Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

From World War I through the 1920s a midwife known as Auntie Suzy readily supplied arsenic to women in a small Hungarian village. The women, who would become known as "the Angel Makers", used the poison to murder their husbands and other relatives. As the years passed and no punishment followed the killers became more emboldened, leaving hundreds of victims in their wake before they were finally caught and their crimes brought to light in 1929. My guest is award-winning journalist Patti McCracken, author of "The Angel Makers: Arsenic, a Midwife, and Modern History's Most Astonishing Murder Ring." The author's website: https://www.pattimccracken.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1912, four-year-old Bobby Dunbar went missing in the Louisiana swamps. After an eight-month search that electrified the country and destroyed Bobby’s parents, the boy was found, filthy and hardly recogniz­able. A wandering piano tuner was arrested and charged with kidnapping— a crime then punishable by death.But when a destitute single mother came forward from North Carolina to claim the boy as her son, not the lost Bobby Dunbar, the case became a high-pitched battle over custody—and identity—that divided the South.My guest, Tal McThenia,first introduced listeners of NPR's This American Life to this case in 2008. A few years later he co-wrote, along with Margaret Dunbar Cutright (the granddaughter of Bobby Dunbar) the definitive book about this historical whodunnit, called "A Case for Solomon: Bobby Dunbar and the Kidnapping That Haunted a Nation". The author's website: https://www.talmcthenia.com/Listen to This American Life's "The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar" here: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/352/transcriptThe author's recent Audubon article: https://www.audubon.org/magazine/fall-2021/the-strange-true-story-john-williams-and-charles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the third season of the acclaimed HBO series Deadwood, one of the most villainous characters in a show full of villains was introduced. Ruthless mining magnate George Hearst arrived, eager to seize control of the richest mine in town - no matter what the cost. But was he really as rotten as the show suggested he was? My guest is Matthew Bernstein, author of "George Hearst: Silver King of the Gilded Age". He talks about the rise and fall and rise again of a man who made millions sniffing out gold, silver and copper mines across the country, and who fathered one of the most controversial characters of his era, newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst.More about the author and his book here: https://www.oupress.com/author/matthew-bernstein/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world’s greatest living ice navigator. The expedition’s visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson hungry for fame.Just six weeks after the Karluk departed, giant ice floes closed in around her. As the ship became icebound, Stefansson disembarked with five companions and struck out on what he claimed was a 10-day caribou hunting trip. Most on board would never see him again.Twenty-two men and an Inuit woman with two small daughters now stood on a mile-square ice floe, their ship and their original leader gone. Under Bartlett’s leadership they built make-shift shelters, surviving the freezing darkness of Polar night. Captain Bartlett now made a difficult and courageous decision. He would take one of the young Inuit hunters and attempt a 1000-mile journey to save the shipwrecked survivors. It was their only hope.My guest, is Buddy Levy, the award-winning bestselling author of "Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk". He joins me to talk about this remarkable story of disaster, death and survival in a frigid and desolate polar landscape.Buddy's website: https://buddylevy.com/Go here to download the Zocdoc app for free to find a top-rated doctor (and support the show) https://www.zocdoc.com/most Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the afternoon of March 21st, 1924 a horrific crime shook the city of Chicago (and the entire country). Bobbie Franks, on his way home from school, was kidnapped and murdered by two teenage boy geniuses named Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. It has long been believed that Loeb was the mastermind behind the plan, while Leopold, in love with him, followed his orders. But my guests believe otherwise.Greg King and Penny Wilson, authors of "Nothing but the Night: Leopold & Loeb and the Truth Behind the Murder That Rocked 1920s America" reveal some of the fascinating information they uncovered while researching this case, including details of other murders Leopold and Loeb might have committed before they killed Bobby.Their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/kingandwilsonFollow them on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AtlantisMagazinMore about the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Nothing-but-Night-Leopold-America/dp/1250272661 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I've combined two of my shorter interviews into one episode this week. First up, Kelly Sullivan, author of "Murder at Rocky Point Park: Tragedy in Rhode Island's Summer Paradise" joins me to talk about the 1893 murder of little Maggie Sheffield by her father at a Rhode Island amusement park.Then, Paul Kahan returns to give a rousing summary of the notorious Homestead Strike. In July of 1892 Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick hired Pinkerton agents to occupy the Homestead steel mill near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but striking workers rushed to prevent their arrival and a violent battle ensued. His book is called "The Homestead Strike: Labor, Violence, and American Industry."More about Kelly Sullivan here: https://authorkellysullivan.weebly.com/More about Paul Kahan here: https://www.paulkahan.com/Interested in seeing how many historical true crimes, disasters or tragedies have been covered by your state or country on Most Notorious? Check it out here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In early 1922, Hollywood was in damage control. The recent "Fatty" Arbuckle manslaughter and rape case had brought unwanted scandal to the motion picture industry, so when Paramount Pictures director William Desmond Taylor was found murdered in his home on February 1st, the studio tried its best to cover it up. Despite this, the murder case became a national sensation with attention falling on multiple suspects, including a valet who had been blackmailing Taylor, comedy star Mabel Normand and film ingenue Mary Miles Minter.My guest is William J. Mann, New York Times bestselling author of Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood". He shares details from the book that won the 2015 Edgar Award and offers his own theory on who murdered the famous director.The author's website: http://williamjmann.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On a cold winter night in January of 1833, a teenage farmhand named Abraham Prescott crept into the bedroom of his employers, Chauncey and Sally Cochran, and smashed their heads with an ax. Their neighbors in the town of Pembroke, New Hampshire was astonished when the boy explained that he had been sleepwalking and hadn't purposely attacked them. They were even more shocked when the Cochrans, who had both miraculously recovered, allowed him to continue to work for them. A few months later however, that decision would come back to haunt the family. After inviting Sally Cochran out to pick strawberries with him in a secluded area behind their farm, Prescott murdered her with a fence post. Again, he told Chauncey that only done it after he'd fallen asleep. Soon he would face trial and his attorneys would attempt to defend him both with a sleepwalking claim and an insanity plea.My guest is Leslie Lambert Rounds, executive director of the Dyer Library and the Saco Museum in Saco, Maine and author of "I Have Struck Mrs. Cochran with a Stake: Sleepwalking, Insanity, and the Trial of Abraham Prescott". She not only walks us through the story of the murder and its aftermath, but also explains the difficulties authorities in 1830s New Hampshire faced when dealing with criminals who suffered from mental illness.More about the author at Kent State University Press. If you'd like to reach out to her directly, you can do so here: lrounds@dyer.lib.me.us Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher "Kit" Marlowe is considered one of the greatest playwrights of the Elizabethan era, but was also known as a hothead, a scoundrel and a member of the secretive School of Night. When he was stabbed through the eye at the age of twenty-nine in 1593, those who had it in for him were no doubt relieved to hear of his death. He had worked as an agent under Queen Elizabeth's legendary spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham and had very likely taken some reputation-destroying secrets to his grave. Many, however, believed that he was murdered, and theories swirl around his demise to this day. Did the man who stabbed Marlowe do it in self-defense, or was it really to get rid of him? Or did Marlowe actually fake his own death and go on to ghost write for William Shakespeare?My guest is M.J. Trow, and his book is called "Who Killed Kit Marlowe?: A Contract to Murder in Elizabethan England". He shares the story of this complex figure and offers his own theory on who he believes was behind Marlowe's unfortunate end. Amazon's M. J. Trow page is here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices