PODCAST · history
Curator 135
by Nathan Olli
Curator 135 is a Podcast that explores true crime, mysteries, odd history, mythology, media, and traditions. His favorite age is vint'age'. Dive into events and stories not always covered in school and online as well as the characters within those stories. Your host, Nathan Olli, is a former radio personality, aspiring author, event DJ, and works in a library at a K-8 STEAM School.
Episodes
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Down the Wiki Rabbit Hole 002 - The Couple, the Girl, and the Con Man
Send us Fan Mail An elderly couple sits for a photograph. Behind them, a mysterious young woman appears. Her face is faint, her clothing ghostly, and according to the photographer, she isn't among the living. But is this photographic evidence of life after death, or something far more sinister?…
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The Strange Murder of Ethel Whittaker
Send us Fan Mail Los Angeles, 1936. After a night out, retired organist Samuel Whittaker and his wife, Ethel, returned home to find an armed stranger waiting inside their apartment. Shots rang out. Ethel lay dead. The mysterious gunman escaped with bullets in his body. At first, Samuel Whittaker...
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The Kidnapping of John Paul Getty III: Part Two
Send us Fan Mail When we left sixteen-year-old John Paul Getty III, he had been struck in the head, bound, blindfolded, and driven away from the streets of Rome. Now the kidnapping begins. Paul awakens in the hands of masked men who have taken him south to Calabria, where they believe the…
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The Kidnapping of John Paul Getty III: Part One
Send us Fan Mail In 1973, sixteen-year-old John Paul Getty III had one of the most recognizable surnames on Earth. His grandfather, J. Paul Getty, was known as the richest man in the world—an oil billionaire famous not only for his staggering fortune, but for his eccentricity, complicated family...
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Lake Lanier: The Stories Beneath the Surface
Send us Fan Mail Lake Lanier is one of the most popular lakes in America. It is also one of the most feared. Beneath its waters lie old roads, foundations, forgotten pieces of communities, and a history far darker than the ghost stories suggest. In Episode 109, we travel back long before the lake...
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The Shadow Wolves
Send us Fan Mail What if a single footprint could reveal where someone had been, what they were carrying, and where they were headed? In this episode of Curator 135, we explore the remarkable story of the Shadow Wolves—an elite Native American tracking unit composed primarily of members of the...
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Jeepers Creepers: The Murder of Marilynn Depue
Send us Fan Mail Most horror movies begin as fiction. But sometimes the truth is even more terrifying. In April 1990, Marilynn DePue, a respected Michigan high school guidance counselor and mother of three, vanished after an encounter with her ex-husband, Dennis DePue. What followed was a…
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Police Academy: Citizen on Patrol
Send us Fan Mail For eleven weeks, I had the opportunity to step inside the world of the Livonia Police Department through the 2026 Livonia Citizen Police Academy — and this episode documents the entire experience. From SWAT demonstrations and accident reconstruction to crisis negotiations, K9...
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The Day the World Almost Ended
Send us Fan Mail What if the end of the world wouldn’t begin with a decision… but with a misunderstanding? In Drawn to the Stars, a single moment of uncertainty triggers a chain reaction that leads to nuclear war. It’s fiction—but it may be closer to reality than we’d like to admit. During the…
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The Mystery of Space
Send us Fan Mail What happens when you leave Earth—and take the human mind somewhere it was never meant to go? After diving back into space while writing Drawn to the Stars: Book One – The Exchange (now available on Amazon), I found myself drawn not just to the missions we all know… but to the...
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Writing a Science Fiction Novel
Send us Fan Mail What makes science fiction so powerful? And why do these stories stay with us long after we’ve finished them? In Episode 103, we explore the minds that helped shape the genre. From early works like New Atlantis and Somnium to the groundbreaking stories of H. G. Wells, Isaac…
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Trouble in White Cloud
Send us Fan Mail In May of 1922, a young Michigan farmer named Romie “Doc” Hodell was found hanging in a barn outside White Cloud. At first glance, it looked like suicide. But his feet were touching the ground. Within days, doctors ruled it murder. And what followed would become one of the...
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Bet the Limit: The Benny Binion Story
Send us Fan Mail Las Vegas wasn’t built by saints. It was built by gamblers. In this episode, we dive deep into the life of Benny Binion — the Texas-born gambling boss who fled murder rumors and federal heat, arrived in the Nevada desert, and helped shape modern Las Vegas. Born in rural Pilot...
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The Algiers Motel Incident
Send us Fan Mail In the summer of 1967, Detroit was already burning when a far quieter tragedy unfolded behind the doors of the Algiers Motel. As the city reeled from six days of unrest, three young Black men—Carl Cooper, Auburey Pollard, and Fred Temple—were detained, terrorized, and killed…
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Bones in the Backseat: The Ongoing Story of Jonathan Gerlach
Send us Fan Mail What started as a quiet investigation into a vandalized mausoleum at Mount Moriah Cemetery quickly spiraled into something much darker. In this episode, we explore the recent arrest of Jonathan Christian Gerlach — accused of stealing human remains from Philadelphia’s historic...
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Larcena Pennington: A Story of Survival
Send us Fan Mail In the mid-1850s, America was expanding westward — fast, hungry, and ruthless. The ink was barely dry on the Gadsden Purchase when settlers began pouring into the unforgiving deserts of what would one day become southern Arizona. The land was harsh, lawless, and already inhabited...
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The Women of Death Row
Send us Fan Mail Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, the United States has executed over 1,500 people — but only 17 of them have been women. In this episode, we walk cell-by-cell through their stories. The crimes. The trials. The years spent on death row. And, ultimately, the...
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Jane Toppan: Angel of Death
Send us Fan Mail She wasn’t a monster in the shadows — she was a nurse at your bedside. In this chilling episode, we uncover the twisted life of Jane Toppan, the 19th-century caregiver who confessed to murdering at least 31 people — not out of hatred, but for pleasure. A seemingly cheerful and...
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The Resurrection Men
Send us Fan Mail This Halloween, we dig deep — literally — into one of the most disturbing true crime tales in medical history. Step into 1820s Edinburgh, where cobblestone streets echoed with the footsteps of scholars by day… and the shovels of grave robbers by night. This episode uncovers the...
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The Year of the Ax
Send us Fan Mail Between June of 1911 and June of 1912, America’s heartland lived in fear. From Oregon to Iowa, entire families were slaughtered in their beds — curtains drawn, lamps dimmed, the blunt edge of an axe left behind. The trail of terror ran through Ardenwald, Rainier, Colorado…
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The Legend of Buford Pusser
Send us Fan Mail He was the sheriff with a big stick and an even bigger legend. Buford Pusser fought crime on the Tennessee-Mississippi border with his fists, a badge, and a whole lot of vengeance. His story inspired Walking Tall, a string of sequels, ballads, and generations of folk-hero…
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The New Hampshire Clairvoyant
Send us Fan Mail In the late 1800s, Nellie Titus had a dream about a missing girl. A dream so precise, so disturbingly accurate, that it drew the attention of scholars, spiritualists, and skeptics alike — including America’s most famous psychologist, William James. In this episode, we step back…
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Esther Cox and the Great Amherst Mystery
Send us Fan Mail In 1878, a quiet town in Nova Scotia became the stage for one of Canada’s strangest hauntings. Esther Cox, an ordinary young woman, was suddenly surrounded by raps in the walls, flying objects, and ghostly messages carved into plaster. Neighbors, doctors, ministers — even a…
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Bison Dele: Lost at Sea
Send us Fan Mail An up-and-coming NBA star who had it all. The talent, the money, the fame, the women... but then he just walked away. And soon, he would vanish altogether. Learn about Brian Williams, who, after changing his name to Bison Dele, found that the NBA lifestyle was no longer for him.…
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A Wolf in Suburbia: The Pesce Family Murders Part 8
Send us Fan Mail Episode 89 of the podcast highlights the criminal careers of Dennis Lincoln and John Wolfenbarger and goes into correspondence between the defendants and myself back in 2014. This is chapters 24, 25, and 26 of the book, A Wolf in Suburbia - The Pesce Family Murders. Some of the...
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A Wolf in Suburbia: The Pesce Family Murders Part 7
Send us Fan Mail Episode 88 of the podcast covers days 12, 13, 14, the verdict and sentencing portions of the Pesce Family Murder Trial and chapters 20, 21, 22, & 23 of the book, A Wolf in Suburbia - The Pesce Family Murders. The trial hears from some key witnesses for the prosecution and the...
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A Wolf in Suburbia: The Pesce Family Murders Part 6
Send us Fan Mail Episode 87 of the podcast covers days 8, 9, 10, & 11 of the Pesce Family Murder Trial and chapters 17, 18, & 19 of the book, A Wolf in Suburbia - The Pesce Family Murders. Some important witnesses are called to the stand, and health issues delay the trial by nearly one month....
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A Wolf in Suburbia: The Pesce Family Murders Part 5
Send us Fan Mail In Part 5 of the series, we cover days 6 and 7 of the trial and chapters 15 and 16 of the book, A Wolf in Suburbia: The Pesce Family Murders. These two days were important ones in the trial as attorneys finished up with Betty Faye Smith before moving on to a Copa Lounge bartender...
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A Wolf in Suburbia: The Pesce Family Murders Part 4
Send us Fan Mail Episode 85 covers chapters 12, 13, and 14 of the book, "A Wolf in Suburbia: The Pesce Family Murders. The trial commences with the presentation of some key witnesses, including Doreen Beauchamp (Wolfenbarger's Girlfriend) and Betty Faye Smith (Wolfenbarger's Mother). Support the...
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A Wolf in Suburbia: The Pesce Family Murders Part 3
Send us Fan Mail Part 3 dives into chapters 8, 9, 10, & 11 of the book "A Wolf in Suburbia: The Pesce Family Murders". The arrests of John Wolfenbarger and Dennis Lincoln, the Pesce family funeral, the community response, and the beginning of a long trial. Support the show
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A Wolf in Suburbia: The Pesce Family Murders Part 2
Send us Fan Mail Part two of the story continues with chapters 5, 6, and 7 of the book, "A Wolf in Suburbia: The Pesce Family Murders." These chapters discuss the actions of Wolfenbarger and Lincoln before and after the murders and we meet William "Billy Wadd" Smith, notorious West Side Boss of…
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A Wolf in Suburbia: The Pesce Family Murders Part 1
Send us Fan Mail In 2002 John Wolfenbarger and Dennis Lincoln committed one of the worst crimes in Michigan's history. Five were dead, including three children, just four days before Christmas. It was, for the most part, an open-and-shut case but when you add in a dangerous biker gang, a...
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Joseph Paul Franklin: Racist with a Rifle
Send us Fan Mail In Episode 81 of the podcast, we take a look at the three-year racially motivated killing spree that covered at least 11 different states. From 1977 to 1980, Joseph Paul Franklin killed an estimated twenty-one people while injuring scores of others and creating an unease that...
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The Greenbrier Ghost
Send us Fan Mail In this spine-chilling episode, we unravel the mysterious and eerie story of the Greenbrier Ghost, one of the most unique cases in American legal history. Discover how the spirit of Elva Zona Heaster allegedly returned from the grave to reveal the truth behind her untimely death,...
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Run Away to Join the Circus
Send us Fan Mail In the early 1900s, young men sometimes wanted to get out of their boring hometowns and out from under their parents' thumbs. The flashy lights, roar of the animals and the big top tents often seemed to call to them offering a more exciting life. Countless teens ran off and…
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Dr. Cotton and the Mouths of Madness
Send us Fan Mail In this chilling dive into the history of psychiatry, we uncover the controversial legacy of Dr. Henry Cotton, the medical director of the New Jersey State Hospital for the Insane in the early 20th century. Driven by a misguided obsession with infection as the root cause of…
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Vigilante Justice: The Bald Knobbers
Send us Fan Mail In the rugged hills of post-Civil War Missouri, a group of masked men set out to restore order in a lawless land. Led by the towering and enigmatic Nat Kinney, the Bald Knobbers began as vigilantes seeking justice in the absence of reliable law enforcement. But as their power…
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Doppelgangers in History
Send us Fan Mail They say that each of us has a doppelganger somewhere in the world. Someone who looks just like us... maybe acts just like us... or maybe, is us. Do you believe in doppelgangers? Do you believe in the idea of bilocation? These people from history certainly do. Learn about how...
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It's the Great Depression, Charlie Brown
Send us Fan Mail Find out what Halloween was like during the Great Depression. 1929 to 1939 was a tough decade for folks throughout the United States. Halloween offered a chance to come together and help children have an enjoyable evening with their friends. It also served as a time for older…
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Down the Wiki Rabbit Hole 001 - The Lipstick Killer
Send us Fan Mail I have created a new podcast section for YouTube and Curator135.com called "Down the Wiki Rabbit Hole" where I look up a search term on Wikimedia Commons. From there I find a photo related to the search term and then research the photo to find as much information as possible. The...
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A Curse Upon Thee
Send us Fan Mail The Hope Diamond, The Busby Chair, The Hands Resist Him, the Crying Boy paintings and the Dybbuk Box are five of the most cursed items in our history. Learn how these curses grew over time and the factors behind believing something is cursed. Is it all in our head or is there…
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The Pentwater Michigan Murders
Send us Fan Mail In the early 1890's Samuel Minshall left Chicago in search of a better opportunity in Pentwater, Michigan. Pentwater was a small, up and coming village in Western Michigan along the shores of Lake Michigan. There he met William Sands who promised him enough work to support his...
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Suburban Murder - Locked in a Closet
Send us Fan Mail In 1964 three elderly siblings were brutally beaten, robbed and left in a closet to die. Learn about the Parsons; William, Hilda and Lenore, their lives and what led up to the unsolved murders that are still on the Livonia Police Department's Cold Case list sixty years later....
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Suburban Murder - Livonia's Own Serial Killer
Send us Fan Mail In 1982 Kimberly Louiselle disappeared from Livonia and was found deceased weeks later in a wooded area of state-owned land miles away. The following year, one day shy of exactly a year, Christina Castiglione went missing while in Livonia. She was also found deceased later on in…
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The Wreck of the Whale-Ship Essex (Owen Chase's Diary)
Send us Fan Mail The crew of the Essex left Nantucket on a whaling expedition in August of 1819. They knew that they might be at sea for as long as three years but they had no idea what they were about to encounter. Find out how 20 men survived a whale attack that sunk their ship only to be…
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Theodore Coneys: Denver Spider Man
Send us Fan Mail In the early 1940s, a well-liked man was brutally murdered in his home while his wife recovered from hip surgery in a nearby hospital. There were no signs of forced entry, plenty of cash around the home, and every door and window was locked from the inside. So who did it? And…
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The 1904 Olympic Marathon Mess
Send us Fan Mail The games of the Third Olympiad were the first Olympics to be held on American soil. After St. Louis wrestled away the chance to host the games from Chicago, they lumped the event in with the Louisiana Purchase Expo and World Fair. The Olympic Marathon, an event that everyone...
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The Mystery of the Carroll A. Deering
Send us Fan Mail The early 1920's was a time that saw numerous vessels vanish in the Atlantic Ocean. The Carroll A. Deering didn't vanish, but its crew did, and then washed up on the dangerous Diamond Shoals off the coast of North Carolina. Was it mutiny? Captain Wormell and his first mate did…
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Gypsy Bob: Tattoos and Murder
Send us Fan Mail Arthur "Gypsy Bob" Harper (b. 1880) was one of Michigan's most notorious criminals. Murder, theft, and assault were part of his everyday life outside of prison. Luckily he only spent 15 of his 73 years out in the world. The rest of his time was spent locked up in various prisons…
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The Attica Uprising '71
Send us Fan Mail What happened at the Attica Maximum Security Prison in September 1971 should have changed how prisons were run forever. Unfortunately, the 'tough on crime' 80's and 90's erased any of the steps that were taken. Find out what went on during the four days inside of Attica as…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Curator 135 is a Podcast that explores true crime, mysteries, odd history, mythology, media, and traditions. His favorite age is vint'age'. Dive into events and stories not always covered in school and online as well as the characters within those stories. Your host, Nathan Olli, is a former radio personality, aspiring author, event DJ, and works in a library at a K-8 STEAM School.
HOSTED BY
Nathan Olli
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Curator 135 have?
Curator 135 currently has 114 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Curator 135 about?
Curator 135 is a Podcast that explores true crime, mysteries, odd history, mythology, media, and traditions. His favorite age is vint'age'. Dive into events and stories not always covered in school and online as well as the characters within those stories. Your host, Nathan Olli, is a former radio...
How often does Curator 135 release new episodes?
Curator 135 publishes regularly with 114 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Curator 135?
You can listen to Curator 135 on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Curator 135?
Curator 135 is created and hosted by Nathan Olli.
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