On a chilly night in March of 1976, a father searching for his missing son made a horrifying discovery inside a Chicago apartment - in at what first appeared to be a drug deal gone bad. Inside were the bodies of Gio Messina and Delphine “Tinker” Moore, brutally stabbed to death. With no clear motive and a case that seemed ready to fall apart, it might have stayed buried if not for a series of unlikely breaks.

My guest is author Gregg Owen, who, years later, found himself prosecuting that very case and was determined to see it through. His book "Convergence", co-authored with Jonathan Dixon, tells the story of how it all came together.

The author's website: https://26thstreetbooks.com

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(Orig pub date: 10/8/2017). My guest, Jay Atkinson, author of "Massacre on the Merrimack", tells the notorious and controversial story of Hannah Duston. After members of the Abenaki tribe captured her and her newborn infant in March of 1697, they killed her baby on a forced march north. Duston got her revenge by killing and scalping ten of her captors, including six children, and fleeing by canoe back to her home in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

The author's Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001JORXLK

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/writerjayatkinson/

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jay_atkinson/

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On a crisp September evening in 1899, a seventeen-year-old petty thief named Edwin Ray Snow shot and killed a bakery deliveryman named Jimmy Whittemore outside Yarmouth, Massachusetts. The gunshots rang out for only a moment, but the effects resounded on Cape Cod for half a century. The idyllic atmosphere of turn-of-the-century Cape Cod was shattered in a flash.

My guest is Theresa Mitchell Webster, author of "The Cape Cod Murder of 1899: Edwin Ray Snow's Punishment & Redemption". She guides us through the crime and the long, complicated prison journey that followed.

The author's website: theresawebster.com

The author's email address: [email protected]

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My guest this week is Suzanne Huntington, co editor of Ripperologist Magazine and author of the recently published book "The Thames Torso Murders: Fact or Fiction?" She not only talks about the “Canonical Four” Thames Torso murders and the possible killer (or killers), but she also takes a wider look at Victorian era dismemberment cases in and around London, the challenge of separating fact from long repeated myth, and the ways these crimes have been linked (rightly or wrongly) to the Whitechapel murders and Jack the Ripper. It is a fascinating deep dive into one of the most unsettling murder series of the late 19th century.

The author's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Thames-Torso-Murders-Fact-or-Fiction-61565822546574/

The author's US Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Suzanne-Huntington/author/B0GHT5B8TK

The author's UK Amazon page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Suzanne-Huntington/author/B0GHT5B8TK

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New York Times bestselling author Tom Clavin returns to the podcast to discuss his books "The Last Outlaws: The Desperate Final Days of the Dalton Gang" and "Bandit Heaven: The Hole-in-the-Wall Gangs and the Final Chapter of the Wild West". We talk about the Dalton Gang, the Wild Bunch, and the violent final years of frontier outlawry as the legendary era of the Old West drew to a close.

The author's website: https://www.tomclavin.com

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In 1708, during the War of the Spanish Succession, the Spanish galleon San José sailed from South America carrying a vast cargo of gold and silver bound for Spain. Off the coast of present-day Colombia, British ships of war intercepted the galleon in a fierce naval clash. During the battle, the San José exploded and sank, taking its enormous treasure to the bottom of the Caribbean.

My guest this week is Julian Sancton, author of Neptune’s Fortune: The Billion-Dollar Shipwreck and the Ghosts of the Spanish Empire. He discusses the circumstances that led to the sinking of the San José and enigmatic Cuban archaeologist Roger Dooley’s determined quest to locate the wreck deep beneath the sea.

Follow Julian Sancton:
Twitter/X: https://x.com/jsancton
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jsancton/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/julian.sancton

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(Orig. Pub Date: 11/10/21) In January of 1923, a 20-year-old dancer named Fritzie Mann left home to meet a mysterious man for what she told her mother was a house party. When she was discovered dead on a remote beach a few miles north of San Diego, police were puzzled by the clues. Was it an accident, suicide, or murder? The fact that she was pregnant deepened the mystery even further. Soon two men – a Hollywood actor and a doctor – became the primary suspects in the case, and one would eventually be put on trial for murder.

My guest is James Stewart, author of “Mystery at the Blue Sea Cottage: A True Story of Murder in San Diego’s Jazz Age”. He shares details about strange death of Fritzie Mann, considered by some to be San Diego’s very own Black Dahlia, and offers intriguing theories on what might really have happened to her.

More information can be found at the author’s website here: https://www.jamesstewartauthor.com/ and at his publisher’s author page: https://wildbluepress.com/mystery-at-the-blue-sea-cottage-james-stewart-true-crime/

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In 1949, a quiet neighborhood in St. Louis became the center of one of the most controversial religious cases in American history. A 13-year-old boy began exhibiting disturbing symptoms including violent outbursts, strange markings on his body, and other troubling episodes, leading Catholic priests to perform a series of secret exorcism rites. The case would later inspire The Exorcist, but the real story was far more complex than the film.

My guest is Troy Taylor, author of The Devil Came to St. Louis: The Uncensored True Story of the 1949 Exorcism, who takes a careful look at the case, its origins, and how fact, faith, and folklore became intertwined in one of America’s most enduring mysteries.

The author's website: https://www.americanhauntingsink.com/

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Growing up in Memphis, George Kelly Barnes starts dabbling in crime from a young age. First he blackmails his father, then he grows a successful bootlegging business for himself. But how did this small-time crook earn one of the most famous names in criminal history? And why don't we talk about his most famous crime?

To listen to all four episodes of 'Machine Gun Kelly' right now and ad-free, subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠AmericanCriminal.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Told and retold in many languages, the legend of the Blood Countess has consumed cultural imaginations around the world. But despite claims that Elizabeth Báthory tortured and killed as many as 650 girls, some have wondered if the Countess was herself a victim- of one of the most successful disinformation campaigns known to history. So, was Elizabeth Báthory a monster, a victim, or a bit of both?

My guest is Shelley Puhak, author of the new book "The Blood Countess: Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster". She helps us separate fact from fiction as she reexamines the life of Elizabeth Báthory, long labeled one of history’s most notorious killers, and unpacks a complex story of power, politics, and how it all led to the making of a "monster".

The author's website: https://shelleypuhak.com/

The author's publisher page: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/blood-countess-9781639732159/

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