Shows
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 45: Locked in the MausoleumA time capsule episode and a recent history of last month.We discuss the motives and means of near-miss assassin Thomas Mathew Crooks and the strange coincidence of an elder care worker trying to kill the heads of a gerontocratic political class. We also talk about the rarity of sniper assassins, the reality of secret service protection, and most of all the greatest of all Assassin Groups: IMRO.Music: Opening is "to hunt and gather" by Survival Spheres, Interlude music is "Vibrant" by Survival Spheres. As always thank you to Komakino for our main opening...2024-08-241h 28
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 43: Hoffa Part VI: Disappeared (2 of 2)The Final Part,Into the MawWhere is the body.Who did it.In this final part to the final chapter of our Hoffa and the Teamsters series, we hope to answer to the entangled questions of where Hoffa's body is, who ultimately commissioned his death, and finally, what force derailed this entire investigation? Why, to this day, do FBI excavation teams fruitlessly dig hole after hole in suburban Michigan, New Jersey and Florida?The answer, we find quickly has to do with the government-protected status of one individual...2024-06-1748 min
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 42: Hoffa Part VI: Disappeared (1 of 2)THE FINAL CHAPTER, THEY DISAPPEARED HIM:TIMELINES.WITNESSES.PHYSICAL EVIDENCE.On the cusp of retaking the presidency of the largest and most powerful union in the continent, and with an angry rank and file sweeping him forward, Jimmy Hoffa was abducted and murdered. The shipping company owners, white house staffers and collaborationist teamster regional chieftains could rest easy and look forward to a new and lucrative era where the highways are free of barricades and loads are plodded over by immiserated low-wage drivers. So why is the Hoffa abduction and murder...2024-06-171h 47
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 41: Hoffa Part V: The Road Warriors (2 of 2)As the economic order falls apart, the conspiracy to get rid of the Hoffa problem and the Teamster problem begins to take shape.Music: Thanks as always to Komakino for our opening and closing theme. Opening and Interlude background music were "Soothing Gloom" (opening), and "Not meant to be" (interlude) provided by the artist Survival Spheres, more of their work here: https://www.youtube.com/@SurvivalSphereshuge thank you to Survival Spheres for permitting the use of their work.2024-04-0854 min
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 40: Hoffa Part V: The Road Warriors (1 of 2)On this penultimate 2 part Hoffa series episode we begin with Hoffa at his lowest point: in prison stuffing mattresses on the orders of Robert F Kennedy. As Hoffa is removed from the seat of power the control of the Teamsters apparatus returns to to Frank Fitzsimmons and the local barons: blood soaked and ready for siphon money cutting deals with employers as the economic crisis of the 1970s dawned.Under the Fitzismmons regime, the teamster's leadership became a crucial ally of President Nixon in holding down wages, prices and economic rebellion.But in this section...2024-04-081h 09
A People's History of Violence(EXTENDED PREVIEW): Episode 39: King Assassination Notes I: "We Know Who They Are"MORE ON OUR PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/extended-preview-97903649This is an extended preview of a Patron-Only episode. For more, including the second half of this episode extra pictures and documents, sign up for a Patreon subscription today.In this solo episode, Isaac showcases some of the most interesting pieces of evidence he has collected over time in researching the April 4, 1968 murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; and the work of the sadly departed Professor Philip Melanson, one of the saner heads on this case.The King...2024-02-0537 min
A People's History of Violence(EXTENDED PREVIEW): Episode 39: King Assassination Notes I: "We Know Who They Are"MORE ON OUR PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/aPeoplesHistoryofViolenceThis is an extended preview of a Patron-Only episode. For more, including the second half of this episode extra pictures and documents, sign up for a Patreon subscription today.In this solo episode, Isaac showcases some of the most interesting pieces of evidence he has collected over time in researching the April 4, 1968 murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; and the work of the sadly departed Professor Philip Melanson, one of the saner heads on this case.The King case has always...2024-02-0537 min
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 38: Kissinger's HitMORE ON OUR PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-38-hit-97064811We're a bit late in commemorating the death of Class A War Criminal Kissinger, but, we hope you see it was worth the wait. In this episode, Isaac and Peter lay out the case for Kissinger's direct guilt in the 1970 mob-hit-style murder of Chilean General Rene Schneider.; a man who simply got in the way of Kissinger's plan to overthrow elected Socialist President Salvador Allende. It is a story of payoff cash stuffed in boots, machine gun handoffs, crash cars, and scumbag...2024-01-232h 02
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 36: Hoffa Part IV: The Trials (2 of 2)Happy Hoffa Holidays Listeners.Here we have the legal offensive that took down Hoffa, and along the way rats, spies, crooked lawyers, and a cowardly supreme court. Your loyal not-spy co-hosts continue the story of Jimmy Hoffa's trials where red-hunter Walter Sheridan employs the slippery Ellroyan thug Edward Grady Partin to infiltrate Hoffa's camp and come up with extremely convenient stories to corroborate the stings Sheridan himself has set up. But was he guilty? Kinda guilty? Was the government guilty? (Yes.)We turn also to the Hoffa's failed attempt to fight against the use of...2023-12-261h 30
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 35: Hoffa Part IV: The Trials (1 of 2)Welcome back listeners.Hoffa is on top, and the Wire Men are coming for him.As the 1950's come to a close, Jimmy Hoffa, Harold Gibbons, and the Teamsters are at the height of their power. They are within an arm's reach of what Hoffa described as labor's "Atom Bomb": an alliance between the Teamsters and the the most militant communist and socialist-led unions in the country, with the aim to control every part of the American transportation system and deliver historic gains for workers.But not if Robert Kennedy, his counter-espionage trained...2023-12-091h 18
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 34: Wrestling Rebellion, with Tim GillDecorated APHoV guest, Professor Tim Gill joins us to talk about the exploitative working conditions in a favorite form of on-screen violence: Professional Wrestling. We talk about the efforts to unionize wrestling, 'carnie language', the recent death of Bray Wyatt, Vince McMahon, and the nature of reality in the 'reality era', man.Link to Tim's 2022 article in Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/2022/10/wwe-vince-mcmahon-wrestling-unions-healthMusic: Thanks as always to Komakino for our opening/closing theme. The interlude theme is from the original score to The Wrestler by Clint Mansell featuring Slash.2023-11-021h 22
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 32: Death of the SuperbulletAND WE'RE BACK.Can a single piece of evidence say whether the murder of the president was the work of a lone assassin or a "professional hit"? Can "new s--t come to light" in an 80-year-old homicide? In this episode, Isaac and Peter warily stare into the abyss of Kennedy Assassination research, and try not to get consumed. We explore the recent revelation in the New York Times that Secret Service agent Paul Landis, found the barely-marked perfectly intact "magic" bullet in Kennedy's Limousine and placed it on a gurney himself. A simple detail that completes a picture painted years...2023-10-231h 03
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 30: DB Cooper & Lost FuturesWell listeners, we finally did a heist episode, we had fun with it.On November 24, 1971, the night before Thanksgiving, a man identifying himself only as Dan Cooper hijacked a Northwest Airlines flight, and after receivingCooper said he had a grudge, but not against the airline.Only recently, in the 2010s civilian researchers uncovered a fascinating body of physical and circumstantial evidence peeled back layers of mystery around Cooper and strongly suggested that he was one of many thrown out of work and facing ruin in 1971 during the Boeing Bust. At the end of 1970, the US government, with one eye on...2023-08-311h 17
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 29: Hoffa Part III: Two Souls of the Teamster EmpireIn this extended edition Part III of our series on the death of Jimmy Hoffa and the fall from power of labor in the US; we pick up in the 1950s and early 60s, which sees the Teamsters Union at the height its power. Despite escalating waves of prosecutions and new laws criminalizing their tactics by a rogues gallery of Jim Crow senators and grim capitalist republicans, the IBT organizes the south with boycotts, blockades, and bullets, and Hoffa runs headlong into the ruling-class opposition that will eventually put him in prison.We then take a close look at two...2023-08-221h 46
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 28, Hoffa Part II: Origins, or, Dobbs' DreamIn the first full-length episode on the origins abduction and murder of Jimmy Hoffa, we take a trip back to the depression-era Teamsters and the powerhouse union they built with strikes, blockades, and yes, bombs. From a grocery store warehouse strike, to gunfights on the picket line, we look at how the Hoffa and the teamsters used the power over transportation to break the hold of the "Little Bastards" in company after company.We then turn to vision of (Trotskyist) communist organizer Farrell Dobbs at this time, and how "over the road" long haul truckers became the Fremen of the...2023-07-311h 31
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 27: Hoffa Part I, Enemy WithinOn July 30, 1975 James Riddle Hoffa, the once and-he hoped-future president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was abducted and murdered. The body of never found. Hoffa's murder capped off a deadly open war between pro-Hoffa and mobbed-up anti-Hoffa forces for control of North America's largest union; a union that once had the power to shut down the continent's transportation network at the very dawn of neoliberalism.On this first episode of our Hoffa series, we take our listeners on an overview and discuss the contradictory figure of Hoffa: a red-baiting, corrupt, 'business unionist' who nevertheless believed that "capitalism is doomed"...2023-07-2447 min
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 25: Noirealism, with Leonard PierceWe're back, people.Before starting in on another series, writer and cultural critic Leonard Pierce stops by to talk to us about Film Noir. It's a story of blacklisted working class and communist writers, near-bankrupt studios and b-list actors trying to pull something off with nothing to lose, and getting sex, contempt for cops, and a lot else past the red scare-era censors in the process.Pierce gives us a masterclass in the work in the Noir period as a filmed worldview animated by the struggles and doomed reality of working class life in America...2023-06-271h 22
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 24: The Clutter Murders Part III: Hayseed NoirIn the final part of our series taking apart the true crime myth of In Cold Blood, we make the case with evidence with eyewitness statements, letters, and testimony that the killers were part of a Murder-for-Hire plot. One that arose out of the collapsing "vast empire" of Herb Clutter's wealth.Behind the myth we find a far more interesting hardboiled reality of clandestine meetings, straw-purchased guns, shady insurance deals, and kidnapping plots. Of desperate and broken people carried by material forces to a bloody massacre.Sources: Gary McAvoy's And Every Word Is True, as well as In the Shadow...2023-05-141h 33
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 23: Varg behind bars, or, Social-Democratic PrisonsWanting to take a look at something more optimistic after our last prison-heavy episode, Peter and Isaac decide to leave the forced-scarcity war of all against all and instead have a look at a complete opposite: the prisons of min-incarceration social-democratic Norway.Of course, it's worth discussing the well-stocked grocery stores, "social worker" CO's, relatively nice-looking prison "rooms", and the fact that few inmates ever re-offend. But we explore this system, through the eyes of its harshest test and critic: the complete unrepentant occult nazi prick and Black Metal murderer Varg Vikernes. Given the maximum sentence of 21 years for stabbing...2023-04-301h 36
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 22: The Clutter Murders Part II: The Devil's Front PorchIn this second episode on the Clutter murders made famous by Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, we clean up even more of the mess left by Truman Capote’s sloppy work by having a look at the two killers. Richard Hickock and Perry Smith were not the simple embodiments of hick evil they were made out to be. Like their victim Herb Clutter, they were products of the epochal changes that the twentieth century brought to the American heartland, and specifically an institution designed to manage the wasted humans these changes created: the prison system. We take a look at th...2023-04-241h 15
A People's History of ViolenceClutter Murders Part I Addendum: A Very Bad YearWhen we left off on episode 1 it seemed like Herb Clutter's "vast empire" was personally and financially collapsing in the days leading up to his death, but why? What happened? Peter and Isaac use this short minisode to discuss the disastrous year of 1957 (thereabouts) in Herb Clutter's life uncovered in the newspaper archives.Multi-car pileups, lawsuits, a plane crash?, and the worst blizzard in years all led to a pileup of mounting financial disasters that might go some way to explain what was happening in 1959, and why he took out a life insurance policy the day he died. Probably...2023-04-2407 min
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 21: The Clutter Murders Part I, Lord of the ValleyIn this episode we begin to take apart a monumental myth of True Crime lore. The high school assigned text and Kansas government official truth of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. The official story seems like a simple one: Herb Clutter and his family were massacred in his modern Holcomb, KS farmhouse in 1959 by two paroled ex-cons: one dreamy and deranged, and the other a demonic sociopath, thus ending an age of Arcadian innocence in small-town Kansas. But the real story, unearthed from files only found in the last decade, is far more complex and interesting, and may have even...2023-04-011h 24
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 20 (Preview): From Ivy Bells to the Nordstream Bombing Part IISubscribe now for the full episode!....In second part of our Nordstream Sabotage/Bombing series, we take stock of the New York Times' bumbling half-assed attmpt at making a plausible story for the bombing before re-examining Seymour Hersh's account detail-by-detail. Isaac and Peter tear through some more bumbling attempts to make alibis for ships and planes by the info-saturated "OSInt" types, and we go for even deeper dives on the history of deep diving and the deep divers who do it.More at the Patreon episode page: https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-20-from-802839432023-03-2426 min
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 20 (Preview): From Ivy Bells to the Nordstream Bombing Part IISubscribe now on Patreon for the full episode!....In second part of our Nordstream Sabotage/Bombing series, we take stock of the New York Times' bumbling half-assed attmpt at making a plausible story for the bombing before re-examining Seymour Hersh's account detail-by-detail. Isaac and Peter tear through some more bumbling attempts to make alibis for ships and planes by the info-saturated "OSInt" types, and we go for even deeper dives on the history of deep diving and the deep divers who do it.2023-03-2326 min
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 19 (UNLOCKED): From Ivy Bells to the Nordstream Bombing Part I(UPDATE 3/10/2023): Since releasing this patron-only ep, the NYTimes floated an absurd theory that the bombing might have been done by private people in a small boat for their own reasons. Peter and I will be releasing a patron-only follow up episode soon that discusses in detail why they're wrong but listeners to this ep will see that it's obvious. Enjoy!Well folks, we have deep dive on deep divers and stuff they do in the deep. A little news, a good chunk of history, and a lot of stuff about how the hell saboteurs can survive in...2023-03-101h 41
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 18: The Wordy Goons of Boston Part II: Provo Personal Growth Goons?In Part II of this Peter-led series dissecting the memoirs of Boston's fin-de-siecle Irish gangsters, we move on to the upper tier of memoirists. Discussing the memoirs of actually Irish-born Patrick Nee and actual martial artist Ed McKenzie, we find some ex-goons that actually have some self-awareness, insights and some interesting stories.It's an episode with armored car robberies, bumbling IRA gunrunning, and an unexpected source of personal growth: roundhouse kicks from a gay kung fu self-defense squad.Boston sometimes has its surprises.(Pictured above: McKenzie in front of the demolished Old Colony...2023-02-2548 min
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 17: The Wordy Goons of Boston Part I: Escape from SouthiePeter takes the lead on this ep! Guiding us through a deep dive into the once-thriving cottage industry of what was once the gold standard in some kind of white blue collar authenticity: Boston Irish gangster memoirs. In Part 1 we deal the government creation of the island against the world community of South Boston, or Southie through the pouring of social democratic tendencies through the static mold of 19th century racist machine politics. We then turn to the memoirs of I-AM-NOT-A-RAT John "Red" Shea and the scummier, but more eloquent I-am-a-rat, and a racist, and a murderer...2023-02-171h 18
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 16 (Preview): The Death of Zachary Taylor: The Slaver's Poison or Just Poop?Zachary Taylor isn’t one of the presidents who gets talked about most often… but we aren’t most podcasts. We have here a 150-year journey complete with a plotting pro-slavery quack doctor, piles of 'night soil', sudden illness, nuclear reactors, secret passages, and a poison cure no one was watching: 'Emetic of Tartar'.Only in office for about fifteen months, the all-things-to-all-politicians Whig dropped dead in 1850 from a stomach ailment, and we all moved on to more exciting topics, like the civil war. But was Taylor’s death natural? For decades, there has been speculation that Taylor m...2023-02-1725 min
A People's History of ViolenceEPISODE 16 (PREVIEW) The Death of Zachary Taylor: Slaver's Poison or Just Poop?Zachary Taylor isn’t one of the presidents who gets talked about most often… but we aren’t most podcasts. We have here a 150-year journey complete with a plotting pro-slavery quack doctor, piles of 'night soil', sudden illness, nuclear reactors, secret passages, and a poison cure no one was watching: 'Emetic of Tartar'.Only in office for about fifteen months, the all-things-to-all-politicians Whig dropped dead in 1850 from a stomach ailment, and we all moved on to more exciting topics, like the civil war. But was Taylor’s death natural? For decades, there has been speculation that Taylor m...2023-02-0825 min
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 11: The Rosenbergs Part V, Judicial MurderWe've arrived at the finale of our Rosenbergs series, and it isn't looking good. Beginning our story in the middle of the trial, Isaac and Peter discuss how the Rosenbergs kneecapped defense team tried and failed to counter-attack the prosecution's perjury-boosted case. The stage is set to use execution to get Julius to break and name some names.But it's only months after the death sentence is handed down on Julius and Ethel that the more than 2 year fight to save them for the electric chair begins, with a crew of misfit liberals and leftists at the...2023-01-311h 41
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 12, The Kucinich Hit Part II: Sabotage, WITH DENNIS KUCINICHIt's the holiday season listeners, and we have a gift for you.This is a big one, folks- on this episode we talk to former presidential candidate, congressman, mayor of Cleveland, and author Dennis Kucinich! Many of you may remember the congressman as one of the few to consistently stand against the war fever of the post 9-11 period. He was also Mayor of Cleveland in the 1970s, where his bold, uncompromising efforts to protect his constituents from exploitation at the hands of highly connected corporate crooks earned him the ire of the powerful- and assassination attempts. 2023-01-3053 min
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 13 (PREVIEW): Carlo Tresca, The Man & The MurderHappy New Year Listeners! For this month's bonus episode Isaac and Peter re-examine the 1943 drive-by murder of Anarchist/Organizer/Fed?/Gadfly and "man of great appetites" Carlo Tresca. And for our non-subscribers we're happy to provide this 30 minute preview, with almost a whole hour extra along with more documents, if you subscribe.Tresca had a incredible career as uncompromising anarchist man-among-the-people, who for decades unleashed a flood of agitprop for strike defense and against the church, mafia, and fascists as a speaker and in his constantly financially-troubled newspaper Il Martello. As he got older though, we see...2023-01-2931 min
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 14: The Lockerbie Disaster, Part IWelcome back, listeners. Today we look at the Lockerbie bombing of 1988, where a bomb in a luggage compartment downed a PanAm flight and killed 270 people in all, including 190 Americans. Allegedly, supposedly, maybe the US has arrested and charged the Libyan bomb-maker that brought down the plane. But this case is not that simple, and might actually be steeped in Imperial global politics.Unlike most acts of mass terrorism, where a group or person takes credit for the act (because, well, that was the point) there are two completely different narratives that both have evidence behind them. One...2023-01-291h 50
A People's History of ViolenceEpisode 15: True Crime Consuming ItselfThe meta-motivated media-saturated too scripted for tv Idaho student murders dragged your lofty co-hosts out of the higher dimension of history and into a bout of manic social analysis and 'mindhunting'.After analyzing the evidence in the pretty straightforward case, we talk about the True Crime "community", it's explosion and "Power of Nightmares" function, and how it seemed to shape the (alleged) murderer's mind as he scripted himself a crackpot mission: first as would-be Profiler, then as slasher-movie-killer in an anomic and antisocial landscape.Your humble detectives then turn to musing on James Ellroy, the...2023-01-2956 min