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Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast

Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast

Historical true crime. Seasonal investigations.

Shane WatersWendy Cee

Hosted by Shane Waters & Wendy Cee

323 episodesSerial

Latest Episode

1898 America: The Burning of Baker, McGeisey & Sampson

Foul Play · Series 40

1898 America: The Burning of Baker, McGeisey & Sampson

Season 40: America's 250th Anniversary -- 50 states, 25 double-feature episodes. Two fires burned in 1898 America. One in South Carolina, where a mob murdered a Black postmaster and his two-year-old daughter. One in Indian Territory, where a mob burned two Seminole teenagers alive. Both cases reached federal court. Neither delivered justice. Frazier Baker held a federal appointment. Lincoln McGeisey and Palmer Sampson were teenagers with no connection to the crime they died for. The federal government proved it could indict in both cases. What it could not do -- or chose not to do -- was convict. This is the story of 1898, when America showed exactly what it was willing to tolerate. The Victims Frazier Baker was born around 1857 in Effingham, Florence County, South Carolina. He became a schoolteacher, then a postmaster. On July 30, 1897, the McKinley administration appointed him the first Black postmaster of Lake City, Williamsburg County. He and his wife Lavinia had six children: Rosa, Cora, Lincoln, Sarah, Millie, and the youngest, Julia, who was two years old in the winter of 1898. Baker refused to abandon his federal post despite threats, a shooting, an arson, and a boycott. He stayed. Lincoln McGeisey was fifteen or sixteen years old. His father, Thomas McGeisey, was the superintendent of the Seminole Nation's public schools and was in Washington, D.C., negotiating on behalf of his people when the mob took his son. Lincoln had four siblings -- Martha, Nora, William, and James -- and had never been in trouble. Palmer Sampson was also a teenager, the son of Sukey Natuksie and Sampson Walker. Congress formally exonerated both young men within six months of their deaths, declaring them innocent before a single defendant stood trial. The Crimes On February 22, 1898, at approximately 1:00 in the morning, a mob surrounded Frazier Baker's home in Lake City, South Carolina -- which also served as the post office. They set fire to the building and fired approximately one hundred bullets into the structure while the Baker family was inside. Frazier Baker was killed. Two-year-old Julia Baker died from a bullet that passed through her mother Lavinia's forearm. Three more Baker children survived with gunshot wounds. On January 8, 1898, shortly after 2:00 in the morning, Lincoln McGeisey and Palmer Sampson were chained to trees at the Maud tabernacle in Indian Territory. A minister named Andrew J. Mathis prayed over them, then set fire to the dry brush heaped around them. A crowd numbering in the hundreds watched. Three white Protestant ministers were documented as present. Neither teenager had been formally charged, brought before any legal authority, or connected by evidence to the murder of Mary Leard, the crime the mob claimed to be avenging. The Investigation In March 1898, journalist and anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett organized a delegation to the White House, meeting President McKinley. She was the sole woman in a group that included eight Illinois congressmen. She demanded federal action and a federal anti-lynching law. In the Baker case, thirteen men were indicted on twenty-four criminal counts in April 1899. Joseph P. Newham testified under immunity, admitting in open court that he personally started the fire. An all-white jury in Charleston, South Carolina, acquitted three defendants outright and deadlocked on the remaining eight. The judge declared a mistrial. No one was ever convicted for the murder of Frazier Baker or Julia Baker. In the Seminole burning case, more than fifty people were indicted. Fifty-four were tried. The prosecution succeeded in convicting six individuals, including Nelson M. Jones, a former Deputy U.S. Marshal whose federal status made the prosecution legally viable, and Andrew J. Mathis, the minister who set the fire. It was the first successful prosecution of lynchers in the American Southwest. When convicted mob member Mont Ballard returned to Maud after serving seven years, the town threw him a celebration. Historical Context 1898 was a year of organized racial terror across America. The Wilmington Massacre rewrote the political map of North Carolina. The Curtis Act dissolved Seminole tribal government. Federal prosecutors proved the system could work -- and then the system refused to deliver results. The United States did not pass a federal anti-lynching law until March 29, 2022, when the Emmett Till Antilynching Act was signed into law -- one hundred and twenty-four years after Frazier Baker and Julia Baker were killed. Ida B. Wells-Barnett demanded that law in 1898. She died in 1931 without seeing it. Lavinia Baker moved her family to Boston, later returned to South Carolina, and died in 1947. The Lake City post office was renamed in honor of Frazier B. Baker on February 22, 2019. There is no major public memorial to Lincoln McGeisey or Palmer Sampson. Our Sponsors: * Check out Kensington Publishing: https://www.kensingtonbooks.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

September 29, 2026·35m

About Foul Play: A Historical True Crime Podcast

Foggy gaslit streets. A quiet courtroom. And crimes that history tried to bury.

Foul Play is a historical true crime podcast that investigates the most chilling murder cases from the 1800s and early 1900s across the United States and the United Kingdom. Hosted by investigative crime journalists Shane Waters — who pioneered crime podcasting in 2008 — and Wendy Cee, each season unravels one complete criminal case through original research, court records, and primary source material.

This isn't sensationalized true crime. Every season of Foul Play puts victims first — their names, their stories, their humanity — before examining how murder investigations unfolded in an era before modern forensics, when justice was far from guaranteed.

From Victorian poisoners in London to Gilded Age killers in America, Foul Play brings historical true crime to life with cinematic storytelling and relentless accuracy. Every fact is verified. Every claim is sourced. Every story is told with the gravity it deserves.

New seasons of this historical true crime podcast release throughout the year, with episodes dropping weekly on Tuesdays.

Hello, friend. Welcome to Foul Play.

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Current Series: 40

14 episodes

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Classic Foul Play Archive

252 episodes across 34 series

Series 35

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Series 34

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Series 33

25 episodes · March 6, 2024

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Series 32

3 episodes · February 14, 2024

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Series 31

2 episodes · January 31, 2024

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Series 30

1 episodes · January 10, 2024

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Series 28

3 episodes · November 15, 2023

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Series 27

2 episodes · November 1, 2023

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Series 26

3 episodes · October 4, 2023

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Series 25

2 episodes · September 13, 2023

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Series 24

2 episodes · August 23, 2023

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Series 23

2 episodes · August 2, 2023

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Series 22

3 episodes · July 5, 2023

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Series 21

2 episodes · June 13, 2023

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Series 20

4 episodes · May 17, 2023

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Series 19

3 episodes · April 12, 2023

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Series 18

3 episodes · March 22, 2023

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Series 17

3 episodes · March 1, 2023

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Series 16

3 episodes · February 1, 2023

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Series 15

8 episodes · December 4, 2022

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Series 14

3 episodes · November 2, 2022

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Series 13

5 episodes · September 28, 2022

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Series 12

4 episodes · August 31, 2022

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Series 11

4 episodes · July 6, 2022

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Series 10

3 episodes · May 25, 2022

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Series 9

4 episodes · April 13, 2022

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Series 8

3 episodes · April 1, 2022

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Series 7

3 episodes · February 2, 2022

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Series 6

5 episodes · April 25, 2021

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Series 5

4 episodes · February 24, 2021

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Series 4

2 episodes · January 13, 2021

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Series 3

20 episodes · April 7, 2020

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Series 2

95 episodes · September 17, 2018

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Series 1

9 episodes · January 2, 2014

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Specials & Bonus Episodes

32 episodes

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Meet the Hosts

Shane Waters

Shane Waters

Founder & Host

Investigative crime journalist who pioneered crime podcasting in 2008. Shane brings nearly two decades of storytelling experience and a deep commitment to giving victims' stories the rigor and respect they deserve.

Wendy Cee

Wendy Cee

Co-Host

Wendy's personal experience as a family member of a murdered victim allows her to complement her sharp commentary with emotional depth in her storytelling.

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