))
Jefferson County, Missouri is located just a few miles south of St. Louis. Yet, beneath its sleepy rural small town history lie the stories of over 200 years of murder, mystery, and intrigue. Each Tuesday, at 5:00 pm, Central Time, the Jefferson County Library Genealogy Department will share the details of the more sinister events of the county's history.
…
continue reading
On a hot August morning in 1958, Harry Stoll made a grisly discovery--the bludgeoned body of a woman lying on the side of a back road in Dittmer, Missouri. Did someone get away with murder? Be sure to visit our sister site: Old Fashioned Murder and Mayhem https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2109079.rss Be sure to visit our sister site: Old Fashioned Murde…
…
continue reading
Crystal City High School graduate Louis Otto was celebrating his 19th birthday when he picked up a hitchhiker. That decision cost the young man his life. Be sure to visit our sister site: Old Fashioned Murder and Mayhem https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2109079.rss Be sure to visit our sister site: Old Fashioned Murder and Mayhem https://feeds.buzzsprou…
…
continue reading
Jimmie Toy and Jacob Ringer were only teens when violence broke out on Christmas Day in 1840 at N. B. Franklin's general store in Little Rock Township. The hot-headed youths' teasing quickly turned into murder setting off a legacy of tragedy for decades in the Toy family. Be sure to visit our sister site: Old Fashioned Murder and Mayhem https://fee…
…
continue reading
The Missouri Territory held the promise of untold wealth for pioneers who were as enterprising as they were fierce. Few today have heard of John Smith T; however, his legendary exploits included a mixture of Southern gentleman and savage opportunist. Discover the fascinating story of Missouri's Lead Belt rivalry. Be sure to visit our sister site: O…
…
continue reading
Highway 61 is also known as the Blues Highway. In 1931, it was also a corridor for would-be gangsters and bootleggers to make a quick buck. Young lovers, Earl Snodgrass and Opal Stacy formed a pre-Bonnie and Clyde duo which foreshadowed the more infamous couples' demise. Be sure to visit our sister site: Old Fashioned Murder and Mayhem https://feed…
…
continue reading
Petite, but scrappy, Helen Vachuda proved she could take care of herself when she shot and killed her abusive stepfather in 1929 in Barnhart, Missouri. Be sure to visit our sister site: Old Fashioned Murder and Mayhem https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2109079.rssPor Mindy Hudson
…
continue reading
Was it murder or was it an accident? Ora and Russell Becker were having marital difficulties when her brother Clarence Cook stepped in to chase his wayward brother-in-law off the property. What happened next left behind a young widow and a fatherless child. Be sure to visit our sister site: Old Fashioned Murder and Mayhem https://feeds.buzzsprout.c…
…
continue reading
Successful DeSoto, Missouri businessman Sol Hohenthal had no trouble finding pretty, young ladies willing to overlook his violent temper to be seen draped on his arm at the fashionable restaurants and clubs in Prohibition-era St. Louis. When 25-year-old Pearl Potoskey was found dead on his dining room floor under mysterious circumstances, the tongu…
…
continue reading
The aftermath of the Civil War in America left thousands of children in need of homes. By the 1870s, various societies had formed to seek families willing to take in orphans. While there were obviously successful adoptions, there were also those that ended in horror and tragedy. Such was the case of the adoption of the Taylor children. The fate of …
…
continue reading
Booze, broads, bootleggers, and bank robbers were all part of the "roaring twenties" in the U. S. A. and even in Jefferson County, Missouri. Before Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, or Baby Face Nelson, there was the sensational bank heist of Citizen's Bank in Festus, Missouri. The robbery was complete with a wild car chase, a shootout, and a hid…
…
continue reading
Season Two of Murder and Mayhem in Jefferson County, Missouri begins with the tale of the murder of Virgil Romine in 1929. As he lay dying, he identified the killers as a couple of local troublemakers, but could he have been wrong? Discover the fascinating story of how one petty crime led to very harsh punishment, and what really happened in old to…
…
continue reading
Prudence Marrs Bevis was not your typical witch. When Thomas Bevis, founder of Victoria, Missouri, brought his young bride home, the local residents were convinced she was a witch. Every bad thing that happened in the community was blamed on her. Did she truly practice black magic, or was she a victim of superstition and ignorance? The story of Que…
…
continue reading
Bertha Gifford, the attractive wife of Eugene Gifford, was born and raised in Morse Mill, Jefferson County, Missouri. After the death of her first husband, Henry Graham, she and Eugene married and moved to Catawissa, Franklin County, Missouri where Bertha earned the reputation as an "angel of mercy" tending to sick within the community. Trouble was…
…
continue reading
Bertha Gifford is remembered as one of the first alleged female serial killers in Missouri history. Born in Morse Mill, Jefferson County, Missouri, her beauty and strong personality made her one of the most popular young women in the small community. But it was the series of mysterious deaths that followed her throughout her life that turned her in…
…
continue reading
Joseph "Buck' Newell was one of St. Louis's most notorious labor bosses. He ruled the AFL Hoisters Union with an iron fist, and controversy and violence followed in his wake. In 1927, he married an exotic beauty, Juanita Jeraldine Grasswick, a widow with a young son and lavished her with all the comforts and expensive gifts money could buy. But he …
…
continue reading
Mrs. Sadie Greenhill Uren was a pretty, young divorcee' whose newfound freedom also brought the attentions of several eligible young men to her door. Her delight about this turn of events was not shared by her brothers, Will and Dan Greenhill, who would rather have seen her dead than living so scandalously. On the night of September 28, 1901, a vis…
…
continue reading
When Andrew Deck decided to help Prohibition agents in Herculaneum, Missouri by informing on local bootleggers, he was gunned down in front of his young son. It is a story filled with twists and turns, and quite a few shocking surprises! Be sure to visit our sister site: Old Fashioned Murder and Mayhem https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2109079.rss…
…
continue reading
When the Prohibition law went into effect in 1920, production, sell, and transportation of alcohol went underground and the birth of the mobster era followed. Private Supper Clubs, Speakeasies, and hidden rooms in soda shops continued to supply the demand. A mere 25 miles from St. Louis, Jefferson County, Missouri became an ideal location for produ…
…
continue reading
Mack Marsden and Allen Hensley were members of well-respected pioneer Jefferson County families, but they were also suspects in a notorious hog-stealing gang that were also responsible for arson and murder. When they met their fate on Frisco Hill in 1883, the identity of their killers left more questions than answers. Hear the story of theft, arson…
…
continue reading
Missouri, the Compromise State, was overrun with vigilante justice during and after the period of Civil War. Whether sympathies lay with the Union or Rebel causes, no one was safe from becoming the victim of mob rule. Sam Hildebrand, great-great-grandson of Jefferson County's original pioneer became the target of the Big River Vigilance Committee o…
…
continue reading
The 1860s brought war and lawlessness to Jefferson County, Missouri. On February 15, 1869, law abiding citizens had grown weary of waiting for justice. When two murder suspects were held in the local jail, several men from Jefferson and Washington Counties decided to take the law into their own hands. The result was one of the most shocking events …
…
continue reading
The small river community of Morse Mill, Missouri was caught up in the drama of unrest in 1862, when civil unrest within the country boiled over into neighborhoods and family relationships. That year claimed the lives of three members of the Samuel Eoff family. One son was claimed by war, another son was claimed by murder, and the patriarch of the …
…
continue reading
Missouri was the ancestral home of several native tribes, among them the Osage who were one of the most revered and feared tribes in the Midwest. The early nineteenth century brought the arrival of the European pioneers whose hunger for land and a place to raise their families created a clash of cultures, causing sorrow for both. The small town of …
…
continue reading
Martin Hunning was shot in the head as he answered the telephone he'd just had installed in his home in Murphy, Missouri early December 1911. His wife Annie heard the shattering glass and ran into the room to find her husband dead on the floor. Why would anyone want to kill "Jolly Martin?" Was it an act of revenge or cold-blooded murder? Be sure to…
…
continue reading
Newlyweds Louis Bonacker and Josephine Glatt had barely started their lives when they made the mistake of allowing someone to stay overnight in their little rented cabin. Their kindness was repaid with a brutal double murder. Who would do such a thing? And why? Be sure to visit our sister site: Old Fashioned Murder and Mayhem https://feeds.buzzspro…
…
continue reading
On a hot July morning in 1880, Andrew Wilson and his young, pregnant lover, Martha Schulz, were gunned down by an assassin hiding in the cornfield near Ware Church Road in Jefferson County, Missouri. Could this act have been retaliation for the shameful way Wilson had treated his wife, Sarah, who was a descendant of several of the oldest families i…
…
continue reading
Early in the morning of September 1, 1872, Henry Gasche of Hillsboro, Missouri, was brutally attacked in his bed by a blow from an ax. His wife, Caroline McFry Gasche was the prime suspect. Was she a cold blooded killer or a very sick woman? Decide for yourself, as the Jefferson County Library Genealogy Department presents the first episode of Murd…
…
continue reading
