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  • She Buried the Ledger: How a Woman Outsmarted a Murder Plot

    She Buried the Ledger: How a Woman Outsmarted a Murder Plot
    2026/10/28
    She Buried the Ledger: How a Woman Outsmarted a Murder Plot

    Cold evidence and a dead calm: a leather-bound ledger, forty pages and brass fittings without a trace of oxidation, was found nine feet underground and completely dry in January 1883 - and that ledger would send a man to prison for nineteen years. How did Jennifer Bishop know she was running out of time and take the one step that would change everything?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of events recorded in the ledger and in the few testimonies left behind, from Bishop's arrival at Pickett Basin to the ledger's recovery in a frozen well, and ask how a woman with no partner, known for precise bookkeeping, anticipated a threat others did not. What compelled her to hide folio number 114 where only a rope and a lantern could reach it?

    Person: Jennifer Bishop
    Date: January 9, 1883
    Location: Crabtree Road well, Pickett Basin
    Case: Livestock registration folio number 114
    Event: Ledger recovered dry and sealed, leading to a 19-year prison sentence

    - Bishop arrived in Pickett Basin in spring 1878 at age 31 and took possession of approximately 2,000 acres registered by her father.
    - By 1882 she had a registered herd of 360 cattle and treated livestock registration folio number 114 as her "Bible," updating it regularly.
    - John West visited Bishop's property three times in 1882; on December 19 he assessed the herd and on December 28 he presented a transfer instrument she refused, which would have conveyed 412 acres to the Pickett Basin Syndicate.
    - Bishop wrote in pencil on the inside back cover: "Dec, twenty-eight. West presented transfer instrument. I refused. Retain this record."
    - Well contractor Warren Simpson descended nine feet into the stone-lined well on January 9, 1883 and found the leather-bound folio dry, with lanolin on the covers and brass fittings showing no oxidation.

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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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    20 分
  • The Dry Paper: How a Cantonese Parcel Unmasked San Francisco's Poisoner

    The Dry Paper: How a Cantonese Parcel Unmasked San Francisco's Poisoner
    2026/10/27
    The Dry Paper: How a Cantonese Parcel Unmasked San Francisco's Poisoner

    A dry paper parcel in a wet San Francisco alley exposed a quiet system of payments and a meticulously staged death that a coroner had called natural; why was Raymond Bailey found perfectly dry while everything around him was soaked? What did eleven small, regular payments to "Pacific Rim Dry Goods" and a Cantonese-wrapped package reveal about a man who never missed a Thursday dinner for eleven years?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery, the early interviews, and the detail that changed the case from closed to criminal: the dry paper package, the ledger entries, and the detective who remembered a telltale sign from a previous poisoning. How did one photograph, a translated label, and a dealer’s denial open a path to the truth?

    Person: Raymond Bailey
    Date: December 11, 1926
    Location: Alley behind Clement Street, San Francisco
    Person: Lloyd Stevens
    Person: Detective Sergeant James Stewart

    - Lloyd Stevens took three photographs of Bailey before calling the police.
    - Bailey was 52 years old and had kept a Thursday dinner appointment with his sister for 11 consecutive years.
    - Eleven ledger entries paid to Pacific Rim Dry Goods occurred over 18 months, spaced every 5 to 6 weeks.
    - The package in Bailey’s right hand was wrapped with Cantonese characters translated as "prepared for use, Chen family, Stockton."
    - The coroner Dr. Frederick Peel originally concluded death by cardiac arrest and closed the case.

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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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    23 分
  • The Chair Outside Crestholm: A 45‑Minute Hydrotherapy Secret

    The Chair Outside Crestholm: A 45‑Minute Hydrotherapy Secret
    2026/10/26
    The Chair Outside Crestholm: A 45‑Minute Hydrotherapy Secret

    A frozen oak chair, leather restraint straps dangling, waited in the service alley outside Crestholm Sanatorium at 5:30 a.m. on November 9, 1907 - a detail that didn’t match the register entry blaming cardiac failure during hydrotherapy. Why would a patient supposedly treated inside end up in a chair outside, facing the building, with an eighteen‑inch drag mark leading to the wall?

    In this episode, we follow the discoveries recorded in notebooks, logs, and intake forms to map what happened at Crestholm in early November 1907 and ask whether the official paperwork can explain the physical evidence. Which discrepancy - the forty‑five minute hydrotherapy entry, the different ink and initials, or the chair outside - holds the key?

    Person: Neil Sawyer
    Date: November 9, 1907
    Location: Crestholm Sanatorium service alley
    Deputy: Jason O'Brien
    Orderly: Wayne Chambers

    - The chair was discovered in frozen mud at approximately 5:30 a.m, on November 9, 1907.
    - Neil Sawyer’s hydrotherapy treatment was logged as lasting forty‑five minutes on November 8.
    - Standard hydrotherapy sessions in 1907 were eight to twelve minutes, making forty‑five minutes nearly four times normal.
    - The treatment entry was written in blue‑tinted ink while all previous entries were brown‑black.
    - A drag mark eighteen inches wide and a partial heavy‑boot heel print were photographed in the service alley on November 11.

    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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    16 分
  • The Woman Carried Through Frost: Murder at Tule Flat, 1937

    The Woman Carried Through Frost: Murder at Tule Flat, 1937
    2026/10/25
    The Woman Carried Through Frost: Murder at Tule Flat, 1937

    A migrant woman found barefoot on frozen gravel, a corked amber bottle of dried wildflowers on her chest, and an official death certificate that blamed heatstroke despite an overnight low in the thirties - who carried Julie Donnelly 430 feet in the dark without leaving a single trace? What did a single ledger entry for morphine signed “livestock sedation” reveal about the nights before her death?

    In this episode, we tell the sequence of facts surrounding Julie Donnelly’s discovery, the official record, and the investigator who would not accept the county’s closure; we follow his questions from the camp log to the frozen access lane and ask how a death certificate could miss the evidence that pointed elsewhere.

    Person: Julie Donnelly
    Date: October 9, 1937
    Location: Tule Flat camp, Merced County, San Joaquin Valley
    Investigator: Craig Weber
    Cause listed on death certificate: heatstroke collapse and exposure

    - Julie Donnelly was 28 years old when found on her back at the road shoulder on October 9, 1937.
    - The overnight low was in the thirties the night before she was found, contradicting heatstroke as an obvious cause.
    - The body was located a quarter-mile down the access lane, 430 feet from the camp, with frost around her undisturbed.
    - Her left arm was extended, she was barefoot on frozen gravel, and the soles of her feet showed no marks consistent with walking that distance.
    - On September 14, a morphine solution was signed out from the camp dispensary with the stated purpose “livestock sedation, mule, east pen,” but the camp had no east pen and kept no mules.

    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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    19 分
  • The Dead Man Who Kept Sending Messages: Millhaven's Phantom Log

    The Dead Man Who Kept Sending Messages: Millhaven's Phantom Log
    2026/10/24
    The Dead Man Who Kept Sending Messages: Millhaven's Phantom Log

    A dead telegraph operator’s hand kept the wire alive: Scott Gallagher was found with a skull fracture and the Millhaven shift log shows twenty-three transmissions, eleven of them timed after his death. Who kept sending messages in his private shorthand from inside a flooded relay station, and why did those signals never reach their intended destination?

    In this episode, you’ll hear the sequence of events from the night Scott Gallagher signed in at 9:58 p.m. to the discovery of his body and the impossible gap between the Millhaven log and what other stations actually received. What the comparison between the Millhaven log and Dunbar Crossing’s records reveals becomes the central mystery.

    Person: Scott Gallagher
    Date: September 14, 1893 (body found that morning)
    Location: Millhaven relay station
    Status: Found dead from a single blow to the posterior skull
    Event: Shift log recorded 23 transmissions, last timed at 5:47 a.m., 11 entries after estimated time of death

    - The telegraph key sat submerged in eight inches of standing water when lineman Howard Becker arrived around 8:15 a.m.
    - Gallagher signed in at 9:58 p.m. on September 13 and had worked the Millhaven station for 19 years.
    - County physician August Plimpton placed Gallagher’s time of death between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m., noting a smooth heavy blow likely from an iron pipe or weighted tool handle.
    - The shift log recorded twenty-three entries from 9:58 p.m. to 5:47 a.m., every line in Gallagher’s handwriting and using his private shorthand.
    - Albert Vane, the day operator who shared the station, had a witnessed alibi at a church social and was not at the relay that night.

    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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    20 分
  • The Matchbook, the Number 14, and the Quiet Murder in Sundown

    The Matchbook, the Number 14, and the Quiet Murder in Sundown
    2026/10/23
    The Matchbook, the Number 14, and the Quiet Murder in Sundown

    A bone-dry matchbook from an Iowa supper club, eleven unused matches, and the single penciled number "14" were found tucked into the drainage basin of an ice machine two hours after a woman's body was discovered - why was a souvenir sealed and waiting there before the murder? Who carried a matchbook 212 miles across state lines and left it dry and hidden as a record pointing to Unit 14?

    In this episode, we lay out the sequence of events and the evidence found at the Sundown Motor Court that connect a routine service call to a strangulation in Unit Fourteen, and ask how a maintenance schedule, a motel log, and a single pencil mark changed the course of an investigation.

    Person: Lori Allen
    Date: August 13-14, 1953
    Location: Sundown Motor Court, Route Nine, Nebraska
    Detective: Charles Harrison
    Time of discovery: 5:30 AM on August 14, 1953

    - The Kelvinator ice machine was serviced on July 31 and next scheduled for August 14, the morning the matchbook was found.
    - Phil Garvey found a Harborview Supper Club matchbook from Denton Falls, Iowa, in the ice machine drainage basin at 10:15 AM on August 14, 1953.
    - The matchbook contained eleven unused matches and had the number "14" written in pencil on the inner flap.
    - Lori Allen, age 23, was found strangled in Unit Fourteen; time of death estimated between 11:00 PM on August 13 and 2:00 AM on August 14.
    - Lori's purse was untouched with $14 inside and her return bus ticket; no signs of forced entry at door or window.

    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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    19 分
  • The Shoe, the Note and the Bookkeeper's Unsent Letter

    The Shoe, the Note and the Bookkeeper's Unsent Letter
    2026/10/22
    The Shoe, the Note and the Bookkeeper's Unsent Letter

    A brown calfskin shoe hung from a brick wall with a photograph pressed inside and the penciled words "She knew" on its back - found by a gas meter reader on July 19, 1923. The objects were fresh, tied with cotton twine, and pointed to a death that would reach back five years and across three towns; who left them, and why, is the question that won't let go.

    In this episode, we walk through the discovery in Millhaven and the life that preceded it, tracing the unsent letter, the bookkeeping errors, and the people who noticed small, precise habits. How did a routine ledger spotting lead to a murder, and who used the Alderton Arms back door the night Susan Myers died?

    Person: Susan Myers
    Date: July 19, 1923
    Location: Millhaven, Indiana
    Age: 38
    Occupation: Bookkeeper

    - The shoe was a woman's left, brown calfskin, size five, recently resoled with pale stitching and hung by cotton twine from a nail on the rear brick wall.
    - Inside the heel were three letters and a date: "S.M. - July one."
    - The photograph showed a woman by a white clapboard church; on its back, in pencil, were the words "She knew."
    - Susan Myers had moved to Millhaven eight months earlier, kept a tortoiseshell cat named Biscuit fed at 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., and worked for Millhaven Feed and Grain Company.
    - Susan had discovered four months of falsified invoices for feed supplements and had written an unsent letter to her employer, Frederick Haas, planning to deliver it on July 21; she was killed the night of July 18.

    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
  • The Sheriff's Ledger at a Murder Scene - Who Wrote It?

    The Sheriff's Ledger at a Murder Scene - Who Wrote It?
    2026/10/21
    The Sheriff's Ledger at a Murder Scene - Who Wrote It?

    A leather-bound sheriff’s ledger stamped "Gary Wallace - Sheriff, Garfield County" lay open on the kitchen table beside Holly Ramsey’s strangled body, a detail that would topple one man and send another to prison while the full forensic meaning of the book stayed buried for seventy-eight years. Who left the sheriff’s ledger at a locked-roadhouse murder scene, and why did that single object point in two opposite directions?

    In this episode, we present the sequence of events from the morning Megan Harris found Holly Ramsey dead to the investigative steps taken by Deputy Phil Arnett, following the trail of documents, keys, and a hidden cellar entry to the unanswered question at the center of the case. What did the ledger really signify, and whose hand placed it on that table?

    Person: Holly Ramsey
    Date: June 6, 1931
    Location: The Millstone, Tolliver Road, east bank of Ember Creek
    Person: Gary Wallace
    Person: Brian Reynolds

    - Holly Ramsey was sixty-two years old at the time of her death and ran the Millstone roadhouse for eleven years.
    - A leather ledger stamped "Gary Wallace - Sheriff, Garfield County" was found open on the kitchen table beside Holly’s strangled body.
    - Holly had loaned Brian Reynolds $65 in the winter of 1929; the note came due in March 1931 and remained unpaid despite two written reminders.
    - Brian Reynolds re-planked the Millstone basement in fall 1928 and later admitted he carried a canvas sack into the Millstone through the cellar trapdoor on the night in question.
    - Deputy Phil Arnett found the safe’s brass lock undamaged, a spare key hanging on a nail inside the cellar door, and the exterior trapdoor lifted cleanly with 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.
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    19 分