The Grim Curriculum

In Episode 185, we begin a new series on Hadden Clark, a man known to many as the cross-dressing cannibal. As we always do, we start at the beginning. This first chapter focuses on Clark’s parents, his family lineage, and the environment that shaped his early life. Hadden was one of four siblings, and he would not be the only one in the family to find himself on a very dark path. On the surface, h...

We start with the upcoming documentary on Wade Wilson, a murderer known for his violence against women who, unbelievably, still has online fangirls. From there, we move into the recent death of Mr. Doyle, the man best known for his citizen’s arrest of serial killer Charles Ng. Charlotte then dives into the bizarre case of Jonathan Christian Gerlach, a modern day “Igor” accused of grave robbing and...

In this week’s episode, we travel back to the 1920s, a time of speakeasies, jazz, and newspaper headlines has jaws dropping everyday. At the centre of one of New York's most sensational stories was Ruth Snyder, a suburban housewife whose plan to be rid of her husband set off a chain of events that would shock the public and change crime reporting forever. We walk through Ruth’s marriage to Alb...

2025 gave us parole hearings, prison drama, escape attempts, and one very notorious Canadian’s demise. This week we recap the biggest case updates of the year and where they stand now. We start with the Menendez brothers and the latest developments in their parole hearings. We then revisit Brian Kohberger, whose case has concluded and who is now serving his sentence, and we talk about life behind...

This week’s Extra Credit episode covers a wide range of recent and unsettling cases. We begin with the shocking murders of director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, and the early details that have emerged in what has become a deeply tragic family case. Next, we discuss the disappearance of a young English man in the remote mountains of Romania, a case that remains unresolved and con...

On Christmas Eve in 2008, Bruce Pardo arrived at his ex wife’s family holiday gathering in Covina, California, wearing a custom tailored Santa suit. What followed was a brutal act of violence that claimed the lives of nine people before Pardo took his own life. In this episode, we walk through the events of that night, the warning signs leading up to the attack, and the devastating impact it left...

This week we had the opportunity to sit down with Krissi Atkisson, the daughter of unsolved murder victim Wilma June Nissen. Krissi shares what it has been like to live with unanswered questions, and the long, often frustrating process of trying to get clarity from law enforcement. We talk about the experts she has reached out to, the independent research she has undertaken, and the tireless effor...

This week’s Extra Credit opens with an in-depth discussion on the Canadian moose, an unexpectedly educational start that you are welcome to skip ahead about five minutes if you want to jump straight into the true crime. We begin with an update on Ryan Wedding, a name longtime listeners may recognize. Since we last covered him, he has managed to climb even further in the criminal world, and not in...

This week we dive into one of Scotland’s most notorious and unsettling legends, the story of Sawney Bean and his cannibal clan. For centuries, this tale has haunted the coastline, weaving together stories of murder, treachery, and a hidden family said to have lived in the darkness of a seaside cave for decades. We explore the origins of the Bean family legend, the historical context that shaped it...

In April of 1981, a quiet cabin in Keddie, California became the scene of one of the most disturbing and perplexing unsolved cases in American history. What began as a brutal quadruple homicide quickly spiralled into a decades-long mystery filled with conflicting statements, overlooked and missing evidence, and more questions than answers. In today’s episode, we break down everything we know about...

Video games, true crime, psychics, and scholastic book fair nostalgia. We want to know what games you guy are playing lately; Dina is back into Fallout 4 (again) and Charlotte is playing Borderlands 2 (again). We also get into several true crime stories, including a serial killer case out of Massachusetts, a cold case involving two missing sisters who were identified and found alive after 36 years...

Today we are covering a decades old unsolved case that was brought to us by the daughter of the victim, Wilma June Nissen. Wilma disappeared in 1978, and for years she remained unidentified. It was not until 2006 that her name was finally restored, yet we still have no answers about what happened to her or who is responsible. In this episode, we walk through the known timeline of Wilma’s life, the...

We have reached the final part of our series on Scottish serial killer Dennis Nilsen. We cover his last victims, his move into the flat at Cranley Gardens, and how his own method of disposing of bodies finally exposed the truth and led to his arrest. The trial that followed was controversial for a number of reasons and Dennis certainly didn't calm down after sentencing. He had many strange and...

This week, we’re talking Charles Manson and the gang once more, with some fascinating insight from our friend James Dawson from The Manson Archives. Charlotte brings us the old timey story of American outlaw “Black Jack” Ketchum, whose hanging went horribly wrong at the hands of an inexperienced executioner. Dina covers the case of a parrot who helped crack a murder in a way only a parrot could, a...

We’re back with Part Two of our series on Scottish serial killer Dennis Nilsen, and things are only getting darker. In this episode, we begin discussing his first murders and the disturbing ways his behaviour began to escalate. Nilsen was unlike most serial killers in one very unexpected respect; he didn’t actually enjoy killing his victims. We explore why that was, and how his warped sense of con...

We’re kicking off a new series on Scottish serial killer Dennis Nilsen. Also known as “The Kindly Killer,” Nilsen’s story is as unsettling as it is fascinating and this series is going to get particularly weird and gruesome as we go along. In Part One, we’re not yet diving into the murders themselves, but that doesn’t mean things aren’t strange already. From his isolated childhood to his time in t...

We are little under the weather this week, so bear with both of us as we’ve apparently caught the plague, but that’s not stopping us from diving into some true crime updates and Grim news. We’re talking about the recent sentencing of the man who killed Robert Pickton in prison, as well as the latest decision to overturn Patricia Krenwinkel’s parole once again. We also chat about a surprising medic...

We are back with one of our favourite types of episode; Grim Encounters! We absolutely love when people send us in their own scary stories and today's tales did not disappoint. We have some haunted locations, some strange happenings at camp, a situation that our listener did not get paid enough to stand around and check out, and Dina even shares her own paranormal and scary experiences at the...

This week on Extra Credit, we’re diving into your reactions to our Ivan Milat series — and our Australian listeners had some fascinating insights to share. We also chat about the recent sentencing of P. Diddy, a major breakthrough in the decades-old Austin, Texas Yogurt Shop case, and a shocking story involving a 95-year-old woman now facing serious charges in New York. Charlotte brings a bit of l...

This week on The Grim Curriculum, we’re wrapping up our deep dive into one of Australia’s most infamous serial killers — Ivan Milat. In our final part, we follow the investigation that finally brought him down and the shocking evidence uncovered along the way. We also take a look at his bizarre antics behind bars, his death, and how even now, decades later, new and unsolved cases continue to be li...

This week on The Grim Curriculum, we continue our series on Australia’s Backpacker Killer, Ivan Milat. In Part 2, we focus on his victims — young travelers whose lives were cut short in the most brutal ways. By this point, Ivan is single again, having gone through a divorce with his wife Karen and a breakup with his brother’s partner Marilyn, and his isolation only seemed to fuel his rage. From pu...

This week on The Grim Curriculum, we’re kicking off a brand-new series on one of Australia’s most infamous serial killers — Ivan Milat. In this first episode, we dive into his brutal and toxic family history, his chaotic childhood as one of 14 children, and the early warning signs that hinted at the darkness ahead. To truly understand what Milat became, we believe it’s crucial to examine the gritt...

This week on Extra Credit, we’re diving into a shocking update connected to Pee Wee Gaskins. You remember Pee Wee, right? We covered him waaaay back in episodes six and seven. From there, we explore a case of medical malpractice involving a surgeon with an unsettling fetish, plus a disturbing foot fetish incident — unrelated to the medical malpractice case (shocking, we know). We also cover the ar...

This week on The Grim Curriculum, we’re diving into one of the most chilling hauntings ever reported — the case of the Smurl family. Beginning in the 1970s, Jack and Janet Smurl claimed their Pennsylvania duplex was plagued by violent and terrifying paranormal activity. Their story eventually drew the attention of famed investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, sparking intense media coverage, public...

This week on The Grim Curriculum, we’re exploring the chilling "old timey" true crime case of Daisy de Melker, South Africa’s infamous “Black Widow.” Born in 1886, Daisy’s life seemed ordinary at first but behind her string of marriages and inheritances lurked a far darker tale. From the suspicious deaths of her husbands to the tragic fate of her son, investigators uncovered a pattern of...