A storm‑tossed blockade‑runner, a satchel of Confederate gold, and a woman whose secrets shaped the early days of the Civil War—this episode uncovers the life of famed spy Rose O’Neal Greenhow. From Washington parlors to prison cells to the dark waters off Fort Fisher, her story reveals the hidden world of Southern espionage and the final choice that bound her to the cause she refused to abandon.

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Episode Sources

• Greenhow, Rose O’Neal. My Imprisonment and the First Year of Abolition Rule at Washington. London: Richard Bentley, 1863.
• Pinkerton, Allan. The Spy of the Rebellion: Being a True History of the Spy System of the United States Army During the Late Rebellion. New York: G.W. Carleton & Co., 1883.
• Boyd, Belle. Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1865.
• Van Lew, Elizabeth. Papers and correspondence, 1860–1870. Library of Virginia, Richmond.
• Davis, Jefferson. The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1881.
• U.S. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.
• National Archives and Records Administration. “Old Capitol Prison Records,” Record Group 393.
• Blanton, DeAnne. “Women Soldiers, Spies, and Patriots of the Civil War.” National Archives, 1993.
• Leonard, Elizabeth D. All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999.
• Wheeler, Richard. Voices of 1861. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1961.
• Clinton, Catherine. Southern Women in the Civil War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
• McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
• Browning, Robert M. From Cape Charles to Cape Fear: The North Atlantic Blockading Squadron During the Civil War. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1993.
• Fonvielle, Chris E. The Wilmington Campaign: Last Rays of Departing Hope. Campbell, CA: Savas Publishing, 1997.
• “Wilmington Daily Journal,” October 1864. Coverage of the wreck of the Condor and the death of Rose O’Neal Greenhow.
• “Richmond Enquirer,” 1861–1862. Reports on the arrest and imprisonment of Rose O’Neal Greenhow.
• “The New York Times,” August–September 1861. Coverage of Greenhow’s arrest and Pinkerton’s investigation.
• Library of Congress. “Civil War Glass Negatives and Related Prints,” Prints and Photographs Division.
• National Park Service. “First Battle of Manassas: Intelligence and Espionage,” Manassas National Battlefield Park.
• Sutherland, Daniel E. A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.
• Fishel, Edwin C. The Secret War for the Union: The Untold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
• Bakeless, John. Spies of the Confederacy. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1970.
• Horan, James D. Confederate Agent: A True Story of the Civil War. New York: Crown Publishers, 1954.
• Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, Series I, Vol. 10. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1900.
• North Carolina Office of Archives and History. “Fort Fisher and the Blockade Runners,” Raleigh, NC.

Episode Music

Out of the Mines, courtesy of Ross Gentry, Asheville, North Carolina.

In 1970, Thomas Gilmore became the first Black sheriff in rural Greene County, Alabama. He refused to carry a gun. How did a man of peace earn the trust to enforce the law in a place shaped by deep racial divides? And why does his story remain largely unknown?

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Episode Sources

• Richard Bailey — Neither Carpetbaggers Nor Scalawags: Black Officeholders During the Reconstruction of Alabama, 1867–1878. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1572687
• Eric Foner — Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction . https://uncpress.org/book/9780807858863/freedoms-lawmakers/
• Alabama Department of Archives & History — Reconstruction‑era election record. https://archives.alabama.gov
• Greene County Historical Society. https://www.greenecountyhistoricalsociety.org
• University of Alabama — Black Belt Heritage Collections. https://guides.lib.ua.edu/blackbelt
• Birmingham Civil Rights Institute — Oral Histories. https://www.bcri.org/oral-history-project
• U.S. Department of Justice — Voting Rights Act historical materials. https://www.justice.gov/crt/voting-rights-act-1965
• Frye Gaillard — Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement That Changed America . https://ugapress.org/book/9780820324722/cradle-of-freedom
• Marshall Frady — The Southerner . https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1358422
• Southern Christian Leadership Conference Archives. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/southern-christian-leadership-conference-sclc
• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Digital Gateway. https://snccdigital.org
• Birmingham News (historical archives). https://www.newspapers.com/paper/the-birmingham-news/268/
• Tuscaloosa News (historical archives). https://www.newspapers.com/paper/the-tuscaloosa-news/2681/
• Equal Justice Initiative — Historical reports on policing in Alabama. https://eji.org/reports/
• Douglas A. Blackmon — Slavery by Another Name. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/18327/slavery-by-another-name-by-douglas-a-blackmon/
• Isabel Wilkerson — The Warmth of Other Suns. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/19076/the-warmth-of-other-suns-by-isabel-wilkerson/
• This Man Stands Alone (film about Thomas Gilmore). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250463/

Episode Music

Out of the Mines, courtesy of Ross Gentry, Asheville, North Carolina.

In June 1948, 21-year-old Mary Virginia Carpenter left Texarkana for college in Denton, Texas. She was last seen after a taxi dropped her near Brackenridge Hall at Texas State College for Women. The letter she promised her mother never came, and neither did Virginia. More than 70 years later, her disappearance remains one of Denton’s quiet, enduring mysteries.

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Visit SouthernMysteries.com for more episodes and source lists.

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Episode Sources

• Denton Record‑Chronicle. Coverage of the disappearance of Virginia Carpenter. https://dentonrc.com
• Texarkana Gazette. Reporting on the Carpenter case and related community response. https://www.texarkanagazette.com
• Texas Woman’s University Libraries, Special Collections. Historical information on TSCW campus life and 1940s dorm policies. https://twu.edu/library/special-collections/ (twu.edu in Bing)
• Texas Rangers Hall of Fame and Museum. Background on Ranger Lewis C. Rigler and investigative practices. https://www.texasranger.org
• The Charley Project. “Mary Virginia Carpenter.” https://charleyproject.org/case/mary-virginia-carpenter (charleyproject.org)
• The Doe Network. Case File 1198DFTX. https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1198dftx.html (doenetwork.org in Bing)
• Unsolved Mysteries Wiki. “Virginia Carpenter.” https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Virginia_Carpenter
• Texas Monthly. “The Phantom Killer.” https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-phantom-killer/
• FBI Vault. Archival documents related to mid‑20th‑century missing persons investigations. https://vault.fbi.gov
• Newspapers.com. Digitized historical newspapers used for timeline verification. https://www.newspapers.com
• Ancestry.com. U.S. Census and public records consulted for background verification. https://www.ancestry.com

Episode Music

Out of the Mines, courtesy of Ross Gentry, Asheville, North Carolina.