Category: Episodes

Spring Gun in the Grape Vines (episode 235)

This week we’ll explore the strange case of a 1907 shooting in Jamaica Plain.  There was a gun, a gunshot, and a gunshot victim… a child, in fact.  But there was no shooter, or at least no human shooter.  If this was today, we might be talking about a terrifying robot machine gun, but 1907 was a little early for that.  Instead, we’re talking about a deadly trap laid by a homeowner to protect his grape arbor.  For setting this deadly trap, the homeowner would face criminal trial for assault, but pay only a trivial fine.  As bizarre as the case sounds, it was part of a trend that was sweeping the nation at the time, with many spring gun cases arising in the Boston area, until the matter was finally settled in a state supreme court case that every first year law student still studies today.  


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Mutiny on the Rising Sun, with Dr. Jared Ross Hardesty (episode 234)

This week, Jake interviews Dr. Jared Ross Hardesty, author of the new book Mutiny on the Rising Sun: a tragic tale of smuggling, slavery, and chocolate, which uncovers the dark web of interconnections between Old North Church, chocolate, and chattel slavery.  Dr. Hardesty will explain why a reputable sea captain would become a smuggler, trafficking in illegal chocolate and enslaved Africans; the risks an 18th century Bostonian would take to provide himself with a competence, or enough money to allow his family to live independently; and what it meant in that era to be of but not from Boston.  At the heart of the story is a brutal murder and mutiny on the high seas, illustrating the fundamental brutality of life in the 18th century, but the role of the church (specifically Old North Church) in the social and economic lives of Bostonians is also central to understanding the life and death of Captain Newark Jackson.  


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Around the World on the Columbia (episode 233)

Come with me on a voyage around the world with the officers and crew of the ship Columbia.  Formally named the Columbia Rediviva and accompanied by the sloop Lady Washington, the ship was owned by a group of prominent Bostonians and charged with opening up trade between Boston and China.  Almost by accident, the Columbia became the first American ship to visit the west coast of North America, the first American ship to land in the Hawaiian islands, and the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe.  Over the course of five years and two expeditions, the crew completed two circumnavigations, brought the first native Hawaiian to visit Boston, and “discovered” the Columbia river (which would have been news to the dozens of villages and thousands of inhabitants on the river).  The mighty river of the west had previously been thought to be a myth, and navigating up this river established US land claims in what would eventually become seven states.  The Oregon Country was contested between Russia, Spain, and Britain, but the Columbia’s expedition opened it to Boston merchants, and pretty soon all American traders on the west coast were known as the Boston men.


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A Disappearance in Donegal (episode 232)

Arthur Kingsley Porter was a celebrity professor, who worked in the shadow of the Harvard secret court that purged the campus of gay students and faculty.  He grew up in wealth and privilege, expecting to follow his brother into the family law firm, before experiencing an epiphany that drove him to become one of the world’s foremost experts on medieval European art and architecture.  After a midlife revelation led to an unconventional lifestyle, his family sought refuge at their Irish castle and their offshore cottage, until Porter disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the summer of 1933. 


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POWs in the Boston Harbor Islands (episode 231)

Since the earliest days of the Bay Colony, prisoners of war have been held on the islands of Boston Harbor.  This week, we’re sharing two classic stories of the Harbor Islands POWs from past episodes.  One of them is about the Confederate prisoners who arrived at Fort Warren on Georges Island in the fall of 1861, fresh from the field of battle in North Carolina.  They’d be joined by Maryland politicians who supported secession, the supposed diplomats Mason and Slidell, and eventually even Confederate vice president Alexander Stephens, who didn’t seem to much appreciate Boston hospitality.  81 years later and a mile away on Peddocks Island, a group of unruly Italian prisoners were confined at Fort Andrews after starting what may have been the only soccer riot in Boston history at a South Boston prison camp.


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Boston’s Oldest Buildings and Where to Find Them, with Joe Bagley (episode 230)

Joe Bagley is the archaeologist for the city of Boston, and his new book Boston’s Oldest Buildings and Where to Find Them catalogs 50 of the oldest houses, stores, churches, and even lighthouses that still stand here in the Hub.  In this episode, he tells us how it’s still possible to rediscover an unknown house from the 1700s in the North End in 2020, and how a house from the 1790s, the 41st oldest building in Boston, could be demolished in the few short months since the book was published.  Along the way, we’ll talk about how he researched the book, the rules he had to write for himself about what “counts” as a historic building, and how similar his life is to Indiana Jones.  We’ll also explore how historic buildings can reveal the otherwise untold stories of enslaved Bostonians, women, and even some of the earliest Japanese citizens to visit the United States.  Plus, I’m joined by special guest host Nikki this time around!


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He Takes Faces at the Lowest Rates (episode 229)

In 1773, an ad appeared in the Boston Gazette for a Black artist who was described as possessing an “extraordinary genius” for painting portraits.  From this brief mention, we will explore the life of a gifted visual artist who was enslaved in Boston, his friendship with Phillis Wheatley, the enslaved poet, and the mental gymnastics that were required on the part of white enslavers to justify owning people like property.  Through the life of a second gifted painter, we’ll find out how the coming of the American Revolution changed life for some enslaved African Americans in Boston.  And through the unanswered questions about the lives of both these men, we’ll examine the limits of what historical sources can tell us about any given enslaved individual.  


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The Prison Ship Uprising (episode 228)

On August 10, 1780, British prisoners of war being held on a ship on Boston Harbor conspired to disarm their guards and escape.  In the end, they were all caught, but an American guard was killed.  This case gives us a fascinating insight into what life was like for POWs in the American Revolution, but there’s very little record of it in historical sources.  If the prosecutor in the murder case hadn’t signed the Declaration of Independence four years earlier, his papers may not have been considered worth saving, and we might have no record of this interesting case at all.  Amazingly, the defense basically argued that all’s fair in love and war, and that since the redcoats had been taken prisoner by force, they had a right to seek freedom by force.  Even more amazingly, it worked!


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Three Battles for Boston Light (episode 227)

Boston Light,  America’s first and oldest light station, still welcomes visitors and locals alike if they approach the city by sea, but that wasn’t always the case.  During the first year of the Revolutionary War, there were three attempts to destroy Boston Light during the siege of Boston.  First, the newly formed Continental Army burned the strategically important lighthouse twice in July 1775, 246 years ago this week, using the 18th century equivalent of a stealth fighter: the humble whaleboat.  Then, as the British finally evacuated Boston in the spring of 1776, the last ships to leave the harbor blew up the lighthouse that June.  


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Blazing Skies: Boston’s Nike Missiles (episodes 226)

For almost 20 years, Nike missile batteries formed a suburban ring around Boston that ushered the city into the 1950s and the atomic age.  The Ajax missile and its successor, the Hercules, were intended to defend Boston and its many military assets from Soviet bombers flying over the North Pole to rain nuclear destruction on the Hub.  The ring of bases stretched from the South Shore to the North Shore and far inland, always ready to fire in 15 minutes or less.  The Nike program was an open secret, with base gates sometimes thrown open for the public and reporters alike.  But there were more closely guarded secrets, as well.  Like the fact that the Ajax missile wasn’t really equipped to engage modern jet bombers.  Or the fact that a successful interception by the later Hercules would result in a nuclear detonation in our own backyards, with tens of thousands of Americans killed or injured.  


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