Southern Mysteries Podcast

In 1931, 18 year old Helen Spence became a household name, and Arkansas folk hero, after she sought vengeance for the death of her father and stepmother. Over the next three years, the media followed Helen’s trial, imprisonment, second murder charge, prison escapes, and her murder at the age of 22. 

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Episode Sources

• Encyclopedia of Arkansas: Helen Spence (1912–1934)

Episode Music

Impromptu, Traveler and Unanswered Questions by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Dr. Jacob Herman Feist was one of Nashville’s most eligible bachelors when he was accused of murder following the disappearance of his lover, Mrs. Mangrum. Was one of the city’s most prominent citizens one of its earliest known serial killers or a womanizer who was destroyed by accusations and gossip? 

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Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries

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Website: southernmysteries.com

Episode Sources

• The Tennessean Sadie Goldstein Obituary, May 11, 1903

Episode Music

Impromptu and Unanswered Questions by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

On May 4, 1931, William and Mamie Wagner were murdered at their home in northwest  Mississippi. The Jackson Clarion-Ledger called the murders of one of the most prominent couples in the area, “the most brutal tragedy that has ever happened in this section of Mississippi”.

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Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries

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Website: southernmysteries.com

Episode Sources

• The Commercial Appeal Mass Meeting on Charges Relative to Death of Rev H.P. Gibbs, May 6, 1899

Episode Music

Impromptu and Unanswered Questions by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The Nelms Sisters Mystery is one of the most sensational mysteries of the early 20th century, that most people have never heard of. In the summer of 1914, Eloise Nelms was in love with an attorney she planned to marry. Her sister Beatrice questioned the attorney’s motives and wanted proof that he had her sister's best interest at heart. The sisters took a train from Atlanta, headed to Texas to meet the attorney. They were never seen alive again. 

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Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries

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Website: southernmysteries.com

Episode Sources

• An Old Coot’s Essays About An Earlier Georgia and Other Topics by Eddie Rollins

Episode Music

Northern Lights by Chris Hauge.  Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

Deep Haze by Kevin McLeod. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Source: http://incompetech.com

The Battle of Blair Mountain, in the summer of 1921, was one of the largest civil uprisings in American History. Violent attacks on Appalachian miners and their families, dangerous working conditions and a forced debt system in company towns contributed to the largest and bloodiest armed uprising since the Civil War.

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Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries

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Website: southernmysteries.com

Episode Sources

• The Road to Blair Mountain by Charles Keeney

Episode Music

Out of the Mines by Ross Gentry. Used with permission of artist.

Resolution by Kevin McLeod. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Source: http://incompetech.com

The disappearance of 67 year old Ruth Dorsey has perplexed her family, friends and Lee County, Alabama law enforcement for half a century. In the summer of 1974 investigators launched what would become one of the most extensive searches to date in the east central part of the state. Ruth’s disappearance remains one of Alabama’s most baffling mysteries.

Want more Southern Mysteries? 

Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries

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Website: southernmysteries.com

Episode Sources

• The Charley Project: Ruth Purcell Murphree Dorsey

Episode Music

Not Forgotten by Dan Lebowitz. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

The New Orleans Trunk Murders are a long forgotten dark chapter in the city's history. The gruesome discovery of two dismembered bodies in the French Quarter in October 1927 was one of the most violent crimes reported in the city in the 1920s.

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Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries

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Website: southernmysteries.com

Episode Sources

• The Historical New Orleans Collection: Amid Roaring Twenties New Orleans, a brutal French Quarter murder shocked the city

Episode Music

Dark Times and Long Note Two by Kevin MacLeod  Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Source: http://incompetech.com

William and Ellen Craft escaped slavery in Macon, Georgia by traveling to Philadelphia in 1848. Ellen, the light skinned daughter of her mixed race mother and their enslaver, posed as a young white male planter and William posed as her slave.Their daring escape made international headlines and the Crafts became two of the most famous emancipated people in American history.

Want more Southern Mysteries? 

Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries

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Website: southernmysteries.com

Episode Sources

• Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom: Or, the Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery (Dover Thrift Editions: Black History) 

Episode Music

Traveller by Kevin MacLeod  Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Source: http://incompetech.com

Betty Gail Brown was a sophomore at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky when she was murdered on campus in 1961.Betty Gail’s murder has haunted Central Kentucky for six decades.  Who killed Betty Gail and why? The case remains unsolved despite the police file noting the case was closed due to an arrest.

Want more Southern Mysteries? 

Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries

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Website: southernmysteries.com

Episode Sources

• Recommended Read: Who Killed Betty Gail Brown?: Murder, Mistrial, and Mystery by Robert G. Lawson. 

Episode Music

Surrender by Dan Lebowitz. Licensed under Creative Commons

On September 4, 1904, Fannie McCue was found dead in a bathtub at the McCue home in Charlottesville, Virginia. Within months a man was arrested, convicted of murder and executed. Doubts linger over his guilt and some believe his execution was staged. What happened in the McCue home the night Fannie was killed?

Want more Southern Mysteries? 

Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries

Connect

Website: southernmysteries.com

Episode Sources

• The McCue Murder: The complete story of the crime and the famous trial of the ex-mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia. Lindsay, James H. (1862-1933). https://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=2007_01/uvaBook/tei/b000449357.xml;brand=default;

Episode Music

Theme Song “Dark & Troubled” by Pantherburn. Special thanks to Phillip St Ours for permission for use. Evening Fall Piani by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons.