Crime Adjacent

The killer disappeared for nearly 30 years. Police thought he moved or was caught or just decided to call it quits, which happens occasionally with serial killers. Then Gary Pugh was abducted from a quiet street in Ridgewood on December 11, 2023, and discovered dead in the valley just hours later. The Rest Stop Killer had never left.  Crime Adjacent is the never-ending true crime story told w...

When Len Macy arrived in San Francisco in 1967 for the Summer of Love, he was immediately tempted by the cults and charismatic narcissists who preyed on young people at the time.  Charles Manson. Jim Jones. Synanon. They were everywhere. But it was Mitch "Moon" McDaniel that would lure Len to Ridgewood, where he would soon find himself alone and forgotten. Until a killer started dumping bodie...

Three Ridgewood men have been abducted and murdered, their bodies found in a valley on the outskirts of town. And the same man found two of them. This is Daniel Palmer Jr., a millionaire housing developer who owns the valley land. On the nights of each murder, Palmer said he was home, hosting fund-raisers for local politicians. People saw him each night, vouched for him. But are his alibis as airt...

One man built a flamethrower and patrolled the town’s sewer system, positive the killer lurked underground. A posse of women formed an armed vigilante group and roamed the streets at night. Neighbors reported other neighbors to police. Kids called the tip line on their teachers.  As Ridgewood waited for the killer to strike again, mass hysteria settled over the entire town. But then, just as...

After the abduction and murder of Bobby Briggs on Jan. 20, 1996, Ridgewood exploded. There was a killer among them, taking men. Off busy streets. Stomping them to death. Just as it has done all over the country for ages, panic set in. And Ridgewood would never be the same. Crime Adjacent is the never-ending true crime story told weekly. New episodes every Wednesday. Find behind the scenes details...

The similarities between the abduction of Bobby Briggs and one Zodiac survivor were so striking that Detective Jones had to check it out.  Briggs was kidnapped in the middle of Ridgewood, on a busy thoroughfare. And yet, there were no witnesses or signs of a struggle. It was as if he simply vanished. When Detective Jones inspected his truck, she knew what happened. She had seen this before. W...

With the discovery of a third body in the valley just off Interstate 80 in Ridgewood, police realized the killer emerged every other Saturday night. Only this time, instead of abducting a man at Hunter Hill rest stop, he was in Ridgewood. Anyone, it seemed, was fair game now. Crime Adjacent is the never-ending true crime story told weekly. New episodes every Wednesday. Find behind the scenes detai...

Detective Ida Jones had seen this before. Gay men were being murdered while the police and the entire town looked the other way.  Like a nightmare she couldn’t escape, she couldn’t stop this from happening in Ridgewood.  Crime Adjacent is the never-ending true crime story told weekly. New episodes every Wednesday. Find behind the scenes details or join our true crime and criminal profili...

Bobby Calvin had everything going for him.  Smart, handsome, a former D1 star quarterback at Stanford, where he almost led the team to a national title in the 1980s. An actor with big dreams of Hollywood. An early adopter of the Internet. So how did he cross paths with a killer on a lonely night just after the new year in 1996?  Detective Jones has spent her entire career trying to answe...

Exactly two weeks after the discovery of Tommy Coulet, another man was found on the outskirts of Ridgewood. Same valley. Same injuries. Same horrible manner of death. This is the story of Bobby Calvin, who would soon become known as Bobby #1. Crime Adjacent is the never-ending true crime story told weekly. New episodes every Wednesday. Find behind the scenes details or join our true crime and crim...

With no leads, no clues, and no suspects, Tommy’s case went cold, almost instantly. But as more men were abducted in Ridgewood, investigators reached out to the FBI for a profile. The profile has never been publicly released. Until now. Crime Adjacent is the never-ending true crime story told weekly. New episodes every Wednesday. Find behind the scenes details or join our true crime and criminal p...

Tommy Coulet left home at 9 p.m. on Dec. 23, 1995 and would never return. His body was discovered the next morning in a known lovers’ lane spot on the western edge of Ridgewood just off Interstate 80. Investigators wouldn’t know it at the time, but Tommy Coulet would be the first known victim of the most prolific serial killer in American history. This is the story of how it all began. Crime Adjac...

Thirty years ago, someone began snatching men from a small Bay Area town and dumping their bodies in a quiet lovers’ lane just off Interstate 80. But just as quickly as the killings began, they suddenly stopped. The killer simply vanished. No suspects. No arrests. No headlines. These men and their murderer were forgotten, overshadowed by other notorious serial killers prowling the same Bay Area ro...