Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast

JoAnne Chambers, a first-grade teacher at Coolbaugh Learning Center in Monroe, Pennsylvania, seemingly endured an 18-month nightmare of terrifying harassment. However, investigators eventually discovered that Chambers herself was the mastermind behind the entire campaign to frame her colleague, Paula Nawrocki.

Edward Shin was convicted in 2011 for the first-degree murder of his business partner, Chris Smith, whose body has never been found. In 2010, Shin killed Smith inside their San Juan Capistrano, California office after a bitter legal and financial dispute over their lucrative marketing firm, 800Xchange.

David Edward Taylor, a self-proclaimed televangelist and "Apostle," led the Kingdom of God Global Church (KOGGC). In a sweeping 2025 federal indictment, prosecutors revealed that Taylor and executive director Michelle Brannon operated a coercive multi-state forced labor and fraud scheme.

Karl Karlsen is an American murderer convicted of killing his first wife, Christina Karlsen, in a staged 1991 California house fire and his 23-year-old son, Levi Karlsen, by crushing him under a truck in New York in 2008. Motivated entirely by financial gain.

Edwin Valero was a Venezuelan professional boxer who finished his career with an undefeated record of 27–0, winning every single match by knockout. He is remembered both as one of the most explosive and destructive punchers in the history of combat sports and for the horrific real-life tragedy that ended his life.

In 2011, a woman named Debbie Stevens reportedly donated a kidney through a transplant chain to help her boss. After the surgery, Stevens later claimed she faced workplace problems during recovery and was eventually fired.

Artur Samarin was a 23-year-old Ukrainian national who famously posed as a teenage honors student at Harrisburg High School in Pennsylvania to remain in the United States after his visa expired in 2012. Under the fabricated identity of "Asher Potts," he maintained a 4.1 GPA, joined the National Honor Society, and participated actively in the school’s ROTC program. He reportedly orchestra...

Ricardo Lopez was an obsessed, delusional fan of singer Björk who documented his downward spiral in a video diary culminating in his 1996 incident.

Jean-Claude Romand was a French impostor who spent 18 years pretending to be a successful medical doctor and researcher for the World Health Organization. In reality, he never finished medical school, spending his days hiding in cars or highway rest areas. When his colossal web of deceit and financial fraud began to unravel in January 1993, Romand committed murder to avoid the shame of exposure.

Jennifer Faith pleaded guilty in February 2022 to orchestrating the October 2020 murder of her husband, American Airlines technology director Jamie Faith, outside their Dallas home. She was sentenced to life in prison in June 2022. She manipulated her high school boyfriend, Darl Niemann, into shooting her husband by using fake email accounts to pose as her husband and a colleague, fabricating vivi...

In 2019, 18-year-old Berfin Ozek from Turkey was brutally attacked with sulfuric acid by her ex-boyfriend, Casim Ozan Celtik, who told her "if I can't have you, no one can". The assault left her permanently disfigured and partially blind.

Charlize Theron’s father, Charles Theron, was legally shot and killed by her mother, Gerda, in self-defense on June 21, 1991, after he violently attacked his family. Charles, a chronic alcoholic, returned to the family’s South Africa home in a drunken rage.

Andrés Escobar was a Colombian national team defender tragically murdered in Medellín on July 2, 1994, just days after accidentally scoring an own goal against the United States at the FIFA World Cup. The own goal contributed to Colombia's shocking early elimination from the tournament and sparked widespread outrage, deeply compounding the tension already driven by the nation's political c...

The story of James Farthing centers on a dramatic turn of fortune where a historic lottery win was immediately followed by a cascade of serious legal troubles. In April 2025, Farthing, a Kentucky resident with a prior criminal record, made history by winning a massive $167.3 million Powerball jackpot, the largest ever in the state. However, just days after claiming the prize and publicly promising...

The Kenneth Noid story is a bizarre and tragic piece of fast-food history involving a 1989 hostage situation fueled by extreme paranoia. Domino's Pizza was running a highly successful advertising campaign featuring "The Noid," a claymation character who tried to ruin pizzas, alongside the slogan "Avoid the Noid." Kenneth Lamar Noid, a 22-year-old man from Georgia who suffer...

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, along with his older brother Tamerlan, perpetrated the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013, detonating two pressure-cooker bombs near the race's finish line.

That’s disrespectful to Jurassic Park--Actress Jenifer Lewis was scammed out of $50,000 by her then-boyfriend Antonio Mariot Wilson, a serial con artist who orchestrated a multi-year romance scam targeting several women.

Chris Latham, a former wealthy bank executive from Charleston, South Carolina, was convicted in 2014 for his involvement in a failed 2013 murder-for-hire plot against his estranged wife, Nancy Cannon. Motivated by a bitter divorce and a desire to avoid substantial alimony payments, Latham collaborated with his mistress and assistant, Wendy Moore, who orchestrated the scheme by hiring her ex-husban...

George Trepal, a chemist and Mensa member, was convicted in 1991 for the murder of his neighbor, Peggy Carr, and the attempted murder of her family in Alturas, Florida.

Colleen Stan, famously known as the "Girl in the Box," was abducted at knifepoint in May 1977 by Cameron and Janice Hooker while hitchhiking. Held captive in a remote Red Bluff, CA home for seven years, she was often confined to a coffin-like wooden box beneath a waterbed.

Jeffrey Stenner, a former Connecticut bank vice president and restaurant owner, infamously orchestrated two high-profile armored car robberies in West Hartford, including a 1988 heist where he wore a Santa Claus. Fearing that his accomplice and getaway driver, Robert Schmidt, was talking too much and would expose their crimes to federal investigators, Stenner hired several men to murder him.

Maximilian Schmidt is a German cybercriminal who, at age 18, single-handedly ran a multi-million-euro international drug empire named "Shiny Flakes" from his childhood bedroom. Over 14 months, he sold roughly one ton of illegal narcotics worldwide using his website and standard postal services.

Suzane von Richthofen is the mastermind behind the murder of her wealthy parents on October 31, 2002. Then an 18-year-old law student, Suzane conspired with her boyfriend, Daniel Cravinhos, and his brother, Christian, to bludgeon Manfred and Marísia von Richthofen to death in their São Paulo home while they slept.

Joe Conforte operated several illicit brothels before successfully lobbying for the state's first legal brothel license at his famous Mustang Ranch in 1971. His career was defined by high-stakes battles with the government, including a stint in prison for extortion and a scandalous association with the shooting death of boxer Oscar Bonavena on his property. Facing mounting federal indictments...

The eBay stalking scandal was a bizarre and criminal harassment campaign orchestrated in 2019 by company employees against Ina and David Steiner, authors of the newsletter EcommerceBytes, in retaliation for their critical reporting. Led by eBay’s security team, the harassment included sending terrifying packages—such as a bloody pig mask, live insects, and a funeral wreath—to the couple’s home, al...