PULP NONFICTION --A reading from the pioneers of true crime...

The Murder Of The Butcher Pops Wagner

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This episode Sweet 16-year-old Lena Theresa Neinstedt, known as Terry, a pretty eighth-grade dropout with a habit of stealing government checks out of neighborhood mailboxes. A wild child of the streets of New York, young Terry also had a habit of carrying a knife -- to keep the wolves from pawing her, she said. When she lost the knife, she discovered a small hatchet around the house that fit nicely in her patent leather handbag. Yeah, that’s not gonna end well.

This story comes from the pages of the classic Master Detective magazine, April 1946.

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If you’re looking to make the perfect hire, visit www.ziprecruiter.com/first and place your ad for free.

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Theme Music by Dave Sams

Research Assistance by Anna from AGP Stories

Media management by Sean R. Jones

Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun

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bit.ly/1945wagner

AN EYE FOR AN EYE --A special edition of Yesterday’s News exploring the criminal justice system at its most extreme: Inflicting the Death Penalty...

The Corruption of Lt. Charles Becker

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This episode is about the story of police corruption in New York’s Tenderloin District, so named by the police because there was so much graft to be made, that they stopped eating chuck steak and started eating tenderloin. The trouble starts when the gambling house operator Herman Rosenthal gets double-crossed by his business partner Charles Becker, who also happened to be a police lieutenant. Rosenthal is so upset, he decides to name names in front of a grand jury.

Yeah. That’s not gonna end well.

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Theme Music by Dave Sams

Research Assistance by Anna from AGP Stories

Media management by Sean R. Jones

Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun

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bit.ly/1912becker

PULP NONFICTION --A reading from the pioneers of true crime...

The Cleveland Kaber Conspiracy

By Marjorie Wilson

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Back in the golden ages of newspapers, it was common for them to publish serialized novels of romance, adventure and intrigue, but true crime serials were not quite so common. But here is a novella-lenght story published in 19 chapters in five parts by newspapers in 1921 when Eva Kaber was standing trial for leading a plot to murder her invalid husband. It’s a crazy, crazy story of Italian assassins, fortune tellers, and Pinkerton detectives conspiring with amateur spies to bring an elaborate murder plot to light.

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Theme Music by Dave Sams

Research Assistance by Anna from AGP Stories

Media management by Sean R. Jones

Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun

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www.truecrimehistorian.com/1921kaber

AN EYE FOR AN EYE -- A special edition of Yesterday’s News exploring the criminal justice system at its most extreme: Inflicting the Death Penalty...

The Lindbergh Tragedy

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Here at True Crime Historian, we take kind of a perverse pride in bringing you stories of some of history’s forgotten scandals, scoundrels and scourges. But since I’ve been asking for listener requests, several people have asked for this, one of the rare cases that really earned the title “Crime of the Century.” As you can tell by the introduction, the baby Lindbergh, son of an American aviation hero, the little eaglet, was one of America’s most-loved babies of his day, and that helped make his short life one of legend. So the newspapers went over every little detail of the case and assigned their ace reporters to cover every aspect.

I always hesitate at doing stories involving the murder of children, and there’s a particular passage in here that gets a little graphic in its details, so if you’re sensitive to such things, you might want to fast forward through that part. But if you stick with it, you’ll encounter a remarkable description of a mother receiving the most horrible horrible news imaginable.

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Theme Music by Dave Sams

Incidental music by the Marine Corps band courtesy of museopen.org and Chuck Wiggins

Research Assistance by Anna from AGP Stories.

Media management by Sean R. Jones

Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun

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Bit.ly/1932lindbergh

YESTERDAY’S NEWS --Tales of classic scandals, scoundrels and scourges told from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism....

Madame Bessarabo’s Explanation

___When the body of a missing international businessman was found in an unclaimed trunk in the train station at Nancy, France, his wife, the French dramatist and poet known as Hera Mertel, and his step-daughter were immediately suspected, but it took two years to end their legal ordeal. Mysteries remain, such as how the two petit women managed to truss up the body and carry it around in the trunk, Mme. Bessarabo was convicted of the crime. Today’s episode focuses on an epistle she wrote from her jail cell as she continues to proclaim her innocence, even denying that it was her husband’s body in her trunk. Yeah, right.

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If you’re looking to make the perfect hire, visit www.ziprecruiter.com/first and place your ad for free.

Theme Music by Dave Sams

Incidental music by Dana Boule from her album Songs for Paris

Research Assistance by Anna from AGP Stories

Media management by Sean R. Jones

Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun

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www.truecrimehistorian.com/1922bessarabo

YESTERDAY’S NEWS --Tales of classic scandals, scoundrels and scourges told from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism...

The Trial of Miss Edith Colby, Girl Reporter

___This episode tells a sordid little tale of a battle between a small-town female newspaper reporter and a politician who impugned her dignity by calling her a “red light woman.” When she brought a gun into the newsroom, the editor told her that if she was going to shoot the man, to do it before the paper went to press, as it would be good for sales. Yeah, that’s not going to end well.

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Theme Music: Dave Sams

Research Assistant: Anna Priestland

Media Manager: Sean R. Jones

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www.truecrimehistorian.com/1916colby

YESTERDAY’S NEWS --A reading from historic newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism...

The Mysterious Murder of Harriet Moss McDaniel

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In the midst of a campaign for re-election, the prosecutor of Buchanan County Missouri becomes the defendant, on trial for the murder of his wife. He says it was a home invasion by his political enemies, or maybe someone he had sent to jail. The state says it was because of a love affair with his wife’s best friend. Pay attention to that part of the story, because that’s not gonna end well either.

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Theme Music: Dave Sams

Media Manager: Sean R. Jones

Research: Anna Priestland

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truecrimehistorian.com/1916McDaniel

PULP NONFICTION -- A reading from the pioneers of true crime.Edmund Pearson’s ‘The Curious Druces’

To ring in the New Year, we return to one of our favorite pioneers of true crime, Edmund Pearson. A librarian by profession, Pearson moonlighted as a true crime writer and his stories are filled with cheeky humor. In this tale, he provides his own sarcastic post-mortem on a bizarre case of extortion in which the descendants of a shop owner lay claim to the estate of the Duke of Portland.

AN EYE FOR AN EYE --A special edition of Yesterday’s News exploring the criminal justice system at its most extreme: Inflicting the Death Penalty...

This episode crosses the Atlantic Ocean a couple of times as the little American Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen flees his London practice with a young stenographer at his side and the body of his wife left buried in the cellar of their posh home. This case has has historical significance in that it was the first time the wireless telegraph was used in tracking a fugitive from justice across the sea.

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Theme music by Dave Sams

Research Assistance by Anna Priestland

A pair of short true crime stories.Theme music by Dave Sams.