True Crime Historian

Pregnant Church Worker Found Dead In Harvey’s Lake

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If the tropes in Episode 275 sound a bit like Episode 96, “The Body In Big Moose Lake,” the familiarity was not lost on the people of the day, either. The 1906 murder of Grace Brown in Big Moose Lake inspired novelist Theodore Dreiser to write “An American Tragedy,” which became an instant classic when it was published in 1925. The story you are about to hear struck such a familiar chord that the press made many comparisons and headlines described the murder of Freda McKechnie and the trial of Bobby Edwards in the same terms. Theodore Dreiser was called upon by the New York Post to cover the trial, and he makes a brief appearance in our story when he receives an admonition from the bench.

Culled from the historic pages of the Wilkes-Barre Record, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, the Wilkes-Barre Evening News and other newspapers of the era.

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'Billy' Brown's Tragic Affair 

Episode 96 is a tragic story of young love gone bad. Real bad. So bad, in fact, that it ended with the body of a young girl floating in an up-state New York lake one summer day in 1906. The man she came there went missing, but not for long. Was it a simple accident as Chester Gillette would claim, or a brutal, cold-blooded murder on a honeymoon trip? The answer may be in the tear-stained letters she wrote to him.

Theme music by Dave Sams. Incidental music by Chuck Wiggins, 

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The Kidnapping And Murder of Betty Schnaidt

Episode 203 is dedicated to listener Charlene Hall, who not only requested a story about a certain brutal kidnappng and murder in her hometown, but also sent me her personal collection of clippings to form the basis for this story. Turns out Charlotte's hometown murder was the culmination of a summer of terror and a cross-country kidnapping spree.

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Nagging Mother Killed In Her Own Kitchen 

Episode 151 is the twisted little tale of a family quarrel gone extreme. There are a couple of different explanations as to how things got so heated on that July afternoon in 1936, but my take is that four beers in a 110-pound girl coming home to a chronically nagging mother with a hatchet nearby... Yeah, whether it started over dinner or a kiss or something else, that’s not gonna end well.

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A Bad Year For The Crabbs

Episode 274 tells the tragic story of the Crabb family of Delavan, Illinois. One minute, they were well-respected bankers, pillars of the community. But the aftermath of a tragic death in the family mansion led to charges of manslaughter, perjury, and embezzlement, and another untimely death.

Culled from the historic pages of the Bloomington, Illinois, Pantagraph and other newspapers of the era.

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More Falls From Grace

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The Kansas City Typhoid Murders

Episode 205 tells the story of a dark shadow that fell over Kansas City when the death of philanthropist Thomas H. Swope resulted in a murder trial, the defendant a member of his own family. Did Dr. Hyde kill the Colonel? And infect the whole family with typhoid, too? Or is he just the victim of a lingering family grudge? Includes an interesting sidebar about a runaway juror. 

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If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES, telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!

For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES with two new stories every week.

Peggy Nash Tells How She Killed Her Husband 

Episode 153 involves a domestic dispute, shots fired. What drew me to this story, actually, was the patience of the woman charged. Wait til you hear all of the altercations she had with this man before she finally put an end to it. I’m not justifying homicide, but… well, I’ll tell the story, you supply your own horror, outrage, and indignation.  

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More Femmes Fatale


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You can pay more if you want to, but rent at the Safe House is still just a buck a week, and you can get access to over 400 ad-free episodes from the dusty vault, Safe House Exclusives, direct access to the Boss, and whatever personal services you require.

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If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES, telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!

For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES with two new stories every week.

Why I Decapitated My Wife 

Episode 272
When I first encountered the headlines that led me to episode 272, they had me at wife decapitation, but it turns out to be so much more: a trunk murder, a sordid love triangle, a broken-hearted aged father and two poor waifs left without a mother. Plus some of the most spirited and detailed reporting you’ll find. Culled from the historic pages of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other newspapers of the era.

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More Love Triangles Gone Awry

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You can pay more if you want to, but rent at the Safe House is still just a buck a week, and you can get access to over 400 ad-free episodes from the dusty vault, Safe House Exclusives, direct access to the Boss, and whatever personal services you require.

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If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES, telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!

For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES with two new stories every week.

The Islip Murder Of Cynthiana Clock Hawkins

Episde 207 tells the tragic story of a young man so beguiled by love and consumed by greed that he commits a most heinous crime when his mother refuses to give her blessing. His careless circumstantial trail quickly trumps his vain effort to pin the crime on the proverbial drifter.

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More Capital Crimes



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You can pay more if you want to, but rent at the Safe House is still just a buck a week, and you can get access to over 400 ad-free episodes from the dusty vault, Safe House Exclusives, direct access to the Boss, and whatever personal services you require.

We invite you to our other PULPULAR MEDIA podcasts:

If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES, telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!

For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES with two new stories every week.

Dorothy Ellingson Shoots Her Mother 


Episode 155 sends us back into the jazz age with another tale of a bad girl gone worse. It seems like a cut and dry case, and it is, but there’s a great deal of drama between her arrest and the somewhat anti-climactic trial. By the way, the sheiks referred to in the story are not from the Middle East, but because of the popularity of popularity of the Rudolph Valentino film, “sheik” became jazz slang for good-looking playboy types.

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More Femmes Fatale

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You can pay more if you want to, but rent at the Safe House is still just a buck a week, and you can get access to over 400 ad-free episodes from the dusty vault, Safe House Exclusives, direct access to the Boss, and whatever personal services you require.

We invite you to our other PULPULAR MEDIA podcasts:

If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES, telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!

For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES with two new stories every week.