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PODCAST

True Crime Historian

Richard O Jones

Tales of classic scandals, scoundrels and scourges told through vintage newspaper accounts from the golden age of yellow journalismBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

true crime documentary

All Episodes

95:29

Jerry The Wildcat

True Crime Historian ·

2025/03/10

Special Triple FeatureEpisodes 306, 309, 311Jerry The WildcatAd-Free Safe House EditionAdapted from True Detective, vol. 56 no. 4, February 1952By Jonas BayerA cowboy rolls into Miles City, Montana, on his way back home to Iowa, and stops in a local cafe to buy a fellow ranch hand a drink. When he's found later, beaten nearly to death in an alley and his roll of bills missing, officials set out to find the fiery red-head he had been talking to in the bar. There was only one clue as to who murdered

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74:57

A Wretched Witch Of A Wife

True Crime Historian ·

2025/03/06

The Lizzie Halliday HorrorsAd-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 305 kicks off Lady Serial Killers Month with the strange story of Lizzie Halliday, the perpetrator of at least five, maybe six murders, and once you hear about those, you’ll wonder if maybe there weren’t a few more than that. In addition to six murders, the spice in this tale includes a near-lynching and the lunatic antics of the prisoner, the first American woman to receive a death sentence in the electric chair.More Serial KillersBecome

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57:54

A Body In The Cement Shanty

True Crime Historian ·

2025/03/04

The Racine Street Bridge HorrorWhen 14-year-old Hattie Zinka disappeared, people feared her body would be found in the river. It wasn't, but it was just as bad.Ad-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 303 takes us back to 1909 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where a teenage girl disappears while walking home from her married sister’s house. The area was known as a dark, dangerous place, but she’d made the journey many times. Until one fateful dark night... Culled from the historic pages of the Milwaukee Journal

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60:24

The Basement Butcher Of Prospect Place

True Crime Historian ·

2025/02/28

The Brownell-Bennett DismembermentsAd-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 300 recounts a grisly pair of murders that are uncovered when New York City residents begin finding stray body parts around Brooklyn. The reporting isn’t terribly graphic, but there are a few ghastly descriptions. There’s your trigger warning.Culled from the historic pages of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the New York Daily News, and other newspapers of the era.More Torso MurdersBecome a supporter of this podcast:

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65:54

Shot In The Arms Of The Law

True Crime Historian ·

2025/02/26

Berthe Claiche’s Revenge Ad-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 298 relates the sad story of Berthe Claiche, whom we met briefly in episode 297 when she gave a necklace to her cellmate, Josephine Terranova. I normally like to mix things up a bit, but these two tales have a lot in common, interesting back stories about immigrants struggling to adapt to American ways, courtroom theatrics, and sympathetic abused female defendants. Not that murder is ever a good idea, but if I were in their shoes... What do

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89:45

The Soiled Sicilian Bride

True Crime Historian ·

2025/02/24

Josephine Terranova’s RevengeAd-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 297 is a sad story about a young immigrant woman so abused by her relatives that when the truth is revealed to her newlywed husband, he breaks off the union. The teenage bride believes she has but one recourse: To do what God commands.Culled from the historic pages of the New York World and other newspapers of the era.More Femmes FataleBecome a supporter of this podcast:

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89:36

The Good Friday Beekman Place Bathtub Murder

True Crime Historian ·

2025/02/21

Crime Club Founder Found DeadAd-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 134 takes place five months and one city block from Episode 133, Tears Of The Weeping Willow. They are otherwise unrelated, except that both incidents begin with sexual assaults that end in murder. In this one, an up-and-coming author and recent bride makes the grave mistake of opening the door of her upscale Manhattan East Side apartment to a young man who wanted to talk about her love seat. Without many clues to go on, police pin their

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65:52

Fred Fanning's False Confession

True Crime Historian ·

2025/02/19

Who Killed The Widow Short? Ad-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 137 is the quirky story of the death of a beloved widow in Topeka, Kansas. She was old and in ill health, and no one suspected any foul play until her caretaker--allegedly her late husband’s nephew--suddenly confessed to the crime, but then the autopsy told another story entirely. Was Fred Fanning covering for someone? Or did someone have undue influence over his mind, if he had one? Become a supporter of this podcast:

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92:40

Diary Of A Greenwich Village Madcap

True Crime Historian ·

2025/02/17

The Complicated Death Of Starr FaithfullAd-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 138 is the story that inspired the John O’Hara novel and the Elizabeth Taylor film “BUtterfield 8,” the sad, sordid tale of a beautiful girl with an evocative name and a traumatic past that put her on the road to ruin. The finding of her body on a Long Island beach led to probe deep into the social fabric of three cities on two continents. The telling of the story isn’t particularly graphic, but it does go into dark, dark

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45:38

In The Ravine At Stinky Point

True Crime Historian ·

2025/02/12

Episode 294Ad-Free Safe House Edition Pulp Nonfiction“I’d die before I’d let a man do anything to me,” she said. And she did.Adapted from “Joanna And The Hillbilly Lover Boy,” by George Vedder Jones, True Detective, Vol.73 No.1, May 1960Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

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68:24

Virginia Venus And The Sidewalk Sheik

True Crime Historian ·

2025/02/10

A Rampage In RichmondAd-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 293 may start out like your ordinary love triangle gone awry, but the city of Richmond, Virginia is scandalized by the revelations that come out about the young people of their city during the shocking trial. When the flapper told the dapper young man that it was over between them, she set off a massacre.More Love Triangles Gone AwryBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

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60:05

Murder At The Furrier

True Crime Historian ·

2025/02/07

Historic Lady KillersAd-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 292, in which we pay our respects to a quartet of murdered wives:Sarah Yargus, murdered by her husband John Yargus, July 13, 1849;Pauline Schmitt, murdered by her husband Germain Schmitt, January 21, 1919;Ida Jech, murdered by her husband Frederic Jech, July 22, 1930;Anna McDowell Gentry, murdered by her husband Sam Gentry, February 1, 1935.Recorded live at Miami University Hamilton Downtown, October 29, 2018.Download the slideshow for headlines

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112:43

The Bremerton Party Massacre

True Crime Historian ·

2025/02/05

Six Dead At Erland’s PointAd-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 139 is the gruesome story of a home invasion, circa 1934, a case that seemed so random that it took over a year to crack one of the most brutal mass murders witnessed by the Pacific Northwest. The small-town police are at first presented as in over their heads, but they remained dogged in their pursuit, and justice will be served. Eventually.More Mass MurdersBecome a supporter of this podcast:

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89:32

Murder By Dynamite

True Crime Historian ·

2025/02/03

Episode 165:Ad-Free Safe House Edition"Murder By Dynamite," by Stewart Whitehouse. An explosion in the mens room of a department store sets off a wave of copycats, including one plot to murder a young lawyer by booby-trapping his car with dynamite. More Big Booms"Terror in La Paz," by Manuelo Martino, is our first trip to South America with the story of a clever serial killer and master of disguise with his mind set on strangling as many young girls as he can. More Serial KillersBecome a supporter

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108:13

The Murderous Mania Of Jolly Jane

True Crime Historian ·

2025/01/29

The Unexpected Crimes of Nurse ToppanEpisodes 29 and 30Ad-Free Safe House EditionHistory contains many cases of nurses who turned out to be killers, but there may not be one as bizarre as the case of Jane Toppan, one of the first "angels of death" on record.Because she had such a cheerful disposition, people called her “Jolly Jane,” and so were completely surprised when she was arrested for the murder of a family in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. Once suspicions were aroused, accusations began to

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38:02

The Bludgeoned Blonde Beer Money Murder

True Crime Historian ·

2025/01/27

Pulp Nonfiction: A Celebration Of The Pioneers Of True CrimeA Safe House ExclusiveAd-Free Safe House EditionOrphaned at an early age, Pauline Campbell had worked hard for her goal, until a killer ended her dream. Her murder seemed the work of a fiend with a grudge against nurses, then a teenager stepped forward with a shocking clue.Adapted from True Detective, Vol. 56 No. 4, February 1952More Robberies Gone AwryBecome a supporter of this podcast:

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62:31

Escape From The Asylum

True Crime Historian ·

2025/01/24

The Pearce Insanity PlotAd-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 289 is a scandalous story that shook two Midwestern cities in the late 1930s when a woman came forward with a bizarre tale of abduction, adultery, assault, addiction and absconsion. That’s why I’m putting this story on my A-list.More Prison BreaksBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

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103:48

The Borden Case Part Two

True Crime Historian ·

2025/01/22

The LIzzie Edition Part V.bEpisode 256 we return to the mother of all murder mysteries, the case of Lizzie Borden in commemoration of the 125th anniversary of the verdict in her sensational trial, June 20, 1893. We again turn to the godfather of American True Crime, Edmund Pearson, the librarian who wrote slyly humorous takes of famous murder cases. His landmark essay, simply titled The Borden Case, makes up the first 119 pages of Pearson’s Studies in Murder, from which this episode is adapted.Ad

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115:12

The Bordon Case Part One

True Crime Historian ·

2025/01/20

The LIzzie Edition Part V.aEpisode 256 we return to the mother of all murder mysteries, the case of Lizzie Borden in commemoration of the 125th anniversary of the verdict in her sensational trial, June 20, 1893. We again turn to the godfather of American True Crime, Edmund Pearson, the librarian who wrote slyly humorous takes of famous murder cases. His landmark essay, simply titled The Borden Case, makes up the first 119 pages of Pearson’s Studies in Murder, from which this episode is adapted.Ad

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58:08

The Amador Death Bed Confession

True Crime Historian ·

2024/12/27

Murder Of The Mythical Helen JohnsonAd-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 288 goes out to True Crime Historian patron Aisha B., who requested a murder from her hometown of Pleasanton, California. Although a lot of these historic stories have humorous elements when considered in modern light, I don’t normally treat them as comedies. There may or may not be any actual murders in this one, but there are plenty of accusations and much ado about Mrs. Amador’s allegations that makes it a comedy of errors that

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263 results

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