The Great Depression sparked a desperation in people that led to an epidemic of kidnappings nationwide, including the 1937 abduction of Arthur Fried, a married father of one whose father owned a sand-and-gravel company. As crime writer Sarah Weinman helps explain, Fried's unusual case ultimately led to the state of New York executing two men for the first time on charges other than first-degree murder. 



"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.



Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

S2 Ep20: Arthur Fried and the 'Kidnap Years'

Crime is so commonplace that it takes something particularly shocking to be labelled the “crime of the century.” Even so, there are a lot of cases that have earned the distinction. In each episode of Crimes of the Centuries, award-winning journalist Amber Hunt will examine a case that’s lesser known today but was huge when it happened. The cases explored span the centuries and each left a mark. Some made history by changing laws. Others were so shocking they changed society.

History

Society & Culture

True crime

When 26 California schoolchildren and their bus driver failed to show up after a swimming trip on the penultimate day of summer school, authorities launched a search that grew much more frantic after the school bus they'd been traveling in was discovered hidden in 20-foot-tall bamboo. What happened next shocked and befuddled the nation. 



"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history



DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE CENTURIES BOOK!  Order today at www.centuriespod.com/book (https://www.centuriespod.com/book)!



Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod



Episode sponsors:

Magic Mind. For a limited time, this special link offers up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one-time purchases with code COTC at checkout. You can claim it at www.magicmind.com/cotc20. 

S4 Ep13: Kidnapped and Buried Alive: The Nightmare in Chowchilla

In 1898, a pair of killers stalked a worksite in the Tsavo region of Kenya. They evaded blockades and booby traps to torment hundreds of men who'd simply signed up to do a job but instead found themselves marked as prey for a seemingly unstoppable deadly duo. 



"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history

DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE CENTURIES BOOK!  Order today at www.centuriespod.com/book (https://www.centuriespod.com/book)!

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod



Episode sponsors:



Laundry Sauce. For 15% off your order, head to LaundrySauce.com/COTC and use code COTC



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S4 Ep12: The Tsavo Man Eaters

In the 1960s, after losing all 10 of the babies they'd conceived, Marie Noe and her husband, Arthur, became the most famous bereaved parents in America, with most of the deaths attributed to "crib death," later called Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). After a journalist revisited the case in 1998, investigators took another look at the mysterious series of deaths, prompting Marie Noe to share a horrifying secret that had been weighing on her for more than 30 years.



"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history



DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE CENTURIES BOOK!  Order today at www.centuriespod.com/book (https://www.centuriespod.com/book)!



Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod



Episode sponsors:



Wildgrain. For a limited time, you can get $30 off the first box-PLUS free Croissants in every box-when you go to Wildgrain.com/COTC to start your subscription.



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S4 Ep11: Marie Noe and Her Cradle of Death

On September 6, 1949, 28-year-old World War II veteran Howard Unruh ate the breakfast his mother made him, then armed himself with a Luger pistol and walked calmly through his Camden, New Jersey, neighborhood, shooting everyone in sight. He told police afterward he'd had a kill list of specific people he'd felt had wronged him, but by the end of his 12-minute rampage, 13 would be fatally wounded, three of them innocent children.



"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history



DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE CENTURIES BOOK!  Order today at www.centuriespod.com/book (https://www.centuriespod.com/book)!



Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod



Episode sponsors:



Smalls. Head to Smalls.com/COTC and use promo code COTC at checkout for 50% off your first order PLUS free shipping. 



Athena Club. Head over to AthenaClub.com to try their award-winning razor and body products and get 20%off your purchase with code COTC at checkout.

S4 Ep10: The Walk of Death: Howard Unruh

While the grift he deployed had been named for another man, Bernie Madoff took the concept of a Ponzi scheme and pumped it full of steroids, allowing it to keep him -- and plenty of others -- filthy rich for literally decades. In the end, Madoff bilked some $65 billion from thousands of clients, all while maintaining such a sheen of respectability that he was charged with helping write the very rules he himself eschewed.



"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history



DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE CENTURIES BOOK!  Order today at www.centuriespod.com/book (https://www.centuriespod.com/book)!



Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

S2 Ep20: Arthur Fried and the 'Kidnap Years'

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