Baby John: The Boy Who Lived Through Fire - Part 1
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In 1907, a judge’s home in Oakland, CA was blown apart by a homemade bomb. For months, the case went unsolved — until a trail of clues led not to a hardened criminal, but to a sixteen-year-old boy known as “Baby John.”
Episode 1 uncovers the hidden truth behind that headline: Baby John was not a prodigy of crime, but a child raised in isolation and fear under the control of Isabella J. Martin, one of the most destructive women in California’s early legal history.
This chapter follows the path that brought him into Isabella Martin's unforgiving grip and uncovers what his childhood was really like. We explore his origins and see his "mother" escalate in her thirst for more and more. Nothing was ever good enough for her—especially not Baby John.
Vintage ads featured:
- Sexol, 1894
- American Fuel Co., 1908
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