He called himself "Mr. Social Security." In reality, Eric C. Conn was the mastermind behind one of the largest disability fraud schemes in U.S. history. From glowing billboards in Eastern Kentucky to a 19-foot statue of Abraham Lincoln, Conn built a flashy empire on a foundation of bribes and fake medical records.

Companion Substack Article

Just click the link above.

This is the wild story of a lawyer who defrauded the government out of $550 million, the whistleblowers who risked everything to stop him, and the devastating humanitarian crisis left in his wake. We cover his rise, his ridiculous life on the run (including a fake passport and a puppy), and the tragic aftermath for thousands of former clients who lost everything.

Blue Ridge True Crime Gear and Apparel

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He was a killer, a folk hero, and the most dangerous man in the Carolinas. Discover the wild true story of Lewis Redmond, the Moonshine King who defied the federal government, survived a hail of bullets, and became a 19th-century legend.

In this episode, we explore the life of Lewis Redmond, the notorious "Moonshine King of the Carolinas." More than just an outlaw, Redmond was a product of the Reconstruction Era—a time of federal taxes, illicit economies, and violent conflict in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We follow his story from a daring escape through the snow in his socks to a shootout that landed him on the front page of the New York Times.

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In April 1975, a disheveled hiker walked off the Appalachian Trail in Tennessee and walked straight into a sheriff's department to confess to a murder no one knew had happened. The authorities thought he was a kook looking for a warm jail cell. They were wrong.

In this episode, we explore the strange, haunting case of Paul Wallace Bigley and Janice Kay Balza—a crime that raises unsettling questions about memory, violence, and the darkness that can hide inside an unassuming hiker.

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In this episode, we're joined by author Lane Dyer to discuss his novel, The Tragic Tale of Crick Davis: Ashe County Axe Murder. Set in the remote mountains of North Carolina in 1903, the book is based on the true story of Christopher Columbus Davis, a farmer who committed a brutal, seemingly senseless axe murder that shocked the nation.

Lane shares the incredible journey of researching a 120-year-old cold case, from finding obscure historical records and navigating conflicting newspaper accounts to connecting with the victims' descendants and the perpetrator.

We explore the challenges of balancing historical fact with creative fiction, the surprising turns of Crick Davis's life, and the motives behind this tragic event that still captures the imagination today.

Lane Dyer is a retired public servant and the author of 13 books, including novels and regional histories. He grew up in the Wilkes and Ashe County area of North Carolina, where most of his writing is set.

The Tragic Tale of Crick Davis: Ashe County Axe Murder on Amazon

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Companion Substack article with photos, map, timeline, links, and sources.

https://blueridgetruecrime.substack.com/p/false-sunset-death-at-a-blue-ridge

In this episode of the Blue Ridge True Crime podcast, we unravel the disturbing mystery of the Chestoa View Overlook deaths: a case that has haunted North Carolina for decades. On October 17, 1988, tourists discovered abandoned camera equipment and heard a woman's terrified scream echoing from the gorge below.

Early the next morning, rescuers found the bodies of Susan Haire and Helen Gibbs on the steep, tangled slope below. Helen's husband, James Gibbs, claimed it was a tragic accident that the women had slipped while posing for sunset photos.

But investigators quickly realized the story didn't add up. The overlook faces east. You can't photograph a sunset there. And the deeper the authorities dug, the darker the story became.

An insurance agent told investigators that a $100,000 life insurance policy was taken out on Helen Gibbs just months before the incident. James Gibbs had allegedly burned her with a stun gun in a "torture session" to get her to confess to an affair that summer.

He had ordered books on how to beat lie detector tests and how crime scenes are investigated. And his story about what happened kept shifting.

Was this an accident, a double suicide, or a calculated murder on a dark mountainside?

Plus a brief profile of Paladin Press, "the most dangerous publisher in the world," and the book that cost them millions, Hit Man.

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Jesse James is one of the most famous outlaws in American history—but the real story is more complicated than the movies. In this episode, we map the James-Younger Gang's robberies across the Midwest, discuss how Jesse James used newspapers to forge his legend, and trace his rise to folk hero. Plus: a simulated death match between Jesse James and Al Capone. Yes, really.

Companion Substack Article with images, map, and sources.

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Mountain folk have a code all their own.

In the winter of 1924, deep inside South Carolina’s infamous “Dark Corner,” a prohibition agent and a volunteer constable closed in on a moonshine still at the foot of Hogback Mountain. What happened next would leave one man dead, two families shattered, and a mountain code put to the test in a courtroom.

This is the story of betrayal, loyalty, and a father and son sentenced to die.

Companion Substack Article

• A full timeline of the crime, trial, and appeals
• Sources and documents
• Images

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In 1972, 25 young people camped in the North Carolina mountains on their way to see The Rolling Stones. Sheriff Kermit Banks and six deputies arrived with shotguns. Within minutes, 20-year-old Stanley Aultman was dead. No officer was ever charged. Historian Tim Silver joins us to break down the evidence, the cover-up, and why this forgotten case still matters.

YouTube Video: Death in Briar Bottom

Death in Briar Bottom: The True Story of Hippies, Mountain Lawmen, and the Search for Justice in the Early 1970s by Timothy Silver

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In May 2008, two lifelong friends, Scott Johnston and Sean Farmer, headed into the woods of Giles County, Virginia, for a simple fishing trip. They met a friendly stranger named “Ricky” and shared dinner by a campfire. But within hours, they were fighting for their lives, bleeding from gunshot wounds, and navigating a dark mountain road with one man steering from the passenger seat and the other working the pedals.

This wasn’t the killer’s first time on the trail. Nearly three decades earlier, the same man committed the first documented double homicide on the Appalachian Trail, murdering two hikers from Maine.

In this episode, we unpack both crimes, discuss the bizarre handwritten note that broke the case, and ride along on the frantic escape down Brushy Mountain.

Check out the companion Substack article for this episode. Click Here

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In September 1909, six members of the Meadows family, including three young children, were murdered with an axe and a gun in their remote Virginia log cabin, which was then set on fire. Forty days later and eighty miles away, four members of the Hood family were killed in nearly identical fashion near Beckley, West Virginia. Was Howard Little, a convicted murderer with a questionable pardon, responsible for the Laurel Creek killings? Or did a drifting serial killer known as the "Man from the Train" strike twice and then disappear?

In this episode, we examine the fragmentary newspaper accounts, the role of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, the trial of Howard Little, and an eerie coincidence of gravestones.

Links

Robert Baker’s Laurel Creek Murders Page

Betty Justus Grave

George Hood Grave

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