Crimes of the Centuries
Crime is so commonplace that it takes something particularly shocking to be labelled the “crime of the century.” Even so, there are a lot of cases that have earned the distinction. In each episode of Crimes of the Centuries, award-winning journalist Amber Hunt will examine a case that’s lesser known today but was huge when it happened. The cases explored span the centuries and each left a mark. Some made history by changing laws. Others were so shocking they changed society.
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 39 minutes
- Episodes
- 223
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
S2 Ep15: The Great Train Robbery: A Brilliant Success or Sloppy Failure?
One of the biggest crimes of the 20th century was the type of heist we usually associate with the 1800s: a train robbery. In August 1963, at least 16 people managed to steal more than $7 million from…
00:37:49 |
Mon 25 Apr 2022
S2 Ep14: The Murder of "Diamond Bessie"
When the body of a beautiful and well-dressed woman was discovered in 1877 outside of Jefferson, Texas, residents recognized her immediately -- even though they didn't know her real name. She'd been …
00:38:01 |
Mon 18 Apr 2022
S2 Ep13: Don't Say His Name: A Serial Killer Out for Notoriety
It's because of revisionist history that Paul John Knowles might be better known to some listeners at the Casanova Killer, but don't be fooled: This serial killer deserves no romanticization. Knowles…
00:37:24 |
Mon 11 Apr 2022
S2: What Lurks Inside the Walls: Hidden Rooms (From "Strange & Unexplained”)
Hey, fam!! Season 2 of the Obsessed Network Original Podcast "Strange & Unexplained With Daisy Eagan" launches today!
In case you aren't familiar, “Strange & Unexplained” is a podcast about all t…
In case you aren't familiar, “Strange & Unexplained” is a podcast about all t…
00:30:23 |
Thu 07 Apr 2022
S2 Ep12: Mary McKnight: Surrounded by Death
After her niece Ruth died in her care, Mary McKnight -- herself a grieving mother -- worried that the shock would kill her sister-in-law, so she gave her something to calm her nerves. But Gertrude di…
00:35:35 |
Mon 04 Apr 2022
S2 Ep11: Buck v. Bell: When the Courts Decided Who Could Have Kids
A young woman named Carrie Buck was not only deemed too unfit to raise her daughter in 1927, but the U.S. Supreme Court declared she was too stupid to procreate, period. And that decision, sparked by…
00:39:31 |
Mon 28 Mar 2022
S2 Ep10: Terror at the Tewksbury Almshouse
Almshouses in the 19th and early 20th centuries were meant to help society's most vulnerable, but in the 1880s, one in Tewksbury, Massachusetts was accused of such shocking treatment that the governo…
00:41:39 |
Mon 14 Mar 2022
S2 Ep9: Ken McElroy: Murder in the Town Square
Ken McElroy was killed outside, in broad daylight, with some 60 witnesses watching -- and yet no one copped to having seen a thing. McElroy, who'd long been known as a town bully in Skidmore, Missour…
00:39:03 |
Mon 07 Mar 2022
S2 Ep8: The Mobster and the Movie Star: The Murder of Johnny Stompanato
The Roberts murder discussed in last week's episode wasn't the only murder tied to "Peyton Place," the fictional town depicted in Grace Metallious' 1956 book. Just after Hollywood legend Lana Turner …
00:38:35 |
Mon 28 Feb 2022
S2 Ep7: The Peyton Place Murder
When the groundbreaking book "Peyton Place" hit bookshelves in 1956, the murder tale at its center was so scandalous that many stores banned it outright. But the truth is that author Grace Metallious…
00:37:09 |
Mon 21 Feb 2022
S2 Ep6: Carl Panzram: Forgotten Monster
Carl Panzram had a rough life growing up, so he decided to make life hell for everyone around him -- especially innocent young boys. When Panzram finally owned up to his crimes, his confession was so…
00:37:16 |
Mon 14 Feb 2022
S2 Ep5: The Bludgeoning of Edwin Burdick
The most popular motives for murder are money and sex. That's as true today as it was in 1903 when Edwin Burdick was found brutally bludgeoned in the den of his home. Soon, the nation would learn tha…
00:34:07 |
Mon 07 Feb 2022
S2 Ep4: Too Scandalous for the Papers: The Hix-Snook Case
Theora Hix was an enigma to those who knew her. She was witty, intelligent, and ambitious, but fiercely secretive. So when she turned up dead in the summer of 1926, investigators at first had no idea…
00:39:46 |
Mon 31 Jan 2022
S2 Ep3: Murder at Road Hill House
When a beloved 3-year-old boy went missing, only to be discovered soon after in an outhouse with his throat slit, suspicion at first settled on the child's nursemaid in a London-area town in 1860. Af…
00:40:32 |
Mon 24 Jan 2022
S2 Ep2: The Galvanizing Murder of Emmett Till
A fun-loving Chicago teenager convinced his mom to let him visit relatives in Mississippi over the summer of 1955. Three days after his arrival, 14-year-old Emmett Till was viciously murdered. Becaus…
00:43:11 |
Mon 17 Jan 2022
S2 Ep1: The Cleveland Torso Murders
On a crisp fall morning in 1935, two young boys made a grisly discovery in Kingsbury Run, an area in southeast Cleveland, Ohio. The boys, ages 16 and 12, had been playing catch but lost control of th…
00:43:02 |
Mon 10 Jan 2022
S1 Ep42: The Osage Nation Murders
When members of the incredibly wealthy Osage Nation started dropping dead of mysterious ailments in 1920s Oklahoma, few people in state power paid it much mind. After all, many of those who could do …
00:38:44 |
Mon 04 Oct 2021
S1 Ep41: Richard Biegenwald: The Jersey Shore Thrill Killer
It's possible no one would have known that Richard Biegenwald was a serial killer if he hadn't shown a dead woman's body to a friend he wanted to enlist as a murderous protege. Once police started di…
00:37:29 |
Mon 27 Sep 2021
S1 Ep40: Danny Rolling: The Gainesville Ripper
When five college students in Florida were brutally slain in a four-day span in 1990, it sent shockwaves across the nation as newscasters made comparisons to serial killer Ted Bundy. Police frantical…
00:41:02 |
Mon 20 Sep 2021
S1 Ep39: The Theft of the Mona Lisa
As soon as Leonardo da Vinci unveiled the Mona Lisa in the early 1500s, the art world recognized it as a masterpiece. But it wasn't until centuries later that her face became one of the most famous i…
00:36:49 |
Mon 13 Sep 2021
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