Small Town Dicks

When a woman suddenly stops showing up for work, a welfare check at her home raises more questions than answers. Detective Sergeant Laura arrives to find a guarded husband whose account is filled with inconsistencies. As the missing person investigation deepens, Laura must trust her instincts, keep a potential suspect talking, and carefully piece together what really happened in a case that shocke...

During a volatile period in Edinburgh, Deputy Chief Constable Tom is called to the scene of a shooting, a rare crime in the UK. The victim is a low-level criminal, and police fear the killing could signal the beginning of a gang war. Investigators put pressure on local criminal networks, but the effort produces no new leads. With the case stalled, Tom changes course and takes a closer look at the...

Detective Greg is called to a shooting at a home in a rural community. While investigators are still processing the scene, a stranger suddenly appears in the bushes with a gun to his head. Greg brings the man in for questioning and quickly discovers something unsettling: he’s had several encounters with law enforcement in just the past week, and each time, he’s given officers a different name. As...

A group of teenage boys are hanging out when a reckless bet turns deadly. Brian is dared to push another boy, Michael, from a three-story train trestle on a freezing winter night.  Prosecutor Kristin is assigned to the case as her jurisdiction pursues felony murder charges against the teenagers involved. But the controversial prosecution quickly turns into a complicated legal battle, leaving...

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Akil Baddoo joins Yeardley Smith for a candid and joyful conversation about confidence, resilience, and learning how to stay grounded through the inevitable highs and lows of professional baseball. Akil traces his love of the game back to hitting baseballs with his dad in the backyard, breaking a window before he was even old enough for Little League, and hitting his f...

A quiet summer night takes a terrifying turn when a woman discovers someone she knows has broken into her home, intent on hurting her. What follows is an hours-long, harrowing fight for survival and an all-hands-on-deck search for a dangerous suspect.  Our own Detective Dan shares this chilling home invasion case, taking us inside the meticulous police investigation, the race to find the susp...

In the finale, a new DNA tool, often referred to as genetic genealogy, has finally led investigators to Joseph DeAngelo’s doorstep. Paul walks us through the aftermath of finally identifying the Golden State Killer. For the victims, it brings long-awaited answers. For Paul Holes, it brings relief, attention, and a void, much like you’d expect when your 24-year obsession finally comes to an end.&nb...

Welcome to the premiere episode of Firehouse Files, hosted by Steve Buscemi, Marian Fontana, and Dennis Gordon. Firehouse Files features firefighters and first responders sharing firsthand accounts of the calls that have stayed with them. Today’s special episode, “Never Forget,” commemorates the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks and honors the firefighters who were lost that day a...

A new kind of DNA analysis changes everything. After learning how genetic genealogy helped identify an unknown victim in a kidnapping case, Paul Holes begins to wonder whether the same method could be used to find the Golden State Killer. Working with a small team, he uses an SNP profile to identify distant relatives and build family trees that may ultimately lead to a name. After decades of dead...

Years after stepping away from the case, Paul is pulled back in. The files are still there. The case is still unsolved. And a suspect emerges who seems to fit. Paul Holes spends years chasing this man he believes could be the Golden State Killer, only for DNA to prove him wrong. We learn all about false leads, investigative humility, and the emotional toll of a case that followed Paul into every p...

The crimes continue in Southern California, with the murders of Manuela Witthuhn and Janelle Cruz. Paul Holes explains how the offender’s violence evolved, how patterns emerged across cases, and how investigators eventually linked the East Area Rapist attacks in Northern California to the Original Night Stalker homicides in the south. For a moment, Paul believes the case may finally be solved. Ins...

After the East Area Rapist disappears from Northern California, an attack with a similar MO happens hundreds of miles away in Goleta. At the time, investigators had no reason to connect it to the Sacramento series. Paul Holes helps us understand the shift into Southern California, the jurisdictional gaps, and the violence of the Lyman and Charlene Smith case. Years later, evidence from this phase...

The East Area Rapist did not stop terrorizing victims when he left their homes. Paul Holes walks us through the phone calls, threats, and psychological cruelty inflicted on the victims long after the attacks. This episode explores fear as part of the offender’s pattern. Paul also traces the final Northern California attacks and the moment the series abruptly stops in the north before starting up a...

As fear spreads through Sacramento, the public demands answers. Communities hold meetings. Newspapers cover the case. And all the while, Paul Holes believes the East Area Rapist was likely watching closely. In this episode, we examine a chilling turning point in the series: the first known attack with a man present in the home, and the possibility that the offender targeted that couple after a tow...

The case moves into Cordova Meadows, a Sacramento-area neighborhood that became key to understanding the East Area Rapist. Through maps, geography, victimology, and old case files, Paul Holes explains how the offender’s movements revealed familiarity, planning, and confidence. What may have looked random from the outside begins to look very different when Paul studies the streets, fences, backyard...

The crimes move north, and a new name emerges: the East Area Rapist. Paul Holes explains how the offender’s behavior changed after Visalia, how early attacks in the Sacramento area unfolded, and how investigators struggled to understand whether they were dealing with a new offender or just someone who had evolved. As the crime spree expands, Paul begins to unpack one of the most disturbing facts o...

Paul Holes begins the story in 1970s Visalia, California, when the Golden State Killer was just beginning to make a name for himself. Before the East Area Rapist, before the Original Night Stalker, there was the Visalia Ransacker, a prolific offender breaking into homes and leaving fear behind. Paul walks Yeardley, Dan, and Dave through the early crimes, the killing of Claude Snelling, the shootin...

In the final part of this three-part series, retired FBI agent Scott brings us to the end of one of the most significant domestic terrorism cases in American history. Justice is served for the people of Oklahoma City. But for Scott, closing a case like this doesn't mean leaving it behind. Some cases stay with you. This is one of them. Retired FBI agent R. Scott Crabtree was born in Herington, KS a...

In part two of this three-part series, retired FBI agent Scott comes face to face with a key second suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing. What follows is an hours-long interview that requires as much patience as it does skill. The suspect's story shifts and changes, and Scott has to navigate every contradiction carefully, pushing just enough without pushing too far. One wrong move and it all falls...

The Oklahoma City Bombing was one of the most devastating attacks in American history, and its story has been told many times. But never like this. Retired FBI agent Scott was on the case in the chaotic hours after the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. In part one of this three-part series, Scott takes us through the turbulent days immediately after the bombing, as he races to...

Paul Holes has never told the full story of the Golden State Killer case like this before.  This summer, Small Town Dicks presents a special 10-part limited series: Chasing the Golden State Killer with Paul Holes.  Across the series, Paul will tell the full story of his 24-year pursuit of the Golden State Killer, from the earliest case files to the DNA breakthrough that helped identify Joseph DeAn...

A young woman's body is found in a remote, rural area with little to go on and no way to identify her. Captain Chris and his team do the only thing they can and start going through the trash around her. A single receipt changes everything. It leads them to a man named William and a complex love triangle involving his current girlfriend and his former fiancée. When Chris puts the pieces together, t...

In January 2025, a 17-year-old opened fire in his school cafeteria, killing a teenage girl before turning the gun on himself. In the aftermath, Matt Kriner faces a different kind of investigation. His job is to dig through the suspect's vast digital footprint, a record rife with racist and violent rhetoric, and piece together not just what happened, but why. And what it might take to prevent it fr...

A man pulls a gun on his wife during an argument and refuses to surrender when law enforcement arrives. Lieutenant Ryan takes the scene and what follows is a tense, five-hour negotiation. As Ryan works to bring the situation to a safe resolution, the case becomes a window into how suspects behave in these moments and what it takes to reach them. Lieutenant Ryan has worked in law enforcement for 15...

A young mother, six weeks pregnant, reaches out to Detective Alia after being attacked by her on-again, off-again partner. Alia takes the case and gets to work, determined to get justice for her and her unborn child. But before she can get there, the case takes a turn that is as devastating as it is unexpected. Detective Alia has 12 years of law enforcement experience with her agency. She spent ei...