MISSISSIPPI BURNING is the name of a motion picture, released in 1988, starring Gene Hackman and Willem DaFoe, loosely based on the murders of 3 Civil Rights workers in Mississippi, during the “Freedom Summer” of 1964. James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were lured to Philadelphia, Mississippi, and executed by the Ku Klux Klan. No on…

On New Year’s Eve 1989, 11-year-old Collier Landrywakes up to a loud thud coming from his parents' bedroom, and it becomes the night his mother Noreen Boyle disappears forever. All his family has no doubts that she ran away after a fight with her husband. But Collier knows that his mom would never leave him behind. As Dr John Boyle refuses to discu…

In the spring of 2016, as immigration debates rocked theUnited States, three men in a militia group known as the Crusaders grew aggravated over one Kansas town’s growing Somali community. They decided that complaining about their new neighbors and threatening them directly wasn’t enough. The men plotted to bomb a mosque, aiming to kill hundreds and…

Today Murder Most Foul takes a slight departure from True Crime to discuss the above titled novel by author Joanna Wallace. Critics call it, “Refreshingly original and laugh-out-loud funny.” This comic thriller follows the trials and tribulations of Claire, a part-time serial killer, who is keen to keep her favorite hobby a secret—despite the effor…

In 1990, Jens Soering, a German honors student at the University of Virginia, was sentenced to life after a spectacular televised trial for the 1985 murders ofhis lover’s Elizabeth’s parents, Derek and Nancy Haysom. In a classic example of “he said/she said,” at their trials the star-crossed lovers each pointed the fingerat the other as the actual …

In 1990, Jens Soering, a German honors student at the University of Virginia, was sentenced to life after a spectacular televised trial for the 1985 murders ofhis lover’s Elizabeth’s parents, Derek and Nancy Haysom. In a classic example of “he said/she said,” at their trials the star-crossed lovers each pointed the fingerat the other as the actual …

Crime movies, documentaries and literature come in several genres: True Crime (just the facts, Ma’am), “Non-Fiction Novel,” (made famous by Truman Capote with his masterpiece, In Cold Blood) and pure fiction. But even with fictitious crime novels, there are hybrid approaches. Some are “based on a true story,” or “inspired by a truestory,” or “drawn…

To all who knew him, Robert Hansen was a typical hardworking businessman, husband, and father. Buthidden beneath the veneer of mild respectability was a monster whose depraved appetites could not be sated. From 1971 to 1983, Hansen was a human predator,stalking women on the edges of Anchorage society—women whose disappearances would cause scant out…

On May 31,1985, two days before her high school graduation, Shari Faye Smith was abducted from the driveway of her family home in South Carolina. For several days after the abduction, the kidnapper called and sent letters to the family, taunting them with details of abduction and murder of Shari. Ultimately, he revealed the location of Shari’s body…

I saw her standin' on her front lawn Just a twirlin' her baton Me and her went for a ride, sir And ten innocent people died From the town of Lincoln, Nebraska With a sawed off .410 on my lap Through to the badlands of Wyoming I killed everything in my path I can't say that I'm sorry For the things that we done At least for a little while, sir Me an…

“A Murder in Hollywood” - the dark story behind the bright lights of Tinseltown. Before there was Jodie Foster and Brooke Sheilds, there was Judy Turner. You may know her by her stage name, Lana Turner. Discovered at a malt shop in LA in her early teens and thrust before the cameras, she seemed to have it all―a thriving film career and the kind of …

It’s every mother and father’s worst nightmare to discover your daughter has vanished after a night on the town. Finding Amy is the story of just such a nightmare, written by Detective LT, Joseph K. Loughlin, who led the investigation into 25-year-old Amy St. Laurent’s disappearance and his co-author, Kate Clark Flora. The story is especially compe…

In the early 1970’s, F.B.I agent, John E. Douglas, created and managed the FBI's Criminal Profiling Program, now called the Behavioral Analysis Unit. Agent Douglas became the inspiration for the character Jack Crawford in “The Silence of the Lambs,” played by actor Scott Glenn. Douglas has interviewed numerous serial killers and other violent sex o…

In the winter of 1982 in Brighton, New York, a bedroom suburb of Rochester, Jim Krauseneck came home from work to discover his wife, Kathleen, lying in bed, dead, with an ax lodged in her head. Their 3-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Sarah, was unharmed alone in the dark, cold house. She had attempted to dress herself and make herself breakfast, whic…

It is hard to imagine that there is anyone out there who doesn’t know the name Scott Peterson, the man convicted in 2004 of the murder of his young wife who at the time was 8 months pregnant with their child they had named Connor. Peterson was initially sentenced to death, but in 2020 that sentence was overturned andcommuted to life without the pos…

1969: The Age of Aquarius - Peace, love and understanding! Nowhere was this more evident than in Helltown, also known as Provincetown, Massachusetts. And Tony Costa was at the center of it all. Like Charles Manson on the left coast, Tony had a group of loyal followers, mostly smitten women who called him Sire. Tony was the undisputed leader of thei…

Doppelganger: “A person who looks or acts the same way you do – a twin.” Many of us have been told that we look exactly like a celebrity. Sometimes you might walk up to someone in the supermarket and start talking to them as if they are someone you know, only to be fooled because they are not. Harmless fun? Yes, except for poor Pamela Hutchinson, w…

Elliot Ness and the American Demon. Almost sounds like a Nancy Drew Mystery. I wish the story were that benign. In the mid 1930’s, just after Prohibition ended, Cleveland played host to a killer whose grizzly murders rivaled that of London’s Jack the Ripper. The victims were all beheaded and often their limbs were also removed earning this sadist t…

If you’ve ever been at a criminal trial or, like me, have never missed an episode of Law & Order on TV, you are aware that certain evidence and witness testimony is not allowed by our current judicial system. But in 1673, in Colonial Portsmouth, Rhode Island, it was not that restrictive. Thomas Cornell, Jr., was charged with killing his mother, Reb…

Sixty years ago this year, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Not quite two weeks after the tragedy, The Warren Commission, established by President Johnson, was launched to investigate the incident and report itsfindings to the American people. The Committee stated in publishing its findings that “the assassination of John Fitzg…

Look! Up in the sky, it’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman! For us “baby-boomers” there is only one Superman. And that is as portrayed actor, George Reeves. Reeves version of the Man of Steel was beamed into our living rooms as The Adventures of Superman. The serial aired from 1952-1958, first in black whiteand then in color, during the birth of…

You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. If you have watched any cop show after 1965, from Dragnet to Law and Order, you recognize those words, often printed on a small, crumpled card pu…

The biggest, the fastest, the longest of anything intrigues us. Many aspire to have their feats, no matter how trivial, immortalized in The Guiness Book of World theRecords. The record of “Most Murders by a Serial Killer” is no exception. And that honor goes to Sam McDowell Little. Starting in 1971 and continuing for 20 years, the FBI confirmed Lit…

In 1954, two college students were hiking along a creek outside of Boulder, Colorado, when they stumbled upon the body of a murdered young woman. Who was this woman? What had happened to her? The initial investigation turned up nothing, and the girl was buried in a local cemetery with a gravestone that read, "Jane Doe, April 1954, Age About 20 Year…

On August 28th, 2003, in the suburbs of Erie Pennsylvania, a pizza delivery man named Brian Wells was accosted by several men who locked a time bomb around his neck and ordered him to rob a bank. After delivering the money, he would receive clues to...

September 2nd, 1945 - World War II is over! A time for celebration and rejoicing,except in the small town of Campbell, California. Like most towns at the time, thefolks were happy that the war was over, and life was slowly returning to normal.That is, tragically except for one poor family in Campbell. It was Fridaynight, November 2nd. The high scho…

“Elementary, my dear Watson.” I hazard a guess that you are all familiar with that phraseuttered in almost every film portrayal of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s literarycreation, Sherlock Holmes. More about that utterance later. What some folksdon’t know about Sir Arthur, is that he was in every sense the alter ego of hiscreation, Sherlock Holmes. Conan…

With 50-year-old cold murder cases there is rarely the opportunity to bring theperpetrator, even if identified, to justice. Odds are that he, or she, is long deceased.But not so in the case of 8-year-old Gretchen Harrington of Marple, PA, a quietsuburb of Philadelphia. In 1975 she was abducted on her way to Bible Camp, brutallymurdered and her nake…

As a father, I cannot think of anything more horrifying than discovering that your4-year-old daughter has been abducted from her bed, in the middle of the night,while your family is vacationing in a foreign country. But that is exactly whathappened to the parents of Madeleine McCann. The cold case, which is over 15years old, is as controversial as …

Why do folks like True Crime stories in all their manifestations? I have been toldit’s not the gore or even the unravelling of the mystery. In the end, it comesdown to one thing: the “perp” getting his or her just desserts and going prisonor being executed. But what if that resolution relied on JUNK SCIENCE to obtainthat outcome. Those of us addict…

No topic, save maybe abortion, engenders more debate than that of Execution in our penal system. The arguments on both sides are intense, but I think it’s safe to say that both sides do not want an innocent man or woman to fall victim to the “Final Judgement.” As they say on LAW AND ORDER, “the case at bar” is that of Richard Eugene Glossip of Okla…

The Gilded Age in America was a time of great politicalcorruption, wealth inequality and loosening of Victorian Age morals in the late1800s. No one person embodied all that the Gilded Age promised more than Evelyn Nesbit, a willowy,copper-haired beauty from Philadelphia. Arguably, she was the world’s first ever supermodel. Before she was outof her …

“The Trial of Lizzie Borden: a true story.” Yeah, I know, everyone says that, but trust me this is NOT just another Podcast about Lizzie Borden. It's not “Lizzie in the drawing room with a hatchet” offering. We won't try to convince you that Lizzie was pregnant, or sleeping with Bridget, or even did the deed naked. My guest today, lawyer and author…

Depending on your age and demographic, many of you might remember the female “buddy” movie, “Thelma and Louise.” Today, I am pleased to introduce Jennifer and Stephanie. Jennifer Marshall is a Navy veteran, private detective and host of the popular documentary series MYSTERIES DECODED seen on The CW Network. Stephanie Bingham is an author, historia…

In a span of just over two years starting in 2018 in a small area of suburban Dallas, Texas, in a cluster of retirement facilities, 26 senior citizen’s died, of “natural causes.” At least that was the finding of the police authorities. Oddly in all cases there was clearly a robbery involved of expensive jewelry (including wedding rings taken off th…

In early 1980, Jackie Schut and her husband Harold (Lee) Schut embarked on a multi-state, baby-snatching enterprise that involved killing the mothers of the infants. One of those infants was Amanda Bell. Although Jackie and Lee were implicated in Amanda’s abduction and the murder of her mother, they were never prosecuted. In 2020, the documentary D…

On January 23rd 2023, Alex Murdaugh - disgraced and disbarred attorney, scion of the influential Murdaugh family and South Carolina “good ol’ boy” - went on trial for the double-homicide of his wife, Maggie and their teenage son, Paul. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Aside from the financial fraud and swindling of law partners and vulnerab…

On June 18th 1984, Denver radio talk show host, Alan Berg was assassinated in front of his house, his bullet-riddled corpse found in his driveway in a pool of his own blood. Berg was an acerbic, gonzo personality who was an equal opportunity annoyer. Christian or Jew. Liberal or Conservative. White or Black. NAACP or KKK. All were fodder for his po…

Join me as I visit with prolific True Crime author, and all-around fun guy, Rod Kackley. Listen in as we talk about his encounter in high school in an elevator with Jane Fonda and hear about his ancestor who provided medical treatment for a member of Butch Cassidy’s Gang. Oh, we’ll talk murder, too! Like the case of the Uber driver who killed fares…

Do you? Join me as I welcome renowned author and Ghosthunter, Leslie Rule to the show. In this segment, we examine paranormal activities associated with murders as well as suspicious unsolved disappearances. You do not have to believe in ghosts to be entertained by the stories in Leslie’s most recent book: “Haunted in America.”…

The movie’s horrific rape scene is grueling to watch. In a car, a terrified prostitute is bound at the wrists and tied to one of the door handles. Already bloodied and beaten, she is viciously sodomized by the man who picked her up by the side of the highway. Somehow, she breaks free and, wild with rage, bravely turns the tables on her attacker. Sh…

Jason Derek Brown was a small time petty con man who spent most of his life one step ahead of the law or the mob, depending on the day of the week. That was until November 29th, 2004, when this charismatic drifter decided to pull off one last big score and vanish into thin air. He carefully planned and executed the robbery of an armored car outside…

Before there were the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, QAnon and Donald Trump, there was Timothy McVeigh. A decorated war veteran, who decided he, too, didn’t trust the federal government. He decided to release his anger and frustration upon over 800 innocents by bringing down the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. This largest act of…

In 1979, Brenda Spencer, a seemingly average teenage girl living in a nice suburban neighborhood, made and executed plans that would place her in infamy and set a violent and terrifying national precedent. She received a rifle from her father for Christmas, and a month later, opened fire on the elementary school across the street, killing the princ…

REDEMPTION. Not a word one would associate with Charles Manson, Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer. But what about an 11-year-old boy who, in 1889 in rural Iowa, murdered his abusive parents as they slept, sparing his one-year-old sister who was sleeping in the same bed? “THE PLEA: The true story of Young Wesley Elkins and his struggle for Redemption,” mi…

On July 20, 2012, James Holmes walked into the midnight showing of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES in Aurora, Colorado and opened fire on the theater patrons, methodically killing 12 people and injuring 70 others. Like the mass shootings which preceded that night, and those which have occurred since, the public response was swift and predictable. Stricter gu…

In 1930, Eva Dugan became the first woman ever executed in the State of Arizona and the last person to face the gallows in that state. Author Rod Kackley tells us the twisted tale that I’m calling “Eva and the Hangman.”

A parent’s worst nightmare…their child vanishes on the way to catch the bus to school. Did they run away? Were they abducted by a stranger or were they taken by someone they knew and trusted. In 2002, 13-year-old classmates, Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis both vanished on their way to school, two months apart. Soon a task force of over 40 police an…

WHEN THE MOON TURNS TO BLOOD digs deeply into the horrific tale of the murder and mutilation of two innocent children by their Doomsday Mother, Lori Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell. Was it simply a love affair gone wrong, a story of sexual lust so intense it drove two people to kill? Or was it something far more sinister? Join me as I intervie…

The Petersons seemed the ideal couple, well-respected, prosperous, and happy. All that came crashing down in December of 2001, when Kathleen apparently fell to her death in their secluded home in an exclusive area of Durham, North Carolina. But blood-spatter evidence and a missing fireplace poker suggested calculated, cold-blooded murder. Her trust…