Murder & Mayhem in Jefferson County, Missouri

On a hot August morning in 1958, Harry Stoll made a grisly discovery--the bludgeoned body of a woman lying on the side of a back road in Dittmer, Missouri. Did someone get away with murder?

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Crystal City High School graduate Louis Otto was celebrating his 19th birthday when he picked up a hitchhiker. That decision cost the young man his life. 

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Jimmie Toy and Jacob Ringer were only teens when violence broke out on Christmas Day in 1840 at N. B. Franklin's general store in Little Rock Township.  The hot-headed youths' teasing quickly turned into murder setting off a legacy of tragedy for decades in the Toy family.

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The Missouri Territory held the promise of untold wealth for pioneers who were as enterprising as they were fierce. Few today have heard of John Smith T; however, his legendary exploits included a mixture of Southern gentleman and savage opportunist. Discover the fascinating story of Missouri's Lead Belt rivalry.

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Highway 61 is also known as the Blues Highway. In 1931, it was also a corridor for would-be gangsters and bootleggers to make a quick buck. Young lovers, Earl Snodgrass and Opal Stacy formed a pre-Bonnie and Clyde duo which foreshadowed the more infamous couples' demise.

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Petite, but scrappy, Helen Vachuda proved she could take care of herself when she shot and killed her abusive stepfather in 1929 in Barnhart, Missouri.

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Was it murder or was it an accident? Ora and Russell Becker were having marital difficulties when her brother Clarence Cook stepped in to chase his wayward brother-in-law off the property. What happened next left behind a young widow and a fatherless child.

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Successful DeSoto, Missouri businessman Sol Hohenthal had no trouble finding pretty, young ladies willing to overlook his violent temper to be seen draped on his arm at the fashionable restaurants and clubs in Prohibition-era St. Louis. When 25-year-old Pearl Potoskey was found dead on his dining room floor under mysterious circumstances, the tongues really started wagging. Was it suicide, or was it murder?

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The aftermath of the Civil War in America left thousands of children in need of homes. By the 1870s, various societies had formed to seek families willing to take in orphans. While there were obviously successful adoptions, there were also those that ended in horror and tragedy. Such was the case of the adoption of the Taylor children.

The fate of the siblings at the hands of a truly evil woman is difficult to comprehend. Even so, the resilience of the surviving sisters gives hope to the human spirit.

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Booze, broads, bootleggers, and bank robbers were all part of the "roaring twenties" in the U. S. A. and even in Jefferson County, Missouri. Before Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, or Baby Face Nelson, there was the sensational bank heist of Citizen's Bank in Festus, Missouri. The robbery was complete with a wild car chase, a shootout, and a hideout along the Big River.  
Discover the surprising details about the gang who pulled off the 1926 holdup.

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