Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

By Blue Ewe Media

Education History

What's Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast about?

Each week, the Most Notorious podcast features true-life tales of crime, criminals and tragedies throughout history.

Hosted by Erik Rivenes, author of the Detective Harm Queen historical mystery series, including "The Big Mitt" and "Ill-Fame".

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The 1918 Influenza (Spanish...

03.30.2020

Just over a hundred years ago, the world suffered through a brutal influenza pandemic, which infected up to a quarter of the world's population. It was nicknamed the Spanish Flu, and killed millions of people. My guest, John Barry, is ...

Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast episodes:

03.30.2020 The 1918 Influenza (Spanish Flu) Pandemic w/ John Barry - A True Crime History Podcast Just over a hundred years ago, the world suffered through a brutal influenza pandemic, which infected up to a quarter of the world's population. It was nicknamed the Spanish Flu, and killed millions of people. My guest, John Barry, is ...
03.11.2020 The 1963 Murder of Carol Thompson w/ William Swanson - A True Crime History Podcast While the Coen brothers refuse to confirm it, many believe that their movie "Fargo" was inspired by the Carol Thompson murder case. She was viciously killed in her comfortable Saint Paul home by a hitman hired by her eccentric husband, ...
03.05.2020 The Dating Game Killer In 1978, Rodney Alcala won a date on the popular TV show, The Dating Game. What no one knew was that he was a prolific serial killer in the middle of a cross-country murder spree. In this six-part series, co-hosts ...
03.04.2020 The "American Sherlock Holmes" & Father of Forensic Science, Dr. Edward Oscar Heinrich w/ Kate Winkler Dawson - A True Crime History Podcast Some of the most notorious cases in American history were solved by the masterful techniques of forensics expert Dr. Edward Oscar Heinrich. He was known as the "American Sherlock Holmes" for his use of science and deduction to solve what ...
02.27.2020 The Mysterious 1928 Death of "Furnace Girl" Elfrieda Knaak w/ Kraig Moreland - A True Crime History Podcast In late October of 1928, authorities in the small town of Lake Bluff, Illinois discovered a grisly scene in the village hall basement. They found a young woman named Elfreida Knaak, naked, horribly burned and barely clinging to life, next ...
02.20.2020 The 1873 Smuttynose Ax Murders w/ J. Dennis Robinson - A True Crime History Podcast On March 6th, 1873, a brutal double ax murder took the lives of two Norwegian women living on the isolated Smuttynose Island, one of the Isles of Shoals off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire. My guest is J. ...
02.13.2020 Oklahoma's 1920s Osage Murders w/ David Grann - A True Crime History Podcast David Grann, author of the New York Times Bestselling "Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI", is my guest on this week's episode of Most Notorious. He talks about his research into a ...
02.08.2020 The 1937 "Babes of Inglewood" Murders w/ Pamela Everett - A True Crime History Podcast In the summer of 1937, in an idyllic neighborhood of Los Angeles called Inglewood, the unspeakable happened. Three little girls were lured from a park, assaulted and murdered. The sensational case, known as the "Babes of Inglewood" Murders, would shake ...
01.31.2020 1930s Gangster Alvin "Creepy" Karpis w/ Julie Thompson - A True Crime History Podcast Alvin "Creepy" Karpis could claim many things in his life. He was not only the brains behind the Barker-Karpis Gang, but the last public enemy of the 1930s, one of J. Edgar Hoover's most hated adversaries, and the longest serving ...
01.24.2020 The 1692 Salem Witch Hunt w/ Mary Beth Norton - A True Crime History Podcast In this episode, we examine the most notorious witch hunt in American history, in Salem, Massachusetts. Hundreds of women and men were accused of witchcraft by young, "afflicted" girls, and many were executed. My guest is Mary Beth Norton, award-winning ...
01.17.2020 The 1946 Texarkana Phantom Serial Killer w/ James Presley - A True Crime History Podcast In early 1946, a serial killer nicknamed "The Phantom Killer" (aka the "Moonlight Killer") terrorized the citizens of Texarkana (Arkansas and Texas). It was most sensational series of murders in post-war America. Dr. James Presley is my guest, and the ...
01.10.2020 Tom Dooley & the 1866 Murder of Laura Foster w/ Charlotte Corbin Barnes - A True Crime History Podcast Most of us are probably familiar with the Kingston Trio song, "Tom Dooley", but fewer may realize that it was based on the true life murder of Laura Foster in 1866 North Carolina. Charlotte Corbin Barnes is an unapologetic supporter ...
01.03.2020 The 1922 Murder of Percy Thompson & Execution of Edith Thompson w/ Laura Thompson - A True Crime History Podcast In October 1922, a sensational murder gripped the city of London. While on a walk home after a show, Percy Thompson was stabbed by Freddy Bywaters, the lover of his wife, Edith. Passionate love letters written by her, including mentions ...
12.23.2019 Midnight Potboiler: The Doctor & the Devil, or the Midnight Adventures of Dr. Parkhurst In March of 1892, a private detective named Charles Gardner was hired by the Reverend Doctor Charles Parkhurst, moral crusader and social reformer, as an escort through the seediest, vilest slums in New York City. The purpose of this slumming ...
12.19.2019 True Crime Tripper: The Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum True Crime Tripper is the second of three new shows I'm trying out on Most Notorious. If launched in 2020, it would be a travel show that focused on historic sites, hotels, restaurants and museums related to true crime history. ...
12.18.2019 Aghast at the Past: December 17th, 1901 In this first trial episode of "Aghast at the Past", a possible new weekly addition to Most Notorious, I narrate true crime stories I've culled from North American newspapers dated December 17th, 1901. They include the murder of a young ...
12.10.2019 The Gitchie-Manitou Murders w/ Phil Hamman - A True Crime History Podcast On the evening of November 17th, 1973, five teenagers, enjoying a campfire at the Gitchie-Manitou State Park in Iowa, were terrorized by three sociopathic brothers, who would end up murdering the four boys in brutal fashion. The lone survivor, Sandra ...
11.29.2019 Cowboys Vs. Gangsters w/ Samuel Dolan - A True Crime History Podcast While much is written about Prohibition-era gangsters and bootlegging, the focus is typically in places like Chicago, Kansas City and New York City. Far less known, but very compelling, is the history of the Mexican-American border in the Southwest in ...
11.21.2019 Jack the Ripper: New Clues & Theories w/ Tom Wescott - A True Crime History Podcast One of the world's most preeminent Ripperologists, Tom Wescott, author of "The Bank Holiday Murders" and "Ripper Confidential" is my guest on this week's episode of Most Notorious. His extensive research into Jack the Ripper/Whitechapel murders give his a unique ...
11.15.2019 The 1919 Chicago Black Sox Scandal w/ Charles Fountain - A True Crime History Podcast In 1919, eight players on the Chicago White Sox baseball team, including "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, were implicated in what would go down in infamy as the Black Sox scandal. In exchange for money, members of the team agreed to intentionally ...
11.07.2019 Texas Gunfighters Ben Thompson & King Fisher w/ G.R. Williamson - A True Crime History Podcast When many of us think about Old West gunfighters, our minds turn to men like Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, and Billy the Kid. But there were others equally as compelling, including the two that are the subject of my guest ...
10.29.2019 The 1885 Murder of Sarah Graham (& the Scandal of Emma Molloy) w/ Larry Wood - A True Crime History Podcast Emma Barrett Molloy was a well-known Evangelical Christian, temperance and women's rights activist in the 1870s and 1880s. But in 1885 she found herself embroiled in a lurid scandal involving a con-artist named George Graham. Graham married Emma's foster daughter, ...
10.15.2019 Capt. Matt Leach Vs. John Dillinger Part 2 w/ Ellen Pousen - A True Crime History Podcast My conversation continues with Ellen Poulsen, co-author (with Lori Hyde) of "Chasing Dillinger: Police Captain Matt Leach, J. Edgar Hoover and the Rivalry to Capture Public Enemy No. 1". In this second part of the interview, Ellen explains the struggles ...
10.15.2019 Capt. Matt Leach Vs. John Dillinger Part 1 w/ Ellen Poulsen - A True Crime History Podcast Ellen Poulsen is back, this time to discuss her new book (co-written with Lori Hyde), "Chasing Dillinger: Police Captain Matt Leach, J. Edgar Hoover and the Rivalry to Capture Public Enemy No. 1." She walks us through John Dillinger's rise ...
10.07.2019 The Real Dracula: Vlad the Impaler w/ Leif Pettersen - A True Crime History Podcast Just in time for the Halloween season! This episode explores the real Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, a 15th century warrior-ruler infamous for his extreme brutality and cruelty. My guest Leif Pettersen, a former travel writer with Lonely Planet, has spent ...
09.27.2019 Blackbeard and the Golden Age of Piracy in America w/ Eric Jay Dolin - A True Crime History Podcast Bestselling author Eric Jay Dolin joins me to talk about his book, "Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America’s Most Notorious Pirates". He discusses the Golden Age of Piracy in 17th and 18th century America, explains why pirates ...
09.21.2019 The 1980 Norco Shootout w/ Peter Houlahan - A True Crime History Podcast In May of 1980, a brazen group of four heavily armed men, in an attempt to rob the Security Pacific Bank in Norco, California, ended up responsible for one of the most violent criminal events in American history. It would ...
09.13.2019 1860s "Spirit" Photographer William Mumler w/ Peter Manseau - A True Crime History Podcast In the aftermath of the American Civil War there was a sharp rise of interest from Americans interested in communicating with the dead, and the Spiritualism movement grew increasingly popular. This, combined with the new technology of photography, gave rise ...
09.06.2019 The 1900 New Jersey Murder of Jennie Bosschieter w/ Kimberly Tilley - A True Crime History Podcast In October of 1900, four men accompanied a young woman named Jennie Bosschieter to a saloon, where one of them slipped a large amount of chloral hydrate into her drink. She was then taken on a ride to a remote ...
08.11.2019 1920s "Bootleg King" George Remus w/ Karen Abbott - A True Crime History Podcast My guest is Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of "Sin in the Second City", "American Rose", and "Liar, Temptress, Soldier. Spy". She discusses her new book, "The Ghosts of Eden Park", and the wild story of George Remus, ...
08.01.2019 Harper Lee & Murderer Willie Maxwell w/ Casey Cep - A True Crime History Podcast Harper Lee, author of "To Kill A Mockingbird", famously accompanied Truman Capote as he investigated the murder of the Clutter family; ultimately writing about the terrible events in his true crime classic, "In Cold Blood". Years later, Lee tackled her ...
07.19.2019 Arthur Conan Doyle Investigates the 1908 Murder of Marion Gilchrist w/ Margalit Fox - A True Crime History Podcast While Arthur Conan Doyle is recognized as the creator of one of the most famous characters in literary history - Sherlock Holmes- fewer people know that Doyle used his Holmesian skills of deduction to help solve actual real-life true crime ...
07.10.2019 1969 L.A.'s Charles Manson Murders w/ Lis Wiehl - A True Crime History Podcast With Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood" due to be released at the end of July, there is a renewed interest in Charles Manson and his murderous cult. My guest, Lis Wiehl, author of "Hunting Charles Manson: The ...
06.26.2019 1920s Los Angeles' Bizarre "Blackburn Cult" w/ Samuel Fort - A True Crime History Podcast Cults are certainly not a new phenomenon - in fact one of the strangest ones existed in Los Angeles in the 1920s. The "Blackburn Cult", also known as the "Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven", was ...
06.19.2019 The Notorious 1920 Sacco and Vanzetti Murder Case w/ Susan Tejada - A True Crime History Podcast If I were to make a list of the most notorious murder cases in American history, the Sacco and Vanzetti case would certainly make my top ten. In April of 1920, two payroll guards were gunned during a robbery in ...
06.12.2019 1860 New York City's "Gangster Pirate" Albert Hicks w/ Rich Cohen - A True Crime History Podcast Long before Dutch Schultz, "Lucky" Luciano or even Monk Eastman ran rackets in New York City, a man named Albert Hicks terrorized lower Manhattan. He'd made his living as a murderous pirate, and became one of the worst criminals to ...
06.05.2019 The 1891 Murder of Helen Potts w/ George R. Dekle Sr. - A True Crime History Podcast My guest is George R. Dekle Sr., former prosecutor and prolific author. He discusses his book, "Six Capsules: The Gilded Age Murder of Helen Potts", and draws comparisons between the Helen Pott's husband, Carlyle Harris (who would be tried and ...
05.25.2019 1968 Michigan's Robison Family Murders w/ Mardi Link - A True Crime History Podcast In June of 1968, a wealthy Detroit-area family was gunned down in their northern Michigan cabin. It would become one of the most famous cold cases in the state's history. Mardi Link, author of "When Evil Came to Good Hart", ...
05.10.2019 Rape, Dishonor and Judicial Trial by Combat in Medieval France w/ Eric Jager - A True Crime History Podcast In 1385, a bitter feud between two French courtesans came to a terrible head when Marguerite, the beautiful young wife of Norman knight Jean de Carrouges, accuses her husband's enemy, Jacques LeGris, of raping her while she has been left ...
04.30.2019 The Apache Wars: The Hunt for Geronimo, The Apache Kid, and The Captive Boy Who Started The Longest War in American History w/ Paul Andrew Hutton - A True Crime History Podcast Paul Andrew Hutton, best-selling author of The Apache Wars: The Hunt For Geronimo, The Apache Kid, And The Captive Boy Who Started The Longest War In American History, is my guest on this episode of Most Notorious. He tells the ...
04.20.2019 Al Capone, the Secret Six, & the 1933 Chicago World's Fair w/ William Hazelgrove - A True Crime History Podcast Most of us have grown up thinking that Elliot Ness and his famed "Untouchables" were the crimefighters who brought down the notorious Al Capone in Chicago. But instead, it was a group of millionaire businessmen called the "Secret Six" who ...
04.12.2019 Alice and Gerald: A Homicidal Love Story w/ Ron Franscell - A True Crime History Podcast In 1974, a young woman named Alice killed her abusive husband. Then she met and married a man named Gerald Uden, who was having financial issues with his ex-wife, Virginia Martin. Not long after, Gerald would murder Virginia and her ...
04.03.2019 The 1883 Milwaukee Newhall House Fire/Disaster w/ Matthew J. Prigge - A True Crime History Podcast On January 10th, 1883, the famed Newhall House hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, caught fire. Made worse by a series of blunders by hotel staff and a poorly trained and equipped fire department, seventy five people would ultimately lose their lives ...
03.22.2019 Frank Hamer vs. Bonnie and Clyde w/ John Boessenecker - A True Crime History Podcast In part two of this episode, John Boessenecker continues his tale of Frank Hamer, including his days as a Prohibition agent in the 1920s, a cold-case investigator, and his famous hunt of notorious Depression-era outlaws and murderers Bonnie Parker and ...
03.22.2019 Frank Hamer: Texas Ranger and Gunfighter w/ John Boessenecker - A True Crime History Podcast My guest is John Boessenecker, former police officer and New York Times bestselling author of Texas Ranger: The Epic Life of Frank Hamer, the Man Who Killed Bonnie and Clyde. In this first part of the episode, he talks about ...
03.13.2019 Altamont, The Rolling Stones, the Hell's Angels & the Killing of Meredith Hunter w/ Joel Selvin - A True Crime History Podcast On December 6th, 1969, The Rolling Stones headlined a free concert at Altamont Speedway outside of San Francisco. It quickly turned ugly, culminating with the stabbing death of eighteen-year-old Meredith Hunter by a member of the Hell's Angels, who were ...
03.06.2019 The 1906 Murder of Stanford White w/ Simon Baatz - A True Crime History Podcast In June of 1906, famed architect Stanford White was murdered by an obsessive millionaire's son named Harry Thaw at the roof garden theater of Madison Square Garden. His attorneys would claim in the sensational court case that followed that he'd ...
02.25.2019 Wartime Melbourne's "Brownout Strangler" Serial Killer w/ Ian W. Shaw - A True Crime History Podcast In early 1942, as World War II raged and Japan threatened Australia, tens of thousands of American servicemen arrived in Melbourne to provide assistance in the Pacific Theater. One young U.S. soldier, however, named Eddie Leonski, used the browned-out city ...
02.20.2019 The 1902 Manhattan Murder of Walter Brooks w/ Virginia A. McConnell - A True Crime History Podcast In 1902 New York City, a group of wealthy young men, known as the Bedford Avenue Gang, spent their free time terrorizing their neighborhood - including drinking, stealing, fleecing businesses and seducing women. After gang member Walter Brooks, began dating ...
02.18.2019 The 1921 Missoula Murder of Nora Shea w/ Kim Briggeman - A True Crime History Podcast In February of 1921 in Missoula, Montana, a wife and mother of two named Nora Shea was gunned down near some railroad tracks. The main suspect was a local hoodlum named Joe Vuckovich, but a recent piece of surfaced evidence ...

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