Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

In November of 1971 a man who would come to be known as D.B. Cooper hijacked Northwest Orient Flight 305, ultimately parachuting out of the Boeing 727 in spectacular fashion, along with $200,000 in ransom money, presumably somewhere in Washington State. Who he was and what happened to him after he jumped is one of the most enduring true crime mysteries in American history.

My guests are Darren Schaefer, creator and host of "The Cooper Vortex" podcast, and George McKeon, author of "The Mystery of D.B. Cooper: A True Crime Adult Coloring Book". They tell the story of the hijacking, discuss some of the tantalizing clues left behind, and ruminate about possible suspects.

Subscribe to The Cooper Vortex on Apple Podcasts here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-cooper-vortex/id1439712498

and Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/5YRiVfMZX7hfVDSezq1aNo

George McKeon's book can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/Mystery-D-B-Cooper-Crime-Coloring/dp/1737712709

Become a Most Notorious patron: https://www.patreon.com/mostnotorious

Most Notorious website: https://www.mostnotorious.com/

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Eric Jay Dolin, returns to the show to share details from his new book, "Left for Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World". It's the true story of a wild and fateful encounter between an American sealing vessel, a shipwrecked British brig, and a British warship in the Falkland archipelago during the War of 1812.

Fraught with misunderstandings and mistrust, the incident left three British sailors and two Americans, including the captain of the sealer, Charles H. Barnard, abandoned in the barren, windswept, and inhospitable Falklands for a year and a half.

More about the author and all of his books can be found here at his website: https://www.ericjaydolin.com/

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Just after midnight on July 6, 1932, twenty-year-old Zachary Smith Reynolds, a renowned aviator and an heir to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco fortune, was shot in the family's summer home in what is now Winston-Salem, North Carolina. While some believed the moody young man had committed suicide, evidence suggested someone else had pulled the trigger, and eventually Reynolds' wife, Broadway actress Libby Holman, and his best friend, A.B. Walker, would be indicted for murder.

I'm joined by Phil Archer, the Betsy Main Babcock Deputy Director at Reynolda House Museum of American Art. He helped create Reynolda's popular exhibition, called "Smith & Libby: Two Rings, Seven Months, One Bullet", which can now be experienced in a condensed form on the very porch where Smith died.

More about the Reynolda Museum here: https://reynolda.org/

Watch the original exhibition trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bVYrVhMK7M&t=5s

Libby Holman sings the traditional folk song "House of the Rising Sun": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4ZGrlO7JU4

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On December 20th, 1963, the city of Lorain, Ohio was rocked by the tragic (and odd) death of Florence Bennett. Her husband Casper had found her dead in their bathtub, scalded in its water. He claimed it had been an accident, but police believed he had drowned her.

My guest, David Miraldi, author of the acclaimed book "The Edge of Innocence: The Casper Bennett Trial" has a very personal connection to the story. His father was a civil trial attorney who defended Bennett in his sensational murder trial.

More about the author and his work at his website: https://davidmiraldi.com/

The author's Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B074HFMMKV

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This is a MoNo Encore interview. Original release date: 11/10/2020.

On the morning of June 10, 1937, New York heiress Alice Parsons disappeared off the face of the earth. Investigators almost immediately suspected that Anna Kupryanova, the Russian housekeeper, and Alice's husband, William Parsons, knew more than they were letting on.

My guest is former NYPD detective and Hot Zone Attribution specialist Steven C. Drielak, and his book is called "Long Island’s Vanished Heiress: The Unsolved Alice Parsons Kidnapping". He shares his research and personal theories about one of New York's greatest unsolved mysteries.

The author's FB page: https://www.facebook.com/p/Steven-Drielak-100009174391095/

Become a Most Notorious patron at: https://www.patreon.com/mostnotorious

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