Welcome to Mysteries to Die For.

I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you in the heart of a mystery. All stories are structured to challenge you to beat the detective to the solution. Jack and I perform these live, front to back, no breaks, no fakes, no retakes.

The rules for law and order create the boundaries for civil co-existence and, ideally, the backdrops for individuals, families, and companies to grow and thrive. Breaking these rules puts civil order at risk. And while murder is the Big Daddy of crimes, codified ordinances across municipal divisions, counties, states, and countries show the nearly endless ways there are to create mayhem. This season, we put our detective skills to the test. This is Season 8, Anything but Murder.

This is Episode 5, safe burglary is the featured crime. This is Clipped by Robert J. Binney

DELIBERATION

Henri Beauchamp, hairdresser extraordinaire, is honor-bound to investigate the burglary of Grace McCluskey’s wedding purse. Henri may have a certificate but he needs our help to tease out this whodunnit. Here is who he has met in the order presented:

• Annie DiChrono, Grace’s best friend and maid of honor.
• Sean McCluskey III, eldest brother and father of the bride, a high-end family businessman
• Fr. Pat McCluskey, youngest brother, priest, and poor poker player
• Captain Frank McCluskey, middle brother, to honest to work undercover
• Flash Masterson, wedding photographer burned by McCluskey in a business deal
• Pam Burns, wedding caterer accused of the theft
• Abigail McCluskey, Frank’s ex-wife who attended the wedding
• Tony Ladro, a junior level broker and the groom

About Safe Cracking

In June 1869, Manhattan’s Ocean National Bank was robbed in a highly planned and coordinated even orchestrated by George Leonidas Leslie. Leslie was an architect by training and trade and knew his way around a set of drawings. He was a smart man, a detailed planner, and turned into a highly successful bank robber. Ocean National Bank was his first robbery. It took over three months to plan and his financier Fredericka “Marm” Mandelbaum invested $3,000 in the planning which yielded over $750,000 in return. The heist had a three day set up that included drilling from the basement to the vault, using a gadget called a “little joker” to capture the safe’s combination, and returning on Sunday night, when the safe was most full, to make the extraction. According to Wikipedia, The police captain put on the case noticed that Leslie had withdrawn money but since Leslie was known as a educated architect, he did not make the connection. Reportedly, when he learned that Leslie attended Mandelbaum dinner parties, he said “this can’t lead to anything good.”

Leslie led planning and robbing banks from 1869 through 1878. As things often do, they got sketchy between thieves and hot for Leslie. He was juggling his young wife, gang with Mandelbaum, putting together a new gang with her primary rival John Grady, and lovers who included Babe Draper, the wife of one of his gang. On May 29, 1878, Leslie when to Murphy’s Saloon where he received an envelop from Babe saying her husband found out about their affair. He left his bodyguard at the bar and went to meet her. His body was found on June 4. He had been shot once in the head and once in the heart with the gun he had previously given Babe for protection.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Leonidas_Leslie

ABOUT Robert J. Binney

Seattle screenwriter Robert J. Binney has written about Joe Strummer, James Bond, joyriding with the Salt Lake City police, and his relationships with Peter Frampton and President Jimmy Carter (though not together) for the Los Angeles Times, AtwoodMagazine.com, and other fine publications. His recent fiction has appeared in Starlite Pulp and the Down and Out anthology A Killing Rain.

He’s finally succumbed to technology and can be found on Facebook and Instagram at RJBinney. Better yet, check out his website at ThirdActMedia.com.