Episodi

  • The Glove on Brennan Street: How a Button Began a Murder Trial

    The Glove on Brennan Street: How a Button Began a Murder Trial
    Aug 19 2026
    The Glove on Brennan Street: How a Button Began a Murder Trial

    Cold metal and a buttoned jacket forty feet in the air-nothing else-and a man found dead nine-tenths of a mile away with a single iron pipe blow to the skull. The jacket carried a laundry mark “W.B. 14” that led investigators to Wayne Bishop, chief transmission engineer at WOHL, but the scene held contradictions that refused an easy answer: who climbed the tower in a Wisconsin winter night and why was the station’s carrier off for seventeen minutes? What single decision turned a routine engineer’s disappearance into a staged message?

    In this episode, we walk through the timeline and physical evidence that tied Bishop’s disappearance to the WOHL transmitter and its external reset, following detectives from the jacket on the tower to the drainage easement where his body was found. How did a seventeen-minute carrier gap, two keys to the external reset, and a deliberate placement of clothing above the ground point investigators toward the person responsible?

    Person: Wayne Bishop
    Date: March 6-10, 1937
    Location: Tallow Hill Road and WOHL transmission tower, Winnebago County, Wisconsin
    Cause of death: Single blunt-force trauma to the back of the skull from an 18-inch, 3/4-inch iron pipe
    Item recovered: Brown herringbone jacket with laundry mark “W.B. 14”

    - At 5:45 a.m. on March 9, 1937, Bruce Green found Bishop’s jacket buttoned to the second service platform 40 feet above ground.
    - Bishop had been missing since the evening of Saturday, March 6; medical examiner placed time of death that evening.
    - A smeared, compressed channel roughly 18 inches wide led away from the tower base, consistent with something heavy being dragged.
    - The station’s transmission log showed a 17-minute gap between 11:41 and 11:58 p.m. on March 6 when the carrier went silent.
    - Bishop’s notebooks recorded that the transmitter had no internal reset and that the external reset required a key; two keys existed-one belonging to Bishop, the other to Albert Tice.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    23 min
  • The Twice-Stamped Passport: Who Stamped Jennifer Vaughn Dead?

    The Twice-Stamped Passport: Who Stamped Jennifer Vaughn Dead?
    Aug 18 2026
    The Twice-Stamped Passport: Who Stamped Jennifer Vaughn Dead?

    A woman's body was found with a canvas bag placed upright beside her hand and a passport inside that bore the same border crossing, date and time stamped twice - one faded gray-purple, one fresh deep violet. That impossible duplication of an eleven-forty-seven entry on February 4, 1943, became the single anomaly that refused to fit the ledger: who manufactured the second stamp, and why did it cost Jennifer Vaughn her life?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery, the paperwork, and the first steps of the federal inquiry as investigators trace a deliberately altered passport back through a border processing ledger, a freight-yard cabinet, and eleven minutes of interrogation to uncover what the two stamps meant.

    Person: Jennifer Vaughn
    Date: February 4, 1943 (passport stamps), death between January 25-28, 1943
    Location: Harwick Road border crossing; body found ~14 miles east of Harwick Road near a utility pole
    Investigator: Rebecca Harrison
    Discovery: Body found by Southwestern Bell line technician Sandra Christensen on February 9, 1943

    - The passport contained two stamps for the same crossing at 11:47 AM on February 4, 1943, one gray-purple and faded, one deep violet and fresh.
    - Jennifer Vaughn was 29 years old, had worked as an archive clerk on Montana Avenue, and had not missed her weekly Wednesday 10:15 PM call to her sister for nearly two years.
    - Her body was found face-down thirty feet east of a utility pole in pale caliche soil, with a canvas bag upright beside her left hand containing a folded wool skirt and a rubber toiletry bag.
    - The ledger from Harwick Road showed a single crossing entry at 11:47 AM for the same date, recorded by the processing officer as one woman crossing.
    - The passport was examined at the El Paso FBI field office by investigator Rebecca Harrison, who noted the mismatch between one ledger entry and two different ink stamps.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 min
  • The Jacket on Tallow Hill: Why a Tower Became a Crime Scene

    The Jacket on Tallow Hill: Why a Tower Became a Crime Scene
    Aug 17 2026
    The Jacket on Tallow Hill: Why a Tower Became a Crime Scene

    Cold proof of murder hid in eight inches of creek ice: a brand iron with the initials A.L. frozen upright, surrounded by unbroken ice for thirty feet, and a land transfer filed days before Amanda Lewis’s body was found-so who forged her sale and why did the county physician call her death an accident? What did one clerk’s eye for a misplaced crossbar and a harness-maker’s pre-dawn walk reveal about a plot to steal three hundred and twelve acres?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events from the filed brand transfer to the discovery in the creek and the clerk’s handwritten comparison that raised the alarm, asking whether Amanda Lewis’s death was truly accidental or part of a scheme to take her land.

    Person: Amanda Lewis
    Date of death discovery: January 5, 1884
    Location: creek outside Tallow Fork, Kansas
    Document filed: January 3, 1884
    Accused purchaser: James Sanders

    - Amanda Lewis owned 312 acres east of Tallow Fork and registered the cattle brand A.L. in 1871.
    - A brand transfer filed by James Sanders on January 3, 1884, claimed a sale dated December 28, 1883 for $1,100.
    - Amanda was seen alive at choir practice through early January despite the transfer’s December 28 date.
    - The brand iron found January 9 was encased eight inches deep in ice with initials A.L., the ice unbroken for 30 feet in every direction.
    - County recorder’s clerk Laura Meyer compared five years of Amanda’s signatures and noted Amanda’s capital A always had a low crossbar, while the transfer’s A had a centered crossbar.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 min
  • The Vial at Pell Street: How a Translation Buried a Murder

    The Vial at Pell Street: How a Translation Buried a Murder
    Aug 16 2026
    The Vial at Pell Street: How a Translation Buried a Murder

    A sealed Sacramento City Health Department vial clutched in a dead woman's hand became the evidence that closed her case as "accidental poisoning" before Christmas - a mistranslation, a missing key, and a three-dollar translation would bury the truth for fifty years. Who placed that vial in Alice Larsen's hand, and why did a string of small institutional failures let a killer walk free for months?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the evening of December 8 to the discovery on the morning of December 9 and trace how routine records, a ledger, and a dismissed employee intersected with a locked delivery door to produce baffling conclusions. How did a coroner's stamp and a season's worth of indifference obscure what really happened to Alice Larsen?

    Person: Alice Larsen
    Date: December 9, 1923 (body found at 8:40 AM)
    Location: Rear delivery door, Wah Chong Imports, 114 Pell Street, Sacramento Chinatown
    Person: Kevin Meyer (dismissed employee, 31 years old)
    Event: Case closed as accidental poisoning; real cause unidentified for fifty years

    - Alice Larsen was 22 years old and had worked as a bookkeeper at Meridian Import and Wholesale Company.
    - The vial found in her right hand bore a seal reading "Sacramento City Health Department."
    - Kevin Meyer had been dismissed from Meridian on October 3, 1923 with a file note "conduct unbecoming."
    - A rear delivery door at 114 Pell Street had an interior sliding bolt that, when thrown at 7:00 PM by owner Chow Bak-Sing, could not be opened from the outside.
    - By February after the death, the unsigned returned rear-door key and a ledger entry were only then connected; Alice had been dead for two months and the coroner had already recorded accidental poisoning.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    25 min
  • Ice-Encased Brand: How a Frozen Iron Unmasked a Murder

    Ice-Encased Brand: How a Frozen Iron Unmasked a Murder
    Aug 15 2026
    Ice-Encased Brand: How a Frozen Iron Unmasked a Murder

    A dead man sat in the admissions hall beside a fully completed intake form dated that same morning - every field answered, the physician’s signature dried, even though the county physician would later set time of death two to four a.m. How could a document say “Presenting Condition: Resolved” and “Presenting Status: Permanent” when the patient had been dead for hours?

    In this episode, we tell the events that led investigators to the impossible paperwork at Calder Point Restorative Institute and the questions that paperwork raised about who had access and when. What did the intake form hide, and who had reason to stage a recovery for a corpse?

    Person: Steven Weaver
    Date: November 4, 1911
    Location: Calder Point Restorative Institute, Wrentham County, southern Maine
    Occupation: Wholesale hardware merchant
    Condition listed on admission: Habitual intemperance and attendant melancholy

    - Weaver was 38 years old when found dead sitting in a high-backed oak chair with his hands folded and head tilted to the right.
    - The intake form beside Weaver listed Presenting Condition as "Resolved" and Presenting Status as "Permanent" and bore the same handwriting across every field.
    - The county physician estimated time of death between 2:00 and 4:00 a.m., while the intake form was dated the morning of November 4, 1911.
    - Marvin Smith, a delivery man, arrived with preserves that morning, smelled burned porridge, found the institute unusually quiet, and waited 40 minutes on the front steps for someone else to arrive.
    - Weaver had written his wife on October 19 noting a visit from junior physician Norman Porter who asked about his business and partner; DA investigator John Novak underlined the postscript twice after reading it.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 min
  • The Syringe in Her Palm: How a Ledger Lit a Murder

    The Syringe in Her Palm: How a Ledger Lit a Murder
    Aug 14 2026
    The Syringe in Her Palm: How a Ledger Lit a Murder

    A discarded insulin syringe, a tarpaulin weighted with fieldstones, and a body whose palm still held the glass instrument - a scene that contradicted the official cause of death recorded as heatstroke. Who signed a syringe out of the camp ledger on October 6, and how did a payroll auditor piece together a murder from a weather log and missing inventory?

    In this episode, we follow the trail from Sequoia Flats labor camp to the Pixley weather station and the supply ledger entries that unravel the official record. Listen as an untrained auditor leverages small, documented details - inventory signatures, temperature logs, and attendance records - to ask whether Karen Stewart was killed rather than lost to the heat.

    Person: Karen Stewart
    Date: October 8, 1937 (last seen) / October 12, 1937 (body found)
    Location: Sequoia Flats labor camp, Tulare County, California
    Case: Missing syringe signed out October 6 with initials "B.A."
    Event: Pixley weather log shows 61°F at 9 PM on October 8

    - Karen Stewart was 62 years old, 5 feet 2 inches tall, and weighed 109 pounds at intake processing.
    - Two glass insulin syringes were listed in the nurse station manifest on September 29; one was missing on the next inventory.
    - The missing syringe was signed out on October 6 with a forward-slanting pencil signature of the initials "B.A."
    - Karen attended seven consecutive Thursday literacy classes with zero absences; her last attendance was October 7.
    - The Pixley weather station recorded a temperature of 61°F at 9 PM on October 8, contradicting the coroner's heatstroke claim citing 101°F.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 min
  • The Upright Handbag: How a Missing Twenty-Five Days Broke a Town

    The Upright Handbag: How a Missing Twenty-Five Days Broke a Town
    Aug 13 2026
    The Upright Handbag: How a Missing Twenty-Five Days Broke a Town

    An upright tan calfskin handbag sat on a third-floor ledge twelve feet above a sealed dead-end alley with no ash despite a fire thirty feet away - and the woman who owned it, Melissa Young, did not return. What happened in the missing twenty-five days between her last confirmed day at Meridian Steam Laundry and the discovery of her remains, and who replaced the original padlock on the annex door with a seventy-five-cent Slaymaker No. 6?

    In this episode, the story follows the predictable routine of a forty-four-year-old floor supervisor whose absence should have been noticed, the eleven-day gap that began after the fire, and the tenacious ledger entries of investigator Christine Vaughn that conflicted with the official record. Which detail hidden from the file would finally start to undo the engineered gaps in the case?

    Person: Melissa Young
    Date: May 3, 1927 (last confirmed location) and May 14, 1927 (bag discovered)
    Person: Christine Vaughn
    Location: Meridian Steam Laundry annex, Collier Alley, Carvell, Ohio
    Event: Replacement of Master-brand padlock with Slaymaker No. 6 between May 4 and May 14

    - Melissa Young was a forty-four-year-old floor supervisor at Meridian Steam Laundry with eleven years on the job.
    - Melissa walked to Paulie’s Lunch Counter every Tuesday and Thursday and had her order ready on arrival, marking a fixed routine.
    - The annex stored forty-pound drums of bleaching compound and had a single east-side ground-level window with a broken latch.
    - Howard O’Brien’s delivery manifest for May 3 showed the annex delivery as completed and signed, but Meridian’s receiving ledger had no corresponding receipt.
    - Investigator Christine Vaughn kept handwritten notes in four ledger books; she recorded the broken window latch and the padlock discrepancy not found in official files.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 min
  • She Weighed the Ore Twice: The Murder of Erin White

    She Weighed the Ore Twice: The Murder of Erin White
    Aug 12 2026
    She Weighed the Ore Twice: The Murder of Erin White

    A certified assayer who weighed samples twice and kept a card tally 231 tricks ahead was found dead; twenty-one days later a hidden jar with E.W. sealed in wax revealed a swapped ore sample that could destroy a company and condemn a man - who had access to box number four of six, and why did Erin, who had no key, have a jar stamped with her initials?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of discoveries from April 22, 1893 through the telegraph reply on April 28, 1893, showing how a laundress’s find, a cash box, and a chemist’s analysis changed a routine death certificate into a case with corporate consequences; what does the assay logbook entry tied to box number four tell us about Erin White’s last days?

    Person: Erin White
    Date: April 22, 1893 (box found), death occurred 21 days earlier
    Location: Coldwater Gulch boarding house
    Occupation: Certified assayer for Harlow-Trench Mining Company
    Analysis date: April 28, 1893 (telegraph reply from Frank Aldrich, Pueblo)

    - Erin White was about 29 years old and held the only assay certification held by a woman in the Colorado high country.
    - A laundress, Diane Becker, found a tin cash box behind a loose stone on April 22, 1893, containing a 4-inch glass jar sealed with green wax pressed with the letters E.W.
    - The jar held low-grade silica aggregate with trace copper worth about $8 per ton, per Frank Aldrich’s analysis.
    - The sample number on the jar matched an assay logbook entry for a high-grade silver chloride specimen worth roughly $240 per ton.
    - The transport case containing that logged sample was box number four of six, logged out March 27 and returned March 29, two days before Erin White died.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 min