In May of 1929, a new inmate arrived at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. Eastern State was no ordinary prison – it was the oldest in America, created by the Quakers who believed that if a lawbreaker had time to contemplate his crimes, he might become penitent for his misdeeds.  

And the new inmate was no ordinary prisoner. He was the most famous gangster in America. His name was Al Capone, and his arrival at Eastern State was widely reported in the press. But what wasn’t so widely reported was that he had brought someone else with him to the penitentiary.   

But it was someone that no one else seemed able to see.  In the darkest hours of the night, other inmates reported hearing Capone screaming in his cell, begging someone he called "Jimmy" to go away and leave him alone. No one had any idea what he was talking about.  

Capone was alone in his cell.  Or was he?

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On August 10, 2022, Jami Hawkins was found dead inside her Decatur, Illinois, home from a gunshot wound. What followed was an investigation that left her family with more questions than answers.

Although investigators treated her death as a suicide, a coroner's jury ultimately ruled the manner of death undetermined.

Now, more than four years later, Jami's family is speaking out, hoping to bring renewed attention to the circumstances surrounding her death.

In this special episode of American Dread, we take a closer look at the investigation, examine police reports and original 911 recordings, and explore the unanswered questions that have haunted her family ever since.

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Chicago – in the most Chicago way possible – memorialized the SMC CARTAGE COMPANY on Clark Street. Crowds had flocked the scene of the crime in the minutes, hours, and days after the massacre took place and they hung around for a couple of weeks after the bodies had been wrapped up in sheets and had been carted away in ambulances. They snuck in the back door and walked off with souvenirs – stray bullet casings, bloody handkerchiefs, empty pop bottles, and dirty, oil-stained rags that Johnny May had tossed aside after wiping off an engine part. They wanted anything that could keep, anything they could tell a story about later on. 

They just didn’t realize that physical reminders wouldn’t be all that was left behind – there would be the hauntings, too.

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Looking back now, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre seems like business as usual in Prohibition era Chicago but in 1929, a lot of people were really pissed that such a thing could happen. Sure, there had been a lot of murders in the city during the last decade, but not seven guys all at once, machine-gunned in cold blood in a garage.

The police believed they’d figured out how the massacre had occurred, but there was a lot of debate about who was involved – debate that continues today.

Police officers, crime experts, historians, gangster buffs, writers, know-it-alls, and the 900 guys who all tell you that their grandpa used to be a driver for Al Capone all have their favorite suspects when it comes to the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Some of them make sense, some of them don’t. Some of them are stupid, while others are just to sell a book or are just to get attention. Some suspects seem believable, but if you count them all, they add up to more than the number of actual killers.

So, take it all with a grain of salt but we’re going to take a look at some of the unusual – and sometimes unlikely – suspects in the St. Valentines Day Massacre.

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On February 14, 1929, the most infamous gangland massacre in American history occurred in a dingy garage on the North Side of Chicago when five mobsters, plus a mechanic and a wanna-be gangster optometrist, were ripped apart in a hail of bullets. The events of that morning left a lasting effect on Windy City history and still reverberate today as several unsolved mysteries, strange legends, baffling tales and, of course, tales of ghosts. 

Join us as we delve into PART ONE of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre for the Halloween season – coming to you live from the American Hauntings Podcast Network! 

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In the summer of 1928, Al Capone was back in Chicago and was still building his empire. Things like gambling, prostitution, and, of course, liquor, were still making up the bulk of his profits – but he knew that wasn’t going to last forever. He knew that he needed to diversify, a lesson he learned from John Torrio, who knew that Prohibition would only last for so long. Capone’s most profitable alternative to liquor was racketeering. A racketeer was defined as the boss of a supposedly legitimate business operation. Labor unions were the most common operations. Using violence and intimidation, he organized the union or pushed a group of businessmen into a “protective association.” A worker or merchant who didn’t join or refused to stay in the union and pay tribute was bombed, beaten, or intimidated into changing his mind. 

He was making a fortune that way -- but he had problems, too. Even as the millions continued to roll in, he found the problems hampering his business over and over again. The North Side Gang, now led by George Moran, was just as relentless as it had been under the leadership of O’Banion, Weiss, and Drucci. It was time to take care of that problem once and for all and on February 14, 1929 -- a deadly plan was hatched.

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In 1984, William Bruce Rose, the biological father of Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose, vanished in Southern Illinois. Nearly three years later, a teenager came forward with a disturbing story of murder, a body hidden in an abandoned mining area, and a knife thrown into a reservoir.

A man was eventually convicted of William’s murder, but his remains were never recovered.

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This episode was written and produced by Adam White.

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The Devil’s Music comes in a lot of forms – from rock-n-roll to the blues, to the music that spawned them both – country music, the kind that was played at the Grand Ole Opry.

You see, not all musical curses are linked to performers or the songs they sing. Some of them are connected to the places where music is played – like the Ryman Auditorium, located in downtown Nashville, which was the center of repeated tragedies for many years.

“When’s it all going to end?” one record promoter asked years ago following one Grand Ole Opry death after another. And he wasn’t the only one asking, A lot of performers playing at the Ryman were asking the same thing.

For three decades between the 1940s and the 1970s, scores of them experienced personal tragedies and losses, and in a single decade, a dozen Opry stars were killed by violence. And when they died, they took others with them, including relatives, business associates, and friends. They burned to death, suffered beatings, robberies, murders, became victims of automobile and airplane accidents, and suffered deaths linked to alcohol and drugs.

It was no wonder that rumors spread of the “Opry Curse” that was stalking the performers who appeared under the spotlights above the Ryman’s big wooden stage. 

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Chicago mayor “Big Bill” Thompson’s first year back in office had been a disaster as far as political observers – and anyone with any integrity at all -- were concerned. Unhappiness about his incompetence and the corruption in City Hall was spreading, especially since the city of Chicago was now almost $300 million in debt. Primary elections for state and county offices were set for April, but election violence began in January, 10 weeks before anyone went to the polls. This time came to be known as Chicago’s “Pineapple Primary” since “pineapple” was a slang term for a hand grenade. 

This period became THE most violent political period in the city’s history. It was scarred by beatings, kidnappings, bombings, shootings, and murders – and things became worse as the election got closer. 

When the election arrived, party hacks on both sides began employing strategies perfected through years of Cook County electoral hijinks.  Boxes were stuffed with ballots bearing fictional names that fraudulent voters could use. They registered vagrants whose votes had been purchased for a few dollars, assigning them fake names and addresses. Even the dead voted in Chicago.

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In 1977, seventeen-year-old Louise Betts disappeared from Loves Park, Illinois. Months later, her remains were found in a rural Boone County field, and Curtis Brownell was eventually convicted of her brutal murder.

But more than forty years after Louise was buried, her family learned something almost unimaginable: the Boone County coroner who handled her remains had kept her skull.

This is the disturbing story of Louise Betts — a missing girl, a convicted killer, decades of parole battles, and a final betrayal that remained hidden for more than four decades.

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This is an episode of the podcast that could have gone in a lot of directions – it’s an episode about the Devil, cults, true crime, satanic films, witchcraft, music, mind control, murder, and more – and really, maybe all these things and not even half of them. Who knows? It’s gotten so convoluted over the last 50 years that no one can say for sure. There are so many theories, excuses, and strange claims that have been wrapped up in all that I’m going to tell you about that one theory may be right, none of them may be right, or, honestly, I think that maybe little piece of every single one of them may be right.

I have absolutely no idea… but I do know that what happened in August of 1969 really did kill anything good that came from of the 1960s and ruined the lives of a lot of people. I also know that the story that I’m about to tell you is probably a load of crap, but just in case it’s not, don’t say that I didn’t warn you.

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In the fall of 1926, the best friend of Chicago gangsters returned to politics and got his name added to the Republican mayoral primary ballot. William “Big Bill” Thompson was back from political exile – he just couldn’t stay away. 

In early July, he sailed his yacht down the Chicago River and into Lake Michigan, carrying an motley crew of politicians, businessmen, beer-swilling clowns, assorted cronies, and a gangster or two. They were cheered on by thousands of people who lined the shoreline. The man was a walking punchline, but people loved him. 

He’d spent the last year or so rebuilding his political capital, knowing that Chicago was not a city that wanted reform as badly as the current mayor wanted to offer it. Al Capone was so enthused about the corrupt former mayor's return that he contributed $250,000 to Thompson’s campaign fund and introduced every form of bribery and terrorism imaginable on the man’s behalf. 

It was also during this campaign that Capone was credited with the Chicago’s most famous political slogan and one that’s still around to this day:

“Vote early and vote often.”

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If there was any one thing that motivated Hymie Weiss it was revenge. 

Since the murder of his friend Dean O’Banion, he’d been the de facto boss of the North Side gang that Dean had founded, mostly because none of the rest of the guys had wanted to be in charge. They were content to have Hymie make the decisions and if they weren’t sure what to do, they voted on it.

And their lack of initiative probably came from the fact that they seemed less interested in making money and more interested in sabotaging the operations of Capone and his allies – and, if possible, wiping them out. Hymie and his men had wounded John Torrio and chased him out of Chicago. They’d attacked Capone twice, killed Angelo Genna, and wounded and murdered dozens of enemy gunmen. 

But Capone retaliated next. He marked Hymie and Vincent Drucci for death -- and then he tried again. And then Weiss nearly got Capone, and back and forth it went, until the streets of Chicago ran red with blood and one of the men ended up in the grave.

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In 1997, 13-year-old John Ushman was found dead inside Room Five of the Southern View Motel in Springfield, Illinois. Authorities ruled that he died while playing Russian roulette with a stolen revolver.

But newly obtained police records reveal changing statements, hidden guns, a motel room reportedly wiped for fingerprints, and days of silence before John was finally found.

In this episode, American Dread reconstructs John’s final days and the troubling questions that still surround Room Five.

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On August 5, 1994, Decatur Realtor Sherry Lewis left to show a home. She never came home. More than three decades later, her murder remains unsolved. In this special anniversary episode, American Dread revisits one of Central Illinois' most haunting cold cases and the ongoing search for justice. 

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On the same day that the corpses of the last of the men who tried to revive the “Terrible Genna’s” operation was found, the Vice President of the United States, Charles Dawes, demanded that the U.S. Congress begin a federal investigation into the lawlessness that was occurring in the streets of Chicago...

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This episode was written by Troy Taylor

Produced and edited by Cody B

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When it comes to music curses – and the Devil’s Music itself – there is no musician more closely linked to the supernatural than Robert Johnson, the legendary bluesman who allegedly sold his soul to the Devil at a crossroads in the Mississippi Delta for magical playing skills and a handful of tunes. Robert would go on to become the founding member of the sinister “27 Club” but that’s not the only curse that’s been linked to the young guitar player.

There’s also the so-called CROSSROADS’ BLUES CURSE.

The legend of the curse states that Robert, with his deal with the Devil, became the first victim of the song that he wrote and made famous. He died a horrible death after being murdered by a jealous husband – stabbed, shot, or poisoned, depending on the version of the story you hear – and was buried in an unmarked grave for decades.

But Robert Johnson was only the first victim of his own curse – he wouldn’t be the last.

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On April 27, 1968, five children from the Cox family were murdered near their rural home outside Mattoon, Illinois. The killer was someone they knew and trusted: 18-year-old Thomas Charles Fuller II, who was dating their older sister. This is Five Little Birds: The Cox Family Murders. 

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In May 1925, Angelo and Lucille found a home they liked in suburban Oak Park and began planning to move. On the morning of May 25, Angelo set out in his Roadster coupe to pay for the new house in cash. He drove south from Belmont Harbor on Sheridan Road and then turned southwest onto Ogden Avenue, which at that time extended to Lincoln Park. 

As he approached Hudson Avenue, a large black touring car carrying four unknown assailants sped up next to Genna's car. The passengers in the other car opened fire with shotguns, spraying Angelo’s car with pellets. Angelo swerved wildly and lost control. He slammed on the brakes, but it was too late. The auto screeched sideways and crashed into a light pole. The attackers gunned their engine and sped away, leaving Angelo battered and bleeding and slipping into unconsciousness. 

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In July of 1977, G. Ray Timmons left his Bloomington, Illinois home for a walk and never returned. Hours later, he was found murdered in a downtown alley off East Market Street, a cinder block had been placed on his neck and head. Nearly fifty years later, the most important hours of that night remain missing.

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This episode was written and produced by Adam White.

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