The Saga of the Scoundrel Thomas McGehan
A true crime short story by Richard O Jones

Ad-Free Safe House Edition

-
Episode 28 takes place on Christmas Eve 1870, when three men attack a local politician with boulders and slungshots, and at least a dozen men scramble for the door while five shots pepper the faro room at the American Saloon in Hamilton, Ohio, the hometown of True Crime Historian Richard O Jones. One of the bullets kills the politician, Thomas Myers, but in their haste none of the gamblers see who fired the shot. The blame falls on the leader of the gang of thugs who attacked Myers, his political rival Tom McGehean. At his trial, the famed former Congressman, exiled Copperhead, and gubernatorial candidate, Clement Vallandigham literally gives his life for McGehean's defense.


Read-Along (more or less. It's not the exact same text)

More Hometown Horrors

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

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.

Who Killed Lettie Whitehall?

Ad-Free Safe House Edition

Episode 282 is dedicated to True Crime Historian patron Vivia Boe, who requested an episode from her hometown, Bothell, Washington. In scouring the archives, I found this tragic story that takes place in the vicinity. It’s usually hard to get a full episode from an unsolved case as there’s usually no resolution and a good story needs an ending. This one has a lot of middle, to be sure, as law enforcement thrashes around and blames every man in town for the poor girl’s death. They finally charge a guy, but the evidence is thin. One clue still bugs me, tho. How do you explain the missing tooth?

Culled from the historic pages of the Seattle Daily Times and other newspapers of the era.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

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.

Hollywood’s First Sex Scandal

Ad-Free Safe House Edition

Episode 143 digs back into the early days of the motion picture industry, before Hollywood became synonymous with greed and lust and power. It only took a murder charge to bring down one of the biggest stars of the day, and even though it seems like poor Fatty got a bum rap on the deal, it’s probably the only reason Arbuckle’s work is not held in as high regard as Keaton and Chaplin today. 

More Falls From Grace

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

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.

The Murder Of Harry Dewey Garbe

Ad-Free Safe House Edition

Episode 145 takes us into the life story of 18-year-old bad girl Gussie Humann and an ill-conceived plan to get back at an old flame, which results in her becoming the youngest person to be indicted for first degree murder in Queens County, New York. It's a winding, twisty road that begins with a death bed accusation and includes a number of varying confessions, and some thing's not being told.

More Femmes Fatale

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

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.

The Escapades Of Velma West 

Ad-Free Safe House Edition

Episode 144 takes us into the scandalous world of a restless young flapper and her secret life. Before it’s over, we’ll have a brutal murder, a scandalous revelation, a sensational confession, a daring prison break, and drama galore. Hang on, everybody... This one’s a roller coaster.

More Femmes Fatale

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

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.

The Deadly Trout Creek Land Squabble

Ad-Free Safe House Edition

Episode 281 is dedicated to listener and patron Kimberlee Anderson, who shares a hometown with the defendants in this case. Although first reports said that Mrs. Alice Harris was a widow, it turns out she was a divorcee whose ex-husband was of THE Harris family of Harrisville, Utah. This story seems like it could’ve been a classic John Ford western, a land dispute in the Utah desert that turns deadly. I think maybe Maureen O’Hara as Alice Harris and Robert Mitchum as the wisecracking Tackman.

More True Crime Westerns



Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

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.

Episode 218 journeys across three continents as we hear the stories of wiley police officers outwitting some very clever criminals.

Ad-Free Safe House Edition

"Strange Murder Of An Aged Romeo" by Peter Levins heads down Argentina way as a family feud gets settled in a grisly way.
 
"A Black Cat Doomed" by Fred Menagh, travel to England and France as Scotland Yard attempts to track down gangsters that seem to have been taking lessons from their American colleagues.

"Saskatchewan Ki ller" by Maurice Mills, a chase back and forth across the Canadian/American border as a lieutenant in the Royal Mounted Police begins to wonder if he can live up to their motto.

More Manhunts

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

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.

Episode 147

Ad-Free Safe House Edition

Spider Attic Ghost Killer: The truly bizarre tale of a man who stalked an elderly couple by living in their attic, sneaking down to forage meals from their fridge.

The Texas Candybar Murder: The justice of the peace called it suicide, but others question how the young mother-to-be came to shoot herself in the back of the head.

The Nurse and Her Nagging Auntie: A botched suicide in which the suicide is not the person who ends up dead.

The Dissection of Antoine DuBlanc: The story of an immigrant who plots a murder before he even gets off the boat. He was from France. Or Switzerland. Or somewhere like that.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

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.

Episode 280 is a reading of "The Black Negligee Murder" By Frederic Holmes

Adapted from True Detective, v.43 no.1

Ad-Free Safe House Edition

There’s a lot going on in this story. The seams show in the author’s reporting as he occasionally allows glimpses into his process, but at the same time, he makes it seem like he’s telling story from the point of view of the bad guy for most of the first two thirds of the narrative. The really cool nerdy part for me as a writer and a fan of pulp, is that you can hear the author’s disdain and sympathy both for the character as well as his determination to be fair and to let the story unfold no matter how disagreeable he may find it. So this tells me that he might have had a frank, lengthy, detailed interview with Dahlbender, was maybe even charmed by him a little, just as Rose Whitmore was, but also repulsed by his plotting and despicable actions. Still, the author seems to get in Dahlbender’s head and lets him have his say, but his self-pity doesn’t make his actions any less reprehensible.

 I checked with some of the newspaper articles of the day, and this story seems to be sticking to the gist of what reporting I found. Dahlbender was quite contrite when he was caught and his confession seemingly heart-felt. True crime magazines have a terrible reputation for not being totally committed to the “true” in the interest of sensationalizing the stories. The do typically veer from newspaper journalism in a lot of ways, such as inventing dialogue and giving people intentions they can’t possibly know, but I have found them to be relatively reliable, at least as reliable as daily newspaper reporting, as far as the general facts of the case go. Before I share a story from the old pulps, I always do at least a cursory check against newspaper reporting to make sure there really was such a case and that the basic facts are accurate if not the details. There’s a big difference between a true story and a story based on a true story, and I try to lean toward the former in my curation. I’ve got some really well-told stories in my back pocket that I can’t yet prove their veracity, mainly because they’re about really old cases and I don’t have access to the right archives to give adequate confirmation. At least not yet. I’ll keep them in my pocket for now.

I’ve known some guys who did this kind of magazine work, and they were always meticulous in their reporting and had an advantage of time that daily newspaper reporters don’t have. This story was written three years after the trial and covers the case not only from the reporter’s and the perpetrator’s points of view, but the last third switches over to the police investigation, which is usually the sole perspective in most pulp stories. So I believe the author did his homework for us and presents us with an interesting, somewhat sympathetic portrait of a sleazy opportunist.



Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

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.

Episode 252 tells two stories of when the wheels of justice had a blow-out and people were convicted of crimes they didn't commit.

Ad-Free Safe House Edition

"Uncle Amos Dreams a Dream," by Edmund Pearson, the story of two brothers accused of murder after the discovery of two clipped toenails.

"Twenty-Three Years Skidoo: What Was Justice In This Case," by Peter Levins, about how a deathbed confession made liars out of a whole bunch of witnesses and law enforcement officials.

More stories from Edmund Pearson, True Crime Pioneer

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

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.