Fact or Fiction: A Mostly-True Crime History Podcast

Feb 06 2024 50 ep. 37 mins 7
Fact or Fiction: A Mostly-True Crime History Podcast artwork

Welcome to Fact or Fiction, the podcast about historical crimes with one fictional detail added. Listen carefully because it's not easy to know if something is Fact or Fiction. Ready to play?

  History  True Crime  Arts
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Author Series present Jeffrey D. Simon and "The Bulldog Detective"

Feb 06 2024 57 mins  
Send us a textToday’s guest is author Jeffrey D. Simon, author of several books about terrorism and a former RAND analyst who also taught at UCLA. As a guest on Fact or Fiction, Jeff has agreed to share some of the highlights from his most recent book, The Bulldog Detective: William J. Flynn and America’s First War Against the Mafia, Spies, and Terrorists. Flynn’s career prov

Fact or Fiction Author Series presents Christopher Allen Gorden

Dec 05 2023 61 mins  
Send us a textSt. Louis was a rapidly growing frontier town in 1849. That year, the city experienced a great fire that destroyed the city's business district, an epidemic of cholera that decimated the population, and a steady influx of would-be miners on their way to the California hills. Also, there was a sensational murder and an equally sensational trial.Christopher Allen Gorden

Fact or Fiction Author Series presents Amy Kasuga Folk

May 23 2023 47 mins  
Send us a textNicknamed "Liquor Island," Long Island was a center for bootlegging and rumrunning for the New York metropolitan area during Prohibition. Amy Kasuga Folk's book Rumrunners of Suffolk County: Tales from Liquor Island shares highlights from her book and inserts a fictional detail in her four choices at the end of the episode. Will you identify the fiction? Will I?Listen

The Goat Gland "Doctor"

May 01 2023 60 mins  
Send us a textIn the first half of the twentieth century, John R. Brinkley was a celebrated and successful "doctor" renowned for his ability to use goat organs to help humans with infertility. In addition to his "medical" success, Brinkley was also an early adopter of radio technology, which he used to advertise his hospital and his other medicines.In this first episode of season 3

Fact or Fiction: Author Series presents Joe Johnston

Apr 18 2023 63 mins  
Send us a textIn the late nineteenth century, the West was wild all the way back to the Mississippi River. Only a day's walk from the progressive big city of St. Louis, rural Jefferson County citizens were struggling with an outbreak of thefts, arson, and more. Mack Marsden, successful livestock trader and family man, was accused of being involved. After Mack was shot and killed, t

Fact or Fiction: Author Series presents Susan Wels

Apr 02 2023 45 mins  
Send us a textFrom 1848 to 1881, a small Utopian colony in upstate New York—the Oneida Community—was known for its shocking sexual practices, from open marriage and free love to the sexual training of young boys by older women. And in 1881, a one-time member of the Oneida Community—Charles Julius Guiteau—assassinated President James Garfield in a brutal crime that shook Ame

Forrest E. Mars: The Candy Man

Mar 22 2023 52 mins  
Send us a textFor this special episode Tracy Marak, member of the Belle Toffee family, is my guest. She shares the Belle Toffee story, and then tries to identify the fiction in the mostly-true story about another candy maker, Forrest E. Mars.Although this story doesn't fit neatly into the true crime category, Forrest Mars' road to ownership of Mars, Inc. wasn’t a smooth one and i

Fact or Fiction: Author Series presents Mike Vance

Mar 08 2023 49 mins  
Send us a textJames Brockman rose from shady character to preeminent defense attorney in Houston, Texas by representing gang leaders, jilted spouses, wealthy storekeepers, drunken on-duty policemen, and more. His career gained national recognition, including his involvement in the most famous American murder case of the young twentieth century, when he himself was murdered leaving

Fact or Fiction Author Series presents Murderous Matrons

Feb 23 2023 41 mins  
Send us a textIn this episode, authors Victoria Cosner and Lorelie Shannon share a mostly-true story from their book Missouri's Murderous Matrons. Emma Heppermann, a black widow killer, and Bertha Gifford, an angel of mercy, used arsenic to murder unsuspecting family and friends for decades. The story of how they managed to evade discovery is unbelievable. As always, these authors

Fact or Fiction Author Series presents Kimberly Tilley

Feb 07 2023 66 mins  
Send us a textOn Christmas Eve of 1900, someone got away with murder. Frank Richardson, wealthy business owner and family man, was shot as he entered his home. Although many people may have wanted him dead, the crime has remained unsolved to this day. Kimberly Tilley, author of Has it Come to This? The Mysterious, Unsolved Murder of Frank Richardson tells us the mostly-true story a