Crimes of the Centuries

For much of their outlaw careers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid weren't the inseparable duo that Hollywood made us believe with its 1969 depiction of the pair. But the movie isn't the only reason the two are inextricably linked: The two members of the Wild West crew known as The Wild Bunch were wanted men when they opted in 1901 to disappear together. The official story is that the pair died...

Crimes Of The Centuries is dark this week, but we hope you'll enjoy this episode of Strange And Unexplained with Daisy Eagan. In the 1930s, some shadowy figures approached a decorated and beloved Marine with a plot to overthrow the government and replace FDR with someone much more friendly to the wealthy. If only they hadn't chosen Smedley Butler to do their bidding, we might be living in a very d...

As the audience was settling in for an evening of entertainment in one of the swankiest nightclubs in the Midwest, a busboy approached the mic and asked everyone to exit the sprawling building. Soon, the place was engulfed. The May 28, 1977, fire at the Beverly Hills Supper Club was a deadly disaster that subsequent investigations found was not only preventable, but had been predicted, too. The la...

To outsiders, John List was a mild-mannered, church-going father of three whose oddest trait was mowing the lawn in a suit and tie. But then the bodies of his wife, mother and three children were uncovered rotting in the family's Westfield, New Jersey, home in late 1971. This was no whodunit: List left notes explaining not only what he'd done, but why he claimed he had to do it. Then he disappeare...

William Mulholland was summoned to the St. Francis Dam in San Francisquito Canyon early March 12, 1928, to inspect some leaks that workers found worrisome. Mulholland shrugged off the concerns and declared the dam -- the 19th he'd designed alone to feed water to the parched desert of Los Angeles -- perfectly safe. Hours later, the dam gave way, releasing billions of gallons of water downstream, ki...

Sex workers began disappearing in the Rochester, New York, area at an alarming rate in the late 1980s. When their strangled and mutilated bodies were later discovered, it was clear they were being targeted by a sick killer with a distinct MO. It turned out that the man behind the killings, Arthur Shawcross, had already killed before. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab ex...

On this Friday Follow-Up, we update with information brought to us by two descendants of an important latter-day figure in the case.   After 4-year-old Charley Ross vanished in a carriage with two men who'd offered him candy and fireworks, police at first told his father to wait it out. Surely the men had no bad intentions. Then came the first ransom letter. And another. And another. In 1874, the...

When a well-dressed man approached a Los Angeles junior high school in 1927 asking for his coworker Perry Parker's daughter, the woman at the front desk should have immediately sensed something was off. Parker didn't have one daughter at the school; he had two. When the man clarified he wanted the "younger" Parker girl, that should have struck the office marm as odder still because the girls were...

Crime House True Crime Stories is the ultimate destination for true crime fans. Every episode features two notorious cases from that week in crime history, tied by a common theme like infamous serial killers, mysterious disappearances, tragic murders, and more. Every Monday, uncover the full stories behind the headlines as host Vanessa Richardson takes you through high-profile investigations like...

Most people know the story of Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl who hid in a secret attic for two years with six other people to avoid the Nazis, but a question still festers 80 years later: Who turned them in and sealed their fates? " 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 get early...

Mark Whitacre, a high-ranking exec at the agribusiness company Archer Daniels Midland, approached the FBI with some scandalous news: His employer was part of an international cartel illegally inflating the cost of lysine, an additive used in animal feed. What Whitacre ultimately helped uncover landed more than just his bosses in prison. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab...

After recovering from Stage 4 testicular cancer, cyclist Lance Armstrong not only got his health back, but he became one of the sport's highest profile figures, winning seven Tour de France races in a row. While he insisted -- repeatedly and under oath -- that he'd earned those wins without the help of performance-enhancing drugs, one of his past teammates stepped forward to tell a different story...

In 1944, the brutal slayings of two young girls made plenty of headlines in Alcolu, South Carolina. The trial of their suspected killer garnered far less attention -- even when he was convicted and violently executed in the electric chair. That's because few people had much sympathy for the boy who supposedly confessed to the crime. Nearly a century later, however, and 14-year-old George Stinney J...

Students at Pantglas Junior School had just settled in at their desks the morning of Oct. 21, 1966, when an avalanche of slurry swept through the building, trapping hundreds of children and teachers and wiping out nearby homes and businesses. Known as the Aberfan Disaster, the collapse of a colliery spoil tip ultimately killed 116 children and 28 adults. While the official cause was weeks of heavy...

As the world descended on Norway for the 1994 Winter Olympics, a determined thief set his sights on a Norweigian painting he'd coveted most of his life: Edvard Munch's The Scream. The daring theft of the world-renowned painting took less than a minute and prompted an undercover sting in hopes of retrieving the masterpiece. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring for...

On Thanksgiving week in 1849, Boston doctor and Harvard graduate George Parkman went for a walk and never returned home. The last place he'd been spotted was near the college's medical school, where he'd stopped for a meeting with Harvard chemistry professor John White Webster. The case that unfolded not only made international headlines but it threatened the reputation of America's oldest univers...

Host Mel Barrett investigates a famous murder case that has split the community in her home state of New Hampshire right down the middle for thirty-four years. It’s a closed case, but based on what Mel uncovers this season in old police files (including surreptitiously recorded wiretaps), never before heard interviews, and a bombshell post trial interview with a juror that’s been hidden away, Mel...

Crimes of the Centuries presents one of Amber's favorite episodes from Season One. Happy holidays everyone! In 1859, two of Washington, D.C.'s highest-profile men were in love with the same woman -- and that love triangle would lead to the broad-daylight shooting of one of them just a stone's throw from the White House. The victim had been the first-born son of Francis Scott Key, author of the lyr...

We are bringing you part two of the "Sunny" von Bülow story as a Bonus episode!  When heiress and socialite Martha "Sunny" von Bülow was found unresponsive on the bathroom floor, her husband seemed awfully quick to pull the plug when doctors declared her comatose. Suspicions only grew when investigators discovered that Claus von Bülow had a mistress who'd given him an ultimatum to leave Sunny or e...

To outsiders, Claus and Martha "Sunny" von Bülow seemed an idyllic couple on the upper echelons of high society, but those who knew them best were growing increasingly concerned in the late 1970s when Sunny began having health scares that doctors couldn't figure out. Claus said his wife was a depressed alcoholic, but Sunny's children and maid weren't so sure. Things took a tragic turn after Christ...

We all know Adolph Hitler as a mediocre artist-turned-genocidal dictator, but did you know that he pulled off the greatest art heist the world has ever seen? As World War II unfolded across Europe, Hitler directed his Nazis to steal countless masterpieces from every country they traversed. He kept his favorites, while others were hidden in castles and salt mines to be unearthed after the war ended...

The morning of June 12, 1962, alarms sounded at the federal prison on Alcatraz Island when guards conducting a head count came up three inmates short. In the prisoners' beds were decoy heads that bought the men enough time to escape the supposedly inescapable prison known as The Rock. The trio -- Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin -- had used handmade tools to dig tunnels and craft...

On January 17, 1950, a throng of men wearing superhero Halloween masks stormed into the headquarters of Brink's in Boston, Massachusetts, and made off with nearly $2.8 million. For years, the case baffled federal authorities, who spent 10 times the amount stolen working to solve the crime. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that...

As a series of brush and building fires baffled most firefighters in the Los Angeles region, John Orr of the Glendale Fire Department seemed amazingly skilled at identifying the cause of each blaze. He was so skilled at his job, in fact, that he was routinely asked to train other firefighters. Turned out, though, there was a sinister reason for Orr's success. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podca...

Between 1968 and 1985, eight sets of lovers were murdered during new moons in the Tuscany region of Italy. The mysterious and brutal slayings terrorized the region, made international headlines and fueled countless theories -- including one that the Monster of Florence and America's Zodiac Killer were one and the same. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgott...