About this episode
In the final chapter of The Silent Killers Trilogy, Malice in the Mitten turns its focus to Michigan women whose stories disappeared entirely. These were not famous cases. Many never became cases at all. Recorded as illness, misfortune, or family tragedy, their deaths were quietly absorbed into history without investigation or remembrance.
This episode explores how unnamed women, unexamined deaths, and institutional blind spots allowed patterns of violence to repeat — and what it means when silence replaces accountability. This is not a story about spectacle. It’s a story about absence, and the cost of not looking closely enough.
Detroit Free Press. Early 20th-Century Crime Briefs and Obituaries. Detroit Free Press Archives.
Michigan State Archives. County Death Records and Caregiver-Related Mortality Reports (Pre-Regulation Era).
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Historical Death Certification Practices in Michigan. State of Michigan.
Vronsky, Peter. Female Serial Killers. Berkley Books, 2007.
Walker, Samuel. Sense and Nonsense About Crime. Wadsworth Publishing, 2010.
Rafter, Nicole Hahn. Creating Born Criminals. University of Illinois Press, 1997.
#MaliceInTheMitten #SilentKillers #ForgottenMichigan
Written, Produced & Narrated by Tracy Preston
Co-Host Christine Mulligan
Research Support & Archival Review: Silas
Original artwork by Todd Preston
