193: An Anniversary Getaway & the Lynching of Timothy Coggins

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Harold Henthorn loved a good surprise. So when he began planning a surprise anniversary trip for his wife, Toni, he pulled out all the stops. He asked her office staff to clear her schedule. He packed her suitcase. Then, on what was supposed to be a typical workday, Harold gave Toni the good news: They’d be going on a romantic trip to Estes Park, Colorado, to celebrate their 12th anniversary. They’d leave right away. But Harold had more than a surprise trip up his sleeve.

Then Kristin tells us about the lynching of Timothy Coggins. Timothy’s murder was heartbreaking, but it wasn’t exactly a whodunit. In fact, within a few weeks, two black officers were closing in on Timothy’s murderers. But the higher-ups in the local police force put a stop to the investigation. They’d hit a dead end... supposedly. For 34 years, the case went cold. Then a young agent from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations gave the case a closer look.

And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.

In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
“A brutal lynching. An indifferent police force. A 34-year wait for justice.” by Wesley Lowery for GQ
“In the cold dark night” episode of 20/20
“The hate crime solved after 34 years,” by Natasha Frost for History.com
“Two indicted in 1983 Georgia killing,” by Nelson Helm for the Atlanta Journal Constitution
“Five things to know about the Spalding trial in the murder of man dragged behind pick up truck,” by Christian Boone for the Atlanta Journal Constitution

In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“Over the Edge” episode Dateline
“Harold Henthorn” chillingcrimes.com
“Black Widower: How One Man Allegedly Murdered Two Wives” by Caleb Hannan, Rolling Stone
“Harold Henthorn’s wife died in a freak accident. When his second wife died police had questions.” by Gemma Bath, MamaMia
“The unusual deaths of the two Mrs. Henthorns” CBS News
“Tip leads reporter to story of mysterious deaths” CBS News
“‘Lethal love’: Harold Henthorn had two wives. Both died in bizarre, brutal ways.” by Michael E. Miller, The Washington Post
“United States of America v. Harold Arthur Henthorn” findlaw.com
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