Badass Women of America

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we continue our story of American women bootleggers focusing on two of the most famous rum-runners - Cleo Lythgoe, Queen of the Bahamas and Willie Carter Sharpe, Rum-Running Queen of Virginia. Join Kit and Sherlock for the whole story of these notorious women as well as the story of Mabel Walker Willebrandt, the U.S. Assistant District Attorney who was relentless i...

Send us Fan Mail Prohibition began in Maine in 1851, way before federal prohibition in 1920.  Mainers had to live with this ridiculous law for 82 years.  But they found their way around it.  The only thing that prohibition accomplished for the country in 1920 was make the Mafia a powerful and unstoppable crime organization. In Kentucky, Maggie Bailey was only seventeen years old in 1920 when she s...

Send us Fan Mail Who knew?!  The first women to enlist in a branch of the Armed Services were Yeoman for the US Navy in 1917 during WWI. Over 11,000 women joined the Navy to work in areas like communications, decoding and encoding messages, designing camouflage to name just a few. Join Kit and Sherlock for the whole story of the women of the Navy and how they not only served their country but chan...

Send us Fan Mail Most people think there were only a few women doctors in the 1800s and early 1900s but there were thousands. These women found a way around the restrictions of acceptable behavior for women during the Victorian era to pursue their dreams of attaining medical degrees in order to help others. Join Kit and Sherlock to hear the accomplishments of a few of these Badass Women of America...

Send us Fan Mail It had to start somewhere and it started with Mary Willard - Forensic Science - the beginning of CSI. Mary was an assistant professor of chemistry at Penn State University in 1930 when she was first asked to assist with a criminal case.  By training and curiosity she became an expert in chemical analysis of evidence from crime scenes. She became known nationally and internationall...

Send us Fan Mail Without a medical degree, Frances, at the age of 53, changed the course of crime scene investigation and forensic pathology in the United States. She was a pioneer in standardizing the methods used in assessing clues of a crime, training police investigators for decades and creating what we now know as Homicide Detectives. Join Kit and Sherlock for the whole story of Frances and h...

Send us Fan Mail Esther Lovejoy was one of the pioneering women in the medical field in the late 1890s until her death in 1967.  She not only traveled all over the world helping the sick and injured; not only changed laws regarding health codes but she also saved an American town from an epidemic. Join Kit and Sherlock for the whole story of Dr. Esther Lovejoy. See pictures and additional informat...

Send us Fan Mail Barbie is not a bimbo!  Ruth's intention for creating the Barbie doll was so that girls could role play who they could be as adults.  She wanted the girls to see that they had choices to be whatever their imaginations created. Join Kit and Sherlock for the story of Ruth Handler from her co-founding and managing of what became Mattel toy manufacturer through her breast cancer...

Send us Fan Mail Her name is Eunice Carter and she should be in our history books. First Black woman to receive a law degree from Fordham University. First African American woman prosecutor in the United States. First Black woman in the United States to be appointed as Assistant District Attorney. She saw what no one else saw - that the mob was connected to prostitution in New York.  She investiga...

Send us Fan Mail They were called Donut Dollies, a name that doesn't represent who they were or what they did. Thousands of women volunteers from WW2, the Korean War and the Vietnam War risked their lives to bring a little piece of America to the soldiers in combat. They dogged bullets, landmines and bombings to bring joy, fun and a little bit of home to the thousands of men entrenched in war...

Send us Fan Mail We think that all women in the 1800s were demure housewives and mothers but there were some women who took America by storm with their criminal enterprises. In this episode Kit and Sherlock cover three notorious East Coast women gangsters who lived lives on the edge as pickpockets, thieves, blackmailers, fences and financiers of major bank robberies in which the stolen money was n...

Send us Fan Mail The Appalachian Trail is a brutal 2,050 mile hike that travels through 14 states and takes 4-6 months to complete. Only 20% of hikers that start the trek actually finish. Emma Gatewood started her journey when only 6 people before her had completed the trail.  She was 67 years old when she started in May 1955. She reached the end of the trail in September 1955.  Reporters were pre...

Send us Fan Mail We go to work thinking we're safe.  That's what women who worked in the paint factories were told in the 1920s.  It was a lie.   These women were exposed to high levels of radiation without their knowledge.  Their stories of strength and perseverance in fighting the big corporations are inspirational and deeply sad. Join Kit and Sherlock to hear the details of the Radium...

Send us Fan Mail 223 young women volunteered in 1917 to be sent to the front of WWI to revolutionize military communication. These women connected over 26 million calls in 20 months working near the front lines with a speed six times faster than the men they replaced. While bombs and arial attacks from the enemy whizzed around them, they connected critical calls for artillery support, troop moveme...

Send us Fan Mail We think it was only men who dug for gold and made or lost a fortune during the multiple gold rushes throughout America in the 1800s but that's not true. Thousands of women got "gold fever" and set out to claim their fortune.  Some established businesses, some were ranchers but... some were prospectors donning pants with a shovel and pick axe over their shoulders di...

Send us Fan Mail Women behind the scenes is where all the action and work took place at NASA. Men at NASA didn't want to have anything to do with computers.  They considered complex calculations to be "women's work" so they passed the task of learning IBM's new Fortran computer program to Dorothy Vaughan, a mathematics genius. She accepted the challenge and brought NASA in...

Send us Fan Mail American women were not only instrumental in computing complex mathematical calculations for scientific research starting in the 1870s, they were instrumental in launching the space program that we know today. Join Kit and Sherlock for an in-depth dive into the history of how women launched the space program. See pictures and additional information about Badass Women of America on...

Send us Fan Mail The Iditarod is the annual dog sled race held in Alaska since 1973. We applaud the women who have competed in this race against all odds while being discouraged by men and encouraged by women. However, we bring light to the cruelty of the dogs that has endured for 54 years. Join Kit and Sherlock for the whole story of the treatment of dogs throughout the history of the Iditarod. S...

Send us Fan Mail You may not know Daisy Bates but we all should celebrate the contribution she made to the Civil Rights movement and especially the historic event in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. She tore down the wall of segregation in schools in the South.  Ms. Bates did what no one had done before.  She was instrumental in ensuring that nine black students, the Little Rock Nine, not only were...

Send us Fan Mail The Little Rock Nine were nine black teenagers who changed history. They bravely went against the hordes of white people trying to keep them from entering an all white high school in Little Rock Arkansa in search of a better education. They were assaulted physically and verbally but it didn't stop them. These kids were the bravest of the brave. Join Kit and Sherlock for the s...

Send us Fan Mail Fanchon Blake was a Major in the US Army during WW2.  After the war she joined the LAPD where she was restricted from not only using her skills as a Major but was sometimes reduced to custodial work. When she objected to the rule that women couldn't rise above the rank of sergeant, she was ridiculed until she fought by back filing a lawsuit against the LAPD in 1973. She was o...

Send us Fan Mail Do you want to know about extraordinary black women in the history of America? Here's your chance.  Phillis Wheatley proved herself to be a one-of-a-kind American extraordinaire.  Her journey starts in West Africa, is transported to Boston and then to London and back to Boston. It's not a pretty story but it's a story of intelligence and creativity exalted and then...

Send us Fan Mail We promised you in the previous episode that we would offer proof that Steinbeck used the notes of Sanora Babb from interviews with Dust Bowl migrants to write The Grapes of Wrath .  Did he miraculously write The Grapes of Wrath in 100 days after two failed attempts or did he write it after receiving the meticulous notes of Sanora Babb?  We believe Steinbeck stole Sanora's st...

Send us Fan Mail It's difficult to sum up Sanora Babb's life.  Raised in poverty, didn't attend school until age eleven, became Valedictorian of her high school class, became a journalist good enough to receive a job offer from the Los Angeles Times in early 1929 but when she arrives to start the job she's turned away due to the sudden stock market crash.  Where does she go fro...

Send us Fan Mail In 1968, Diane Crump was the first woman to be granted a professional jockey license and in 1970, the first woman to compete in the Kentucky Derby. She fought through crowds of protesters to get to the track. In 1955, Claudette Colvin was the first person to be arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus.  She was 15 years old. Join Kit and Sherl...