True Crime Campfire

When we left you at the end of Part 1, angry man-child Elliot Rodger had dropped out of college to avoid contact with all the unattainable blondes on campus, and his plan to win the Mega Millions jackpot and lord it over everyone had failed. In his mind, he’d exhausted all possibilities for revenge against his “enemies,” except for the bloody ones. So he began planning what he called his “Day of R...

On May 23rd, 2014, the city of Isla Vista California was shocked by a vicious murder spree—six people dead, more than a dozen others injured. The killer was a 22 year old man named Elliot Rodger, whose on-paper resume would never have hinted at anything like this. Born into a well-to-do family with Hollywood connections, blessed with good looks and intelligence and parents who adored him—allowed i...

The Rolling Stones released “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” in 1965, when I’m pretty sure Mick Jagger could get all the satisfaction he wanted, but that’s neither here nor there. The song has been striking a chord with countless listeners for going on 60 years since because people recognize what it’s about either in themselves or others, that relentless unquenchable appetite for SOMETHING, whether i...

When we left you at the end of part 1, con man Christopher Hightower was coming unglued. His wife was threatening to leave him. His landlords were threatening to kick him out of his office. Creditors were swarming. And his old friend Ernie Brendel was pursuing a formal complaint against him with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Can you imagine? All he did was commit a little light financi...

In the late summer of 1991, the tranquil little town of Barrington, Rhode Island was stunned by the disappearance of an entire family: Ernie and Alice Brendel and their 8 year old daughter Emily. As the story unfolded, it just got weirder and weirder. Mafia hit squads, bizarre murder weapons, a mysterious figure called “The Lynx?” And the town was left to unravel a mystery that was truly stranger...

There’s a famous, if frequently misquoted, line from the 17th century play, The Mourning Bride: “Heaven has no rage, like love to hatred turned—Nor hell a fury, like a woman scorned.” It’s famous because people recognize the truth in it, that betrayal in love can create in a person an obsessive rage that can lead to some very dark places. It’s a tale as old as crime. A murder plot forged out of fu...

If there’s one group of folks we identify with here at True Crime Campfire, it’s nerds. Between Katie and me, we cover about six or seven different subspecies of nerd over here, from Dungeons and Dragons nerd to anime nerd. True crime nerd goes without saying. And as we’ve said before, most of the time our people are harmless, peaceful types. Just give us a special edition Blu-Ray box set of the L...

The fable of the wolf in sheep’s clothing has always been one of my favorites. You know the one—A hungry wolf can’t get close enough to grab a sheep for dinner because the shepherd is so vigilant. But one day he finds a sheepskin, and slips it on. Now he just looks like one of the flock. He can slip right in among ‘em. And when the shepherd’s back is turned, bam. Dinnertime. Now that is a perfect...

Hosted by Ash Kelley and Alaina Urquhart from the hit show Morbid. When 90-year-old Laurence Pilgeram drops dead on the sidewalk outside his condo, you might think that’s the end of his story. But, really, it’s just the beginning. Because Laurence and others like him have signed up to be frozen and brought back to life in the future. And that belief will pull multiple generations of the Pilgeram f...

Remember those Magic Eye posters from the 90s? The technical name is stereogram, an optical illusion where if you kinda unfocus your eyes and stare at it long enough, a colorful kaleidoscope-looking abstract will turn into something else. A rocket ship, maybe, or a tropical landscape. They’re fun, and everybody had one in their dorm room for a while. We’re always fascinated by illusion. It’s why m...

In 1991, the small town of Derry, New Hampshire suddenly found itself the center of a media event: The trial of Pamela Smart, the pretty blond media services director at the local high school. From the outside looking in, Pam had seemed to be firmly on track for the American Dream. She and her handsome husband Greg were just about to celebrate their first anniversary, and Pam had aspirations to be...

In game theory, there’s this thing called the Hawk-Dove game, better known to most of us as “chicken.” It’s when two players get themselves into a sort of standoff—a situation where it would be better for everybody if somebody would back down, but nobody wants to be the first to give up. So they both just keep going, with no regard for their personal safety, until finally—hopefully—somebody’ll say...

Lao Tzu wrote: If you wish to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you wish to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation. This inspirational quote was posted on April 30th, 2013 on the Facebook page of Diane Staudte, a woman who many in her comm...

Linda Ronstadt sang "Love is a rose, but you better not pick it--only grows when it's on the vine." It's a song about how love only flourishes when tended to, when you don't pick and choose which parts of the whole to love. When you love the roots and thorns and leaves as much as the flower. For some, though, love is less like a rose and more like a burdock. Y'know? Those thorny little buggers tha...

In the early 90s, north Texas was hit with a rash of bank robberies, all featuring a quirky-looking, mustached bandit the feds called Cowboy Bob. Bob was prolific, and his MO was smoother than silk—no muss, no fuss, in and out in 60 seconds with a satchel full of cash. The FBI figured they were dealing with a pro, a man with years of heists under his belt and nerves of chilled steel. They couldn’t...

Whitney has been sick this week, so we're giving everyone a little taste of what our Patreon-exclusive episodes are like. This one is from March 2021--the story of Grace Dillman and Robert Best, a couple of lovestruck teenagers who met in an online roleplaying game and ended up plotting bloody murder. Want more exclusive extra episodes? Subscribe to our Patreon, at Patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfireSou...

Thanksgiving weekend is supposed to be a time to reflect on the blessings in our lives—especially the people we care about. Sure, you might end up in an argument or two around the dinner table, but hopefully by the time dessert comes out everybody’s over it and feelin’ lucky to be there. You wouldn’t expect, sitting around the table with the people closest to you, that one of them was biding his t...

Joseph Campbell wrote, “It is only when a man tames his own demons that he becomes the king of himself, if not the world.” Problem is, sometimes there’s a thin line between “hero” and “hero complex.” Adoration and attention aren’t always good for people. After a while, they can start to believe so strongly in their own PR that they lose all sense of reality. And protecting the image can become the...

Sometimes, there’s no easy way out of the dark place you find yourself in, especially if that dark place puts you under the control of someone stronger than you, someone dangerous and unpredictable. And as much as you might fantasize about action-movie struggles and daring escapes, there are other ways to fight back. You can use your smarts and your courage to decide on a course of action that’ll...

A hiker terrorized for days by two unknown figures… A man stalked through the woods while camping, who barely escaped with his life… two cops who quit their job at a local theater because of unexplained encounters with an alleged demon…These are just some of the unbelievable cases you’ll hear on the MrBallen Podcast on Amazon Music. Each week you’ll get new inexplicable encounters, shocking disapp...

Y’know, between Hollywood, books and TV, humans have got some pretty weird ideas about romantic love. If she turns you down, keep at her—make a grand romantic gesture to let her know you’re not goin’ away! If he’s jealous, it just means he really loves you. If he doesn’t want you dressing sexy, it’s just because he’s protective. Okay, we might fight all the time, but that’s just because we’re pass...

For more than three and a half decades, the disappearance of 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews was a mystery – a riddle neither authorities nor her family members could solve. The residents of her cloistered Colorado hometown had scoured every inch of prairie. Jonelle’s face had been on milk cartons nationwide. Even the President of the United States had appealed to the public for help. Still, every le...

If you’re a parent, then you’ve probably spent a lot of time imagining nightmare scenarios for your kids. Y’know, you lose sight of them in Target for a couple of minutes, your mind starts to go in all kinds of awful directions. You’re careful about who they spend time with, you watch what they’re up to online. You make sure they know they can talk to you about anything. But the raw fact is, you c...

There’s a phenomenon in psychology called decentering. Basically, it means understanding that you’re viewing the world through your own little perceptual filters, and beginning to wrap your head around the fact that you are not, in fact, the center of the universe—the main character in the movie of the world. This is important stuff. Without it, people tend to be, at best, selfish a-holes, and at...

The Generation Why Podcast released its first episode in 2012 and pioneered the true crime genre in the podcasting world. Two friends, Aaron & Justin, break down theories and give their opinions on unsolved murders, controversies, mysteries and conspiracies. One of the longest running true crime podcasts out there, Generation Why has a little something for every true crime listener. Follow The Gen...