Wicked Crime

In the Season Three finale, me and my guest host Grace get into the many tales of Dogtown, a farming settlement founded in 1693 in Gloucester, MA. The small town briefly thrived until the Revolutionary War when 60 of the settlement's wives were left widows, nothing but their dogs to keep them company as their houses began to crumble around them. Now a ghost town, Dogtown is known for it's famous Babson Boulders, being a former home to witches, and the site of a terrible murder of a school teacher in 1984. What else might lurk in those woods?

On July 18, 1969, Ted Kennedy drove off Dyke Bridge while attending a party on Chappaquiddick, located on Martha's Vineyard. Though he managed to get out of the car, his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign aid of Robert Kennedy, could not get out. Ted claimed to have tried to save her but he never contacted authorities until the next morning after her body had been found. Many people Kennedy never told the full story from that night and that it ruined his chances of becoming president. Could Mary Jo have been saved if something had been done sooner? 

Hadden Clark claimed to have killed a number of women in Wellfleet, MA in the 70s while working as a cook in Provincetown, but it has never been confirmed. He was found guilty of murdering 6-year-old Michele Dorr in 1986 and 23-year-old Laura Houghtelingin 1992, both of Maryland, and even cannibalized Michele's remains, sending him to jail for the rest of his life. His brother Bradfield also committed a horrendous murder. Was Hadden responsible for other murders? Did the Clark's trauma contribute to the murders they committed?

On October 24th, 1961, 31-year-old Joan Risch disappeared from her home in Lincoln, MA, leaving behind quite a big mystery that still has people puzzled. Her kitchen was bloody, her phone ripped from the wall, fingerprints found didn't all match her own, and there had been an unknown car parked in her driveway among other strange details. Yet a woman matching her description was also seen bloody and disoriented on two different roads in town. Did Joan set up this crime scene and disappear on purpose? Did someone hurt her? Did she hurt herself and wander off? 

Jesse Pomeroy holds the record for longest incarceration in the U.S. and was the youngest person to be sent to jail for murder after killing two children and torturing a number of others. He was only 14-years-old at the time of his conviction on December 8th, 1874. But he isn't the only young killer in Massachusetts or surrounding states. Though he may've been the most sadistic. This week I cover him and a few other killer kids whose motives range from burglary, anger, gun violence, and sex. What drives kids to kill?