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In 1948 in Mississippi, socialite Ruth Dickins is convicted of savagely attacking her mother with gardening shears (150 stab wounds!) but makes an unfounded claim that a Black intruder is to blame. Despite inconsistencies in her story, she's sentenced to life, only to be released after 6 years. Joining us to dissect this case of matricide, race, and privilege is author Beverly Lowry, who explores the crime in her book, Deer Creek Drive: A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta. Unpacking the murky details, we'll delve into the role of white privilege, media portrayals of women, and lingering questions that still haunt the South and our justice system.
Be sure to purchase your copy of the book here.
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Ever wondered how a simple leaf or a speck of pollen can crack a case? Dr. David Gibson, a forensic botanist, professor, and author of Planting Clues: How Plants Solve Crimes teaches us to how to combat 'plant blindness:' the idea that plants are all just the same thing.
Dr. David Gibson reveals:
The secret language of plants: How seemingly unremarkable botanical evidence can link suspects to crime scenes, pinpoint the location of a crime, and even identify victims.
Real-life detective work: How in the infamous Ted Bundy case plant evidence played a crucial role in bringing him to justice, as well as court cases involving expert testimony like renowned botanist, Dr. Jane Bock, who offered her expertise on the 'leaf litter' from the body dumping site.
Beyond the naked eye: How the microscopic world of plant forensics, where pollen, fungal spores, and diatoms hold hidden clues invisible to the untrained eye.
The science behind the sleuthing: How plant DNA analysis is revolutionizing the field, with applications ranging from identifying illegal plant trafficking to aiding farmers and conservation efforts.
Plants as silent witnesses: We delve into the dark side of botany, exploring the history of plant poisons used in crimes and the challenges of detecting them in toxicology reports.
Be sure to follow David Gibson on his website and Instagram.
You can purchase Planting Clues here.
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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Ramona Emerson, joins us to discuss Shutter which was longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction, whose central character, Rita, works as a crime scene photographer with the unique ability to communicate with the dead, which poses some challenges as a Navajo person. Inspired by Ramona's own experience working with the police department in Albuquerque, New Mexico for 16 years, we learn about the challenges in working crime scenes as a forensic photographer and the imperative to capture and catalogue all of the details for the families. Naturally in talking about death, we discuss what it means be haunted, literally and figuratively, what it means to grieve, and ultimately what determines justice for those who have lost.
Be sure to follow Ramona, author and filmmaker, on her website
And be sure to purchase your copy of Shutter at any major bookseller
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Our minisodes are a break from true crime and for this one gather around the campfire! We are joined by special guest and Michelle's dad, John Bedford Jeanis, to discuss the secret but yes, well-documented, family legend of their ancestor, Jean Jeanis, who is believed by the folks of Pointe Noire to shift into a 'mangy dog' at will otherwise known as the Chien de Lune or the Rougarou. Naturally, we also touched upon the feu follet, haunted cemeteries, the lost art of the boucherie, pirates, finding foots in odd places, and John's experience at the ill-fated Louisiana Woodstock of 71' in McCrea, Louisiana. Also in the midst is Michelle's origin story to becoming our country's lead expert in missing persons' cases, which may or may not have started with young Michelle hiding from her family in clothing racks at the mall...
It's a rare privilege and point of pride to speak with our families and to inherit their stories of working from sunup to sundown or their memories of freshly baked cornbread on hot summer days and of course there's always a werewolf story or two if you're lucky.
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Dr. Lauren Pharr Parks, a forensic anthropologist, joins us to discuss how studying vultures' scavenging habits can affect crime scenes and solve cases.
Be sure to watch her TED Talk !
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Mark Michaud, a retired Slidell police officer, is a search and recovery expert and is the founder of Southeast Louisiana Underwater Search and Recovery, a nonprofit that offers something invaluable to the families of the missing. He shares with us some stories of recovery diving from his earlier years as well as the new advancements made to sonar. We learn some of the complexities of water recovery and how depth, current, temperature, and time of year are all a factor. We also learned a new word, saponification or as we prefer : "soapify."
*Mark frequently teaches classes to Fire and Law Enforcement in body recovery techniques and sonar training. His company is a nonprofit, so please make a donation to the company's PayPal in the link here. ( If you use FRIENDS AND FAMILY no fees are taken out by PayPal.)
Be sure to follow on Facebook
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Thanks to forensic genetic genealogy and a pizza crust, in July of 2023 a perpetrator was arrested in connection with the case of the Long Island Serial Killings known as (LISK). Described as 'Ogre -like' in witness reports at 6'4 , 59-year-old Manhattan architect and Massapequa Park resident, Rex Heuermann, has been linked to the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello of "The Giglo Four" and is a prime suspect in the murder of the fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes. In total, 11 remains of sex workers who were targeted on Craigslist were discovered on the South shore of Long Island from 1996-2011, some of who remain unidentified. It is believed he could be linked to more deaths in Las Vegas and South Carolina where he had properties.
Michelle with her background in criminology helps to recenter the larger conversation back onto the victims and the necessity of our culture to destigmatize sex work, as well as open the larger conversation as to why old typologies didn't work in this case. In other words, why what we largely know about serial offenders in their M.O. and signature is evolving and why forensic genetic genealogy is going to catch the 'less detectable' serial offenders and how that is going to inform how they are apprehended.
Books Mentioned
Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker Camgirl by Isa MazzeiTV Mentioned
Lost Girls -
Our minisodes are a break from true crime where we discuss Michelle's internet search history, which is teeming with all things weird and wonderful. We are joined by special guest Paige to explore the topic of voyeurism in connection with The Voyeur's Motel, a nonfiction book written by the journalistic icon, Gay Talese, which was only just released in 2016 but was decades in the making. Naturally, our gang on the pod is highly skeptical of this wannabe 'Kinsey-like' sexologist and has some thoughts... Tune in to find out why!
The actual book is compilation of Talese’s reportage of a Colorado man by name of Gerald Foos, a father of two, who with the help of his wife Donna a nurse, created a motel in the late 1960s engineered to spy on his guests and to satisfy his voyeuristic tendencies. The book is also largely written from Gerald Foos personal manuscripts, which he referred to as “The Voyeur’s Journal”, which Talese described as handwritten entries on yellow legal pad notepaper with ‘near perfect penmanship’ whereby Foos catalogued and studied his guests noting his approximation of their heights, weights, education, and backgrounds and above all their sex lives and sexual proclivities all in the name of what he Foos noted as the good for 'sexual research.' But whilesetting out to learn more about sex styles, positions, pillow talk, and forms of foreplay, he learned that the people and couples are largely unhappy and that their private lives rarely match who they pretend to be in public.
Books Referenced
The Voyeur's Motel
The Monster of Florence: A True Story
Documentaries/ShowsVoyeur
The Watcher
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Nancy from Damsel in Defense joins us to discuss how we can all use products for empowerment and self-defense! We learned why parking lots and grocery stores are potential hot zones for attacks and how to make tools like the kubotan, pepper spray, and stun guns functional for everyday use and even some more equipment that was not on our radar!
Be sure when you make a purchase from Damsel in Defense, use the link below from now until 1/13/24 and 10% of the proceeds will be donated locally to the nonprofit Southeast Louisiana Underwater Search and Recovery.
https://l.instagram.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mydamselpro.net%2FPRONANCY%2FSharedEvent.aspx%3FeventId%3DE226227%26from%3DDIRECTLINK%26sendToShop%3Dy&e=AT3HOvY-r7Mzmri3IrQg4juwUZkbhUzib0eZIRPltr52QxbSQhECwMXqcw_5zggWKZVfj9fRfsWJbTLxsw_wttjJzysTahYqAzPQZ4q1aaMaW3cDO4YlDvDoZ7VVRfG1ZYyTiO0v_iWAkvkffgNDX9g
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Rebecca Hudsmith , a Louisiana Federal Public Defender, shares a trying moment of having a client on death row, as well as a monumental moment of arguing a case in the Supreme Court, all in pursuit of upholding a system of justice that works for us all.
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Toby Savoy is a Death Investigator who works for the Coroner's Office in south Louisiana. With over 18 years of experience, Toby is a veteran in the field. He explains to us which seasons are more active for motorcycle accidents versus suicides, how he determines time of death, why your cat is more likely to eat you than your dog, what Cajuns keep in their fridge, and why he always carries a cooler in his truck...just in case duty calls. Toby's work is largely aimed at educating the public on preventative deaths. The recent uptick in gunshot and fentanyl deaths in our community is sobering and re-education for the public is greatly needed.
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Lon Isaacson, retired California attorney and host's Scarlett's godfather, discusses some pivotal moments in his career. Beginning with his early contributions to California's child abuse reporting laws. As a then UCLA law student, Lon was hired by a law firm that was tasked with trying to find who should be held financially responsible for the injuries inflicted upon one high profile battered child, referred to by the LA Times as 'Baby Robison.' The term battered child syndrome in the early seventies was still a relatively new term, but Lon was able to find loopholes in the legal framework so that there would be financial penalties for doctors who fail to report when they spot child abuse. The success of the Baby Robison case would have ripple effects going all the way to the Supreme Court where Lon's lead article for the July 1975 addition of the San Diego Law Review was not only cited but pivotal in changing California's laws on reporting child abuse.
Although he specializes in tax law, Lon would find himself later again in his career fighting on behalf of the abused when he was able to secure 12.75 million dollars in settlement fees from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles on behalf of his clients who were sexually abused by the infamous Cardinal Mahony.
*Articles Referenced:
"Child Abuse Reporting Statutes: The Case for Holding Physicians Civilly Liable for Failing to Report" (San Diego Law Review/ July 1975)" by Lon Isaacson
*Documentaries Mentioned
Multiple Award recipient and Academy Award-winning documentary-Summer of Soul (2021)
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In 1984 at age 11, Jody Plauché was abducted from his home in Baton Rouge by his karate teacher, Jeff Doucet, and was taken to California. Jody's case then made headlines when his father, Gary Plauché, shot Jeff on live TV as he was being escorted off a plane to face criminal charges relating to child molestation. Jody went on to pursue a life of activism against sexual assault. Most recently, he has written a book Why, Gary, Why?: The Jody Plauché Story, which instructs parents on how to better protect their children and themselves from the hallmarks of grooming behavior. The title of his book is a reference to what law enforcement said to Gary (Jody's father) on camera after the shooting of Jeff (Jody's abuser).
We are inspired by Jody's sense of humor and positivity in turning a painful story into a tool to help others navigate.
You can contact/follow Jody here:
And be sure to purchase his book Why, Gary, Why?: The Jody Plauché Story here.
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Back in September 2022, A Louisiana woman working as a confidential informant was sent undercover into a drug sting and was raped twice, as a result of being left 'alone and unmonitored.'
Reporting on the story is Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter with the Associated Press, Jim Mustian, here to discuss the subject of confidential informants (CIs) and the opportunity for better safeguards. You can read the full story here.
Jim also shares with us his latest project, a podcast Smoke Screen: Betrayal on the Bayou which tells the story of a corrupt DEA agent in New Orleans who some call the "White Devil." Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts!
Books mentioned on this episode:
Snitching: Criminal Informants and the Erosion of American Justice by Alexandra Natapoff
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Jordan LaHaye Fontenot (Managing Editor of Country Roads Magazine) joins the pod to discuss her forthcoming true crime book, HOME OF THE HAPPY: A MURDER ON THE CAJUN PRAIRIE, which details the crime that still haunts her family, the 1983 abduction, ransom, and murder of her great-grandfather, Aubrey LaHaye, a prominent banker in Mamou Louisiana.
Jordan's book HOME OF THE HAPPY: A MURDER ON THE CAJUN PRAIRIE will be published with Mariner Books (winter/2025). Be sure to subscribe to her newsletter here and stay up-to-date.
You can also follow Jordan on IG @jordanilahaye
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Beam me up, Scotty! Joining us is special guest Reggie Buck, a south Louisiana-based representative from The Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU) who collects and debunks evidence and experiences from the community and beyond regarding UAP or "unidentified aerial phenomenon." Similar to the stories we hear on the show from those whose lives are impacted by crime, we are reminded of the empowerment that comes with speaking out about any kind of experience, despite the stigmas. Not to mention, the importance of looking less at our phones and more toward to the sky. We asked Reggie what strange lights lurk in the bayou. Tune in to find out!
You can learn more about The Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU) here.
And you can follow/ contact Reggie on his Instagram @buck.reggie or email him at [email protected].
***Documentaries mentioned on the show:
The Phenomenon I Know What I Saw UFOs: The Secret History -
Hi there! Back for Season Two, Michelle and Scarlett continue to offer listeners a curation of interviews from experts, criminologists, and truth-seekers who begin the dialogue: what is the 'real true crime' experience? Check out the highlights from our Season Two in the trailer.
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Why is no one talking about the red 'heads'!?! Our Google alerts are set with a potential serial killer at large. His victims were women with reddish hair whose severed heads were discarded in trash bags and were discovered in both southwest Louisiana and Texas in March of 2018 by cleanup crews. Police believe that the two cases could be connected. Neither women's remains were ever uncovered. Dr. Michelle Jeanis weighs in with her expertise on serial offenders, while we posit who were these women and why did this offender assume their deaths would go unnoticed.
The case received an update in 2019 when the first woman whose head was found on March 1, 2018 in Calcasieu Lake, Louisiana, was identified from her sketch by an ordinary citizen. A reconstruction has been done by FACES in Baton Rouge. The woman was later positively ID'd as missing San Antonio woman Sally Ann Hines and no one knows how she ended up in Cameron Parish.
The second woman was discovered 150 miles away near Lake Houston on March 24, 2018 and she remains unidentified and is noted to be either white or Hispanic with good teeth and tattooed eyebrows and lashes. However, witnesses saw a suspicious person throwing garbage bags off the side of the bridge. Police are looking for a man in his twenties who drives a blue-green Chevrolet Silverado extended cab pickup truck and is described as having lots of rust and looking as if it had been wrecked several times with a cardboard window on the back left passenger side.
For information regarding the murder of Sally Ann Hines contact: Cameron Parish Sheriff's Office at 337-775-5111
For information regarding the unidentified woman contact: Houston police at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers
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Natalie Murry is a fellow Ginger gal and a Texas-based forensic artist with a background in law enforcement . Natalie's skills in composites, skull reconstructions, age progressions and post-mortems have been instrumental in creating matches and ID's for cold cases. One of her more well-known ID's was that of Jane Doe known for many years to the true crime world as that of "Orange Socks" ---she now has her real name back.
Natalie offers her services through her freelance company, Natalie Murry Forensic Art.
As she tells us, "The goal of the drawings is to raise public awareness." We hope to shine a light on a couple of Natalie's active cases like that of Helen Doe who was a young unidentified Indigenous woman who tragically died in a fire as the result of car crash in Kalama Washington in 1991. We also hope to raise awareness around an unidentified man who expired in 2018 as the result of a fatal fall in a Cinerama movie theater in Washington.
For information regarding Washington's Helen Doe contact the cold case department, Detective Stacy Moate at [email protected] or call (425) 401-7754
For information regarding "Cinerama Man", contact the King County Medical Examiner's Office at (206) 731-3232.
And be sure to follow Natalie Murry on social:
Instagram
Facebook
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"On trips to the store, I stared at missing children on milk cartons and thought of Cajun altar boys," wrote New Orleans-based investigative reporter, author, and film director, Jason Berry, in his first book on the Catholic Church sexual abuse and coverup, Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children (1992), which was compiled through court documents from both the criminal and civil cases against Lafayette Diocese priest, Father Gauthe, who admitted to abusing 37 children from 1972-1983 in southwest Louisiana. Father Gauthe was the first Catholic priest to face a highly publicized criminal trial for the sexual abuse of a child. Jason is lauded as being the first to break the Catholic Church story and is a pioneer for his reporting and advocate for the survivors.
Jason remains deeply rooted to his home Louisiana and his beloved city of New Orleans. As a writer, the music has always been his salvation and has kept him grounded through the years.
He joins us today to discuss his latest book and film, City of a Million Dreams, which explores the rich history of New Orleans through the lens of jazz funerals and the unique tradition of the second line. The film City of a Million Dreams is available now at various film festival screenings. You can also purchase the book, which is available at your local bookstores or on Amazon.
To check-out the various screenings and locations, visit the website!!
Be sure to also follow City of a Million Dreams on social:
Instagram
Facebook
- Visa fler
