In 1889, a father discovered his daughter dead at the home of Dr. Etienne Deschamps, a dentist-surgeon and hypnotist. Was the death truly an accident? Or was it, as most of New Orleans believed, a murder?

Sources:

Castellanos, Henry C. New Orleans As it Was: Episodes of Louisiana Life (New Orleans: L. Graham & Son., 1895).

Meletio, Donna M. “Leona Queyrouze (1861-1938) Louisiana French Creole Poet, Essayist, and Composer.” 2005. Louisiana State University, PhD dissertation.

Pena, Christopher G. The Strange Case of Dr. Etienne Deschamps: Murder in the New Orleans French Quarter (Gretna: Pelican Publishing Company, 2017).

Tallant, Robert. Ready to Hang: Seven Famous New Orleans Murders (Gretna: Pelican Publishing Company, 2012).

Wozniak, Robert H. “Animal Magnetism, Early Hypnotism, and Physical Research, 1766-1925.” Bibliographies in the History of Psychology and Psychiatry, A Series. 1988. https://www.esalen.org/ctr/animal-magnetism

Newspapers:

New Orleans Daily Picayune

New Orleans Times-Democrat

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

In 1940, a principal snapped and went on a shooting spree at his Southern California junior high school. Who or what was to blame?

Sources:

Barer, Burl and Frank Giradot Jr.. A Taste For Murder (Denver: Wildblue Press, 2016).

Ban, Thomas A. “Bromides” International Network for the History of Neuropsychopharmacology. 24 October 2013. https://inhn.org/inhn-projects/drugs/bromides

Church, John. Pasadena Cowboy: Growing up in Southern California and Montana, 1925 to 1947 (Novato: Conover-Patterson Publishers, 1996).

Cropeley, Thomas and Zachary Theroux. “The Old Bromides and Their 21st Century Refreshment.” JAMA Network. 2017. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/article-abstract/2629878

Faith, Laura. “The Backstory: Mad School Principal Kills 5, Wounds 1.” Iloveyoupug (blog about Margie Alman). http://www.iloveyoupug.com/2011/01/backstory-mad-school-principal-kills-5.html

“John Ernest Alman.”Grave Spotlight. https://www.cemeteryguide.com/gotw-johnalman.html

Peters, William F. “The History of South Pasadena High School” SPHSAA. https://www.sphsaa.org/000/3/0/5/5503/userfiles/file/History%20of%20SPHS.pdf

Plummer, Mary. “South Pasadena Students Recall 1940 Murder Spree.” KPCC. 19 September, 2014. https://archive.kpcc.org/blogs/education/2014/09/19/17256/pasadena-school-students-recall-murderous-rampage/

Rai, Dr. Vandana. “What is Bromide Toxicity?” icliniq. 16 May, 2023. https://www.icliniq.com/articles/vitamins-and-minerals/bromide-toxicity

Rasmussen, Cecilia. “A Principal’s Bloody Rampage.” Los Angeles Times. 20 July 1997. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-jul-20-me-14688-story.html

Underwood, Agness. Newspaperwoman (New York: Harper, 1949).

Williams, Janette. “After 72 years, notorious South Pasadena school shootings still resonate.” Pasadena Star News. 29 August, 2017. https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2012/09/15/after-72-years-notorious-south-pasadena-school-shootings-still-resonate-with-survivors/

Newspapers:

The Los Angeles Times

San Pedro News Pilot

San Bernardino Sun

Madera Tribune

Calexico Chronicle

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com

In October of 1789, a search for the owner of an abandoned carriage led to a gruesome discovery in the home of a wealthy merchant. Don Joaquin Dongo and his entire household had been slaughtered. Within days, Mexico City officials had located, arrested, and publically executed the murderers in the same plaza where laborers worked to unearth Aztec relics.

Buy Nicole von Germeten’s book Death in Old Mexico: The 1789 Dongo Murders and How They Shaped the History of a Nation on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Death-Old-Mexico-Murders-History/dp/1009261525

Sources:

Rodriguez, Pablo. “Crímenes coloniales: codicia y crueldad en el asesinato del señor Dongo y sus dependientes (Ciudad de México, 1789)” Historia y Sociedad, no. 40, pp. 243-259. 2021.

Von Germeten, Nicole. Death in Old Mexico: The 1789 Dongo Murders and How They Shaped the History of a Nation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023).

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com