We Would Be Dead

Leslie is still on Maternity Leave so this week we bring you an episode on Holly's favorite topic, poison, with one of her favorite people, frequent campfire guest and all around friend of WWBD; John Rattacasa! John has his very own poison garden with all of the rarest and deadliest plants in the world.  Holly and John talk all things botanical poison and then explore some cases where these rare a...

Hey there fiends, Leslie is taking a little time off to be the cutest and spookiest new mom in all the land, which means...(imagine a drum roll) guest hosts! Happy Friday the 13th! This week in honor of this the luckiest unlucky of all days we brought our editor and composer Jon Katity on to help tell the story of the horrific murder of Sharon Gregory by a man named Mark Branch. Mark was obsessed...

Hey there fiends, Leslie is taking a little time off to be the cutest and spookiest new mom in all the land, which means...(imagine a drum roll) guest hosts! This week we bring you several tales of homegrown horror from our friend and previous guest, author Jesse Pollack. Jesse is a contributing columnist for Weird New Jersey and co authored the definitive book and podcast on the mysterious death...

As lovers of information Holly and Leslie frequently fall down "rabbit holes" while researching cases for you. Sometimes they're newsworthy, sometimes they're silly, sometimes they're suggestions from you and sometimes they're just plain weird. No matter which rabbit hole they fall down, they all have one thing in common, they're interesting enough to pull you away from whatever you're supposed to...

    In the very pre daylight hours of February 23rd 2022 Tara Pakanich heard the storm door to her basement close. Tara's 24 year old son, Shad Thyrion was staying with her at the time in that very basment, and had been entertaining an old friend, a woman named Taylor Schabusiness. Tara upon hearing the door close, wondered if they'd both left, or just her son's guest. As Tara made her way down th...

This week WWBD took a little break - Holly needed some much needed rest, and Leslie and Jon were moving their son into college! So the team needed a moment and we thought, why not go into the vault and pull out an originally patron only episode of 30 minute horror movies for you all to enjoy! This week we bring you, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter. It's a spiritual tale filled with unnecessary montage...

This week we are talking about a case that has been touted as Utah’s most famous unsolved murder. Trigger warning: this one is about a child and there is mention of sexual assault.   At 5 am on August 13th 1995, Lewine Tapia woke from a sound sleep with a start. The house appeared to be still and silent, her husband was peacefully sleeping next to her and yet something still  felt wrong. Lewine de...

You may know this case as the Heavenly Creatures murder.... The world we inhabit is an ever changing place, one lifetime can contain many lives if we’re lucky. This is the story of two women: rural riding instructor Hilary Nathan and internationally famous novelist, Anne Perry, who once lived as two completely different people. Anne grew up as a rich and fragile heiress named Juliette Hulme, and H...

You may know this case as the Heavenly Creatures murder.... The world we inhabit is an ever changing place, one lifetime can contain many lives if we’re lucky. This is the story of two women: rural riding instructor Hilary Nathan and internationally famous novelist, Anne Perry, who once lived as two completely different people. Anne grew up as a rich and fragile heiress named Juliette Hulme, and H...

Many of you will know this case will be simply known as the murder of ultra famous, incredibly rich, Italian Fashion designer and icon Gianni Versace, but there is ever so much more to it than that. For a case that is so widely covered we were stunned to learn that we barely knew it at all.  Spree killer Andrew Cunanan killed 4 men in the two months before he made it to the lavish home of Gianni V...

Newark NJ can be a difficult place to grow up in. The crime rate is high, the income rate is low and gun violence is not an uncommon sight. Fortunately Newark has seen improvements in the last 20 years but in in 2003, when Sakia Gunn and her friends walked the litter lined streets, Newark was one of the scariest places on the east coast. A young black lesbian like Sakia would need support in Brick...

In this campfire re-do Holly takes us back to the Regency Era and tells the very bloody story of The Ratcliff Highway Murders. It was too good not to do on a main episode! You can hear the original campfire stories over on our Patreon if you are a subscriber - if you are not a subscriber, head on over to our Patreon and become one! The date was February 7, 2021 - it was a marvelous time!  Learn Mo...

Nowhere will you find  more opportunities for disaster, than on spring break. A place with beautiful warm weather, water, and copious amounts of alcohol that attracts thousands of young adults every year.  Spring break destinations have disproportionately high rates of human trafficking , DUI deaths, and incidents of alcohol poisoning, rape and illicit drug use. They can be very dangerous especial...

Nowhere will you find  more opportunities for disaster, than on spring break. A place with beautiful warm weather, water, and copious amounts of alcohol that attracts thousands of young adults every year.  Spring break destinations have disproportionately high rates of human trafficking , DUI deaths, and incidents of alcohol poisoning, rape and illicit drug use. They can be very dangerous especial...

True crime has a way of moving forward either very slowly or super fast, there is no in between. Not all the cases we cover have resolutions, and you're not going to believe this but, investigations don’t stop when we stop, thank goodness right? A lot of the cases we have covered in the past have received rather significant updates in the past three years so we decided to periodically bring you th...

January 6th 1999 A pusher tug boat called The Elk was traveling along the Vistula River in Poland, when it came to a sudden halt just a few short feet from it's mooring.  The propeller had gotten stuck and so the captain and crew went to pull out what they assumed would be tree branches or River weeds. When the opened the hatch to access the propeller they were met with a sickening smell, it wasn'...

Sorry to leaving you hanging! We're back with the second part of Rebekah Gould's story. Here's a little refresher: On September 20th, 2004 22 year old Arkansas resident Rebekah Gould drove her friend to work at Sonic, grabbed breakfast at a local convenience store, and then disappeared never to be seen alive again. A week later her body was discovered at the bottom of an embankment on a scenic str...

This week We Would Be Dead is coming back to the present(ish) with a case that has captured the true crime corners of the internet. On September 20th, 2004 22 year old Arkansas resident Rebekah Gould drove her friend to work at Sonic, grabbed breakfast at a local convenience store, and then disappeared never to be seen alive again. A week later her body was discovered at the bottom of an embankmen...

This week we are taking off to enjoy spring break and egg hunts with the kids. In lieu of a new case we are re-releasing Holly's terrifying bunny monologue from Episode 102, and our Patron Only 30 Min Horror Movie: Night of the Lepus from April 26th, 2021. Whether you observe Easter as a religious holiday or not, everyone loves bunnies, and this episode is packed with them!  We will be back next w...

Poison artisans Giulia Tofana and Gironima Spana took all the power held hostage in their time by men and placed it in the hands of women. Join us as we go deep into the rise and fall of the world’s most infamous poison and sought after skin care line: Aqua Tofana. Last week we told Guilia's story and this week we tell Gironima's.  Gironima Spana was a savvy business woman who took the recipe for...

We wanted to end women’s history month with a bang, so we decided to deliver this much requested case in a way you’ve probably never heard it before, the way it actually happened. What was once thought to be the story of one woman, is actually that of a mother daughter dynasty. Poison artisans Giulia Tofana and Gironima Spana took all the power held hostage in their time by men and placed it in th...

Greetings fiends, it’s time for our 2023 St. Patrick’s Day offering! Every we find some wild Irish stories and folklore for you, so we can celebrate one of the most magical and terrifying places in folkloric history.  This year we have the legend of Red Mary. Hers is a story of love, war, revenge, violence, angry ghosts and a wild stallion. Get your whiskey ready and sit yourself by a cozy fire be...

On December 2nd 1991,Costa Mesa CA police arrested 23 year old Egyptian former model Omaima Nelson for the murder of her 56 year old husband Bill. Omaima had confessed to a former boyfriend on December 1st when she showed up at his home with a suitcase of unidentifiable body parts.  Investigators were immediately sent to the Nelson residence, and while they didn’t expect the scene to be neat and t...

Jolly Jane Toppan was a bubbly nurse and caregiver who was know in the late 1800's Boston area for her extreme compassion and dedication to her patients. Jane was a natural fit to take care of the sick and elderly, as she was patient and always in a good mood. Her kind eyes, matronly appearance and jovial smile made Jane easy to trust and a breath of fresh air in the cold clinical light of a hospi...

On Sunday February 13th 2000, 9 year old Asha Degree went to church, went home, spent the day with her family and went to bed on time. The next morning her mother opened her door at 6:30 am, expecting to see her sleepy 4th grader burrowed under her covers, instead she opened the door to find an empty bed, no sign anywhere in the house of Asha, and no one ever saw or heard from her again. What tiny...