Murder In America

On April 29th, 1998, Houston Police dragged Charles Victor Thompson out of his ex-girlfriend’s apartment, where he had started a fight with her new boyfriend. Charles was a jealous man, a drunk man, but the police didn’t think he was a killer. At least, not for another 3 hours. What began as a jealous feud spiraled into murder, and from there, into one of the most shocking cases in Texas history:...

Two offices. Thirteen people bleeding out on their workplace floor. And humid air full of the smell of iron, smoke, and gunfire. That’s exactly what Mark Orrin Barton wanted on the afternoon of July 29th, 1999 – and it’s just what he got. In part two of this series, we’ll walk you through the tragic, chaotic massacre that Mark Barton unleashed at his former offices. We’ll look at the victims, the...

In the 1990s, Mark Orrin Barton was aiming for the stars. He was a day trader, working in a prestigious office in Atlanta. He had a wife, kids, and a seemingly successful life. Then, in 1999, he shot it all to hell. Quite literally. You may have never heard of Mark or the Day Trading Massacre, but in part one of this two-part series, we’ll examine the man who took the lives of at least thirteen pe...

When Linda Wallace stepped into her home, she was horrified. Her drawers were ransacked. Furniture destroyed. Anything of value, stolen. But she didn’t care about that. All she wanted was to find what mattered: Her 9-year-old daughter, Autumn. When she finally did find her, all she could do was scream. Autumn lay on the bathroom floor. The investigation into who killed Autumn Wallace led to an unl...

In 2008, Gregory Green promised the parole board that he was a changed man. When he had murdered his first wife in 1991, he was a monster. Now, he was different. He was ready for another chance. Believing him, the parole board granted him his freedom, and for years it seemed the right choice. He got married. Raised kids. Got a job. Until, in 2016, he betrayed everyone’s faith in him. Police steppe...

Marvin Morales took an oath to serve and protect. The Sacramento Sheriff’s Deputy was a shining example of his department… until he wasn’t. A drug scandal. A hidden addiction. PTSD. A series of horrible decisions culminating in the end of his career, and a violent death that no one saw coming. Sources:⁠⁠https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eTYeCoYyxm58DXXdoFbHQyWHlWbcH9iKGIefFcQToW4/edit?tab=t.y2ya...

Christopher Porco was in trouble. At 21, he was drowning in debt, caught in a web of lies, and flunking out of his college fraternity. His loving parents, Peter and Joan, offered to help him figure things out. But instead, Chris did the unthinkable. In the dead of the night, he grabbed an axe, walked into his parents’ bedroom, and committed a crime so heinous that the detectives on the scene could...

In 1999, Logan Marr was kidnapped, and the state of Maine thought it was for the best. In their eyes, the toddler’s mother was too poor, too uneducated, too redneck to raise her baby girl. So, they gave her to someone who could. And then someone else. And then someone else. Until finally, in 2001, Christy Marr was finally given back her baby girl: in a casket. This isn’t our typical story. This is...

Mother of three Joleen Cummings would never miss a Mother’s Day with her children. When she vanished without a trace on May 12th, 2018, police instantly believed they knew what had happened: Her estranged husband had killed her. It was a tragic tale as old as time, a case they expected to have solved by lunchtime. But very quickly — things changed. As they unraveled the threads of Joleen’s vibrant...

Nothing could have prepared Sioux City Police for what lay in wait inside the home of mother of 5, Leticia Aguilar. When they learned she had seemingly vanished without a word, they suspected it was bad. But they hadn’t expected it to be so bad. Inside, they discovered a crime scene so senseless and traumatic that the chief of police would only allow officers he knew could handle the horror inside...

At first, police in Baraboo, Wisconsin, thought the 9-1-1 call was a prank. 13-year-old Thad Phillips claimed he had been kidnapped, tortured, and left for dead with shattered legs. This is the story of Joseph Clark, the Baraboo, they realized it wasn’t a joke at all: It was the most devious crime they had seen in their entire careers. Thad’s feet were twisted backwards, his thighs swollen to the...

Pulled over in 2005, serial killer Dennis Rader calmly admitted he knew why police were there. Over thirty hours of interrogation, he detailed ten murders with chilling precision, then pleaded guilty to avoid trial. In this episode we cover the trial, the sentencing and the aftermath of one of America’s most infamous and horrific strings of murders- the BTK Killings. - Sources:https://docs.google....

After killing Marine Hedge in 1985 and Vicki Wegerle in 1986, Dennis Rader vanished into suburban normalcy for almost twenty years—leading Cub Scouts, serving as church president, and installing home alarms for terrified neighbors. While the task force chased ghosts, he privately curated scrapbooks and fantasized about new victims. In 2004, stung by a newspaper article implying BTK had died or los...

For 31 years, the city of Wichita lived in terror of a ghost. Between 1974 and 1991, Dennis Rader – the mild-mannered family man, church leader, and compliance officer – murdered ten people in a series of meticulously planned home invasions that still haunt the American true-crime landscape. He didn’t just kill. He staged elaborate, sadistic “projects”: cutting phone lines, waiting patiently in cl...

Before he became the nightmare of Wichita, Kansas – the sadistic serial killer who taunted police with letters signed “BTK” – Dennis Rader was just a quiet, unassuming boy growing up in middle America. In this chilling episode, we go back to the beginning. This is the origin story of one of America’s most infamous serial killers – the story of how Dennis Rader spent decades carefully constructing...

In today's story, we're examining one of the most disturbing series of murders to ever rock the states of Texas & Arkansas, the MOONLIGHT MURDERS. This story is so infamous that it was adapted into a notorious 70's horror film titled "The Town That Dreaded Sundown", and the phantom killer has yet to be caught. - Listen to our new show, "THE CONSPIRACY FILES"!: -Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/s...

In today's episode, we examine the story of Dr. James Craig, whose disturbing crimes came to light in 2023 after the sudden and violent death of his wife. - Listen to our new show, "THE CONSPIRACY FILES"!: -Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5IY9nWD2MYDzlSYP48nRPl -Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-conspiracy-files/id1752719844 -Amazon/Audible - https://music.amazon.c...

In 1974, six members of the DeFeo family were found murdered in their home in Amityville, New York. And the scene of the crime was troubling... in fact, curiously, it appeared as if none of the family members had awoken while the others were being murdered. And when a suspect was finally arrested, and he began speaking to investigators about the voices in his head that told him to kill, things jus...

In August of 2016, a disturbing crime rocked the town of Jupiter, Florida. On that day, a young man did the unthinkable, and ended two lives in an unpredictable, completely random explosion of senseless violence. Join us today as we investigate the story of Austin Harrouff, and the chilling crimes that came to be known as the "Zombie Murders". - Listen to our new show, "THE CONSPIRACY FILES"!: -Sp...

In October of 1989, a young boy went missing from a small town in Minnesota. As time ticked on, and no leads were found, the town, and the nation, grew desperate. However, when the answers to their questions were finally revealed, people were shocked at how their suspect had been hiding amongst them, in plain sight, for years... - Listen to our new show, "THE CONSPIRACY FILES"!: -Spotify - https:/...

In the wake of the El Paso Walmart shooting, the community of El Paso tried to recover from the tragedy, but the road to true healing would be long, and eventful. Join us today as we examine the fall out of the shooting, and take you through exactly what happened right up until Patrick Crusius was finally put behind bars. - Listen to our new show, "THE CONSPIRACY FILES"!: -Spotify - https://open.s...

In 2019, a vicious crime rocked the West Texas town of El Paso, when a man drove into town with a heart full of hatred. At the end of that fateful day, over 20 people would be dead, and a horrifying story of hatred would begin to rapidly unravel. In today's episode, we explore the shooting itself, and examine exactly how it played out, minute by minute, while at the same time telling the stories o...

In 2019, a vicious crime rocked the West Texas town of El Paso, when a man drove into town with a heart full of hatred. At the end of that fateful day, over 20 people would be dead, and a horrifying story of hatred would begin to rapidly unravel. In today's episode, we explore the background of the shooter, and what may have driven him to commit such a horrific crime. - Listen to our new show, "TH...

In 2017, news of a disturbing crime began to spread across the campus of Pennsylvania State University. A student named Timothy Piazza had been found dead inside of a fraternity house... but what could have possibly happened here? As investigators and the public began to probe into the real story behind Timothy's death, they ended up unraveling a web of crime and darkness, much more disturbing tha...

September 11th, 2001 is a day that we will never forget. But there seem to have been a few victims, who were murdered or disappeared on that same day, in the same state, who were indeed forgotten. Join us today as we examine three separate cases of unsolved murders or disappearances that happened in New York on September 11th, 2001, one of which occurred only blocks from the World Trade Center. -...