Conspiracy Theories

If Roger Arnold wasn’t behind the murders, who was? Police turn their focus to a new suspect: a disgruntled accountant named James Lewis. But the more police dig into Lewis’s life, the more questions they have. The road to truth is paved with extortion, false identities, and revenge. This is a crossover special with Serial Killers.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoi...

Forty years ago, cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules led to the deaths of seven people all around the Chicago area. America was gripped by paranoia and fear. Why was this happening? Who would be next? Police grasped for suspects who might be the so-called “Mad Poisoner.” This is a crossover special with Serial Killers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When the papers referring to MJ-12 were released to the public, the news was a bombshell. But scrutiny wasn’t far behind. Accusations of forgery and fraud began to surface, and eventually, all that was left to examine was motive. Why would someone go to extraordinary lengths to reveal a secret cabal that potentially never even existed? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adc...

Decades ago, a top-secret group of scientists, military officials and researchers reported on extraterrestrial activity to the president. When a documentary filmmaker caught wind of the operation, he followed a trail of breadcrumbs that led him to a trove of government secrets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For 11 days in December 1926, a famed writer — the “Queen of Crime” herself — vanished. Agatha Christie was used to concocting fictional mysteries. Now, she was at the center of one in real life. But was this a stress-induced reprieve from unending responsibilities? Or a masterfully coordinated jab at her cheating husband? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Famed novelist. Accomplished outdoorsman. Intrepid spy? Today we examine the evidence suggesting one of the greatest writers of the 20th century was also involved in espionage — whether as a Soviet asset, or a double agent for the U.S., it all depends on who you ask. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Over 16 episodes, listeners tuned in to hear Superman and his allies battle against the Clan of the Fiery Cross — a thinly veiled reference to the KKK. To strike a blow against the real Klan, producers of the show incorporated intel provided by a man on the inside: Stetson Kennedy. Today, we examine whether their plan worked to hamstring the hate group’s recruitment efforts... and investigate the...

In the early 1940s, journalist Stetson Kennedy tried to undermine the KKK’s recruiting power by exposing their darkest secrets — through a children’s radio show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From a royal to a humanitarian to a victim, Princess Diana significantly impacted the world during her short time here. Her recent portrayals in TV and film prove that although her passing happened twenty-five years ago, her story still lives on. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As the world mourns, speculation runs wild. How could this have happened? Who was to blame? British paparazzi, who hounded the vehicle into its passengers’ final moments, are an easy target. But rumors arise that lay the fault at the feet of the royal family — a possibility that Diana herself had predicted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twenty-five years ago, the British monarchy was forever changed upon the death of the “People’s Princess.” Today, we’re revisiting her story, looking back on a moment that impacted not only the royal family, but the world. We jump back to the 1980s, when Diana Spencer is ushered into a fairy tale. But from the beginning, it eats away at her — until she’s left simultaneously isolated and dangerousl...

As a child, Philip Taylor Kramer looked to the stars to map his future. After a quick detour as a rock star, Kramer graduated with a degree in aerospace engineering and worked on a top secret project for the DoD. The sky seemed to be the limit. Then he disappeared. When his body was found four years later, authorities suspected suicide. Other theories suggest he knew too much... and had become a t...

By October of 1968, the search for the USS Scorpion was over. Discovered at the bottom of the Atlantic, theories as to how it sank began to emerge. Was it the result of a Soviet standoff? A machinery malfunction? Or something far more alien? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It was commissioned in 1960 to monitor Soviet submarines. Fast, agile, and heavily armed — the USS Scorpion was a nuclear sub built to be stealthy, but not to actually vanish. In May of 1968, it did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who will strike it rich next? The gold mine that made Jacob Waltz a wealthy man has apparently never been found again. But maybe there are still those who know exactly where the gold came from, who’s protecting it, and what it’ll cost to discover it again... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A trove of gold is rumored to be hidden in Arizona’s Superstition Mountains. Legend has it, a German immigrant named Jacob Waltz found the cache in the late 1800s and later revealed its location in a deathbed confession. But no one’s been able to find it since... and for good reason. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Was Marlowe’s death truly a tragic accident? Unsatisfied with that explanation, some believe his death was ordered by a scorned wife seeking revenge. Others think his connections with a secret society sealed his fate. And most mysteriously of all, there’s the theory that Marlowe faked his death, and for the rest of his life wrote under a pen name: William Shakespeare.  Learn more about your ad cho...

A brilliant playwright fell out of favor with Queen Elizabeth I. Then he was murdered. Officially, his killer acted in self-defense. But for centuries, scholars have wondered if there was more to the story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are a few different theories about how our moon was formed. One of them proposes it didn’t form naturally — it was designed. And what’s more, it may even be harboring alien life inside. NASA’s Apollo space program might’ve uncovered the evidence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ever since his flight in 1961, Yuri Gagarin has been considered the first person to go to space. What if he wasn’t? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Church Committee found that the CIA had in fact tried to assassinate foreign leaders – but never succeeded. But given what we know about the agency’s violent operations in places like Guatemala and Afghanistan, how likely is that conclusion? And what did President Ford’s ban on assassinations do — if anything — to curb CIA abuses? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adch...

In 1975, a Senate panel known as the Church Committee began investigating CIA abuses, including its alleged assassinations. Their probe came after decades of CIA-backed violence and spying, both abroad and in America. How did they go unchecked for so many years? And what did the public do once they found out? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For so long, the government’s stance when it came to UFOs was to deny and debunk. But when declassified and new information started hitting the mainstream — thanks to the work of engineers, private investors, and even musician Tom DeLonge — a new era began. One that chipped away at the taboo surrounding ufology… and has paved a way for incredible new research. This is the last episode of our four-...

By the late 1940s the U.S. government knew it had a problem on its hands. “Flying saucers” posed a threat to other aircraft, and possibly even the planet. So they created programs to study UFOs in secret, and stored the evidence in the highly classified Hangar 18. What do we know about their discoveries? And what exactly did they find in the Roswell wreckage? This is the third episode of our 75th...

Less than a week after the Roswell wreck, the U.S. Department of War issued a statement claiming the debris came from a weather balloon. And for decades, that was the official story. But what if it was a lie? Today, we’re examining how the government silenced eyewitnesses, spread misinformation, and squashed stories of alien encounters. This is the second episode in our four-part crossover series...