Category Archives: Episode

Mysterious Area 51 andThe Skunk Works



Episode 60: Mysterious Area 51 and The Skunk Works

In the mid-1980s, I was involved in a civil trial in Lancaster, California. Both sets of attornies came from Los Angeles. One of them was openly scornful of the northern part of LA county where the trial was being held. He loved LA with its chewable air, and Hollyweird. During voir dire, he took exception to the answers given him by several potential jurors. The Q & A went like this:

Q-What kind of work do you do.

A-I can’t say.

Q-Why not?

A-I can’t say.

Q-Where do you work?

A-I can’t say.

Q-How many people work where you work?

A-I can’t say.

Q-What can you say?

A-Nothing… about work.

“Your honor, please instruct the juror to cooperate.”

“Mr. Conrad, just accept my word and direction that I know where they work and what they do. You do not need to know. Go onto a different set of questions.”

He muttered but went on. Everyone else in the courtroom had a very good idea of where those people worked: either at Area 51 or the skunk works, places as secret and mysterious as the dark side of the moon or the Manhattan Project. Many actual employees of Area 51 listed their occupations where legally required as “Nuclear energy.” One retired brigadier general always responded that he repaired typewriters in Las Vegas during his stint in the Air Force.

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Join the Readers and Writers Book Club for a Spring Fling Facebook Event and Explore the Haunted Harding House: April 15 – 29

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Meet Carl Douglas, your host for Episode 60: Mysterious Area 51 and The Skunk Works

My pseudonym as an author is Carl Douglass, adopted as a means of telling stories with gripping realism—the truth of which would not bring trouble to my door. My writing of gripping, realistic fiction began after I was obligated to retire from the private practice of neurosurgery due to sudden blindness in my left eye from a retinal detachment which caused loss of stereoscopic vision. I carried with me decades-long knowledge of doctors, hospitals, and institutions of higher learning, including some less than laudatory information. My military experience during the years of the recent unpleasantness in Vietnam also gave me considerable insight. Both of those lengthy experiences provided true grist for the mill of my writing, but neither of them need to connect the stories to the lives of the real people and places where the stories took place. In that sense, I know too much and have no wish to incriminate or to bring harm or embarrassment to real individuals or institutions. My rich and varied life has provided even more fodder to feed my mind and contribute realism to my written work. In my time, I have had to work due to lacking a sugar daddy. I have been a grease monkey, a lumber mill and forest worker, a lifeguard, a slaughterhouse worker, a diener in a morgue, a lab rat, an academic writer, a medical officer in a mental hospital, a naval officer and surgeon, a brig doctor, and a deep diving officer. I have been the husband of one fine wife, the father of four children—one deceased—eleven grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. All of them have enriched the depth and breadth of my storytelling

 

 

 


The Hex Hollow Murder



Episode 59: The Hex Hollow Murder

Picture this: late November, 1928. York County, Pennsylvania. The trees are bare, clawing at a gray sky, and the air’s thick with the kind of chill that seeps into your bones. In a little farmhouse tucked away in Rehmeyer’s Hollow, a man named Nelson Rehmeyer is going about his evening. He’s tall, quiet—a farmer and a healer known to the locals. But not everyone sees him as a friend. Some whisper he’s more than a man who knows herbs. They say he’s a pow-wow doctor—a conjurer of spells, a wielder of hexes. And in a world where superstition runs as deep as the roots of the old oaks, that’s a dangerous reputation to have.

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Join the Readers and Writers Book Club for a Spring Fling Facebook Event and Explore the Haunted Harding House: April 15 – 29

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Check out the Author Masterminds Website

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Get to know the authors at The Readers and Writers Book Club

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Meet Mary Ann Poll, your host for Episode 59:The Hex Hollow Murder.

Mary Ann Poll is the author of five Supernatural Thriller novels, Ravens Cove, Ingress, Gorgon, Dullahan, and Andalusia Forest.

Sign up to subscribe for free information about upcoming events at www.maryannpoll.com and check out her podcast Real Ghost Chatter.

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The Mystery of the First Broken Arrow



Episode 58: The Mystery of the First Broken Arrow

Fat-Boy Bomb

The U.S. military defines a “Broken Arrow” as an “unexpectedent involving nuclear weapons that result in the accidental launching, firing, detonating, theft, or loss of the weapon.” The first Broken Arrow event occurred in 1950 during a mission from Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska. Questions still surround this event and the mystery of what happened to the B-36 aircraft and the Mark IV atomic bomb it carried.

Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada
Sources
Adams, Sharon. “The lost nuke of British Columbia.” January 26, 2022. Legion.
Clearwater, John M. “The first one to get away.” November/December 2004. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Liefer, Gregory P. Chapter 12: “Broken Arrow.” 2011. Anchorage, AK. Publication Consultants.
Roos, Dave. “’Broken Arrow’: When the first U.S. atomic bomb went missing.” January 13, 2020. History.

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What Would You Do if Someone was Hunting You?

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Check out the Author Masterminds Website

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Get to know the authors at The Readers and Writers Book Club

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Meet Robin Barefield, your host for Episode 58: The Mystery of the First Broken Arrow

Robin Barefield lives in the wilderness on Kodiak Island, where she and her husband own a remote lodge. She has a master’s degree in fish and wildlife biology and is a wildlife-viewing and fishing guide. Robin has published six novels: Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, The Fisherman’s Daughter, Karluk Bones, Massacre at Bear Creek Lodge, and The Ultimate Hunt. She has also published two non-fiction books: Kodiak Island Wildlife and Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. She draws on her love and appreciation of the Alaska wilderness as well as her scientific background when writing.

Robin invites you to join her at her website: https://robinbarefield.com, and while you are there, sign up for her free monthly newsletter about true crime in Alaska. Robin also narrates a podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. You can find it at: https://murder-in-the-last-frontier.blubrry.net

 

 

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Justice for Jon Benet



Episode 57: Justice for Jon Benet

On December 26, 1996, the police responded to a kidnapping call, which later turned into a murder investigation. There were two possibilities: an intruder murdered Jon Benet Ramsey or someone in the house killed her.

Sources

ABC News. Ex-DA Opens Up About Why She Cleared the Ramsey Family of JonBenet’s Murder. October 28, 2016

 Netflix. Trial by Murder. “Dingo’s Got My Baby.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2024/11/25/netflix-who-killed-jonbenet-ramsey-docuseries-revelations-bombshells/76403399007/

 Netflix. Trial by Murder. “Brian Dorian’s Story.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2024/11/25/netflix-who-killed-jonbenet-ramsey-docuseries-revelations-bombshells/76403399007/

National Policing Institute

In-depth Training of Police Officers Results in Less Crime, Fewer Arrests, and Improved Community Views Toward Police in High Crime Hot Spots.https://www.policinginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/NPI-Research-in-Brief-Hot-Spots-Jun-2022.pdf

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Now Available

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Check out the Author Masterminds Website

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Get to know the authors at The Readers and Writers Book Club

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Meet Valerie Winans, Your Host for Episode 57: Justice for Jon Benet

Valerie Winans is a graduate of Northwestern Michigan College, a retired state government manager, and a former campground host in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Valerie is the author of four books: Alaska’s Savage River: Inside Denali National Park and Preserve, Road Trip with Remington Beagle: Michigan to Alaska and Back, and A Hero’s Journey: Life Lessons From A Dog And His Friends, and The Extraordinary Life of Edwin B. Winans: From the Stampede for Gold in California to the Capitol of Michigan. A writer of both fiction and non-fiction, her books are written to inform and entertain readers of all ages. She currently resides with her husband in Traverse City, Michigan. More information can be found at www.valeriewinans.com.

 


The Mystery of Artificial Intelligence



Episode 56: The Mystery of Artificial Intelligence

In 1950, a robotic mouse named Theseus found its way through a maze and remembered the route. AI had taken its first baby step, the first step in a journey that would change the world as we know it. It is doubtful that the significance of this achievement was fully understood at the time.

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Grab a copy of Crystal Shards!

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Get to know the authors at The Readers and Writers Book Club

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Meet Cil Gregoire, your host for Episode 56: The Mystery of Artificial Intelligence

I was born to write. Fortunately, life provided me with plenty to write about. As a young woman, I moved from South Louisiana to Alaska, seeking the Alaska dream. And I found it. Or should I say, the Alaska dream found me? For decades, I was too busy living the adventure to write more than highly descriptive letters to folks back home. I did it all, from teaching school in the bush, to commercial fishing in Bristol Bay and Norton Sound, to building a log cabin in the woods. My novels reflect all these experiences and more.

 

 


The Mysterious Alaska Triangle



Episode 54: The Mysterious Alaska Triangle

First named in 1972, the Alaska Triangle stretches from Anchorage in southcentral Alaska to Juneau in the southeast panhandle to Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow) on Alaska’s northern coast. Since 1988, more than 16,000 people have vanished from this area, and every year, approximately four people go missing per every 1000 Alaska residents. This rate is twice the national average.

Sources

Alexander, Kathy. “The Alaska Triangle – Disappearing Into Thin Air.” March 2023. Legends of America.

Dundas, Suzie. “Why do so many people go missing in the Alaska Triangle?” January 25, 2023. MapQuest Travel.

Dunning, Brian. “The Japan Airlines Alaska UFO.” November 10, 2020. WayBack Machine.

Gough, Cody. 2019. “Thousands of People Have Mysteriously Disappeared in Alaska’s Bermuda Triangle.” Discovery.

LeBlanc, Jocelyne. 2018. “10 Facts About the Little-Known Alaska Triangle.” Toptenz

Liefer, Gregory P. 2011. Without a Trace. Aviation Mysteries of the North. Chapter 11: Anchorage, AK. Publication Consultants.

Locations Unknown Team. “The strange stories of the Alaska Triangle.” November 26, 2019. Strange Outdoors.

Weiss, Lawrence D. “Unfriendly skies: The extraordinary flight of JAL 1628. Alaska’s best known UFO encounter.” October 28, 2019. The Anchorage Press.

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Read True Stories of Murder and Mystery in Alaska

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Check out the Author Masterminds Website

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Get to know the authors at The Readers and Writers Book Club

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Meet Robin Barefield, your host for Episode 54: The Mysterious Alaska Triangle

Robin Barefield lives in the wilderness on Kodiak Island, where she and her husband own a remote lodge. She has a master’s degree in fish and wildlife biology and is a wildlife-viewing and fishing guide. Robin has published six novels: Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, The Fisherman’s Daughter, Karluk Bones, Massacre at Bear Creek Lodge, and The Ultimate Hunt. She has also published two non-fiction books: Kodiak Island Wildlife and Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. She draws on her love and appreciation of the Alaska wilderness as well as her scientific background when writing.

Robin invites you to join her at her website: https://robinbarefield.com, and while you are there, sign up for her free monthly newsletter about true crime in Alaska. Robin also narrates a podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. You can find it at: https://murder-in-the-last-frontier.blubrry.net

 


Will a Massive Deportation of Aliens Work?



Episode 53: Will a Massive Deportation of Aliens Work?

Donald Trump has said that on Day One of his Presidency, he would begin the largest deportation of aliens in American history. Best of luck, President Trump.  We tried that before. In 1919.  It didn’t go as planned. Well, what happened?  For an answer, let’s look back in history.

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Now Available!

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Get to know the authors at The Readers and Writers Book Club

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Meet Steve Levi, your host for episode 53: Will a Mass Deportation of Aliens Work?

Steve Levi is a 70-something writer in Alaska. He specializes in the impossible crime and the Alaska Gold Rush.  An impossible crime is one in which the detective must figure out HOW the crime was committed before he can go after the perpetrators.  As an example, in THE MATTER OF THE VANISHING GREYHOUND, the detective must figure out how a Greyhound bus with four bank robbers, a dozen hostages, and  $10 million can vanish off the Golden Gate Bridge. Steve’s books can be seen at www.authormasterminds.com/steve-levi and www.steverlevibooks.com. He also does two historical uploads a week.  Send Steve your email, and he will include it in the mailings.

 


A Texas Christmas Murder Mystery



Episode 52: A Texas Christmas Murder Mystery

Who murdered Latricia White, and what happened to her boyfriend, Lee Wackerhagen (nicknamed Dub), and his nine-year-old son, Chance? This tragic tale occurred in 1993 in McMahon, Texas.

Sources:

“Episode 47: Murdered and Missing in Lockhart.” March 12, 2019. All Murder, No Cattle.

Cargile, E. “New hope for a Caldwell Co. cold case.” June 25, 2010. KXAN.

“Dub’s Last Stand.” March 15, 2010. Unsolved Mysteries.

“Dub and Chance Wackergan: Last Christmas.” July 14, 2019. Lost n Found Blogs.

 

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What would you do if someone was hunting you in the Alaska wilderness?

Check out the Author Masterminds Website

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Get to know the authors at The Readers and Writers Book Club

___________________________________________

Meet Robin Barefield, Your Host for Episode 52: A Texas Christmas Murder Mystery

Robin Barefield lives in the wilderness on Kodiak Island, where she and her husband own a remote lodge. She has a master’s degree in fish and wildlife biology and is a wildlife-viewing and fishing guide. Robin has published six novels: Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, The Fisherman’s Daughter, Karluk Bones, Massacre at Bear Creek Lodge, and The Ultimate Hunt. She has also published two non-fiction books: Kodiak Island Wildlife and Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. She draws on her love and appreciation of the Alaska wilderness as well as her scientific background when writing.

Robin invites you to join her at her website: https://robinbarefield.com, and while you are there, sign up for her free monthly newsletter about true crime in Alaska. Robin also narrates a podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. You can find it at: https://murder-in-the-last-frontier.blubrry.net


Secret Cargo



Episode 51: Secret Cargo

A thick, impenetrable overcast concealed the heavily forested hills below, leaving only the jagged peaks of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains visible as they pierced the night sky. Far above, a U.S. Army Air Forces C-49K military transport aircraft navigated the cold, unforgiving skies of British Columbia. The plane, a Douglas C-49K—a variant of the Douglas DC-3—was a sturdy, reliable workhorse routinely used for administrative missions along the Northwest Staging Route during World War II. This route connected Fort Nelson and Fort St. John, threading its way through the remote wilderness of Canada.

On February 5, 1943, the C-49K, operating under the command of the Air Transport Command’s Alaska Wing, departed Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, bound for Edmonton, Alberta. On board were three crew members, including the experienced Lieutenant Colonel Mensing, and eight passengers—four military personnel and four civilian technicians contracted by the U.S. Army. The aircraft also carried several sacks of mail and an unidentified cargo, whose contents were a mystery to all but a few.

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Check out the Author Masterminds Website

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Meet Evan Swensen, your host for Episode 51: Secret Cargo

Evan Swensen, book publisher, editor, author, and Author Masterminds charter member along with his wife, Lois, publishes books by authors worldwide. He has been the publisher and editor of Alaska Outdoors magazine and producer of Alaska Outdoors television show and outdoor videos, and host of Alaska Outdoor Radio Magazine. He has been an Alaska resident since 1957.

As a pilot, he has logged more than 4,000 hours of flight time in Alaska, in both wheel and float planes.  He is a serious recreation hunter and fisherman, equally comfortable casting a flyrod or using bait, or lures.  Evan has been published in many national magazines and is the author of five books and publisher of more than 1,000 books by other authors.

Evan claims to have the best job in the world; he gets up in the morning, puts on his fishing vest, picks up his fly rod, kisses his wife goodbye, tells her he’s going to work—and she believes him.

Author Masterminds: https://authormasterminds.com/evan-swensen

Author Masterminds One Last Cast book: https://authormasterminds.com/details/XLxrX

One Last Cast on Amazon: https://bit.ly/3H0OzTo

One Last Cast short video: https://youtu.be/2wzwWmim-2g

Alaska Outdoors https://alaskaoutdoorsmagazine.com.

Alaska Outdoors Blog: https://alaskaoutdoorsmagazine.com/blog/

Alaska Outdoors Videos: https://bit.ly/37xjUzl

 

 


Why Did Japan Twice Attempt to Take Alaska?



Episode 50: Why Did Japan Twice Attempt to Take Alaska?

It almost happened, you know.

Japan almost took Alaska.

Not during the Second World War; just after the First World War.

It was a very clever plan and almost succeeded.

Now, let me tell you the whole story!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Now Available! Use the Code “Christmas” at the Publication Consultants Website to get 25% off the Cover Price!

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Meet Steve Levi, your host for Episode 50: Why Did Japan Twice Attempt to Take Alaska?

Steve Levi is a 70-something writer in Alaska. He specializes in the impossible crime and the Alaska Gold Rush.  An impossible crime is one in which the detective must figure out HOW the crime was committed before he can go after the perpetrators.  As an example, in THE MATTER OF THE VANISHING GREYHOUND, the detective must figure out how a Greyhound bus with four bank robbers, a dozen hostages, and  $10 million can vanish off the Golden Gate Bridge. Steve’s books can be seen at www.authormasterminds.com/steve-levi and www.steverlevibooks.com. He also does two historical uploads a week.  Send Steve your email, and he will include it in the mailings.