True Crime - Investigating Criminal Minds | Education

Explore the 1988 murder of Junko Furuta, a case of extreme juvenile brutality and systemic failure that forced Japan to rethink its justice system. [INTRO] ALEX: On a cold night in November 1988, a 17-year-old girl named Junko Furuta was cycling home from her part-time job in Saitama, Japan. She never made it back, and what followed was 41 days of the most calculated, systematic cruelty ever recor...

Discover how the 1966 disappearance of the three Beaumont children changed Australian parenting forever and remains the nation's most haunting cold case. [INTRO] ALEX: On January 26, 1966, three siblings—Jane, Arnna, and Grant Beaumont—left their home for a quick bus trip to a crowded Australian beach and simply vanished into thin air. JORDAN: Wait, it was a public holiday, right? Australia Day? T...

Explore the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley, a case of wealth, privilege, and a legal odyssey involving the Kennedy family that lasted forty-five years. [INTRO] ALEX: On Halloween Eve in 1975, a fifteen-year-old girl named Martha Moxley was murdered on her own lawn in Greenwich, Connecticut, with a six-iron golf club. But the most shocking part isn't the brutality—it’s that the club belonged to her n...

The shocking 1988 abduction of Junko Furuta and the 41 days of torture that led to nationwide legal reform in Japan. Witness the failure of the bystander effect. [INTRO] ALEX: In early 1989, a construction worker in Tokyo noticed something off about a random oil drum abandoned at a land reclamation site. When investigators finally cracked it open, they didn't find chemicals or trash—they found the...

Explore the 45-year legal saga of Martha Moxley’s murder, wealth, and the Kennedy connection that kept a cold case in the headlines for decades. [INTRO] ALEX: In 1975, a 15-year-old girl named Martha Moxley was murdered on her own front lawn in the wealthiest neighborhood in Connecticut, bludgeoned and stabbed with a six-iron golf club. JORDAN: Wait, a golf club? That feels specifically... country...

Explore the 1966 disappearance of the Beaumont children, a cold case that permanently changed the Australian psyche and ended an era of national innocence. ALEX: On January 26, 1966, three siblings in Australia took a five-minute bus ride to the beach for a holiday swim and never came home. It remains one of the most haunting unsolved mysteries in history, a case so profound it’s credited with end...

In 1912, an entire family was murdered in their sleep. Explore the botched investigation, the ritualistic crime scene, and the suspects of this unsolved case. [INTRO] ALEX: Imagine waking up to find that every mirror in your house has been covered by a cloth, and there’s a two-pound slab of raw bacon sitting on your floor next to a bloody axe. JORDAN: That sounds like a horror movie trope, but let...

Explore the chilling 1918 spree of the Axeman of New Orleans, who spared homes that played jazz and vanished without a trace. [INTRO] ALEX: Imagine it’s a humid Tuesday night in March 1919. Every single dance hall, bar, and living room in New Orleans is erupting with the loudest jazz music possible because a serial killer promised to murder anyone who stayed silent. JORDAN: Wait, a killer who mand...

Discover the terrifying true story of the Axeman of New Orleans, who forced an entire city to play jazz to stay alive. [INTRO] ALEX: Imagine it’s March 19th, 1919. The entire city of New Orleans is absolutely screaming with music. Every professional jazz band is booked, every amateur is banging on a piano, and phonographs are blaring into the streets because a serial killer promised to murder anyo...

Explore the chilling 1981 Keddie Resort cold case, where a family was torn apart and a botched investigation left a community in silent fear for decades. [INTRO] ALEX: On the morning of April 12, 1981, 14-year-old Sheila Sharp walked into her family’s cabin at the Keddie Resort to find a scene so horrific it looked like a movie set, except her mother, her brother, and his friend were dead on the f...

Discover the chilling story of the 1981 Keddie Murders, where a brutal crime scene was left unsolved for decades due to police errors and hidden confessions. [INTRO] ALEX: In 1981, a 14-year-old girl named Sheila Sharp walked into her family’s cabin in the Sierra Nevada mountains to find her mother, brother, and his friend tied up and brutally murdered—but her two younger brothers were in the next...

Discover how the 'School of Turin' bypassed an impenetrable vault in Antwerp—only to be undone by a half-eaten sandwich. A true story of criminal genius and human error. ALEX: On a cold morning in 2003, a trash bag was dumped in a roadside thicket near Brussels. Inside was a half-eaten salami sandwich. JORDAN: Please tell me we aren't doing a podcast about food waste. ALEX: Not exactly. That speci...

Unravel the mystery of Gareth Williams, an MI6 codebreaker found dead in a padlocked sports bag, and the clashing official reports that followed. [INTRO] ALEX: In August 2010, London police entered a high-end flat in Pimlico and found a red North Face sports bag sitting in a bathtub. Inside that bag, padlocked from the outside, was the naked, decomposing body of a 31-year-old genius mathematician...

Nine hikers flee their tent in the Siberian winter only to die in a series of bizarre, unexplained ways. We explore the facts and the science of Dyatlov Pass. Related topics: 10 agorot controversy, 1321 lepers' plot, 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, 1951 Pont-Saint-Esprit mass poisoning, 1967 British flying saucer hoax

Nine hikers flee their tent in the Siberian winter only to die in a series of bizarre, unexplained ways. We explore the facts and the science of Dyatlov Pass. [INTRO] ALEX: In February 1959, nine experienced hikers in the Soviet Union’s Ural Mountains suddenly sliced their way out of their own tent from the inside and ran into a blizzard, half-naked and barefoot, in forty-below weather. JORDAN: Wa...

Nine hikers flee into a Siberian blizzard without shoes. Decades later, the Dyatlov Pass incident remains the ultimate cold case of the Ural Mountains. [INTRO] ALEX: In February 1959, rescuers in the Russian Ural Mountains found a tent sliced open from the inside, surrounded by footprints leading into the minus forty-degree darkness—made by people wearing only socks or nothing at all. JORDAN: Wait...

Explore the haunting case of Italy’s most notorious serial killer and the decades of bungled investigations that followed. Max 160 chars. Related topics: Monster of Florence

Explore the haunting case of Italy’s most notorious serial killer and the decades of bungled investigations that followed. Max 160 chars. [INTRO] ALEX: Imagine the rolling hills of Tuscany—vineyards, olive groves, and postcard-perfect villas. Now imagine that for seventeen years, those same hills were the hunting grounds of a killer who essentially paralyzed the nation of Italy. JORDAN: Wait, Tusc...

Explore the terrifying true story of the Monster of Florence, a serial killer who haunted Italy for 17 years and the chaotic investigation that followed. [INTRO] ALEX: Imagine you’re a tourist in the 1980s, camping under the stars in the beautiful hills of Tuscany, only to have a killer slice through your tent and later mail a piece of your own tissue to the police as a taunt. JORDAN: Wait, that s...

Explore the 74-year mystery of the Somerton Man, from cryptic codes and untraceable poisons to a breakthrough involving DNA from a plaster mask. Related topics: Somerton Man

Explore the 74-year mystery of the Somerton Man, from cryptic codes and untraceable poisons to a breakthrough involving DNA from a plaster mask. [INTRO] ALEX: On the morning of December 1, 1948, a man was found dead on an Australian beach, propped against a seawall. He was impeccably dressed in a suit and tie, but every single identifying label had been meticulously cut out of his clothing. JORDAN...

Explore the chilling 1959 mystery of nine hikers found dead in the Ural Mountains under inexplicable and terrifying circumstances. Related topics: 10 agorot controversy, 1321 lepers' plot, 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, 1951 Pont-Saint-Esprit mass poisoning, 1967 British flying saucer hoax

Explore Canada's most baffling cold case: Was nurse Cindy James the victim of an invisible monster or a tragic architect of her own demise?

Explore the shocking 1981 vigilante killing of Ken McElroy in Skidmore, Missouri, where dozens of witnesses watched a murder and chose a pact of silence. Related topics: 2013 Sparks Middle School shooting, 2014 Isla Vista killings, 60 Minutes, Abusive supervision, Ad hominem

The 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence exposed institutional racism in the Met Police and forced a historic rewrite of British law.