Wicked Words - A True Crime Talk Show with Kate Winkler Dawson

Author Becky Cooper was a student at Harvard University when she heard a curious rumor about a murdered student in the late 1960s. Cooper was told that the killer was likely a professor…but her investigation uncovered clues that had been buried for decades. Who the real killer was came as a surprise to everyone. The story of Jane Britton’s life and her murder is detailed in the book:...

After two three-year-old girls were raped and murdered in rural Mississippi, two innocent men were convicted and were in prison for decades. Meanwhile the real killer remained free. Today I’m talking to Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington about their fantastic book, The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist: A True Story of Injustice in the American South.    Support this podcast by...

Acclaimed forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland was one of my first guests on this show. She detailed her time with serial killer Dennis Rader. She’s back, along with co-author Tracy Ullman, to tell me about their book The Serial Killer’s Apprentice. It’s the complicated story centered on the accomplice of the serial killer known as The Candyman.   Support this podca...

Who killed eight women in a small Louisiana town between 2005 and 2009? And were their murders the work of a serial killer or people connected to a corrupt sheriff’s department? This is a true-life southern gothic mystery. Author Ethan Brown offers us the story at the center of his book,  Murder in the Bayou: Who Killed the Women Known as the Jeff Davis 8?   Support this...

In 1990, a young journalist witnessed a botched execution and it changed her life. Author Ellen McGarrahan found herself haunted by the question of whether she had witnessed the execution of an innocent man. She tells me the story at the center of her book: Two Truths and a Lie: A Murder, a Private Investigator, and Her Search for Justice.  Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor...

We’ve had this author on before when he talked about his book on serial poisoner Dr. Thomas Neill Cream. Today, Dean Jobb tells us about a different kind of criminal, a man known as the “prince of thieves.” Arthur Barry stole from the rich in the Jazz Age and then offered a detailed confession when he was caught. How did he get away with it for so long? It’s all in the book...

I talk a lot about how history repeats itself. This story, unfortunately, feels like it can happen today even though it’s actually 75 years old. Author Ellen Green wrote a book called:  Murder in the Neighborhood: The true story of America’s first recorded mass shooting. We’ll be in 1949 East Camden, New Jersey and Green tries to answer: why the shoo...

Self-made millionaire Lance Herndon was one of Atlanta’s elite in 1996 when he was murdered in his home. Police had a host of suspects, and they soon realized how complicated Lance’s life was. Author Ron Stodghill unravels the story in his book:  Redbone: Money, Malice, and Murder in Atlanta.    Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at...

One of the most famous crimes in American history was the murder of 14-year-old Bobby Frank. Two young men, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, wanted to plan the perfect murder. And they didn’t. Author Hal Higdon wrote THE book on this case, called Leopold and Loeb: The Crime of the Century.  Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bi...

Here's our story this week: in the summer of 1988, 16-year-old Shane Stewart and 18-year-old Sally McNelly went missing in the West Texas town of San Angelo. After their remains were found, the mystery began. Texas Monthly reporters Karen Jacobs and Rob D’Amico pick up the cold case of two murders that have haunted their family, their friends, and generations of investigators. I talked with them a...

A murdered teenage girl. A suspicious, affluent family. And a lot of sticky social situations. They’re all in our story, which is set in nineteenth century London. Who killed 16-year-old Jane Maria Clouson? Author Paul Thomas Murphy details it in his book: Pretty Jane and the Viper of Kidbrooke Lane: A True Story of Victorian Law and Disorder: The Unsolved Murder that Shocked Victorian England.  S...

At the height of the Great Depression, an oil mogul from LA decided to escape society with his mistress to create their own utopia on a faraway land. The problems started with other people following them there. My friend, Abbott Kahler, is my guest today. She used to write under the name: Karen Abbott. Abbott tells me the story at the center of her book : Eden Undone A True Story of Sex, Murder, a...

Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005. Four years later, a young prosecutor in the Justice Department was drawn into examining a mysterious death after the storm. Henry Glover was found dead in a burned-out car two weeks after Katrina. And who he was last seen with became the center of controversy and reform. Jared Fishman tells me the story from his book: Fire on the Levee .   Support...

I’ve said this many times: unsolved cases frustrate me. I need a solution, or a conclusion. But cold cases are so important: and my next guest wants to talk about missing women…several that are more than 100 years old. And she can use our help. Author Kathleen Brunelle tells me about her book called: She’s Gone: Five Mysterious Twentieth- Century Cold Cases.   Support this podcast by shopping our...

For this episode of Wicked Words, we travel to India, where some of the world’s most complicated, most compelling true crime stories come from. This story is one of those. It’s about a female grifter, turned killer, who seduced men for money, but murdered one…out of fear. The book we’re talking about is called Swipe Right to Kill . The author is Anirban Bhattacharyya.   Support this podcast by sho...

Filmmaker Colin Archdeacon had an unusual relationship with convicted killer named Grant Amato in Florida. Amato murdered his parents and his brother in 2018. And the media blamed his obsession with a cam model. But Archdeacon found out that Amato had very different motive. Let’s find out more about the three part series, Ctrl+Alt+Desire on Paramount +.    Support this podcast by shopping our late...

This is one of the most shocking unsolved missing-child cases in the world. A 7-year-old boy named Kyron Horman went missing in 2010 in Portland, Oregon and he’s never been found. The last person to see him was his stepmother. Author Rebecca Morris details Kyron’s story and the mystery of his disappearance in her book, Boy Missing: The Search for Kyron Horman. Support this podcast by shopping our...

I love a good murder story set in the South and this is an intense one. It centers on a vicious murder in a crumbling Kentucky mansion and a killer who managed to cover it up for months. Author David Domine writes about it in his book: A Dark Room in Glitter Ball City: Murder, Secrets, and Scandal in Old Louisville.  Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this...

We’re now digging into a  real  Texas story. We’re talking about a brazen jewel thief in the 1960s who burgled some of the wealthiest homes in Dallas. But he was an odd thief. Sometimes he took just one diamond earring, probably because he knew it would ruin the set. He would put down a towel so he wouldn’t sully an expensive chair by stepping on it. Who was this jewel thief? Author Rena Pederson...

This next story needs a trigger warning: it’s about the grooming and the sexual assault of children. But it was an important case in Australia and author Hedley Thomas tells it well. He details the murder case of Chris Dawson in his book The Teacher’s Pet. It was based on Henley’s record-breaking podcast that eventually attracted the attention of the Australian government.    Support this podcast...

In the summer of 1967, a family of nine was murdered in their home by a stranger in rural Canada. It was one of the worse random mass murders in the country’s history. There’s a podcast that covers the whole story called “The Shell Lake Massacre.” The host, Brittany Caffet, grew up not far from Shell Lake. And she has a very personal connection to the story…she’s close to one of the survivors.   S...

A murder conspiracy in China is at the center of a fascinating true crime story involving politics, greed and deception. There are no heroes in this book, but boy, what a drama. Author Wenguang Huang tells me about his fantastic book,  A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel: Murder, Money, and an Epic Power Struggle in China.   Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions a...

I had never heard of the tragic case of former Vaudeville star Vivian Gordon in 1930s New York. She had threatened some of the city’s most powerful men and at least one of them wanted her dead. Her murder in 1931 caused the downfall of the mayor of New York City. Author Michael Wolraich wrote a book about Gordon and her death called:  The Bishop and the Butterfly Murder, Politics, and the End of t...

I’ve listened to many versions of the story of the Murdaugh dynasty and I’m always interested in hearing new, fresh details. Well, author and podcast host Mandy Matney didn’t disappoint with her book, Blood on Their Hands: Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty. She told me details that I’ve never heard before after she talked with countless locals in the low country of South Car...

One of the most interesting aspects of true crime is how we’re able to explore cultures and societies that are unfamiliar to us. That was the case for me when I talked with author Gregg Olsen about his book, The Amish Wife. It’s about a killer in the Amish community in Pennsylvania. There are many twists and turns in this story, I promise.   Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deal...