Southern Souls: Stories from the Stones

In 1962, a former Marine Corps expert helicopter pilot left on a routine flight to take an oil executive to an oil rig in Bay Marchand in South Louisiana.

But routine turned into tragedy on the return flight. And one question still lingers today: is the body of Maxwell Hanna Jr under his tombstone in Fillmore Cemetery? Or does it still rest at the bottom of the bay?

November 7, 1910, was an exciting day for Virgil Roby. Not only would he get to visit the Louisiana State Fair, but he would also get to ride in an automobile to get there.

But the exciting day turned tragic when the car young Virgil was riding in with his family was driven onto the train tracks, stalled, and the driver abandoned the family to their fate.

A shooting. A manhunt. And a mob that took justice into its own hands.

In 1912, Percy Alexander's murder set off a chain of events that would leave two men dead and forever mark Shreveport's history.

In June 1881, a crying infant appeared at the kitchen door of a Shreveport family. No name. No note. No explanation. Just a newborn baby abandoned in the early morning darkness.

As news spread, the city rallied around the child. The newspaper would posit that the child was destined for greatness...but his story would prove to be far shorter and more tragic.

In this episode, we follow the episode of the Rousseau family, reconstructing the final moments that led to a disaster and exploring how nearly an entire family came to rest underneath one monument in Madisonville Cemetery.

Sometimes the most haunting graves are not the oldest or the most grand, but the ones that remind us of how quickly everything can change.

Former Confederate officer, Louisiana state senator, respected planter, and family man, Samuel Milton Thomas seemed an unlikely murder suspect. Yet in the early hours of one morning, he entered a room at Rush Point Plantation and shot his brother-in-law, Hugh Dickson, in the head.

What followed was one of the most sensational trials in Louisiana history. At the center of the case was Thomas's daughter, Carrie, whose testimony revealed years of alleged grooming, drugging, and sexual abuse.

In this episode, we explore the tragedy that led to a killing, the courtroom battle that followed, and the lingering mysteries surrounding the family left behind.

Was Samuel Milton Thomas a murderer...or a father pushed beyond his breaking point?

In 1936, a political wager sent two men on a journey across half the country to Washington D.C.

What began as a local joke became a nationwide sensation as newspapers covered the journey of the "Louisiana Spirit," bringing some relief from the misery of the Great Depression.

In this episode, we visit the grave of James Sanborn, a man remembered not only for the tragic way his life ended on a railroad track in Frierson, Louisiana, but also for the friends who tried to save him...and memorialized him when they failed.

Content Warning: This episode discusses a case directly involving suicide. Listener discretion is advised.

Dr. Thomas Ford was a respected, well- loved physician in the city of Shreveport. To many, he was an angel of healing.

But on a morning in 1886, Dr. Ford became an angel of death to one man as he stalked him through the streets of New Orleans.

Not all lives are lived in the headlines, marked by scandal and violence. Some lives are about loss, resilience, and rebuilding after tragedy. This is the story of a man remembered not for the headlines, but for the life he quietly lived in a town that bears his name.