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Hello and welcome back to Breakfast with Mom!

Tonight, we tell the story of Helen Brach — candy heiress, socialite, horse enthusiast — and the mystery that still lingers nearly fifty years later.

Was it kidnapping? Was it murder? Or was it something even darker?

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Brach

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7576712/helen-marie-brach

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brach%27s

https://www.brachs.com/about-us

https://www.newspapers.com/image/528324062/?match=1&terms=helen%20brach

All the things:

Music: "Electronic Rock (King Around Here)" by Alex Grohl https://pixabay.com/music/search/electronic%20rock%20king

Logo Artwork: Strawbeary Studios https://www.youtube.com/@StrawbearyStudios/featured

Episode was researched, written and edited by Shanoa with the help of ChatGPT

Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090200010112

X (formerly Twitter): @breakfastmompod

Email: breakfastwithmompodcast@gmail.com

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Hello and welcome back to Breakfast with Mom!

Today’s episode is about warmth — not just the kind that fills a room on a winter night, but the kind that comes from innovation, persistence, and vision.

This is the story of Alice H. Parker — the woman whose groundbreaking heating system laid the foundation for the central heating systems we rely on today.

Let’s travel back to the early 1900s. Imagine it’s January in the northeastern United States. There’s no thermostat on the wall. No automatic heat humming through vents. If you wanted warmth, you had to build a fire — usually in a fireplace using a wood or coal-burning stove.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_H._Parker

https://www.aga.org/alice-parker-the-mother-of-natural-gas-heating/

https://pensacolaenergy.com/alice-parker-trailblazer-in-space-heating/

https://members.nabwic.org/blogpost/1762819/489469/NABWIC-SERVES-AS-AN-HISTORIAN-FOR-BLACK-WOMEN-IN-CONSTRUCTION-FEATURING-ALICE-H-PARKER

https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/parker-alice-h-1895/

All the things:

Music: "Electronic Rock (King Around Here)" by Alex Grohl https://pixabay.com/music/search/electronic%20rock%20king

Logo Artwork: Strawbeary Studios https://www.youtube.com/@StrawbearyStudios/featured

Episode was researched, written and edited by Shanoa with the help of ChatGPT

Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090200010112

X (formerly Twitter): @breakfastmompod

Email: breakfastwithmompodcast@gmail.com

Send a text

Hello and welcome back to Breakfast with Mom!

In 1871, a woman stood accused in a courtroom that did not fully recognize her as a legal equal—or, in many ways, as a full person. The charge against her was serious. But what mattered just as much as the alleged crime was who she was believed to be: a wife, a woman, and—according to the State—someone who had stepped far outside her proper role.

This is not just a story about guilt or innocence.

It’s a story about how justice works when society has already made up its mind.

True crime loves endings. A verdict, a sentence, a clean line between guilt and innocence. But history almost never gives us that, because when the courtroom doors closed in 1871… Elizabeth Wharton’s story didn’t end. It just got quieter. And quieter stories are harder to hear.

Sources:

https://mdhistory.msa.maryland.gov/msaref04/msa-sc-5339-68-192/pdf/bg-wharton-trial-0002.pdf

https://www.jamesarsenault.com/pages/books/3752/trial-of-mrs-elizabeth-g-wharton-on-the-charge-of-poisoning-general-w-s-ketchum-tried-at-annapolis-md

https://www.murderbygaslight.com/2021/08/a-baltimore-borgia.html

All the things:

Music: "Electronic Rock (King Around Here)" by Alex Grohl https://pixabay.com/music/search/electronic%20rock%20king

Logo Artwork: Strawbeary Studios https://www.youtube.com/@StrawbearyStudios/featured

Episode was researched, written and edited by Shanoa with the help of ChatGPT

Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090200010112

X (formerly Twitter): @breakfastmompod

Email: breakfastwithmompodcast@gmail.com