OM Backroads: Ep. 107. The Rise and Fall of the Society of the Banana: How one Ohio man took down Americas first criminal empire
Hello Ohio Mysteries Backroads listeners. In the quiet railroad town of Bellefontaine, crates of bananas once arrived daily—ordinary cargo masking an extraordinary and sinister story. In this episode, we dive into the shadowy world of the so-called “Society of the Banana,” a chilling chapter tied to the rise of the Black Hand in small-town Ohio. What seemed like a simple fruit business became entangled with whispers of extortion, secret threats, and violence carried over from the Old World into America’s heartland. Through the lens of a brutal early 20th-century crime, we explore how…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.