Episodes

Late in the morning of August 15th, the coffee shop at the Ramada Inn was still busy serving breakfast. The restaurant's manager Roberta Plank was working the cash register. The Ramada Inn's general manager, Warren Bruce, pop...

There are a lot of rumors out there floating around about the historic Padre Hotel in downtown Bakersfield. Many of them are 100 percent false. Most of these stories aren't based on any evidence whatsoever. These rumors have ...

Other than Col. Thomas Baker, who Bakersfield was named after, George and Julius Chester, who Chester Ave is named after, and Country music stars Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, I can't think of another name more closely associ...

In 1984, fast-moving fire in a hardware store in Pasadena killed four people. In January of 1987, a string of fires broke out in several different retail stores in the California Central Valley...two in Bakersfield, two store...

There's no denying that It's unusual for a newspaper to give a prison inmate a platform to share commentary and opinions. But that's what The Bakersfield Californian did in the early 1970s. Management at the Californian was s...

In 1972 a seven-year-old boy named Steven Stayner was abducted while he walked home from school in Merced, CA. His case drug on and went unsolved for so long, most people gave up any hope that Steven would ever be found alive...

I'm taking this week off for the holidays. I'll be back next Tuesday-next year-with a new Notorious Bakersfield episode. Until then, here's is an earlier Notorious Bakersfield episode. Have a safe and happy New Year! If you'...

During Christmas 1984 through to the New Year, the faithful and curious alike flocked to an East Bakersfield home to view what some claimed to be that of an apparition of the Virgin Mary. This is the story about The Virgin Ma...

In 1989, Kenneth Obney and a companion were ambushed by an assailant wearing a Santa costume in the parking lot of a Denny's restaurant in Bakersfield. If you'd like to support the Notorious Bakersfield podcast, you can buy m...

In the previous episode of the Notorious Bakersfield podcast, you learned about Rudy "Cheyenne" Cadena's crimes, his rise in the ranks of the Mexican Mafia, and his assassination. For this episode, you'll learn about the 1975...

Edward James Olmos starred in and directed the 1992 movie American Me. The opening title card of the film says it was “inspired by a true story.” The lead character played by Olmos is named Montoya Santana. Everything written...

For 76 years, the last Thursday of November was the official Thanksgiving holiday...until 1939...when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed the Thursday before the last Thursday of November would be the official Than...

In 1971, 9-year-old Eddie Owen watched from his bedroom window as his father Everett got in his pickup truck. As soon as Everett turned the key in the ignition, the bomb detonated. Over 50 years later and this case remains u...

In episode 22, Notorious Bakersfield brought you the story of a 5-year-old girl who was abandoned on the side of a freeway south Bakersfield in 1969. Her name was Jody. For this episode, for the first time in 52 years, Jody ...

In October 1969, a little girl named Jody was abandoned on the freeway south of Bakersfield. Officials didn't have a lot to go to positively identify her. When her story ran in newspapers and broadcast on local TV news progr...

For this episode of the Notorious Bakersfield podcast, I'm going to take a look back at how the people of Bakersfield responded to the 1938 radio adaptation of "War of the Worlds". This is considered one of the biggest Hallow...

Just before dawn on March 9, 1972, Daniel Fusselman, a 49-year-old unemployed bartender sat in his car, outside his estranged wife Priscilla's house in Park Stockdale. She was working the graveyard shift at a downtown Bakersf...

Whenever a violent crime occurs at a well-known institution in a community, the community takes notice-people pay attention. And that's certainly what happened when 24-year-old Bakersfield College student Frances Lorine Brown...

In Bakersfield and feeling the Halloween spirit? Load your friends and family into your car and take them on the creepiest ride of their lives. The Notorious Bakersfield Halloween Tour is a self-paced audio driving tour to so...

Wiley Dorris was one of the most respected criminal defense attorneys in Bakersfield. If you found yourself on the wrong side of the law, Wiley was the guy you wanted in your corner. But overshadowing his courtroom triumphs, ...

The 1990 abduction and murder of 4-year-old Jessica Martinez remains one of Bakersfield's most notorious mysteries. If you have any information regarding Jessica Martinez's murder, please call the Bakersfield Police Departmen...

William Compton, a 76-year-old cancer patient, was murdered in his home in 1993. The first Bakersfield Police detectives to investigate the murder tentatively and wrongly determined the elderly man committed suicide. Despite ...

28-year-old Matthew Dale Odom was assaulted and stabbed in his front yard in the early morning hours of September 15, 2014. The father of four later died at the hospital from his injuries. The seven-year anniversary of this c...

Ralph Smith Jr was a prominent Bakersfield home builder, real estate developer, and broker. He built many of the homes in Bakersfield's now well-established neighborhoods. In 1966, he and his family were living at 275 Panoram...