Podcast
Forgotten Felonies
Hosted by Forgotten Felonies Podcast · EN
Forgotten Felonies revisits historical crimes that were forgotten—or remembered incorrectly. It’s tempting, looking backward, to fill in the gaps with conclusions that feel obvious now. But that isn’t how history works. Through original newspaper reporting, period advertisements from the years the crimes occurred, and a blend of forensic psychology and genealogical research, each episode restores context to cases history left behind—asking not only what happened, but why.
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28episodes
Episodes
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Ellsworth Kelley and the Jones-Murray Gang - Part 2
May 3101:52:07Tap to summarizeSend a message to Monica and Olivia!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.
Transcribe →Ellsworth Kelley and the Jones Brothers Gang - Part 1
May 2401:19:19Tap to summarizeSend a message to Monica and Olivia!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.
Transcribe →The Curious Disappearance of Frank E. Clark - A Fun-Sized Felony
May 1500:08:40Tap to summarizeSend a message to Monica and Olivia!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.
Transcribe →Alfred Knapp: Five Murders and a Confession
May 1001:33:34Tap to summarizeSend a message to Monica and Olivia!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)
Transcribe →Bertha Boronda: the Mistress of Mayhem - A Fun-Sized Felony
May 200:21:44Tap to summarizeSend a message to Monica and Olivia!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.
Transcribe →Frank Caruso and the Murder of Dr. Casper Pendola - A Fun-Sized Felony
Apr 2300:11:05Tap to summarizeSend a message to Monica and Olivia!In February of 1927, a Brooklyn father watched his six-year-old son struggle to breathe as diphtheria tightened its grip. Desperate for help, Frank Caruso called for doctors, begged for treatment, and clung to the hope that his boy might survive.But when that hope slipped away, something else took its place.Within hours of his son’s death, Frank turned his grief into blame—and his blame into violence. A physician who had come to help would never leave the apartment alive.What followed was a case shaped by language barriers, fear of modern medicine, and a courtroom battle over whether this was cold-blooded murder… or something far more complicated.This is the story of Frank Caruso—a devastated father—and the moment everything broke.
Transcribe →Jesse McClure: What Sarah Didn't See Coming
Apr 1801:08:09Tap to summarizeSend a message to Monica and Olivia!Years before this double homicide, there were already signs—clear, documented, and deeply concerning. Sarah saw them. Sarah lived with them. Sarah warned the authorities that he was going to kill her.But Jesse didn’t kill her.Even Sarah didn’t see this coming.When he couldn’t reach the person he wanted, Jesse McClure made a different choice—one that ended in the deaths of two small boys.This case takes place in Tipton County and Grant County, Indiana, at the end of 1903.
Transcribe →200 Feet From Home: the Murder of Florence Kane - A Fun-Sized Felony
Apr 1000:36:09Tap to summarizeSend a message to Monica and Olivia!In 1925, 29-year-old Florence Kane stepped off a subway in Brooklyn after a night out with friends. She called her mother to say she would be home in 30 minutes.In the final stretch of just 6 blocks, the unthinkable happened; Florence never made it home.As fear spread through the neighborhood, reports surfaced of other women being attacked in the same way—grabbed in the dark, beaten, and left for dead. And yet, despite witnesses, patterns, and mounting public outrage, the investigation into Florence’s murder was marred by racism, mishandled evidence, and missed opportunities.No one was ever held accountable.At her funeral, hundreds gathered. Women wept in the streets. And one priest stood before her white coffin and asked the question that still lingers today:Where is this murderer now?
Transcribe →Edmund Creffield: Revenge of the Brides
Apr 401:15:20Tap to summarizeSend a message to Monica and Olivia!This is the third and final episode in our Edmund Creffield series.By the time Edmund Creffield lay dead on a Seattle sidewalk, it should have been over. The prophet was gone; the spell should have been broken. The story should have ended, but another chapter had just begun.Because what followed was not closure… it was unraveling.As George Mitchell stands trial for the killing, the courtroom fills with stories that are as disturbing as they are difficult to explain—stories of devotion, delusion, and a kind of influence that destroyed minds forever.And then… the violence begins again. What follows is a chain of grief, obsession, and eerie loss that continues long after Edmund Creffield is gone. Because in this story, death does not end anything.
Transcribe →Edmund Creffield: The Bride of Christ Cult
Mar 2801:07:56Tap to summarizeSend a message to Monica and Olivia!This is the second episode following Edmund Creffield and the cult he began in Corvallis, OR, after her arrived in late 1902.In this episode, he was finally caught.After months in hiding, Edmund Creffield is pulled from beneath a house—filthy, frail, and barely able to stand—and brought into custody at last. For the people of Corvallis, it feels like the end of something that never should have begun.But in the courtroom, Creffield refuses to break.When Creffield walks out of prison, it all starts over again. This time things are much more dramatic and at least one part of the story comes to a violent end.
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