Episode 294

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 Pulp Nonfiction

“I’d die before I’d let a man do anything to me,” she said. And she did.

Adapted from “Joanna And The Hillbilly Lover Boy,” by George Vedder Jones, True Detective, Vol.73 No.1, May 1960

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A Rampage In Richmond

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Episode 293 may start out like your ordinary love triangle gone awry, but the city of Richmond, Virginia is scandalized by the revelations that come out about the young people of their city during the shocking trial. When the flapper told the dapper young man that it was over between them, she set off a massacre.

More Love Triangles Gone Awry

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Historic Lady Killers

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Episode 292, in which we pay our respects to a quartet of murdered wives:

Sarah Yargus, murdered by her husband John Yargus, July 13, 1849;
Pauline Schmitt, murdered by her husband Germain Schmitt, January 21, 1919;
Ida Jech, murdered by her husband Frederic Jech, July 22, 1930;
Anna McDowell Gentry, murdered by her husband Sam Gentry, February 1, 1935.

Recorded live at Miami University Hamilton Downtown, October 29, 2018.



Download the slideshow for headlines and more information. 0292 slideshow.pdf

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Six Dead At Erland’s Point

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Episode 139 is the gruesome story of a home invasion, circa 1934, a case that seemed so random that it took over a year to crack one of the most brutal mass murders witnessed by the Pacific Northwest. The small-town police are at first presented as in over their heads, but they remained dogged in their pursuit, and justice will be served. Eventually.

More Mass Murders



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Episode 165:

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• "Murder By Dynamite," by Stewart Whitehouse. An explosion in the mens room of a department store sets off a wave of copycats, including one plot to murder a young lawyer by booby-trapping his car with dynamite. More Big Booms

• "Terror in La Paz," by Manuelo Martino, is our first trip to South America with the story of a clever serial killer and master of disguise with his mind set on strangling as many young girls as he can. More Serial Killers

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AKA The Lipstick Killer And His Imaginary Accomplice

Episode 291

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Hang onto your seats, folks, this one is another wild ride down psychopath lane. Folks in a nice Chicago neighborhood are scandalized when a string of murders go from fearsome to gruesome. Police get their man--or men, depending on how you look at it--almost by accident when the culprit is arrested for another crime. His crimes are heinous and involve a child, so tread carefully if your sensitive to that stuff, but I will tell you that the reporting isn’t overly graphic.Culled from the historic pages of the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers of the era.

More Botched Executions

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The Unexpected Crimes of Nurse Toppan

Episodes 29 and 30

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History contains many cases of nurses who turned out to be killers, but there may not be one as bizarre as the case of Jane Toppan, one of the first "angels of death" on record.Because she had such a cheerful disposition, people called her “Jolly Jane,” and so were completely surprised when she was arrested for the murder of a family in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. Once suspicions were aroused, accusations began to fall like rain. The exact count of her death toll remains a mystery, but estimates put it between 31 and 84 murders, although the longer she remained in the asylum, the larger the number grew.

More Serial Killers





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Pulp Nonfiction: A Celebration Of The Pioneers Of True CrimeA Safe House Exclusive

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Orphaned at an early age, Pauline Campbell had worked hard for her goal, until a killer ended her dream. Her murder seemed the work of a fiend with a grudge against nurses, then a teenager stepped forward with a shocking clue.

Adapted from True Detective, Vol. 56 No. 4, February 1952

More Robberies Gone Awry





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The Pearce Insanity Plot

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Episode 289 is a scandalous story that shook two Midwestern cities in the late 1930s when a woman came forward with a bizarre tale of abduction, adultery, assault, addiction and absconsion. That’s why I’m putting this story on my A-list.

More Prison Breaks

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The LIzzie Edition Part V.b

Episode 256 we return to the mother of all murder mysteries, the case of Lizzie Borden in commemoration of the 125th anniversary of the verdict in her sensational trial, June 20, 1893. We again turn to the godfather of American True Crime, Edmund Pearson, the librarian who wrote slyly humorous takes of famous murder cases. His landmark essay, simply titled The Borden Case, makes up the first 119 pages of Pearson’s Studies in Murder, from which this episode is adapted.

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