Beers with Queers: A True Crime Podcast

A quiet man. A tidy house. A basement full of nightmares. Robert Berdella ran a curiosity shop by day—but behind closed doors, he was torturing young men, documenting every act in a chilling diary. In Part 1 of this two-part case, we uncover how he lured his victims, why no one suspected him, and the first horrific discoveries that would shatter Kansas City forever. This episode begins the descent...

He called it love. His master called it control. And it ended in silicone and death. In an online subculture of extreme power exchange, Jack Chapman became “Pup Tank”—a submissive in a deeply disturbing relationship with a man known as “Master Dylan.” But when Jack died from a silicone injection in his scrotum, the world saw just how far manipulation and fetish can blur the line between consent an...

They went into the woods for peace—and never came back. In 1996, Julie Williams and Lollie Winans, a lesbian couple on a backcountry camping trip, were found murdered in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park. The killings were brutal. The case remains unsolved. And over the years, many have questioned whether enough was done—or if bias buried the truth. This episode explores a case where queer love...

She was 17. Living as herself. And brutally punished for it. In 2002, Gwen Araujo, a transgender teen from California, was beaten to death by a group of young men after they discovered her gender identity. The case exposed the terrifying consequences of transphobia—and the courtroom that followed misgendered her again and again. Gwen’s murder became a flashpoint in the fight for trans justice, ide...

A quiet mountain town. A late-night audit. And a hotel room that became a slaughterhouse. In 1986, Gatlinburg, Tennessee—known for its family fun and tourist charm—was shaken to its core when 21-year-old clerk Melissa Hill and 36-year-old security guard Troy Valentine were brutally murdered at the Rocky Top Village Inn. Behind the gruesome double homicide was a nomadic group with ties to Atlanta a...

They were imprisoned not just for who they were—but for who they loved. During the Holocaust, thousands of LGBTQ+ individuals were targeted by the Nazi regime, marked with pink triangles, and sent to concentration camps. Many were subjected to torture, experimentation, and death. Yet their stories were nearly erased from the historical record for decades. This episode honors the queer lives lost,...

He served the elite. Then he buried them beneath the floorboards. Archibald Hall, a bisexual con man turned serial killer, operated under the guise of sophistication in 1970s Britain. Masquerading as a butler to the wealthy, he used charm and class to mask a violent streak—and a body count. From aristocrats to his own brother, no one was safe once they stood in his way. This episode unveils a chil...

It was a quiet summer night—until an intruder shattered everything. In 2009, Teresa Butz and Jennifer Hopper, a loving couple living in Seattle, were attacked in their own home by a stranger wielding a knife. What followed was a brutal sexual assault and murder that left one woman dead—and the other forever changed. But out of the horror came something remarkable: Jennifer’s voice, and her decisio...

One man died willingly. Another stood trial. But the law had no idea what to do with this case. As Armin Meiwes faced a German court, the world debated a chilling question: can you consent to your own death? The trial forced prosecutors to navigate uncharted legal and moral ground. Was this murder, or mutual agreement? Was Armin a monster—or a man acting on desire met with consent? This episode di...

He posted a classified ad looking for someone who wanted to be eaten—and someone answered. In early 2000s Germany, Armin Meiwes met a man online who agreed to be killed and consumed. What followed was a night of ritualistic violence so disturbing it shook the world. But this wasn’t just a cannibal case—it was a consensual queer encounter that forced society to question everything about desire, pow...

A quiet store. Two young women. A killing silenced for over four decades. In 1967, Constance Smootz Hevener and Carolyn Hevener Perry were murdered inside the High’s Ice Cream shop in Staunton, Virginia. The case went cold for 42 years—until a dying woman came forward with a confession. Her motive? Years of teasing over her sexuality. What followed was a tangled web of shame, abuse, and buried sec...

The “perfect crime” fell apart. But what came next was even more shocking. After their arrest, Leopold and Loeb became the center of one of the most sensational trials in American history. As famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow took on their case, the courtroom became a stage for debates about queerness, mental illness, morality, and the death penalty. But behind the legal spectacle was a story...

They were rich. Brilliant. Queer. And convinced they could get away with murder. In 1924, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb—two affluent college students—committed what they called the “perfect crime,” abducting and murdering 14-year-old Bobby Franks just for the thrill. But behind the headlines was a relationship built on obsession, dominance, and a chilling intellectual detachment from humanity. T...

It started as a protest. It ended in gunfire, smoke, and two queer men dead. Rainbow Farm wasn’t just a cannabis-friendly property in Michigan—it was a sanctuary for queer activists, counterculture rebels, and outsiders alike. But after years of tension with local authorities, a government standoff exploded into a fiery siege. In 2001, the farm’s owners, Tom Crosslin and Rolland Rohm, were gunned...

He was brilliant, reclusive, and deeply devoted to a strange philosophy. Then someone took his life in the most unexpected way. In 1999, Emmon Bodfish—a quirky scholar, druid and heir to a prestigious California family—was found murdered in his home in Moraga. He was known for his intellectual pursuits and his deep ties to the Society of Friends of the Constitution, a fringe political group. But h...

He looked for love online. What he found was a killer with a plan. In 2010, a couple in Wilton Manors, Florida—Steven Adams and Kevin Powell—invited Peter Avsenew into their home through a Craigslist ad. Days later, they were dead. Avsenew, a man with a violent past and a chilling lack of remorse, targeted the pair for their kindness, their wealth, and, perhaps most disturbingly, their sexuality....

Creaking floorboards. Whispered names. Drag queens who never left the stage. From haunted bathhouses to cursed theaters, this volume of queer paranormal tales dives into LGBTQ+ ghost stories you won’t hear on your average ghost tour. These are legends born from love, injustice, and lives lived outside the margins—where even death couldn’t erase queer history. In this episode, Jordi and Brad bring...

He left the bar smiling. He never made it through the night. In 2013, Morgan Huxley—a popular young man in Sydney—was followed home by a stranger after a night out. Hours later, he was found dead in his bed, brutally stabbed over 20 times. His killer? A soft-spoken kitchen worker with a twisted obsession and a backpack full of restraints. As investigators dug deeper, they discovered a story that b...

He walked the streets like a ghost. And what he left behind was pure horror. William MacDonald, Australia’s first known serial killer, terrorized Sydney in the early 1960s with a string of brutal murders that left victims mutilated beyond recognition. Nicknamed “The Sydney Mutilator,” he targeted vulnerable men and carried out killings that shocked even seasoned detectives. Behind the violence was...

The son-in-law. The socialite. The scandal that rocked 1940s New York. In 1943, the high-society world was turned upside down when Patricia Burton—heiress to a Canadian beer fortune—was found bludgeoned to death in her Manhattan townhouse. The prime suspect? Her estranged husband, Wayne Lonergan—a former Air Force pilot with rumored ties to New York’s underground gay scene. As the tabloids had a f...

A quiet night. A house full of lawyers. A murder that made no sense. In 2006, attorney Robert Wone was found dead in the guest room of his friends’ upscale D.C. townhouse. The doors were locked. The roommates were home. And nothing—absolutely nothing—added up. What began as a shocking murder spiraled into a legal circus involving restraint marks, missing evidence, and a swirl of queer subtext the...

She hijacked a plane. Then vanished into thin air. Or did she? In 1971, a mysterious figure known as D.B. Cooper hijacked a commercial airliner, demanded a ransom, and parachuted into legend—never to be seen again. Decades later, Barbara Dayton, a trans aviator and ex-military parachutist, confided to friends that she had pulled off the heist before transitioning. Was it true? Or just a brilliant...

She thought it was just a date. It ended in horror. Sydney Loofe, a vibrant young woman from Nebraska, vanished in 2017 after meeting someone on Tinder. Her disappearance sparked a massive online movement—and what investigators eventually uncovered was a twisted couple using dating apps to lure unsuspecting victims. The case quickly spiraled from a missing person alert into a chilling tale of obse...

He was a respected doctor. A husband. And living a double life. In 2018, Mitesh Patel, a successful pharmacist in the UK, staged a home invasion to cover up the brutal murder of his own husband, Dr. Matthew Patel. But the motive was chilling: behind the façade of a perfect marriage was a secret Grindr-fueled affair, an obsession with another man, and a desire to start a new life—funded by a massiv...

He played a bit part in The Exorcist—and may have left real bodies in his wake. In 1970s New York, dismembered torsos began washing up in bags along the Hudson River. At the same time, gay men were disappearing from bars in Greenwich Village. Then came the arrest of Paul Bateson, a radiology tech with a dark past—who just so happened to appear in one of horror’s most iconic films. Though only conv...