Just The Tip-Sters: True Crime Podcast

In a delicious mix of serious storytelling, film reviewing and humor, Melissa cuts loose on bad screenwriting AND awful murder as she looks at the life, career and death of writer/director/producer/actor Adrienne Shelly - who was murdered in her New York City office apartment in 2006, just when things were just starting to hit the bigtime for her.  Her indy film "Waitress" had just been named to d...

Those question marks in the title of this episode are there for a reason - because a real mystery is evolving regarding the unsolved 1978 murder of Patricia Neufeld in Garden Grove, California.  Originally attributed to a different mass murderer - who to this day denies Neufeld was "one of his" victims, a fresh look at the case reveals haunting similarities between the Orange County housewife's ho...

Nearly killed at birth.  Nearly drowned as a toddler.  Australian transplant to America, where he becomes a rich South Florida playboy.  Stone cold sexual predator.  One of the deadliest spree killers in U.S. history.  As Melissa explains in this episode, all of those descriptions apply to Christopher Wilder, who in less than three months in early 1984 wrote the swansong to his scabrous 39-year li...

It's been less than two months since the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo, the alleged Golden State Killer - but WOW has new information been pouring out about the case ever since.  In this episode, Melissa goes through the search warrant served on the accused and the indictment - including new previously unpublicized allegations of creepy doings that are hard to believe (but, well, not that hard t...

One of the most frustrating cold cases in America comes to Melissa straight out of Houston Texas, where in late 2000 two completely unrelated women who happened to share the same exact first and last names were killed just four days apart. Could the first Mary Morris have been killed in a completely coincidental car fire?  Could a serial killer be on the loose who hates the word combo "Mary + Morr...

A blast from Melissa's college days turns into a rollercoaster ride of Murder-to-Movie- to-Murder!  A recollection of a movie from 1985 called "Blackout" - released when Melissa was still in college - pops in to her memory banks as she looks into the 1971 case of John List, who murdered his wife, children and mother in the most macabre way and went on the lam for nearly two decades before "America...

When one of our beloved Tip-Sters - Laurencia all the way from Maine! - sent Melissa an email to suggest this gruesome little tale, we were surprised to learn that its subject - Pennsylvania's own Gary Heidnik - was one of TWO real-life killers writer Thomas Harris used to create his monstrous "Buffalo Bill" character in "Silence of the Lambs."  We knew that Harris had used mass murderer Ed Gein t...

In the final years of GSK's known (and we stress KNOWN) string of vandalism, rapes and murders - from 1980 to 1986 - the killings were less frequent but far more brutal as he transitioned from Central to Southern California.  In this, the third and final installment on the history of the Golden State Killer, Melissa examines not only the brutal, last known murders in his spree - she also divulges...

In the second part of this multi-part series on California's infamous Golden State Killer, Melissa follows the path of the former East Area Rapist, now headed south to the state's Central Coast - and it's here where the now indicted John James DeAngelo allegedly acquires a real - and completely evil - taste for murder.  As fascinating as it is chilling (and not for the squeamish), the story of thi...

In the first part of a multi-part series focusing on the infamous, decades-long mystery of the Golden State Killer - and the recent arrest of a suspect after 42 years - Melissa investigates not only the story itself but her own fascination - even obsession - with the case.  In this installment - "The Early Years" - Melissa pieces together facts from John James DeAngelo Jr.'s youth and his youthful...

In this episode, Melissa takes the suggestion of a loyal Tip-Ster calling the Tip-Ster Hotline from Cincinnati, Ohio - and explores one of that city's most haunting and frustrating cold cases - the Bricca family murders of 1966.  A young family of three brutally stabbed to death on a peaceful Sunday night for seemingly no reason - and while some of the clues lead to what seems an obvious suspect,...

He was only arrested a few days ago, but already the capture of Joseph James DeAngelo - the alleged "Golden State Killer" accused of committing 12 murders and innumerable rapes and robberies over a decade-plus crime spree, and who has eluded justice for over 40 years - has created a storm of media coverage.  Some is speculative, much has turned out to be completely wrong.  With all the facts still...

In a special zesty MURDERTIZER between full episodes, Melissa follows up on the Zankou Chicken Massacre with a lighter chat about her numerous visits - some with Producer Mark and some by herself - to the new Zankou Chicken outlet near the Homestead Studios.  Funny and touching at once, Melissa relives her thrilling first visit to the new eatery and her subsequent interactions with the Iskenderian...

Melissa completes her 3-part series on murderous men named Peterson with maybe the most fascinating of all - the tangled tale of Michael Peterson...who was convicted of killing his wife and making look like she fell down the stairs.  One of the most highly-covered murder cases in the last 20 years, this case - like one of the nightclubs promoted by SNL's Stefon - has everything: late night hot tub...

Yeah, he probably did it.  You can feel in in your gut, right?  That's pretty much what the jury said when it convicted Scott Peterson of the murder of his wife, Laci in 2004.  But is demeanor evidence really evidence?  And does it prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt?  In Part 2 of her series featuring three men named Peterson who were each convicted of murdering their spouses, Melissa takes an ho...

Who would have guessed that three of the most notorious, murderous men in recent history all share the same last name?  Not for nothing, ladies, but maybe if that dream date turns out to have a surname that starts with "P" and ends with "Eterson," you should reconsider Date No. 2.  In this, the first of a three-part series on three dudes who had no connection to each other - other than the name Pe...

...crusty AND flaky too!  Here's another palette-cleansing, tasty and refreshing MURDERTIZER between regular episodes - this time so that Melissa can catch everyone up on the recent court ruling involving the remaining remains of Charles Manson, now dead nearly half-a-year and frozen solid in Kern County California awaiting this decision.  Melissa takes us through some of the bizarre details and e...

A beautiful young girl with dreams of stardom moves from small town Colorado to Los Angeles to make her way to stardom...sound familiar?  Vicki Morgan's story actually did lead her to fortune - but not fame - at least not right away.  Over a 12-year period, she was the on-again, off-again well-compensated "kept woman" of millionaire Alfred Bloomingdale.  When Bloomingdale died and his widow ended...

James Ray's self-help enterprise made him a zillionaire after Oprah Winfrey knighted him - however briefly - her favorite Guide to Self-Realization.  All of it came crashing down in 2009 when three people died and many more were permanently injured at one of Ray's "sweat lodges" in the Arizona desert.  Join Melissa as she weaves James Ray's rise to fame and success and ultimate fall to prison and...

What's more deranged than a TV sitcom set in a Nazi prisoner of war camp?  How about a drummer, radio personality and TV star who likes to feature himself in dirty home movies and gets himself bludgeoned to death in his Phoenix apartment?  Hah?  HAH?!  And that's just the outline of this bizarre tale of Bob Crane, star of the hit TV series "Hogan's Heroes," whose questionable friendship with a vid...

The mystery of screenwriter/producer Gary DeVore's 1997 disappearance on a dark and lonely highway - and the discovery of his body a year later - sans both hands! - continues to baffle and disturb to this day.  Melissa revisits the facts of this weird case, and delves into some of the speculation on what sinister forces may have been behind his death.  Hint:  Black helicopters ARE mentioned! Hoste...

Melissa is joined by author, singer/songwriter, columnist and photographer PAUL ZOLLO to talk about the infamous case of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, two young men who, in 1924 stunned the city of Chicago and the entire nation when decided that they could commit the perfect murder and proved themselves spectacularly and gruesomely incorrect.  Melissa joins Zollo, a Chicago native who has been...

They say that the fun is doubled when twins are involved...but whoever thought up that little gem never met the Duval Sisters of Maui, formerly of Park City, formerly of West Palm Beach - and for one of them, most recently, formerly of this mortal coil.  Melissa rips a page from the headlines in this spellbinding tale of two identical twins who thought teaching yoga to the rich and famous would ma...

Ever wonder why so many serial killers live their entire lives without ever getting caught?  They're CLEVER, that's why.  And the clever ones who do get caught?  Maybe it's just because they want to be caught.  Join Melissa as she investigates the totally depraved, disturbing and utterly brilliant killing spree of Israel Keyes, whose meticulous pre-planning and strict self-discipline enabled him t...

Melissa investigates a murder right in her own town - a 2007 "unsolved but solved" case involving the bludgeoning of Lawana Clary, a housewife and special education teacher whose killer will never come to justice - but whose case still needs closure. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.