Murder Shelf Book Club Podcast

Epi 55 2ndCast: 3 “Damnable and Hellish crime”- The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal and the Hunt for America’s first serial killer by Skip Hollandsworth Pt 3

Part 3: The murder count continues to rise, as killing spreads to San Antonio, Gainesville, and all the way to London, England, where 5 women are slaughtered. With fallout impacting every aspect of society, devastating secrets are revealed, leading to shocking trials, which have electrifying legal and political consequences for the people of Austin and their leaders that last through the next two centuries.  Who is the Midnight Assassin?  Jill has a theory- you know she does!
Note: This story is set in the late 19th century and reflects the stereotypes, prejudices, and language of the era.
 
Source material, recipe and wine information, photographs are on Jill’s blog at www.murdershelfbookclub.com Jan 2023
ANNOUNCEMENT- JAN 2025:  My new Murder Shelf Book Club Podcast MERCH SHOP has launched!  Please go explore! I appreciate you supporting my true crime book club podcast!
Share your thoughts with me at  jill@murdershelfbookclub.com, on X,  Facebook,  Instagram or YouTube.  OR, join Jill on PATREON for $4 and help pick our next book and talk true crime developments, first Thursday of each month at 8:30 pm EST!
Music- The Pewter Elephant by Blue Dot Sessions.
"Trust your gut!"

Epi 54: “The Remarkable Ghoul”- The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal and the Hunt for America’s first serial killer by Skip Hollandsworth- Pt 2

Part 2: Like phantoms, a killer or killers walks among the people of Austin, Tx.  Desperately seeking solutions, blood hounds, private detectives, and the famous Chicago Pinkerton Detective Agency are employed to catch the ‘remarkable ghoul’, who slaughters women, vanishing in the inky darkness.  Fear continues to rise as the victims shift from black servant women to white society wives, death the great equalizer. Who is the Midnight Assassin? Can he be stopped?
Note: This story is set in the late 19th century and reflects the stereotypes, prejudices, and language of the era.
 
Source material, recipe and wine information, photographs are on Jill’s blog at www.murdershelfbookclub.com, Jan. 2023.
ANNOUNCEMENT- JAN 2025:  My new Murder Shelf Book Club Podcast MERCH SHOP has launched!  Please go explore! I appreciate you supporting my true crime book club podcast!
Share your thoughts with me at  jill@murdershelfbookclub.com, on X,  Facebook,  Instagram or YouTube.  OR, join Jill on PATREON for $4 and help pick our next book and talk true crime developments, first Thursday of each month at 8:30 pm EST!
Music- The Pewter Elephant by Blue Dot Sessions.
See you in 2 weeks!

Episode 53: “Ungodly Butchery”- The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal and the Hunt for America’s first serial killer by Skip Hollandsworth-Pt 1

Part 1: It is 1884 and Austin, Tx is poised at the precipice of a new Golden Age, shifting from a frontier town to a cosmopolitan city of culture and prosperity.  Until a shadow grows, threatening everything as the slaughter of black servant women begins. Terrified, the community demands the murderous gang be caught, but with multiple arrests of suspects, the jail remains empty. Who is the servant woman annihilator? When will the carnage end? 
Note: This story is set in the late 19th century and reflects the stereotypes, prejudices, and language of the era.
Source material, recipe and wine information, photographs are on Jill’s blog at www.murdershelfbookclub.com, Jan. 2023.
ANNOUNCEMENT- JAN 2025:  My new Murder Shelf Book Club Podcast MERCH SHOP has launched!  Please go explore! I appreciate you supporting my true crime book club podcast!
Share your thoughts with me at  jill@murdershelfbookclub.com, on X,  Facebook,  Instagram or YouTube.  OR, join Jill on PATREON for $4 and help pick our next book and talk true crime developments, first Thursday of each month at 8:30 pm EST!
Music- The Pewter Elephant by Blue Dot Sessions.
Trust your gut!

UPDATE: Mini-Cast on Russ/Betsy Faria case from BONE DEEP by Bosworth and Schwartz!

Merry Christmas, Murder Bookies!
UPDATE on Ep 40-44! This is a very special Christmas mini-cast! We met Russ Faria, convicted of murdering his wife, Betsy Faria in 2011 when we covered the book, Bone Deep by Charles Bosworth and Joel Schwartz, Epi 40-44.  Eventually, Russ was exonerated, as the case took a major twist!  Now, the case continues to turn once again, with a new announcement by Lincoln County, Missouri Prosecuting Attorney, Mike Wood!
 
Source material is found on Jill's blog at www.murdershelfbookclub.com, May 2022.
 
ANNOUNCEMENT- JAN 2025:  My new Murder Shelf Book Club Podcast MERCH SHOP has launched!  Please go explore! I appreciate you supporting my true crime book club podcast!
Share your thoughts with me at  jill@murdershelfbookclub.com, on X,  Facebook,  Instagram or YouTube.  OR, join Jill on PATREON for $4 and help pick our next book and talk true crime developments, first Thursday of each month at 8:30 pm EST!
Music- The Pewter Elephant by Blue Dot Sessions.
"Trust your gut, Murder Bookies!"
 

Ep 52 2ndCast- A Death in White Bear Lake by Barry Siegel, Pt 3: “Your Loss is our Gain”

Part 3: The fate of the five Jurgens kids falls to the court to determine, as another trial that creates the legal foundation of battered child syndrome takes place. This eases the way for murder charges against Lois Jurgens, as family ties and memories are tested. Does justice for Dennis Jurgens happen after 22 years?  How has society changed after all this? Has it?
 
Sources, notes, photographs, links, recipe and drink info are found on Jill’s blog- www.murdershelfbookclub.com, Nov 2022.
ANNOUNCEMENT- JAN 2025:  My new Murder Shelf Book Club Podcast MERCH SHOP has launched!  Please go explore! I appreciate you supporting my true crime book club podcast!
Share your thoughts with me at  jill@murdershelfbookclub.com, on X,  Facebook,  Instagram or YouTube.  OR, join Jill on PATREON for $4 and help pick our next book and talk true crime developments, first Thursday of each month at 8:30 pm EST!
Music- The Pewter Elephant by Blue Dot Sessions.
 
Did you leave a 5-star review?
 

Ep 51- A Death in White Bear Lake by Barry Siegel, Pt 2: ”The Revolution”

Part 2: With Lois's mental health deteriorating, a hearing explores the question, should Lois and Harold Jurgens keep custody of their 5-year-old adopted son, Robert after the death of this brother, Dennis.  Meanwhile, as more children die, three medical professionals' team up to try to understand why children were being killed by their seemingly loving parents, founding the medical concept of “battered child syndrome” as Lois and Harold adopt again. What could possibly go wrong? 
Sources, photographs, diagrams, food and drink pairings are found on Jill’s blog at www.murdershelfbookclub.com, Nov 2022.
ANNOUNCEMENT- JAN 2025:  My new Murder Shelf Book Club Podcast MERCH SHOP has launched!  Please go explore! I appreciate you supporting my true crime book club podcast!
Share your thoughts with me at  jill@murdershelfbookclub.com, on X,  Facebook,  Instagram or YouTube.  OR join Jill on PATREON for $4 and help pick our next book and talk true crime developments, first Thursday of each month at 8:30 pm EST!
Music- The Pewter Elephant by Blue Dot Sessions.
"Trust your gut!"

Ep 50 A Death in White Bear Lake by Barry Siegel, Pt 1-“All-American City”

Part 1: White Bear Lake, a picturesque American town where kids freely ride bikes, play two-square and parents throw neighborhood BBQs—and where 3 ½ year old Dennis Jurgens died on Palm Sunday 1965. WHAT happened?  Family members immediately begin whispering “she killed him”, referring to his adoptive mother, Lois Jurgens.  Others ask how Lois and Harold Jurgens were ever allowed to adopt a child, let along two! The silence is profound, until as Dennis’ birth mother, Jerry Sherwood, presses police to reinvestigate:  What happened to the little boy she never forgot?
Sources, photographs, links, food and drink information for A Death at White Bear Lake is found on Jill's blog- www.murdershelfbookclub.com, Nov 2022.
 
ANNOUNCEMENT- JAN 2025:  My new Murder Shelf Book Club Podcast MERCH SHOP has launched!  Please go explore! I appreciate you supporting my true crime book club podcast!
Share your thoughts with me at  jill@murdershelfbookclub.com, on X,  Facebook,  Instagram or YouTube.  OR join Jill on PATREON for $4 and help pick our next book and talk true crime developments, first Thursday of each month at 8:30 pm EST!
Music- The Pewter Elephant by Blue Dot Sessions.
See you in 2 weeks!
 
 
 

Ep 49 “Interview with retired FBI Diver, Bobby Chacon” American Predator by Maureen Callahan, Pt 4

Part 4: In 2012, serial killer Israel Keyes confessed to investigators he’d disposed of a body in a frozen Lake in Alaska, a dangerous recovery.  FBI Agent Bobby Chacon and the underwater forensics team he founded were notified. On the case, Bobby now shares the behind-the-scenes story with Jill of how this occurred, plus insight into the investigation, and much more. Listen in to get the details that left Jill speechless in admiration and appreciation.
 
Source material for the American Predator series is found on Jill's blog at www.murdershelfbookclub.com, Sept 2022.
ANNOUNCEMENT- JAN 2025:  My new Murder Shelf Book Club Podcast MERCH SHOP has launched!  Please go explore! I appreciate you supporting my true crime book club podcast!
Share your thoughts with me at  jill@murdershelfbookclub.com, on X,  Facebook,  Instagram or YouTube.  OR, join Jill on PATREON for $4 and help pick our next book and talk true crime developments, first Thursday of each month at 8:30 pm EST!
Music- The Pewter Elephant by Blue Dot Sessions.
 

Epi 48 “Macabre Chitchat” 2ndCast- American Predator by Maureen Callahan Pt 3

Part 3: 1996, Colville, Washington, 12 yrs. old Julie Harris went missing, and then, the following year, 12 yrs. old Cassie Emerson--with 18 yrs. old Israel Keyes living nearby. The investigation expands overseas as the police and FBI interview those who knew Keyes. But did anyone know Keyes, who was determined to maintain control over these proceeding, using any and all methods, no matter what the cost was.
 
Sources, notes, photographs, links are found on Jill’s blog- www.murdershelfbookclub.com Sept 2022.
ANNOUNCEMENT- JAN 2025:  My new Murder Shelf Book Club Podcast MERCH SHOP has launched!  Please go explore! I appreciate you supporting my true crime book club podcast!
Share your thoughts with me at  jill@murdershelfbookclub.com, on X,  Facebook,  Instagram or YouTube.  OR, join Jill on PATREON for $4 and help pick our next book and talk true crime developments, first Thursday of each month at 8:30 pm EST!
Music- The Pewter Elephant by Blue Dot Sessions.
Trust your gut!
 
 
 

Epi 47 “Meticulous Methods” American Predator by Maureen Callahan, Pt 2

A killer in custody toys with law enforcement, who are desperate to locate missing Samantha Koenig, taking them into unchartered waters. As they begin to unravel the ‘who is’ Israel Keyes, his childhood rearing takes center stage, as the teenage Izy begins to understand, he isn’t like everyone else.  Keeping Keyes’s transitory cooperation in finding other victims, scattered across the United States, is a battle, as horror after horror is revealed and victims are identified. Be warned, this is a -difficult- story, tough to hear, but valuable in understanding this meticulous serial killers of the 21st century.
Sources, notes, photographs, links, recipe and drink info are found on Jill’s blog- www.murdershelfbookclub.com
Comment? Question? jill@murdershelfbookclub.com