Shows
Hard Times and True Crimes99. A Deadly Obsession: The Murder Of Olga Duncan📍 Episode Summary:In 1958, 30-year-old nurse Olga Duncan vanished from her Santa Barbara apartment. She was newly married, seven months pregnant, and full of hope for the future. But what no one could’ve imagined was that the person behind her disappearance wasn’t a stranger… it was someone much closer to home.This week on Hard Times & True Crimes, we tell the heartbreaking story of Olga Duncan — and the chilling, manipulative woman who plotted her murder: her mother-in-law, Elizabeth Ann Duncan.You’ll hear...
2025-04-1656 min
Mystic Ink, Publisher of Spiritual, Shamanic, Transcendent Works, and Phantastic FictionMystic Ink Publishing Voices of the Masters Series - Santa Barbara Writers Conference 2023 - Murder, Mystery & Thriller Panel- Moderated by Lorelei Armstrong, with Deborah Holt Larkin, Gar Anthony Haywood, N.S. "Vish" Vishwanath, and Marilee ZdenekModerator: Lorelei Armstrong leads a Pirate Workshop at SBWC. She is a novelist and has an MFA in screenwriting. Deborah Holt Larkin, is author of A Lovely Girl, a true story of intrigue, murder, and eccentricity, set against the backdrop of iconic 1950s small town California life. Filled with dark humor and bumbling killers, this sometimes heartbreaking, but gripping, story of a scandalous 1958 murder case is narrated by the ten-year-old voice of the author. Deborah Holt Larkin is uniquely qualified to tell this captivating, yet horrifying, crime story. From a front row seat in her family’s li...
2023-08-111h 01
The PremiseTrue Crime Author Deborah Holt LarkinIn this episode Jeniffer and Chad are joined by guest Deborah Larkin. Deborah is the author of A Lovely Girl. The novel is part true crime drama, part memoir. Because Deborah was there at the time the crime and subsequent trial took place, seeing it all through the eyes of a ten year old. Oh, and her father was the court reporter! She tells Jeniffer about her writing process, the details of the ripped-from-the-headlines story, and how this unique book all came together.Â
2023-03-301h 12
New Books in the American WestDeborah Holt Larkin, "A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of California's Most Notorious Killer" (Pegasus Crime, 2022)In A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of California's Most Notorious Killer (Pegasus Crime, 2022), Deborah Larkin tells the incredible story of a 1958 murder that ended with the last woman to ever be executed in California—a murder so twisted it seems ripped from a Greek tragedy. Larkin was only ten years old when the quiet calm of her California suburb was shattered. Thirty miles north, on a quiet November night in Santa Barbara, a pregnant nurse named Olga Duncan disappeared from her apartment. The mystery deepens when it is discovered that Olga’s mother in-law...
2023-02-2244 min
New Books in Women's HistoryDeborah Holt Larkin, "A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of California's Most Notorious Killer" (Pegasus Crime, 2022)In A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of California's Most Notorious Killer (Pegasus Crime, 2022), Deborah Larkin tells the incredible story of a 1958 murder that ended with the last woman to ever be executed in California—a murder so twisted it seems ripped from a Greek tragedy. Larkin was only ten years old when the quiet calm of her California suburb was shattered. Thirty miles north, on a quiet November night in Santa Barbara, a pregnant nurse named Olga Duncan disappeared from her apartment. The mystery deepens when it is discovered that Olga’s mother in-law...
2023-02-2247 min
New Books in LawDeborah Holt Larkin, "A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of California's Most Notorious Killer" (Pegasus Crime, 2022)In A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of California's Most Notorious Killer (Pegasus Crime, 2022), Deborah Larkin tells the incredible story of a 1958 murder that ended with the last woman to ever be executed in California—a murder so twisted it seems ripped from a Greek tragedy. Larkin was only ten years old when the quiet calm of her California suburb was shattered. Thirty miles north, on a quiet November night in Santa Barbara, a pregnant nurse named Olga Duncan disappeared from her apartment. The mystery deepens when it is discovered that Olga’s mother in-law...
2023-02-2247 min
New Books in BiographyDeborah Holt Larkin, "A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of California's Most Notorious Killer" (Pegasus Crime, 2022)In A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of California's Most Notorious Killer (Pegasus Crime, 2022), Deborah Larkin tells the incredible story of a 1958 murder that ended with the last woman to ever be executed in California—a murder so twisted it seems ripped from a Greek tragedy. Larkin was only ten years old when the quiet calm of her California suburb was shattered. Thirty miles north, on a quiet November night in Santa Barbara, a pregnant nurse named Olga Duncan disappeared from her apartment. The mystery deepens when it is discovered that Olga’s mother in-law...
2023-02-2247 min
New Books in Popular CultureDeborah Holt Larkin, "A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of California's Most Notorious Killer" (Pegasus Crime, 2022)In A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of California's Most Notorious Killer (Pegasus Crime, 2022), Deborah Larkin tells the incredible story of a 1958 murder that ended with the last woman to ever be executed in California—a murder so twisted it seems ripped from a Greek tragedy. Larkin was only ten years old when the quiet calm of her California suburb was shattered. Thirty miles north, on a quiet November night in Santa Barbara, a pregnant nurse named Olga Duncan disappeared from her apartment. The mystery deepens when it is discovered that Olga’s mother in-law...
2023-02-2247 min
Santa Barbara Talks with Josh MolinaSanta Barbara Talks: 'A Lovely Girl' Writer Deborah LarkinShe was the daughter of a journalist. She watched her father report local news and become a small-town celebrity. She was enthralled with his stories, and his knowledge of everything from politics to people.
And when she was 10 years old, Deborah Holt watched her father, Bob Holt, snoop out one of the biggest stories of his career: the kidnapping and murder of Santa Barbara resident Olga Duncan.
Deborah Holt, now Larkin, has just released a book, A Lovely Girl, a spectacular true crime story about how Duncan was abducted from her apartment in the middle of the night and found...
2022-10-1050 min
California True CrimeA Lovely Girl: An Interview with author Deborah Holt LarkinNovember, 1958, a pregnant nurse Olga Duncan goes missing from her apartment in Santa Barbara California, the story that follows is one that author Deborah Holt Larkin explores in her book A Lovely Girl. We talk to Deborah about her new book, the connections that she has to this case as her father, a newspaper reporter covers this case from Olga's disappearance to the arrest of her mother-in-law, Elizabeth Duncan, who will become the last woman put to death in California. On this episode of California True Crime “A Lovely Girl.”
2022-10-0658 min
Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast265: The Murder of Olga Duncan w/ Deborah Holt Larkin - A True Crime History PodcastIn November of 1958 a pregnant nurse named Olga Duncan disappeared from her suburban California apartment. Police quickly suspected Olga's mother in-law Elizabeth Duncan, a domineering and manipulative woman who was incensed that her son Frank had married Olga without her approval. When Olga's badly beaten body was found buried in a shallow grave, Elizabeth was arrested, along with two hired hitmen, for murder. My guest Deborah Holt Larkin is the author of "A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of One of California's Most Notorious...
2022-10-041h 07Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast265: The Murder of Olga Duncan w/ Deborah Holt Larkin - A True Crime History PodcastIn November of 1958 a pregnant nurse named Olga Duncan disappeared from her suburban California apartment. Police quickly suspected Olga's mother in-law Elizabeth Duncan, a domineering and manipulative woman who was incensed that her son Frank had married Olga without her approval. When Olga's badly beaten body was found buried in a shallow grave, Elizabeth was arrested, along with two hired hitmen, for murder. My guest Deborah Holt Larkin is the author of "A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of One of California's Most Notorious...
2022-10-041h 07