Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast

In 1992, the movie American Me directed by Edward James Olmos portrayed a fictionalized rise of a Mexican Mafia leader inside California’s prison system, aiming to expose the brutality and cyclical violence of gang culture. But its stark realism angered members of the real Mexican Mafia, who reportedly saw it as a humiliating portrayal. After the film’s release, several people connected to the pro...

Robert Hendy-Freegard is a British con artist who, in the 1990s and early 2000s, posed as an undercover MI5 agent to manipulate, isolate, and financially exploit multiple victims across the UK. Presenting himself as a secret operative hunting the IRA, he convinced young professionals and students that they were in danger and needed to go into hiding under his direction, extracting hundreds of thou...

Chad Ollinger, a 41-year-old reality TV personality best known for appearing on the Discovery Channel’s Mystery at Blind Frog Ranch with his father, has been charged with open murder in the December 26, 2025 death of his cellmate, Christopher Kelly, at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas.

Christopher and Raquelle Judge, a married couple from Fort Worth, Texas who built an online lifestyle and renovation following, pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud conspiracy charges in late 2025 for orchestrating a nearly $5 million home-building scam that defrauded more than 40 homeowners between August 2020 and January 2023. Through their company Judge DFW LLC, they promoted themselves on soci...

Sante Kimes was a calculating con artist whose life read like a blueprint for manipulation, fraud, and ultimately murder. Alongside her younger accomplice and son, Kenneth Kimes, she spent decades drifting across the United States, spinning elaborate schemes that ranged from check fraud and insurance scams to exploiting wealthy older men. Their crimes escalated in 1998 with the murder of 82 year o...

Dawn Bennett was a Washington, D.C.–based luxury sportswear entrepreneur and former financial advisor who built a glittering public persona while secretly running what prosecutors later described as a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. Through her company she marketed high-end alpaca and vicuña apparel and promised investors sky-high returns, claiming their money would fund inventory and expansion,...

Willard Chaiden Miller was a 16 year old Iowa high school student who, along with his classmate Jeremy Goodale, was charged with murdering their Spanish teacher, Nohema Graber, in 2021.

Joe Caronna was convicted of murdering his wife, Tina Caronna, in a case prosecutors said was driven by financial desperation and insurance fraud.

The tragic story of Brandon Hole, the My Little Pony fan who committed murder at a FedEx Ground facility in Indianapolis Indiana.

Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr., a once-trusted anesthesiologist at a Dallas surgical center, was convicted of grotesquely betraying his medical oath by secretly injecting powerful drugs into bags of IV fluid meant to help patients, turning routine procedures into life-threatening crises.

Betty Lou Beets was a Texas woman who became known as the “Black Widow” after murdering two of her husbands in the early 1980s for financial gain.

Jadion “Jay Icon” Richards and his wife Akwele “Apple” Lawes-Richards were arrested and charged in the U.S. with shoplifting and related fraud offenses related to the retail chain Lululemon.

Rod Blagojevich was the Democratic governor of Illinois whose political career collapsed in 2008 when federal prosecutors charged him with corruption, most famously accusing him of trying to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

Molly Bloom was a former competitive mogul skier whose Olympic dreams ended after a severe injury, pushing her into the world of high-stakes underground poker in Los Angeles, where she eventually ran some of the most exclusive illegal games in Hollywood, attracting A-list actors, professional athletes, and powerful businessmen. As the operation grew, Bloom became deeply entangled with Russian mob...

In November 2025, a Tennessee jury found Latoshia Daniels guilty of second-degree murder for the 2019 shooting death of Memphis pastor Brodes Perry, as well as attempted reckless endangerment for wounding his wife, Tabatha Perry Archie. The trial, dubbed the "Broke My Heart" murder trial, centered on a two-year secret affair between Daniels and Perry that ended shortly before the shootin...

Johnny Lewis was a troubled actor best known for his role on Sons of Anarchy whose life unraveled amid escalating violence, mental health struggles, and drug abuse. In September 2012, Lewis brutally attacked his 81-year-old landlady, Catherine Davis, inside her Los Angeles home, beating and strangling her to death, and evidence suggested he may have assaulted other residents before fleeing.

John Donald Cody is a Harvard-educated lawyer and former U.S. Army intelligence officer who spent decades as a fugitive after disappearing from his Arizona law practice in the 1980s amid allegations he stole client funds. Decades later, using the alias Bobby Thompson, he founded the United States Navy Veterans Association, a bogus charity that raised tens of millions of dollars from donors under t...

Katie Piper is a British model and television presenter whose life changed dramatically in 2008 when she was the victim of a brutal acid attack orchestrated by her ex-boyfriend, Daniel Lynch, who hired an accomplice to throw sulfuric acid in her face as she stood outside her London apartment. The attack left Piper with severe facial burns, blindness in one eye, and extensive injuries to her esopha...

Marni Yang was a former girlfriend of NFL safety Shaun Gayle who, in July 2007, murdered Gayle’s pregnant girlfriend, Rhoni Reuter, in her Deerfield, Illinois condo.

Heidi Fleiss, dubbed the Hollywood Madam in the 1990s, became nationally infamous when federal investigators exposed her high-end prostitution ring catering to wealthy clients in Los Angeles, a scandal that erupted into pop-culture spectacle once actor Charlie Sheen publicly admitted he had been one of her customers.

Vonlee Nicole Titlow was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2000 death of her uncle, Donald Rogers, in Michigan after prosecutors said she helped her aunt, Billie Jean Rogers, kill him.

During a Coldplay concert when the stadium’s kiss cam landed on two attendees who very clearly did not want to be seen together, triggering an instant internet pile-on. As the camera lingered, the pair awkwardly recoiled, hid their faces, and appeared panicked rather than playful, which viewers quickly interpreted as evidence of an affair. Online sleuths soon identified the man as Andy Byron, the...

Daylon Pierce became known for running a widespread online dating scam in which he used social media and dating apps to target women, often presenting himself as charming, emotionally invested, and sometimes falsely claiming stable careers or military ties to build trust quickly. After forming intense romantic relationships, Pierce would manufacture financial emergencies and persuade victims to se...

Christina Paolilla is from Clear Lake, Texas, and was involved in a brutal double murder in 2003. Along with her boyfriend, Steven Spence, Paolilla carried out a home invasion that resulted in the execution-style killings of her childhood friends, Clara Harris’s relatives Josh and Alicia Moffatt, whom Paolilla had grown up with and once considered family.

Lorenzen Wright, a former NBA center who played 13 seasons in the league, was found murdered in July 2010 after disappearing from Memphis, Tennessee, his body discovered in a wooded area riddled with multiple gunshot wounds. The case drew national attention due to Wright’s prominence and the disturbing revelation of a 911 call in which he appeared to be fleeing for his life. After years of stalled...