True Crime Historian

The Astounding Disappearance Of Benjamin Collings On Long Island SoundJump To The Ad-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 396 relates the puzzling story of a family apparently attacked on their cabin cruiser on an inky summer night. The husband is missing and the wife and five-year-old daughter have an amazing tale to tell. But can her story hold water as well as the 26-foot cruiser?Hear More UNSOLVED CasesBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.CLICK HERE to reserve your bunk at The Safe House, where the past is present and the rent is just a buck a week but gives you access to ad-free editions of over 400 episodes in the dusty vault, early access to all new episodes, exclusive content, access to the big boss, and whatever personal services you require.

The Fiendish Slaughter Of An Innocent ChildJump To The Ad-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 394 relates the tragic tale of an eight-year old girl who fell into the clutches of a degenerate murderer. The hero of this story is a Louisville, Kentucky, detective who not only pieces together the crime, but embarks on a cross-country chase for the alleged murderer, who proves to be slippery even behind bars.Hear More Murders of THE INNOCENTSBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.CLICK HERE to reserve your bunk at The Safe House, where the past is present and the rent is just a buck a week but gives you access to ad-free editions of over 400 episodes in the dusty vault, early access to all new episodes, exclusive content, access to the big boss, and whatever personal services you require.

Brothers Face Gas Chamber TogetherJump To The Ad-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 392 explores the case of two brothers charged with the murder of a Colorado farmer and his “chore boy.” The chief witness against them is the farmer’s wife, who made a miraculous getaway and recovery.Hear More Stories About CAPITAL CRIMESBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.CLICK HERE to reserve your bunk at The Safe House, where the past is present and the rent is just a buck a week but gives you access to ad-free editions of over 400 episodes in the dusty vault, early access to all new episodes, exclusive content, access to the big boss, and whatever personal services you require.

The Barber And The Gambler’s Wife Stand TrialJump To The Ad-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 393 takes us back to the Gilded Age and the salacious story of a professional gambler who is fatally attacked as he leaves his house to go to the hotel where he operates. Blame falls on his barber, who confesses to the crime and implicates the gambler’s wife, accusing her of not only having an interracial affair with him, but also with a younger man who just moved to town. All three are arrested, but who is really the culprit?Hear more stories of LOVE TRIANGLES GONE AWRY.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.CLICK HERE to reserve your bunk at The Safe House, where the past is present and the rent is just a buck a week but gives you access to ad-free editions of over 400 episodes in the dusty vault, early access to all new episodes, exclusive content, access to the big boss, and whatever personal services you require.

The Indiantown Creek Insurance Murder PlotJump To The Ad-Free Safe House Edition!Episode 390 explores what was reported to be the first murder case in the English-speaking world where six men receive a guilty verdict on one indictment, the result of a plot to murder a man in order to receive the benefits of a bunch of insurance policies. It doesn’t really end well for anyone.Hear More Stories About CAPERS & CONSPIRACIESBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.CLICK HERE to reserve your bunk at The Safe House, where the past is present and the rent is just a buck a week but gives you access to ad-free editions of over 400 episodes in the dusty vault, early access to all new episodes, exclusive content, access to the big boss, and whatever personal services you require.

Murder In The Attic With Pipe, Gun, and KnifeJump To Ad-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 389 details one of the clumsiest murder plots we’ve yet to encounter, and is jam-packed with some of our favorite tropes: A love triangle gone awry and a trunk murder, to name a couple, with a large dose of crowded courtroom hijinx, including a highly inappropriate kiss between defendants.Hear More Stories About LOVE TRIANGLES GONE AWRYBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.CLICK HERE to reserve your bunk at The Safe House, where the past is present and the rent is just a buck a week but gives you access to ad-free editions of over 400 episodes in the dusty vault, early access to all new episodes, exclusive content, access to the big boss, and whatever personal services you require.

Domestic Scandal In Sioux FallsJump To AD-FREE Safe House EditionEpisode 388 is not a classic trunk murder, per se, but one of the most dramatic scenes in the narrative comes when the prosecutor opens up a dead girl’s trunk in front of witnesses to speculate on the abuses its contents portend. Two families are ripped apart in this gripping drama where evidence is thin but accusations are as abundant and brutal as the wounds on the poor girl’s dead body.Hear More Episodes About TRUNK MURDERSBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.CLICK HERE to reserve your bunk at The Safe House, where the past is present and the rent is just a buck a week but gives you access to ad-free editions of over 400 episodes in the dusty vault, early access to all new episodes, exclusive content, access to the big boss, and whatever personal services you require.

The Repudiated Confessions Of Richard IvensJump To The Ad-Free Safe House EditionEpisode 398 explores the tragic murder of a Chicago housewife and the subsequent confession of the simple minded young man who found the body in a refuse pile.Listen To More BAD CONFESSIONSBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.Join us at The Safe House, where every resident gets the key and safe combination to the dusty old vault where they listen to the largest collection of True Crime Historian episodes available in the entire universe, all ad-free.

Coming October 15!!!The Work Of The Mormon ButcherEpisode 451 begins in the summer of 1902, when a woman’s mutilated body is pulled from the Morris Canal, and the trail leads to a blood-soaked missionary’s flat in Manhattan. The suspect: William Hooper Young, grandson of Mormon patriarch Brigham Young, whose notebook bore the chilling phrase “Blood Atonement.” This is a rich episode about the strange descent of a scholar turned tramp, and the murder that made headlines thunder with scandal, scripture, and slaughter.Available for advance ad-free listening now at The Safe House!Just a buck a week reserves your bunk at the Safe House and give you early access to all new episodes of True Crime Historian, plus full access to the dusty vault where you can listen to over 400 vintage episodes and whatever personal services you require.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.Join us at The Safe House, where every resident gets the key and safe combinat

Our long international nightmare is over! True Crime Historian is coming off hiatus with a block of brand new episodes. The first new release comes October 1 with "A Bloody Scream In The Night: The Axe Murder Of Alice Mallett.Episode 450 begins with a scream in the night as the beautiful Miss Alice Mallett, her body brutally defiled, found in a bloody pool. The town of Jackson, Michigan, reels, a mob thirsting for vengeance. The twisted trail of an axe points to the fiendish George Straub, an ex-con with a dark past. But wait! Did he act alone? Or did another shadowy figure lurk in the night? With tear gas exploding and fingers pointing, justice hangs by a thread as a city demands blood!But you can get an advance listen now by joining us at THE SAFE HOUSE, where you will not only get a first listen of this new slew of episodes, but full access to THE DUSTY VAULT where you can enjoy over 400 chilling and thrilling episodes of True Crime Historian!Just a buck a week give you all that! You can't even buy a cup o

The Brutal Murder Of Mayme ShermanA True Crime Short Story by Richard O JonesAd-Free Safe House EditionOne of the factors behind my interest in historical true crime is that my hometown of Hamilton, Ohio, seems to have a particularly rich history of crime--murder in particular, but not just murder. I’ve done several local programs about the safecrackers, bandits, and other notorious characters. This short story, “Bacon On The Table,” concerns the third of three “bluebeard” killers in the first decade of the 20th century. The first was the murder of Hannah Knapp by Alfred Knapp in December, 1902. This is the subject of my book, “The First Celebrity Serial Killer.” But even before this crime came to light, Samuel J. Keelor tried to decapitate his wife on Valentine’s Day, 1903. You can read more about that story in my ebook, “The Sleepwalking Slasher.”The following year, just a week after Knapp paid the ultimate penalty for his crime, Charles Victor Sherman commits the horrible crime detailed in this episode.In

The Atrocities Of Albert FishI'D TURN BACK IF I WERE YOU!!!Episode 191 is without a doubt the vilest case you'll ever hear on this program because I don't think I could find a worse one if I tried. There's a lot of evil discussed here: torture, cannibalism, and more. Consider this your trigger warning: I'd turn back if I were you! Or at least put the kids to bed and plug in your ear buds. Keep this between us.Ad-Free EditionBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

The Murder Of Mary PhaganEpisode 183 tells of one of the most infamous cases of an innocent man wrongly accused. When a teenage factory girl is found dead in the basement of an Atlanta pencil manufacturer, blame falls on the mild-mannered Jewish superintendent of the plant, and the jury takes the word of a drunken janitor. It’ll take 70 years for the truth to come out.Ad-Free EditionBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

The Reily Mattock MurderEpisode 198 is centered on one of my favorite murder tropes, the so-called “eternal triangle,” between the cranky old farmer, his fading wife, and the handsome young farmhand. Yeah, that’s not going to end well, but they might have gotten away with it if they had just put the body across the tracks. It’s all in the details.Culled from the historic pages of the Hamilton Journal-News and other newspapers of the era.Ad-Free Edition

The Real ‘Chicago’ MurdersEpisode 352 explores the two murders that inspired the hit musical “Chicago,” which was based on a play by Maurine Watkins, who did some reporting on both cases as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. I’ll be joined by my colleague Susan Ferman, whose own podcast Catastrophic Calamities, will premiere next week on the Pulpular Media network. Susan will read about the case of Beulah Annan, who became Roxy Hart on stage. I will read the case of Belva Gaertner, who became Velma Kelly.Culled from the historic pages of the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, and other newspapers of the era.This episode includes a reference to a fellow murderess Sabela Nitti, whose story you can hear about in True Crime Historian 230, The Ugly Duckling Murderess.

The Trial Of Rattlesnake James, The Red-Headed BluebeardEpisode 192 gets a bit epic, but it’s the story that keeps on giving, with two botched murders and moral charges to boot, and things go from crazy to crazier when they bring a pair of rattlers named Lethal and Lightning into the courtroom.

A Litany of HorrorEpisode 12 is a reading of the chilling confession of Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as H.H. Holmes, one of the most remarkable serial killers in American History. The whole nation was shocked and outraged in the waning years of the nineteenth century by the gruesome deeds of one Herman Mudgett, the arch fiend who took on the pseudonym H.H. Holmes as he prepared his famous "Castle of Death" in downtown Chicago. He was arrested for an insurance fraud in November 1894, but his string of murders, perhaps 200 in all, were soon revealed. He was convicted of one capital crime in Philadelphia, and while he awaited execution, he penned a confession detailing 27 murders that was published in newspapers across the country. He would recant this confession before he hanged, but really, you can't make this stuff up.Ad free Patreon edition with subscription

A Terrible Reign of MurderAbout the murders that inspired Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon"Episode 214 digs deep into the files of the FBI and one of its early successful investigations during the tenure of J.Edgar Hoover, when the Bureau of Investigations looked into the murder of as many as 60 to 70 Osage Indians. The file includes a report by Agent Frank Smith as well as statements by informants who helped break the conspiracy. True Crime Historian welcomes guest reader Susan Ferman as Katherine Cole, one of these informants.

YESTERDAY’S NEWS -- Tales of classic scandals, scoundrels and scourges told through vintage newspaper accounts from the golden age of yellow journalism...The Gillooly/Lannon AffrayEpisode 443 tells the story of the first officer to be killed in the line of duty in Kokomo, Indiana. But was the violent action against him provoked, or spurred on by a notorious local gang? The question divided the growing Indiana town.Culled from the historic pages of the Kokomo Saturday Tribune, the 1882 History of Howard County, and Jackson Morrow’s 1909 History of Howard County.We offer a special thanks to the staff at the Howard County Library’s genealogy room and listener Anthony R Jones, no relation, who saw the mobile production unit outside that library, where I was engaged in research on another matter. After I got his message telling me to look into the Mollihan gang, I dug around and came up with this episode.Residents of the Safe House can take a deeper dive into Kokomo’s criminal past in the case file posted at www.p

SERIAL KILLER CLIPSA reading of Yesterday’s News exploring one of History’s most prolific murderers. The Mysteries Of Belle Gunness Episode 308 examines the strange story of Belle Gunness, which came to light only after her house burned down with her body presumably inside and a dozen or so bodies buried in the yard. There’s a lot of conjecture and debate about this case still going on today. Culled from the historic pages of the Chicago Tribune, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, and other newspapers of the era. A creation Of Pulpular Media Can’t wait for the next episode to drop? Download the new podcast app Himalaya and get all new episodes a day early, and drop a buck in the tip jar for True Crime Historian. Support your favorite podcaster at www.patreon.com/truecrimehistorian. Just a dollar a month reserves your bunk at the safe house and access to exclusive content and whatever personal services you require. *** Opening theme by Nico Vitesse. Some music and sound effects licensed from podcastmusic.com. Closin