The New York Mystery Machine

We are wrapping up Season 5 with a BIG case update, your hot takes and theories, a fun game of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, AND, the Second Annual Tammany Awards! A big season deserves a big finale! Be sure to Subscribe, Rate, & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Audible! Support the show by becoming a sponsor on our Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

Okay...this is the last of Aaron Burr... we're pretty sure. On July 11, 1804, two of the most powerful men in America met beneath the cliffs of Weehawken, New Jersey. Within hours, Alexander Hamilton would be mortally wounded, Aaron Burr's political future would be shattered, and one of the most famous rivalries in American history would come to a violent end. We examine one of the most famous tru...

This week we are chatting with authors David Bushman and Mark Givens all about their new book, New York's Coldest Cases: Ten Unsolved Murders That Rocked the Empire State . We get into the subjects of the book, many of which are no strangers to The New York Mystery Machine. We are also chatting about their process, some of their hot takes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and more! Check the book out for...

For decades, queer New Yorkers lived inside a hidden city. Beneath the neon lights of Greenwich Village and behind the blacked-out windows of Mafia-run bars, communities formed under constant surveillance. Police raids, undercover officers, secret government files, public humiliation, and the fear of exposure shaped everyday life during one of the largest campaigns against queer Americans in U.S....

Deep in the forests of early Tennessee, one family claimed they were tormented by an unseen entity that spoke, sang, attacked their children, and ultimately murdered the family patriarch. We descend into the terrifying true legend of the Bell Witch, one of America’s most infamous hauntings that still haunts the Red River Valley more than 200 years later. Be sure to Subscribe, Rate, & Review on...

Today is all about Cassie Chadwick, the Gilded Age Grifter who was the proto-Anna Delvey in the late 1800s and early 1900s. We'll follow Cassie as she assumes multiple identities, creates elaborate backstories, and develop her brashest con -- claiming to be Andrew Carnegie's daughter -- all to climb the ladder of high society and obtain the privileges (and riches) that come with it.  Be su...

A body hangs in a funhouse. It’s been there for decades. Everyone thinks it’s a prop—until it breaks open and reveals something impossible. This is the story of Elmer McCurdy, an outlaw whose body survived long after his life ended. Be sure to Subscribe, Rate, & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Audible! Support the show by becoming a sponsor on our Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

In an era when cargo ships were able to be in almost constant communication with their companies, it would seem impossible for an entire crew to simply disappear. Yet, in 1921, a highly experienced crew abandoned their ship on the Diamond Shoals - no explanation, few clues, and only rumors of their fate. Learn about the final voyage of the Carroll A. Deering wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure...

In 1967, New York’s East Village was the center of a cultural revolution: music, freedom, and a generation rewriting the rules. But beneath that promise, something darker was unfolding. When two young people were found brutally murdered in a tenement basement on Avenue B, the crime shocked the city and captivated the nation. Branded by the press as the “Groovy Murders,” the case became a flashpoin...

It's April Fool's Day week and Adam and Christina wrote stories for the other person to read without looking at them before hand. What do we end up with? A story about a rare dead bird burglary with a wild surprise guest and a story of possible human combustion! Be sure to Subscribe, Rate, & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Audible! Support the show by becoming a sponsor on our P...

When a family purchases a new home, creepy letters from someone claiming to be "The Watcher" start arriving in the mail. Who is the Watcher? What do they want? And how can they be stopped? Be sure to Subscribe, Rate, & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Audible! Support the show by becoming a sponsor on our Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

For more than thirty years, the Roswell incident was little more than a strange headline from the summer of 1947. Until the late 1970s. In Part Two of our investigation, the Roswell case is reopened. We follow the researchers, witnesses, and bestselling authors who brought the incident back into the public eye, transforming a forgotten military press release into one of the most famous mysteries i...

In July of 1947, a rancher in New Mexico found strange debris scattered across his land. Within hours, the U.S. Army Air Forces announced that they had recovered a “flying disc.” By the next day, they said it was only a weather balloon. That contradiction—issued and retracted in less than twenty-four hours—would become one of the most enduring mysteries of the twentieth century. In Part One of our...

A hideous murder in Morristown, NJ swiftly leads to the conviction of former farmhand Antoine LeBlanc. Normally that would be the end of the story - but, in the case of Antoine LeBlanc, the macabre tale would continue in surprising ways. Learn about the murders and what happened after LeBlanc's execution on this week's episode. Be sure to Subscribe, Rate, & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, a...

On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated in front of hundreds of people at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights. He was thirty-nine years old. Three men were arrested; and more than half a century later, critical questions remain unanswered. Who really killed Malcolm X? Who knew it was coming? And why did the truth take so long to emerge? Available wherever you stream podcasts! Be su...

For a brief period in the 1920s, Brooklyn grocery stores were terrorized by a well-dressed and fashionably coiffed flapper, toting a gun and demanding cash. The newspapers were set ablaze with theories. Who could she be? How could a woman be behind these robberies? How does she keep pulling them off? Find out about this incredible story on this week's episode. Available wherever you stream podcast...

When the Dandy family moved into a farmhouse outside Hinsdale, New York in 1970, nothing about it looked haunted. Over the next four years, however, accidents multiplied, animals died without explanation, and the house itself began to feel hostile. Clara M. Miller’s memoir Echoes of a Haunting helps us follow the story from the first uneasy signs through the eventual decision to leave. Available w...

On November 18, 1978, more than 900 people died in a remote settlement in Guyana in what has often been reduced to a single, misleading phrase: “they drank the Kool-Aid.” This episode tells the full story of Jonestown — not as a sudden act of mass suicide, but as the final collapse of a community held together by fear, isolation, and decades of coercive control. Content note: This episode includes...

In the 1980s, JoAnn Nichols was a public school teacher approaching retirement but not yet ready to hang up her educator shoes. She finished her last day of classes before Christmas break, went for dinner with her husband and friends, and woke up the next morning ready to go for an appointment at the beauty parlor. She would never be seen again. What happened to JoAnn?  Available wherever you stre...

In January 1960, National Airlines Flight 2511 vanished from the night sky over North Carolina. As investigators ruled out weather, mechanical failure, and pilot error, their attention turned to one passenger. This episode explores the unanswered questions behind one of aviation’s most unsettling unsolved cases. Available wherever you stream podcasts! Be sure to Subscribe, Rate, & Review on Ap...

Join us on a trip down memory lane as we chat about some of our favorite moments from 2025! We are highlighting some of our favorite episodes, characters, songs and more! Available wherever you stream podcasts! Be sure to Subscribe, Rate, & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Audible! Support the show by becoming a sponsor on our Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

Before 1913, your letter to Santa was basically doomed, destined for destruction due to being undeliverable. If not for one incredible Christmas sprite, that may have remained the case. Discover the early 20th century huckster whose whimsy, Yuletide joy, and desire for lining his own coffers birthed what would eventually become (the now legitimately and worthily operated) Operation Santa...whereve...

A newborn is taken from a Manhattan hospital by someone pretending to be staff. Missing persons cases are often bleak with little to no resolution for the affected families -- but this case is almost miraculously different. Be sure to Subscribe, Rate, & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Audible! Support the show by becoming a sponsor on our Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

What happens when you try to sell your haunted house but don't adequately disclose its spectral tenants? A very punny lawsuit that you don't have a **ghost** of a chance to win. For Episode 200, we're exploring the haunting behind the so-called Ghostbusters Ruling. Don't miss this week's episode! Find it wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to Subscribe, Rate, & Review on Apple Podcasts, Sp...

In the early 1990s, a series of seemingly random shootings terrorized New York City. The killer called himself “The Zodiac." Either an homage to the Zodiac Killer of California...or perhaps the same person. He mailed cryptic letters to newspapers and police, claiming each of his victims corresponded to a sign of the zodiac. For years, the city lived in fear as investigators chased a phantom w...