Strangled In A Strange City

True Crime Historian

Richard O Jones

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

4.5 • 720 Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Curious Murder of Mary Ekhart

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Episode 35 goes deep on a case mentioned in my book “The First Celebrity Serial Killer,” as one of the murders Alfred Knapp confessed to. Mary Ekhart, a young woman from Dayton, Ohio, separated from her husband and went to live in Cincinnati, where she had a lead on a job in a candy factory. A few days later, her body was found dead in a rooming house, and police tracked down every lead trying to find the mysterious stranger seen lurking in front of the house on the morning of the day of her murder.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The present mystery was first brought to the notice of the police about 6.30 last night,
0:09.2	when E.L. Krauth, an old man with a straggling gray beard, walked slowly into central police station,
0:16.0	and for a moment stood by the desk at which Sergeant Sam Corbin was busy riding.
0:21.7	Well, what is it? said the sergeant, looking up.
0:24.6	A woman has been found dead in a house on Walnut Street, and I thought you'd be the one to tell, said
0:30.4	Mr. Krauth.
0:31.9	On Walnut Street, repeated the sergeant.
0:35.2	Yes, on Walnut near 7th.
0:41.8	It is on the east side of the street, number 292.
0:45.6	Just next to the saloon and nearly opposite the YMCA building.
0:48.4	The house is a brick and sits back in from the street.
0:50.3	All right, said the sergeant.
0:53.3	I'll notify the coroner in the Hammond Street District.
0:55.4	It is not in this police district.
1:00.6	And he stepped to the telephone. While he was calling up the Hammond Street police station,
1:08.8	Mr. Krauth left. Coroner Louis A. Kerner was at home, and at once went to the house on Walnut Street.
1:11.1	His knock at the door was answered by Mr. Krauth, and then a woman with a towel wrapped about her head appeared, and opened the
1:15.8	door to a room on the south side of the house, fronting upon Walnut Street. It was just a
1:20.7	couple of steps from the front door to the door of the room. When that door was
1:24.7	thrown open, Coroner Kerner-Kirner saw outstretched upon the floor a woman. Her head was toward the door of the room. When that door was thrown open, Coroner Kerner saw outstretched upon the floor a woman.
1:30.0	Her head was toward the door of the room and her feet near the corner of a bureau.
1:35.1	She was lying upon her back, and her staring eyes were glassy. Her wrapper and nightgown
	...

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