Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

On December 5, 1876, a packed house at the Brooklyn Theatre was watching the hit melodrama "The Two Orphans" when star Kate Claxton spotted a small flame above the stage. The actors kept performing, hoping to prevent a panic. Within twenty minutes, the theatre had collapsed, killing roughly 300 people, most of them trapped in the cheap seats of the upper gallery. Kate escaped, but the press soon gave her a new name: the Fire Witch.

My guest this week is Melanie Gall, author of "Fire Witch: Kate Claxton and the 1876 Brooklyn Theatre Inferno". We talk about Kate’s scandalous rise, the harrowing minutes inside the burning theatre, and how the tragedy reshaped her reputation forever.

The author's website: https://www.melaniegall.com/

The author's publisher page: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Fire-Witch/Melanie-Gall/9781493098309

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Edgar Allan Poe is, of course, one of America's most iconic writers. Many credit him with inventing or popularizing multiple literary genres, including mystery, horror and detective fiction. But the real Poe has become distorted over the years - transformed by fans into a dark and tortured soul obsessed with alcohol and death.

My guest is author Mark Dawidziak, and his new book is called "A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe". He not only shares with us what Poe was really like, but also walks us through some of the many theories surrounding Poe's agonizing death in a Baltimore hospital in October of 1849. He also talks about possible explanations for Poe's mysterious three missing days - just before he was discovered, delirious and in another man's clothes, at a Baltimore polling-place.

More about the author's prolific work at his website, here: ⁠https://www.markdawidziak.com/⁠

Connect with the author through Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/mark.dawidziak⁠

(Orig Pub Date 2/14/23).

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

My guest is New York Times bestselling author and medical historian Lindsey Fitzharris, author of the new book Sleuth-Hound: The Case of the Real Sherlock Holmes. We talk about Bell’s complicated bond with Conan Doyle and a couple of the murder cases Bell investigated alongside his friend, Edinburgh police surgeon Henry Duncan Littlejohn. The two men even took an unofficial interest in the Whitechapel murders.

The author's website: https://drlindseyfitzharris.com/

The author on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drlindseyfitzharris

The author on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrLindseyFitzharris

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In March 1957, Master Sergeant Robert Reynolds, a U.S. military adviser living with his family outside Taipei, Taiwan, shot and killed a man named Liu Ziran, who Reynolds claimed had been peeping through his bathroom window. Because Reynolds had diplomatic immunity, he was tried by a U.S. Army court-martial, and Taiwanese officials had no say in the proceedings. When he was acquitted that May, outrage boiled over, and an angry mob stormed the U.S. Embassy in Taipei.

My guest is Stephen G. Craft, author of American Justice in Taiwan: The 1957 Riots and Cold War Foreign Policy. He discusses how Taiwan emerged as a political power separate from mainland China, and the uneasy but mutually beneficial relationship between the United States and the Republic of China in the 1950s.

The author's Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University bio page: https://erau.edu/faculty/Stephen.Craft

The author's publisher page: https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813166353/american-justice-in-taiwan/

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In the winter of 1472, the city of Dijon, France, became the stage for a remarkable legal drama. On the mayor’s orders, an investigator named Jaques Borestel went door-to-door questioning his neighbors about an alleged sexual assault and about the victim’s history and place in the community. At the center of Jaques’s inquiry was a woman named Jehanne, who took the unusual step of making a criminal complaint in an age when victims of sexual violence did so at their own peril.

My guest is Sara McDougall, and her book Justice for Jehanne: The Tale of a Medieval Survivor follows Jaques’s investigation as he uncovers one woman’s story of resilience and survival.

More about the author here: https://www.gc.cuny.edu/people/sara-mcdougall

The author's publisher page: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691268910/justice-for-jehanne

The author on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saramcdougall_medieval/

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There has been lots of buzz recently about Netflix's gory new series Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, and Cara Robertson, author of "The Trial of Lizzie Borden", joins me once again, this time to share her thoughts on how the case is depicted, separate fact from fiction and to answer some Patreon supporter questions.

Cara's website: https://www.carawrobertson.com/

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(Orig Pub Date 7/19/22) In anticipation of a new interview with Cara, mostly about the recent Netflix Series, here is my original conversation with her about the notorious case.

In August of 1892, one of the most infamous double murders in American history was committed in brutal fashion. Andrew and Abby Borden were hacked to death in their Fall River house, and their daughter Lizzie, home at the time, became the number one suspect. What followed was a spectacular trial, fought by brilliant attorneys, in a courtroom packed with fascinated spectators and reporters.

My guest is Cara Robertson, author of "The Trial of Lizzie Borden: A True Story". She summarizes this sensational Gilded Age true crime story with a unique legal perspective.

More about the author and her work can be found here: https://www.carawrobertson.com/

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On August 25, 1938, twenty-five-year-old Ben Dickson and his fifteen-year-old wife Stella Mae robbed the Corn Exchange Bank in Elkton, South Dakota, making off with $2,187.64. Two months later they hit a bank in nearby Brookings for $17,593 - after waiting two hours for the vault’s time-lock to open while the bank's manager went on processing loans for customers. Unfortunately for these two small-time outlaws, the FBI was in short supply of public enemies at the time, and a newly minted Bonnie and Clyde was exactly what J. Edgar Hoover needed to stoke the agency's public relations machine.

My guest is Matt Cecil, author of The Ballad of Ben and Stella Mae: Great Plains Outlaws Who Became FBI Public Enemies Nos. 1 and 2. He has been fascinated with the story of Ben and Stella Mae since he was a teenager, and shares his research with us on this latest episode of Most Notorious.

The author's publisher page: https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700623242/

The author's Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Matthew-Cecil/author/B00I4BYFRQ

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(Orig Pub Date 11/16/2023) Aaron Kosminski is one of the more well known suspects in the Whitechapel murders. Some of the major police officials of the era, in fact, were seriously concerned about his potential involvement in the brutal Autumn of Terror slayings.

My guest, Robert House, has studied Aaron Kosminski for years, and shares details of his investigation with us. He is the author of Jack the Ripper and the Case for Scotland Yard's Prime Suspect.

The author's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100051505763425

You can purchase the book here: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Ripper-Scotland-Yards-Prime-Suspect/dp/0470938994

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Eli Frankel, author of "Sisters in Death: The Black Dahlia, The Prairie Heiress, & Their Hunter", returns to share his thoughts on the recent explosion of interest in Marvin Margolis as the possible Black Dahlia and Zodiac Killer. While the discussion touches on both cases, Frankel keeps his focus mainly on the Black Dahlia side of the theory, breaking down the evidence presented in Michael Connelly's Killer in the Code podcast, which has made a splash this year for its claim that both cases have been solved.

The author's websites: https://www.sistersindeath.com/ and https://www.elibfrankel.com/

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On August 23, 1969, the badly decomposed body of twelve-year-old Tina Marie Andrews was found under a discarded sofa in the woods outside McComb, Mississippi. Days earlier, she and a friend had accepted a ride home but were instead driven to a remote area, where Andrews was murdered. Her friend eventually came forward and accused two local police officers of the brutal crime.

My guest is Trent Brown, who wrote the definitive book on the case, "Murder in McComb: The Tina Andrews Case".

More about the author here: https://english.mst.edu/people/facultyandstaff/brown/

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Just months after the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders, the body of a 19-year-old woman was discovered off a secluded stretch of Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles on November 16th, 1969. She had been stabbed over a hundred times, and there was no identification on or near the body. It would be decades before she was identified as Reet Jurvetson, an Estonian-Canadian woman who had only been in California for a short time before her murder.

My guest is Catherine Fogarty, author of the new book "The Girl with No Name: The Story of Jane Doe #59 and My Relentless Search for Her Killer". She walks us through the crime scene, how Reet was identified, and the many challenges faced along the way - including finding leads on her possible killer.

The author's website: https://www.catherinebfogarty.com/

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

The author's publisher page: ⁠https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/nittany-nightmare/⁠

The author's YouTube channel: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@truth_revealed2k⁠

More on his Amazon author page, including a link to his book "Who Killed Betsy? Uncovering Penn State University's Most Notorious Unsolved Crime." https://www.amazon.com/stores/Derek-Sherwood/author/B005E0586W

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Between November 1938 and May 1940, Margaret Martin, Rachel Taylor and Faye Gates were abducted and sexually assaulted, their bodies dumped within 50 miles of Penn State College.

My guest is Derek J. Sherwood, author of "Nittany Nightmare: The Sex Murders of 1938–1940 and the Panic at Penn State". He discusses the murders and investigators' attempts to determine whether a serial killer was responsible, all set against the backdrop of the college.

The author's publisher page: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/nittany-nightmare/

The author's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@truth_revealed2k

More on his Amazon author page, including a link to his book "Who Killed Betsy? Uncovering Penn State University's Most Notorious Unsolved Crime."

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Derek-Sherwood/author/B005E0586W

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(Orig Pub Date 11/8/17) My guest is former criminal defense attorney Mark Shaw, author of "The Reporter Who Knew Too Much: The Mysterious Death of What's My Line TV Star and Media Icon Dorothy Kilgallen". He talks about the life of Pulitzer nominated reporter and television star Dorothy Kilgallen, who was allegedly on the brink of breaking wide open a story about John Kennedy's assassination before her mysterious and suspicious death abruptly ended her investigation.

The author's website: ⁠https://markshawbooks.com/

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

My guest is Katherine Grandjean, author of "Kingdom of Devils: A Tale of Murder in the Shadow of the American Revolution", out now. She explains how the desperation of frontier life might have pushed two ordinary men toward violence, and what their story reveals about the darker side of the years following the American Revolution.

The author's publisher page: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2289902/katherine-grandjean/

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This is the first episode of American Criminal's latest season - all about Boss Tweed, the Tammany Hall politician who has become synonymous with civic graft and corruption.

Listen to my interview with Ken Ackerman about Tammany Hall’s Boss Tweed here at the Most Notorious website: https://www.mostnotorious.com/2020/09/28/tammany-halls-boss-tweed-w-kenneth-ackerman/

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

My guest this week is forensic anthropologist Dr. Ann Webster Bunch. Her book, "The William Morgan Affair: A Masonic Mystery in Upstate New York", explores the fate of this polarizing historical figure.

The author's publisher page: https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/products/the-william-morgan-affair-978

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

My guest is New York Times bestselling author Caroline Fraser, and in her book Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers, she explores this possible link, and how toxins like lead were promoted to the American public despite the known dangers.

The paperback version of her Edgar Award-winning book just came out in June.

The author's website: ⁠https://www.carolinefraser.net/

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My guest this week is Phillip Barlag, author of "Evil Roman Emperors: The Shocking History of Ancient Rome's Most Wicked Rulers from Caligula to Nero and More."

He shares stories about some of the worst rulers in Rome's history and the horrific deeds they committed, including Tarquin, Caligula, Nero, Caracalla and Elagabalus.

He is also the creator/host of The "Greats" of History podcast, available on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-greats-of-history/id1741228862. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1mS1MVueNYjtkomqWEtkjG. Podbean: https://phillipbarlag.podbean.com/ and everywhere else great podcasts are heard.

And he is available for questions related to his books, his podcast and anything Rome via email here: phillipbarlag@gmail.com and his book can be purchased on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Evil-Roman-Emperors-Shocking-Caligula/dp/1633886905

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