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What if your entire town was built on something that wasn’t real?

Claremore, Oklahoma once rebranded itself as “Radium Town.” Hotels. Parades. Bathhouses. Souvenir jugs. Steam rooms packed with believers.

One problem.

The water didn’t contain radium.

It smelled like sulfur. It burned your nose. And it sold like a miracle.

This episode dives into the radium craze that swept America after the Curies made the element famous. We talk about the Radium Girls, radioactive tonics, glowing promises, and how one Oklahoma town rode that wave hard enough to turn prairie into profit.

There were publicity stunts. Legal fights. City officials declaring the wells a nuisance. And yes — a promoter who was reportedly dead… until he wasn’t.

Then medicine catches up. The glow fades. The wells get capped.

But the town survives.

We break down how Claremore pivoted when the miracle stopped working — and why the story still matters today, because radium wasn’t the last cure people bought without asking questions.

It just glowed louder than most.

If you like odd Americana, marketing gone wild, and history that smells like rotten eggs, this one’s for you.

“Thank you for listening to Things I Want to Know.
You want these stories, and we want to bring them to you — so hit the support link and keep this circus, and the mics, alive.
Then do us a favor and rate and subscribe; it helps the show find more people like you — the ones who like their mysteries real and their storytellers unfiltered.
And if you want to wear a little of this madness, grab some Andrea-approved gear at paulgnewton.com.
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Things I Want To Know
Where two stubborn humans poke the darkness with a stick and hope it blinks first. If you know something about a case, report it to the actual police before you come knocking on our door.

If you enjoy the show, or you just like supporting people who refuse to shut up, grab some merch at PaulGNewton.com. It keeps the lights on and the caffeine flowing.

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Secrets don’t always hide in the dark. Sometimes they sit in a box on a shelf for decades, waiting on the day science finally catches up. After a quick start, we take a hard turn into Benton County, Arkansas, where skeletal remains were found in 1990 and the victim lived for 32 years in the system as a Jane Doe.

We walk through why this case stalled for so long. A skull too damaged for reconstruction, early forensic limitations, and the brutal reality that without a name, even solid investigative work has nowhere to land. Then the tools evolve. NamUs enters the picture. Mitochondrial DNA work helps narrow the field. Finally, forensic genetic genealogy does what everything else could not. In 2022, investigators confirm her identity: Donna Sue Nelton, 28 years old.

From there, we map what is known about the human terrain around her life, including George Alvin Bruton and the items tied to him that investigators discussed once her identity was restored. We also ask the uncomfortable questions this case forces. Why can an adult disappear without a clear missing report trail. How control dynamics can shrink a person’s choices until they do not feel like choices at all. And why victimology matters, because “Jane Doe” is not a person, but Donna Sue Nelton was.

This is not a courtroom ending. It is a different kind of justice. A name returned. A case history restored. A woman pulled back out of the void. If you like true crime that stays grounded in facts and follows the science where it leads, follow the show so you do not miss what we dig into next.

“Thank you for listening to Things I Want to Know.
You want these stories, and we want to bring them to you — so hit the support link and keep this circus, and the mics, alive.
Then do us a favor and rate and subscribe; it helps the show find more people like you — the ones who like their mysteries real and their storytellers unfiltered.
And if you want to wear a little of this madness, grab some Andrea-approved gear at paulgnewton.com.
We make t

Support the show

Things I Want To Know
Where two stubborn humans poke the darkness with a stick and hope it blinks first. If you know something about a case, report it to the actual police before you come knocking on our door.

If you enjoy the show, or you just like supporting people who refuse to shut up, grab some merch at PaulGNewton.com. It keeps the lights on and the caffeine flowing.

Send us a text

A nine-pound socket slipped during routine maintenance inside a Titan II missile silo near Damascus, Arkansas. That’s not a metaphor. That’s the start of a real chain of events that turned a live Cold War ICBM into a disaster under rural farmland.

In this episode, I walk Andrea through it the way I learned it. No assuming you’re a history nerd. No pretending everybody remembers the Cold War. We break down the basics in human language: why these weapons existed, why they were placed where they were placed, and how people can live near something terrifying and still worry more about dinner and the weather.

Then we get into the night itself. The leak. The vapor. The pressure. The decisions made while everybody is trying to figure out what kind of nightmare they are standing next to. The silo ultimately explodes in a massive conventional blast. The nuclear warhead does not detonate, and the reentry vehicle is thrown clear and recovered afterward. That is the “good news.” The other part is realizing how thin the margin was, and how many outcomes still count as catastrophic even when the big one does not happen.

And here’s the line that should bother everybody: luck is not a safety protocol.

If you learned something, or if this one made you stare into the distance for a second, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review with the moment that hit you the hardest.

“Thank you for listening to Things I Want to Know.
You want these stories, and we want to bring them to you — so hit the support link and keep this circus, and the mics, alive.
Then do us a favor and rate and subscribe; it helps the show find more people like you — the ones who like their mysteries real and their storytellers unfiltered.
And if you want to wear a little of this madness, grab some Andrea-approved gear at paulgnewton.com.
We make t

Support the show

Things I Want To Know
Where two stubborn humans poke the darkness with a stick and hope it blinks first. If you know something about a case, report it to the actual police before you come knocking on our door.

If you enjoy the show, or you just like supporting people who refuse to shut up, grab some merch at PaulGNewton.com. It keeps the lights on and the caffeine flowing.

Send us a text

A quiet driveway is supposed to be the end of the day. Park. Breathe. Go inside. Safe.

That is why this case won’t let go.

Misty Dawn Faulkner makes it home to rural Oklahoma after a shift. There’s a Walmart run in the mix. There’s a phone call, maybe finished from the car. And then the part that turns your stomach: she’s gone. No obvious struggle. No screaming heard. Her purse and phone are left behind. The vehicle is locked. The groceries are still there. It looks normal until you realize it absolutely is not.

In this episode of Things I Want To Know, we walk the timeline as clean as we can. What’s confirmed. What’s reported. What’s repeated so often online that people start calling it “truth.” We talk about allegations of abuse in the background and why secondhand claims can be both important and dangerous at the same time. We dig into the investigative pieces that matter: multiple cadaver dogs alerting on the same pond, the pond being drained, and nothing recovered. Ground-penetrating radar showing minor anomalies, but no confirmed burial. This is the kind of case where every lead creates two more shadows, especially in an area where tips can cross state lines fast and clarity can die of paperwork.

Then we zoom out, because the audience deserves perspective. Most missing person reports do get cleared. A lot of “missing” is miscommunication, family conflict, paperwork lag, runaway dynamics, addiction cycles, and people choosing to disappear for reasons that are ugly but not criminal. Abductions are real. Violence is real. But the public belief that it happens constantly to everyone, everywhere, is not supported by how the numbers usually shake out. That doesn’t make this case safer. It makes it sharper. Because when a scene is clean and the essentials are left behind, that’s when you have to stop guessing and start asking better questions.

Two children grew up without their mother. A community is left with a locked car, untouched groceries, and a timeline that still doesn’t add up. If you have information, share it with law enforcement. If you’ve got a theory, bring it to us as a theory, not a verdict.

Thank you for listening to Things I Want To Know.
If you want to support the show, hit the support link and keep the mics alive.
Then rate and subscribe. It helps more than you think.
And if you want some Andrea-approved gear, it’s at www.paulgnewton.com.

“Thank you for listening to Things I Want to Know.
You want these stories, and we want to bring them to you — so hit the support link and keep this circus, and the mics, alive.
Then do us a favor and rate and subscribe; it helps the show find more people like you — the ones who like their mysteries real and their storytellers unfiltered.
And if you want to wear a little of this madness, grab some Andrea-approved gear at paulgnewton.com.
We make t

Support the show

Things I Want To Know
Where two stubborn humans poke the darkness with a stick and hope it blinks first. If you know something about a case, report it to the actual police before you come knocking on our door.

If you enjoy the show, or you just like supporting people who refuse to shut up, grab some merch at PaulGNewton.com. It keeps the lights on and the caffeine flowing.

Send us a text

A funeral home is supposed to be the one place that runs on dignity, routine, and trust. Transfer. Refrigeration. Service. Closure.

In Jacksonville, Arkansas, that trust snapped.

In this episode of Things I Want To Know, we start where the damage actually lived: with the families who paid for care, waited for answers, and later learned what state inspectors said they found inside Arkansas Funeral Care. Not rumor. Not internet folklore. Documented findings that turned a private moment into a public scandal.

We walk through what the state documented, what families later alleged in civil lawsuits, and why criminal charges can collapse even when the facts make your stomach turn. Then we get uncomfortably practical about the system itself: what Arkansas law actually requires, where “timely disposition” turns into a loophole, and what you should ask before you ever sign a contract with anyone handling your dead.

This isn’t a ghost story. It’s a trust story. And the bill always comes due.

“Thank you for listening to Things I Want to Know.
You want these stories, and we want to bring them to you — so hit the support link and keep this circus, and the mics, alive.
Then do us a favor and rate and subscribe; it helps the show find more people like you — the ones who like their mysteries real and their storytellers unfiltered.
And if you want to wear a little of this madness, grab some Andrea-approved gear at paulgnewton.com.
We make t

Support the show

Things I Want To Know
Where two stubborn humans poke the darkness with a stick and hope it blinks first. If you know something about a case, report it to the actual police before you come knocking on our door.

If you enjoy the show, or you just like supporting people who refuse to shut up, grab some merch at PaulGNewton.com. It keeps the lights on and the caffeine flowing.

Send us a text

This episode examines Ronald Gene Simmons, tracing his rigid rise through the military, the incest allegation that triggered a sudden move, and the slow construction of an isolated household on Mockingbird Hill. As control began to slip, children leaving, jobs unraveling, pension delays stacking up, Simmons’ fixation hardened into a plan that unfolded over several days during Christmas 1987.

Fourteen members of his family were killed, including children and grandchildren. Afterward, Simmons drove to Russellville and opened fire on former coworkers and supervisors, telling police he had “gotten everybody who wanted to hurt” him before surrendering without resistance.

We walk through the timeline and the psychology behind the violence. How coercive control, isolation, and a self-imposed hierarchy can turn a family into a sealed system. We compare Simmons to other killers shaped by abusive environments and note where those patterns fall apart. The evidence points less to a reactive trauma script and more to a man who weaponized order, then tried to erase anyone who threatened it.

The episode also examines the legal aftermath: crimes spanning jurisdictions, competency findings, an unusually fast jury process, and a defendant who refused all appeals. Simmons’ final statement, calling his actions “justifiable homicide,” raises uncomfortable questions about speed, certainty, and justice in capital punishment cases.

Along the way, we center the aftermath. How holidays change forever for survivors. How a community absorbs a crime of this scale. And why verification matters when even a killer’s childhood becomes distorted through repetition and rumor.

This is a conversation about control, domestic isolation, and the legal edges of the death penalty. It avoids gore, rejects mythmaking, and insists on clarity where silence once lived.

“Thank you for listening to Things I Want to Know.
You want these stories, and we want to bring them to you — so hit the support link and keep this circus, and the mics, alive.
Then do us a favor and rate and subscribe; it helps the show find more people like you — the ones who like their mysteries real and their storytellers unfiltered.
And if you want to wear a little of this madness, grab some Andrea-approved gear at paulgnewton.com.
We make t

Support the show

Things I Want To Know
Where two stubborn humans poke the darkness with a stick and hope it blinks first. If you know something about a case, report it to the actual police before you come knocking on our door.

If you enjoy the show, or you just like supporting people who refuse to shut up, grab some merch at PaulGNewton.com. It keeps the lights on and the caffeine flowing.

Send us a text

Most true crime podcasts lie politely. We don’t.
So we decided to explain why.

After getting pushback for “disrespecting” a victim, Andrea and I laid out exactly how Things I Want to Know works. This episode is our playbook. How we research. Why we focus on underreported Arkansas cases. And why respecting victims does not mean turning them into saints or pretending uncomfortable facts don’t exist.

We start with primary sources. State missing-persons lists, archived newspapers, and public records. Wikipedia is never a single source. If we can’t double-check a claim, it doesn’t make the cut. FOIA requests help sometimes. Often they don’t. When information is thin, locked down, or too risky to publish responsibly, we shelve the case. That’s not fear. That’s restraint.

Victimology gets the hardest scrutiny. We don’t do saintly clichés and we don’t do cheap cruelty. Routine, relationships, place, and risk shape opportunity, but labels don’t define a person. When families or firsthand sources correct us, we update the record. And we don’t force famous killers into unrelated cases just to make a cleaner narrative. Method matters more than myth.

Along the way, we reference system failures that sharpen how we think. Hawaii’s false nuclear missile alert that sat unretracted for 38 minutes. The MOVE bombing in Philadelphia. Different stories, same lesson: small decisions spiral, and accuracy matters when real people are involved.

This episode is about balancing truth, empathy, and clarity without sanding off reality. If you’ve got documents, corrections, memories, or you just want to tell us why were wrong, email me, Paul G.
paulg@paulgnewton.com

You can find the show, the merch, and everything else we’re building at paulgnewton.com.

Subscribe. Share it with someone who’s tired of copy-paste true crime. And if there’s a case you think deserves real attention, tell me about it.

“Thank you for listening to Things I Want to Know.
You want these stories, and we want to bring them to you — so hit the support link and keep this circus, and the mics, alive.
Then do us a favor and rate and subscribe; it helps the show find more people like you — the ones who like their mysteries real and their storytellers unfiltered.
And if you want to wear a little of this madness, grab some Andrea-approved gear at paulgnewton.com.
We make t

Support the show

Things I Want To Know
Where two stubborn humans poke the darkness with a stick and hope it blinks first. If you know something about a case, report it to the actual police before you come knocking on our door.

If you enjoy the show, or you just like supporting people who refuse to shut up, grab some merch at PaulGNewton.com. It keeps the lights on and the caffeine flowing.

Send us a text

Things I Want To Know

Don’t Boil the Water | Charleston, West Virginia

A sweet smell coming out of the tap should never turn into a guessing game.

In this episode, we dig into the 2014 Charleston, West Virginia chemical spill that sent crude MCHM from a neglected storage tank straight toward a municipal water intake, forcing 300,000 people to stop using their water overnight. Not limit it. Not boil it. Stop.

We talk about how a century-old piece of infrastructure ended up sitting upstream from a city’s drinking water, why oversight failed, and how “safe enough” became the most dangerous phrase in the room. Residents reported rashes, nausea, burning eyes, and headaches, while officials tried to reassure the public with toxicology data that barely existed.

Accountability did come, eventually. Guilty pleas. Home confinement. Bankruptcy. But trust is harder to flush out of a system than a chemical you can smell.

We also zoom out, because Charleston isn’t an anomaly. From storage tanks to rail lines to aging intakes, this is what happens when convenience and complacency quietly stack risk in places no one is watching.

This isn’t panic radio. It’s a conversation about vigilance. What smells matter. Why boiling water can make some chemical exposures worse. What actually helps at the household level, and what fixes need to happen upstream where the real control lives.

Because the most unsettling part isn’t that something went wrong.
It’s how normal the day felt before anyone knew.

“Thank you for listening to Things I Want to Know.
You want these stories, and we want to bring them to you — so hit the support link and keep this circus, and the mics, alive.
Then do us a favor and rate and subscribe; it helps the show find more people like you — the ones who like their mysteries real and their storytellers unfiltered.
And if you want to wear a little of this madness, grab some Andrea-approved gear at paulgnewton.com.
We make t

Support the show

Things I Want To Know
Where two stubborn humans poke the darkness with a stick and hope it blinks first. If you know something about a case, report it to the actual police before you come knocking on our door.

If you enjoy the show, or you just like supporting people who refuse to shut up, grab some merch at PaulGNewton.com. It keeps the lights on and the caffeine flowing.