Old Blood

In 1929, a Kansas City housewife shot and killed her husband after a game of bridge. Twelve male jurors would decide her fate as newspapers across the country printed “post-mortems” of the fatal hand that led to his death.

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Sources:

Hill, Kate. “Nelly Gone: KCQ Traces the Kidnapping of Nell Donnelly.” Kansas City Public Library. 20 October, 2021. https://kclibrary.org/news/2021-10/nelly-gone-kcq-traces-kidnapping-nell-donnelly 

McMillen, Margot and Roberson, Heather. Called to Courage: Four Women in Missouri History (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002.)

Monaco II, Ralph. “Last Hand at Park Manor: The Trial of Myrtle Bennett.” The Jackson County Historical Society Journal. Vol. 53. Summer 2015. 

“Nelly Don by the Donnelly Garment Company, Kansas City, Missouri.” Missouri Historic Costume and Textile Collection, University of Missouri. https://mhctc.missouri.edu/collection/nelly-don/

Pomerantz, Gary M. The Devil’s Tickets: A Vengeful Wife, A Fatal Hand, and A New American Age. (New York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2009).

Other Sources:

The Kansas City Star

“The Pendergast Years: Kansas City in the Jazz Age and Great Depression.” Kansas City Public Library. https://pendergastkc.org/

Gary M. Pomerantz. https://www.garympomerantz.com/the-devils-tickets

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

Countess Caterina Sforza was raised in the Renaissance court of Milan and survived the assassination of her father and husbands. She then proceeded to confront Cesare Borgia and his father, Pope Alexander VI. Who would win: the papacy or a woman? 

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Sources:

Allison, Charlie. “One Wrong Foot: An Alternate History of the Siege of Forli.” Sea Lion Press. 25 May, 2020. https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/one-foot-wrong-an-alternate-history-of-the-siege-of-forli

Brunelli, Giampiero. “SFORZA, Caterina.” Treccani: Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia. 2018. https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/caterina-sforza_(Dizionario-Biografico)/

Clarke, Michelle Tolman. “On the Woman Question in Machiavelli.” The Review of Politics 67, no. 2 (2005): 229–55. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25046410.

Hairston, Julia L. "Skirting the Issue: Machiavelli's

Caterina Sforza," Renaissance Quarterly 53 (2000): 687-712.

Lev, Elizabeth. The Tigress of Forli: Renaissance Italy’s Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de’ Medici (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011.)

Zarevich, Emily. “Did Caterina Sforza Flash an Army?” JSTOR. 20 July, 2023. https://daily.jstor.org/did-caterina-sforza-flash-an-army/

Other links:

https://www.caterinasforza.it/en/

https://www.lacittadicaterinasforza.it/

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

On January 11, 1902, 15-year-old Nora Fuller responded to a nanny wanted advertisement in the San Francisco Examiner. She called her family an hour later, saying that she was hired and at the man’s home. When Nora never returned home, her brother visited the address to find it was a vacant lot. 

Sources:

Dowd, Katie. “A want ad leads to an empty house–and a shocking murder that rocked San Francisco.” SFGATE. 17 October, 2016. https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Nora-Fuller-missing-San-Francisco-murder-history-9970198.php

Duke, Thomas Samuel. Celebrated Criminal Cases of America (San Francisco: The John H. Barry Company, 1910).

Katz, Elena. Cold Cases: Famous Unsolved Mysteries, Crimes, and Disappearances in America. (Bloombury Publishing, 2010).

Whittman, George W.  “Charles B. Hadley,” Tarrant County College Archives , accessed January 2, 2025, https://tccarchives.omeka.net/items/show/40.

Newspapers: 

San Francisco Call

San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

Get 45% off the Magic Mind bundle with my link:
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For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

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