In the early 1980s, women began disappearing from the streets of Chicago. Some were later found murdered. Others, remarkably, survived. And the distinctive injuries inflicted upon them would eventually lead police to believe they weren’t dealing with isolated attacks at all.

Their investigation led to four men: Robin Gecht, Edward Spreitzer and brothers Andrew and Thomas Kokoraleis. The press would give them the suitably horrifying name the Ripper Crew or Chicago Rippers. Dee, however, refuses to give them a nickname they might actually have enjoyed - so welcome to the story of the Loser Crew.

Content warning: This episode discusses murder, sexual violence and mutilation. Some details are disturbing, although graphic descriptions have been kept to what is necessary to understand the case.

🎧 Listen to Dee-Brief wherever you get your podcasts.

Sources

• People v. Spreitzer (1988), Supreme Court of IllinoisRead via Justia

• People v. Kokoraleis (1989), Supreme Court of IllinoisRead via Justia

• People v. Kokoraleis (1990), Illinois Appellate CourtRead via CaseMine

• People v. Gecht (2008), Illinois Appellate Court Read via FindLaw

• Spreitzer v. Peters (1997), US Court of Appeals for the Seventh CircuitRead via Justia

• Kokoraleis v. Gilmore (1998), US Court of Appeals for the Seventh CircuitRead via Justia

• United Press International archives (1982–1987)UPI report, 10 November 1982UPI report, 11 November 1982

• Illinois Department of Corrections.Robin Gecht recordEdward Spreitzer record

• Associated Press and ABC7 Chicago, 2019Associated Press reportABC7 Chicago report

• CBS Chicago, 2019 CBS Chicago interview and report

• Amnesty International, 1999Read the Amnesty International document

• “Satanic Abuse, False Memories, Weird Beliefs and Moral Panics”Read via City St George’s, University of London

Dee-Brief: The Not So Merry Widow of BicesterThe wartime love triangle that ended in triple murder

Dee explores one of Britain's most sensational murder cases of the Second World War, a story of jealousy, deception, and a relationship so unconventional it shocked 1940s Britain.

When successful publisher Walter Fisher began living openly with his mistress, Florence Ransom, while his wife Dorothy pursued a relationship of her own, the arrangement appeared to work.

Until July 1940.

One summer afternoon, Dorothy Fisher, her daughter Freda, and housekeeper Charlotte Saunders were all shot dead at a cottage in rural Kent.

Police quickly focused on Florence Ransom after witnesses reported seeing a well-dressed woman travelling more than one hundred miles carrying a suspicious parcel wrapped in brown paper.

What followed was one of the most talked-about murder trials of wartime Britain.

Dee examines the extraordinary investigation, the forensic work of the legendary Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the evidence that convicted Florence, and why her death sentence was ultimately commuted when doctors declared her insane.

Although later true crime writers dubbed her "The Merry Widow of Bicester," there's nothing merry about this tragic story, one that left three innocent women dead and many questions unanswered.

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Sources

• The Times archives

• Daily Telegraph archives

Was Ol' Blue Eyes simply well connected… or something more?

Frank Sinatra sold more than 150 million records, won an Academy Award, helped define Las Vegas, and became one of the most recognisable entertainers in history.

But alongside the music was another story.

One involving Mafia bosses, FBI surveillance, politicians, casinos, Hollywood, and a 2,300-page FBI file.

Did Sinatra simply move in circles where organised crime figures were impossible to avoid? Or were his relationships with some of America's most powerful mobsters closer than he ever admitted?

Dee separates fact from fiction, exploring Sinatra's early arrest, his friendship with notorious gangster Willie Moretti, the famous Tommy Dorsey contract rumours, the Cal-Neva Lodge scandal, his connections to John F. Kennedy, and why the FBI spent decades watching one of America's favourite singers.

Despite years of surveillance, one fact remains clear: Frank Sinatra was never convicted of any organised crime offence.

So how much was evidence…

…and how much became legend?

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Sources

• FBI Records: The Vault – Frank Sinatra

• Smithsonian Magazine website

• History.com

The man who was hanged for murdering someone who wasn't dead

In this episode of Dee-Brief, Dee uncovers one of Birmingham's strangest and most misunderstood criminal cases.

In 1806, Philip Matsell was publicly hanged before a crowd of around 40,000 people after being convicted of murdering night watchman Robert Twyford.

There's just one problem.

Twyford wasn't dead.

In fact, he survived the shooting and lived for another eight years.

So how could someone be executed for murder when the victim was still alive?

The answer lies in a fascinating mixture of nineteenth-century law, public opinion, unreliable witnesses, and the way history sometimes simplifies a much more complicated story.

Along the way, Dee explores Birmingham before modern policing, the role of night watchmen, the dramatic public execution that became the city's last, and the lingering questions over whether Philip Matsell was even the right man.

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Sources

• The Birmingham Dispatch – The Murder That Never Was: The Strange Story of Birmingham's Last Public Execution

• Contemporary reports from The Birmingham Gazette

The conwoman, poisoner, and "witch" who convinced people a chicken could predict the Second Coming

Dee heads to Yorkshire to uncover the astonishing story of Mary Bateman - a woman remembered as The Yorkshire Witch, despite never being convicted of witchcraft.

Born into poverty in the eighteenth century, Mary discovered that fear, superstition and false hope could be far more profitable than honest work. She reinvented herself as a fortune teller, sold charms and curses, invented imaginary spiritual advisers, and even convinced hundreds of people that her pet hen was laying miraculous eggs bearing messages from God.

But beneath the theatrical scams lay something far darker.

When William and Rebecca Perigo sought Mary's help for Rebecca's illness, they believed they were buying protection from a curse. Instead, they were given poison.

Rebecca would pay with her life.

Dee explores one of Britain's most extraordinary true crime stories - a tale of fraud, manipulation, murder, public executions, miracle chickens, fake psychics, and one of the strangest post-mortem legacies in criminal history, when pieces of Mary's own skin were turned into souvenirs.

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Sources

• Summers, Montague. The History of Witchcraft and Demonology

• Thackray Museum of Medicine

• Leeds Libraries Local History Collection

• Leeds Mercury archives

• British Newspaper Archive

The President who may have been killed by his own doctors.

In this episode of Dee-Brief, Dee explores one of the most extraordinary assassinations in American history, and one of history's greatest medical "what ifs."

When President James A. Garfield was shot by disappointed office-seeker Charles Guiteau in July 1881, many believed his fate was sealed.But modern medical experts tell a very different story.

The bullet itself may not have been fatal.Instead, Garfield endured eighty days of repeated examinations by doctors who repeatedly inserted unwashed fingers and unsterilised instruments into his wounds, unknowingly introducing life-threatening infection.

Today, many historians believe it was sepsis - not the gunshot - that ultimately killed the twentieth President of the United States.

🎙 Follow Switchblade Sisters Social Club wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to leave us a rating and review, it genuinely helps independent podcasts grow.

Sources

• Ackerman, Kenneth D. Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield

• Library of Congress

• U.S. Senate Historical Office

• White House Historical Association

• National Park Service – James A. Garfield National Historic Site

• Smithsonian Magazine

A teenage girl vanished after a night at the fair. Nearly 50 years later, police charged a suspect, but the trial never happened.

In this episode of Dee-Brief, Dee explores one of Birmingham's most heartbreaking unsolved murders.

On the evening of 18 August 1961, fifteen-year-old Jacqueline Thomas went to a travelling funfair in Ward End with friends. It should have been an ordinary summer night. Instead, it was the last time she was ever seen alive.

A week later, Jacqueline's body was discovered on nearby allotment land. Despite a major police investigation, appeals for witnesses, and multiple suspects being questioned, nobody was charged and the case gradually grew cold.

Then, almost half a century later, everything changed.

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If you have any information relating to the murder of Jacqueline Thomas, however small it may seem, West Midlands Police continue to regard the case as unsolved. After more than sixty years, investigators still hope someone may hold the missing piece of the puzzle.

Sources

• Burney, Ian & Pemberton, Neil. Murder and the Making of English CSI

• West Midlands Police – Unsolved Murders

• Birmingham Mail archives

• BBC News archives

• The Independent archives

• The Guardian archives

The case that may - or may not - connect to the Black Dahlia

In this episode of Dee-Brief, Dee heads to 1940s Chicago to examine one of America's most infamous unsolved - or perhaps wrongly solved - murder cases: The Chicago Lipstick Murders.

Between 1945 and 1946, three shocking murders terrified the city. A cryptic message allegedly scrawled in lipstick gave rise to the ridiculously nickname "The Lipstick Killer," while the brutal murder of six-year-old Suzanne Degnan sparked one of the largest criminal investigations in American history.

But was the right man ever convicted?

Dee explores the controversial case of William Heirens, whose confession has been debated for decades, examining claims of coercive interrogation, disputed forensic evidence, and one of the earliest alleged false confessions in American criminal history.

The episode also revisits the extraordinary claims made by retired LAPD detective Steve Hodel, who believes his father, Dr George Hodel, was responsible not only for the murder of Elizabeth Short - the Black Dahlia - but also for the Chicago Lipstick Murders.

Was the case really solved?Or has the true killer remained hidden for nearly eighty years?

Listen now and decide for yourself.

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to listen to our two-part interview with Steve Hodel on the Black Dahlia, where we explore the evidence behind his extraordinary theory that his father may have been one of America's most prolific unidentified serial killers.

🎙 Follow Switchblade Sisters Social Club wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to leave us a rating and review. It really helps independent podcasts reach more listeners.

Sources

• Hodel, Steve. Black Dahlia Avenger

• Hodel, Steve. Most Evil

• Newton, Michael. The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers

• Chicago Tribune

• Chicago Sun-Times

• Illinois Innocence Project materials discussing the Heirens case