Crimes of the Centuries

In 1949, a headless, legless torso surfaced in the Essex marshes, setting off one of Britain’s most sensational postwar murder investigations. The victim was Stanley Setty, a black-market car dealer. The suspect was Donald Hume, a small-time crook, chronic liar and pilot who rented a plane the night Setty disappeared but swore he had nothing to do with the gruesome killing.
Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes and more over at www.grabbagcollab.com

Order the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or at www.centuriespod.com/book!

Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespod
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In 1945, a reverend, a realtor, a science teacher, and a white woman in a low-cut dress conspired to help a St. Louis couple buy a house. The couple had steady jobs, a down payment, and six children who needed a safe home. What they didn't have was permission — at least not according to a clause buried in the property's deed. Their attempt to move in triggered outrage from neighbors, a lawsuit, and a legal battle that climbed all the way to the United States Supreme Court, resulting in the landmark 1948 ruling in Shelley v. Kraemer.
Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes and more over at www.grabbagcollab.com

Order the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or at www.centuriespod.com/book!

Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespod

In May 1988, a church bus returning to Kentucky was struck head-on by a wrong-way driver. Within seconds, it became an inferno. As families searched for answers, an unsettling truth emerged: The children had been trapped inside a bus never designed to protect them. The Carrollton bus tragedy is a story about how grief collided with corporate power, government delay tactics and America’s evolving reckoning with drunken driving.

In August 1942, 22-year-old Jose Diaz was found dying near a Los Angeles reservoir called Sleepy Lagoon. He'd been beaten and stabbed the night before he was set to report to the U.S. Army. His death became the excuse the LAPD needed to launch a massive crackdown on Mexican American youth—rounding up 600 people, trying 22 young men with questionable evidence and igniting racial tensions that exploded into the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943. But who really killed Jose Diaz? And why did a fashion choice become a crime?

Singing his way through the 1950s and early 1960s, appealing to audiences across a segregated music industry, churning out hits of dreamy quality like “You Send Me” and inspirational fortitude like “A Change Is Gonna Come,” Sam Cooke was more than an artist. He lived – and died – a legend. So how did he end up shot in a Los Angeles motel in 1964? In this episode, we’ll trace the tale: start to finish.