Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast

Tilly Smith, a 10-year-old British schoolgirl, saved approximately 100 people from the Indian Ocean tsunami while vacationing with her family at Mai Khao Beach in Phuket, Thailand. Two weeks prior, she had learned about tsunamis in her geography class, including the warning signs such as the ocean frothing and receding. Recognizing these signs on the beach, she urgently alerted her parents, who th...

Sture Bergwall, formerly known as Thomas Quick, was a Swedish man who, in the 1990s, confessed to over 30 murders across Scandinavia, leading to his conviction for eight of them. These confessions were obtained during therapy sessions at a psychiatric institution, where he was treated for personality disorders and heavily medicated.

Latarian Milton became an internet sensation at age 7 in 2008 after taking his grandmother’s Dodge Durango on a joyride through Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. During the escapade, he caused significant property damage, including hitting parked cars and mailboxes. When interviewed by local news, Milton infamously stated, “I want to do hood-rat stuff with my friend,” which quickly went viral. Despite...

Arno Funke, known by his alias "Dagobert," was a German extortionist who gained notoriety in the late 1980s and early 1990s for his inventive and non-violent blackmail schemes. A failed cartoonist and sign painter, Funke turned to crime in 1988, planting bombs in luxury department stores in Berlin and demanding ransoms.

Lou Pearlman was a music producer and manager who rose to prominence in the 1990s by creating and managing successful boy bands such as the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC. However, behind his musical empire lay one of the largest and longest-running Ponzi schemes in U.S. history.

Thomas Chan is a Canadian man from Peterborough, Ontario, who was convicted in 2018 for the 2015 stabbing death of his father, Dr. Andrew Chan, and the assault of his father's partner, Lynn Witteveen. The incident occurred after Thomas consumed a large quantity of magic mushrooms and meditated to enhance the hallucinatory effects.

Jan-Erik Olsson was a Swedish convict who, on August 23, 1973, attempted to rob the Kreditbanken in Stockholm's Norrmalmstorg Square. During the robbery, he took four bank employees hostage and demanded the release of his former cellmate, Clark Olofsson, who was serving a prison sentence at the time. The Swedish authorities agreed to his demand, and Olofsson was brought to the bank to assist i...

On July 7, 2016, Micah Xavier Johnson, a 25-year-old Army Reserve veteran, carried out a sniper attack during a protest in Dallas, Texas, resulting in the deaths of five police officers and injuries to nine others.

Neil Hopper, a 49-year-old former NHS vascular surgeon from Truro, Cornwall, was sentenced to 32 months in prison after admitting to self-inflicting injuries that led to the amputation of both his legs. In 2019 Hopper used dry ice to damage his legs, necessitating their removal. He then falsely claimed to insurers that his amputations were due to sepsis, resulting in fraudulent payouts.

In 2011, Dan Saunders, a 29-year-old bartender from Wangaratta, Australia, discovered a glitch in the National Australia Bank's ATM system that allowed him to withdraw money beyond his account balance.

The Shaggs were a rock band formed in 1965 by sisters Dorothy ("Dot"), Betty, and Helen Wiggin in Fremont, New Hampshire. Their father, Austin Wiggin Jr., believing his mother's palm reading had foretold their musical success, insisted they form a band. Despite lacking musical training or interest, the sisters practiced daily under his strict supervision. In 1969, they recorded their...

The 2015 Clinton Correctional Facility escape was a high-profile jailbreak in which two convicted murderers, Richard Matt and David Sweat, escaped from a maximum-security prison in Dannemora, New York. On June 6, 2015, the inmates used power tools to cut through the backs of their cells, accessed a network of tunnels, and emerged through a manhole cover approximately 500 feet outside the prison wa...

The Robin Ramirez coupon scam was a large-scale counterfeit coupon operation based in Phoenix, Arizona, led by Robin Ramirez and her associates.

The Killdozer story revolves around Marvin Heemeyer, a welder and small business owner in Granby, Colorado, who in 2004 became enraged over disputes with city officials and local businesses that he felt had wronged him, including zoning decisions and fines. In response, Heemeyer secretly modified a Komatsu bulldozer into an armored vehicle by welding thick steel and concrete plating over it and in...

The Brian Draper “Scream” murder story was the 2006 murder of Cassie Jo Stoddart in Pocatello, Idaho, committed by her classmates Brian Draper and Torey Adamcik. Inspired by the movie Scream

Jamie Waylett is best known for playing Vincent Crabbe in the first six Harry Potter films, but his life took a sharp turn after the series ended. In 2009, Waylett was arrested for growing illegal plants at his mother’s house. His legal troubles escalated during the 2011 London riots.

Russell Williams was a high-ranking Canadian Air Force officer—Colonel Williams—who led a double life of trust and terror. Revered as commander of CFB Trenton and a decorated pilot who flew dignitaries, Williams’s façade hid decades of escalating violence: beginning with sneaking into homes to steal women’s underwear.

Albert Spaggiari was a French criminal known for masterminding what was called the “heist of the century” — the 1976 break-in of the Société Générale bank in Nice. He and a team dug an eight-meter tunnel from the city sewers to reach the bank vault, breaking into hundreds of safety deposit boxes and stealing millions of francs in money, bonds, and valuables.

Charles V. Harrelson was an American contract killer and the father of actor Woody Harrelson. A career criminal with a long history of violence, Harrelson was convicted of multiple murders for hire, including the 1979 assassination of federal judge John H. Wood Jr.

Gina Marks, often dubbed the “Psychic Scam Queen,” was a self-proclaimed psychic who conned multiple clients out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by claiming she could lift curses, reunite lovers, and cleanse their lives of bad luck.

An online love triangle spirals into a deadly obsession. Thomas Montgomery, a married man in his mid-forties, pretends to be a younger Marine named “Tommy” in an internet chat room. He meets “Talhotblond,” an online persona used by an 18-year-old high schooler named Jessi.

The Michelle Renee bank robbery took place in 2000 in Vista, California, when three masked intruders broke into the home of bank manager Michelle Renee. They held her and her daughter hostage overnight, rigging their bodies with fake dynamite and threatening to kill them unless Michelle robbed her own bank the next morning.

Stéphane Breitwieser is a French art thief who, between 1995 and 2001, stole more than 200 artworks and artifacts from small museums across Europe, with an estimated total value of over $2 billion.

Robert Bardo is best known as the man who murdered actress Rebecca Schaeffer in 1989, a crime that shocked Hollywood and led to major changes in stalking laws.

Christian Gerhartsreiter’s story is one of the most bizarre cases of deception in modern history. Born in Germany, he came to the United States in the late 1970s and reinvented himself multiple times, adopting false identities, most famously posing as a Rockefeller, a supposed heir to the wealthy Rockefeller family.