Fact or Fiction: A Mostly-True Crime History Podcast

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  • 5.0 (22)
  • HISTORY
Fact or Fiction: A Mostly-True Crime History Podcast

Welcome to Fact or Fiction, the podcast about historical crimes with one fictional detail added. Listen carefully because it's not easy to know if something is Fact or Fiction. Ready to play?

  1. Author Series present Jeffrey D. Simon and "The Bulldog Detective"

    02/06/2024

    Author Series present Jeffrey D. Simon and "The Bulldog Detective"

    Send us a text Today’s guest is author Jeffrey D. Simon, author of several books about terrorism and a former RAND analyst who also taught at UCLA. As a guest on Fact or Fiction, Jeff has agreed to share some of the highlights from his most recent book, The Bulldog Detective: William J. Flynn and America’s First War Against the Mafia, Spies, and Terrorists. Flynn’s career provides a fascinating glimpse into early 20th century crimes and detective methods, and his character is one of the most ...

    58 min
  2. Fact or Fiction Author Series presents Christopher Allen Gorden

    12/05/2023

    Fact or Fiction Author Series presents Christopher Allen Gorden

    Send us a text St. Louis was a rapidly growing frontier town in 1849. That year, the city experienced a great fire that destroyed the city's business district, an epidemic of cholera that decimated the population, and a steady influx of would-be miners on their way to the California hills. Also, there was a sensational murder and an equally sensational trial. Christopher Allen Gorden, author of Fire, Pestilence, and Death: St. Louis 1849, is this episode's special guest. Listen and learn mor...

    1h 1m
  3. Fact or Fiction Author Series presents Amy Kasuga Folk

    05/24/2023

    Fact or Fiction Author Series presents Amy Kasuga Folk

    Send us a text Nicknamed "Liquor Island," Long Island was a center for bootlegging and rumrunning for the New York metropolitan area during Prohibition. Amy Kasuga Folk's book Rumrunners of Suffolk County: Tales from Liquor Island shares highlights from her book and inserts a fictional detail in her four choices at the end of the episode. Will you identify the fiction? Will I? Listeners will be astonished by what they learn, and it's mostly true! Support the show Images and resources used in...

    48 min

  4. 05/01/2023

    The Goat Gland "Doctor"

    Send us a text In the first half of the twentieth century, John R. Brinkley was a celebrated and successful "doctor" renowned for his ability to use goat organs to help humans with infertility. In addition to his "medical" success, Brinkley was also an early adopter of radio technology, which he used to advertise his hospital and his other medicines. In this first episode of season 3, which focuses loosely on the KC area, Fact or Fiction welcomes podcasters Cam and Jen of Our True Crime Podc...

    1 hr
  5. Fact or Fiction: Author Series presents Joe Johnston

    04/18/2023

    Fact or Fiction: Author Series presents Joe Johnston

    Send us a text In the late nineteenth century, the West was wild all the way back to the Mississippi River. Only a day's walk from the progressive big city of St. Louis, rural Jefferson County citizens were struggling with an outbreak of thefts, arson, and more. Mack Marsden, successful livestock trader and family man, was accused of being involved. After Mack was shot and killed, there remained lingering doubts. Was he a criminal, or was he wrongly accused? Author Joe Johnston tells the fa...

    1h 4m
  6. Fact or Fiction: Author Series presents Susan Wels

    04/02/2023

    Fact or Fiction: Author Series presents Susan Wels

    Send us a text From 1848 to 1881, a small Utopian colony in upstate New York—the Oneida Community—was known for its shocking sexual practices, from open marriage and free love to the sexual training of young boys by older women. And in 1881, a one-time member of the Oneida Community—Charles Julius Guiteau—assassinated President James Garfield in a brutal crime that shook America to its core. Susan Wels, author of An Assassin in Utopia, shares this interwoven tale. Of course, she inserts one f...

    45 min

  7. 03/22/2023

    Forrest E. Mars: The Candy Man

    Send us a text For this special episode Tracy Marak, member of the Belle Toffee family, is my guest. She shares the Belle Toffee story, and then tries to identify the fiction in the mostly-true story about another candy maker, Forrest E. Mars. Although this story doesn't fit neatly into the true crime category, Forrest Mars' road to ownership of Mars, Inc. wasn’t a smooth one and it certainly wasn’t sweet. Today, Mars, Inc. is one of the largest privately held companies in the world, a...

    53 min

  8. 03/09/2023

    Fact or Fiction: Author Series presents Mike Vance

    Send us a text James Brockman rose from shady character to preeminent defense attorney in Houston, Texas by representing gang leaders, jilted spouses, wealthy storekeepers, drunken on-duty policemen, and more. His career gained national recognition, including his involvement in the most famous American murder case of the young twentieth century, when he himself was murdered leaving a dubious legacy. Houston historian Mike Vance's book Getting Away with Bloody Murder examines Brockman, the cr...

    50 min
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5
out of 5
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About

Welcome to Fact or Fiction, the podcast about historical crimes with one fictional detail added. Listen carefully because it's not easy to know if something is Fact or Fiction. Ready to play?

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