Spirits with Crime

Most of us never think twice about our teeth until it's time for a dental appointment. But in the world of forensic science, they can become some of the most powerful pieces of evidence a person leaves behind. In this second installment of our forensic science mini-series, we explore the fascinating field of forensic odontology. From identifying victims after unimaginable disasters to one of t...

Fingerprints, DNA, ballistics, blood spatter, fire investigation: these disciplines have helped solve countless cases; but what happens when these trusted sources of evidence are flawed themselves? This week, we're beginning that journey with one of the most controversial cases in modern American criminal justice. After a devastating house fire claimed the lives of three young girls in Corsica...

Antarctica has always existed at the edge of human imagination. Long before anyone set foot on its frozen shores, people believed something had to be waiting beyond the horizon. Centuries later, explorers risked everything to find out. This week, we're tracing the evolution of Antarctica's greatest mysteries. Along the way, we'll separate documented history from modern mythology and ex...

Secret meetings. Exclusive memberships. Hidden rituals. Few things capture the imagination quite like a society that doesn't want outsiders looking in. This week, we're exploring two organizations whose names have become synonymous with mystery, influence, and conspiracy. Along the way, we'll uncover the history behind the legends and examine how some stories grow far beyond the people...

Some stories become part of us. A survivor shares her experience of one of the most tragic days in modern history and dedicates years of her life to helping others heal. A missing child vanishes without a trace, only to reappear years later on the other side of the world. Both stories capture headlines. Both inspire hope. Both leave lasting impressions on the people who hear them. This week, we&#3...

In this episode, we explore the strange world of ritual games and sleepover folklore. From Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board to the Three Kings Ritual , we’ll examine the stories, psychology, and folklore behind the games that have terrified generations. So grab your sleeping bags, turn on your night lights, and join me in this dark descent. Cheers! Send Me a Story! @ spiritswithcrime@gmail.com...

Some people dream of falling. Some dream of flying. And some swear they've visited the same impossible places over and over again. This week, we're exploring shared dream worlds, liminal spaces, and recurring entities. Why do complete strangers describe eerily similar locations, figures, and experiences? Join me as I follow a trail through abandoned hallways, endless shopping centers, shad...

This week on Spirits with Crime, we’re talking about mothers. Not the Pinterest quote version of motherhood. Not the “a mother always knows” version either. One mother spent the rest of her life wondering what she missed after her son helped carry out one of the deadliest school shootings in American history. Another appeared to spend years shaping her son into a criminal partner willing to lie, s...

What makes a dangerous idea irresistible? This week on Spirits with Crime, we follow Aleister Crowley: Victorian occultist, self-declared prophet, and the man a British tabloid called the wickedest man alive. We trace his rise from a suffocating religious upbringing through the secret society halls of the Golden Dawn, across the Mediterranean to a crumbling Sicilian commune, and into the psycholog...

A confession should settle a case. But what happens when the confession becomes the question? This week on Spirits with Crime , we continue one of the most controversial cases in modern true crime, following the interrogation of Brendan Dassey, the trial that followed, and the legal battle that forced unsettling questions about suggestion, memory, and whether a story can be shaped in real time. Th...

What if the most convincing part of a case… isn’t actually the truth? We trust confessions. We rely on them, and sometimes we build entire cases around them. But what happens when a confession isn’t as solid as it seems? In this Part 1 of 2 episodes of Spirits with Crime , we explore a case that sits at the center of that question. A question where perception, pressure, and a carefully constructed...

What would it take for you to believe in fairies? In 1917, two young girls from a small village in Yorkshire answered that question for the entire world, with a camera.  This week, we’re diving into the story of the Cottingley Fairies; the picture that captivated Arthur Conan Doyle and a grief-stricken post-war world. We’re also getting into the dark side of fairy folklore that nobody talks about,...

What happens when belief in the paranormal collides with the law… and someone pays the price? In this episode of Spirits with Crime, we're heading to England for two stories separated by nearly two hundred years, but connected by the same unsettling question: how much does belief cost? First, we travel to Hammersmith, where an entire village became convinced a ghost was stalking their streets....

Welcome back, haunted friends. Today's episode begins with every Final Girl's nightmare- a voice on the radio. In 1947, ships passing through the Strait of Malacca picked up a chilling transmission. When rescuers finally boarded the vessel, they found a scene no one ever could have expected. This week we are diving into one of the most unsettling maritime mysteries ever recorded. The story...

What if the luckiest day of your life was actually the beginning of the end? This week on Spirits with Crime, we're diving into the strange, fascinating, and sometimes deadly world of luck. In 2006, Florida day laborer Abraham Shakespeare won thirty million dollars in the lottery, and reportedly said almost immediately that he wished he hadn't. What followed was a story of generosity explo...

What do mermaids, museums, and nineteenth-century showmanship have in common? More than you might think. This week on Spirits with Crime , we step back into the strange and fascinating world of nineteenth-century exhibitions, where crowds gathered to witness curiosities that blurred the line between fact and fiction. At the center of it all was one man who understood something powerful about human...

Have you ever gone looking for something weird… just to see what would happen? In 2020, an app started trending that promised adventure through randomness. You set an intention. It sends you coordinates. You go exploring. But what happens when curiosity collides with real tragedy? This week on Spirits with Crime , we’re diving into intention, coincidence, and our very human need to believe that ra...

Hello, haunted friends, welcome to another episode of Spirits with Crime ! In today’s episode of Spirits with Crime , we’re heading somewhere slightly unexpected: outer space. No murders. No courtroom drama. No suspects. The Wow! Signal is one of the most intriguing anomalies in modern scientific history; a strange signal detected in 1977 that lasted just over a minute… and a single handwritten re...

Happy Valentine’s Day, haunted friends! Whether you’re clinking glasses with your soulmate, side-eyeing the prix fixe menu, or aggressively ignoring every heart-shaped object in a five-mile radius, today’s episode is for you. In this Valentine’s Day episode, we’re unpacking love as entitlement, and what happens when the belief that someone is “meant for you” turns dangerous. We’ll trace the soulma...

Season 4 starts at the end. Executions. Last meals. Last words. Because when it comes to crime, we’re never satisfied with what happened, we want to know how it ended. In this episode, we’re digging into why endings hold so much power over us. We trace the history of executions, from public spectacles to quiet, medicalized procedures. We talk about how last meals became ritual, how final words tur...

Last episode, we talked about the fear of death. The big, final, unavoidable question mark at the end of life. Today, we’re picking up that thread and tugging it somewhere colder, quieter… and much less final. In this episode of Spirits with Crime , we dive into the fear of the afterlife and why ghosts have haunted human imagination for centuries. Using An Illustrated History of Ghosts , we explor...

In today’s episode of Spirits with Crime , we’re talking about Andrea Yates, a case that sits at the uncomfortable crossroads of fear, faith, mental illness, and the devastating consequences of untreated psychological distress. This is not a sensational story, but a sobering one. We unpack what happened, how fear of death and damnation shaped Andrea’s actions, and how belief systems can become dis...

If deep water makes your palms sweat and your imagination run wild, welcome home. This week on Spirits with Crime , we’re leaning into Thalassophobia, that primal fear that something enormous is cruising beneath you… and it knows you’re there. I kick things off with the unsettling story of High Aim 6, a Taiwanese fishing vessel found drifting at sea with no crew aboard. Was it piracy, an accident,...

This week on Spirits with Crime , we’re diving straight into the uncanny valley. First up: Anatoly Moskvin, the Russian historian with a dark hobby; exhuming the bodies of little girls and turning them into eerily lifelike dolls. Then, we’re heading into the metaphysical with the Tulpa, a being said to be born entirely from human thought. Could our fears, obsessions, and darkest imaginings actuall...

Hold onto your cocktail glasses, spooky souls, because today’s episode takes fear to new heights . This episode’s all about acrophobia . We’re diving headfirst (pun absolutely intended) into the chilling case of Phoebe Handsjuk, a story that still leaves investigators asking one question: Did she fall… or was she pushed? Then we scale things even higher with the eerie legends of Devil’s Tower, a p...