Discover how the 1934 murder of a seemingly insignificant river girl brought down the corrupt Arkansas Penal System in the fascinating tale of the short life of Helen Spence Eaton of the White River.
Be sure to visit our sister site Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County, Missouri for more tales of historical local true crime.
On a sunny afternoon in 1924, Eva Modell wheeled her 10-week-old baby girl outside the family's Philadelphia shop to get a little sun while she napped. It only took a moment of distraction and the baby was gone!
Who stole little Corinne and why? Would the family ever find their precious daughter alive?
Be sure to visit our sister site Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County, Missouri for more tales of historical local true crime.
For six years the mysterious mummy dubbed "The Lord" was housed at the Noland Brown Company Undertakers in Asheville, North Carolina. When his identity was finally revealed, he turned out to be one of the most notorious con artists of all time!
Resources used:
Ancestry.com
Findagrave.com
Newspapers. com
Social media:
Facebook - Old Fashioned Murder and Mayhem
Instagram - mindys_murder_and_mayhem
Email - melindamaloo@gmail.com
About me: Retired as head of genealogy from Jefferson County Library, Missouri. Storyteller at heart.
Be sure to visit our sister site Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County, Missouri for more tales of historical local true crime.
For over two centuries, the mountain folks of North Carolina have been intrigued by the legend of Frankie Silver a young woman sentenced to hang for the axe murder and burning of her husband Charley Silver. What was the secret she took with her to her grave? And why has the story captured the imagination of so many generations of poets, storytellers, and musicians?
Listener discretion is advised.
Included in the episode is the original song "Frankie Silver (Take it to the Grave)" performed by Couldn't Be Happiers (featuring Brown Mountain Lightening Bugs on banjo and backup vocals).
Used by permission.
Songwriters: Jodi Hildebran (BMI) and Jordan Crosby Lee (ASCAP)
Publishers:
BMI- Eddie C Life Music
ASCAP- Mediterranean Sun
Sync rights: Music of the Sea
https://couldntbehappiers.com/
*
"Francis Silvers' Confession"
The Lenoir Topic
North Carolina
Wednesday, March 24, 1886
This dreadful, dark and dismal day
Has swept my glories all away.
My sun goes down, my days are past,
And I must leave this world at last.
Oh! Lord, what will become of me?
I am condemned you all now see,
To heaven or hell my soul must fly
All in a moment when I die.
Judge Daniel has my sentence pass'd
Those prison walls I leave at last,
Nothing to cheer my drooping head
Until I'm numbered with the dead.
But oh! that Dreadful Judge I fear;
Shall I that awful sentence hear:
"Depart ye cursed down to hell
And forever there to dwell"?
I know that frightful ghosts I'll see
Gnawing their flesh in misery,
And then and there attended be
For murder in the first degree.
There shall I meet that mournful face
Whose blood I spilled upon this place;
With flaming eyes to me he'll say,
"Why did you take my life away?"
His feeble hands fell gently down,
His chattering tongue soon lost its sound,
To see his soul and body part
It strikes with terror to my heart.
I took his blooming days away,
Left him no time to God to pray,
And if his sins fall on his head
Must I not bear them in his stead?
The jealous thought that first gave strife
To make me take my husband's life,
For months and days I spent my time
Thinking how to commit this crime.
And on a dark and doleful night
I put his body out of sight,
With flames I tried him to consume,
But time would not admit it done.
You all see me and on me gaze,
Be careful how you spend your days,
And never commit this awful crime,
But try to serve your God in time.
My mind on solemn subjects roll;
My little child, God bless its soul!
All you that are of Adams race,
Let not my faults this child disgrace.
Farewell good people, you all now see
What my bad conduct's brought on me--
To die of shame and disgrace
Before this world of human race.
*
Social media:
Facebook - Old Fashioned Murder and Mayhem
Instagram - mindys_murder_and_mayhem
Email - melindamaloo@gmail.com
About me: Retired as head of genealogy from Jefferson County Library, Missouri. Storyteller at heart.
Be sure to visit our sister site Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County, Missouri for more tales of historical local true crime.
Best friends Gordon and George had known one another since childhood. What could have happened that left one dead and the other with blood on his hands? Find out the details in this story set in the roaring 20's of New York's Bronx.
Listener discretion is advised.
Resources used:
Ancestry.com
Fold3.com
Findagrave.com
Newspapers.com
Familysearch.org
Social media:
Facebook - Old Fashioned Murder and Mayhem
Instagram - mindys_murder_and_mayhem
Email - melindamaloo@gmail.com
About me: Retired as head of genealogy from Jefferson County Library, Missouri.
Be sure to visit our sister site Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County, Missouri for more tales of historical local true crime.
Be sure to visit our sister site Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County, Missouri for more tales of historical local true crime.
In the Depression-era South, Jimmie Brock left a trail of death behind him that destroyed his family and shook a small community to its core on the Louisiana and Mississippi border.
Resources used:
Ancestry.com
Fold3.com
Findagrave.com
Newspapers.com
Familysearch.org
Social media:
Facebook - Old Fashioned Murder and Mayhem
Instagram - mindys_murder_and_mayhem
Email - melindamaloo@gmail.com
About me: Retired as head of genealogy from Jefferson County Library, Missouri.
Be sure to visit our sister site Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County, Missouri for more tales of historical local true crime.
Louis and Josephine Bonacker had only been married six weeks when they made the mistake of inviting a traveler into their home in Jefferson County, Missouri that cold January in 1884. Two days passed before their mutilated bodies were discovered.
The Bonacker massacre is one of the most horrifying tales in the county's history.
Resources used:
Ancestry.com
Fold3.com
Findaagrave.com
Newspapers.com
Familysearch.org
Social media:
Facebook - Old Fashioned Murder and Mayhem
Instagram - mindys_murder_and_mayhem
Email - melindamaloo@gmail.com
About me: Retired as head of genealogy from Jefferson County Library, Missouri.
Be sure to visit our sister site Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County, Missouri for more tales of historical local true crime.
Everything 19-year-old William Benson dreamed of was there for the taking--a nice farm and a pretty wife. All he had to do was kill the couple who stood in his way.
Resources used:
Ancestry.com
Fold3.com
Findaagrave.com
Newspapers.com
Familysearch.org
Social media:
Facebook - Old Fashioned Murder and Mayhem
Instagram - mindys_murder_and_mayhem
Email - melindamaloo@gmail.com
About me: Retired as head of genealogy from Jefferson County Library, Missouri.
Be sure to visit our sister site Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County, Missouri for more tales of historical local true crime.
A copycat crime, a case of mistaken identity, and a mentally deranged youth were the ingredients that formed the tragic story of Little Girl in Pink: Mary Daly (1925).
WARNING: Viewer discretion is advised.
Resources used:
Ancestry.com
Newspapers.com
Findagrave.com
The Shocking Criminal Case of Leopold and Loeb - https://youtu.be/4xjLJPGOI8o
These Spoiled Rich Kids Kill for Fun - https://youtu.be/VxW5qmQD80M
The Atlantic Magazine (June 1926) - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/toc/1926/06/
Social media:
Facebook - Old Fashioned Murder and Mayhem
Instagram - mindys_murder_and_mayhem
Email - melindamaloo@gmail.com
About me: Retired as head of genealogy from Jefferson County Library, Missouri.
Be sure to visit our sister site Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County, Missouri for more tales of historical local true crime.
On May 21, 1924, the rural town of Amherst, Maine was shocked to discover their 19-year-old school teacher was brutally murdered. The identity of the murderer and the ghastly details of the killing left the entire country asking "What is wrong with our young people?"
Sources used include:
Ancestry.com
Newspapers.com
Findagrave.com
Crime scene photographs from Woods Detective Agency, Boston - https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/5/archival_objects/1816831#:~:text=Part%20of%20the,law.harvard.edu, ITEM — Box: 5, Folder: 7 Identifier: HOLLIS004386789, 5-1 to 5-73, 5-7.
Social media:
Facebook - Old Fashioned Murder and Mayhem
Instagram - mindys_murder_and_mayhem
Be sure to visit our sister site Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County, Missouri for more tales of historical local true crime.
When 55-year-old Robert Green was found murdered by the railroad tracks in Little Rock, Arkansas one August night in 1924, the only clue was the presence of a woman's footprints and a tiny rhinestone buckle discovered at the scene. The murderess was dubbed "the most beautiful woman ever to enter the Arkansas penitentiary."
But this was only the beginning of her story!
Host, Mindy Hudson, retired head of the genealogy department at Jefferson County Library, Missouri. Using resources and methods typical in genealogy research, I piece together the stories of the lives of people involved in historical true crime across America.
Resources used include:
Ancestry.com
Newspapers.com
Social media:
Youtube: oldfashionedmurderandmayhem@mindylou322
Facebook: Old fashioned Murder and Mayhem
Instagram: mindys_murder_and_mayhem
Email: melindamaloo@gmail.com
Also check out the podcast "Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County, Missouri" on your favorite podcast venue for more stories by Mindy.
Be sure to visit our sister site Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County, Missouri for more tales of historical local true crime.
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