Tag: cincinnati
-
THE MYSTERY OF JOC-O-SOT’S BONES
So earlier this morning I was perusing the Cincinnati Enquirer archives when I come across this little blurb from the July 23, 1848 edition, which reads: “Quite a large crowd was collected in front of where the old mayor’s office used to be to see the basket of human bones that were taken from the…
-
GIRL IN THE ’57 CHEVY: THE MURDER OF LINDA PIERSON
It was a cool, fall, Wednesday night around 9:30 p.m. on November 16th, 1966, when Linda Susan Pierson was last seen cruising along Fairfield Avenue in the passenger seat of a 1957 Chevrolet. She was totally unaware that in a matter of hours she would be brutally raped and murdered. Linda was just eighteen and…
-
BLACK WIDOW BY PROXY: THE VIRGINIA GIBBS STORY
September 3rd happens to be my birthday. It also happens to be the date that – back in 1945 – local Cincinnati gal Virginia Gibbs chose to move forward with a rather elaborate plan to get rid of her abusive father once and for all. Unfortunately, in order to do this, another man had to…
-
FORCE(S) OF NATURE
On this day in history Cincinnatians awoke to the news of not one, but two, forces of nature. One in their backyard the other across the country in Los Angeles, California. Not only were they able to see photos of the extensive damage around the area after experiencing an overnight tornado but they were also…
-
THE MAN IN THE CAN
While scrolling through my Facebook feed I saw a meme proclaiming the Pringles potato chip mascot was inspired by none other than the notorious H.H. Holmes. What?? Needless to say that inspired a trip down the rabbit hole and what I found there was a really interesting story about those Pringles cans I’d like to…
-
DISMEMBERED ARMS AND LEGS, OH MY!
Cincinnati is known for a lot of things but in the late 1880’s it seems beer, caskets and cadavers were top of the list, and I think this tale links them together quite splendidly. Back then, our city’s beer consumption ranked 2 1/2 times the national average. That comes in at about 40 gallons for…
-
BURIED SECRETS
Cincinnati’s oldest cemetery is home to more than just our city’s first settlers, it is also the site of what was once a thriving Native American village. The area known as Pioneer Cemetery is located just off Wilmer Avenue in the city’s East End. It sits unassumingly across the street from Lunken Airport and is…
-
LICK ROAD: WHERE URBAN LEGEND AND TRUE CRIME COLLIDE
I love urban legends and I find that while most are seemingly far fetched stories, a few of them are rooted in grains of truth. I think that may be the case with one local bit of lore here in the Cincinnati area. Amy and The Legend of Lick Road. Let’s start with the legend:…
-
THE HEAD AND HANDS MURDER
On this day back in 1936 the headline of The Cincinnati Enquirer proclaimed ‘Hicks Condemned to Death.’ Justice was swift as it would take a jury less than 15 minutes to convict Heber L. “Jimmie” Hicks. So what did he do? Hicks was the mastermind behind a murder that became to be known locally as…
-
SPIRITED SPIRITS: THE GHOST OF IMOGENE REMUS
One of Cincinnati’s most popular ghost stories is the one of Imogene Remus. Legend has it her spirit has haunted the Spring House Gazebo in Eden Park for over 90 years. So how did Imogene become a ghost? You see, back in 1927 Imogene was gunned down in Eden Park by her husband, the infamous…
-
ARSENIC ANNIE: CINCINNATI’S CUT-THROAT CARETAKER
Meet Anna Marie Hahn, widely known as “Arsenic Annie.” This Cincinnati area serial killer who was the first woman sentenced to die in Ohio’s electric chair after murdering at least 5 men. Anna was born into a large Bavarian family back in 1906 and was the youngest of 12 siblings. When she was 18, she…
-
KILLER SEAMSTRESS: THE MURDER OF LOUISE BERGEN
The murder of Louise Bergen back in 1958 was one of the most talked about crimes of its time here in the Cincinnati area. When three young hunters came across the charred remains of a body at Cowan Lake it set into motion a chain of events that would captivate the city for years to…
-
HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT: A GHOSTLY REMNANT OF THE PAST
Aside from some jungle-like overgrowth, a set of railroad tracks and the ruins of a craggy building’s foundation this is all that remains of the once bustling Torrence Road train station in Cincinnati. The now defunct depot was built in 1907 as part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. While this aged terra cotta sculpture remains mostly…
-
THE MINISTER’S TREEHOUSE
Horace Burgess’s Treehouse located in the rural Cumberland County, Tennessee is the largest treehouse in the world. It is sometimes called the Minister’s Treehouse based on the divine inspiration Mr. Burgess channeled in order to build this nearly 100 foot tall spectacle which spans across 7 large trees with the main anchor being an 80…
-
CINCINNATI JOHN DOE: NAMUS #UP7739
Did you know that in the United states over 600,000 individuals go missing each year? Fortunately, the majority of these adults and children are found alive and well. However, tens of thousands of these individuals remain missing for more than one year, and when that much time elapses many law enforcement agencies begin to refer…
-
THE MYSTERY GIRL IN THE RIVER
The articles below detail the grisly murder of a young woman, found decapitated, floating in the Ohio River in early May, 1936. There was speculation for a brief time that she was Evelyn Hatfield from Cincinnati, but detectives later determined that missing young woman was alive and well, she’d actually run off to join the…
-
MAGIC AND MELODRAMA
Now through August 18 at The Taft Museum of Art, “Magic & Melodrama: Cincinnati Posters from the Gilded Age” You will see vividly colored large format posters advertising favorites such as ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and ‘Peter Pan’, to name a few. In total there are seven theater posters on loan from the collection of…
-
JAKE LEG BLUES: THE RISE AND FALL OF ADULTERATED GINGER
Back in 1930, at the height of Prohibition, Cincinnati was ground zero for the Jamaican ginger epidemic. Jamaican ginger elixir also known as ‘Jake’ was a commonly used tincture available in pharmacies across the United States. It contained potent amounts of alcohol and when used in small doses, was a safe pain reliever. However with…
-
THE CASE OF JOSHUA LEE WRIGHT | TIMELINE OF EVENTS
So a couple weeks ago I was contacted by a man named Kenny, he is the brother of a local, missing man named Joshua Wright. I had posted a couple articles about some unidentified skeletal remains that were found in the South Fairmount area of Cincinnati and Kenny had seen the posts. He contacted me…
-
LEFT AT THE STATION
I came across this interesting old story from The Cincinnati Enquirer, August 11, 1925. Can you imagine a coffin just sitting out at a subway station, unclaimed for days? COFFIN LOST IN TRANSITBody Lies on Station Platform fore Removal To Cincinnati.After having been sent from Chicago to Marinette, Wisconsin, by mistake, and later lying outside…
-
CINCINNATI, COFFIN CITY U.S.A.
For centuries, the Cincinnati area has been the nation’s leading producer of coffins, caskets and burial vaults. If you saw the previous post you know Cincinnati’s own Crane, Breed & Co. developed game-changing metal, rectangular caskets in the 1850’s. These state-of-the-art beauties were a far cry from the coffins of yore. These caskets were considered…
-
HUNDREDS OF PETRIFIED BODIES
Check out this is a creepy, intriguing piece that was published in the January 31, 1892 edition of The Cincinnati Enquirer. I’d love more info on this story but have been unable to locate anything further. A bit of history- St. Mary Catholic Cemetery is located in the St. Bernard area of Cincinnati and dates…