A murder with everything

Hamilton, Ohio – A love triangle. Sex. Murder. False confessions. Political intrigue.

Nope, not a plot summary for the long-running Broadway musical hit Chicago or the latest Lifetime Movie Network original thriller. But it’s an easy mistake.

Instead, it’s the story of Edythe Klumpp, a Cincinnati seamstress and night school home economics teacher who became the central figure in one of the region’s most sensational mid-century scandals.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Amber Hunt and Amanda Rossmann break down the case during their February 28 Fitton Showstoppers event – Crimes of the Centuries: A Live Podcast Recording.

Hunt – an investigative reporter – and Rossmann – a photojournalist – launched their first true-crime podcast, Accused, in 2016 while working at the Cincinnati Enquirer. The following year, they helped earn the 2017 Pulitzer for local reporting with the Enquirer’s coverage of the opioid crisis.

The first season of their podcast examined the Butler County case of Elizabeth Andes, found dead in her Oxford apartment just days after graduating from Miami University in 1978.

Accused reached #1 on iTunes, garnered more than 50 million downloads over its four-season run and won a couple of regional Edward R. Murrow Awards.

All with no previous recording experience.

“We had to teach ourselves how to do it,” Hunt said. “We recorded in a closet at first.”

“We ended up teaching everybody (at the Enquirer),” Rossmann said. “It became our thing and we’ve gotten pretty good at telling stories in this format.”

Hunt began the Crimes of the Centuries podcast independent from the paper in late 2020. Now in its fifth season, it takes single-episode deep dives on a variety of lesser-known cases today that were shocking, bold-face headline grabbers in their time.

The Klumpp case fit the bill. Nearly 70 years after the 1958 murder of Louise Bergen, questions still linger about the woman dubbed The Torch Killer.

“I hope (guests and listeners) can appreciate how different a crime can look when you put it in historical context,” Hunt said. “Which parts of a case still hold up under modern scrutiny?”

The audience gets a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the creation of the podcast. Hunt serves as host while Rossmann handles the technical chores. After the recording is complete, they’ll discuss the true-crime phenomenon and answer audience-submitted questions.

Tickets to Crimes of the Centuries are $41 for Fitton Center member, $51 for non-members, and are available online here, by phone at 513-863-8873, ext. 110 or in person at the Fitton Center box office.

The Fitton Center for Creative Arts is located at 101 S. Monument Avenue on the Riverfront in downtown Hamilton, Ohio.

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