Randy Ayers was a 17-year-old high school senior when he was spotted at school and identified as the man who raped and tried to kill a 15-year-old girl in November 1981. It would take nine agonizing years -- and an unsolicited confession from a serial killer -- before Randy's case would change how prosecutors in Hamilton County, Ohio, treated eyewitness identification. "Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and...

The 937 passengers aboard the M.S. St. Louis had every reason to be optimistic as they left Hamburg, Germany, on May 13, 1939. After years of their rights being slowly stripped away, the Jewish men, women and children felt lucky to be sailing off to start anew in Cuba. But once they spotted their destination, a new nightmare began. "Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history DON'T FORGET...

When 26 California schoolchildren and their bus driver failed to show up after a swimming trip on the penultimate day of summer school, authorities launched a search that grew much more frantic after the school bus they'd been traveling in was discovered hidden in 20-foot-tall bamboo. What happened next shocked and befuddled the nation. "Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history DON'T...

In 1898, a pair of killers stalked a worksite in the Tsavo region of Kenya. They evaded blockades and booby traps to torment hundreds of men who'd simply signed up to do a job but instead found themselves marked as prey for a seemingly unstoppable deadly duo. "Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE CENTURIES BOOK!  Order today at...

In the 1960s, after losing all 10 of the babies they'd conceived, Marie Noe and her husband, Arthur, became the most famous bereaved parents in America, with most of the deaths attributed to "crib death," later called Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). After a journalist revisited the case in 1998, investigators took another look at the mysterious series of deaths, prompting Marie Noe to share a horrifying secret that had been weighing on her for more than 30 years. "Crimes of the...

On September 6, 1949, 28-year-old World War II veteran Howard Unruh ate the breakfast his mother made him, then armed himself with a Luger pistol and walked calmly through his Camden, New Jersey, neighborhood, shooting everyone in sight. He told police afterward he'd had a kill list of specific people he'd felt had wronged him, but by the end of his 12-minute rampage, 13 would be fatally wounded, three of them innocent children. "Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab...

While the grift he deployed had been named for another man, Bernie Madoff took the concept of a Ponzi scheme and pumped it full of steroids, allowing it to keep him -- and plenty of others -- filthy rich for literally decades. In the end, Madoff bilked some $65 billion from thousands of clients, all while maintaining such a sheen of respectability that he was charged with helping write the very rules he himself eschewed. "Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring...

Italian-born Charles Ponzi had grown up hearing from his mother that he was destined for greatness, so it was no surprise to her when she visited him in America to find him wealthy beyond her wildest dreams. Ponzi had come up with a get-rich-quick scheme that he insisted was legal. To his credit, it took federal authorities a good seven months to figure out how it wasn't. In this episode, meet the man whose name would go down in history to be synonymous with "grifter."   "Crimes of the...

In the midst of nationwide bombings that pit union backers against anti-union bosses, an explosion at the Los Angeles Times building crossed a line that changed everything. At 1:07 a.m. on Oct. 1, 1910, a blast tore through the Times building, killing 21 people. Times officials immediately blamed organized labor, which ultimately bore out: Not only were three union-affiliated co-conspirators convicted soon after the bombing, but nearly 40 other union officials would eventually be convicted on...

In September 1944, a 24-year-old married woman named Recy Taylor was walking home with friends from church when a carload of seven men stopped her. Forced into the car, Recy, a Black woman, was repeatedly raped by six white men at gunpoint, then tossed roadside with a warning: Tell anyone about this, and you're dead. Recy ignored the threats and her tale soon galvanized activists throughout Alabama -- including a woman whose name would eventually become synonymous with the Civil Rights...

Hey, Crimes of the Centuries listeners! COTC is now part of Grab Bag Collab, a Patreon-based podcasting network. You can find our other shows available at patreon.com/grabbagcollab Alcoholism, multiple husbands and boarding houses. This is the story of The Landlady.  Dive deep into the upbringing and backstories of individuals who committed history's most notorious crimes, shedding light on the psychological factors that shaped their paths. With a suspenseful twist, the identities of these...

When luggage leaking blood arrived at a Los Angeles train depot in 1931, the woman who'd traveled with the items feigned ignorance -- and then disappeared, leading to a nationwide manhunt that captivated the nation. Because one of the two victims found inside the Winnie Ruth Judd's trunks had been dismembered -- and because both she and the victims were beautiful women -- the case generated hundreds of headlines and a memorable moniker: The Trunk Murderess. But were prosecutors' theories...

The morning of Aug. 1, 1966, 25-year-old Charles Whitman called his wife's boss to say she'd be out, then did the same for his mother. After killing the two women, he climbed atop the observatory tower at the University of Texas and relentlessly began picking off pedestrians below in an attack unlike any before witnessed in America. "Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. AND DON'T...

Every parent has worried about their children hauling home tainted candy on Halloween, but not everyone knows where that fear originated. On Halloween in 1974, an 8-year-old boy named Timothy O’Bryan was granted one pick from his basket before bed — and soon after downing the contents of his Pixy Stix, he went limp in his father’s arms. The investigation threw parents into a panic, prompting tons of candy to be taken to sheriff’s offices for inspection. As horrifying as the case appeared to...

Notorious labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa had for decades been a polarizing figure, with his ties to organized crime investigated as early as 1957 by future U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy. A jury tampering conviction eventually took him out of official power, but Hoffa worked tirelessly behind the scenes to reclaim his position -- until his disappearance in 1975. Despite countless theories about what happened to him, Hoffa's fate remains one of the most infamous unsolved mysteries in...

Living in Occupied Paris during World War II was utter chaos, with the Gestapo police constantly changing rules, kidnapping people from the streets and sidelining the Parisian police. A physician named Marcel Petiot claimed to be among the brave men and women working for the Resistance — a group determined to help smuggle endangered people to safety, far from the reach of the Third Reich. But when neighbors reported a fire at a townhouse Petiot owned, police arrived to uncover a scene so...

Hey, Crimes of the Centuries listeners! COTC is now part of Grab Bag Collab, a Patreon-based podcasting network. You can find our other shows available at patreon.com/grabbagcollab

For years, the violence that occurred in the area known as "Black Wall Street" in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921 was remembered as the "Tulsa Race Riot" - when it was even remembered at all.  But that name, promoted by the media and government officials, was at best a misleading description of what we've now started to reveal over the past few decades as a massacre perpetrated on a thriving Black community that took generations to recover. "Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag...

Handsome and charismatic, the actor Bob Crane led the cast of the hit sitcom "Hogan's Heroes" for six seasons from the mid-sixties into the beginning of the next decade.  The show ended in 1971, and Crane began traveling the country in a touring play.  When he was found dead in his hotel room in Arizona in 1978, was it due to a secret life that he kept hidden from public view?  "Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a...

Her story seemed innocent at first, if not charming.  A young immigrant woman from Germany befriending older gentlemen in Cincinnati's German community and providing them memories of home with her Old World cooking.  But as these men fell ill - or worse, starting dying - the motives behind Anna Marie Hahn's friendly overtures proved to be far more devious. "Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change...

It's a story every American grade school student learns - how the actor John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln in his box at the Ford's Theater, jumped down to the stage, and fled Washington DC until he was killed by the authorities in a barn in rural Virginia.  But it's not widely known that Booth wasn't acting alone, and that President Lincoln was only one of several targets he and his conspirators planned to murder on the night of April 15, 1865.  In today's episode, we tell the...

After the murder of the Defeo family, the house known as "High Hopes" where the murders occurred was purchased by the George and Kathy Lutz.  But the Lutz family soon fled the property, claiming frightening paranormal activity.  Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren arrived and began studying the scene.  But did they find evidence of supernatural occurrences - or were they perpetrating a fraud on a too-credulous public? "Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from the Obsessed...

The word "Amityville" has practically become synonymous in popular culture with the eerie and supernatural.  But behind the books and movies is a true story of the Defeo murders, and in today's episode, we're joined by fellow Obsessed Network podcaster Daisy Eagan to tell their story. "Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from the Obsessed Network exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. AND DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE CENTURIES BOOK...

Having one husband die under suspicious circumstances may not cause alarm bells to ring, but what if a second husband also meets an unfortunate fate? The so-called "American Black Widow" Sharon Harrelson may have considered herself cursed when it came to love, but in today's episode we dive into her story of deception, betrayal, and ultimately murder. "Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from the Obsessed Network exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change...

There were seven men guarding the notorious criminal Frank Nash as he moved through Kansas City Union Station to a car waiting outside. But these officers couldn't stop the onslaught that faced them as they attempted to transfer Nash into the car. In today's episode, we'll explore how this bloody shootout changed the way American law enforcement fought crime. "Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from the Obsessed Network exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and...