Host Christy takes listeners deep inside the 11-day Lucasville uprising of April 1993, where a dispute over mandatory tuberculosis testing ignited a larger explosion of tension inside Ohio’s Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. This episode walks through the buildup — overcrowding, staffing shortages, a new hardline warden, entrenched racial gangs, and grievances about brutality and medical care — that set the stage for one of the most violent prison riots in recent U.S. history.

You’ll hear a blow-by-blow account of how L Block was taken, how inmate leadership formed, and how hostages were seized. The episode examines the gruesome Mud Pit killings, the role of inmate negotiators and spokesmen (including George Skates), and firsthand perspectives from survivors such as hostage Mike Hensley. Key moments covered include the dramatic signs and deadlines hung in windows, fires and smoke that masked movement, and the agonizing choice facing state negotiators: storm the block or risk more lives by waiting.

The investigation and prosecution phase is explored in detail: FBI tunnel recordings (the so-called tunnel tapes), the large-scale interviews and plea deals that produced much of the testimony, the scarcity and contamination of physical evidence, and how prosecutors built cases largely on inmate witnesses. The episode summarizes the resulting trials, death sentences, long appeals, and persistent claims about withheld evidence, coerced testimony, and the role of 1990s politics and media silence in shaping public perception.

Listeners will also get the broader context and consequences: how Lucasville forced changes to Ohio’s prison design and policies, the human cost for correctional staff and incarcerated men, and why the event still divides families, advocates, and legal experts more than three decades later. The episode highlights the unresolved questions at the heart of the controversy — who truly led and who ordered killings, whether every piece of evidence was disclosed, and how overcrowding and institutional choices contributed to the breakdown of control.

This episode features archival materials and firsthand sources — transcripts of real-time negotiator conversations, the tunnel tapes, case files, and survivor accounts — and points listeners to additional resources. Upcoming segments in the series promise deep dives into the 21-point agreement that ended the standoff, a closer look at George Skates and the so-called Lucasville Five, media coverage and blackout, and the families and victims often left out of the headlines. Join the conversation and follow the show for documents, recordings, and ways to get involved.

Host Christy takes listeners back to rural Logan County, Ohio, to examine the 1979 disappearance and murder of Arthur Smith. The episode reconstructs the night he walked out of Rink's department store, the ten-day search that followed, and the moment a local farmer discovered Smith's bound body in an open soybean field.

We follow the timeline in detail: Arthur’s routine closing that Friday night, a brief 9:30 p.m. phone call home, a red Volkswagen parked outside the store, and the missing night deposit and bonus checks. Listeners will hear precise scene details — wrists and ankles bound with wire, shoes removed and placed near the head, little blood at the field, the missing pistol, and the unanswered question of whether the killing occurred where the body was found.

The episode outlines the investigation and the slow path to an arrest: three years with no suspect, then the 1982 prosecution that centered on one man — identified in records as George Skates (appearing in some files as George Gates) — and a case built almost entirely on witness testimony rather than physical evidence. Key court moments are described, including the prosecution’s reliance on the jailhouse testimony of James “Jimmy” Rogers and testimony from cooperating witnesses whose legal deals and benefits later drew scrutiny.

Christy digs into the complications that shaped the trial: prosecutors’ deals and shock probation for cooperating witnesses (including Jack Benton), immunity and assistance given to others (Diane Rogers, Becky Boop), recanted statements (Danny Stanley), and trial decisions that left jurors with testimony but very little corroborating forensic proof. The episode presents documents and courtroom scenes that help explain how the case was assembled and why many questions remained after a guilty verdict and a life sentence.

Throughout the episode the show highlights central themes — a possibly staged crime scene, gaps in physical evidence, the power of incentive-driven testimony, and how a conviction built on witness deals can leave lingering doubt. Christy teases what comes next, promising to go deeper into the records and the evidence the jury never heard in the next episode, and invites listeners to follow the investigation as the podcast explores whether the conviction truly fits the facts.

Host Christy examines the disappearance and death of Abby Lynn Butcher in rural Perry County, Ohio. This episode covers the 16-day search, the moment Abby was last seen on February 16, 2022, and the discovery of her body behind an oil well on Reading Township Road 143. Guests and sources include family members and close friends—her partner Jason Rehart and his mother Gloria, sisters January, Lita and Riley, cousin David DeMalt, stepsister Katie, and friends Shelly, Misty, Sarah and Ashley—and Lita speaks with the host during the episode. Key evidence and questions discussed: Abby’s clothing (house slippers, red sweatpants, a gray T‑shirt over a thermal with matching burn holes), a nearly finished cigarette found beneath her body, the remote unlit terrain she was found in, and why the location did not match the route she said she was walking. The autopsy findings and forensic timeline are reviewed in detail: pills found in the stomach and esophagus, toxicology showing fentanyl, methamphetamine, gabapentin and a prescribed anti‑anxiety medication, and an official cause of death of acute multiple drug toxicity with manner of death ruled suicide. The episode explores inconsistencies that challenge the official ruling—lack of typical markers of prolonged cold exposure, the physical improbability of walking three miles in slippers on winter roads, and how those factors raise the possibility Abby overdosed elsewhere and was moved. The podcast contextualizes Abby’s life—her role as a mother, struggles with addiction, recent grief after her mother’s death, and the network of friends who say she was trying to stay sober—and it examines how grief, fear and silence shaped the investigation. Listeners will hear how family members and friends reacted, what evidence investigators documented, and why advocates are urging anyone with information to contact the Perry County Sheriff’s Office (anonymous tips accepted). Content warning: discussion of homicide, domestic violence, suicide, opioid use and sex trafficking.