The Ravens Hollow

In the spring of 1946, Texarkana had two states, one Phantom, and absolutely no chill. A masked assailant stalked lovers’ lanes with eerie precision, turning a quiet twin city into a jittery maze of locked doors, sold‑out hardware stores, and citizens who suddenly discovered religion—or at least better porch lighting. The Phantom Killer struck under moonlight, vanished at sunrise, and left behind...

Kenneth Allen McDuff wasn’t just a menace—he was Texas’ worst argument for parole reform wrapped in a six‑foot frame and bad intentions. Born into comfort but fueled by cruelty, McDuff bullied his way through childhood before graduating to burglary, murder, and eventually earning the charming nickname “The Broomstick Killer.” After receiving three separate death sentences—yes, three—he still manag...

Richard Cottingham looked like your average 1970s family man—commuter, computer operator, husband, father. But behind that beige exterior lurked a man the tabloids would later dub The Torso Killer, a predator whose crimes were so brutal they rattled even seasoned investigators. Operating across New York and New Jersey from the mid‑60s to 1980, Cottingham lived a double life so convincing it took d...

Terry Blair wasn’t just a product of a family tree with more felony branches than leaves—he became Kansas City’s grim reminder that sometimes the danger isn’t lurking in the shadows, it’s walking right out on parole. Born into chaos in 1961, Blair went on to terrorize the city from 1982 to 2004, targeting vulnerable women and leaving investigators convinced his known seven victims were only part o...

In 1981, 13-year-old Mary Louise Day vanished from her home in Seaside, California, under circumstances that would puzzle investigators for decades. What began as a quiet, unreported disappearance spiraled into one of the most baffling cold cases in American true crime—one involving family secrets, suspected abuse, and a shocking reappearance more than 22 years later       Intro Audio:  Gavin Prat...

Meet Edward James Adams, the bank robber who proved you don’t need a Tommy gun or a movie‑star snarl to become one of the most slippery outlaws of the early 20th century. Adams wasn’t your typical stick‑’em‑up desperado—he was a smooth‑talking, sharp‑dressed criminal who could charm a room, crack a safe, and vanish before the dust settled. From jailbreaks that read like stage plays to heists pulle...

Rudy Bladel was the kind of disgruntled ex‑employee who didn’t just hold a grudge—he loaded it, chambered it, and took it trackside. A former railroad fireman whose career was derailed by a 1959 yard merger, Bladel spent the next decade and a half turning his personal vendetta into a grim, locomotive‑themed murder spree.       Intro Audio:  Gavin Prater Outro Audio: Jason Poe   Source Credit:  htt...

Happy 50th Episode!!  Today we are diving into a few cases of botched executions over the centuries.   Where ""justice" didn't go clean, didn't go quick.....and definitely didn't go the way it was supposed to.        Intro Audio:   Gavin Prater Outro Audio: Jason Poe   Source Credit:  https://parade.com/966564/parade/fun-facts/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_botched_executions https://en.wi...

William Edward Wells III—later branded “The Monster of Mayport”—is one of Florida’s most chilling and least‑known serial killers. Born in 1975, Wells unleashed a series of brutal murders beginning in 2003, when he killed his wife and four members of her family over a span of just over a week in the coastal community of Mayport. He pleaded guilty and received multiple life sentences, but his violen...

Constance Margaret Sirois—later known as Constance Fisher—was a Maine woman whose life became one of the most tragic and disturbing criminal cases in American history. Born in 1929 and adopted as a child, she struggled with severe mental illness that ultimately led to the deaths of all six of her children across two separate incidents, in 1954 and 1966. Her story raises enduring questions about me...

Chester Allan Poage’s story begins like a small‑town slice of Americana—born on the Fourth of July, raised on a century‑old Kansas farm, and known for being tougher than his size suggested. But when he took a short break from technical school to visit family in Spearfish, South Dakota, his life veered into a grim twist worthy of a true‑crime cautionary tale. What started as a casual hangout with p...

A grandmotherly landlady with a talent for tea, tidiness, and taxidermy-level tenant turnover, Dorothea Puente perfected the art of looking harmless while running one of Sacramento’s most sinister boarding houses. Behind her soft-spoken charm and lace-curtained windows lurked a serial killer who quietly drugged, robbed, and buried her elderly and disabled tenants in the garden—then kept cashing th...

Antoinette Frank went from patrolling the streets of New Orleans to terrorizing them, blurring the line between protector and predator. Behind the uniform was a deeply troubled past marked by severe childhood abuse, a history that shaped her psyche long before she ever pinned on a badge. But once inside the police force, she weaponized authority itself—partnering with her teenage boyfriend, Rogers...

Leo Lancing Boatman wanted to be a serial killer the way some people want to be an influencer—ambitious, misguided, and catastrophically lacking in judgment. His violent debut came in 2006, when he ambushed two college students camping in the Ocala National Forest, a crime that earned him two life sentences and a permanent place in Florida’s criminal folklore. Prison didn’t slow him down; if anyth...

Eight bodies... One axe... And an entire town that couldn't stay away.  After the murders, the doors of the Moore house in Villisca didn't close - they swung wide open.  Neighbors, Townspeople and curious strangers walking through the crime scene.  Touching furniture.  Picking things up.  Rearranging evidence.  Before police could lock it down, the house had already been contaminated by human curi...

In this episode, we step away from the more serious crimes and dive into the hilariously baffling world of criminals who didn’t quite think things through. The criminals who just weren't smart enough to pull off their crime.      Intro Audio:  Gavin Prater Outro Audio: Jason Poe   Source Credit:  https://factsl.net/fun-facts/ https://www.watchmojo.com/articles/top-50-dumbest-criminals-ever https:/...

Richard Chase—grimly nicknamed “The Vampire of Sacramento”—was less a criminal mastermind and more a catastrophic collision of untreated mental illness and escalating paranoia. In the late 1970s, he spiraled into delusions so severe he believed his blood was turning to powder, prompting him to seek “refills” in the most horrific ways imaginable. His crimes were chaotic rather than calculated, driv...

Richard Chase—grimly nicknamed “The Vampire of Sacramento”—was less a criminal mastermind and more a catastrophic collision of untreated mental illness and escalating paranoia. In the late 1970s, he spiraled into delusions so severe he believed his blood was turning to powder, prompting him to seek “refills” in the most horrific ways imaginable. His crimes were chaotic rather than calculated, driv...

Frederick Charles Wood isn’t exactly a household name, and honestly, that might be the only good news in his story. A small‑time criminal with big‑time delusions, Wood drifted through life with the charm of a damp dishrag and the decision‑making skills of someone who thought crime was a personality trait. His path eventually spiraled into violence, leaving behind a trail that investigators would l...

Allan Newman wasn’t your average outlaw—unless your average outlaw is a bank‑robbing drifter with a talent for disappearing and a trail of bodies that investigators spent years trying to connect. In this episode, we peel back the layers of a man who blended charm, chaos, and cold calculation into a criminal résumé that baffled authorities and terrified communities. From small‑town stickups to a ch...

David Edwin Mason wasn’t just a serial killer—he was a catastrophically bad planner with a flair for self-destruction. Born in 1956, he drifted from juvenile delinquency to adult violence like someone checking off items on a very illegal bucket list. By 1980, he had embarked on a spree of strangling elderly victims in Oakland, California, a pattern so grim it felt like he was trying to speedrun th...

Daniel Joe Hittle wasn’t just a repeat offender—he was an overachiever in all the worst ways. Born in Indiana and adopted into a Minnesota farm family, he grew up quiet, polite, and apparently harboring enough rage to later murder his adoptive parents in 1973. After serving time and securing parole, he took the concept of “fresh start” and twisted it into a 1989 Texas killing spree that left five...

Charles Schmid Jr., better known as the “Pied Piper of Tucson,” was the kind of small‑town troublemaker who tried to turn himself into a legend—platform shoes, pancake makeup, and all. In the mid‑1960s, he charmed Tucson’s teenagers with a mix of bravado and bad eyeliner, only to reveal a far darker side: behind the swagger lurked a manipulative killer responsible for the deaths of at least three...

Robert Wayne Danielson Jr. carved out a grim legacy across the American West, leaving investigators chasing a trail as unpredictable as his movements. Born in 1946 and largely a mystery in his early years, Danielson drifted through life with a mix of depression, drug use, and a knack for turning roadside encounters into deadly confrontations. After an early manslaughter conviction in 1970, he resu...

A mother. A wife. A killer - again and again.  This Monday we travel back to the 19th century England, where poison was silent, grief was unquestioned, and one woman left a trail of death inside her own home.  Mary Ann Robson didn't murder strangers.  she murdered those closest to her.         Intro Audio:  Gavin Prater Outro Audio: Jason Poe   Source Credit:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_An...