Forgotten Felonies
Forgotten Felonies revisits historical crimes that were forgotten—or remembered incorrectly. It’s tempting, looking backward, to fill in the gaps with conclusions that feel obvious now. But that isn’t how history works. Through original newspaper reporting, period advertisements from the years the crimes occurred, and a blend of forensic psychology and genealogical research, each episode restores context to cases history left behind—asking not only what happened, but why.
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Forgotten Felonies
Pearl Bryan, Part 1: The Headless Woman of Fort Thomas
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In January 1896, 23-year-old Pearl Bryan boarded a train bound for Indianapolis... and never came home.
When her body was discovered in northern Kentucky a few days later, investigators didn't even know who the victim was. But once they uncovered her identity, the trail led them to two young dental students and one of the most sensational murder investigations of the nineteenth century.
In Part 1, we follow the investigation from its shocking beginning through the first confession—a confession that seemed to solve the case but only made the mystery even more complicated.
Folksong Pearl Bryan (1965) by The Phipps Family, used with permission from the Smithsonian Folkways. (Thanks, again!)
Vintage ads used in this episode:
- Fat-Ten-U and Corpula, 1897
- Ayer's Sarsaparilla, 1897
- Ely's Cream Balm, 1896
