One of the strangest cases in all their years of police work. Those were the words of seasoned detectives in Louisville, Kentucky, who worked on the Torture House case. A century ago, this case made national headlines when Richard Heaton was murdered by William Gates, who had been kidnapped and held in a home on 34th Street in Louisville.

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Episode Sources

• New York Times: Shackled to Bed, Man Gets Free Kills Captor, March 9, 1924


• New York Times: Slayer of Heaton Cleare; Coroner's Jury Finds Killing Justifiable to Escape Mutilation, March 15,1924


• Paducah News-Democrat: Gates freed of murder charge, March 16, 1924


• Florence Morning News: Gates admit visit with Heaton to Lake City, March 16,1924


• The Winchester Sun: Gates arrested after freedom on new warrant, March 17, 1924


• The Owensboro Messenger: Gates is held on fugitive charge, March 18, 1924


• The Frankfort State Journal: Gates Tells of Trips to Texas and South, April 9, 1924


• The Louisiana Herald: Lake City Expecting William Gates, April 24, 1924


• The Lousiville Courier-Journal: Gates Bares Torture Plot Details; Hidden Pistol Saved Victim From Heaton;, March 10, 1924


• The Louisville Courier-Journal: Frank Cordell on Trial, April 9, 1924


• Historical Crime Detective: The Torture House 1924


• FindAGrave.com: Richard Hartwell Heaton


• FindAGrave.com: Mary Leahy Wiesen Heaton

Episode Music Out of the Mines, courtesy of Ross Gentry, Asheville, North Carolina.