Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast

Bless This Mess

Welcome to Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast, where the tea is sweet but the history is dark. We are a husband and wife team from Louisiana serving up murder, mystery, and mayhem from across the southern states. Pull up a rocking chair, fill your mason jar with sweet tea (or something a little stronger), and sit for a spell on the porch with us. We dive deep into each case, taking turns sharing the story, but there's always room for some husband-and-wife banter and a few well-placed f-bombs along the way. If you love true crime but prefer we get straight to the point without the porch chit-chat, check out our weekly A Little Less Mess episodes—same cases, trimmed down and focused on the facts. Want even more time on the porch? Join “The Porch Crew” over on our Patreon! Upgrade your sweet tea to something stronger and get early ad-free episodes, our exclusive Friday bonus hangouts (Sittin', Sippin', & Bullshittin'), and even your very own official Porch Crew mason jar.

  1. 1d ago

    A Little Less Mess: The Murder of Ellen Sherman [Connecticut]

    When a friend went to check on Ellen Sherman in 1985, the discovery inside her Connecticut home launched a years-long murder investigation. Cara follows the disputed timeline and unexpected testimony that helped bring the case to trial.  Find us on the webs! Follow us on Instagram Like us on Facebook TikTok - @blessthismesspodcast Support us on Patreon - for early access, ad-free, and Porch Crew perks! Buy us a Coffee! - one time support to keep the porch lights on Rate, Review, and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or where you listen! Music courtesy of Blanche Sources State v. Sherman, Connecticut Appellate Court, 1995. Hartford Courant, “Man Who Killed Wife Dies of Heart Attack,” 1996. Luanne Rice, “Four Murders and a Missing Woman in the Nutmeg State,” Criminal Element, 2020. Rebecca Reisner, “Ellen and Ed Sherman: Cold End to a Marriage,” Forensic Files Now, 2025.

    A Little Less Mess: The Murder of Ellen Sherman [Connecticut]

  2. 6d ago

    [Georgia] The Fire on Fawn Drive

    In January 2001, firefighters responding to an off-campus house fire on Fawn Drive in Athens, Georgia, discovered the body of twenty-three-year-old UGA law student Tara Louise Baker . When investigators determined the fire had been deliberately set to cover up a violent homicide, it launched a twenty-three-year search for answers. Find us on the webs! Follow us on Instagram Like us on Facebook TikTok - @blessthismesspodcast Support us on Patreon - for early access, ad-free, and Porch Crew perks! Buy us a Coffee! - one time support to keep the porch lights on Rate, Review, and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or where you listen! Music courtesy of Blanche Sources • Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Cold Case Investigative Division Case File • Athens-Clarke County Police Department & Fire Rescue Incident Reports (160 Fawn Drive) • State of Georgia Legislative Archives: The Coleman-Baker Act (HB 88) • Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office Records: State of Georgia v. Edrick Lamont Faust (Clarke County Superior Court) • Athens Banner-Herald, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and The Red & Black Court Archives

  3. Oct 6

    A Little Less Mess: The Vanishing at Eilean Mòr [Scotland]

    In December 1900, three lighthouse keepers vanished from a remote island off the coast of Scotland. When the relief crew arrived at Eilean Mòr, the lighthouse was empty, the fire was cold, the beds were unmade, and one raincoat still hung by the door. This week on A Little Less Mess, Cara heads across the ocean to explore the eerie disappearance at the Flannan Isles Lighthouse—and the ghost stories that have followed those three missing men for more than a century. Find us on the webs! Follow us on Instagram Like us on Facebook TikTok - @blessthismesspodcast Support us on Patreon - for early access, ad-free, and Porch Crew perks! Buy us a Coffee! - one time support to keep the porch lights on Rate, Review, and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or where you listen! Music courtesy of Blanche Sources National Lighthouse Board National Records of Scotland BBC

    A Little Less Mess: The Vanishing at Eilean Mòr [Scotland]

  4. Oct 2

    [Florida] Mother Knows Best

    Grab your mason jars and pull up a rocker as Cara and Stew head to South Florida to unpack the wild true story behind the 1997 movie Mother Knows Best. When Lauderhill retiree Lee Goldsmith secretly placed a classified ad to find her daughter a wealthy bachelor, she never imagined her daughter would fall for David Brownstein, a hardworking, blue-collar air-conditioning repairman. Consumed by spite and years of family estrangement, Lee took matters into her own hands by trying to hire a hitman straight from her living room—sparking an undercover Broward County Sheriff’s sting inside a luxury Cadillac and a sensational trial that stunned the nation. Find us on the webs! Follow us on Instagram Like us on Facebook TikTok - @blessthismesspodcast Support us on Patreon - for early access, ad-free, and Porch Crew perks! Buy us a Coffee! - one time support to keep the porch lights on Rate, Review, and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or where you listen! Music courtesy of Blanche Sources Tampa Bay Times Archives (1990): "Murder-for-hire case opens: Woman accused of trying to have son-in-law killed" (Jan 23, 1990).South Florida Sun Sentinel Archives (1989–1995): "The Old Lady and the Hit Man" (May 1990); "Grandma in Murder Plot to Be Freed" (June 1995); trial coverage by regional correspondents.Orlando Sentinel Archives (1990–1993): "Lee Goldsmith, In Jail for Hiring a Hit Man" (Jan 1993); "Shoot My Son-In-Law, Please!" (July 1990).Broward County Circuit Court Records (1989–1990): State of Florida v. Lee Goldsmith, Case No. 89-003661CF10A (Solicitation to Commit First-Degree Murder).

  5. Sep 29

    A Little Less Mess: The Murder of Maria Ridulph [Illinois]

    On a freezing December evening in 1957, seven-year-old Maria Ridulph was playing under the streetlights of Sycamore, Illinois, when a friendly young man offering piggyback rides vanished with her into the winter dark. The disappearance triggered an unprecedented nationwide manhunt that drew personal attention from J. Edgar Hoover and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, only to end months later when Maria’s remains were discovered deep in a rural wooded ravine. Find us on the webs! Follow us on Instagram Like us on Facebook TikTok - @blessthismesspodcast Support us on Patreon - for early access, ad-free, and Porch Crew perks! Buy us a Coffee! - one time support to keep the porch lights on Rate, Review, and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or where you listen! Music courtesy of Blanche Sources The National Registry of Exonerations: Jack McCullough Case Summary & Exoneration Record The Innocence Project: llinois Prosecutor Seeks Justice Amid Decades-Old Wrongful Conviction (DeKalb County Review) CNN Special Investigative Series: Taken: Coldest Case Ever Solved (Reporting by David Fitzpatrick & Drew Griffin) The Chicago Tribune / Associated Press Archives: Sycamore Community Coverage, 1957 Abduction Searches, and 2012 Trial Records DeKalb County Circuit Court: State of Illinois v. Jack McCullough (2016 Conviction Vacatur & 2017 Certificate of Innocence Filings)

    A Little Less Mess: The Murder of Maria Ridulph [Illinois]

  6. Sep 24

    [North Carolina] Bitter Blood Murders

    Grab your mason jars and pull up a rocker as Cara and Stew unpack one of the most chilling multi-generational tragedies in Southern history. What began as a contentious custody battle between a prominent Winston-Salem socialite and her dentist ex-husband spiraled into an apocalyptic nightmare when she fell under the spell of her first cousin—a survivalist masquerading as a CIA operative and medical doctor. Find us on the webs! Follow us on Instagram Like us on Facebook TikTok - @blessthismesspodcast Support us on Patreon - for early access, ad-free, and Porch Crew perks! Buy us a Coffee! - one time support to keep the porch lights on Rate, Review, and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or where you listen! Music courtesy of Blanche Sources Bledsoe, Jerry. Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder (Onyx / Dutton, 1988) North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Historical Crime Archives: The Bizarre "Bitter Blood" Murders Greensboro News & Record, Investigative Archives & Highway 150 Incident Reports (1984–1985) Winston-Salem Journal, Valley Road Homicide Files & SBI Case Summaries Kentucky State Police, Oldham County / Prospect Double Homicide Investigative Files

  7. Sep 22

    A Little Less Mess: Blood Under the Crabapple Tree [New Jersey]

    Grab your mason jars and pull up a rocker as Cara steps outside the South for a solo trip back to the autumn of 1922. In an overgrown lovers’ lane outside New Brunswick, New Jersey, the bodies of an aristocratic Episcopal priest and his married choir leader were found staged beneath a crabapple tree, surrounded by their torn-up secret love letters and a grotesque calling card. What followed became the country's first true media circus. From a high-society widow with millions on the line to an eccentric witness known as the "Pig Woman" testifying from a hospital bed wheeled into the courtroom, this century-old double homicide remains one of the most scandalous, theatrical, and baffling unsolved mysteries in American history.  Find us on the webs! Follow us on Instagram Like us on Facebook TikTok - @blessthismesspodcast Support us on Patreon - for early access, ad-free, and Porch Crew perks! Buy us a Coffee! - one time support to keep the porch lights on Rate, Review, and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or where you listen! Music courtesy of Blanche Sources  - The Hall-Mills Murder Case (Historical Trial Transcripts & New Jersey State Police Archives) - The New York Times, Contemporary Investigative Archives (1922–1926) - New York Daily Mirror, Grand Jury & Somerville Court Coverage - William Kunstler, *The Minister and the Choir Singer: The Hall-Mills Murder Case (William Morrow & Co.)

    A Little Less Mess: Blood Under the Crabapple Tree [New Jersey]

  8. Sep 17

    [Georgia] The Body in the Burn Pile

    In July 2018, prominent 58-year-old corporate attorney Gary Farris vanished from his family’s ten-acre farm on Purcell Lane in Cherokee County, Georgia. Days later, his charred remains were discovered in an outdoor burn pile near the house. While initial explanations suggested Gary had suffered a dizzy spell and accidentally collapsed into the flames, the case turned into a homicide investigation when pathologists discovered a .38-caliber bullet lodged inside his rib. Find us on the webs! Follow us on Instagram Like us on Facebook TikTok - @blessthismesspodcast Support us on Patreon - for early access, ad-free, and Porch Crew perks! Buy us a Coffee! - one time support to keep the porch lights on Rate, Review, and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or where you listen! Music courtesy of Blanche Sources:- Cherokee County District Attorney's Office (Case Records & Conviction Release, November 2024)  - Cherokee County Sheriff's Office Incident & Investigation Files  - Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Forensic Ballistics & Crime Lab Reports  - Court TV: GA v. Melody Walker Farris (Full 18-Day Trial Coverage, Testimony & Exhibits)  - CBS News 48 Hours: Investigative Coverage on the Gary Farris Case

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4.6
out of 5
736 Ratings

About

Welcome to Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast, where the tea is sweet but the history is dark. We are a husband and wife team from Louisiana serving up murder, mystery, and mayhem from across the southern states. Pull up a rocking chair, fill your mason jar with sweet tea (or something a little stronger), and sit for a spell on the porch with us. We dive deep into each case, taking turns sharing the story, but there's always room for some husband-and-wife banter and a few well-placed f-bombs along the way. If you love true crime but prefer we get straight to the point without the porch chit-chat, check out our weekly A Little Less Mess episodes—same cases, trimmed down and focused on the facts. Want even more time on the porch? Join “The Porch Crew” over on our Patreon! Upgrade your sweet tea to something stronger and get early ad-free episodes, our exclusive Friday bonus hangouts (Sittin', Sippin', & Bullshittin'), and even your very own official Porch Crew mason jar.

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