WILDCIDE

In this episode, we dive into the Kentler Experiment, a case so horrifying it sounds impossible but was very real. In late-1960s West Berlin, psychologist Helmut Kentler promoted a dangerous idea: that vulnerable foster boys could be placed with men known to be pedophiles, under the claim that they would provide “care” and stability. Instead, what unfolded was a state-supported failure that expose...

This week Bailey and Chelsea dive into the unbelievable world where soccer stops being just a game and turns into a full-blown circus of lies, money, ego, and corruption. First, we cover Carlos Kaiser, the legendary “striker” who somehow built a professional soccer career without actually playing soccer. Literally. Kaiser faked injuries, charmed clubs, fooled managers, partied with celebrities, an...

In the 1980s, New York City was already fighting a war in the streets....crack cocaine, violence, fear, and neighborhoods pushed to the breaking point. But in Brooklyn’s 75th Precinct, one of the most dangerous threats wasn’t just coming from the criminals. It was coming from the cops. This episode dives into the infamous Seven Five scandal, one of the most shocking corruption cases in NYPD histor...

In this episode, we cover the survival story of Kara Robinson Chamberlain, a teenager whose quick thinking and courage helped expose a predator hiding in plain sight. What began as a terrifying abduction in broad daylight quickly turned into a case that would connect one survivor’s account to a series of unsolved crimes. Kara’s ability to stay observant, remain calm under extreme pressure, and lat...

In this more playful Shortcide episode, Bailey and Chelsea take a funny nod at one of the greatest animal-detective movies ever while covering two real cases that feel like they were made for Ace Ventura himself. First, we head to India, where a parrot allegedly helped identify a killer, because apparently the key witness had feathers and a flair for drama. Then we travel to 1930s Australia for th...

Y'all remember the McDonald's Monopoly game that dominated the 90s? Those addictive peel squares hoping you had gotten the one piece you were missing. Well, this will take you for a walk down memory lane for sure. Obviously if you're listening to this episode, you probably weren't one of those lucky million-dollar winners but...did you at some point believe that you were going to win the McDonald'...

Two women. Two different lives. Two crime scenes five years apart that, at first, seemed completely unrelated. In 1986, Margarette Eby was murdered inside her secluded Flint, Michigan home. In 1991, Northwest Airlines flight attendant Nancy Ludwig was attacked and killed inside a hotel room near Detroit Metropolitan Airport. For years, the cases remained separate. That was until Margarette’s son,...

What first looked like an unbelievable headline about a California couple and an unusually large family quickly turned into a case that drew national attention. Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan became the focus of intense scrutiny after authorities linked them to 21 children, many reportedly born through surrogacy, and the scale of the situation immediately raised questions that didn’t have easy answe...

In this episode of What Could Possibly Go Wrong?, we dive into two of history’s most bizarre true stories. First, we unpack how Pepsi, in a deal so strange it sounds made up, briefly became the owner of one of the largest navies in the world. Then we head to Australia, where the military launched a campaign against flocks of destructive emus and somehow came out looking like the underdog. It’s a s...

At first, they were called tragic accidents. Sudden, devastating events that seemed to end in the water, in the chamber, in the final moments no one could take back. But as investigations unfolded, the questions began to change — from what happened to who was responsible, who made the decisions that led there, and who failed when lives were still hanging in the balance. In this episode, we explore...

In Part 2 of this case, the investigation into Jeremy Skibicki reveals the full scope of what happened inside a small apartment in Winnipeg and how multiple women became connected to one of the most disturbing serial murder cases in modern Canadian history. As investigators reconstruct timelines, search landfills for evidence, and piece together Skibicki’s confession, the case expands far beyond a...

Three women vanish from the same area of Winnipeg within weeks of each other. At first, their disappearances don’t raise widespread alarm—lost phones, unstable housing, and the realities of life on the margins make it easy for cases like these to slip through the cracks. But their families knew something wasn’t right. Then, on a cold morning in May 2022, a man searching through a dumpster makes a...

A trusted pastor. A small Pennsylvania church. And a string of tragedies.  When a man named Joseph Mesante walked into a church office in Reeders, Pennsylvania and ended his life, the story seemed heartbreakingly simple: a husband devastated by the discovery of his wife’s affair with their pastor, Arthur “A.B.” Schirmer. But Joseph's suicide was the unfortunate catalyst to a horror story. As inves...

History doesn’t always change because of grand decisions. Sometimes it changes because of a wrong turn… or a forgotten petri dish. In today's Shortcide, Bailey tells the unbelievable story of how a driver’s accidental turn down the wrong street placed Archduke Franz Ferdinand directly in front of Gavrilo Princip—triggering a chain reaction that would lead to World War I, the rise of Hitler, and th...

Domestic violence is rarely as simple — or as obvious — as people expect it to be. In this special Wildcide interview episode, Bailey and Chelsea sit down with domestic violence expert and therapist Jennifer Salmons for an honest, deeply practical conversation about how abusive relationships actually develop, why victims stay, and what outsiders often misunderstand about abuse dynamics. Moving bey...

Tracey Thurman did everything a victim is told to do. She left her abusive husband. She reported threats. She obtained a restraining order. She called the police again and again — documenting a danger everyone could see coming. On June 10, 1983, after months of ignored warnings, Tracey was brutally attacked outside her home while help arrived too late to stop the violence. What followed wasn’t jus...

Boston, January 17, 1950. Just after 7 p.m., a group of masked men walked calmly into the Brink’s Armored Car Company building and carried out what would soon be called the “Crime of the Century.” There was no chaos. No gunfire. No panic. The robbers moved with precision — wearing disguises, speaking little, and tying up employees before disappearing into the night with nearly $2.8 million in cash...

In 1992, a respected small-town physician was accused of sexually assaulting one of his patients during a routine appointment. The allegation shocked the tight-knit Canadian community — but what happened next was even more unbelievable. Despite a DNA test meant to settle the case once and for all, the results seemed to clear the doctor. The charges were dropped. Life moved on. But the victim never...

Glitter, gasoline, and a whole lot of bad luck. In this eerie Shortcide episode, Bailey and Chelsea unravel two of the most famously cursed objects in modern lore: a diamond drenched in tragedy, and a Porsche with a fatal appetite for chaos. Chelsea races into the doom-laced legacy of James Dean’s Porsche 550 Spyder, lovingly nicknamed Little Bastard. After Dean’s fatal crash, the wrecked car beca...

  After 9/11, America was desperate for heroes. Jonathan Keith Idema was more than willing to step into the role. What followed was a decades-long con built on stolen valor, inflated credentials, intimidation, and a relentless trail of lawsuits, fraud charges, and outright lies. He claimed to be Special Forces. He claimed to hunt terrorists. He claimed to work alongside the U.S. government. None o...

It starts in the most familiar place imaginable: a doctor’s office. A patient in pain. A prescription that feels like relief. But behind that quiet moment was a pharmaceutical company running a million-dollar playbook. Today's case dives into the rise and collapse of Insys Therapeutics, a drug company that built its empire around Subsys—a fentanyl spray approved for a narrow purpose: breakthrough...

In the mid-2000s, Albuquerque, New Mexico was gripped by a fear it couldn’t quite name. People were being found dead inside their homes — with no connections and without clear motives. At first, the cases appeared unrelated. Different neighborhoods. Different victims. Different MO. No obvious pattern. Just a growing sense that something was wrong. It begins with Carlos Esquibel, a 37-year-old desi...

HAPPY NEW YEAR WILDCIDERS! We begin 2026 with a WILD Shortcide. In today's Shortcide, we’re diving into two of the most impossibly timed brushes with fate you’ve probably never heard of. Bailey tells the story of a stranger who makes a split-second decision on a train platform… and ends up saving the life of someone tied to one of the most infamous chapters in American history. No one knew the ful...

In this exclusive Wildcide interview, Bailey gets the opportunity to sit down with hijacker Martin J. McNally and the directors of the new Netflix documentary Skyjacker, Eli Kooris and Joshua Shaffer. Together, they unpack the unbelievable real story behind the hijacking of Flight 119, the 320-mph parachute jump that stunned the nation, and the decades inside federal prison that followed. Martin r...

In Part 2, we pick up where we left off: Martin McNally has made it out of the sky alive — bruised, concussed, and unaware that the FBI is already tracing the fingerprints that will lead straight to him. Within days, Martin is captured, sentenced to life in federal prison, and shipped to USP Marion — the most secure prison in America. And inside those walls, he meets someone who will change everyt...