Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

J.D. Chandler, author of "Murder and Scandal in Prohibition Portland", tells the tale of the Torso Murder in 1946 Portland, Oregon, including his decade long investigation of this very cold case. Note: Note: J.D. Chandler, Portland Oregon's most well-known true crime historian, passed away on May 30th, 2021. I'm so lucky to have had him as a guest. Here is a story on his fascinating life: https://...

In this episode, host Erik Rivenes talks with Arnie Bernstein, author of "Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German-American Bund", about the rise Nazism in the United States in the 1930s under Fritz Kuhn. Famed columnist Walter Winchell, Jewish gangsters like Mickey Cohen and Meyer Lanksy, and even a former Miss America play a part in Kuhn's eventual fall from power. The aut...

Author Joe Urschel is the Executive Director of the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington D.C. He's also the author of "The Year of Fear: Machine Gun Kelly and the Manhunt That Changed the Nation." Joe and Erik discuss the life and times of George Kelly and his adversarial relationship with F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover in the early 1930s. Become a Most Notorious patron: https://www.patr...

On Christmas Day, 1929, in Germanton, North Carolina, Charlie Lawson murdered his wife and six children on their rural farm. This horrific crime is part of local lore, and Trudy J. Smith and her father, M. Bruce Jones researched the massacre 25 years ago, conducting interviews with Lawson family members and witnesses. Their original book, "White Christmas, Bloody Christmas" has been revised and ex...

Harold Schecter is one of America's most prolific true crime writers. Back in 2001, he wrote about one of the most chilling serial killing sprees in history, a true life account of the notorious "boy-fiend" Jesse Harding Pomeroy in 1870s Boston. Erik Rivenes chats with the author about his fascinating book, "Fiend: The Shocking Story of America's Youngest Serial Killer". Visit the author's website...

In 1799 Micajah “Big” Harpe and Wiley “Little” Harpe cut a bloody path down the Wilderness Trail in Kentucky and Tennessee, murdering everyone in their path. My guest, E. Don Harp, a descendant of the infamous brothers, argues in "The Last Rampage of the Terrible Harpes" that they were the first serial killers in American history. In our conversation we get the lowdown on these lowdown murderers....

Mickey Cohen went from selling newspapers on the streets of L.A. to heading one of the largest crime rackets in the United States. He worked under Bugsy Siegel, rubbed shoulders with Frank Sinatra, Lana Turner and Billy Graham, and cut down enemies with a ruthless passion. Joining host Erik Rivenes is Tere Tereba. A former fashion designer, friend of Jim Morrison and Andy Warhol, she wrote the def...

The murders of Andrew and Abby Borden in 1892, and the accusation that sent daughter Lizzie Borden to trial, is one of the most infamous in American history. But did Lizzie Borden really give her mother forty whacks? What is myth and what is fact in this notorious murder case? Erik speaks with Joseph Conforti, author of "Lizzie Borden on Trial: Murder, Ethnicity and Gender" about the woman behind...

Guest Simon Baatz, author of “For the Thrill of It: Leopold and Loeb and the Murder That Shocked Chicago” talks about the infamous and horrific Bobby Franks murder, and the trial of Leopold and Loeb, with famed criminal attorney Clarence Darrow at the defense. Also, Irish mobster Dean O'Banion runs into trouble on Chicago's north side. The author's website: http://www.simonbaatz.com/ Become a Most...

In the 1930s, Saint Paul Minnesota was considered a vacation home for some of the most notorious bank-robbing gangsters of the Depression-era, including John Dillinger and the Barker-Karpis Gang. Host Erik Rivenes' guest, Paul Maccabee, wrote the definitive book on the subject, entitled "Dillinger Slept Here: A Crook's Tour of Crime and Corruption In St. Paul", and he shares some of those titillat...