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  • The Binder on the Cliff: How an Intake Form Unmasked Murder

    The Binder on the Cliff: How an Intake Form Unmasked Murder
    2026/10/28
    The Binder on the Cliff: How an Intake Form Unmasked Murder

    A sealed leather binder, waterproofed and carried twelve feet down a limestone bluff, survived November 4, 1911 - and held the clue that turned a death into possible murder. Who else at Aldgate Shore knew, and how much earlier could they have stopped what happened to Patricia Fisher?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of events, the institutional gaps, and the single document that preserved a warning others ignored - the same intake form that Patricia Fisher sealed and tried to protect. How did a routine records room failure, a night attendant with access to the dispensary, and an unread note in another patient’s file connect to the body found at Dunmore Point?

    Person: Patricia Fisher
    Date: November 4, 1911
    Location: Dunmore Point, twelve feet below bluff rim
    Institution: Aldgate Shore Sanatorium
    Staff involved: Jerry Dalton, night attendant; Dr. Chester Mabry, superintendent

    - Patricia Fisher was fifty-four and admitted to Aldgate Shore on October 24, 1911, with nervous exhaustion, poor sleep, and a left-hand tremor.
    - She waterproofed a leather-bound intake form with oilskin and carried it from the records room before disappearing.
    - A single unsigned note in Dorothy Simons’s file (died September 19, 1910) read: "the man on the night shift gives more than he writes down."
    - Jerry Dalton, age thirty-one, worked nights with unsupervised access to the dispensary and was on duty during a forty-minute observation log gap the night Dorothy Simons died.
    - The body and the sealed binder were discovered at approximately 8:30 AM on November 4, 1911, on a limestone shelf below the bluff.

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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 分
  • The Ampoule, the Slough, and the Man Who Confessed in Ink

    The Ampoule, the Slough, and the Man Who Confessed in Ink
    2026/10/27
    The Ampoule, the Slough, and the Man Who Confessed in Ink

    A small glass ampoule pulled from Perdido Slough contained a strip of paper with the penciled digits 1147 - and the number would unravel a buried death that had been ruled heatstroke. Which detail hidden in that tiny, wax-sealed vial turned a routine cotton-camp death into a case someone refused to let die?

    In this episode, you will hear how an evidence ampoule, a county death certificate, and a single investigator intersected to raise a new question about a man buried in the county lot. What did the digits 1147 point to, and how did one woman’s curiosity change the record of a 1934 death?

    Person: Vernon Larsen
    Date: October 1934
    Location: Coloma Flats, Fresno County
    Case: Death certified as heatstroke; no autopsy
    Person: Gail Draper

    - An ampoule with a snapped neck and wax seal was found by Nicole Price two miles south of Coloma Flats in early October 1934.
    - The paper inside the ampoule bore four penciled digits: 1147, and the strip was dry despite being submerged.
    - Vernon Larsen, age 22 from the Oklahoma Panhandle, was found dead in Bunkhouse C and buried four days after being declared dead of heatstroke.
    - Dr. Albert Finch examined Vernon for eleven minutes and signed the death certificate the same day; no autopsy was performed.
    - David Bowers wrote a confession saying he guided Vernon to inject a sample he provided and discarded ampoules in the slough the same night.

    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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    24 分
  • Lantern Burning at Noon: Why Millhaven's Telegraphman Never Left Work

    Lantern Burning at Noon: Why Millhaven's Telegraphman Never Left Work
    2026/10/26
    Lantern Burning at Noon: Why Millhaven's Telegraphman Never Left Work

    A kerosene signal lantern was found burning at 10:30 AM beside a telegraph station in Millhaven while the man beneath it had been dead nearly twenty hours - his skull crushed by a single, deliberate blow. Who lit a night lantern in daylight, and why was Donald Evans left to lie unseen behind the station?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery, the immediate investigation, and the odd details that puzzled local officers and the company’s special agent; what began as a simple missing-operator report turns on an ink-stained log, a measured fuel tank, and a history of dependable routine - so how did everything go so wrong?

    Person: Donald Evans
    Date: September 13-14, 1893
    Location: Western Continental telegraph station, Millhaven, Renner Township, Ohio
    Cause: Single blunt-force blow to base of skull
    Investigator: Kenneth Reynolds

    - Time of discovery by Heather Anderson: 10:30 AM on September 14, 1893
    - Evans’s last logged entry time: 2:47 PM on September 13, 1893
    - Time window of death estimated by Doctor Abel Sutter: between 3:00 PM and 7:00 PM on September 13, 1893
    - Lantern condition: kerosene signal lantern burning through most of the night
    - Evans’s employment record: nearly four years at the Millhaven station with consistent, neat logbooks

    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 分
  • The Glasses That Didn't Fit: How a Motel Secret Ended in Murder

    The Glasses That Didn't Fit: How a Motel Secret Ended in Murder
    2026/10/25
    The Glasses That Didn't Fit: How a Motel Secret Ended in Murder

    A plain pair of wire-rimmed reading glasses sat folded on a nightstand beside a body at the Lakeview Motor Court-glasses that did not match the victim’s special prescription and left investigators with a single unnerving question: who left them there, and why? The detail framed a case of secret notes, unexplained travel, and a small-town woman who kept a dangerous knowledge to herself.

    In this episode, we follow the timeline of events recorded in Pamela Sheridan’s life and papers, the motel discovery, and the clues Deputy Ross Jensen used to begin asking why Pamela drove to Room Nine; what do her three handwritten pages and an odd mileage gap reveal about the last weeks of her life?

    Person: Pamela Sheridan
    Date: August 14, 1953
    Location: Lakeview Motor Court, Room Nine, Gas Route 40, twelve miles east of Denton Falls
    Case: Unexplained death with unidentified reading glasses and a secret three-page handwritten note dated July 28
    Investigator: Chief Deputy Ross Jensen

    - Pamela Sheridan turned sixty-two in June 1953 and had lived in Denton Falls for nineteen years.
    - The reading glasses found on the nightstand were plain wire-rimmed and not traceable to any prescription in Pamela’s possession.
    - Pamela was legally blind in her left eye since 1941 and required a specialized corrective lens not stocked at chain pharmacies.
    - A man in a panel van claiming to be from Ohio Gas and Electric visited Dennis Burwell’s showroom; Pamela noted a partial plate "41 F" that traced to Alan Zimmerman of Cleveland.
    - Pamela’s 1949 Chevrolet’s odometer showed 41 miles driven since a gas fill-up on August 5, while the round trip to Lakeview should have added 24 miles, leaving 17 miles unaccounted for.

    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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    21 分
  • The Dry Shoe on the Bridge: How a Photographer Framed a Murder

    The Dry Shoe on the Bridge: How a Photographer Framed a Murder
    2026/10/24
    The Dry Shoe on the Bridge: How a Photographer Framed a Murder

    A dry cream calfskin Oxford balanced on a bridge railing at 6:17 AM on July 14, 1922 - while the wooden planks around it were soaked from overnight rain. That single impossible shoe, found by 41-year-old schoolteacher Marcia Duncan, pointed to a timeline that contradicted the coroner’s findings and raised the central question: who placed the shoe there, and why would someone stage such a detail before the rain began?

    In this episode, we tell the story through the objects, the ledger entries, and the sworn memories of a small town: the dry shoe on the railing, Jean Fitzgerald’s body in Crow Creek, and the traveling photographer whose presence threaded through both. How did a portrait wagon, a payment for developing chemicals, and three handwritten pages change the verdict on one woman’s death?

    Person: Jean Fitzgerald
    Date: July 13-14, 1922
    Location: Crow Creek / bridge near Tillman Falls
    Person: Jeffrey Hoffman
    Event: Ledger entry - payment for developing chemicals, $11.40

    - At 6:17 AM on July 14, 1922, Marcia Duncan recorded the time she found a dry cream calfskin Oxford on the second rung of a bridge railing.
    - The coroner placed Jean Fitzgerald’s time of death between 9:00 PM and midnight on July 13, 1922.
    - Jeffrey Hoffman had conducted approximately 40 portrait sessions in the three weeks he was in Tillman Falls before Jean’s body was found.
    - A ledger entry dated July 12 lists a payment from “Hoffmann and Sons Photographic Supply Company, Cedar Bluff” for $11.40 for developing chemicals.
    - In 1936 Jeffrey Hoffman sent a three-page handwritten letter to the Sutter County sheriff’s office describing actions he had taken.

    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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    23 分
  • Ledger Above the Brine: How a Dry Book Exposed Two Murders

    Ledger Above the Brine: How a Dry Book Exposed Two Murders
    2026/10/23
    Ledger Above the Brine: How a Dry Book Exposed Two Murders

    A ledger sitting bone-dry on a bar counter above a floor soaked with brine pointed to a staged scene that took twelve days to explain - and eventually linked two deaths. How did a former bookkeeper turned deputy and a buried weapon turn one strange clue into a double case?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery at Mile Marker Marker and the steps that unfolded from that single observation, tracing who arrived, what was found, and the question that kept investigators digging: why was the daybook dry while the floor beneath it was saturated?

    Person: Karen Patterson
    Date: June 14, 1927
    Location: Mile Marker Marker roadhouse, east of Tulliver Creek, Harmon County
    Person: David Erickson
    Person: Amy Anderson

    - Karen Patterson was found dead three feet from the bar counter with arms folded, age 47.
    - The ledger on the counter was leather-bound and completely dry despite the floor beneath it soaked with brine concentrate.
    - Amanda Owens, age 15, discovered the body and called the sheriff at 6:58 a.m. after entering the unlocked roadhouse around 6:40 a.m.
    - A fifty-gallon drum of brine concentrate had been delivered to Mile Marker Marker fourteen months earlier for "foundation drainage repair."
    - Deputy Amy Anderson noted on June 14, 1927 that the dry ledger meant the book had been placed after the brine was on the floor, prompting the investigation that connected to Erickson.

    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 分
  • The Upright Suitcase and the Clean Shoes: Who Placed Megan Holmes?

    The Upright Suitcase and the Clean Shoes: Who Placed Megan Holmes?
    2026/10/22
    The Upright Suitcase and the Clean Shoes: Who Placed Megan Holmes?

    Clean shoes and an upright leather traveling case stopped a road grader at milepost seven - the footwear showed no mud though spring dirt stained wool black in under ten minutes, and the brass-latched case sat upright in twelve photographs taken over an hour without tipping. Who set a tidy thirty-two-year-old bookkeeper down in the mud and left a closed suitcase beside her?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of records, witness statements, and physical clues tied to Megan Holmes’s disappearance and death, from her last-known movements at Dunbar's Boarding House to the coroner’s scene notes and the three letters found wrapped in a handkerchief. What do the clean shoes, the upright case, and the signed letters reveal about who placed her on the pike?

    Person: Megan Holmes
    Age: 32
    Location: Coshocton Pike, east edge of Millhaven
    Date found: early May 1905
    Letters signed: K (three letters; most recent dated ~ three weeks before discovery)

    - Megan paid board a week in advance and returned from work on time to the quarter hour.
    - Agnes Dunbar recorded Megan planting beans on May 1 and noted she expected a friend Sunday afternoon.
    - The coroner noted the footwear condition “consistent with a body carried and lowered without ground contact.”
    - Inside the upright travel case were three letters, each signed with a single letter: K.
    - A wagon matching witnesses’ description displayed a panel reading “K. KOWALSKI - HAULAGE - DRESDEN” and stopped at Hennessey’s Livery around 6 PM the same Sunday.

    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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    19 分
  • Ledger Missing, Purse on a Pole: Who Silenced Judith Gray?

    Ledger Missing, Purse on a Pole: Who Silenced Judith Gray?
    2026/10/21
    Ledger Missing, Purse on a Pole: Who Silenced Judith Gray?

    A burgundy clasp purse was found wedged three feet below the top of a thirty-two-foot power pole, dry and intact after eleven days of April rain - and inside was a note reading "Tuesday, six p.m., northeast corner, bring the ledger." The ledger that Judith Gray kept to record true production figures was missing, her body was found 180 feet away and had been ruled an accidental fall without autopsy; who moved her ledger and why was the plant allowed to close the case so fast?

    In this episode, we follow the official timeline, the physical evidence, and the investigative thread that refuses to add up, and we ask whether a fatal workplace "accident" masked something deliberate at Fenwick Consolidated - who had motive and opportunity to silence Judith Gray?

    Person: Judith Gray
    Date: April 3-14, 1943
    Location: Fenwick Consolidated Munitions Plant, Caldwell, Indiana
    Investigator: Marvin Wagner
    Item found: Burgandy clasp purse containing $41.60, a ration book, lipstick, and a handwritten note

    - Judith Gray was 52 years old and had worked eleven years in the east assembly building.
    - Her body was discovered at 11:40 a.m., forty minutes after Jesse Polk swept that stretch of floor at 11:00 a.m.
    - A work order to clear Gray's office was filed the morning of April 4, before the family had been notified.
    - Boyd’s safety-walk log showed rounds typically of 20-25 minutes but recorded 51 minutes on the night Gray died.
    - The purse was found 180 feet from where Gray supposedly fell, lodged three feet below the pole top on a 32-foot pole.

    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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    24 分