UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast

Who was the real Ed Gein? For nearly seventy years, the answer has been buried beneath horror movies, sensational headlines, and one of the most enduring myths in true crime. To find the real Ed Gein, I travelled to Plainfield, Wisconsin, walked the cemetery where he robbed graves, visited the locations that shaped his life, and spent years uncovering records that challenge the accepted story. In...

It's one of the most common assumptions in true crime, but the answer is more complicated than most people realise. In this episode of UNMARKED: Case Notes, I speak with Dr. Louis Schlesinger, Professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and one of the world's leading experts on serial and sexual homicide.  If you've ever wondered whether psychopathy is required for serial murde...

Was Israel Keyes really a criminal mastermind—or have we misunderstood him all along? For years, Israel Keyes has been portrayed as one of the most methodical serial killers in modern history: a man who buried murder kits across the United States, targeted complete strangers, and evaded law enforcement for years. But the deeper I dug into the FBI files, interrogation transcripts, and the people wh...

Demonic dogs. Satanic cults. Multiple shooters. Endless conspiracies. Did David Berkowitz act alone? For nearly fifty years, the Son of Sam case has inspired theories. David Berkowitz would later claim that multiple shooters were involved, that others participated in the murders, and that the public never learned the full story. But do those claims hold up to scrutiny? In this episode, I examine t...

How did a man who passed every background check, every promotion board, and every security clearance manage to hide a violent double life for years? Colonel Russell Williams was one of the most trusted men in Canada. A decorated military officer, commander of CFB Trenton, and pilot to senior government officials and members of the Royal Family. Yet behind that carefully constructed image was one o...

In 1981, children were disappearing across British Columbia. Parents feared a predator was stalking bus stops, shopping malls, and highways throughout the Fraser Valley. What investigators didn't realize was that the man responsible wasn't hiding from police at all. He was talking to them. In this episode of UNMARKED, I examine the case of Clifford Olson, one of Canada's most notorious serial kill...

For nearly fifty years, Wayne Williams has insisted he is innocent. But when you step back and examine the evidence as a whole, the picture becomes far more complicated. In this episode of UNMARKED , I dig through FBI files, surveillance reports, witness statements, and forensic evidence to understand the man at the center of one of America's most controversial murder investigations. Along the way...

In 2008, 16-year-old Erin Caffey was accused of helping orchestrate the murder of her own family in rural East Texas. But nearly two decades later, one question still divides everyone who studies the case: Who was really responsible? Using newly released police recordings, interviews, court records, and original reporting from East Texas, this episode reconstructs the psychology behind the Caffey...

John Wayne Gacy murdered at least 33 young men and boys. But for years after his conviction, attorney Karen Conti sat across from him on death row, trying to understand the man behind one of America’s most infamous serial murder cases. In this episode of UNMARKED , Conti describes what Gacy was really like behind closed doors: his manipulation, emotional detachment, need for control, and the contr...

Keith Hunter Jesperson wanted to be seen. Between 1990 and 1995, the long-haul truck driver murdered women across the United States while carefully shaping the story around himself. He wrote letters to newspapers. Confessed on truck stop bathroom walls. Participated in psychological research studies about his own behavior. Even donating his brain to science after death. But beneath the “Happy Face...

Joel Rifkin confessed to the murders of 17 women in just three years—leaving their remains scattered across Long Island, New York City, and New Jersey. And for years, no one was looking for him. In this episode, we examine the case through the lens of N. G. Berrill—one of the first psychologists to evaluate Rifkin after his arrest. Drawing on interviews, court records, and police reports, this is...

“BTK” is one of the most recognizable names in true crime. But it’s also a name that Dennis Rader created. In this episode, I’m not just looking back at the investigation—I’m speaking to people who have been in direct contact with Rader, hearing from those who have corresponded with him, studied him, and, in some cases, continue to engage with him to this day. And what becomes clear very quickly…...

Paul Bernardo is one of the most notorious serial offenders in Canadian history. But this episode asks a different question: who was really responsible? Between 1987 and 1993, Bernardo committed a series of violent assaults across the suburbs of Toronto before escalating to the abduction and murder of multiple victims alongside his wife, Karla Homolka. But the story doesn’t begin—or end—with him....

Who is the Times Square Killer—and how many people did Richard Cottingham actually kill? In this episode of UNMARKED, we reconstruct the timeline of Cottingham’s crimes across New York and New Jersey—tracking his early escalation, his use of deception and control, and how he was able to evade detection for years. Featuring criminologist Peter Vronsky, who has spent over 700 hours in direct convers...

In 1992, I wrote to the Milwaukee Police Department and asked for the Jeffrey Dahmer case files. Weeks later, they mailed me his full confession. In this episode of UNMARKED , I go inside Jeffrey Dahmer’s confession —page by page—to understand how one of the most notorious serial killers in history developed, escalated, and ultimately got caught. Using Dahmer’s own words, police reports, and exper...

Ted Bundy didn’t begin with murder. Long before the headlines, before the trials, before the mythology took hold, there were patterns—behaviours that escalated, fractures that widened, and warning signs that, in hindsight, feel impossible to ignore. In this episode of UNMARKED, we step back from the crimes themselves and examine Bundy at the point of origin. Drawing from psychological analysis, or...

Danny Rolling’s murders in Gainesville shocked the country. But they didn’t begin there. In this episode, I travel to Florida to investigate the Gainesville Ripper — speaking with journalists, authors, and witnesses who lived through the panic — and trace the case back to where it really starts. Long before the murders, there were warning signs: documented abuse, escalating behavior, and multiple...

In the final year of his life, I spoke with Charles Manson on the phone multiple times. Those conversations became the foundation of a decade-long investigation into the people who once called themselves the Manson Family. In this episode, I track down the surviving members of the Manson Family — speaking with former followers, examining trial records, and revisiting the places where the group for...

Serial killer Hadden Clark is one of the most unsettling figures in modern criminal history — a man whose crimes, confessions, and psychological unraveling have baffled investigators for decades. In this episode of UNMARKED , we examine the case through the original record. Former FBI agents, primary documents, and Clark’s own words reveal a deeply fractured personality and a disturbing window int...

I’m in Phoenix, Arizona, sitting down with a group called “Jodi Arias Is Innocent.” They aren’t arguing that Travis Alexander wasn’t killed — they’re arguing the case is more complicated than the verdict suggests.  For this episode, I read Jodi Arias’ full appeal (300+ pages), spoke with her supporters, revisited the evidence, and re-examined what the trial did — and what it may have failed to wei...

Celeste Beard Johnson appeared to live a life of privilege and stability — marriage to a millionaire, social status, financial security. But beneath that image was something far more complicated. After Steven Beard was shot, attention initially focused on the woman who pulled the trigger. But the trial would hinge on a deeper question: Who created the circumstances that made the crime inevitable?...

Scott Kimball wasn’t just a fraudster or a murderer—he was a paid FBI informant. For over a year, I corresponded with Kimball from prison. Phone calls. Letters. Recorded conversations. What he told me—and how he told it—reveals how a career con artist convinced federal agents to release him without probation, and how that decision allowed him to murder at least four people. Beginning in 2003, Kimb...

Aileen Wuornos is one of the most infamous killers in American history, often reduced to a label and a caricature. This episode of Unmarked examines what actually happened—and why. Through on-location reporting in Florida, primary source interviews, and a close analysis of the crimes, this episode traces Wuornos’s trajectory from lifelong abuse and instability to a clear pattern of escalating viol...

The justice system assumes that when two people commit a crime together, one will eventually betray the other. Amanda Logue didn’t. In this episode of Unmarked, we examine a case defined not just by violence, but by loyalty—how emotional dependency, fear, and identity can bind people together even when silence becomes self-destructive. Using rare audio recordings and court records, this episode ex...

For decades, the Grim Sleeper terrorized South Los Angeles — killing women in neighborhoods he knew by heart, often within miles of his own home. Lonnie Franklin Jr. wasn’t a criminal mastermind or a drifter moving between states. He was a neighbor. A city worker. A man who lived quietly beneath the LAX flight path while violence unfolded around him. In this episode of UNMARKED, we break down how...