Psycho Killer: Shocking True Crime Stories

Explicit – contains surgery details. Walter J. Freeman II thought he was a revolutionary. And in a way, he was. He operated during three revolutionary decades of the twentieth century – years that saw the coming of nuclear power, antibiotics and mankind's first tentative steps into space. But his technique was more medieval than post-modern. The cutting edge of his trademark instrument was the poi...

An American “hitwoman” is starting a 30-year prison sentence in the United Kingdom for trying to murder her lover's business rival. Aimee Betro , from Wisconsin, flew to the UK in August 2019 and spent more than two weeks in the country before trying to shoot the man outside his home in Birmingham—Simon Ford reports. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/psycho-kille...

Explicit – surgery details The story of Walter J. Freeman II is as disturbing as it is bizarre. He pioneered the transorbital lobotomy , a radical and, to modern minds, barbaric form of brain surgery. Freeman left behind him a trail of devastation – shattered lives and a body count that reached the hundreds. Yet it took the authorities two decades to come to their senses and stop him.  During thos...

Step inside one of true crime’s strangest afterlives. In this bonus episode of Psycho Killer: Shocking True Crime Stories , we follow the grisly journey of Henri Désiré Landru’s severed head—from the guillotine in 1920s France to its eerie display in Hollywood’s infamous Museum of Death. Landru, known as the “Bluebeard of Gambais,” was convicted of murdering at least ten women and a teenage boy du...

An Australian serial killer has been granted parole after almost three decades behind bars. James Vlassakis was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 26 years for committing four of 11 murders in South Australia between 1992 and 1999.   The case became known as "the bodies in the barrels" serial killings, because the dismembered bodies of the victims were found in barrels of hydrochloric a...

Psycho Killer's Jacques Morrell. Thirty years as a copper, first on the beat, then a major crime detective, specialising primarily in homicide. In this new true crime series, Jacques opens his casebook to reveal gripping stories from a lifetime investigating murders, cold cases, and criminal minds. From serial killers to psychopaths, he shares behind-the-scenes insights into real police work and t...

Explicit In our last episode, we met Henri Désiré Landru: serial seducer, swindler, and killer — a man who lured lonely women to his villa at Gambais and turned them into ash. Now, the net is closing. In this second instalment of The Bluebeard of Gambais, we follow the tenacious detective who pursued Landru across a war-torn France — and finally brought him to justice. We’ll take you inside the co...

Explicit This is the chilling true story of Henri Désiré Landru — France’s most infamous serial killer. He posed as a lonely hearts suitor… but behind the doors of his villa at Gambais, women disappeared without a trace. It took one of the most painstaking investigations in French criminal history — and a detective who refused to give up — to expose the horror Landru was hiding in plain sight. At...

Update Lori Vallow Daybell, the doomsday cult follower who killed two of her children, has been handed two additional life sentences for a plot that led to her ex-husband's murder and the attempted murder of her niece's ex-husband.  It marked the end of the road for the Arizona mother with doomsday religious beliefs who claimed evil spirits had possessed her family members. Simon Ford has the deta...

Update Police in Cornwall have quashed speculation that multiple bodies have been found in woods near the town of St Austell. The County’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Alison Hernandez, has apologised for misleading remarks she made during an online meeting.   On Friday, 25 July, Alison Hernandez told a streamed meeting of Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Panel that “dead bodies” had been fou...

A man described as "a budding serial killer" by a District Attorney has been jailed for 40-80 years for stabbing a homeless man to death and seriously wounding another in Philadelphia.  As Simon Ford reports, Dshawn Crawford disguised himself as a wrestler known as The Undertaker to carry out the attacks in 2023. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/psycho-killer-sh...

Bryan Kohberger has been given four consecutive life sentences for the murders of four University of Idaho students on 13 November 2022. The 30-year-old former criminal justice doctoral student agreed to life in prison without the possibility of parole or appeal under a deal that spared him the death penalty. Simon Ford has the details. Love true crime with a psychological twist? Explore dozens mo...

Explicit A murderer who cut up his victims, packed their remains into suitcases and threw the remains off Clifton Bridge in Bristol, has been told to expect a life sentence. Yostin Andres Mosquera , of Scotts Road, Shepherd’s Bush Green, was found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court of the murders of Paul Longworth and Albert Alfonso. The pair were killed at their Shepherd’s Bush flat on 8 July last ye...

Explicit In the final part of our Ian Huntley trilogy, Psycho Killer: Shocking True Crime Stories asks: can a psychopath ever truly feel remorse? And if they can’t be cured—can they at least be taught to reform? We explore Huntley’s prison behaviour and recorded expressions of regret, set against the pioneering research of British forensic psychologist Dee Anand. His group, Beyond Diagnosis, argue...

In this second and final part of our deep dive into the Robert Parrington Jackson case — Bristol’s oldest unsolved murder — we pick up where we left off: a dead cinema manager, a bullet fired in perfect sync with a wartime film reel, and a suspect so slippery he makes Keyser Söze look chatty. We’ll explore false leads, post-war paranoia, deathbed confessions, and one very suspicious newspaper. And...

Breaking | Explicit An inquiry into the case of necrophiliac killer  David Fuller has concluded that offences such as those he committed could happen again because hospital mortuary security in England is ineffective. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/psycho-killer-shocking-true-crime-stories--5005712/support .

Explicit In the second part of our deep dive into the Soham murders, Psycho Killer: Shocking True Crime Podcasts examines Ian Huntley’s disturbing psychological profile through the lens of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist (Revised). What does his score reveal about his mind—and his motives? We also explore the complex role of Maxine Carr: was she a willing accomplice, or a victim of coercive control...

Explicit When 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman vanished from the quiet town of Soham in 2002, Britain was gripped by a tragedy that quickly spiralled into one of the most disturbing child murder cases in modern history. In this first episode of a three-part investigative series, Psycho Killer: Shocking True Crime Stories examines the early signs, missed red flags, and manipulative beha...

Welcome to Psycho Killer: Shocking True Crime Stories — the podcast that peers into the darkest corners of the human psyche, dusts off cold cases, and gives them a hard stare. This week, we’re delving into Bristol’s oldest unsolved murder — the mysterious shooting of cinema manager Robert Parrington Jackson in 1946. A real-life whodunnit with a cinematic twist: the killer timed the shot to coincid...

Explicit In the second part of our investigation into  Jimmy Savile , we go deeper into one of the most disturbing cover-ups in British criminal history. How did a man accused of hundreds of sexual assaults operate with impunity for decades—inside hospitals, children’s homes, and even the BBC itself? Who protected him? And why did it take so long for victims’ voices to be heard? With exclusive ins...

Explicit Jimmy Savile was one of Britain’s most famous celebrities — a beloved TV presenter, tireless charity fundraiser, and knight of the realm. But behind the tracksuits, cigars, and catchphrases lay something far darker. After his death in 2011, hundreds of victims came forward, revealing him to be one of the most prolific sexual predators in British history. In this first episode of Psycho Ki...

Expicit It took over a decade and more than fifty brutal murders before Soviet authorities finally captured Andrei Chikatilo . Dubbed The Butcher of Rostov , his cold, clinical detachment stunned even the most hardened investigators. In this second part of our deep dive, Simon Ford and Jacques Morrell follow the hunt to its chilling conclusion – the arrest, trial, and execution of the USSR’s most...

Explicit He looked harmless—bookish, quiet, almost invisible. But behind the thick glasses and timid manner, Andrei Chikatilo was a sadistic predator who haunted the Soviet Union for over a decade. Nicknamed The Butcher of Rostov, Chikatilo lured women and children, especially vulnerable runaways, with false promises of food, warmth and safety. What followed was unspeakable. His crimes were brutal...

Warning: strong language, suicide and genocide. Dive into the twisted psyches of Jeffrey Dahmer and Adolf Hitler in the latest episode of Psycho Killer: Shocking True Crime Stories —the true crime podcast that dares to ask why . Hosted by a veteran journalist and a former detective, we go beyond the headlines to explore the psychological roots of evil. Is psychopathy nature or nurture? What makes...

How do you solve a murder when the most crucial piece of evidence—the victim’s body—is missing? That was the chilling challenge faced by detectives in Nottingham, England, when Polish street drinker Bogdan Nawrocki vanished without a trace. Forensic evidence pointed to a brutal and violent end, but without a body, could they prove it was murder? To this day, Nawrocki’s remains have never been foun...