Episodes - Page 9 | Southern Fried True Crime

Aug. 18, 2019

64: The Murder of Cheryl Fergeson & The Attempted Murder of Clarence Brandley by the State of Texas

In 1980, a sixteen year old white girl named Cheryl Dee Fergeson was raped and murdered in a high school auditorium in Conroe, Texas. Suspicion immediately fell on the only black janitor, though three other white janitors were present. A Texas Ranger...

Aug. 2, 2019

62: The Rape & Murder of Katie Autry

In 2003, eighteen year old freshman, Katie Autry, was raped, beaten and set on fire in her dorm room at Western Kentucky University. Two suspects would soon emerge. One white, from a wealthy family. The other mixed race, from a poor family. The case...

July 26, 2019

61: Mark Barton: Family Annihilator & Spree Killer

In July of 1999, a day trader named Mark Barton went on a killing spree in Atlanta’s financial district. He murdered 9 people that day, wounding 13 more. Two days before this massacre, he murdered his second wife and two children. But he was also...

July 12, 2019

60: Boney & Claude: Alvin and Judith Neelley

In 1982, America got their own Ken and Barbie killers a decade before the Canadian couple, Paul Bernardo and Karla Holmolka horrified the world with their depraved crimes - kidnapping, torturing and murdering young girls. Americans Alvin and Judith...

July 4, 2019

59: OJ Simpson-- Southern Fried Trashy Divorces: A Crossover Episode

Today is a very special cross over episode with my friends from Trashy Divorces. We are discussing the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, as well as OJ Simpson’s two trashy divorces. This is not my usual format and there is indeed the explicit...

June 28, 2019

58: Miami Beach Royalty: The Novack Murders (Part 2)

This is the conclusion to Miami Beach Royalty: The Novack Murders. Within three months of each other, Bernice and Ben Novack Jr were brutally murdered. These were gruesome, vicious attacks and they were meticulously planned and executed. But the...

June 21, 2019

57: Miami Beach Royalty: The Novack Murders (Part 1)

The history of the infamous Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach is fascinating. Mobsters, movie stars and and scandal helped the brilliant and ruthless hotelier Ben Novack Sr. propel his hotel onto the world stage, where it remains today. But the...

June 14, 2019

56: Poisoning Patsy

In October of 1987, a beautiful Texas socialite and businesswoman was poisoned with strychnine. It was in the bottle of NyQuil she often used to help her go to sleep. Patsy Bolton Wright was a share holder in the Southwest Historical Wax Museum in...

June 6, 2019

55: The UpStairs Lounge Fire

In 1973, a horrific fire killed 32 people in the gay bar, the Upstairs Lounge in New Orleans. When city and state officials and the churches turned their backs on the victims and survivors of the tragedy, the gay community rallied together. Today it...

May 24, 2019

54: The Black Widow of North Carolina: Barbara Stager

Barbara Ford Stager is known as the Black Widow of North Carolina. She shot two husbands, ten years apart, as they lay sleeping in their marital beds. Her trial was an international sensation, with the media capitalizing on her femme fatale, man...

May 17, 2019

53: The Disappearance & Murder of Jessica Dishon

In 1999, a seventeen year old girl named Jessica Dishon was abducted out of her driveway in Shepherdsville, Kentucky as she was leaving for school. Though a rookie sheriff’s deputy tried to sound the alarm, a senior detective refused to come to the...

May 10, 2019

52: The Socialite & The Gardening Shears: The Murder of Idella Thompson

In 1948, a Delta Mississippi socialite named Ruth Thompson Dickins, hacked her mother to death with gardening shears. She blamed the murder on a “negro” man she claimed attacked her as well. But a jury of 12 white men didn’t believe her, in...

May 3, 2019

51: A Family Affair: The Heidt Double Murder Scandal

In August of 2008, the small town of Springfield, Georgia was shaken by a double murder in one of the town’s most prominent families. Soon, the full story would come out. That one brother was sleeping with another brother’s wife, causing a family...

April 26, 2019

50: The Vanderbilt Rape Case

In June of 2013, a 21 year old Vanderbilt student was gang raped in a dorm room by four football players. She was an unofficial hostess, one of the pretty girls coaches use to “assist” in player recruiting. She had no memory of the event, but her...

April 20, 2019

49: Serial Killer Larry Gene Bell, Part 2

In June of 1985, residents of the Midland area of South Carolina were frozen in fear. Two girls were kidnapped and murdered and the sadistic man responsible relished in making phone calls to one of the families. This is part two of the case of serial...

April 12, 2019

48: Serial Killer Larry Gene Bell, Part 1

In June of 1985, residents of the Midland area of South Carolina were frozen in fear. Two girls were kidnapped and murdered and the sadistic man responsible relished in making phone calls to one of the families. This is part one of two episodes on the...

April 5, 2019

47: The Life, Death & Legacy of Johnia Berry

In December of 2004, a beautiful young graduate student was brutally stabbed in her apartment. Her roommate was also attacked. He ran to a convenience store and called 911. Johnia Berry crawled, bleeding from her own apartment, and knocked on the five...

March 28, 2019

46: Patricide, thy name is Marie

My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder? These words, from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, spurred a confession from a teenage murderess. Sixteen year old Marie Robards, of Fort Worth Texas, poisoned her own...

March 22, 2019

45: The Murder of Shelby Wilkie

On New Year’s day of 2012, 38 year old Shelby Wilkie went missing. She left behind her three month old daughter. Shelby had been planning to leave her abusive husband. Michael Wilkie eventually admitted to burning Shelby’s body, though he insisted he...

March 17, 2019

44: The Wooded Rapist: Robert Jason Burdick

From 1994 to 2008, a serial predator terrorized the Greater Nashville area. The Wooded Rapist moved like a ghost, through rainy nights, under the cover of trees, assaulting at least fourteen women before he was finally brought to justice. Sources:...

March 8, 2019

43: Hostage Stand-off: The Murder of Mandy Leigh Williams

In 2003, a domestic violence case ended in a hostage stand-off at a Bi-Lo grocery store in Greenville, South Carolina. A young mother lost her life and a cognitively impaired young man was sentenced to death. US National Domestic Violence Hotline:...

Feb. 28, 2019

42: The Deputy & The Body Builder: Tracy Fortson & Doug Benton

In the year 2000, Tracy Fortson was the first female deputy at the Oglethorpe County Sheriff’s Department in Georgia. She filed a sexual harassment claim against the department and then her boyfriend went missing. His body was found, Tracy was...

Feb. 22, 2019

41: The Unresolved Slayings of Gary & Stephanie Gillette

Just before Christmas of 1985, a Corpus Christi couple was brutally slain with a hatchet and knife as they slept in their home. A local policeman was charged with the murders. The DA dropped the charges almost two years later due to lack of evidence,...

Feb. 16, 2019

40: The Bitter Blood Murders: Susie Newsom Lynch & Fritz Klenner

Known as the “Bitter Blood Murders,” in 1985, first cousins and lovers, Susie Newsom Lynch and Fritz Klenner led police and SBI on a chase that ended in an explosion that killed them and Susie’s two young sons. It was the culmination of a bloody feud...