Pigeon Forge, Tennessee is one of the South’s most familiar family vacation towns. Cabins, pancake houses, souvenir shops, roadside attractions, Dollywood, and the Smoky Mountains have made it a place generations of families know well. But in July of 1987, that familiar image was shattered. Ann Robertson Jones, a 42-year-old mother and local business owner,…
Tag: truecrime
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 17: The Dixie Mafia and the Vincent & Margaret Sherry Murders
On September 14, 1987, Circuit Court Judge Vincent Sherry and his wife, Biloxi city councilwoman Margaret Sherry, were found murdered inside their home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. There was no forced entry. No robbery. No obvious sign of a random attack. At first, the case seemed to point in several directions. Local politics. City…
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 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 7: Pappygate
In this episode of The Southern Blueprint, we crack open one of the wildest true crime tales in bourbon history — the infamous case known as Pappygate. What started as a few missing bottles quickly unraveled into a sprawling investigation involving stolen barrels of rare whiskey, anabolic steroids, black-market dealings, and a close-knit Kentucky community…
SBP Podcast Episode 6: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Savannah, Georgia—a city where history, crime, and the supernatural collide. In this episode of The Southern Blueprint Podcast, we delve deep into the real-life murder that inspired Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt’s bestselling book that captured the eerie charm and scandalous secrets of the Hostess City of the South. We…