Assassinations Podcast

For the first investigation of Season 5 of the show, which will focus on civil rights leaders, we find out about the life and death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Not only the foremost advocate for the rights of African Americans, King was also a leading voice against war and poverty. In this episode we trace the converging paths of King and James Earl Ray, the man who would be convicted - rightly...

Season 5 commences on November 11th. The theme for this season is civil rights - people who were assassinated because of their struggle for freedom and equality. We begin our season with the life and death of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the leader of the US civil rights movement and a prominent opponent of the Vietnam War. We will then move on to explore cases from within the United States a...

The two women who seemingly thought they were taking part in a hidden camera prank show were charged instead with the murder of Kim Jong-nam. However, the court case turned into a fiasco that threw everything that had previously been said about the killing of the North Korean exile into doubt. We consider the fate of the women and the role that the assassination played in global events. Part 2 of...

In 2017 Kim Jong-nam was killed by two women who thought they were taking part in a prank video, but who were inadvertently smearing a chemical weapon on his face. Was he the victim of an ingenious scheme hatched by his half-brother, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un? And who was he secretly meeting in the days before his bizarre murder? Part 1 of 2. To find out more about the people and music featu...

Delving into the underworld of Italian-American organized crime, we look at Salvatore "Lucky" Luciano, the gangster who became the most powerful Mafia boss in America in the mid-20th century. By means of murder, political skill, and business acumen he transformed the Mob from a loose group of rival criminal families into a nationwide syndicate that engaged in legal business activities and even wor...

We are joined once more by Mike Corradi from A History of Italy Podcast to look at the lives, loves, and crimes of the Borgia family. This week, we focus on the the beautiful Lucrezia, the daughter of Pope Alexander VI, who allegedly lured men to their deaths. We then find out about the fate of the infamous dynasty. To find out more about the people and music featured in today’s episode, visit the...

We join with our good friends at A History of Italy Podcast to bring you a two-part investigation into one of the most notorious dynasties of the Renaissance, the Borgias. This week, we focus on the priest-turned-warrior Cesare Borgia, who used murderous conspiracies and battlefield tactics to attempt to forge a new state during the Italian Wars. To find out more about the people and music feature...

Set fire to Rome, burning the capital of the known world to the ground? Check. Poisoned your step-brother and heir? Check. Bumped off you mother, your tutor, and your pregnant wife? Check, check, check. Oh, well, you must be Emperor Nero, then! We spend time with history's most infamous ruler and ask: was he really such a monster? To find out more about the people and music featured in today’s epi...

Was he the craziest ruler in the ancient world or the best satirist in Rome? Maybe he was both. We continue our look at the Julio-Claudian dynasty, witnessing the strange goings on in the court of Emperor Caligula, whose behavior scandalized the Roman nobility and led to claims that he was mad. To find out more about the people and music featured in today’s episode, visit the Assassinations Podcas...

The second and last part of our look at the case of Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator killed in 44 BC. We watch as Caesar, defying ill omens, enters the Senate House to be killed in a frenzy of knife blows. Though it looks like a deal might be struck between his supporters and his assassins, the situation rapidly changes. In the civil war that follows, the fate of the Republic hangs in the balance...

Season 4 of the show will focus on murderous schemes within powerful families throughout history. In the first episode of the season, we look at the most famous assassination of all time - the murder of Julius Caesar in the Roman Senate in 44 BC. He had won glory and riches conquering the Gauls before going on to defeat his Roman foes. But as dictator for life, it was in Rome itself that the great...

Season 4 is going live on August 5th! The theme for this season is dynasties - assassinations by and within powerful families through the ages. We'll travel from Ancient Rome to Renaissance Italy, and from 20th century New York right up to one of the most infamous dynasties of the present day. We hope you’ll join us on this epic journey into the world of history's most frightening families.

In the concluding installment of our two-part look at the case of Daphne Caruana Galizia, we find out about the investigations she was working on for her blog, Running Commentary , at the time of her death. This journalistic work made her powerful enemies in her homeland, Malta, and likely led to her murder. To find out more about the people and music featured in today’s episode, visit the Assassi...

Assassinations Podcast is dark this week, but we’re bringing you a sneak preview of a brand new show launching this week on our network: Fab Figmentals , a podcast that explores the realm of curious creatures, magical monsters, and beautiful beasts! Each week, host Lindsey Morse (the producer of Assassinations Podcast) explores a different legendary creature by looking at its history and folklore....

In the first installment of our two-part look at Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, we look at the sequence of events culminating in her assassination in 2017. She was killed in a car bombing, allegedly carried out by three men with links to the criminal underworld on the island. To find out more about the people and music featured in today’s episode, visit the Assassinations Podcast websi...

In the second installment of our two-part look at themassacre at the newspaper Charlie Hebdo in 2015, we look at the biographies of the two men who committed the crime and follow them as they lead French security forces on a massive manhunt. We also find out about a third man who committed a string of coordinated attacks across Paris, culminating in a murderous hostage-taking at a kosher supermark...

In the first of a two-part look at the mass shooting at the office of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in 2015, we learn about the controversy surrounding the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammed. The images, originally published in a Danish newspaper and added to by the illustrators at Charlie Hebdo, upset many Muslims, who said some of the depictions were both disre...

In Part 2 of our two-part look at the case of Anna Politkovskaya, we learn about the official investigation into her death, which bore the hallmarks of a carefully planned contract killing. We also ask - who might have commissioned the hit on this journalist and human rights campaigner? She was a prominent critic of the administration of Vladimir Putin, and many people blamed the Russian president...

In Part 1 of a two-part study of the life and death of Anna Politkovskaya, we look at her work as a journalist covering the brutal Chechen wars in Russia in the 1990s and early 2000s. She exposed war crimes and gave voice to the many civilian casualties of the conflict between separatists and the federal government. She also sought to expose corruption and criminality elsewhere in Russia, in the p...

Born in China in 1932, Henry Liu fled to Taiwan after the Communist Revolution in 1949. He worked as a journalist before moving to the United States, where he became a prominent critic of the Taiwanese government. Lui had written a controversial book that criticized the rulers of Taiwan, and at the time of his death he was working on a new project that threatened to expose more secrets. In 1984, L...

Martin O'Hagan went from being a Republican militant, fighting the British in Northern Ireland in the 1970s, to a well-respected journalist. Even though he had put down the gun, his investigative work meant that he still risked death at the hands of the IRA and Loyalist groups. In 2001, he was assassinated in his hometown of Lurgan, the victim of a paramilitary gang that wished to silence him. To...

In this episode, we conclude our two-part investigation into the life and assassination of Ruth First. A journalist working in South Africa during the era of apartheid, Ruth exposed the brutalities of life for blacks living in the country. With her husband, Joe Slovo, she became a leading member of the South African Communist Party and a supporter of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congres...

This is the first installment of our two-part investigation into the life and assassination of Ruth First. A journalist working in South Africa during the era of apartheid, Ruth exposed the brutalities of life for blacks living in the country. With her husband, Joe Slovo, she became a leading member of the South African Communist Party and a supporter of Nelson Mandela and the African National Con...

As a journalist working for the anti-corruption website Tiger Eye Private Investigations, Ahmed Divela helped expose a multi-million dollar corruption scandal in the national soccer association of Ghana. The exposé led to resignations and criminal proceedings, and it implicated a powerful Ghanaian politician named Kennedy Agyapong. Agyapong denounced the team at Tiger Eye as "troublemakers" and in...

We take a break from our season on journalists in order to look into the murder of Sergio Rojas. A leader of the indigenous rights movement in Costa Rica, Rojas was shot to death in his home in March. Land disputes between tribal peoples and non-indigenous farmers have been ongoing for decades, and violent incidents have occurred in the past. The perpetrator of the killing of Rojas remains unknown...