James Bowden

Photo of Fern that ran in the Oregon Journal in 1930

The Bowdens’ basement, post-blast. Box is shown on right.

Union Pacific Railroad Locomotive

(James St. John / CC BY 2.0)

Union Pacific Railroad Map

Front page coverage of the Oak Grove Jane Doe case

(East Oregonian)

Front page coverage of William Kalpack’s attack

(The Oregonian)

Karen:

The Pandora’s Box murder

Episode sources:

1. “Plan to Check Suspected ‘Boy Friend’ of Wife Details by Bowden at Trial” (The Oregonian) 1946

2. “Discrepancy Pointed in Dynamite Stories” (Oregon Journal) 1946

3. “Baker Funeral Held for Victim of Bomb Blast” (Oregon Journal) 1946

4. “Life Story Recited by Murder Suspect” by Florence Daniels (Oregon Journal) 1946

5. “Bowden Cruelty Cited in Divorce Complaint” (Oregon Journal) 1946

6. “State Charges Murder As Bowden Trial Opens” (Oregon Journal) 1946

7. “Death Blame on Box Bomb” (The Oregonian) 1946

8. “Bowden Held Over to Jury On Wife Death” (The Oregon Daily Journal) 1946

9. “Blast Sinks Fish Vessel at Newport” (The Oregonian) 1946

10. “Explosion Damages Home; Husband Questioned (The Oregonian) 1946

11. “‘Unwritten Law’ Used in Bowden’s Defense” by Florence Dannals (Oregon Journal) 1946

12. “The Pandora’s Box Murder” by JD Chandler (Slabtown Chronicle) 2006

13. “Husband Confesses Making Booby Trap” (The Oregonian) 1946

14. “Murder House” (Portland Mercury) 2013

15. “Fern Mavis Chandler” (Family Search)

16. “Untitled” (Lodi News-Sentinel) 1946

17. “Bowden Cruelty Cited in Divorce Complaint” (The Oregon Daily Journal) 1946

18. “‘War Safer,’ Victim Avers” by Earl N. Pomeroy (The Oregonian) 1946

19. “James Westley Bowden” (Family Search)

Georgia:

Levee tampering and 1993’s Great Mississippi Flood

Episode sources:

1. “Causing a Natural Disaster to Party: The Case of James Scott” (Vice) 2022

2. “Catastrophe” (Criminal) 2017

3. “James Scott has spent 30 years in prison for causing the flood of 1993. Not everyone believes he's guilty” by EJ Haas (Colombia Missourian) 2023

4. “Levees Make Mississippi River Floods Worse, But We Keep Building Them” by Rebecca Hersher (NPR) 2018

Jimmy Scott being interviewed

(WGEM-TV)

Broken levee

(WGEM-TV)

Jefferson City, Missouri

(Mihai_Andritoiu / Shutterstock)

Jefferson City, Missouri flooded

Jimmy Scott

(Star Tribune / The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Recommendation Corner