True Crime Campfire

A lot of the murder cases we cover feature slow-boiling resentments, or criminal schemes hatched with an explicit target in mind. Killings by strangers are rare—and terrifying. You can just be going about your life with no idea that a predator is hunting you, a twisted mind that has no more connection to your life than a shark does. And then, out of the night, they strike. 

Join us for the chilling story of a would-be serial killer stopped after his first murder.

Stick around after the outro for a funny blooper! 

Sources: Duration: 00:54:07

In the early 1990s, a beloved first-grade teacher in Pennsylvania began receiving harassing, threatening letters from an anonymous sender. Her school principal, fellow teachers, and the parents of some of her students soon began receiving them too. As the ordeal wore on, the stalker slowly escalated from taunts to vile accusations and death threats—and then, finally, violence. From early on in the case, the police thought they knew the tormentor’s identity, but it took 18 months to finally gather the evidence needed for an arrest. The trial to follow would be one of the most bizarre the state had ever...

In Part Two of this story last week, we learned how serial husband and waste of DNA Randy Roth seduced, married, and almost certainly murdered his second wife Jan for a life-insurance payout, and tried and failed to use the same scheme on wife number three, Donna Clift. And if you already hate Randy, that’s only going to get worse after the tragic conclusion to his story this week.

Sources: 
Fatal Charm, Carlton Smith
A Rose For Her Grave, Ann Rule
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/shes-got-her-name-back-teenager-murdered-in-1977-finally-identified-with-new-dna-technique-and-genetic-genealogy/

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Last week, we introduced you to Randy Roth, and described his early life and his escalation from ridiculous loser and petty criminal, to the chief suspect in the death of his second wife, Jan. Jan plummeted to her death from Beacon Rock, on the Washington-Oregon border, leaving behind a young daughter and a hefty life-insurance policy with Randy Roth as the beneficiary. This week, we find out more about Randy and Jan, and learn how close yet another wife came to death at the hands of a husband she barely knew at all. Join us for part 2 of this chilling...

The story of Bluebeard has a mostly happy ending, with the killer’s newest bride being rescued in the nick of time by her brothers. Good for her, less good for his previous wives, who she’d discovered hanging on hooks from the walls of a bloody closet. There are countless real-life stories of spouses being killed for money, with no muscular siblings breaking down the door with swords in hand. It’s much rarer for a killer to make victims of multiple spouses, but the central character in this week’s story had the spirit of Bluebeard in his heart, a...

When we last left you, former Amishman Eli Stutzman was having a little trouble with the law. He’d abandoned the Amish lifestyle after the suspicious death of his wife and was currently going on a tour of the US, sleeping with any man with a pulse. His son, Danny, was starting to show signs of severe abuse, but no one in his life stepped forward to report it. Finally, Eli’s roommate/employee was found murdered in a ditch in Texas. Join us now for the conclusion of this chilling true story.

Sources: 
Gregg Olsen, Abandoned Praye...

The thing about serial killers is that it seems so obvious to us after the fact, right? Their behavior is so outrageous and so antisocial that we’re always left wondering why no one noticed. Eli Stutzman’s strange behavior was written off by everyone that knew him. He was quiet and odd, but being raised Amish, who could blame him? To the Amish, his time spent with the Englisch gave him some strange habits. No one really blinked when he stabbed himself in order to get himself out of a sticky situation. No one wondered about why he lied cons...

Comedian Simon Amstell said, “If you are somebody who is going to at some point be revealed as not like everyone else, then to be in an insular community is a problem.” Here Amstell was discussing how it felt growing up gay and going to a religious school. Insular religious communities shut themselves off from the world in order to keep their views unchanged by the outside. It’s extremely effective. The Amish are one such community. Most of their followers aren’t allowed to use electricity or have indoor plumbing. They view modern conveniences as threatening to their religious beliefs...

Last week, we did our first-ever live show on the Crimewave true crime cruise! We covered three cases, a sort of "sampler platter" to give new listeners an idea of what kind of stories we usually tell on TCC. Case 1 is the bizarre story of a parody website that ended up bringing dozens of would-be killers to justice. Case 2 is the murder of chef Dan Brophy by his mystery-novelist wife. Case 3 is the true story of Stede Bonnet, bumbling pirate wannabe and possible boyfriend of the dread pirate Blackbeard. Thank you so much to IRL Events for the opportunity to...

We tell a lot of wild stories about crimes that happened right here in the States—but it’s worth noting that our cousins across the pond are misbehaving just as badly. Y’know, same crimes, different accent. Today we’ve chosen two cases that each mirror so many of the ones we’ve covered from here: A woman consumed by her toxic obsession for the man she wanted to marry, and a man more interested in playing soldier and spy than he was in building himself a real life. Case 1: Jane Andrews, the murder of Thomas Cressman. Case 2, fantasist Michael Ne...

It’s hardly a revelation that physical attraction can cloud judgment. It’s one of the oldest traps in human nature—that spark of chemistry that overrides caution, turning common sense into background noise. For most people, the fallout is little more than a red face or a broken heart. But every so often, that same impulse leads someone much farther—into danger. Because behind the charm, the warmth, and the allure, there are those who hide something far darker: a heart devoid of empathy, and intentions that are anything but loving. When desire blinds you to the truth, the price ca...

In part one of this story last week, we learned about Utah millionaire Franklin Bradshaw, who over the years had gained both a stupendous fortune and a strained relationship with some of his family—in particular with his youngest and wildest daughter, Frances. Frances had for years been pressuring and manipulating her mom, Berenice, to steer some of the family fortune her way, and whenever Frank got in the way of that, Frances would be furious. At the end of last week’s episode, we met Frances’s own young family, two boys, Marc and Larry, that she was strangely insist...

All the money in the world can’t buy peace of mind. Family life, with its jealousies and rivalries, carries the same pressures no matter the size of the bank account—but when wealth is measured in millions, those pressures can twist into something far darker. Arguments over favoritism, inheritance, and control—the kind of disputes most families recognize in small ways—become battles with stakes that can determine the course of lives. And when greed collides with resentment, and morality is already thin on the ground, the results can be catastrophic. This week’s story is about what happens when the b...

The Buddha said, "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and common sense." Ignore that advice, and you might find that you're clouding your vision--that instead of seeing what's really in front of you, you're filtering everything so it fits in with your beliefs. An unwavering, unquestioned belief in anything--a philosophy, an institution, or a person--can lend us strength sometimes, but it can also make us vulnerable. And there are plenty of people out there just waiting to exploit that vulnerability...

We deal with a lot of real-life horror stories, and because it’s real life, they’re often chaotic and cruel. Justice might ultimately be served, but more often than not, the victims are already cold in the ground. If someone is dead-set on killing you, there’s a very good chance they’ll succeed. In the most satisfying fictional horror stories, of course, there’s a survivor, someone who faces the monster or killer and lives to tell the tale, someone who finds deep wells of courage and resilience inside themself and defeats the horrors the world throws at them. And...

If there’s one constant in the kind of people we cover, it’s this—they’re liars. Con artists trying to scam their way into money, murderers denying their crimes, spouses with secret affairs, liars, all of them. This week’s case is about a man who checks all three of those boxes, a man who learned that, if he didn’t have a conscience, deceit could make him more money that hard work ever did. Once he’d learned that lesson, nothing was going to stop him from lying his way to more and more wealth. Certainly not the continued...

Most of us grew up loving superhero stories. My favorite was always the X-Men. I liked the idea of these people who were born with mutations that initially made them targets of bigotry or fear, then harnessing those differences to do good in the world. I’ve always been a big believer in “give what you’ve got”—if you have a special gift or talent, use it to make the world better. But here’s the thing: Most of us recognize that superheroes are a metaphor for this idea. You’re not supposed to literally dress up in a cape and tight...

Cell phones are amazing, aren’t they? You have a little magic box in your pocket that you can look at and use to call halfway across the world. New parents can send photos of their babies to their loved ones that live hours away, best friends can start a podcast even though they don’t live in the same state, and soulmates can meet, even from entirely different countries. Of course, we can’t have good things without someone using it for evil. Some people use phones as a means of harassment, of control. In today’s case, a stalker...

Home is the one place in the world that’s ours and ours alone. It’s the place we’re meant to feel completely safe and comfortable. The warm, beating heart of our lives. So when that sacred space is violated, where does that leave us? Can we ever really feel safe again? This is the story of one of the strangest home invasions ever investigated, and the aftermath that left two innocent people’s lives changed forever.

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very fir...

No is a powerful word. It can stop a naughty dog in its tracks, it can get you out of a night out with friends when you just want to rot in your bed, and most of all, it’s supposed to mean something when you don’t want anything to do with someone romantically. Unfortunately for society, some people can’t handle being told no. It fills them with unfounded rage because how dare anyone deny them something they want. Today, we’re discussing a case where someone handled rejection so pathetically that it resulted in the murder of 4 people an...

Mark Twain, always a good man for a quote, said about getting old: “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” There is generally a broad unspoken societal agreement over what the elderly are supposed to be like, the shape their lives are supposed to have. There are always people who don’t fit into this preconception, of course, I’m sure plenty of you have encountered some weird and wild senior citizens—but probably not as wild as the people in this week’s story., who turned their lives into their own person...

There’s an old saying that if you hear hoofbeats, you should think horses, not zebras. It means that in most situations, the simplest, most likely explanation is probably the right one. But you know we deal in “stranger than fiction” here, folks, and sometimes you turn around expecting horses and you get a stampeding herd of zebras instead. Things are not always what they seem at first glance. And today, we’ll tell you two stories where digging down below the surface pulled investigators through the looking glass, and into the strangest cases they’d ever seen.

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There’s a saying that goes, “All regulations are written in blood.” And it’s true. If given the opportunity, companies will cut corners and find loopholes to make their jobs easier or cheaper or skirt some kind of oversight. And when it all goes wrong, when there’s blood on their hands, when there’s a dozen microphones in their face, the people in charge always look contrite. And that’s infuriating, isn’t it? The mundanity of that kind of evil. They wanted to save a couple of bucks and now people are dead and hurt and they’re sorry. Today, w...

In last week’s episode, we learned about the troubled early life of Earle Nelson, and witnessed his first steps towards becoming one of the most prolific serial killers in North American history. This week, his journey of mayhem across America really kicks into high gear. Join us for part 2 of this terrifying true story.

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very first CRIMEWAVE true crime cruise! Get your fan code now--tickets go on sale February 7: CrimeWaveatSea.com/CAMPFIRE

Sources:
Bestial by...

If you think about the 1920s in the United States, a few things might come to mind—jazz, prohibition, Babe Ruth, and, right at the end, the Wall Street Crash. And if you think of crime, you probably think of Al Capone, bootlegging, and fast-talking wise guys with Tommy guns. But the 1920s were also in some ways the nation’s introduction to crimes that could shock and horrify the entire country. Leopold and Loeb’s thrill killing, the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the utter horror of child-killer and cannibal Albert Fish. And possibly the most prolific killer...

I saw a meme one time that said, “It’s funny how sometimes the people you’d take a bullet for are the ones behind the trigger.” Most of the time that’s just a metaphor, a way to describe the way it feels when a loved one betrays you. But not always. Sometimes betrayals come written in blood—and more often than not, from somebody you loved and trusted. You couldn’t find a clearer example of that than this week’s case, a story where two of the most powerful forces in the world—love and greed—clash, and three innocent p...

Motivational speakers started really gaining popularity in the 70s and 80s, the golden age of “self-help.” And in recent years, they’ve been even more in-demand, especially in the business world. You can’t swing a dead cat these days without hitting some self-proclaimed entrepreneurial guru who claims to have the formula for success and would be happy to share it with you, if you sign up for their seminar for the low-low price of thousands of dollars. Or buy their TikTok course. But you don’t have to get certified or trained to be a motivational speaker, and their industry i...

Nobody likes to be embarrassed. More often than not, people are kind of weird in one way or another, have some secret history or fascination they’d hate to have dragged out into the light of day. It’s normal. What’s less normal is just how far some people will go to avoid their embarrassing secrets coming out…even to the point of murder.

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very first CRIMEWAVE true crime cruise! Get your fan code now--tickets go on sale Feb...

The heart has been the subject of mythology for humanity for centuries. Egyptians believed that in the afterlife, your heart was weighed against a feather and if all your life’s sins didn’t outweigh the feather, you could join Osiris in the afterlife. If it was heavier, your heart was consumed by Amuut, a demon, and your soul disappeared forever. Ancient Greeks believed that the heart was the anchor of the soul and instinctively thought it was the source of heat for the body. Cultures all over the world recognized the importance of the heart, before even realizing how cruc...

If there’s one thing that gets people’s blood pumpin’, it’s sports. All over the world on any given day, you can find people getting into passionate arguments about whose team has a better chance of making the playoffs, or the finals, or the World Cup or whatever. Sometimes there are fisticuffs involved! There are pubs in Scotland where you’re not allowed to wear your football team colors, for fear of a brawl breaking out. In my hometown, when our college team won a big basketball game, people would celebrate by turning over cars and setting stuff on fire. P...

A young woman found naked and dead in the water. A diary that held clues to a secret life. Dark truths hidden behind suburban walls, and a mind at war with itself. This week we have a tale of mystery and madness where the borders of reality itself start to crumble.

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very first CRIMEWAVE true crime cruise! Get your fan code now--tickets go on sale February 7: CrimeWaveatSea.com/CAMPFIRE

Sources:
Deadly Whispers by Ted Schwarz<...

There’s a meme I’ve seen a few times. It says “You never know how toxic something is until you breathe fresher air.” I think it’s about how easy it is to get so completely wrapped up in a relationship, or a group dynamic, or a way of thinking that you stop seeing it for what it is. You become less and less tuned in to what’s normal. This happens a lot when you get two close friends together—two people who might not be likely to do any damage if left to themselves, but who become like fire and...

You’re supposed to be safe at home. Why wouldn’t you be? And that sense of comfort must be even greater if “home” is a beautiful house you built yourself, where you live happily with your family in a town where you’re successful and respected. You’d have no reason at all to think that someone was watching you with binoculars through the trees, their heart burning ever hotter with rage, ever closer to exploding with murderous fury. Join us for a story of madness and grandiose delusion, a case that rocked 1970s California almost as much as the Manson F...

Obsession is one of humanity’s greatest boons… and curses. Obsession can fuel a scientist’s entire career in trying to solve a singular problem. An athlete’s obsession can pull them to physics bending heights, a politician’s obsession with a cause can push a world changing bill forward. People can be obsessed over all sorts of great and mundane things: books, trading cards, cars, art without any kind of harm… But when that obsession is about controlling or possessing another person? Things can take a sinister turn. In today’s story, 7 people’s lives are ruined by a single woman’s o...

There are some people who, if they find themselves stuck in a hole, will just keep digging deeper. Maybe they think they’ll find some highly improbable way out of their troubles, more likely it’s all they know to do. This week’s story is about a man who kept doubling down on his lies and bad decisions until the lives of those closest to him were torn to pieces. Join us for a twisty tale of deception and betrayal.

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death...

The U.S. military teaches recruits to function together as a well-oiled machine—and for young people who dream of joining the most elite forces, it requires discipline, commitment, and loyalty, not to mention the courage to put yourself in harm’s way for the greater good. For the ones with the deepest commitment, there has to be a fire in the belly that drives them to keep their eye on the prize, no matter what the risks. Most of the time this sets the stage for great achievements. But sometimes, the personality type that lends itself to flawless dedication can...

The Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast returns for its second season!

Seven years after his release from prison, former juvenile lifer Luis "Suave" Gonzalez seems to
be thriving. His career has taken off, he’s in a committed relationship and he’s received public
recognition after telling his story on the podcast. Suave always thought once he was out of
prison and found stability in his new life, he would finally feel truly free. But freedom, it turns out,
is more complicated than it seems. "Suave" is a deeply intimate portrait of a man battling the Duration: 00:03:45

How far would you go to get what you want? For most of us, there’s a hard limit on the answer to that question, and that limit is hurting someone. Especially someone close to you. But in this week’s story, we meet a man who didn’t believe in limits like that, who would let nothing and no one stand in the way of his ambition and desires. It’s a mindset you might expect from a Wall Street bigshot, but our guy wasn’t that—he was a suburban rabbi, who kept all his demons hidden under a cloak of g...

Vengeance is such a core human urge that there are hundreds and thousands of parables and plays and stories warning us about what a dangerous path it is. In the classic Shakespearean tragedy, Hamlet destroyed himself and the entire Danish royal family in the name of revenge. Francis Bacon wrote “A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.” Today’s story is a good reminder that if you seek revenge, you should dig two graves. 

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very first C...

For at least the past 200 years or so, there’s been a lot of debate about women and the role we’re supposed to play in society. Historically, we’ve been expected to be the nurturers, the caregivers—the gentler sex, as we used to be called. We cook the food, we nurse the sick, we mind the children. Some of us are perfectly content in that role. But all throughout history, there have also been women who’ve chafed against these expectations. Some of them rebelled in a healthy, heroic way—fighting for women’s right to vote, to manage our own...

For people of faith, a minister is supposed to be a figure of trust, a rock to support you in times of trouble. Not everyone who holds that position meets those ideals, though. This week’s story is about a man whose minister’s robes and carefully practiced smiles hid a heart burning with violence and dark desires, someone who would betray every trust given to him and leave pain—not salvation—in his wake. Join us for our latest "Sinister Minister" episode. 

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to...

In this week’s episode, we are going to be looking at “Bullshido,” a catch-all term for martial arts practices that are either fake, delusional, or just plain useless. This is the land of no-touch knockouts, touches of death, and mystical masters who can’t manage their own lives. We’ll be asking the question—should you learn self-defense from summon who struggles with basic reality? Spoiler, the answer is no, no you shouldn’t. 

This is a fun one, y'all. Nobody dies, and everybody is an absolute goober. 

Sources:
Interesting Stuff From Around the World YouTube ch...

Art is a mysterious thing. It’s hard to pin down why one thing moves us and another does not. Similarly, it can be hard to identify that special spark, that unique creativity that an artist can have that lifts their work into something magical. If you don’t have that, all the technical skill and carefully won knowledge in the world won’t get you to that special place. Unless, of course, you just steal it from someone else. This is “Faking It: Art’s Greatest Forger.”

This is a fun one, y'all. Opulent settings. Drama even a...

We’ve covered some real nasty pieces of work on our show over the years. Dive into true crime for any length of time, and you’re bound to come across plenty of people you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley. Or a lit one, even. But even among the rogue’s gallery of devil’s rejects out there, there are some in a league of their own. People so devoid of morals and human empathy that they should really just be shoved in some dank little spider-infested oubliette somewhere and forgotten about, just to protect the rest of us...

Last week, we learned the identity of the man hired to kill Rozanne Gailiunas—Andy Hopper, an insurance adjustor turned weed dealer who had apparently added “hitman” to his list of careers. But investigators were still uncertain whether Andy was who they were after, or just a middleman who could lead them to the real killer. So they let him remain free—and then, tipped off by his girlfriend, he vanished. Join us for the conclusion of “Bound by Hate: The Murder of Rozanne Gailiunas.

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterho...

In last week’s episode, young nurse Rozanne Gailiunas was brutally murdered while her  young son slept in the room next door. Suspicion initially fell on both her estranged husband, Peter, and her new boyfriend, Larry Aylor. But evidence was thin on the ground, and the case went cold. Three years later, Larry was the target of a botched assassination attempt, but had trouble getting the police to take it seriously. No one connected this shooting to Rozanne’s death. Then, out of the blue, a mysterious woman called investigators and laid the blame for Rozanne’s murder at the feet of...

The late, great Bo Diddley asked one of life’s big questions in one of the 20th century’s greatest songs—“Who Do You Love?” That’s a simple question, but in some relationships, the answer isn’t simple at all. Love, money, revenge—people kill for all kinds of reasons. And in this week’s case, those motives tangle together in a way that will tear lives to pieces. A woman torn between two men, a crime scene straight out of a nightmare, and an investigation that twisted and turned for years. 

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last P...

We’ve covered our share of scary ladies on this show. In fact, bad bitches are one of our special interests. There was Tracey Richter, who murdered an innocent neighbor to frame him for a crime he didn’t commit. Marie Hilley, the serial poisoner who eluded police for years and once passed herself off as her own (fictional) twin sister. Marjorie Orbin, the Vegas showgirl who murdered her husband for his life insurance and left his dismembered body in the desert. I could keep going—there are a lot of ‘em. But this week, I think we may have found th...

Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Money has never made a man happy yet, nor will it.” To which I think a lot of people would say, yeah, try being poor, Benny. A couple thousand dollars would make me plenty happy right now. But, once you’re beyond the stage of having enough wealth to be comfortable and free from fear of destitution, I think his point mostly stands. We’ve seen a lot of cases involving very wealthy people, and I don’t think you could say they were any happier than the average Joe. If anything, just the opposite. That’s definitely t...

Most people love getting a peek behind a fellow human’s carefully managed facade. We’re delighted when we see the local magistrate gettin’ wrecked at a dive bar two towns over. We catch a glimpse of our married coworker making out with a guy who’s not her husband behind the building, and we can’t wait to tell somebody. We love a hot mic moment, when a news anchor or politician drops the mask for a second and acts like the flawed human they are. I think that’s one of the reasons we love hit-man stings on this show. A...

I have vivid memories of the night of March 22, 1997. Part of it has to do with, y’know, young dumb love—but most of it has to do with the Hale-Bopp Comet, also known as the Great Comet, which was brilliantly visible from my hometown that night. I had a huge crush on this guy, and he invited me to watch the comet with him. We climbed up on the rooftop of this neighborhood bar with a bottle of screw-top wine, and we watched the sky—and suddenly, there it was, a bright silvery ball with a long glowing tail. Magic...

As Abe Lincoln once said—or possibly some guy named Peter Drucker, depends on who you ask—the best way to predict the future is to create it. But for a lot of us humans, that’s a little too loosey-goosey. We’re not big fans of the unknown, and we tend to seek out people who claim they can tell us what to expect from the future. Americans, for example, spend billions a year on psychics. A lot of these are legitimate businesspeople who genuinely want to provide counseling and comfort for their clients. But there’s also a bustling t...

Some of the easiest people on the planet to fool are those who have a real high opinion of their own brains based on very little evidence. A classic con-artist trick is to make the mark think they’re the one in charge, they’re the one making the decisions. They don’t realize they’ve been taken until their bank balance is empty and they’ve signed away the deed to granddaddy’s farm. Sometimes they won’t even see it then, because that would mean facing up to some unpleasant realities about themselves. In this week’s story, the consequences...

On June 10th, 1983, the decomposing body of a well-dressed man was found in a desolate canyon near Los Angeles. John Doe #94 would soon be identified as missing variety show producer Roy Radin. He'd last been seen after meeting with a mysterious woman in a gold dress. Her name was Lanie Jacobs.   Jacobs and Radin were obsessed with becoming Hollywood movie producers. And when their paths collided, it led them to a tantalizing film deal promising fame and fortune. But then, a twisted script unfolded, plunging them into a million-dollar cocaine and cash heist, a tangled web of lies, and ultimately – mur...

When we left you at the end of Part 1, fourteen year old Steven Stayner had escaped from seven years of captivity and abuse at the hands of child predator Kenneth Parnell—and he’d rescued Parnell’s next intended victim, a little boy named Timmy White. The story made international headlines, and Steven Stayner became his hometown’s living legend. It was March 1980, both boys were back home safe and Kenneth Parnell was behind bars where he belonged, waiting to go to trial. It seemed like a happy ending. But the story doesn’t end there. The second half of the Stayne...

In classic literature—and in soap operas, too—there are a lot of families who become lightning rods for misfortune. Sometimes it really strains your suspension of disbelief—like, come on, one family could never go through this much tragedy. But every now and then, a family just seems to be haunted by something sinister. From February through July of 1999, the bodies of four women turned up around Yosemite National Park in California—all brutally murdered and mutilated. The killer was a handsome, likable guy named Cary Stayner, who confessed to the four murders once they had him in custody, and is s...

In Part One, we met high-powered millionaire Ted Ammon and his…let’s say “eccentric” soon-to-be-ex-wife Generosa. When we left off, the Ammons were embroiled in a vicious divorce and a struggle over Ted’s wealth and custody of their twin children. Generosa, staying at the ritzy Stanhope Hotel, was renovating a townhouse and had just met a young electrician by the name of Danny Pelosi. Join us for part 2 of this wild true story.

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Almost Paradise by Kieran Crowley

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As much as most of us might try to live easy, conflict-free lives, sometimes you just can’t avoid an uncomfortable interaction. Maybe an unpleasant neighbor gets in your face about nothing at all, maybe someone behind a counter gives you all kinds of attitude, it’s more or less inevitable that sooner or later, someone will throw some grit into the smoothly turning gears of your life.  And most of us just deal with it and forget about it. Most of us don’t have actual “enemies,” but the main character in this week’s story made enemies like it was her fu...

Monsters in folklore are easy for us to comprehend. You can only kill a werewolf with a silver bullet, to stop a zombie for good, you have to destroy its brain, and vampires can’t enter your home without your permission. They also have pretty straightforward motivations. Werewolves: Animalistic rage. Zombies: Brains. Vampires: Blood. Human monsters have motivations that are a lot more opaque. What would possess someone to kidnap a woman in broad daylight? To break into a home in the middle of the night to kill the strangers inside? What if no one saw anything? How do you ca...

We tend to cover strange cases on our show. We seek them out, because we find that there are always interesting lessons to be learned there. But when it comes to weird, some cases are in a category all their own. Like a pair of high school students so upset about a grade that they plot the brutal murder of their Spanish teacher…and a mother so obsessed with protecting her child from pain that she loses all sense of right and wrong. They’re two very different cases on the face of things, but underneath they have one major thin...

The philosopher and all-round barrel of laughs Albert Camus wrote, “To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.” Like any good philosophical quote, you can interpret it in a few ways. To not worry overly much about other people’s opinion of you can be a healthy lesson to learn, for example. But the main character in this week’s case would have a different interpretation—nothing and no-one mattered except his own grasping need for money and control, a need that would tear into pieces the lives of everyone around him. Join us for the story of a seria...

In the depths of the dark net, tech journalist Carl Miller makes a disturbing discovery: a secret Kill List targeting hundreds of innocent people on a murder for hire website. When the police decide not to investigate, Carl is thrown into a race against time to warn those in danger and uncover the truth about the people who want them dead. From Wondery and Novel, comes a true story about obsession, control and the price of life and death. 

Listen to Kill List on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts: Wondery.fm/KL_TCCF
Duration: 00:05:44

There’s an old saying: Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy? The answer, for most of us, is obvious. We want to be happy. And sometimes, that means compromising. Not getting exactly what we want. Not winning. But for some people, the only thing that can make them happy is conquest. They’ll always choose being right—always choose winning, no matter what the stakes. Even if it leaves a smoking wreckage behind them. Join us for a true story of smoldering rage and revenge--and one of the worst "bad bitches" we've covered so far...

For thousands of years, human beings have sought spiritual connection and enlightenment. A lot of us are seekers by nature, we want to know why we’re here and what—if anything—comes next. Sometimes it can seem like most of humankind is walking around with their heads in the sand, and we don’t wanna be one of those people. We want to chase after the secrets. We want to be plugged in. There’s a long tradition, as part of this search for truth, of self-deprivation as a spiritual virtue. Taking a vow of silence or poverty. Forbidding alcohol or...

Like a lot of fairy tales, early versions of “Little Red Riding Hood” were quite a bit different from the story most of us heard growing up. There was no heroic huntsman with an axe, there was no tricking the wolf into a well. At the end of the tale, girl and grandmother were both devoured, and the only happy-ever-after was for the wolf. For most of human history, wolves have been a source of real darkness and fear—and for most of human history, that reputation had been entirely undeserved. But not always. Every now and again, growling, sharp-fanged beasts...

Psychologist Rolio May said, “Hate is not the opposite of love. Apathy is.” Over the course of the last three episodes, we’ve discussed how apathy paved the way for a horrific criminal to wreak havoc on the women of Vancouver. Willie Pickton was only allowed to continue his crimes, to rack up the number of bodies he did, because the government and the police didn’t do their jobs, were apathetic to the cries for help coming from the downtown eastside. Today, we have finally reached the conclusion to this chilling story. Justice will finally be served, but just a little...

Once an avalanche starts, there’s nothing that can be done to stop it. You can prevent them, you can prepare for them, but by the time you start to hear the ice cracking, it’s almost always too late. The case of Willie Pickton feels a little bit like an avalanche. For the past two episodes, the people in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside have been hearing ominous creaks, trying hard to determine what the cause is. Unfortunately for dozens of women, help wouldn’t come in time. Part 3 of this chilling true story.

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When we last left off, Willie Pickton was just starting his reign of terror over the women of the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. Nancy Clark was missing, along with several other women, whose disappearances would never be solved. The Pickton farm was quickly becoming a criminal headquarters, thanks to Dave Pickton’s infatuation with the Hell’s Angels gang. The Vancouver Police didn’t care. The missing women were sex workers and addicts, and therefore, less worthy of effort. The horror of this story is not only the monstrous actions of Willie Pickton, but also the apathy of the same people...

In his book, Encyclopedia of Murder and Violent Crime, Eric Hickey wrote about a type of victim that he called, “the Less Dead”. These are people that are seen by the media or law enforcement as having less value than others. Usually sex workers, drug addicts, houseless people, and sexual or racial minorities. The case we’re discussing today is about dozens of these types of victims. Women whose disappearances were ignored or were straight up covered up because they happened to be addicts or sex workers. One police officer told a woman’s terrified family that the series of missing...

Adults like to think of kids as the embodiment of innocence—and in a lot of ways, they are. But…remember what it was like to actually be a kid? Did other kids seem innocent to us then? Not so much. The playground could be a battle zone. Gym class could be Lord of the Flies. Kids have strong, complicated emotions just like we do, but without the impulse control that comes with a fully-developed prefrontal cortex. Most of the time, the worst thing that comes from that is a tantrum in the middle of Costco, or a loud, teary brea...

In Part One last week, we introduced you to the strange world of Marcel Petiot, doctor, failed politician, and serial killer in wartime Paris. The horrific discovery of dismembered bodies at Dr. Petiot’s mansion had triggered a massive manhunt, and we’re going to pick up the police investigation now in Part Two of “The People’s Monster.” Note: Katie was sick this week, so Whitney had to take this one solo! Katie will be back next episode. 

Sources:
Death In the City of Light by David King

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There aren’t many darker places to be than in a city occupied by an enemy during a brutal war, living without freedom, in constant fear, and with little or no recourse to justice. For a crime to be able to shock even people living under those conditions, it has to be something truly terrifying, and that is what the people in Paris during World War II experienced when a series of gruesome murders were uncovered. Join us for part 1 of the disturbing story of serial killer Dr. Marcel Petiot. 

Sources:
Death In the City of Light by...

Sometimes, danger comes in hot, with blazing red flags and alarm bells so loud they drown out everything else. Plenty of warning signs to activate the fight or flight instinct, put us on guard. But that’s not always the way it happens. Sometimes, danger slinks in silently, coiling itself around us without us even noticing, until it’s already around our throat—and any chance for escape is long past. Today, we have one of those stories, where a talented young woman didn’t realize she was in a killer’s sights until it was far too late.

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It’s kind of hard to pin down what the first slasher movie was. Do you start with “Psycho” in 1960? Go even further back? But there’s no real doubt when the genre blossomed—the 1970s. And that makes sense, because the 1970s was also when the shocking crimes of serial killers really permeated the national consciousness. You ask someone to name a serial killer, there’s a good chance they’ll name someone who was mostly or exclusively active in the ‘70s—Bundy, Gacy, BTK, Son of Sam. The slasher movies tapped into a growing awareness that there really were terrifyingly...

Like most American Millennials, I was subjected to Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE. It was the typical kind of “Drugs Are Bad, mmmkay?” sort of thing. Police officers would come to school and show 2nd graders pictures of smoker lungs and suggest that everyone and their mom would be peer pressuring you to smoke weed and/or crack, which was not as big of an issue as some of us might have hoped. During one such class, we were being taught about the danger of gang violence and we were told to draw what we thought a gang member woul...

Obsession can be a good thing. An obsessed athlete can spend hours practicing to be the best they can be, an obsessed collector can find joy and community in the thrill of the hunt, or obsession can drive an artist to explore the human condition in a way that moves everyone that sees their art. But obsession can veer into something darker if the object of it is a person. That’s how you get a stalker. Someone who is so consumed with the life of another almost always pushes the boundaries of appropriate behavior. If you’ve seen the...