Episodes

Edward James Olmos starred in and directed the 1992 movie American Me. The opening title card of the film says it was “inspired by a true story.” The lead character played by Olmos is named Montoya Santana. Everything written about this character claims it is based on the real-life Mexican Mafia boss Rudolpho Cadena. What many people don't know about Rudolpho Cadena, is that he was from Bakersfield when he murdered a young man here in 1959. Buy a Notorious Bakersfield t-shirt here: https://www....

For 76 years, the last Thursday of November was the official Thanksgiving holiday...until 1939...when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed the Thursday before the last Thursday of November would be the official Thanksgiving holiday. This is the story of Franksgiving-where I look back to examine why the day was changed and to see if Bakersfield, in 1939, observed the traditional day of Thanksgiving or Franksgivin. Buy your OFFICIAL Notorious Bakersfield podcast t-shirt here: https://ww...

In 1971, 9-year-old Eddie Owen watched from his bedroom window as his father Everett got in his pickup truck. As soon as Everett turned the key in the ignition, the bomb detonated. Over 50 years later and this case remains unsolved.

In episode 22, Notorious Bakersfield brought you the story of a 5-year-old girl who was abandoned on the side of a freeway south Bakersfield in 1969. Her name was Jody. For this episode, for the first time in 52 years, Jody recalls that harrowing experience, the events that led up to it, and her life since.

In October 1969, a little girl named Jody was abandoned on the freeway south of Bakersfield. Officials didn't have a lot to go to positively identify her. When her story ran in newspapers and broadcast on local TV news programs across the country, this mystery girl captured the hearts of the nation.

For this episode of the Notorious Bakersfield podcast, I'm going to take a look back at how the people of Bakersfield responded to the 1938 radio adaptation of "War of the Worlds". This is considered one of the biggest Halloween pranks ever played on a mass of people. But was it really? Did that many people really fall for this prank? In addition to that, I'll also tell the story of the Kelley-Vajda house, a Victorian Bakersfield home that's been moved twice and is still standing. It gained not...

Just before dawn on March 9, 1972, Daniel Fusselman, a 49-year-old unemployed bartender sat in his car, outside his estranged wife Priscilla's house in Park Stockdale. She was working the graveyard shift at a downtown Bakersfield coffee shop. He wanted to witness firsthand his wife's reaction to what he'd done inside the home. They were going through a divorce and he wanted to make her life a living Hell.

Whenever a violent crime occurs at a well-known institution in a community, the community takes notice-people pay attention. And that's certainly what happened when 24-year-old Bakersfield College student Frances Lorine Brown was viciously attacked and killed on the Bakersfield College campus in 1977.

In Bakersfield and feeling the Halloween spirit? Load your friends and family into your car and take them on the creepiest ride of their lives. The Notorious Bakersfield Halloween Tour is a self-paced audio driving tour to some of Bakersfield's most notorious crimes scene locations and purported haunted sites. For $20, you and your friends will learn about this town's most disturbing true crimes while you're at the actual location. Email Notorious Bakersfield: notoriousbakersfield@gmail.com h...

Wiley Dorris was one of the most respected criminal defense attorneys in Bakersfield. If you found yourself on the wrong side of the law, Wiley was the guy you wanted in your corner. But overshadowing his courtroom triumphs, was his wife's political activism and electoral comeback victories. Grace Dorris was one of the first women in the United States to be elected to public office. She was elected to the California Assembly in 1918. Two years before the United States as a whole granted women ...

The 1990 abduction and murder of 4-year-old Jessica Martinez remains one of Bakersfield's most notorious mysteries. If you have any information regarding Jessica Martinez's murder, please call the Bakersfield Police Department at 661-327-7111. Secret Witness Tip Line at 661-322-4040.

William Compton, a 76-year-old cancer patient, was murdered in his home in 1993. The first Bakersfield Police detectives to investigate the murder tentatively and wrongly determined the elderly man committed suicide. Despite this error, and thanks to the victim, Christopher Lightsey emerged as a suspect.

28-year-old Matthew Dale Odom was assaulted and stabbed in his front yard in the early morning hours of September 15, 2014. The father of four later died at the hospital from his injuries. The seven-year anniversary of this crime is this week. Typically I cover older cases. But since this murder remains unsolved and relatively recent, I decided to cover this crime with the hope that it will jog someone's memory to help close this case. If you have information regarding this case, please contac...

Ralph Smith Jr was a prominent Bakersfield home builder, real estate developer, and broker. He built many of the homes in Bakersfield's now well-established neighborhoods. In 1966, he and his family were living at 275 Panorama Dr, a home Ralph built specifically for his family. It was at this home on September 8, 1966, where Ralph Smith, his wife Edna, and son William were the victims of a home invasion that shocked not only their neighborhood but all of Bakersfield.

This past week, a parole board recommended parole for a convicted murderer. In 2001 Torie Lynn Knapp was brutally stabbed to death by her then 15-year-old son Parker Chamberlin. This was a gruesome murder that shocked everyone who knew both the victim and the killer. How could a teenager who appeared to have a close and loving relationship with his mother...kill her...and in such a brutal way? It's a question everyone has-the family, friends of the family, even the detectives who investigated ...

The 1961 kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder of 6-year-old Rose Marie Riddle happened in Shafter, only 15 miles from Bakersfield. It was so horrific, news of the crime reverberated throughout the state of California like an earthquake. Families feared that if such an awful thing could happen in the small town of Shafter, it could happen in larger communities and cities too. 1961 was a period of innocence. Children could play outdoors without their parents fearing the unimaginable. That inno...

During the summer of 1952, Bakersfield-actually, most of Kern County-experienced an earthquake, and a string of aftershocks that forever changed our city's landscape. Besides the tragic loss of lives, the earthquake altered downtown Bakersfield's architecture that took shape immediately following the quake. I had some questions regarding the 1952 earthquake and turned to Emily Fisher, a local geologist with a wealth of knowledge about earthquakes.

The Bakersfield Police Department was embroiled in a corruption scandal that rocked city hall. It was a grudge match between two of Bakersfield's most powerful government officials.

Through the Summer of 1981, there was a serial rapist prowling the streets of Bakersfield. But you wouldn't have known about it unless you had a connection to law enforcement or a local news reporter. Or were one of his victims, or knew one of his victims. There were no newspaper headlines or nightly TV news stories warning the citizens of Bakersfield that there was a serial rapist. Police and reporters were privy to that information and they deliberately kept the public in the dark until a su...

The subject of this episode deals with the death of a law enforcement officer. Coincidentally, just last Sunday, July 25, 2021, the Kern County Sheriff Office and the entire community suffered a tremendous loss. Deputy Philip Campas tragically died in the line of duty in Wasco. I'm sensitive to the reality that many in our community are grieving Deputy Campas' death, and wanted to give a heads-up to everyone before proceeding to listen to this episode. The circumstances surrounding these two i...

The circumstances surrounding Eddie Lee Peel's 1977 murder are not only sad but truely bizarre. If this were a movie, nobody would believe it. But, it happened. And it's true. Except for a few names that had to be changed.

The neighborhood that runs along Palm Ave in Rosedale looks remarkably the same as it did in 1992. Like then, this neighborhood doesn't seem to be the type of neighborhood where a triple murder could happen. But it did. And it left Bakersfield reeling. Kenneth and Cynthia Volpe, and Cynthia's mother Betty Reed were murdered by an evil man with a dark and deadly past.

On July 11, 1986, a mysterious United States military aircraft—an aircraft that the Air Force never before acknowledged existed—had crashed just outside Bakersfield. This accident threatened to expose one of the United States' most secret aircraft. Killed in this accident was USAF Major Ross Mulhare.

In March 1960, Bakersfield was the site of an awful railroad tragedy. A passenger train collided with a truck hauling highly flammable oil product. 14 people were killed and 64 more were injured. While this train accident was an awful tragedy, what I discovered in my research, was Bakersfield's response to this crisis was nothing less than inspirational.