In 1892 Memphis, a secret romance between two young women unraveled in tragedy. This episode traces the story of Alice Mitchell and Freda Ward — from their plannedelopement to a public murder and a sensational trial — and examines how their case shaped early conversations about same-sex love, gender norms, and mental health in America.

Source Materials:

The Trials of Alice Mitchell: Sensationalism, Sexology, and the Lesbian Subject in Turn-of the-Century America Author(s): Lisa Duggan. Source: Signs, Vol. 18, No. 4, Theorizing Lesbian Experience (Summer, 1993), pp. 791-814 Published by: TheUniversity of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3174907 .

Images of Alice: Gender, Deviancy, and a Love Murder in Memphis

Erotomania and Murder in Memphis | by Alexis Coe | The Awl | Medium

Girl Slays Girl: An Excerpt From Alice + Freda Forever

A Love Gone South in 'Alice + Freda Forever' - Deep South Magazine

Alice & Freda: In 1892, Memphis girls' young love ends tragically, creates national headlines | Focus LGBT+ Magazine

Murder by Gaslight: "Girl Slays Girl."

Alice Mitchell: Passion, Murder, and a Scandal That Shook America – True Crime Archives

Mitchell, Alice | Encyclopedia.com

When a young English aristocrat vanished at sea in 1854, his family mourned—except for his mother, who refused to believe he was dead. More than a decade later, a butcher from Australia claimed to be the long-lost heir. What followed was one of the most sensational legal battles of the Victorian era. This week on Historical True Crime, we unravel the strange and sprawling saga of the Tichborne Claimant.

Source Materials:

The Tichborne Trials Archive | Hampshire Cultural Trust Online Collections

The Tichborne case: a Victorian melodrama | State Library of New South Wales

The Mysterious Case of Tichborne and His Stolen Identity - Historic Mysteries

The Man Who Lost Himself: The Unbelievable Story of the Tichborne Claimant

The Tichborne trial

THE TICHBORNE CASE

The Tichborne Case - a Case of Identity Fraud? - Brighton & Hove Museums

A charming jazz musician with a philosophical streak. A series of brutal, seemingly unrelated murders. In this episode, we uncover the disturbing double life of Melvin Rees—known to the press as "The Sex Beast"—and the investigation that nearly let him slip away.

Source Materials

The encyclopedia of serial killers : Lane, Brian : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Melvin Rees -- a little known but deadly sadist and rapist — Without a Trace — Crime Library

To Live and Die in Chicago: 7 Prohibition Era Gangsters Who Met a Violent End in the Windy City

Serial Killer Diaries | Psychology Today

FBI Records: The Vault — Melvin Rees

Melvin Rees | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers