True Crime Historian

Peggy Nash Tells How She Killed Her Husband  Episode 153 involves a domestic dispute, shots fired. What drew me to this story, actually, was the patience of the woman charged. Wait til you hear all of the altercations she had with this man before she finally put an end to it. I’m not justifying homicide, but… well, I’ll tell the story, you supply your own horror, outrage, and indignation.   Ad-Fre...

Why I Decapitated My Wife  Episode 272 When I first encountered the headlines that led me to episode 272, they had me at wife decapitation, but it turns out to be so much more: a trunk murder, a sordid love triangle, a broken-hearted aged father and two poor waifs left without a mother. Plus some of the most spirited and detailed reporting you’ll find. Culled from the historic pages of the Milwauk...

The Islip Murder Of Cynthiana Clock Hawkins Episde 207 tells the tragic story of a young man so beguiled by love and consumed by greed that he commits a most heinous crime when his mother refuses to give her blessing. His careless circumstantial trail quickly trumps his vain effort to pin the crime on the proverbial drifter. Ad-Free Edition More Capital Crimes Become a supporter of this podcast: h...

Dorothy Ellingson Shoots Her Mother  Episode 155 sends us back into the jazz age with another tale of a bad girl gone worse. It seems like a cut and dry case, and it is, but there’s a great deal of drama between her arrest and the somewhat anti-climactic trial. By the way, the sheiks referred to in the story are not from the Middle East, but because of the popularity of popularity of the Rudolph V...

Episode 271 It seemed pretty obvious that the murder of Beate Marie Voss was the unfortunate result of a botched burglary, similar to a string of others of late in Reno, but tracking down the itinerant killer would take some clever and dogged police work. Told from the perspective of Reno Chief of Police Harry Fletcher by Bob Arentz, Episode 271 is adapted from True Detective, V. 43; No. 2, June 1...

The Botched Fake Suicide Of A Millionaire Contractor Episode 206 is not just your typical love triangle gone awry, but the story of a woman about to be scorned retaliating in advance. There's also some intriguing family drama, a conspiracy among sisters, and a retrial that proves to be more sensational than the first. Ad Free Edition More Love Triangles Gone Awry More Femmes Fatale Become a suppor...

The Scarsdale Apple Orchard Torch Murder Scandal Episode 156 is the scandalous tale that begins with the charred body of a young woman, identified only by a mole on an unburned leg. Turns out she was married. And had a boyfriend. Police solve the case quickly, but the decision of the jury is to be whether it was a crime of passion, manslaughter, or premeditated first degree murder. Here are the fa...

It Happened In A Fargo Hotel Episode 270 examines a case that baffled police then, and still today, there is some doubt cast on the verdict. But at the time, when the body of an innocent young farm girl turns up brutally raped and murdered in a Fargo, North Dakota, hotel room, fingers turn toward the night clerk, admittedly the town Lothario. AD-FREE EDITION Become a supporter of this podcast: htt...

Episode 209 is a deadly double-header: Two stories about women murdering their philandering men and getting away with it. The Broadway Playboy Picks A Fight: A housewife complains to her husband that he should spend more time with his children and less time drinking with his friends Then he cracks her over the head with a pool cue. Yeah Big mistake. To Save Others From A Heartache: A nurse leaves...

The Life, Loves, And Crimes Of Emma LeDoux Episode 157 tells the scandalous tale of a California woman who loved not wisely but too often. It’s hard to say from the newspaper reports and court records how the corpse in the trunk actually met its demise, but Emma Le Doux would never escape the consequences. AD-FREE Edition Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-cr...

Executed For A Worthless Haul Episode 268 takes us back to the years just after Prohibition when gangsters no longer had illegal alcohol to excite their purpose. This gang terrorized three states until their number came up, as it always does, and their story not only contains some daring and ill-conceived heists, but internal strife and a flight from justice. Culled from the historic pages of the...

The Last Desperado Of The Wild West Episode 180 takes us to the final days of the Old West and the search for the notorious outlaw Harry Tracy, who made a daring, deadly escape from the Oregon Penitentiary and embarked on a deadlier two-month flight from justice. AD-FREE EDITION More Manuhnts More Westerns Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2...

From The Files of Ellis H. Parker Episode 267 is adapted from a first-person article in True Detective Mysteries, December 1928, written from the perspective of Detective Ellis H. Parker of Mount Holly, New Jersey, who during his career was known as “America's Sherlock Holmes.”  He solved 288 of the 300 major crimes he worked on during his career, obtaining signed confessions in more than half of...

Buck Ruxton’s Double Jigsaw Puzzle Murder Episode 159 takes us once again to the British Isles, our first excursion into Scotland with the story of a physician (some accounts call him a gynecologist) accused of dismembering his wife and the nanny of their children, scattering their parts in a deep bowl-like valley near the town of Moffat, so named as it was known as a good spot for hiding stolen c...

The Brickbat Moron Serial Murders Episode 210 is a dark journey through five murders in two widely-separated states, all perpetrated by a single, simple-minded man using bricks as weapons. Each case has enough drama to be an episode of its own, but taken together it's five times ugly. So hold on. AD-FREE EDITION Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-histor...

The True Crime Of Charles Wilson Against Mamie Walsh Episode 266 details a random, impulsive act in the wilds of frontier Oregon. When a pretty little 14 year old girl turns up brutally murdered and possibly raped, the town of Milwaukie and nearby villages teeter on the brink of mob violence for several weeks until... well, no spoilers here.  AD-FREE EDITION Become a supporter of this podcast: htt...

he Murder of Philippo Caruso Episode 161 takes us on a trip across the Midwest from the Italian slums of Chicago, where a produce salesman meets a terrible fate at the hands of a countryman aboard a train to Pittsburgh where his body was found several days later. In this story, the police and the press work together to break down the brotherhood of silence and crack this horrible crime. Culled fro...

The Cruel Murder Of The Deering Family Episode 177 has been adapted from an 1866 trial pamphlet published in Philadelphia. One of the earliest expressions of true crime in print, trial pamphlets were often embelleshed from newspaper accounts of a case, and like this one--a bloody mass murder on a farmer's family just after the civil war--were released within days of the final disposition. AD-FREE...

Fiasco at the World’s Fair There’s a lot of crazy in episode 167, and it’s a little confusing at first because there’s so much of it going around, but even once the source of the crazy is obvious, the story is just picking up. I never thought I’d be doing a crime story about a child custody case, but I never heard of a child custody case like this one. Hold one, everybody. This one is a wild ride....

 The Betrayal Of Gerretje Haast Although there is a verdict and a lot of drama in Episode 265, many details of this case remain oblique. Only two people know what happened in that shack on the windswept Colorado prairie, and they aren’t talking, but there are many subtle clues to pique your imagination.  AD-FREE EDITION Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crim...

The Michigan Petting Party Murders Episode 176 tells of a most horrible--and most quickly-resolved--murder. When four teenagers are found dead on a country road, public indignation runs high, and under the pressure of a gathering mob, justice moves swiftly. The bodies are found on a Tuesday, and by Friday the case is resolved. AD-FREE EDITION Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreake...

Confession Of The Bigamist Otto Mueller Episode 169 concerns the search for the killer of a young woman whose body is found in a remote Long Island development a year after her death. The one clue takes the investigation to Europe with sudden and surprising results. AD-FREE EDITION Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support . You can...

Frank Carter, Maniac Episode 263 explores the psyche of a purely evil man, but also a witty, highly entertaining individual, a textbook sociopath. AD-FREE EDITION Culled from the historic pages of the Omaha World Herald and other newspapers of the era.  Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support . You can pay more if you want to, but...

Two Doomed Fugitives Episode 211 truly is a historic case: the story behind the first execution under the Lindbergh kidnapping law, which called for the death penalty in cases where the victim is taken across state lines. So when a pair of fugitives takes hostage a pair of small town policemen in their own car... well, you know that's not going to end well. AD-FREE EDITION For more information on...

Little Eva’s Roadhouse Plot Episode 171 relates the sordid tale of a plot to collect insurance money. After Eva Coo, a Cooperstown, New York roadhouse proprietress, purchased $10,000 in policies for her handyman, she asks him and her best friend to go for a ride in the country in a car she just borrowed. Yeah, that’s not gonna end well.  Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com...