On the morning of June 10, 1937, New York heiress Alice Parsons disappeared off the face of the earth. Investigators almost immediately suspected that Anna Kupryanova, the Russian housekeeper, and Alice's husband, William Parsons, knew more than they were letting on.

My guest is former NYPD detective and Hot Zone Attribution specialist Steven C. Drielak, and his book is called "Long Island’s Vanished Heiress: The Unsolved Alice Parsons Kidnapping". He shares his research and personal theories about one of New York's greatest unsolved mysteries.









Become a Most Notorious patron: https://www.patreon.com/mostnotorious
Most Notorious website: https://www.mostnotorious.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

176: The Mysterious Disappearance of Alice Parsons w/ Steven C. Drielak - A True Crime History Podcast

Serial killers. Gangsters. Gunslingers. Victorian-era murderers. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Each week, the Most Notorious podcast features true-life tales of crime, criminals, tragedies and disasters throughout history. Host Erik Rivenes interviews authors and historians who have studied their subjects for years. Their stories are offered with unique insight, detail, and historical accuracy.

Education

Training

Language Courses

Higher Education

K-12

Educational Technology

History

Society & Culture

True crime

Eric Jay Dolin, returns to the show to share details from his new book, "Left for Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World". It's the true story of a wild and fateful encounter between an American sealing vessel, a shipwrecked British brig, and a British warship in the Falkland archipelago during the War of 1812.

Fraught with misunderstandings and mistrust, the incident left three British sailors and two Americans, including the captain of the sealer, Charles H. Barnard, abandoned in the barren, windswept, and inhospitable Falklands for a year and a half.

More about the author and all of his books can be found here at his website: https://www.ericjaydolin.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

342: The Ill-Fated Voyage of the Nanina w/ Eric Jay Dolin

Just after midnight on July 6, 1932, twenty-year-old Zachary Smith Reynolds, a renowned aviator and an heir to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco fortune, was shot in the family's summer home in what is now Winston-Salem, North Carolina. While some believed the moody young man had committed suicide, evidence suggested someone else had pulled the trigger, and eventually Reynolds' wife, Broadway actress Libby Holman, and his best friend, A.B. Walker, would be indicted for murder.

I'm joined by Phil Archer, the Betsy Main Babcock Deputy Director at Reynolda House Museum of American Art. He helped create Reynolda's popular exhibition, called "Smith & Libby: Two Rings, Seven Months, One Bullet", which can now be experienced in a condensed form on the very porch where Smith died.


More about the Reynolda Museum here: https://reynolda.org/
Watch the original exhibition trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bVYrVhMK7M&t=5s
Libby Holman sings the traditional folk song "House of the Rising Sun": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4ZGrlO7JU4
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

341:  The Mysterious Death of Zachary Smith Reynolds w/ Phil Archer

This week we revisit one of my favorite Most Notorious episodes. In the small town of Isadore Michigan in 1907, a young nun named Janina disappeared. Ten years later, her body is discovered by a priest intent on building a new church on the foundation of the old one. Mardi Link, author of "Isadore's Secret", chats with me about the terrible circumstances surrounding the death of Sister Janina.

The author's website: https://www.mardilink.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MoNo Encore:  The Murder of Sister Janina w/ Mardi Link

On a warm August day in 1910, Sheriff Jake Houpt and his deputies attempted to arrest brothers George and Oscar Chitwood outside the Garland County Courthouse in Hot Springs, Arkansas. A gunfight soon erupted, leaving both the sheriff and George dead. And when Oscar himself was killed in December under the protection of deputies, a mob of mysterious masked men were blamed for the lynching. But evidence suggests the story of Oscar's death might have been a cover for something else.

My guest is Christopher Thrasher, who along with fellow author and historian Guy Lancaster wrote the book "The Murder of Oscar Chitwood in Hot Springs, Arkansas". He summarizes this fascinating story for us on this latest episode of Most Notorious.


Christopher Thrasher's Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Christopher-Thrasher/author/B0C3Z3ZGQK
The book's publisher page: https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/products/9781467153270
The Encyclopedia of Arkansas: https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

340:  The Murder of Oscar Chitwood w/ Christopher Thrasher

Six months after losing a world title fight that remains infamous as one of the last mob fixes in boxing, Tyrone “The Butterfly” Everett—a flashy, handsome lightweight southpaw on the verge of stardom—was dead. Only twenty-four years old, he was shot in the head by his girlfriend, Carolyn McKendrick, who claimed that Everett had abused her throughout their relationship. But for years, street corner talk raised doubts about what actually took place in Philadelphia at 2710 Federal Street on May 26, 1977.

My guest is journalist Sean Nam, author of "Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, Fixed Fights, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing." He gives us an outline of the drama and shares theories regarding who might be responsible for the up-and-coming fighter's demise, including the possible involvement of a violent Philly organization called "The Black Mafia".

The author's website: https://www.murderonfederalstreet.com/

The author on Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/seanpasbon
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

176: The Mysterious Disappearance of Alice Parsons w/ Steven C. Drielak - A True Crime History Podcast

Download our free app to listen on your phone