Crime Writers On...

Organizers of Woodstock ‘99 set out to recreate the vibe of the original concert, all while turning a profit. But the three-day festival was beset by broken toilets, contaminated water, endless garbage, and corporate sponsors price gouging the concert goers. Meanwhile, the organizers failed to appreciate their headline acts were thrash-rock bands who whipped up the oversexed, over-drugged audience...

Jimmy Keene is offered a get-out-of-jail card if he can provide the FBI evidence against a serial killer. Larry Hall is poised to leave prison on appeal. Questions remain about his interrogation, and whether the things he said were true or false. Keene draws in the psychopath, delving deeper into a serial killer’s mind. But Hall’s habit of false confessions leaves it unclear whether there’s anythi...

Did former President Trump break the law trying to influence Georgia election officials? That monumental legal question will be answered by County D.A. Fani Willis. While Congress and the Justice Department investigate a nationwide effort to overturn the election, Willis is probing whether state law was violated in her county. Breakdown season 9 from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is a real-time...

After Tonya Hughes is killed in a 1990 hit-and-run accident in Tulsa, her friends learn she’d been living under an assumed name. She left behind a young boy and her much-older husband, Clarence, who tried to control every aspect of her life. And after he kidnaps the boy from school and disappears, authorities hope to learn who each of these people really are. The Netflix documentary “Girl in the P...

After the 1985 rape and murder of grandmother Helen Wilson, investigators obtained confessions from six people who said they were there when it happened. But even after they were exonerated decades later, family members and cops don’t believe the so-called Beatrice Six would implicate themselves in a crime they didn’t commit. Meantime, a community theater in the small Nebraska town attempts to con...

When we last saw them, Charles, Oliver, and Mabel were hauled off for the murder of Bunny, the Arconia building president. But their newfound infamy and the success of their true crime podcast has given the trio the opportunities they’ve dreamed of. Mabel is recognized for her artwork, Charles’s classic TV show is revived, and Oliver may finally solve his money problems.  But true crime rival Cind...

Having eluded authorities for 17 years, the criminal known as the Unabomber is ready to make a deal. If newspapers will print his manifesto, he’ll stop killing people. But his anti-technology rants sound familiar to the family of Ted Kaczynski. When the disheveled cabin dweller is arrested, it confirms everyone’s suspicion the culprit was a mad man. But how did he go from mathematics professor to...

Homicide detectives respond to the shooting of a woman in a car on a dark North Hollywood street. The killing does not appear to be random and the lead suspect is the victim’s husband, actor Robert Blake. Complicating the investigation are the revelations about the victim’s past. Before her marriage, Bonny Lee Bakley spent decades as a con artist, cavorting with criminals and celebrities alike, le...

Pet store owners tell buyers their puppies come from reputable breeders and humane kennels. But verifying that is challenging, because the dogs are often supplied by brokers who act as middlemen between the shops and shady puppy mills. Jolyn Noethe is a broker who allegedly engineered a multi-million dollar scheme to launder puppies and deceive buyers throughout the country about where their new p...

The ubiquity of the Web means people can be whomever they want, wherever they want. That cloak of anonymity makes it easy to steal identities, spread hate speech, and make threats against the unsuspecting. But beyond the criminal acts, the nefarious use of the Internet opens the doors for more pernicious problems - like the erosion of truth or the overreach of a government attempting to strike bac...

After a 24 hour standoff at a bank robbery, two armed men and their two hostages flee through West Germany. Later, they hold up a city bus and take more hostages. While the police stay back, the criminals instead open a dialogue with the press, calmly taking questions while brandishing weapons. With reporters following the bus through the country, conducting interviews at every stop, the hostage t...

An unexplained cancer is moving through New York’s gay community. Throughout the early 1980s, as more men die, its origins remain a mystery. Meanwhile battlelines form among activists, scientists, politicians, and the public at large. “Slow Burn” creator Leon Neyfakh is out with “Fiasco: The AIDS Crisis” on Audible. The podcast looks into the forgotten twists and turns of the epidemic’s early days...

Authorities were stumped by the untimely deaths of people who had been taking a little-known diet drug. Known as DNP, the chemical helped users shed pounds, all while cooking them alive from the inside. But the compound which was developed as a World War One explosive had long been banned for human consumption. How was it turning up on the Internet? Why did those with body dysmorphia want it?  And...

As the self-proclaimed Prophet of the FLDS, a fundamentalist offshoot of the Mormon church, Warren Jeffs used the lure of eternal salvation to manipulate his followers. He arranged polygamous marriages and coerced families to offer their girls as child brides within the secretive sect, while authorities did little to stop him. The Netflix series “Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey'' paints a disturbing pic...

The gang of friends in Hawkins is slowly growing apart. Mike, Dustin, Max and Lucas are in different high school cliques. Having moved to California with Joyce's family, Eleven is finding it hard navigating a new school without her supernatural powers. Though wanted by the KGB, Joyce and Murray pursue a tip that Hopper is alive and in a Soviet prison camp. Steve, Nancy, and Robin join their friend...

Michael Peterson said he found his wife at the bottom of the staircase after a fatal fall. But authorities believed when Kathleen Peterson learned of her husband’s double life, he beat her skull with a blow poke in a fit of rage. With the support of his family, a top-notch defense attorney, and a French film crew documenting his every move, Peterson stood trial in a case filled with twists and rev...

On a routine traffic stop in Saskatchewan, a Mountie recognized the driver as the priest who abused him as a child. The officer beat him up, but the priest never reported the attack and the Mountie kept the incident to himself for decades. That officer was the late father of reporter Connie Walker. She wanted to know more about her Cree family’s experiences with Canadian residential schools. St. M...

Before it was known on the big screen as a house of horror, the Dutch Colonial at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, Long Island belonged to the family of Ron DeFeo. In November 1974, Ron Junior found his parents and four siblings shot to death in their beds. His trial captivated the community, but his grisly crimes would be overshadowed by the new homeowners' claims the house was possessed. The new...

The Capitol insurrection seemed to catch most of the country off guard. But many people believed January 6th would be a violent day in Washington. They included conspiracy theorists, as well as security analysts…even one Texas teenager who tipped off the FBI after hearing his father’s plans to overturn the election. But who are these people who would take up arms against a nation they say they wan...

After the 1984 murder of Brenda Lafferty and her baby, Detective Jeb Pyre learns the woman married into a prominent and devout Mormon family. But her modern outlook soon clashed with her five brother-in-laws’ views on marriage, religion, and the government. As conflicts arose among their wives, their community, and their church - the Lafferty brothers explored Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints teac...

In 2014, authorities discovered the bodies of political consultant John Sheridan and his wife Joyce in the bedroom of their New Jersey home. A barricaded door, an intentionally set fire, and the discovery of two knives near the bodies led investigators to believe John killed Joyce in a murder/suicide.  The couple’s family noticed detectives ignored odd things about the evidence, such as the blood...

Candy Montgomery seems to have it all: loving husband, adorable kids…and friends from church like Betty Gore. But to fight the mundanity of suburban life, Candy initiates an affair with Betty’s husband, Allen. After the affair runs its course Betty and Allen are closer than ever. But while away on a business trip, Allen becomes concerned when his wife won’t answer the home telephone. The five-nigh...

Since financial advisor Melissa Caddick walked out of her house in 2020, authorities have been unable to determine whether she vanished with the millions from her Ponzi scheme, was snatched by a ripped-off investor, or threw herself into the sea from the high cliffs near her luxury home. The podcast “Liar, Liar: Melissa Caddick and the Missing Millions” is a joint investigation between the Sydney...

With drug lord Omar Navarro in prison and his hot-head nephew Javi in charge, Marty and Wendy Byrde’s plan to get out from under the drug cartel’s control is in freefall. Meanwhile, Ruth makes a play for the casino - key to the money laundering operation Marty needs to fulfill his debt and secure a deal with the FBI. Jason Bateman and Julia Garner return for the final season of Netflix’s award-win...

In 1972, seven-year-old Steven Stayner was kidnapped and raised by his abductor under an assumed name. At age 14 he made his escape and returned home. Reporters couldn’t get enough of the miraculous story, and a TV miniseries captivated the nation. But there was no storybook ending for the Stayners. The following years brought conflict, tragedy, and an unthinkable crime. The Hulu documentary “Capt...