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  • Paper Towns

    Paper Towns
    2025/08/16
    In 1942, America’s West Coast lived with the very real fear of enemy attack. Pearl Harbor was still fresh in memory, submarines had shelled the Ellwood oil fields near Santa Barbara, and blackouts were part of daily life. People who lived and worked in factories across the country, especially in the PNW, were worried.So the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers turned to an unlikely ally: Hollywood.Boeing’s Plant 2 in Seattle became “Boeing Wonderland,” a 23–26 acre rooftop neighborhood complete with plywood houses, chicken-wire shrubs, and painted streets that matched the real neighborhood across the river. The goal? Convince any bomber pilot or aerial reconnaissance photographer that nothing of importance was below.I love these stories because they sit at the intersection of creativity, fear, and survival. Ordinary people walked those fake streets every day, maintaining an illusion that quite literally helped protect the home front. It doesn't seem like it could be real. But it was.They didn’t just build factories. They built neighborhoods in the sky.Sources & further readingBoeing (Seattle) Plant 2 camouflage & “Boeing Wonderland”: HistoryLink on Boeing & Washington aerospace (notes Plant 2 camouflage); HistoryLink on South Park Bridge entry (Detlie, 26 acres, materials); 99% Invisible feature on the 23-acre fake suburb; Flying Magazine retrospective (Dec 13, 2024); Museum of Flight Plant 2 notice; Wikipedia (Plant 2) for reference trail to Seattle Times coverage. HistoryLink+199% InvisibleFLYING MagazineMuseum of FlightWikipedia Douglas Aircraft, Santa Monica (Clover Field):. Calispherelosangeles.spaceforce.mil Lockheed Burbank “Operation Camouflage”: Lockheed Martin history page; LAist longform on disguise of the airport/factory complex; Airmail feature summarizing Ohmer’s work and the 5,000-ft test. Lockheed MartinLAistAir Mail; Army Air Force official history (Air Defense of the Western Hemisphere) on perceived West Coast danger in 1942; Oregon Secretary of State archive on Japanese attacks (Ellwood shelling, balloon bombs); U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey. IbiblioOregon Secretary of StateAir UniversityWillow Run background: Detroit Historical Society encyclopedia entry; The Henry Ford collection set on Willow Run; warfarehistorynetwork overview of Willow Run production. Detroit Historical SocietyThe Henry FordWarfare History Network To hear more, visit jbchambers.substack.com
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    13 分
  • Fire & Darkness: The Lafayette Curse

    Fire & Darkness: The Lafayette Curse
    2025/08/10

    In the misty wine country of Yamhill County, Oregon, lies a town with a curse—if you believe the story. It’s got classic ghost story vibes: a man hanged for murder, a grieving, defiant mother, and a string of deadly fires. Oh also, a ghost said to laugh from behind the headstones. This is the tale of Lafayette, a town once burned by tragedy and perhaps something darker.

    * The Murder That Sparked the Flame: Who was Richard Marple, and why did this crime matter so deeply to a tiny pioneer town?

    * Anna Marple’s Curse: Witch, scapegoat, or vengeful mother? What really happened at the hanging?

    * The Fires That Followed: Three separate infernos scorched the town. How much of the story is documented fact vs. folklore?

    * The Ghost in the Cemetery: A look at the firsthand accounts of hauntings and their role in local identity.

    * What Folklore Can Teach Us About Fear: Why we hold onto legends like these and what they reveal about how we process trauma and justice.

    Want to hear the full story? Listen to this week’s episode of Same Crime, Different Time on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your strange history.

    Sources:

    * Richard Marple trial & confession details Amino Apps+1hauntsofamerica.blogspot.com+1Haunted Places+15offbeatoregon.com+15Otherworld Travels+15

    * Hanging and curses anecdotes Amino Apps+6WikiTree+6ectolog.blogspot.com+6

    * Fires of 1904, 1946, folklore link

    * Cemetery hauntings & ghost lore Haunted Places

    * Anna Marple burial historyFacebook+8Otherworld Travels+8MarionTalk+8



    To hear more, visit jbchambers.substack.com
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    15 分
  • New Episode: The Rise & Fall of Oregon’s Love Cult

    New Episode: The Rise & Fall of Oregon’s Love Cult
    2025/08/03

    What happens when faith twists into fanaticism?

    In this week’s episode, I dive into one of Oregon’s most bizarre and haunting true crime stories—the strange saga of Edmund Creffield, the self-proclaimed messiah who led a fiery cult known as the Brides of Christ in early 1900s Corvallis.

    * Tar and featherings.

    * Women abandoning their families.

    * Tragedy, murder, and madness.

    This case has it all—prophecy, betrayal, and a shocking ending. Tune in now to uncover the history you weren’t taught in school.

    #SameCrimeDifferentTime #TrueCrimePodcast #OregonHistory #HolyRollers #EdmundCreffield #CultStories #PNWTrueCrime #WomensVoices #JenChambersPodcast #StrangerThanFiction



    To hear more, visit jbchambers.substack.com
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    14 分
  • Ice, Blood, and Vengeance: The Lava Lake Murders of 1924

    Ice, Blood, and Vengeance: The Lava Lake Murders of 1924
    2025/07/25

    In January 1924, Edward Nickols, Roy Wilson, and Dewey Morris were living the dangerous life of wilderness trappers near Little Lava Lake in Oregon's high desert. They had guns, they had experience, and they knew an escaped convict named Charles Kimzey was out there somewhere, looking for revenge.

    But on one winter night, someone convinced these armed, experienced men to leave their weapons behind and follow them out into the snow. What happened next was so brutal that when the ice melted in spring, the bodies told a story of close-range shotgun blasts, execution-style killings, and unimaginable violence.

    Kimzey was eventually caught 8 years later, but the case remains officially unsolved. Who was his accomplice? How did they lure three suspicious trappers to their deaths? And what secrets still lie buried in the Oregon wilderness?

    Listen now wherever you get your podcasts!

    #TrueCrime #PacificNorthwest #UnsolvedMystery #Oregon #1924 #SameCrimeDifferentTime #PodcastLife #TrueCrimePodcast #ColdCase #WildernessMystery #JenniferChambers



    To hear more, visit jbchambers.substack.com
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    26 分
  • Lost Gold and Broken Dreams: The Blue Bucket Mine Mystery

    Lost Gold and Broken Dreams: The Blue Bucket Mine Mystery
    2025/07/19

    What if the gold rush started three years earlier… and no one noticed?

    In 1845, a wagon train lost in the Oregon desert made a discovery that should’ve changed history—pebbles heavy and yellow enough to “fill one of these blue buckets.” But the gold was left behind, the location forgotten… and a 175-year-old legend was born.

    💰 Greed. Survival. Ghost trails.🔦 Desert treasure hunts and deadly mistakes.🌵 And one massive, possibly mythical, lost gold mine.

    Tune in now for a wild west mystery that still drives treasure hunters into the Oregon wilderness to this day.

    🎙️ Link in bio🌲 #SameCrimeDifferentTime#LostTreasure #OregonMysteries #HistoricalTrueCrime #PodcastDrop #BlueBucketMine #JenChambers #WagonTrainWoes #GoldRushBeforeTheGoldRush



    To hear more, visit jbchambers.substack.com
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    24 分
  • NEW EPISODE: The Shoe Fetish Slayer

    NEW EPISODE: The Shoe Fetish Slayer
    2025/06/25

    Four young women. Formerly quiet Oregon towns ripped apart by tragedy. A man with a twisted obsession that led to one of the most disturbing serial killer cases in Pacific Northwest history.

    This week, I’m telling the story of Jerome Brudos, also known as the Lust Killer—but more importantly, I’m sharing the stories of Linda Slawson, Jan Whitney, Karen Sprinker, and Linda Salee. Their lives mattered.

    🕰️ 1950’s-1960’s 📍 Salem & Portland, Oregon 🎧 22 minutes of true crime history and haunting details that still echo today.

    🖤 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.

    #TrueCrimePodcast #SameCrimeDifferentTime #PacificNorthwestHistory #TrueCrimeCommunity #JeromeBrudos #SerialKillers #WomensVoices #TrueCrimeWithHeart #YourVoiceMatters #JenChambersPodcast



    To hear more, visit jbchambers.substack.com
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    22 分
  • Stilled Voice: The Murder of Poet Pat Lowther

    Stilled Voice: The Murder of Poet Pat Lowther
    2025/06/19
    🎬 INTRO & OPENING “Welcome back to Same Crime, Different Time. I’m Jen Chambers. Tonight, we remember Patricia ‘Pat’ Lowther—a rising Canadian poet cut down at 40 by the very man she trusted. Her life and voice were powerful; her death sent shockwaves through Canada’s literary world. And it still resonates.”📚 Segment 1: Pat’s Early Life & Poetry “Born July 29, 1935, in Vancouver, Pat published her first poem at age ten in the Vancouver Sun . She later left school at 16 and worked in an office to support herself but continued to write. In 1968, her debut This Difficult Flowering launched her literary career—followed by The Age of the Bird in 1972, and Milk Stone in 1974 prabook.com+8en.wikipedia.org+8encyclopedia.com+8.”The Cacadian Encyclopedia says:Lowther’s first book of poetry, This Difficult Flowering (1968), was critically praised for its precise language and themes. The book explores the tensions between creating art and creating a home life and expands the themes of motherhood and the pain and pleasure of love into universal themes. In “Damn Doom,” for instance, Lowther speaks honestly of the need to create within the chaos of family:Damn doom today after daybreak our bright wisheson this work:to carve a simple beautyout of chaos.“Damn doom to day‑after‑day break our bright wishes on this work…” From This Difficult Flowering thecanadianencyclopedia.ca.In her second poetry collection, the Day of the Bird, she writs of a laundry near where Che Guevara was killed, and contrasts the laundry with hte brutality of his death:A laundry at Vallegrandea windowless shedtiled roofin front two openingsseparated only by a pillar… inside, the bodyits eyes openthe head proppedin a tense posture “She went on to co‑chair the League of Canadian Poets and taught at the University of BC’s writing department—as her feminist voice rose in both poetry and politics. At 40, she’s published her first collection of poetry, and just before she was murdered, had signed with the Oxford University Press to publish a new poetry collection. It was her third book of poetry and her first book to be signed by a major press. poetryfoundation.org+14en.wikipedia.org+14evelazarus.com+14.”🌧️ Segment 2: Domestic Shadows “Married to Roy in 1963, she had four children. Roy was also a poet and left-wing activist—but darker things lurked. Friends noted his increasing jealousy over Pat’s growing acclaim. The University of Toronto Libraries says in a article about her that “Her domestic life, however, was complicated and weighed down by poverty and unhappiness. Friends encouraged her to leave her destructive marriage, a personal revolutionary act which she was unable to complete.” .evelazarus.com.” “In September 1975, Pat vanished. She’d missed a poetry reading at Ironworkers Hall in Vancouver. A week after she was last seen, her daughter Kathy went to the police and reported her missing. When he was questioned, Roy said that she’d been having an affair with another writer who lived in Ontario, Canada, and directed police to find her there. Though police checked all ways of getting out of Vancouver, they didn’t find any evidence of her having left the area. Three weeks later, her body was discovered, badly decomposed, lodged in Furry Creek near Britannia Beach. She had been found face down in the water and submerged underneath a log. She was identified through dental records and fingerprint data.poetryfoundation.org+7evelazarus.com+7en.wikipedia.org+7.”🧱 Segment 4: The Murder & Arrest “Police found 117 blood spots on the East Vancouver home walls and a bloody mattress. Roy first tried to say that he came home and found his wife’s body naked and beaten and was worried that they’d suspect him. So he said that he then wrapped her body up and drove it to the place it was found underneath a railroad bridge, tossing it over a cliff, to get rid of it. I guess he thought it would wash out to sea and he’d be rid of the problem with her entirely.Eventually, confronted with evidence, Roy confessed he struck Pat with a hammer and disposed of her body after wrapping it in the car abcbookworld.com+1evelazarus.com+1.” He had taken both the hammer in questionand the mattress with him to another island, where he attempted to was h the mattress on both sides, and would later tell the police th at the remaining stains wete menstrual blood. “In June 1977, Roy was convicted of second‑degree murder—and sentenced to life. He died in prison in 1985 .”💔 Segment 5: Pat’s Legacy “Pat’s posthumous A Stone Diary was published by Oxford in 1977 poetryinvoice.ca+4en.wikipedia.org+4thecanadianencyclopedia.ca+4. In 1980, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award was established, honoring outstanding Canadian women poets annually montrealserai.com+12en.wikipedia.org+12evelazarus.com+12.”\ BC Studies reflected:“Her death… was a catalyst for that changing ...
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    18 分
  • Echoes in the Siskiyous: The Cowden Family Disappearance

    Echoes in the Siskiyous: The Cowden Family Disappearance
    2025/06/11
    Welcome to Same Crime, Different Time, the podcast where we dig into the eerie echoes of Pacific Northwest history. I’m your host, Jen Chambers—and today, we’re venturing deep into the Siskiyou Mountains for a case that has haunted Oregon for over 50 years. The Cowden family—two parents, two children—vanished without a trace during Labor Day weekend, 1974. Their fate? Unspeakable. Their killer? Still officially unknown.🏕️ PART 1: A Labor Day Getaway It was supposed to be a weekend away. Richard and Belinda Cowden, along with their two kids—5-year-old David and 5-month-old Melissa—headed out to Carberry Creek in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in a 1956 Ford Pickup Truck.Richard Cowden was a log truck driver, and he and his family were from White City Oregon. It was familiar territory for them. Peaceful, quiet.The last time anyone saw them alive was around 9 a.m. on Sunday, September 1st. Richard and David had walked to the Copper General Store to buy a quart of milk. They were calm. Friendly. Nothing seemed out of place. Later that day, Belinda’s mother arrived to join them for dinner. But what she found wasn’t dinner—it was dread. The family was gone. The campsite was eerily untouched—keys on the table, diaper bag and baby food inside the truck, fishing lines in the water. Their pet Basett hound, Droopy, was later found wandering alone.An article on Murderpedia says:"Belinda's mother grew concerned when the family didn't arrive as planned. She headed to their creek-side campsite and found no one there, but all their possessions remained. It was a strange sight: a plastic dishpan of cold water on the ground, truck keys, Belinda's purse, a diaper bag, and a camp stove all clearly visible on a picnic table. A half-full carton of milk bought that morning also sat on the table.Her panic escalated when she noticed Richard's expensive wristwatch and wallet (containing $21) on the ground, along with a pack of cigarettes Belinda smoked. The family truck was still there, parked on the road, with all their clothes except for their swimsuits.She immediately reported it to the police, and law enforcement quickly arrived. Lieutenant Mark Kezar, the lead investigator, later stated that the investigation was 'delayed for maybe a day' due to the initial lack of evidence of any violence. A state trooper, Officer Erickson, famously remarked, 'That camp was spooky; even the milk was still on the table.'"The chronology of hte day they disappearedwas later found to be: Richard and 5 year old son David, left the campsite to go and get some milk for hte family from the store. They apparently came backand went swimming together in a swimming hole, Carberry Creek, that was close by.The detectives thought that later that morning the whole family was kidnapped by a starnger, possibly at gunpoint. They were likely driven away from the scene.🔎 PART 2: The Search Begins Law enforcement launched one of the largest search operations in Oregon history. Volunteers, tracking dogs, helicopters, and even the National Guard combed through the mountainous terrain.Initial Investigation and Public AppealsIn the early stages of the investigation, the Oregon State Police and Jackson County Police interviewed over 150 people regarding the family's disappearance. A $2,000 reward (worth about $12,752 today) was put up for any information. With hunting season approaching, Richard Cowden's sister sent a heartfelt letter to the Medford Mail Tribune, urging hunters to be vigilant for "anything that could be connected to a man, woman, a five-year-old child, or a five-month-old baby." She even asked them to "check freshly turned piles of earth," holding onto hope but also preparing for the worst.Over two hundred citizens wrote to then-Oregon senator Mark Hatfield, pushing for the FBI to get involved. However, this request was denied because there was "no evidence that the Cowdens had been kidnapped or taken across state lines." At the time, law enforcement also tried to link the Cowden case to eight other missing women in Washington and Oregon. It was later discovered that these other disappearances were connected to serial killer Ted Bundy.Let’s hear from Detective Richard Davis, one of the original investigators.He said: “From the moment we saw that campsite, we knew something was wrong. It looked staged, almost too still. Like they’d just stepped away—but hadn’t come back. That’s when your gut tells you—this isn’t a lost person case. This is a crime.” Search teams covered 25 square miles. But it was like the family had vanished into thin air.🪦 PART 3: The Discovery Seven months later, on April 12, 1975, two gold prospectors made a grim discovery. About seven miles from the Cowden campsite, hidden in dense forest near a cave……they found the bodies.Richard’s body was discovered tied to a tree. Belinda, David, and Melissa had been hidden in a small cave, their remains covered with stones....
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    16 分