Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

Dr. Joseph Bell: The Real Sherlock Holmes w/ Lindsey Fitzharris

1.9K views · 1w ago · 1:05:45

Guests: Dr. Joseph Bell, Lindsey Fitzharris

Throughout nineteenth-century Edinburgh, the surgeon Joseph Bell was known for his extraordinary talent for detection and diagnosis. To the amazement of onlookers at the Royal Infirmary, he could read a patient’s ailments, occupation, and personal habits from a single glance. Though such deductive powers were all quite “elementary” to Bell, they had a profound influence on the medical student and budding writer Arthur Conan Doyle.

Lizzie Borden Case Expert Cara Robertson Returns - Talks About the Recent Netflix Series & More...

2.4K views · 3w ago · 1:00:26

Public Enemy Outlaws Ben & Stella Mae Dickson w/ Matt Cecil

2.2K views · 1mo ago · 1:23:55

Guest: Matt Cecil

On August 25, 1938, twenty-five-year-old Ben Dickson and his fifteen-year-old wife Stella Mae robbed the Corn Exchange Bank in Elkton, South Dakota, making off with $2,187.64. Two months later they hit a bank in nearby Brookings for $17,593 - after waiting two hours for the vault’s time-lock to open while the bank's manager went on processing loans for customers.

Black Dahlia Case Expert Eli Frankel Returns

2.4K views · 1mo ago · 1:12:15

Eli Frankel, author of "Sisters in Death: The Black Dahlia, The Prairie Heiress, & Their Hunter", returns to share his thoughts on the recent explosion of interest in Marvin Margolis as the possible Black Dahlia and Zodiac Killer.

The Nittany Nightmare Murders Part 2 w/ Derek Sherwood

2.4K views · 2mo ago · 1:05:02

Guest: Derek Sherwood

My conversation with Derek Sherwood, author of Nittany Nightmare: The Sex Murders of 1938–1940 and the Panic at Penn State, continues. He shares a story about trying to find the location of Faye Gates's murder, talks about another possible suspect in the Rachel Taylor case, and recounts his long, frustrating attempts to get the Taylor case files from the Pennsylvania State Police.

The Nittany Nightmare Murders Part 1 w/ Derek Sherwood

2.9K views · 2mo ago · 58:16

Guest: Derek Sherwood

Between November 1938 and May 1940, Margaret Martin, Rachel Taylor and Faye Gates were abducted and sexually assaulted, their bodies dumped within 50 miles of Penn State College. My guest is Derek J. Sherwood, author of "Nittany Nightmare: The Sex Murders of 1938–1940 and the Panic at Penn State". He discusses the murders and investigators' attempts to determine whether a serial killer was responsible, all set against the backdrop of the college.

The Murderous Harp Brothers w/ Katherine Grandjean

1.5K views · 2mo ago · 1:07:31

Guest: Katherine Grandjean

The Harp(e) brothers have been called America's first serial killers, once notorious enough to be the stuff of folklore and legend before fading into obscurity. In the chaos of the post-Revolutionary frontier, the two men committed dozens of murders across Kentucky and Tennessee, their wives traveling alongside them the entire time.

Did a Tacoma Smelter Help Create a Generation of Serial Killers? w/ Caroline Fraser

3.3K views · 2mo ago · 1:02:28

Guest: Caroline Fraser

Ted Bundy grew up in Tacoma in the shadow of one of the most toxic smelters in the United States, and he wasn't the only one. Between the 1970s and '80s, the Pacific Northwest was home to a bizarre, outsized cluster of serial killers including Bundy, Gary Ridgeway, Charles Manson and many more. Could there be a connection between lead and arsenic poisoning and the making of a serial killer?

The Mysterious Disappearance of William Morgan w/ Ann Webster Bunch

2.1K views · 2mo ago · 1:04:11

Guest: Ann Webster Bunch

William Morgan was last seen in Batavia, New York, in September 1826, shortly after threatening to publish purported Masonic secrets. He was arrested that same month in Canandaigua, transported to Fort Niagara and never seen again, and the local Freemasons were blamed for his disappearance. When a body was discovered a year later, many wanted it to be Morgan's for political purposes. But nearly two hundred years later, the case remains officially unsolved.

Rome's Most Evil Rulers w/ Phillip Barlag

1K views · 3mo ago · 1:18:05

Guest: Phillip Barlag

My guest this week is Phillip Barlag, author of "Evil Roman Emperors: The Shocking History of Ancient Rome's Most Wicked Rulers from Caligula to Nero and More." He shares stories about some of the worst rulers in Rome's history and the horrific deeds they committed, including Tarquin, Caligula, Nero, Caracalla and Elagabalus.

The Mysterious Disappearance of Bobby Dunbar w/ Tal McThenia

2.2K views · 3mo ago · 1:26:50

Guest: Tal McThenia

(Orig pub date 3/28/23) In 1912, four-year-old Bobby Dunbar went missing in the Louisiana swamps. After an eight-month search that electrified the country and destroyed Bobby’s parents, the boy was found, filthy and hardly recogniz­able. A wandering piano tuner was arrested and charged with kidnapping - a crime then punishable by death.

The Murder of A.P. Crittenden w/ Gary Krist

1.3K views · 3mo ago · 1:01:41

Guest: Gary Krist

Shortly before dusk on November 3, 1870, just as the ferryboat El Capitan was pulling away from its slip into San Francisco Bay, a woman clad in black emerged from the shadows and strode across the crowded deck. Reaching under her veil, she drew a small pistol and aimed it directly at a well-dressed man sitting quietly with his wife and children. The woman fired a single bullet into his chest. “I did it and I don’t deny it,” she said when arrested shortly thereafter.

The 1876 Northfield Bank Raid by the James-Younger Gang Part 2 w/ Mark Lee Gardner

822 views · 3mo ago · 1:09:55

Guest: Mark Lee Gardner

(Orig Pub Date 8/10/2016) My conversation with author Mark Lee Gardner continues, about his book "Shot All to Hell: Jesse James, the Northfield Raid, and the Wild West's Greatest Escape". In the second part of the story, we talk about the James-Younger Gang's flight into the Big Woods of southern Minnesota, and the difficulties that they faced navigating through unknown territory, and also the troubles the local posses had finding them.

The 1876 Northfield Bank Raid by the James-Younger Gang Part 1 w/ Mark Lee Gardner

1.1K views · 3mo ago · 1:02:30

Guest: Mark Lee Gardner

(Orig pub date: 8/3/2016) Much has been written about Jesse James, including his gang's ill-fated trip to Northfield, Minnesota, a botched bank raid met with death and tragedy, but never told like this. Mark Lee Gardner, author of "Shot All to Hell: Jesse James, the Northfield Raid and the Wild West's Greatest Escape", joins me to tell the story of the James-Younger gang's foray north from Missouri and the chaos that followed.

A Memoir of Murder in the Golden State w/ Debra Miller

1.7K views · 4mo ago · 1:11:26

Guest: Debra Miller

On October 7, 1964, Debra Miller’s life turns upside down when her mother is arrested for the murder of her father. At only fourteen years old, Debra becomes a ward of the court, grappling with the unfathomable trauma of watching her mother’s trial and conviction—a devastation that is only amplified when her family’s tragedy is splashed across headlines nationwide and featured in Joan Didion’s "Slouching Towards Bethlehem".