# Death in the West Podcast
> Death in the West, a history and true crime podcast about the American West
Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. This file includes a bounded export of public pages first, then recent public posts.
Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`).
## Pages
### About Death in the West
URL: https://www.deathinthewestpod.com/about/
Last updated: 2026-06-23T13:56:13.000Z
Death in the West is an award-winning, independently-produced podcast about the history of the American West and its strange crimes and intrigues. We have produced two seasons – Season 1, “The Murder of Frank Little” and Season 2, “Skyjack!” – as well as a one-off, live recorded episode ("The Murder of Maurice Higgins"). 

## Meet the Team

### Chad Dundas

Chad Dundas is a journalist, novelist and podcaster. He’s the author of the acclaimed novels *Champion of the World* (2016) and *The Blaze* (2020). *Champion of the World* was a 2016 Boston Globe Best Book of the Year as well as a finalist for the David J. Langum Sr. Prize for Historical Fiction and Reading the West Book Awards. His short fiction has appeared in the *Beloit Fiction Journal*, *Sycamore Review*, *Sou’Wester* and *Thuglit*. He lives in Missoula, Montana with his wife and children.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/85/85/858507aa-95f8-4443-8cae-b0fe13133916/content/images/2026/06/chad-dundas-2-1-1.jpg)

### Erika Fredrickson

Erika Fredrickson is co-founder of *The Pulp*, a local independent nonprofit news organization launched in fall 2023 and based in Missoula, Montana. Before co-founding *The Pulp*, she spent a decade as the arts editor and an award-winning features writer for the *Missoula Independent* — the alt-weekly newspaper that was a fixture of Missoula's cultural life until its closure in 2018\. She is also speaker for Humanities Montana and has written for *Montana Free Press, High Country News*, and other publications.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/85/85/858507aa-95f8-4443-8cae-b0fe13133916/content/images/2026/06/erika-fredrickson-1.jpg)

### Leif Fredrickson

Leif Fredrickson is the Director of Public History in the History Department at the University of Montana. He is a historian of modern America, the environment, cities, and technology. His scholarly research has won several major national awards. As a public historian he has created, led and coordinated digital exhibits, walking tours, policy analysis, oral history collections, among other projects. His public writing has appeared in *The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Conversation*, and *The Hill*.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/85/85/858507aa-95f8-4443-8cae-b0fe13133916/content/images/2026/06/leif-recording-1-1.jpg)

### Zach Dundas

Zach Dundas is an editor and writer, born and raised in Montana, based in Portland, Oregon. He currently serves as editor-in-chief at Wildsam, a travel and culture publisher, where he oversees editorial strategy and operations for an acclaimed book series, a quarterly print magazine and a digital publishing program. Before joining Wildsam in 2019, he worked as editor-in-chief at *Portland Monthly*, an award-winning urban magazine; earlier in his career, he covered a diverse array of beats as a reporter for Portland’s *Willamette Week* and *The Missoula Independent.* In addition to his staff roles, he’s authored two nonfiction books: *The Renegade Sportsman* (Riverhead, 2010) and *The Great Detective* (HMH, 2015). 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/85/85/858507aa-95f8-4443-8cae-b0fe13133916/content/images/2026/06/zach-dundas-1-1-1.jpg)

---
## Posts
### Episode 10: Butte/America
URL: https://www.deathinthewestpod.com/episode-10-butte-america/
Last updated: 2026-06-23T19:57:39.000Z
In the final episode of season one, we examine Frank Little’s legacy a century after his death and hear the theories of his murder from leading experts. Plus, one final trip to Butte, Montana, as locals grapple with the mining town’s past, present and future.

For episode transcripts, go here: [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7](https://web.archive.org/web/20250115032110/https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7).
### Episode 9: Why Copper is Red
URL: https://www.deathinthewestpod.com/episode-9-why-copper-is-red/
Last updated: 2026-06-23T18:45:33.000Z
In episode nine, after two years interviewing experts and sifting through the evidence, we present our best theory of who killed Frank Little. We also spend some quality time with the rogues gallery of crooked cops, seedy businessmen, company gunmen, corporate lawyers and patriotic vigilantes who’ve been linked to the murder over the years.

For episode transcripts, go here: [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7](https://web.archive.org/web/20250115013008/https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7).
### Episode 8: Theories
URL: https://www.deathinthewestpod.com/episode-8-theories/
Last updated: 2026-06-23T18:44:35.000Z
In episode eight, we begin to comb through the many theories surrounding Frank Little’s unsolved murder and meet some of the case’s most colorful researchers. Plus, after Little’s death, the federal government cracks down on the IWW.

For episode transcripts, go here: [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7](https://web.archive.org/web/20241209000432/https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7).
### Episode 7: Tinder Box
URL: https://www.deathinthewestpod.com/episode-7-tinder-box/
Last updated: 2026-06-23T18:43:25.000Z
In episode seven, Frank Little arrives in Butte, Montana where, after 13 days of hell-raising speeches and furious organizing, he’s murdered by unknown assassins. The Death in the West team invades the sixth floor of the Hennessy Building and reports from what was once the nerve center of the Anaconda Company.

For episode transcripts, go here: [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7](https://web.archive.org/web/20250115023558/https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7).
### Episode 6: The Desert
URL: https://www.deathinthewestpod.com/episode-6-the-desert/
Last updated: 2026-06-23T18:42:02.000Z
In episode six, America dives into WWI and conflicts between workers and their bosses reach a fever pitch across the West. The physical toll of multiple beatings begins to weigh on Frank Little as he travels from Arizona to Chicago and finally to Butte, Montana during the final days of his life.

For episode transcripts, go here: [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7](https://web.archive.org/web/20241209013708/https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7).
### Episode 5: The Message
URL: https://www.deathinthewestpod.com/episode-5-the-message/
Last updated: 2026-06-23T18:40:48.000Z
In episode five, Montana’s Copper Kings do battle in court, the state legislature, the press and even the underground tunnels of Butte’s mines. Frank Little assumes a leadership role during the IWW’s free speech fight in towns across the West.

For episode transcripts, go here: [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7](https://web.archive.org/web/20210506013127/https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7).
### Episode 4: A Western War
URL: https://www.deathinthewestpod.com/episode-4-a-western-war/
Last updated: 2026-06-23T18:39:47.000Z
In episode four, a brazen bombing kills Idaho’s ex-governor, and the ensuing rift in the labor movement puts Frank Little on a collision course with history. Plus, Zach and Leif go 100 feet down a mine called Orphan Girl to see what life was like for Butte, Montana’s underground workers.

For episode transcripts, go here: [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7](https://web.archive.org/web/20241209013438/https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7).
### Episode 3: The Black Heart of Montana
URL: https://www.deathinthewestpod.com/episode-3-the-black-heart-of-montana/
Last updated: 2026-06-23T18:38:38.000Z
In episode three, the DITW team visits a vintage, prohibition-era speakeasy and learns how Butte, Montana’s massive underground copper deposits transformed it from a mining camp to an urbanized center of wealth and power. In Oklahoma, the Little’s family’s dream of homesteading hits rock bottom.

For episode transcripts, go here: [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7](https://web.archive.org/web/20241209000710/https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7).
### Episode 2: Poisonville
URL: https://www.deathinthewestpod.com/episode-2-poisonville/
Last updated: 2026-06-23T18:37:13.000Z
In episode two, the wildest city in the West gives Frank Little a grand funeral, but making the man a martyr leaves his real life largely unexplored. Meanwhile, what do a high-powered corporate attorney, a thuggish police 0detective and a hook-handed gunman have in common? They’ve all been implicated in Little’s murder over the years.

  
For episode transcripts, go here: [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7](https://web.archive.org/web/20241109215105/https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7).
### Episode 1: 3-7-77
URL: https://www.deathinthewestpod.com/episode-1-3-7-77/
Last updated: 2026-06-23T18:35:06.000Z
In episode one, we re-open the case of Frank Little, a union organizer whose brutal unsolved murder shocked the nation during the tumultuous summer of 1917\. Our team travels to the mining city of Butte, Montana and reconstructs the night of the crime, including using vintage maps to pinpoint the secluded site of Little’s murder.

For episode transcripts, go here: [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7](https://web.archive.org/web/20250209164445/https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14CGmKknaov2o9UNejGp20XpOYWOGVnF7).
### Introducing Season One: The Murder of Frank Little
URL: https://www.deathinthewestpod.com/introducing-season-one-the-murder-of-frank-little/
Last updated: 2026-06-23T18:48:28.000Z
On August 1, 1917, a union organizer named Frank Little was abducted and brutally murdered in the wild, high-mountain mining town of Butte, Montana. Though the forces behind the death seemed obvious, no one was ever arrested. The mystery around Little’s killing has swirled for more than 100 years. In season one of Death in the West, we’re reopening the case. Full episodes released beginning September 29, 2020.