History is Criminal

His was always a troublemaker, even his mama said so. But, was Willie Rudolph, AKA the Missouri Kid smart enough to outwit the private army, that was the Pinkerton Detective Agency. At a time when bank robbers were often viewed as folk heroes and banks the bad guys, Black Frank and the Missouri Kid briefly captured America's imagination, just as the old west was dying out. Join Kim and I as we...

Maybe marrying the King of England isn't all that great. For the wives of Henry VIII, it was a dangerous game. Of his six wives it would be Anne Boleyn whose death still sticks with us the most. Maybe because it caused a whole country to change its religion, or maybe because it is hard to know just how much of a role Anne played in her own sad story, but she is the wife that we still fixate on...

The Bandit Queen of Arizona, Pearl Hart seemed to be all about breaking hearts and breaking barrios as the 19th century came to an end. She would become a nationwide celebrity and even a poster woman for the suffragette movement. All this despite the fact that her only stagecoach robbery ended in a failure and her arrest. Join Kimberly and I as we dive into the wild and sometime confusing story of...

Kim and I jump back to the late 1700's and the City of Brotherly Love, to examine a poorly executed bank heist. 1798 Philadelphia, Yellow fever rips through the city, as people flea two men pull off the first bank robbery in US History. They almost got away with it but turns out they weren't the brightest Philly had to offer. The wrong man will rot in jail, even after it is clear that he d...

Kimberly and I take a look at the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. If it were a Holly wood story it would have too many plot holes and coincidences for anyone to want to produce it. How did a 19 year old Serbian military reject manage to kill the heir to the Austrian throne sparking the First World War?

In a new format, my co-host and I look at one on the biggest con artist in history. Long before Charles Ponzi made it famous, Adele Spitzeder was swindling a massive fortune from the folks in Munich Bravia. Even in the world of crime, a woman just can't get the credit they deserve.

When a man's self-aggrandizing become so extreme that he believes he alone controlled the outcome of a Presidential election tragedy follows. Charles Guiteau decided that President James Garfield had to die. The story of how he came to that conclusion is the tale we tell in this episode.

Artic explorer Charles Hall just wants to plant the Stars and Stripes at the North Pole. But it seems the ice and his crew have another idea. It murder in the frozen North and a 150 year old whodunit. Someone decided that they didn't want to spend years wandering the Artic Circle, and killed Captain Hall to make sure they didn't have to.

When religion and government mix bad things can happen. When religious zealots decide that government need to change by any means necessary really bad things can happen. Remember, Remember the 5th of November ... In this episode we take on Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot, to blow up the whole of the English government.

The crime shocked a nation. How could the "Protestant Nun" the refined and gentle, Lizzie Borden have committed such a violent murder. The town of Fall River and nation would divide along socioeconomic lines over the idea of her guilt. Did Lizzie really take a hatchet to the head of her stepmother and then the face of her father? Or might the police have been guilty of confirmation bias...

What are we all about? True historic crime both the famous and not so famous. If you are a history buff, or a true crime nerd, or both, like me, then give us a try. If you like what you hear tell a friend, and if you don't like it tell and enemy, never suffer alone.

Famed naturalist Sir David Attenborough found a skull in the garden of an ancient pub he purchased. The skull, found in 2010, renewed interest in a murder from London's Victorian age. The murder of Julia Thomas, by her maid Kate Webster, sent shock waves cross the whole of the British Isles. Get ready for the tale of the Barnes Murderess.

They will sell you a bridge, a magic box to print money, world famous landmarks, even a whole country. When it comes to conmen George C Parker, Victor Lustig, and Gregor MacGregor might have been the best of the worst. Just how did they manage to get people to hand over money at such insane rates? Take a listen to this week's History is Criminal.

Trigger Warning: sexual assault: While the war launched, and the Holocaust started a psycho used the S-Bahn trains of Berlin as his hunting grounds. Using the cover of air raid warnings, and police hampered by Nazi officials, his reign of terror would last almost two years, and his victims would number in the dozens.

PIRATES... Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read for a short time were three of the most infamous names in the Caribbean. Just how did two women become notorious swashbucklers, at a time when women weren't supposed to be on board a ship. We take a look at the lives and adventures of two of the pirate queens of the Caribbean. You also have a chance to hear me sing (poorly) in the intro.

Ned Kelly became a folk hero to the people of Australia. His life was short and violent, but he was a tough and complicated man just like the land of his birth. It would all come down to final showdown in a sight that could easily have inspired Ironman. Childhood hero, rebel, horse thief, and a man that became the inspiration for movies and songs by some of the biggest artist of their time. Buckle...

He was a national hero. His partner William Clark, and he had traveled across an unknown continent and returned to admiration of a nation. But Meriweather Lewis was a man plagued by personal demons. It is also possible that he had uncovered treasonous acts, by a man in a position of high power in the US government. When he died, by an apparent suicide in 1809, no formal investigation took place. A...

In the golden age of silent movies one of the biggest stars, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, is caught up in a scandal revolves around the death of young beautiful up-and-coming starlet, Virginia Rappe. But what really happened in that hotel room 104 years ago. Who should we believe, Arbuckle or a convicted fraudster and madam.

In our 25th episode, The French Wars of Religion act as the backdrop for a horrible accident and some grisly murders. In true French fashion they will go over the top as they play hide the knife in the monarch. It will see the end of the Valois dynasty and the start of the Bourbon era.

Known as the master of the macabre and the father of the detective story, Edgar Allan Poe would himself become a whodunit that have remained unanswered for 180 years. His life was filled with tragedy. It is also odd that the number 24 is attached to some much of this tragedy. But who or what killed the famous author, what led to his being found semi-conscious in a Baltimore tavern?

Some crimes are just more horrible than others. The baby farmers or the Victorian Age are truly the worst of the worst preying on the most innocent and the most vulnerable they prove evil people will do anything to make a buck.

Sandwiched between HH Holmes and Jack the Ripper is the Lambeth Poisoner, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream. His body count crosses two continents and one ocean. Even a life sentence couldn't stop him.

A beautiful 18 year old takes the throne of Scotland, what could go wrong. Well if it is the 1600s, the answer is, just about everything. Royal rivalries, bad choices in men, and religious and political plotting will cause the bodies to drop like a beat at the club. If you ever wanted to be a medieval member of the nobility, you after hearing about the many murders surrounding Mary Queen of Scots.

A gang of thieves almost pulls off the crime of the century, just as the century is starting. A necklace with a value greater than the Hope Diamond goes missing. Insurance investigators and Scotland Yard's greatest detective will have to outsmart England's greatest thief in order to get the pearls back into the hands of their rightful owner.

Merry Christmas or if the Puritans had their way, GET BACK TO WORK. A King is deposed and most holidays and fun in general is banned by the Puritans in the culture wars of the 1640s. In this Xmas episode we take a look at how and why the holiday was banned, and how the people reacted. With intro and outro music from Halloween Horror Creepy Piano | Horror by Alex-Productions | https://onsound.eu/Mu...