On this week’s show, Jeff shares the story of Nellie Bly, born Elizabeth Jane Cochran in 1864, a pioneering American journalist whose fearless investigative reporting helped define modern journalism.

Bly gained national attention in 1887 after faking mental illness to be committed to the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island in New York City. Her undercover reporting exposed brutal conditions and widespread abuse inside the asylum, leading to public outrage and significant reforms in mental health care.

In 1889, Nellie Bly became the first woman to travel around the world, completing the journey in just 72 days. Her courage, innovation, and determination shattered expectations and opened the door for generations of investigative journalists to follow.

Trigger Warning:
Discussion of mental illness, institutional abuse, and historical mistreatment of patients.

Visit us on Linktree for the collection of links, Instagram, or email us at jeffandsamshow@gmail.com

Sources:

• National Women’s History Museum – Nellie Bly Biography
  https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/nellie-bly-0
• Library of Congress – Nellie Bly and Blackwell’s Island
  https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2022/11/nellie-bly-blackwells-island/
• Soflete – Nellie Bly
  https://soflete.com/blogs/die-living/nellie-bly
• Encyclopaedia Britannica – Nellie Bly
  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nellie-Bly
• Ten Days in a Mad-House – University of Pennsylvania Digital Library
  https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/madhouse/madhouse.html
• Google Search – How did Nellie Bly get committed?
  https://www.google.com/search?q=how+did+nellie+bly+get+committed

On this week’s show, Jeff shares the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre. The Tulsa race massacre was a two-day-long white supremacist terrorist attack that took place in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, between May 31 and June 1, 1921.

Mobs of white residents - some of whom were deputized and armed by city officials - attacked Black residents and systematically destroyed homes, businesses, and institutions in what was known as “Black Wall Street.” The violence left Greenwood in ruins and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Black men, women, and children.

The Tulsa Race Massacre is widely considered one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history and remains a critical example of how systemic racism, government complicity, and historical erasure shaped the United States.

⚠️Trigger Warning:
Racial violence, mass death, destruction of communities, white supremacist terrorism.

Sources:

• Tulsa Race Massacre: A History from Beginning to End by Hourly History
• National Endowment for the Humanities — article by Kweku Larry Crowe and Thabiti Lewis
• https://www.neh.gov/article/1921-tulsa-massacre
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Summer
• https://www.history.com/articles/black-wall-street-tulsa-visionaries
• https://www.tulsalibrary.org/black-wall-street
• https://www.democracynow.org/2016/9/22/tulsa_still_faces_historical_trauma_from
• https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/12823

To kick off the new year, Sam tells the fascinating and rebellious story of the Forty Elephants Gang—a notorious, all-female London crime syndicate that operated from the 1870s through the 1950s.

Based out of the Elephant & Castle area, the Forty Elephants were famous for their daring shoplifting operations targeting luxury goods. Led by powerful “Queens” like Alice Diamond (aka Diamond Annie) and later Lilian Rose Kendall (the Bobbed-Haired Bandit), the gang included key members such as Maggie Hill and the Partridge sisters.

They were known not just for crime, but for style, organization, and resilience—using custom pocket-lined clothing, strict hierarchy, and bold confidence to outsmart shopkeepers and police alike. This is a story of women who carved out power in a world designed to deny it to them.

Visit us on Linktree for the collection of links, Instagram, or email us at jeffandsamshow@gmail.com.

• Ridiculous History Podcast – Classic Episode: The Forty Elephants: London’s All-Female Jewel Thieves
• The Poisoners’ Cabinet Podcast – Episode 188: The Many Crimes of The Forty Elephants
• “A Thousand Blows: How a Women-Only Gang Menaced Victorian London” – BBC Culture
  https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20250219-a-thousand-blows-how-a-women-only-gang-menaced-victorian-london
• Forty Elephants – Wikipedia
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_Elephants
• Forty Elephants: South London’s Supreme Shoplifters – London Museum
  https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/forty-elephants-south-londons-supreme-shoplifters/

Join Jeff and Sam for a conversation to close out the year.

Visit us on Linktree for the collection of links, Instagram, or email us at jeffandsamshow@gmail.com.

On this week’s show, Jeff shares the heartbreaking and relentless story of Andre and Kalinka Bamberski. Kalinka was just 14 years old when she died under suspicious circumstances. What followed was not closure, but a 40-year fight for justice, as her father Andre refused to let her story be forgotten.

This episode is a powerful reminder of persistence, parental love, and the long road toward accountability.

⚠️Trigger Warning: This episode includes discussion of sexual assault.

Happy Holidays,
Jeff and Sam 🎄

Visit us on Linktree for the collection of links, Instagram, or email us at jeffandsamshow@gmail.com.

• My Daughter’s Killer (Netflix Documentary)
• My Daughter’s Killer — Rogan Productions
  https://roganproductions.co.uk/project/my-daughters-killer/
• Thirty-year search for justice — The Guardian
  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/24/thirty-year-search-justice
• The Kalinka Affair — Atavist Magazine
  https://magazine.atavist.com/2012/the-kalinka-affair
• Kalinka Bamberski Case — Wikipedia
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalinka_Bamberski_case
• Into the Shadows: For You, Kalinka — Simon Whistler (YouTube)
  https://youtu.be/vS6jobnVEHI?si=-mMjuxy2kOytUULx

Sam shares the powerful survival story of Randy Burke, a man who endured an unimaginable medical battle and kept his promise to make it home.
Jeff tells the incredible World War II story of the Night Witches, the daring all-female Soviet pilots who terrorized Nazi forces with stealth, skill, and relentless bravery under cover of darkness.

Visit us on Linktree for the full collection of links, Instagram, or email us at jeffandsamshow@gmail.com.

• Davenport Man Keeps His Promise While Fighting COVID-19
  https://qctimes.com/news/davenport-man-keeps-his-promise-while-fighting-covid-19/article_948fbacb-fc42-5a1c-9f6e-1610a830c71b.html?mode=nowapp
• Home for Christmas: Iowa Man Who Battled COVID-19 for 163 Days Enjoys Emotional Homecoming
  https://www.fox13memphis.com/news/trending/home-for-christmas-iowa-man-who-battled-covid-19-for-163-days-enjoys-emotional-homecoming/article_07138ca1-ca2f-5bde-aadc-95268c9cbc91.html

• Night Witches — Wikipedia
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Witches
• Meet the Night Witches: The Daring Female Pilots Who Bombed Nazis by Night — History.com
  https://www.history.com/articles/meet-the-night-witches-the-daring-female-pilots-who-bombed-nazis-by-night
• The Soviet Night Witches — Wright Museum of World War II
  https://wrightmuseum.org
• Marina Raskova and the Night Witches — Grey Dynamics
  https://greydynamics.com

Sam drags you straight into the chilling darkness of Dayton, Ohio’s 1992 Christmas murders — a holiday horror that tore through the city with ruthless violence.
Jeff pulls you in the opposite direction, into the courtroom, tracing the messy, chaotic life of Ernesto Miranda, the man whose arrest and trial accidentally reshaped American law forever.

Visit us on Linktree for our full collection of links, Instagram, or email us at jeffandsamshow@gmail.com.

• 1992 Dayton Christmas Murders (Wikipedia)
• “Christmas Killing Spree: The Devils of Dayton” — Dark Hearts with Stacy Lee

• Ernesto Miranda (Wikipedia)
• Facts and Case Summary — Miranda v. Arizona
  (U.S. Courts summary — publicly available resource)
• Miranda v. Arizona — Oyez Case Page
• “Miranda Rights Are Misnamed” — Lou Schachter, True Crime Road Trip

Jeff shares the gothic-Genesis story of Mary Shelley — how a cold, rainy summer inspired the terrifying beauty of Frankenstein. Sam delves into darkness with the chilling tale of Rosendo Rodriguez III, the “Suitcase Killer,” whose murders shocked a Texas town and left investigators piecing together a nightmare.

Visit us on Linktree for the full collection of links, our Instagram, or email us at jeffandsamshow@gmail.com.

• How Mount Tambora Triggered the “Year Without a Summer” — and a Gothic Masterpiece Was Born — UCAR Science Education
• Mary Shelley and Frankenstein: A Personal History — Central Square Theater
• Frankenstein: The True Story of Mary Shelley — History.com
• The Night Frankenstein Was Born — The Real Story Behind the Classic Novel — Biblio blog
• The Birth of Frankenstein and the Roots of Gothic Horror — Utterly Interesting

• “Ep 3 – Rosendo Rodriguez, The Suitcase Killer” — Talk Murder With Me Podcast Apple Podcasts
• Rosendo Rodriguez III – Wikipedia Wikipedia
• Texas ‘Suitcase Killer’ Murders 2 Women and Discards Each in the Trash — The Oxygen True Crime Series Report Oxygen
• “They Pieced Together a Puzzle — and a Disturbing Picture Emerged” (Prosecutor’s Case Overview) — Texas District & County Attorneys Association article on the case. tdcaa.com