When we left off on episode 1 it seemed like Herb Clutter's "vast empire" was personally and financially collapsing in the days leading up to his death, but why? What happened? Peter and Isaac use this short minisode to discuss the disastrous year of 1957 (thereabouts) in Herb Clutter's life uncovered in the newspaper archives.Multi-car pileups, lawsuits, a plane crash?, and the worst blizzard in years all led to a pileup of mounting financial disasters that might go some way to explain what was happening in 1959, and why he took out a life insurance policy the day he died. Probably not the best time to carry out an affair with your banker's wife either.Above Pic: The twin engined WW2-era plane that crashed into Clutter's farm, clipped from the Garden City TelegramMusic: Komakino with our opening and closing theme!The Documents, folks (ON PATREON PAGE): 1) The car crash! And lawsuits.2) The Plane!3) The blizzard!more on our patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/posts/clutter-murders-81957595

Subscribe now for the full episode!....In second part of our Nordstream Sabotage/Bombing series, we take stock of the New York Times' bumbling half-assed attmpt at making a plausible story for the bombing before re-examining Seymour Hersh's account detail-by-detail. Isaac and Peter tear through some more bumbling attempts to make alibis for ships and planes by the info-saturated "OSInt" types, and we go for even deeper dives on the history of deep diving and the deep divers who do it.More at the Patreon episode page: https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-20-from-80283943

(UPDATE 3/10/2023): Since releasing this patron-only ep, the NYTimes floated an absurd theory that the bombing might have been done by private people in a small boat for their own reasons. Peter and I will be releasing a patron-only follow up episode soon that discusses in detail why they're wrong but listeners to this ep will see that it's obvious. Enjoy!

Well folks, we have deep dive on deep divers and stuff they do in the deep. A little news, a good chunk of history, and a lot of stuff about how the hell saboteurs can survive in deep water.

On September 26, 2022, two waves of explosion rocked the Nordstream gas pipelines in the Baltic sea. The pipelines connected the vast natural gas reserves of Russia to Germany and Central Europe, and left behind a mystery of who would have the means and motive to carry out what was described as "massive explosions" and "gross sabotage". That is until famed journalist Seymour Hersh released the article "How The U.S. Took Out the Nordstream Pipeline", with a pretty clear culprit.

In this episode, Peter and Isaac return to what we know of the Nordstream bombing crime scene and re-examine what exactly happened, and the massive constraints on anyone trying to pull off this kind of sabotage, before turning to the historical example that, in Hersh's was the inspiration for the bombing: Operation Ivy Bells. Ivy Bells is a wiretapping caper from the height of the paranoid Vietnam-era war machine, with mixed gas divers descending into dark impossible depths and using the most advanced technological apparatuses. Sound familiar?

MORE ON OUR PATREON PAGE, SUBSCRIBE TODAY: https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-19-from-79423972

Music: As always thanks to Komakino for our opening and closing theme. Supplemental music for the interludes are fragments of Outer Space Suite II from the Twilight Zone and the US Navy Documentary "Diving for Science".

The document, folks: read Hersh's piece for yourself listeners, https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how-america-took-out-the-nord-stream

In Part II of this Peter-led series dissecting the memoirs of Boston's fin-de-siecle Irish gangsters, we move on to the upper tier of memoirists. Discussing the memoirs of actually Irish-born Patrick Nee and actual martial artist Ed McKenzie, we find some ex-goons that actually have some self-awareness, insights and some interesting stories.

It's an episode with armored car robberies, bumbling IRA gunrunning, and an unexpected source of personal growth: roundhouse kicks from a gay kung fu self-defense squad.

Boston sometimes has its surprises.

(Pictured above: McKenzie in front of the demolished Old Colony housing project)

Peter takes the lead on this ep! Guiding us through a deep dive into the once-thriving cottage industry of what was once the gold standard in some kind of white blue collar authenticity: Boston Irish gangster memoirs.

In Part 1 we deal the government creation of the island against the world community of South Boston, or Southie through the pouring of social democratic tendencies through the static mold of 19th century racist machine politics. We then turn to the memoirs of I-AM-NOT-A-RAT John "Red" Shea and the scummier, but more eloquent I-am-a-rat, and a racist, and a murderer but also a good guy Kevin Weeks.

But most importantly, your humble people's detective agency needs your help finding the (probably imaginary?) black-jewish-communist defender of children and arch-foe of Kevin Weeks: Siegfried Goldstein.

FREE SIEGFRIED

FREE SIEGFRIED

FREE SIEGFRIED

Zachary Taylor isn’t one of the presidents who gets talked about most often… but we aren’t most podcasts. We have here a 150-year journey complete with a plotting pro-slavery quack doctor, piles of 'night soil', sudden illness, nuclear reactors, secret passages, and a poison cure no one was watching: 'Emetic of Tartar'.

Only in office for about fifteen months, the all-things-to-all-politicians Whig dropped dead in 1850 from a stomach ailment, and we all moved on to more exciting topics, like the civil war. But was Taylor’s death natural? For decades, there has been speculation that Taylor might have been poisoned when the general-turned-politician (and slaveholder) came out in favor of a ban on allowing slavery into new American territories, precisely the issue the slaveholders of the south would fight a massive war for a decade later. We look into the investigations that have gone into this issue to answer the most compelling question of all: Old Rough and Ready’s demise- poop, or poison?

Music: Thanks as always to Komakino for our opening and closing themes (their cover of "Atrocity Exhibition" by Joy Division. More of their music here: https://www.youtube.com/@komakinojoydivisiontribute4531

Interlude music is the Zachary Taylor 1850 Presidential Campaign jingle and Megadeth's "Poison was the Cure" from 1989's Rust In Peace.

Sources: for this episode included History as Mystery by Michael Parenti, The Taylor File by Clara Rising, This Vast Southern Empire by Matt Karp, and The Elements of Murder, a History of Poison by John Emsley.

Extras:For more information on that Texas arsenic poisoning case and the use of NAA to solve it take a look at the Texas Monthly article "Poisoned with Love" by Gary Cartwright: https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/poisoned-with-love/

Zachary Taylor isn’t one of the presidents who gets talked about most often… but we aren’t most podcasts. We have here a 150-year journey complete with a plotting pro-slavery quack doctor, piles of 'night soil', sudden illness, nuclear reactors, secret passages, and a poison cure no one was watching: 'Emetic of Tartar'.

Only in office for about fifteen months, the all-things-to-all-politicians Whig dropped dead in 1850 from a stomach ailment, and we all moved on to more exciting topics, like the civil war. But was Taylor’s death natural? For decades, there has been speculation that Taylor might have been poisoned when the general-turned-politician (and slaveholder) came out in favor of a ban on allowing slavery into new American territories, precisely the issue the slaveholders of the south would fight a massive war for a decade later. We look into the investigations that have gone into this issue to answer the most compelling question of all: Old Rough and Ready’s demise- poop, or poison?

Music: Thanks as always to Komakino for our opening and closing themes (their cover of "Atrocity Exhibition" by Joy Division. More of their music here: https://www.youtube.com/@komakinojoydivisiontribute4531

Interlude music is the Zachary Taylor 1850 Presidential Campaign jingle and Megadeth's "Poison was the Cure" from 1989's Rust In Peace.

Sources: for this episode included History as Mystery by Michael Parenti, The Taylor File by Clara Rising, This Vast Southern Empire by Matt Karp, and The Elements of Murder, a History of Poison by John Emsley.

Extras:For more information on that Texas arsenic poisoning case and the use of NAA to solve it take a look at the Texas Monthly article "Poisoned with Love" by Gary Cartwright: https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/poisoned-with-love/

The Document, Folks: "Doctor Thomas Miller and his Times", effectively a proud and unapologetic confession to proslavery treason (though not to poisoning) by Miller's daughter. (ON PATREON)

SUBSCRIBE ON PATREON FOR THE FULL EPISODE AND MORE LIKE IT EVERY MONTH

We've arrived at the finale of our Rosenbergs series, and it isn't looking good. Beginning our story in the middle of the trial, Isaac and Peter discuss how the Rosenbergs kneecapped defense team tried and failed to counter-attack the prosecution's perjury-boosted case. The stage is set to use execution to get Julius to break and name some names.

But it's only months after the death sentence is handed down on Julius and Ethel that the more than 2 year fight to save them for the electric chair begins, with a crew of misfit liberals and leftists at the (deep breath..) Committee to Secure Justice in the Rosenberg Case. There's a fair bit for law nerds to chew on but more importantly a person-by-person movement unfolds that takes our saga through physical brawls at the supreme court, last-minute surprise evidence, backstabbing prima donna judges and even an appearance by a nuke-nerd eccentric country lawyer.

It's a grim story, listeners, but sometimes the end isn't the end.

MORE CONTENT, EVIDENCE, AND BONUS EPISODES ON OUR PATREON PAGE: https://www.patreon.com/aPeoplesHistoryofViolence

INCLUDING FOR THIS EPISODE: https://www.patreon.com/posts/76011392

It's the holiday season listeners, and we have a gift for you.

This is a big one, folks- on this episode we talk to former presidential candidate, congressman, mayor of Cleveland, and author Dennis Kucinich! Many of you may remember the congressman as one of the few to consistently stand against the war fever of the post 9-11 period. He was also Mayor of Cleveland in the 1970s, where his bold, uncompromising efforts to protect his constituents from exploitation at the hands of highly connected corporate crooks earned him the ire of the powerful- and assassination attempts.

Dennis takes Isaac and Peter through the labyrinth of Cleveland municipal politics, recounts his (successful!) battle to keep the city’s electrical grid in the hands of the residents, and tells us the harrowing story of it nearly cost him his life. We don’t always get a lot of victories, and this one was hard fought- it’s genuinely moving to hear it in the voice of the man who did it.

The Division of Light and Power can be found here in paperback and kindle:

https://www.amazon.com/Division-Light-Power-Dennis-Kucinich/dp/1638772347

Thanks again to Komakino for our opening music and Ubuntu 444 for the closing track as well.

above: Mayor Kucinich with future Cleveland Chief of Police Fox talking to a group of striking municipal mechanics.

MORE CONTENT AND BONUS EPISODES ON OUR PATREON PAGE: https://www.patreon.com/aPeoplesHistoryofViolence