Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

On December 6th, 1969, The Rolling Stones headlined a free concert at Altamont Speedway outside of San Francisco. It quickly turned ugly, culminating with the stabbing death of eighteen-year-old Meredith Hunter by a member of the Hell's Angels, who were acting as security.My guest, Joel Selvin, long-time music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and New York Times bestselling author, explains how the concert came into being and offers details on the terrible night, including his thoughts on whether Mick Jagger and the Stones were really aware of the extent of the violence during their set. Joel Selvin's book is called "The Rolling Stones, the Hells Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day".More about the author here: http://www.joelselvin.com/Become a Most Notorious patron: https://www.patreon.com/mostnotoriousMost Notorious on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MostNotorious1Most Notorious website: https://www.mostnotorious.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In June of 1906, famed architect Stanford White was murdered by an obsessive millionaire's son named Harry Thaw at the roof garden theater of Madison Square Garden. His attorneys would claim in the sensational court case that followed that he'd done it because his young wife, model Evelyn Nesbit, had been raped by White when she was only sixteen.My guest is award-winning historian and author Simon Baatz, and his book is called "The Girl on the Velvet Swing: Sex Murder and Madness at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century". He joins me to tell the dramatic story. The author's website: http://www.simonbaatz.com/Become a Most Notorious patron: https://www.patreon.com/mostnotoriousMost Notorious website: https://www.mostnotorious.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In early 1942, as World War II raged and Japan threatened Australia, tens of thousands of American servicemen arrived in Melbourne to provide assistance in the Pacific Theater.One young U.S. soldier, however, named Eddie Leonski, used the browned-out city as a hunting ground to strangle and murder women. My guest is Ian W. Shaw, author of "Murder at Dusk: How US Soldier and Smiling Pyschopath Eddie Leonski Terrorized Wartime Melbourne". He shares details of the serial murders and their consequences to U.S.-Australian relations at a pivotal time in world history.More about the author here: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/ian-w-shaw/murder-at-dusk/9780733640452/Become a Most Notorious patron: https://www.patreon.com/mostnotoriousMost Notorious on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MostNotorious1Most Notorious website: https://www.mostnotorious.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1902 New York City, a group of wealthy young men, known as the Bedford Avenue Gang, spent their free time terrorizing their neighborhood - including drinking, stealing, fleecing businesses and seducing women. After gang member Walter Brooks, began dating one of the gang's groupies, a badly behaved young woman named Florence Burns, he ended up murdered in a seedy downtown hotel.Virginia A. McConnell, author of "The Belle of Bedford Avenue: The Sensational Brooks-Burns Murder in Turn-of-the-Century New York", is my guest on this episode. She tells the story of Florence Burns, the Bedford Avenue Gang, and how the "Unwritten Law" helped determine whether justice would ever be served in the murder of Walter Brooks.More about the author here: https://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/author/mcconnellv/Become a Most Notorious patron: https://www.patreon.com/mostnotoriousMost Notorious on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MostNotorious1Most Notorious website: https://www.mostnotorious.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In February of 1921 in Missoula, Montana, a wife and mother of two named Nora Shea was gunned down near some railroad tracks. The main suspect was a local hoodlum named Joe Vuckovich, but a recent piece of surfaced evidence points the finger at her husband, Jerry Shea, as the real killer.My guest is history writer and journalist Kim Briggeman, whose article in the Missoulian newspaper brought the nearly one-hundred year old murder back to local attention. Become a Most Notorious patron: https://www.patreon.com/mostnotoriousMost Notorious on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MostNotorious1Most Notorious website: https://www.mostnotorious.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For decades, the 1912 Villisca, Iowa axe slaughter of the Moore family has been one of the greatest unsolved family massacres in American history. Many believe that it was a local townsperson, but others believe it was the work of a transient serial killer.From the late 1890s until possibly as late as the 1920s, Paul Mueller, a German sailor, rode the American rails, murdering entire families with the blunt edge of an axe, according to my guest, Rachel McCarthy James. She, along with her co-author and father, baseball historian and statistician Bill James, make a convincing case in their book, "The Man From the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery", that they have discovered the slayer of potentially a hundred or more people across the United States, Canada, and even Germany. More information about the book can be found here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Man-from-the-Train/Bill-James/9781476796260Become a Most Notorious patron: https://www.patreon.com/mostnotoriousMost Notorious website: https://www.mostnotorious.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In August of 1965, the idyllic little community of Shaker Heights, Ohio, was shaken to its foundation when housewife Mariann Colby shot to death her neighbor boy, eight-year-old Cremer Young Jr..Attorney and professor William L. Tabac, author of "Insanity Defense and the Mad Murderess of Shaker Heights: Examining the Trial of Marian Colby", tells the story of the crime and her defense's bold strategy in claiming that the seemingly sane woman was actually insane at the moment she pulled the trigger. More about the book here: https://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/2017/the-insanity-defense-and-the-mad-murderess-of-shaker-heights/Become a Most Notorious patron: https://www.patreon.com/mostnotoriousMost Notorious on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MostNotorious1Most Notorious website: https://www.mostnotorious.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 1947 Los Angeles Black Dahlia murder case has long been one of the most infamous unsolved crimes in American history, and many suspects have been accused over the years of being the slayer of Elizabeth Short.In this second Most Notorious episode about the subject, I talk with Piu Eatwell, author of "Black Dahlia, Red Rose: The Crime, Corruption and Cover Up of America’s Greatest Unsolved Murder". In her book, she makes a convincing case that the murderer was a man being pursued in a separate parallel police investigation, secret from the public, until it all blew up and the doctor leading the charge was unfairly discredited, despite compelling evidence. Become a Most Notorious patron: https://www.patreon.com/mostnotoriousMost Notorious website: https://www.mostnotorious.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On July 2nd, 1881, a disappointed and mentally unstable office-seeker named Charles Guiteau shot President James A. Garfield in a Washington D.C. train station. Over the next weeks, Garfield would linger, bedridden, as infection set in, caused by poor medical treatment, and America would wait with bated breath over whether their beloved president would survive. Meanwhile, Guiteau, the most hated man in America, would face trial and possible execution.My guest is Candice Millard, New York Times bestselling author, who discusses her book "Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President".Her website: https://www.candicemillard.com/destiny-of-the-republic.htmlBecome a Most Notorious patron: https://www.patreon.com/mostnotoriousMost Notorious website: https://www.mostnotorious.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll grew up quickly, from Irish tenements to enforcer for Bronx bootlegger and gangster Dutch Schultz while still in his teens. Soon the two split, and began gunning for each other in a bloody feud that left a trail of dead hoodlums in its wake.My guest is Rich Gold, co-author with Breandán Delap of the book, "Mad Dog Coll: An Irish Gangster", and tells the story of this vicious gangster, including his violent end in a New York City drugstore. Become a Most Notorious patron at: www.patreon.com/mostnotorious Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices