Bertha Boronda: the Mistress of Mayhem - A Fun-Sized Felony

Ellsworth Kelley and the Jones-Murray Gang - Part 2

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2459451/fan_mail/new] By 1925, the Jones Brothers Gang had changed. Dewey Jones was no longer part of the outlaw life, Milam Jones had vanished, and Oregon Jones was back in the Oregon State Penitentiary ready to cause more trouble. After the deadly prison break that would make headlines across the Pacific Northwest, newspapers began calling the group the Jones-Murray Gang—a nod to the growing influence of escape artist Tom Murray, who had become the mastermind behind their latest plan. In Part Two, Ellsworth Kelley, Tom Murray, James Willos, and Oregon Jones put their most ambitious escape attempt into motion at the Oregon State Penitentiary. Within minutes, two guards were dead, another was gravely wounded, and one of the escapees lay dying beneath the prison wall. This episode follows the deadly prison break, the desperate manhunt that stretched across Oregon and Washington, the capture of the fugitives, and the courtroom battles that would ultimately send two men to the gallows. Along the way, a more complicated story emerges—one involving brutal prison conditions, conflicting testimony, loyalty, desperation, and young men willing to risk everything for a chance at freedom.

Ellsworth Kelley and the Jones Brothers Gang - Part 1

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2459451/fan_mail/new] Ellsworth Kelley became tangled up with the notorious Jones Brothers Gang — a crew of young outlaws, including the elusive Oregon Jones and 20-year-old escape artist Tom Murray, whose lives became a cycle of burglaries, highway robberies, prison escapes, freight-train rides, manhunts, and violence across the Pacific Northwest during the 1910s and 1920s. This story follows hidden loot, prison tunnels, the infamous Oregon Boot, repeated escape attempts from the Oregon State Penitentiary, and a gang of young men who seemed incapable of staying behind bars. But beneath the sensational headlines and outlaw mythology lies something far more tragic: boys who grew into fugitives, prisoners, and condemned men while spending years trying to outrun prison walls.

The Curious Disappearance of Frank E. Clark - A Fun-Sized Felony

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2459451/fan_mail/new] In the fall of 1910, husband and father Frank E. Clark vanished from Oakland, California without a trace. His wife was left stranded in a city where she knew no one. Newspapers across California carried the story of the missing husband, while neighbors and the Catholic Ladies’ Aid society stepped in to help feed Mrs. Clark and their 5-year-old son. Had Frank abandoned his family? Met with foul play? Started a new life somewhere else? The answer, when it finally came, was far stranger—and far more ordinary—than anyone expected. This is the forgotten story of Frank E. Clark.

Alfred Knapp: Five Murders and a Confession

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2459451/fan_mail/new] A woman’s body floats more than 150 miles downriver before finally being recovered near New Albany, Indiana. By the time she is identified as Hannah Goddard Knapp, her husband—Alfred Knapp—has already confessed to murdering her. But Hannah wasn't the first—Not by a long shot. In 1903, Alfred Knapp shocked the country with confessions involving multiple women and children across Ohio and Indiana. Newspapers called him insane. Doctors blamed brain injuries, “brain fever,” and hereditary degeneration. His family insisted he could not control himself. Others believed he was simply evil. This episode follows the life, crimes, confessions, and execution of one of the most infamous killers of the early 1900s—the very man who later fascinated child murderer Jesse McClure. Vintage ads for: * Dr. Charles Flesh Food, (1903) * and Tonsiline. (1903)

Bertha Boronda: the Mistress of Mayhem - A Fun-Sized Felony

Send a message to Monica and Olivia! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2459451/fan_mail/new] Bertha “Bessie” Boronda attacked her husband, Narciso "Frank" Boronda, in the middle of the night in their San Jose home in 1907. The newspapers called it a violent, deliberate mutilation. The court charged her with mayhem—a crime defined by the destruction of part of the human body. But no one ever said exactly what she did. Over time, the story became more specific, more certain... and more sensational. But, when you go back to the coverage of the case in 1907… that version of the story isn’t quite there.