Murderous Roots with Denise & Zelda

After creating over 40 episodes, Denise and Zelda decided to share some outtakes, stuff you’ve never heard before! They are also looking for submissions from listeners for a new series of minisodes starting soon, where our listeners share a story from their tree!

Introduction of our guest, Bobbi, friend of the show
Zelda discusses Dennis Rader’s childhood then gets into his crimes

Denise discusses Dennis’s immediate family.

Discussion on his maternal family line
Discussion on the Rader Family Line
Fast Family Facts
Conclusion

We have no new episode this week, but we will be back with The Wichita Nightmare next week, on March 10. This week we have a call to action for our listeners and a short preview of next week’s episode.

One summer day in 1979, a family in Idaho decided to explore Buffalo Cave in a search for arrowheads. Instead, they found something no one wants to find—a headless torso inside an old burlap sack. Twelve years later, a girl would find a hand. Who was this person? That question would be answered in 2019 with the help of the DNA Doe Project. The body was that of Joseph Henry Loveless, a prison escapee from 1916 who had been accused of murdering his wife.

In this episode. listen as we discuss the events leading to his disappearance, including the murder of his wife, Agnes Octavia Caldwell Loveless. Our guest this week, Julie Dixon Jackson, genetic genealogist and podcast host of Cut-Off Genes, helps us understand how Loveless was identified using forensic genealogy. Then, of course, Denise discusses Loveless’s family history, tied to the history of the Mormon church, and what happened to his children after his disappearance.

Robert Lee Yates, Jr. grew up an idyllic life on Whidbey Island in Washington. But then one day, he decided it was time to start killing. And he didn’t stop until the police caught him. Why did Yates kill? We may never know for certain, but Denise and Zelda explore his family tree to see if there are any clues. What they found left them stunned. He wasn’t the only murderer in his family.

Listen to our latest episode, Spokane Serial Killer, detailing the crimes of Robert Lee Yates, Jr. and a family tree that helped to create a serial killer.

We planned to share a holiday special we recorded with a few others, but technical difficulties prevented that from happening. Instead, we are sharing one of our favorite episodes, from August 20, 2020, Episode 5: Black Dahlia. In this episode we discussed the unsolved murder and family tree of Elizabeth Short. And boy, was her tree amazing!

We hope you enjoy the episode. We will be back with new episodes at the end of January 2021.

Happy Thanksgiving! For Thanksgiving, we thought it might be interesting to revisit and combine the two parts of our Jim Jones episodes from October 2020. We discuss the events in Jonestown, Jones himself, then his fascinating family tree and even a slight connection to the Black Dahlia.

Who are we? We are a true crime podcast with a familial twist, where we explore the family tree of a killer. Want to know more? Take a listen to our trailer.