Welcome to "The Red Dot Pod". Our podcast tells the story of Dr. Richard Stahl, a former App State professor imprisoned in the early 2000s for wire fraud after the mysterious death of a coconspirator led to Stahl receiving a $5 million insurance payout. Stahl is a fascinating and controversial character of the North Carolina high country who built an ostentatious black mansion that was the subject of local lore for many years - the mansion was known in the town of Boone as "The Red Dot House". 

The infamous house became the center of a rumor mill in the town it stood for 25 years. It was around 10,000 square feet, long and rectangular in shape, jammed in the side of a mountain overlooking the college town of Boone, North Carolina. It was painted pitch black, with a bright red dot near the apex of its main wall. The inside was also far from mundane - designed and decorated so unusually that it stirred the most outlandish of rumors from aliens to satanic cults. 

But the house is only the beginning of the story... 

The original builder and owner was a longstanding professor of education at Appalachian State University named Dr. Richard Stahl. He vacated the house in 2004 to serve a prison term, following a 24-count federal indictment for a complicated life insurance scheme that ended with one coconspirator dead and Stahl $5 million richer. 

Join us on a this journey as we tell the fascinating story of Dr. Richard Stahl, his crime, and his infamous red dot house. 

Our plan is to share with you all the details and viewpoints we can find, with a healthy dose of our own thoughts... and to let you draw your own conclusions.