The Enigmatic End of Public Enemy Number One: Alvin Creepy Karpis
In 1979, one of the biggest criminals from the 1930s died quietly in a fancy apartment in Torremolinos. Alvin "Creepy" Karpis was behind countless bank robberies, kidnappings, and murders. For years, he was one of America's most wanted criminals with the FBI constantly on his tail. Karpis was also the prisoner who spent the longest time incarcerated at the infamous Alcatraz prison. In 1979, the police find his remains in his apartment under highly suspicious circumstances. Was it a suicide or had Creepy's criminal past finally caught up with him? If you'd like to support this podcast: please share this episode, leave a comment or give me a five star review wherever you listen to podcasts! More In search of Lost Crime? Follow me on Instagram: @insearchoflostcrime Or buy my new book: Wicked Walks through Spain - A Hiker's Guide to Spain's Historic Crime Scenes - It is available for pre-order on Amazon.com
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29:02
Madrid's Atocha Station: The Box of Horrors
In December 1928, a large crate arrives at Mediodía station in Madrid, nowadays known as Atocha Station. The paperwork shows that the crate was sent from Barcelona on December 7 and has been sitting there for four and a half months, waiting for someone to pick it up. No one ever comes for it, so according to the rules, the station master will now open the crate and sell the contents. As soon as they pull out the first nails from the wooden lid, the storage room starts to fill with a horrible odour. "I thought it had to be another spoiled ham," the manager later recounts in an interview. When they lift the lid, they first see old newspapers and then some sheets, followed by a human leg, including a foot with a shiny shoe. It turns out that the crate contains the half-decayed, chopped up pieces of a man. Not just any man, but an extremely well-dressed male, about thirty years old, dark, tall, and broad-shouldered. With - even after all those months - beautifully manicured hands and wearing silk underwear. A very well taken care of specimen. The only thing missing? His head. If you'd like to support this podcast: please share this episode, leave a comment or give me a five star review wherever you listen to podcasts! More In search of Lost Crime? Follow me on Instagram: @insearchoflostcrime Or buy my book: Smalltalk Survival: https://www.amazon.com/Small-Talk-Survival-meaningful-graceful-ebook/dp/B09DW91Z77 Or my upcoming book, Camino Negro, A Hiker's Guide to Spain's Historic Crime Scenes. Available from the end of May.
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30:41
The Bloodbath in the Barn: The Malladas Crime (part 2 of 2)
In the early morning of July 15, 1915, sixteen-year-old Joaquín Barniello walks into the Finca de Malladas, a huge manor farm. The Count of Malladas's farm is one of the biggest employers around, mainly raising pigs. Joaquín works there as a seasonal worker. It's oddly quiet today. Joaquín kind of expected this, since even though there are usually about fifty people working on the farm, pretty much everyone's got the day off to celebrate. In the nearby village of Moraleja, they're having their yearly San Bonaventura festival. Every year, people from all over the area come to this festival to eat, drink, sing, and dance their hearts out. Joaquín had a pretty wild time at the festival last night, but now it's back to work. The pigs aren't going to feed themselves. The silence starts getting more and more oppressive. It's just way too quiet around the farm - there should at least be a farmhand, some maids, and their kids are usually running around as well. Joaquín heads to the barn. It's dark in there and something smells... off. Metallic. He pushes the door open a bit further. And that's when he comes across a bloodbath. If you'd like to support this podcast: please share this episode, leave a comment or give me a five star review wherever you listen to podcasts! More In search of Lost Crime? Follow me on Instagram: @insearchoflostcrime Or buy my book: Smalltalk Survival: https://www.amazon.com/Small-Talk-Survival-meaningful-graceful-ebook/dp/B09DW91Z77 Or my upcoming book, Camino Negro: A Hiker's Guide to Spain's Historic Crime Scenes. Available from the end of May.
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28:06
The Bloodbath in the Barn: The Malladas Crime (part 1 of 2)
In the early morning of July 15, 1915, sixteen-year-old Joaquín Barniello walks into the Finca de Malladas, a huge manor farm. The Count of Malladas's farm is one of the biggest employers around, mainly raising pigs. Joaquín works there as a seasonal worker. It's oddly quiet today. Joaquín kind of expected this, since even though there are usually about fifty people working on the farm, pretty much everyone's got the day off to celebrate. In the nearby village of Moraleja, they're having their yearly San Bonaventura festival. Every year, people from all over the area come to this festival to eat, drink, sing, and dance their hearts out. Joaquín had a pretty wild time at the festival last night, but now it's back to work. The pigs aren't going to feed themselves. The silence starts getting more and more oppressive. It's just way too quiet around the farm - there should at least be a farmhand, some maids, and their kids are usually running around as well. Joaquín heads to the barn. It's dark in there and something smells... off. Metallic. He pushes the door open a bit further. And that's when he comes across a bloodbath. If you'd like to support this podcast: please share this episode, leave a comment or give me a five star review wherever you listen to podcasts! More In search of Lost Crime? Follow me on Instagram: @insearchoflostcrime Or buy my book: Smalltalk Survival: https://www.amazon.com/Small-Talk-Survival-meaningful-graceful-ebook/dp/B09DW91Z77 Or my upcoming book, Camino Negro, A Hiker's Guide to Spain's Historic Crime Scenes. Available from the end of May. For this episode I read El Crimen de Malladas by Luis Roso.
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32:03
The Van Eyk Riddle: The World's Most Stolen Painting (part 2 of 2)
On the night of April 11th, a priceless, 15th-century masterpiece is stolen from Saint Bavo Cathedral in Ghent. Thieves manage to run off with a side panel of the Ghent Altarpiece. What follows, reads like a crime novel: threatening letters, ransom demands, deathbed confessions, secret codes, international conspiracies, Templars, Nazis, the Holy Grail, murder and … a cheese theft. Almost a hundred years after the theft, the panel still hasn't surfaced. And this was not the first time this painting had been stolen. It is actually considered the most stolen painting in history. Why do people keep stealing this particular painting? Could the answer finally be found in the tomb of King Albert I of Belgium? If you'd like to support this podcast: please share this episode, leave a comment or give me a five star review. More In search of Lost Crime? Follow me on Instagram: @insearchoflostcrime Or buy my book: Smalltalk Survival: https://www.amazon.com/Small-Talk-Survival-meaningful-graceful-ebook/dp/B09DW91Z77 Or my upcoming book, Camino Negro, A Hiker's Guide to Spain's Historic Crime Scenes. Available from the end of April.
Hey, I'm Liz Luyben, mystery author.
I make a historical Dutch true crime podcast called Moord Podcast and many of my non-Dutch speaking friends have been asking me to start an English language version. I have been telling them to simply learn Dutch as it's a wonderful language but apparently it's hard or something...
So here we are! In search of lost crime focuses on mysteries from the old country, a missing aviator in the Netherlands in 1915, a forgotten cannibal on the Polish/German border in 1925, or a gruesome wooden box that gets delivered to a train station in Madrid in 1929.... Please subscribe for these and many other Lost Crimes!
Netherlands