"Doctor" Robert Spears was arguably one of the greatest con artists of the twentieth century, and very likely a mass murderer. In thirty nine years of grift, he had 25 aliases, 28 arrests in 20 cities, and was imprisoned close to a dozen times. He performed, without any medical degree, abortions on countless women, and in 1959 tricked his best friend into taking his place on an airplane. That plane exploded in mid-air, killing 42 passengers, and allowed Spears to briefly escape his legal woes and start a new life under yet another new identity.

My guest is Jerry Jamison, and his book is called "Vanishing Act: A Crashed Airliner, Faked Death, and Backroom Abortions". He share details of this too-crazy-to-believe-but-still-true story with me on this latest episode of Most Notorious.

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

Jerry Jamison on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jerryjamisonauthor/

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My guest this week is Scott Ellsworth, author of Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America. He talks about President Lincoln's turbulent last year in office, the Confederate secret service's attempts to create chaos in the north, and John Wilkes Booth's ties to the Confederacy's spy network.

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

The author's publisher page: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/743267/midnight-on-the-potomac-by-scott-ellsworth

On Twitter/X: https://x.com/scotteauthor

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

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

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In July of 1908 the body of twenty-year-old Hazel Drew was found floating in a mill pond in Upstate New York. Her death captured headlines across the nation and around the world, but after a whirlwind investigation lasting less than thirty days (despite a myriad of suspects), the District Attorney abruptly closed the case.

Joining me is Jerry Drake, author of "Hazel Was a Good Girl: Solving the Murder that Inspired Twin Peaks". Through meticulous research and new evidence, he focuses on an intriguing, rarely discussed suspect—and a set of circumstances that turn this classic murder mystery on its head.

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

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(Original pub date: 6/16/21)

In November of 1912, a young woman named Ella Barham journeyed home, on her horse, to her family farm in Boone County, Arkansas, but never arrived. After her body was discovered, murdered and dismembered, suspicions quickly centered on a neighbor, Odus Davidson, who was rumored to have been in love with Ella, a love never returned.

My guest, Nita Gould, has a very personal connection to Ella, one that led to her write the book she joins us to discuss, called "Remembering Ella: A 1912 Murder and Mystery in the Arkansas Ozarks."

More information can be found on her website, here: https://www.rememberingella.com/

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Clem Pellett grew up knowing very little about his grandfather, Clarence Pellett, who was murdered along Montana's iconic Hi-Line in April of 1951. Pellett's father had cut ties with the family, and Pellett didn't even know his grandfather's first name until he started investigating the case as an adult. Through extensive research over many years, Pellett uncovered the details of his grandfather's cold-blooded murder by a hitchhiker named Frank Dryman, as well as the lengthy legal battle that followed.

Pellett has written a book called "Murder on Montana's Hi-Line" about his grandfather's murder, and a feature film adaptation titled "Pellet" is in the works.

"The Pellett Project" website: https://pellettproject.com/

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

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

On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePellettProject

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On the morning of September 5th, 1917, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Epler was found dead just steps from her home in Alma, Michigan. The investigation into her murder would soon entangle a brothel madam, a traveling theater owner, a local farmer, and a French-Canadian amateur detective.

My guest is Allie Seibert, author of Bloodstained: Exploring Michigan's Darkest Murders Forgotten By Time. She walks us through this unsolved mystery and shares some of the strange twists she was able to uncover while researching this long forgotten case.

The author's Household History website: https://www.householdhistory.com/

The author's Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Allie-Seibert/author/B0F5BYH6BH

Allie in the Archives Podcast links: https://www.pod.link/1819388236

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On May 2, 1963, Robert Killins, a former United Church minister, slaughtered every woman in his family but one. She (and her brother) lived to tell the story of what motivated a talented man who had been widely admired, a scholar and graduate from Queen’s University, to stalk and terrorize the women in his family for almost twenty years and then murder them.

Through extensive oral histories, Sharon Anne Cook and Margaret Carson painstakingly trace the causes of a femicide in which four women and two unborn babies were murdered over the course of one bloody evening. While they situate this murderous rampage in the literature on domestic abuse and mass murders, they also explore how the two traumatized child survivors found their way back to health and happiness.

Their book is called "The Castleton Massacre: Survivors' Stories of the Killins Femicide" and the authors join me to discuss this horrific and very personal tragedy.

Their publisher's book page: https://www.dundurn.com/books_/t22117/a9781459749863-the-castleton-massacre

Sharon Anne Cook's website: https://sharonannecook.com/

Sharon Anne Cook's faculty page: https://www.uottawa.ca/faculty-education/sharon-anne-cook

More about Margaret Carson: https://www.dundurn.com/authors_/t156375/p148940-margaret-carson

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On the morning of July 3, 1915, John Pierpont Morgan Jr., one of the most famous names in finance, was entertaining guests at his sprawling Long Island estate when the doorbell unexpectedly rang. An armed man forced his way inside. At the same time, authorities in Washington, DC, were investigating a shocking bombing at the US Capitol. While no one had been killed, the blast had destroyed the reception room, and DC citizens were on edge.

Nine years earlier, in 1906, Leone Krembs Muenter had fallen ill and died shortly after giving birth. Her husband, Harvard professor Erich Muenter, blamed his wife’s Christian Science religious beliefs, which prohibited medical intervention, for the death, but an investigation suggested something more sinister: arsenic poisoning. As suspicions mounted, Muenter vanished.

Joining me is Mary Noé, author of "The Man Who Shot J. P. Morgan: A Life of Arsenic, Anarchy, and Intrigue". She tells the remarkable tale of a deceptive Harvard professor who reemerges with a new name and family —and a dangerous loyalty to Germany during World War I.

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

The author's publisher page: https://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/2024/the-man-who-shot-j-p-morgan/

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George Lowther was a mutineer and a pirate, one of the most prolific during the golden age of piracy. His first mate, Edward "Ned" Low, went on to establish himself as perhaps the most sadistic and depraved of all pirate captains. Virtually all popular sources specify Lowther's death being by suicide in 1723, while marooned on the small island of Blanquilla, off the coast of Venezuela.

While researching the War of Jenkins' Ear, historian Craig Chapman found repeated references to "Lowther the Pirate" in primary source material. This Lowther was pardoned and commissioned as a Royal Navy lieutenant in 1741. Further research revealed that this was indeed George Lowther, and therefore, that the date and place of his death had been reported erroneously.

Military historian and author Craig Chapman shares the story of how Lowther became a pirate, some of his most notable and notorious actions, and his astonishing resurfacing years after his purported death. His book is called "The Resurrected Pirate: The Life, Death, and Subsequent Career of the Notorious George Lowther".

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

The author's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CraigSChapmanAuthor/

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(Original pub. date: 9/27/2018)

Catherine Pelonero, author of "Kitty Genovese: A True Account of a Public Murder and its Private Consequences", is my guest. She walks us through the murder of Kitty Genovese in Kew Gardens, New York in 1964 and its aftermath. The horrific crime is especially infamous because no one called police or stepped in to help, despite being witnessed by dozens of people.

Note: I normally post a link to an author's website, but a listener just notified me that Catherine's no longer exists. Her Wikipedia page hasn't been updated yet with news of her passing, but here is the link to that page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Pelonero

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