Before there were restraining orders and women's shelters galore, domestic violence victims often suffered for years in silence. This is the story of one woman and her final desperate attempt to save herself when she realized there was nowhere else to turn.

Narrator: Curtis Hildreth
Intro and Outro Music: Isaiah Hildreth

Sources:
https://www.newspapers.com/image/208805495/?terms=hughes%20francine&match=1

https://www.newspapers.com/image/209277272/?terms=hughes%20francine&match=1

https://www.themarysue.com/francine-hughes-the-mixed-legacy-of-battered-woman-syndrome/

https://retroreport.org/transcript/transcript-the-domestic-violence-case-that-turned-outrage-into-action/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/210051314/?terms=hughes%20francine&match=1

https://stockbridgecommunitynews.com/national-domestic-violence-awareness-month-area-familys-1977-tragedy-changed-laws-on-domestic-violence/

https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2014/10/27/burning-bed-domestic-violence/16224277/

The Ballad of Francine Hughes  https://youtu.be/zuyRoKi5X8c?si=85SeWPqfC53_Wvo5

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Today's episode is about  the life and crimes of Father Hans Schmidt. He was executed in 1916 for murder.  Schmidt is the only priest ever to be executed in the United States.

Music- Isaiah Hildreth
Male Narrator- Curtis Hildreth

Sources
newspapers.com
murderpedia
wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Schmidt_(priest)https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/the-dreadful-crimes-of-the-only-priest-ever-executed-on-the-electric-chair-2975072643d3

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On Mother's Day 1985, a young mother and her two little girls were found dead in their home near Ft. Bragg, NC. The youngest of her daughters was left alive, alone, crying, and dehydrated in her crib waiting for a rescue. The murders bore a striking resemblance to the 1970 killings at Ft. Bragg of the MacDonald family. Investigators had to figure out if this was a copycat crime or a totally unrelated case.

Narrator: Curtis Hildreth
Intro and Outro Music: Isaiah Hildreth

Sources:
Whisnant,  Scott.  Innocent Victims; The Spellbinding Account of An Unthinkable True-Crime. Onyx, 1993.
https://thecrimewire.com/true-crime/staff-sergeant-tim-hennis-murder
https://www.newspapers.com/image/623994986/?terms=Eastburn&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/624000237/?terms=Eastburn&match=1
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/11/14/three-trials-for-murder
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastburn_family_murders
https://www.foxnews.com/us/25-years-later-widower-recalls-slain-family

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Martha McKay was found murdered on her family property in Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas. Her mother was found murdered on the same property twenty-four years earlier. .  Travis Lewis was Martha's killer--the same person  convicted in the  murder of Martha's mother and cousin when he was just fifteen years old. This case is proof that sometimes lightening does strike twice. 

Music
Furry Lewis Public Domain
Copywrite  free acoustic Delta Blues Instrumental

newspapers.com
findagrave.com
podcast -Southern Fried True Crime
https://memphismagazine.com/habitats/lady-of-the-lake/https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2020/03/25/martha-mckay-murder-travis-lewis-horseshoe-lake-arkansas/5085237002/https://people.com/crime/inside-the-bizarre-case-of-a-killer-striking-twice-23-years-apart-murdering-a-mother-and-daughter/https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/woman-found-murdered-same-snowden-property-horseshoe-lake-arkansas-where-n1169906
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/horseshoe-lake-crittenden-county-7164/
https://www.blacksouthernbelle.com/black-women-juke-joint-owners-and-food-heritage/
https://www.messynessychic.com/2023/02/17/americas-last-juke-joints/#google_vignette
https://folkways.si.edu/furry-lewis-rural-blues-performer/music/article/smithsonian

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In early 1970 Capt. Jeffrey MacDonald is awakened by the screams of his wife and daughters being attacked.  He claims a group of drugged-up hippies were the intruders, but authorities quickly begin to question that claim. This conclusion to the MacDonald family murders delves into the alternative theories put forth by the defense and ends with where the convicted murderer is today. 
Narrator: Curtis Hildreth
Intro and Outro Music: Isaiah Hildreth

Sources:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/convicted-murderer-jeffrey-macdonald-s-appeal-dismissed-and-consecutive-life-sentences
https://macdonaldcasefacts.com/html/timeline.html
McGinniss, Joe. Fatal Vision. Putnam, 1983.
Potter, Jerry Allen, and Fred Bost. Fatal Justice: Reinvestigating the MacDonald Murders. W.W. Norton, 1995.

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At the height of the hippie culture and "Satanic Panic" in the early 1970s, a gruesome murder is committed at Fort Bragg, NC.  A pregnant mother and her two small daughters are repeatedly stabbed to death.  Her husband, Captain Jeffrey MacDonald, is also injured but survives the attack. He is able to describe the four assailants who had killed his family; drugged-out hippies chanting, "Acid is groovy. Kill the pigs." In the coming days, the tale becomes even harder to believe and authorities question Captain MacDonald's version of events.

Narrator: Curtis Hildreth
Intro and Outro Music: Isaiah Hildreth

Sources:
McGinniss, Joe. Fatal Vision. Putnam, 1983.

Potter, Jerry Allen, and Fred Bost. Fatal Justice: Reinvestigating the MacDonald Murders. W.W. Norton, 1995.

Charlie Manson’s Home on the Range. Esquire, March 1970
California Evil.  Esquire, March 1970

https://macdonaldcasefacts.com/html/guilt.html
https://macdonaldcasefacts.com/html/timeline.html
https://nccriminallaw.sog.unc.edu/the-dr-jeffrey-macdonald-habeas-case-and-actual-innocence/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tate%E2%80%93LaBianca_murders

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Belle Gunness also known as Hell's Princess was a pig farmer in the early 1900's. She posted help wanted and lonely hearts ads in newspapers--luring men to their deaths with promises of love and wealth.

Music By Isaiah Hildreth
Male Narrator Curtis Hildreth
Sources:
newspapers.com
Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men  by  Harold Schechter 
wikipedia
biography.com
legendsofamerica.com
allthatsintresting.com
https://americanliterature.com/author/charles-perrault/fairy-tale/the-story-of-blue-beard americanliterature.com

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On March 5, 1873, two women were found brutally axed to death on the secluded Smuttynose Island just off the coast of Maine.

Music by Isaiah Hildreth
Male Narrator Curtis Hildreth

Sources:
Mystery on the Isles of Shoals: Closing the Case on the Smuttynose Ax Murders of 1873 by J Dennis Robinson
newspapers.com
findagrave.com
Fresh Hell Podcast
fosters.com
wikipedia.com
newengland.com
https://www.des.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt341/files/documents/geo-187-024000-bbxm-isles-of-shoals-final.pdfhttps://www.fayrehalefarm.com/new-hampshires-isles-of-shoals/
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/graves-smuttynose-murder-victims
https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/local/portsmouth-herald/2018/07/08/history-grave-concern-in-kittery/11574170007/
https://numa.net/2013/02/is-there-treasure-off-new-englands-isles-of-shoals/

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Accident? Suicide? Or Murder? The question of "Z" Smith Reynolds' death is still not answered to this day more than ninety years later. The wealthy heir of the RJ Reynolds Tobacco fortune was shot on his sleeping porch after hosting his friend's 21st birthday party at his estate. The initial ruling was suicide. However, ballistic evidence cast suspicion on that theory, and two people were charged with his murder. The inquest sparked more questions than it answered.

Intro and Outro Music: Courthouse Blues, Clara Smith Vol. 3 (1925) Public Domain
Narrator: Curtis Hildreth
Suicide Hotline: In the US - dial 988 - 24 hours
Hopeline Crisis Intervention - 877-235-4525
 

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._J._Reynolds
https://reynolda.org/
https://reynolda.org/about/history-timeline/
https://youtu.be/Mta1Cba0ToI?si=SHci78ur1jLwbAb7 (Youtube video)
https://reynolda.org/museum/exhibitions/smith-and-libby/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._J._Reynolds_Tobacco_Company
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Smith_Reynolds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston-Salem,_North_Carolina
https://www.newspapers.com/image/651207970/?terms=smith%20reynolds&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/932321497/?terms=reynolds%20smith&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/651286296/

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On March 1, 1922, Tennessee sent four men ( under the age of twenty) to the electric chair to pay  with their lives for the life  they took.

Music by Isaiah Hildreth
Male Narrator: Curtis Hildreth

Sources:
newspapers.com
The Appalachian Storyteller
wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler_Motor_Car
knoxnews.com https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2018/08/11/gallows-gurney-six-infamous-east-tennessee-executions-maurice-mays-whitecaps-bluebills-billy-irick/958465002/

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