Criminalia

Jan 28 2025 247 ep. 28 mins 10k

Criminalia Podcast artwork

Humans have always committed crimes. What can we learn from the criminals and crimes of the past, and have humans gotten better or worse over time?

True Crime Society & Culture

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The Murder of Mabel Greenwood

Jan 28 2025 35 mins

This is the story of the unsolved death of Mabel Greenwood; who killed her, and why no one knows what really happened 100 years later. The prime suspect in the case? Harold Greenwood, her husband of more than 20 years, was arrested on June 17, 1920, accused of fatally poisoning her. Let's look at what happened, the messy trial, and the one detail that got Harold acquitted. See

Elma Sands and the Manhattan Well Murder

Jan 21 2025 27 mins

If there had been true crime podcasts in the year 1800, this sensational murder trial would have been a hot topic under discussion: a young woman was killed just before Christmas in New York City, on the night she was to elope with her lover. The prime suspect was Levi Weeks, her presumptive fiancé, but he denied to authorities they had any relationship – and his defen

Who Shot Belle Starr, Outlaw Queen of the Old West?

Jan 14 2025 21 mins

Belle Starr, 'Petticoat Terror of the Plains', once said of herself, quote, “I regard myself as a woman who has seen much of life.” On the American frontier, she was thought of as “a demon with a bloody knife between her teeth and a pistol in each hand terrorizing whole communities and making deputy marshals hit the high places.” She lived a larger-than-life

The Chicago Tylenol Murders and Their Aftermath

Jan 07 2025 27 mins

Tylenol has been for decades the best-selling, non-prescription pain reliever in the United States. It used to come as gelatin capsules, pills that were possible to open, and that meant anyone could remove its active ingredient, acetaminophen, and replace the contents with ... anything else. And someone did, resulting in the deaths of seven people by cyanide poisoning. Holly and Ma

Was Jeannette DePalma's Death an Occult Sacrifice, a Crime of Opportunity, or Something Else?

Dec 31 2024 30 mins

On August 7, 1972, Jeannette DePalma disappeared in Springfield, New Jersey, four days after her 16th birthday. That afternoon, she told her mom she was going to see friends, but when she didn't return later that evening, her mother called the police; the police discovered she never made it to her friend's house. When her body was discovered six weeks later, investigators suspected

Welcome to the Season Finale of Criminalia: PARTNERS IN CRIME

Dec 24 2024 48 mins

Welcome to the final episode of our season about partners in crime -- some of whom were criminal duos, some of whom worked in gangs, but, unlike what we've found in some of our previous seasons, most of these people were absolutely guilty as charged. This season had quite a variety of crimes and criminals, everything from dirty cops who moonlighted with the mob to America's first s

The 'Last of America's Classic Train Robbers' Weren't Train Robbers at All

Dec 17 2024 23 mins

“Two gaudily-dressed 'Brooklyn cowboys' attempted a desert train robbery”, reported the Associated Press on November 25, 1937. Henry Loftus and Harry Donaldson have been referred to as, "the last of America's classic train robbers," but the pair weren't professional criminals. This is the story of two men who wanted their lives to be like those they read about in Wester

Prohibition Outlaws: The Rise and Fall of the Kimes-Terrill Gang

Dec 10 2024 24 mins

Led by Matthew Kimes and Ray Terrill, the Kimes–Terrill Gang were known for successfully pulling off some very high-profile bank robberies -- but they may have been better known for their daring prison escapes. In the lore of their gang it's said that each member swore a blood oath promising to free other members from their prison cells – even if it meant they, themselves, were

Serial Killers on the American Frontier: "Big" and "Little" Harpe

Dec 03 2024 24 mins

Herman Webster Mudgett of New Hampshire, better known by the alias H.H. Holmes, was responsible for anywhere from 20 to 200 killings before he was apprehended in 1894, and is known as one of America’s first serial killers. But ... not THE first. That title -– at least on record -- belongs to the Harpes: "Big" and "Little" Harpe, who killed at least 40 men, women, and children �

Samuel Green and William Ash, the 'Terrors of New England'

Nov 26 2024 21 mins

When the priest asked, "Are you penitent, my son?", Samuel Green, with the rope around his neck and standing at the gallows, said with a smirk, "If you wish it." On their best days, Samuel Green and William Ash were burglars, highway robbers, and counterfeiters. On their worst; violent murderers. This is the story of their criminal career.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inf