Crimes of the Centuries

In 1957, Edgar Smith was sentenced to death for the murder of a teenage girl in New Jersey. From his prison cell, he began writing letters, essays and arguments build a case not in court, but on the page. One of those letters landed on the desk of William F. Buckley Jr. Others found their way into elite literary circles. Soon, a condemned man had powerful allies, a book deal and a growing audience...

In 1931, Adolf Hitler’s 23-year-old niece, Geli Raubal, was found dead in the Führer's Munich apartment. Authorities ruled it a suicide. But the evidence didn’t settle easily—and neither did the silence that followed. Some journalists tried to make sense of the story but had trouble as the case files were quickly sealed. So they reported on emerging contradictions in the evidence and disagreements...

Sherri Rasmussen had been married for just three months when she was brutally murdered in her California home. Police quickly decided the case was a burglary gone wrong—and then stopped looking. It would take more than 20 years before a new detective took a fresh look and realized the killer had been hiding in plain sight all along. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exp...

In October 1964, a Washington socialite was shot execution-style on the Georgetown towpath. She had been JFK's lover. Her ex-husband worked for the CIA. Her diary vanished. And the man accused of killing her was acquitted. What really happened to Mary Pinchot Meyer? " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped...

From Amber's other podcast, titled What If They're Wrong? After the Accusation:  After charges against former death row inmate Elwood Jones were dismissed, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Joe Deters—the former prosecutor who originally secured Jones’ conviction—went on talk radio insisting Jones was still guilty. The next day, phone records show Justice Deters had a 10-minute call with his former colle...

In October 1982, journalist Lester Kinsolving asked the White House press secretary about a mysterious disease that had already killed hundreds of Americans. The response? Laughter. For years, as the death toll climbed into the tens of thousands, President Ronald Reagan said nothing. His administration did less. This is the story of what happens when a government decides some lives don't matter—an...

In the industrial villages of 19th-century England, death was common—but not this common. Over two decades, Mary Ann Cotton married, buried, and moved on with chilling regularity as children, husbands, and relatives died from what doctors called “gastric fever.” Only when forensic chemistry advanced—and one parish officer heard her say too much—did her pattern come into focus. 

The massacre at My Lai was one of the most lethal attacks on civilians carried out by American troops in Vietnam. For more than a year, the Army’s official line held firm: it was an encounter with the enemy. Only when a soldier wrote dozens of letters, and a reporter refused to let the story die, did the truth reach the public. This episode explores the events of that day and the long road to acco...

In May 1983, a young Oregon mother arrived at a Springfield hospital with a horrifying story: a stranger had flagged her down on a dark road and shot her and her three children. One child was dead, the other two clinging to life. But hospital staff noticed something strange about Diane Downs: She was superficially injured, eerily calm and oddly focused on her ruined vacation and blood-stained car....

For this holiday week, we're releasing an episode that initially was available only to subscribers through GrabBagCollab.com and Apple Podcasts. In the 1970s, Gary Glitter was a glam rock sensation: sequins, stadium anthems, and screaming teenage fans. But like Jimmy Savile, he used fame as a weapon. This bonus episode unpacks his rise, fall, and the disturbing legacy he left behind. " Crimes of t...

On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder,  and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.”  David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later,...

For two decades, the small Illinois town of Dixon couldn't afford new trucks, fresh asphalt, or summer pools. Meanwhile, their trusted treasurer lived like royalty—breeding champion horses, dripping in diamonds, and cruising the country in a $2 million RV. When the truth came out, it was the largest municipal fraud in U.S. history. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab expl...

When two wealthy brothers from the same family were murdered three years and 8,000 miles apart, it seemed too strange to be coincidence. But behind both crimes lay the same forces—greed, arrogance, and the illusion of control. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad...

A boy’s discovery in the Yellow River launched one of the South’s most shocking murder investigations. What authorities found on John S. Williams’s farm in 1921 exposed a brutal system hiding in plain sight. The Georgia case made national headlines and forced Americans to confront how easily cruelty had survived just beneath the surface of everyday life. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast fr...

In 1985, Christie’s auctioned off a dusty Bordeaux engraved with the initials “Th. J.” The seller claimed it had once belonged to Thomas Jefferson, and the bottle fetched an astonishing $157,000. It was a record-setting sale that turned the wine world upside down — and raised a bigger question: had history truly been uncorked, or had wealthy collectors just bought into a very expensive story? " Cr...

He gave up comfort for a calling, left Spain for the wilds of California, and walked thousands of miles to bring the Gospel to Indigenous people. Father Junípero Serra is revered by some as a saintly hero — the man who brought Catholicism to the West Coast. But to others, he represents something far darker: a symbol of colonization, forced assimilation, and cultural destruction. " Crimes of the Ce...

He was the BBC’s quirky golden boy — cigar in hand, tracksuit on, always ready to raise money for charity. Margaret Thatcher lobbied to get him knighted. The Queen pinned the honor on him. And all the while, Jimmy Savile was one of Britain’s most prolific sexual predators. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and...

While Crimes Of The Centuries is dark this week, please enjoy this special episode of the podcast, More Like Ancient Fail-iens, where Amber Hunt was a special guest! Whether you are in your enormous underground city hiding from battling sky gods or run into an ant-person who just feels more comfortable beneath the earth’s surface, you, too, have had your life affected by underground aliens. Brando...

In August 1967, George Lincoln Rockwell — founder of the American Nazi Party and one of the most hated men in America — was shot by a sniper while doing laundry at a suburban strip mall. His murder made international headlines. The funeral descended into chaos. Conspiracy theories emerged immediately. And then...America forgot. But Rockwell's death had lasting impact: It shattered American neo-Naz...

When Horst Wessel died in 1930, he was an obscure 22-year-old member of the SA. Within months, Joseph Goebbels had elevated him into a saint of the Third Reich, complete with a theme song that would echo through rallies, classrooms, and pogroms. This episode traces how a violent street thug became the most famous Nazi martyr — and why his name still matters in extremist circles today. Crimes of th...

London in the early 1930s was captivated by the Bright Young Things — aristocratic sons and daughters whose glittering parties and endless scandals filled the tabloids. Among them was Elvira Mullens Barney, a socialite whose beauty and notoriety made her one of the set’s most talked-about figures. But on the morning of May 31, 1932, the headlines turned deadly. Her lover, Michael Scott Stephen, wa...

Despite police informants thwarting one of his deadly plans, cult leader Jeffrey Lundgren’s appetite for violence couldn’t be satiated. When one target was out of reach, he simply shifted his sights to another — this time, a family who trusted him completely. They had followed him to Ohio believing he was a prophet of God, searching for salvation. What they found instead was a man who believed tha...

In 1980s Ohio, Jeffrey Lundgren wasn’t just studying scripture — he was twisting it into something dangerous. To outsiders, he was a soft-spoken tour guide at a historic church site. But behind closed doors, Lundgren was preaching a radical new theology, gathering followers and slowly convincing them that he spoke for God. His target? The Kirtland Temple — once the holiest site in the Latter Day S...

For a brief, dazzling moment in early 1990s New York, biographer Lee Israel became one of the most notorious literary forgers of all time. Out of money, out of friends, and with a sick cat to care for, Israel turned her biographer’s research skills and her sharp wit toward a new craft: fabricating letters from Dorothy Parker, Noël Coward, Louise Brooks, and more. Her forgeries fooled collectors, c...

It was the score of all scores: a $6 million haul in cash and jewels lifted from JFK Airport in 1978. The headlines called it the Lufthansa heist; Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas turned it into legend. But the real story was messier: dozens of suspects, no recovered loot, and a trail of bodies that grew almost as fast as the FBI’s frustration. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Co...