Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast · Blue Ewe Media

MoNo Encore: The East River Ripper Murder of Old Shakespeare w/ George R. Dekle Sr.

·1 hr 25 min·5 clips

The blood under Frenchy's fingernails matched Carrie Brown's intestines and leukemia.

This encore episode revisits a Gilded Age murder that drew comparison to the Jack the Ripper killings. Eric Rivenis opens by framing it as a grim, absorbing trip back into late-19th-century New York. George R. Dekle Sr. returns as the guest and carries the case through in a clear, story-driven way. The victim, Kerry Brown, was found murdered in a rundown hotel. The setting matters because the city, the press, and the police all treated the crime as a sensational public case. The episode keeps returning to the gap between what was known and what was guessed. One strand of the discussion focuses on the suspect the papers nicknamed Frenchie. Another follows how the public kept demanding an arrest before the evidence had really settled. Burns becomes central to that pressure. The show also spends time on the problem of public expectation. If the police moved too slowly, the papers complained. If they moved too quickly, the papers accused them of grabbing the nearest man. That double bind gives the case its shape. Dekle explains why some people believed Frenchie could not be the killer. He was seen by many as meek, mild, and pitiful. The episode then shifts into the prosecutorial side of the story. Francis Wellman is described as the best trial lawyer in the office, even though he was also overworked. The conversation shows how little room there was for error once the case reached court. Rivenis lets Dekle fill in the historical scene and the procedural knots. The episode ends by teasing another historical murder for a future visit, this time in Toronto, with Britton Bath Osler in view. That final note leaves the listener with the sense that this show is building a larger map of notorious cases and the lawyers who handled them.

As heard by us

A steady, history-grounded true-crime episode that lets the case, the press, and the trial do the heavy lifting.

This episode treats the East River Ripper as a Gilded Age true-crime story, and Eric Rivenis gives George R. Diekel, Sr. enough room to lay out the case without crowding the facts.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a Gilded Age true crime escape about the Kerry Brown murder, with police pressure and newspaper noise.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast