S6 Ep 10 - THE OLD TOWN HORROR: Murder and Theft in America’s Most Historic Locale

Summary

True Fiction Project: S6 Ep10 - "THE OLD TOWN HORROR: Murder and Theft in America’s Most Historic Locale"

Release Date: July 8, 2025

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Introduction and Guest Background

In the tenth episode of Season 6, Renita Hora welcomes Ed Moser, a multifaceted writer and tour guide, to the True Fiction Project. Ed brings a unique blend of experiences, having formerly written for Jay Leno's The Tonight Show and served as a speechwriter for the White House. His latest endeavor, "The Old Town Horror: Murder and Theft in America’s Most Historic Locale," marks a significant shift from nonfiction to fiction, drawing deeply from America's rich and often turbulent history.

Transition from TV Writing to Historical Writing

Renita Hora initiates the conversation by delving into Ed's diverse writing background:

Ed Moser [02:01]: "Mostly I've been writing books, and lately they've had to do with tours that I give... I've been doing that for about 12 years and that's inspired me to write a number of history books on those locales or nearby places, but also to start to write fiction based on the sagas, the stories that I've uncovered for 200 years of history in the town and its surrounding villages."

Ed explains that his passion for history tours in Washington, D.C., especially around areas like the Capitol grounds and Lafayette Square, naturally led him to author books that encapsulate the essence of these historic locales.

Exploring Washington D.C.'s Dark History

Renita probes deeper into Ed's transition from a humorist and TV writer to a historian:

Renita Hora [02:53]: "So it sounds like you have been writing books for many years. Is it books, TV shows, TV writing. Tell us a little bit about yourself."

Ed recounts his unexpected journey into historical writing:

Ed Moser [02:53]: "It happened around the same time and it happened through similar circumstances... I found that working for either was very similar and akin to making sausage."

Analogy of Making Sausage

Ed draws a vivid analogy comparing his experience in TV and political speechwriting to the process of making sausage:

Ed Moser [03:38]: "Because in both cases, they use writers, many writers from across the country... and you wind up with very tasty sausage, one hopes."

Renita humorously teases this comparison:

Renita Hora [04:22]: "Tasty sausage. So are you saying to us then, Ed, that everything that our presidents tell us in their speeches is a joke?"

Ed clarifies the intent behind this "sausage-making" process:

Ed Moser [04:30]: "Well, this is a political season, you could say that. But hopefully it comes out very tasty and well received and sometimes humorous manner."

From Nonfiction to Fiction: "The Old Town Horror"

Shifting focus, Renita introduces Ed's new novel:

Renita Hora [06:02]: "What kind of wild are we talking about?"

Ed Moser [06:07]: "Well, you have, for instance, the first execution of the first murderer in Washington D.C.'s history took place on the grounds of the Capitol building."

Renita expresses intrigue and connects it to Ed's latest work:

Renita Hora [07:06]: "Is that what your new book is about?"

Ed elaborates on his novel, "The Old Town Horror," highlighting its foundation in Alexandria, Virginia’s rich history:

Ed Moser [07:20]: "I thought I would shake things up for my next book... to do a fictional account of a historic suburb of DC, namely Alexandria, Virginia."

He emphasizes how historical events inspire the fictional crimes depicted in his novel:

Ed Moser [07:45]: "...involving a series of crimes, of murders. But the murderer or murderers in question based their crimes on events in the distant past of the town."

Excerpt Reading and Storytelling

Renita invites Ed to share an excerpt, focusing on the Carlisle Mansion:

Renita Hora [09:22]: "Are you going to read us the opening or what do you have in mind?"

Although initially considering an excerpt from his nonfiction work, Ed opts to present a passage from his novel, bringing historical figures and eerie events to life:

Ed Moser [12:47]: [Excerpt from "The Old Town Horror"]
"As they approached the Carlisle Mansion... Benjamin Franklin Stringfellow trained as a dentist aide and gained employment as such. At the mansion, he befriended Union officers recovering from jaw and teeth wounds... His alert ears calling in military secrets as well as the sweet nothings, whispered in his ear."

He continues to weave the mansion's dark lore into the narrative:

"...Carlisle issued an unusual order that a black cat be walled up alive within the foundation stones. The terrified cat slowly suffocated. It shrieked and wells its caterwauls penetrated the thick stones out to the laborers on the lawn."

This excerpt underscores the seamless blend of fact and fiction that defines Ed's storytelling approach.

Connecting with Ed Moser

As the episode concludes, Renita provides listeners with avenues to explore Ed's work further:

Ed Moser [10:41]: "My books can all be found in the usual outlets like florenceandnoble.com and Amazon.com... And for my tours, the best way to find me is through a meetup."

Renita enthusiastically recommends Ed's tours:

Renita Hora [11:05]: "I think I just gotta head to Washington D.C. and take one of your tours. I think that would be spectacular."

Conclusion

In this episode of the True Fiction Project, Ed Moser masterfully bridges the gap between nonfiction historical accounts and captivating fictional narratives. His ability to draw inspiration from centuries-old events and reinterpret them in a contemporary setting offers listeners a gripping exploration of America's most storied locales.

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Connect with Ed Moser:

• Books: Available on Amazon and Florence and Noble
• Tours: Join through Meetup

Stay Updated: Visit reenita.com/podcasts/true-fiction-project/ for more information and to subscribe.

Transcript

[Ed Moser]

Lowes knows July 4th savings are worth celebrating right now. Get up to 40% off select major appliances and get an additional 10% off two or more select major appliances plus get three Scott's Naturescapes 1.5 cubic foot mulch bags for just $10. These deals are coming in hot. Lowes we help you Save. Valid through 7 9. Selection varies by location while supplies last. See Lowes.com for more details. Excludes Alaska and Hawaii. I love history and travel. And in walking around the White House neighborhood, in particular the President's Park, Lafayette Square, I was astounded to find out through my research that many violent events have taken place for the 230 years or so. Welcome to the True Fiction Project, a podcast series that explores the origins of of fiction. Every week we begin with an interview nonfiction followed by a creative piece, fiction inspired by something from the interview. The idea is to demonstrate, of course, that fiction is born out of our life experiences. Now, here's your host, storyteller, author, public speaker, health and wellness expert, Renita Hora.

[Renita Hora]

Welcome to the True Fiction Project. I am your host, Renita Hora, and I have with me today a guest who was formerly a writer for Jay Leno's the Tonight show and amongst other things, he has a new book out. It's called the Old Town Horror, Murder, and Theft in America's Most Historic Locale. So, Hayad, welcome to the True Fiction Project.

[Ed Moser]

Well, thank. Thank you. Great for being here.

[Renita Hora]

So it sounds like you have been writing books for many years. Is it books, TV shows, TV writing. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

[Ed Moser]

Yes, mostly I've been writing books, and lately they've had to do with tours that I give. I give history tours in the Washington, D.C. area at the most historic locale, for example, the grounds of the Capitol building or the park across from the White House, Lafayette Square, Georgetown historic village just west of the White House. And I've been doing that for about 12 years and that's inspired me to write a number of history books on those locales or nearby places, but also to start to write fiction based on the sagas, the stories that I've uncovered for 200 years of history in the town and its surrounding villages.

[Renita Hora]

Fascinating. I definitely want to ask you about that. But before you do, how do you make the switch from writing for Jay Leno on the Tonight show to writing about the Capitol or D.C. well, it.

[Ed Moser]

Was really by chance that I got to work for the Tonight show for a while and also for the White House for a while as a speechwriter it happened around the same time and it happened through similar circumstances. I was writing as a technical writer in computer companies. I was writing as a humorist, writing humor books and satires, which itself is sort of a strange combination. And at the time, I took my best material, my best humorous material, sent it to the White House, took my best expository writing, speech and opinion material, sent it over to the White House, and to my shock, I got letters back from both asking me to work for both. And I found that working for either was very similar and akin to making sausage.

[Renita Hora]

Why was it akin to making sausage?

[Ed Moser]

Because in both cases, they use writers, many writers from across the country, either on site or scattered throughout the different states, and they. They gather the material, freelance material, or people who are hired full time, they gather the material from them and they chop it up and make it into either a stand up opening monologue or a speech on a particular topic of public interest. But in both cases, the material gets changed and swapped around a lot mixed together by the master speech writer or joke writer or mc, and you wind up with very tasty sausage, one hopes.

[Renita Hora]

Tasty sausage. So are you saying to us then, Ed, that everything that our presidents tell us in their speeches is a joke?

[Ed Moser]

Well, this is a political season, you could say that. But hopefully it comes out very tasty and well received and sometimes humorous manner.

[Renita Hora]

Yes, just like a sausage. Okay. So are we led to believe then that there is a lot of murder and crime and horror and stories, I mean, the horror stories that we don't know about taking place in America's most historic locale?

[Ed Moser]

Well, the. You might be shocked. I tell the guests on my tours that any scandal or misbehavior that I mentioned, of course, occurred in the distant past, at least 70 years or so before that. There hasn't been a hint, a scintilla of impropriety or scandal in recent Washington history. I tell them that joke and they usually laugh and we go on. But that's how I got started. I love history and travel. And in walking around the White House neighborhood, in particular the President's Park, Lafayette Square, I was astounded to find out through my research that many violent events have taken place for the 230 years or so since the park was established. And like murders, assassination attempts, assaults, spies, espionage right within the stone throw of the President's house. I wrote up an article about it and thought, you know, you could write a book about this. And I sent a proposal off to a publisher and had a book published. The White House's Unruly Neighborhood Crime, Scandal and a Tree.

[Renita Hora]

Okay, so that was a particular book. It was called the White House's Unruly Neighborhood.

[Ed Moser]

Yes. And that was a nonfiction book. All true stories, usually kind of violent stories or stories about crime or scandal, although some inspirational things as well. And over 60 stories in all. It was so enjoyable and it was well received. I got on some national media. I sent out a proposal for another one of my flagship tours. My first flagship tour was Lafayette Square. Another one was the grounds of the capitol building. The U.S. congress. And I found similarly, across 200 years plus, many wild incidents have occurred, some of them recent, some going way back to 1800.

[Renita Hora]

What kind of wild are we talking about?

[Ed Moser]

Well, you have, for instance, the first execution of the first murderer in Washington D.C. 's history took place on the grounds of the Capitol building.

[Renita Hora]

Oh my gosh. I can just imagine that spectacle. Is that what your new book is about?

[Ed Moser]

Well, after writing nonfiction books on historic locales, the Capitol and the White House neighborhood, I thought I'd. Since I've done comedy writing, I've done fiction writing as well. I thought I would shake things up for my next book, my current book.

[Renita Hora]

Which is the Old Town Horror. Okay. Murder and Theft in America's Most Historic Locale. Okay, so tell us how you shook things up.

[Ed Moser]

You can see that the themes are somewhat similar to grab people's attention. I tell a lot of the dark side.

[Renita Hora]

Interesting. So is it one story or is it a collection of stories, like an anthology?

[Ed Moser]

The Old Town Horror is a novel. It's one story.

[Renita Hora]

Oh, I see. Okay, fantastic. What is the inciting event?

[Ed Moser]

You see, what happened is after I did the nonfiction books for the White House and the Capitol, I thought I'd do a fictional account of a historic suburb of dc, Namely Alexandria, Virginia. It's eight miles down the Potomac river from Washington. It's the hometown of George Washington away from Mount Vernon. And that's where he actually had a townhouse there, he and Martha Washington. And it's the hometown of Robert E. Lee, famous Confederate general of the Civil War, hometown of civil rights leaders. So it's an old colonial city. It has hundreds of buildings dating from the American Revolution and before the Civil War, the so called antebellum period. So it's very esoteric, very evocative of the past. And it's filled with stories of famous and infamous personalities and inspiring events, but crime and intrigue as well. So I said, this is perfect for me. I've already done two books like this. Why not fictionalize make it into a novel and set it in contemporary time, set it in modern time, involving a series of crimes, of murders. But the murderer or murderers in question based their crimes on events in the distant past of the town.

[Renita Hora]

My goodness, that sounds very intriguing. Historical novel. Historical, contemporary. I can't wait to read it and to hear you read some of it. Are you going to read us the opening or what do you have in mind?

[Ed Moser]

Well, I picked a scene from the book that occurs in the most historic mansion in Alexandria called the Carlisle Mansion, built by its Co founder in 1752. Co founder of the town, John Carlisle. And some strange events, some bloody events occurred there over the centuries. And one of the antagonists in the novel commits an assault, bloody assault on those grounds.

[Renita Hora]

Your excerpt has to do with the Carlisle Mansion and the events that took place there. Now, before you actually read that excerpt, you also have something for our paid subscribers, right? Do you want to share what that might be?

[Ed Moser]

What I'll do is I'll read a excerpt from my nonfiction book, the White House's Unruly Neighborhood. I'd be happy to do that as well.

[Renita Hora]

That would be great. So Ed's going to read an excerpt from his other book, the White House's Unruly Neighborhood. So that is for a paid subscription audience only. If you haven't signed up as a paid subscriber already, please do so so that you can make sure not to miss out on that very juicy piece. But Ed, before we transition into the reading, let our audiences know where they can find you. Your website, social media, anything you want to share.

[Ed Moser]

My books can all be found in the usual outlets like florenceandnoble.com and Amazon.com the White House, Unruly Neighborhood, A Lost Capital, and other books. And for my tours, the best way to find me is through a meetup. Meetup Lafayette Square tours of scandal, assassination and intrigue meet up Lafayette Square tourists. So it's easy to find them all over the place.

[Renita Hora]

Yes, indeed. I think I just gotta head to Washington D.C. and take one of your tours. I think that would be spectacular. Ed, thank you so much for being on the True Fiction Project. It was a pleasure to have you as a guest today.

[Ed Moser]

Thank you so much. Great to be here.

[Renita Hora]

That's Ed Moser. He is a writer of satire of humor. He is a tour guide of strange tours, let's say in Washington D.C. and most recently he has a book out. It's called the Old Town Horror, Murder and Theft in America's Most Historic Locale. Another reading from one of his other books for our paid subscribers. So once again, if you haven't signed up for that, please do so. This is the True Fiction Action Project. I am your host, Renita Hora.

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[Renita Hora]

And now to the premise of the True Fiction Project, which of course is to create fiction out of nonfiction.

[Ed Moser]

As they approached the Carlisle Mansion, Ted thought of its incredible and often bloody military history of General Braddock and the young mage George Washington and their ill fated fight in the Indian wilderness near Fort Pitt, today's Pittsburgh, and the Civil War hospital at its locale with its doctors, amputees and rebel spies, including the town's most colorful character of the late unpleasant the slender, fair skinned Confederate agent with a grandiose name, Benjamin Franklin Springfellow. Early Americans loved naming their son after founding fathers. The Carlisle House, as the city's largest mansion and then a hotel complex owned by a Southern advocate, was a prime candidate for confiscation and rejiggering as a Union army hospital, and the Northern officers recuperating there offered a matchless opportunity for a rebel spy to obtain intelligence. Benjamin Franklin Stringfellow trained as a dentist aide and gained employment as such. At the mansion, he befriended Union officers recovering from jaw and teeth wounds. From them he elicited valuable information on Union morale supplies and deployments. Being slim as befitting his last name, Stringfellow, as well as lightly bearded and rather feminine looking, Stringfellow sometimes impersonated a lady and danced with and beguiled captains and colonels at Union soirees. His alert ears calling in military secrets as well as the sweet nothings, whispered in his ear. Ted smiled in recalling this story. There had been so few light hearted moments in recent days of mayhem. Then, hearing the rustle of his friend Harmony's clothes beside him, he snapped back the present. In the black of the night, the duo passed through the Carlisle House entranceway. The pair passed by the war cannon from the French and Indian War. Ted wiped droplets of a light mist from his glasses. Harmony bent down for a moment, borrowed Ted's flashlight, and examined the moistened lawn. What is it? Asked Ted, the grass looks disturbed. Like someone went by here recently. Well, it could be our man, said Ted. Or it could be anyone who came by here. It's hard to tell in the darkness, harmony replied. But I think there were two people here. She got up, wiping her hands off the grass and mud, and they continued along. Ted wondered if he should have brought along his Sig Sauer P320 handgun. Harmony looked around nervously, imagining the cops arriving to arrest Ted for the second time, and imagining a killer, the killer, lurking about. Despite her innate courage, her hands trembled in memory of the Wilkes Cemetery attack a few days before. Meanwhile, a story about the Carlisle Mansions came Construction flashed through Ted's mind. He often brought tour guests across the lawn to its wall, where he told them of a strange superstition that Scotchman John Carlisle not only believed in, but had put into practice from time immemorial to the black magic of a black cat, the same creatures featured in today's Halloween tales. Such cats. Black cats were said to possess evil powers, but powers that could be deployed for a positive purpose. So when his workers were laying the foundation stones for his mansion in 1752, Mr. Carlyle issued an unusual order that a black cat be walled up alive within the foundation stones. The terrified cat slowly suffocated. It shrieked and wells its caterwauls penetrated the thick stones out to the laborers on the lawn. It was Carlisle's belief that the angry spirit of the killed cat would forever haunt the house and scare away any other evil spirits attempting to approach. The trick may have seemed to work as the Carlisle house, well into its third century, looked as sterling as it did when it was first built.

[Renita Hora]

Here at the True Fiction Project, we're always looking for great stories that make the compelling fiction. So if you have a great story, or you know someone who does, or if you're a writer who'd like to be featured on the show, then please do get in touch with us at renita.com forward/contact and if you haven't signed up for our newsletter, then you can do so by visiting substack.com/forward/@renitahora all spelled out one word. That's substack.com forward slash @r E E E N I T A H O R A I'll be offering paid subscribers something a little extra special each time, including a video version of this podcast.

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