Murder Most Foul

The Gilded Age in America was a time of great political corruption, wealth inequality and loosening of Victorian Age morals in the late 1800s.    No one person embodied all that the Gilded Age promised more than Evelyn Nesbit, a willowy, copper-haired beauty from Philadelphia. Arguably, she was the world’s first ever supermodel. Before she was out of her teens, Evelyn was the most sought-after art...

“The Trial of Lizzie Borden: a true story.” Yeah, I know, everyone says that, but trust me this is NOT just another Podcast about Lizzie Borden. It's not “Lizzie in the drawing room with a hatchet” offering. We won't try to convince you that Lizzie was pregnant, or sleeping with Bridget, or even did the deed naked. My guest today, lawyer and author Cara Robertson, instead covers in detail...

Depending on your age and demographic, many of you might remember the female “buddy” movie, “Thelma and Louise.” Today, I am pleased to introduce Jennifer and Stephanie. Jennifer Marshall is a Navy veteran, private detective and host of the popular documentary series MYSTERIES DECODED seen on The CW Network. Stephanie Bingham is an author, historian, and spiritual psychic. Jennifer and Stephanie t...

In a span of just over two years starting in 2018 in a small area of suburban Dallas, Texas, in a cluster of retirement facilities, 26 senior citizen’s died, of “natural causes.” At least that was the finding of the police authorities. Oddly in all cases there was clearly a robbery involved of expensive jewelry (including wedding rings taken off the deceased), and in two cases a safe was purloined...

In early 1980, Jackie Schut and her husband Harold (Lee) Schut embarked on a multi-state, baby-snatching enterprise that involved killing the mothers of the infants. One of those infants was Amanda Bell. Although Jackie and Lee were implicated in Amanda’s abduction and the murder of her mother, they were never prosecuted. In 2020, the documentary DIABOLICAL: “Hands that Rob the Cradle” first aired...

On January 23rd, 2023, Alex Murdaugh - disgraced and disbarred attorney, scion of the influential Murdaugh family and South Carolina “good ol’ boy” - went on trial for the double-homicide of his wife, Maggie and their teenage son, Paul. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Aside from the financial fraud and swindling of law partners and vulnerable clients, there are at least 3 other deaths con...

On June 18th, 1984, Denver radio talk show host, Alan Berg was assassinated in front of his house, his bullet-riddled corpse found in his driveway in a pool of his own blood. Berg was an acerbic, gonzo personality who was an equal opportunity annoyer. Christian or Jew. Liberal or Conservative. White or Black. NAACP or KKK. All were fodder for his popular radio show. He could be described as a cros...

Join me as I visit with prolific True Crime author, and all-around fun guy, Rod Kackley. Listen in as we talk about his encounter in high school in an elevator with Jane Fonda and hear about his ancestor who provided medical treatment for a member of Butch Cassidy’s Gang. Oh, we’ll talk murder, too! Like the case of the Uber driver who killed fares because, like Flip Wilson said, “The devil made h...

The movie’s horrific rape scene is grueling to watch. In a car, a terrified prostitute is bound at the wrists and tied to one of the door handles. Already bloodied and beaten, she is viciously sodomized by the man who picked her up by the side of the highway. Somehow, she breaks free and, wild with rage, bravely turns the tables on her attacker. She grabs a gun from her bag and fires bullet after...

Before there were the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, QAnon and Donald Trump, there was Timothy McVeigh. A decorated war veteran, who decided he, too, didn’t trust the federal government. He decided to release his anger and frustration upon over 800 innocents by bringing down the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. This largest act of domestic terror in the history of the United Stat...

In 1979, Brenda Spencer, a seemingly average teenage girl living in a nice suburban neighborhood, made and executed plans that would place her in infamy and set a violent and terrifying national precedent. She received a rifle from her father for Christmas, and a month later, opened fire on the elementary school across the street, killing the principal and a custodian and wounding 8 students and a...

REDEMPTION. Not a word one would associate with Charles Manson, Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer. But what about an 11-year-old boy who, in 1889 in rural Iowa, murdered his abusive parents as they slept, sparing his one-year-old sister who was sleeping in the same bed? “THE PLEA: The true story of Young Wesley Elkins and his struggle for Redemption,” might help you answer that question. Authors Patrici...

On July 20, 2012, James Holmes walked into the midnight showing of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES in Aurora, Colorado and opened fire on the theater patrons, methodically killing 12 people and injuring 70 others. Like the mass shootings which preceded that night, and those which have occurred since, the public response was swift and predictable. Stricter gun control, Red Flag Laws and more money for mental...

In 1930, Eva Dugan became the first woman ever executed in the State of Arizona and the last person to face the gallows in that state. Author Rod Kackley tells us the twisted tale that I’m calling “Eva and the Hangman.”

A parent’s worst nightmare…their child vanishes on the way to catch the bus to school. Did they run away? Were they abducted by a stranger or were they taken by someone they knew and trusted. In 2002, 13-year-old classmates, Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis both vanished on their way to school, two months apart. Soon a task force of over 40 police and F.B.I. agents and the entire community of Oregon...

WHEN THE MOON TURNS TO BLOOD digs deeply into the horrific tale of the murder and mutilation of two innocent children by their Doomsday Mother, Lori Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell. Was it simply a love affair gone wrong, a story of sexual lust so intense it drove two people to kill? Or was it something far more sinister? Join me as I interview author and journalist Leah Sottile who in her bo...

The Petersons seemed the ideal couple, well-respected, prosperous, and happy. All that came crashing down in December of 2001, when Kathleen apparently fell to her death in their secluded home in an exclusive area of Durham, North Carolina. But blood-spatter evidence and a missing fireplace poker suggested calculated, cold-blooded murder. Her trusted husband, Michael, stood accused. To bolster the...

Babbling brooks, breathtaking mountain views, the endless sounds of nature. That’s what comes to mind for most of us when we think about National Parks like the Grand Canyon and Acadia National Park in Maine. But these wonderful and pristine escapes have a dark side as well. They are perfect places to commit a murder. Join me as I speak with nature writer, and friend, Randi Minetor as we delve int...

In the criminal justice system, the People are represented by two important groups: the police who investigate crime and the District Attorneys who prosecute the offenders. I think it’s safe to say that most of you are familiar with that opening to the successful TV show LAW AND ORDER. But the Defense Attorney is an equally essential party in our Criminal Justice System. It’s funny. When we are ac...

“Beyond suspicion” and “hiding in plain sight” are two phrases that have been used to describe countless serial murders, that is… before they are caught. Many have led mundane lives that allow them to remain under the radar throughout their reigns of terror. But not Russell Williams, who was by night a rapist and killer, but his day job was that of Colonel in the Canadian Airforce, tasked with fly...

As the ad goes: “You’re in good hands with ALLSTATE,” but not if you are Betsy Faria. The brutal murder of Betsy Faria, on December 27, 2011, set off a maelstrom of events that resulted in an innocent man's imprisonment and another man's death. It would take a decade to unravel all the misdirection in the Faria murder case, the misconduct of the prosecution team, and the insidious mind of...

“Lizzie Borden took an ax.” Nine years later in a rural town in Iowa, Margaret Hossack, mother to 10 children, raised an ax and butchered her husband, John, as he slept in their bed. Or did she? Come along as we investigate this fascinating case that has more than one parallel to the Lizzie Borden murders. Our guides are husband and wife team, Patricia Bryan and Thomas Wolfe. Their book: MIDNIGHT...

On June 25, 1973, a seven-year-old girl went missing from the Montana campground where her family was vacationing. Somebody had slit open the back of their tent and snatched her from under their noses. None of them saw or heard anything. Susie Jaeger had vanished into thin air, plucked by a shadow. “ShadowMan,” by Ron Franscell, is a pulse-pounding account of the first time in history that the FBI...

The ancient and oft quoted Hippocratic oath exhorts all doctors “to do no harm.” Technically the exact words are: “I will abstain from all intentional wrongdoing and harm.” It also states that “Neither will I administer poison to anybody.” One Victorian gentleman in England, who did not get the memo, was Dr. William Palmer, who, in the mid-19th century, although tried for only one murder, is purpo...

In October of 1997, in a quiet town in Texas, Julie Rae awoke in the middle of the night to an intruder in her house. She struggled with the man and chased him outside. She raced back into the house to check on her 10-year-old son, Joel. At quick glance, she did not see him in his bed. Fearing the intruder might have had an accomplice and Joel had been kidnapped; she enlisted help from the neighbo...