Author name: The Kitchen Table Historian

I am an author and historian who writes about long-forgotten and out of the way events and places. I love the bizarre, the unusual, and the downright weird. I write a regular blog at my website, www.johnbrassardjrcom.wordpress.com, and also manage a facebook page about things of historical interest called The Kitchen Table Historian.

Episode 111: Dark Day at the Fair: The Murder of Bobie and Marilyn Blewer

In 1996, Bobie and Marilyn Blewer, professional food vendors from Missouri, set up their trailer at the Iowa State Fair. It was – and is – one of the biggest fairs in the country and had been a regular stop for the Blewers for twenty years. Then, one sunny afternoon, as thousands of people enjoyed

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Episode 110: Fire, Murder, and Spirits: The Last Days of the Claypool Hotel

When it was built in 1903, the Claypool Hotel was designed to be the best and brightest of Indianapolis’ hotels. And, for forty years, it was. Then, starting in 1943, a serious of tragic events that included two murders and a fire led to the Claypool’s dramatic destruction in the 1960’s. But does something of

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Fire, Murder, and Spirits: The Last Days of the Claypool Hotel

  Bates House had to go. It was beautiful and famous, but it had faded. There were modern amenities that it couldn’t offer, not to mention the fact that it just wasn’t big enough to accommodate the growing number of people that were coming into the city. The owner, Edward Claypool, knew that. When he

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Episode 109: The Murder of Dorothy Poore: The Girl in the Drawer

In 1954, two maids found a horrible odor coming from a dresser in one of the rooms at the Claypool Hotel. When the dresser was searched, hotel staff found the badly decomposed body of a woman in the bottom drawer. Her name was Dorothy Poore, an 18-year-old trying to build a future in Indianapolis. What

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