Crimes of the Centuries

Podcast / Show

Crime is so commonplace that it takes something particularly shocking to be labelled the “crime of the century.” Even so, there are a lot…

by Amber Hunt and Audioboom

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About Crimes of the Centuries

Crime is so commonplace that it takes something particularly shocking to be labelled the “crime of the century.” Even so, there are a lot of cases that have earned the distinction. In each episode of Crimes of the Centuries, award-winning journalist Amber Hunt will examine a case that’s lesser…

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Episodes

New episodes usually drop on Mondays.Latest 200 episodes in the feed

Oct 26, 2026 · 1 hr 13 min

S6 Ep31: LIVE: A Deadly Christmas Eve at the American Saloon

Recorded live in Hamilton, Ohio, with the Butler County Historical Society.
Oct 19, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min

S6 Ep30: Too Rich to Save: The Kidnapping of John Paul Getty III

When 16-year-old John Paul Getty III was kidnapped from a Roman street in 1973, his captors thought they’d chosen the perfect target: the grandson of the richest man in the world. They hadn’t counted on J. Paul Getty refusing to pay. As weeks turned into months and the kidnappers grew increasingly desperate, a teenager already struggling under the weight of his famous name would pay a horrifying price for his…
Oct 12, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min

S6 Ep29: The Serial Killer Every Cop Knew

Through the 1970s and ’80s, women were being raped and murdered in northwest Fort Lauderdale, and police kept hearing the same name: Eddie Lee Mosley. He was arrested, questioned, identified and released again and again. And somehow, while Mosley remained free, two other men paid for his crimes instead. Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a…
Oct 5, 2026 · 57 min

S6 Ep28: Dirty Secrets at Dublin Castle

In 1907, Ireland’s Crown Jewels vanished from Dublin Castle just days before a royal visit. The hunt for them led into the private lives of aristocrats, con men and royal insiders — and whispers of secret relationships, blackmail and a scandal nobody in power particularly wanted dragged into the light. Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a…
Sep 28, 2026 · 44 min

S6: ENCORE: Massacre at Taliesin

For years, famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright had made headlines for his personal life. After all, he'd left his wife and six children for a married woman during the Victorian era, and made no apologies for the two "living in sin" in a home he built on family land in Wisconsin. Then, on a hot August day in 1914, Wright's whole world came crashing down: A murderer had attacked his so-called Love Cottage dubbed…

Earlier episodes (195)

Sep 21, 2026 S6 Ep27: Catch the Devil: The Murder of Shelly Boggio
Fourteen-year-old Shelly Boggio was found stabbed and drowned off a Florida beach in 1985. Two men were convicted of her murder — but the case against one of them depended heavily on the word of Paul Skalnik, a serial con man and prolific jailhouse informant who claimed his fellow prisoners had a remarkable habit of confessing to him. Skalnik would help send dozens of people to prison and four men to death row.…
Sep 14, 2026 S6 Ep26: Johnny Gosch: The Paperboy Who Never Came Home
On September 5, 1982, 12-year-old Johnny Gosch left his West Des Moines home to deliver newspapers. He never made it back. What followed was a police chief with his own violent history, an FBI that wanted nothing to do with it, and a mother who refused to let the case go quiet — even when the few answers she found led somewhere far stranger than anyone expected. Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag…
Sep 7, 2026 S6 Ep25: Abscam: The True Story Behind ‘American Hustle’
A con man with a gift for talking fast and a knack for never getting caught made himself invaluable to the FBI in the late 1970s — and the FBI made him the centerpiece of the biggest political corruption sting in a generation. It never should have worked, yet it went further than anyone expected. Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark…
Aug 31, 2026 S6 Ep24: Charles Harrelson and the Assassination of "Maximum John"
In 1979, a federal judge in San Antonio was known for one thing above all else: He did not show mercy. John H. Wood Jr. had earned his nickname the hard way, one maximum sentence at a time. Just before he was set to face off with a powerful drug empire, he was killed outside his home in broad daylight. What followed would become the most expensive FBI investigation since the Kennedy assassination, a courtroom…
Aug 27, 2026 S6: ENCORE: Fatty Arbuckle: Scandal in Hollywood
The roaring '20s of last century were fueled in part by a new industry: filmmaking in Hollywood. Directors were rolling in dough, as were the silver screen's first stars. But in 1921, the future of cinema would forever be altered after internationally beloved comedian Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle was charged in the death of a young starlet after attending a boozy Prohibition-era party in Arbuckle's hotel suite. Please…
Aug 24, 2026 S6: Norman Thorne: Cold-Blooded Killer or 'Martyr to Spilsburyism'?
A young woman named Elsie Cameron vanished after delivering an ultimatum to her fiancé, chicken farmer Norman Thorne. Weeks later, investigators dug up his property and found her dismembered remains buried in an unmistakable place — the same spot where he'd posed for a photograph days earlier, smiling, surrounded by his birds. Thorne had an explanation. It was a strange one. And the only person whose opinion would…
Aug 17, 2026 S6 Ep23: Dr. Crippen and the Coal Cellar
Weeks after a woman's mysterious disappearance, a ship's captain noticed something off about two of his passengers — a quiet, bespectacled man and his teenage "son." He couldn't shake the feeling he'd seen that face somewhere recently. So he did something no ship's captain had ever been able to do before: He alerted police, instantly, from the middle of the ocean that two murder suspects might be aboard his vessel.…
Aug 10, 2026 S6 Ep22: Serial Killer Joseph Paul Franklin's Three-Year Race War
For three years in the late 1970s and into 1980 — before shared databases and DNA evidence — one man moved freely across 11 states trying to start a race war. He changed his name to honor a Nazi propagandist and a founding father. He bombed synagogues, gunned down interracial couples, shot a magazine publisher in broad daylight, and left whole communities living in fear of a killer they couldn't identify. Crimes of…
Aug 7, 2026 S6: The Botched Execution of Tony Carruthers: Future COTC?
Three people vanished from a Memphis home in February 1994. A week later, they turned up in a local cemetery, buried in a grave dug for someone else's funeral — held the day after they disappeared, with mourners who had no idea what was beneath the casket. Tony Carruthers was convicted of the murders in 1996, representing himself after burning through six court-appointed attorneys. Thirty years, one botched…
Aug 3, 2026 S6 Ep21: The Murder of Leslie Preer
Investigators were certain they knew who killed Leslie Preer. Their main suspect had motive, a suspicious alibi, and a failed polygraph. Investigators had everything they needed — except the right guy. Twenty-three years later with a pair of fresh detectives, a water bottle at Dulles Airport told a very different story. Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times…
Jul 27, 2026 S6 Ep20: The Wrong Kind of American
Twenty-two-year-old Fred Korematsu was parked on a San Francisco hillside with his girlfriend, listening to music on the car radio, when the broadcast stopped on Dec. 7, 1941. In the weeks that followed, the U.S. government imprisoned 120,000 people based solely on their ancestry. Fred, a California-born welder who had tried to register for the draft on the very first day he could, decided he wasn’t going anywhere.…
Jul 20, 2026 S6 Ep19: "Goodnight, Sweet Wife:" Murder in Mission Hill
On the night of Oct. 23, 1989, Chuck Stuart called 911 from a car phone in Boston's Mission Hill neighborhood, his voice strained with panic. He said he and his wife Carol had been shot by a Black man. Within hours, Boston police had launched the most intensive manhunt in the city's history — tearing through a predominantly Black neighborhood, stopping and searching anyone who dared answer their door or walk the…
Jul 13, 2026 S6 Ep18: The Girl Scout Murders on Cookie Trail Road
Dozens of Girl Scouts arrived at Camp Scott in the Oklahoma woods in June of 1977 expecting songs, crafts and campfires. By morning, three of the girls were dead, their bodies discovered along a dirt path called Cookie Trail Road. The investigation that followed became the largest manhunt in Oklahoma history, fueled accusations of corruption and racism, and left behind a mystery that still divides people nearly 50…
Jul 9, 2026 S6: ENCORE: The Forgotten Serial Killer of the Victorian Era
In Victorian England, a serial killer preyed on sex workers and other vulnerable women, targeting the people society was least likely to mourn or protect. But unlike the infamous Jack the Ripper, whose identity remains one of history's great unsolved mysteries, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream had a name, a medical degree, and a chilling willingness to use both. Cream weaponized his professional knowledge, exploiting the…
Jul 6, 2026 S6: TRUTH DEFERRED S1E1: Love Lost & Justice Unraveling
In 1884 Cincinnati, a string of brutal murders and a verdict that outraged the public set off a chain of events that would end in one of the darkest moments in American history — the largest massacre of unarmed civilians by National Guard troops on U.S. soil. In Truth Deferred, historians Mike and Amy Morgan investigate what actually happened — and present the truth that was deliberately buried for over 140 years.…
Jul 2, 2026 S6: ENCORE: The Manhattan Well Murder
When a 22-year-old woman living with relatives in a boarding house disappeared on Dec. 22, 1799, her loved ones didn't immediately worry. But when she still hadn't returned days later, all eyes turned to her lover, whom she'd supposedly been set to marry the last time she was seen alive. Levi Weeks came from a family with money, so his rich brother did something that was unheard of at this point in American…
Jun 29, 2026 S6: THE CATALYST: The Traveler
Amber's on vacation, so she's yanking an episode of The Catalyst from behind the paywall over at Grab Bag Collab. Dive deep into the upbringing and backstories of individuals who committed history's most notorious crimes, shedding light on the psychological factors that shaped their paths. With a suspenseful twist, the identities of these individuals won’t be unveiled until the end of each episode. ‘The Catalyst’…
Jun 26, 2026 S6: The Murder of Faith Hedgepeth: Future COTC?
In September 2012, a 19-year-old UNC-Chapel Hill student was found beaten to death in her off-campus apartment. She was a biology major, a member of the Haliwa-Saponi tribe, and weeks away from her twentieth birthday. Despite DNA evidence collected from the scene on day one, her case went cold for nine agonizing years — generating hundreds of DNA tests, thousands of interviews, and an internet's worth of amateur…
Jun 22, 2026 S6 Ep17: Meaher's Illegal Gamble: The Last Slave Ship
In 1859, a wealthy Alabama landowner made a bet that he could do the unthinkable. The next spring, he did just that — trafficking human beings from West Africa to the United States a half-century after it had been made a federal crime punishable by death. The Clotilda brought back 110 men, women and children. For more than 150 years, the ship sat buried in the mud of a Mobile Bay bayou, as if the whole thing had…
Jun 15, 2026 S6 Ep16: Murder in Coweta County
One April morning in 1948, a tenant farmer named Wilson Turner walked out of a rural Georgia jail and into an ambush. The man waiting for him owned 2,000 acres known as The Kingdom, a moonshine empire, and the county sheriff. What followed was a murder investigation that drew 500 lawmen from across the state — and a verdict few in Meriwether County saw coming. This is the real story behind Murder in Coweta County .…
Jun 8, 2026 S6 Ep15: Twilight Zone Part 2: 'We Decided to Break the Law'
After three people died on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie, it took four years to get five defendants into a courtroom and another 10 months before anyone knew how it would end. What unfolded in between was part legal battle, part Hollywood spectacle and entirely unlike anything the film industry had faced before. Part two of two. Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten…
Jun 1, 2026 S6 Ep14: Twilight Zone Part 1: Vic Morrow's Last Role
In the early morning hours of July 23, 1982, cameras were rolling at a California filming location when a helicopter crashed into a river, killing actor Vic Morrow and two young children, Renee Chen and Myca Le. It was called a tragic accident. But the more investigators looked, the harder that word was to defend. Part one of two. Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes…
May 25, 2026 S6 Ep13: Wesley Elkins: The 11-Year-Old Killer
On a hot July morning in 1889, two adults were found murdered in their beds on a small Iowa farm, shot and bludgeoned to death while they slept. The only witness was an 11-year-old boy who said a stranger had done it. What followed was a legal and moral reckoning that divided the country and forced a question the American justice system wasn't remotely prepared to answer: What do you do with a child who kills?…
May 22, 2026 S6: Murdaugh Country: Future Crimes of the Centuries?
You've heard the name. You've read the headlines. But the Alex Murdaugh story is bigger than one man's spectacular fall — bigger, even, than two people's horrific deaths. It's about the century of institutional rot that made it all possible. In this bonus episode of "Future Crimes of the Centuries?", Amber looks beyond the expected retrial to the people whose stories got buried under the spectacle: a housekeeper…
May 18, 2026 S6 Ep12: Above Suspicion: The FBI Informant Who Disappeared
A young mother from a tiny Kentucky hollow vanished without a trace in 1989, leaving behind her clothes, her makeup and her two children. She'd been working as an informant for FBI Agent Mark Putnam, so her family held onto one hope: Maybe she'd finally gotten the fresh start she'd always dreamed of through the federal witness protection program. It would take a year to find out the truth about what happened to…
May 18, 2026 The Case Files History Left Unsolved | Hidden History with Dr. Harini Bhat
Dr. Harini Bhat is a clinical pharmacist and storyteller obsessed with the moments in history that still can't be fully explained. Every week she investigates real events that defy easy explanation. Mass hysterias. Vanished civilizations. Medical oddities. Strange signals. Unexplained phenomena that keep repeating across centuries, as if history is trying to tell us something. Hidden History doesn't dismiss ancient…
May 11, 2026 S6 Ep11: The Butcher of Rostov
In 1978, a nine-year-old girl in a red coat went looking for a kind man she'd met at a train station. She never came home. Over the next 12 years, at least 52 more would follow. But in the Soviet Union's supposed utopia, serial killers didn't exist — and a government more committed to its own mythology than to its citizens would pay a terrible price for that belief. Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab…
May 4, 2026 S6 Ep10: The Fire That Condemned Cameron Todd Willingham
In 1991, investigators of a house fire in Corsicana, Texas, concluded the fatal blaze was arson, pointing to burn patterns they said proved someone had deliberately turned the house into a death trap. They zeroed in on Cameron Todd Willingham as the one who ignited the inferno. But in the years that followed, a growing number of fire scientists began questioning whether the evidence used to convict him was ever…
Apr 30, 2026 S6: The Disappearance of Nancy Guthrie: Future Crimes of the Centuries?
A bonus episode for all listeners.
Apr 27, 2026 S6 Ep9: The Torso in the Marsh
In 1949, a headless, legless torso surfaced in the Essex marshes, setting off one of Britain’s most sensational postwar murder investigations. The victim was Stanley Setty, a black-market car dealer. The suspect was Donald Hume, a small-time crook, chronic liar and pilot who rented a plane the night Setty disappeared but swore he had nothing to do with the gruesome killing. Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from…
Apr 20, 2026 S6 Ep8: The Covenant Conspiracy
In 1945, a reverend, a realtor, a science teacher, and a white woman in a low-cut dress conspired to help a St. Louis couple buy a house. The couple had steady jobs, a down payment, and six children who needed a safe home. What they didn't have was permission — at least not according to a clause buried in the property's deed. Their attempt to move in triggered outrage from neighbors, a lawsuit, and a legal battle…
Apr 13, 2026 S6 Ep7: Reckless Disregard: The Carrollton Bus Crash
In May 1988, a church bus returning to Kentucky was struck head-on by a wrong-way driver. Within seconds, it became an inferno. As families searched for answers, an unsettling truth emerged: The children had been trapped inside a bus never designed to protect them. The Carrollton bus tragedy is a story about how grief collided with corporate power, government delay tactics and America’s evolving reckoning with…
Apr 6, 2026 S6 Ep6: The Murder That Sparked the Zoot Suit Riots
In August 1942, 22-year-old Jose Diaz was found dying near a Los Angeles reservoir called Sleepy Lagoon. He'd been beaten and stabbed the night before he was set to report to the U.S. Army. His death became the excuse the LAPD needed to launch a massive crackdown on Mexican American youth—rounding up 600 people, trying 22 young men with questionable evidence and igniting racial tensions that exploded into the Zoot…
Mar 30, 2026 ENCORE: The Life and Death of Sam Cooke
This episode originally aired Nov. 7, 2022. Amber's on spring break but didn't want to leave your feed empty.
Mar 23, 2026 S6 Ep5: LIVE Episode: Cincinnati's "Seamstress Slayer"
In November 1958, duck hunters at Cowan Lake State Park stumbled upon a burned body so badly damaged it was nearly unrecognizable. It belonged to Louise Bergen, a 32-year-old Cincinnati mother whose disappearance had already set off whispers of secret relationships and divided loyalties. What followed became one of the most notorious murder cases in the city's history—featuring a shocking confession, a death…
Mar 16, 2026 S6 Ep4: Stolen Valor: The Woman Who Wasn't There
In the years after September 11, 2001, one survivor’s story rose above nearly all others. She said she had escaped from the South Tower, lost the man she loved on the 99th floor, and lived with injuries that would never fully heal. Her account became central to how the world understood survival, grief and resilience after the attacks. But when a reporter began asking routine questions ahead of an anniversary, the…
Mar 9, 2026 S6 Ep3: The Shepherd's Bush Massacre
In August 1966, three unarmed London police officers pulled over a suspicious car on Braybrook Street in Shepherd's Bush in West London. Within minutes, all three were dead—shot in cold blood by three career criminals who'd rather kill than go back to prison. The murders shocked Britain and sparked a months-long manhunt for Harry Roberts, who managed to evade capture while his face was plastered across every…
Mar 2, 2026 S6 Ep2: Brief Against Death: After Edgar Smith's Release
In 1976, a woman survived a brutal kidnapping and stabbing in a San Diego parking lot. The man accused of the attack was Edgar Smith—once a cause célèbre, hailed as a wrongfully convicted intellectual. His release had been celebrated by writers, editors and influential public figures who believed they had corrected a grave injustice. What followed was not redemption but reckoning. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a…
Feb 23, 2026 S6 Ep1: Brief Against Death: The Murder of Victoria Zielinski
In 1957, Edgar Smith was sentenced to death for the murder of a teenage girl in New Jersey. From his prison cell, he began writing letters, essays and arguments build a case not in court, but on the page. One of those letters landed on the desk of William F. Buckley Jr. Others found their way into elite literary circles. Soon, a condemned man had powerful allies, a book deal and a growing audience convinced the…
Feb 16, 2026 S5 Ep46: The Mysterious Death of Hitler's Niece
In 1931, Adolf Hitler’s 23-year-old niece, Geli Raubal, was found dead in the Führer's Munich apartment. Authorities ruled it a suicide. But the evidence didn’t settle easily—and neither did the silence that followed. Some journalists tried to make sense of the story but had trouble as the case files were quickly sealed. So they reported on emerging contradictions in the evidence and disagreements among witnesses.…
Feb 9, 2026 S5 Ep45: A Newlywed Murdered: The Sherri Rasmussen Case
Sherri Rasmussen had been married for just three months when she was brutally murdered in her California home. Police quickly decided the case was a burglary gone wrong—and then stopped looking. It would take more than 20 years before a new detective took a fresh look and realized the killer had been hiding in plain sight all along. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten…
Feb 2, 2026 S5 Ep44: Mary Meyer: The Mysterious Murder of JFK's Mistress
In October 1964, a Washington socialite was shot execution-style on the Georgetown towpath. She had been JFK's lover. Her ex-husband worked for the CIA. Her diary vanished. And the man accused of killing her was acquitted. What really happened to Mary Pinchot Meyer? " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.…
Jan 30, 2026 S5: From What If They're Wrong: The Justice Who Won't Let Go
Subscribe to "What If They're Wrong? After the Accusation" wherever you get your podcasts.
Jan 26, 2026 S5 Ep43: The President's Silence: How Thousands Died Before Reagan Said 'AIDS'
In October 1982, journalist Lester Kinsolving asked the White House press secretary about a mysterious disease that had already killed hundreds of Americans. The response? Laughter. For years, as the death toll climbed into the tens of thousands, President Ronald Reagan said nothing. His administration did less. This is the story of what happens when a government decides some lives don't matter—and the activists,…
Jan 19, 2026 S5 Ep42: Mary Ann Cotton: Britain’s First Serial Killer
In the industrial villages of 19th-century England, death was common—but not this common. Over two decades, Mary Ann Cotton married, buried, and moved on with chilling regularity as children, husbands, and relatives died from what doctors called “gastric fever.” Only when forensic chemistry advanced—and one parish officer heard her say too much—did her pattern come into focus.
Jan 12, 2026 S5 Ep41: My Lai and the Cost of Following Orders
The massacre at My Lai was one of the most lethal attacks on civilians carried out by American troops in Vietnam. For more than a year, the Army’s official line held firm: it was an encounter with the enemy. Only when a soldier wrote dozens of letters, and a reporter refused to let the story die, did the truth reach the public. This episode explores the events of that day and the long road to accountability.
Jan 5, 2026 S5 Ep40: Diane Downs: Beyond Small Sacrifices
In May 1983, a young Oregon mother arrived at a Springfield hospital with a horrifying story: a stranger had flagged her down on a dark road and shot her and her three children. One child was dead, the other two clinging to life. But hospital staff noticed something strange about Diane Downs: She was superficially injured, eerily calm and oddly focused on her ruined vacation and blood-stained car. As investigators…
Dec 29, 2025 S5: Bonus: Gary Glitter and the Dark Side of Glam Rock
For this holiday week, we're releasing an episode that initially was available only to subscribers through GrabBagCollab.com and Apple Podcasts. In the 1970s, Gary Glitter was a glam rock sensation: sequins, stadium anthems, and screaming teenage fans. But like Jimmy Savile, he used fame as a weapon. This bonus episode unpacks his rise, fall, and the disturbing legacy he left behind. " Crimes of the Centuries " is…
Dec 26, 2025 Introducing The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance
On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and…
Dec 22, 2025 S5 Ep39: All the Queen's Money: The Fall of Rita Crundwell
For two decades, the small Illinois town of Dixon couldn't afford new trucks, fresh asphalt, or summer pools. Meanwhile, their trusted treasurer lived like royalty—breeding champion horses, dripping in diamonds, and cruising the country in a $2 million RV. When the truth came out, it was the largest municipal fraud in U.S. history. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten…
Dec 15, 2025 S5 Ep38: Milkshakes and Murder: The Kissel Brothers
When two wealthy brothers from the same family were murdered three years and 8,000 miles apart, it seemed too strange to be coincidence. But behind both crimes lay the same forces—greed, arrogance, and the illusion of control. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes and…
Dec 8, 2025 S5 Ep37: The Murder Farm of Jasper County
A boy’s discovery in the Yellow River launched one of the South’s most shocking murder investigations. What authorities found on John S. Williams’s farm in 1921 exposed a brutal system hiding in plain sight. The Georgia case made national headlines and forced Americans to confront how easily cruelty had survived just beneath the surface of everyday life. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab…
Dec 1, 2025 S5 Ep36: Thomas Jefferson and the $157,000 Bottle
In 1985, Christie’s auctioned off a dusty Bordeaux engraved with the initials “Th.J.” The seller claimed it had once belonged to Thomas Jefferson, and the bottle fetched an astonishing $157,000. It was a record-setting sale that turned the wine world upside down — and raised a bigger question: had history truly been uncorked, or had wealthy collectors just bought into a very expensive story? " Crimes of the…
Nov 24, 2025 S5 Ep35: The Saint and the Survivors: The Story of Junípero Serra
He gave up comfort for a calling, left Spain for the wilds of California, and walked thousands of miles to bring the Gospel to Indigenous people. Father Junípero Serra is revered by some as a saintly hero — the man who brought Catholicism to the West Coast. But to others, he represents something far darker: a symbol of colonization, forced assimilation, and cultural destruction. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a…
Nov 17, 2025 S5 Ep34: The Monster in Plain Sight: Jimmy Savile
He was the BBC’s quirky golden boy — cigar in hand, tracksuit on, always ready to raise money for charity. Margaret Thatcher lobbied to get him knighted. The Queen pinned the honor on him. And all the while, Jimmy Savile was one of Britain’s most prolific sexual predators. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change…
Nov 10, 2025 More Like Ancient FAILiens: Underground Aliens with Guest Amber Hunt
While Crimes Of The Centuries is dark this week, please enjoy this special episode of the podcast, More Like Ancient Fail-iens, where Amber Hunt was a special guest! Whether you are in your enormous underground city hiding from battling sky gods or run into an ant-person who just feels more comfortable beneath the earth’s surface, you, too, have had your life affected by underground aliens. Brandon and Toby are…
Nov 3, 2025 S5 Ep33: The Nazi Killed at the Laundromat — and How It Shaped Modern Extremism
In August 1967, George Lincoln Rockwell — founder of the American Nazi Party and one of the most hated men in America — was shot by a sniper while doing laundry at a suburban strip mall. His murder made international headlines. The funeral descended into chaos. Conspiracy theories emerged immediately. And then...America forgot. But Rockwell's death had lasting impact: It shattered American neo-Nazism into the…
Oct 27, 2025 S5 Ep32: Horst Wessel: The Making of a Nazi Martyr
When Horst Wessel died in 1930, he was an obscure 22-year-old member of the SA. Within months, Joseph Goebbels had elevated him into a saint of the Third Reich, complete with a theme song that would echo through rallies, classrooms, and pogroms. This episode traces how a violent street thug became the most famous Nazi martyr — and why his name still matters in extremist circles today. Crimes of the Centuries " is a…
Oct 20, 2025 S5 Ep31: Murder in the Mews: The Fall of Elvira Barney
London in the early 1930s was captivated by the Bright Young Things — aristocratic sons and daughters whose glittering parties and endless scandals filled the tabloids. Among them was Elvira Mullens Barney, a socialite whose beauty and notoriety made her one of the set’s most talked-about figures. But on the morning of May 31, 1932, the headlines turned deadly. Her lover, Michael Scott Stephen, was found shot in…
Oct 13, 2025 S5 Ep30: The Prophet of Kirtland, Part 2: Blood Atonement
Despite police informants thwarting one of his deadly plans, cult leader Jeffrey Lundgren’s appetite for violence couldn’t be satiated. When one target was out of reach, he simply shifted his sights to another — this time, a family who trusted him completely. They had followed him to Ohio believing he was a prophet of God, searching for salvation. What they found instead was a man who believed that some sins could…
Oct 5, 2025 S5 Ep29: The Prophet of Kirtland, Part 1: The Birth of a Cult
In 1980s Ohio, Jeffrey Lundgren wasn’t just studying scripture — he was twisting it into something dangerous. To outsiders, he was a soft-spoken tour guide at a historic church site. But behind closed doors, Lundgren was preaching a radical new theology, gathering followers and slowly convincing them that he spoke for God. His target? The Kirtland Temple — once the holiest site in the Latter Day Saint movement. "…
Sep 29, 2025 S5 Ep28: Can You Ever Forgive Me? The Literary Forgeries of Lee Israel
For a brief, dazzling moment in early 1990s New York, biographer Lee Israel became one of the most notorious literary forgers of all time. Out of money, out of friends, and with a sick cat to care for, Israel turned her biographer’s research skills and her sharp wit toward a new craft: fabricating letters from Dorothy Parker, Noël Coward, Louise Brooks, and more. Her forgeries fooled collectors, corrupted archives…
Sep 22, 2025 S5 Ep27: The Real Goodfellas Job
It was the score of all scores: a $6 million haul in cash and jewels lifted from JFK Airport in 1978. The headlines called it the Lufthansa heist; Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas turned it into legend. But the real story was messier: dozens of suspects, no recovered loot, and a trail of bodies that grew almost as fast as the FBI’s frustration. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring…
Sep 15, 2025 S5 Ep26: The Massacre Texas Tried to Erase
In the piney woods of East Texas in 1910, a mob of white men stormed through the Black community of Slocum, murdering dozens — possibly hundreds — of unarmed residents. The killers faced almost no consequences, and the survivors were silenced by fear. Over a century later, even basic recognition of the Slocum Massacre remains a battle. This is the story of the slaughter Texas tried to forget, and the people still…
Sep 15, 2025 Introducing: CRIME HOUSE DAILY
Crime doesn’t take a day off. And neither does Crime House Daily . Hosted by self-defense instructor and advocate for victims, Katie Ring, Crime House Daily is coming to you twice every weekday, covering the biggest crime stories as they unfold. Morning episodes give you the need-to-know. The latest headlines, breaking developments, and where things are going next. Evening episodes go deeper. Into the people, the…
Sep 8, 2025 S5 Ep25: The Hitler Diaries
When a major German magazine announced it had uncovered Adolf Hitler’s long-lost diaries, the world took notice. But what began as a journalistic coup turned into a scandal that rattled media empires — and left a permanent stain on the truth. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and…
Sep 1, 2025 S5 Ep24: Who Killed Barbara Hamburg? The True Story Behind El Dorado Drive
The murder of Barbara Hamburg might read like fiction — a bitter divorce, a mysterious pyramid scheme, a family full of secrets — but for her son Madison, it was all too real. In 2010, Barbara was found bludgeoned to death outside her home in the affluent shoreline town of Madison, Connecticut. In this episode, we explore a case that captivated author Megan Abbott, inspired her novel El Dorado Drive, and remains…
Aug 25, 2025 Future Crimes of the Centuries? The Death of John O’Keefe and the Trials of Karen Read
This week on Crimes of the Centuries, we’re breaking from tradition. Instead of a crime from decades past, we’re looking at a case that’s still shaping headlines — and raising questions that may take years to answer. When Boston police officer John O’Keefe was found dead in the snow outside a fellow cop’s home, his girlfriend, Karen Read, was accused of running him down with her SUV in a fit of drunken rage.…
Aug 18, 2025 S5 Ep23: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: Separating Fact from Fiction
In 1981, 21-year-old Danny Hansford was shot and killed inside one of Savannah’s grandest mansions. The man who pulled the trigger, antiques dealer Jim Williams, claimed self-defense. What followed was a legal circus resulting in four high-profile trials. Then, less than a year later after the dust settled, Williams was dead. This is the case that inspired Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the bestselling…
Aug 11, 2025 S5 Ep22: The Green Bicycle Mystery
Bella Wright was a shy, working-class woman whose life was cut short on a summer night in 1919, just short of her 22nd birthday. At first, her death looked like a tragic accident – until a single bullet found lodged in the dirt road changed everything. What followed was a century-long mystery involving an unshaven man on a distinctive green bicycle, a suspiciously dismantled frame dredged from a river, and a murder…
Aug 4, 2025 S5 Ep21: Gun on the Ferry: The Ruin of Laura Fair
Laura Fair wanted what many women in Gilded-Age San Francisco wanted: security, respectability, and a husband who told the truth. What she got instead was a years-long affair and a heap of public scorn. When a single gunshot rang out aboard a crowded ferry, it set off a national debate about morality, madness, and how far a woman could be pushed. Based on real letters, real lies, and a courtroom drama that…
Jul 28, 2025 S5 Ep20: The Fox in the Henhouse: Klaus Fuchs and the Secret That Changed the World
You’d think the guy helping build the deadliest weapon in history would be someone the Allies vetted carefully. You’d be wrong. Klaus Fuchs was a physicist, a refugee, and a trusted member of the Manhattan Project. He was also a Soviet spy. His quiet betrayal helped the USSR test its first atomic bomb years ahead of schedule—ending America’s monopoly on nuclear weapons and setting the stage for the Cold War. All in…
Jul 21, 2025 S5 Ep19: Karen Silkwood and the Price of Speaking Up
In 1974, 28-year-old Karen Silkwood left her home with a binder full of evidence and a plan to blow the whistle on dangerous conditions at the plutonium plant where she worked. She never arrived. What followed was a national uproar, a swirl of conspiracy theories, and a battle over the truth that still echoes today. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times…
Jul 14, 2025 S5 Ep18: Reckoning at Penn State: The Jerry Sandusky Scandal
Jerry Sandusky was a legend at Penn State University. As the right hand of head football coach Joe Paterno, he was known not only as an exceptional coach but also as a big-hearted philanthropist and advocate for troubled youth. So when a 2011 grand jury report exposed decades of abuse, the fallout was immeasurable, bringing to light a story of power, silence, and the cost of looking the other way. " Crimes of the…
Jul 7, 2025 S5 Ep17: Faith Vs. Flag: How the Gobitis Case Tested the Limits of Religious Freedom
In 1935, 12-year-old Lillian Gobitas and her little brother William were kicked out of their Pennsylvania public school — not for misbehaving, but for quietly refusing to salute the flag, which they believed went against their Jehovah’s Witness faith. Their dad sued, arguing the school had violated their right to religious freedom. But in a sweeping decision, the Supreme Court sided with the school, saying national…
Jun 30, 2025 The Murder of Phil Hartman
Crimes Of The Centuries is dark again this week, so here is an episode that you might not have heard previously... or might just want to listen to again. When news spread that a high-profile comedian was killed in a murder-suicide in 1998, the response was disbelief: Phil Hartman wasn't just famous for being funny. He was even better known for being a good-hearted guy. The shocking story behind the deaths of…
Jun 23, 2025 Guest Episode: The Wild Tale of Black Jack Ketchum
While Crimes of the Centuries takes a brief summer break, enjoy a guest episode from Josh at The Wild West Extravaganza. This one’s a doozy: It’s the story of "Black Jack" Ketchum — a train robber whose criminal exploits made headlines across the American frontier. But it was his botched execution that really cemented his place in Wild West lore. This is one of those cases where the truth is not only stranger than…
Jun 16, 2025 S5 Ep16: The Siege of Sidney Street
In late 1910 and early 1911, a band of impulsive Latvian radicals fleeing persecution in Russia unleashed a wave of violence in London that left three policemen dead and part of a quiet city block in ruins. The siege that followed would not only transform British law enforcement but also mark a turning point in media history, as cameras captured the chaos in real time. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from…
Jun 9, 2025 S5 Ep15: The Repairman's Ruse: The Kidnapping of Alice Speed Stoll
When Berry Stoll returned from work on Oct. 10, 1934, the scene greeting him was pure chaos: His maid was tied up, his wife was missing and a terrifying pool of blood covered one of the beds. Alice Speed Stoll had been kidnapped by a smooth-talking, well-dressed man who claimed to be a phone repairman. What followed was a tense and twisted saga of ransom demands, narrow escapes, and a desperate manhunt that…
Jun 2, 2025 S5 Ep14: Breach of Trust: Inside the Legendary Loomis Fargo Heist
One Sunday morning in 1997, a security guard noticed the front fence at Loomis Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina, was ajar. So was the warehouse door. And the vault inside was fitted with a suspicious time lock. When authorities finally opened the vault the next day, they found it completely empty, the target of one of the largest cash thefts in US history. The manhunt that followed would grip the nation as…
May 26, 2025 S5 Ep13: Silenced in the South: Ruby McCollum and the Murder of Dr. Adams
In 1952, Ruby McCollum left two of her children in her car as she casually walked into a doctor's office in Live Oak, Florida, and shot Dr. C. Leroy Adams — a respected white physician and newly elected state senator. But what seemed like a clear-cut case of murder over a disputed medical bill soon unraveled into a story of power, race, sexual violence, and silence in the Jim Crow South. " Crimes of the Centuries "…
May 19, 2025 S5 Ep12: The Stolen Cells and Silent Legacy of Henrietta Lacks
When Henrietta Lacks discovered a tumor inside of her in 1951, she turned to Johns Hopkins Medical Center for help. They examined her cells and discovered two things: First, she had cervical cancer. And second, her cells, for reasons we still can't explain, multiplied at astonishing rates, allowing doctors and pharmaceutical companies to use them to conduct all sorts of valuable research. Without Lacks knowledge or…
May 15, 2025 Presenting: Murder True Crime Stories
Murder: True Crime Stories explores the depths of history's most notorious murders, like you've never heard before. Go beyond the crime scene as we search for the real story, and focus on the people impacted the most. Whether or not the case is solved, you'll come away with an understanding of why these stories need to be told. Murder: True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios.…
May 12, 2025 S5 Ep11: Sex on the Moon: The Audacious Theft of Lunar Rocks
A band of nerdy geology enthusiasts were sure the email they received in 2002 was a hoax: The unsolicited message said that its writer was in possession of moon rocks that he was willing to sell. But moon rocks were among the most valuable objects on earth and anyone who knew anything about NASA knew that not only was owning them illegal, but it was impossible. One email recipient reached out to the FBI and was…
May 5, 2025 S5 Ep10: Did Britain Hang an Innocent Man? The Murders at Rillington Place Part 2
When 25-year-old Tim Evans was hanged for killing his wife and 14-month-old daughter in 1949, few outside of his family questioned whether justice had been done. After all, Evans had at one point confessed to the crimes. But during his trial he recanted, saying that a neighbor had killed his 20-year-old wife Beryl during a botched abortion attempt. It seemed a ludicrous attempt at diversion -- until that same…
Apr 28, 2025 S5 Ep9: John Reginald Christie and the Murders at Rillington Place
In 1953, a horrific discovery was made behind some hastily hung wallpaper in a flat at 10 Rillington Place in London's Notting Hill neighborhood: The decomposing bodies of three women. Another body was found beneath floor boards, and two more skeletons were recovered from the backyard garden. Soon, a nationwide manhunt was under way for John Reginald Christie, a man author Kate Summerscale describes as…
Apr 21, 2025 S5 Ep8: Journalist Spy: The Double Life of Pham Xuan An
As American journalists worked to cover the Vietnam War, one of their colleagues proved a valuable asset: Pham Xuan An had been born in Vietnam, and was therefore able to help his coworkers navigate the ins and outs of an unfamiliar culture. His work was praised as detailed, empathetic and unbiased. It would be years later that the truth finally came out, revealing that the journalist was in fact a South Vietnamese…
Apr 14, 2025 S5 Ep7: Jack Kevorkian: Dr. Death or Champion of Choice?
In the 1990s, Dr. Jack Kevorkian ignited a firestorm when he began helping to end the lives of people who said they were terminally ill. Over the years, he claimed to have assisted in the deaths of more than 130 people, all while challenging police and prosecutors who vowed to stop him. His first four trials ended in three acquittals and a mistrial, but as his antics grew more daring, so, too, did the legal…
Apr 7, 2025 S5 Ep6: The Enduring Mystery of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
For much of their outlaw careers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid weren't the inseparable duo that Hollywood made us believe with its 1969 depiction of the pair. But the movie isn't the only reason the two are inextricably linked: The two members of the Wild West crew known as The Wild Bunch were wanted men when they opted in 1901 to disappear together. The official story is that the pair died in a shoot-out…
Mar 31, 2025 *BONUS* Strange And Unexplained- That Time Democracy Almost Collapsed: The Forgotten History of Smedley Butler and the Plot to Overthrow FDR
Crimes Of The Centuries is dark this week, but we hope you'll enjoy this episode of Strange And Unexplained with Daisy Eagan. In the 1930s, some shadowy figures approached a decorated and beloved Marine with a plot to overthrow the government and replace FDR with someone much more friendly to the wealthy. If only they hadn't chosen Smedley Butler to do their bidding, we might be living in a very different world…
Mar 24, 2025 S5 Ep5: How the Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire Forever Changed Civil Litigation
As the audience was settling in for an evening of entertainment in one of the swankiest nightclubs in the Midwest, a busboy approached the mic and asked everyone to exit the sprawling building. Soon, the place was engulfed. The May 28, 1977, fire at the Beverly Hills Supper Club was a deadly disaster that subsequent investigations found was not only preventable, but had been predicted, too. The lawsuits that…
Mar 17, 2025 S5 Ep4: How Family Man John List Became New Jersey's Bogeyman
To outsiders, John List was a mild-mannered, church-going father of three whose oddest trait was mowing the lawn in a suit and tie. But then the bodies of his wife, mother and three children were uncovered rotting in the family's Westfield, New Jersey, home in late 1971. This was no whodunit: List left notes explaining not only what he'd done, but why he claimed he had to do it. Then he disappeared, becoming one of…
Mar 10, 2025 S5 Ep3: Mulholland's Deadly Dam Disaster
William Mulholland was summoned to the St. Francis Dam in San Francisquito Canyon early March 12, 1928, to inspect some leaks that workers found worrisome. Mulholland shrugged off the concerns and declared the dam -- the 19th he'd designed alone to feed water to the parched desert of Los Angeles -- perfectly safe. Hours later, the dam gave way, releasing billions of gallons of water downstream, killing more than…
Mar 3, 2025 S5 Ep2: The Genesee River Killer
Sex workers began disappearing in the Rochester, New York, area at an alarming rate in the late 1980s. When their strangled and mutilated bodies were later discovered, it was clear they were being targeted by a sick killer with a distinct MO. It turned out that the man behind the killings, Arthur Shawcross, had already killed before. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten…
Feb 28, 2025 Friday Follow-Up: Charley Ross: America's First Kidnapping for Ransom
On this Friday Follow-Up, we update with information brought to us by two descendants of an important latter-day figure in the case. After 4-year-old Charley Ross vanished in a carriage with two men who'd offered him candy and fireworks, police at first told his father to wait it out. Surely the men had no bad intentions. Then came the first ransom letter. And another. And another. In 1874, the Charley Ross case…
Feb 24, 2025 S5 Ep1: Twins Torn Apart: The Kidnapping of Marion Parker
When a well-dressed man approached a Los Angeles junior high school in 1927 asking for his coworker Perry Parker's daughter, the woman at the front desk should have immediately sensed something was off. Parker didn't have one daughter at the school; he had two. When the man clarified he wanted the "younger" Parker girl, that should have struck the office marm as odder still because the girls were twins. Still, Mary…
Feb 20, 2025 Introducing: CRIME HOUSE TRUE CRIME STORIES
Crime House True Crime Stories is the ultimate destination for true crime fans. Every episode features two notorious cases from that week in crime history, tied by a common theme like infamous serial killers, mysterious disappearances, tragic murders, and more. Every Monday, uncover the full stories behind the headlines as host Vanessa Richardson takes you through high-profile investigations like the murder of…
Feb 17, 2025 S4 Ep46: The Betrayal of Anne Frank
Most people know the story of Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl who hid in a secret attic for two years with six other people to avoid the Nazis, but a question still festers 80 years later: Who turned them in and sealed their fates? " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free…
Feb 10, 2025 S4 Ep45: The Lysine Cartel: How an Informant (Sloppily) Exposed Archer Daniels Midland
Mark Whitacre, a high-ranking exec at the agribusiness company Archer Daniels Midland, approached the FBI with some scandalous news: His employer was part of an international cartel illegally inflating the cost of lysine, an additive used in animal feed. What Whitacre ultimately helped uncover landed more than just his bosses in prison. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring…
Feb 3, 2025 S4 Ep44: At Any Cost: The Rise and Fall of Lance Armstrong
After recovering from Stage 4 testicular cancer, cyclist Lance Armstrong not only got his health back, but he became one of the sport's highest profile figures, winning seven Tour de France races in a row. While he insisted -- repeatedly and under oath -- that he'd earned those wins without the help of performance-enhancing drugs, one of his past teammates stepped forward to tell a different story. " Crimes of the…
Jan 27, 2025 S4 Ep43: How Two Murders Became Three: The Story of George Stinney Jr.
In 1944, the brutal slayings of two young girls made plenty of headlines in Alcolu, South Carolina. The trial of their suspected killer garnered far less attention -- even when he was convicted and violently executed in the electric chair. That's because few people had much sympathy for the boy who supposedly confessed to the crime. Nearly a century later, however, and 14-year-old George Stinney Jr. is not only…
Jan 20, 2025 S4 Ep42: Aberfan's Lost Generation
Students at Pantglas Junior School had just settled in at their desks the morning of Oct. 21, 1966, when an avalanche of slurry swept through the building, trapping hundreds of children and teachers and wiping out nearby homes and businesses. Known as the Aberfan Disaster, the collapse of a colliery spoil tip ultimately killed 116 children and 28 adults. While the official cause was weeks of heavy rain, what…
Jan 13, 2025 S4 Ep41: The Stealing of 'The Scream'
As the world descended on Norway for the 1994 Winter Olympics, a determined thief set his sights on a Norweigian painting he'd coveted most of his life: Edvard Munch's The Scream. The daring theft of the world-renowned painting took less than a minute and prompted an undercover sting in hopes of retrieving the masterpiece. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from…
Jan 6, 2025 S4 Ep40: The Murder That Scandalized Harvard
On Thanksgiving week in 1849, Boston doctor and Harvard graduate George Parkman went for a walk and never returned home. The last place he'd been spotted was near the college's medical school, where he'd stopped for a meeting with Harvard chemistry professor John White Webster. The case that unfolded not only made international headlines but it threatened the reputation of America's oldest university. " Crimes of…
Dec 30, 2024 Introducing The In Between Podcast
Host Mel Barrett investigates a famous murder case that has split the community in her home state of New Hampshire right down the middle for thirty-four years. It’s a closed case, but based on what Mel uncovers this season in old police files (including surreptitiously recorded wiretaps), never before heard interviews, and a bombshell post trial interview with a juror that’s been hidden away, Mel is about to blow…
Dec 23, 2024 Daniel Sickles: Temporarily Insane?
Crimes of the Centuries presents one of Amber's favorite episodes from Season One. Happy holidays everyone! In 1859, two of Washington, D.C.'s highest-profile men were in love with the same woman -- and that love triangle would lead to the broad-daylight shooting of one of them just a stone's throw from the White House. The victim had been the first-born son of Francis Scott Key, author of the lyrics to America's…
Dec 17, 2024 S4 Ep39 Part 2: Claus von Bülow's Two Trials of the Century
We are bringing you part two of the "Sunny" von Bülow story as a Bonus episode! When heiress and socialite Martha "Sunny" von Bülow was found unresponsive on the bathroom floor, her husband seemed awfully quick to pull the plug when doctors declared her comatose. Suspicions only grew when investigators discovered that Claus von Bülow had a mistress who'd given him an ultimatum to leave Sunny or else. But what…
Dec 16, 2024 S4 Ep39: The Decades-Long Death of "Sunny" von Bülow
To outsiders, Claus and Martha "Sunny" von Bülow seemed an idyllic couple on the upper echelons of high society, but those who knew them best were growing increasingly concerned in the late 1970s when Sunny began having health scares that doctors couldn't figure out. Claus said his wife was a depressed alcoholic, but Sunny's children and maid weren't so sure. Things took a tragic turn after Christmas of 1980,…
Dec 9, 2024 S4 Ep38: The Nazi Plunder of World War II
We all know Adolph Hitler as a mediocre artist-turned-genocidal dictator, but did you know that he pulled off the greatest art heist the world has ever seen? As World War II unfolded across Europe, Hitler directed his Nazis to steal countless masterpieces from every country they traversed. He kept his favorites, while others were hidden in castles and salt mines to be unearthed after the war ended. Many of the…
Dec 2, 2024 S4 Ep37: Escape from Alcatraz
The morning of June 12, 1962, alarms sounded at the federal prison on Alcatraz Island when guards conducting a head count came up three inmates short. In the prisoners' beds were decoy heads that bought the men enough time to escape the supposedly inescapable prison known as The Rock. The trio -- Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin -- had used handmade tools to dig tunnels and craft makeshift rafts…
Nov 25, 2024 S4 Ep36: Brink's Heist: The Ultimate Caper
On January 17, 1950, a throng of men wearing superhero Halloween masks stormed into the headquarters of Brink's in Boston, Massachusetts, and made off with nearly $2.8 million. For years, the case baffled federal authorities, who spent 10 times the amount stolen working to solve the crime. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and…
Nov 18, 2024 S4 Ep35: Firefighter-Turned-Arsonist John Leonard Orr
As a series of brush and building fires baffled most firefighters in the Los Angeles region, John Orr of the Glendale Fire Department seemed amazingly skilled at identifying the cause of each blaze. He was so skilled at his job, in fact, that he was routinely asked to train other firefighters. Turned out, though, there was a sinister reason for Orr's success. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag…
Nov 11, 2024 S4 Ep34: The Monster of Florence
Between 1968 and 1985, eight sets of lovers were murdered during new moons in the Tuscany region of Italy. The mysterious and brutal slayings terrorized the region, made international headlines and fueled countless theories -- including one that the Monster of Florence and America's Zodiac Killer were one and the same. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from…
Nov 4, 2024 S4 Ep33: The Unholy Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker
As high-rolling televangelists, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker built a Christian media empire that included a theme park, broadcasting network and ministry funded by faithful viewers who believed the Bakkers when they said God would reward their investments 100-fold in this life and even more so in the next one. Then the feds got involved. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten…
Oct 28, 2024 S4 Ep32: How the 1919 World Series Blackened the Chicago White Sox and American Sports
In the wake of the 1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds, disturbing rumors began to swirl that sparked an investigation: Did members of the White Sox club -- including legendary "Shoeless Joe" Jackson -- conspire with professional gamblers to rig the outcome of the series? " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that…
Oct 21, 2024 S4 Ep31: You Have the Right to an Attorney ... Thanks to Clarence Earl Gideon
A poor drifter named Clarence Earl Gideon had faced more than his share of legal run-ins over his lifetime, but when he was arrested in 1961 for allegedly stealing some drinks and quarters from a bar, he insisted he wasn't guilty -- and asked for an attorney to help him prove it. At the time, though, Florida law only provided defense lawyers in capital cases. After his conviction, Gideon sought to change that law…
Oct 18, 2024 FRIDAY FOLLOW-UP: Sex, Lies, and Murder: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, and Harry Thaw
On this Friday Follow-Up, we tweak one of our earliest episodes after Amber's later research uncovered that an aspect of this case has been wrongly reported for decades. It was one of the most salacious stories the country had ever heard: A famous architect had been gunned down in front of an audience of hundreds by a man who said he was defending his wife's honor. It so happened the wife was the world's first…
Oct 14, 2024 S4 Ep30: The Pastor and His Mistress: The Scandalous Hall-Mills Murder
The town of New Brunswick, New Jersey, was rocked by the discovery of two bodies beneath a crabapple tree in September 1922. The remains belonged to Edward Hall, a local pastor, and Eleanor Mills, a member of the church's choir. The two were found entwined beneath the tree -- an odd positioning considering they'd both been married to other people. Suspicion soon fell as the lovers' spouses, turning the tawdry tale…
Oct 7, 2024 S4 Ep29: Col. Tom Parker: The Fraud Who Made Elvis Presley
Music legend Elvis Presley never knew it before he died, but the man he trusted with his career and money was not who he said he was. Col. Tom Parker had been born in the Netherlands, not in Huntington, W. Va., as he'd claimed. Parker -- born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk before arriving in the U.S. illegally -- upended the music industry with the unorthodox contracts he demanded, which lined his pockets more than…
Sep 30, 2024 Crimes Of The Centuries presents: The Burden
Crimes Of The Centuries is dark this week, but if you liked last week's episode on former Detective Louis Scarcella, we think you'll like season one of The Burden. The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains and shines a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Listen…
Sep 23, 2024 S4 Ep28: From 'Closer' to 'Crooked': NYC Detective Louis Scarcella's Fall from Grace
When Det. Louis Scarcella retired in 1999, he was a New York City hero. He had closed dozens of homicide cases during his decades-long run as a cop nicknamed 'The Closer' for his ability to get suspects to confess to him. Years after he retired, however, one of his highest-profile cases got another look, and a judge exonerated the man convicted. Then came another overturned conviction and another. To date, 20…
Sep 16, 2024 S4 Ep27: From Hero to Traitor: How Benedict Arnold Slid into Infamy
Before Benedict Arnold's name became synonymous with 'traitor,' he had been hailed as a hero of the American Revolutionary War. His rise from militiaman to trusted ally of George Washington was the stuff of legends. But instead of being honored with, say, his likeness on American currency, he committed an act of treason so heinous that his name is still hurled as an insult to this day. " Crimes of the Centuries "…
Sep 9, 2024 S4 Ep26: How the Horrifying Murder of Adam Walsh Changed America
In 1981, a 6-year-old boy accompanied his mother to a Sears department store, where she left him for mere minutes in the toy department. Two weeks later, the boy's head was discovered in a ditch. Learn how the horrifying case -- and the South Florida police department's decades-long bungling of it -- changed parenting in America. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten…
Sep 2, 2024 S4 Ep25: The Clutter Family: The Case Behind Truman Capote's In Cold Blood
The horrific killing of four members of the Clutter family in 1959 led author Truman Capote to write In Cold Blood , the book credited with launching true crime as a genre. But how much of what Capote wrote was as "immaculately factual" as the author led the world to believe? " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change…
Aug 26, 2024 S4 Ep24: How Catherine of Aragon Changed Europe
The Catholic Church lost its grip on England largely thanks to a woman who refused to quietly let her husband trade her in for a younger model. Catherine of Aragon's impact on Europe has lasted for centuries, and it all began with a single crime: bigamy. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. \DON'T FORGET…
Aug 19, 2024 S4 Ep23: Cassie Chadwick: The Impostor Heiress of the Gilded Age
Cassie Chadwick of Cleveland wasn't who she said she was. Even she admitted that -- though in her version, she wasn't the con artist daughter of a Canadian farmer, but rather the illegitimate daughter of Andrew Carnegie, America's wealthiest man. She used that lie to bilk businessmen, bankers and entire institutions out of boatloads of money, earning her place in history as one of the Gilded Age's most accomplished…
Aug 12, 2024 S4 Ep22: The Largest Art Heist in American History
When several men dressed as cops entered the Isabella Gardner Museum in March of 1990, the nighttime security detail didn't think much of it -- until one of the "officers" handcuffed the guards' wrists and announced, "This is a robbery." Thirty-four years later, theories abound about who was behind the largest -- and most mystifying -- art heist in American history. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from…
Aug 5, 2024 S4 Ep21: Sex, Lies and a Government Conspiracy: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study
In 1932, hundreds of men in Tuskegee, Alabama, signed up for something they'd never had much access to: healthcare. The best part? It was free. Told for decades they were being treated for "bad blood," the participants were never informed they had tested positive for syphilis and were being studied by the US government to see how the disease progressed in Black men who were blocked from receiving readily available…
Jul 29, 2024 S4 Ep20: Terror in Munich: The 1972 Olympic Games
After Munich, Germany, was named the host of the 1972 Olympic Games, organizers were determined to highlight the country's softer side after the horrors of World War II. This was, after all, the first Olympics to be held in Germany since 1936's Berlin Games, during which Hitler used the festivities to spread propaganda and Nazi ideology. Unfortunately, Munich's "softer side" went beyond a subdued color palette,…
Jul 22, 2024 S4 Ep19: The Time Mobile, Alabama, Sentenced a Man to Death For Stealing $1.95
When a handyman from Mobile, Alabama, was accused of stealing $1.95 from a woman who employed him in 1957, no one could have guessed the fervor it would cause, not just nationally but overseas. Jimmy Wilson was sentenced to death for the theft in a case that threatened America's reputation on a global scale. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past…
Jul 15, 2024 S4 Ep18: The Pimlico Poisoning: The Trial of Adelaide Bartlett
Soon after London bade farewell to 1885 and welcomed the new year, a woman named Adelaide Bartlett roused her sleeping house with screams. Her husband, Edwin, who had seemed to have turned a corner on his recent illness, was dead. Housemates who arrived in a panic immediately noticed a chemical smell in the room that suggested Edwin hadn't died of natural causes. The case, which would soon be dubbed the Pimlico…
Jul 1, 2024 From Grab Bag Collab: The Catalyst
Hey, Crimes of the Centuries listeners! COTC is dark for the next two weeks, but as a special bonus, here is another episode of The Catalyst, a true-crime podcast that publishes every other Friday exclusively to patreon.com/grabbagcollab . U.S. Air Force, Stalking, and Camping Trips. This is the story of The Boy Scout. Dive deep into the upbringing and backstories of individuals who committed history's most…
Jun 24, 2024 S4 Ep17: The Falcon and the Snowman
In the 1970s, an aerospace firm in Redondo Beach, California, had the clever idea of handing over access to highly classified spy satellite secrets to a 20-something named Christopher Boyce. It didn't end well. Boyce and his high school buddy -- a drug dealer named Daulton Lee -- soon began selling that classified info to the Russians in a scheme that's still regarded today as one of the most damaging acts of…
Jun 17, 2024 S4 Ep16: The Lonely Hearts Club Killers
After World War II stole a great many men from their loving wives, Lonely Hearts clubs were all the rage for lonely widows looking for love. A number of them thought they'd met their soul mates when they traded letters with a man calling himself Chris Martin who was so devoted to his family, he often had his sister in tow. In truth, those unsuspecting women were communicating with Ray Fernandez and his lover,…
Jun 10, 2024 S4 Ep15: Randy Ayers: The Case of the Lookalike
Randy Ayers was a 17-year-old high school senior when he was spotted at school and identified as the man who raped and tried to kill a 15-year-old girl in November 1981. It would take nine agonizing years -- and an unsolicited confession from a serial killer -- before Randy's case would change how prosecutors in Hamilton County, Ohio, treated eyewitness identification. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from…
Jun 3, 2024 S4 Ep14: Voyage of the Damned: The M.S. St. Louis
The 937 passengers aboard the M.S. St. Louis had every reason to be optimistic as they left Hamburg, Germany, on May 13, 1939. After years of their rights being slowly stripped away, the Jewish men, women and children felt lucky to be sailing off to start anew in Cuba. But once they spotted their destination, a new nightmare began. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten…
May 27, 2024 S4 Ep13: Kidnapped and Buried Alive: The Nightmare in Chowchilla
When 26 California schoolchildren and their bus driver failed to show up after a swimming trip on the penultimate day of summer school, authorities launched a search that grew much more frantic after the school bus they'd been traveling in was discovered hidden in 20-foot-tall bamboo. What happened next shocked and befuddled the nation. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring…
May 20, 2024 S4 Ep12: The Tsavo Man Eaters
In 1898, a pair of killers stalked a worksite in the Tsavo region of Kenya. They evaded blockades and booby traps to torment hundreds of men who'd simply signed up to do a job but instead found themselves marked as prey for a seemingly unstoppable deadly duo. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history DON'T…
May 13, 2024 S4 Ep11: Marie Noe and Her Cradle of Death
In the 1960s, after losing all 10 of the babies they'd conceived, Marie Noe and her husband, Arthur, became the most famous bereaved parents in America, with most of the deaths attributed to "crib death," later called Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). After a journalist revisited the case in 1998, investigators took another look at the mysterious series of deaths, prompting Marie Noe to share a horrifying secret…
May 6, 2024 S4 Ep10: The Walk of Death: Howard Unruh
On September 6, 1949, 28-year-old World War II veteran Howard Unruh ate the breakfast his mother made him, then armed himself with a Luger pistol and walked calmly through his Camden, New Jersey, neighborhood, shooting everyone in sight. He told police afterward he'd had a kill list of specific people he'd felt had wronged him, but by the end of his 12-minute rampage, 13 would be fatally wounded, three of them…
Apr 29, 2024 S4 Ep9: The Monster of Wall Street
While the grift he deployed had been named for another man, Bernie Madoff took the concept of a Ponzi scheme and pumped it full of steroids, allowing it to keep him -- and plenty of others -- filthy rich for literally decades. In the end, Madoff bilked some $65 billion from thousands of clients, all while maintaining such a sheen of respectability that he was charged with helping write the very rules he himself…
Apr 22, 2024 S4 Ep8: Charles Ponzi's Scheme
Italian-born Charles Ponzi had grown up hearing from his mother that he was destined for greatness, so it was no surprise to her when she visited him in America to find him wealthy beyond her wildest dreams. Ponzi had come up with a get-rich-quick scheme that he insisted was legal. To his credit, it took federal authorities a good seven months to figure out how it wasn't. In this episode, meet the man whose name…
Apr 15, 2024 S4 Ep7: The Los Angeles Times Bombing
In the midst of nationwide bombings that pit union backers against anti-union bosses, an explosion at the Los Angeles Times building crossed a line that changed everything. At 1:07 a.m. on Oct. 1, 1910, a blast tore through the Times building, killing 21 people. Times officials immediately blamed organized labor, which ultimately bore out: Not only were three union-affiliated co-conspirators convicted soon after…
Apr 8, 2024 S4 Ep6: How the Assault of Recy Taylor Shaped Civil Rights Tactics
In September 1944, a 24-year-old married woman named Recy Taylor was walking home with friends from church when a carload of seven men stopped her. Forced into the car, Recy, a Black woman, was repeatedly raped by six white men at gunpoint, then tossed roadside with a warning: Tell anyone about this, and you're dead. Recy ignored the threats and her tale soon galvanized activists throughout Alabama -- including a…
Apr 1, 2024 From Grab Bag Collab: The Catalyst
Hey, Crimes of the Centuries listeners! COTC is now part of Grab Bag Collab, a Patreon-based podcasting network. You can find our other shows available at patreon.com/grabbagcollab Alcoholism, multiple husbands and boarding houses. This is the story of The Landlady. Dive deep into the upbringing and backstories of individuals who committed history's most notorious crimes, shedding light on the psychological factors…
Mar 25, 2024 S4 Ep5: Winnie Ruth Judd: The Trunk Murderess
When luggage leaking blood arrived at a Los Angeles train depot in 1931, the woman who'd traveled with the items feigned ignorance -- and then disappeared, leading to a nationwide manhunt that captivated the nation. Because one of the two victims found inside the Winnie Ruth Judd's trunks had been dismembered -- and because both she and the victims were beautiful women -- the case generated hundreds of headlines…
Mar 18, 2024 S4 Ep4: The Texas Tower Sniper
The morning of Aug. 1, 1966, 25-year-old Charles Whitman called his wife's boss to say she'd be out, then did the same for his mother. After killing the two women, he climbed atop the observatory tower at the University of Texas and relentlessly began picking off pedestrians below in an attack unlike any before witnessed in America. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten…
Mar 11, 2024 S4 Ep3: The Cold-Blooded Killing of the Candy Man
Every parent has worried about their children hauling home tainted candy on Halloween, but not everyone knows where that fear originated. On Halloween in 1974, an 8-year-old boy named Timothy O’Bryan was granted one pick from his basket before bed — and soon after downing the contents of his Pixy Stix, he went limp in his father’s arms. The investigation threw parents into a panic, prompting tons of candy to be…
Mar 4, 2024 S4 Ep2: The Disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa
Notorious labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa had for decades been a polarizing figure, with his ties to organized crime investigated as early as 1957 by future U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy. A jury tampering conviction eventually took him out of official power, but Hoffa worked tirelessly behind the scenes to reclaim his position -- until his disappearance in 1975. Despite countless theories about what happened…
Feb 26, 2024 S4 Ep1: Dr. Satan of Occupied Paris: Marcel Petiot
Living in Occupied Paris during World War II was utter chaos, with the Gestapo police constantly changing rules, kidnapping people from the streets and sidelining the Parisian police. A physician named Marcel Petiot claimed to be among the brave men and women working for the Resistance — a group determined to help smuggle endangered people to safety, far from the reach of the Third Reich. But when neighbors…
Feb 23, 2024 From Grab Bag Collab: Introducing The Catalyst
Hey, Crimes of the Centuries listeners! COTC is now part of Grab Bag Collab, a Patreon-based podcasting network. You can find our other shows available at patreon.com/grabbagcollab
Feb 11, 2024 S3 Ep42: Uncovering the True Story of the Tulsa Massacre
For years, the violence that occurred in the area known as "Black Wall Street" in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921 was remembered as the "Tulsa Race Riot" - when it was even remembered at all. But that name, promoted by the media and government officials, was at best a misleading description of what we've now started to reveal over the past few decades as a massacre perpetrated on a thriving Black community that took…
Feb 5, 2024 S3 Ep41: The Death of Bob Crane: A Television Star's Secret Life
Handsome and charismatic, the actor Bob Crane led the cast of the hit sitcom "Hogan's Heroes" for six seasons from the mid-sixties into the beginning of the next decade. The show ended in 1971, and Crane began traveling the country in a touring play. When he was found dead in his hotel room in Arizona in 1978, was it due to a secret life that he kept hidden from public view? " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast…
Jan 29, 2024 S3 Ep40: Anna Marie Hahn: Cincinnati's "Angel of Death"
Her story seemed innocent at first, if not charming. A young immigrant woman from Germany befriending older gentlemen in Cincinnati's German community and providing them memories of home with her Old World cooking. But as these men fell ill - or worse, starting dying - the motives behind Anna Marie Hahn's friendly overtures proved to be far more devious. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab…
Jan 22, 2024 S3 Ep39: The Lincoln Assassination's Forgotten Conspirators
It's a story every American grade school student learns - how the actor John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln in his box at the Ford's Theater, jumped down to the stage, and fled Washington DC until he was killed by the authorities in a barn in rural Virginia. But it's not widely known that Booth wasn't acting alone, and that President Lincoln was only one of several targets he and his conspirators…
Jan 15, 2024 S3 Ep38: The Defeo Murders: Behind the Amityville Horror - Part 2
After the murder of the Defeo family, the house known as "High Hopes" where the murders occurred was purchased by the George and Kathy Lutz. But the Lutz family soon fled the property, claiming frightening paranormal activity. Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren arrived and began studying the scene. But did they find evidence of supernatural occurrences - or were they perpetrating a fraud on a…
Jan 8, 2024 S3 Ep37: The Defeo Murders: Behind the Amityville Horror - Part 1
The word "Amityville" has practically become synonymous in popular culture with the eerie and supernatural. But behind the books and movies is a true story of the Defeo murders, and in today's episode, we're joined by fellow Obsessed Network podcaster Daisy Eagan to tell their story. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from the Obsessed Network exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and…
Jan 1, 2024 S3 Ep36: American Black Widow Sharon Harrelson
Having one husband die under suspicious circumstances may not cause alarm bells to ring, but what if a second husband also meets an unfortunate fate? The so-called "American Black Widow" Sharon Harrelson may have considered herself cursed when it came to love, but in today's episode we dive into her story of deception, betrayal, and ultimately murder. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from the Obsessed…
Dec 11, 2023 S3 Ep35: The Kansas City Union Station Massacre
There were seven men guarding the notorious criminal Frank Nash as he moved through Kansas City Union Station to a car waiting outside. But these officers couldn't stop the onslaught that faced them as they attempted to transfer Nash into the car. In today's episode, we'll explore how this bloody shootout changed the way American law enforcement fought crime. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from the…
Dec 4, 2023 S3 Ep34: Bonnie and Clyde: The Real Story of the Notorious Duo
The story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow is probably familiar to many of our COTC listeners. But this story of young outlaws terrorizing the country is one that has been romanticized and practically turned into an American myth. In today's episode, we shake off the romantic sheen and look at the real events behind one of the most notorious duos in history. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from the…
Nov 20, 2023 S3 Ep33: The Scourge of Thalidomide
In March of 1954, scientists from German pharmaceutical company Chemie Grünenthal produced Thalidomide for the first time. Thalidomide was a sedative and sleep aid sold in many countries worldwide under the name “Contergan”, as well as other brands. The medication was also being marketed and taken by pregnant women as a safe remedy for morning sickness. But in November of 1961, the drug was found to have caused…
Nov 13, 2023 S3 Ep32: Billy the Kid: The Lincoln County War Part 2
After the five-day Battle of Lincoln, the deputized posse called the Regulators disbanded. The Lincoln County War appeared to be over. Lew Wallace, the newly appointed governor of the New Mexico Territory knew that some of the former desperados were worried that they could be arrested at any point for whatever role they had played during the ordeal, so he offered amnesty for many of them. But those who had already…
Nov 6, 2023 S3 Ep31: The Lincoln County War Part 1
In November 1876, a 24-year-old wealthy cattleman and banker named John Tunstall, arrived in Lincoln County, New Mexico. Together with lawyer Alexander McSween, John Tunstall set up a rival business to the existing duo who ran things in town - Lawrence Murphy and James Dolan. In this two-part episode, we learn more about the bloody conflict that arose and became the Lincoln County War, and how it birthed the Wild…
Oct 30, 2023 S3 Ep30: The Lattimer Mine Massacre
On September 10, 1897, roughly 300 to 400 unarmed strikers marched peacefully to a coal mine to support a newly formed United Mine Workers union. The miners, mostly consisting of Slovak and German ethnicity, were on strike fighting for safe working conditions and livable wages. On their march they were met by law enforcement officials multiple times and were asked to disperse, but kept on marching. When the…
Oct 23, 2023 S3 Ep29: Juana Barraza: Mexico's Little Old Lady Killer
Born December 27, 1957 in Epazoyucan, Hidalgo, Juana Dayanara Barraza Samperioa was a 48-year-old single mother with a troubled past. After years of traumatic experiences in her early life, including being sold by her mother to a man in exchange for three beers, Juana moved to Mexico City and began killing in 1998. Residents were on edge as they noticed the mysterious killings seemed to be targeting elderly women.…
Oct 16, 2023 S3 Ep28: Terror in the Big Top: The Hartford Circus Fire
On July 6, 1944, in Hartford, Connecticut, thousands of patrons were excited to escape the heat and attend the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus performance. While the Flying Wallendas began their performance inside the tent, chaos ensued shortly after. The fire that began as a small flame about 20 feet from the main exit spread rapidly when it came in contact with the tent canvas. Panicked patrons ran…
Oct 2, 2023 Danny Rolling: The Gainesville Ripper
When five college students in Florida were brutally slain in a four-day span in 1990, it sent shockwaves across the nation as newscasters made comparisons to serial killer Ted Bundy. Police frantically worked to stop this new madman before his body count got any higher. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from the Obsessed Network exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change…
Sep 25, 2023 S3 Ep26: Elizabeth Báthory: The So-Called Blood Countess
Hungarian countess Elizabeth Báthory is known as the most prolific female serial killer of all time, accused of slaughtering over 600 young women in her luxurious castles. Legend says Báthory believed she'd be given eternal youth for bathing in their virginal blood. On the contrary, she would go on to live long in infamy. However, this tale has been questioned by many researchers who believe as part of a conspiracy…
Sep 18, 2023 S3 Ep25: The Eva Hamilton Scandal
At a brothel in New York in 1885, the great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton, Robert Ray Hamilton, met con artist Evangeline Steele. Steele was looking to make their part-time relationship permanent and soon told Hamilton that she was pregnant with his child. They married in January 1889 and shortly after, the marriage began to fall apart. On the morning of August 26, 1889 while on vacation in Atlantic City, Ray…
Sep 11, 2023 S3 Ep24: Inside Dr. Brinkley’s Operating Room: A Deadly Pursuit of Virility
In 1918 in Milford, Kansas, John R. Brinkley, a fake doctor with no properly accredited medical education, opened a 16-room clinic where he promoted goat glands as a cure for over 20 ailments. The scam continued to go unnoticed due to patients being too embarrassed to talk about what happened in the operating room, until a few brave individuals stepped forward to tell their stories. In today's episode we learn more…
Aug 28, 2023 S3 Ep23: The Sultana Tragedy
On April 27th, 1865, the Sultana , a 260 foot-long wooden steamboat, exploded into flames and sank on the Mississippi River. While the ship was only designed to hold 376 people, more than 2,000 passengers, predominantly made up of Union soldiers returning home from Confederate prisons, were crowded on board under the command of Captain James Cass Mason. In addition to the ship being overloaded, the boiler was…
Aug 21, 2023 S3 Ep22: Looking Back on Matthew Shepard: His Story and His Legacy
Matthew Shepard, born December 1, 1976, was a gay 21-year-old student attending the University of Wyoming. On October 6, 1998 near Laramie, Wyoming, Matthew was found horribly beaten, tortured and tied to a fence in a field left to die. Matthew was taken to a hospital in Fort Collins where he died six days later after succumbing to his severe injuries. In today's episode, we examine the case that brought national…
Aug 14, 2023 S3 Ep21: The Fall of the Everleigh Club
On November 22, 1905 at 5:30 p.m, Marshall Field, Jr. was discovered at his residence with a gunshot wound through his left side. While some thought this was an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound, others believed the high-class brothel owners known as the Everleigh sisters, Minna and Ada, were responsible. This was the first of two deaths the sisters were attempted to be framed for. In today's episode, we…
Aug 7, 2023 S3 Ep20: The Young Murders: Mrs. Clem's Secret Dealings
On September 13, 1868 in Cold Springs, Indiana, the bodies of business-minded Jacob Young and Nancy Jane Young were found along White River. Both Jacob and Nancy were shot in the head and Nancy's body was badly burned burned, smoke from her body still wisping in the air until the next day. While the murder took place in a busy public area, no one seemed to have heard the gunshots, or at least knew what they…
Jul 31, 2023 S3 Ep19: The Resurrectionists: Murder for Profit
In 18th- and 19th-century England, doctors employed grave robbers - or "resurrectionists" - to unearth bodies for anatomical research. Unwilling to wait for bodies to present themselves via natural causes, William Burke and William Hare took their own dark and illegal twist on the job. In today's episode, we explore how the grave robbers' role shifted from exhuming bodies after death to obtaining them through…
Jul 24, 2023 S3 Ep18: The Texarkana Moonlight Murders
After seeing a movie together on February 22nd in 1946, Jimmy Hollis and his girlfriend Mary Jeanne Larey parked on a secluded road known as a lovers' lane. Just minutes later, a man in a white mask forced them out of their car, struck them both with blunt force objects, and sexually assaulted Larey. Luckily both Hollis and Larey made it out alive, but future victims would not be so lucky. In today's episode we…
Jul 17, 2023 S3 Ep17: The Double Indemnity Murder
When Ruth Snyder began having an affair with a married corset salesman, Henry Judd Gray, in Queens, New York, in 1925, things soon turned deadly. Ruth convinced Henry to assist her in killing her husband, clumsily staging the murder as an attempted robbery. In today's episode we explore how Ruth Snyder and Henry Judd Gray became known as the Double Indemnity killers, and how the murder of Albert Snyder inspired a…
Jul 10, 2023 S3 Ep16: Going to the Lordy: The Assassination of President James Garfield
At 9:30 am on July 2, 1881 in Washington, D.C., the 20th American president James Garfield was shot at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station. Garfield's assassin: Charles J. Guiteau, a man described as awkward, insecure, and mentally disturbed. Guiteau was motivated by revenge after falsely believing he played a major role in Garfield's election victory, and never being rewarded for it. In today's episode we…
Jun 26, 2023 S3 Ep15: Murder in the Bahamas Part 2
As we explored in our first episode covering this case, Sir Harry Oakes was a member of the "elite" class of men who migrated to the Bahamas to avoid taxes and take part in business activities that weren't on the up-and-up. This group also included two men who detested each other - the exiled aristocrat Alfred de Marigny and the Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the British throne. In the conclusion of this…
Jun 19, 2023 S3 Ep14: Murder in the Bahamas - Part One
Harry Oakes was an entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist, and gold miner. Sometime after midnight on July 8, 1943, Oakes was found dead inside his Bahamas house, struck four times behind the left ear and burned all over his body using insecticide. The accused murderer: his son-in-law, Alfred de Marigny. In today's episode, we discuss one of the highest profile cases of the century, the complicated political makeup…
Jun 12, 2023 S3 Ep13: The Massie Affair
In 1931 in Honolulu, Hawaii, Thalia Massie claimed she was raped by a group of men, including Joseph Kahahawai, a well-known local prizefighter. Cracks in Thalia's story throughout the case led to deadlocked jury and a mistrial, leading Thalia's mother, Grace Fortescue, and several accomplices, to murder Joseph Kahahawai. The group soon thereafter were charged with his murder. In today's episode we discuss The…
Jun 5, 2023 S3 Ep12: Stolen Potential: The Murder of Alberta Jones
In 1959 in Louisville, Kentucky, Alberta Jones was named the first woman prosecutor. Only a few years later in 1965, she was found dead in the Ohio River. In today's episode we discuss Alberta's trailblazing life and career leading up to her mysterious death, and what is suspected to have happened that night, as the case today still remains unsolved. What happened to Alberta Jones? " Crimes of the Centuries " is a…
May 29, 2023 From Strange and Unexplained: The Tragicomedy of Typhoid Mary
Hey, Crimes of the Centuries listeners! We’re off for the Memorial Day holiday, but didn’t want to leave you with an empty feed, so we’re featuring an episode from another Obsessed Network show, “Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan” Daisy is a Tony Award-winning actor, writer, and true crime fanatic. But she’s also a skeptic. Each week she looks at real stories of hauntings, disappearances, UFO encounters, and…
May 22, 2023 S3 Ep11: The Last Call Killings
Multiple murders, violent assaults, and a new forensic fingerprint technique. In today's episode we visit the killings, the acquittals, and eventually the conviction of Richard Rogers, a cold-blooded serial killer whose suspected crimes span from 1973 to 1993, and whose final victim count may never be known. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past…
May 15, 2023 S3 Ep10: Finding Her Voice: Sabella Nitti of Murderess Row
In the musical Chicago , the foreign woman held prisoner on Murderess Row has only one line in English: "Uh-uh, not guilty." In today's episode, we explore the real-life case that inspired that character, Sabella Nitti, who was accused of murdering her husband, and her fight to speak for herself and prove her innocence. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from…
May 8, 2023 S3 Ep9: The Mysterious Case of Edward Earl
Though he had been known by many names throughout his life, it was under the name Edward Earl that he was prosecuted and hanged in 1881 New York. What would the writings he composed in prison reveal about why he murdered his estranged wife? " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. Follow us on Instagram and…
May 1, 2023 S3 Ep8: The Case Behind Stockholm Syndrome
You're probably familiar with the concept of Stockholm Syndrome - the phenomenon where people taken hostage come to empathize with or even join up with their captors. But did you realize that the term comes from a specific incident, a strange bank robbery at the Sveriges Kreditbank that turned into a multiday siege pitting the criminals against the police, with innocent workers trapped in the middle and unsure who…
Apr 24, 2023 S3 Ep7: The "Fireproof" Theatre: Tragedy at the Iroquois
Chicago's state-of-the-art Iroquois Theatre was supposed to be a jewel in the rapidly expanding American arts scene of the early twentieth century. But in an emergency, a combination of disaster management, design flaws, and construction shortcuts proved to be a deadly combination. Special thanks to Charlie McCarron for producing and performing the out-of-print song "Let Us Swear It By the Pale Moonlight" for this…
Apr 17, 2023 S3 Ep6: Deadly Blaze: The Thiokol Factory Explosion
At the height of the space race, the arrival of the Thiokol chemical company was supposed to bring jobs and opportunities for the small Georgia town of Woodbine. But a tragic explosion in 1971 killed 29 workers and left many of the survivors in the community entangled in lawsuits for decades afterwards. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that…
Apr 10, 2023 S3 Ep5: The Deaths of Herman and Irving Arthur
Brothers Herman and Irving Arthur wanted to leave their life as Southern sharecroppers in Texas and move to the North in search of better opportunities. But after an encounter with the landowners turned lethal, they found themselves on the run from a town setting out for revenge. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped…
Apr 3, 2023 S3: Nannie Doss: The Murderous Giggling Granny
This week we dive into our archives for a look back at one our episodes from the first season of "Crimes of the Centuries." Check out this episode and all our episodes from seasons 1 and 2, and we'll see you next week for a brand-new tale! When widower Sam Doss was rushed to the hospital with abdominal pains in 1954, his doctor was flummoxed by his life-threatening yet mysterious illness. But Doss got better and…
Mar 27, 2023 S3 Ep4: The Chippendales Murder - Separating Fact from Fiction
Nick De Noia dreamed of becoming a successful choreographer, a goal he attained through his sexy yet classy routines for the Chippendales all-male revue. Unfortunately, that job also brought him into the crosshairs of the dance troupe's controlling owner, Steve Banerjee. With the story recently revived in the Hulu series "Welcome to Chippendales," we're diving deep into the details to sort out the fact from the…
Mar 20, 2023 S3 Ep3: Dorothy Stratten: A Playmate Murdered
Months after being named "Playboy Playmate of the Year" in 1980, Dorothy Stratten was poised to make the transition from model to Hollywood actress. But just as her debut film was about to be released, Dorothy's troubled relationship with her estranged husband ended in one final, tragic encounter. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a…
Mar 13, 2023 S3 Ep2: The St. Valentine's Day Massacre and the Chicago Gang Wars of the 1920s
In Prohibition Era Chicago, competing gangs of bootleggers battled for supremacy. In February 1929, notorious gangster Al Capone set up a brazen trap to mow down a slew of his rivals in what would become one of the most infamous crimes of the time. It would also lead to the creation of America's first-ever crime laboratory, and mark the beginning of the end for some of the most powerful criminals in American…
Mar 6, 2023 S3 Ep1: Dr. Thomas Cream: The Forgotten Victorian Serial Killer
In Victorian England, a serial killer preyed on sex workers and other vulnerable women. But unlike the infamous Jack the Ripper, this serial killer, Dr. Thomas Cream, used his medical knowledge to devise more insidious methods to claim his victims. But once uncovered, his conviction would set precedent for legal cases for decades to come. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring…

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Crimes of the Centuries

About Crimes of the Centuries

Episodes

S6 Ep31: LIVE: A Deadly Christmas Eve at the American Saloon

S6 Ep30: Too Rich to Save: The Kidnapping of John Paul Getty III

S6 Ep29: The Serial Killer Every Cop Knew

S6 Ep28: Dirty Secrets at Dublin Castle

S6: ENCORE: Massacre at Taliesin

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