エピソード

  • The Brooch on the Fence Post: Why a Dead Woman's Clasp Matters

    The Brooch on the Fence Post: Why a Dead Woman's Clasp Matters
    2026/10/28
    The Brooch on the Fence Post: Why a Dead Woman's Clasp Matters

    Cold, deliberate, and impossible: a silver brooch was found clasped face-up on a fence post seven miles from a barn where a woman had been buried eleven days earlier - the clasp could only be fastened with two hands. How did Kelly Lewis’s brooch travel frozen Kansas prairie and who closed it after she was already dead?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery, the county records, and the people who put the object back into a case that had been closed; we trace the timeline from the hayloft fall to the brooch found on January 9, 1884, and ask what that clasp means for the official ruling of accident.

    Person: Kelly Lewis
    Date (death found): December 29, 1883
    Date (brooch found): January 9, 1884 at 10:15 AM
    Location: seven miles from the Lewis barn, Calloway Flats, Trego County, Kansas
    Status (cause ruled): accident (fall from hayloft)

    - The brooch was found face-up and clasp fastened on top of a fence post at the base, seven miles from the Lewis barn.
    - Kelly Lewis had been buried for eleven days when the brooch was found.
    - The clasp mechanism requires two hands and deliberate pressure to engage; it does not close itself.
    - Kelly Lewis died on December 29, 1883 from a broken neck after a roughly fourteen-foot fall from a hayloft.
    - The brooch was recognized as the same one Kelly Lewis had worn at the Harwick Cattlemen’s Exchange auction in October.

    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.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    20 分
  • The Bookkeeper, The Bitter Ex, and the Aconite in Her Hands

    The Bookkeeper, The Bitter Ex, and the Aconite in Her Hands
    2026/10/27
    The Bookkeeper, The Bitter Ex, and the Aconite in Her Hands

    The first impossible detail was her hands: folded neatly in her lap on a freezing stairwell as snow drifted on her coat, a posture the coroner said didn't fit a death from cold. A shopkeeper remembered a woman asking precise questions about aconite concentration, and one name linked to the scene for decades - who quietly watched, waited, and may have arranged a death that read like a calm placement rather than a collapse?

    In this episode, we lay out the known facts from the morning Julie Reed was found, the threads that led Detective Clifford Hall back to a shop on Larimer Street, and the suspect who kept showing up in records and memories - but can those facts explain why her hands were folded?

    Person: Julie Reed
    Date: December 4, 1923
    Location: Rear stairwell, Larimer Street
    Age: 27
    Shopkeeper: James Soo

    - Julie Reed was found at 7:00 AM on December 4, 1923, seated upright with hands folded in her lap.
    - The temperature at the scene was 22 degrees Fahrenheit and snow had drifted onto her coat.
    - Coroner ruled cause of death as cardiac failure secondary to cold exposure, closing the file.
    - James Soo, proprietor of Sun On Water since 1912, recalled a woman asking about aconite concentration and volume months before the death.
    - Frederick Ashby reported his former bookkeeper Lauren Baker, age 34, felt unjustly replaced two weeks before Reed's hiring and remained socially close to Reed for two years.

    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.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    22 分
  • The Wheelchair at Dawn: Why Her Shoes Were Dry

    The Wheelchair at Dawn: Why Her Shoes Were Dry
    2026/10/26
    The Wheelchair at Dawn: Why Her Shoes Were Dry

    A woman sits upright in a wheelchair at the surf line, hands folded, heels placed together on the footrests six inches above freezing water - and the shoes are completely dry. Something impossible happened inside a locked institution that morning; what drove someone to wade into forty-eight-degree surf to set shoes on a chair, and why would that question take nine years to answer?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery at Harrow Point, the records and routines at Aldermere Sanatorium, and the small absences that became the case's first clues, asking how a patient logged as "resting, settled" at 10:04 p.m. was found in the cove by dawn.

    Person: Rachel Barrett
    Date: November 13, 1911
    Location: Harrow Point cove, Maine
    Facility: Aldermere Sanatorium
    Attendant: Emily Schmidt

    - The birdwatcher Valerie Slater saw the wheelchair and woman at 7:30 a.m, on November 13, 1911.
    - Rachel Barrett had been admitted to Aldermere on November 2, 1911; intake form number 14 listed "nervous exhaustion."
    - Barrett was 56 years old and assigned to Room Seven on the second floor.
    - The last bed-check entry by Emily Schmidt reads "Barrett, R. - Room 7 - ten-oh-four p.m. - resting, settled."
    - Night porter George Aldiss found five wheelchairs in storage where there should have been six the morning of November 13; the storage door and frame showed no damage.

    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.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    20 分
  • Locked From Inside: The Morphine Entry That Unraveled Emily Simmons

    Locked From Inside: The Morphine Entry That Unraveled Emily Simmons
    2026/10/25
    Locked From Inside: The Morphine Entry That Unraveled Emily Simmons

    The discovery that a supply log recorded one glass vial of morphine signed the night before Emily Simmons was found dead turns an accepted conclusion into a long-buried question: how did a twenty-two-year-old, found in a locked commissary wearing a wool cardigan on a 78-degree morning, come to die with a physician signing heatstroke in under forty minutes? Who had access that evening, and why did a fourteen-year-old witness see Emily alive with her forearm bandaged but never make it into the official record?

    In this episode, we lay out the contemporaneous records, witness memories, and the forgotten ledger entry that reopened a closed death. We follow Emily’s steps from the Texas Panhandle to Pima Flats, her steady work and literacy lessons, and the single supply log entry that changed everything - what did that morphine vial mean for the official finding of heatstroke?

    Person: Emily Simmons
    Date: October 4, 1937
    Location: Pima Flats, Arizona
    Age: 22
    Item: One glass vial, morphine sulfate solution (log entry dated October 3, 1937, signed by Craig Hayes)

    - Emily was found before 9:30 AM wearing a buttoned wool cardigan in 78-degree heat.
    - The county physician spent less than 40 minutes before signing cause of death as heatstroke.
    - A fourteen-year-old newspaper delivery girl saw Emily the evening before with her left forearm wrapped in cotton gauze pinned to the elbow.
    - A supply log entry dated October 3, 1937 at 8:45 PM recorded one glass vial of morphine sulfate solution signed by Craig Hayes.
    - Craig Hayes, age 34, held Key Number Seven giving him after-hours commissary access and worked supply runs on Monday and Thursday evenings.

    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.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    24 分
  • The Dry Luggage Tag and the Impossible Telegraph Entry

    The Dry Luggage Tag and the Impossible Telegraph Entry
    2026/10/24
    The Dry Luggage Tag and the Impossible Telegraph Entry

    Danger hides in the small, precise details: a rain-soaked telegraph shift log with a perfectly dry luggage tag dated three days earlier, and a carbon copy showing an entry that could not physically exist. How did a dry Missouri Pacific luggage tag end up inside a soaked book, and who wrote the impossible final entry?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of events and physical evidence from September 1923 surrounding the death of a telegraph relay operator, and ask whether the seemingly impossible artifacts point to accident, concealment, or deliberate deception. Which single act untangles the contradiction of the dry tag and the forged log entry?

    Person: Michael Hamilton
    Date: September 20, 1923
    Location: Sutter Creek telegraph station
    Person: Jason Perry
    Event: Trunk shipped from Sutter Creek depot to Calhoun City on September 19, 1923

    - The luggage tag was a Missouri Pacific tag dated three days before September 22, 1923, found perfectly dry inside the back cover of a soaked telegraph shift log.
    - Michael Hamilton, age 38, was found dead near the relay cabinet with a single blow to the base of the skull between 10 PM and midnight on September 20, 1923.
    - The front door of the station was bolted from the inside while the rear passage door, whose latch had been non-functional since spring 1921, stood slightly open.
    - Jason Perry, age 29, signed the contractor log at the station four times; his last signature was dated September 17, 1923, and his handwriting matched the final log entry.
    - A trunk consigned by "J. Perry" was shipped from the Missouri Pacific depot at Sutter Creek to Calhoun City on the evening of September 19, 1923, for thirty cents.

    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.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    21 分
  • The Birthday Cake, Eleven Candles, and the Stranger in Unit Nine

    The Birthday Cake, Eleven Candles, and the Stranger in Unit Nine
    2026/10/23
    The Birthday Cake, Eleven Candles, and the Stranger in Unit Nine

    A sixty-two-year-old woman was found strangled on the floor of Unit Nine with a white birthday cake and eleven candles burning in a room without electricity - and the small penciled note missed by every first responder held the key. Who was the unnamed man recorded as "plus one, vehicle" and why did he disappear from a scene that showed no robbery and a purse with eleven dollars left under the bed?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of discoveries from the morning the lineman arrived to the detail that reopened the inquiry two days later, following the work that shifted the case from routine to suspicious. What did the marginal notation on the registration card finally reveal about Lori O'Brien’s last hours?

    Person: Lori O'Brien
    Date: August 9, 1953
    Location: Unit Nine, Starlite Motor Court on U.S. Route Six
    Cause: Strangulation
    Investigator: Marcia Whitley

    - Time found at 8:30 AM on August 9 by utility lineman Eric Parker
    - Birthday cake: white cake with pale yellow frosting, eleven candles burning for hours in a room without electricity
    - Victim’s age: 61 at the time of death, would have turned 62 that morning
    - Car: 1949 Plymouth, tan, found three spaces from motel office with no signs of distress
    - Registration card margin note: "plus one, vehicle" written in pencil, noted two days later by Marcia Whitley

    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.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    22 分
  • The Glass Plate Secret That Doomed a Small-Town Deacon

    The Glass Plate Secret That Doomed a Small-Town Deacon
    2026/10/22
    The Glass Plate Secret That Doomed a Small-Town Deacon

    A four-by-five-inch glass photographic plate, wrapped in black felt and found pressed against a dead man's heart, turned a small-town killing into a decades-long puzzle. Who placed that negative in Russell Myers's pocket - and why would a careful accounting assistant end up holding evidence that didn't belong to him?

    In this episode, we trace the morning Dean Walsh found Russell Myers at the water tower, how ledger irregularities put Myers in conflict with local powers, and the strange arrival of an itinerant photographer whose exposed glass plate changes everything. Could a swapped photographic plate be the key to a cover-up led by the town's most respected man?

    Person: Russell Myers
    Date: July 14, 1941
    Location: Callow Bend, Nebraska
    Person: David Quinn
    Person: Leonard Voss

    - The victim, Russell Myers, was 26 years old and worked as an accounting assistant at the grain cooperative.
    - Myers had been in Callow Bend since 1938 and sent $3 home to his mother every pay period.
    - Dean Walsh discovered Myers's body at the base of the water tower on the east gravel road on the morning of July 14, 1941.
    - Myers's skull showed blunt force trauma; no weapon was recovered at the scene.
    - A four-inch-by-five-inch glass photographic negative wrapped in black felt was found tucked against Myers's chest.

    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.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    22 分
  • The Shoe in the Garden: Why No Footprints Led to a Guilty Man

    The Shoe in the Garden: Why No Footprints Led to a Guilty Man
    2026/10/21
    The Shoe in the Garden: Why No Footprints Led to a Guilty Man

    A single tan court shoe was found upright in a rain-softened pole bean row with no footprints within four feet, while the club owner sat shot at her desk thirty feet inside - how did a shoe travel without a trace? The mystery hinges on a deliberately placed shoe, a repaired latch, and notes kept by a county investigator that followed every step of the puzzling scene.

    In this episode, we lay out the factual scene reports, personnel, and physical details recorded at the Millhaven Club on June 11, 1931, and follow the questions those records raised: who could place a shoe thirty feet away without leaving prints, and what did the notes and ledger entries reveal?

    Person: Darlene Wilson
    Date: June 11, 1931
    Location: Millhaven Club, Route Nine, Tanner County, Missouri
    Investigator: Marvin Johnson
    Cause: Single gunshot to upper chest

    - The tan court shoe was a woman's right shoe with a two-inch heel, laces tied, standing upright in the center of a pole bean row.
    - There were no footprints within four full feet of the shoe in any direction on soil softened by rain two nights earlier.
    - The shoe was placed approximately thirty feet from the club’s rear entrance where Darlene Wilson was found shot once while seated in her office chair.
    - The office cash box contained forty-two dollars and was untouched; Wilson’s handbag was closed on the desk and her right shoe was removed from her foot.
    - Manager Roy Keller had repaired the office rear door’s spring latch two winters earlier, creating an upward lift motion from outside that would be familiar to him but awkward to strangers.

    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.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    22 分