Glamour, scandal, and an unsolved death. When torch singer Libby Holman married into the Reynolds tobacco dynasty, she stepped into a world of wealth and whispers. Whatfollowed was a mystery that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Source Material

The Notorious Libby Holman | Vanity Fair | March 1985

This Month In Rockingham County History: August - 'Libby Holman Reynolds Turns Herself In at Rockingham County Courthouse' - Museum & Archives of Rockingham County

Libby Holman | Jewish Women's Archive

Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa), 1932-10-20

Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa), 1932-10-25

Carolina watchman (Salisbury, N.C.). 1932-12-16 [p ].

Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa), 1932-07-10

Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa), 1932-07-14

Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa), 1932-08-09

Coroner's Report in the Matter of the Death of Z. Smith Reynolds – Works – Reynolda House

Dreams that money can buy : the tragic life of Libby Holman : Bradshaw, Jon : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Passing Strange: Radical Chic, Race, Sex, Song, and Dance in “Moanin’ Low” - Article (Preprint v1) by Thomas F. Connolly | Qeios

In July 1908, the body of 20-year-old Hazel Drew was discovered face-down in Teal’s Pond near Sand Lake, New York. Rumors of secret lovers, missing letters, and powerful suspects turned her death into both a ghost story and, decades later, the inspiration for Twin Peaks.

Source Materials

Jerry Drake, Hazel Was a Good Girl (Clash Books, 2023).

David Bushman & Mark Givens, Murder at Teal’s Pond: Hazel Drew and the Mystery That Inspired Twin Peaks (Thomas & Mercer, 2022)

Murder mystery haunts Rensselaer County 116 years later - WNYT.com NewsChannel 13

Before the Black Dahlia: The Unsolved Murder of Hazel Drew — and What It Reveals About Race, Crime, and Memory | byLawson Brooks | Certifiable | Aug, 2025 | Medium

Who Killed Hazel Drew? The 1908 Murder Case That Inspired Twin Peaks

Murder that inspired ‘Twin Peaks’ solved 100 years later: Book

A Pair Of Amateur Sleuths Believe They've Solved The Century-Old Murder That Inspired 'Twin Peaks'

The murder victim who inspired Twin Peaks haunted me for years... and helped me expose her TRUE killer | Daily MailOnline

Hazel’s brutal murder was all but forgotten. Until she inspired ‘Twin Peaks.’ - The Washington Post

For our 150th episode, we revisit one of history’s most infamous names: H. H. Holmes. Behind the myths of the ‘Murder Castle’ lies a story of fraud, fear, and fact stranger than legend. Step inside Chicago’s 1890s underworld—and separate truth from folklore.

Source Materials

The Enduring Mystery of H.H. Holmes, America's 'First' Serial Killer

The Toronto link to America's bloodiest serial killer - Spacing Toronto | Spacing Toronto

H.H. Holmes: Biography, Serial Killer, Murderer

Murder Castle - H.H. Holmes, Chicago World's Fair & Layout | HISTORY

H. H. Holmes: Master of Illusion — Swindler — Crime Library

Selzer, Adam. H. H. Holmes: The True History of the White City Devil. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2017.

Geyer, Frank P. The Holmes-Pitezel Case: A History of the Greatest Crime of the Century and of the Search for the Missing Pitezel Children. Philadelphia: Publishers’ Union, 1896.