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Shadows From the Tree

Shadows From the Tree

by Michele McCall & Danielle Gravel

History True Crime

Season 3

The Shadow Between Three Names

History remembers the names of men first. It carves them into buildings, headlines, and verdicts, while the women caught between them become footnotes. They were called muses, temptresses, excuses. In tonight’s episode, we follow two love triangles separated by circumstance but bound by pattern: one played out beneath the electric lights of Gilded Age New York, the other behind closed doors where jealousy and control went unnoticed until it was too late. At the center of both is not romance, but power masqueraded as love, and violence justified as passion. The real story lived in the silence history left behind.

Poison- If Walls Could Talk...

In this episode, we shine light on two stories involving arsenic poisoning. First is the true story of the Watkins family of Manchester, Michigan, whose children were slowly poisoned by arsenic-laced wallpaper in their Victorian home. As well as the infamous tale of Belle Gunness, who had a habit of collecting insurance payouts from fires and the deaths of her husbands.

Buried Dead or Alive

In this episode of Shadows from the Tree, we discuss the 19th century fear of being buried alive, taphophobia. This wasn't an abstract of irrational fear for people of the era, but a response to genuine medical uncertainty. Listen in to hear more about the tales of Essie Williams Dunbar, a South Carolina woman with 2 funerals. As well as the interesting lengths the Pursel family of Pennsylvania, went to avoid such a fate.

Unsung Heroes

In our next episode of Shadows from the Tree, we take a turn and uncover tales of heroic endeavors of men who thought nothing of risking their own lives to save a child in need. Ralph A Cook, a motorman saved a woman and child in Sundersvillle, MA- 1908 from imminent death. We also cover the story of Iowa man, Edward Maloy a traveling salesman who jumped into a well to save 18 month old Donald Venema in 1927.

Lost at Sea

In this episode of Shadow from the Tree we uncovered two intriguing tales of women lost at sea. Marie Empress (Mary Taylor) a silent movie actress who never made it to port in NY off the RMS Orduña on October 27,1919. As well as Southern elite Rebecaa Lamar's tale of the harrowing explosion of the Pulaski Steamer in June 1838.

Mines & Molasses

Listen in to this episode of Shadows From the Tree, where we delve into the darker side of genealogy with the tales of the Monongah Mine Disaster in WV, and the Great Molasses Flood of 1919 in Boston, MA. Both harrowing tales of industrial accidents that shaped the necessity for increased work place safety regulations.

Marked by Birth

In 1927, Carrie Buck was sterilized under Virginia’s eugenics law—labeled “feebleminded” and unfit to reproduce. Decades earlier, Amanda Dickson, the mixed-race daughter of a Georgia plantation owner and an enslaved woman, inherited her father’s fortune but not society’s acceptance. Both woman’s lives reveal how law and lineage were used to police purity and power in America. Some marks aren’t chosen—they’re marked by birth.

When the Witch was Silenced and the Ghost Spoke

In this episode of Shadows from the Tree, we explore two stories bound by belief — one silenced by hysteria, the other revived by a haunting. In 1692 Salem Village, Rebecca Nurse, a devoted mother and respected elder, was accused of witchcraft and executed, her voice lost to fear and frenzy. Centuries later in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, a murdered woman’s spirit would speak through her mother, revealing the truth that led to her killer’s conviction. From witch trials to ghost testimony, both stories blur the line between superstition and justice, between what we believe and what we fear. Each reminds us that the dead are never truly silent — and sometimes, they demand to be heard.

Fire & Ice

This episode of Shadows from the Tree we discuss tales of natural disasters that affected many lives. The Peshtigo Fires were nearly forgotten, having occurred the same day as the great Chicago fires in 1871. A rare audio clip of survivor, Charlie Bateman, paints the harrowing picture of the tragedy. Also we shed light on the survival story of Ignatius Roth, during ice bridge crack, on February 4, 1912, in Niagara Falls, NY.

Walls Can't Hold Them!

Join us in this exciting season opener, where we uncover intriguing stories of prison breaks. From bars to headlines in 192os, the tale of William Griffith, a West Virginian coal miner who took to a life a crime, making several successful escapes from the state penitentiary. We also cover the 1902 Pittsburgh jailbreak of the Biddle Brothers, with the assistance of the warden's wife, Kate Soffel.

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