Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast
Serial killers. Gangsters. Gunslingers. Victorian-era murderers. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Each week, the Most Notorious podcast features true-life tales of crime, criminals, tragedies and disasters throughout history. Host Erik Rivenes interviews authors and historians who have studied their subjects for years. Their stories are offered with unique insight, detail, and historical accuracy.
Episodes
May 12, 2025 • 68 mins
Much like the wheel, the boat, and the telephone, the axe is a transformative piece of technology―one that has been with us since prehistory. And just as early humans used the axe to chop down trees, hunt for food, and whittle tools, they also used it to murder. Over time, this particular use has endured: as the axe evolved over centuries to fit the needs of new agricultural, architectural, and social development, so have our letha...
Mark as Played
May 4, 2025 • 73 mins
The American sailing vessel Adriatic collided with the French steamship Le Lyonnais on November 2, 1856, off the coast of Nantucket in what can best be described as a maritime hit-and-run. Adriatic’s captain, Jonathan Durham, rendered no aid and left the passenger steamship to fend for herself. 114 people died in the collision and in the days that followed.
My guest is shipwreck hunter Jennifer N. Sellitti, author of "The Adriati...
Mark as Played
May 1, 2025 • 24 mins
Just in time for summer! This is an introduction and excerpt from the Slaycation Podcast, hosted by Kim and Adam "Tex" Davis and Jerry Kolber.
Pack your body bags for a darkly comic, true crime podcast that looks at murders, mysterious deaths and whodunits that happened while people were on vacation.
More here! https://www.slaycation.wtf/
Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/show/6m5al8OnkyVCunFq56qwRE
Appl...
Mark as Played
April 29, 2025 • 109 mins
(original pub date 7/19/23)
David "Stringbean" Akeman was a singer, clawhammer banjo player and an early Grand Ole Opry star, known for his lanky build and comedic personality. And as a cast member of the nationwide television show Hee-Haw, he was at the height of his popularity when he and his wife Estelle were murdered in their rural Tennessee home in November of 1973.
My guest this week is Professor Taylor Hagood, author o...
Mark as Played
April 26, 2025 • 57 mins
On July 24, 1964, twenty-four-year-old Matthew Kerry Smith disguised himself with a mask and a Beatle wig, hoisted a semi-automatic rifle, then held up a bank in North York, Ontario. The intelligent but troubled son of a businessman and mentally ill mother, Smith was a navy veteran with a young Indigenous wife and a hazy plan for violent revolution.
Outside the bank, Smith was confronted by Jack Blanc, a former member of the Cana...
Mark as Played
April 18, 2025 • 73 mins
The American government was faced with an unprecedented challenge: where to house the nearly 400,000 German prisoners of war plucked from the battlefield and shipped across the Atlantic. On orders from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Department of War hastily built hundreds of POW camps in the United States. Today, traces of those camps—which once dotted the landscape from Maine to California—have all but vanished. Forgotten, ...
Mark as Played
April 12, 2025 • 69 mins
Shortly before dusk on November 3, 1870, just as the ferryboat El Capitan was pulling away from its slip into San Francisco Bay, a woman clad in black emerged from the shadows and strode across the crowded deck. Reaching under her veil, she drew a small pistol and aimed it directly at a well-dressed man sitting quietly with his wife and children. The woman fired a single bullet into his chest. “I did it and I don’t deny it,” she sa...
Mark as Played
April 5, 2025 • 56 mins
On a nearly moonless night in October 1943, a single gunshot rang out in Littlefield, Texas. A prominent Texas doctor and his wife were found bound, shot, beaten, and murdered. The only witness: their five-year-old daughter, who was bound to silence and refused to speak about what happened for 70 years.
Christena Stephens is my guest, and her book is called "Bound in Silence: An Unsolved Murder in a Small Texas Town". She shares d...
Mark as Played
March 28, 2025 • 64 mins
(Original pub date: 3/11/20)
While the Coen brothers refuse to confirm it, many believe that their movie "Fargo" was inspired by the Carol Thompson murder case. She was viciously killed in her comfortable Saint Paul home by a hitman hired by her eccentric husband, T. Eugene Thompson, in March of 1963, leaving behind four small children. It was an absolutely sensational case, one not only covered extensively by local press, but by ...
Mark as Played
March 22, 2025 • 57 mins
Molly Zelko was the crusading editor and publisher of the Spectator, a newspaper devoted to battling local gangsters operating slot machines and other rackets in Joliet, Illinois. In the late night hours of September 25, 1957 she vanished, with only her shoes and signs of a struggle left as evidence that something sinister had likely happened to her.
My guest is reporter and author Rod Kackley, whose book "Murder! Molly And The ...
Mark as Played
March 16, 2025 • 79 mins
On September 13, 1868, the bodies of Jacob and Nancy Young were discovered brutally murdered along the bank of the White River in Cold Spring, Indiana. Police would eventually set their sights on a charming and fascinating confidence woman named Nancy Clem, who happened to be involved in some extremely shady business dealings with Jacob Young at the time.
My guest is Wendy Gamber, author of "The Notorious Mrs. Clem: Murder and Mon...
Mark as Played
March 7, 2025 • 87 mins
Close to midnight on May 17, 1951, four north Alabama lawmen drove to a bootlegger’s home to serve an arrest warrant. Before the clock struck twelve, the bootlegger lay dead in front of the house he shared with his wife and eight children, and three of the four officers were also dead. Afterward, a sixteen-year-old boy would face a series of trials that would divide a county and thrust the state of Alabama into the national spotlig...
Mark as Played
March 1, 2025 • 59 mins
My guest today is Dr. Amy Helen Bell, author of "Under Cover of Darkness: Murders in Blackout London". She shares accounts of the terror, tragedy and crime experienced by Londoners during the blackout and the blitz in 1940s wartime Britain.
More about the author here: https://amyhelenbell.com/
Interested in revisiting the serial killers mentioned in this episode?
John Reginald Christie: https://www.mostnotorious.com/2022/12/...
Mark as Played
February 21, 2025 • 84 mins
My guest this week is award-winning journalist Ken Fortenberry, author of "Flight 7 Is Missing: The Search for My Father's Killer". He walks us through the ill-fated flight of Pan Am's luxurious "Romance of the Skies", a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser that mysteriously crashed into the Pacific Ocean in November of 1957. Forty-four people were killed, including his own father, who copiloted and navigated the plane. His decades long inves...
Mark as Played
February 14, 2025 • 78 mins
(Original publish date: 6/7/22)
In this third and final part of my interview with Dr. Edgar Epperly, the "little minister" Lyn George Jacklin Kelly is examined as a primary suspect in the 1912 Villisca Axe Murders. Although Kelly spoke obsessively about the case and even confessed to the murders, many believed that the confession was the result of mental illness and police coercion.
Dr. Epperly also offers his thoughts on whethe...
Mark as Played
February 14, 2025 • 78 mins
(Original Publish Date: 5/31/22)
Frank Fernando (F.F.) Jones seemed to be one of the most obvious suspects in the aftermath of the horrific 1912 Villisca Axe murders. He had a contentious business rivalry with the patriarch of the slain Moore family, Josiah (Joe) Moore, intensified further because Moore was having an affair with his daughter-in-law. However there was no direct evidence linking him to the crime. Enter James Wilke...
Mark as Played
February 14, 2025 • 76 mins
One of my absolute favorites! This is the first of a three part interview I did with Dr. Ed Epperly about the notorious 1912 Villisca Axe Murders. (Original publish date 5/23/2022)
This episode is sponsored by Strawberry .me. Get a $50 credit when you use our link: https://strawberry.me/notorious
On June 9th (or) 10th, 1912, America experienced of the most notorious crimes in its history - the brutal axe murders of Josiah and ...
Mark as Played
February 6, 2025 • 76 mins
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Jenny Maxwell was one of Hollywood's "it girls", appearing in countless television shows and films. Arguably her most memorable role was that of Ellie Corbett in Elvis Presley's 1961 movie "Blue Hawaii", where she stole every scene she was in. But despite her professional success, her personal life was a mess, much of it due to alcohol, drugs and wild Hollywood parties. By 1981 she was seeking a d...
Mark as Played
January 30, 2025 • 58 mins
Late one evening in the summer of 1922, Henry Wilkens burst through the doors of the emergency room covered in his wife's blood. But was he a grieving husband or a ruthless killer who conspired with bandits to have her murdered? To find out, the San Francisco police turned to technology and a new machine that had just been invented in Berkeley by a rookie detective, a visionary police chief, and a teenage magician with a showman's ...
Mark as Played
January 27, 2025 • 56 mins
On February 8, 1911, the Scott Mausoleum, a symbol of wealth for the Scott and Strong families in Erie, Pennsylvania, was desecrated by unknown vandals, coined by nationwide papers as ghouls. With the inside of the mausoleum heavily damaged - and a body missing - the crime set off shockwaves throughout the country during a time in which grave robbery, extortion and murder reigned supreme.
Hundreds of reporters and newspaper corres...
Mark as Played
Popular Podcasts
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.