In 1670s Paris, the deaths of a noblewoman’s father and brothers sparked fears of a hidden poison network. As police investigated, they were drawn into a world of fortune-tellers, love powders, secret remedies, and La Voisin , setting the stage for a scandal that would reach Louis XIV’s court.

Source Materials

Anne Somerset, The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide, and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV

Holly Tucker, City of Light, City of Poison: Murder, Magic, and the First Police Chief of Paris

Antonia Fraser, Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King

Nancy Mitford, The Sun King: Louis XIV at Versailles

Benedetta Faedi Duramy, “Women and Poisons in 17th Century France,” Chicago-Kent Law Review, Vol. 87, No. 2, 2012

Erika Carroll, “Potions, Poisons and ‘Inheritance Powders’: How Chemical Discourses

Entangled 17th Century France in the Brinvilliers Trial and the Poison Affair,” Voces Novae, 2012

When Louise Bailey was shot through the window of a Long Island doctor's office in 1914, suspicion quickly fell on the physician's wife, Florence Carman. But with no eyewitness, no confession, and a case built largely on circumstantial evidence, two juries were left to decide whether suspicion was enough. More than a century later, Louise Bailey's murder remains unsolved.

Source Materials

The New York Times (1914–1915 coverage of the Florence Carman trials)

Chicago Day Book (1914 coverage)

Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1914–1915 coverage)

The Evening World (1914–1915 coverage)

New York Tribune (1914–1915 coverage)

The Sun (New York) (1914–1915 coverage)

The Buffalo Times (1914–1915 coverage)

The Washington Times (1914–1915 coverage)

The Tacoma Times (1914–1915 coverage)

The Freeport Memorial Library Local History Collection

Murderpedia: Florence Carman

Historic newspaper archives accessed through Newspapers.com and Library of Congress Chronicling America

In 1922, Fred Oesterreich was found shot to death in his Los Angeles home. His wife claimed burglars were responsible, but investigators had doubts. Nearly eight years later, a shocking discovery reopened the case: another man had beenliving in secret inside the house for years. This is the extraordinary story of Dolly Oesterreich, Otto Sanhuber, and one of the strangest murder cases of the twentieth century.

Historical True Crime was selected as one of FeedSpot's Top 60 Historical Mysteries Podcasts. FeedSpot helps you find the best podcasts on the web: https://podcast.feedspot.com/

Source Materials

Wolf, Marvin J. & Mader, Katherine M. Fallen Angels: The True Story of California's Most Bizarre and Spectacular Murder Cases

Parrish, Michael. For the People: A Social History of the American Criminal Justice System

Rasmussen, Cecilia. “Dolly Oesterreich's Secret Lover Lived in Her Attic” (Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles Times archive coverage of the Oesterreich murder investigation and trials

The Los Angeles Evening Express archive coverage

The Los Angeles Record archive coverage

The Los Angeles Examiner archive coverage

The San Francisco Examiner archive coverage

The San Bernardino County Sun archive coverage

The Oakland Tribune archive coverage

The Sacramento Bee archive coverage

The Tacoma Daily Ledger archive coverage

The Pittsburgh Press archive coverage

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle archive coverage

The Milwaukee Journal archive coverage

Newspapers.com historical newspaper archive

California Digital Newspaper Collection

Library of Congress, Chronicling America newspaper archive