Murder Of The Mythical Helen Johnson

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Episode 288 goes out to True Crime Historian patron Aisha B., who requested a murder from her hometown of Pleasanton, California. Although a lot of these historic stories have humorous elements when considered in modern light, I don’t normally treat them as comedies. There may or may not be any actual murders in this one, but there are plenty of accusations and much ado about Mrs. Amador’s allegations that makes it a comedy of errors that would make Shakespeare proud. Wait ‘til they get to the bones.

Also, since this story came up a little shorter on time than most episodes, stay tuned after the credits for a bonus short short story.

More Bad Confessions





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The Ridde Of The Grinning Skull
She led police to the body of her husband, but when she saw the mocking skull they dug up, a second murder came to light.

By Frederic O. Schultze

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Adapted from True Detective Mysteries, V. 7; No. 4; July, 1927

Episode 287 is a first person account from a police reporter who admits to unethical snooping in trying to get to this story. But it’s the tale of a triangle so twisted, that I’ll forgive him for his indiscretions.

More Love Triangles Gone Awry

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The Lizzie Edition, Part I
Episode 166

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True Crime Historian brings you “The Lizzie Edition,” an in-depth look at the murder of Andrew J. Borden and his wife in Fall River, Massachusetts, on August 4, 1892, and the trial of his daughter Lizzie Borden the following June....

Theme music “My Ain Countrie” by Mary Lee Demarest, 1861, performed by Davide Severi with Plava Kuca on Violin....

Media Management by Sean R. Jones...
Production assistance by Emily Simer Braun...
Dedicated to Rachel Michelle Jones, whose enthusiasm for the case prompted this monumental treatment.

More Femmes Fatale


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The Heinous Crime Of Carl Wanderer

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Episode 286 relates one of the most reprehensible double murders we’ve yet to encounter. They’re all reprehensible, but there’s no question that the act of Carl Wanderer was spawned by truly evil intent.

More stories of "Pregnicide"



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Episode 140.

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“The Bigamist And Her Murderous Husband: The Sweetwater Double Homicide” is the sordid tale of a love octangle (or something like that) when the suspiciously widowed husband of a girl married five times without a divorce gets fed up from the legal harassment from his wife’s elderly suitor. Culled from the historic pages of the Abilene Reporter and other newspapers of the era.

More Love Triangles Gone Awry

Bonus Stories:

“The Storybook Taxi Bandit” begins with a fidgety stranger walking into an Indiana cafe, soon to be followed by an interstate manhunt. Adapted from Master Detective, April 1935.

More Manhunts

“Stalking The Tiger Girl” tells of a Los Angeles detective’s pursuit of a sassy, auburn-haired hold-up artist who suddenly finds repentance after her arrest. Adapted from True Detective Mysteries, November 1929.

More Femmes Fatale


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Episode 193 exposes two tales, one of lust and passion, one of lust for power.

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"She Shot To Kill" is composed of two stories from the 1893 Omaha Daily Bee that tells of a deadly love triangle. There's a great contrast between the first day's coverage and the second.

"The Woman In The Wall" comes from the vintage pages of True Detective Magazine (vol. 56, no. 4), the story of a woman so consumed by ambition that she turns on the people who helped her on her journey. But you gotta know that like most of the journeys we discuss on this show, this one's not going to end well. 

More Femmes Fatale

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The Brutal Murder Of Mayme Sherman

A True Crime Short Story by Richard O Jones

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One of the factors behind my interest in historical true crime is that my hometown of Hamilton, Ohio, seems to have a particularly rich history of crime--murder in particular, but not just murder. I’ve done several local programs about the safecrackers, bandits, and other notorious characters. This short story, “Bacon On The Table,” concerns the third of three “bluebeard” killers in the first decade of the 20th century. The first was the murder of Hannah Knapp by Alfred Knapp in December, 1902. This is the subject of my book, “The First Celebrity Serial Killer.” But even before this crime came to light, Samuel J. Keelor tried to decapitate his wife on Valentine’s Day, 1903. You can read more about that story in my ebook, “The Sleepwalking Slasher.”

The following year, just a week after Knapp paid the ultimate penalty for his crime, Charles Victor Sherman commits the horrible crime detailed in this episode.

In more recent days, Hamilton is the hometown of “the Cross Country Killer” Glen Rogers, who murdered at least five people in 1994 and 1995, and probably more than that. He is currently on death row.And perhaps the most sensational of all Hamilton stories is the Easter Massacre of 1975, in which James Urban Ruppert gunned down his mother, his brother, and his brother’s wife and eight children. But friends, this was not Hamilton’s first mass family murder, but our third. In 1925, Francis Lloyd Russell shot eight members of his family one hot summer night (see the Two-Dollar Terror “Massacre On Prospect Hill”). And in October, 1929, the barber Charlie King opened the gas pipes in his house while his wife and five sons slept, then hopped on a northbound freight train (see the Two-Dollar Terror “The Gas Fume Fugitive”).I am also descended from murderers, although their crimes weren’t in Hamilton but in various Kentucky locations. Maybe I’ll tell you about those someday.

More Hometown Horrors

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The Saga of the Scoundrel Thomas McGehan
A true crime short story by Richard O Jones

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Episode 28 takes place on Christmas Eve 1870, when three men attack a local politician with boulders and slungshots, and at least a dozen men scramble for the door while five shots pepper the faro room at the American Saloon in Hamilton, Ohio, the hometown of True Crime Historian Richard O Jones. One of the bullets kills the politician, Thomas Myers, but in their haste none of the gamblers see who fired the shot. The blame falls on the leader of the gang of thugs who attacked Myers, his political rival Tom McGehean. At his trial, the famed former Congressman, exiled Copperhead, and gubernatorial candidate, Clement Vallandigham literally gives his life for McGehean's defense.


Read-Along (more or less. It's not the exact same text)

More Hometown Horrors

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The Atrocities Of Albert Fish

I'D TURN BACK IF I WERE YOU!!!

Episode 191 is without a doubt the vilest case you'll ever hear on this program because I don't think I could find a worse one if I tried. There's a lot of evil discussed here: torture, cannibalism, and more. Consider this your trigger warning: I'd turn back if I were you! Or at least put the kids to bed and plug in your ear buds. Keep this between us.

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The Murder Of Mary Phagan

Episode 183 tells of one of the most infamous cases of an innocent man wrongly accused. When a teenage factory girl is found dead in the basement of an Atlanta pencil manufacturer, blame falls on the mild-mannered Jewish superintendent of the plant, and the jury takes the word of a drunken janitor. It’ll take 70 years for the truth to come out.

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The Reily Mattock Murder

Episode 198 is centered on one of my favorite murder tropes, the so-called “eternal triangle,” between the cranky old farmer, his fading wife, and the handsome young farmhand. Yeah, that’s not going to end well, but they might have gotten away with it if they had just put the body across the tracks. It’s all in the details.

Culled from the historic pages of the Hamilton Journal-News and other newspapers of the era.

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