Advertise on podcast: Notorious Bakersfield

Send Robert a Text! A marriage had ended, but the anger and obsession behind it had not. By the fall of 1995, one Bakersfield family was caught in an escalating cycle of jealousy, threats and violence—and a young girl would ultimately find herself caught in the middle. **Donate to the GIVE THEM THEIR NAMES BACK campaign (please mak  a note that your contribution is for "Give Them Their Names Back:   https://www.kernsecretwitness.com/contact-donate National Domestic Violence Hotline:  1-800-799-7233 Support the show

Send Robert a Text! On a hot August afternoon in 2000, the workday was winding down at a small family-owned business in southwest Bakersfield. Within hours, 31-year-old Brad St. Clair would be at the center of a murder investigation—one that, more than a quarter-century later, still holds an unanswered question. Support the show

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Send Robert a Text! Hey Notorious Bakersfield fans,  I wanted to jump on here and explain why I haven’t released a new episode recently. A couple of weeks ago, a family member entered hospice care, and to say my focus hasn’t been on Notorious Bakersfield would be an understatement. Honestly, my head and heart just haven’t been in it.  When the time feels appropriate, I’ll share another update regarding the future of the podcast. For now, my attention is where it needs to be — with my family member.  Thank you to everyone who has reached out with concern and kind words. I truly appreciate your understanding, patience, and support. ~Robert~ Support the show

Send Robert a Text! In December 1988, four-year-old Deisy Herrera vanished without a trace from her East Bakersfield yard. Six months later, another young girl from Bakersfield went missing. As her family and authorities launched a frantic search, fear gripped the entire community. Support the show

Send Robert a Text! This week marks the 16th anniversary of this crime. After listening to this episode, you'll think twice before answering a stranger's knock on your door.  Support the show

Send Robert a Text! This Notorious Bakersfield story unfolds 150 miles west of Bakersfield, along the coast in Santa Barbara County. But this story has tentacles reaching all the way back to Bakersfield.  Support the show

Send Robert a Text! In 1908 Bakersfield, an afternoon visit to a hotel room set off a chain of events that would ripple through the town for years. What began as a quiet, private meeting quickly turned into one of the most talked-about incidents in Bakersfiel of its time.  Support the show

Send Robert a Text! On a March night in 1963, two LAPD officers were kidnapped during what should have been a routine traffic stop—and driven north into the dark farm fields just outside Bakersfield. This episode of Notorious Bakersfield revisits that horrific crime and it's chilling connection to Kern County.  Support the show

Send Robert a Text! In 1931, a 6-year-old boy never came home. What happened to him, shocked the Bakersfield community.  Support the show

Send Robert a Text! For decades, anyone with a scanner could listen as Bakersfield police officers and Kern County deputies responded to calls in real time. Now, a massive countywide radio overhaul could encrypt those transmissions, silencing the airwaves to the public. The question is whether this change will enhance officer safety, or will it put a wall between law enforcement and the community they serve. Support the show

Send Robert a Text! His name probably isn’t familiar to you—and that’s what makes the story of Percy Douglas so intriguing. In Bakersfield’s Wild West days, he was feared, violent, and impossible to ignore… yet today he survives only as an obscure footnote in local history.  Support the show

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Send Robert a Text! Long before Colonel Thomas Baker arrived in what we now call Bakersfield, a solitary hill rose from the valley floor near the site of today’s Mercy Hospital. For generations, that hill was home to a Yokuts village, a place chosen for both its visibility and its safety from the river’s floods.  After the Native Americans left, some of Kern County’s earliest white pioneers settled on the same hill, unknowingly building their lives atop a much older history.  Years later, when the hill was leveled to make way for railroad tracks, workers uncovered something unexpected—an unsettling mystery buried deep within the soil itself. Support the show

Send Robert a Text! Who knew there has been more than one murder on the Bakersfield College campus?  Support the show