Crimes of the Centuries

In November 1990, something terrible happened inside a stall at one of the most storied farms in Kentucky. The victim was worth millions. The people around him were drowning in debt. And when an injury that initially looked survivable turned fatal, the questions started almost immediately: Was this really an accident? Or had someone at Calumet Farm decided a death was worth more than a life?

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 more over at http://www.grabbagcollab.com

Order the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or at http://www.centuriespod.com/book!

Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespod

Episode Sponsors:

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Happy Halloween, everybody. I thought I'd mark the occasion by revisiting one of the most chilling stories we've ever covered, that of Ronald O'Bryan, the man who came dangerously close to ruining Halloween for everybody. Because while we spend this time of year dressing up as monsters and pretending to be scared of things that go bump in the night, this story is a reminder that sometimes the scariest monsters are the people closest to us. So grab some candy, check for tampering, and settle in for this encore episode of Crimes of the Centuries.

On Christmas Eve 1870, a chaotic brawl inside a Hamilton, Ohio gambling saloon left notorious ruffian Thomas Myers dead from a mysterious gunshot. The state quickly pinned the murder on political operator Thomas McGehean, triggering a sensational series of Gilded Age trials wrapped up in a multi-million-dollar federal whiskey ring. Defense attorney Clement L. Vallandigham was so sure of his own theory about the shooting that he staged a demonstration to prove it — and shot himself in the process.

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 more over at http://www.grabbagcollab.com/

Order the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or athttp://www.centuriespod.com/book!

Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespod

Episode Sponsors:

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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 family’s fortune.

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 more over at http://www.grabbagcollab.com/

Order the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or athttp://www.centuriespod.com/book!

Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespod

Episode Sponsors:

DripDrop: Doctor-developed, science-based hydration, with 20% off your first order at http://dripdrop.com using code COTC.

Talkiatry: 100% online psychiatry with in-network insurance coverage and first visits in days, not months, at http://Talkiatry.com/COTC.

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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 mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes and more over at http://www.grabbagcollab.com/

Order the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or athttp://www.centuriespod.com/book!

Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespod

Episode Sponsors:

Rula. Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at https://www.rula.com/cotc #rulapod

Hims. Simple, 100% online access to personalized plans for sex, hair, weight loss and more at http://Hims.com/COTC.

Nutrafol. Nutrafol's Women's hair growth supplement, with $15 off your first month's subscription and free shipping at http://Nutrafol.com using code COTC.

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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 mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes and more over at http://www.grabbagcollab.com/

Order the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or athttp://www.centuriespod.com/book!

Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespod

Episode Sponsors:

Home Chef: Fresh ingredients and easy recipes delivered weekly, with 50% off and free shipping on your first box plus free dessert for life at http://HomeChef.com/COTC.

Quince: Hotel-quality bedding and home essentials priced 50-80% less than similar brands, at http://Quince.com.

ButcherBox: Responsibly sourced, high-quality meat and seafood delivered to your door, with $20 off your first box at http://ButcherBox.com/COTC.

Timeline: A gentle leave-on exfoliator pairing acids with Mitopure for resurfacing and cellular support, with a 15-day trial for $22 at http://Timeline.com/COTC.

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 Taliesin. The case not only riveted the nation, but it also changed the course of architecture in America.

"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 Twitter: @centuriespod

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. Journalist Pamela Colloff, author of the new book Catch the Devil, joins us to examine Shelly’s murder, the case that followed, and what happens when the justice system decides to believe a professional liar.

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 Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes and more over at http://www.grabbagcollab.com/

Order the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or athttp://www.centuriespod.com/book!

Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespod

Episode Sponsors:

Quince: Elevated bedding, apparel, and home essentials priced 50-80% less than similar brands, at http://Quince.com/CENTURIES.

Home Chef: Fresh ingredients and easy recipes delivered weekly, with 50% off and free shipping on your first box plus free dessert for life at http://HomeChef.com/COTC.

Hims: Simple, 100% online access to affordable ED treatment through licensed providers, at http://Hims.com/COTC.

ButcherBox: Responsibly sourced, high-quality meat and seafood delivered to your door, with $20 off your first box at http://ButcherBox.com/COTC.

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 and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes and more over at http://www.grabbagcollab.com/

Order the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or athttp://www.centuriespod.com/book!

Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespod

Episode Sponsors:

Rula. Affordable, insurance-covered therapy with average $15 copays and licensed in-network providers, at http://Rula.com/COTC.

Wildgrain. Bakery-quality sourdough, pastries, and French butter delivered frozen and ready in 25 minutes, with $30 off your first box at http://Wildgrain.com/COTC.

Timeline (Mitopure Exfoliator). A gentle leave-on exfoliator pairing acids with Mitopure for resurfacing and cellular support, with a 15-day trial for $22 at http://Timeline.com/COTC.

Quince. Elevated bedding, apparel, and home essentials priced 50-80% less than similar brands, at http://Quince.com/CENTURIES.

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 circus involving a Las Vegas kingpin, a hitman with the world's most unusual business card, and a famous son fighting to clear his father's name.

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 more over at http://www.grabbagcollab.com/

Order the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or athttp://www.centuriespod.com/book!

Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespod

Episode Sponsors:

AquaTru: A countertop water purifier certified to remove 84 contaminants using a 4-stage reverse osmosis system, with 20% off at http://AquaTru.com using code COTC.

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Talkiatry: 100% online psychiatry with in-network insurance coverage and appointments in days, not months, at http://Talkiatry.com/COTC.

Hims: Simple, 100% online access to affordable ED treatment through licensed providers, at http://Hims.com/COTC.

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 enjoy this encore episode from Season 1, sparked by a listener suggestion who'd missed it in our lineup.

"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 Twitter: @centuriespod

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 really matter in deciding whether to believe it was a man whose word, by 1925, was treated as close to unimpeachable in a British courtroom. A jury took less than 30 minutes to decide who was telling the truth. A century later, people are still arguing about whether they got it right. (Amber is off this week for her birthday and to clean up after the recent derecho in Ohio. Please enjoy this bonus episode from behind the paywall.)

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. What followed was one of the strangest manhunts in criminal history, and a case that would later split a forensic field down the middle more than 100 years later.

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 more over at http://www.grabbagcollab.com/
Order the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or athttp://www.centuriespod.com/book!

Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespod

Episode Sponsors:

Wayfair. Furniture and home goods for every room and budget, backed by Wayfair Verified quality checks and 20M+ real reviews, at http://Wayfair.com.

ButcherBox. Responsibly sourced, high-quality meat and seafood delivered to your door, with $20 off your first box at http://ButcherBox.com/COTC.

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Home Chef. Fresh ingredients and easy recipes delivered weekly, with 50% off and free shipping on your first box plus free dessert for life at http://HomeChef.com/COTC.

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 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 more over at http://www.grabbagcollab.com/
Order the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or athttp://www.centuriespod.com/book!

Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespod

Episode Sponsors:

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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 execution, and one recanted medical examiner later, Tennessee still hasn't tested the DNA that might resolve the crime.

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 past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes and more over at http://www.grabbagcollab.com/
Order the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or athttp://www.centuriespod.com/book!

Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespod

EPISODE SPONSORS:

Rula: Affordable, insurance-covered therapy with average $15 copays and licensed in-network providers, at http://Rula.com/COTC.

Hims. Simple, 100% online access to affordable ED treatment through licensed providers, at http://Hims.com/COTC.

Home Chef. Fresh ingredients and easy recipes delivered weekly, with 50% off and free shipping on your first box plus free dessert for life at http://HomeChef.com/COTC.

Boll & Branch: Breathable, organic cotton bedding designed to keep you cool all summer, with 15% off your first order at http://BollAndBranch.com/COTC using code COTC.

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. His decision would lead to one of the most consequential civil liberties cases in American history, and a decades-long effort to prove something that should never have needed proving.

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 more over at http://www.grabbagcollab.com/
Order the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or athttp://www.centuriespod.com/book!

Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespod

EPISODE SPONSORS:

Home Chef. Fresh ingredients and easy recipes delivered weekly, with 50% off and free shipping on your first box plus free dessert for life at http://www.HomeChef.com/COTC.

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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 streets. They were certain they knew what had happened. They were wrong in ways that would take decades to reckon with.

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 more over at http://www.grabbagcollab.com/
Order the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or athttp://www.centuriespod.com/book!
Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespod

EPISODE SPONSORS:

Home Chef: Get 50% off your first box, free shipping, and free dessert for life at http://homechef.com/COTC.

AquaTru: Go to http://aquatru.com/ now for 20% off your purifier using promo code COTC.

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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 years later.

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 more over at http://www.grabbagcollab.com/
Order the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or athttp://www.centuriespod.com/book!
Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespod

EPISODE SPONSORS:

Rula. Quality therapy covered by insurance, with an average copay of just $15/session. Visit https://www.rula.com/cotc

Hims. Simple, online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, Weight Loss, and more. Visit https://www.hims.com/COTC

ButcherBox. Premium, responsibly sourced meat delivered to your door. Get ribeyes for a year OR ground beef or chicken breast for life, plus $20 off at https://www.butcherbox.com/COTC

Quince. High-quality bedding at 50–80% less than similar brands. Free shipping and 365-day returns at https://www.quince.com/centuries