Southern Fried True Crime

In 1973, a horrific fire killed 32 people in the gay bar, the Upstairs Lounge in New Orleans. When city and state officials and the churches turned their backs on the victims and survivors of the tragedy, the gay community rallied together. Today it is known as the beginning of the Gay Rights Movement in New Orleans.

Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/55-the-upstairs-lounge-fire

Suggested Reading: The Up Stairs Lounge Arson: Thirty-Two Deaths in a New Orleans Gay Bar, June 24, 1973 by Clayton Delery-Edwards & Let the Faggots Burn: The UpStairs Lounge Fire by Johnny Townsend

Written, hosted, produced by Erica Kelley
Researched by Erica Kelley
Edited by Chaes Gray
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison-Gamma Radio

Merch | Donate | In the Media:
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@southfriedtruth (Twitter) @southernfriedtruecrime (Insta)

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Barbara Ford Stager is known as the Black Widow of North Carolina. She shot two husbands, ten years apart, as they lay sleeping in their marital beds. Her trial was an international sensation, with the media capitalizing on her femme fatale, man eating image. But is that all there is to Barbara’s story?

Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/54-barbara-stager

Suggested Reading: Before He Wakes: A True Story of Marriage, Sex & Murder by Jerry Bledsoe

Written, hosted, produced by Erica Kelley
Researched by Erica Kelley
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison-Gamma Radio

Merch | Donate | In the Media:
https://southernfriedtruecrime.com

@southfriedtruth (Twitter) @southernfriedtruecrime (Insta)

https://www.facebook.com/southernfriedtruecrime

https://www.youtube.com/southernfriedtruecrime

In 1999, a seventeen year old girl named Jessica Dishon was abducted out of her driveway in Shepherdsville, Kentucky as she was leaving for school. Though a rookie sheriff’s deputy tried to sound the alarm, a senior detective refused to come to the scene, dismissing her as a runaway. That mistake would kick off an egregious mishandling of the case, that included accusing an innocent neighbor with no real evidence. It would take fifteen years to bring Jessica’s real killer to justice. He was a serial pedophile, who had abused six children in the Dishon family.

Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/53-jessica-dishon

Episode suggested by: Chelsea Biggers

Written, hosted, produced by Erica Kelley
Researched by Erica Kelley
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison-Gamma Radio

Merch | Donate | In the Media:
https://southernfriedtruecrime.com

@southfriedtruth (Twitter) @southernfriedtruecrime (Insta)

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In 1948, a Delta Mississippi socialite named Ruth Thompson Dickins, hacked her mother to death with gardening shears. She blamed the murder on a “negro” man she claimed attacked her as well. But a jury of 12 white men didn’t believe her, in Mississippi, in 1949. That fact alone is incredible. But with her prominent family, wealthy and aggressive “cotton man” husband and the backing of the elite white people of her town and county, the governor of Mississippi was finally badgered into suspending her sentence after she served only six years.

Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/52-the-murder-of-idella-thompson

Written, hosted, produced by Erica Kelley
Researched by Erica Kelley
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison-Gamma Radio

Merch | Donate | In the Media:
https://southernfriedtruecrime.com

@southfriedtruth (Twitter) @southernfriedtruecrime (Insta)

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In August of 2008, the small town of Springfield, Georgia was shaken by a double murder in one of the town’s most prominent families. Soon, the full story would come out. That one brother was sleeping with another brother’s wife, causing a family tragedy of almost Biblical proportions.

Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/51the-heidt-double-murder

Written, hosted, produced by Erica Kelley
Researched by Erica Kelley
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison-Gamma Radio

Merch | Donate | In the Media:
https://southernfriedtruecrime.com

@southfriedtruth (Twitter) @southernfriedtruecrime (Insta)

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In June of 2013, a 21 year old Vanderbilt student was gang raped in a dorm room by four football players. She was an unofficial hostess, one of the pretty girls coaches use to “assist” in player recruiting. She had no memory of the event, but her attackers had filmed and photographed it on their cell phones. They were also caught on security footage carrying her unconscious body into the dorm. The implications of this case affected Tennessee state law regarding public records, caused a Title IX investigation into Vanderbilt University and is emblematic of the continued, insidious rape culture rampant on American college campuses.

Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/50-the-vanderbilt-rape-case

Written, hosted, produced by Erica Kelley
Researched by Erica Kelley
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison-Gamma Radio

Merch | Donate | In the Media:
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@southfriedtruth (Twitter) @southernfriedtruecrime (Insta)

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In June of 1985, residents of the Midland area of South Carolina were frozen in fear. Two girls were kidnapped and murdered and the sadistic man responsible relished in making phone calls to one of the families. This is part two of the case of serial killer Larry Gene Bell, covering the abduction and murder of nine year old Debra May Helmick and the investigation into both murders. I also discuss the trials for both murders, and the execution of Larry Gene Bell.

Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/48-49-larry-gene-bell-part-1-2

Special thanks to author and former SLED Lieutenant, Rita Shuler, who gave me permission to use her book as a major source for this episode: Murder in the Midlands: Larry Gene Bill and the 28 Days of Terror that Shook South Carolina.

Shari Faye’s sister, Dawn Smith Jordan, also wrote book: Grace So Amazing.
And Shari Faye Smith’s mother, Hilda Smith also wrote a book: The Rose of Shari

Written, hosted, produced by Erica Kelley
Researched by Erica Kelley
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison-Gamma Radio

Merch | Donate | In the Media:
https://southernfriedtruecrime.com

@southfriedtruth (Twitter) @southernfriedtruecrime (Insta)

https://www.facebook.com/southernfriedtruecrime

https://www.youtube.com/southernfriedtruecrime

In June of 1985, residents of the Midland area of South Carolina were frozen in fear. Two girls were kidnapped and murdered and the sadistic man responsible relished in making phone calls to one of the families. This is part one of two episodes on the crimes of Larry Gene Bell.

Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/48-49-larry-gene-bell-part-1-2

Special thanks to author and former SLED Lieutenant, Rita Shuler, who gave me permission to use her book as a major source for this episode: Murder in the Midlands: Larry Gene Bill and the 28 Days of Terror that Shook South Carolina.

Written, hosted, produced by Erica Kelley
Researched by Erica Kelley
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison-Gamma Radio

Merch | Donate | In the Media:
https://southernfriedtruecrime.com

@southfriedtruth (Twitter) @southernfriedtruecrime (Insta)

https://www.facebook.com/southernfriedtruecrime

https://www.youtube.com/southernfriedtruecrime

In December of 2004, a beautiful young graduate student was brutally stabbed in her apartment. Her roommate was also attacked. He ran to a convenience store and called 911. Johnia Berry crawled, bleeding from her own apartment, and knocked on the five neighbor’s doors around her. No one answered. Paramedics got there while she was still alive but she died at the hospital. Unknown DNA was found at the crime scene. But there was no match in the database. There wouldn’t be a match made for almost three years. During that time, her parents lobbied for the Johnia Berry Act. It was signed into law in 2007 and it requires anyone arrested for a felony in Tennessee to be automatically swabbed for DNA.

This is just one Johnia’s legacies.

Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/47-the-life-death-legacy-of-johnia-berr

Written, hosted, produced by Erica Kelley
Researched by Erica Kelley
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison-Gamma Radio

Merch | Donate | In the Media:
https://southernfriedtruecrime.com

@southfriedtruth (Twitter) @southernfriedtruecrime (Insta)

https://www.facebook.com/southernfriedtruecrime

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My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder?

These words, from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, spurred a confession from a teenage murderess. Sixteen year old Marie Robards, of Fort Worth Texas, poisoned her own father, because she preferred to live with her beloved mother.

Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/46-patricide-thy-name-is-marie

Suggested *fictional* reading: Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott -- it is a novel based on Marie's case. I enjoyed it so much after researching this episode.

Written, hosted, produced by Erica Kelley
Researched by Erica Kelley
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison-Gamma Radio

Merch | Donate | In the Media:
https://southernfriedtruecrime.com

@southfriedtruth (Twitter) @southernfriedtruecrime (Insta)

https://www.facebook.com/southernfriedtruecrime

https://www.youtube.com/southernfriedtruecrime