In October 1949, aspiring Hollywood actress Jean Spangler left her Los Angeles apartment and never returned. Despite a major police investigation and decades of speculation,Jean Spangler was never found. In this episode, we examine the evidence behind one of Hollywood’s most enduring unsolved disappearances.

Source Materials

Lewis, Jon. Hard-Boiled Hollywood: Crime and Punishment in Postwar Los Angeles. University of California Press, 2017.

Charles River Editors. The Disappearance of Jean Spangler: The History of One of Hollywood’s Most Enduring Mysteries. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016.

Gilmore, John. Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder. Amok Books, revised edition.

Lyons, Arthur. “The Mysterious Disappearance of Jean Spangler.” Palm Springs Life.

Patmore, Neil. “Inside The Haunting Hollywood Mystery Of Aspiring Actress Jean Spangler’s Disappearance.” All That’s Interesting.

Contemporary reporting from the Los Angeles Times archive.

In 1922, six people were murdered at the remote Hinterkaifeck farm in rural Bavaria. Despite an extensive investigation, the killer was never identified. This episode examines the historical context, evidence, and enduring mystery behind one of Germany’s most famous unsolved crimes.

Source Materials

Peter Leuschner, Hinterkaifeck: Germany’s Most Mysterious Murder Case.

Bill James & Rachel McCarthy James, The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery. Scribner, 2017.

Jack Rosewood, True Crime Stories, Vol. 4 (2017).

Katie Serena, “The Gruesome True Story Of The Unsolved Hinterkaifeck Murders,” All That’s Interesting, August 3, 2023 (updated October 20, 2023).
https://allthatsinteresting.com/hinterkaifeck-murders

Sonya Vatomsky, “The Chilling Story of the Hinterkaifeck Killings, Germany’s Most Famous Unsolved Crime,” Mental Floss, July 24, 2023.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/502044/chilling-story-hinterkaifeck-killings-germanys-most-famous-unsolved-crime

Rob Shapiro, “How The Hinterkaifeck Tragedy Remains Germany’s Biggest Unsolved Case.”

Tharun, “The Hinterkaifeck Murders: My Personal Theories as an Aspiring Forensic Investigator,” Medium.
https://medium.com/@tharun318106/the-hinterkaifeck-murders-my-personal-theories-as-an-aspiring-forensic-investigator-5627395ce924

If you’d like, I can also give you a shortened “mobile-friendly” version (many podcasters now use one optimized for Spotify’s collapsed show notes).Historical True Crime | Historical true crime podcast | Patreon

In 1857, a prominent New York dentist was found murdered in his Bond Street office. Suspicion fell on Emma Cunningham, the widow who ran the boardinghouse and claimed to be his wife — and heir. Her acquittal did not end the scandal. Adisputed marriage, a claimed pregnancy, and a staged birth kept the city riveted and raised new questions about truth, reputation, and inheritance in mid-19th-century New York.

Source Materials:

Duke, Franklin. Celebrated Criminal Cases of America. San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Company, 1910.

Serratore, Angela. “The Murder of Dr. Harvey Burdell and the Scandal That Gripped 1857 New York.” Smithsonian Magazine.

Roberts, Sam. “The Murder That Gripped Bond Street.” The New York Times.

The New-York Daily Times (1857), contemporary coverage of the Burdell murder and Emma Cunningham trial.

Contemporary inquest and trialreporting in New York newspapers, 1857.