Codorus Murders

This tragic tale begins with John Blymire. He was born in York County in 1895, at the time, this was an area of Pennsylvania steeped in the superstition and lore of the Pennsylvania Dutch folk. As late as the early 1900s, this part of the state held strong beliefs in witches, witchcraft, and folk magic. Many people could make a living as witches or “powwowers.” They would cure illness through faith healing using magical powders, potions, and charms. In addition, they could hex and remove hexes as the situation demanded. Every good witch needs a spellbook; for the Powwower, that was the Long Lost Friend, a book by John George Hohman. Murder is the last thing that comes to mind on Thanksgiving. But that's precisely what happened in 1928 when three men broke into the home of Nelson Rehmeyer in a misguided attempt to lift an evil curse. Through a series of unfortunate events, Rehmeyer was brutally murdered, and his body set ablaze. Details of the horrific event spread like wildfire, quickly becoming national news. Ross McGinnis author of "The Trials of Hex" takes you through the story and gets the facts straight. The interview was conducted by a local author and historian Jim McClure. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/francisco-soto3/support

Felicia Ann "Marshmallow" Smith, 26, was ushered to heaven by the Lord's angels on Wednesday, December 7, 2011. Born on April 2, 1985, in York, she was the daughter of Kimberly Smith. Today we sat down with her mother and discussed what she believes to be unsolved . We go through the events of that day that lead to the her daughter,s death. Her mother feels that not enough was done to help close this case and the family is looking for closure on what happened that day. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

Update on the status of the show along with new content that is coming in the near future, the Clip that you are listening to is from 2016 Tim Knaub. Tina Knaub's Father interviewed by Rick Lee for YDR when they did a retrospective on the Unsolved case. Visit Codorusmurders.com to see all the visuals that go along with the podcast as well as case files and other items related to true crime. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

In the Summer of 1969 after the events of the summer Anna Johnson went missing and was found days later laying face down near the Codorus Creek in Bantz Park. Anna Johnson was the Great-Grandmother of one of York's most famous and accomplished citizens Loretta Claiborne. Loretta Claiborne was born on August 14, 1953, in York, Pennsylvania. She was the fourth of eight children, and she and her siblings were raised by their single mother, Rita Claiborne. Loretta Claiborne was born partially blind, with an intellectual disability and clubbed feet; she underwent surgeries to correct her feet and visual impairment when she was young, and was unable to walk until she was four years old. She learned to talk when she was seven. Although doctors advised Claiborne's mother to institutionalize the girl, Rita steadfastly refused, choosing to raise Claiborne at home with her other children. Loretta Claiborne was the middle of seven children in a poor, single-parent family. Born partially blind and intellectually challenged, she was unable to walk or talk until age four. Eventually, though, she began to run. And before she knew it, she had crossed the finish line of twenty-six marathons, twice placing among the top one-hundred women in the Boston Marathon. She introduced President Bill Clinton at the 1995 Special Olympics World Summer Games has won medals in dozens of its events, and also holds the current women's record in her age group for the 5000 meters at seventeen minutes. Learn more about Loretta Claiborne at http://www.lorettaclaiborne.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

“The Midland Cemetery, which dates back to the Civil War period, is located in Swatara Township, just outside Steelton, PA. The larger part of Midland had been buried under weeds and brush for 35 years before Barbara and her 11 year old son ventured into the cemetery in 1993. Barbara recollected: "When I was a little girl, my parents would come here after church on Sunday. Because I had allergies, they'd roll up the windows and leave me in this hot car while they disappeared into the brush--I'd sit and wait. Well, I was 35 when I came back here to see where they had gone on these Sunday afternoons to visit with Grandpa--and here I am...I thought was just that little corner of a cemetery...I started researching and pulling up the old deeds from 1932. And it just expanded. Thank God it expanded without my knowledge, because I don't know if I would have been able to stand out here right now and talk to you. Because I didn't know it was this big. And I didn't know what kind of work I was getting into, and what kind of history I was going to open up." Many of the neighbors did not even know that the cemetery was there. At this time, Barbara decided to clean up this "corner cemetery" a little every day and figured that it would be in good shape by Spring.” http://midlandcemetery.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

Racial tensions began to escalate in York, Pennsylvania in 1963. Black citizens of York protested police violence and discrimination at City Hall. Their demands for a bi-racial police review board were turned down by the all-white city council. Citizens continued to protest over the next few years and complained of police brutality and the use of police dogs to curb protests. During this time, the city saw the rise of several notorious all-white gangs. By the mid-1960s, York had become deeply racially divided, and in 1968 a series of white-on-black crimes incited retaliation in the form of fire-bombings and street brawls. On July 17, 1969, with racial tensions at the boiling point, a black youth who burned himself playing with lighter fluid blamed a local white gang known as the Girarders. That would later be revealed as a lie, but not before the pent-up resentments of the black community turned violent. That same day, seventeen-year-old Taka Nii Sweeney was shot by an unseen gunman when York City Police Detective George Smith stopped him and his friends for violating the city's youth curfew. White and black gangs began fighting that afternoon. Eleven others were hurt when people in six blocks of the city reverted to rock-throwing, barricading and shooting from behind bushes and poles. Fighting lasted through the night and into the next day. Nine more people were injured, including Officer Henry C. Schaad. Schaad, a twenty-two-year-old rookie with eleven months on the force, was struck by a bullet believed to have been fired by a black rioter while riding in one of the police department's two armored trucks. White gangs around the city prepared for revenge. Schaad languished in the hospital for nearly two weeks before succumbing to his injuries. As Schaad lay dying, racial tension soared in the city. Fights broke out, buildings were set ablaze and police began barricading black neighborhoods. More than sixty people were injured, one hundred were arrested, and entire city blocks were burned. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

Working on a collective theory that the Son of Sam was a cult, and possible the zodiac killer was the same cult a few years earlier in the Bay areas. Look at the similarities and draw your own conclusion. Using footage from Now it can be told and Unsolved mysteries the similarities are common. Could the Zodiac have been more than one person and behind it a satanic cult that carried out the murders and sent the letters to the police? Let us know what you think. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

After 3 months of no in studio podcast we got back together to discuss the last two episodes and discuss the last content, this furthers the discussion along. As before look back at the content that we have been going though, the video episodes are posted on you tube and there is more content to come. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

We sat down with Peter Levy to discuss the History of York City and the civil uprising of the 1960's and beyond below is his bio pulled for his web page and his book "The Great Uprising" is available to purchase through amazon. Bio pulled from - https://plevy9.wixsite.com/peterlevy I'm a professor of history at York College, where I have taught courses on Recent America, the Civil Rights Movement, Women in the U.S., Environmental History, and Race & Justice. I have written over a dozen books, including The Great Uprising: Race Riots in Urban America during the 1960s (Cambridge Univ. Pr. 2018), Civil War on Race Street: The Civil Rights Movement in in Cambridge, Maryland (Univ. of Florida Pr. 2003) and The New Left and Labor (Univ. of Illinois Pr. 1994). I am also the co-editor with Jeffrey Littlejohn and Reginald Ellis of The Seedtime, the Work, and the Harvest: New Perspectives on the Black Freedom Struggle in America (Univ. of Florida Pr. 2018) and the co-author with Randy Roberts, Alan Taylor and Emma J. Lapsansky-Warner of United States History (Prentice Hall, rev. ed. 2016). https://youtu.be/A2lXzv0q0yk --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

Prelude to Season 2 of the Codorus Murders sit down interview with Jim McClure, former editor of YDR. (YDR BIO) I have been editor of the York Daily Record/York Sunday News and associated digital products since May 2004. I will retire on April 1, 2019, after 30 years with the YDR. After Gannett Co. purchased the YDR in June 2015, I have also served as state editor for Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, overseeing six newsrooms. For about 2 1/2 years, I served as East Region Editor for the YDR's former parent Digital First Media, with oversight for 20+ daily newsrooms and 50 or more weeklies. In that capacity, I was the senior editor on DFM on-site teams that covered the school shootings in Newtown, Conn., and the Boston Marathon bombing. I am the author or coauthor of seven books on York County history -- “Never to be Forgotten, A Year-By-Year Look at York County’s Past,” “Nine Months in York Town, American Revolutionaries Labor on Pennsylvania’s Frontier,” “Almost Forgotten, A Glimpse at Black History in York County, Pa.,” “East of Gettysburg, A Gray Shadow Crosses York County, Pa.” and ” “In the Thick of the Fight, York County, Pa., Counters the Axis Threat in WWII.” With Scott Mingus, I co-authored “Civil War Voices From York County” and "Echoing Still: More Civil War Voices from York County." (*For sale at www.yorkheritage.org and www.barnesandnoble.com.) https://youtu.be/6Hn6k1rqeXk --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

With all the time shut in the house take the time time to read or get the audio version of our favorite true crime books. Take the time go back to and listen to the full first season. Rate and subscribe share tell a friend and join in the discussion. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

Samantha Dorm sits down with us to discuss the Lebanon Cemetery and the historic ties it has to the City the for York and American History. This is more of a prelude to the official start of the second season. Very good discussion, as always please rate and subscribe. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

we are on the brink of season 2, so we taking the time today to discuss what is coming for next season. Feedback is always welcomed find us anywhere you get your podcasts. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

Bonus episode Miles and I discuss the news that broke today about the diocese of Harrisburg filing for chapter 11 to protect themselves from "creditors" they owe money too. The Dioceses has over 200 cases of alleged abuse seeking financial compensation. Join the the discussion with us through the links provided and let us know what you think. https://www.ydr.com/story/news/crime/2018/08/15/pennsylvania-priest-abuse-york-county-district-attorney-notified-1995-abuse-herbert-shank/995969002/ https://www.wgal.com/article/local-harrisburg-diocese-filing-for-bankruptcy-clergy-sex-abuse/30999951 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

True Crime Author James Renner joins us o discuss some of the cases that he has worked on and the process that he takes while investigating these cases. The ups and the downs of dealing with the families and Law enforcement. James Renner is an American author, investigative journalist, producer, and director. He worked as a reporter for Cleveland Scene and was editor of the alternative newspaper The Cleveland Independent. He is known for his work in the thriller, science fiction, and true crime genres. Wikipedia --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

A little off the beaten path with our normal subject matter, but this was an important conversation to have. With the study of Genealogy we has lead to the so many cold cases finally able to being closed and leading people to new information about themselves and the history of the city and how far reaching it can take you. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

Mike Argento has been in the York Daily record for over 30 years and has covered mostly all the important crime cases that he city has seen. We cover a few cases in this episode. Uncut and unedited this time we cover all that we could with the time we had so enjoy the the long form interview. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

In the past week a lot has been uncovered in the case that has brought to light a lot of information that wasn't easy to get. Sit back and listen to the as the the case continues to unfold before us. If this is the first time you've listened go back to the first episode before listening to this. Thank you again for all the support and listing to podcast, please rate and subscribe. Leave a comment to help us improve and any help is appreciated. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

Coming off the information we got from our interview with Kelly, we sat and revisited our theories and what impact it has had on our investigation. If you listen to the show rate and subscribe us it costs you nothing to help spread the word. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

Kelly McLaughlin was a close friend to Tina Knaub. Kelly sat down with us to tell us the last time that she spoke to Tina and the aftermath that her disappearance and discovery of her body effected her and Tina's family. New information here that changed the scope of what we have been looking into. Subscribe and leave a rating for us and comment on any ways that we can improve. Thank you --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

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looking into our favorite suspect this week and more so of giving a preview of more to come on this person "Larry Cooper". This week we go through the known crimes that we could attribute to "Larry Cooper" and our continuing into our working theories. Tip line is up at 7178503410 or send us an email at codorusmurders@gmail.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

Follow up from the interview last week, I sat down with former detective Barry Bloss and discussed case in depth and went through multiple theories on the case. This week we cover the the interview that answered a lot of questions but also lead to more that needs to be discovered. Leave a review and feedback is always appreciated. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

Barry Bloss is a retired York City Police Detective former York County Coroner. Barry Bloss was the investigating officer in the death of Tina Knaub. What's presented here is an uncut interview that was conducted on September 18th of 2109. Subscribe and rate us it costs you nothing and of any feedback or tips can be submitted to codorusmurders@gmail.com. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

In 1984 Tina Knaub was an 18 year old mother of two. A recent Class of 1983 graduate of York County Vocational Technical School, Tina was 5’3’’, 115 pounds, and was described by her father Tim as “feisty” and “street-wise.” To this day, the murder of Tina Knaub remains a mystery, just another cold case file in the York City Police Department archives. We don’t know when she died. We don’t know how she died. We don’t know who killed her. All we do know… in the words of her friend, Lana: “Somebody hurt Tina. Somebody hurt Tina bad.” --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support

Codorus Murders Podcast will be a weekly Podcast hosted by Cisco Soto and Meagan Hess Given. The Purpose of this podcast is to bring awareness to unsolved Murders in York Pennsylvania and the surrounding areas. Topics will include cold case discussion and having in depth discussion around the crimes themselves and the how it has impacted the families and the community. For support you can email us both at codorusmurders@outlook.com. If you have any tip about the cases covered or have any feedback for topics we should should cover. We thank any and all in advance for your support. This podcast will be free and available wherever you get your podcasts!!! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francisco-soto3/support