This week on Same Crime, Different Time, we’re doing something a little special. We’re stepping back into the pages of my own book, Murder & Mayhem in the Willamette Valley, to revisit one of the most chilling figures in Oregon’s early criminal history: Norman “Snake” Brooks.

Brooks earned his nickname not for stealth, but for the venom he left in his wake.

In the chapter we read today, we explore the crimes that rattled the Willamette Valley, and the complicated legacy Snake left behind. Whether you’ve read the book or this is your first introduction, Brooks’s story is a haunting reminder that the past isn’t as quiet as we like to think.

You can listen to the full episode and hear the chapter in my own voice, right here. Thank you, as always, for supporting Oregon history and the stories that shaped it… even the ones that make us shiver.

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