Crimes of the Centuries

In the piney woods of East Texas in 1910, a mob of white men stormed through the Black community of Slocum, murdering dozens — possibly hundreds — of unarmed residents. The killers faced almost no consequences, and the survivors were silenced by fear. Over a century later, even basic recognition of the Slocum Massacre remains a battle. This is the story of the slaughter Texas tried to forget, and...

Crime doesn’t take a day off. And neither does Crime House Daily . Hosted by self-defense instructor and advocate for victims, Katie Ring, Crime House Daily is coming to you twice every weekday, covering the biggest crime stories as they unfold. Morning episodes give you the need-to-know. The latest headlines, breaking developments, and where things are going next. Evening episodes go deeper. Into...

When a major German magazine announced it had uncovered Adolf Hitler’s long-lost diaries, the world took notice. But what began as a journalistic coup turned into a scandal that rattled media empires — and left a permanent stain on the truth. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can...

The murder of Barbara Hamburg might read like fiction — a bitter divorce, a mysterious pyramid scheme, a family full of secrets — but for her son Madison, it was all too real. In 2010, Barbara was found bludgeoned to death outside her home in the affluent shoreline town of Madison, Connecticut. In this episode, we explore a case that captivated author Megan Abbott, inspired her novel El Dorado Dri...

This week on Crimes of the Centuries, we’re breaking from tradition. Instead of a crime from decades past, we’re looking at a case that’s still shaping headlines — and raising questions that may take years to answer. When Boston police officer John O’Keefe was found dead in the snow outside a fellow cop’s home, his girlfriend, Karen Read, was accused of running him down with her SUV in a fit of dr...

In 1981, 21-year-old Danny Hansford was shot and killed inside one of Savannah’s grandest mansions. The man who pulled the trigger, antiques dealer Jim Williams, claimed self-defense. What followed was a legal circus resulting in four high-profile trials. Then, less than a year later after the dust settled, Williams was dead. This is the case that inspired Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,...

Bella Wright was a shy, working-class woman whose life was cut short on a summer night in 1919, just short of her 22nd birthday. At first, her death looked like a tragic accident – until a single bullet found lodged in the dirt road changed everything. What followed was a century-long mystery involving an unshaven man on a distinctive green bicycle, a suspiciously dismantled frame dredged from a r...

Laura Fair wanted what many women in Gilded-Age San Francisco wanted: security, respectability, and a husband who told the truth. What she got instead was a years-long affair and a heap of public scorn. When a single gunshot rang out aboard a crowded ferry, it set off a national debate about morality, madness, and how far a woman could be pushed. Based on real letters, real lies, and a courtroom d...

You’d think the guy helping build the deadliest weapon in history would be someone the Allies vetted carefully. You’d be wrong. Klaus Fuchs was a physicist, a refugee, and a trusted member of the Manhattan Project. He was also a Soviet spy. His quiet betrayal helped the USSR test its first atomic bomb years ahead of schedule—ending America’s monopoly on nuclear weapons and setting the stage for th...

In 1974, 28-year-old Karen Silkwood left her home with a binder full of evidence and a plan to blow the whistle on dangerous conditions at the plutonium plant where she worked. She never arrived. What followed was a national uproar, a swirl of conspiracy theories, and a battle over the truth that still echoes today. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten...

Jerry Sandusky was a legend at Penn State University. As the right hand of head football coach Joe Paterno, he was known not only as an exceptional coach but also as a big-hearted philanthropist and advocate for troubled youth. So when a 2011 grand jury report exposed decades of abuse, the fallout was immeasurable, bringing to light a story of power, silence, and the cost of looking the other way....

In 1935, 12-year-old Lillian Gobitas and her little brother William were kicked out of their Pennsylvania public school — not for misbehaving, but for quietly refusing to salute the flag, which they believed went against their Jehovah’s Witness faith. Their dad sued, arguing the school had violated their right to religious freedom. But in a sweeping decision, the Supreme Court sided with the schoo...

Crimes Of The Centuries is dark again this week, so here is an episode that you might not have heard previously... or might just want to listen to again. When news spread that a high-profile comedian was killed in a murder-suicide in 1998, the response was disbelief: Phil Hartman wasn't just famous for being funny. He was even better known for being a good-hearted guy. The shocking story behind th...

While Crimes of the Centuries takes a brief summer break, enjoy a guest episode from Josh at The Wild West Extravaganza. This one’s a doozy: It’s the story of "Black Jack" Ketchum — a train robber whose criminal exploits made headlines across the American frontier. But it was his botched execution that really cemented his place in Wild West lore. This is one of those cases where the truth is not o...

In late 1910 and early 1911, a band of impulsive Latvian radicals fleeing persecution in Russia unleashed a wave of violence in London that left three policemen dead and part of a quiet city block in ruins. The siege that followed would not only transform British law enforcement but also mark a turning point in media history, as cameras captured the chaos in real time. " Crimes of the Centuries "...

When Berry Stoll returned from work on Oct. 10, 1934, the scene greeting him was pure chaos: His maid was tied up, his wife was missing and a terrifying pool of blood covered one of the beds. Alice Speed Stoll had been kidnapped by a smooth-talking, well-dressed man who claimed to be a phone repairman. What followed was a tense and twisted saga of ransom demands, narrow escapes, and a desperate ma...

One Sunday morning in 1997, a security guard noticed the front fence at Loomis Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina, was ajar. So was the warehouse door. And the vault inside was fitted with a suspicious time lock. When authorities finally opened the vault the next day, they found it completely empty, the target of one of the largest cash thefts in US history. The manhunt that followed would grip th...

In 1952, Ruby McCollum left two of her children in her car as she casually walked into a doctor's office in Live Oak, Florida, and shot Dr. C. Leroy Adams — a respected white physician and newly elected state senator. But what seemed like a clear-cut case of murder over a disputed medical bill soon unraveled into a story of power, race, sexual violence, and silence in the Jim Crow South. " Crimes...

When Henrietta Lacks discovered a tumor inside of her in 1951, she turned to Johns Hopkins Medical Center for help. They examined her cells and discovered two things: First, she had cervical cancer. And second, her cells, for reasons we still can't explain, multiplied at astonishing rates, allowing doctors and pharmaceutical companies to use them to conduct all sorts of valuable research. Without...

Murder: True Crime Stories explores the depths of history's most notorious murders, like you've never heard before. Go beyond the crime scene as we search for the real story, and focus on the people impacted the most. Whether or not the case is solved, you'll come away with an understanding of why these stories need to be told. Murder: True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered...

A band of nerdy geology enthusiasts were sure the email they received in 2002 was a hoax: The unsolicited message said that its writer was in possession of moon rocks that he was willing to sell. But moon rocks were among the most valuable objects on earth and anyone who knew anything about NASA knew that not only was owning them illegal, but it was impossible. One email recipient reached out to t...

When 25-year-old Tim Evans was hanged for killing his wife and 14-month-old daughter in 1949, few outside of his family questioned whether justice had been done. After all, Evans had at one point confessed to the crimes. But during his trial he recanted, saying that a neighbor had killed his 20-year-old wife Beryl during a botched abortion attempt. It seemed a ludicrous attempt at diversion -- unt...

In 1953, a horrific discovery was made behind some hastily hung wallpaper in a flat at 10 Rillington Place in London's Notting Hill neighborhood: The decomposing bodies of three women. Another body was found beneath floor boards, and two more skeletons were recovered from the backyard garden. Soon, a nationwide manhunt was under way for John Reginald Christie, a man author Kate Summerscale describ...

As American journalists worked to cover the Vietnam War, one of their colleagues proved a valuable asset: Pham Xuan An had been born in Vietnam, and was therefore able to help his coworkers navigate the ins and outs of an unfamiliar culture. His work was praised as detailed, empathetic and unbiased. It would be years later that the truth finally came out, revealing that the journalist was in fact...

In the 1990s, Dr. Jack Kevorkian ignited a firestorm when he began helping to end the lives of people who said they were terminally ill. Over the years, he claimed to have assisted in the deaths of more than 130 people, all while challenging police and prosecutors who vowed to stop him. His first four trials ended in three acquittals and a mistrial, but as his antics grew more daring, so, too, did...