Southern Mysteries Podcast
Episodes
Episode 187 The Pascagoula Incident
30 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
On a quiet night in October 1973, two men fishing along the Pascagoula River in Mississippi walked into the sheriff’s office with a story that would...
Episode 186 The Marcia Trimble Murder
16 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In February 1975, nine-year-old Marcia Trimble vanished while delivering Girl Scout cookies in Nashville’s Green Hills neighborhood, shattering the ...
Episode 185 Spies of the Civil War - Rose Greenhow
02 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A storm‑tossed blockade‑runner, a satchel of Confederate gold, and a woman whose secrets shaped the early days of the Civil War—this episode unc...
Episode 184 Sheriff Without A Gun The Legacy of Thomas Gilmore
16 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In 1970, Thomas Gilmore became the first Black sheriff in rural Greene County, Alabama. He refused to carry a gun. How did a man of peace earn the tru...
Episode 183 The Vanishing of Virginia Carpenter
02 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In June 1948, 21-year-old Mary Virginia Carpenter left Texarkana for college in Denton, Texas. She was last seen after a taxi dropped her near Bracken...
Episode 182 Buried Alive on Edisto Island The Legend of Julia Legare
19 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Off the coast of South Carolina, on Edisto Island, a mausoleum at the back of an old churchyard has become the center of one of the state’s most per...
Episode 181 The Crimes of Winona Spriggs
22 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the summer of 1924, a railroad worker was found dead near tracks in Little Rock. Weeks later, his wife was found dead in another state. What follow...
Episode 180 The Kidnapping of Barbara Jane Mackle
08 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In December 1968, Barbara Jane Mackle was kidnapped from a motel room outside Atlanta, Georgia. The circumstances surrounding her abduction were so st...
Episode 179 The Mystery of Diamond Bessie
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1877, a young woman arrived in Jefferson, Texas, wearing diamonds and traveling with a man who claimed to be her husband. Days later, her body was ...
Episode 178 Little Boy Lost - The Disappearance of Kenneth Beasley
10 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1905, eight-year-old Kenneth Beasley, the son of North Carolina State Senator Samuel Beasley, walked out of his one-room schoolhouse in Poplar Bran...
Episode 177 Witch Legends of the South
27 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Across the South, the word witch has been used to explain what people fear and cannot control. For generations, healers, midwives, conjurers and root ...
Episode 176 The Mystery of the Surrency Poltergeist
20 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1872, the quiet Georgia town of Surrency became the center of one of America’s strangest mysteries. Inside the home of Allen Powell Surrency, gla...
Episode 175 Haunted Battlefields and Forts of the South
13 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Across the South, battlefields and forts still bear the weight of the wars fought upon them. In this episode of Southern Mysteries, explore the haunti...
Episode 174 Southern Asylums and the Spirits Within
06 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Across the South, asylums were built with the promise of healing — but inside their walls, countless lives were marked by fear, neglect, and cruelty...
Episode 173 The Forgotten Eleven of New Orleans
29 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1891, fear and anger in New Orleans boiled over after the murder of Police Chief David Hennessy. Within months, eleven Italian immigrants were dead...
Episode 172 The Chillingworth Murders
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In June 1955, Judge Curtis Chillingworth and his wife Marjorie vanished from their Manalapan, Florida, beach cottage. There were haunting clues, but n...
Episode 171 Dark Hollow - A Mississippi Murder Mystery
01 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In February 1922, a road crew in rural Copiah County, Mississippi, stumbled upon a horrifying scene—a woman’s charred remains hidden in a ravine k...
Episode 170 Vanished in Camden - The Disappearance of Maud Crawford
18 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1957, Arkansas attorney Maud Crawford vanished from her home in Camden without a trace. Her disappearance became one of the state’s most enduring...
Episode 169 The Bratcher Family Murders
04 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the spring of 1955, the quiet community of Warren County, Tennessee was shattered by the brutal murders of the Bratcher family. Henry Bratcher, his...
Episode 168 The Breckenridge-Pollard Scandal of 1894
21 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In spring 1894, a courtroom became the stage for a scandal that gripped the nation. Kentucky Congressman William Breckinridge faced a lawsuit from Mad...
Episode 167 A Widow's Stand in Georgia - The Story of Amy and Robert Mallard
07 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1948, Robert Mallard, a Black World War II veteran, was murdered by a white mob in Toombs County, Georgia. His wife, Amy Mallard, witnessed the att...
Episode 166 Lady Wonder The Psychic Horse
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1920s, a Virginia horse named Lady Wonder stunned the public with her supposed psychic powers - spelling out answers, solving crimes, even pick...
Episode 165 Buried Secrets - The Crimes of George Hassell
09 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the winter of 1926, the quiet town of Farwell, Texas was shaken by the discovery of nine bodies buried beneath a home. The man responsible, George ...
Mystery on Montford Avenue | Episode 4: Verdict and Aftermath | Southern Mysteries Serial
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the final episode of Mystery on Montford Avenue, we explore the fallout from the case and how this mystery faded into the shadows of Asheville’s ...
Mystery on Montford Avenue | Episode 3: Persecuted, Not Prosecuted | Southern Mysteries Serial
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the summer of 1927, Anna Montague stood trial for the death of Mary Cooper. As testimony unfolds, shocking evidence and conflicting accounts raise ...
Mystery on Montford Avenue | Episode 2: Rising Suspicions | Southern Mysteries Serial
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hours after Mary Cooper was buried in Riverside Cemetery, her case took a shocking turn. As investigators reexamine their theory, suspicion turns towa...
Mystery on Montford Avenue | Episode 1: Death of Mary Cooper | Southern Mysteries Serial
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In May 1927, the quiet Asheville, North Carolina neighborhood of Montford was rocked by a shocking discovery. Mary Cooper—a respected widow known fo...
Coming Soon: Southern Mysteries Serial: Mystery on Montford Avenue
28 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A woman’s death. A city's fear. A mystery that refused to be forgotten. This May, join me for Southern Mysteries Serial: Mystery on Montford Avenue ...
Episode 164 Circus Tragedies and Mysteries of the South
28 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The American circus promised wonder and spectacle—but behind the big top was a hidden world of danger, tragedy, and loss. In this episode, we explor...
Episode 163 Toni Jo Henry Louisiana's Femme Fatale
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1942, the state of Louisiana executed a woman in the electric chair for the first and only time in its history. She was young, beautiful, and utter...
Episode 162: Vanished in the Smokies - The Mysterious Disappearance of Polly Melton
31 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A cool September afternoon on a trail in Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Three friends are chatting as they hike. And then… in minutes, one of t...
Episode 161 Murder in Sebring - The William Carver Murder Trials
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Carver Murder Trial of 1930 drew national attention for its brutality and mystery. Ruth Carver, her two-year-old son Lee, and family employee Ben ...
Episode 160 Lincoln’s Rebel Relatives: When Family Stood on Opposing Sides
03 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Explore the surprising family ties that connected Abraham Lincoln to the Confederacy. While Lincoln fought to preserve the Union, his wife, Mary Todd ...
Episode 159 Unraveling the Mystery of Dr. Death and the York Family
17 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On a sunny May morning in 1947, a doctor from San Antonio ambushed Willard York and his family near New Braunfels, Texas. The doctor's plan to kill th...
Episode 158 The Louisville Torture House
03 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 T...
Episode 157 Murder at the Richards Mansion
20 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Over 80 years ago, a coal mining town in Tennessee was rocked by the murders of two wealthy sisters and their 16-year-old houseworker. Who had the mot...
Episode 156 Blame No One But I: The Lawson Family Murders
16 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On Christmas Day in 1929, the community of Germanton, North Carolina, was forever changed by the tragic murders of seven members of the Lawson family....
Episode 155 Appalachian Outlaw Kinnie Wagner
02 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Meet Kinnie Wagner, a lesser known outlaw of the 1920s. Folk songs were written about him in the 1920s and he gained legendary status by escaping jail...
Episode 154 The Curious Case of Condy Dabney
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On a sweltering day in August 1925, Mary Vickery vanished from Coxton, Kentucky. Several months later, her remains were found in an abandoned mine loc...
Episode 153 The First Female Serial Killer in Texas
04 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Anna Hauptrief was the first known female serial killer in Texas. Her 1924 case was known as one of the most sensational and unexplainable in Texas co...
Episode 152 Cyrus Teed and the Koreshan Unity
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Koreshan State Historic Site in Estero, Florida is one of the most peculiar historic sites in the American South. This state park showcases the li...
Episode 151 The Mystery of the Witch of Yazoo City
09 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In May 1904, the residents of Yazoo City, Mississippi witnessed a devastating fire that destroyed half of their town. This fire was believed to be the...
Episode 150 The Mystery of the Sensational Co-Ed Murder
26 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
State Solicitor George Bailes described the murder of Faye New as the most heinous crime ever committed in Jefferson County, Alabama. Faye New's story...
Episode 149 The Mysterious Disappearance of David Glenn Lewis
12 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Southern Mysteries, host Shannon Ballard delves into the perplexing case of David Glenn Lewis, a well-respected lawyer from Amarill...
Episode 148 The Mysterious Death of Mary Ravenel
29 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The death of Mary Ravenel remains one of Charleston’s most baffling mysteries. The 64 year old widow was found slumped on the sidewalk near her home...
Episode 147 Helen Spence Arkansas Delta Folk Hero
27 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1931, 18 year old Helen Spence became a household name, and Arkansas folk hero, after she sought vengeance for the death of her father and stepmoth...
Episode 146 Dr. Feist and Mrs. Mangrum
13 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Jacob Herman Feist was one of Nashville’s most eligible bachelors when he was accused of murder following the disappearance of his lover, Mrs. M...
Episode 145 The Mystery of the Wagner Murders
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On May 4, 1931, William and Mamie Wagner were murdered at their home in northwest Mississippi. The Jackson Clarion-Ledger called the murders of one ...
Episode 144 The Disappearance of the Nelms Sisters
15 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Nelms Sisters Mystery is one of the most sensational mysteries of the early 20th century, that most people have never heard of. In the summer of 1...
Episode 143 Battle of Blair Mountain
01 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Battle of Blair Mountain, in the summer of 1921, was one of the largest civil uprisings in American History. Violent attacks on Appalachian miners...
Episode 142 The Mysterious Disappearance of Ruth Dorsey
18 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The disappearance of 67 year old Ruth Dorsey has perplexed her family, friends and Lee County, Alabama law enforcement for half a century. In the summ...
Episode 141 The New Orleans Trunk Murders
04 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The New Orleans Trunk Murders are a long forgotten dark chapter in the city's history. The gruesome discovery of two dismembered bodies in the French ...
Episode 140 William and Ellen Craft - Desperate Leap to Liberty
19 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
William and Ellen Craft escaped slavery in Macon, Georgia by traveling to Philadelphia in 1848. Ellen, the light skinned daughter of her mixed race mo...
Episode 139 Who Killed Betty Gail Brown?
05 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Betty Gail Brown was a sophomore at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky when she was murdered on campus in 1961.Betty Gail’s murder has h...
Episode 138 The Murder of Fannie McCue
22 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On September 4, 1904, Fannie McCue was found dead in a bathtub at the McCue home in Charlottesville, Virginia. Within months a man was arrested, convi...
Episode 137 Myra Clark and The Great Gaines Case
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Great Gaines Case remains the longest civil litigation in US History. The nearly six decade long court battle involved a wealthy Louisiana politic...
Southern Mysteries Classics The Kidnapping of Alice Speed Stoll
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
One of the biggest news stories in October 1934 was the kidnapping of Alice Speed Stoll from her home in Louisville, Kentucky. Seven days later she wa...
Episode 136 The Murder of Stringbean Akeman The Kentucky Wonder
13 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
David Stringbean Akeman was one of the biggest stars on the Grand Ole Opry throughout the 1950s. The accomplished banjo player rose to national fame t...
Episode 135 The Legs Murder Scandal
30 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The death of Daisy Keeton is one of Mississippi’s most horrifying murder mysteries. In January Daisy Keeton disappeared. Days later mutilated remain...
Episode 134 Haunted Savannah The City That Lives Upon The Dead
16 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Savannah is Georgia’s first city and one of America’s most haunted. If you visit Savannah’s historic district and stroll the city squares, at so...
Episode 133 The Shocking Smith Family Massacre
02 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Demopolis, a small town in West Central Alabama, is the home to many a tale of ghosts and the unexplained, including at Bluff Hall. There is a dark hi...
Episode 132 The Flapper Bandit
18 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On December 11, 1926 a small town bank near Austin, Texas was robbed at gunpoint by a 21 year old college student Rebecca Bradley. She wasn’t the ty...
Southern Mysteries Classic Three Sisters in Black
04 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Meet sisters Caroline Martin, Virginia Wardlaw and Mary Snead. They left a long trail of devastation and death of family members from Kentucky to Tenn...
Episode 131 Otto Wood The Hillbilly Houdini
21 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Otto Wood was a self–proclaimed one armed-bandit from North Carolina. He made a name for himself as a bootlegger who loved stealing from the rich. B...
Episode 130 The 1964 Freedom Summer Murders
07 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In June 1964, the Ku Klux Klan conspired with law enforcement in Neshoba County, Mississippi to kidnap and murder three young civil rights workers. Ja...
Southern Mysteries Classics The Widow of Hazel Green
24 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This 2020 episode is one of the most popular in the Southern Mysteries archive. It tells the story of Elizabeth Dale. Between the 1830s and 1850s, she...
Episode 129 The Walker Family Murders
19 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1959 Osprey, Florida was shaken by the murder of the Walker Family, just days before Christmas. The quadruple murder remains unsolved. Some investi...
Episode 128 The Kentucky Tragedy
05 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The murder of Solomon P. Sharp by Jereboam Beauchamp is known as The Kentucky Tragedy. It’s a complicated story of seduction, politics, love and exe...
Episode 127 The Butcher of Elmendorf
15 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The story of Joe Ball has been a part of Texas lore since the 1930s. He’s known to have killed two people but investigators believed he may have kil...
Episode 126 George Stinney, Jr
01 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1944, George Stinney Jr. was wrongfully convicted of murder and executed by the state of South Carolina. The 14 year old was the youngest person to...
Patreon Preview Audacious Chapter 1 The Man in the Attic
24 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A sensational tale of obsession, murder and a secret lover were front page news in the summer of 1922. At the center of it all was Walburga Oesterreic...
Episode 125 The Mysterious Disappearance of Jane Rowell
10 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Easter marked the 60th anniversary of the disappearance of 22 year old Hannah Jane Rowell. Her estranged husband believed Jane abandoned the family to...
Episode 123 Lena Clarke The Murdering Postmistress
13 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1920 Lena Clarke made history when she became the first woman to be named postmaster of West Palm Beach, Florida. Within a year, she gained notorie...
Episode 122 Henrietta Wood and Elizabeth Key
27 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There are lesser known stories of enslaved men and women who fought for their freedom in court. Elizabeth Key was at the center of one of the most imp...
Episode 121 Harry Powers The Bluebeard of Quiet Dell
13 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1930s Harry Powers used several aliases to correspond with lonely women he promised to marry. In 1931 five bodies were discovered on his Quiet ...
Episode 120 The Disappearance of Alma Kellner
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On a cold December day in 1909, eight year old Alma Kellner walked five blocks from her parents home in Louisville, Kentucky to St. John’s Church. S...
Episode 119 The Scottsboro Boys
16 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In November 2012, the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles pardoned three black men who had been wrongly convicted of assaulting two white women in 19...
Episode 117 The Disappearance of Mary Shotwell Little
19 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The 1965 disappearance of Mary Little remains one of Georgia’s most mysterious missing person cases. On October 14, 1965 Mary spent the day working,...
Episode 116 The Murder of Mamie Thurman
14 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been 90 years since Mamie Thurman was brutally murdered in Logan County, West Virginia. While investigating the murder of the wife of a local p...
Episode 115 The Sinister Bell Witch
31 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Bell Witch legend is one of the most recognized examples of the unexplained in Southern American lore. How did the legend take hold of and define ...
Southern Mysteries Shorts Rhonda Belle Martin
04 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Southern Mysteries is on hiatus. I’m taking a much needed break from researching murders and mysteries this summer. I’ll be back with new episodes...
Episode 114 The Shelton Laurel Massacre
20 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Shelton Laurel Massacre in January 1863 is a striking example of divided loyalists and complicated battle lines in North Carolina during the Civil...
Episode 113 Sumter County Does
06 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the summer of 1976 two bodies were discovered in rural Sumter County, South Carolina. Their identities remained a mystery for nearly 45 years Wa...
Episode 112 The Color Line Murders
23 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Some of the oldest true crime cases in America are racial terror lynchings. To understand the history of lynching in the American South you have to kn...
Episode 111 The 1912 Hillsville Massacre
09 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Hillsville Massacre has been described as one of the most bizarre incidents in Virginia criminal and legal history. Floyd Allen, the patriarch of ...
Episode 110 Mississippi Royalty King and Queen of the Gypsies
25 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Emil and Kelly Mitchell, known as the King and Queen of the Gypsies, have long been a part of Meridian, Mississippi lore but their story is complicate...
Episode 109 Bloody Bob Sims and The Sims War
11 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the late 1880s Bob Sims declared himself a prophet with more than 100 followers in his Choctaw County Alabama cult. His belief that no man could es...
Episode 108 The Mysterious Disappearance of Pearl Corens
28 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Pearl Corens disappeared on February 13, 1945. Over the next two weeks mysterious notes perplexed police as they searched for the missing war departme...
Episode 107 FBI Most Wanted Mean Marie Arrington
14 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In April 1969, Marie Arrington became the second woman ever placed on the FBI’s most wanted list. One year earlier she was sentenced to 20 years in ...
Episode 106 The Singing Slayer of the South
28 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Kenneth Neu loved two things: music and himself. He was a talented singer and dreamed of becoming a star with his name in newspapers and his voice on ...
Episode 105 The Six Triple Eight
14 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, nicknamed the "Six Triple Eight", was the only all-black, all-female battalion overseas during World Wa...
Episode 104 The Legend of the Bloody Mausoleum
31 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A Gothic revival church in downtown Cleveland, Tennessee was built in 1873 and dedicated in memory of 7-year-old Nina Craigmiles who died in 1871. The...
Episode 103 The Sultana Disaster
17 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The worst maritime disaster in US history occurred on April 27, 1865. Overshadowed by the end of the Civil War and assassination of President Lincoln,...
Show Update and Patreon Preview
20 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Show update and preview of patron exclusive Southern Mysteries Shorts. Meet the most remarkable survivor of the Civil War Support The Show Want more ...
Episode 102 The Hawes Horror
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In December 1888 Birmingham leaders faced their greatest challenge in the city’s seventeen years of existence...sensational murders that gained nati...
Episode 101 Sleepwalking Killer of Covington Kentucky
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In August 1943, 15 year old Joan Kiger was accused of murdering her father and younger brother. Her attorney claimed the sleepwalking defense - that J...
Episode 100 What Lies Beneath the Surface of Lake Lanier
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Lake Lanier is one of the deadliest lakes in America. Some swear it's haunted by the spirits of those whose lives tragically ended in the lake. Others...
Episode 99 The Man Who Stole Halloween
25 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nearly fifty years ago the country mourned eight year old Timothy O’Bryan who died in his Texas home after eating poisoned trick or treat candy on H...