Episodes

  • March 28, 1944

    March 28, 1944
    Mar 28 2026
    San Francisco, California
    March 28, 1944

    A pyromaniac works the skid row district south of Market Street, lighting fires in flophouses all evening long. The sixth one catches. Twenty-two people die inside the New Amsterdam Hotel. The man they convict says God knows he's innocent. The dead say nothing.

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    You can pay more if you want to, but rent at the Safe House is still just a buck a week, and you can get access to over 400 ad-free episodes from the dusty vault, Safe House Exclusives, direct access to the Boss, and whatever personal services you require.

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    If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES, telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!

    For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES with two new stories every week.

    This episode includes AI-generated content.
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    10 mins
  • Preacher’s Baby Girl/Gangster’s Wife

    Preacher’s Baby Girl/Gangster’s Wife
    Mar 27 2026
    The Trial & Travails Of Norma Brighton Millen

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    Episode 43 is the story of a young girl, the daughter of a prominent minister and graduate of a fine finishing school, who fell into the wrong crowd and married a man who would be executed for the crime of the gang he was trying to build. The papers never said, but I can’t help but think the Millen-Faber Gang fancied themselves to be the Dillingers of the East Coast. The story grabbed my attention because of the way Norma Brighton Millen presented herself after her capture. Is she the innocent dupe as she proclaimed? Or was she using her pretty face and sophisticated air to disguise her inner bad girl and get off easy?

    Hear about more FEMMES FATALE!!!

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    You can pay more if you want to, but rent at the Safe House is still just a buck a week, and you can get access to over 400 ad-free episodes from the dusty vault, Safe House Exclusives, direct access to the Boss, and whatever personal services you require.

    We invite you to our other PULPULAR MEDIA podcasts:

    If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES, telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!

    For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES with two new stories every week.
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    43 mins
  • March 26, 1942

    March 26, 1942
    Mar 26 2026
    Poprad, Slovakia
    March 25, 1942

    Nine hundred and ninety-nine young Jewish women boarded a train believing they were headed to factory work. They sang folk songs as the Tatra Mountains slid past the windows. The train crossed the Polish border before dawn. What waited on the other side would change the world.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

    You can pay more if you want to, but rent at the Safe House is still just a buck a week, and you can get access to over 400 ad-free episodes from the dusty vault, Safe House Exclusives, direct access to the Boss, and whatever personal services you require.

    We invite you to our other PULPULAR MEDIA podcasts:

    If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES, telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!

    For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES with two new stories every week.

    This episode includes AI-generated content.
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    10 mins
  • The Disappearance Of Doctor Parkman

    The Disappearance Of Doctor Parkman
    Mar 25 2026
    From True Crime Pioneer Edmund Pearson

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    Episode 25 takes place in 1849, a week before Thanksgiving, in a laboratory at the Harvard Medical College while the famed physician and author Oliver Wendell Holmes was lecturing in the room directly above. The victim was one of Boston's wealthy elite on a mission to collect a bet from a geology professor. The Parker-Webster case, as it came to be known, was notable because it was one of the first murder cases where circumstantial forensic evidence was used in a trial. In this case it was the false teeth of the victim.

    More stories from EDMUND PEARSON

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

    You can pay more if you want to, but rent at the Safe House is still just a buck a week, and you can get access to over 400 ad-free episodes from the dusty vault, Safe House Exclusives, direct access to the Boss, and whatever personal services you require.

    We invite you to our other PULPULAR MEDIA podcasts:

    If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES, telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!

    For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES with two new stories every week.
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    34 mins
  • March 24, 1882

    March 24, 1882
    Mar 24 2026
    Cincinnati, Ohio
    March 24, 1862

    Abolition's golden trumpet, Wendell Phillips, takes the stage at Pike's Opera House to tell a river city what it doesn't want to hear. The eggs come first. Then the rocks. Then the mob outside, waiting with a rope. The mayor watches and does nothing.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

    You can pay more if you want to, but rent at the Safe House is still just a buck a week, and you can get access to over 400 ad-free episodes from the dusty vault, Safe House Exclusives, direct access to the Boss, and whatever personal services you require.

    We invite you to our other PULPULAR MEDIA podcasts:

    If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES, telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!

    For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES with two new stories every week.

    This episode includes AI-generated content.
    Show More Show Less
    10 mins
  • The Dead Is Alive

    The Dead Is Alive
    Mar 23 2026
    The Wrongful Execution of William Jackson Marion

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    Episode 470 begins in 1887, when Nebraska hanged Jack Marion for murdering his friend John Cameron. Four years later, Cameron turned up alive on a Kansas farm. He'd never heard of the trial. He still had the receipt for the horses Marion supposedly killed him for. Nobody ever figured out whose body was in the creek.

    Hear more stories about BOTCHED EXECUTIONS.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

    You can pay more if you want to, but rent at the Safe House is still just a buck a week, and you can get access to over 400 ad-free episodes from the dusty vault, Safe House Exclusives, direct access to the Boss, and whatever personal services you require.

    We invite you to our other PULPULAR MEDIA podcasts:

    If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES, telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!

    For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES with two new stories every week.
    Show More Show Less
    58 mins
  • Anarchist Kills Them All

    Anarchist Kills Them All
    Mar 22 2026
    The 1896 Klaettke Family Massacre

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    Episode 42 is the sad tale of a family of seven shot and killed by the crazed father, who then turned the gun on himself. It’s rare that we do an episode about a murder/suicide, because you rarely get to hear about the drama that led up to the tragedy, because there’s no one left to tell the story. There are still a lot of unanswered--and over-answered--questions in this one, but I like how the reporter included the details of the family history and their daily lives into the narrative, although I do think they’ve put too much emphasis on the role of the man’s politics in his decision to commit this horrible act.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

    You can pay more if you want to, but rent at the Safe House is still just a buck a week, and you can get access to over 400 ad-free episodes from the dusty vault, Safe House Exclusives, direct access to the Boss, and whatever personal services you require.

    We invite you to our other PULPULAR MEDIA podcasts:

    If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES, telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!

    For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES with two new stories every week.
    Show More Show Less
    37 mins
  • March 21, 1556

    March 21, 1556
    Mar 21 2026
    Oxford, England
    March 21, 1556

    The Archbishop of Canterbury signed five recantations to save his life. Queen Mary scheduled his burning anyway. On the morning of his execution, Cranmer was ordered to renounce his faith one final time before the crowd. He had other plans — and a right hand he intended to punish first.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-historian--2909311/support.

    You can pay more if you want to, but rent at the Safe House is still just a buck a week, and you can get access to over 400 ad-free episodes from the dusty vault, Safe House Exclusives, direct access to the Boss, and whatever personal services you require.

    We invite you to our other PULPULAR MEDIA podcasts:

    If disaster is more your jam, check out CATASTROPHIC CALAMITIES, telling the stories of famous and forgotten tragedies of the 19th and 20th centuries. What could go wrong? Everything!

    For brand-new tales in the old clothes from the golden era of popular literature, give your ears a treat with PULP MAGAZINES with two new stories every week.

    This episode includes AI-generated content.
    Show More Show Less
    10 mins