The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast

Continuing the opening story of Series 11, and by 2007, the then 20 year cold cases of Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce, the Tunbridge Wells 'Bedsit' murders, had been definitively linked by DNA as being the work of the same killer. But - he wasn't on the National DNA database. Skip forward 13 years, and by then, with the advancements in Familial DNA, it was to lead investigators to a v...

It is great to be back for a brand new series of The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast, and I begin Series 11 with at first, a case that I covered before the podcast was even a podcast, when it was a simple blog. Back in 1987, the Kent town of Tunbridge Wells was gripped by fear, with the murders of two young women, five months apart. They were crimes that for many years remained cold cases, until for...

This is episode one of Rough Diamond, the new investigative series from Always True Crime. It starts in the 1960s, when London was in the grips of a crime spree…rare diamonds are being stolen. The latest is the Colenso diamond - the world’s largest uncut diamond, and one of the Natural History Museum’s most important pieces. When a young window cleaner is arrested a few months after the theft, his...

The feature-length Series 10 finale of The True Crime Enthusiast brings with it an almost surreal tale of abuse, murder, dismemberment, imprisonment, appeal, acquittal, mental illness, misguided revenge - and something called Project Tango. It was a tale that shook the county of East Sussex when it happened at the turn of this century - one that was to have repercussions several years later. The e...

Concluding here the story of Jason John Mitchell, who had, by 1994, been hearing voices constantly talking to him, in the second or third person, about his personal habits, the TV programmes he watched, the literature he read, the list goes on - voices that were sometimes welcomed but most of the time not, and that even though nobody else could hear them, were as real as anything else to him. But...

What if you heard voices constantly talking to you, referring to you in the second or third person? Talking about your personal habits, the TV programmes you watch, your choice of literature? Voices that are as real as anything else to you - but nobody else can hear them? Then imagine if one day, those voices say to you, 'This is the time, you should kill that man' I bring you in the first of a tw...

It was a daunting sounding task that had never before been attempted - the fingerprinting of every male in one of the largest towns in the UK. But back in May 1948, the murder of three year old June Anne Devaney had sickened even the most hardened detectives so much, that there wasn't an officer involved who wasn't prepared to give this his all. This time around, on The True Crime Enthusiast Podca...

We venture away from the UK this time around on the Enthusiast, and head to the European alpine country of Austria, where alongside the classical music, sports and culture that it is most famous for, I bring two cases of long forgotten, savage murder from yesteryear that shows that evil doesn't skip anywhere.   Music used in this episode: "The Descent" by Kevin Macleod. All music used is sour...

Football fans from the UK - and across the world - held their breath for a week in March 1966 when the Jules Rimet trophy, more commonly known as the World Cup - was stolen from an exhibition in Westminster, where it had been on display. The possibilities were endless - had it been transported abroad, and was in the clutches of an unscrupulous millionaire? Had it been melted down, or had it been a...

Some people can't wait for it to finish, some people perhaps never want it to end, but we have upon us the culmination of the 2026 World Cup. It's a tournament that has seen unlikely heroes, tears and controversy, and as the episode drops, it's the weekend that sees one team lifting aloft the ultimate prize in sport, the FIFA World Cup. But back in 1966, a year that needs no introduction to footba...

A gift of £100,000 to buy a house, and £1,000 living allowance a month. The stuff the majority of us can only dream of, isn't it? But it's never enough for some, and combine this with deep-seated hatred, misconceived feelings of being unfairly treated, alcohol and the lockdown we all faced a few years ago, and one night in Dorset 2021 was to end in horrendous violence. And brutal, bloody murder. T...

We head back to May 2010 and to the area of Wishaw, near Glasgow in North Lanarkshire for the tale this time around. It was the hottest weekend of that year so far, and an off-road motorcyclist named Stuart Bell was about to make a chilling discovery that he will take to his grave with him.... The episode contains details and descriptions of crimes and events, including descriptions of injury deta...

You should be able to leave your children for a sleepover, safe as houses, with someone who loves them so deeply she calls them her 'kidlets', shouldn't you? Lee-Anna Spiers and her partner Liam Timbrell had done just that, and looked forward to it for however many months, with all involved excited. Until the night of October 19th, 2012 - when it was to be the last sleepover anyone involved was to...

He's the London serial killer you may never have even known existed - from the late 1950's to the mid 1960's, West London was shocked by the deaths of several sex workers, who were found stripped, strangled, and their bodies dumped unceremoniously, like pieces of rubbish. It's widely considered to be the UK's most prolific series of unsolved serial killings, claiming more victims than his similar...

He's the London serial killer you may never have even known existed - from the late 1950's to the mid 1960's, West London was shocked by the deaths of several sex workers, who were found stripped, strangled, and their bodies dumped unceremoniously, like pieces of rubbish. It's widely considered to be the UK's most prolific series of unsolved serial killings, claiming more victims than his similar...

He's the London serial killer you may never have even known existed - from the late 1950's to the mid 1960's, West London was shocked by the deaths of several sex workers, who were found stripped, strangled, and their bodies dumped unceremoniously, like pieces of rubbish. It's widely considered to be the UK's most prolific series of unsolved serial killings, claiming more victims than his similar...

He's the London serial killer you may never have even knew existed - from the late 1950's to the mid 1960's, West London was shocked by the deaths of several sex workers, stripped, strangled, and their bodies dumped unceremoniously, like pieces of rubbish. It's commonly considered to be the UK's most prolific series of unsolved serial killings, claiming more victims than his similar namesake the p...

He's the London serial killer you may never have even knew existed - from the late 1950's to the mid 1960's, West London was shocked by the deaths of several sex workers, stripped, strangled, and their bodies dumped unceremoniously, like pieces of rubbish. It's commonly considered to be the UK's most prolific series of unsolved serial killings, claiming more victims than his similar namesake the p...

Open water is, for many people, their greatest fear, and being trapped within it must be terrifying - especially if you cannot swim to safety, to face your final, mortal moments like that. On a freezing cold March morning back in 2013, in the town of Arklow, in County Wexford, in Ireland, a 31 year old Hungarian national named Csaba Orsos faced exactly his greatest fear. It was the last thing he w...

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, has since its establishment in 1978 assisted Lebanese forces along the country's border with Israel to maintain peace, security, and ensure humanitarian access. In it's near five decades in existence, countless soldiers from nations across the world have lost their lives as part of these peacekeeping forces, and it is the Irish Army that...

He was for many years a folk devil, almost an apparition, whispered about in playgrounds and used as a threat by parents, in the North West of England anyway, to make their chldren behave - 'Purple Aki's gonna get you'. He became an almost Bogeyman, and around the North West of the UK, he has an almost legendary status. But - he was very, very real, and this time around on the Enthusiast, I bring...

I'm thrilled to today be sharing an episode with you from a sister True Crime podcast of the Enthusiast from the Always True Crime Network - Paranormia. Join host Elizabeth McCaffrey as she takes us back to the late 1970, and recounts the tale of one of the most terrifying and disturbing crime cases in American history. The Vampire Of Sacramento. New episodes of Paranormia are available each Wedne...

The Justice and Mental Health services in the UK are, as much as they are supposed to for the benefit of the patient concerned, supposed to act dilligently and communicatively in the best interests of the wider public too. One morning in October 2011, 58 year old grandmother of two Sally Hodkin was to find out, in the most tragic of ways, that sometimes, there are failings in these systems... The...

I bring the Best Laid Plans story to a conclusion this time around on The True Crime Enthusiast, where we hear the outcome of the trial of Arkan Ali, Aram Kurd and Hawkar Hassan over the explosion which killed Mary, Sean and Shane Ragobeer, Leah Reek, and Viktorija Ijevleva, and what has happened in the intervening years concerning the families of those who lost their lives, as well as the legacie...

It is unamaginable losing a family member in an explosion - let alone three family members - nut in November 2018, that is exactly what Leicester Crown Court heard had happened back in February of that year - as the result of deliberate actions, and three men - Aram Kurd, Hawekar Hassan, and Arkan Ali - faced charges for this. The Crown painted a very clear cut, strong case against the three - but...