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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Georgia Tann was a social worker whose crimes spanned three decades from the 1920s to 1950. What appeared to be benevolence on her part was actually greed and downright evil that affected many families during those years. She led a secret life and was beyond scrutiny for most of those years. Sadly she was never brought to justice for her horrible deeds.

Narrator: Curtis Hildreth
Intro and Outro Music: Isaiah Hildreth
Sources:
https://www.americanadoptions.com/adoption/history-of-adoption
https://www.newspapers.com/image/311167409/?terms=sipple%20alma&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/769617267/?terms=georgia%20tann&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/109886102/?terms=georgia%20tann&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-chronicle-georgia-tann-1954/3661842/
https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-110-baby-snatcher-3-15-2019/
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3181&context=jssw
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Tann
Photo: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/38235660/georgia-tann This photo is in the public domain

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In 1914, Lowe Daniels lived in the Uwharrie forest. He made his living making and selling whiskey. One day he came home from a trip and out of nowhere,  shot his wife, his wife's seventeen year old sister, his seventeen year old sister and a sixteen year old neighbor boy.  After he'd finished his killing spree, Lowe took his banjo off the wall,  sat by the fire,  picked his banjo and sang until the sheriff came to arrest him.

Music by Isaiah Hildreth
Sources:
findagrave.com
newspapers.com
Ricky Allred
John Craven
randolphhistorywordpress.com https://randolphhistory.wordpress.com/tag/moonshine/

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In 1966 a father in Georgia died suddenly from an apparent heart attack. He was just 39 years old. Just seven months later his 13-year-old son became sick suddenly and passed away within a short time.  Mysterious deaths continued until people became suspicious of the true cause of so many deaths in one family.

Narrator: Curtis Hildreth
Intro and Outro Music: Isaiah Hildreth

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janie_Lou_Gibbs
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/60588446/janie-lou-gibbs
https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-09/documents/train1-background.pdf
https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/georgia/small-town-murder-ga/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/827116075/?terms=Gibbs%20Janie&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/824403601/?terms=Gibbs%20Janie&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/824521391/?terms=Gibbs%20Janie&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/853586882/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/824522307/?terms=Gibbs%20Janie&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/846711827/?terms=Gibbs%20Janie&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/824417597/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/846711833/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/824548864/?terms=gibbs%20janie&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/824987561/

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A fire broke out around midnight on  Christmas Eve in 1945 at the Sodder house in Fayetteville, West Virginia. Five of the  Sodder family's ten children didn't make it outside with the rest of their family. George Sodder, their father tried desperately to save them but it was to no avail.  At first everyone believed the children  died in the fire.  However,  no skeletal remains were ever found. After several new pieces of evidence came to light and some extremely odd circumstances surrounding the night of the fire, the family and many people all over the world came to  believe the children were kidnapped just before the fire was started. Today,  I (Darlene) am going to tell Melody the family's story and we will discuss what we believe happened to the children.

Male Narrator- Curtis Hildreth
Music by Isaiah Hildreth

Sources:
Wikipedia
findagrave.com
newspapers.com
investigationandiscovery.comhttps://www.investigationdiscovery.com/crimefeed/mystery/5-curious-details-about-the-missing-sodder-children
thesmithsonian.com https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-children-who-went-up-in-smoke-172429802/
legendsofamerica.com https://www.legendsofamerica.com/missing-sodder-children/
allthatsintresting.com https://allthatsinteresting.com/sodder-children
wtrf.com https://www.wtrf.com/west-virginia/west-virginia-unsolved-mystery-the-sodden-five-a-series-of-unfortunate-events-or-a-conspiracy-to-traffic-children/
onlyinyourstate.com https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/west-virginia/mafia-town-wv/
crime capsule.com https://crimecapsule.com/black-hand-beat/
wvpublicorg.comhttps://wvpublic.org/february-11-1923-eight-members-of-the-black-hand-arrested-in-harrison-county/
Fresh Hell Podcast

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During a snowstorm in early 1972, a Boone, NC family is shockingly murdered in their own home. At first, it appears to be a robbery gone bad, but upon further inspection, that theory does not seem to add up. It was a crime that went unsolved for fifty years.

Narrator: Curtis Hildreth
Intro and Outro Music: Isaiah Hildreth
Episode Sponsor: The Table - Asheboro, NC

Sources:
Pickens, Cathy -True Crime Stories of Western North Carolina. The History Press, Charleston, SC. 2022

https://www.newspapers.com/image/197217886/?terms=bryce%20durham&match=1
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/kz1bcp/boone_north_carolina_february_1972_the_bizarre/
https://journalnow.com/40-year-old-unsolved-triple-murder-still-haunts-law-enforcement/article_3f04e50f-a3a2-5aed-9dfb-c0118871ac34.html
https://www.newspapers.com/image/621935569/?terms=bryce%20durham&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/621939447/?terms=bryce%20durham&match=1
https://journalnow.com/40-year-old-unsolved-triple-murder-still-haunts-law-enforcement/article_3f04e50f-a3a2-5aed-9dfb-c0118871ac34.html

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Lowell Lee Andrews was a bright  university student, and beloved son of a Kansas farmer. On Thanksgiving day in 1958, he would shock his community by murdering his  family in order to get his inheritance.

Sources:
In Cold Blood   by  Truman Capote
murderpedia.com
newspapers.com
findagrave.com
wikipedia
Podcast- Fresh Hell
Podcast- Once Apon a Crime
https://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/nov/28/crime_all_time/
https://hazelsdiary.wordpress.com/2017/01/03/lowell-lee-andrews/
https://www.ranker.com/list/lowell-lee-andrews/beth-elias
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/12/28/home/capote-blood2.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2016/07/colder-blood/
https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/2bhuxm/just_finished_in_cold_blood_and_had_a_few/
https://law.justia.com/cases/kansas/supreme-court/1960/41-984-0.html

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 In the Spring of 1927, Reverend  Tom 'Thunderbolt'  Pardue traveled to the tobacco growing town of  Reidsville, North Carolina  to hold a revival in the big  McCollum  tobacco Warehouse. One night after the service, he was met by a beautiful young lady whose heart had been pricked by his message on the subject of confession. She had a confession to make. She had committed murder. She had murdered her own father. The reverend was conflicted. Was he to keep the secret of the young lady who had  trusted him with her very soul? Or was his obligation to go to police for the sake of the citizens of Reidsville? 

Sources:
Male Narrator: Curtis Hildreth
Music: Isaiah Hildreth

Book Murder for Breakfast by  Phil Link  (Author)
Admissibility of Confidential Confession to Spiritual Adviser https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=4931&context=nclr

Seal of confession in the Catholic Church https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_confession_in_the_Catholic_Church#:~:text=However%2C%20the%20Court%20later%20ruled,heard%20during%20a%20sacramental%20confession.

reddit.com
newspapers.com
findagrave.com
If You Talk About a Crime In Catholic Confession Can The Priest Report it to Police https://www.quora.com/If-you-talk-about-a-crime-in-Catholic-confession-can-the-priest-report-it-to-the-police

Podcast Stuff You Learned in History: The Trial of Alma Petty Gatlin
In 44 States, Clergy Don't Have to Tell Police When Someone Confesses to Child Sex Abuse https://www.newsweek.com/utah-bill-confession-priests-sex-abuse-1449878

Photo Credit :  Daily News from New York, New York Sunday March 28, 1928

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