Yore Town

The Mad Gasser of Mattoon terrified a small Illinois town in 1944, and no one was ever caught. In this episode of the Yorktown Podcast, we dig into one of the strangest small town mysteries in American history: a phantom attacker who may or may not have existed, a town gripped by wartime fear, and a story that still has no clean answer.

What you'll learn in this episode:
• The original Mad Gasser of Mattoon incident reports from Au...

The Donora Smog Disaster of 1948 remains one of the deadliest air pollution disasters in American history. In the small steel town of Donora, Pennsylvania, a deadly cloud of industrial pollution became trapped in the valley for five days, leaving thousands sick and over twenty people dead.

In this episode of Yore Town: Small Towns, Big Stories, we dive deep into the shocking true story of the Donora Smog Disaster — a forgotten trag...

The Auburn cyanide murders shocked a quiet Washington suburb and changed how America seals its medicine bottles. In 1986, Stella Nickell poisoned Excedrin capsules with potassium cyanide, killing her husband and an innocent neighbor in one of the most chilling product tampering cases in U.S. history.

This episode of Yore Town Podcast dives deep into the true story of the Auburn cyanide murders, examining how a small-town crime trig...

Times Beach, Missouri became the largest civilian environmental buyout in U.S. history. In 1983, the federal government ordered residents to leave after discovering dangerous dioxin contamination beneath their homes.

This is the full story of how a quiet Route 66 town turned into a national environmental scandal.

In this episode of Yore Town, we dive deep into the Times Beach disaster — from the origins of the contamination to the ...

Joseph Force Crater’s disappearance remains one of the most baffling unsolved mysteries in American history. In 1930, a sitting New York Supreme Court judge stepped into a taxi in Manhattan — and was never seen again.

What happened to Joseph Force Crater? Was it political corruption, organized crime, or something far simpler hiding in plain sight?

In this episode, we take a deep dive into the confirmed facts behind the Judge Crater...

Before Jack the Ripper, America’s first serial killer was already hunting.
The Servant Girl Annihilator terrorized Austin, Texas in the 1880s—one of the most forgotten true crime stories in U.S. history.

In the 1880s, long before “serial killer” became a term, a wave of brutal nighttime murders terrorized Austin, Texas. The victims were mostly Black women working as domestic servants. The killer was never caught. And over time, the...

In January 1998, one of the worst ice storms in North American history brought St. Lawrence County, New York to a complete standstill.
For days, freezing rain coated trees, power lines, and roads with inches of solid ice, causing widespread power outages, collapsed infrastructure, and a humanitarian emergency across the North Country.

This episode tells the true story of the Ice Storm of 1998, focusing specifically on St. Lawrence ...

The Texas City Disaster of 1947 remains the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history. In this episode of the Yore Town Podcast on the Beard Laws Network, we investigate the catastrophic SS Grand Camp explosion—a tragedy caused by 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate that changed Texas history and safety regulations forever.

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In 1932, one man did the impossible. He survived alone in the Yukon wilderness at $-40$ degrees, outran the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for weeks, and stood his ground against dynamite and an army of trackers.In this episode of the Yore Town Podcast, Matt (Beard Laws) and Meg dive into the chilling mystery of The Mad Trapper of Rat River. Who was Albert Johnson? How did he move faster than dog teams in waist-deep snow? And why, a...

On October 8, 1871, while the world watched Chicago burn, the deadliest wildfire in American history was destroying Peshtigo, Wisconsin. In this episode of the Yore Town Podcast, Beard Laws and Meg uncover the forgotten history of the Peshtigo Fire—a disaster so hot it created its own weather systems, fire tornadoes, and boiled rivers.

Most people know about the Great Chicago Fire, but few know that on the exact same night, a fires...

On July 30th, 1899, a small fire and a steady wind erased nearly two-thirds of Tupper Lake, NY in a single night.

In this episode of the Yore Town Podcast, we travel back to the late 19th century in the Adirondacks. Tupper Lake was a boomtown built for loggers, mill workers, and railroad laborers. It was fast, practical, and constructed almost entirely of wood. But it had one fatal flaw: No fire department.

We break down the timeli...

A stranger answered a room-for-rent ad, passed every background check, and moved in. Then, he tortured his landlord and vanished into thin air.

In this episode of Yore Town Podcast, we cover the terrifying unsolved murder of Oakey "Al" Kite. In 2004, Al did everything right when renting out his spare room in Aurora, Colorado. He checked references, verified employment, and trusted the man calling himself "Robert Coop...

We investigate the dark truth behind the Lawson Family murders of Christmas Day 1929—the eerie family portrait, the "brain injury" theory, and why one son was left alive.

In this episode of Yore Town, we uncover the chilling story of Charlie Lawson, the tobacco farmer who took his family into town for new clothes and a portrait just days before systematically ending their lives on Christmas morning. It remains one of the ...

We investigate the tragic Bardstown Murders, the unsolved true crime case that shattered the innocence of a small Kentucky town and captivated the nation.

In this powerful episode of the Yore Town Podcast, we take a deep dive into the string of shocking, interconnected, and still unsolved murders that rocked Bardstown, Kentucky. This is a small town with big secrets. We explore the details of the initial crime, the suspects, the su...

A Christmas Eve fire, five missing children, and a chilling mystery that has lasted nearly 80 years. INVESTIGATE the Sodder case with us.

Welcome to Yore Town, where we delve into the darkest corners of American true crime. This episode unpacks the most unsettling unsolved mystery of the 20th century: the disappearance of the Sodder children on Christmas Eve in 1945.

In Fayetteville, West Virginia, a chaotic house fire consumed the...

Can humans and the world's largest land predator truly coexist? DIVE into the chilling reality of Churchill, Manitoba here!

Welcome to the Yore Town Podcast, where we explore the most challenging and unique stories from communities facing extreme situations. In this episode, we venture to Churchill, Manitoba, famously known as the Polar Bear Capital of the World, to investigate the town's innovative, and sometimes terrifying, appro...

What Frank discovered in the girl's room was not a ghost—it was the infamous Daniel LaPlante, the boy who lived in the walls.

This episode of Yore Town Podcast plunges you into the truly chilling narrative of the 1986 Pepperell home invasion by a young Daniel LaPlante, who hid for over a year inside the walls of the Bowen family home. The atmosphere is thick with suspense as we detail the unsettling sights and sounds that led to th...

Welcome to Yore Town, where we delve into the shadows of unsolved mystery. In this episode, we tackle one of Ireland's most enduring and frustrating true crime cold cases: the baffling disappearance of Conor and Sheila Dwyer from Fermoy, County Cork, in 1991.

The last confirmed sighting of the couple was on April 30th, 1991, walking toward a funeral near their home. Just days later, their house was found orderly, with all their pos...

The Colonial Parkway Murders are some of the most chilling unsolved cases in Virginia history. Between 1986 and 1989, four young couples vanished from the scenic route, launching a frantic serial killer investigation that has spanned decades.

Join Your Town Podcast as we delve into the dark history of these mysterious crimes. We explore the tragic stories of the victims, the challenges faced by original investigations, and the pers...