Crime Scholar

Happy Halloween! In this episode, I'm sharing one of my favorite short ghost story called "Faces at the Window" by Rose Wilder Lane. It is based, in part, on the true story of the Bloody Benders, who murdered lodgers at their residence in the 1800s. Lane is the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of the Little House on the Prairie book series. Lane did not publish this story before her death in 1968; it was released posthumously in 1972. Enjoy!

The character of Dr. Gonzo in the book and film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is based on a real person: a one-time military airman...turned Baptist missionary...turned legal aid attorney...turned Los Angeles County Sheriff's candidate...turned author...turned missing person. This is the story of the intriguing life and mysterious, unsolved disappearance of Oscar Zeta Acosta. We'll take a trip back to Los Angeles in the 1970s that features psychedelics, Chicano civil rights activism--and a lone, self-described brown buffalo wandering the halls of justice.

Paris' lifelong search for her family's genealogical records leads her to investigate the reason they are missing: the lynching of a 41-year-old African American man named George Hughes in 1930. Accused of assaulting a white woman in Sherman, located within Grayson County, Texas, George never gets his day in court. Instead, locals burn down the courthouse with Hughes trapped inside and later carry out a postmortem lynching. Special guest Melissa Thiel, a public historian and a native of Grayson County, joins Paris later in the episode to discuss her efforts in getting an historical marker placed at the county courthouse to memorialize this significant crime and to discuss artifacts from this case that she's uncovered in her own research. This episode provides little-known background information on George Hughes, his accusers, and the town of Sherman during the Jim Crow era. Please sign Melissa Thiel's historical marker petition at shermanriot.org and visit the Historical Marker for the 1930 Sherman Riot Facebook group for updates and more information about this true crime.

A glamorous but ostracized socialite shoots her husband in their home one night but claims she thought he was a prowler. High society (mostly) takes her word for it...until Truman Capote, the author of the first true crime novel, In Cold Blood, reminds the public of the Woodwards' fraught relationship and accuses Ann of murder by writing a vicious short story about her. This is part 2, which focuses on Ann and Billy Woodward and the infamous shooting.

At the 45-second mark, Batty the podcat joins in with the cutest little squeak ever.

This is the fourth episode in the podcast's second season, "Stranger than Fiction." Click on our website link below for source information.

If you like this episode, please subscribe, rate us with 5 stars on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher, and consider supporting us at https://www.patreon.com/classafelons.

Host: Paris Brown

Produced, written, & edited by: Paris Brown

Recorded at The Dope Spot Studios (http://thedopespotstudios.com/), Pomona, CA., USA.

Music:

Dr. Frankenstein. "Theme for 'The Mad Thinker'" from The Cursed Tapes: Stolen Songs from Dr. Frankenstein's Lab, 2005

and

Tchaikovsky. "Piano Concerto No. 1," 1874-75. Performed by the NBC Symphony Orchestra, 1941.

Creative Commons attribution license.

Podcast artwork by: Nathalie Rattner ([email protected]); IG: https://www.instagram.com/nathalie_rattner/.

Logo lettering by: St. Anchor Graphics; IG: https://www.instagram.com/st.anchor/.

Podcast website: https://classafelons.wordpress.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/classafelonsbfilmsccups/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classafelons_bfilms_ccups/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClassAFelons

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1pCbEOJgqMbHFDiP6DetQw/videos?view_as=public

Reddit discussion group: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClassAFelons/

A glamorous but ostracized socialite shoots her husband in their home one night but claims she thought he was a prowler. High society (mostly) takes her word for it...until Truman Capote, the author of the first true crime novel, In Cold Blood, reminds the public of the Woodwards' fraught relationship and accuses Ann of murder by writing a vicious short story about her. This is part 1, which focuses on Capote's own tumultuous life.

This is the third episode in the podcast's second season, "Stranger than Fiction." Click on our website link below for source information.

If you like this episode, please subscribe and rate us with 5 stars on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher.

Host: Paris Brown

Produced, written, & edited by: Paris Brown

Recorded at [The Dope Spot Studios](http://thedopespotstudios.com/), Pomona, CA., USA.

Music:

Dr. Frankenstein. "Theme for 'The Mad Thinker'" from The Cursed Tapes: Stolen Songs from Dr. Frankenstein's Lab, 2005

and

Tchaikovsky. "Piano Concerto No. 1," 1874-75, as performed by Martha Argerich, 1975.

Creative Commons attribution license.

Podcast artwork by: Nathalie Rattner ([email protected]; IG: [nathalie_rattner](https://www.instagram.com/nathalie_rattner/)).

Logo lettering by: St. Anchor Graphics (IG:[ st.anchor](https://www.instagram.com/st.anchor/)).

Website: (https://classafelons.wordpress.com)

Facebook: (https://www.facebook.com/classafelonsbfilmsccups/)

Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/classafelons_bfilms_ccups/)

Twitter: (https://twitter.com/ClassAFelons)

Reddit discussion group: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClassAFelons/

In 1969, Assia Wevill--hailed as a great beauty and advertising talent--bizarrely committed suicide in the same manner as her paramour's wife six years earlier. To add to the tragedy, she killed her 4-year-old daughter, Shura. This is the story of a woman tormented by the dead poet Sylvia Plath, the refusal of Sylvia's husband Ted to commit to her even after he fathered her child, and the memory of her escape from Hitler and the Holocaust.

If you like this episode, please subscribe and rate us with 5 stars on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher.

Host: Paris Brown

Produced, written, & edited by: Paris Brown

Music by: Dr. Frankenstein. "Theme for 'The Mad Thinker'" from The Cursed Tapes: Stolen Songs from Dr. Frankenstein's Lab, 2005

and by

Punch Deck. "Oppressive Ambiance," 2018, under a Creative Commons attribution license.

Podcast artwork by: Nathalie Rattner ([email protected]); IG: https://www.instagram.com/nathalie_rattner/.

Logo lettering by: St. Anchor Graphics; IG: https://www.instagram.com/st.anchor/.

Podcast website: https://classafelons.wordpress.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/classafelonsbfilmsccups/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classafelons_bfilms_ccups/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClassAFelons

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1pCbEOJgqMbHFDiP6DetQw/videos?view_as=public

Reddit discussion group: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClassAFelons/

SOURCES AND RECOMMENDED READING:

Hughes, Ted. “Ted Hughes Calls Letter about Marriage to Sylvia Plath ‘Libellous.’ The Guardian, 20 Apr 1989.

Koren, Yehuda and Eilat Negev. A Lover of Unreason: The Life and Tragic Death of Assia Wevill. Robson, 2006.

Middlebrook, Diane. Her Husband: Hughes and Plath—A Marriage. Viking, 2003.

Sigmund, Elizabeth. “I Realized Sylvia Knew about Assia’s Pregnancy.” The Guardian, 22 Apr 1999.

Stadlen, Matthew. “Frieda Hughes: ‘I was 14 when I Discovered My Mother Committed Suicide.” The Telegraph, 31 Oct 2015.

Wevill, Assia. “Sea Witch Hair Colour Commercial.” 1965. History of Advertising Trust. http://www.hatads.org.uk/catalogue/record/f42d2656-397d-4c2a-a698-a989d795a15c

Some people best know Sylvia Plath for her unusual mode of suicide; others remember her for as one of the first authors to write openly about her own mental illness. But there's even more to her than that: the early loss of her father, the obsessive desire to be an over-achiever, that time she made national news as a missing person, the desire to find a 'perfect' husband, and the wild betrayal she felt when that perfect husband had an affair. But what exactly caused the author of THE BELL JAR to kill herself at age 30?

If you like this episode, please subscribe and rate us with 5 stars on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher.

Host: Paris Brown

Produced, written, & edited by: Paris Brown

Music by: Dr. Frankenstein. "Theme for 'The Mad Thinker'" from *The Cursed Tapes: Stolen Songs from Dr. Frankenstein's Lab*, 2005

and by

Punch Deck. "Oppressive Ambiance," 2018, under a Creative Commons attribution license.

Podcast artwork by: Nathalie Rattner ([email protected]); IG: https://www.instagram.com/nathalie_rattner/.

Logo lettering by: St. Anchor Graphics; IG: https://www.instagram.com/st.anchor/.

Podcast website: https://classafelons.wordpress.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/classafelonsbfilmsccups/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/classafelons_bfilms_ccups/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClassAFelons

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1pCbEOJgqMbHFDiP6DetQw/videos?view_as=public

Reddit discussion group: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClassAFelons/

SOURCES AND RECOMMENDED READING:

Axelrod, Steven Gould. Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words. Johns Hopkins UP, 1990.

“Beautiful Smith Girl Missing at Wellesley.” The Boston Daily Globe. 25 Aug. 1953, pp. 1, 9.

Bolick, Kate. “Who Bought Sylvia Plath’s Stuff?” The New York Times, 21 Apr 2018.

Callahan, Michael. “Sorority on E. 63rd St.” Vanity Fair, Apr. 2010.

Frank, Leonard Roy. “Psychiatry’s Unholy Trinity—Fraud, Fear, and Force: A Personal Account.” The Freeman vol. 52, iss. 11. 2002.

Hayman, Ronald. The Death and Life of Sylvia Plath. Heinemann, 1991.

Kean, Danuta. “Unseen Sylvia Plath Letters Claim Domestic Abuse by Ted Hughes.” The Guardian, 11 Apr 2017.

Koren, Yehuda and Eilat Negev. A Lover of Unreason: The Life and Tragic Death of Assia Wevill. Robson Books, 2006.

Malcolm, Janet. The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.

Middlebrook, Diane. Her Husband: Hughes and Plath—A Marriage. Viking, 2003.

“Missing Co-ed Found.” Chicago Daily Tribune. 27 Aug. 1953, p. 5.

Nodelman, Ellen Bartlett and Amanda Golden. “Recollections of Mrs. Hughes’s Student.” Plath Profiles vol. 5 (2012), pp. 125-39.

Plath, Sylvia. “Daddy.” BBC Third Programme. Sep 1962.

—. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath. Knopf Doubleday, 2007.

“Safety Valves for Antique Stoves.” The Antique Stove Communiqué. http://www.antiquestoves.com/toac/Communique/CommuniqueSafetyValves.html

Summerscale, Kate. “My Father was Not a Monster, Says Daughter of Ted Hughes.” The Telegraph, 15 Nov 2004.

Wagner-Martin, Linda. Sylvia Plath: A Biography. Simon and Schuster, 1987

Wilson, Jamie. “Frieda Hughes Attacks BBC for Film on Plath.” The Guardian, 3 Feb 2003.

Winder, Elizabeth. Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953. Harper Collins, 2013.

This preview opens the chapters of Season 2! This second season, titled "Stranger Than Fiction" goes into storytelling mode about the strange and tragic lives of some famous--or infamous, as may be the case--of some famously fascinating authors. Topics will include schizophrenia, suicide, high society, beat society, clinical depression, strange deaths, mysterious disappearances, attachment disorder, alcoholism, and obsession.

If your parent had asked you to do something illegal as a teen, how would you have reacted? What it it was murder; what recourse would you have? This is the sad and sordid tale of a selfish Orange Co., CA man who, in 1985, persuaded his 14-year-old daughter to kill her stepmother. It's a tale that delves into the twisted mind of a bad dad who cherished wealth and under-aged young women more than he did his children. When his scheme was uncovered, he doubled down and ordered the killing of more people, including his deceased wife's younger sister--who, in a secret ceremony, had become his sixth wife.

If you like this episode, please subscribe and rate us with 5 stars on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher.

Host: Paris Brown

Produced, written, & edited by: Paris Brown

Music by: Dr. Frankenstein. "Theme for 'The Mad Thinker'" from *The Cursed Tapes: Stolen Songs from Dr. Frankenstein's Lab*, 2005

and by

Julie Maxwell. "Childhood Memories" from *Farther Than All the Stars*, 2016.

Podcast artwork by: Nathalie Rattner ([email protected])

Logo lettering by: St. Anchor Graphics

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

YouTube

Reddit discussion group

SOURCES AND RECOMMENDED READING:

Dizon, Lily. “Celebrity ‘Hit Man’ Now Faces Atonement.” Los Angeles Times. 2 May 1992.

Pinsky, Mark I. “Young Killer in Murder Plot Freed.” Los Angeles Times. 29 Feb 1992.

Rule, Ann. If You Really Loved Me: A True Story of Desire and Murder. Simon and Schuster, 1991.

Singular, Stephen, Tim Hill, and Danielle Hill. A Killing in the Family: A True Story of Love, Lies, and Murder. Avon, 1991.

The Midwest U.S. was rocked in the late 1950s not just by new-fangled rock 'n roll music or by its bout of horrific flooding, but by an even more sinister kind of horror. Fourteen-year-old Caril Fugate accompanied her 19-year-old boyfriend Charles Starkweather on a murder spree that would claim 11 lives between December 1957 and January 1958 and would later inspire a host of films and music about their rampage through the Badlands.

If you like this episode, please subscribe and rate us with 5 stars on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher.

Host: Paris Brown

Produced, written, & edited by: Paris Brown

Music by: Dr. Frankenstein. "Theme for 'The Mad Thinker'" from The Cursed Tapes: Stolen Songs from Dr. Frankenstein's Lab, 2005

and by

Julie Maxwell. "Childhood Memories" from Farther Than All the Stars, 2016.

Podcast artwork by: Nathalie Rattner ([email protected])

Logo lettering by: St. Anchor Graphics

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Date: December 22, 2018

Author: Paris Brown

— Edit

The Midwest U.S. was rocked in the late 1950s not just by new-fangled rock ‘n roll music or by its bout of horrific flooding, but by an even more sinister kind of horror. Fourteen-year-old Caril Fugate accompanied her 19-year-old boyfriend Charles Starkweather on a murder spree that would claim 11 lives between December 1957 and January 1958 and would later inspire a host of films and music about their rampage through the Badlands.

This is the sixth episode in the podcast’s first season, “Accessories to Murder.” If you like this episode, please subscribe, rate us with 5 stars on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher, and consider supporting us at Patreon.

Host: Paris Brown

Produced, written, & edited by: Paris Brown

Music by: Dr. Frankenstein. “Theme for ‘The Mad Thinker'” from The Cursed Tapes: Stolen Songs from Dr. Frankenstein’s Lab, 2005

and by

Julie Maxwell. “Childhood Memories” from Farther Than All the Stars, 2016. Creative commons attribution license.

Podcast artwork by: Nathalie Rattner ([email protected])

Logo lettering by: St. Anchor Graphics

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

YouTube

Reddit discussion group

SOURCES AND RECOMMENDED READING:

Beaver, Ninette. Caril. Lippencott, 1974.

Newton, Michael. Waste Land: The Savage Odyssey of Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate. Gallery, 2014.

Salter, Peter. “Fugate Recovering from Injuries, But Can’t Shake Starkweather Legacy.” Lincoln Journal-Star. 21 Jan. 2014.