159: The Worst Woman on Earth & a Cruise Ship

Let's Go To Court!

Brandi starts us off with a story about a serial killer who the New York Times dubbed, “the worst woman on Earth.” In 1889, Lizzie Brown took a job working as a housekeeper for a 70-year-old farmer named Paul Halliday. Paul quickly proposed to Lizzie, but he’d come to regret that decision. As it turned out, Lizzie Brown wasn’t her real name. Soon, the Halliday’s barn burned down. So did the family home. Paul’s adult son, John, died in the blaze. Neighbors suspected Lizzie had something to do with the fires.

Then Kristin tells us about the cruise from hell. “The Island Escape” is a no-frills cruise ship that sails the Mediterranean. It’s a converted ferryboat that caters to budget travelers and offers balconies that -- unlike most other cruise ships -- hang over the water. Nonetheless, this was the cruise that attorney Lonnie Kocontes selected when he wanted to woo his ex-wife, Micki Kanesaki.

And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.

In this episode, Kristin pulled from:

The “Open Water” episode of Dateline

“Irvine attorney convicted in ex-wife’s cruise ship murder,” NBC Los Angeles

‘Almost Got Away With the Perfect Crime': Attorney Gets Life in Prison for Ex-Wife's Cruise Ship Murder,” NBC Los Angeles

“Former lawyer convicted of murdering ex-wife on cruise, tossing her overboard,” by Amanda Woods for the New York Post

In this episode, Brandi pulled from:

“The Worst Woman on Earth” Murder by Gaslight

“True Crime: The Worst Woman on Earth” by Kieran W, Medium

“She Was Crazy About Killing by Mara Bovsun, New York Daily News

“Lizzie Brown Halliday: The Worst Woman on Earth” by David Levine, Hudson Valley Magazine

“Lizzie Halliday’s Trial” Buffalo Weekly Express, newspapers.com

“Mrs. Halliday Convicted” Lancaster Intelligencer, newspapers.com

“Lizzie Halliday” wikipedia.org

YOU’RE STILL READING? My, my, my, you skeezy scunch! You must be hungry for more! We’d offer you some sausage brunch, but that gets messy. So how about you head over to our Patreon instead? (patreon.com/lgtcpodcast). At the $5 level, you’ll get 19+ full length bonus episodes, plus access to our 90’s style chat room!