Podcasts about sing sing prison

In the late-1940s, con-artists Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck used newspaper “lonely-hearts” ads to lure trusting women into deadly traps. Tonight, Kevin, Anthony, and Doug dissect how the couple's twisted love story escalated from fraud to at least three confirmed murders, why the media crowned them The Lonely Hearts Killers, and what finally brought the killers to the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on March 8, 1951

The headstones don't speak — but something beneath them remembers, and it's not done watching the living.Darkness Syndicate members get the ad-free version of #WeirdDarkness: https://weirddarkness.com/syndicate*** DOWNLOAD THE FREE PDF For This Episode's Word Search Game: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p867jcxDISCLAIMER: Ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. *** Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.IN THIS EPISODE: Cemeteries are more than just resting places for the dead; they are steeped in history, emotion, and, some believe, paranormal activity. We'll explore the eerie tales and scientific theories that make these hallowed grounds a focal point for ghostly encounters. (Unveiling The Secrets of Spirits At Cemeteries) *** Ever driven down a dark, winding country road and felt the hair on the back of your neck stand up? It's very possible you did if you were traveling down Sleepy Hollow Road. This isn't the Washington Irving tale of a hamlet in New York State – this is an infamous road in Kentucky with eerie legends of ghostly hearses, time warps, satanic rituals and haunted bridges. (The Sleepy Hollow of Kentucky) *** In the picturesque village of Bennington, Vermont, 18-year-old Paula Jean Welden disappeared on a chilly December afternoon in 1946. The case took many twists, including a fruitless search in the wilderness, misleading clues, and even the formation of the Vermont State Police due to criticism of the investigation. To this day, Paula's fate remains unknown. (Vanished: The Unsolved Disappearance of Paula Jean Welden”) *** In 1968, Spain experienced an unprecedented wave of UFO and humanoid sightings that left many mystified, terrified… and mesmerized. From encounters with mysterious figures in homes, to bizarre sightings outdoors, 1968 had the entire country of Spain talking about aliens from outer space. (1968: The Year Of High Strangeness) *** Despite humanity's efforts to control nature, sometimes the natural world pushes back in unexpected and chaotic ways. From a pigeon poop-induced blackout in Japan to a squirrel terrorizing a Welsh town, animals can disrupt our lives… and sometimes in humorous ways. (Man Vs Nature – When Animals Wreak Havoc) *** On a stormy night in April 1893, two condemned prisoners at Sing Sing Prison blinded a guard with pepper spray, and executed a daring escape down the Hudson River that left authorities baffled and the public enthralled. (The Great Escape From Sing Sing) *** You seemed to like my new film noir story idea, so I have another Murder Noir tonight – based on a true case from Halloween Day, 1981 when 11-year-old Karl Heikell told his parents he was going for a walk in Calumet, Michigan. He never returned home. (Murder Noir: The Case of the Vanishing Trick-or-Treater) *** Did pterosaurs, the ancient flying reptiles, truly vanish millions of years ago, or do they still soar through our skies? We'll look at claims of modern-day sightings, some controversial theories, and a tantalizing photograph that challenges their extinction. Could these prehistoric flying giants still be among us in hiding?CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate and Only Accurate For the Commercial Version)…00:00:00.000 = Lead-In00:00:46.290 = Show Open00:04:10.752 = Unveiling The Secrets of Spirits In Cemeteries00:15:33.766 = The Great Escape From Sing Sing00:20:33.377 = Vanished: the Unsolved Disappearance of Paula Jean Welden00:26:46.114 = The Sleepy Hollow of Kentucky00:35:19.474 = 1968: The Year of High Strangeness00:42:27.033 = Man Vs Nature – When Animals Wreak Havoc00:53:40.741 = In Search Of Living Pterosaurs (links to photos below)00:57:44.402 = Show CloseSOURCES AND RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE…“In Search of Living Pterosaurs” by David Albaugh for BasementOfTheBizarre.com (used with permission):https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yjvb29mrPHOTO OF PTEROSAUR FROM CIVIL WAR: https://weirddarkness.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/PterosaurPhotoFromCivlWar.pngPHOTO OF PTEROSAUR FROM OLD WEST, NAILED TO BARN: https://weirddarkness.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/PterosaurPhotoFromOldWest.png“Unveiling The Secrets Of Spirits In Cemeteries” sources: ***Encyclopaedia Britannica:https://www.britannica.com/topic/burial-death-rite; ***The World History Encyclopedia:https://www.worldhistory.org/burial/; ***Ecobear: https://ecobear.co/resources/dying-and-death/history-of-cemeteries/; ***ThoughtCo: https://www.thoughtco.com/death-and-burial-customs-1421757; ***Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burial“Vanished: The Unsolved Disappearance of Paula Jean Welden” by Gary Sweeney for The-Line-Up.com (used with permission): https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p853yzu“The Sleepy Hollow of Kentucky” source: Todd Atteberry, GothicHorrorStories.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/e57rjdm8“1968: The Year of High Strangeness” source: Brent Swancer, MysteriousUniverse.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yckpzv8m“Man Vs Nature – When Animal Wreak Havoc” source: George Wilson, ListVerse.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/nkc5nyr6“The Great Escape From Sing Sing” source: Robert Wilhelm, MurderByGaslight.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yc2mj26d=====(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)= = = = ="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46= = = = =WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2025, Weird Darkness.=====Originally aired: June 07, 2024EPISODE PAGE at WeirdDarkness.com (includes list of sources): https://weirddarkness.com/GhostsInCemeteriesTAGS: weird darkness, weird darkness podcast, paranormal stories, cemetery ghosts, haunted cemeteries, spirit encounters, paranormal investigation, true ghost stories, unsolved mysteries, sleepy hollow road kentucky, haunted roads, paranormal activity, cemetery hauntings, missing persons cases, paula jean welden disappearance, unexplained disappearances, sing sing prison escape, ufo sightings spain 1968, highgate cemetery, greyfriars kirkyard, pere lachaise cemetery, st louis cemetery new orleans, animal attacks, intelligent spirits, residual hauntings, guardian spirits in cemeteries, cemetery folklore, living pterosaurs, mackenzie poltergeist, animal disruptions, spanish ufo wave 1968, bennington triangle disappearances, famous prison escapes

You're Listening to Parallax Views https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/ Support the Show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/parallaxviews On this edition of Parallax Views, is a recently declassified NSA memo the smoking gun document that proves Ethel Rosenberg was wrongfully convicted and executed for the charge of being a Soviet spy? That's the contention of her sons Michael and Robert Meeropol. Michael Meeropol joins the program to take us through exactly what this declassified memo says and what it means for the conventional understanding of the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg espionage case. For those unfamiliar, on June 19th, 1953, during the era of Joe McCarthy and the Red Scare, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by electric chair at New York's Sing Sing Prison after being convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. They became the first Americans executed on espionage charges during a peacetime period in the United States. Since then, the Rosenberg's sons, the aforementioned Michael and Robert Meeropol, have sought to find out the truth about their parents and whether they were wrongfully convicted and executed. In the intervening years the question of Julius Rosenberg's guilt has been answered. Simply put, he did engage in espionage for the Soviet Union. The case of Ethel Rosenberg, however, has not been so clear cut. Now, the previously mentioned NSA memo that was recently declassified appears to be powerful evidence in favor of her innocence. In addition to discussing what is in this memo, Michael and I will also discuss his experiences growing up under the long shadow of his parents' espionage charges, the collaboration between liberals and right-wing anti-communists during the Red Scare, Michael's review of a biography about Judge Irving R. Kaufman (the judge who sentenced the Rosenbergs), and much, much more.

Hosted by Jane Pauley. In our cover story, Ted Koppel looks at how a theater program at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York is causing recidivism rates to plummet. Also: Tracy Smith talks with Nicole Kidman about her latest film, “Babygirl”; David Martin sits down with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin; Mo Rocca chats with actress Audra McDonald and director George C. Wolfe about the new Broadway revival of “Gypsy”; Luke Burbank profiles singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers; Techno Claus (a.k.a. David Pogue) makes his annual visit to share gift suggestions for the gadget lovers on your shopping list; and comedian Jim Gaffigan shares what gifts you should NOT give this holiday season.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the wake of the Attica Prison Uprising, BB King performs for the prisoners at Sing Sing Prison in 1972. The Thanksgiving Day concert sparks a new conversation about prisoner rights. Documentarian Daivd Hoffman recalls his time behind the camera, watching BB King perform, and how he softened the hearts of otherwise life-hardened men. Meanwhile, with the surly Sonny Liston as a role model, George Foreman rises in the ranks as a heavyweight. He fights the Champ, Smokin' Joe Frazier, and is held hostage in Venezuela.   FILM/VIDEO REFERENCES Muhammad Ali poem from the Cathal O'Shannon TV show (available on YouTube) Sing Sing Thanksgiving, documentary by David Hoffman (available on YouTube) BOOKS “The Rumble in the Jungle” by Lewis Erenberg “Angela Davis: an autobiography” by Angela Davis  “Hit Me, Fred” by Fred Wesley (autobiography)  “Smokin' Joe” by Joe Frazier and Phil Berger (autobiography) “Smokin' Joe: The Life of Joe Frazier” by Mark Kram Jr.  “By George” by George Foreman (autobiography)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on Black on Black Cinema, the crew returns to discuss the 2023 film, "Sing Sing." The film follows Divine G (Coleman Domingo), imprisoned at Sing Sing Prison for a crime he didn't commit, who finds purpose by acting in a theater group alongside other incarcerated men in this story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art.

Trump struggled in districts in 2020 but other Republicans thrived Voters in a ring of congressional districts encircling New York City where Republican candidates often do well but Donald Trump struggled in 2020 could decide which party controls the U.S. House for the next two years. Eleven districts within a 90-mile drive of Manhattan are expected to be among the country's most closely contested House races on Election Day, including those that include Philipstown and Beacon. Republicans hold a slim 6 to 5 edge now in the nearly contiguous circle that starts in the Long Island suburbs, cuts through western Connecticut and New York's Hudson River Valley and Catskills regions, then carves through eastern Pennsylvania before curling back into New Jersey. Both parties have a shot at picking up seats across the broad territory of dense suburbs, leafy exurbs and former mill towns. Democrats have made the region an important part of their strategy to reclaim a House majority, but voters in the districts have been far from uniform in their thinking in recent elections. They have been united in two key ways: Most have been open to Republican candidates, but they also have shown an aversion to Trump. That means having the former president at the top of the GOP ballot this year could be decisive in congressional races unless opposition to him has softened or voters in the region are willing to split their tickets. Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden in all but two of the 11 districts in 2020. Two years later, voters in seven of them sent Republicans to Congress. In three of those districts where Republicans won in 2022, and two more where Democrats prevailed by razor-thin margins, Trump lost to Biden by at least 10 percentage points, according to voting data tabulated by The Associated Press. It isn't clear whether the political dynamics that helped Republicans do well outside New York City in the 2022 midterms exist today. In that election, many suburban voters were worried about a spike in violent crime after the COVID-19 pandemic. But crime rates since then have dropped. "The message environment in 2022 made the battlefields very uphill for Democrats," said former U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, a Long Island Democrat who once served as chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. But in a presidential election year, with Trump in a fierce campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris, "the message environment is defined by the top of the ticket." Israel said. "In these districts, this tends to become a referendum on Donald." The ability of Republican candidates to outperform Trump two years ago was illustrated in New York's 17th Congressional District, a suburban area north of the city that is home to the Village of Sleepy Hollow, Sing Sing Prison and such luminaries as Bill and Hillary Clinton and the billionaire George Soros. Trump owns a golf club and a private estate in the district, but still lost to Biden there by 10 percentage points. In 2022, Republican Mike Lawler narrowly defeated U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a Democrat who had been in office for a decade. Now, Lawler is in a tough campaign against Mondaire Jones, a former Democratic congressman who was one of the first two openly gay Black men to serve in the House when he was elected in 2020. Jones lost his seat when the boundaries of his district were redrawn. Both candidates have geared their strategies toward attracting moderate voters, while criticizing each other as being in league with radicals. "People are waking up to the fact that even if they don't believe Mike Lawler is as bad as Marjorie Taylor Greene, they can't afford to vote for him because he empowers the chaos and the extremism that we are seeing down in Washington," Jones told The Associated Press, referring to the far-right congresswoman from Georgia. Democrats have also claimed that Lawler wants to ban abortion, which the Republican denies. Lawler said Democrats are trying to mislead voters o...

IN THIS EPISODE: Cemeteries are more than just resting places for the dead; they are steeped in history, emotion, and, some believe, paranormal activity. We'll explore the eerie tales and scientific theories that make these hallowed grounds a focal point for ghostly encounters. (Unveiling The Secrets of Spirits At Cemeteries) *** Ever driven down a dark, winding country road and felt the hair on the back of your neck stand up? It's very possible you did if you were traveling down Sleepy Hollow Road. This isn't the Washington Irving tale of a hamlet in New York State – this is an infamous road in Kentucky with eerie legends of ghostly hearses, time warps, satanic rituals and haunted bridges. (The Sleepy Hollow of Kentucky) *** In the picturesque village of Bennington, Vermont, 18-year-old Paula Jean Welden disappeared on a chilly December afternoon in 1946. The case took many twists, including a fruitless search in the wilderness, misleading clues, and even the formation of the Vermont State Police due to criticism of the investigation. To this day, Paula's fate remains unknown. (Vanished: The Unsolved Disappearance of Paula Jean Welden”) *** In 1968, Spain experienced an unprecedented wave of UFO and humanoid sightings that left many mystified, terrified… and mesmerized. From encounters with mysterious figures in homes, to bizarre sightings outdoors, 1968 had the entire country of Spain talking about aliens from outer space. (1968: The Year Of High Strangeness) *** Despite humanity's efforts to control nature, sometimes the natural world pushes back in unexpected and chaotic ways. From a pigeon poop-induced blackout in Japan to a squirrel terrorizing a Welsh town, animals can disrupt our lives… and sometimes in humorous ways. (Man Vs Nature – When Animals Wreak Havoc) *** On a stormy night in April 1893, two condemned prisoners at Sing Sing Prison blinded a guard with pepper spray, and executed a daring escape down the Hudson River that left authorities baffled and the public enthralled. (The Great Escape From Sing Sing) *** You seemed to like my new film noir story idea, so I have another Murder Noir tonight – based on a true case from Halloween Day, 1981 when 11-year-old Karl Heikell told his parents he was going for a walk in Calumet, Michigan. He never returned home. (Murder Noir: The Case of the Vanishing Trick-or-Treater) *** Did pterosaurs, the ancient flying reptiles, truly vanish millions of years ago, or do they still soar through our skies? We'll look at claims of modern-day sightings, some controversial theories, and a tantalizing photograph that challenges their extinction. Could these prehistoric flying giants still be among us in hiding? YOUTUBE CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS…00:00:00.000 = Title Story Preview00:01:04.228 = Show Open00:04:28.333 = Unveiling The Secrets of Spirits In Cemeteries00:16:10.533 = The Great Escape From Sing Sing00:21:06.361 = Vanished: the Unsolved Disappearance of Paula Jean Welden00:27:23.337 = The Sleepy Hollow of Kentucky00:35:27.839 = 1968: The Year of High Strangeness00:42:35.562 = Man Vs Nature – When Animals Wreak Havoc00:53:52.841 = In Search Of Living Pterosaurs (links to photos below)00:57:56.382 = Show CloseSOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM THE EPISODE…“In Search of Living Pterosaurs” by David Albaugh for BasementOfTheBizarre.com (used with permission): https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yjvb29mrPHOTO OF PTEROSAUR FROM CIVIL WAR: https://weirddarkness.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/PterosaurPhotoFromCivlWar.pngPHOTO OF PTEROSAUR FROM OLD WEST, NAILED TO BARN: https://weirddarkness.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/PterosaurPhotoFromOldWest.png“Unveiling The Secrets Of Spirits In Cemeteries” sources: ***Encyclopaedia Britannica:https://www.britannica.com/topic/burial-death-rite; ***The World History Encyclopedia:https://www.worldhistory.org/burial/; ***Ecobear: https://ecobear.co/resources/dying-and-death/history-of-cemeteries/; ***ThoughtCo: https://www.thoughtco.com/death-and-burial-customs-1421757; ***Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burial“Vanished: The Unsolved Disappearance of Paula Jean Welden” by Gary Sweeney for The-Line-Up.com (used with permission): https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p853yzu“The Sleepy Hollow of Kentucky” source: Todd Atteberry, GothicHorrorStories.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/e57rjdm8“1968: The Year of High Strangeness” source: Brent Swancer, MysteriousUniverse.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yckpzv8m“Man Vs Nature – When Animal Wreak Havoc” source: George Wilson, ListVerse.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/nkc5nyr6“The Great Escape From Sing Sing” source: Robert Wilhelm, MurderByGaslight.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yc2mj26dWeird Darkness theme by Alibi Music Library. = = = = =(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)= = = = ="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46= = = = =WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2024, Weird Darkness.= = = = =Originally aired: June 07, 2024CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/revealing-the-secrets-of-ghosts-in-cemeteries/

Returning from Arkham, our investigators plan an interrogation (of sorts), dig into the Carlyle Expedition, and make a surprise stop at Sing Sing Prison to talk to a potentially falsely accused man... This is a long one, as the penultimate episode of our first season! Dive into the heart of cosmic horror with our gripping cinematic actual play series of Call of Cthulhu's legendary campaign, Masks of Nyarlathotep! Our intrepid investigators unravel the mysteries of this harrowing tale of cults, ancient artifacts, and dark schemes that herald the end of the world. In this spine-chilling series, expect a perfect blend of suspense, role-playing, and Lovecraftian terror as our investigators confront unspeakable evils that threaten to shatter their sanity. From the bustling streets of New York to the mysterious pyramids of Egypt, every step taken brings them closer to the cosmic horrors that lie in wait.

Campbell Playhouse | The Glass Key | Broadcast date: Friday, March 10th, 1939Story: A portrait of "the dark ways of the underworld" during the Depression. Crooked politics, murder, violence, a good story. Guest Warden Lawes of Sing Sing is interviewed after the story. Following the story Orson Welles talks to Warden Laws from Sing Sing Prison who tells us that in the 12 months of depression beginning in the late months of 1937 Sing Sing received its greatest number of first time offenders in his history.Featuring: Laura Baxter; Ray Collins; Elspeth Eric; Lewis E Lawes; Myron McCormick; Elizabeth Morgan; Effie Palmer; Everett Sloane; Howard Smith; Orson Welles: : : : :My other podcast channels include: MYSTERY x SUSPENSE -- DRAMA X THEATER -- SCI FI x HORROR -- COMEDY x FUNNY HA HA -- VARIETY X ARMED FORCES.Subscribing is free and you'll receive new post notifications. Also, if you have a moment, please give a 4-5 star rating and/or write a 1-2 sentence positive review on your preferred service -- that would help me a lot.Thank you for your support.https://otr.duane.media | Instagram @duane.otr

The phrase, "There's a sucker born every minute," is attributed to P.T. Barnum, but it could be about this episode: We're talking about con artists who swindled people into buying some really famous landmarks. George C. Parker sold the Brooklyn Bridge. Among Victor Lustig's most audacious scams was when he sold the Eiffel Tower. And a man known as Natwarlal made a name for himself selling the Taj Mahal among other famous landmarks in India. Let's look at what happened when each of these guys dipped a toe into real estate.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In August of 2021, Governor Andrew Cuomo grants JJ executive clemency. Three weeks later, JJ steps out of Sing Sing a free man. But he wasn't exonerated. In the eyes of the law, he was still a convicted felon. Within the first 24 hours of his release, JJ needs to check in with the parole office. He has a curfew. He has to get permission to travel out of state. As he likes to say, he's freer, but not free.Soon after his release, JJ gets a job at the Frederick Douglass Project. He's invited to give talks, run workshops. His life is focused on connecting people on the outside with those on the inside. And unbelievably, his work leads to a meeting with the President of the United States.

In 2017, JJ finally gets some good news. After years of denials and setbacks, he would appear before a judge for the first time since his conviction. A new judge would determine whether JJ's rights were violated when the prosecutor at his trial withheld police reports related to his case – reports that, 10 months earlier, had arrived in Dan's mailbox.But the judge ultimately denies JJ's request for a new trial. Dan and JJ are devastated. JJ explores other avenues for getting released. He applies for clemency, but year after year, the governor passes him over. Then, in 2020, the pandemic hits. The world stops. And JJ experiences the pandemic behind bars.

By 2015, JJ had been locked up for nearly 18 years. His mom, Maria, drives to Sing Sing to visit him on his 40th birthday and reflects on how much it hurts to watch him age in prison. In the last decade, JJ has built a rich life in prison in order to survive. He talks about his involvement in the prison's programs, like organizing fundraisers and leading workshops. He was even elected by the prison's population to speak for them when issues came up. He says this work has given him purpose, but it also helps distract him from the trauma of being incarcerated for a crime he didn't commit. While all of this is happening, JJ's older son, Jon, gets into more trouble. He's arrested on charges of burglary. He hides out in a motel room, and Dan goes to check on him there. Dan also follows up on old and new leads in JJ's case. And then one day, he gets a yellow envelope in the mail. 

It's been eight months since Dan's investigation into JJ's case aired on Dateline. When he visits JJ at Sing Sing, JJ is frustrated—he thought he'd be out by now. But the Manhattan DA is looking into his case. In 2010, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance created a conviction integrity unit focused on investigating claims of innocence. Bob Gottlieb and Celia Gordon, JJ's lawyers, are confident that this unit will determine that he was wrongfully convicted.Meanwhile, Bob and Celia hear from a woman who claims she and a friend know Mustafa: the NYPD's “primary target” for the murder of Al Ward. Dan follows up on this lead and travels to Seattle, where he interviews both women. They tell him their friend Mustafa confessed to killing Al Ward. Dan tracks down this Mustafa, and in a tense interview, tries to determine whether this man is the real killer.

On this day in 1951, a serial killer couple known as the Lonely Hearts Killers were put to death at Sing Sing Prison.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dan tracks down Juror Number Six: Ramon Aviles. Ramon remembers the moment when the 84-year-old eyewitness, Dorothy Canady, pointed him out as the shooter. He says he was shocked and that people were laughing. The juror breaks down what he remembers from the deliberation room and ultimately admits he might have made a mistake in voting to convict JJ.Dan starts to wonder if other jurors from JJ's trial would feel the same way. He meets up with a different juror and when she sees Dan, she immediately starts to cry. She says she felt pressured by some of the other jurors to convict JJ because they were sequestered and wanted to go home. More than decade later, she believes she ruined JJ's life.Dan is stunned. He's building a compelling case for JJ's innocence, but there's still one more person he needs to talk to: JJ's alleged accomplice, the man with the duct tape, Derry Daniels. Dan visits Daniels, who refuses to talk to him, but Dan is now certain that JJ did not get a fair trial. He sits down with Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, to talk through the case. Barry explains how eyewitness accounts can be unreliable. 

It turns out, back in 1998, just days after the crime, the NYPD had a main suspect for the murder of Al Ward: a man named Mustafa. Dan tries to find out more about Mustafa and understand why this lead was dropped after JJ's name entered the case. He also learns that JJ's legal team had a court-assigned private investigator. Dan tracks down that private investigator, and discovers that he hardly looked into JJ's case. He didn't know about Mustafa and he never interviewed the eyewitnesses to the murder of Al Ward.So Dan decides to do what the private investigator didn't do – investigate JJ's case. In the summer of 2009, Dan finds Augustus Brown, the key witness, the man who first identified JJ. He's incarcerated at the Elmira Correctional Facility in upstate New York. Dan pays him a visit. 

JJ Velazquez claimed he had an alibi: a 74-minute phone call on a landline with his mother, Maria Velazquez, that overlapped with the time of the crime. So Dan visits Maria. She lives in a town in New York on the Hudson River directly across from Sing Sing, the maximum security prison where her son is incarcerated. Maria talks to Dan about JJ's childhood. And she recounts in detail her memory of January 27th, 1998, the day of Al Ward's murder.Meanwhile, Dan is still familiarizing himself with JJ's case file. There are thousands of pages of documents that sit in a box by his desk. He starts to work his way through the trial transcript. Immediately, it's clear to him that the trial was strange. As Dan unpacks what happened in the courtroom, he's left with more questions than answers. Prosecutors say five people identified JJ as the man who killed Al Ward. Dan decides to find them. 

In December of 2002, NBC News Producer Dan Slepian got a letter from a New York State maximum security prison. It was detailed and meticulous, almost like it had been written by a lawyer. It was from a man serving 25 years to life for murder. And it ended with a desperate plea: look into my case.In 1998, Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez was arrested for killing a retired New York City police officer. A year later, he was convicted of second degree murder. But he insisted he didn't do it. Dan was skeptical. Prosecutors said five eyewitnesses had sworn JJ was the killer. Could five people be wrong?So Dan pays JJ a visit. And at the end of it, JJ gives Dan a challenge: prove me guilty.

In December of 2002, NBC News producer Dan Slepian got a letter from a New York state prison. It was detailed and meticulous, almost like it had been written by a lawyer. But it wasn't. It was from a man serving 25 years to life for murder. And it ended with a desperate plea: look into my case.Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez had been convicted of killing a retired New York City police officer, but he insisted he didn't do it. Dan was skeptical. Prosecutors said five eyewitnesses had sworn JJ was the killer. Could five people be wrong?But JJ was adamant about his innocence. He had devoted years to fighting his case, spending hours in the law library, poring over every page of his file. He was confident that if Dan looked into it, he'd see the truth. He even challenged Dan to prove him guilty.So Dan began to dig. What he discovered went far beyond just JJ's case. And 20 years later, it's still unfolding.Letters from Sing Sing tells the story of a man convicted of murder, a journalist, and the letter that changed both of their lives. New episodes drop every Monday through March 27, 2023.

“I feel lucky to do what I do. I write about real people, often by living their lives for a while—visiting their lives, you might say. Trying them on for size. Though there are easier ways to make a living, I suppose, none strike me as a fraction so interesting.” T.C. In Ted Conover's 7th book, CHEAP LAND COLORADO, he introduces us to the off-gridders and their families who live in an isolated part of southern Colorado's enormous San Luis Valley. In our conversation today Ted talks about why these folks seek out this difficult life, how they manage the bitter high-altitude winters, and the skills homeowners learn when there are no city services or utilities. Ted has ridden the rails with hoboes, crossed the border with Mexican immigrants, and butchered beef in a meat-packing plant in Nebraska. His day job is teaching at New York University. He's also the author of six other books and numerous articles published in The New Yorker, Harper's and The Atlantic, among many others. Perhaps his best-known book is “Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing,” an account of his ten months spent working as a corrections officer at New York's Sing Sing Prison. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

The topic of this conversation is different from usual. We discuss how the past of Sing Sing prison gives us perspective on building a fairer society. Brent Glass is the Executive Director of the Sing Sing Prison Museum. Please note that we are currently running a survey to determine your preferences in terms of podcast […]

The topic of this conversation is different from usual. We discuss how the past of Sing Sing prison gives us perspective on building a fairer society. Brent Glass is the Executive Director of the Sing Sing Prison Museum. Please note that we are currently running a survey to determine your preferences in terms of podcast […]

Chapin's successful journalism career crumbled as stress chipped away at his mental health, and he committed a terrible crime. But there were still surprises left to his story.  Research:  “Of the Dynamite Explosion in Russell Sage's Office.” The Leaf-Chronicle (Clarkeville, Tennessee). Dec. 7, 1891. https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/353237459/?terms=%22russel%20sage%22&match=1 “A Dynamite Bomb.” The Alliance Herald. Dec. 11, 1891. https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/423611027/?terms=%22russel%20sage%22&match=1 “City Slave Girls.” Saturday Evening Kansas Commoner. Aug. 24, 1888. https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/382892220/?clipping_id=30641784&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjM4Mjg5MjIyMCwiaWF0IjoxNjYyNDY2MjA3LCJleHAiOjE2NjI1NTI2MDd9.eLdfDQGTjlV-7dafIRsWSWJokfMsSrhH2IM2_6e5T7M “New York World Editor Kills Wife.” Intelligencer Journal. Sept. 17, 1918. https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/557223275/?terms=%22Charles%20E.%20Chapin%22&match=1 Morris, James McGrath. “The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism.” Fordham University Press. 2003. Chapin, Charles. “Winnetka's Horror.” Chicago Tribune. Feb. 14, 1884. https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/349741239/?terms=Winnetka%27s%20Horror&match=1 “Editor Chapin Sane.” Enid Daily Eagle. Dec. 17, 1918. https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/608553349/?terms=%22Charles%20E.%20Chapin%22&match=1 “Mrs. Macaulley's Crime.” Chicago Tribune. Dec. 25, 1887. https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/349513839/?terms=%22william%20macaulley%22&match=1 Chapin, Charles E. “Charles Chapin's Story Written in Sing Sing Prison.” G.P. Putnam. 1920. Read online: https://books.google.com/books?id=UmZMAAAAMAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s “Russell Sage's Will.” The Ordway New Era. August 3, 1906. https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=ONE19060803-01.2.45&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA--------0------ Snow, Richard, “Charles Chapin.” American Heritage. December 1979. https://www.americanheritage.com/charles-chapin “Prisoner McKeague.” Chicago Tribune. February 26, 1884. https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/349741560/?terms=neal%20mckeague&match=1 Roberts, Sam. “Archives From Prisons in New York Are Digitized.” New York Times. July 6, 2014. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/07/nyregion/new-york-prison-archives-are-digitized-by-ancestry-com.html Wingfield, Valerie. “The General Slocum Disaster of June 15, 1904.” New York Public Library. June 13, 2011. https://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/06/13/great-slocum-disaster-june-15-1904 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chapin built a life people envied, and had a great deal of power. His entire biography is full of noteworthy achievements and awards. As a newsman, he covered many of the key moments of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Research: “Of the Dynamite Explosion in Russell Sage's Office.” The Leaf-Chronicle (Clarkeville, Tennessee). Dec. 7, 1891. https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/353237459/?terms=%22russel%20sage%22&match=1 “A Dynamite Bomb.” The Alliance Herald. Dec. 11, 1891. https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/423611027/?terms=%22russel%20sage%22&match=1 “City Slave Girls.” Saturday Evening Kansas Commoner. Aug. 24, 1888. https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/382892220/?clipping_id=30641784&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjM4Mjg5MjIyMCwiaWF0IjoxNjYyNDY2MjA3LCJleHAiOjE2NjI1NTI2MDd9.eLdfDQGTjlV-7dafIRsWSWJokfMsSrhH2IM2_6e5T7M “New York World Editor Kills Wife.” Intelligencer Journal. Sept. 17, 1918. https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/557223275/?terms=%22Charles%20E.%20Chapin%22&match=1 Morris, James McGrath. “The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism.” Fordham University Press. 2003. Chapin, Charles. “Winnetka's Horror.” Chicago Tribune. Feb. 14, 1884. https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/349741239/?terms=Winnetka%27s%20Horror&match=1 “Editor Chapin Sane.” Enid Daily Eagle. Dec. 17, 1918. https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/608553349/?terms=%22Charles%20E.%20Chapin%22&match=1 “Mrs. Macaulley's Crime.” Chicago Tribune. Dec. 25, 1887. https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/349513839/?terms=%22william%20macaulley%22&match=1 Chapin, Charles E. “Charles Chapin's Story Written in Sing Sing Prison.” G.P. Putnam. 1920. Read online: https://books.google.com/books?id=UmZMAAAAMAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s “Russell Sage's Will.” The Ordway New Era. August 3, 1906. https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=ONE19060803-01.2.45&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA--------0------ Snow, Richard, “Charles Chapin.” American Heritage. December 1979. https://www.americanheritage.com/charles-chapin “Prisoner McKeague.” Chicago Tribune. February 26, 1884. https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/349741560/?terms=neal%20mckeague&match=1 Roberts, Sam. “Archives From Prisons in New York Are Digitized.” New York Times. July 6, 2014. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/07/nyregion/new-york-prison-archives-are-digitized-by-ancestry-com.html Wingfield, Valerie. “The General Slocum Disaster of June 15, 1904.” New York Public Library. June 13, 2011. https://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/06/13/great-slocum-disaster-june-15-1904 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

www.patreon.com/accidentaldads  An American-developed method of execution known as the "electric chair" involves strapping the condemned individual to a specially constructed wooden chair and electrocuting them using electrodes attached to their head and leg. Alfred P. Southwick, a dentist from Buffalo, New York, proposed this form of execution in 1881. It was developed during the 1880s as a purportedly merciful substitute for hanging, and it was first used in 1890. This technique of execution has been utilized for many years in the Philippines and the United States. Death was first thought to arise from brain injury, but research in 1899 revealed that ventricular fibrillation and ultimately cardiac arrest are the main causes of death.   Despite the fact that the electric chair has long been associated with the death sentence in the United States, lethal injection, which is generally regarded as a more compassionate mode of execution, has replaced the electric chair as the preferred method of execution. Except in Tennessee and South Carolina, where it may be used without the prisoner's consent if the medications for lethal injection are not available, electrocution is only still permitted as a second option that may be selected over lethal injection at the request of the prisoner in some states. In the states of Alabama and Florida, where lethal injection is an alternate technique, electrocution is an optional method of execution as of 2021. Inmates who are condemned to death for crimes committed before March 31, 1998 and who elect electrocution as their method of execution no longer have access to the electric chair; instead, they are put to death by lethal injection, as are those who do not pick electrocution. In the event that a judge rules that lethal injection is unlawful, electrocution is also permitted in Kentucky. If alternative methods of execution are later determined to be unlawful in the state where the execution is taking place, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma have permitted the use of the electric chair as a backup method. On February 8, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the state's constitution prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment," which included electric chair execution. As a result, Nebraska, the only state that continued to use electrocution as the exclusive form of death, stopped carrying out these kinds of executions.   Newspaper stories about how the high voltages used to power arc lighting, a type of brilliant outdoor street lighting that required high voltages in the range of 3000-6000 volts, were published one after another in the late 1870s and early 1880s. It was a strange new phenomenon that appeared to instantly strike a victim dead without leaving a mark. On August 7, 1881, one of these mishaps in Buffalo, New York, resulted in the invention of the electric chair. George Lemuel Smith, a drunk dock worker, managed to get back inside the Brush Electric Company arc lighting power house that evening and touch the brush and ground of a large electric dynamo in search of the excitement of a tingling feeling he had felt while holding the guard rail. He died instantaneously. The coroner who looked into the matter brought it up before a Buffalo-area scientific group that year. Alfred P. Southwick, a dentist with a technical background who was also in attendance at the talk, believed the strange event may have some practical use.   Southwick participated in a series of studies that involved electrocuting hundreds of stray dogs alongside doctor George E. Fell and the director of the Buffalo ASPCA. They conducted tests using the dog both in and out of the water, and they experimented with the electrode kind and location until they developed a consistent procedure for electrocuting animals. After publishing his theories in scholarly publications in 1882 and 1883, Southwick went on to argue for the employment of this technique as a more compassionate alternative to hanging in capital cases in the early 1880s. His work gained widespread attention. In an effort to create a system that might be scaled up to operate on people, he developed calculations based on the dog experimentation. Early on in his plans, he used a modified dental chair to confine the condemned; this chair would later come to be known as the electric chair.   There was growing opposition to hangings in particular and the death penalty in general following a string of botched executions in the United States. A three-person death penalty commission was established in 1886 by newly elected New York State Governor David B. Hill to look into more humane ways of carrying out executions. The commission was chaired by the human rights activist and reformer Elbridge Thomas Gerry and included Southwick and lawyer and politician Matthew Hale from New York. There was growing opposition to hangings in particular and the death penalty in general following a string of botched executions in the United States. A three-person death penalty commission was established in 1886 by newly elected New York State Governor David B. Hill to look into more humane ways of carrying out executions. The commission was chaired by the human rights activist and reformer Elbridge Thomas Gerry and included Southwick and lawyer and politician Matthew Hale from New York. They also went to George Fell's dog electrocutions, who had collaborated with Southwick on early 1880s tests. Fell continued his research by electrocuting sedated, vivisected dogs in an effort to understand how electricity killed a victim. The Commission suggested execution in 1888 utilizing Southwick's electric chair concept, with the convicted person's head and feet hooked to metal wires. With three electric chairs put up at the jails in Auburn, Clinton, and Sing Sing, they further suggested that the state execute prisoners rather than the individual counties. These ideas were incorporated into a measure that was approved by the legislature, signed by Governor Hill on June 4, 1888, and was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 1889.   The New York Medico-Legal Society, an unofficial organization made up of physicians and lawyers, was tasked with assessing these criteria because the bill itself did not specify the kind or quantity of electricity that should be utilized. Since tests up to that point had been conducted on animals smaller than a human (dogs), some committee members weren't sure that the lethality of alternating current (AC) had been conclusively proven. In September 1888, a committee was formed and recommended 3000 volts, but the type of electricity, direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC), wasn't determined.   At this point, the state's efforts to develop the electric chair were mixed up with the conflict between Thomas Edison's direct current power system and George Westinghouse's alternating current-based system, which came to be known as the "war of the currents." Since 1886, the two businesses had been engaged in commercial competition. In 1888, a sequence of circumstances led to an all-out media war between the two. Frederick Peterson, a neurologist who served as the committee's chair, hired Harold P. Brown to serve as a consultant. After numerous people died as a result of the careless installation of pole-mounted AC arc lighting lines in New York City in the early months of 1888, Brown embarked on his own war against alternating current. Peterson had assisted Brown when he publicly electrocuted dogs with AC in July 1888 at Columbia College in an effort to demonstrate that AC was more lethal than DC.  Thomas Edison's West Orange laboratory offered technical support for these experiments, and an unofficial alliance between Edison Electric and Brown developed. On December 5, 1888, Brown set up an experiment back at West Orange as Thomas Edison, members of the press, and members of the Medico-Legal Society, including Elbridge Gerry, the head of the death sentence panel, watched. Brown conducted all of his experiments on animals larger than humans using alternating current, including four calves and a lame horse, which were all operated under 750 volts of AC.  The Medico-Legal Society advocated using 1000–1500 volts of alternating electricity for executions based on these findings, and newspapers emphasized that the voltage used was just half that of the power lines that run over the streets of American cities. Westinghouse denounced these experiments as biased self-serving demonstrations intended to constitute an outright attack on alternating current, and he charged Brown of working for Edison. Members of the Medico-Legal Society, including electrotherapy specialist Alphonse David Rockwell, Carlos Frederick MacDonald, and Columbia College professor Louis H. Laudy, were tasked with determining the specifics of electrode placement at the request of death sentence panel chairman Gerry. They resorted to Brown once more for the technical support. Treasurer Francis S. Hastings, who appeared to be one of the key figures at the company trying to portray Westinghouse as a peddler of death dealing AC current, tried to acquire a Westinghouse AC generator for the test but discovered that none could be acquired. Brown requested that Edison Electric Light supply the equipment for the tests. They ultimately used Edison's West Orange facility for the animal testing they carried out in the middle of March 1889. Austin E. Lathrop, the superintendent of prisons, petitioned Brown to create the chair, but Brown declined.  Dr. George Fell created the final designs for a straightforward oak chair, deviating from the suggestions of the Medico-Legal Society by moving the electrodes to the head and the center of the back.  Brown did accept the responsibility of locating the generators required to run the chair. With the aid of Edison and Westinghouse's main AC competitor, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, he was able to covertly purchase three Westinghouse AC generators that were being retired, ensuring that Westinghouse's equipment would be connected to the first execution. Edwin F. Davis, the first "state electrician" (executioner) for the State of New York, constructed the electric chair.   Joseph Chapleau, who had been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of killing his neighbor with a sled stake, became the first victim of New York's new electrocution legislation. William Kemmler, who had been found guilty of killing his wife with a hatchet, was the next prisoner on the death row. Kemmler filed an appeal on his behalf with the New York Court of Appeals, arguing that the use of electricity as a manner of execution amounted to "cruel and unusual punishment" that was in violation of both the federal and state constitutions of the United States. Kemmler's petition for a writ of habeas corpus was rejected by the court on December 30, 1889, according to a long decision by Judge Dwight:  “We have no doubt that if the Legislature of this State should undertake to proscribe for any offense against its laws the punishment of burning at the stake, breaking at the wheel, etc., it would be the duty of the courts to pronounce upon such an attempt the condemnation of the Constitution. The question now to be answered is whether the legislative act here is subject to the same condemnation. Certainly, it is not so on its face, for, although the mode of death described is conceded to be unusual, there is no common knowledge or consent that it is cruel; it is a question of fact whether an electric current of sufficient intensity and skillfully applied will produce death without unnecessary suffering.”   On August 6, 1890, Kemmler was put to death in Auburn Prison in New York; Edwin F. Davis served as the "state electrician." Kemmler was rendered unconscious after being exposed to 1,000 volts of AC electricity for the first 17 seconds, but his heart and respiration were left unaffected. Edward Charles Spitzka and Carlos F. MacDonald, the attending doctors, stepped forward to examine Kemmler. Spitzka allegedly said, "Have the current turned on again, quick, no delay," after making sure Kemmler was still alive. But the generator required some time to recharge. A 2,000 volt AC shock was administered to Kemmler on the second attempt. The skin's blood vessels burst, bled, and caught fire in the vicinity of the electrodes. It took roughly eight minutes to complete the execution. A reporter who witnessed the execution reported that it was "an horrible scene, considerably worse than hanging," and George Westinghouse subsequently said, "They would have done better using an ax."   Following its adoption by Ohio (1897), Massachusetts (1900), New Jersey (1906), and Virginia (1908), the electric chair quickly replaced hanging as the most often used form of execution in the country. Death by electrocution was either legal or actively used to kill offenders in 26 US States, the District of Columbia, the Federal government, and the US Military. Until the middle of the 1980s, when lethal injection became the method of choice for carrying out legal executions, the electric chair remained the most popular execution technique.    It appears that other nations have thought about employing the technique, occasionally for unique motives. From 1926 to 1987, the electric chair was also used in the Philippines. In May 1972, Jaime Jose, Basilio Pineda, and Edgardo Aquino were killed there in a well-known triple execution for the 1967 kidnapping and gang rape of the young actress Maggie de la Riva. Lethal injection was used instead of the electric chair when executions resumed in the Philippines after a break in 1976.   Some accounts claim that Ethiopia tried to use the electric chair as a means of capital punishment. According to legend, the emperor Menelik II purchased three electric chairs in 1896 at the urging of a missionary, but was unable to put them to use since his country did not have a stable source of electricity at the time. Menelik II is rumored to have used the third electric chair as a throne, while the other two chairs were either utilized as garden furniture or gifted to guests.   During the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, the results of which were released in 1953, the United Kingdom explored lethal injection in addition to lethal injection, the electric chair, the gas chamber, the guillotine, and gunshot as alternatives to hanging. The Commission came to the conclusion that hanging was preferable to the electric chair in no specific way. In the UK, the death penalty was abolished for the majority of offenses in 1965.   In 1894, serial killer Lizzie Halliday was given a death sentence via electric chair; however, after a medical committee deemed her crazy, governor Roswell P. Flower reduced her death sentence to life in a mental hospital. Maria Barbella, a second woman who received a death sentence in 1895, was exonerated the following year. On March 20, 1899, Martha M. Place at Sing Sing Prison became the first female to be put to death by electric chair for the murder of her stepdaughter Ida Place, who was 17 years old.   Ruth Snyder, a housewife, was put to death in the electric chair at Sing Sing on the evening of January 12, 1928, for the murder of her husband in March of that year. Tom Howard, a news photographer, sneaked a camera into the execution chamber and captured her in the electric chair as the current was put on for a front-page story in the New York Daily News the next morning. It continues to be among the most well-known instances in photojournalism.   On July 13, 1928, a record was set at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, Kentucky, when seven men were put to death in the electric chair one after the other.   George Stinney, an African-American boy, was electrocuted at the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina, on June 16, 1944, making him the youngest person ever to be put to death by the electric chair. In 2014, a circuit court judge annulled his sentence and reversed his conviction on the grounds that Stinney had not received a fair trial. The judge found that Stinney's legal representation fell short of his constitutional rights as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment.   Following the Gregg v. Georgia ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, John Spenkelink was the first person to be electrocuted on May 25, 1979. He was the first person to be put to death in this way in the United States since 1966.   Lynda Lyon Block was the last person to be put to death in the electric chair without having the option of a different execution technique on May 10, 2002 in Alabama.   On the day of the execution, the condemned prisoner's legs and head are both shaved. The condemned prisoner is led to the chair and placed there before having their arms and legs firmly restrained with leather belts to prevent movement or struggle. The prisoner's legs are shaved, and electrodes are fastened to them. A hat covering his head is made of a sponge soaked in saltwater or brine. To avoid presenting a gory scene to the onlookers, the prisoner may wear a hood or be blinded.   The execution starts when the prisoner is told the order of death and given the chance to say one last thing. Alternating current is delivered through a person's body in several cycles (changes in voltage and length) to fatally harm their internal organs. The initial, stronger electric shock (between 2000 and 2,500 volts) is meant to induce instantaneous unconsciousness, ventricular fibrillation, and eventually cardiac arrest. The goal of the second, weaker shock (500–1,500 volts) is to fatally harm the essential organs.   A medical professional examines the prisoner for signs of life once the cycles are finished. If none are found, the medical professional notes the moment of death and waits for the body to cool before removing it to prepare for an autopsy. The doctor alerts the warden if the prisoner shows signs of life, and the warden would often order another round of electric current or (rarely) postpone the execution (see Willie Francis).   The reliability of the first electrical shock to consistently cause rapid unconsciousness, as proponents of the electric chair sometimes say, is disputed by opponents. According to witness accounts, electrocutions gone wrong (see Willie Francis and Allen Lee Davis) and results of post-mortem investigations, the electric chair is frequently unpleasant during executions.   The electric chair has drawn criticism since in a few cases the victims were only put to death after receiving many electric shocks. As a result, the practice was called into question as being "cruel and unusual punishment." In an effort to allay these worries, Nebraska implemented a new electrocution procedure in 2004 that required the delivery of a 15-second application of electricity at 2,450 volts, followed by a 15-minute wait period during which a representative checked for signs of life. The current Nebraska protocol, which calls for a 20-second application of current at 2,450 volts, was introduced in April 2007 in response to further concerns voiced about the 2004 procedure.   Before the 2004 protocol revision, a first application of current at 2,450 volts for eight seconds, a one-second interval, and then a 22-second application at 480 volts were given. The cycle was performed three more times after a 20-second rest.   Willie Francis tried to escape the electric chair in 1946 and reportedly screamed, "Take it off! Let me Breathe!" when the current was turned on. It turned out that an inebriated jail officer and convict had illegally set up the portable electric chair. In a case titled Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber, attorneys for the convicted person contended that, although not dying, Francis had indeed been put to death. Francis was put back in the electric chair and killed in 1947 after the argument was rejected on the grounds that re-execution did not violate the double jeopardy provision of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.   Allen Lee Davis, who had been found guilty of murder, was put to death in Florida on July 8, 1999, using the "Old Sparky" electric chair. Pictures of Davis' injured face were taken and afterwards uploaded to the Internet. According to the results of the study, Davis had started bleeding before the electricity was turned on, and the chair had performed as planned. According to Florida's Supreme Court, the electric chair is not "cruel and unusual punishment." When flames sprang from Pedro Medina's skull during his execution in Florida in 1997, it stirred much debate. Medina's brain and brain stem were damaged by the initial electrical surge, which caused him to pass away quickly, according to an autopsy. A court determined that "unintentional human error" rather than any flaws in the "apparatus, equipment, and electrical circuitry" of Florida's electric chair was to blame for the occurrence.   The Louisiana legislature modified the manner of death in 1940; as of June 1, 1941, electrocution was the only option left. At first, Louisiana's electric chair was moved from parish to parish to carry out executions since it lacked a permanent location. Typically, the electrocution would take place in the jail or courtroom of the parish where the condemned prisoner had been found guilty. The first person to be executed with an electric chair in Louisiana was Eugene Johnson, a black man who was found guilty of stealing and killing Steven Bench, a white farmer who resided close to Albany. Johnson was killed at the Livingston Parish Jail on September 11, 1941.    To house all executions in Louisiana, it was decided to construct an execution chamber in the Louisiana State Penitentiary in 1957. Elmo Patrick Sonnier, the prisoner who served as the inspiration for the movie Dead Man Walking, and Willie Francis were notable executions on the chair (the only inmate to survive the electric chair; he was ultimately executed after the first attempt failed). Lethal injection was chosen by the State of Louisiana as the only execution technique in 1991 as a result of new law. Andrew Lee Jones was the last person put to death aboard "Gruesome Gertie" on July 22, 1991. Eighty-seven executions took place using "Gruesome Gertie" during the course of its fifty-year lifespan. The Louisiana Prison Museum presently houses it.  Death row convicts referred to the electric chair in Louisiana as " Gruesome Gertie."  It is also well-known for being the first electric chair execution to fail, when Willie Francis was put to death. As mentioned earlier.   The electric chair used in New Jersey's state prisons, known as Old Smokey, is displayed in the New Jersey State Police Museum. Richard Hauptmann, the person responsible for the Lindbergh kidnapping, was the chair's most well-known victim. The electric chair in Tennessee and Pennsylvania both went by this moniker.   Alabama in the United States has an electric chair called Yellow Mama. From 1927 through 2002, executions were held there.   The chair was first put at Kilby State Prison in Montgomery, Alabama, where it was given the moniker "Yellow Mama" after being sprayed with highway-line paint from the nearby State Highway Department lab. The chair was created by a British prisoner in 1927, the same year that Horace DeVauhan was executed for the first time.   Lynda Lyon Block, who was executed in 2002, was the final person to be executed in Yellow Mama. Since then, the chair has been kept at the Holman Correctional Facility in an attic above the execution room.   Since the introduction of lethal injection in 1979, which is now the standard procedure in all U.S. counties that permit capital punishment, the usage of the electric chair has decreased.   Only the American states of Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee still allow the use of the electric chair as a method of execution as of 2021. The laws of Arkansas and Oklahoma allow for its application in the event that lethal injection is ever ruled to be unlawful. It or lethal injection are the only options available to inmates in the other states. Only prisoners convicted in Kentucky prior to a specific date may choose to be executed by electric chair. In the event that a judge rules that lethal injection is unlawful, electrocution is also permitted in Kentucky.   Tennessee was one of the states that offered convicts the option of the electric chair or a lethal injection; nevertheless, the state approved a statute enabling the use of the electric chair in the event that lethal injection medicines were unavailable or rendered inadmissible in May 2014.   The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled on February 15, 2008, that the Nebraska Constitution forbids "cruel and unusual punishment," which includes death by electrocution.   Before Furman v. Georgia, Oklahoma witnessed the last legal electrocution in the US. This occurred in 1966. The electric chair was used relatively regularly in post-Gregg v. Georgia executions throughout the 1980s, but as lethal injection became more popular in the 1990s, its use in the United States steadily decreased. The most recent US electrocution, that of Nicholas Todd Sutton,  who was responsible for murdering two acquaintances and his own grandmother in North Carolina and Tennessee from August to December 1979, took place in Tennessee in February 2020. A handful of states still give the death penalty option to the convicted, allowing them to choose between lethal injection and electrocution. https://www.listal.com/movies/electric%2bchair

Welcome to Episode 9 of A Grave Podcast. This Episode we bring you the murderous tale of housewife Mary Frances Creighton, and her ‘live-in' neighbor, 36-year-old Everett Applegate, who were executed in Sing Sing Prison's electric chair, Old Sparky, for the poisoning and murder of Applegate's wife, Ada, in Baldwin, New York on September 27, 1935.

Ted Conover's IMMERSION: A WRITER'S GUIDE TO GOING DEEP shares the how-to's of his trade that he had to learn the hard way. How to get in, how to be ethical, and how to avoid being Googled are just a few of his topics he discusses. Ted has ridden the rails with hoboes, crossed the border with Mexican immigrants, and butchered beef in a meat-packing plant in Nebraska. His day job is teaching at New York University. He is also the author of five other books and numerous articles published in The New Yorker, Harper's and The Atlantic, among many others. Perhaps his best-known book is “Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing,” an account of his ten months spent working as a corrections officer at New York's Sing Sing Prison. This conversation with Ted Conover took place several years ago. His newest book, Cheap Land Colorado: Off-Gridders at America's Edge, will be released later this year. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booktalk-diana-korte/message

Pete, Chris, and Joey tear another episode to shreds with a feature on the infamous Sing Sing Prison.  The fascinating history, infamous inmates, the more than 600 executions, and daring escapes are discussed along with co-host, Tex.  it's another brutal prison story!Joey does the metal feature on Broken Hope and the guys discuss other heavy metal news plus a new Killer Cage Match, mayhem stories, karaoke destruction, and more.Music by Broken Hope, Anthrax, and Immortal Possession.Brought to you by Winter's Gore - gore for the holidays!Order Pete's new book, Creation of Chaos III now!  Download his audiobook on Audible here.Follow Joey's Goremonger page for updates on his music and his distro, FTA Records.Go to Murder Metal Mayhem to listen to our show!Order one of the new MMM shirts with the zombie design from Jeff Gaither!Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter, and Subscribe to our YouTube channel.Join the 666 Club and become a Patreon supporter of the show.  Only $3 a month for bonus content, VIP access, discounts on merch and more!Karaoke by I Kill Karaoke

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at the biggest espionage case of the Cold War, which lead to the infamous killing of the Rosenbergs. Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg were killed by electric chair in Sing Sing Prison on June 19 1953. They were both public and passionate communists. Julius allegedly had a handler from the Soviet union and helped recruit a spy ring of engineers. He was even able to get a few people from the Manhattan Project to become spies. Eventually, the couple got arrested and both were sentenced to death. However, several shifting testimonies and declassified documents came out over the following decades. It turns out the case wasn't as cut and dry as it seemed, and Ethel in particular may have been wrongfully killed. So, who adopted their boys? What are their sons fighting to get the US government to do? What relative of theirs admitted to lying at the Rosenberg trial to save his own wife in court? Listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/atom-spy-caserosenbergs https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/rosenbergs-executed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/19/rosenbergs-executed-for-spying-1953-can-sons-reveal-truth https://www.atomicarchive.com/resources/biographies/rosenbergs.html 60 Minutes, October 16, 2016

A Powerful Testimony of how Christ can save and forgive even the toughest of us

Dr. Fix Me meets Audrey, a hitman, who cannot decide which adopted parent to kill.  Dr. Jim Sheehan, Audrey's therapist from Sing Sing Prison, elaborates on some of the "prison plays" he has written. This episode is sponsored by Paulie G. with “WackedandJacked.com” for all your porn and contract killer needs. Assassin expert Broprah Bootyboy offers advice on which parent to kill. Producer Nick offers unsolicited interjections. Cast: Kelsey Clay, Joshua Zuar, Lauren Levine, Byron Dow, Nick Demos and Michael Kim Lewis as Dr. Fix Me Recorded live at Bughouse Theater in Chicago, IL Watch Dr. Fix Me Live! on YouTube Instagram @DrFixMe Facebook @DrFixMeShow Enjoy the show? Let us know!  drfixmeshow@gmail.com

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://tinyurl.com/j3cht4sh Debate on Capital Punishment Held at New York, on 27th October, 1924 In a public debate held at the Manhattan Opera House, Clarence Darrow argued that not one of the nineteen men under sentence of death at Sing Sing Prison would have been convicted if they could have afforded good attorneys. He was opposed by Judge Alfred J. Talley of General Sessions, who argued for retention of the death penalty for murder. The debate commenced with an address by Lewis Lawes, who was the warden at Sing Sing. Cast Narrator: Lee Ann Howlett Benjamin Javits - Announcer - Marty Krz Lewis Lawes - Temporary Chairman - John Burlinson Louis Marshall - Chairman - Marty Krz Judge Alfred J. Talley - Debater (affirmative) - Ben Stevens Clarence Darrow - Debater (negative) - Ron Altman A Voice/chorus - Lee Ann Howlett

Dewey Bozella was 18 years old when he was arrested for murder. It was a terrible crime: an elderly woman had been beaten and suffocated in her home in Poughkeepsie, New York. But Dewey had nothing to do with it. Five years later, Dewey was convicted on flimsy, circumstantial evidence, and became one of the estimated tens of thousands of innocent people stuck in prison for crimes they did not commit.Black people are overrepresented in that group: they are seven times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder than whites. Before he was locked up, Dewey had taken up boxing. And while incarcerated at Sing Sing Prison, Dewey turned back to the sport he loved, something he says helped save his life. He became the prison's light heavyweight boxing champion, and after being released in 2009, he began mentoring young people and teaching them to box. He didn't give up on his dreams of boxing, and two years after his release, Dewey competed in his first professional fight, at 52 years old. Trymaine Lee sits down with Dewey to talk about his fight to prove his innocence and to live out his dreams, and the lessons he learned along the way.For a transcript, please visit https://www.msnbc.com/intoamerica. Thoughts? Feedback? Story ideas? Write to us at intoamerica@nbcuni.comFurther Reading and Listening:Exonerated of murder, boxer makes his debut at 5226 Years: The Dewey Bozella Story (ESPN 30 for 30 documentary)

Clemency is a way to give a person convicted of a criminal offense relief from a sentence. This is usually done by reducing an individual's sentence or waiving future consequences from a conviction. Byron Russ joined Hudson Mohawk Magazine producer Elizabeth Press from Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, NY to talk about his rehabilitation process as well as his case for clemency.

Today, on the Hudson Mohawk Magazine, To start the show, Mark Dunlea speaks with Rachel Fauss of Reinvent Albany about the New York State legislative session that adjourned in June. Then, we speak with educator, researcher, activist, artist, and glaucoma patient, Nora Schaffer, about Pfizer's decision to stop producing the glaucoma drug phospholine iodide. After that, on Willie Terry's The Struggle Continues, we hear from David Walker, Leon VanDyke, Carlo Dufflar, and Angel Martinez in a panel discussion called “From the Fourth of July to Juneteenth: What do they Mean to Black People?" Then, Byron Russ join Hudson Mohawk Magazine producer Elizabeth Press from Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, NY to talk about his rehabilitation process as well as his case for clemency. And to close out the show, Corinne Carey speaks with local farmer and livestock manager, Justin Butts, about raising pigs, making soap, and working at Laughing Earth Farm in Cropseyville.

Hello and welcome again to Lechem Panim. We are continuing our study today of Acts chapter 8. You will remember that Stephen has recently been stoned and a great persecution has broken out against the Church in the wake of that, causing many of the believers (particularly the Hellenists) to be driven outside of Jerusalem to minister in the surrounding areas, one of which was Samaria. Now one of the Hellenists, a man by the name of Phillip, was the one to bring the Gospel to Samaria. And he tells the Samaritans of both of heaven and of the way they can get there; through faith in the name of Jesus. And this message of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ (along with the signs that are being worked through Philip) invokes a huge response as multitudes come to saving faith in Jesus Christ and are baptized. But in this great revival, one of the men the people had previously looked up to (and even deified) was a sorcerer by the name of Simon. And Simon appeared to convert along with the rest of the believers; believing, being baptized, and even following Philip in what looks to be a discipleship relationship. However, as we will see in the rest of Simon's story, his motives were quite sinister, as he wanted to use Christianity for his own ends; which consisted mainly of his keeping the spotlight and glory on himself. And so because of that he fell into the same category of believers as Ananias and Sapphira had been. He had the appearance, but was in reality a deceiver; a con artist. Don't Buy That Bridge!— Now it's interesting. [In the long history of con artists, George C. Parker holds a special place of dishonor. He is remembered as one of the most successful and daring swindlers in American history. He set up an office in New York City and “sold” some of the city's most famous attractions to tourists. His favorite was the Brooklyn Bridge, but he also sold the Statue of Liberty, Madison Square Garden, and Grant's Tomb. He produced elaborately forged documents and deeds to convince his targets that he was the rightful owner of the landmarks he was selling. Parker was so persuasive that on more than one occasion, police had to come and explain why the new “owners” of the Brooklyn Bridge couldn't put up tollbooths to collect money from those who tried to cross. After his third conviction for fraud, Parker was sentenced to life at Sing Sing Prison in New York, where he spent the last eight years of his life. He dishonestly made a fortune preying on people who foolishly believed his empty words. He not only was an expert salesman, but he realized that many people were gullible and he could use that to his advantage.] Self-Deceived— Now one of the amazing things about watching false prophets and con-artists is how convincing they can be. And this can be complicated by the fact that many charlatans actually believe the lies they are telling other people. There is such a thing as being self-deceived; and those who have been deceiving themselves for a long time can lose their ability to distinguish between what is reality and what is make-believe. They become kind of like walking fiction novels that they themselves are writing. But the fact that Simon may have been self deceived did not make him any less dangerous. In fact it made him more dangerous because he did not have the air of a liar. He really believed that he was the special power of God. And everybody was paying attention to him because he was able to astonish them with his magical arts. And the reason they were eager to believe was because they were clinging onto hopes of the Messiah. And when somebody is hopeful about something, that can make them particularly vulnerable to false dealers of hope. And that is not just then, but now as well. Even people in our day and age can be susceptible to being swindled by miracle workers who claim to be acting with the power and in the authority of God. 4 Major Faults— Now last week we began exploring four major faults in Simons theology; faults that were severe enough to cause him to miss out on experiencing true saving faith. And having a wrong view of self was the first one. He had a glorified view of himself that kept him from ever reaching true repentance. And therefore He misses his salvation. Jesus Himself gives a demonstration of this in one of His parables. It says in… Luke 18:9-14 (ESV)— 9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” James' Sermon— James the brother of Jesus may have had this passage in mind when he wrote [one of the most powerful invitations {ever} to sinners]. He writes in… James 4:6-10 (ESV)— 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. Our Pride-full Culture— One of the things that our culture is discovering as it is moving away from God is that we are becoming so full of pride that we are rendering ourselves incapable of healing and restoration. There are multitudes of people who see themselves (not God; but themselves) as the arbiters of truth. And they look around at anybody who disagrees with them with hatred and animosity. Have you noticed there is no humility in dialogue anymore? So many people arrive to the conversation with no intent of learning anything about the positions or beliefs of the other side. And really they can't learn. Because in order to learn you must first be humble. But you cannot be humble before another person before you are first humble before God. And we live in a culture that (in so many ways) has turned its back on God. In our humanism we think we know better; that we are good; and not only good but the very standard by which all goods ought to be measured. And this was Simon's problem. But if you and I want to come to Jesus, then we have to come with that sense of our own lostness; that recognition of our own inadequacies, shortcomings, sinfulness, and pride. Because without that brokenness we cannot receive Christ. That is what Jesus was saying in the Beatitude section of His great Sermon on The Mount when He said… Matthew 5:3 (ESV)— 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Lost Without Jesus— He's not saying be sad and depressed all the time. He's saying understand your sinfulness and approach God with the recognition that apart from Him you are utterly and completely lost. A Wrong View of Salvation— Now Simon had a second fault in his theology. Beyond his false view of himself, he also had a wrong view of salvation. The text does say that Simon himself believed. And he was even baptized. And for many nowadays, that is enough. And when you ask a person about their salvation, they will very often give you the date of their baptism. Now the two often go hand-in-hand, but not always. We see here in this passage that although Simon was baptized, that baptism did not save him; in fact he remained lost. And this is because more than just baptism is necessary for the forgiveness of our sins. It is an important part of the salvation process, but it is not the instrument of salvation. It is rather an outward sign of an inward work. It is an outward washing that reflects an inward cleansing of the soul by the blood of Jesus Christ. But in and of itself it has no power to take away sin or to save us. And people run into problems when they see their salvation as a ritualistic thing. My Ritualistic Religion— I know this because I was one of those people. For far to many years for me it was all about crossing my T's and dotting my I's; making sure I said the sinner's prayer so many times a day in case I had lost my salvation so that I wouldn't go to hell. But ritual alone doesn't save you. Faith is what saves you; resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Now belief is a part of that. But it takes more than belief. Baptism is a part of that; but it takes more than just baptism. You have to believe and then (by faith) walk in newness of life, which is what baptism is a picture of. There has to be a repentance that leads to transformation. Listen to the words of… 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)— 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. And so we see that [Faith that does not transform the life is not saving faith.] Listen to what James writes in… James 2:14 (ESV)— 14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? {And that's a rhetorical question by the way. The answer (obviously) is no. And then he says in…} James 2:17-19 (ESV)— 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Transformation— And so the difference between saving faith and the non-saving faith (that of the demons) is that saving faith always produces in us a love of righteousness and a hatred of sin. The demons believe, but that doesn't produce in them a love for God and a hatred of sin. But if you have given your life to Christ, and that love for God leading to transformation is at play in your life, that is strong evidence of your salvation. But Simon's problem was that he believed in the signs, but he did not believe or walk in faith with the One behind the signs. And because of that he never experienced [the divine transformation of the soul from love of self to love of God, from love of sin to love of holiness.] The question is, have you and I experienced that transformation? If not, it is available to you today; all you have to do is ask God and He will give it to you. Ask Him today, and you will receive from Him today a true and saving faith. Amen.

The author of one of Lisa’s favourite books, Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s, Anne Sebba explores the lives of women ‘writers and fighters’. As a journalist and author she's worked in film-star-filled 70s Rome, moved to New York with a baby, camped in the Mexico desert with Wallis Simpson’s free-diving step-son, had her camera film thrown into the Ganges while tracing Mother Theresa and, for her most recent book on Ethel Rosenburg, to Belarus and Sing Sing Prison.   On this episode we cover: Lisa obsessed with her book about Parisian women during Nazi Occupation Getting a job at the BBC World Service Arabic department Being the first female correspondent at Reuters (and later, when she got pregnant, the first woman they sacked!) Not believing she was paying for something so exciting Being told France. Germany and Russia were too dangerous for a women Being sent to Rome age 21 and having a blast Sitting next to the Trevi foundation for lunch every day Rome in the 1970s being full of film stars Nude swimming parties with Roman Polanski Being a ‘repressed English girl’ Flying in the Aga Khan’s helicopter in Sardinia Covering the kidnap of Jean Paul Getty Rome being ‘rife with banditry and mafia’ The heart of Europe being fought in that area But Rome not being taken seriously by London at that time The difference between the ex-pat lifestyle and what really goes on Left wing students being imprisoned The Vatican and deep Catholicism controlling attitudes  The British having a terrible reputation in Italy at the time The extraordinary life in Rome at that time Blagging her way into a restaurant to interview Elizabeth Taylor Moving to New York in the edgy late 70s With a small baby! Writing about Enid Bagnell (author of National Velvet) After getting sacked from Reuters New York giving her a passion for writing about American women Travelling the west coast and New Orleans Her new book about Ethel Rosenberg who was convicted of spying Visiting Sing Sing prison where Rosenberg spent two years in solitary confinement Ethel Rosenberg’s eventually execution Travelling to Minsk in Belarus for research Belarus locals being very fearful Finding her way Los Alamos and remote New Mexico Treading in the footsteps of the developers of atomic bomb J Robert Oppenheimer The direct line from distrust of Communism to Trumpian politics 1936 being the one year the world could have stopped Hitler   Writing about women ‘fighters and writers’ How the Wallis Simpson crisis distracted us from Hitler Her book about Jennie Churchill, Winston’s American mother Jumping on a plain to meet a free-diver in Mexico (who’s Wallis Simpson’s stepson) Desert camping under the stars with Aaron Solomon In the place where John Steinbeck wrote Pearls Les Parisiennes – what women did in occupied Paris Questioning whether you’d sleep with a Nazi or become a member of the Resistance The German officers being deliberately chosen as charming and cultured Joining the Resistance being very hard for women as they had to give everything up The one dimensional view that all French women collaborated 200,000 Franco-German babies during the war The 39 British women who were parachuted into Paris under the Nazis The life expectancy of a wireless operator in Paris being about 6 weeks The British and American role in the liberation of Paris Ravensbruck, the camp outside Berlin where the Frenchwomen were sent Odette Fabius and Genevieve De Gaulle who ended up the camp Walking the streets of Paris and imagining the Nazis stomping the cobblestones and taking over the cafes The preservation of Paris being a condition of the occupation The velodrome where most of the Jews were rounded up, 14,000 Parisian Jews taken there Loving interviewing old people looking back Lisa’s grandmother given birth during WW2 air raids Lisa’s argument with an ex boyfriend about Anne Frank in Amsterdam Anne’s soldier son listening to Mary Poppins on the streets of Basra  Writing a children’s book about Mother Theresa Making The Saint Making Process for Channel 4 in the Himalayas Being interrogated by India Police for two hours! How Calcutta and Bengal helped her understand India more  The police throwing her camera film into the Ganges        

Journalist Ted Conover joins Adam to talk about his experience becoming a prison guard to report on Sing Sing Prison, and how his unique form of immersion can help develop empathy in his audience and encourage real change. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

An inmate in Sing Sing prison & the Rebbe (In honor of the Rebbe's Yahrtzeit)

Christina speaks with Shane again, an inmate currently serving a life sentence at Sing Sing Prison. As Christina tries to understand the idea of inmates being cancelled out from society, Shane goes into detail about what daily life is like for him on the inside. From pursuing higher education classes, to learning a foreign language and giving a TedX Talk, he is determined to push himself despite his environment.***To hear the music from Carnegie Hall's Musical Connections Program at Sing Sing: https://www.carnegiehall.org/Education/Social-Impact/Musical-Connections***Written and produced by Christina HansenAdditional production and sound editing by Jason Sissoyev***If you or someone you know has a story to share or you just want to drop me a little note, send an email to: pennedpodcast@gmail.com

At the top of the show, Adam recalls his parody song writing days, and Gina plays a video from her relaxing and surprising birthday weekend. Adam then talks about the power behind controlling people’s language, and gives an update on finishing the audiobook. Later, Adam plays a clip from Tyler Perry’s bizarre TV show, and the group briefly discusses this past weekend’s beach protests in Southern California. Before the break, Adam talks about putting together a comedy video for charity, and everyone plays a Rob Lowe themed round of the Rotten Tomatoes Game. PLEASE SUPPORT TODAY’S SPONSORS! JB Weld - World's Strongest Bond Lifelock.com enter ADAM Geico.com BetterHelp.com/CAROLLA

Gina begins today’s news talking about Joe Biden’s claims that the sexual assault of Tara Reade never happened. They also discuss Jerry Seinfeld’s $100 million Netflix deal, and how Pixar and smartphones changed the way people think about work. Later- Gina reads stories about working from home faux-pas, the return of NASCAR, and Taco Bell’s at-home taco kit. In the last part of the show, Adam takes a collect call from John J. Lennon in Sing Sing Prison. The guys talk about how long he’s been incarcerated, trying to be a journalist while he’s in prison, and the politics of managing different guard personalities to get work done. As the show wraps up, they chat about what John did to get arrested, taking accountability for his actions, and trying to write about important issues. PLEASE SUPPORT TODAY’S SPONSORS! JB Weld - World's Strongest Bond Lifelock.com enter ADAM Geico.com BetterHelp.com/CAROLLA

As first generation Americans growing up in immigrant neighborhoods, some Jews turned towards organized crime and joined the Mob. While maintaining close ties to their families, communities and even Jewish tradition, they led lives that included bootlegging during Prohibition, gambling rackets, theft and even murder. Their lives were a paradox - criminals who were proud Jews. This collection of stories is about heroes and villains. It will bring us to the World Series, alcohol smuggling, the streets of Brooklyn and Sing Sing Prison. We'll meet Arnold Rothstein - the architect of modern organized crime, Mayer Lansky - the brains and one of the big bosses of the Mafia, Abe Reles - one of the contract killers of Murder Inc. and many more. Subscribe To Our Podcast on: Apple: tinyurl.com/yy8gaody Google Play: tinyurl.com/yxwv8tpc Spotify: tinyurl.com/y54wemxs Stitcher: bit.ly/2GxiKTJ Follow us on Twitter or Instagram at @Jsoundbites You can email Yehuda at YGebss@Gmail.com

John J. Lennon is a confessed killer doing time at Sing Sing Prison. He’s also published in the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and Sports Illustrated. He talks about illicit gambling behind bars and “escape” into fantasy football for this week’s Super Bowl.

41 Minutes PG-13 Pete invited John Baeza to come on the show. John recently wrote an article for LewRockwell.com entitled, "How I Survived 3 Years as a Libertarian Cop." John details his successes in applying libertarian principles to monopolistic policing and talks about what ultimately led to his separation. He also talks about police reforms he'd like to see now that could drastically reduce violence and harm to all parties involved. John Baeza was was involved in hundreds of criminal investigations in his 20 year law enforcement career. Det. Baeza began his career as a New York State Correction Officer at Sing-Sing Prison; worked patrol in Harlem's 32nd Precinct; and served as an undercover Police Officer and Detective in the Manhattan North Narcotics and Major Case Units. He transferred to the Manhattan Special Victims Squad, where he was responsible for the investigation of sex crimes, serial rape, sexual homicide, and child abuse. During his tenure in this assignment he expanded his knowledge of law enforcement investigation procedures. Det. Baeza has been published in the Journal of Behavioral Profiling and books such as the Rape Investigation Handbook, among other publications, and he maintains a large reference library including many of the seminal investigative textbooks. How I Survived 3 Years as a Libertarian Cop John's Writings at LewRockwell.com Donate at the Libertarian Institute Pete's Link to Sign Up for the LP Lions of Liberty Podcast Link to Richard Grove's Autonomy Course Pete's Patreon Pete's Books on Amazon Pete's Books Available for Crypto Pete on Facebook Pete on Twitter

The investigators take a road trip to Sing Sing Prison to meet with Hilton Adams in the death house and then try to get a meeting with Erica Carlisle. Also there's a new moon tonight and that could mean another disappearance in Harlem. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/michael-brake/support

Truly ground breaking studies on the three parts of happiness; a shocking study on the loneliest generations (especially for parents); what is the truth about buyer's remorse; why Twitter proves there is enough time for prayer; moving from a hostile to an indifferent world in the hour of darkness; St. Francis on faith; and the powerful testimony of grace from Sing Sing Prison.

Communist Party Celebrates 70 Years of Power in ChinaGuest: Rui Zhong, Program Associate, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Wilson CenterChina celebrated 70 years of Communist Party control today with an enormous parade of performers, soldiers and military vehicles.  Meanwhile, protesters pressing for more democratic freedoms in Hong Kong clashed violently with police. One demonstrator was shot by police with a live round. That's a first and marks a major escalation since the weekly marches began in June. Community Interaction Increases Trust in PoliceGuest: Michael Sierra-Arevalo, Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice, Rutgers University –NewarkMost of the encounters that happen in America between police and the public are related to enforcement like a traffic stop or responding to a crime report. That can lead to a less-than-trusting, or in some cases outright hostile, relationship. High-profile cases of police brutality against people of color have only fueled that mistrust. Bird Populations on the DeclineGuest: Ken Rosenberg, Ph.D., Applied Conservation Scientist, Cornell Lab of Ornithology and American Bird ConservancyBackyard birdfeeders around the US and Canada are quieter than they were in the 1970s. Overall bird populations in North America have declined by thirty percent. Typical backyard birds like blackbirds, finches, larks, warblers and sparrows saw some of the steepest declines. How Fear of Death Affects Us Day to DayGuest: Sheldon Solomon, Professor of Psychology, Skidmore CollegeWhat makes us human? Is it our wisdom? How about our ability to makes tools or tell stories? Psychologist Sheldon Solomon believes the answer is our mortality–more specifically, our ability to comprehend that we will die. That creates a fear of death that affects how we treat each other, election outcomes, and even the environment. After 16 Years in Prison, Sean Pica Reformed His Life and Now Helps Others Do the SameGuest: Sean Pica, Executive Director of Hudson Link for Higher Education in PrisonWhen Sean Pica was 16, he murdered a man and went to prison. He spent the next 16 years behind bars –including New York's notorious Sing Sing Prison. Along the way, he earned a college degree. And he says that is the reason he's free today, when the majority of people in prison end up back behind bars after their release. About Fresh puts grocery stores on wheels to fight food desertsGuest: Annika Morgan, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of About FreshThere's a nonprofit in Boston that loads up school buses with fresh produce and sells it at a discount in neighborhoods that lack grocery stores. Doctors in the community even hand out gift cards for the fruits-and-veggies-school-bus to patients who need a healthier diet. They're literally prescribing food as medicine. Annika Morgan is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of the nonprofit, called About Fresh

Yoselyn Ortega Yoselyn Ortega was a nanny for a New York family. The family had three children, Lucia, Leo and Nessie. On October 25th, 2012 Marina Krim, the mother, went to their apartment with her youngest child, Nessie, because Ortega hadn’t showed up at the other daughter’s ballet lesson.  This is when she discovered the bodies of her two other children in the tub surrounded by blood and with multiple stab wounds. When Krim went to confront Ortega the nanny began to stab herself with a kitchen knife.  Ortega claimed that she had killed the children because she wanted more money and that when she asked her employers about it they suggested that she could do housework.   In November of 2012 Ortega was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder. She plead not guilty, using a psychiatric defense but was found guilty of both first and second degree murder on April 18th, 2018.    Claudia Ochoa Felix  Felix  is the alleged leader of a Mexican Cartel, Los Antrax, and also a famous instagram model. She is said to have taken over after her significant others was arrested in January 2014. She is often compared to Kim Kardasian in appearance.  Felix denies leading the cartel but has often posed with a pink AK- 47. Recently a hit was attempted on her when gunmen grabbed a woman who looked like Felix. Her body was later found behind a school and she had been tortured to death. Felix denies the connection and claims that fake social media accounts have been used to frame her. Since the incident she has made all her accounts private.  Fred and Rose West Fred and Rose West were renowned serial killers. They met when Rose was 15 and Fred was 27 and began dating later that year. She was pregnant at 16 and Fred ended up going to jail after she gave birth, leaving her with her child and two of his to raise.  While he was away she murdered one of his kids, Charmaine, and then the pair buried the body. When Charmaine’s mom came to look for her they murdered her as well.  After this Rose became a prostitute and forced several of their kids into it as well.  Between April of 1973 and August of 1979 they murdered several other people including Shirley Robinson- whom they dismembered and removed her fetus- Heather, Fred’s Daughter, and eight others. To hide their tracks Fred would pretend to be doing home improvement projects.  In August of 1992 Fred was arrested and charged with raping his daughter. Rose was arrest then as well for child cruelty. She denied it, claiming that it was entirely her husband. Fred committed suicide in January of 1995 and Rose’s trial began in November of 1995. She was found guilty of ten murders and sentenced to life in prison.    Winona Ryder In 2001 Winona Ryder stole $5,500 worth of merchandise from Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. Ryder said that she did it because, “Psychologically, I must have been at a place where I just wanted to stop. I won’t get into what happened, but it wasn’t what people think.”  She has been open about her struggle with mental illness and spoke about it in an interview with Diane Sawyer. She talked about managing her depression and anxiety while also acting. She admitted to buying into the ‘tortured artist’ idea and thought that depression would make her a better actor.  She was found guilty of two counts of shoplifting and vandalism and sentenced to community service.   Mary Frances Creighton  Her Wikipedia page reads: Mary Frances Creighton (July 29, 1899 – July 16, 1936), was a housewife, who along with Everett Applegate, a 36-year-old former American Legion official, was executed in Sing Sing Prison's electric chair, Old Sparky, for the poisoning of Applegate's wife, Ada, in Baldwin, New York on September 27, 1935. She had passed out before the execution, and was executed in an unconscious state We hope to investigate further.  New Zealand Vampires - Xenia Gregoriana Borichevsky These are about a string of vampire attacks in New Zealand.  In February 2

In this episode we are talking about the healing power of the breath. And to help us in this discussion we have the beautiful, soothing voice, soothing soul, Kathleen Booker aka the Jedi of Calm! This is an episode that i was super excited about because, first, i simply adore Goddess Kathleen. But mainly, in my journey I’m learning more and more the healing power of the breath. We take breathing for granted most of the time and don’t realize that this is so much power in the breath. Kathleen Booker is an effervescent native New Yorker. Her energy, smile and joy are infectious. Kathleen has the inherent genuine gift to invite people to live life more vibrantly and empowered. For over 15 years, Kathleen has used her intuitive skills, teaching, motivation and coaching to support individuals in clearly identifying their areas in need of growth, healing and clarity. Kathleen’s accelerator for keeping the sun shining is Conscious Connected Breathwork Therapy and she knows first-hand its power to heal on a mental, physical, spiritual and emotional level. The Breath is liberation, health, strength, clarity, focus and confidence and so much more. She draws people out of their shells/doldrums/frowns/old paradigm ways of thinking into seeing the beauty, the pearl that THIS day is...into the power of the NOW. Kathleen teaches that life is always going to life…stuff is gonna happen however, how we view what is happening will determine the quality of our lives and the length of stay in the hole of despair. Kathleen’s inspirational coaching skills bring forth the crucial elements of clarity, focus, and goal achievement for her clients. Various industries and companies have benefited from her Conscious Connected Breathwork Therapy coaching acumen such as: Google, United Nations, Manhattan Jewish Community Center, NYC Board of Education, Columbia University, United Federation of Teachers, Lululemon, Sing Sing Prison, Westchester and Queensborough Community College’s Adult Continuing Education, Senior Centers, AARP, YMCA, Greenburgh Central 7 Schools, cancer support groups and more. She has coached for personal development companies such as Personal Dynamics and T. Harv Eker’s Millionaire Mind. Her vivacious personality makes her an often-sought after motivational speaker. Kathleen has a degree in Business Administration from Baruch University and is a member of the Phi Theta Kappa society. Giving back to the community is imperative and Ms. Booker has given her time and talents to CaringKind of the Alzheimer’s Association, Village Care of New York an AIDS/HIV Day Treatment Program and is a Big Sister with several neighborhood youth groups. upcoming online Breathwork Program https://kathleenbooker.lpages.co/from-worry-to-peace-2019-breath-online-program-eb-dec2018 Stay tuned for Kathleen’s retreat in the Great Smokey Mountains of NC Social media and contact info: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BreathingforFreedom/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathleenbooker8697/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kathleen_Booker Email: Kathleen@kathleenbooker.net

Would you eat human flesh? A man who had his leg amputated after a motorcycle accident made it into fajita tacos and served it to his friends. Ruth Snyder was sent to the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in 1928, and the image of her dead body was plastered on the front page of the New York Daily News. The case changed forever the protocols for media at executions.

Fisher and David Allen Lambert open the show with great news about FamilySearch's announcement about the new indexing project for the Freedmen's Bureau records... the largest collection of records of freed slaves.  What does this mean and how many records are involved?   Listen and find out!  Then David shares exciting Independence Day news... free access to some of NEHGS' earliest records from the Great Migration.  How can you look for your ancestors in this great database for free?  David will fill you in.  David also has another great Tech Tip of the week for indexing your own personal records, making it easy even for those of us who aren't very "tech savvy."   In the second segment, Fisher visits with Gene Williams who, at age 19, was informed he had been switched at birth with another boy!  But it wasn't until decades later that Gene went to work to find out how real this information was.  Hear about Gene's journey and how he learned the truth.   Ron Arons of "Mind Maps for Genealogy" then joins Fisher to talk about the discovery of his ancestor in Sing Sing Prison, and all the records connected to it.  Ron will share with you where to research your jail birds and perhaps other "black sheep" ancestors.   Then Tom Perry, our Preservation Authority, answers another listener question about old home movies and syncing up matching audio.     It's all this week on Extreme Genes, America's Family History Show!

This week IAQ Radio welcomes back Mr. Ed Light, CIH to discuss alternatives and limitations to IAQ Testing. Is the industry too reliant on testing? What is the science behind clearance testing for mold? What is the science behind the LEED VOC testing requirements? What is the engineering approach to clearance? Times change, the science changes, people change but we still see many of the same clearance methods that were used 15 years ago. What are the limitations of these methods and what are the alternatives? Mr. Light has specialized in the indoor environmental sciences since 1982, when he directed a pioneering IAQ Program for the West Virginia Department of Health. A Senior Fellow of the American Industrial Hygiene Association, he has published extensively. As a consultant with Building Dynamics, he has conducted over 1000 IAQ investigations, including assessments of the White House, South Pole Station and Sing Sing Prison. In his other life, Ed is lead singer and first chair banjoist with the All New Genetically Altered Jug Band and author of There's A Fungus Among Us! LEARN MORE on IAQ Radio Friday's at noon eastern!

This week IAQ Radio welcomes back Mr. Ed Light, CIH to discuss alternatives and limitations to IAQ Testing. Is the industry too reliant on testing? What is the science behind clearance testing for mold? What is the science behind the LEED VOC testing requirements? What is the engineering approach to clearance? Times change, the science changes, people change but we still see many of the same clearance methods that were used 15 years ago. What are the limitations of these methods and what are the alternatives? Mr. Light has specialized in the indoor environmental sciences since 1982, when he directed a pioneering IAQ Program for the West Virginia Department of Health. A Senior Fellow of the American Industrial Hygiene Association, he has published extensively. As a consultant with Building Dynamics, he has conducted over 1000 IAQ investigations, including assessments of the White House, South Pole Station and Sing Sing Prison. In his other life, Ed is lead singer and first chair banjoist with the All New Genetically Altered Jug Band and author of There's A Fungus Among Us! LEARN MORE on IAQ Radio Friday's at noon eastern!

What goes into meat inspection? Find out on another informative episode of “What Doesn’t Kill You”, as Katy Keiffer chats with Ted Conover, the author of five books, most recently The Routes of Man, about roads, and Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, an account of his ten months spent working as a corrections officer at New York’s Sing Sing Prison. Newjack won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2001 and was finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His other books are Whiteout: Lost in Aspen, Coyotes: A Journey Across Borders With America’s Illegal Migrants, ( and Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails With America’s Hoboes. In recent years he has taught at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the University of Oregon. He contributes to publications including The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. Most recently he published “The Way of All Flesh”, the cover story for this months Harpers Magazine about working as a USDA inspector in a meatpacking plant in Nebraska. This program was sponsored by Tabard Inn. “They need inspectors at lots of small town slaughterhouses – these spots are not always easy to fill.” [03:00] “The machinery is all about the interface between industry and life.” [15:00] “The abscesses begin when the cattle’s diet changes from grass. The bacteria that results from that makes ulcers in the cattle’s stomachs and livers. The antibiotic is used to control those abscesses.” [16:00] –author/journalist Ted Conover on What Doesn’t Kill You

What goes into meat inspection? Find out on another informative episode of “What Doesn’t Kill You”, as Katy Keiffer chats with Ted Conover, the author of five books, most recently The Routes of Man, about roads, and Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, an account of his ten months spent working as a corrections officer at New York’s Sing Sing Prison. Newjack won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2001 and was finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His other books are Whiteout: Lost in Aspen, Coyotes: A Journey Across Borders With America’s Illegal Migrants, ( and Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails With America’s Hoboes. In recent years he has taught at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the University of Oregon. He contributes to publications including The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. Most recently he published “The Way of All Flesh”, the cover story for this months Harpers Magazine about working as a USDA inspector in a meatpacking plant in Nebraska. This program was sponsored by Tabard Inn. “They need inspectors at lots of small town slaughterhouses – these spots are not always easy to fill.” [03:00] “The machinery is all about the interface between industry and life.” [15:00] “The abscesses begin when the cattle’s diet changes from grass. The bacteria that results from that makes ulcers in the cattle’s stomachs and livers. The antibiotic is used to control those abscesses.” [16:00] –author/journalist Ted Conover on What Doesn’t Kill You

Mr. Light has specialized in the indoor environmental sciences since 1982, when he directed a pioneering IAQ Program for the West Virginia Department of Health. A Senior Fellow of the American Industrial Hygiene Association, he has published extensively. As a consultant with Building Dynamics, he has conducted over 1000 IAQ investigations, including assessments of the White House, South Pole Station and Sing Sing Prison. In his other life, Ed is lead singer and first chair banjoist with the All New Genetically Altered Jug Band and author of There's A Fungus Among Us!

Mr. Light has specialized in the indoor environmental sciences since 1982, when he directed a pioneering IAQ Program for the West Virginia Department of Health. A Senior Fellow of the American Industrial Hygiene Association, he has published extensively. As a consultant with Building Dynamics, he has conducted over 1000 IAQ investigations, including assessments of the White House, South Pole Station and Sing Sing Prison. In his other life, Ed is lead singer and first chair banjoist with the All New Genetically Altered Jug Band and author of There's A Fungus Among Us!