Hello all, Eric Rivenis with the Most Notorious podcast here. Each week I interview an author or historian about a historical true crime, tragedy, or disaster.

Subject matter ranges from gunslingers to Gilded Age murder, to gangsters, to fires, to pirates, to wild prison breaks.

I guess spring their incredible knowledge directly to you.

Please subscribe to Most Notorious on your favorite podcast app.

Cheers and have a safe tomorrow.

Welcome to From Beneath the Hollywood Sign.

If you love old movies, Hollywood history, or the Golden Age of Filmmaking,

you've come to the right place.

This is the podcast that talks about amazing stories of Tinsletown from another era and fascinating

conversations with writer-producer Steve Kubine and actress writer Nan McNamara.

So Steve, did Ava Gardner and Howard Hughes have a good relationship?

Well, they did until he dislocated her jaw.

What? Well, don't worry,

she hit him back with an ashtray. From beneath the Hollywood sign is the chin joint for you.

Good evening, y'all. Welcome to night number two of our campfire tales.

Tonight we're going to head over to the southwestern corner of West Virginia,

where we'll take a stroll up Bud Mountain.

Now, not many folks live in this isolated area, but those who do say that this otherwise nondescript place is haunted by a number of local spirits, and the most infamous is a man

whose name is Berg Hammond. Back in the early 19th century, before Cole became king, and West Virginia was even a state.

Most folks who came out to this neck of the woods were homesteaders, self-reliant

settlers looking to own a piece of land, farm it, and make a life for themselves without

all the trappings of city life. So men like Berg Hammond helped them. Hammond was a peddler, a traveling salesman who meandered his way through the region,

...