Curator 135

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In May of 1922, a young Michigan farmer named Romie “Doc” Hodell was found hanging in a barn outside White Cloud. At first glance, it looked like suicide.

But his feet were touching the ground.

Within days, doctors ruled it murder. And what followed would become one of the strangest and most divisive criminal cases in Michigan history.

Three months earlier, Romie’s father had died suddenly after drinking coffee at the same farmhouse. His death had been ruled a stroke. But when his body was exhumed, state chemists claimed they found strychnine — enough, they said, to kill a dozen men.

Soon there were forged suicide notes. Allegations of jealousy. A violent fight the night before the barn death. A vigilante mob that tied ropes around suspects’ necks and threatened to lynch them. Confessions that were later recanted. Claims that police used ghostly theatrics inside the very barn where the body was found.

By the end of 1922, a 21-year-old woman named Meady Hodell was sentenced to life in prison. Her mother joined her. Her brother was convicted. Others were acquitted. Appeals followed. Retrials were ordered. And for decades, questions about forensic science, coercion, and small-town justice refused to disappear.

Was this a calculated poisoning and staged killing?
A family conspiracy?
Or a miscarriage of justice fueled by fear, rumor, and community pressure?

Meady Hodell would spend more than 26 years behind bars before her sentence was commuted.

This episode examines the evidence, the confessions, the toxicology, the mob justice, and the haunting uncertainty that still lingers in the sandy soil of Newaygo County.

Because sometimes the truth isn’t buried with the body.

Sometimes it never fully surfaces at all.

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Las Vegas wasn’t built by saints.

It was built by gamblers.

In this episode, we dive deep into the life of Benny Binion — the Texas-born gambling boss who fled murder rumors and federal heat, arrived in the Nevada desert, and helped shape modern Las Vegas.

Born in rural Pilot Grove, Texas, Binion left school early and learned odds at livestock auctions instead of in classrooms. By the 1930s, he was running powerful illegal gambling operations in Dallas, shadowed by allegations of violence and gangland-style rivalries.

In 1946, under mounting legal pressure, he packed up his family and headed west — to a young Las Vegas still finding its identity.

What followed was a career that would define downtown Vegas:

A deadly rivalry with Herbert “The Cat” Noble that led to car bombings and bloodshed

The loss of his Nevada gaming license

A five-year federal prison sentence for tax evasion

The bold creation of Binion’s Horseshoe, where gamblers could truly “bet the limit”

And the founding of the World Series of Poker, transforming a backroom game into a global phenomenon

But the story doesn’t end with Benny.

We explore the shifting landscape of 1970s Las Vegas, the violent undercurrent of the era, the murder of G. William Coulthard, and the unraveling of the Binion dynasty — culminating in the shocking 1998 death of Ted Binion and the buried silver fortune that stunned the nation.

This is not just the story of one man.

It’s the story of how risk built a city — and how time eventually collects its debts.

🎙️ If you’re fascinated by Las Vegas history, organized crime, poker, or the rise and fall of American gambling empires… this is an episode you don’t want to miss.

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In the summer of 1967, Detroit was already burning when a far quieter tragedy unfolded behind the doors of the Algiers Motel. As the city reeled from six days of unrest, three young Black men—Carl Cooper, Auburey Pollard, and Fred Temple—were detained, terrorized, and killed during a police raid that would later become one of the most disturbing chapters of the Detroit Uprising.

In this milestone 100th episode of Curator135, we explore what led Detroit to the brink, how the uprising began, and what happened inside the Algiers Motel that night. We examine survivor testimony, the failed prosecutions that followed, and how the justice system ultimately left families without answers.

But this episode is also about what came after. About a city shaped by fire, injustice, and loss—and one that refused to disappear. From population collapse and decades of disinvestment to the resilience, revival, and renewed energy seen today, Detroit’s story is more than its worst moment.

This is a story about memory, accountability, and survival.
And about why some histories demand to be remembered.

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What started as a quiet investigation into a vandalized mausoleum at Mount Moriah Cemetery quickly spiraled into something much darker.

In this episode, we explore the recent arrest of Jonathan Christian Gerlach — accused of stealing human remains from Philadelphia’s historic cemeteries — and the eerie digital trail he left behind. From curated Instagram posts to disturbing discoveries in his home, police uncovered a scene that felt more like a horror film than real life.

But this isn’t just about one man. It’s about a culture. A curiosity. And a line that gets crossed when fascination becomes exploitation.

With historical context, family legacies, and a respectful look at ethical collecting, Episode 99 unearths the names behind the tombs — and what happens when the dead are no longer left to rest.

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In the mid-1850s, America was expanding westward — fast, hungry, and ruthless. The ink was barely dry on the Gadsden Purchase when settlers began pouring into the unforgiving deserts of what would one day become southern Arizona. The land was harsh, lawless, and already inhabited by Native nations like the Apache, who fiercely resisted encroachment.

This episode begins in that volatile moment — where empires shifted, cultures clashed, and ordinary people stepped into extraordinary danger.

At the heart of this story is Larcena Pennington Page, a young woman who journeyed west with her family in search of a new life. What happened to her in the mountains outside Tucson — kidnapped by Apache warriors and left for dead in the wilderness — became one of the most remarkable survival stories in Arizona’s early history.

But before we get to that, we explore the world she lived in: a borderland shaped by conflict, hope, and unimaginable hardship.

This is more than a tale of survival. It’s about the collision of nations, the resilience of a frontier family, and the woman who walked back from the edge of death.

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Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, the United States has executed over 1,500 people — but only 17 of them have been women. In this episode, we walk cell-by-cell through their stories. The crimes. The trials. The years spent on death row. And, ultimately, the moments the state said it was time to die.

From Velma Barfield to Lisa Montgomery, we examine not just what they did — but who they were. And we ask: Does gender change the way we see justice? Or does justice demand that we don’t look away?

One by one, we tell the final stories of the women the state could not — or would not — save.

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She wasn’t a monster in the shadows — she was a nurse at your bedside.

In this chilling episode, we uncover the twisted life of Jane Toppan, the 19th-century caregiver who confessed to murdering at least 31 people — not out of hatred, but for pleasure. A seemingly cheerful and devoted nurse, “Jolly Jane” used her position to experiment with fatal doses of morphine and atropine, holding patients as they died… and enjoying every second.

Before Charles Cullen or Beverley Allitt, there was Toppan — America’s first documented female serial killer of the medical kind.

We dive deep into:

Her traumatic childhood and fractured identity

The experimental murders that began under hospital supervision

The intimate betrayals of her victims, including her own foster sister

Her psychological profile — and why she was declared insane but brilliant

The legacy she left behind in criminal profiling and forensic psychiatry

Trust us: this story isn’t just about a killer nurse — it’s about how easily trust can become a weapon.

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This Halloween, we dig deep — literally — into one of the most disturbing true crime tales in medical history.

Step into 1820s Edinburgh, where cobblestone streets echoed with the footsteps of scholars by day… and the shovels of grave robbers by night. This episode uncovers the chilling story of William Burke and William Hare, two men who didn’t just rob graves — they skipped the digging and began murdering for fresh corpses, selling the dead to fuel the booming anatomy lectures of Dr. Robert Knox.

From the shadowy world of the Resurrection Men to the public execution and dissection that shocked a nation, we explore how science, desperation, and greed collided in a city that called itself enlightened.

Featuring:

The rise of grave robbing in Britain and beyond

Real 19th-century news quotes, nursery rhymes, and courtroom drama

The chilling legacy of Burke & Hare — and how it reshaped medical ethics forever

So light a candle, lock your door, and settle in. Because tonight…
the dead don’t stay buried.

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Between June of 1911 and June of 1912, America’s heartland lived in fear. From Oregon to Iowa, entire families were slaughtered in their beds — curtains drawn, lamps dimmed, the blunt edge of an axe left behind. The trail of terror ran through Ardenwald, Rainier, Colorado Springs, Monmouth, Ellsworth, and Paola, before ending with the infamous Villisca murders.

Was it the work of one shadowy figure riding the rails, or a series of eerie coincidences? Detectives of the day struggled with poor science, conflicting rumors, and too many suspects — men like Henry Lee Moore, William Mansfield, Rev. George Kelly, Charles Marzyck, Nathan B. Harvey, and George Wilson. None were ever proven guilty.

In this episode of Curator135, we retrace that chilling year of violence, the communities shattered in silence, and the questions that remain more than a century later.

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He was the sheriff with a big stick and an even bigger legend. Buford Pusser fought crime on the Tennessee-Mississippi border with his fists, a badge, and a whole lot of vengeance. His story inspired Walking Tall, a string of sequels, ballads, and generations of folk-hero worship. 

But behind the headlines, beneath the scars, there’s a different story. 

In this episode of the Curator135 Podcast, we dive deep into the life, myth, and legacy of Buford Pusser—from his early days as a wrestler, to bloody shootouts with the State Line Mob, to the tragic death of his wife, Pauline. And for the first time, we’ll explore the shocking new investigation that may rewrite everything we thought we knew about who Buford really was. 

Because sometimes, legends aren’t broken—they were built that way. 

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