Best Main Line Murders Podcasts (2024)

1
Gaslight, Gatekeep, GirlBoss: A Girl Gang Grab-Bag 29:54

11h ago29:54

29:54

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 …

1
One Step Behind: A Stalkers Grab Bag 39:00

7d ago39:00

39:00

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 ob…

1
Tin Soldiers: The Murder of Carole Garton 57:24

15d ago57:24

57:24

When it comes to stuff, I really feel like counterfeit can be just as good as the real thing. Give me a lab-created diamond any day; I can show off some sparkle without robbing a bank. Same goes for shoes and bags and perfume dupes—I’m happy to sport a convincing knockoff. Fake isn’t always bad. But when it comes to people, it’s a whole different s…

1
Phantom: The Murder of Heidi Bernadzikowski 43:13

22d ago43:13

43:13

I'm not going to try and do his voice because it'd tear my throat up, but Hollywood legend Jack Palance once said, "The only two things you can truly depend upon are gravity and greed." Greed has been a motivation in more true crime cases than I can count, and it's astonishing how a grasping desire for dollars and cents can twist the human heart. I…

1
Burning Down the House: A Casino Bandit Grab Bag 42:20

29d ago42:20

42:20

Almost everyone who walks into a casino feeling confident that they’re gonna walk out richer is what is technically known as “a sucker.” Every game you play at a casino gives the house an edge. Not much of one—otherwise, why would people play? Players have to win a decent portion of the time, that’s why they keep putting their money down on the tab…

1
Because They Were Home: The Dartmouth Murders, Pt 2 43:22

1M ago43:22

43:22

Our homes are meant to be where we feel the safest, so it makes sense that there’s an entire horror movie subgenre dedicated to home invasions. The Strangers, Panic Room, Funny Games, When a Stranger Calls, even Jordan Peele’s Us. All those movies play on the innate fear we have that our most peaceful area would be disturbed by those that would do …

1
Because They Were Home: The Dartmouth Murders Pt 1 38:51

1M ago38:51

38:51

Schopenhauer wrote, “Fate shuffles the cards, and we play.” Every day, every decision we make sparks a chain reaction of others, leading us down a particular path. And with every choice, a universe of other un-choices spins away behind us, forgotten. We all like to think we’re the master of our own destiny, but sometimes…we fall to the whims of cha…

1
Stranger in the Mirror: The Crimes of Theresa Ramirez 39:06

2M ago39:06

39:06

We tend to think of doctors as leading pretty cushy, privileged lives—lots of money, social status, and respect. But a dark trend has been developing in recent years, and it’s only getting worse. Increasingly, doctors are experiencing violence at the hands of their patients. Sometimes it’s a verbal threat, a push or a shove. Sometimes it’s stalking…

1
Never Enough: The Crimes of Susan Grund 49:01

2M ago49:01

49:01

It’s not unusual or unhealthy to go a little wild when you’re young—to just go looking for a good time with little thought for the consequences. It’s just how human beings are made. But if you’re like that your whole life, relentlessly looking out for your own pleasures and barely aware of the damage you cause along the way, you’re likely to land y…

1
Bat Man: The Murder of Fred Oesterreich 37:16

2M ago37:16

37:16

There’s an old saying: A gilded cage is still a cage. Meaning, you can be in what looks like an enviable situation—all your needs met, plenty of pretty toys to entertain you—and still feel like you’re in prison. The human soul doesn’t take well to being kept in a box, no matter how nice the box may be. There’s a pull toward freedom, even if you hav…

1
You Belong with Me: The Murders of Viktor Gunnarsson and Catherine Miller 1:06:54

2M ago1:06:54

1:06:54

Romantic jealousy is, for the most part, fundamental to the human experience, one of the uglier strands in the tangled mess that makes up a heart. Some people manage to overcome it completely, most of us will be familiar with the occasional hot stab of possessiveness. And some people will let jealousy consume them like a wildfire. If that person is…

1
Is It Fiction? The Crimes of Krystian Bala 43:33

3M ago43:33

43:33

In Dostoevsky’s book Crime and Punishment, the character Raskolnikov says, “All people seem to be divided into 'ordinary' and 'extraordinary'. The ordinary people must lead a life of strict obedience and have no right to transgress the law because they are ordinary. Whereas the extraordinary people have the right to commit any crime they like…just …

1
Black Flag: The Story of the Pirate Blackbeard 51:18

3M ago51:18

51:18

We've talked about a lot of notorious criminals here on True Crime Campfire, but do you think any of today's villains will still be widely known in three-hundred years? Will their names be known to almost everyone, and conjure up vivid if not exactly accurate images of a time long past? The subject of this week's story is a man whose brief but spec…

1
The Talented Mr. Field: Murder in an English Village 49:01

3M ago49:01

49:01

Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr. Ripley follows a young man named Tom, whose deep-seated jealousy and ambition leads him down a very dark path. He wants the jet-set lifestyle his trust-fund friends are living, and he sets out to get it using his intelligence and skill at deception. Tom Ripley is a pretty realistic depiction of a psychopa…

1
The Magician and the Fool: The Story of the DC Snipers, Pt 2 49:21

4M ago49:21

49:21

When we left you at the end of part 1, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo had begun a killing spree that took them from Tacoma, Washington, through Arizona, Louisiana, and Maryland. By October 2002, they had killed or wounded 10 people, with Muhammad pointing his finger and Malvo pointing his gun. Malvo believed himself to be a soldier in the f…

1
The Magician and the Fool: The Story of the DC Snipers 31:16

4M ago31:16

31:16

Do you remember Snow White, campers? You know, the princess whose step mother was so jealous of her beauty that she cursed her with a poison apple? Today’s case is like that. Someone whose wrath and anger was so terrible that it harmed everyone it touched. To him, not getting his way was a fate worse than death and in order to right the wrongs, he’…

1
Love Will Tear Us Apart: The Murder of Larry McNabney, Pt 2 54:59

4M ago54:59

54:59

When we left you last week, attorney Larry McNabney’s attempt to become the biggest personal-injury attorney in Nevada had just crashed and burned like the Hindenberg, thanks in no small part to his new wife, Elisa. Elisa was a small-time thief and fraudster from Florida who had thrown the state and her whole life in the rear-view mirror to avoid t…

1
Love Will Tear Us Apart: The Murder of Larry McNabney, Pt 1 47:49

4M ago47:49

47:49

There aren’t many stories older or more widespread than “bad decisions made for a pretty face or a hot body.” Those throbbing biological urges can kick reason and good sense right to the curb. For most of us, this is more likely to happen when we’re young and, y’know, dumb. But there are some people who will always be willing to put their hands in …

1
Unfaithful: The Murder of Samira Frasch 38:04

4M ago38:04

38:04

There is freedom in being a narcissist. If you don’t see anyone else in the world as fully real and important, you can do whatever you want, follow your every urge and impulse. And if someone happens to get hurt along the way, well, you probably barely even noticed. A lot of the criminals in our cases fit this mould, grandiose types swinging throug…

1
Counterfeit Son: The Murders of Bart and Krista Halderson 36:08

5M ago36:08

36:08

It's not that unusual for people to bend the truth a little to show themselves in a good light, especially when they're young. Maybe you want to impress a crush, maybe you just want to add a bit of glamor to an otherwise normal life. It's mostly harmless...unless the lies get out of control. If someone lies with every beat of their heart, builds an…

1
Out of Your Depth: The Grisly Jersey Shore Shark Attacks of 1916 53:19

5M ago53:19

53:19

When you were a kid, were you ever scared to go in the swimming pool in case you might get eaten by a shark? Or just get in the bathtub? Hell, one time I even managed to freak myself out just from laying on a waterbed. This is mainly thanks to Steven Spielberg and a 25-foot mechanical shark called Bruce, but “Jaws” wasn’t made in a vacuum. Shark at…

1
Touched By an Angel: The Murder of Fred Jablin 56:21

5M ago56:21

56:21

Leonard Cohen sang, “All I ever learned from love / Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya,” which should certainly strike a chord with followers of true crime. We’ve seen time and again how, after a bitter break-up, a person can go to extraordinary lengths to get their own back, whether the wrongs they’ve suffered are real or exist entirely in t…

1
Bird Brain: The Story of the Great Feather Heist 44:12

5M ago44:12

44:12

Natural conservation is something that most people can get behind. I mean, you see a baby duckling covered in oil and you can’t help but shake your fist at the oil companies that created the mess while you reach for the dish soap, right? When wildfires break out, firefighters from all over the country pack their bags and get on planes to go help. W…

1
Hey Jealousy: The Murder of Latrese Curtis 36:52

6M ago36:52

36:52

In geometry, the triangle is the strongest shape there is—any weight you put on one gets shared out equally among the three sides. A perfect 3-way harmony. But in romance, for most of us anyway, three’s a crowd. Resentments start to smolder. Secrets start to slip. Things can get dangerous. Especially when everyone involved is living a double life t…

1
Would I Lie To You? The Murder of Leisa Hurst 48:14

6M ago48:14

48:14

To paraphrase the great American hero George Costanza, “You’ve been living a lie? I’m living, like, 20.” If you’re up to no good in one way or another, there are a lot of ways you can get found out. You might get ratted out, you might unknowingly leave behind evidence of your bad deeds, or you might just get flat-out caught in the act. And if you’v…

1
Fury By Proxy: The Murder of Sandee Rozzo 50:22

6M ago50:22

50:22

Some of the scariest people we’ve covered on this show were cursed with a grandiose sense of entitlement—the sense that if they see something they want, they should be allowed to just take it, whether that something is a new watch or a fellow human being. The self-centeredness is bad enough, but when you couple it with rage…especially the kind brou…

1
Restrained: The Crimes of Mr. Handcuffs 39:37

6M ago39:37

39:37

In 2012 and 2013, two women disappeared. They didn’t have a whole lot in common: One was a teenager on the west coast, the other a midwestern mom of seven. But both would fall under the spell of a poisonous man who had become a master at manipulating the vulnerable for his own twisted ends. Sources: CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-wis…

1
Wrapped Around Her Finger: The Murder of Ron Whitehead 38:08

7M ago38:08

38:08

Two of the closest bonds a person can have are with a spouse and with a child. Ideally, in the first you're a loving partner, and in the second, a guide and a caregiver. Of course, real life doesn't always match the ideal, and both of those relationships can get twisted and strange. Sometimes your spouse and your child can even become the deadliest…

1
Foxcatcher: The Unhinging of an American Heir 43:07

7M ago43:07

43:07

Imagine growing up in a spectacular mansion, with access to the kind of wealth and connections most of us can only dream of. But although you’re surrounded by material riches, you’re in a social vacuum—eating alone in your bedroom every night, wandering the grounds of your family estate with only the wildlife as company. This was the life of John D…

1
Material Girl: The Murder of Greg Williams 40:33

7M ago40:33

40:33

The Rolling Stones told us “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” but some people DO get what they want…just not necessarily what they need. This week’s story is about a woman with a tempestuous life who got just what she wanted—wealth, stability, and love—and then took a wrecking ball and smashed it all into pieces. This one has some strange twists…

1
Vengeful: The Murder of Dr. David Cornbleet 41:10

8M ago41:10

41:10

We all live our daily lives in our own little spheres. We have our work, our families, our friends, all the million little things that keep us moving from one day to the next. We sometimes think about the world beyond that stuff—like, haven’t we all walked down a crowded street and wondered about the strangers we passed? About their inner lives, th…

1
Disgrace: The Story of the Profumo Affair 51:20

8M ago51:20

51:20

People will do crazy things for desire. From the earliest human tales and histories to stories you can read in your newspaper today, there have been a never-ending number of crimes and betrayals committed because someone started getting hot under the collar. People will risk their relationships, their happiness, their lives for desire. Sometimes th…

1
Patreon Upcycle: Red Flaggy Reddit - The Tale of the Director of Operations 46:07

8M ago46:07

46:07

As most of you probably know, this week is the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S., and Katie and I both have family stuff to do—people to see, pies to bake. So we took the week off from our regularly scheduled programming. But because we love you and we didn’t want you to miss out on a new episode, we decided to pick out one of our old Patreon-e…

1
Crockefeller: The Story of a Killer Con Man 51:52

8M ago51:52

51:52

How many times have we seen it—a rich and/or powerful person gets in some kind of hot water, and all it takes is a quick “Do you know who I AM?” to fix it? I don’t really get why people are so dazzled by money and pedigree, but it seems to be a constant theme throughout history—and it’s as alive today as it’s ever been. So it’s not a big surprise t…

1
Diamond Dogs: The Heist for the Millennium Jewels 47:07

8M ago47:07

47:07

For most of us, it’s kinda hard to grasp the life of a professional criminal. Only a tiny percentage of it is turf wars and whackin’ dudes. Most people who make a living from crime live just like the rest of us do: They go to the grocery store, they take their kids to school, they worry about money being tight. But, unlike most of us, when things g…

1
The Strange Case of the Circleville Letters 53:59

9M ago53:59

53:59

Some of y’all may be too young to remember, but in the days before email, getting a handwritten letter in the mail was fun. Somebody had taken the time to write out a message just for you and sent it through time and space. It could be from an old friend, a lost love, or a secret admirer. You couldn’t wait to get inside and discover what was so imp…

1
Twisted Campfire: A TCC Halloween Special 1:17:23

9M ago1:17:23

1:17:23

It’s Halloween again, time to scare you all into submission. And this year, we’ve decided to bring in some reinforcements to do that. An expert in the art of the scare, with one of the best horror podcasts out there: Nina Jones from Twisted Mirror. We’ve chosen two true stories that will have you sleeping with one eye open, wondering what dark secr…

1
Listen Now: New Podcast "Ghost Story" 9:06

9M ago9:06

9:06

Tristan Redman is a journalist who doesn’t believe in ghosts. But weird things happened in his teenage bedroom – weirder than normal. When, years later, he discovers subsequent occupants of his family home say they have been visited by the ghost of a faceless woman, he’s curious. It just so happens that the house Tristan grew up in is right next do…

1
Unburied: Serial Killers Burke and Hare 51:26

9M ago51:26

51:26

In the 1820s, the city of Edinburgh was shaken to its core by a series of callous murders. Behind the killings was a story of death, greed, and willful blindness that provided the coldest possible answer to the question, “What is a human life worth?” Join us for the story of Scotland's most infamous serial killers. Sources: Alanna Knight, Burke & H…

1
Listen Now: MrBallen's Medical Mysteries 7:11

9M ago7:11

7:11

Follow MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge the first 8 episodes, early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. The human body is a miracle. But when it’s not working, it can be the stuff of nightmares. On this new series from master storyteller MrBallen, we’re sharing medical horror s…

1
Chimera: The Crimes of Elaine Parent 43:51

9M ago43:51

43:51

In July of 1990, the headless, handless body of a young woman named Beverly McGowan was found in a canal near St. Lucie, Florida. As they began their investigation, detectives had no way of knowing that they were embarking on one of the strangest cases of their careers—the twisting, turning story of a consummate con woman, killer, and master of dis…

1
Faceless: Two American Nightmares 44:35

10M ago44:35

44:35

It’s October, folks. The season of mystery. So this week, to kick off our favorite month of the year, we’ve picked two of the most iconic unsolved cases in American history: both cases where the basic fabric of everyday life was threatened. Where the things we take for granted as safe—over the counter medicine and air travel—suddenly couldn’t be tr…

1
Gotcha! A Grab Bag of Famous Hoaxes 49:28

10M ago49:28

49:28

We’ve had a pretty heavy summer on TCC, haven’t we? Nazis and Norwegian black metal murders, and those last two cases were gnarly. So we thought maybe this week, you’d appreciate something a little lighter—something just for fun. So we decided to talk about hoaxes. Sometimes hoaxes are hilarious, like the time Sir Arthur Conan Doyle pranked five of…

1
Until the End of the World: The Children of Thunder Pt 2 55:50

10M ago55:50

55:50

When we left you at the end of Part 1, former Mormon golden boy Taylor Helzer had decided on two disciples who would aid him in his weird scheme to bring about a planet-wide spiritual awakening through a network of self-help groups fueled by sex and drugs, a plan he called Transform America. These disciples were his quiet younger brother Justin, an…

1
Listen Now: The Apology Line 6:45

10M ago6:45

6:45

For fifteen years you could call a private number in Manhattan and anonymously apologize for anything. It was called The Apology Line. This is the story of the phone line and the man at the other end who became consumed by his own creation. He was known as “Mr. Apology.” As thousands of callers flooded the line, confessing to everything from shopli…

1
Until the End of the World: The Children of Thunder, Pt 1 46:45

10M ago46:45

46:45

Being part of a society means that for the most part you follow its rules, often without thinking about it at all. And those rules, those strictures of what is right and wrong, good or bad, are frequently dumb and sometimes awful—human societies are not utopias, after all, they’re messy and loud and full of argument. But some shared consensus on th…

1
For the Thrill of It: Killer Couple BJ and Erika Sifrit, Pt 2 44:51

11M ago44:51

44:51

When we left you at the end of part 1, married couple BJ and Erika Sifrit had decided to take a break from their demanding schedule of selling scrapbook supplies and burgling local businesses and drive down to Ocean City, Maryland for a little vacation…join us now for part 2 of this chilling true story. Sources: Cruel Death by M. William Phelps A&E…

1
For the Thrill of It: Killer Couple BJ and Erika Sifrit, Pt 1 45:35

11M ago45:35

45:35

In May of 2002, a couple on vacation went missing from the beach town of Ocean City Maryland…and what began as a missing persons investigation soon morphed into one of the most bizarre, most disturbing double murder cases in the area’s history. The killers’ names weren’t a mystery for long. They were a young married couple with their whole lives ah…

1
Love or Money: The Crimes of Joel Sandler 39:38

11M ago39:38

39:38

In Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” Scrooge’s nephew says of his uncle, “His wealth is of no use to him. He don’t do any good with it. He don’t make himself comfortable with it.” Those of us who aren’t staggeringly wealthy might have happy daydreams about how much fun we’d have if we won the lottery, but a lot of the people who devote their li…

1
Listen Now - Over My Dead Body: Gone Hunting 5:54

11M ago5:54

5:54

When Mike Williams vanishes on a hunting trip, the authorities suspect he was eaten by alligators but the true predators who took Mike may lurk much closer to home. The mystery of Mike’s disappearance might have faded from memory, if it wasn’t for one woman’s tireless crusade. From Wondery, comes a new season of Over My Dead Body; a story about an …

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Main Line Murders Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Quick Reference Guide