RedHanded

If you thought Part 1 was bad – just you wait. Last week we talked about the origins of one of the world’s biggest cults. And this time, we look at how that influence and control bedded down – and seduced so many of the most famous people in the world. We’re talking about sex magic, incest, chid abuse, demonic possession, and Fleetwood Mac. It’s time to close the book on the Children of God.

Communes, propaganda and child abuse are not uncommon in the world of cults. But what made David Berg and his “Children of God” so unique was the effectiveness of their implementation. In this first of two episodes on one of the biggest and darkest cases we’ve ever covered, we talk about the rise of arguably the world's most “successful” cult, and what made the man who made the monster. Exclusive...

Note: The video version of this podcast can be watched in full on our YouTube channel! Available from the 18th of April. Join RedHanded and Help I Sexted My Boss for an extra-special crossover, where true crime meets modern-day dilemmas, all over a glass of Gin & Dubonnet at the Sexted studio! First, Hannah and Suruthi regale William and Jordan about all things cults, before diving into the in...

Social media is swarming with fresh takes on the Jennifer Pan story, after a new documentary became the third-most watched show on Netflix this weekend. So we wanted to re-release this classic RedHanded episode from summer 2022 – let us know your thoughts on our socials! -- When three masked men entered Jennifer Pan's family home in Markham, Ontario, it seemed like an opportunistic home break-in....

Rob Parkes is not a paedophilic, drug-dealing, gang-leading tyrant. But that’s exactly what his pathologically controlling, abusive ex-wife tried to lead everyone to believe. It’s also why, she said, he had to die. In a very special episode of RedHanded, we hear directly from a man who found out there was a price on his head – and that over the years, six separate people had been approached to kil...

Ten years ago, two young women entered the Panamanian cloud forest, accompanied by a dog named Blue.  Blue was the only one to ever return.  The events that transpired on Panama’s El Pianista trail that day have remained a chilling mystery for a decade now – and possibly will forever. Join us as we delve into the perplexing case of Lisanne Froon and Kris Kremers, where speculation abounds and answ...

Found dead and with severe internal injuries in the swimming pool of the UK’s biggest TV star, Stuart Lubbock’s tragic demise became an instant tabloid sensation. Michael Barrymore’s handling of the tragedy left a lot to be desired – as did the conduct of the British press. But what really happened the night Lubbock died, and who was responsible? Exclusive bonus content: Wondery  - Ad-free & S...

Found drifting on the open ocean on the brink of death, Terry Jo Duperrault’s survival was nothing short of a miracle. She’d been at sea for over 3 days, enduring harsh heat, bitter cold, and the tormenting bites of the parrot fish. Terry Jo was the survivor of an apparent yacht accident – yet when the boat’s captain was told the incredible news, he went to a motel, and took his own life. This is...

Three weeks after going missing, Californian ‘supermom’ Sherri Papini was found running down a highway with a chain tied to her waist and the word "exodus" burned into her back. Her story defied belief. Kidnapped outside of her home, by a pair of Latina women and driven hundreds of miles with nothing but mariachi music for company, it seemed almost too strange to be true. The police investigation...

UPDATE: Since we released our episode on the Barnetts – who said their adopted 9-year-old daughter had turned out to be a murderous, adult woman – Natalia has finally broken her silence in a six(!)-part new interview series. And the revelations are damning… Re-listen to the episode to brush up first, or skip to 1:20:00 for Hannah and Suruthi’s take on the latest shocking updates! In 2009, the horr...

Found raped and brutalised in the hills, just a stone’s throw from one of Hong Kong’s richest neighbourhoods, teenagers Kenneth McBride and Nicola Myers became the subjects of a national outrage. At a point of deep uncertainty in Hong Kong, the tragic murder of the two white expat teenagers became a symbol of everything that was bubbling under the surface. From accusations of racism and classism i...

Now that a new Netflix doc has got everyone talking about Danny Casolaro – we wanted to rerelease one of our favourite past episodes, to give you the full RedHanded rundown. Let us know your theories on our socials! Governments kill people who try to uncover their dirty dealings, that’s a fact. But is that what happened to Danny Casolaro? Danny claimed to be on the verge of connecting the dots bet...

On the 8th March 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was making a routine red-eye flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, when it seemingly vanished in the clouds.  The 175-tonne Boeing 777 – and all 239 people on board – have never been seen again. And 10 years on, there are still no solid answers as to what happened.  In this episode, we’ll take you through the facts and theories behind what remai...

In 2004, amid a horrific snowstorm in a remote mountain town, a talented yet troubled young woman crashed her car and vanished off the face of the Earth.  The more you learn about the life of Maura Murray, and the things she got up to in the days before her mysterious disappearance, lead to more questions than answers.  Was she trying to kill herself? Was she trying to disappear? Was she abducted,...

On 19 February 2008, 9-year-old Shannon Matthews left school, waved goodbye to her best friend, and then vanished on the half-mile walk home. West Yorkshire police, and a determined group of locals from Shannon’s estate, spent weeks doing all they could to find the missing little girl. But when the truth behind Shannon’s disappearance was eventually uncovered, it was more shocking than anybody cou...

Following the conviction of Charlie Adelson in November 2023, his mother Donna allegedly attempted to flee the US for Vietnam. Arrested on the runway, awaiting take off, the 73 year old now denies any involvement in the murder of her son-in-law, Dan Markel. In this concluding episode we take a look at the entire Adelson clan, with a focus on what the “grieving ex-wife” Wendi Adelson likely knew, a...

When Wendi Adelson was left feeling trapped in Tallahassee, following her divorce from FSU professor Dan Markel, she told her big brother Charlie. What happened next is beyond anything anyone could have imagined. In a bizarre murder for hire plot involving hundreds of hours of FBI wiretapping, an owl loving hitman, coded calls about pot belly pigs and a tv repairman, this case has been bubbling aw...

Prospect medical student turned slacker spree-killer is hardly a normal turn of events. Yet Jean-Claude Romand managed to throw his entire life away by simply doing nothing. No school, no job, and no income, all propped up by a tower of ever increasing lies. A secret life spanning over thirty years, and ending in the deaths of his wife, their two children, both his parents, and their family dog, a...

The Friedmans were your average upper-middle-class family in ‘70s America, but everything changed when one day accusations of mass child sexual abuse landed on the father and one son. What followed was a chaotic investigation of slippery memories, attempted hypnosis, coercive police questioning, disturbing confessions, folk devils and real-life villains – nothing about this case is black-white. In...

Deep in the middle of the UK’s shambolic COVID lockdown, 33 year old Sarah Everard went for a walk. That night she crossed paths with a man who would abduct, rape and kill her. Within days detectives had a man named Wayne Couzens on their radar, but with this breakthrough came a huge reckoning for investigators - because Couzens was a serving London Metropolitan police officer. Exclusive bonus con...

Thanks to COVID, we all now know, better than ever the impact that social isolation can have on our mental health.  Depression, confused thinking, and emotional instability were symptoms many of us became all too familiar with; but imagine you had been in lockdown somewhere thousands of miles away from the nearest city, in perpetual darkness for 6-months of the year, and subjected to temperatures...

When countless lone travellers began to vanish without a trace along the Great Osage Trail in the early 1870s, the people of Labette County, Kansas, were gripped with fear. Soon enough, the county’s residents realised that all the victims had one thing in common: they’d all visited the Bender Inn, a small cabin run by a mysterious German family. But by then it was too late. The Benders were gone w...

The trial of Michael Peterson remains one of the most baffling we’ve ever come across. Red neurons, missing blood spatter and of course that pesky blow poke. What led the jury to land on the decision they made? Was evidence overlooked, or was this a cover-up? And finally, if Michael Peterson isn’t guilty, how and why did Kathleen really die? Follow us on social media: Instagram Twitter Visit our w...

From the outside the Petersons had it all; the perfect family, a beautiful mansion and more money than they could spend. But on 9th December 2001 all that changed, when Michael Peterson claimed to have found his wife, Kathleen, dead at the bottom of their stairs. What followed would become a bizarre tale of strange family secrets, shocking revelations and a true crime case obsessed over like nothi...

At 3 am on the 1st of December 2006, Anneli Auer phoned Finnish emergency services – to tell them an intruder was stabbing her husband to death as she spoke. Police arrived on the scene in less than 10 minutes, but it was too late, and the mysterious killer had seemingly vanished into thin air.  Judicial madness, police fuck-ups, greed, undercover lovers, Satanic child abuse rituals, DNA mix-ups,...