All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

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From Beagling to Barbaro: Horses, Hounds, the Main Line, and Laurel Hill Oct 09, 2026

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BBB:LHWS #061 Horses and foxhunting...

... can be traced from medieval hunting forests to the horse country of Philadelphia’s Main Line. Discover how hounds, riders, breeders, and civic-minded families shaped the Devon Horse Show and the region’s enduring equestrian culture. Along the way, meet the Laurel Hill figures whose stories connect centuries of sport, society, and stewardship—culminating in the unforgettable legacy of Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro.

Frank Whiteside: An Incident on Waverly Oct 06, 2026

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ABC:LHS 091-5 Frank Reed Whiteside...

...was an artist and instructor at PAFA who was inexplicably assassinated when he answered his front door one evening. Despite many maddeningly tempting clues, his case remains unsolved nearly a century later.

Jacqueline & Emily Powell: When a Mother Kills Oct 05, 2026

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ABC:LHS 091-4 Jacqueline Powell...

...was only 10 years old when her mother Emily Lippincott Powell shot her in sleep and then tried to take her own life. Emily spent the rest of her life in Friends Hospital.

George Boehm: Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘em Oct 04, 2026

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ABC:LHS 091-3 George Boehm...

...was a workman on the Baldwin floor in 1870 when a quarrel with a co-worker led to his own death from a crushed skull and his assailant's trial and imprisonment. This segment walks you through the justice system of 1870s Philadelphia.

Roy Wilson White: Three Wrongs Don't Remake Roy White Oct 03, 2026

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ABC:LHS #091-2 Roy Wilson White...

...was a gifted young UPenn law instructor who in 1900 was robbed and killed near the campus. Drawing on contemporary newspapers and archival research, the podcast traces how racial panic, sensational reporting, coercive interrogation, and institutional pressure shaped the cases against Henry Ivory, Charles Perry, and Amos Stirling. The result is both a portrait of a promising life cut short and a cautionary account of how the demand for certainty can overwhelm justice.

S. Morris Waln: Red Dog Meets His Maker Oct 02, 2026

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ABC:LHS 091-1 Samuel Morris Waln...

...was a wealthy Philadelphian who spent his free time in the "wild west" each summer until he and his companion were murdered in their sleep by their cook and guide. A cross stands in his memory in Wyoming.

Murder Most Foul, Part 2; Five More Slain Philadelphians Oct 01, 2026

Show notes

ABC:LHS #091 Murder was part of the background noise in some areas of Philadelphia.

S. Morris Waln, born into one of Philadelphia’s founding families, was murdered by his guide and cook during an annual journey west. His stone at Laurel Hill is melting, while a monument in his honor still rises from the Wyoming plains.
Roy Wilson White, a promising Penn Law scholar, was robbed and killed after an evening class. Three men were hanged for the crime—but how many were truly guilty?
Baldwin Locomotive Works employee George Boehm died after a violent shop-floor attack. The man accused of killing him traveled a long path through the courts, Moyamensing Prison, and Eastern State Penitentiary. Learn of that journey on October 4th.
Ten-year-old Jacqueline Powell was killed as she slept. Her mother, Emily, spent the rest of her life confined to an asylum for the crime. October 5th is the solo date for this one.
Landscape artist and PAFA instructor Frank Whiteside was shot and killed by a home intruder who took nothing. The case remains unsolved—or does it? Tune in October 6th to find out or keep listening right now as we dive into ABC:LHS #091.

(BONUS) A Cabinet of Memory: When a Museum Closes Sep 28, 2026

Show notes

Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences...

...was open to anyone who wished to meet dinosaurs, birds, shells, fossils and the people who studied them. Now its public doors are closed, and I have come to Laurel Hill East to break that news to more than 50 of the founders, presidents, curators, collectors and supporters buried here. As we walk from grave to grave, we will follow the Academy from a rented room in 1812 to an internationally important museum—and ask how so much accumulated trust reached such an uncertain moment. This will not be an indictment delivered from a distance, but a careful conversation about the people who devoted their lives to the institution. Welcome to A Cabinet of Memory.

From the Silver Streak to Baby Nukes Sep 15, 2026

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BBB:LHWS 060 Edward G. Budd and Rupen Eksergian...

...were design and structural engineers who forced the Age of Steam into the Modern Era with their iconic Silver Zephyr Diesel Electric car in 1934. Eksergian took his skills further during the Cold War when he was one of the people behind Atomic Annie, a mobile artillery piece with a nuclear warhead. Both men rest at Laurel Hill West.

Thomas E. Murphy: A Piece of the 1930s Phillies Sep 06, 2026

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ABC:LHS 090-5 Thomas E. Murphy ...

... knew virtually nothing about baseball, but found himself owning hundreds of shares of the Phillies during their horrible years of the 1920s and 1930s. He is remembered more as a yachtsman and a co-founder of Jupiter Island, Florida.

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