Caviar and Criminals

This week, Dana takes Anthony through the extraordinary life of Howard Ashman—the brilliant lyricist and creative force behind Little Shop of Horrors , The Little Mermaid , Beauty and the Beast , and Aladdin . From transforming musical theater to helping launch the Disney Renaissance, Howard's talent changed animation forever. But behind the unforgettable songs was a heartbreaking story of love, a...

This week, we're asking the question no one should be asking: was Anthony Curcio really the hottest bank robber ever? Anthony walks Dana through the bizarre true story of Anthony Curcio—a former high school football star turned armored car robber whose elaborate heist involved fake construction crews, Craigslist ads, and one very memorable escape plan. It's clever, chaotic, and proof that even the...

This week, Dana brings Anthony the full story of Polari — where it came from, how it worked, who carried it, and what happened when the law finally changed and the language no longer had to hide. From underground queer venues and West End theatres to a BBC radio comedy that was hiding a secret in front of fifteen million listeners, Polari is the story of a community that refused to disappear, even...

This week,Anthony and Dana take us to two very different chapters of LGBTQ+ history. First, Anthony tells the story of Operation Soap, the infamous 1981 police raids on Toronto bathhouses that resulted in the arrests of hundreds of gay men. Often described as Canada's Stonewall, the raids sparked outrage, galvanized a movement, and transformed the fight for LGBTQ+ rights across the country. What b...

This Pride Month, we're revisiting one of our favorite episodes celebrating two men who changed history in very different ways. Anthony tells the story of Harvey Milk, the trailblazing politician who became one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States and inspired a generation to step out of the shadows and into public life. His fight for visibility, equality, and representat...

This week, Dana tells Anthony the unbelievable story of Fredericka Mandelbaum — the German immigrant who quietly built one of the largest criminal empires in American history while New York’s elite looked the other way. From stolen diamonds and blackmail schemes to training master thieves in the heart of the Gilded Age, “Mother” Mandelbaum became the secret architect of organized crime decades bef...

A love triangle, a mysterious blonde in a black coat, and a murder that shocked suburban New York. This week, Anthony takes Dana through the wild and messy case of Carolyn Warmus — the so-called “Fatal Attraction Killer” whose affair with a married man ended in obsession, scandal, and a courtroom drama straight out of a movie. Was Carolyn a cold-blooded murderer? A woman unfairly villainized? Or i...

Some neighborhoods have ghost stories. Staten Island had Andre Rand. This week on Caviar & Criminals , Dana takes Anthony back to her hometown to unravel one of the most chilling urban legends in New York history: the story of Andre Rand, the man many believe inspired the terrifying legend of Cropsey. What started as whispers around abandoned buildings and bonfire stories told to kids on State...

Baltimore, 2000. A woman named Tracy Whittle did everything right. She got the protective order. She cut contact. She tried to move on. He killed her anyway. What followed was eleven days that paralyzed an entire city — four people dead, a family taken hostage, and more than 400 officers who couldn't stop one man with a gun and nothing left to lose. This week, Anthony and Dana go inside the Joseph...

This week on Caviar and Criminals , Dana walks Anthony through one of the most disturbing wellness stories in history — the case of Linda Hazzard. At first glance, Hazzard presented herself as a trusted “fasting specialist,” promising healing through extreme detox methods. But behind the doors of her Washington sanitarium, something far more sinister was unfolding. Patients who came to her for hel...

This week on Caviar and Criminals , Anthony walks Dana through one of the most disturbing medical cases in modern history — the story of Dr. Death, Christopher Duntsch. At first glance, Duntsch had everything you’d expect from a rising star in medicine: elite training, confidence, and a booming career in neurosurgery. But behind the operating room doors, something was going terribly wrong. Patient...

In Part One, Gregor MacGregor sold the dream of Poyais — a thriving country filled with wealth, opportunity, and promise. In Part Two, people paid the price. As ships carrying hopeful settlers arrive expecting a new life, they are met with a brutal reality: there is no country, no city, no plan — only an unforgiving landscape and the collapse of one of the most audacious scams in history. What fol...

A war hero. A “prince.” A master of reinvention. This week, Dana tells Anthony the story of Gregor MacGregor—a man who convinced hundreds of people to risk everything for a tropical paradise called Poyais. There was just one problem. It didn’t exist. In Part One, we follow his rise from respected soldier to one of the boldest con artists in history—and how he built an entire country out of nothing...

What happens when faith, fame, and money collide… and no one’s watching the books? This week, Anthony takes Dana into the glitter-soaked, mascara-streaked world of Tammy Faye Bakker — a televangelist who built an empire on love, forgiveness, and really good TV… until it all came crashing down. We’re talking about PTL (“Praise The Lord”… or “Pass The Loot,” depending on who you ask), a Christian th...

This week on Caviar and Criminals , Dana takes Anthony deep into a story that starts with a quiet, brilliant outsider—and spirals into one of the most disturbing domestic terror campaigns in U.S. history. It begins in isolation. A remote cabin. No electricity. No connection to the modern world. Just one man and his growing resentment toward the society he believes has gone too far. But this isn’t...

This week on Caviar and Criminals , Anthony pulls Dana into one of the darkest and most bizarre cult stories you’ve probably never fully heard—Tony Alamo. What starts as a story about a flashy 1970s evangelist with celebrity connections and a growing following quickly spirals into something far more disturbing. As Anthony walks Dana through the rise of Alamo’s ministry, the cracks begin to show—co...

In this episode, Dana tells Anthony the chilling story of the Radium Girls — young women who were told they were part of something glamorous, modern, and even healthy … until their bodies began to fall apart. In the early 1900s, these factory workers painted watch dials with radium — a glowing substance marketed as a miracle of science. Using the now-infamous “lip, dip, paint” technique, they unkn...

The Olympics are supposed to represent the very best of human achievement — discipline, fairness, and the pursuit of excellence. But behind the pageantry of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi was one of the most elaborate cheating schemes in sports history. This week, Anthony tells Dana the story of the Russian state-sponsored doping program — a years-long operation involving athletes, coaches, sci...

The Olympics are supposed to represent the very best of humanity — glory, excellence, and the thrill of watching the world’s greatest athletes compete. But behind the spectacle, there are darker stories that rarely get told. In this episode of Caviar and Criminals , Dana tells Anthony the tragic story of Nodar Kumaritashvili , the 21-year-old Georgian luger who died during a training run just hour...

This week on  Caviar and Criminals , Dana is still battling whatever plague has taken her down, so we’re revisiting one of our most iconic deep dives:  America’s Next Top Model.  With Netflix’s explosive new documentary  Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model  reigniting conversations about the show’s legacy, we thought now was the perfect time to bring this episode ba...

In this episode of Caviar & Criminals , Dana takes Anthony back to the glittering chaos of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair — a moment in American history that promised innovation, progress, and possibility. But just a few blocks away from the White City’s shining lights, something far darker was unfolding. This is the story of charm weaponized. Of a man who could sell you a dream, a job, a marri...

Welcome to Season 3 of Caviar & Criminals . Before Prohibition kings, before the mobsters you already know, there was Stephanie St. Clair . In our Season 3 premiere, Anthony takes Dana deep into the life of the Harlem numbers queen who refused to be erased, intimidated, or pushed aside. From her rise in New York’s underground economy to her very public war with corrupt police and powerful gang...

🎄 Holiday Surprise Drop! 🎄 This Christmas Day, we’re pulling something straight from the Caviar & Criminals vault — an episode we truly never thought would see the light of day. Red, White, and Sleigh is our festive gift to you: a wildly unhinged, surprisingly informative, and very merry deep dive where Dana tells Anthony the story of American Girl dolls . Yes. Those dolls. The historical ic...

For our Season 2 finale, Anthony is walking Dana through one of the most complicated and controversial figures we’ve ever covered. Mary Mallon — better known as Typhoid Mary. A woman linked to dozens of infections, multiple deaths, and a legacy that’s lasted more than a century. But here’s the question at the center of this episode: Was she actually a serial killer… or was she the victim of a medi...

This week on Caviar & Criminals , Dana takes Anthony on a disturbing little road trip through the life and crimes of Ed Gein… yes, that one. From the horrors that inspired Hollywood’s most famous slashers to the genuinely unhinged details that still make seasoned true-crime fans queasy, Dana breaks it all down while Anthony tries to keep his jaw off the floor. And somewhere between skin suits...