In the final episode of Bitter Blood, the violence that has been building beneath the surface finally erupts — leaving devastation in its wake.

Part 4 examines the murders that shocked the South, the investigation that unraveled years of secrecy, and the desperate final acts of Susie Lynch and Fritz Klenner as their carefully controlled world collapsed.

What began as resentment, paranoia, and shared belief escalated into a calculated series of killings spanning multiple families and generations. As law enforcement closed in, the couple’s conviction that they were justified — and untouchable — led to one final, horrifying decision that would claim the lives of innocent children.

This episode confronts the cost of silence, the danger of unchecked power, and the devastating consequences of confusing reputation with virtue.

Bitter Blood is not just a story about murder.
It is a story about what happens when no one intervenes — until it’s too late.

🎙️ This concludes the four-part Bitter Blood series. New listeners are strongly encouraged to begin with Part 1.

Support the show

✨Follow us on Social Media✨

Instagram ⁠⁠⁠@storyteller.pod⁠⁠⁠

TikTok ⁠⁠⁠@StorytellerPod⁠⁠⁠

Facebook ⁠⁠⁠@Storyteller Podcast⁠⁠⁠

✨⁠⁠Support the show⁠⁠✨

If you enjoy the stories we tell and want to help us keep bringing them to life, you can support the podcast here:

🔗 ⁠⁠https://www.buzzsprout.com/2535436/support⁠⁠

Every contribution goes directly back into the show — from research and recording to editing and equipment. Your support truly means the world to us and helps us continue sharing strange, mysterious, and unbelievable tales every week. Thank you for listening and being part of the Storyteller family.

✨🔮🕯

INTRO Music used : ...

In Part 3 of Bitter Blood, the lines between belief and behavior begin to disappear.

This episode explores the marriage between Susie Sharp and Fritz Klenner — and how two deeply ingrained worldviews fused into something far more dangerous than either could have created alone.

Susie was raised inside privilege, reputation, and rigid expectations. Fritz was raised under absolute authority, ideological extremism, and a belief in his own superiority. Together, they formed a closed system built on paranoia, resentment, and mutual reinforcement.

Rather than challenging one another, Susie and Fritz validated each other’s fears. Minor slights became major threats. Disagreements became betrayals. Outsiders became enemies.

Part 3 examines how isolation, shared grievance, and unchecked certainty can turn ordinary conflicts into justification for violence — long before a single crime is committed.

This is the episode where warning signs become impossible to ignore.

Because before the bloodshed…
before the investigation…
before the bodies…

There was agreement.

🎙️ Bitter Blood is a four-part series. Listeners are strongly encouraged to begin with Parts 1 and 2.

Support the show

✨Follow us on Social Media✨

Instagram ⁠⁠⁠@storyteller.pod⁠⁠⁠

TikTok ⁠⁠⁠@StorytellerPod⁠⁠⁠

Facebook ⁠⁠⁠@Storyteller Podcast⁠⁠⁠

✨⁠⁠Support the show⁠⁠✨

If you enjoy the stories we tell and want to help us keep bringing them to life, you can support the podcast here:

🔗 ⁠⁠https://www.buzzsprout.com/2535436/support⁠⁠

Every contribution goes directly back into the show — from research and recording to editing and equipment. Your support truly means the world to us and helps us continue sharing strange, mysterious, and unbelievable tales every week. Thank you for listening and being part of the Storyteller family.

✨🔮🕯

INTRO Music used : ...

In Part 2 of Bitter Blood, we step away from the first murders and travel backward — into the history of a powerful Southern family whose legacy would help shape one of the most disturbing true crime cases in American history.

This episode introduces the Sharp family of North Carolina: respected, educated, and deeply influential. From a celebrated lawyer and politician to children who became doctors, judges, and public servants, the Sharps appeared to embody success, morality, and Southern respectability.

But behind the polished reputation was a rigid belief system built on control, superiority, and silence.

At the center of this chapter is Dr. Frederick Klenner — a brilliant, controversial physician whose extreme views, unchecked authority, and obsession with power left a lasting mark on his family, especially his son, Fritz. Raised in isolation and immersed in apocalyptic thinking, conspiracy, and absolute obedience, Fritz would grow up believing he was destined for something greater — and more dangerous — than ordinary life.

Part 2 is not just backstory. It’s the psychological and ideological foundation of the violence to come.

Because before the bloodshed, before the headlines, and before nine people lost their lives…there were beliefs that made it all feel justified.

🎙️ Bitter Blood is a four-part series. New listeners are strongly encouraged to start with Part 1.

Support the show

✨Follow us on Social Media✨

Instagram ⁠⁠⁠@storyteller.pod⁠⁠⁠

TikTok ⁠⁠⁠@StorytellerPod⁠⁠⁠

Facebook ⁠⁠⁠@Storyteller Podcast⁠⁠⁠

✨⁠⁠Support the show⁠⁠✨

If you enjoy the stories we tell and want to help us keep bringing them to life, you can support the podcast here:

🔗 ⁠⁠https://www.buzzsprout.com/2535436/support⁠⁠

Every contribution goes directly back into the show — from research and recording to editing and equipment. Your support truly means the world to us and helps us continue sharing strange, mysterious, and unbelievable tales every week. Thank you for listening and being part of the Storyteller family.

✨🔮🕯

INTRO Music used : ...

Ready for a story that reads like a Southern Gothic crime drama...that is completely real?

Welcome to Part 1 of our multi part series where we are digging deep into a real-life murder case involving interconnected, prominent Southern families that ends with the deaths of NINE people.

In Part 1, we meet Delores Lynch. To her theater friends, she was bright, funny, and curious. But to her neighbors? She was the woman in the sun hat patrolling her property with a BB gun. To her husband, Chuck? She was the woman who sequestered him to the basement, refusing to even touch the same newspaper he had held.

"I wish he’d just die," she told a room full of people. And she said it with her whole chest.

But the real tragedy didn't happen in the basement. It happened in the summer of 1984.

A trail of blood thirty feet long. Two women dead. A family fortune left behind. And a lead investigator who was told one thing: “That family has a dark cloud in it somewhere. Find it, and you’ll find your answer.”

Welcome to the first chapter of a real southern gothic true crime story involving obsession, paranoia, and a chain of violence that no one saw coming.

This is the story of the Bitter Blood murders.

Are you ready to find out what was hiding behind those whispers?

Support the show

✨Follow us on Social Media✨

Instagram ⁠⁠⁠@storyteller.pod⁠⁠⁠

TikTok ⁠⁠⁠@StorytellerPod⁠⁠⁠

Facebook ⁠⁠⁠@Storyteller Podcast⁠⁠⁠

✨⁠⁠Support the show⁠⁠✨

If you enjoy the stories we tell and want to help us keep bringing them to life, you can support the podcast here:

🔗 ⁠⁠https://www.buzzsprout.com/2535436/support⁠⁠

Every contribution goes directly back into the show — from research and recording to editing and equipment. Your support truly means the world to us and helps us continue sharing strange, mysterious, and unbelievable tales every week. Thank you for listening and being part of the Storyteller family.

✨🔮🕯

INTRO Music used : ...

In this episode of Storyteller, we unravel the incredible life of Alice Roosevelt, daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt and one of the most fascinating women of the early 20th century.

If you love stories of powerful women, political drama, historical rebellion, and sharp wit, you won’t want to miss this deep dive into one of America’s most iconic figures.

INTRO Music used : " SINISTER " composed and produced by "Vivek Abhishek"

Music link : https://youtu.be/s7_oukTEFrc

SUBSCRIBE us on YOUTUBE: https://bit.ly/3qumnPH

Follow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/33RWRtP

Follow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/2ImU2JV

References:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alice-Roosevelt-Longworth

https://www.whitehousehistory.org/alice-roosevelt-longworth-presidential-daughter-and-american-celebrity

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/from-a-white-house-wedding-to-a-pet-snake-alice-roosevelts-escapades-captivated-america-180981139/

https://reagan.blogs.archives.gov/2023/04/17/white-house-kids-series-alice-roosevelt-longworth/

https://www.whitehousehistory.org/digital-archives/exhibits/something-old-something-new-eight-first-daughters-fashionable-white-house-weddings/alice-roosevelt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Roosevelt_Longworth

https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-roosevelts/

Support the show

✨Follow us on Social Media✨

Instagram ⁠⁠⁠@storyteller.pod⁠⁠⁠

TikTok ⁠⁠⁠@StorytellerPod⁠⁠⁠

Facebook ⁠⁠⁠@Storyteller Podcast⁠⁠⁠

✨⁠⁠Support the show⁠⁠✨

If you enjoy the stories we tell and want to help us keep bringing them to life, you can support the podcast here:

🔗 ⁠⁠https://www.buzzsprout.com/2535436/support⁠⁠

Every contribution goes directly back into the show — from research and recording to editing and equipment. Your support truly means the world to us and helps us continue sharing strange, mysterious, and unbelievable tales every week. Thank you for listening and being part of the Storyteller family.

✨🔮🕯

INTRO Music used : ...

Welcome to a special BONUS episode of Storyteller with our lovely guest host- DES!!!!❤️🎄

"He sees you when you're sleeping..." and in some cultures, he's bringing a birch rod and a sack to kidnap you. ⛓️👹

This episode, Storyteller is going deep into the "Dark Side of Christmas." We’re breaking down 12 of the creepiest creatures from international folklore that make the Grinch look like a saint. Whether it’s the chaotic Kallikantzaroi goblins of Greece or the terrifying Wild Hunt screaming across the European sky, these legends prove that for centuries, winter wasn't cozy—it was a season of survival and supernatural judgment.

The Spookmas List includes:

1. Krampus: Santa’s demonic shadow.
2. The Yule Cat: Iceland's giant, man-eating tabby.
3. Gryla: The ogress who makes children-stew.
4. The Mari Lwyd: The Welsh skeletal horse.
5. Hans Trapp: The scarecrow-villain of France.
6. Plus 7 more festive nightmares!

If your seasonal depression feels like it needs some historical validation, this is the episode for you.

Love the show? Rate us 5 stars and follow for more deep dives into the stories that haunt our history.

🎅Music used : "JINGLE BELLS ." composed and produced by "Vivek Abhishek"Music link :https://youtu.be/mP1Er3W6Zk8SUBSCRIBE us on YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/VivEKhsihbAFollow on Facebook : https://bit.ly/33RWRtPFollow on Instagram : ⁠https://bit.ly/2ImU2JV⁠

🎅Music used : " SINISTER " composed and produced by "Vivek Abhishek"Music link : https://youtu.be/s7_oukTEFrcSUBSCRIBE us on YOUTUBE: https://bit.ly/3qumnPHFollow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/33RWRtPFollow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/2ImU2JV

Support the show

✨Follow us on Social Media✨

Instagram ⁠⁠⁠@storyteller.pod⁠⁠⁠

TikTok ⁠⁠⁠@StorytellerPod⁠⁠⁠

Facebook ⁠⁠⁠@Storyteller Podcast⁠⁠⁠

✨⁠⁠Support the show⁠⁠✨

If you enjoy the stories we tell and want to help us keep bringing them to life, you can support the podcast here:

🔗 ⁠⁠https://www.buzzsprout.com/2535436/support⁠⁠

Every contribution goes directly back into the show — from research and recording to editing and equipment. Your support truly means the world to us and helps us continue sharing strange, mysterious, and unbelievable tales every week. Thank you for listening and being part of the Storyteller family.

✨🔮🕯

INTRO Music used : ...

The darkest secret kept for the holidays...

In December 1987, Ronald Gene Simmons, a decorated former U.S. military serviceman, enacted the deadliest case of familicide in American history—a horrific rampage spanning a week in rural Arkansas that claimed the lives of 16 people, including 14 members of his own immediate family.

Join us as we trace the footsteps of a monster who turned the holiday season into an unimaginable scene of horror.

References:

Ronald Gene Simmons | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

Horrific Crimes of Ronald Gene Simmons – Killing Spree – True Crime Weekly

Ronald Gene Simmons Killed 16 People — 14 Of Them Were His Family

Stone Gardens: Ronald Gene Simmons - The story of the most prolific familial mass murderer in Arkansas history

Simmons, Ronald Gene - Encyclopedia of Arkansas

Ronald Gene Simmons - Wikipedia

🎅Music used : "JINGLE BELLS ." composed and produced by "Vivek Abhishek"Music link :https://youtu.be/mP1Er3W6Zk8SUBSCRIBE us on YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/VivEKhsihbAFollow on Facebook : https://bit.ly/33RWRtPFollow on Instagram : https://bit.ly/2ImU2JV

🎅Music used : " SINISTER " composed and produced by "Vivek Abhishek"Music link : https://youtu.be/s7_oukTEFrcSUBSCRIBE us on YOUTUBE: https://bit.ly/3qumnPHFollow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/33RWRtPFollow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/2ImU2JV

Support the show

✨Follow us on Social Media✨

Instagram ⁠⁠⁠@storyteller.pod⁠⁠⁠

TikTok ⁠⁠⁠@StorytellerPod⁠⁠⁠

Facebook ⁠⁠⁠@Storyteller Podcast⁠⁠⁠

✨⁠⁠Support the show⁠⁠✨

If you enjoy the stories we tell and want to help us keep bringing them to life, you can support the podcast here:

🔗 ⁠⁠https://www.buzzsprout.com/2535436/support⁠⁠

Every contribution goes directly back into the show — from research and recording to editing and equipment. Your support truly means the world to us and helps us continue sharing strange, mysterious, and unbelievable tales every week. Thank you for listening and being part of the Storyteller family.

✨🔮🕯

INTRO Music used : ...

Christmas in Texas was supposed to be peaceful in 1927… until Santa walked into a bank and everything went to hell. What started as a harmless holiday costume turned into gunfire, chaos, and the biggest manhunt the state had ever seen.

In this episode, we dig into the unbelievable true story of the Santa Claus Bank Robbery—where a gang of ex-cons, a stolen car, and one very un-jolly Santa turned a small-town Christmas into pure pandemonium.

References

⁠https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/santa-claus-bank-robbery⁠

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus_Bank_Robbery/

https://www.fwweekly.com/2007/12/26/santa-got-a-gun-and-a-rope/

🧑‍🎄Music used : "JINGLE BELLS ." composed and produced by "Vivek Abhishek"Music link :https://youtu.be/mP1Er3W6Zk8SUBSCRIBE us on YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/VivEKhsihbAFollow on Facebook : https://bit.ly/33RWRtPFollow on Instagram : https://bit.ly/2ImU2JV-

🎄Music used : " SINISTER " composed and produced by "Vivek Abhishek"Music link : https://youtu.be/s7_oukTEFrcSUBSCRIBE us on YOUTUBE: https://bit.ly/3qumnPHFollow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/33RWRtPFollow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/2ImU2JV----------------------------------------------------------------------

Support the show

✨Follow us on Social Media✨

Instagram ⁠⁠⁠@storyteller.pod⁠⁠⁠

TikTok ⁠⁠⁠@StorytellerPod⁠⁠⁠

Facebook ⁠⁠⁠@Storyteller Podcast⁠⁠⁠

✨⁠⁠Support the show⁠⁠✨

If you enjoy the stories we tell and want to help us keep bringing them to life, you can support the podcast here:

🔗 ⁠⁠https://www.buzzsprout.com/2535436/support⁠⁠

Every contribution goes directly back into the show — from research and recording to editing and equipment. Your support truly means the world to us and helps us continue sharing strange, mysterious, and unbelievable tales every week. Thank you for listening and being part of the Storyteller family.

✨🔮🕯

INTRO Music used : ...