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  • A Voice Broadcasts Live as She Dies: The WMLF Murders

    A Voice Broadcasts Live as She Dies: The WMLF Murders
    2026/09/10
    A Voice Broadcasts Live as She Dies: The WMLF Murders

    A radio transmitter in a converted grain tower outside Mill Fork went live at 10:40 PM on March 8, 1937, broadcasting sixty thousand listeners the sound of a woman seated at the console as she was strangled with copper wire; who turned on the transmitter and why was a jar of strawberry preserves placed beside her? The unexplained details-reels still turning, a half-hitch knot tied with 14-gauge wire from the station spool, and a padlock shown later to be properly seated-leave one central question: who with access and skill staged this scene for thousands to hear?

    In this episode, we present the sequence of events, the key people at WMLF, and the physical evidence investigators recorded at the transmitter building, ending on the unresolved question that drew the county to the grain tower that spring night.

    Person: Brenda York
    Date: March 8, 1937
    Location: WMLF transmitter building, converted grain tower outside Mill Fork, Indiana
    Case: WMLF murders
    Investigator: Marvin Tillman

    - 10:40 PM: transmitter went live seventeen minutes after the 10:23 PM sign-off tone.
    - 60,000: estimated listening area households across two counties who could have heard the broadcast.
    - 55: Brenda York's age at the time of death.
    - 14-gauge: copper wire used to strangle York, cut from a spool inside the transmitter cabinet.
    - 12 jars: Brenda sold preserves twelve jars at a time for 15 cents each at Farmer's Exchange; the last batch sold out Feb 6, 1937.

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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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    24 分
  • The Stamp That Killed: How One Passport Unraveled a Murder Network

    The Stamp That Killed: How One Passport Unraveled a Murder Network
    2026/09/09
    The Stamp That Killed: How One Passport Unraveled a Murder Network

    A county post-office clerk found a passport with the same El Paso entry stamp recorded twice for the same date - genuine federal ink, genuine seal - and four days after she reported it she was dead. How did a single impossible stamp turn a routine document into a murder weapon, expose a narcotics network, and lead to a man’s execution?

    In this episode, we tell the story of what happened after a young woman noticed an impossible discrepancy in a passport and went to ask questions: what she saw at the customs counter, where the passport was found, and how one FBI agent traced a fiber thinner than a human hair to uncover the truth that others missed. What exactly tied that stamp to murder and a wider smuggling operation?

    Person: Shannon Whitley
    Date: February 10, 1947 (death discovered)
    Location: Carrow River depression, near Lassiter
    Document: Passport in name of Helen Gard with two El Paso entry stamps dated August 14, 1945
    Witness: Walter Obie, Tres Cruces customs counter employee

    - Shannon Whitley was 23 years old and worked the counter at the Lassiter post office, wiring $20 monthly to her mother in Tucson.
    - The passport showed two identical El Paso entry stamps for August 14, 1945 - same port, same date, same direction - applied with genuine federal ink and seal.
    - Shannon bought a bus ticket to Tres Cruces on February 8, 1947, to report the passport irregularity in person and was last seen leaving the customs counter that day.
    - Her body was found two days later, on February 10, 1947, forty feet from the Carrow River with the passport in the interior pocket of her coat, four inches from her heart.
    - Walter Obie, who had worked the Tres Cruces customs counter for eleven years, later identified a photograph of Shannon and confirmed her visit on February 8, 1947.

    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
  • Fisherman Pulls a Glove from the River: The Murder of Jessica Price

    Fisherman Pulls a Glove from the River: The Murder of Jessica Price
    2026/09/08
    Fisherman Pulls a Glove from the River: The Murder of Jessica Price

    Cold river, beeswax-sealed paper, and a certified brand transfer filed two days before a woman was found dead: a fisherman's hook pulled a glove that upended the official accident ruling. Who would file legal claim to Jessica Price's land while her body lay buried, and why was the transfer signed in her name?

    In this episode, we follow the documents, the ledger entries, the Registry logbook, and the people who crossed paths with Jessica Price in the days before her death to understand what the evidence suggests about her final days and the transfer of Bench Creek Run. Could the timing of the December 28th filing and the glove in the river point to forgery or conspiracy?

    Person: Jessica Price
    Date (death found): December 30, 1882
    Document date: December 28, 1882
    Location (where glove found): Aldine River, January 9, 1883
    Witness on transfer: George Aldiss

    - A black kid-leather left glove contained a beeswax-treated certified brand transfer folded inside and was weighted with a river stone.
    - The transfer document relinquished the Tumbling P brand and Bench Creek Run from Jessica Price to Leon Bishop, dated December 28, 1882.
    - Jessica Price's final ledger entry is dated December 27, 1882 and reads "meeting with 'B' about Bench Creek water access"; the ledger entries after December 28 are blank.
    - The Registry filing copy of the transfer was already on file when investigator Steven Burns checked the Registry on January 10, 1883, yet no after-hours entry appears in the Registry's logbook for December 28.
    - Locksmith Henry Voss found fresh scoring on the Registry's rear delivery door bolt housing, indicating a later-made tool was used to open it; Leon Bishop's warehouse faces that alley across roughly forty yards.

    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
  • A Dry Glove in the Rain: The Murder of Frances Sheridan

    A Dry Glove in the Rain: The Murder of Frances Sheridan
    2026/09/07
    A Dry Glove in the Rain: The Murder of Frances Sheridan

    A county surveyor found a brown calfskin right-hand glove sitting completely dry on a rain-soaked coal chute grate behind Liang Brothers Imports - and the glove matched a purchase in Frances Sheridan’s ledger. A dried chrysanthemum stem, eleven inches long and wound with red silk, lay beside it; Frances vanished after a routine errand and her body was found with blunt force trauma two days later. How did a perfectly dry glove appear in the rain and what connection did a misidentified herbal tea have to her death?

    In this episode, we recount the sequence of discoveries from the missing ledger entry to the coroner’s report, the surveyed glove, and the misread herbal name that lay unnoticed for fifty years, asking whether a small, steady harm may have helped silence Frances the night she disappeared.

    Person: Frances Sheridan
    Date: December 8-10, 1926
    Location: Packett Alley behind Liang Brothers Imports, Carnell Street residence
    Cause of death: Blunt force trauma (per Dr. Wallace Pruett)
    Evidence found: Brown calfskin right-hand glove; dried chrysanthemum stem 11 inches long wrapped with red silk

    - The glove was a brown calfskin right-hand glove found dry on a wet iron coal chute grate on December 9, 1926.
    - The chrysanthemum stem found next to the glove measured eleven inches and was wound three times with red silk thread.
    - Frances Sheridan had kept a personal ledger since 1904 and recorded a monthly purchase at Liang Brothers Imports for three years.
    - Frances’s ledger contained a purchase of a glove in October 1925 and lacked any entry for December 8, 1926.
    - Dr. Wallace Pruett recorded blunt force trauma as the cause of death and noted a misidentified herbal name that was not corrected in the report for fifty 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.
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    25 分
  • The Cistern Shoe: How a Single Slip Revealed a Sanatorium Secret

    The Cistern Shoe: How a Single Slip Revealed a Sanatorium Secret
    2026/09/06
    The Cistern Shoe: How a Single Slip Revealed a Sanatorium Secret

    Danger hides in domestic details: an ivory calfskin ankle shoe, dry inside yet standing upright in four feet of cistern water, and its partner locked in a trunk sealed on intake the day Cynthia Fleming arrived. Why was one shoe deliberately placed in a locked cistern while the other remained sealed with her belongings - and who had the keys to both doors?

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of discoveries and the people who reported them, from the intake at Crestholm Sanatorium to the cistern in the basement laundry room, and ask whether a disappearance was staged or the result of institutional decisions. What does the separation of those shoes reveal about Cynthia Fleming’s fate?

    Person: Cynthia Fleming
    Date: September 3, 1909 (intake); November 14, 1909 (shoe recovered)
    Location: Crestholm Sanatorium, Aldwick Point, Maine
    Author: Gail Hughes (correspondent who investigated)
    Case: Missing person with inconsistent belongings

    - One ivory calfskin pearl-button ankle shoe (right foot) was packed between two wool skirts inside a sealed trunk at intake on September 3, 1909.
    - The partner left shoe was recovered upright on the floor of a cistern submerged in four feet of water on the morning of November 14, 1909.
    - The cistern shoe was dry inside, indicating it entered the water sealed and was later separated from its container.
    - Dr. Bruce Dalton signed Cynthia Fleming’s intake form, was Crestholm superintendent since 1904, and had been the Fleming estate trustee since 1907.
    - Agnes Whitfield worked the Crestholm laundry for four years, left in October 1909, and her tip led Gail Hughes to Aldwick Point where Hughes spent eleven days interviewing witnesses.

    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
  • Schoolteacher Finds a Body No One Was Supposed to Notice: The Paula Bauer Case

    Schoolteacher Finds a Body No One Was Supposed to Notice: The Paula Bauer Case
    2026/09/05
    Schoolteacher Finds a Body No One Was Supposed to Notice: The Paula Bauer Case

    Warm dawn, a Brownie camera, and a schoolteacher looking for birds-yet what Lauren Foster found in a Tularosa cotton field was a dead woman, a syringe and a medicine bottle beside a wooden orange crate, and a missing tin of savings; who moved Paula Bauer from her tent and why was her money gone the same morning her body was found? The official cause was heatstroke, but small details-unlogged morphine, an unexamined forearm, and a crate that looked too new-refuse to add up.

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from discovery to the first official findings and the questions a state labor investigator raised afterward, laying out the evidence that contradicts the immediate ruling of heatstroke and asking what the missing items and pharmacy donation really mean.

    Person: Paula Bauer
    Date: October 9, 1937
    Location: Cielo Bajo camp, Otero County, New Mexico
    Age: 47
    Investigator: Sherry Vickers

    - Lauren Foster found the body forty yards from the nearest sleeping tent before sunrise on October 9, 1937.
    - Foreman George Adler summoned county doctor Herbert Pryce, who spent fewer than twenty minutes with the body and recorded cause of death as heatstroke.
    - A wooden orange crate beside the body held a folded shirt and a sardine tin and was described as dry and pale with no recent weathering.
    - Agnes Pruitt reported Paula’s tin box of savings missing by the afternoon of October 9; the tin was never recovered.
    - Commissary inventory showed several doses of morphine unaccounted for after a donation from pharmacist Ed Stahl roughly six weeks earlier.

    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 Last Entry: Four Illegible Words That Sent a Man to the Gallows

    The Last Entry: Four Illegible Words That Sent a Man to the Gallows
    2026/09/04
    The Last Entry: Four Illegible Words That Sent a Man to the Gallows

    A seventy-minute gap in a nightly shift log, a bolted door found locked from the inside, and four tiny, illegible words written in ink that had started to bleed - those details sent a man to the gallows in 1893. Who wrote the final message in Troy Patterson’s log, and what did those four words really mean?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery and early investigation of the Harmon Relay Station death and the shift log that became the central piece of evidence, asking whether the missing seventy minutes and a last-minute entry point to murder, sabotage, or something else.

    Person: Troy Patterson
    Date: September 9, 1893
    Location: Harmon Relay Station (Harmon Relay), Pell's Ford
    Person: Dennis Snyder
    Person: Jennifer Wilson

    - The shift log was found on the outside windowsill at 6:40 a.m.
    - The last page of the log showed a continuous, precise record until 11:40 p.m., after which 70 minutes are unrecorded.
    - Troy Patterson had worked the overnight relay at Harmon Relay for four years and was 31 years old.
    - A 14-year-old girl, Marcia Vogel, found the log; she delivered newspapers along the Pell's Ford route for 35 cents.
    - Patterson had reported colleague Dennis Snyder for falsifying relay entries roughly three weeks before his death.

    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
  • The Shoe Left in the Ditch: Why He Wanted Her Found

    The Shoe Left in the Ditch: Why He Wanted Her Found
    2026/09/03
    The Shoe Left in the Ditch: Why He Wanted Her Found

    A single navy-blue pump, size seven with a two-inch heel, was found upright in the mud of a bar ditch on Route 9, perfectly clean and undisturbed within eighteen inches-placed heel-first as if someone wanted it to be seen. Who would strangle a fifty-two-year-old motel housekeeper, carry her four miles away, then return to leave one shoe as a marker?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the last night Frances O'Connor was seen to the discovery that set investigators on a decades-long trail, asking how a man traveling under the name Richard Smith connected to the shoe and the body.

    Person: Frances O'Connor
    Date: August 13-15, 1953
    Location: Route 9, Kessler County, Iowa
    Case: Single shoe found in bar ditch; body found four miles west
    Suspect alias: Richard Smith (later identified as Richard Smith Smith)

    - Shoe found at 4:50 a.m. on August 14, 1953: navy-blue pump, size seven, two-inch heel, upright in mud.
    - Mud undisturbed within 18 inches of the shoe; no slide marks or tumble evidence.
    - Frances O'Connor last seen around 9:40 p.m. August 13 leaving the Patton Elks Lodge, walking west toward the Sundown Motor Court three miles away.
    - Body discovered August 15 in a dry creek bed four miles west of the Sundown; coroner estimated time of death between 10:00 p.m. and midnight on August 13; cause: strangulation.
    - Man registered in Sundown room 14 that night as Richard Smith, checked in at 6:15 p.m., paid $1.80 cash, listed a 1948 Ford pickup and checked out before 7:00 a.m. the next morning.

    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