The Murder Of Mary Phagan

Episode 183 tells of one of the most infamous cases of an innocent man wrongly accused. When a teenage factory girl is found dead in the basement of an Atlanta pencil manufacturer, blame falls on the mild-mannered Jewish superintendent of the plant, and the jury takes the word of a drunken janitor. It’ll take 70 years for the truth to come out.

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The Willow Love Triangle Murder Plot

Episode 184 takes us into Pennsylvania Dutch territory, where two local farmers are found murdered in the woods a month apart. Although not related, the second murder sparks intense local interest, especially when the farmer’s wife is discovered in a salacious love affair.

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The Inept Executioner of Wise County

Episode 254 has a different format than usual. I was perusing an old True Detective Magazine and found a story written from the point of view of the hangman of Wise County, Virginia, telling the stories of the five men whose heads he put in nooses. It was an interesting story, but something wasn’t quite right about it. So I did some research on the individual cases, and have woven some news stories of the day in with the executioner’s tale, an exercise in point of view as it were. It’s interesting to note that the ghostwriter of the True Detective story was James Taylor Adams, the beloved folklorist of Wise County.

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The Mysterious Murder Of Dr. William H. Wilson

Episode 216 comes not only with a mysterious poisoning, but a side dish of “illegal operations.” Either it’s a devilishly clever plot, or perhaps the police didn’t really give it their all, considering the scandalous nature of Dr. Wilson’s practice.


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Vivian Gordon’s Final Caper

Though the body was found in the Bronx, Episode 228 is a dark, twisting ride to the seedy side of Broadway near the end of Prohibition, with a heavy dose of family drama swirling around a tale teeming with underworld villainy and police corruption. There were plenty of people with a motive to murder Vivian Gordon. Was it the cops? The crooks? Or some combination thereof? It’s a stumper.


Told from the historic pages of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and other newspapers of the era.




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Episode 221 explores how some bits of cardboard, a moonstone ring, and a dog that couldn't bark solved a riddle in the lonely swamp.


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The Teenage Sex & Murder Club

Episode 220 takes us to Tucson, Arizona in the 1960s, when police find a charismatic young man responsible for the disappearance of three teenage girls as the leader of a bizarre little party cult. But even when the murder cases are closed, the exciting story continues to include a daring prison break and a deadly prison brawl.


Culled from the historic pages of the Arizona Daily Star.


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Evelyn Ramadka, Queen Of The Chicago Vampires

Episode 225 at first seems like a run-of-the-mill burglary case, a good girl gone bad, until we start getting to know the defendant as the story takes careen plot turns, compounded by the sensational press coverage--and a mysterious surprise ending.

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The Trial Of The Rev. Ephriam Kingsbury Avery



Episode 24 takes place 60 years before Lizzie Borden put the town of Fall River, Massachusetts, on the murder map. The body of Sarah Maria Cornell, a 30-year-old mill worker, was found hanging from a haystack pole in the nearby town of Tiverton, just across the Rhode Island border. The first coroner's jury ruled the death a suicide, but a note later found in the woman's boarding house led to the first of two exhumations of the body and the arrest of the Rev. Ephraim Kingsbury Avery for her murder. It is believed to be one of the first trials of a minister for murder in America, and it was a scandalous one.

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The Lawrence/Foster/Disbrow Affair

Episode 423 delves into a love triangle gone awry. When two sides of the triangle, including an expert swimmer and sailor, are found drowned dead in a Long Island bay, suspicion immediately falls upon the third, even though the coroner declares the whole thing an accident.

Culled from the historic pages of The New York World, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, The New York Tribune, and other newspapers of the era.


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