Too Close to Home Podcast

It was the night that changed everything. A devastating fire in a rural home in Tennessee resulted in the death of the children's grandparents, but there was no trace of Chloie or Christopher's remains. The event which sparked the longest running Amber alert in Tennessee history continues to draw questions, and TBI is no closer to solving the mystery of their disappearance. Did they run off into t...

We are continuing our trek through the Hawaiian islands by discussing a major part of their folklore... the Menehune! The Menehune are diminutive beings that were, and are still, believed to inhabit Hawaii, even predating the Polynesian migration to the islands. Nocturnal by nature, the Menehune are renowned for their feats of engineering and their mischievous nature, and structures purported to b...

The hit song "Stairway To Heaven" isn't the only thing with that name to be forbidden; take for example the Haiku Stairs, or Stairway To Heaven, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Once the home of secret United States Navy communication facilities, the Haiku Stairs used to be a popular hiking trail until its permanent closure in 1987; however, this didn't stop 18 year old Daylenn Pua from attempting...

We open this closing chapter on the murder of Emmitt Till with the quick indictment of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, the individuals responsible for his brutal murder, and what David Halberstam called "the first great media event of the civil rights movement". Their subsequent acquittal and admittance of guilt in Look magazine caused tremendous outcry, led to Mamie's career in education, and influenc...

We pick up Emmett Till's story with his journey from Chicago to Mississippi, where he learns very quickly that life is quite different, and the sharecropping life is not for him. In a time of kids being kids, a fateful decision to visit Bryant's Grocery would lead to a sequence of events which are still discussed and debated on today. We try to find the truth as we cover Emmett's last days and the...

We pick up where we left off with the infamous formation of everyone's most hated wizards, the Ku Klux Klan, during the Reconstruction era; this movement sparked a rise in hate crimes and lynchings for decades to come. As we enter the Jim Crow era, we see state and local laws worsen the societal divide by enforcing racial segregation and discrimination. The Great Migration sees the movement of Afr...

The infamous 1955 murder of Emmett Till rocked the Mississippi Delta region, and was a strong catalyst for the later phases of the Civil Rights movement. Importantly, his brutal murder brought renewed spotlight to the history of violent persecution of African Americans. We start this story by going all the way back to the beginning of the slave trade in 1619. We later see how slavery evolves over...

We have more fun cryptid surprises in store for you this week with a short yet sweet episode! Today we talk about the bipedal, wand-waving, small-town local legend by the name of the Loveland Frog! First spotted in Loveland, Ohio, the Loveland Frog is a famous and beloved mascot for its eponymous town. Remaining elusive with just a few claimed appearances since the 1950's, this amphibious wizard (...

Imagine you are playing outside an elementary school, when suddenly a bright light flashes across the sky and crashes into a nearby hillside. When you go to investigate, you discover something terrifying... something otherworldly. We are talking about the Flatwoods Monster of West Virginia: A cryptid of an... "alien" nature. The stories surrounding this mysterious entity have captured the imaginat...

First we puff, puff, pass while providing a basic education on legal and illegal hemp qualities and strains, talk about the crackdown on drug operations with CAMP, "Campaign Against Marijuana Planting", and then we get right into the star of the show: the supposed murder of 3 trimmigrants by our boy Sassie. We follow journalist David Holthouse's investigation into that fateful night in 1993, with...

In part 2 of our series, we start by getting a lesson on biomechanics and species divergence: two things which help us understand how ol' Sassie could potentially be a real, living being. We then take a massive detour and talk about the history and criminality of marijuana, the back to the land movement of Northern California, and how the conditions of the area make it perfect for high quality can...

Time to pass the dutchie 'pon the left hand side, and straight into the hands of probably the most famous cryptid in the world... Bigfoot, or the Sasquatch! We go way back to the beginning with the origins of the Bigfoot legend as described in Indigenous American oral history, and go forward in time to the stories and evidence presented during the modern era within the Emerald Triangle and beyond....

We jump right into the investigation into the murders, and Lawrence is quickly identified as a number one suspect, and the search of his home yields many discoveries... some hilarious and some disturbing. Following some robbery and car chase shenanigans, Rodgers is also quickly apprehended. In the trial that comes, is it determined they are just mentally ill and didn't have their faculties about t...

In this listener request series, we shed light on a little known yet brutal series of murders which occurred in the small town of Milton, Florida in 1998... one that our own Becky actually grew up in! We jump straight into the crime spree of perpetrators Jeremiah Rodgers and Jonathan Lawrence, beginning with the murder of Lawrence's cousin Justin Livingston. Following some 3D Doritos and small-tow...

Just imagine for a second that you are an innocent beaver... hiding away in your dark, wet habitat... when all of a sudden, you are exposed to a beast with a voracious appetite... one that loves to eat beaver. Now get your mind out of the gutter! We are referring to the giant sloth-like cryptid: The Yukon Beaver Eater! If we stop laughing long enough, we may even talk about its history, sightings,...

As a member of the WVHA, Rudy had unfettered access to everything involved in the concentration camp system, and it was his expertise that led him to spearhead Operation Hoess: The mass deportation and execution of Hungarian Jews. During this time, however, the Allies have successfully invaded Europe and the time of the Third Reich is nearing its inevitable end. We then touch upon the aftermath, t...

With the Final Solution well underway, we first start by discussing the role of Sonderkommandos: Jewish prisoners who were responsible for the "dirty" work involved in the mass killings, and the horrors they had to perform and endure. During the miserable expansion of Auschwitz, we also take a detour into Rudy and his wife Hedwig's personal life, his scandalous "affair" with a prisoner servant, an...

The life of a concentration camp prisoner is something most people could never truly fathom. In part 3 of this series, we discuss a small part of what that was like; we touch upon the role of music, the conditions the prisoners and guards deal with, the advent of Zyklon B, and Hoess’ transition of Auschwitz into a death camp to answer the question to the Final Solution. We are truly fixing to ente...

We pick up Rudolph Hoess' story from his beginnings at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, to his promotion to commandant, to the chaotic construction of the "zone of interest" which would grow into the most infamous concentration camp of all time under his leadership. At this time the evil machinations within Auschwitz are starting to become underway, and prisoners come to understand exactly wh...

We are beginning perhaps the darkest series we have ever produced: the rise of Rudolph Hoess, the commandant of Auschwitz, and the countless atrocities performed under his ever watchful gaze. In the first part of this series, we explore Rudy's idyllic yet stern childhood, the birth of his ideologies, his time as a soldier and prisoner in World War 1 and beyond, and how a developing friendship with...

She was an enigmatic, alluring dancer and seductress who turned into one of the most unlikely and infamous spies of all time; of course, we are talking about the international woman of mystery herself... Mata Hari! Born in the Netherlands, Mata Hari carefully crafted her image and became one of the most captivating attractions in Paris. When World War 1 breaks out and she is recruited as a French...

We are taking a more somber turn this week as we discuss the tragedy and legacy of Kyle Plush: a 16-year old boy who suffered an avoidable death when Cincinnati police and 911 call center workers failed to rescue him. In the wake of a wrongful death suit and subsequent settlement, the city began taking steps to improve personnel training and 911 systems to ensure history does not repeat itself. Bu...

Just like some select vault dwellers from the Fallout universe, we have Fritzl's underground family finally coming to the surface and seeing the light of day; with the help of Dr. Reiter, the enormous task of healthcare and integration into society began. In the meantime, the investigation into Fritzl and his basement prison is well underway, and the things seen and heard rocked the country of Aus...

As Josef Fritzl enters into his not-so-sexy sixties, we see him start providing his incestuous family with additional room and amenities, but this does not mask the horrifying health conditions that slowly accrue over time. While becoming slightly more docile, it does not stop Fritzl from his Viagra-fueled sexcapade trips or terrorizing both families on a regular basis. With age creeping in, the a...

When we last left the incestuous Josef Fritzl, his now 18-year old little Liesl was re-captured, and it is here that the horrors truly begin. Trapped in a makeshift basement prison and repeatedly raped, Elisabeth was forced into bearing his children and raising them in her captivity. We are going from dark to darker (and not just because we are underground!), and it only gets worse from here, so l...