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Three boy men spurn cocoon breath on spied world bits - first fish then warlocks - all done through herding smoke.
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Crime Writers On...True Crime Review
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Crime Writers On...True Crime Review
Partners in Crime Media
The original true crime review podcast that looks at other podcasts, TV, and pop culture. True crime authors and real-life couple Rebecca Lavoie and Kevin Flynn hold a pop-culture round table with noir novelist Toby Ball and journalist-turned-investigator Lara Bricker. The panel chats about other podcasts (including 'Serial') as well as journalism, storytelling, TV shows and films, and the special segment, 'Crime of the Week.'Show website: crimewriterson.com. Follow the show on Twitter @crim ...
Loretta McLaughlin struggles for respect in the 1960s male-dominated newsroom at the Record-American. But she finds a pattern in different Boston-area murders: women choked in their homes, their stockings tied around their necks in a bow. Teamed with reporter Jean Cole, the women lead the hunt for the killer they dub the Boston Strangler. The pair …
Welsh police sergeant Jill Evans thinks she’s found the man of her dreams. Dean Jenkins is attentive and a bit mysterious. What she doesn’t know is that Dean has been supplementing his income as an armed robber. After his arrest, Jill's colleagues are suspicious of her claims she didn’t know Dean was a bandit. Now it’s more than just her career on …
In 1997, 13-year-old Lenard Clark rode his bike into a white Chicago neighborhood, only to be jumped and beaten into a coma by a group of teens. One of them was the son of Frank Caruso, a union boss with reputed mob ties. The crime shook the Black community and shocked the city. As a young man, Yohance Lacour was puzzled why some Black community le…
He's not a podcaster. He's a filmmaker. He's never made a podcast...but he's also never made a film. Who else can find Clara Pockets and the Goose Ganker but John David Booter? We look back at our 2017 and 2018 discussions of the first two seasons of "Done Disappeared, with me, John David Booter."By Rebecca Lavoie
Believing they’ve found the cure to aches and pains and serious diseases, Jim Humble and Mark Grenon create a church espousing the use of the Miracle Mineral Solution. But what people are consuming isn’t medicine - it’s diluted bleach. MMS is sold around the world, promoted by the church as a panacea for malaria, autism, cancer and all common ailme…
On this bonus episode of Crime Writers On, we'll take a look back at our October 1, 2018 review of the CBC's "Uncover: Escaping NXIVM. OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "ESCAPING NXIVM" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 3 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.By Rebecca Lavoie
In one of LA’s fanciest neighborhoods, homeless military veterans erect a tent city. While some volunteer to help the vets, others want to see the encampment demolished and its occupants moved along. The camp sits along a fence to the local VA hospital, the place where services for them are offered. But some don’t qualify or can’t get into their pr…
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Crime Writers On...True Crime Review
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Netflix's Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal
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A fatal drunken boating accident turned the spotlight on a powerful South Carolina family. Survivors claimed Alex Murdaugh used his considerable influence to steer the investigation away from his son who caused the crash. Then Murdaugh returned home to find his wife and son murdered in the family dog kennel. The high profile case renewed interest i…
In 1985, when Kim Barker was a teen in Laramie, Wyoming, Shelli Wiley was murdered in her apartment. Now a New York Times reporter, Barker discovered there’d been a break in the long-unsolved case. Investigators arrested a former cop with what seemed like overwhelming evidence. So how did a case that seemed open-and-shut go cold again? The Pulitzer…
Steve Glew was a part-time flea market vendor when he was introduced to the world of PEZ dispensers. Learning collectors would pay big money for rare versions of the popular candy holders, Glew hatched a plan to visit Eastern Europe and get dispensers not available in the US. Connoisseurs marveled at Glew’s collection of rare dispensers and paid to…
In 2015, a 15-year-old East London girl left for Syria with two of her friends to live in the so-called Caliphate. After Shamima Begum was captured in a refugee camp in 2019, the British public was enraged by her attitude that she’d done nothing wrong and for downplaying the violence committed by ISIS. Journalist Josh Baker traveled to Syria to int…
The Easterdays drew a lot of water in southeast Washington. Cody Easterday was a titan of agriculture who provided Tyson food with two percent of its beef. But a series of bad investments and commodities speculation put the rancher in a desperate financial position. Easterday engineered a quarter-billion dollar hoax: tricking Tyson into paying for …
A wave of gunfire in a parking lot. A man hogtied and beaten to death. A grandfather with dementia shot in his driveway while holding a crucifix. The many families of victims in Bakersfield and Kern County, California search for justice in the county with the highest death rate by police violence in America. In a system where police brutality is in…
In 2010, a group of students at Sarah Lawrence College was surprised when a co-ed’s father began sleeping on the couch in their dorm. One by one, Larry Ray became a confidant and mentor to the young men and women, eager for his worldly knowledge. After Ray and the students moved into a Manhattan apartment, his paternal guidance morphed into coerciv…
Kansas resident Dan Day discovers his new friends belong to a militia group fixated on the Somali refugees in their community. That’s when he’s approached by the FBI, asking him to join the right-wing group and report on whether they’re planning violence. When the informant learns the extremists are drawing up an attack on Muslims, the investigatio…
When a German countess died in 1992, she left her fortune to the only family she had: her dog Gunther. The world’s richest pooch enjoyed private jets, personal chefs, and a dedicated staff led by Gunther’s caretaker, Maurizio Mian. The will also decreed that Gunther would form a pop band. The dog bought Madonna’s mansion where the group’s attractiv…
In the 1960s, Ronald Pellar performed as nightclub hypnotist “Dr. Dante.” He thrilled crowds, mixed with celebrities, and even married a movie star. But Dante was a prolific con man, accused of stealing and attempting to have a rival hypnotist murdered. After prison, Dante expanded his stage act to include seminars, self-help tapes, tattooed makeup…
A racially-motivated attack on pedestrians was thwarted by the driver’s passenger: a man he picked up hitchhiking. He went simply by “Kai,” and the colorful way he described the incident became a viral sensation. Kai’s quirky personality and unlikely story made him Internet-famous. He declined TV offers in favor of going back off the grid. But mont…
When journalist Sam Anderson learned a high school friend was wanted for the murder of a Northern California pot farmer, he set off to prove his friend’s innocence. He discovered the infamous Emerald Triangle was not the hippie Shangri-la it was made out to be. Anderson tries to reconcile the friend of his youth with the man implicated in a fatal r…
Ex-preacher and musician Abe Partridge went on a journey to discover songs never recorded, but passed down for generations in Appalachia. He discovered the largest repository of undocumented music were in Pentecostal churches where preachers employed the controversial practice of handling snakes. But once getting over the customs of their unconvent…
As head of La Luz del Mundo, third generation church leader Naasón Joaquín García promised eternal salvation. All the while, he used his position as Apostle to groom children and young women for sexual abuse for years. When García’s victims in the US and Mexico meet on Reddit and compare stories, they ban together to expose the church’s secret. Onc…
A group of uber-successful professionals are invited on a weekend trip to their billionaire friend’s island to play a game: solve his own murder. But one stranger is also tagging along: the famed detective Benoit Blanc, who fears a more sinister game is afoot. The lights go out. A body is sprawled on the floor. Who’s the killer? The politician? The…
In August 2019, her friend reported Jessica Easterly Durning missing. When family members got little response from New Orleans police, they conducted their own search and found Jessica’s body in a field a short distance from her home. Several forensic factors made it impossible for authorities to definitively say whether Jessica’s death was homicid…
Justina Pelletier was a 14-year-old girl diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder that required numerous surgeries and caused severe pain. When she was taken to Boston Children’s Hospital, doctors suspected Justina’s issues were psychological and not physical - and they suspected her parents were committing medical child abuse. Over the next 16 month…
JeAnna Anderson says Officer Anthony Armour sexually assaulted her during a traffic stop. Frances Salazar went to prison over Armour’s false testimony. And fellow officer Abby Dennison says Armour drugged and raped her. At the time, Armour was on something called the Brady List, a catalog kept by Arizona prosecutors of cops who shouldn’t be called …
Scheming families, conniving con men, and dangerous killers. We saw a lot of great series and documentaries on the small screen this year. We’ll each give our top ten list for the Best TV of 2022. Lara Only Murders in the Building season 2 Yellowjackets The Vow, Part Two Bad Sisters Blackbird Fireboys The Tinder Swindler The White Lotus season 2 La…
Wrongful convictions, political investigations, and colorful characters were BIG this year. We’ll each give our lists for the Top Ten Podcasts of 2022. Lara Bone Valley Motive: Blind Spot Burn Wild Stolen: Surviving St. Michael's Accused: The Impending Execution of Elwood Jones The Sunshine Place Imperfect Paradise: The Sheriff The Letter Chameleon…
Ex-spy Matt Marshall makes a stunning accusation: billionaire Mike Goguen has been trafficking women to his Montana safehouse, paying them for sex, and bribing law enforcement to get away with it. Matt said he knew this because he’d been Mike’s right-hand man for years. The rich philanthropist had a secret life of paying millions of dollars to stri…
Steve Banerjee kept failing in his bid to create an upscale club in Los Angeles. His luck changed when he turned the strip club model on its head, creating the all-male dance review for women known as Chippendales. His new choreographer Nick De Noia elevated Chippendales with polished showmanship. But as the dance troupe attracted national attentio…
Joe Francis made a fortune on a simple concept: get drunken women to flash the camera for his direct-to-DVD series “Girls Gone Wild.” When the filming stopped the debauchery continued, as Francis allegedly coerced sex from the women…some of whom were underaged. Local authorities wanted to protect the victims and put a stop to the filming. Francis r…
A new set of wealthy guests have checked into The White Lotus in Sicily, each with their own kind of baggage. They include Dominic Di Grasso, with his father Bert and son Albie, who’ve come to seek their Italian relatives. Cameron & Daphne and Ethan & Harper are on a couples vacation. But recently having come into money, Harper is suspicious of her…
Facing federal charges that included establishing a sex cult and branding his female followers, NXIVM leader Keith Raniere prepares for trial. Meanwhile his second-in-command, Nancy Salzman, breaks her silence to say she didn’t know the darker things happening within the organization. Prosecutors lay out a strong case of racketeering and traffickin…
After a childhood of secrecy and sudden relocations, reporter Pauline Dakin’s mother finally revealed the reasons behind their family’s chaotic upbringing. Unbeknownst to the children, they’d been living in hiding from their father, a powerful figure in organized crime. The Dakins had been protected for years by Stan, a family friend and federal ag…
Between 1986 and 1991, the remains of four missing women were discovered in the same field in League City, Texas. Authorities couldn’t rule out the deaths were connected to a string of 30 murders outside of Houston since the 70s. Then another string of disappearances began in the mid-90s. Were all of these crimes linked in some way? And what is the…
Sheriff Alex Villanueva won office in 2018 campaigning as a reformer who’ll clean up the scandal-plagued L.A. County Sheriff's Department. After criticism he was doing the opposite, Villanueva doubled down on his efforts to abuse his power, vilify the press, and investigate his rivals. “Imperfect Paradise: The Sheriff” from LAist Studios examines t…
Jonelle Matthews vanished after her school Christmas recital in 1984. Colorado investigators had no leads, until a detective homed in on Jonelle’s neighbor, a man said to have a fixation on young girls. The case remained cold for decades until Jonelle’s body was discovered. Then police got a tip about another man in the girl’s orbit: a true crime f…
Giancarlo Granda was the pool boy at a Miami hotel when he was propositioned by Becki Falwell and her husband, the president of evangelical Liberty University, Jerry Falwell Jr. The couple lavished attention and money on Granda to keep the love triangle going and to keep it secret. Like his father before him, Falwell fancied himself a political kin…
After breaking up with longtime girlfriend Olivia Newton-John, Patrick McDermott set sail on an overnight fishing trip in June of 2005. When he didn’t get off the boat the next morning, officials presumed he fell overboard. But then the tabloids speculated whether McDermott had faked his death. Potential sightings of McDermott fueled the story. Jou…
In 1983, 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi disappeared after her music lesson. Her family were citizens of the Vatican. Men claiming to be her abductors promised her return if authorities would release the man held for shooting Pope John Paul II. Other theories of the crime emerged. Did the Soviet Union take her to blunt the Pope’s political influence i…
Grace Williams has just lost her husband, John Paul. But her four sisters are not unhappy to see the man they called “The Prick” meet his demise. For months the Garvey girls had been plotting to kill the cruel and controlling spouse and get Grace out from under his thumb. Now that the deed is done, no one is suspicious - except for the life insuran…
In 1982, authorities were baffled when seemingly healthy people were suddenly dying. They concluded the Tylenol they’d recently bought in Chicago-area stores had been laced with cyanide. In the past forty years, the culprit has not been identified. Investigators had two strong suspects but could not pin the crimes on either one of them. In the podc…
Rachel McKibbens didn’t even know her father and brother were sick with COVID until it was too late. She grappled with how the two people she loved the most turned unrecognizable due to pandemic misinformation. But her search for answers only renewed questions about her family history, a life filled with both fear and love that she and her brother …
Alan Strauss is kidnapped and chained in the basement of his new patient. Sam Fortner reveals he’s a serial killer and wants the therapist to help him change his violent ways. During his captivity Alan ponders his many regrets in life, all while attempting to cure Sam’s murderous urges. Alan knows if he’s unsuccessful and can't prevent his patient …
A Florida judge reaches out to author Gilbert King, saying an innocent man has been in prison for three decades. Leo Schofield was convicted of murdering his wife despite no physical evidence and thin witness accounts. Schofield maintains he was not the one who stabbed Michelle and left her body in a roadside canal. Gilbert learns authorities never…
Robert Berchtold seemed the perfect neighbor and close friend to the Broberg family. But his fixation on their daughter Jan led him to abduct the girl and flee to Mexico. Parents Bob and Mary Ann were left confused as to why their trusted friend would take their child. But long after their return, Berchtold continued to hold Jan under his spell, ke…
Ana Mendieta was a provocative performance artist. Her husband was the mercurial legendary sculptor Carl Andre. They were the It couple of the New York art scene, until 1985 when Ana mysteriously fell from their 34th floor apartment after an argument. Andre’s arrest for his wife’s death split the artistic community. Thirty-five years later, those w…
Immigrants and payday borrowers were receiving calls from the US government: either pay the money they owe or be arrested. But it was all an international scam, tricking people into turning over thousands of dollars to con men traveling the country. But with the calls originating from India, authorities had little hope of finding the players and sh…
In 1995, a pair of eight-year-old girls were kidnapped from the Belgian countryside. Later, two teens vanished after leaving a magic show. Then another set of girls disappeared. Hysteria gripped the country, while the police response seemed not up to the task. After questioning, Marc Dutroux would take investigators to his home where they discovere…
In an effort to stop a ski resort expansion in Vail, Colorado, environmental activists set fire to several buildings. It was the work of the Earth Liberation Front, an extremist group that targeted companies they felt were damaging the environment. The FBI labeled the group eco-terrorists and the country’s greatest domestic terror threat. For decad…
In August 1996, 19-year-old Zach Snarr took his friend Yvette to a secluded reservoir to take photos of the moon. But their date was interrupted by “George” Benvenuto, a stranger who fatally shot Zach and wounded Yvette without provocation. Zach’s family wanted justice, hoping Benvenuto would rot in prison. But the years brought little comfort and …
