Historical True Crime Episodes

In August 1931, police were investigating the disappearances of Asta Eicher and her three children. They found love letters, which led them to a man named Harry Powers in Quiet Dell, West Virginia. Nespresso Vertuo Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/4eO75xy Music by Isaiah Hildreth Male Narrator: Curtis Hildreth Sources: newspapers.com findagrave.com wikipedia.com murderpedia.com https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/print/Article/1911 https://news.lib.wvu.edu/2014/10/28/the-harry-powers-murders-crimes-tha...

A group of families headed west to California in the spring of 1846 during the Westward Expansion movement. They were well provisioned for the journey that was expected to take them 4-6 months. But one delay after another along with a bad leadership decision turned the trip into a nightmare. Never take a shortcut that has not been proven; it could be deadly. Intro and Outro Music: Isaiah Hildreth Narrator: Curtis Hildreth Sources: Murphy, Virginia Reed. Zeinert, Karen. Across the Plains in the...

Sometimes a simple "welfare check" for someone's safety turns out to be more than investigators bargained for. For the Houston Police Department in 1965, this was the case when a man called in concerned about his elderly aunt and uncle. What they found when they got inside was a nauseating scene. Narrator: Curtis Hildreth Intro and Outro Music: Isaiah Hildreth Sources: Criminal Podcast - Episode 41 https://allthatsinteresting.com/ice-box-murders https://www.ktnv.com/news/crime/explanation-o...

Since the 1840s the Stiles family had passed down a rare condition called Ectrodactyly that makes the hands look like lobster claws. Grady Stiles turned his family's condition into a lucrative business performing in the traveling carnival. The family was one of the main attractions for many years. But after years of dysfunction, the family became known for abuse and murder instead. Intro Music: Circus Theme (Ragtime Version) by Alexander Nakarada • Julius Fučík | https://creatorchords.com Music...

On June 3, 1985, police cautiously pursued a Chevy Blazer with four passengers. A slow chase had persisted for several miles-- from Greensboro into Summerfield, North Carolina. Suddenly, the Blazer stopped and a bomb was detonated from within. The vehicle and four bodies exploded into pieces on NC Hwy. 150. This is the conclusion to the harrowing story of how bitterness and hatred led to the deaths of nine people and destroyed three families in the process. Narrator: Curtis Hildreth Intro and O...

In the years between 1984 and 1985, three intertwined families experienced the murders of close family members. The murders spanned from Louisville, Kentucky to Winston Salem and Greensboro, NC. Susie Newsome Lynch and Fritz Kenner were first cousins and lovers. They shared grandiose delusions, paranoia, bitterness and a murderous hatred for the people they believed were conspiring to take Susie's boys away from her. They would do ANYTHING to keep that from happening! Eventually, nine people wou...

As Westward expansion began in the US after the Civil War, homesteaders staked land claims across the plains. One family set up a crude store and Inn along the trail, taking advantage of the location where many a weary traveler would pass by. But many of those travelers began to disappear after stopping at the Bender's place. What searchers found on the property, dubbed "Hell's Half-Acre" by newspapers, was nothing they could have imagined. And history doesn't tell us why a whole family would ki...

Alma Kellner born in 1901, was the daughter of wealthy brewers in Louisville, Kentucky.On December 8, 1909, Alma disappeared on her way to attend mass at St. John's Roman Catholic Church, not far from her home. At first it was believed she had been kidnapped but no ransom demands were ever made. Approximately six months from the time she went missing, on May 30, 1910, her dismembered body was discovered in the sub-cellar of St. John’s church. Joseph Wendling, a Frenchman, who had been the janit...

Today's episode is about the life and crimes of Father Hans Schmidt. He was executed in 1916 for murder. Schmidt is the only priest ever to be executed in the United States. Music- Isaiah Hildreth Male Narrator- Curtis Hildreth Sources newspapers.com murderpedia wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Schmidt_(priest)https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/the-dreadful-crimes-of-the-only-priest-ever-executed-on-the-electric-chair-2975072643d3 Send us a text Support the s...

In early 1970 Capt. Jeffrey MacDonald is awakened by the screams of his wife and daughters being attacked. He claims a group of drugged-up hippies were the intruders, but authorities quickly begin to question that claim. This conclusion to the MacDonald family murders delves into the alternative theories put forth by the defense and ends with where the convicted murderer is today. Narrator: Curtis Hildreth Intro and Outro Music: Isaiah Hildreth Sources: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/convi...

At the height of the hippie culture and "Satanic Panic" in the early 1970s, a gruesome murder is committed at Fort Bragg, NC. A pregnant mother and her two small daughters are repeatedly stabbed to death. Her husband, Captain Jeffrey MacDonald, is also injured but survives the attack. He is able to describe the four assailants who had killed his family; drugged-out hippies chanting, "Acid is groovy. Kill the pigs." In the coming days, the tale becomes even harder to believe and au...

On March 5, 1873, two women were found brutally axed to death on the secluded Smuttynose Island just off the coast of Maine. Music by Isaiah Hildreth Male Narrator Curtis Hildreth Sources: Mystery on the Isles of Shoals: Closing the Case on the Smuttynose Ax Murders of 1873 by J Dennis Robinson newspapers.com findagrave.com Fresh Hell Podcast fosters.com wikipedia.com newengland.com https://www.des.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt341/files/documents/geo-187-024000-bbxm-isles-of-shoals-final.pdfhttp...

Accident? Suicide? Or Murder? The question of "Z" Smith Reynolds' death is still not answered to this day more than ninety years later. The wealthy heir of the RJ Reynolds Tobacco fortune was shot on his sleeping porch after hosting his friend's 21st birthday party at his estate. The initial ruling was suicide. However, ballistic evidence cast suspicion on that theory, and two people were charged with his murder. The inquest sparked more questions than it answered. Intro and Outro Music: Cou...

On March 1, 1922, Tennessee sent four men ( under the age of twenty) to the electric chair to pay with their lives for the life they took. Music by Isaiah Hildreth Male Narrator: Curtis Hildreth Sources: newspapers.com The Appalachian Storyteller wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler_Motor_Car knoxnews.com https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2018/08/11/gallows-gurney-six-infamous-east-tennessee-executions-maurice-mays-whitecaps-bluebills-billy-irick/958465002/ Send us a text S...

Georgia Tann was a social worker whose crimes spanned three decades from the 1920s to 1950. What appeared to be benevolence on her part was actually greed and downright evil that affected many families during those years. She led a secret life and was beyond scrutiny for most of those years. Sadly she was never brought to justice for her horrible deeds. Narrator: Curtis Hildreth Intro and Outro Music: Isaiah Hildreth Sources: https://www.americanadoptions.com/adoption/history-of-adoption https:...

In 1914, Lowe Daniels lived in the Uwharrie forest. He made his living making and selling whiskey. One day he came home from a trip and out of nowhere, shot his wife, his wife's seventeen year old sister, his seventeen year old sister and a sixteen year old neighbor boy. After he'd finished his killing spree, Lowe took his banjo off the wall, sat by the fire, picked his banjo and sang until the sheriff came to arrest him. Music by Isaiah Hildreth Sources: findagrave.com newspapers.com Ricky All...

A fire broke out around midnight on Christmas Eve in 1945 at the Sodder house in Fayetteville, West Virginia. Five of the Sodder family's ten children didn't make it outside with the rest of their family. George Sodder, their father tried desperately to save them but it was to no avail. At first everyone believed the children died in the fire. However, no skeletal remains were ever found. After several new pieces of evidence came to light and some extremely odd circumstances surrounding the nigh...

During a snowstorm in early 1972, a Boone, NC family is shockingly murdered in their own home. At first, it appears to be a robbery gone bad, but upon further inspection, that theory does not seem to add up. It was a crime that went unsolved for fifty years. Narrator: Curtis Hildreth Intro and Outro Music: Isaiah Hildreth Episode Sponsor: The Table - Asheboro, NC Sources: Pickens, Cathy -True Crime Stories of Western North Carolina. The History Press, Charleston, SC. 2022 https://www.newspaper...

Lowell Lee Andrews was a bright university student, and beloved son of a Kansas farmer. On Thanksgiving day in 1958, he would shock his community by murdering his family in order to get his inheritance. Sources: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote murderpedia.com newspapers.com findagrave.com wikipedia Podcast- Fresh Hell Podcast- Once Apon a Crime https://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/nov/28/crime_all_time/ https://hazelsdiary.wordpress.com/2017/01/03/lowell-lee-andrews/ https://www.ranker.com/list/lo...

In 1892, in the town of Fall River, Massachusetts, a wealthy older couple was axed to death in their own home in broad daylight. Almost immediately their thirty-two-year-old daughter, Lizzie Borden, is suspected of the brutal murders. The tales surrounding this event are varied, and conspiracy theories abound. The whole gruesome crime is memorialized in books, TV, movies, songs, poems, and now podcasts. Introduction Narration: Lily Hildreth and Isrianna Delatorre Intro and Outro Music: Isaiah ...

Countess Elizabeth Bathory is in The Guinness Book of World Records for being the most prolific serial killer in the western world. She is alleged to have killed more than 600 virgins in order to drink their blood and bathe in it, in order to preserve her youth. But who was Elizabeth Bathory really? Join us today as we untangle fact from fiction. Sources: Music By Isaiah Hildreth Male Narrator Curtis Hildreth Infamous Lady: The True Story of Countess Erzsébet Báthory: Second Edition by Kimberl...

Beginning in 1983, a group of four nurse aides began a killing spree that lasted for over six years. It began with a "mercy killing" but soon escalated into murder. The mastermind of the group came up with horrendous methods of torture for troublesome patients and the total number of victims is estimated to possibly be in the hundreds. Narrator: Cutis Hildreth Intro and Outro Music: Isaiah Hildreth Sources: Newton, Michael - An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers - Hunting Humans House of ...

On the night of November 20, 1901, Nell Cropsey vanished from her family's home in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Thirty-seven days later her body was found floating in the Pasquotank River. There was only ever one real suspect but did authorities get it right? Sources: Music by: Isaiah Hildreth Male Narrator: Curtis Hildreth newspapers.com Ella Maude: The Story of an Unsolved Crime By Nicholas Nicastro Nell Cropsey and Jim Wilcox: The Chill of Destiny By William Dunstan T...

In 1877, 47 year old Thurza Bowman died a violent death. An autopsy revealed she had been poisoned by strychnine. Suspicion would immediately fall on her husband. After many conflicting testimonies and two trials, Thomas Bowman was sentenced to hang in Asheboro, North Carolina in 1879. Did Thurza Bowman get justice or was her husband wrongfully convicted? Episode researched by Ricky Allred and Darlene Hildreth Episode written by Ricky Allred and Darlene Hildreth Music written and performed by I...