Old Blood

A man murdered a woman in rural Pennsylvania after claiming she had cursed him with black magic. How did this region become known as the Hex Belt? And how could such a tragedy occur as recently as 1934?

Sources:

“A Look Back in History: Practice of witchcraft among PA Dutch rarely accurately portrayed to public.” Reading Eagle. 22 August, 2021. https://www.readingeagle.com/2018/08/01/a-look-back-in-history-practice-of-witchcraft-among-pa-dutch-rarely-accurately-portrayed-to-public/

Karlsen, Carol. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (New York: W. W, Norton & Company, 1998).

Magruder, Taj. In the Day of Trouble (Mechanicsville: Milford House, 2024).

Taylor, Troy. “The ‘Hex House’ Murder: Strange Tales of Pennsylvania Folk Magic & Murder.” American Hauntings. https://www.americanhauntingsink.com/hexhouse

Undine. “The Witch of Ringtown; a Medieval 20th Century Murder.” Strange Company. 28 September, 2015. https://strangeco.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-witch-of-ringtown-medieval-20th.html

Whipple, Madison. “Who Are the Pennsylvania Dutch? A Brief History of this Rural Community.” The Collector. 22 April, 2023. https://www.thecollector.com/history-of-the-pennsylvania-dutch/

White, Thomas. Witches of Pennsylvania: Occult History & Lore (Charleston: The History Press, 2013). 

Newspapers: 

La Opinion (Los Angeles)

Republican and Herald (Pottsville)

The Evening Star (D.C.)

The Indianapolis Times

The New York Times

The Washington Times

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

Edith Thompson faces the death penalty for her lover’s crime. How many deaths will there be before this affair ends? 

Sources:

Blackburn, Jack. “Edith Thompson: posthumous pardon over husband’s murder a step closer.” The Times. 7 March, 2023. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/edith-thompson-posthumous-pardon-over-husband-s-murder-a-step-closer-s729dpg0q

Lusher, Adam. “Laid to rest at last: Edith Thompson, victim of a ‘barborous, misogynistic’ death penalty.” 22 November, 2018. Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/edith-thompson-death-penalty-capital-punishment-hanging-miscarriage-justice-buried-mother-murder-bywaters-younger-lover-husband-grave-a8647636.html

Stokes, Tim. “Edith Thompson: The wife who was executed for her lover’s crime.” BBC. 8 January 2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-63561245

Thompson, Laura. A Tale of Two Murders: Guilt, Innocence, and the Execution of Edith Thompson. (London: Pegasus Crime, 2018).

Weis, Rene. Criminal Justice: The True Story of Edith Thompson (Leicester: Charnwood, 1992). And “Edith Jessie Thompson: A True Story of Injustice.” https://edithjessiethompson.org/

Documentaries:

Murder, Mystery and My Family and Murder, Mystery and My Family: Case Closed, BBC.

Murder Maps “Terror in the Roaring Twenties” Season 2, Episode 1.

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

A night out on the town turns deadly after a love triangle unravels in 1920s London. 

Sources:

Blackburn, Jack. “Edith Thompson: posthumous pardon over husband’s murder a step closer.” The Times. 7 March, 2023. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/edith-thompson-posthumous-pardon-over-husband-s-murder-a-step-closer-s729dpg0q

Lusher, Adam. “Laid to rest at last: Edith Thompson, victim of a ‘barborous, misogynistic’ death penalty.” 22 November, 2018. Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/edith-thompson-death-penalty-capital-punishment-hanging-miscarriage-justice-buried-mother-murder-bywaters-younger-lover-husband-grave-a8647636.html

Stokes, Tim. “Edith Thompson: The wife who was executed for her lover’s crime.” BBC. 8 January 2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-63561245

Thompson, Laura. A Tale of Two Murders: Guilt, Innocence, and the Execution of Edith Thompson. (London: Pegasus Crime, 2018).

Weis, Rene. Criminal Justice: The True Story of Edith Thompson (Leicester: Charnwood, 1992). And “Edith Jessie Thompson: A True Story of Injustice.” https://edithjessiethompson.org/

Documentaries:

Murder, Mystery and My Family and Murder, Mystery and My Family: Case Closed, BBC.

Murder Maps “Terror in the Roaring Twenties” Season 2, Episode 1.

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

In 1889, a father discovered his daughter dead at the home of Dr. Etienne Deschamps, a dentist-surgeon and hypnotist. Was the death truly an accident? Or was it, as most of New Orleans believed, a murder? 

Sources:

Castellanos, Henry C. New Orleans As it Was: Episodes of Louisiana Life (New Orleans: L. Graham & Son., 1895).

Meletio, Donna M. “Leona Queyrouze (1861-1938) Louisiana French Creole Poet, Essayist, and Composer.” 2005. Louisiana State University, PhD dissertation. 

Pena, Christopher G. The Strange Case of Dr. Etienne Deschamps: Murder in the New Orleans French Quarter (Gretna: Pelican Publishing Company, 2017).

Tallant, Robert. Ready to Hang: Seven Famous New Orleans Murders (Gretna: Pelican Publishing Company, 2012).

Wozniak, Robert H. “Animal Magnetism, Early Hypnotism, and Physical Research, 1766-1925.” Bibliographies in the History of Psychology and Psychiatry, A Series. 1988. https://www.esalen.org/ctr/animal-magnetism

Newspapers:

New Orleans Daily Picayune

New Orleans Times-Democrat

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

In 1940, a principal snapped and went on a shooting spree at his Southern California junior high school. Who or what was to blame?

Sources:

Barer, Burl and Frank Giradot Jr.. A Taste For Murder (Denver: Wildblue Press, 2016).

Ban, Thomas A. “Bromides” International Network for the History of Neuropsychopharmacology. 24 October 2013. https://inhn.org/inhn-projects/drugs/bromides

Church, John. Pasadena Cowboy: Growing up in Southern California and Montana, 1925 to 1947 (Novato: Conover-Patterson Publishers, 1996).

Cropeley, Thomas and Zachary Theroux. “The Old Bromides and Their 21st Century Refreshment.” JAMA Network. 2017. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/article-abstract/2629878

Faith, Laura. “The Backstory: Mad School Principal Kills 5, Wounds 1.” Iloveyoupug (blog about Margie Alman). http://www.iloveyoupug.com/2011/01/backstory-mad-school-principal-kills-5.html

“John Ernest Alman.”Grave Spotlight. https://www.cemeteryguide.com/gotw-johnalman.html

Peters, William F. “The History of South Pasadena High School” SPHSAA. https://www.sphsaa.org/000/3/0/5/5503/userfiles/file/History%20of%20SPHS.pdf

Plummer, Mary. “South Pasadena Students Recall 1940 Murder Spree.” KPCC. 19 September, 2014. https://archive.kpcc.org/blogs/education/2014/09/19/17256/pasadena-school-students-recall-murderous-rampage/

Rai, Dr. Vandana. “What is Bromide Toxicity?” icliniq. 16 May, 2023. https://www.icliniq.com/articles/vitamins-and-minerals/bromide-toxicity

Rasmussen, Cecilia. “A Principal’s Bloody Rampage.” Los Angeles Times. 20 July 1997. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-jul-20-me-14688-story.html

Underwood, Agness. Newspaperwoman (New York: Harper, 1949).

Williams, Janette. “After 72 years, notorious South Pasadena school shootings still resonate.” Pasadena Star News. 29 August, 2017. https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2012/09/15/after-72-years-notorious-south-pasadena-school-shootings-still-resonate-with-survivors/

Newspapers:

The Los Angeles Times

San Pedro News Pilot

San Bernardino Sun

Madera Tribune

Calexico Chronicle

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

In October of 1789, a search for the owner of an abandoned carriage led to a gruesome discovery in the home of a wealthy merchant. Don Joaquin Dongo and his entire household had been slaughtered. Within days, Mexico City officials had located, arrested, and publically executed the murderers in the same plaza where laborers worked to unearth Aztec relics.

Buy Nicole von Germeten’s book Death in Old Mexico: The 1789 Dongo Murders and How They Shaped the History of a Nation on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Death-Old-Mexico-Murders-History/dp/1009261525

Sources:

Rodriguez, Pablo. “Crímenes coloniales: codicia y crueldad en el asesinato del señor Dongo y sus dependientes (Ciudad de México, 1789)” Historia y Sociedad, no. 40, pp. 243-259. 2021.

Von Germeten, Nicole. Death in Old Mexico: The 1789 Dongo Murders and How They Shaped the History of a Nation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023).

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

The Great Poison Mystery began in 1898 after two people were killed by poison sent to them by mail. The packages were eventually traced back to the ritzy Knickerbocker Athletic Club, and its secretary, the son of a Civil War hero. 

This is PART II of a two-part episode. Be sure to listen to episode 58 first!

Sources:

“How the Molineux Rule Permits Certain Witnesses in the Harvey Weinstein Trial.” NPR. 

Jonakait, Randolph N., “People v. Molineux and Other Crime Evidence: One Hundred Years and Counting.” New York Law School. 2002. 

Pejsa, Jane. The Molineux Affair (Minneapolis: Kenwood Publishing, 1983).

People v Molineux (Court of Appeals of New York October 15, 1901). 

Schechter, Harold. The Devil’s Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial that Ushered in the Twentieth Century (New York: Ballantine Books, 2007).

“The Lost Manhattan Athletic Club–Madison Avenue and 45th Street.” Daytonian in Manhattan. 2 November, 2015. https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-lost-manhattan-athletic-club.html

Newspapers:

The Evening World (New York)

The New York Journal and Advertiser

The New York Times

The New York Tribune

The New York World

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

The Great Poison Mystery began in 1898 after two people were killed by poison sent to them by mail. The packages were eventually traced back to the ritzy Knickerbocker Athletic Club, and its secretary, the son of a Civil War hero. 

Sources:

“How the Molineux Rule Permits Certain Witnesses in the Harvey Weinstein Trial.” NPR. 

Jonakait, Randolph N., “People v. Molineux and Other Crime Evidence: One Hundred Years and Counting.” New York Law School. 2002. 

Pejsa, Jane. The Molineux Affair (Minneapolis: Kenwood Publishing, 1983).

People v Molineux (Court of Appeals of New York October 15, 1901). 

Schechter, Harold. The Devil’s Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial that Ushered in the Twentieth Century (New York: Ballantine Books, 2007).

“The Lost Manhattan Athletic Club–Madison Avenue and 45th Street.” Daytonian in Manhattan. 2 November, 2015. https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-lost-manhattan-athletic-club.html

Newspapers:

The Evening World (New York)

The New York Journal and Advertiser

The New York Times

The New York Tribune

The New York World

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

In the summer of 1914, a fire broke out at the love bungalow of Frank Lloyd Wright and his mistress Mamah Borthwick. When the smoke cleared, it became clear that a horrible massacre had taken place, leaving seven dead. Who wanted to kill everyone at Taliesin, and why?

For Magic Mind's limited offer that gets you up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one-time purchases, use code OLDBLOOD20 at checkout.

You can claim it at: https://magicmind.com/oldblood

Sources:

Borthwick, Mark. A Brave and Lovely Woman: Mamah Borthwick and Frank Lloyd Wright (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2023).

Drennan, William R. Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders (Madison: Terrace Books, 2007).

Hendrickson, Paul. Plagued By Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 2019).

McCrea, Ron. Building Taliesin: Frank Lloyd Wright's Home of Love and Loss (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2012).

Secrest, Merle. Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

Two actors fled Hollywood for Salt Lake City in 1928. One was bludgeoned to death, and the other would call upon none other than Charlie Chaplin for help. As authorities scrambled to uncover what happened to the murdered Don Solovich, Hollywood’s most famous actors fought to keep their secrets safe. Before long, the tiny Utah town learned that Chaplin had been subpoenaed to testify and prepared themselves for a Hollywood invasion. What exactly did the King of Comedy know about the murder of his homosexual butler?

For Magic Mind's limited offer that gets you up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one-time purchases, use code OLDBLOOD20 at checkout.

You can claim it at: https://magicmind.com/oldblood

Sources:

Babcock, Muriel. “The Headline History of Chaplin: 1918-1932.” Movie Classic Vol. 3. No. 3. November, 1932.

“Editor & Publisher: The Fourth Estate.” Vol. 61 No. 1. New York. 6 May, 1928.

Grey Chaplin, Lita and Vance, Jeffrey. Wife of the Life of the Party: A Memoir (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1998).

Hurewitz, Daniel. Bohemian Los Angeles: and the Making of Modern Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007).

“LGBTQ+ ‘Panic’ Defense.” The LGBTQ+ Bar. https://lgbtqbar.org/programs/advocacy/gay-trans-panic-defense/ 

Painter, George. “The Sensibilities of Our Forefathers: The History of Sodomy Laws in the United States.” Sodomy Laws. 2004. https://www.glapn.org/sodomylaws/sensibilities/california.htm

Quinn, D. Michael. Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1996).

Newspapers:

Gunnison Valley News

Deseret News

Salt Lake Tribune

Manti Messenger

Daily News (New York)

Los Angeles Times

San Pedro News Pilot

New Britain Herald

Imperial Valley Press

San Bernardino Sun

Bismark Tribune

Evening Star (Washington, D.C.)

Variety

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com