Criminal

This episode picks up where Episode 100 left off. We suggest you listen to them in order. When Martin McNally met another plane hijacker in prison, they started coming up with a plan to escape...using the very thing that got them there in the first place. For a transcript of this episode, send an email to transcripts@thisiscriminal.com with the episode name and number. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Criminal is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Please review us on Apple Podcasts! It’s an important way to help new listeners discover the show: iTunes.com/CriminalShow. We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.

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Thanks for helping us celebrate 100 episodes!

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On the afternoon of June 23rd, 1972, Martin McNally walked into the St. Louis airport with a wig, a sawed-off rifle, and a plan.

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There is nothing Richard "Racehorse" Haynes of Houston, Texas wouldn't do to win a case. He’s widely considered to be one of the most exceptional criminal defense attorneys America has ever seen. He was notorious for pulling stunts in the courtroom. We speak with his son, Slade Haynes, and attorneys Charla Aldous and Chris Tritico about how Racehorse Haynes changed how they approach a jury.

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Three of America's most experienced trauma surgeons speak with us about what happens when someone is shot.

Special thanks to Dr. Amy Goldberg, Dr. David Spain, and Dr. Ronald Stewart.

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When Benjamin Ferencz was 27 years old, he prosecuted his very first trial. There were 22 defendants, each of them high-ranking members of Nazi Germany's death squad. The entire world was watching. Today, we take a look at the Nuremberg trials and their role in defining international law after World War II.

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When Tyler Wetherall was a kid, her mother and father packed up the family car and drove through the night. They were on the run from the FBI. And by the time she was 9, Tyler had learned how to communicate in codes, adapt to new countries, and to never reveal who or where her father was. Tyler Wetherall wrote about her time on the run in her book, No Way Home.

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Not long into his job as prison superintendent, Frank Thompson was asked to write the manual on lethal injection for the state of Oregon. Capital punishment had not been implemented in more than 30 years, and no one knew how to do it. Frank had to travel around the country learning how other states do it, and he asked his staff to practice. They simulated every step, including seating witnesses in the gallery, interacting with the press, and strapping each other to the gurney.

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Mark Roberts has attended almost every major sporting event in the world. And he's been escorted off the field almost every time.

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Helen James grew up in a military family — her great-great-grandfather fought in the Civil War, her father in WWI, and her uncles in WWII. So when she enlisted in 1952, she felt like she belonged. Shortly after, she realized she was being watched.

Today we talk to one of the members of the U.S. Air Force impacted by a campaign to remove LGBTQI+ employees of the U.S. government in the 1950s.

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This episode picks up where Episode 91 left off. We suggest you listen to them in order. The early 20th century's biggest murder trial, and a particular brand of "madness." Visit thisiscriminal.com to see rare photographs from Harry Thaw's trial. Cameras were not allowed in the courtroom, but Boston Globe photographer E.E. Bond snuck in a special camera, hidden in his vest and operated with a watch chain. Thanks to our friends at the Boston Public Library for allowing us to share them. For more information, check out Paula Uruburu’s book, American Eve.

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The story behind the face of New York's Gilded Age. For more information, check out Paula Uruburu's book, American Eve.

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The U.S. Navy attempted to develop a shark attack repellant after many sailors were attacked during WWII. The first step was the formation of a "Shark Research Panel," which led to what we have today: the International Shark Attack File. When someone is attacked by a shark, anywhere in the world, the investigation closely resembles police work. "We're not reinventing the wheel. There's been no shortage of trial and error that went into police investigations and what we do follows," says George Burgess, the world's foremost shark attack investigator.

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SPOILER WARNING: Please listen to our first episode about Sheila, Episode 88: Cold Case, before you listen to this one. 

This episode contains descriptions of violence and may not be suitable for everyone.

Sheila Wysocki became a private investigator to try to help solve the murder of her college roommate, Angela Samota. She wasn't planning on taking any other cases, but then the letters started coming. This week, we shadow Sheila and her colleagues as she investigates the unsolved murder of Lauren Agee. Phoebe has made a list of some of her favorite podcast episodes right now. Check it out here.

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In 1984, Sheila Wysocki found herself helping the police investigate the murder of her college roommate, Angela Samota. Detectives asked her to help gather information, and even sent her out to dinner with the main suspect, a man named Russell Buchanan. But the case remained unsolved. 20 years later, Sheila Wysocki decided to investigate it herself. This episode contains descriptions of sexual assault and may not be suitable for everyone. Visit Sheila Wysocki's website at http://sheilawysocki.com/

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David Dovala has lived in Casper, Wyoming since he was 19. He’s worked all kinds of cases, first as a detective and later as sheriff, but a 1973 murder stays with him. This episode contains descriptions of sexual assault and may not be suitable for everyone. For more information, check out Ron Franscell's book, The Darkest Night.

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Before he was 10 years old, Willie Bosket had skipped school, started fires, picked pockets, and stolen a car. A psychiatrist at Bellevue called him the "saddest little boy she’d ever seen.” By the time he was 16 years old, he was known all over New York City as the “Baby-Faced Butcher." His crimes led to the passing of the Juvenile Offender Act of 1978 and changed how juvenile offenders are punished all over the country. 

This episode was reported in collaboration with a new podcast from WNYC about the juvenile justice system: Caught.

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In 1993, Mildred and Trevor Horn, along with their live-in nurse Janice, were found murdered in their Montgomery County home. A Maryland police spokesperson described the homicide investigation as the most "exhaustive and labor intensive" in the department's history. And then homicide investigators found a strange manual titled Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors published by Paladin Press, and the case became national news.

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In 1971, David Alexander went for a run in Central Park and started talking to a stranger. For our first episode of This Is Love, a story about what's possible when we bet everything on each other. We speak with David, Jody, and Julienne Alexander.

Listen to other episodes of This is Love at https://thisislovepodcast.com/.

If you haven't already, please follow the show and review us on iTunes! https://apple.co/2BmMZr5

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In the 1950s poodles were all the rage — one tabloid even reported that when a girl “makes the big time she traditionally acquires 3 things — minks, gems, and a poodle.” But one poodle in particular put the breed on the map. His name was Masterpiece...and police in 13 states knew exactly what he looked like.

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Some spiders eat their young, and some eat their parents … love is never simple. From the makers of the award-winning podcast Criminal, This is Love investigates life’s most persistent mystery. Stories of sacrifice, obsession, and the ways in which we bet everything on one another.

Listen to other episodes of This is Love at https://thisislovepodcast.com/.

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There is a group in Durham, NC called "Parents of Murdered Children." This week, we meet three of its members.

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In 1892, a gruesome murder took place in a small fishing village in Argentina. The police had a suspect who would not confess. What happened next would change the way murders were investigated around the world.

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As a child, Lawrence Lessig was a gifted singer. His church choir director encouraged him to attend a choir camp at a prestigious boarding school in New Jersey. He was so talented that the school invited him to stay and join their official choir. He sang at Carnegie Hall and toured the world. But it was what happened behind the scenes that would change his life forever.

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Three mysteries we can’t stop thinking about. The first is about an impossible photo taken at a bed & breakfast in Etna, California. 

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In 1988, a man in Hickory, North Carolina named Willie Grimes was sentenced to life in prison for raping and kidnapping a 69-year-old woman named Carrie Lee Elliot. He was convicted with evidence experts would later call “junk science.” It took him 24 years to convince someone to look at the evidence again. Special thanks to Chris Mumma of the North Carolina Actual Innocence Center.

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Helen Duncan was a famous medium who travelled around Britain in the 1940s performing séances. She claimed to speak to the dead, and even produce physical manifestations of their spirits. But when Helen Duncan seemed to know wartime secrets about the whereabouts of military ships, like the sunken HMS Barham, she caught the attention of MI5 and notable psychic investigator Harry Price.

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In 1993, Gerald Boggs of Steamboat Springs, Colorado was found dead in his home. He'd been burned with a stun gun, hit with a shovel, and shot several times. The victim's wife, Jill Coit, was the primary suspect, but she had an alibi for the estimated time of death: she was camping with her boyfriend Michael Backus. Investigators were at a loss, and turned to two very unlikely people for help. Today, we know Jill Coit as the Black Widow. 

Forensic Plant Science, by Jane H Bock and David Norris

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In 1962, brothers John and Clarence Anglin, along with fellow incarcerated person Frank Morris, managed to escape the one prison in America that was supposed to be inescapable: Alcatraz. Alcatraz is surrounded by icy waters, so the men would’ve needed a raft in order to escape the island. When no evidence of the raft or the three men was found, the FBI concluded that the men had drowned and closed their case. But more than 50 years later, their 82-year-old sister, Marie Anglin Widner, and U.S. Marshal Michael Dyke believe that the brothers’ escape was actually a success.

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The Tennessee Walking Horse has a natural gait that's famously smooth. And, if trained in a certain way, it can perform a walk that's even more spectacular, called the Big Lick. But, there's a secret behind how, exactly, these horses are trained to do the crowd-pleasing step they're celebrated for; it’s called “soring” and it’s been outlawed since the 1970’s. Still, some horse trainers still use the practice today in order to compete in the Big Lick. 

When Marty Irby, president of the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders’ and Exhibitors’ Association, spoke out against soring, he lost everything: business partners, his father, even his wife. 

Thanks to Mary Helen Montgomery for the story.

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"I keep saying 'where's the body? Kill someone,'" Marilyn Stasio told us. She reads at least 200 crime novels a year to determine which are worthy of her prestigious "Crime Column" in the New York Times Book Review. We talk with her about crime as entertainment - and why people are so addicted to the genre that she can't stay away from: "My fingers just itch when I see something that's says 'murder.'"

You can find more of Marilyn Stasio's thoughts on crime fiction in her column.

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In 1993, more than 1,000 levees broke along the Mississippi River, flooding thousands of acres. Most of these cases were accidents due to the river rising well above its usual levels. But in West Quincy, Missouri, there was another culprit, James Scott. His crime? Knowingly causing a catastrophe by breaking the levee. But his motive was not what prosecutors expected. 

Thanks to Noam Osmand for the story.  

For more information, check out Adam Pitluk's book, Damned to Eternity.

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At the turn of the century, Carry Nation was “America’s foremost lady hellraiser” and "the apostle of reform violence.” A radical member of the temperance movement, Carrie Nation was known for attacking saloons, bars, and pubs with a hatchet engraved with name. In her own words, she was "a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus, barking at what He doesn't like." 

We liked her hatchet pins so much, we thought we’d try to make some of our own. They say “CRIMINAL” on the handle. Get yours here.

Thanks to everyone at the Kansas State Historical Society, and to Maya Goldberg-Safir.

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As long as 2,500 years ago, Native Americans placed the bones of their dead in giant mounds of earth in the shape of animals. The Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa was created to protect one set of these - and the bones inside. But in 2011, a new superintendent, Jim Nepstad, discovered that the remains of 41 Native Americans had disappeared. 

In this episode, we use the term "Native American" because the story refers to legislation that uses that term. The National Park Service now uses “American Indian.” 

This episode contains language that may not be suitable for everyone.

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Amber Dawn was 20 when she moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Enumclaw, Washington. On her very first night, she began to notice strange sounds. And they didn't stop.

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In 1967, a very unlikely group of individuals gathered to help women quietly break the law and obtain an abortion. The first step was to call a phone number. A recording of a woman's voice would tell you what to do next. 

Who was behind this number? The Clergy Consultation Service, an underground network of ministers and rabbis who wanted to help women access safe abortions. Today, they call themselves the Religious Consultation for Reproductive Choice.

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Shortly after David Brown was sworn in as the Dallas Chief of Police, his son shot and killed a police officer. Just before he retired as chief, 5 Dallas officers were shot and killed in what was said to be the deadliest attack for police officers since September 11th, 2001. Today on the show, we ask David Brown how he’s changed after 33 years of policing.

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The “body farm” at Texas State University is a place almost no one is allowed to see, because it’s one of very few places in the world that deliberately puts out human bodies to decompose in nature. Forensic Anthropologists observe decomposition in order to help police officers discern when and how someone may have died. We asked if we could visit, and they agreed.

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On a Sunday morning in 1982, in Des Moines, Iowa, Johnny Gosch left his house to begin his usual paper route. A short time later, his parents were awakened by a phone call – it was a neighbor — their paper hadn't come. His would be the first face of a missing child ever printed on a milk carton. This story comes to us from reporter Annie Brown and our friends at 99% Invisible. We're on the road reporting new stories this week, and will be back on June 2nd with a brand new Criminal episode.

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Skidmore, Missouri is a very small town. In the '70s, there was only one bar, one grocery store, and one bully. Ken McElroy was so ruthless and intimidating that even police officers looked the other way. He terrorized the town for decades, until they finally fought back.

We spoke with Harry MacLean, author of In Broad Daylight.

Special thanks to Chelsea Korynta.

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In 1928, Huey P. Long became the youngest Governor in Louisiana’s history. He bragged that he bought lawmakers like “sacks of potatoes, shuffled ‘em like a deck of cards.” By the time he was 39 years old, he’d made his way to the U.S. Senate. And just a couple of weeks after his 42nd birthday, he was assassinated in the Capitol Building in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Allegedly, a doctor named Carl Weiss shot him. Almost immediately, Carl Weiss was shot by Huey P. Long’s bodyguards. Soon after, Huey P. Long was buried 16 feet deep on the front lawn of the state Capitol, with no autopsy.

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The Colorado Department of Transportation says the 420 mile markers on the state's highways were stolen so often, they had to replace them with 419.99 mile markers. Many people know that "420" represents marijuana - hence the popularity of the mile markers - but very few know why. It's not a police code, it's not the number of chemical compounds in cannabis, and it's certainly not Bob Marley's birthday. Today on the show, we try to find the real story and in the process meet Steve Capper and Dave Reddix who, as high schoolers, followed a treasure map in search of the illicit crop. 

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Kim Dadou says she wishes she had a nickel for every person who has asked why she didn't leave her abusive boyfriend Darnell Sanders. The two dated for four years and Darnell Sanders was routinely violent. But in the middle of the night on December 17th, 1991, Kim Dadou’s entire life changed.

This episode contains descriptions of physical violence against women. It may not be suitable for everyone. Please use discretion.

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In 2014, 16-year-old Wildin Acosta left Olancho, Honduras and traveled toward the U.S. border. When he arrived, he turned himself in to border patrol agents. He was one of 68,541 unaccompanied minors who crossed the border into the U.S. that year. We spoke to Wildin Acosta shortly after Donald Trump’s inauguration, and after he had spent months in a detention center. 

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People have faked death to escape criminal convictions, debts, and their spouses. In 2007, a man named Amir Vehabovic faked his death just to see who showed up at the funeral (answer: only his mom). John Darwin faked his own death in a canoeing accident in the UK. And the ex-boyfriend of Olivia Newton John, Patrick Mcdermott, is rumored to have faked his death. 

It's an appealing soap-opera fantasy, but actually disappearing requires an incredible amount of planning. How do you obtain a death certificate, a believable new identity, or enough money to start a new life? Today -- the answers to those questions, stories of fake death gone wrong, and a man who spends his life bringing back the dead.

Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud, by Elizabeth Greenwood

Steven Rambam's Investigative Agency, Pallorium, Inc.

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In 2005, Teri Knight drove 650 miles on midwestern roads through Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and Illinois, pleading with the public to help her do what law enforcement and the FBI had not been able to: find the remains of her children Sarah and Philip Gehring. An Ohio woman named Stephanie Dietrich read about Teri Knight's search in her local paper, and decided she would try to help.

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In 1849, abolitionist and attorney Wendell Phillips wrote: "We should look in vain through the most trying times of our revolutionary history for an incident of courage and noble daring to equal that of the escape of William and Ellen Craft; and future historians and poets would tell this story as one of the most thrilling in the nation's annals, and millions would read it, with admiration of the hero and heroine of the story." Unfortunately, almost 170 years later, William and Ellen Craft aren't well known anymore. Today, we have the story of this couple's incredible escape from slavery, the abolitionist pastor Theodore Parker who married the Crafts, and their founding of the Woodville Co-operative Farm School.

Read the Craft's book: Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/585

Barbara McCaskill wrote about William and Ellen Craft in Love, Liberation, and Escaping SlaveryWilliam and Ellen Craft in Cultural Memory

http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/loveliberationescaping_slavery

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In 2010, Michael McIntosh's son was incarcerated at the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in the small town of Walnut Grove, Mississippi. One Sunday, Michael McIntosh went to visit his son and was turned away because, he was told, prison officials "did not know" where his son was. He spent the next six weeks searching for his son, only to find him in the hospital with severe injuries. And Michael McIntosh's son wasn't the only one who had been hurt at the facility. 

Jody Owens of the Southern Poverty Law center launched an investigation and found that Walnut Grove was such a violent prison that one Federal Judge called it "a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts." Today, we have the story of an especially troubled youth prison, the for-profit corporation, Cornell Companies, that managed it, and the small town that relied on it.

The U.S. Department of Justice Investigation of the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility

The Southern Poverty Law Center Lawsuit

The U.S. Department of Justice Memo Re: Reducing the Use of Private Prisons

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To close out 2016, we're bringing you two lighter stories of people exhibiting everyday genius under. . . unusual circumstances. Comedian Dave Holmes' story begins with an upsetting phone call from the IRS. Then we meet a Baton Rouge attorney with a story of wild resourcefulness at Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola.

A word of caution, this episode contains language that may not be suitable for everyone.

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Since 1938, a weekly African-American owned newspaper called The Evening Whirl has covered crime in St. Louis with a style all its own, using alliteration and rhyme, and often omitting the usual crime-reporting words like "accused" or "alleged." The paper has been widely criticized for its casual approach to fact-checking and sensational writing style. But the paper's owner, Anthony Sanders, who has been helping out with it since he was 18 years old, doesn't have any plans to change it. As the pages of The Whirl have said: “If that’s too much for you, pick up the Times and read the theatre reviews.” 

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