Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking that they earn the label Crime of the Century.

But the stories that made headlines and decades past aren't necessarily remembered today.

I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist and author.

And in each episode of this show, I'll examine a case that's maybe lesser known today,

but was huge when it happened. This. Jones boarded the steamboat called the Ohio Bell, he seemed like he would be trouble.

For starters, he was visibly drunk before even stepping on board.

That's rarely a good sign.

Second, he seemed to be a boisterous type,

animated, loud, bit obnoxious.

He had a high-born swagger, sort of denoting

that he was the son of a prominent planter.

Author Stuart Sanders.

And when he learned Stumpboard, the Ohio Bell, he really presented himself as a southern man of means.

The date was March 14, 1856.

Jones hailed from Mississippi, he said. This was a confusing era in American

history. The Civil War was five years in the future, so the country was divided into free states and slave states.

And while none of the figures in this story were enslaved people,

the fact that the country was nearing that breaking point is relevant,

at least in terms of the ship Jones had boarded, but more on that later.

This is about J.B. Jones, who'd caught the Ohio Bell in Smithland, Kentucky, about 40 miles southwest

of Cincinnati.

His clothes were of good material and fitted him well,

...