Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

In the early 1960s, two top gangsters, Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana, were hired by the CIA to kill Cuba’s Communist leader, Fidel Castro, only to wind up murdered themselves amidst Congressional hearings and a national debate about the JFK assassination. My guest, journalist Thomas Maier, is the author of "Mafia Spies: The Inside Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK, and Castro, " which will debut...

In this month's MoNo Encore episode, we revisit one of the strangest cases ever covered on this show, in my humble opinion. On October 24th, 1961, one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in Massachusetts history began when housewife and mother Joan Risch vanished from her home. Investigators were perplexed by a kitchen floor smeared with blood, a telephone receiver ripped from the wall and placed g...

My guest this week is award-winning author Dean Jobb. He joins me to talk about one of the most colorful criminals of the Jazz Age, Arthur Barry. Barry, who has been called "the greatest jewel thief who ever lived", was a master burglar who specialized in robbing New York's wealthiest citizens. Barry would have encounters with a wide array of interesting figures from the 20s and 30s, ranging from...

On this episode of Most Notorious, I'm joined by Dr. Samantha Battams, who documents the life and times of serial killer Martha Needle in her book "The Secret Art of Poisoning: The True Crimes of Martha Needle, The Richmond Poisoner." Martha Needle was accused of poisoning her three children, husband and future brother-in-law in late 19th century Australia. The author's website: https://www.samant...

On November 28, 1942, fire roared through Boston's famed Cocoanut Grove nightclub during what was supposed to be a high-spirited Saturday night. By midnight, more than five hundred people were dead, dying, or maimed for life. My guest, Boston historian and author Stephanie Schorow, walks us through the history of the nightclub, the possible causes of the tragic fire, the devastation it caused, and...

In September of 1931, Thalia Massie, a young naval lieutenant’s wife, claims to have been raped by five Hawaiian men in Honolulu. Following a hung jury in the rape trial, Thalia’s mother, socialite Grace Fortescue, and husband, along with two sailors, kidnap one of the accused in an attempt to coerce a confession. When they are caught after killing him and trying to dump his body in the ocean, Mrs...

On July 27th, 1903, thirteen convicts at California's Folsom Prison, led by Richard "Red" Gordon, attacked prison guards, took hostages, emptied the armory and made a dash for freedom. Some would be captured and punished for the murders they committed along the way, some would be killed themselves, and others would forever elude authorities. My guest is Josh Morgan, author of "The Folsom Prison Bl...

Today we revisit another one of my favorite episodes, the sinking of the Eastland. On July 15th, 1915, a steamship with a checkered past called the SS Eastland docked at a wharf on the Chicago River in downtown Chicago, ready to transport 2500 Western Electric employees and their families across Lake Michigan to a company picnic. Once boarding completed, however, terrible tragedy struck when the s...

On December 20th, 1963, the city of Lorain, Ohio was rocked by the tragic (and odd) death of Florence Bennett. Her husband Casper had found her dead in their bathtub, scalded in its water. He claimed it had been an accident, but police believed he had drowned her. My guest, David Miraldi, author of the acclaimed book "The Edge of Innocence: The Casper Bennett Trial" has a very personal connection...

Many saw the dark side of the American dream, but none wrote about it like Jim Tully. Having spent six years of his childhood in a Cincinnati orphanage, Tully returned to his hometown of St. Marys, Ohio before climbing aboard a freight train in 1901. Drifting across the country as a "road kid," he spent his teens, sleeping in hobo jungles, avoiding railroad cops, and haunting public libraries. Aft...

Eric Jay Dolin, returns to the show to share details from his new book, "Left for Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World". It's the true story of a wild and fateful encounter between an American sealing vessel, a shipwrecked British brig, and a British warship in the Falkland archipelago during the War of 1812. Fraught with misunderstandings and mistrust, the incident le...

Just after midnight on July 6, 1932, twenty-year-old Zachary Smith Reynolds, a renowned aviator and an heir to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco fortune, was shot in the family's summer home in what is now Winston-Salem, North Carolina. While some believed the moody young man had committed suicide, evidence suggested someone else had pulled the trigger, and eventually Reynolds' wife, Broadway actress Libb...

This week we revisit one of my favorite Most Notorious episodes. In the small town of Isadore Michigan in 1907, a young nun named Janina disappeared. Ten years later, her body is discovered by a priest intent on building a new church on the foundation of the old one. Mardi Link, author of "Isadore's Secret", chats with me about the terrible circumstances surrounding the death of Sister Janina. The...

On a warm August day in 1910, Sheriff Jake Houpt and his deputies attempted to arrest brothers George and Oscar Chitwood outside the Garland County Courthouse in Hot Springs, Arkansas. A gunfight soon erupted, leaving both the sheriff and George dead. And when Oscar himself was killed in December under the protection of deputies, a mob of mysterious masked men were blamed for the lynching. But evi...

Six months after losing a world title fight that remains infamous as one of the last mob fixes in boxing, Tyrone “The Butterfly” Everett—a flashy, handsome lightweight southpaw on the verge of stardom—was dead. Only twenty-four years old, he was shot in the head by his girlfriend, Carolyn McKendrick, who claimed that Everett had abused her throughout their relationship. But for years, street corne...

Today we have special back-to-back episodes from the History Daily podcast. The first shares the story of the capture of one of the UK's most notorious serial killers, the Yorkshire Ripper, and the second is about the tumultuous life of Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible. Visit the History Daily website for more information about the show. https://historydaily.org/ More about the Most Notorious podcas...

On September 30, 1955, 24-year-old James Dean became immortal. While his young life ended in a car crash, James Dean passed into the realm of American folklore, where his memory remains today. What exactly happened on that fateful day 60 years ago? What events led to the tragic accident that cost Dean his life? What became of the people and vehicles involved in that unguarded moment at Cholame? Is...

There were few experienced swimmers among over 1,300 Lower East Side residents who boarded the General Slocum on June 15, 1904. It shouldn’t have mattered, since the steamship was chartered only for a languid excursion from Manhattan to Long Island Sound. But a fire erupted minutes into the trip, forcing hundreds of terrified passengers into the water. By the time the captain found a safe shore fo...

Phebe Wise was believed to be a witch by many locals in late 19th and early 20th century Mansfield, Ohio. Bucking societal norms, she lived alone on a large piece of property and would often march into town wearing her deceased mother's antique Civil War gowns. She also had her share of adversity, which included being the target of violent robbers and an obsessed stalker.  And her showdown with he...

William J. Flynn, nicknamed "The Bulldog Detective", had a fascinating and accomplished career in law enforcement. While in the Secret Service he not only battled the Mafia in New York City, but also uncovered a sophisticated German spy ring on the cusp of America's entry into World War I.  As Director of the Bureau of Investigation, he devised the first counterterrorist strategy in United States...

My guest this week is bestselling author Lou Ferrante. He was an associate in the Gambino crime family before going to prison, where he studied history and began writing books. He joins us to talk about the origins of the Sicilian Mafia and how they followed Italian immigrants to the United States, initially establishing themselves in crime-ridden New Orleans alongside a corrupt police force.  His...

Lana Turner's meteoric rise to fame after being discovered at a soda fountain by a talent scout in 1936 is a legendary Hollywood story. From that point forward, the starlet's life had been a series of exhilarating highs - including award-worthy performances in critically acclaimed films, and terrifying lows - as she suffered abuse by multiple men over the years. Among the men who terrorized her wa...

Vivian Gordon went out before midnight in a velvet dress and mink coat. Her body turned up the next morning in a desolate Bronx park, a dirty clothesline wrapped around her neck. At her stylish Manhattan apartment, detectives discovered notebooks full of names—businessmen, socialites, gangsters. And something else: a letter from an anti-corruption commission established by Governor Franklin Delano...

On August 17th, 1849, London police officers made a grisly discovery at the home of George and Maria (born Marie de Roux) Manning. Her former beau, Patrick O'Connor, had been buried under the floor. A nationwide hunt for the couple would follow, and after that a trial and executions. The murder case would grip London so fervently that Madame Tussaud would later add wax versions of the couple to he...

Gille de Rais is a complicated historical figure. On one hand he was a French military hero - a man who fought side by side with Joan of Arc - and revered for his service to church and state. On the other he was an accused heretic, an occultist, and the self-confessed serial killer of hundreds of children.  My guest is Margot K. Juby, author of "The Martyrdom of Gilles de Rais". She believes that...