85: Samuel Adams is Dead (Part 1)

An Old Timey Podcast

History, True Crime, Comedy

4.9 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2026

⏱️ 87 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On a sunny fall day in 1841, New York City officials boarded a ship in search of a crate. Crew members found it buried deep in the cargo hold. The odor coming from within it was unbearable.

Inside, they discovered the decomposing body of half-naked man, covered in salt. Authorities identified the body as Samuel Adams (No, not that Samuel Adams.)

Who could have done such a thing? There was no need to ponder that question. Authorities had already arrested their prime suspect, John Caldwell Colt. John was an author and expert on bookkeeping. He was also the older brother of Samuel Colt, the inventor of the Colt Revolver.

In this episode, Normie C hits us with all the context we’ll need to understand this gruesome murder and the bizarre trial that followed.

Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Norm pulled from:
Dunphy, Thomas. Remarkable Trials of All Countries. Diossy & Company, 1870.

Edwards, William. The Story of Colt’s Revolver. Stackpole Co, 1953.

Phelps, M. Devil’’s Right Hand: The Tragic Story of the Colt Family Curse. Lyons Press, 2013.

Schechter, Harold. Killer Colt: Murder, Disgrace, and the Making of an American Legend. 1st ed. Open Road Integrated Media, Inc, 2010.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hear ye, hear ye. You are listening to an old-timey podcast. I'm Norman Caruso.
0:06.7	And I'm Kristen Caruso. And on this series, I'll be talking about an old-timey murder.
0:13.0	Or was it?
0:15.0	Dun-d-d-dun-dun! Dun!
0:17.6	I'm ready to be intrigued. I'm ready to be titillated. You know, in 26, we're all getting titillated. Titillated. Is that the word of the year, 26? That's right. And you know, the other word of the year, because apparently there can be multiple. What? Patreon. And if I could add some more, sign up for our Patreon. No, no, no. Yes, yes.
0:39.4	That's not inspiring to people. Oh, well, listen to this and tell me if you get inspired.
0:45.0	You know, supporting a small, independent, sexy podcast is good and good for you somehow. And supporters on Patreon get ad-free video episodes.
0:55.5	They get cards and stickers.
0:56.7	They get trivia.
0:57.4	And for just $5 a month, you can binge our entire back catalog of bonus episodes.
1:03.6	We just dropped another episode on Spite Houses.
1:06.5	It was so spiteful.
1:08.3	We have a nail-biting and oddly funny episode about the dude who tried and failed
1:13.5	to be D.B. Cooper. And we even have, this is not a joke, it's going to sound like a joke,
1:20.6	we have a three-hour-long episode about testicles. It's true. Did you know that men used to add testicles to their bodies to feel more manly?
1:31.3	Subscribe to our Patreon to learn more.
1:33.9	Patreon.com slash old-timey podcast.
1:36.9	Very good, Chris.
1:37.8	That was a good plug.
1:38.7	Oh, thank you.
1:39.7	These past two weeks, we've been off.
1:42.2	Seems you've taken some time to uh work on your craft
	...

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