Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

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

In this special interview episode from the files of Where Blood Runs Cold, I interview Sharon Henry Darby, author of "Glensheen's Daughter", about the notorious Minnesota murderer and arsonist Marjorie Congdon, who besides allegedly conspiring to murder her mother Elizabeth Congdon at the famous Glensheen Mansion in Duluth, also left a trail of fire and death for the next three decades across the country.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

The subject of today's episode is Henri Landru, the most notorious serial killer in French history. He placed advertisements in Paris newspapers in the late 1910s, preying on lonely women left behind as French soldiers marched off to war. While he would eventually be tried and convicted on twelve counts of murder, Richard Tomlinson, the author of "Landru's Secret: The Deadly Seductions of France's Lonely Hearts Serial Killer", believes the actual murder count to be higher, and he explains why.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

Ann Marie Ackermann is my guest on this episode, author of the book "Death of an Assassin: The True Story of the German Murderer Who Died Defending Robert E. Lee". In 1835, a German mayor is murdered at night as he approaches his own front door. After an extensive investigation, including the first forensic ballistics test in history, the case goes cold until 1871, when it is finally solved in the United States. To make the story even more strange and compelling, the murderer of the mayor ends up dying at the feet of a young Robert E. Lee during a Mexican-American War battle.More about the author here: https://www.annmarieackermann.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