Curious Cousins OK Podcast

Episode 176: Daniel Furr (Part 1) The mid-1990s were a chaotic, historic era defined by massive headlines—from the tragedy of the OJ Simpson trial and the shock of the Oklahoma City bombing to the pop-culture frenzy of Windows 95 and the return of Michael Jordan. But in the small town of Ada, Oklahoma, a completely different, deeply convoluted nightmare was unfolding for one local family. In this...

Ep 175: Medicine Park Pack your bags and grab your sage, because this week we are heading to Oklahoma’s very first planned resort town: Medicine Park . Nestled in the foothills of the Wichita Mountains, this unique oasis was built entirely from the ground up—literally—using the area’s distinct, naturally polished granite cobblestones. But beneath its picturesque, therapeutic exterior lies a wild h...

Ep 174: Keystone Lake — The Towns Beneath the Waves What if the place you called home was chosen to be wiped off the map? In Episode 174, Tiff dives deep into the murky waters of Keystone Lake , Oklahoma’s second-largest reservoir, to uncover a rich history of American exploration, Native American heritage, and 20th-century engineering that forever rewrote the local geography. Before it was a mass...

Ep 173: Elohim City Pt 3 ⚠️ WARNING: If you haven’t listened to Parts 1 and 2 yet, stop right here, go back, and binge those first—or prepare to be utterly confused! In Jess’ final installment on Oklahoma’s most infamous extremist compound, she is tying up all the loose ends and answering the burning questions that left our jaws on the floor last week. Last week, Tiff asked a fantastic question: D...

🎧 Episode 172: Inside the "Babylon Loophole" of ElohimCity Sovereignty, Steel, and the State Deep within the Ozark foothills lies Elohim City, a private, tight-knit enclave that has long operated on the fringes of American society and law enforcement radar. For decades, its residents have rejected the authority of the United States government, viewing the outside world through a deeply...

Ep 171: Elohim City Pt 1 This week, Jess dives deep into a highly requested, deeply unsettling listener pick from GayleBob03. Tucked away in the dense hardwood forests and rugged limestone ravines of the Ozark foothills lies a place most Oklahomans regard as the most dangerous and mysterious enclave in the state: Elohim City . Literally translated from Hebrew as "The City of God," this 4...

Nestled along the isolated, scenic base of Buffalo Mountain in southeast Oklahoma lies a regional landscape steeped in medical history, systemic tragedy, and spine-chilling lore. Often lumped together by urban explorers and ghost hunters as a single massive, haunted entity, the "abandoned medical complexes of Talihina" actually comprise two entirely separate facilities separated by just...

Episode 169: The Blizzard of January 1886The Storm That Ended the Open Range As we transition into the warmth of spring and summer, Ep. 169 takes a chilling look back at one of the most transformative disasters in American history. The Blizzard of January 1886 wasn't just a weather event; it was a "systemic collapse" that reshaped the Great Plains, ended the era of the cowboy "c...

Episode 168: Diamonds, Bonds, and Jesse James: Zeo Zoe Wilkins (part 3) In the gripping conclusion to the saga of Dr. Zeo Zoe Wilkins , the "Love Pirate" finally meets a storm she cannot outrun. After a lifetime of high-stakes swindles, "shotgun weddings," and an oil-fueled fortune, Zeo’s world narrows to a run-down house on Park Avenue in Kansas City. But as her beauty fades i...

Episode 167: Diamonds, Doctors, and Deception: The Many (more) Lives of Zeo Zoe Wilkins (part 2) "I was a doctor, not a Mrs." — Zeo’s infamous retort when questioned about her trail of marriages. In the early 20th century, a woman’s reputation was her currency—but for Dr. Zeo Zoe Wilkins, scandal was her business model. This week, Tiff dives back into the sensational, stranger-than-ficti...

The Love Pirate’s Ledger: Dr. Zeo Zoe Wilkins (Part 1) In the "Oil Capital of the World," wealth flowed as freely as the crude, but few prospectors were as efficient as Dr. Zeo Zoe Wilkins . Known to history as the "Black Widow of Tulsa" and the "Love Pirate," Zeo wasn’t just a socialite—she was a highly educated Doctor of Osteopathy who used the stethoscope and the w...

Ep 165: Suitcase of Death! "Straight shooters always win, lawbreakers always lose." — The Tom Mix Club Motto Imagine surviving hundreds of death-defying movie stunts, jumping canyons on horseback, and becoming the highest-paid star in Hollywood, only to be taken out by your own luggage. This week, Jess dives into the legendary life and bizarrely tragic death of the world’s first true &qu...

Episode 164: Circus City USA When you think of Oklahoma, images of sprawling prairies, college football rivalries, and "The Oklahoma Standard" likely come to mind. But tucked away in the southeastern corner of the state lies a town with a colorful, gravity-defying secret. Welcome to Hugo, Oklahoma —better known to the world as Circus City, USA . In this episode, we trade the gridiron for...

Episode 163: The Kelly Clan – Oklahoma’s "Bloody Benders"? Think the "Bloody Benders" of Kansas were the only family of frontier serial killers? Think again. In this episode, Jess takes Tiff on a dark journey into the lawless "No Man’s Land" of the Oklahoma Panhandle to uncover the legend of The Kelly Clan . In the late 1880s, the Kelly family—William, Kate, Bill, and...

Episode 162: The Skirvin Hotel – The Grande Dame’s Double Life "I don't think it's haunted. I think NBA players are just a bunch of sissies." — Petra Germany, Skirvin Artist-in-Residence In this episode, we step inside the revolving doors of Oklahoma City’s most storied landmark: The Skirvin Hilton . From its 1911 debut as the "Waldorf of the Heartland" to its dark year...

Episode 161: Jim Thorpe Pt. 2 – The Bright Path Beyond the Gold In the conclusion of our two-part series, we follow Jim Thorpe as he hangs up his cleats and heads west to the silver screen. While the world remembers him as the "greatest athlete in the world," this episode explores the gritty, complex, and often heartbreaking chapters of his life that followed his Olympic and professional...

Episode 160: Jim Thorpe – The Bright Path of an American Icon "Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world." — King Gustav V of Sweden to Jim Thorpe, 1912. This episode explores the Herculean life of James Francis Thorpe (Wa-Tho-Huk), a man whose athletic dominance was so absolute that he redefined the limits of human potential. From the rugged wilderness of Oklahoma to the podiums of...

In a departure from our usual schedule, this week we are slowing down to look backward. Driven by a surge of missing persons reports, and a personal desire to cut through the noise of a busy season, we are revisiting three names that the world has begun to whisper, but must never forget. "Time heals all wounds" is a lie told to those who aren't waiting for a phone call that never com...

Episode 158: The "Belle" of Rogers County – The Belvidere Mansion In this episode, we travel to Claremore, Oklahoma, to explore the Belvidere Mansion , a three-story Victorian Gothic "castle" with a history as grand as its four turrets. Built at the turn of the 20th century by wealthy entrepreneur John Melville Bayless , this 9,000-square-foot masterpiece was meant to be a drea...

Episode 157: OK Black Rodeo – The Dust, The Duty, and The Dynasty In this episode, Tiff kicks up the red dirt of Oklahoma to uncover a history often "whitewashed" out of the Hollywood Western: the formidable legacy of the Black cowboy. From the "Soul Circuit" of all-Black towns to the modern-day "Super Bowls" of rodeo, we explore how Oklahoma became the epicenter of a...

Podcast Episode 156: The Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken Tragedy In this chilling episode, we travel back to the summer of 1992 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to revisit a crime that shattered the sense of safety in a tight-knit community. Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken wasn't just a restaurant; it was a "fried chicken royalty" landmark with direct ties to Colonel Sanders himself. But on August 17, th...

Episode 155: The Ghosts of Fort Sill Is it possible for a military base to never truly "close," but instead just layer century after century of restless energy into the soil? In this episode, we are heading to Lawton, Oklahoma, to explore Fort Sill . Unlike other frontier posts that were abandoned to the elements, Fort Sill has been continuously active since 1869. It has evolved from a h...

"My boy, may an old man's curse rest upon you if you do not try to avenge your father." In 1868, an eight-year-old boy named Frank Eaton witnessed his father’s cold-blooded murder at the hands of lawless vigilantes. Most children would have been broken; Frank just got a gun. In this week’s episode, Jess traces the incredible 97-year journey of the man who would become Pistol Pete . W...

This week, your favorite cousins wrap up the crimes of Glen Ake and Steve Hatch. Ake and Hatch were arrested in Colorado and returned to Oklahoma after being linked to the murders of Reverend and Mrs. Douglass, as well as related crimes in Texas. Six weeks after the killings, the manhunt ended on Thanksgiving Eve 1979; Oklahoma officials moved quickly to secure custody. Evidence against them inclu...

Wowza! We’ve already made it through the first full week of 2026! This week, Tiff’s listener pick takes us back to 1979 when OK was rocked by the brutal murders of Rev. Richard and Mrs. Marilyn Douglass. Rev. Richard Douglass was the lead pastor at Putnam City Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. Marilyn Lacy Douglass chose to focus on raising their two children, Brooks and Leslie. The couple married...