Wicked Words - A True Crime Talk Show with Kate Winkler Dawson

At the height of the Great Depression, an oil mogul from LA decided to escape society with his mistress to create their own utopia on a faraway land. The problems started with other people following them there. My friend, Abbott Kahler, is my guest today. She used to write under the name: Karen Abbott. Abbott tells me the story at the center of her book: Eden Undone A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II.  Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/4gF2K18  See more information on my books: katewinklerdawson.com   Follow me on social: @tenfoldmore (Twitter) / @wickedwordspod (Facebook) / @tenfoldmorewicked (Instagram)   2024 All Rights Reserved  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005. Four years later, a young prosecutor in the Justice Department was drawn into examining a mysterious death after the storm. Henry Glover was found dead in a burned-out car two weeks after Katrina. And who he was last seen with became the center of controversy and reform. Jared Fishman tells me the story from his book: Fire on the Levee.   Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/4gF2K18 See more information on my books: katewinklerdawson.com   Follow me on social: @tenfoldmore (Twitter) / @wickedwordspod (Facebook) / @tenfoldmorewicked (Instagram)  2024 All Rights Reserved  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’ve said this many times: unsolved cases frustrate me. I need a solution, or a conclusion. But cold cases are so important: and my next guest wants to talk about missing women…several that are more than 100 years old. And she can use our help. Author Kathleen Brunelle tells me about her book called: She’s Gone: Five Mysterious Twentieth- Century Cold Cases.   Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/4gF2K18 See more information on my books: katewinklerdawson.com  Follow me on social: @tenfoldmore (Twitter) / @wickedwordspod (Facebook) / @tenfoldmorewicked (Instagram)   2024 All Rights Reserved Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For this episode of Wicked Words, we travel to India, where some of the world’s most complicated, most compelling true crime stories come from. This story is one of those. It’s about a female grifter, turned killer, who seduced men for money, but murdered one…out of fear. The book we’re talking about is called Swipe Right to Kill. The author is Anirban Bhattacharyya.   Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/4gF2K18   See more information on my books: katewinklerdawson.com   Follow me on social: @tenfoldmore (Twitter) / @wickedwordspod (Facebook) / @tenfoldmorewicked (Instagram)   2024 All Rights Reserved  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Filmmaker Colin Archdeacon had an unusual relationship with convicted killer named Grant Amato in Florida. Amato murdered his parents and his brother in 2018. And the media blamed his obsession with a cam model. But Archdeacon found out that Amato had very different motive. Let’s find out more about the three part series, Ctrl+Alt+Desire on Paramount +.    Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/4gF2K18 See more information on my books: katewinklerdawson.com   Follow me on social: @tenfoldmore (Twitter) / @wickedwordspod (Facebook) / @tenfoldmorewicked (Instagram)   2024 All Rights Reserved  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is one of the most shocking unsolved missing-child cases in the world. A 7-year-old boy named Kyron Horman went missing in 2010 in Portland, Oregon and he’s never been found. The last person to see him was his stepmother. Author Rebecca Morris details Kyron’s story and the mystery of his disappearance in her book, Boy Missing: The Search for Kyron Horman. Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/4gF2K18 See more information on my books: katewinklerdawson.com   Follow me on social: @tenfoldmore (Twitter) / @wickedwordspod (Facebook) / @tenfoldmorewicked (Instagram)   2024 All Rights Reserved   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I love a good murder story set in the South and this is an intense one. It centers on a vicious murder in a crumbling Kentucky mansion and a killer who managed to cover it up for months. Author David Domine writes about it in his book: A Dark Room in Glitter Ball City: Murder, Secrets, and Scandal in Old Louisville.  Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/4gF2K18 See more information on my books: katewinklerdawson.com   Follow me on social: @tenfoldmore (Twitter) / @wickedwordspod (Facebook) / @tenfoldmorewicked (Instagram)   2024 All Rights Reserved  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re now digging into a real Texas story. We’re talking about a brazen jewel thief in the 1960s who burgled some of the wealthiest homes in Dallas. But he was an odd thief. Sometimes he took just one diamond earring, probably because he knew it would ruin the set. He would put down a towel so he wouldn’t sully an expensive chair by stepping on it. Who was this jewel thief? Author Rena Pederson unfurls the story in her book, The King of Diamonds: The Search for the Elusive Texas Jewel Thief.  Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/4gF2K18  See more information on my books: katewinklerdawson.com   Follow me on social: @tenfoldmore (Twitter) / @wickedwordspod (Facebook) / @tenfoldmorewicked (Instagram)   2024 All Rights Reserved  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This next story needs a trigger warning: it’s about the grooming and the sexual assault of children. But it was an important case in Australia and author Hedley Thomas tells it well. He details the murder case of Chris Dawson in his book The Teacher’s Pet. It was based on Henley’s record-breaking podcast that eventually attracted the attention of the Australian government.    Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/4gF2K18 See more information on my books: katewinklerdawson.com   Follow me on social: @tenfoldmore (Twitter) / @wickedwordspod (Facebook) / @tenfoldmorewicked (Instagram)   2024 All Rights Reserved  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the summer of 1967, a family of nine was murdered in their home by a stranger in rural Canada. It was one of the worse random mass murders in the country’s history. There’s a podcast that covers the whole story called “The Shell Lake Massacre.” The host, Brittany Caffet, grew up not far from Shell Lake. And she has a very personal connection to the story…she’s close to one of the survivors.   Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/4gF2K18 See more information on my books: katewinklerdawson.com   Follow me on social: @tenfoldmore (Twitter) / @wickedwordspod (Facebook) / @tenfoldmorewicked (Instagram)   2024 All Rights Reserved  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A murder conspiracy in China is at the center of a fascinating true crime story involving politics, greed and deception. There are no heroes in this book, but boy, what a drama. Author Wenguang Huang tells me about his fantastic book, A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel: Murder, Money, and an Epic Power Struggle in China.  Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/4gF2K18 See more information on my books: katewinklerdawson.com   Follow me on social: @tenfoldmore (Twitter) / @wickedwordspod (Facebook) / @tenfoldmorewicked (Instagram)   2024 All Rights Reserved  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I had never heard of the tragic case of former Vaudeville star Vivian Gordon in 1930s New York. She had threatened some of the city’s most powerful men and at least one of them wanted her dead. Her murder in 1931 caused the downfall of the mayor of New York City. Author Michael Wolraich wrote a book about Gordon and her death called: The Bishop and the Butterfly Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age.  Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/4gF2K18  See more information on my books: katewinklerdawson.com   Follow me on social: @tenfoldmore (Twitter) / @wickedwordspod (Facebook) / @tenfoldmorewicked (Instagram)   2024 All Rights Reserved  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’ve listened to many versions of the story of the Murdaugh dynasty and I’m always interested in hearing new, fresh details. Well, author and podcast host Mandy Matney didn’t disappoint with her book, Blood on Their Hands: Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty. She told me details that I’ve never heard before after she talked with countless locals in the low country of South Carolina.  Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/4gF2K18 See more information on my books: katewinklerdawson.com  Follow me on social: @tenfoldmore (Twitter) / @wickedwordspod (Facebook) / @tenfoldmorewicked (Instagram)   2024 All Rights Reserved  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the most interesting aspects of true crime is how we’re able to explore cultures and societies that are unfamiliar to us. That was the case for me when I talked with author Gregg Olsen about his book, The Amish Wife. It’s about a killer in the Amish community in Pennsylvania. There are many twists and turns in this story, I promise.   Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/4gF2K18 See more information on my books: katewinklerdawson.com   Follow me on social: @tenfoldmore (Twitter) / @wickedwordspod (Facebook) / @tenfoldmorewicked (Instagram)   2024 All Rights Reserved  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Several years ago, Patricia Cornwell wrote a book about Jack the Ripper called, Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper, Case Closed.  This book presents Patricia’s opinion on his identity based on her extensive research. She believes that Jack the Ripper was a German-British artist named Walter Sickert. A controversial opinion, according to some Ripperologists. In this episode with the author, you’ll hear why.  Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/4gF2K18 See more information on my books: katewinklerdawson.com  Follow me on social: @tenfoldmore (Twitter) / @wickedwordspod (Facebook) / @tenfoldmorewicked (Instagram)  2024 All Rights Reserved  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices