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In 1920, on a quiet street in Chicago’s Lincoln Square, Carl Wanderer and his wife Ruth, eight months pregnant, were robbed at gunpoint in the vestibule of their two-flat. Shots rang out in the tiny foyer and when the smoke cleared, Ruth and the alleged holdup man lay dying while Carl emerged unscathed. Headlines the next day hailed Wanderer a hero for avenging his wife’s death. Three weeks later he was in jail for murder. The alleged holdup man would come to be known as the Ragged Stranger and laid in the morgue for over a year, repeatedly misidentified. This is the true story. The Mystery of the Ragged Stranger podcast is written by Michael Hendrychs and produced in partnership with ChicagoNow.
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The Mystery of the Ragged Stranger Podcast
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Episodes(3)
A Conclusion to the Ragged Stranger Mystery- Episode #8
The day before his pending execution on September 30th, Carl’s last hope to stay among the living was a second stay of execution or to at least get his sentenced to commuted to life imprisonment. Governor Len Small, still under indictment for embezzlement, held Carl’s fate. Impassively entering the
The Governor is Doing What?? - Episode #7
Carl Wanderer had been given a 25 year prison sentence for murdering his wife. In a second trial, he was sentenced to die upon the gallows for the murder of the Ragged Stranger. A third trial, after a successful appeal using an arcane law from 1845, drew such heated passions in the city that the Chi
Carl Wanderer at Trial for the Murder of the Ragged Stranger- Episode #6
This podcast aims to take a deep look, at what was one of Chicago’s most famous crimes. In 1920, on a quiet North Side street, three people entered a tiny vestibule of a two-flat. Ten gunshots later, only one person emerged. This is the true story. Episode #6- Carl Wanderer Goes to Trial for the Mur