IN EARLY 2020, right at the beginning of lockdown, Savannah writer Jessica Leigh Lebos received an email from a friend. “It contained a news story about how the City of Savannah had voted to sell off some Roman statuary,” says Lebos, who among her other endeavors pens a Substack called “Savannah Sideways” and has authored a book of the same title. Her friend had written, simply, “You should look into this.” It was just a brief clip, but Lebos’ reporter senses began tingling.
Over the past five years, Lebos dove down enough rabbit holes to make even Alice dizzy, and what she found was an incredible story of a Gilded Age robber baron so full of intrigue, twists, and turns that she decided to create a 10-episode podcast: Season 1 of the “Savannah Sideways” audio story.
