In 2006, Abraham Shakespeare went from working-class Floridian to multimillionaire overnight after winning a $30 million Florida lottery jackpot. For most people, that kind of money sounds like freedom. For Abraham Shakespeare, it became the beginning of a nightmare. As word of his fortune spread, so did the requests for money, the business schemes, the…
Tag: true crime
SBP Podcast Episode 19: Pom Pom Mom
In January of 1991, a bizarre story out of Channelview, Texas, became a national obsession. Wanda Holloway, a mother from a blue-collar town east of Houston, was accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill the mother of her daughter’s junior high cheerleading rival. But behind the “Pom-Pom Mom” headline was a deeper story…
SBP Podcast Episode 16: Rae Carruth: A Murder Plot, a 911 Call, and a Trunk in Tennessee
In November of 1999, a late-night shooting on a quiet road in Charlotte set off one of the most disturbing criminal cases tied to professional sports. At the center of it was Rae Carruth — a first-round draft pick for the Carolina Panthers — and Cherica Adams, a 24-year-old woman who, in her final moments,…
SBP Podcast Episode 15: The Zack Bowen & Addie Hall Case: Murder in the French Quarter
In October 2006, a crime unfolded in the French Quarter that would become one of the most disturbing cases in New Orleans history. It was not a crime committed in the shadows by strangers. The people involved were well known throughout the Quarter’s bar scene. Friends drank with them. Bartenders worked alongside them. Tourists passed…
SBP Podcast Episode 13 : High Tide, High Times (Part 2): The Gentleman Smugglers & Operation Jackpot
When most people think of drug smuggling busts in the United States, they picture high-speed chases in Miami or massive DEA raids in Los Angeles. Few realize that one of the most significant crackdowns in American history didn’t start in those big cities, but along the seemingly quiet coastlines of South Carolina. In Part 1…
SBP Podcast Episode 13 : High Tide, High Times (Part 1): The Gentleman Smugglers & Operation Jackpot
In Episode 13 of the Southern Blueprint Podcast, we begin a two-part series exploring the true story of the Gentleman Smugglers and the massive federal investigation known as Operation Jackpot. This is a deeply Southern story—rooted in the Lowcountry, stretching from South Carolina’s barrier islands to the Caribbean, and ending with one of the most…
SBP Podcast Episode 9: Oil, Power & Murder: The Cullen Davis Story
In the 1970s, the name Cullen Davis was synonymous with wealth, power, and scandal. At the time, Davis was the richest man in America ever to be tried for murder — and the story that unfolded in Fort Worth, Texas, would grip the nation. In this episode of The Southern Blueprint Podcast, we dig deep…
SBP Podcast Episode 8: The Couple and the Accountant: Disappearance, Deceit, and Death in Hilton Head
In this gripping true crime episode of The Southern Blueprint Podcast, we unravel the chilling mystery of John and Elizabeth Calvert—a wealthy Hilton Head Island couple who vanished without a trace on March 3, 2008. The last man to see them alive, their accountant Dennis Ray Gerwing, was found dead days later in a bathtub,…
Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem: 20 Southern True Crime Stories You Won’t Forget
The South is steeped in history, tradition, and culture—but it’s also the setting for some of the most gripping true crime stories in American history. From notorious killers to chilling unsolved mysteries, these twenty Southern true crime tales will leave you captivated by the darkness that lurks beneath the magnolias and moonlight. The Axeman of…