Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

The Texas Rangers in the late 1880s were a tough and colorful lot, especially the members of Company F. And while they made their livings hunting down outlaws, none proved more cunning than Willis Conner and his sons, a fugitive family accused of murdering two neighbors in a business dispute over pigs. My guest is Joe Pappalardo, author of "Red Sky Morning: The Epic True Story of Texas Ranger Comp...

Between July 1st and 12th, 1916, a sensational series of shark attacks terrorized seaside resorts and communities along the Jersey Shore. Four people would ultimately die before the shark thought responsible was found and killed. My guest, Dr. Richard Fernicola, is the world's foremost expert on the subject. He not only tells the story of how the attacks unfolded, but explains why they might have...

In September of 1916 a mysterious fire consumed a cottage nestled on Ossipee Lake in New Hampshire, and when local law enforcement searched the wreckage they made a horrifying discovery. The smoldering body of Florence Small was pulled out of the basement, partially preserved by rainwater. The immediate suspect was her husband, Frederick Small, who was known to have abused Florence on a number of...

In August of 1892, one of the most famous double murders in American history was committed in brutal fashion. Andrew and Abby Borden were hacked to death in their Fall River house, and their daughter Lizzie, home at the time, became the number one suspect. What followed was a spectacular trial, fought by brilliant attorneys, in a courtroom packed with fascinated spectators and reporters. My guest...

Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp and their wives united in Tombstone, Arizona in 1879 with the intent to make their fortunes, but along the way crossed paths with a gang of lawless cowboys that included Ike Clanton, Curly Bill Brocius and Johnny Ringo. In October of 1881, tensions between the Earps and their adversaries climaxed with a shootout in a Tombstone alley, forever known as the "Gunfight at...

The tranquility of Ohio's Pleasant Valley was forever scarred in June of 1896 when tragedy struck the Rose family. Twenty-three-year-old Ceely Rose was infatuated with neighbor boy Guy Berry. When he did not reciprocate her feelings, her family ordered her to stop following him, and she in turn used rat poison to murder them. A trial would follow, with much of the focus on her sanity and mental ca...

In the summer of 1932, with the Cubs in the thick of the pennant race, Billy Jurges broke off his relationship with Violet Popovich to focus on baseball. The famously beautiful showgirl took it poorly, marching into his hotel room with a revolver in her purse. Both were wounded in the ensuing struggle, but Jurges refused to press charges. Even without their star shortstop, Chicago made it to the W...

In the early morning hours of October 17, 1953, a frightened, battered woman named Diane Wells told a horrific tale to police. She said intruders had broken into the top-floor penthouse apartment she shared with her husband Cecil, murdered him, beat her, and then made their escape. It was an especially sensational story because 31-year-old "blonde bombshell" Diane Wells was nicknamed "the most bea...

In 1835 Marcus and Narcissa Whitman arrived to the Pacific Northwest, building a mission on Cayuse land near the present day Washington/Oregon border with hopes of converting members of the Cayuse tribe to Christianity. However when a deadly measles outbreak devastated the area, it disproportionally killed Cayuse over whites, leading tribal leaders to believe Dr. Whitman was purposely poisoning th...

In February of 1896 the decapitated corpse of a young woman, who would later be identified as Pearl Bryan, was discovered in the woods of Northern Kentucky. Evidence would lead investigators to two dental students in Cincinnati, Ohio named Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling. My guest is Robert Wilhelm, creator of Murder by Gaslight, an online compendium of notable 19th century American murders. He i...

In this third and final part of my interview with Dr. Edgar Epperly, the "little minister" Lyn George Jacklin Kelly is examined as a primary suspect in the 1912 Villisca Axe Murders. Although Kelly spoke obsessively about the case and even confessed to the murders, many believed that the confession was the result of mental illness and police coercion. Dr. Epperly also offers his thoughts on whethe...

Frank Fernando (F.F.) Jones seemed to be one of the most obvious suspects in the aftermath of the horrific 1912 Villisca Axe murders. He had a contentious business rivalry with the patriarch of the slain Moore family, Josiah (Joe) Moore, intensified further because Moore was having an affair with his daughter-in-law. However there was no direct evidence linking him to the crime. Enter James Wilker...

June 9th (or) 10th marks the 110th anniversary of one of the most notorious crimes in American history - the brutal axe murders of Josiah and Sarah Moore, their four children (Herman, Katherine, Boyd and Paul) and Ina and Lena Stillinger, two neighbor girls who had the terrible misfortune of sleeping over that night. It's a case steeped in mystery, with a gruesome crime scene, puzzling evidence, t...

The Ocean Monarch, captained by James Murdock, was a disciplined and safety-conscious passenger ship that should have smoothly sailed from England to the United States in 1848. Not long after its departure, however, a devastating fire broke out on board, turning the boat into a living hell on water. Close to two hundred people would die in the ensuing chaos - despite amazing acts of heroism by bot...

On the afternoon of December 2nd, 1945, a fourteen-year-old student named Thora Chamberlain walked with friends to a high school football game in Campbell, California. A man wearing a U.S. Navy uniform pulled up beside them in his sedan and told them he needed a babysitter - and would compensate generously for the help. Thora accepted, got into his car, and was never seen alive again. Police, with...

In October of 1905, the schooner Harry A. Berwind was intercepted off the coast of North Carolina. On board were four Black sailors, three of them alive and one dead. The survivors told conflicting stories - blaming each other for the murder of the ship's four White officers, who had been shot and thrown into the sea. The men would be arrested and tried for murder in Wilmington (which had suffered...

Mary Ann Cotton is considered by many to be England's first female serial killer, with allegations that she used arsenic to poison over twenty people, including her children, mother and husbands in the 1850s, 60s and 70s. But was she really a heartless killer who preyed upon those in her care for money to buy the expensive dresses she loved so much? My guest, Martin Connolly, is author of "Mary An...

Arnie Bernstein was one my first guests on Most Notorious, way back on episode #26, and talked about the horrifying 1927 Bath Consolidated School massacre. Since the initial publication of his book "Bath Massacre: America's First School Bombing" in 2009, he's conducted more first-hand survivor accounts, which he has included in the updated and expanded edition of the book released earlier this yea...

Mildred Gillars, known to American GIs as "Axis Sally", was one of Nazi Germany's most notorious radio propagandists. Hired by German State Radio because of her American accent and seductive voice, she finally achieved her own version of stardom after years of pursuing a failed acting career in the United States. My guest is Richard Lucas, author of "Axis Sally: The American Voice of Nazi Germany"...

On Christmas Eve, 1900, 44-year-old dry goods store owner Frank Richardson was shot to death in his Savannah, Missouri home. Suspects included his wife Addie, his teenage lover Goldie Whitehead, and the man whom he suspected his wife of having an affair with, Stewart Fife. Kimberly Tilley makes her third visit to the podcast. Her book "Has it Come to This? The Mysterious Unsolved Murder of Frank R...

My conversation about the life of Eliot Ness continues with A. Brad Schwartz. After years battling The Outfit in Chicago, Ness was hired as Director of Public Safety in Cleveland, Ohio. Tasked with ridding the city of crime and corruption, he found himself confronted by a serial killer nicknamed "The Mad Butcher", aka "The Cleveland Torso Murderer," who would ultimately dismember and decapitate at...

Throughout the 1920s Chicago was a cesspool of corruption and violence, due in large part to the obscene amounts of money being made through the illegal manufacture, transportation and sale of alcohol. Much of the business was being done by The Outfit, led by the charming and publicity hungry Al Capone, who viciously knocked off his competitors at the slightest provocation. To combat The Outfit, t...

In June of 1970, the body of 24-year-old Nancy Morgan was found inside a government-owned car in Madison County, North Carolina. It had been four days since anyone had heard from the bubbly, hard-working brunette who had moved to the Appalachian community less than a year prior as an organizer for Volunteers in Service to America. At the time of her death, her tenure in the Tar Heel State was just...

On June 25th, 1973, Suzie Jaeger was abducted from her tent while camping with her family in Montana. The FBI was baffled by the mystery, until two agents began using new profiling techniques to narrow in on a local oddball named David Meirhofer. Assisting them was Suzie's brave mother, Marietta Jaeger, who over a series of phone calls with the killer was able to provide invaluable clues that help...

Journalist Wayne Hoffman had been long intrigued by a family story, vague on details, about the murder of his great-grandmother Sarah Feinstein at the hands of a sniper in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Encouraged by his mother, he decided to search for the truth behind the tale, but his research journey became more difficult when his mother's health began to suffer due to Alzheimer's. In his book, "The End...