BAD TOWN #7 BAD (LADY) BARBER TOWN

Nov 11

Bad (Lady) Barber Town

The Good Time Girls have teamed up with the ladies of The City of Subdued Podcast to bring you a season of the darkest, the most oppressive, the spookiest, and the baaaaaadest parts of Bellingham History!

In this week’s episode #7 BAD (LADY) BARBER TOWN we discuss a 1922 court case involving Bellingham’s “baddest” lady barber, Lorena Upper, accused of violating the “red light statute.”

For more information see our 2014 blog post: https://bellinghistory.com/blog/2014/7/9/3dbl9umzrrdsl7lugkb44upetrn42e

You can also listen to the episode at any of these podcast-listening places: google podcasts, apple podcasts, spotify, or podbay!

A stereoscope-view card depicting "The New Woman Barber" a woman sits on a counter holding a razor and caressing the temple of a terrified looking man with a mustache. — Stereoscope card depicting “The New Woman Barber” by Universal View Company.

Jan 1, 2021

BAD TOWN BONUS Q&A

Jan 1, 2021

We’ve reached the end of the season and we recorded a bonus episode to Answer all the Qs! We requested questions from YOU, the listeners and you sent them! Thanks for asking! In this episode you will here us to attempt to answer the following…

Jan 1, 2021

Dec 30, 2020

Last call for Q&A + New Years Cheers!

Dec 30, 2020

As we wind up 2020 and Season 2 of the City of Subdued BAD TOWN podcast, we are reflecting on all that this year has been, and boy has it been a doozy.

As you probably know, Good Time Girls Kolby, Marissa and Wren teamed up with the City of Subdued Hostesses with the mostesses Annika and Maria to bring you a season of the darkest, the most oppressive, the spookiest, and the baaaaaadest parts of Bellingham History! If you have questions about anything you heard on the podcast, now is your chance to ask and get answers!

Dec 30, 2020

BAD TOWN #12 BAD REPUTATION TOWN

Dec 30, 2020

In this week’s FINAL episode we get into the “vintage” era of the 1970s and 1980s and Bellingham’s divey waterfront scene with a discussion of our legendary “Serial Killer Bar” as well as a crazy unsolved mystery of a body found in the former Georgia Pacific mill complex. That’s right, it’s another podcast companion blog update for episode 12 of season 2 of the City of Subdued... BAD TOWN. The Good Time Girls have teamed up with the ladies of The City of Subdued Podcast to bring you a season of the darkest, the most oppressive, the spookiest, and the baaaaaadest parts of Bellingham History!

Dec 30, 2020

BAD TOWN #11 BAD MURDER FARM TOWN

Dec 30, 2020

If you have been following the podcast collaboration we’ve been doing with the ladies of The City of Subdued Podcast, this post is in reference to season 2 (BAD TOWN), episode 11 where we continue our discussion from episode 10 and introduce the story of the MAPLE FALLS MURDER FARM! We discuss the creepy murderer who took the blame for the death of Frederick Dames (episode 10) … and while he was perhaps Whatcom County’s first serial killer… did he really butcher the butcher? You be the judge!

Dec 30, 2020

Dec 7, 2020

BAD TOWN #10 BAD BUTCHERED TOWN

Dec 7, 2020

In this week’s episode, we get into one of our favorite Bellingham true-crime stories, an unsolved mystery and murder of a local butcher. The victim was Frederick Dames, a civil war veteran who opened a meat market on Elk Street (now State Street) where he was found brutally murdered in 1905… Content warning for extremely gruesome descriptions of this particularly heinous murder.

Dec 7, 2020

Dec 1, 2020

BAD TOWN #9 THE WORST BAD TOWN

Dec 1, 2020

Once again, If you didn’t already know - the Good Time Girls have teamed up with the ladies of The City of Subdued Podcast to bring you the darkest, the most oppressive, the spookiest, and the baddest parts of Bellingham History! This week’s episode is particularly dark and oppressive. We discuss the history of the Ku Klux Klan, aka the KKK, here in Bellingham, Whatcom County and the PNW.

Dec 1, 2020

Nov 23, 2020

BAD TOWN #8 BAD BOOZE TOWN

Nov 23, 2020

This week in episode 8 we get into prohibition era Bad-Town, complete with rum running, bootlegging and speak-easies (aka Blind Pigs). AND a story straight from the LaBree family vaults. …I discovered the story of the D’Aprile brothers when searching the Bellingham Herald archives and found my great-grandfather was a “runner” who helped to supply the brothers with booze to sell in their “blind pig,” and did some time in the Whatcom County Jail….

Nov 23, 2020

Nov 11, 2020

BAD TOWN #7 BAD (LADY) BARBER TOWN

Nov 11, 2020

In this week’s episode, we discuss a 1922 court case involving Bellingham’s “baddest” lady barber, Lorena Upper, accused of violating the “red light statute.”

Nov 11, 2020

Nov 4, 2020

BAD TOWN #6 BAD LADY TOWN

Nov 4, 2020

If you didn’t already know - the Good Time Girls have teamed up with the ladies of The City of Subdued Podcast to bring you the darkest, the most oppressive, the spookiest, and the baaaaaadest parts of Bellingham History! In this week’s episode we feature stories of the less-often-arrested sex. We tell stories about women who ran afoul of the law, as well as the women charged with policing them!

Nov 4, 2020

Nov 1, 2020

BAD TOWN #5 BAD TRIAL TOWN

Nov 1, 2020

THIS EPISODE’S STORY is about a murder that occurred on Forest Street, near the Majestic Hall in Bellingham, Washington. It is a rather sordid tale that involves a whole cast of seriously damaged folks. It’s about a man who shot his wife and his son-in-law,--- who was also his wife’s lover---. It’s about fancy-talking lawyers with pink toupees --and-- a particularly savage and patriarchal biblical law (even for the 1890's) filed under the Laws of Moses. And lastly, it’s about the flaws in our justice system then and NOW.

Nov 1, 2020

Oct 30, 2020

BAD TOWN #4 BAD ARSON TOWN plus -Halloween Special!

Oct 30, 2020

As autumn brings spider webs and spooky things, here is a seasonal tale from the Good Time Girls’ “Gore and Lore” crypt… That summer things really started “heating up” around Fairhaven as the town was swept by a series of fires, believed to be of “incendiary origin.”

Oct 30, 2020

Oct 19, 2020

BAD TOWN #3 BAD BUD TOWN

Oct 19, 2020

Late one night in 1902 two graduates from the state prison decide to rob a few of the boys at Butch’s Place Saloon. The clientele and bullets flew like promises at election time. Two men were wounded, one man killed, and two sent up the river for a stretch of 12 to 20 years.” And in all caps, a quote from Bad Bud Cox: “I’M GLAD THE WITNESSES ARE ALL YOUNG SO THAT THEY WILL LIVE UNTIL I GET OUT OF THE PEN AND CAN KILL THEM!”

Oct 19, 2020

Oct 13, 2020

BAD TOWN #2 BAD CURSED TOWN

Oct 13, 2020

Our second episode is now live! The Good Time Girls have teamed up with the ladies of The City of Subdued Podcast to bring you the darkest, the most oppressive, the spookiest, and the baaaaaadest parts of Bellingham History! This episode is on its surface about “local lore” that is creepy and bad indeed, but in the worst way. Because the reality behind it is undeniably dark and shameful.

Oct 13, 2020

female barberbarbering historyBellinghamWAWomen's Historywomen and crime