Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

My guest is former criminal defense attorney Mark Shaw, author of "The Reporter Who Knew Too Much: The Mysterious Death of What's My Line TV Star and Media Icon Dorothy Kilgallen". He talks about the life of Pulitzer nominated reporter and television star Dorothy Kilgallen, who was allegedly on the brink of breaking wide open a story about John Kennedy's assassination before her mysterious and sus...

My guest, Jay Atkinson, author of "Massacre on the Merrimack", tells the notorious and controversial story of Hannah Duston. After members of the Abenaki tribe captured her and her newborn infant in March of 1697, they killed her baby on a forced march north. Duston got her revenge by killing and scalping ten of her captors, including six children, and fleeing by canoe back to her home in Haverhil...

My guest is Charles Brandt, the author of bestselling book "I Heard You Paint Houses". He tells the story of Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran, a hitman who goes to work for famed mob boss Russell Bufalino and Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa in the 1950s and 60s. According to confessions by Sheeran to Brandt, he was involved in three of the most famous murders of their era - President John Kennedy, Jim...

In the spring of 1897, Chicago sausage tycoon Adolph Leutgert's wife Louisa went missing. Police soon suspected her body had been dissolved in a vat in Adolph's factory. My guest, Robert Loerzel, author of "Alchemy of Bones: Chicago’s Luetgert Murder Case of 1897", tells the sensational true crime story of murder, sex and sausage on this week's episode of Most Notorious. More about the author here...

In 1941 Berlin police were on the hunt for a serial killer who stalked women on the S-Bahn at night, bludgeoning victims to death before throwing their bodies off of the train. Scott Andrew Selby, author of "A Serial Killer in Nazi Berlin: The Chilling True Story of the S-Bahn Murderer" details the terrible rape and murder spree of railway worker Paul Ogorzow. The author's website: https://www.sco...

In 1828 two friends named William Burke and William Hare killed sixteen people in Edinburgh, Scotland and sold their bodies to an anatomist named Dr. Robert Knox. Dr. Lisa Rosner, author of "The Anatomy Murders", tells the story of this notorious duo of serial killers and the nefarious business of body selling in early 19th century Scotland. The author's website: http://burkeandhare.com/anatomymur...

Oklahoma oilman and multi-millionaire Jake Hamon had just helped elect Warren Harding President of the United States and had a fast track to become Secretary of the Interior - but under one condition. He had to break things off with his mistress of ten years, Clara Smith. That was when things went terribly wrong. David R. Stokes, author of "Jake and Clara: Scandal, Politics, Hollywood and Murder"....

My guest is historian Michael Greenburg, the author of "The Mad Bomber of New York, The Extraordinary True Story of the Manhunt that Paralyzed a City". He tells the story of serial bomber George Metesky, who terrorized New York City in the 1940s and 50s over a grudge with a utility company. More about the author: https://www.michaelgreenburg.com/ Become a Most Notorious patron: https://www.patreon...

The number of theories surrounding the Jack the Ripper murders in 1880s London are too staggering to mention. At least 200 suspects have been considered over the decades and spirited debate over his true identity has preoccupied the time of many a true crime history buff. Donald Rumbelow is my guest on this first Jack the Ripper-themed episode of Most Notorious. He is a world renowned expert on th...

On September 28th, 1953, Bobby Greenlease, six-year-old son of millionaire Robert Greenlease, was kidnapped and then murdered by two grifters named Carl Austin Hall and Bonnie Brown Heady. John Heidenry, author of "Zero at the Bone: The Playboy, the Prostitute, and the Murder of Bobby Greenlease" tells the disturbing story of this notorious crime, which included corrupt cops and Saint Louis mobste...

My guest is Juliet Mofford, author of "The Devil Made Me Do It! Crime and Punishment in Early New England". She discusses a variety of topics, including scarlet letters, witches, and the methods that Puritans dealt out punishments to law-breakers. Become a Most Notorious patron: https://www.patreon.com/mostnotorious Most Notorious on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MostNotorious1 Most Notorious...

My guest today, Catherine Spude, author of "That Fiend in Hell: Soapy Smith in Legend", tells the story of the renowned con-man, crime boss and murderer Soapy Smith, known in history as the "King of Skagway". She also helps separate the fact from the fiction and dispel some myths about the most notorious man in Alaskan history. More about the author and her work here: https://www.oupress.com/autho...

In a rough part of Cleveland Ohio called Kingsbury Run, twelve decapitated bodies, some mutilated and dismembered, were discovered from 1934-1938. My guest, Dr. James Badal, author of "In the Wake of the Butcher: Cleveland's Torso Murders", discusses the details of the crimes and the investigation, including the involvement of legendary lawman Elliot Ness. More about the author and his work here:...

There are many myths surrounding Grigori Rasputin, known in popular history as the "Mad Monk" and the "Holy Devil". His influence on Tsar Nicholas II and his family in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Russia is well known, but my guest, Douglas Smith, author of "Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs" sheds new light on his life, his motives and where the legends end and the actual...

Dillinger historian Ellen Poulsen, author of "Don't Call Us Molls", completes her interview with me about the role of women in Depression-era gangs of the Midwest. Included in this episode, girlfriends of the Barker-Karpis and Dillinger Gangs, Mrs. Babyface Nelson and Bonnie Parker of Bonnie and Clyde fame. The author's website: http://www.dillingerswomen.com/ Become a Most Notorious patron: https...

In this first part of my two part interview with Ellen Poulsen, author of "Don't Call Us Molls", we discuss the many women involved with notorious 1930s Public Enemy #1 John Dillinger, including Evelyn "Billie" Frechette, Anna Sage and Polly Hamilton, and the role that molls played in the lives of bank-robbing Depression-era gangsters. The author's website: http://www.dillingerswomen.com/ Become a...

In March of 1887 a high-class prostitute and two others, including a child, were found stabbed to death in a luxury apartment on the upscale Avenue Montaigne. Police settle on a mysterious immigrant gigolo as their main suspect, named Enrico Pranzini. My guest, Aaron Freundschuh, author of "The Courtesan and the Gigolo: The Murders in the Rue Montaigne and the Dark Side of Empire in Nineteenth-Cen...

Richard Zacks, bestselling author of "Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd" is my guest, and he tells some stories (and breaks some myths) about a man considered one of the most infamous pirates in American history. More about the author here: https://www.echonyc.com/~rzacks/ Become a Most Notorious patron: https://www.patreon.com/mostnotorious Most Notorious website: https://www.mostnoto...

The 1930s were filled with news of midwest bank-robbers like John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd and Bonnie & Clyde, but few know that Boston had its own gang of thieves and killers during the Depression. Murt Millen, a whip-smart but unstable Jewish kid, his mentally challenged brother, Irv, his wife, Norma Brighton (the wayward daughter of a minister), and his MIT graduate friend...

Two events in early 1940s L.A. grabbed newspaper headlines almost back to back- The murder of José Díaz and following trial of 22 boys, and the race riots between American sailors and zoot-suit wearing Mexican-American kids in downtown Los Angeles. Eduardo Obregón Pagán is a professor at Arizona State University and a co-host of PBS's History Detectives, and he talks with me about his book, "Murde...

Carl Panzram was a self-confessed serial killer and rapist, who admitted in his autobiography to over 20 murders just before his execution in 1930. My guest, John Borowski, director of the documentary "Carl Panzram: The Spirit of Hatred and Vengeance" talks about this man, who many consider one of most evil people to ever walk the earth, and how childhood traumas and prison torture might have cont...

Few of us think of 19th century Los Angeles in the same breath as Tombstone, Dodge City, or Deadwood, but in the 1850s it was filled with rampant racism and violent conflict. Vigilantes roamed the streets and lynchings were commonplace. My guest, Professor John Mack Faragher, author of "Eternity Street: Violence and Justice in Frontier Los Angeles" talks about this rough and savage time in Califor...

In 1913 a PR man named John Gluck successfully petitioned the US Post Office for control of New York City's Santa Claus letters. From that point forward, he not only built the Santa Claus Association into a major holiday organization, but also found ways to steal large amounts of money in the process. Alex Palmer, author of "The Santa Claus Man: The Rise and Fall of a Jazz Age Con Man and the Inve...

Cory Frye, author of "Murder in Linn County, Oregon: The True Story of the Legendary Plainview Killings" is my guest. He tells two stories. On June 21, 1922, Linn County sheriff Charles Kendall and Reverend Roy Healy drove out to arrest a moonshining farmer named Dave West. By the end of the day, all three men were dead. William Dunlap replaced him, but was also killed on duty within a year. Autho...

My interview with Michael Wallis, author of "Pretty Boy: The Life and Times of Charles Arthur Floyd" continues. We cover the bloody and notorious Kansas City Massacre, as well as the last few weeks, days and hours of Pretty Boy Floyd's life. Become a Most Notorious patron: https://www.patreon.com/mostnotorious Most Notorious website: https://www.mostnotorious.com/ Learn more about your ad choices....