True Crime Campfire

Richard Rohr once wrote, “The human ego prefers anything, just about anything, to failing or changing or dying.” And he was just talking about your garden variety, Joe Average ego. Not the supercharged, steroid-pumped kind that our villain today was cursed with. What’s at the core of an ego like that is a quivering little wad of insecurity, so fragile that the tiniest disagreement can feel like a...

Michel de Montaigne once wrote that obsession is the wellspring of genius and madness. If today’s story isn’t a flawless example of that, then I don’t think there’s ever been one. It’s almost a cliché that genius is often tinged with something dark. Geniuses do tend to be obsessive people, and surely by now we true crime fans have seen what obsession can do to human morality. It can squash it like...

In Part 1 we introduced you to Herb Baumeister: Husband, father of three, prominent Indianapolis businessman…secret necrophile. By the early 1990s, Herb and his wife Julie were practically printing money with their chain of thrift stores, and they’d recently moved into a spectacular mansion on acres of beautiful woodland. It was the perfect place for the kids to run and play…and even more perfect...

We talk a lot about masks on our show. Most people wear them sometimes. We have our professional mask, our “make a good first impression” mask, our “fake it til you make it” one, when we don’t want anybody to know how anxious we are…But for most of us, the masks aren’t that different from our real personalities. Just a little more polished, maybe. Most of us don’t absolutely need the masks to surv...

Small towns are interesting places. Everybody acts like they’re the “real” America—simple, safe places where life moves at a slower pace and everybody can trust everybody else. As true crime shows never tire of telling us, small town folks don’t even lock their doors. Crime just doesn’t happen there. Except of course, when it does. And then everybody talks about how the town has lost its innocence...

The movie “The Room” is an interesting study. If you’ve never seen it, you should. Director (and I put that in air quotes) Tommy Wiseau, who may actually be an alien or some kind of undead creature from a parallel universe, managed to create a movie so bad it’s almost good. Or at least, it’s so bad it’s vastly entertaining, and not like any other movie you’ve seen. You could probably say the same...

We like to think we can trust ourselves—that our read on a situation, whatever that situation may be, is correct. We need to believe we’ve got this, we’re seeing the world as it really is, nobody’s gonna get the drop on us. But sometimes, we find ourselves through the looking glass. Sometimes, just when we think we’ve got a handle on a situation, everything shifts like the changing images of a hol...

So, campers. Last week we introduced you to Sante Kimes: Liz Taylor lookalike, scammer, arsonist, sadist, and mother of Kenny Kimes, a promising young man she groomed as her partner in crime from the moment he was born. After spending the early part of her childhood in poverty, Sante was determined to be fantastically rich, and she was willing to do anything to accomplish that goal. And we do mean...

A wise man once said, “A boy’s best friend is his mother.” Oh, wait. That was actually Norman Bates, wasn’t it? Sorry. But a mother’s love IS one of the most powerful forces on earth. At its best, it’s unconditional, selfless, kind, protective. Willing to throw itself between its young and whatever danger threatens them. At its worst, well…you’re about to find out. This is the story of what happen...

In every human civilization I can think of, we’ve had—y’know—rules. Granted, some of them have been silly, or downright wrong, and should have been scrapped. But by and large, rules help keep the weave nice and tight on the fabric of society. Without them, well, you’ve basically got The Purge. Nobody wants that, if for no other reason than all those masks would be creepy. Most people have no probl...

In his seminal work The Prince, philosopher and father of modern political science Nicolo Machiavelli wrote, “In the actions of all men, and especially of princes, where there is no court to appeal to, one looks to the end. So let the prince win and maintain his state: the means will always be judged honorable, and will be praised by everyone.” Many people have taken this to mean that Machiavelli...

Have you ever wished you could undo one moment in your life? One harsh word you can’t take back? One horribly wrong turn? One zig that should have been a zag? I think we probably all have. There’s a theory that there are infinite universes, kind of like the reflections you see in an elevator with mirrors on both sides. But in every universe, ONE little thing is different. One choice went the oppos...

Hate can take many forms. There’s the kind that’s just fear and bigotry—the ugliest human failings—in disguise. There’s the kind that’s really just the dark mirror image of love. I loved you, you hurt me, I hate you. There’s the kind that’s born of envy. And then there’s the kind of hate that’s all about selfishness. “You’re in the way of something I want.” Each of these incarnations is dangerous...

We’re all pretty aware of the big, obvious dangers in our lives. We look both ways before we cross the street. We lock our doors at night (at least I hope we do, after listening to a year’s worth of True Crime Campfire). We take our vitamins. We don’t walk down dark alleys alone if we can avoid it. But the real kick in the kidney is, sometimes the worst dangers are the ones we never see coming. So...

What is it we like so much about scary movies? Is it the adrenaline rush, the excitement? That’s part of it, for sure. But it’s also the fact that unlike the screaming victims running fortheir lives on screen, we know we’re safe. Michael Myers might be relentlessly evil andimpossible to kill, but he’s also stuck over there in movie-land where he can’t get us. I thinkthat’s why stories like the one...

Hey, guess what? BOO! Haha, gotcha. Welcome to our second annual True Crime Campfire Halloween Special! As if 2020 hasn’t been scary enough by itself, right? We’re especially excited about this year’s Halloween episode, campers, because we have a very special guest joining us: The gorgeous and talented Shelby Scott, honey-voiced host of Scare You to Sleep, a podcast that, while beautifully produce...

Most people have at least some degree of appreciation for what they have. They know how to count their blessings, as they say. Most people, if given a beautiful home and beautiful clothes, lavish trips and the love of a sincere, kindly partner, would probably feel like they’d done pretty well for themselves. But then you’ve got people like the bad bitch in today’s story. To a greed goblin like her...

Family. Whether it’s the family you choose for yourself or the one you’re born into, family is vital. When we’re with our families, we’re supposed to feel safe, loved, supported. A family should be a soft place to fall, for everybody in it. A shelter from the storm. But when the nucleus of the family is a parent like the one in this week’s story, home becomes a cesspit of paranoia and fear. Your p...

Most of us go looking, at one point or another in our lives, for something…more. Something to give us a purpose. Make us feel like we belong here. For some of us, it’s friends or family. For some, it’s art, or music, or helping people. But then, some of us take a wrong turn on that quest for fulfillment. Come up against just the right kind of charismatic personality—one who makes us feel loved, ne...

Join us for our very first special guest episode! The first half of the episode is a lot of talk about cool tricks and cons, and the second half is more traditional TCC--and of course we give you a great villain to hate on in the last story. It wouldn't be TCC without that. As long as there have been humans, there have been scams. We’ve been perfecting the art of the steal for thousands of years....

In part 1, we told you about the disappearance of Laci Peterson, a bright and vibrant young woman who was due any day to give birth to her first child, a son she’d already named Connor. In the days and weeks following Laci’s disappearance, the whole world began to turn its attention to her handsome salesman husband Scott—first because, well, you always suspect the husband, and he didn’t seem to be...

It’s our first anniversary at True Crime Campfire, y’all, and we decided we wanted to do something special. So this week and next, we’re doing a deep dive into the much-requested case of Scott Peterson, whose death sentence for the murder of his wife was recently overturned. If you’re not familiar, here’s a thumbnail sketch. In 2003, a radiantly beautiful young woman named Laci went missing on Chr...

There’s an old saying that if you’re not where you want to be in your life—or who—you should “fake it til you make it.” And it can work great. For example, let’s say you’re terrified of public speaking. And inside you feel like you’re about to either pee yourself, barf up everything you’ve ever eaten, just turn around and flee, or possibly all three. But instead of letting the audience see your ne...

Helen Keller once said “I would rather walk with a friend in the dark than alone in the light.” Friendship, when it’s done right, is one of the joys of life. Most of us hope to find a group of true friends, people who will be happy for us when we’re happy and, like Helen says, walk through our darkest times with us. Most of us would never expect to be confronted with a life or death situation that...

“Teacup Poisoner” Graham Young began his creepy career when he was still a child, slipping poison to members of his family. Before he was finally caught and sentenced to Broadmoor in 1962, he’d poisoned more than a dozen people and killed at least three. Family, coworkers, friends. And he didn’t stop even after he was incarcerated. A couple of his fellow inmates at Broadmoor fell victim to his dea...