Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

Throughout nineteenth-century Edinburgh, the surgeon Joseph Bell was known for his extraordinary talent for detection and diagnosis. To the amazement of onlookers at the Royal Infirmary, he could read a patient’s ailments, occupation, and personal habits from a single glance. Though such deductive powers were all quite “elementary” to Bell, they had a profound influence on the medical student and budding writer Arthur Conan Doyle. Soon enough, Bell’s methods helped spark the creation of fiction’s most iconic detective.

My guest is New York Times bestselling author and medical historian Lindsey Fitzharris, author of the new book Sleuth-Hound: The Case of the Real Sherlock Holmes. We talk about Bell’s complicated bond with Conan Doyle and a couple of the murder cases Bell investigated alongside his friend, Edinburgh police surgeon Henry Duncan Littlejohn. The two men even took an unofficial interest in the Whitechapel murders.

The author's website: https://drlindseyfitzharris.com/

The author on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drlindseyfitzharris

The author on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrLindseyFitzharris/

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In March 1957, Master Sergeant Robert Reynolds, a U.S. military adviser living with his family outside Taipei, Taiwan, shot and killed a man named Liu Ziran, who Reynolds claimed had been peeping through his bathroom window. Because Reynolds had diplomatic immunity, he was tried by a U.S. Army court-martial, and Taiwanese officials had no say in the proceedings. When he was acquitted that May, outrage boiled over, and an angry mob stormed the U.S. Embassy in Taipei.

My guest is Stephen G. Craft, author of American Justice in Taiwan: The 1957 Riots and Cold War Foreign Policy. He discusses how Taiwan emerged as a political power separate from mainland China, and the uneasy but mutually beneficial relationship between the United States and the Republic of China in the 1950s.

The author's Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University bio page: https://erau.edu/faculty/Stephen.Craft

The author's publisher page: https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813166353/american-justice-in-taiwan/
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In the winter of 1472, the city of Dijon, France, became the stage for a remarkable legal drama. On the mayor’s orders, an investigator named Jaques Borestel went door-to-door questioning his neighbors about an alleged sexual assault and about the victim’s history and place in the community. At the center of Jaques’s inquiry was a woman named Jehanne, who took the unusual step of making a criminal complaint in an age when victims of sexual violence did so at their own peril.

My guest is Sara McDougall, and her book Justice for Jehanne: The Tale of a Medieval Survivor follows Jaques’s investigation as he uncovers one woman’s story of resilience and survival.

More about the author here: https://www.gc.cuny.edu/people/sara-mcdougall

The author's publisher page: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691268910/justice-for-jehanne

The author on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saramcdougall_medieval/
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There has been lots of buzz recently about Netflix's gory new series Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, and Cara Robertson, author of "The Trial of Lizzie Borden", joins me once again, this time to share her thoughts on how the case is depicted, separate fact from fiction and to answer some Patreon supporter questions.

Cara's website: https://www.carawrobertson.com/

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(Orig Pub Date 7/19/22) In anticipation of a new interview with Cara, mostly about the recent Netflix Series, here is my original conversation with her about the notorious case.

In August of 1892, one of the most infamous double murders in American history was committed in brutal fashion. Andrew and Abby Borden were hacked to death in their Fall River house, and their daughter Lizzie, home at the time, became the number one suspect. What followed was a spectacular trial, fought by brilliant attorneys, in a courtroom packed with fascinated spectators and reporters.

My guest is Cara Robertson, author of "The Trial of Lizzie Borden: A True Story". She summarizes this sensational Gilded Age true crime story with a unique legal perspective.

More about the author and her work can be found here: https://www.carawrobertson.com/
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