Southern Mysteries Podcast

Southern Mysteries Podcast episodes:

• 04.15.2024

  Episode 144 The Disappearance of the Nelms Sisters

  The Nelms Sisters Mystery is one of the most sensational mysteries of the early 20th century, that most people have never heard of. In the summer of 1914, Eloise Nelms was in love with an attorney she planned to marry....

  
• 04.01.2024

  Episode 143 Battle of Blair Mountain

  The Battle of Blair Mountain, in the summer of 1921, was one of the largest civil uprisings in American History. Violent attacks on Appalachian miners and their families, dangerous working conditions and a forced debt system in company towns contributed...

  
• 03.18.2024

  Episode 142 The Mysterious Disappearance of Ruth Dorsey

  The disappearance of 67 year old Ruth Dorsey has perplexed her family, friends and Lee County, Alabama law enforcement for half a century. In the summer of 1974 investigators launched what would become one of the most extensive searches to...

  
• 03.04.2024

  Episode 141 The New Orleans Trunk Murders

  The New Orleans Trunk Murders are a long forgotten dark chapter in the city's history. The gruesome discovery of two dismembered bodies in the French Quarter in October 1927 was one of the most violent crimes reported in the city...

  
• 02.19.2024

  Episode 140 William and Ellen Craft - Desperate Leap to Liberty

  William and Ellen Craft escaped slavery in Macon, Georgia by traveling to Philadelphia in 1848. Ellen, the light skinned daughter of her mixed race mother and their enslaver, posed as a young white male planter and William posed as her...

  
• 02.05.2024

  Episode 139 Who Killed Betty Gail Brown?

  Betty Gail Brown was a sophomore at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky when she was murdered on campus in 1961.Betty Gail’s murder has haunted Central Kentucky for six decades.  Who killed Betty Gail and why? The case remains unsolved despite...

  
• 01.22.2024

  Episode 138 The Murder of Fannie McCue

  On September 4, 1904, Fannie McCue was found dead in a bathtub at the McCue home in Charlottesville, Virginia. Within months a man was arrested, convicted of murder and executed. Doubts linger over his guilt and some believe his execution...

  
• 12.11.2023

  Episode 137 Myra Clark and The Great Gaines Case

  The Great Gaines Case remains the longest civil litigation in US History. The nearly six decade long court battle involved a wealthy Louisiana politician and merchant’s vast fortune, a hidden marriage and child and property in the heart of New...

  
• 11.27.2023

  Southern Mysteries Classics The Kidnapping of Alice Speed Stoll

  One of the biggest news stories in October 1934 was the kidnapping of Alice Speed Stoll from her home in Louisville, Kentucky. Seven days later she was set free but her kidnapper remained on the run. Who kidnapped Alice and...

  
• 11.13.2023

  Episode 136 The Murder of Stringbean Akeman The Kentucky Wonder

  David Stringbean Akeman was one of the biggest stars on the Grand Ole Opry throughout the 1950s. The accomplished banjo player rose to national fame thanks to his appearances on the country variety show Hee Haw. In November 1973, Stringbean...

  
• 10.30.2023

  Episode 135 The Legs Murder Scandal

  The death of Daisy Keeton is one of Mississippi’s most horrifying murder mysteries. In January Daisy Keeton disappeared. Days later mutilated remains were discovered near an isolated road in Jones County. The investigation led police to Daisy’s daughter who was...

  
• 10.16.2023

  Episode 134 Haunted Savannah The City That Lives Upon The Dead

  Savannah is Georgia’s first city and one of America’s most haunted. If you visit Savannah’s historic district and stroll the city squares, at some point, you are walking on the dead. Victims of war, yellow fever epidemics, fires, murder and...

  
• 10.02.2023

  Episode 133 The Shocking Smith Family Massacre

  Demopolis, a small town in West Central Alabama, is the home to many a tale of ghosts and the unexplained, including at Bluff Hall. There is a dark history associated with the grand old home, including a funeral service for...

  
• 09.18.2023

  Episode 132 The Flapper Bandit

  On December 11, 1926 a small town bank near Austin, Texas was robbed at gunpoint by a 21 year old college student Rebecca Bradley. She wasn’t the typical bank robber of the 1920s. What secrets drove this “girl next door”...

  
• 09.04.2023

  Southern Mysteries Classic Three Sisters in Black

  Meet sisters Caroline Martin, Virginia Wardlaw and Mary Snead. They left a long trail of devastation and death of family members from Kentucky to Tennessee and Virginia on to New Jersey where they were implicated in the mysterious death of...

  
• 08.21.2023

  Episode 131 Otto Wood The Hillbilly Houdini

  Otto Wood was a self–proclaimed one armed-bandit from North Carolina. He made a name for himself as a bootlegger who loved stealing from the rich. Being sent to jail only heightened his fame. He escaped prison so many times he...

  
• 08.07.2023

  Episode 130 The 1964 Freedom Summer Murders

  In June 1964, the Ku Klux Klan conspired with law enforcement in Neshoba County, Mississippi to kidnap and murder three young civil rights workers. James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were murdered in an effort to preserve segregation in...

  
• 07.24.2023

  Southern Mysteries Classics The Widow of Hazel Green

  This 2020 episode is one of the most popular in the Southern Mysteries archive. It tells the story of Elizabeth Dale. Between the 1830s and 1850s, she was married and widowed, six times. Each husband died following a mysterious illness....

  
• 06.19.2023

  Episode 129 The Walker Family Murders

  In 1959 Osprey, Florida was shaken by the murder of the Walker Family, just days before Christmas. The quadruple murder remains unsolved. Some investigators believe there’s a connection between the murder of the Walkers in Florida…and the Clutter Family Murder...

  
• 06.05.2023

  Episode 128 The Kentucky Tragedy

  The murder of Solomon P. Sharp by Jereboam Beauchamp is known as The Kentucky Tragedy. It’s a complicated story of seduction, politics, love and execution.  Want more Southern Mysteries?  Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive...

  
• 05.15.2023

  Episode 127 The Butcher of Elmendorf

  The story of Joe Ball has been a part of Texas lore since the 1930s. He’s known to have killed two people but investigators believed he may have killed up to 20. Were nearly a dozen victims fed to Joe’s...

  
• 05.01.2023

  Episode 126 George Stinney, Jr

  In 1944, George Stinney Jr. was wrongfully convicted of murder and executed by the state of South Carolina. The 14 year old was the youngest person to be executed in 20th century America. Want more Southern Mysteries?  Hear the Southern Mysteries show...

  
• 04.24.2023

  Patreon Preview Audacious Chapter 1 The Man in the Attic

  A sensational tale of obsession, murder and a secret lover were front page news in the summer of 1922. At the center of it all was Walburga Oesterreich, more commonly known as Dolly. Detectives worked for over a decade to...

  
• 04.10.2023

  Episode 125 The Mysterious Disappearance of Jane Rowell

  Easter marked the 60th anniversary of the disappearance of 22 year old Hannah Jane Rowell. Her estranged husband believed Jane abandoned the family to leave Baton Rouge, Louisiana and try to make it in Hollywood. Her distraught and protective brother...

  
• 03.27.2023

  Episode 124 The Tri State Terrorist

  In December 1989, Judge Robert Vance was killed in his Alabama home when he opened a package that contained a mail bomb. Two days later Civil rights attorney Robert Robinson was killed in a separate explosion in Georgia. The investigation...

  
• 03.13.2023

  Episode 123 Lena Clarke The Murdering Postmistress

  In 1920 Lena Clarke made history when she became the first woman to be named postmaster of West Palm Beach, Florida. Within a year, she gained notoriety as “the murdering postmistress when she stood trial for killing her lover to...

  
• 02.27.2023

  Episode 122 Henrietta Wood and Elizabeth Key

  There are lesser known stories of enslaved men and women who fought for their freedom in court. Elizabeth Key was at the center of one of the most important colonial court cases involving slavery. Henrietta Wood made history when she...

  
• 02.13.2023

  Episode 121 Harry Powers The Bluebeard of Quiet Dell

  In the 1930s Harry Powers used several aliases to correspond with lonely women he promised to marry. In 1931 five bodies were discovered on his Quiet Dell, West Virginia farm that was dubbed The Murder Farm.    Want more Southern Mysteries?  Hear the...

  
• 01.30.2023

  Episode 120 The Disappearance of Alma Kellner

  On a cold December day in 1909, eight year old Alma Kellner walked five blocks from her parents home in Louisville, Kentucky to St. John’s Church. She promised her mother she would return home after mass but Alma never returned....

  
• 01.16.2023

  Episode 119 The Scottsboro Boys

  In November 2012, the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles pardoned three black men who had been wrongly convicted of assaulting two white women in 1931. They were the last of nine young men associated with the case to have...

  
• 01.02.2023

  Episode 118 The Morris Family Murders

  On New Year's Eve 1996, Mark Morris discovered the bodies of his parents in their Bastrop, Louisiana home. His nine year old son Ryan had been staying with them and he was missing.  Who took Ryan and why did someone murder...

  
• 12.19.2022

  Episode 117 The Disappearance of Mary Shotwell Little

  The 1965 disappearance of Mary Little remains one of Georgia’s most mysterious missing person cases. On October 14, 1965 Mary spent the day working, socializing with friends and shopping. Mary Little never made it home.    Want more Southern Mysteries?  Hear the Southern...

  
• 11.14.2022

  Episode 116 The Murder of Mamie Thurman

  It’s been 90 years since Mamie Thurman was brutally murdered in Logan County, West Virginia. While investigating the murder of the wife of a local police man, authorities learned Mamie had been leading a double life.  Want more Southern Mysteries?  Hear the...

  
• 10.31.2022

  Episode 115 The Sinister Bell Witch

  The Bell Witch legend is one of the most recognized examples of the unexplained in Southern American lore. How did the legend take hold of and define a small town in Tennessee?   Want more Southern Mysteries?  Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive...

  
• 07.04.2022

  Southern Mysteries Shorts Rhonda Belle Martin

  Southern Mysteries is on hiatus. I’m taking a much needed break from researching murders and mysteries this summer. I’ll be back with new episodes in time to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the show this fall.   If you’re a patron...

  
• 06.20.2022

  Episode 114 The Shelton Laurel Massacre

  The Shelton Laurel Massacre in January 1863 is a striking example of divided loyalists and complicated battle lines in North Carolina during the Civil War.    Want more Southern Mysteries?  Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive and immediately access exclusive content when you...

  
• 06.06.2022

  Episode 113 Sumter County Does

  In the summer of 1976 two bodies were discovered in rural Sumter County, South Carolina. Their identities remained a mystery for nearly 45 years   Want more Southern Mysteries?  Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive and immediately access exclusive content when you become...

  
• 05.23.2022

  Episode 112 The Color Line Murders

  Some of the oldest true crime cases in America are racial terror lynchings. To understand the history of lynching in the American South you have to know what led to the acceptance of racial terror and the brave people who...

  
• 05.09.2022

  Episode 111 The 1912 Hillsville Massacre

  The Hillsville Massacre has been described as one of the most bizarre incidents in Virginia criminal and legal history. Floyd Allen, the patriarch of the Allen clan, known for feuding, moonshining and violence, was executed after he stood trial for...

  
• 04.25.2022

  Episode 110 Mississippi Royalty King and Queen of the Gypsies

  Emil and Kelly Mitchell, known as the King and Queen of the Gypsies, have long been a part of Meridian, Mississippi lore but their story is complicated and often misunderstood    Want more Southern Mysteries?  Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive and immediately...

  
• 04.11.2022

  Episode 109 Bloody Bob Sims and The Sims War

  In the late 1880s Bob Sims declared himself a prophet with more than 100 followers in his Choctaw County Alabama cult. His belief that no man could establish laws over him led to a bloody chapter in Alabama history Want more...

  
• 03.28.2022

  Episode 108 The Mysterious Disappearance of Pearl Corens

  Pearl Corens disappeared on February 13, 1945. Over the next two weeks mysterious notes perplexed police as they searched for the missing war department employee. Then came a shocking discovery on the Virginia side of the Potomac River.   Want more Southern...

  
• 03.14.2022

  Episode 107 FBI Most Wanted Mean Marie Arrington

  In April 1969, Marie Arrington became the second woman ever placed on the FBI’s most wanted list. One year earlier she was sentenced to 20 years in prison for manslaughter. While awaiting appeal and out on bond she was arrested...

  
• 02.28.2022

  Episode 106 The Singing Slayer of the South

  Kenneth Neu loved two things: music and himself. He was a talented singer and dreamed of becoming a star with his name in newspapers and his voice on the radio. Neu would get his wish in the 1930s when people...

  
• 02.14.2022

  Episode 105 The Six Triple Eight

  The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, nicknamed the "Six Triple Eight", was the only all-black, all-female battalion overseas during World War II. They were dedicated to the mission to boost morale for service members but it would take decades for...

  
• 01.31.2022

  Episode 104 The Legend of the Bloody Mausoleum

  A Gothic revival church in downtown Cleveland, Tennessee was built in 1873 and dedicated in memory of 7-year-old Nina Craigmiles who died in 1871. The mausoleum behind the church is home to one of Tennessee's strangest mysteries   Want more Southern Mysteries?  Hear...

  
• 01.17.2022

  Episode 103 The Sultana Disaster

  The worst maritime disaster in US history occurred on April 27, 1865. Overshadowed by the end of the Civil War and assassination of President Lincoln, the death of nearly 1800 souls was not front page news and conspiracy theories of...

  
• 12.20.2021

  Show Update and Patreon Preview

  Show update and preview of patron exclusive Southern Mysteries Shorts. Meet the most remarkable survivor of the Civil War Support The ShowWant more Southern Mysteries? Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive and immediately access exclusive content when you become a patron...

  
• 12.06.2021

  Episode 102 The Hawes Horror

  In December 1888 Birmingham leaders faced their greatest challenge in the city’s seventeen years of existence...sensational murders that gained nationwide attention and led to a deadly riot in the Magic City.   Want more Southern Mysteries?  Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive and...

  
• 11.22.2021

  Episode 101 Sleepwalking Killer of Covington Kentucky

  In August 1943, 15 year old Joan Kiger was accused of murdering her father and younger brother. Her attorney claimed the sleepwalking defense - that Joan shot her family members while having a nightmare. 78 years later there are still...