Ohio Mysteries

Thomas Midgley Jr., a brilliant scientist working for Dayton, Ohio research companies in the 1920, invented two world-changing products. He discovered a lead additive could stop the destructing knocking noise prevalent in early auto engines. And he discovered a supergas that allowed average homes to safely have refrigerators and air conditioners. It wasn't until decades after Midgley's death that...

So tonight we're doing a rewind of our 2020 episode about three cases that were getting new attention from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. In at least one of those cases, DNA technology came through. A few months ago, Hamilton County authorities announced they tied a serial killer to the death of Cheryl Thompson -- a 19-year-old University of Cincinnati student killed in 1978. Robert Ho...

Born in Licking County when it was America's western frontier, Victoria Claflin was born into poverty and grew up the daughter of a conman who groomed her to be a child preacher and spiritualist. She ran away just after turning 15, becoming a child bride and mother. Her "spirit guides" promised her she'd grow up to be wealthy and powerful, but nobody could have predicted what was to come. www.ohio...

In Nov. 22 1963, Ohioans went to bed mourning the assassination of President John F Kennedy, and woke to the news of a different kind of disaster. Overnight, a fire at the Golden Age Nursing Home in Huron County had claimed the lives of 63 residents. The fire would have been national news any other day, but although it was overshadowed by Kennedy's death, it made an impact on federal safety requir...

In 1876, Ohio native Lt. Col. George Custer led the 7th Cavalry into a battle with the Cheyenne at the Battle of the Little Bighorn - and died alongside every soldier of the five companies that he commanded. But questions remain about "Custer's Last Stand," including more than a dozen eye-witness reports who said Custer and a great many of his men actually killed themselves after realizing how bad...

In 1919, William Clemens, nephew of celebrated author Mark Twain, wrote about one of the most "mysterious, uncanny and problematic" cases he'd ever witnesses. He then proceeded to relate the tale of his visit to Akron, and his experience with a local family haunted by a ghost who had been throwing stones at them.      www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries w...

In July of 1996, Herb Baumeister drove to a park outside Toronto, wrote a suicide note, then killed himself. In his final communication, the millionaire Indianapolis businessman penned pages about his failed thrift store chain and angst over his marriage. But he didn't say a thing about what authorities really wanted to know: Why were there skeletal remains of 11 men in his backyard, and what did...

Did the prehistoric culture known as the Hopewell build a 60-mile long prehistoric highway between two of southern Ohio's major cultural centers? Though weather and development destroyed the road long ago, technology - and old notes from 19th century explorers - suggest such a colossal monument did indeed exist. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.comwww.patreon.com/ohiomysterieswww.twitt...

HH Holmes would become one of America's most notorious serial killers, but when he was arrested in Philadelphia in 1895, it was only for insurance fraud. Fidelity Mutual accused him of faking the death of his partner in order to collect on a $10k policy. But then detectives began to think maybe Holmes had killed his partner. And if he had, what had become of the partner's missing three children? A...

For more than 50 years, folks in eastern Brown County tried to get recognition that they lived in the imaginary hamlet of Fizzleville. Though you won't find Fizzleville on any map, they managed to organize a popular annual festival, sold bumper stickers and promoted the name even in their obituaries. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysterieswww.twitter.com/myst...

In 1957, a pair of young, heavily intoxicated felons invaded the home of Paul Coblentz, a 25-year-old Holmes County farmer, and terrorized him, his wife and their baby before shooting Paul in the head. But after the shooter was convicted and assigned a date with the executioner, the victim's family and greater Holmes County Amish launched a campaign to save his life. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback...

In 2014, Cory Barron left his seat at Progressive Field in Downtown Cleveland during a Jason Aldean country concert - and disappeared. His body was found a few days later in a garbage truck that had collected trash from the stadium - trash that had been put down a five-story chute with a compactor. Last year for the first time, authorities agreed with Cory's family that he was more likely a victim...

Tina Resch got her first 15 minutes of fame as a teenager in Columbus when national news media showed up to report her account of a pesky poltergeist wreaking havoc in her home. The next time reporters caught up with her, she was a 22-year-old in jail, accused of playing a role in the violent death of her 3-year-old daughter, Amber. Some say she was a fraud and a killer. Others insist she was an i...

In 1985, 79-year-old Mary Yocono left her family's restaurant - Yocono's Italian Eatery in Akron's Wallhaven neighborhood - and walked across the street to take an early Christmas gift to her friends. But night and rain descended during the visit, and during the return trip on the dark street, a car struck Mary, then sped away. Nearly 40 years later, no one has ever taken responsibility for the hi...

For 20 years, Ohio has been waiting to execute Gerald "Bob" Hand for the murder of his wife, Jill, and for the death of the man he hired to kill her at their Delaware County home in 2002. But whether or not it ever happens, there will be no official closure for the murders of his first two wives, both suffocated by plastic bags in the basement of his Columbus home. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@o...

In 1978, a Michigan state official ordered a mapmaker to add two fake towns to the Ohio side of the state's southern border, introducing the hamlets of "goblu" and "beatosu" to Lucas and Fulton counties. This is the story of how a couple of University of Michigan rallying cries taunting Ohio State University fans slipped through the cracks. 10-Minute Mystery: The Toledo War: https://traffic.megaph...

In 1965, a fireball tore through the sky over Northeast Ohio, dropping fragments that started grass fires, sending explosive bits into Lake Erie, causing dispatch phones to ring off the hook as thousands of people tried to figure out what they were seeing. It ended with a fiery shock wave in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, leaving nothing behind. Or did it? Today, experts still argue over what it was, an...

In 1970, two women parked alongside a road in Butler County heard a knock on the car window and turned to find a man with a rifle who demanded their car, marched them into a wooded area, and shot them. One woman lived to tell the tale; the other woman, 21-year-old Georg Ann Reiter, did not. More than 50 years later, her family wants answers. www.ohiomysteries.comfeedback@ohiomysteries.comwww.patre...

Youngstown-area native Mark Baker became a journalist in Europe, where he caught the attention of communist operatives in the 1980s who hoped to compel him to become a spy. We interview Baker from Prague, Czech Republic just months after he got to see a thick file and dozens of surveillance photos that he never knew existed, and his reaction to learning how he'd been targeted by the secret agency...

Thomas Edison's long list of inventions touched every layer of our lives - from the lightbulb and electric industry, to movies, TV and music. In many cases, he was motivated by his own profound deafness - a condition that medical experts still debate. www.ohiomysteries.comfeedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Music: An...

An Ohio Mysteries/Akron Beacon Journal crossover In 1991, Manher and Jyoti Patel and their 6-year-old daughter Alka were executed in their home in Green. The Patels owned the notorious pay-by-the-hour Steve's Motel. Summit County detectives have come to believe it was a professional hit over a business deal - and for the first time name their suspected triggermen. Ohio Mysteries: http://www.ohiomy...

In 1892, a man named John wrote a three-part series for the local Middletown, Ohio newspaper detailing two tragic events that led to at least 25 deaths in a cave leaking, presumably, natural gas. One event involved 21 escaping slaves, the other involved four geologists who went in but never came out. His tale led to a century of spelunkers trying to find the cave, but others have wondered if his p...

In August of 2011, Katelyn Markham vanished from her home in Fairfield, Ohio. The Art Institute of Cincinnati student was two days from her 22nd birthday and three weeks from graduating when she failed to respond to texts and phone calls from her fiance. It took nearly two years to find her remains in an Indiana dumping ground. www.ohiomysteries.comfeedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomy...

In 1923 and 1924, the construction of the Big Four railroad bridge in Sidney, Ohio took the lives of at least four construction workers - and possibly a fifth? Is there really a migrant worker encased in the cement, a man whose death meant so little it didn't even stop the pouring of the concrete? A local witness said he saw it happen.www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.comwww.patreon.com...

\New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson, captain of the most storied team in baseball history, learned to fly so he could go home to his family in Canton, Ohio between games. He died in a fiery crash at Akron-Canton Airport while practicing his landings in a brand new twin-engine Cessna that his wife believed he was high-pressured into buying. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www....