The Art of Crime

Today, we're joined by cultural historian Isaac Butler, author of The Perfect Moment, an eye-opening new chronicle of the birth of America's culture wars in the 1980s. We talk about some of the most influential--and controversial--art about sex and religion of the period. And, as Isaac reveals, culture-war disputes could lead to violence and criminal charges.

If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.

For show notes and full transcripts, visit www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

Today, we're joined by Vanity Fair journalist Joe Pompeo to talk about the unsolved 1922 murders of Edward Hall and Eleanor Mills. In his book, Blood & Ink, Joe tells the riveting story of how this double homicide captured the national imagination and supercharged tabloid journalism. Joe is also working on a limited-series podcast that covers this case, so keep an eye out for that!

If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.

Today, I'm re-releasing my interview with Michelle Young, author of The Art Spy, a riveting account of the life and heroics of Rose Valland, a museum curator who spied on the Nazis during their occupation of France in World War II. The paperback edition of The Art Spy just came out, so pick up a copy if you haven't already.

For show notes and full transcripts, visit www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.

Today, we're joined by historian Elyse Graham to talk about Book and Dagger, her riveting account of how the OSS, a precursor to the CIA, recruited scholars, artists, and activists to help the U.S. spy on the Nazis during World War II.

If you'd like to suppor the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.

For show notes and full transcripts, visit www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

Forty years ago, millions of Americans turned on their TVs to watch The Mysteries of Al Capone's Vault. In this live broadcast, construction workers blasted their way into a subterranean chamber beneath Chicago's Lexington Hotel, believed to have been a secret vault that belonged to the crime boss. My guest, William Elliott Hazelgrove, author of the new book, Capone's Vault, tells the story of how this broadcast got made and what investigators discovered underneath the Lexington once the cameras were rolling.

If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.

For show notes and full transcripts, visit www.artofcrimepodcast.com.

Today, I'm joined by Alex Hortis, author of The Witch of New York, a riveting account of the 1843 trials of Polly Bodine. A resident of Staten Island, Bodine was accused of murdering her sister-in-law and her infant niece, sparking public outrage. Bodine went to trial not once, not twice, but three times for the crimes, and Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, and P.T. Barnum variously took part in the attendant media circus.

If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.

Today, we're joined by historian Bench Ansfield to talk about their breathtaking book, Born in Flames. It's about the arson wave of the 1970s, during which hundreds--yes, hundreds--of landlords in the Bronx set fire to their property to collect insurance. These crimes displaced thousands of Bronxites and killed a few, too. The crisis gae rise to a genre of sensationalist films Bench calls Bronxploitation that foreground poverty and vice in the borough.

If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.

Today, we're joined by historian Jonathan Gill to talk about the amazing life of Boris Morros. After the Russian Revolution, Morros immigrated to America from Eastern Europe and became a big-time Hollywood filmmaker. To an outside observer, his life would have seemed all glitz and glam, but what the public didn't know was that Morros was risking his neck every day as a double agent, spying for both the Soviets and the Americans throughout the 1940s.

If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.

This week, I'm re-releasing my 2024 interview with Margalit Fox, author of The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum, a biography of the notorious nineteenth-century New York crime boss, Fredericka Mandelbaum. Next week, we're back with a brand-new interview. Until then!

If you'd like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.

Today, I'm joined by award-winning journalist Matthew Campbell to talk about his new book, The Man Who Stole the Gods. For decades, the Bangkok-based Brit, Douglas Latchford, bought priceless Cambodian artworks that had been looted from ancient religious sites. Some of these pieces made their way to the collections of museums as august as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In The Man Who Stole the Gods, Matthew shines a light on the looters who stole this art and the international team of sleuths who helped return these works to their native country.

If you'd like to support the show, please consider beocming a patron at www.patreon.com/artofcrimepodcast.