True Crime: Murder Secrets

The Shoe, the Note and the Bookkeeper's Unsent Letter A brown calfskin shoe hung from a brick wall with a photograph pressed inside and the penciled words "She knew" on its back - found by a gas meter reader on July 19, 1923. The objects were fresh, tied with cotton twine, and pointed to a death that would reach back five years and across three towns; who left them, and why, is the question that won't let go. In this episode, we walk through the discovery in Millhaven and the life that preceded it, tracing the unsent letter, the bookkeeping errors, and the people who noticed small, precise habits. How did a routine ledger spotting lead to a murder, and who used the Alderton Arms back door the night Susan Myers died? Person: Susan Myers Date: July 19, 1923 Location: Millhaven, Indiana Age: 38 Occupation: Bookkeeper - The shoe was a woman's left, brown calfskin, size five, recently resoled with pale stitching and hung by cotton twine from a nail on the rear brick wall. - Inside the heel were three letters and a date: "S.M. - July one." - The photograph showed a woman by a white clapboard church; on its back, in pencil, were the words "She knew." - Susan Myers had moved to Millhaven eight months earlier, kept a tortoiseshell cat named Biscuit fed at 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., and worked for Millhaven Feed and Grain Company. - Susan had discovered four months of falsified invoices for feed supplements and had written an unsent letter to her employer, Frederick Haas, planning to deliver it on July 21; she was killed the night of July 18.

The Sheriff's Ledger at a Murder Scene - Who Wrote It? A leather-bound sheriff’s ledger stamped "Gary Wallace - Sheriff, Garfield County" lay open on the kitchen table beside Holly Ramsey’s strangled body, a detail that would topple one man and send another to prison while the full forensic meaning of the book stayed buried for seventy-eight years. Who left the sheriff’s ledger at a locked-roadhouse murder scene, and why did that single object point in two opposite directions? In this episode, we present the sequence of events from the morning Megan Harris found Holly Ramsey dead to the investigative steps taken by Deputy Phil Arnett, following the trail of documents, keys, and a hidden cellar entry to the unanswered question at the center of the case. What did the ledger really signify, and whose hand placed it on that table? Person: Holly Ramsey Date: June 6, 1931 Location: The Millstone, Tolliver Road, east bank of Ember Creek Person: Gary Wallace Person: Brian Reynolds - Holly Ramsey was sixty-two years old at the time of her death and ran the Millstone roadhouse for eleven years. - A leather ledger stamped "Gary Wallace - Sheriff, Garfield County" was found open on the kitchen table beside Holly’s strangled body. - Holly had loaned Brian Reynolds $65 in the winter of 1929; the note came due in March 1931 and remained unpaid despite two written reminders. - Brian Reynolds re-planked the Millstone basement in fall 1928 and later admitted he carried a canvas sack into the Millstone through the cellar trapdoor on the night in question. - Deputy Phil Arnett found the safe’s brass lock undamaged, a spare key hanging on a nail inside the cellar door, and the exterior trapdoor lifted cleanly with no damage.

The Corsage That Shouldn't Exist: Murder, Letters, and a Lie A corsage of white peonies was tucked beneath the chin of a dead man found on May 9, 1905 - peonies that could not bloom in Nebraska until late May. That impossible flower, a destroyed tin box, a broken wagon axle, and three scraps of paper would unravel the quiet life of a young bookkeeper; who planted the corsage and why would force a neighbor to ask the questions nobody else did? In this episode, we tell the story exactly as the records show: the arrival of a meticulous assistant bookkeeper, the neighbor with a hidden family, a warning letter sent to a woman in Lincoln, and the discoveries that followed a missing supper and a train ticket. How did those few odd details - a green notebook, a tin box, and an empty chair - lead to a murder buried behind the Colver Falls icehouse? Person: Kent Jones Date: May 9, 1905 Location: Culvert behind the Colver Falls icehouse Person: Raymond White Place of residence: Room seven at Ida Schraft's boarding house - The body of a 24-year-old man, Kent Jones, was found on May 9, 1905. - Peonies in the corsage could not logically bloom in Nebraska until late May. - Kent Jones had arrived in Colver Falls in October 1904 and was hired as assistant bookkeeper. - Raymond White, age 41, lived in the adjacent room (room nine) and had concealed a wife and children in Fremont. - A ticket purchase matching White’s description was logged at Fremont station on the afternoon of May 6, 1905.

Severed Hand at Sable Creek: The Press That Couldn't Burn a Man A severed hand in a canvas glove with the stamp H.F. 7 washed up on Sable Creek nine days after the plant claimed Marvin Sheridan had been cremated on-site; hands do not survive cremation. Who labeled the glove, who signed the death certificate, and why did two men from the same press die without bodies? In this episode, we lay out the known facts from the records and interviews: the discovery at dawn, the plant’s official accident report, and the earlier unexplained death at the same forge. What connects Marvin Sheridan and Douglas Rath, and who stood to gain by accepting unexamined deaths? Person: Marvin Sheridan Date: April 9, 1943 (discovery of hand) Location: Sable Creek Person: Douglas Rath Employer: Harwell Forge and Stamping - The glove found on April 9, 1943 bore a faded black ink stamp: H.F. 7. - Marvin Sheridan was recorded as age 48, press operator of Press Number Four, and was allegedly cremated on site nine days before the hand was found. - Sheridan had worked at Harwell Forge for 11 years and ran a 600-ton hydraulic press. - Douglas Rath, age 44 and the plant union grievance representative, died 14 months before Sheridan with no body examined and had filed four complaints against supervisor Howard Pruitt in the nine months prior to his death. - The plant nurse Faye Aldrich filed the incident report stating Press Number Four had “cycled without warning.”

The Pristine Bottle: How a Fence Post Exposed a Murder Fear and curiosity meet in a dusty Kansas county: a brown apothecary bottle sealed with candle wax, found pristine inside a cedar fence post in a landscape otherwise caked with Dust Bowl grit. Who put a spotless, recently placed bottle beside the grave of a man buried eleven days earlier, and what did it reveal about his death? In this episode, we tell how a routine survey on March 14, 1934 interrupted an assumed natural death and set a chain of questions in motion. You will hear how evidence overlooked by others - a bottle, a barn shelf question, and a neighbor’s motives - forced one investigator to reconsider whether Curtis Slater’s death was really gastroenteritis or something far more deliberate. Person: Curtis Slater Date: March 3, 1934 (death); March 14, 1934 (bottle discovery) Location: East fence of Slater farm outside Hoxie Flats, Denning County, Kansas Cause of Death (certified): Acute gastroenteritis, per Dr. Horace Pell Suspected involved person: Bruce Kowalski - The bottle was found in a hollow at the base of the third cedar post from the county road on March 14, 1934. - Curtis Slater was buried eleven days before the bottle was discovered. - The bottle was brown apothecary glass, sealed with candle wax and free of Dust Bowl grit. - Curtis was thirty-two years old and his farm had been a 160-acre homestead proved up in 1908. - Neighbor Bruce Kowalski, aged forty-one, had filed a prospective purchase agreement for the east forty containing the only working hand-dug well in January 1934.

The Woman Buried Twice: How a Missing Dress Exposed a Murder Scheme A buried corpse in a sealed grave and the same woman found face-down in the Morrow River wearing the dress her daughter said was missing - a single mismatched-stitched repair on a cuff would pull open a seven-year, multi-state scheme. What happened in the six weeks between a signed death certificate and a body in the water? In this episode, we follow the sequence of reports, documents, and eyewitness testimony that tied a missing gabardine dress to insurance premiums paid from a shared business account, and we ask how a county physician’s visits, a beneficiary designation, and one unsigned form led an attorney general investigator to Seaver’s Bluff. Person: Lauren Larsen Date: January 28, 1893 (death certificate signed) Location: Seaver's Bluff, Morrow River / Calvary Hill cemetery Person: Dennis Nelson Event: Body found floating at 5:40 AM on February 14, 1893 Case: Life insurance policy issued August 1891, $4,000, beneficiary Dennis Nelson - The body was found face-down in the Morrow River at twenty minutes before six in the morning on February 14, 1893. - Lauren Larsen had been buried six weeks earlier at Calvary Hill with an undisturbed grave. - A dark wool gabardine dress with a repair at the left cuff in slightly mismatched thread linked the river body to Larsen’s daughter’s missing item. - A $4,000 life insurance policy was issued in Larsen’s name in August 1891 with Dennis Nelson listed as beneficiary. - Quarterly payments matching the policy premiums were recorded in the brokerage ledger as "contingency reserve" withdrawals starting August 1891 and drawn from the shared operating account.

The Traveling Case Nobody Could Have Placed at Meridian Grand Fear of a controlled impossibility: a leather traveling case with brass-capped corners and a G.P.H. monogram sits perfectly upright on a frosted ledge fourteen feet above a service alley, the window above latched from the inside - how did it get there, and what secret did it hold that linked Room 214 to a false name checked into Room 209? Listen to learn why the monogram, three handwritten letters dated ten days before a death, and a heavier-ink hotel ledger entry became the center of a mystery that refused easy explanation. In this episode, we follow the recorded actions and findings that unfolded at the Meridian Grand over ten days of methodical work by deputy county investigator Howard York, beginning with the morning Eugene Miller discovered the case and ending with the details York could and could not close; what did those three anomalies actually mean? Person: Gloria Prentiss Hayes Date: January 9, 1924 Location: Meridian Grand Hotel, Room 214 Investigator: Howard York, age 51 Finder: Eugene Miller, postal clerk, age 43 - The traveling case was found at 7:14 AM on January 9, 1924, sitting upright on a narrow stone ledge fourteen feet above a service alley. - The ledge frost around the case was unbroken and the window directly above was shut and latched from the inside with no scuff marks or handprints on the sill. - The case had brass-capped corners and a monogrammed clasp reading G.P.H.; inside were a hairbrush, a folded blouse, and three handwritten letters signed V.H. - Gloria Prentiss Hayes had registered in Room 214 on January 7, 1924, and was forty-six years old and a regional accounts supervisor for Prentiss Fabrics. - The hotel ledger showed a second check-in on the same afternoon above Gloria’s entry: V.R. Hansen, listed as a traveling hardware representative from Lincoln, written in a slightly heavier ink.

The Glove in the Rain: Theater Billing, Fraud-and Murder A dry cream kid glove found in a soaked alley held a billing card that placed "Lori Leigh" fifty-eight miles away on a night Lori Leigh could not have been - and inside the Monarch Theatre a woman was found strangled, costume still on, makeup case closed. Who used Lori Leigh's name to collect secret booking fees, and how did that fraud lead to murder? In this episode, we follow the discovery at the Monarch Theatre, the contradictions in Lori Leigh's bookings, and Detective Eric Andrews's methodical pursuit from a paper glove to hidden advances in Leigh's notebook. What does a mismatched billing card, a pattern of unauthorized payments, and three repeated initials in a private ledger reveal about motive? Person: Lori Leigh Stage name: Lori Leigh Date of death: between 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM on December 8, 1926 Location: Monarch Theatre dressing room Investigator: Detective Eric Andrews - The glove was cream kid leather, bone dry, found wedged at the base of the Monarch Theatre fire escape on December 9, 1926. - The billing card inside the glove was stamped Starland Pavilion, Dayton, November 22 - a date Lori Leigh could not have been in Dayton. - Lori Leigh was born in Mansfield, Ohio, in 1898 and by age 28 had a precise touring schedule across Ohio and Indiana. - Dr. Isaac Pruett determined the cause of death as manual strangulation with defensive abrasions on both forearms. - Lori Leigh's notebook listed "H.C." four times, each followed by a dollar amount and the word "advance."

The Hand in the Ice: How a Boardinghouse Murder Became Confession A human hand projected straight up through fourteen inches of ice on Coldwater Lake, fingers bare and an arm angled as if the body had been placed standing on its head. A barn latch showed bright fresh scoring, a grain bucket sat full and untouched, and one man would later confess - but Teresa Patterson's body would never be recovered; who put her in the lake, and why did the evidence travel across three counties only to melt away? In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from Teresa Patterson's disappearance on November 8 through the discovery on November 14, following the observations made at the lake and at the Brierton Boarding House, and asking how a thirty-one-year-old woman with only a notebook pieced together the clues that led to a confession. Person: Teresa Patterson Date: November 14, 1893 (body recovered) Location: Coldwater Lake Age: 54 Investigator: Linda Hansen, 31 - The body was suspended vertically, head down, roughly four feet beneath the surface in ice fourteen inches thick. - Teresa had been missing for six days before her body was found in the ice. - Dr. Miles Pruett noted a single fracture at the back of the skull indicating she was dead before entering the water. - The stable grain bucket was found full and undisturbed when James Aldrich checked at 6:30 AM on November 9. - The stable door latch showed fresh scoring consistent with a tool inserted from the outside when Linda Hansen examined it on November 15.

The Enrolment Card in the Telephone Box: Murder's Impossible Trace Fear clicks into focus when a child's eight-year-old enrolment card is found sealed inside a telephone junction box eight feet up a creosote pole while the girl's twenty-one-year-old body lies six miles away with a broken neck. How did an undisturbed, lead-crimped bell hide a paper link to Harwick Mission School that should not have been there - and who wanted that connection hidden? In this episode, we follow the discovery and the first threads of a case that joined a county lineman, a deputy sheriff, and an archivist over a single impossible object. Listen as the card, a ledger entry in a different hand and ink, and a delivery worker's secret past raise the question that drove the investigation: who placed the card, and why? Person: Gina Petersen Age: 21 at time of death Date found: October 20, 1917 (body); enrollment card found October 23, 1917 Enrollment date: September 4, 1906 Suspect: Leon O'Connor - The enrollment card inside the sealed glass bell read "PETERSEN, GINA - AGE EIGHT - ENROLLED SEPTEMBER FOURTH, 1906." - Gina Petersen was found dead at the bottom of an arroyo six miles north of Cimarron Junction with a broken neck. - The junction box's lead crimp showed no fresh tool marks when the dry card was retrieved eight feet up a creosote pole. - The school ledger page thirty-one contained Gina's entry in a different hand and warmer brown-black iron gall ink than surrounding 1906 entries. - Leon O'Connor made seven deliveries to Tanner Dry Goods between April and October 1917 and had worked at Harwick Mission School from 1910-1912, keeping a bottle of the school's brown-black iron gall ink.