That Time Daniel Sickles Invented the Temporary Insanity Defense
Everything has to start somewhere, right? And it was Dan Sickles who first claimed temporary insanity as a defense for murder. Of course, he was Congressman at the time he shot and killed his wife's lover, Philip Barton Key II, in broad daylight in Manhattan's Lafayette Square. And of course he was celebrated as a hero for "saving" women from such a rogue. But that's hardly the only scandal that attached itself to Sickles' name. Tune in as Kasey walks us through his messy career, from public murder (and acquittal!) to the Battle of Gettysburg to burial in Arlington cemetery. Watch every episode on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/shockingluridtawdry Logo: Jessica Balaschak Music: Caveman of Los Angeles by Party Store Music
29 Mars 202241min
That Time Hollywood Destroyed Clara Bow
Logo: Jessica Balaschak Music: Caveman of Los Angeles by Party Store Music
22 Mars 202241min
That Time Things Went Real Bad in Waco
A cult versus FBI armored vehicles—what could go wrong? Was David Koresh crazy? Not our topic today! Was the government overarmed and underprepared? Now, that we can dig into. In this week's episode, Kasey Howe looks at bad people on both sides, and the decisions that led to the live televised disaster that was Waco. Logo: Jessica Balaschak Music: Caveman of Los Angeles by Party Store Music
15 Mars 202250min
That Time Gay Drama Cruising Filmed in NYC and People Freaked the F Out
Logo: Jessica Balaschak Music: Caveman of Los Angeles by Party Store Music
8 Mars 202250min
That Time a Lot of Women Got Caught Up in Political Scandals
Turns out, women involved in political scandals is a pretty tough Google—mostly because very few of them were scandalous on their own. Nevertheless, in honor of Women's History Month Kasey Howe offers a pu pu platter of women behaving badly, whether they intended to or not. From Iran-Contra to extramarital affairs, here are the women breaking bad in government. And no, this isn't the Nancy Reagan episode. Mark is as disappointed as you are. Logo: Jessica Balaschak Music: Caveman of Los Angeles by Party Store Music
1 Mars 202224min
That Time Roxanne Pulitzer Got Divorced
“The Strumpet with the Trumpet.” “Nympho Dyke.” “Cocaine Slut.” “Black-Magic Voodoo Queen.” Somehow, a former cheerleader from upstate New York got branded all of those things by the national media when her wealthy older husband decided to divorce her after six years of marriage. They were not famous (well, sorta). But their marriage coincided with the last gasp of the freewheeling decadence of the ‘70s, so there were plenty of lurid details to air in public. And neither Roxanne Pulitzer nor estranged husband Herbert Peter Pulitzer held back in their Palm Beach divorce trial. After their marriage on January 12, 1976, Roxanne was officially part of the Palm Beach society crowd, and they ushered her into the fold. Unfortunately, it was a fast crowd and both she and Herbert started participating in some things—like cocaine binges and threesomes—that would come back to bite not both of them, but the wife and mother of twins. Eventually, Roxanne ended up humiliated on the national stage, without custody of her sons and with just $2,000 a month in alimony for two years. How did it happen? Mark delivers the dish in this torrid episode.
22 Feb 202250min
That Time It Took a Massacre to Get an 8-Hour Work Day
Boy, major corporations do not want to offer basic rights to employees. And proving that nothing is new, this week Kasey Howe looks back at the Ludlow Massacre of 1914, the result of some tense union negotiations around Colorado coal mines that ended with an entire tent city being burned to the ground by anti-strike militia. The deadliest strike in American history, the outcry eventually did result in some new legislation (including an 8-hour work day). We're not all giggles and gin, guys. Logo: Jessica Balaschak Music: Caveman of Los Angeles by Party Store Music
15 Feb 202240min
That Time Charlie Chaplin's Divorce Got Sold Like Pornography
Lita Grey Chaplin’s greatest contribution to pop culture is not her two published memoirs or even her divorce complaint so scandalous that it was published and sold in 1927. Instead, it’s her name: Lita served as the root for Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, the most famous underage sex symbol this side of Brooke Shields in her Calvin Klein jeans. Though she was divorced from Charlie Chaplin by 19 and lived until the age of 87, Lita’s life was inexorably bound to her first husband and the father of her two sons—even as Charlie himself pointedly never mentioned her once in his own autobiography. Maybe he was still fuming over that divorce settlement, which came out to $8.9 million in 2020 dollars. Or maybe it was the rumor that Lita was ready to name several movie stars with whom Charlie had affairs during their marriage if he didn’t pony up the money. Either way, Lita was the one who returned to their short-lived marriage over and over again, even as she publicly, ruefully wondered how she managed to spend most of her settlement within a few years. Just how scandalous was their divorce? Well let’s just say that at a time when “copulation in someone’s mouth” was illegal in the state of California, Lita’s claims against Charlie could have landed him in prison for quite a while. And the public couldn’t get enough of Lita and the Little Tramp’s sex life, something Lita would later capitalize on in a highly sensationalized first memoir, My Life With Chaplin.” Logo: Jessica Balaschak | Music: Caveman of Los Angeles by Party Store Music
8 Feb 202230min
