Forgotten Felonies

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! In the Izzo household, music filled every corner of the home. Agostino Izzo had once played in the Seneca Falls Italian Band and worked as a music teacher, passing his love of music on to his children. Several would go on to perform in orchestras of their own, carrying the family’s musical legacy far beyond their home in Syracuse, New York. But on July 13, 1926...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! On July 17, 1938, ten people were living in two small rooms above the Broadway Inn in Leechburg, Pennsylvania. By sunrise, three were dead and seven children were orphaned. In 1909, a young girl watched her father terrorize a Pennsylvania town with a shotgun. Nearly three decades later, that same girl would die in the doorway of the room where her children slep...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! On January 12, 1935, Amelia Earhart landed safely in Oakland, California after her historic solo flight across the Pacific. The nation celebrated progress, courage, and modern aviation. That same day, in a Mississippi post office, a man was arrested with a piece of human flesh in his pocket. This episode traces the story of Alonzo Robinson — known for decades a...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! In November of 1913, three-year-old Winifred Byrne vanished from outside her family’s home on West 38th Street in New York City. Her father had looked away for just a moment—and that was all it took. What happened during the four days Winifred was missing was never fully explained. In this Fun-Sized Felony, we revisit the brief headlines, the unanswered questio...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! In July of 1912, Emily Antone—a 38-year-old Indigenous woman—arrived at a house in Middleport, Ontario, carrying a trunk and plans to start over. She never left alive. This Fun-Sized Felony examines the murder of Emily Antone, the failures that surrounded it, and the way her story quietly disappeared from print. Using contemporary newspaper accounts, we trace w...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! In the early hours of January 27, 1891, John Heslop was murdered inside his home near Ancaster, Ontario. He was a respected township clerk, a longtime pioneer in the area, and a man whose death sent shockwaves through the surrounding countryside. What followed was an investigation shaped by footprints in the snow, conflicting testimony, and mounting public pres...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! This is another Fun-Sized Felony. Look for a full-sized episode next week! In June of 1912, seventeen-year-old Mabel E. "Dolly" Dorner vanished, leaving her parents frantic and the newspapers full of fear. Three days later, she was quietly returned by a mysterious woman who claimed to be a nurse—along with an explanation that only raised more question...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! Not every story is told in full. This frustrates us, and now it can frustrate you! (You're welcome.) The towns of Whitman and Brockton, MA, were thrown for a loop in July of 1957 when young boys were being immorally assaulted, battered, and murdered. What happened to little Dicky Doherty? Tune in to this fun-sized episode to find out as much as we know!

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! In 1954, Melvin Clark was murdered and his body dumped into the depths of the Merrimack River. His wife, Lorraine Clark, would ultimately plead guilty—and for decades, that plea has stood as the official ending to the case. But the record tells a more complicated story. In this episode, we take a closer look at the murder of Melvin Clark, the investigation that...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! In the final episode, Isabella J. Martin finally faces trial in a courtroom she cannot control. As the case unfolds, testimony forces the legal system to confront a difficult truth: Baby John was not a criminal mastermind, but a child shaped by coercion and fear. This episode follows Isabella from conviction, to imprisonment, to retrial, to re-conviction, and b...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! A burning barn in the snow finally breaks Isabella J. Martin’s control over her son.  In Episode 2, Baby John is arrested—and for the first time in his life, separated from the woman who shaped every moment of his childhood. What follows is chaos inside the courtroom: Isabella acting as her son’s attorney, arguing with the judge, confessing to arson in open cou...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! In 1907, a judge’s home in Oakland, CA was blown apart by a homemade bomb. For months, the case went unsolved — until a trail of clues led not to a hardened criminal, but to a sixteen-year-old boy known as “Baby John.” Episode 1 uncovers the hidden truth behind that headline: Baby John was not a prodigy of crime, but a child raised in isolation and fear under t...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! A young boy found himself lost in the pages of adventure-filled dime novels and couldn't get enough. Before too long he brought those adventures to life just to read about his own adventures in the headlines. Zollie Clement became the Boy Bandit by night, yet he was conniving and clever enough by day to get away with it under the noses of all who knew him....

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! Long before candy and costumes, Halloween was a night of chaos. Young people looked forward to a night of unbridled rebellion while responsible property owners feared for their livelihood. Halloween was a night of anything-goes and, unfortunately, anything  went far too often. Townsfolk and police officers simply had to brace themselves and wait for October to...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! This is the third and final episode in our series featuring Lane County, OR. This one takes you through the life and crimes of John Branton, older brother of Claude. When Milly Elliott met John Branton, she thought it was a love story to last through the ages. She imagined she'd be with John for the rest of her life. She wasn't wrong—she just didn&apo...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! This episode is the second in a series of three covering a wild time in the history of Lane County, Oregon. Be sure to start with the previous episode, " Claude Branton and Courtland Greene - A Murder at Isham's Corral ." Sheriff Withers was, by all accounts, the most beloved sheriff in the history of Lane County. He was known for being honest, f...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! This is the first of three episodes that take place in Lane County, OR. It was a wild time... Sheriff Withers had only been sheriff for 4 days when the biggest case of his career fell into his lap. The murder committed by Claude Branton and Courtland Greene was not just the talk of the town, but the whole state of Oregon took notice. Lane County had to, for the...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! June 9th, 1911 brought a giant shock for the tiny community of Ardenwald, OR. A highly regarded family—William and Ruth Hill, and Ruth's children Philip and Dorothy Rintoul—who had just moved into the area were massacred in a most brutal way in their tiny cabin in the middle of the night. The detectives scrambled to find justice for this family for years b...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! In November of 1895, John Nelson would never have guessed that the unassuming stranger standing at his front door would turn his family's life upside down for the next several months. This story goes to show just how trusting we were back in the 1890s and how we'd open our homes to just about anyone. But just when you think you know who the villain of...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! This is the 3rd and final part of the Hans Schmidt series. In this episode we: Explore the investigation into Dr. Muret's true identity, and then reveal his real identity! Discuss what may have happened to Anna Aumuller's baby, as well as her cause of death Reveal the outcomes of both Dr. Muret's and Hans Schmidt's trials Muse over some thou...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! Part 2 of our Hans Schmidt series takes us back to the 1800s in Germany for a look at Hans's childhood and the relatives that came before him. Listen in as we unpack the "clews" from the newspapers and the trial transcripts that might just give us insight into why Hans committed the murder and dismemberment of Anna Aumuller in September of 1913....

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! This is Part 1 of a very in-depth tale that is dark and twisted. (You can't say we didn't warn you!)  When pieces of a lady washed ashore along the banks of the Hudson River in 1913, investigators had no idea just what a nightmare had been unearthed. The whole thing really began across the ocean decades earlier and now it was there at their feet in Ne...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! Life wasn't easy for the Mormon refugees flooding into Mexico in 1885, and it was downright terrifying when they fled back out during the Mexican revolution in 1912. Life seemed to be especially hard for one man in particular who was born in Colonia Diaz and he took it out on his family for the rest of his life. When the law wouldn't help them or thei...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! "No one ever lived who loved children more than I did." These are the words spoken by a man who laughed and joked when recounting the murders of 11 children—all of whom saw him as their father figure. George Hassell was a special type of family annihilator who would extinguish his family when he found them to be inconvenient in some way. If his family...

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! The wild west was alive and well in Westfall, Oregon in 1912. Asa Carey was a mean son of a gun who couldn't stay away from the saloons. Whoever decided he'd make a good town marshal clearly wasn't thinking straight! Asa had his own ideas when it came to meting out fair punishment and he wound up on the wrong side of the bars, himself, more than...