Let's Go To Court!

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Brandi really outdid herself this week by covering the most horrifying crime... ever???
James Urban Ruppert had a rough life. As he grew into adulthood, his struggles continued. He couldn’t hold a job. He couldn't maintain relationships. He had paranoid delusions. That all came to a head on Easter Sunday of 1975, when his entire extended family celebrated the holiday at his mother’s house.
Also, please cue the Golden Girls theme song for Brandi. She told our only case this week so that Kristin could spend time with her grandma.
And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.
In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“The 1975 Easter massacre: Uncle Jimmy Ruppert kills his family” by David J. Krajicek, New York Daily News
“CRIME HUNTER: Easter Sunday massacre of Ohio family stunned U.S.” by Brad Hunter, Toronto Sun
“James Ruppert” murderpedia.org
“Easter Sunday Massacre” wikipedia.org
“Mother, Brother Among James Ruppert’s Victims” by John R. Clark, The Cincinnati Enquirer
“Grandmother Still Haunted By Memory” by Janet C. Wetzel, The Cincinnati Enquirer
“Parole Hearing Not Due Til 95” by John R. Clark, The Cincinnati Enquirer
“Officials Share Bitter Memories Of Ritter Case” by John R. Clark, The Cincinnati Enquirer
“Ruppert Chronology” The Cincinnati Enquirer
“Living in a murder house: Hamilton mom copes with her home's dark past” by Maxim Alter, WCPO 9 News
YOU’RE STILL READING? My, my, my, you skeezy scunch! You must be hungry for more! We’d offer you some sausage brunch, but that gets messy. So how about you head over to our Patreon instead? (patreon.com/lgtcpodcast). At the $5 level, you’ll get 30+ full length bonus episodes, plus access to our 90’s style chat room!

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TW: Police Brutality
We don’t normally do trigger warnings, but we’re making an exception this week. In this episode, Brandi’s case very briefly mentions police brutality. The case is old timey and the alleged brutality wasn’t racially motivated, but in light of police officer Derek Chauvin’s recent murder of George Floyd and the protests that have followed, we figured some folks might like a heads up. Note: If it seems weird that we discuss police brutality without mentioning the current climate, that’s because we recorded this episode before the protests.
It was happening all around Chicago. People felt a little ill. So they took a Tylenol. A short time later, they dropped dead. Doctors were initially puzzled. Why were young, seemingly healthy people dying so suddenly? They soon found the unsettling answer. Someone -- or maybe multiple someones -- had gone to multiple Chicago-area grocery stores and drugstores, took the Tylenol off the shelves, and filled the capsules with poison. They then returned the poisoned Tylenol to the store shelves, where unsuspecting buyers picked it up.
Then Brandi tells us about Kansas City socialite Florence Barton. On an October night in 1920, Florence and her fiance Howard Winter went for a drive. They drove Howard’s Dodge Coupe through Swope Park, and eventually headed down a country road. When they stopped for Howard to smoke his cigar, a car pulled up alongside them. A man jumped out. He asked Howard for directions. As Howard answered, he realized that the man had a gun, and it was aimed right at him.
And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.
In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
“The Tylenol Terrorist,” by Rachael Bell on Crime Library
“Murder by Tylenol,” by Brian Anderson for Vice
“Home of man linked to Tylenol deaths searched,” the Associated Press
“James Lewis rape case reveals horrifying allegations,” by Laurel J. Sweet for the Boston Herald
In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“The 1920 murder of a socialite exposes a corrupt Kansas City” by Diane Euston, Martin City Telegraph
“Roberts Aids Defense Pleas of an Alibi” The Kansas City Kansan, newspapers.com
“Denzel Chester Freed of Murder” Sacramento Union, California Digital Newspaper Collection

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Mary Scott Castle was hot, rich, and well connected. But when she met a 21-year-old Porter Charlton, she was down on her luck. She’d just gotten divorced, and she’d blown her reputation to bits by shooting a man in the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria. But when Mary and Porter locked eyes, it was love at first sight. They got married a month later, and took off for a romantic European honeymoon. There was just one problem. Porter wasn’t so stable himself.
Then Brandi tells us about a horrific attack in a Lululemon store. It was March of 2011. Coworkers Brittany Norwood and Jayna Murray had just left the Lululemon Athletica store in Bethesda, Maryland, when Brittany realized that she’d left her wallet in the store. When she called Jayna to tell her what she’d done, Jayna was accommodating. She told Brittany she’d meet her back at the store. The pain re-entered the store, leaving the door unlocked behind them.
And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.
In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
“Lady in the lake” by Mara Bovsun The Daily News.
“The Murder of the Beautiful and Accomplished Mrs. Edith Woodhill, 1909,” written by Thomas Duke in 1910, posted to historicalcrimedetective.com
“Charlton Must go to Italy for Trial,” The Evening Times-Republican, June 10, 1913
“May Ask Wilson to Save Slayer,” The Washington Herald , June 11, 1913
“True Detective Tales: What is Justice? Murder at Romantic Como,” by Peter Levins for the Pittsburg Sun-Telegraph, April 24, 1940
“‘On Trial’ -- Omaha Boy in Spotlight,” The Omaha Sunday Bee, October 17, 1915
In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“Brittany Norwood” episode Snapped
“‘The Yoga Store Murder: The Shocking True Account of the Lululemon Athletica Killing’ by Dan Morse” by Daniel Stashower, The Washington Post
“Lululemon victim was alive through most of beating” by Andrea Noble, The Washington Times
“Brittany Norwood sentenced to life without parole” by Richard Reeve, WLJA 7 News
“Maryland Lululemon Store Gives ‘Love’ Memorial to Family of Woman Killed There” NBC4 Washington
“Lululemon Murder” wikipedia.org

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Kristin starts us off with the story of a hate crime that galvanized Asian Americans.
On the night of his bachelor party, Vincent Chin was brutally attacked by Michael Nitz and his stepdad, Ronald Ebens. Vincent died four days after the attack. He’d never regained consciousness. It was a horrific crime, but people in power didn’t see it that way. Michael and Ronald were sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay a little more than $3,000 in fines. The judge explained his decision, saying, “these weren’t the kind of men you send to jail.”
Then Brandi tells us a story from her very own Johnson County bubble.
Right off the bat, William Jennings’ death looked suspicious. He was discovered in his home, beaten so badly that his veneers had come off. He’d been strangled with the bars of a decorative bird cage. A suicide note specifically mentioned that his longtime partner, David Stagg, was not to be blamed. Naturally, investigators wondered if he was.
And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.
In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
The documentary, “Who Killed Vincent Chin?”
The book, “Asian American Studies Now,” by Helen Zia
“Vincent Chin’s family never got the justice they wanted. But his case changed things for those who came after him,” by Harmeet Kaur for CNN
“The Killing of Vincent Chin” trial reenactment by UC Hastings Law, on YouTube
“The Killing of Vincent Chin” entry on Wikipedia
In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“Former Westmar Professor Charged In Slaying” Associated Press, Sioux City Journal
“Professor charged in killing reported a suicide” by Diane Carroll, The Kansas City Star
“Murder suspect wins legal round” by Diane Carroll, The Kansas City Star
“Defense asks judge to throw out murder charge against professor” Associated Press, Lawrence Journal-World
“Trial begins for Missouri professor of music charged with killing lover” Associated Press, Lawrence Journal-World
“Professor’s trial ends in hung jury” Associated Press, The Manhattan Mercury
“Mo. professor faces new murder trial” Associated Press, The Wichita Eagle
“Prof on trial again in death of partner” Associated Press, The Manhattan Mercury
“Source of DNA is disputed” by Diane Carroll, The Kansas City Star
“Jurors unable to reach verdict in trial” Associated Press, Colby Free Press
“Murder trial ends with 2nd hung jury” by Caroline Boyer, Shawnee Dispatch
“No 3rd trial in 2004 Shawnee murder, judge rules” by Caroline Boyer, Shawnee Dispatch
YOU’RE STILL READING? My, my, my, you skeezy scunch! You must be hungry for more! We’d offer you some sausage brunch, but that gets messy. So how about you head over to our Patreon instead? (patreon.com/lgtcpodcast). At the $5 level, you’ll get 30+ full length bonus episodes, plus access to our 90’s style chat room!

WARNING: The audio in this episode is rough. What can we say? We were young(ish), dumb, and thought we’d save a little money by sharing one microphone. Yeah. The audio quality improves drastically after episode 9.
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In this episode, Kristin talks about world-class asshole D.C. Stephenson. Stephenson led the Klu Klux Klan through a period of unprecedented growth, but his violent crime against a white woman took him down. His trial captivated the nation and ultimately led to the downfall of the KKK’s second wave.
Brandi lightens things up (thank God), with everyone’s favorite Guess model/reality TV star/day shift stripper, Anna Nicole Smith. When she was just 26, Smith married an 89-year-old billionaire. When he died a year later, Smith battled her late husband’s descendants over her share of the estate. The case went all the way to the supreme court. Twice. Yeah. Buckle up, folks.
And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.
In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
“D.C. Stephenson Trial” Famous-trials.com
“Murder Wasn’t Very Pretty: The Rise and Fall of D.C. Stephenson” Smithsonian Magazine
IndianaHistory.org
“Citizen Klansmen: The Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, 1921-1928” By Leonard J. Moore
In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“Paw Paw and Lady Love” by Dan P. Lee for New York Magazine