We’re switching things up! This isn’t our typical true crime story. Join me for a front-row review and insider breakdown of the live event Serial Killers with Dr. Scott Bonn, which I caught in Spartanburg. Plus, I’m featuring exclusive audio clips from the event's Q&A session, courtesy of Dr. Bonn himself.

Content Advisory: This episode is marked EXPLICIT due to mature subject matter and occasional strong language related to the topic.

Dr. Scott Bonn's website with tour dates

Dr. Bonn's Booki: Why We Love Serial Killers

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For over 200 years, the tale of the Bell Witch has haunted the American South. From 1817 to 1821, a frontier family in Tennessee was tormented by an invisible entity that pinched, spoke, prophesied, and maybe even murdered.

We delve into the legend of the witch that battled Andrew Jackson, poisoned a patriarch, and left a mystery that blurs the line between fact and folklore.

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For Kentucky, it was the crime of the 19th century. On December 23rd, 1881, just before Christmas, a home in Ashland, Kentucky, became the scene of a premeditated and brutal act of staggering evil. Three teenagers were murdered. What followed was a storm of missteps, red herrings, mob violence, political maneuvering, and a governor’s defiant stand that would turn the case into a national spectacle.

In this episode, Alfred Dockery is joined by Professor Kevin McQueen, author of "Murder in Old Kentucky: True Crime Stories from the Bluegrass," to unravel the dark and complex tale of the Ashland Tragedy. We explore the botched initial suspect, the shocking confession, a dramatic riverboat chase on the Ohio, a deadly militia shooting, and the legacy of a case that remains one of Kentucky’s most infamous crimes.

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Murder in Old Kentucky (Amazon)

Two young Tennessee criminals hoped to carve their own Depression-era outlaw legend. Clarence "Pee-Jem" Bunch and Gus McCoig began their path with a jailbreak from Newport in May 1934, unleashing a summer-long spree of robberies and shootouts across East Tennessee.

Their run was as short as it was violent. Bunch was shot by police and died at age 23. McCoig escaped prison to rob again, but was later captured and executed in the electric chair for the shooting death of a sheriff, closing a brief, brutal chapter in East Tennessee crime annals.

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He was a beloved legend on the Appalachian Trail, a generous, devout hiker known for his kindness and Jerry Garcia beard.

To his fellow thru-hikers, he was "Bismarck." But to the FBI, he was James Hammes, a fugitive accountant who had vanished after allegedly embezzling $8.7 million from his employer. For years, he lived a double life, hiking thousands of miles while hiding in plain sight.

In this episode, we unravel how a massive white-collar crime led to an unexpected arrest on the A.T., explore the dark secrets of his past, and uncover how his hunger for the spotlight and a TV rerun finally brought his run to an end.

Noteworthy sources for this episode

"A Long Walk's End" by William Browning (SB Nation Longform): A deep dive into Hammes' life on the trail.

"American Greed: The Fugitives" (Season 1, Episode 4): The TV episode that led to his capture.

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Join us for a special recap episode as we raise a glass to our unforgettable debut year! We're revisiting the chilling cases and incredible guests that made Season 1 a hit, breaking down your fan-favorite "ballad" episodes, and sharing behind-the-scenes secrets from the podcast's production.

Featuring clips from each of our five cornerstone ballad episodes:

• • Appalachian Ballads: Otto Wood with author Trevor McKenzie.

  • The Murder of Gladys Kincaid with historian Dr. Kevin Young.

  • Tom Dooley: Murder, Mystery, and a Mountain Ballad with folklorist William Ritter.

  • The Hillsville Courthouse Shooting with Dr. Travis Roundtree.

  • Frankie Silver: Unraveling the Ghost in the Ballad with bestselling author Sharyn McCrumb.

• Season 2 kicks off Monday, 1/5/26, with "The Fugitive Thru-Hiker," our first tale from the Appalachian Trail. Get ready for new trails, new tales, notorious outlaws, and legendary lawmen.

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In 1927, as Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic and "talkies" revolutionized film, a brutal bandit named Paul Jaworski and his Flathead Gang used buried dynamite to launch a Brinks armored car into the air in America's first armored car robbery.

This is the story of a criminal with a death wish, a failed getaway, a daring jailbreak, and a three-state crime spree that ended in Pennsylvania’s electric chair.

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In the winter of 1831, in the remote mountains of North Carolina, a young woman named Frankie Silver was accused of the brutal ax murder of her husband, Charlie. Her conviction, execution, and the gruesome dismemberment of the body made her the first woman hanged by the state of North Carolina.

But her story didn’t end at the gallows—it became a legend, a haunting ballad, and a centuries-old question about justice, class, and culture in early America.

In this compelling episode, host Alfred Dockery is joined by New York Times bestselling author Sharyn McCrumb to discuss her acclaimed novel, The Ballad of Frankie Silver. McCrumb, a celebrated Appalachian writer, delves into her years of meticulous research, separating folklore from fact and reconstructing a tragic tale that still resonates today.

Timestamps

(00:00) Podcast Introduction

(00:18) The Case of Frankie Silver

(00:52) Sharyn McCrumb: I write the stories that won’t go away

(03:15) The Haunting Story of Charlie Silver's Graves

(09:41) Unraveling the Trial of Frankie Silver

(17:28) Burgess Gaither: The Perfect Witness

(26:56) Writing The Ballad Series (No Candy Bars)

(31:00) The Two Souths and Historical Research

(35:21) Debunking the Hollywood Hangings

(36:37) 19th Century Southern Hangings: Carts and Trapdoors

(43:26) This Dreadful, Dark and Dismal Song

(52:04) Swain: The Weasel Governor

(57:57) How Did Charlie Silver Die? A Theory

(1:08:48) The Rich Never Hang

(1:10:46) See You on the Backroads

Sharyn McCrumb's Website

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