All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

32:56

Jacqueline & Emily Powell: When a Mother Kills

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/10/05

ABC:LHS 091-4 Jacqueline Powell......was only 10 years old when her mother Emily Lippincott Powell shot her in sleep and then tried to take her own life. Emily spent the rest of her life in Friends Hospital.

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26:11

George Boehm: Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘em

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/10/04

ABC:LHS 091-3 George Boehm......was a workman on the Baldwin floor in 1870 when a quarrel with a co-worker led to his own death from a crushed skull and his assailant's trial and imprisonment. This segment walks you through the justice system of 1870s Philadelphia.

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36:09

Roy Wilson White: Three Wrongs Don't Remake Roy White

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/10/03

ABC:LHS #091-2 Roy Wilson White... ...was a gifted young UPenn law instructor who in 1900 was robbed and killed near the campus. Drawing on contemporary newspapers and archival research, the podcast traces how racial panic, sensational reporting, coercive interrogation, and institutional pressure shaped the cases against Henry Ivory, Charles Perry, and Amos Stirling. The result is both a portrait of a promising life cut short and a cautionary account of how the demand for certainty can overwhelm

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26:21

S. Morris Waln: Red Dog Meets His Maker

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/10/02

ABC:LHS 091-1 Samuel Morris Waln... ...was a wealthy Philadelphian who spent his free time in the "wild west" each summer until he and his companion were murdered in their sleep by their cook and guide. A cross stands in his memory in Wyoming.

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165:17

Murder Most Foul, Part 2; Five More Slain Philadelphians

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/10/01

ABC:LHS #091 Murder was part of the background noise in some areas of Philadelphia. S. Morris Waln, born into one of Philadelphia’s founding families, was murdered by his guide and cook during an annual journey west. His stone at Laurel Hill is melting, while a monument in his honor still rises from the Wyoming plains. Roy Wilson White, a promising Penn Law scholar, was robbed and killed after an evening class. Three men were hanged for the crime—but how many were truly guilty? Baldwin

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68:12

(BONUS) A Cabinet of Memory: When a Museum Closes

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/09/28

Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences... ...was open to anyone who wished to meet dinosaurs, birds, shells, fossils and the people who studied them. Now its public doors are closed, and I have come to Laurel Hill East to break that news to more than 50 of the founders, presidents, curators, collectors and supporters buried here. As we walk from grave to grave, we will follow the Academy from a rented room in 1812 to an internationally important museum—and ask how so much accumulated trust

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83:08

From the Silver Streak to Baby Nukes

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/09/15

BBB:LHWS 060 Edward G. Budd and Rupen Eksergian......were design and structural engineers who forced the Age of Steam into the Modern Era with their iconic Silver Zephyr Diesel Electric car in 1934. Eksergian took his skills further during the Cold War when he was one of the people behind Atomic Annie, a mobile artillery piece with a nuclear warhead. Both men rest at Laurel Hill West.

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38:47

Thomas E. Murphy: A Piece of the 1930s Phillies

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/09/06

ABC:LHS 090-5 Thomas E. Murphy ...... knew virtually nothing about baseball, but found himself owning hundreds of shares of the Phillies during their horrible years of the 1920s and 1930s. He is remembered more as a yachtsman and a co-founder of Jupiter Island, Florida.

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25:49

OPTIONAL: What's in a (Nick)Name: Casual Othering in...

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/09/05

ABC:LHS #090-6 Many early baseball players ... ... were given nicknames that would never be tolerated today. We can never know how these players felt about being saddled with monikers like Chief, Three-Finger, Chico, Dummy, and Richie, based on being "othered."

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30:57

Joseph Howard Berry, Jr.: Penn's Greatest Athlete...

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/09/05

ABC:LHS #90-4 Joseph Howard Berry, Jr. .... ...excelled at baseball, football, track and field, and life. He is in two Halls of Fame. He is little remembered today, partially because of a vile nickname that he carried from his days at Wharton through the rest of his life. His interment location is well hidden.

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18:59

Frank Bettger: A Successful Failure

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/09/04

ABC:LHS 090-3 Frank Bettger... (by guest host Rich Wilhelm)...was a mediocre infielder for the Cardinals who blew out his shoulder and took to selling insurance, at which he was initially less than mediocre. He rebuilt his personality and his life to become one of the best motivational speakers of his day, often compared to Dale Carnegie.

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23:28

Francis Richter: Voice for Baseball

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/09/02

ABC:LHS #090-2 Francis Richter ......was a sportswriter who championed the new game through his newspaper work and the ubiquitous weekly Sporting Life, which was an essential read in the early 20th century. Richter is in the Baseball Hall of Fame ... sort of.

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167:33

Play Ball!, Part 4: The Deep Bench – Oddballs,...

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/09/01

ABC:LHS #090 We start with three ballpark Franks... ...Francis Richter, whose writing helped to make the game respectable; he is in the Baseball Hall of Hame. ...Frank Fleer, the man who ALMOST invented the pink gum that's accompanied baseball cards for nearly a century. ...Frank Bettger, who went from failure to success after he blew out his throwing arm in Chicago (prepared and presented by fellow guide Rich Wilhelm). ...Joseph Howard Berry, Jr., who is in two Halls of Fame but is nearly

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34:52

Frank Fleer Goes Pink

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/08/28

Released early in memory of Dolly Parton. ABC:LHS #090-1 Frank Fleer... ...did not invent the gum that today carries his name, but his name has become synonymous with the pink chewy glob coveted by children of all ages worldwide.

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21:39

Jáni Szántó: Violins, Exile, and Hope

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/08/18

BBB 059, part 3 Jáni Szántó......was a masterful violinist and instructor who escaped the Nazis with the help of Pope Pius XII and settled in Philadelphia as instructor. One of his old instruments was the "Lord Borwick" Stradivarius, built in 1702.

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28:15

Wilhelm von Wymetal: Opera for Everyone

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/08/17

BBB:LHWS 059-2 Wilhelm von Wymetal ...... was an Austrian emigree with a dueling scar who took his expertise with opera to Hollywood, where he directed stars like Nelson Eddy & Jeannette McDonald, and to Pittsburgh, where he shepherded the Civic Light Opera through its early days of success.

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35:34

Oscar “Papa” Schwar: Kettledrum Virtuoso

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/08/16

BBB:LHWS 059-1 Oscar "Papa" Schwar ... ... was a German timpanist whom Leopold Stokowski praised as the best in the business. His rumblings and poundings on kettle drums kept the Philadelphia Orchestra on its toes for more than 40 years. You'll hear lots of drumming in this one.

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97:15

Saving Music from the Nazis

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/08/14

BBB:LHWS 059 An estimated 1500 musicians ... ...fled central Europe's political turmoil in the 1930s and 1940s. Tympani player Oscar “Papa” Schwar came from Germany; Leopold Stokowski considered him the best kettledrum player he had ever heard. Wilhelm von Wymetal came from Austro-Hungary, dueling scar and all, to New York City, where he introduced and produced more than a dozen new operas at the Metropolitan, and traveled to Hollywood to direct operatic scenes in movies starring Nelson Eddy

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23:36

OPTIONAL COUNTERFACTUAL: USA without Slavery &...

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/08/07

ABC:LHS #089-6 OPTIONAL COUNTERFACTUAL......history of the United States when I asked CoPilot to create a country that abolished slavery at its beginning and then limited immigration. It gave me a startling picture of an unrecognizable country. This section is almost exclusively generated by CoPilot.

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20:00

Robert Ralston Stewart and His Broken Urn

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories ·

2026/08/05

ABC:LHS 089-4 Robert Stewart Ralston... ...was attacked and severely wounded by his servant who had been his enslaved valet. The result was destruction of Black neighborhoods.

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