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The internet will tell you that Catherine Hayes was a monster who slept with her son and convinced him to murder her husband, John Hayes, but the internet is wrong. This is the true story of the life and death of Catherine Hayes. Sources:  “A Narrative of the barbarous and unheard of murder of John Hayes…” 1726. “Broadside: A true copy of the paper, which Mrs. Catherine Hayes deliver'd to a particular friend, on Sunday last, the 8th day of May, which was the day before her execution,” Kent State University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives, accessed September 16, 2026, http://omeka.library.kent.edu/special-collections/items/show/11482.  “Catherine Hayes Burnt for Petty Treason.” Capital Punishment UK. 3 June 2025. https://capitalpunishmentuk.org/catherine-hayes-burnt-for-petty-treason/ Enright, Mairead. “Catherine Hayes: ‘The sexual predatorburnt at the stake for her life of sin’” University of Birmingham. 18 March, 2018. https://blog.bham.ac.uk/legalherstory/2018/03/18/catherine-hayes-the-sexual-predator-burnt-at-the-stake-for-her-life-of-sin/ Gribble, Leonard. Queens of Crime (London: Hurst & Blackett, 1932). Lane, Brian. The Butcheres: a casebook of macabre crimes and forensic detection. (London: BCA, 1991). Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 9.0) Ordinary of Newgate's Account May 1726 (OA17260509). Available at: https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/OA17260509 (Accessed: 16th September 2026).  Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 9.0) April 1726. Trial of Katharine Hays (t17260420-42). Available at: https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t17260420-42 (Accessed: 16th September 2026).  Saxton, Kirsten. Narratives of Women and Murder in England, 1680-1760. (Surrey: Ashgate, 2009). Newspapers: London Journal Mist’s Weekly Journal Weekly Journal, or the British Gazetteer Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

When Ruth Cruger went missing in 1917 and the New York Police Department failed to search for her adequately, the girl's family hired Grace Humiston, AKA “Mrs. Sherlock Holmes,” to find her. Mrs. Sherlock not only found Ruth, but uncovered a conspiracy that rocked New York City–and America–to its core. Episode 86- The Gotham Gobbler: Mrs. Sherlock and the Murder of Ruth Cruger is now live on all major platforms. Sources:  Kahler, Abbott. “‘Mrs. Sherlock Holmes’ Takes on the NYPD.” Smithsonian magazine. August 23, 2011. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/mrs-sherlock-holmes-takes-on-the-nypd-60624549/ “Addressing the Epidemic of Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls Through Legislation.” Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. May 28, 2026. https://americanhealth.jhu.edu/news/addressing-epidemic-missing-and-murdered-black-women-and-girls-through-legislation Ricca, Brad. Mrs. Sherlock Holmes: The True Story of New York City’s Greatest Female Detective and the 1917 Missing Girl Case That Captivated a Nation (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2016). Ricca, “Searching for Grace Humiston: Mrs. Sherlock Holmes.” The History Reader. https://www.thehistoryreader.com/historical-figures/grace-humiston/ Roth, Tanya. “Women’s Work, the Story of the Murder-Solving, Peonage-Busting, Justice-Seeking ‘Mrs. Sherlock Holmes.’” Saturday Evening Post. August 21, 2024. https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/08/womens-work-the-story-of-the-murder-solving-peonage-busting-justice-seeking-mrs-sherlock-holmes/ Newspaper articles from: The New York Tribune The New York Times The Daily News (NY) The Evening World (NY) The Elmira Gazette (NY) The Philadelphia Inquirer Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

In 1923, five-year-old Arthur Martinez’s body was discovered in an abandoned Pasadena factory. As detectives dig deeper, two teenage boys become central to a story that is tragic, disturbing, and impossible to ignore.  Sources:  In the Matter of the Application of PAUL DAEDLER, a Minor, for Writ of Habeas Corpus. Supreme Court of California, Aug 13, 1924 Mares-Tamayo, Michaela Jeanette Lopez. “Chicana/o Historical Counterstories: Documenting the Community Memory of Junipero Serra and Clark Street Schools.” Dissertation, University of California Los Angeles, 2014. Pasadena Unified School District. Annual Report of the Pasadena Unified School District. Pasadena, CA. 1917-1924. This episode consists mostly of original research from the following papers: The Pasadena Post The Pasadena Star The Los Angeles Times The Nevada State Journal The Whittier News The Oregon Daily Journal The Emporia Gazette (Kansas) The Tucson Citizen Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

After poet Nora May French committed suicide in the artist’s colony of Carmel-by-the-Sea, a “cavalcade of death” followed. But how responsible was Nora for the bizarre deaths of her Bohemian friends, and was her death truly a suicide? Sources:  Denouden, Jeremy. “‘Great Nature, Refuge of the Weary Heart:’ A Regional and Literary Exploration of the Early Grove Plays of the Bohemian Club.” Master’s Theses. San Jose State University, Fall 2015. French, Nora May. Poems (San Francisco: The Strange Company, 1910). Lanzendorfer, Joy. “Bohemian Tragedy: The rise, fall, and afterlife of George Sterling’s California Arts Colony.” Poetry Foundation. February 25, 2018. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/146051/bohemian-tragedy Prendergast, Catherine. The Gilded Edge: Two Audacious Women and the Cyanide Love Triangle that Shook America (New York: Dutton, 2021). Starr, Kevin. Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985). Stewart, George R. Footloose in Arcadia: A Personal Record of Jack London, George Sterling, Ambrose Bierce.by Joseph Noel. American Literature, vol. 12, no. 3, 1940, pp. 380–81.  Articles from the San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Call, Los Angeles Times, Oakland Post Enquirer, and Sunset Magazine. Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

Salem, Massachusetts, is famous for its witch trials, but did you know that it also hosted a murder mystery so twisted that it inspired literary legends like Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne? The mystery began with an old ship captain murdered in his bed and ended with the deaths of three more prominent citizens. Was the motive love, greed, or something more sinister? Sources:  Brooks, Rebecca Beatrice. “The Murder of Captain Joseph White.” History of Massachusetts Blog. July 25, 2025. https://historyofmassachusetts.org/captain-joseph-white-murder/ “Captain Joseph White.” Salem Public Library. https://salempl.org/captain-joseph-white/ Curtis, Charles P. “The Young Devils and Dan’l Webster.” American Heritage, Vol. II, Issue 4. June, 1960. Duke, Thomas. Celebrated Criminal Cases of America (San Francisco: The James H. Barry Company, 1910).  Second trial of John Francis Knapp by a new jury: Recommenced at Salem, August 14, 1830, for the murder of Capt. Joseph White, before the Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at a special session, commenced at Salem, July 20, 1830… (Boston: Dutton and Wentworth, 1830).  Trial of George Crowninshield, J.J. Knapp, Jun. and John Francis Knapp. reported by John W. Whitman. (Boston: Beals and Homer, and Frances Ingraham, 1830.) Lewis, Walker. “The Murder of Captain Joseph White: Salem, Massachusetts, 1830.” American Bar Association Journal. Vol. 54. May, 1968. Pp. 460-466. Wagner, E. J., “A Murder in Salem.” Smithsonian Magazine. November 2010. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-murder-in-salem-64885035/ Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

The Ku Klux Klan controlled the state of Indiana in 1924. They believed themselves invincible and were moving to expand their organization when they encountered resistance from Irish Catholic Notre Dame students. Notre Dame students halted the Klan’s advances in South Bend, Indiana, but it was Madge Oberholtzer who killed the Klan for good. Sources:  “A Clash Over Catholicism.” University of Notre Dame. August, 2018. https://stories.nd.edu/stories/a-clash-over-catholicism/ “The Dying Declaration of Madge Oberholtzer.” Famous Trials by Professor Douglas O. Linder. https://www.famous-trials.com/stephenson/86-dyingdeclaration Egan, Timothy. Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them (New York: Viking, 2023). Kahler, Abbott. “‘Murder Wasn’t Very Pretty’: The Rise and Fall of D. C. Stephenson” Smithsonian Magazine. August 30, 2012. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/murder-wasnt-very-pretty-the-rise-and-fall-of-dc-stephenson-18935042/ Milz, Mary. “How Notre Dame Students Battled the Klan 100 Years Ago.” Indianapolis Monthly. May 16, 2024. https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-and-culture/how-notre-dame-students-battled-the-klan-100-years-ago/ Tucker, Todd. Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2004). Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

Historian Alyse takes the Borden murders very seriously. Join her as she investigates primary sources from 1892 and concludes the Lizzie Borden mystery once and for all. ​ Shoutout to the bird who decided to be a special guest on this episode. ​ Sources: For this episode, I read only primary sources. These include witness statements, preliminary hearing and inquest documents, and trial transcripts. ​ Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

In 1906, the mutilated body of young sales clerk James Logan was discovered on Southern California’s grandest resort hotel, The Raymond. When an African American tailor was accused of the crime, the city’s allegiances split. Half of the city of Pasadena wanted the man condemned to death, but the other half fought to save him, believing he had been framed. Sources: Biery, Bryan. “The Princes: Pasadena’s Regal Family.” Colorado Boulevard Newspaper. 12 March, 2024. https://www.coloradoboulevard.net/the-princes-pasadenas-regal-family/ Lindquist, Heather. “‘Exploring Pasadena’s Past’- The Heart of Pasadena’s Communities of Color.” Pasadena Museum of History. 18 June, 2022. https://pasadenahistory.org/exploring-pasadenas-past-the-heart-of-pasadenas-communities-of-color/ Liu, Yan. “A full moon in another land: The Moon Bridge in the Japanese garden of the Huntington Library.” Frontiers of Architectural Research Vol. 9 Iss. 3, September 2020. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095263520300182#abs0010 Most of this episode consists of original research, drawn from the newspapers listed below. Newspapers:  California Eagle Liberator (Los Angeles) Long Beach Tribune Los Angeles Evening Express Los Angeles Evening Post Record Los Angeles Herald Los Angeles Times Pasadena Star News Pasadena Post Sacramento Daily Union San Francisco Daily Call South Pasadenan South Pasadena Record Music: Edvard Grieg's 1906 'Butterfly' is this episode's background music. Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston.  For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

A sexy death mystery unfolded in 1931 New York City, when a socialite washed up on the shores of Long Island. Was her death an accident, a suicide, or foul play at the hands of the many prominent men she knew? Sources: Allhoff, Fred. “The Starr Faithfull Enigma.” Liberty. June 12, 1939. Pp. 20-23. “Five Starr Faithfull.” TIME. June 29, 1931. https://time.com/archive/6747467/the-press-five-starr-faithfull/ Goodman, Jonathan. The Passing of Starr Faithfull (Kent: The Kent State University Press, 1996). Kennedy, Helen. “Dangerous Game: Starr Faithfull, 1931” New York Daily News, 1999. Markey, Morris. “The Mysterious Death of Starr Faithfull” in The Aspirin Age: 1919-1941. Ed. Isabel Leighton (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1949). Nash, Jay Robert. Open Files: A narrative encyclopedia of the world’s greatest unsolved crimes (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983). “Starr Crossed.” Strange Company. March 14, 2016. https://strangeco.blogspot.com/2016/03/starr-crossed.html Verdict Press. Crimes of Passion (London: Verdict Press, 1975). Newspapers:  Brooklyn Standard-Union Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) Indianapolis Times Nassau Daily Review New York Times Washington Times Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

The first ‘Murder by Mail’ was sent to Mrs. Josephine Barnaby in 1891 in the form of an arsenic-laced whiskey bottle. When she and a friend drank the whiskey, both fell violently ill. The resulting murder trial would tear families apart for decades to come. Sources: Conrad, Barnaby. A Revolting Transaction (New York: Arbor House, 1983). Day, Martin C. Death in the Mail (Providence: The Journal Print, 1892). Galpern, Jennifer L. “Happy New Year…in April?” The Rhode Island Historical Society. 13 April, 2017. https://www.rihs.org/happy-new-year-in-april/ Newspapers:  Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) Fort Worth Gazette Morning Journal and Courier (New Haven) Narragansett Herald New York Times Pawtucket Tribune Providence News Portland Daily Press Rock Island Daily Argus Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

A fatal 1869 shooting at the New York Tribune led to a contentious debate about love, divorce, and women’s rights in America.  Sources: Cazauran, A. R. The Trial of Daniel McFarland for the Shooting of Albert D. Richardson (New York: W. E. Hilton, 1870). Cooper, George. Lost Love: A True Story of Passion, Murder, and Justice in Old New York (Pantheon Books: New York, 1994).  Ganz, Melissa J. “Wicked Women and Veiled Ladies: Gendered Narratives of the McFarland-Richardson Tragedy.” Yale Journal of Law and Feminism. Vol. 9. 1997. McAvey, Marion. “Abby Sage Richardson.” EBSCO. 2023. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/abby-sage-richardson Richardson, Abby Sage. Old Love Letters (Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1883). The Richardson-McFarland Tragedy: Containing all the letters and other interesting facts and documents not before published. (Barclay & Co. Publishers: Philadelphia, 1870). Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. “Speech on the McFarland Trial, Apollo Hall,” Speeches & Writings File. May 17, 1870 Wilhelm, Robert. “The Richardson-McFarland Tragedy.” Murder By Gaslight. 10 July, 2010. https://www.murderbygaslight.com/2010/07/richardson-mcfarland-tragedy.html Newspapers: Buffalo Express New York Times New York Tribune Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

Texas authorities arrested George Hassell on Christmas Day of 1926 after his wife and her eight children went missing. George cried, “I did it,” then confessed to the murder of another family ten years prior in California. This is his story. Sources: Churchill, Marlowe J. “Hassell offered detailed confession.” The Eastern New Mexico News. 3 September, 2019. https://www.easternnewmexiconews.com/story/2019/09/04/news/hassell-offered-detailed-confession/162888.html “George J Hassell’s Murderous Ways.” Texas Genealogy Trails. https://genealogytrails.com/tex/panhandle/parmer/news_crime_hassell_murders_story.htm Guy, Fiona. “Family Annihilation: The Crimes and Psychology of Familicide.” Crime Traveller. 13 May, 2019. https://www.crimetraveller.org/2019/05/family-annihilation-crimes-psychology-familicide/ Hanlon, R.E., Brook, M., Demery, J.A. and Cunningham, M.D. (2016), Domestic Homicide: Neuropsychological Profiles of Murderers Who Kill Family Members and Intimate Partners. J Forensic Sci, 61: S163-S170. https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.12908 Ortlieb, Tracy Collins. “Inside the Mind of ‘Family Annihilators.’” 19 January 2023. https://www.parents.com/parenting/dynamics/inside-the-mind-of-family-annihilators/ Roth, Mitchel P. Man with the Killer Smile: The Life & Crimes of a Serial Mass Murderer (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2022). Wight, Pam. “‘Death House’ Slayings gain attention.”24, February, 2007. https://www.whittierdailynews.com/2007/02/24/death-house-slayings-gain-attention/ Newspapers: Douglas Daily Dispatch Los Angeles Times Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

A deadly shooting at London’s extravagant Savoy Hotel in 1923 prompted a murder trial that pitted East against West. Was the tragedy the result of a pharaoh’s curse or merely the consequence of a lover’s quarrel? Sources: Bland, Lucy.  “Mme Fahmy’s Vindication: Orientalism, miscegenation fears, and female fantasy,” in Modern Women on Trial: Sexual Transgression in the Age of the Flapper (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013). Pp. 132-175 Leake, Natasha. “How a beguiling French courtesan captured the heart of a young British prince, in a love affair that scandalised the Royal Family.” The Tatler. 19 February 2023. https://www.tatler.com/article/prince-harrys-memoir-love-affair-edward-viii-and-french-courtesan Rose, Andrew. The Woman Before Wallis: Prince Edward, the Parisian Courtesan, and the Perfect Murder (New York: Picador, 2013). “The Perfect Murder.” Royalty Magazine. Vol. 23/01. https://www.royalty-magazine.com/books-film/the-perfect-murder-2.html Verdict Press. Crimes of Passion (London: Verdict Press, 1975). Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

Six nurses threatened to storm out of the Swope mansion in Missouri at the height of a 1909 typhoid epidemic, claiming that “people are being murdered in this house.” Was the Swope family dying of typhoid, or was it something more nefarious? Sources: Carus, W. Seth. Bioterrorism and Bicrimes: The Illicit Use of Biological Agents since 1900 (Amsterdam: Fredonia Books, 2002). Deel, Karla. Storied & Scandalous Kansas City: A History of Corruption, Mischief and a Whole Lot of Booze.(Lanham, MD, Globe Pequot, 2019). Duke, Thomas Samuel. Celebrated Criminal Cases of America (The James H Barry Company, 1910).  Fowler, Giles. Deaths on Pleasant Street (Kirksville: Truman State University Press, 2009). Martin, Mackenzie. “The strange case of Mr. Swope and Dr. Hyde: Kansas City’s great unsolved murder mystery.” KCUR. https://www.kcur.org/history/2023-10-25/thomas-swope-park-murder-trial-bennett-hyde-kansas-city-mystery “Medicine: Murders in Missouri.” TIME. 20 August, 1934. https://time.com/archive/6894959/medicine-murders-in-missouri/ Newspapers: The Kansas City Star St. Petersburg Times St. Louis Globe Democrat St. Louis Post-Dispatch The Detroit Times The Pittsburgh Press The New York Times Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

Chicago crime reporters descended upon Ruth and Carl Wanderer’s Chicago home after the war hero’s wife was shot dead in a holdup at their front door. Who was the Ragged Stranger who assaulted them? And why did he have Carl Wanderer’s service weapon? Sources: Bigge, Lauren. “‘Shell Shock Treatments During World War I: A First Step Towards Modern Military Psychiatry.” National Museum of Health and Medicine. https://medicalmuseum.health.mil/index.cfm?p=media.news.article.2018.shell_shock_treatment Eghigian, Greg. “ The First World War and the Legacy of Shellshock.” Vol. 31, No. 4. Psychiatric Times. 28 February, 2018. Hecht, Ben. Charlie: The improbable Life & Times of Charles MacArthur (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957). Lesy, Michael. Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007) Murray, George in The Chicago Crime Book Ed. Albert Halper. (New York: The World Publishing Company, 1967). Nash, Jay Robert. Bloodletters and Badmen: A Narrative Encyclopedia of American Criminals from the Pilgrims to the Present (New York: M. Evans & Company, 1973). Schechter, Harold. Murderabilia: A History of Crime in 100 Objects (New York: Workman Publishing Co., 2023). As well as articles from the Washington Times, The Manning Times, Richmond TImes-dispatch, Chicago Tribune. And the Chicago Homicide database entry https://homicide.northwestern.edu/database/5270/ Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston. Also featuring “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” by Jack Judge and “Old Pal” by Henry Burr. For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com