A Bloody Family Bed

True Crime Historian

Richard O Jones

True Crime, Performing Arts, Documentary, Arts, Society & Culture

4.5 • 720 Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 81 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Triple Confessions Of Willie Lee

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Episode 374 tells the story of an awful family murder in Boonville, Indiana, when a lazy young man takes an axe to his parents and brother on the eve of his wedding day. What offenses the family committed to deserve such a fate seems to be all in the mind of the accused, and it takes him a few tries to get his story straight.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Paul Pueller.com
0:07.0	Evansville, Indiana, August 24th, 1911.
0:14.0	One of the most atrocious murders in the history of southern Indiana was committed last night in the home of Richard
0:21.8	Lee, a laborer in Boonville. Richard Lee, his wife Emma, and their 16-year-old son Clarence
0:29.6	were brained with a weapon believed to be an axe. Their 21-year-old son Willie Lee says
0:36.2	he detected a queer odor in the night as if feathers were burning.
0:41.3	He found the bed ablaze, according to his story, and was horrified to see his father, mother, and brother dead,
0:49.3	their heads having been crushed with what he believed to be an axe.
0:58.0	The son notified neighbors who rushed to the home and found the three victims in pools of blood.
1:02.5	Some of Boonville's citizens doubt the boy's story.
1:07.1	A rigid investigation is being made.
1:10.1	The older son is under arrest.
1:12.6	The older son is under arrest. True Crime Historian presents yesterday's news.
1:43.2	Tales of classic scandals, scoundrels, and scourges told from historic
1:47.9	newspapers in the golden age of yellow journalism. Episode 374 tells the story of an awful family
1:56.3	murder in Boonville, Indiana, when a lazy young man without much of a future takes an axe to his parents and brother on the eve of his wedding day.
2:06.6	What offenses the family committed to deserve such a fate seem to be all in the mind of the accused,
2:12.6	and it takes a few tries to get a story straight.
2:16.6	I'm true crime historian Richard O. Jones,
2:20.3	and for your horror and indignation, I give you...
2:23.3	A Bloody Family Bed,
2:28.2	the triple confessions of Willie Lee.
	...

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