsylvania. The crime left the family and community confused. Some things are too tragic to wrap our minds around.

In 19th century Imperial Russia, a young man named Asher Markowitz married his foster mother Rachael Kirsch. Over a year later, he ran away. Rachael was determined to get him back and spent ten years searching. She finally found him in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, only now his name was Addison Brown and he was a happily married father. (Enjoy the soothing sounds of the dryer in the background.)

In December of 1929, the body of a man in his early 30s was found dumped in the snow in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania. He had two sets of ID on him. A few days later, a young man nearby went missing. The case wasn’t solved until 8 years later when both of their ghosts tortured their murderer into confessing.

In 1950, four young men robbed Rose Palermo in her home in Greentree, Pennsylvania. She didn't take kindly to that. Joining me is my 6 year old Zach.

In 1905, cocaine addicted Thomas O'Toole killed his brother-in-law then broke out of the Lawrence County Jail in Pennsylvania. He was never caught, so where did he go?

In remote Tioga County, Pennsylvania in 1890, bumbling blacksmith Alfred Hart couldn't do anything right. Not murder, not even suicide.

In 1908, 16 year old Arline Knisely and 48 year old Charles Spach were found having been shot in the head. It was ruled a murder-suicide despite that being forensically impossible.