Serial Killers & Murderous Minds

In the first of our four-part limited series "Campus Crimes," Vanessa breaks down the 1905 murder of Jane Stanford, co-founder of Stanford University, who was poisoned to death in a Honolulu hotel room. A coroner's jury ruled it murder, the evidence was clear, and the prime suspect had motive and opportunity. But the university's own president intervened, hired a compliant doctor, and replaced a m...

In June 2011, Israel Keyes abducted and murdered Bill and Lorraine Currier from their home in Essex, Vermont, a crime that went unsolved for years. Months later, he targeted 18-year-old barista Samantha Koenig near his own home in Anchorage, Alaska, breaking the strict rules he'd lived by... and leaving a trail that finally led investigators to him. Keyes died by suicide in 2012, leaving as many a...

Israel Keyes spent years methodically preparing for murder: burying weapon caches across the country, committing crimes far from home, and maintaining a quiet family life to avoid suspicion. Born into a white nationalist sect and mentored by domestic terrorists, Keyes developed a chilling capacity for violence alongside an equally chilling ability to conceal it. This episode traces his upbringing,...

Investigators spent years chasing suspects in the Villisca Axe Murders, including a traveling minister, a suspected serial killer, and an alleged hitman, yet every lead collapsed before trial. A coerced confession, two hung juries, and a killer who was never convicted left the case permanently unsolved. If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a...

In June 1912, eight people were bludgeoned with an axe in a Villisca, Iowa home while they slept. The killer left behind a staged scene filled with bizarre clues but no clear identity, plunging a tight-knit community into fear and suspicion. If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime H...

Once again, Vanessa and Dr. Engels are joined by Andrea Gunning of "Betrayal Weekly" to discuss the crimes of Ed Kemper. In early 1973, Kemper murdered UC Santa Cruz students Rosalind Thorpe and Alice Liu following a violent argument with his mother, Clarnell... then turned his rage on her. After killing Clarnell and her friend Sara Hallett, Kemper fled California before voluntarily calling police...

Vanessa and Dr. Engels are joined by Andrea Gunning of "Betrayal Weekly" to discus the crimes of Ed Kemper, who murdered at least six young women who accepted rides from him while hitchhiking in the 1970s. But the roots of his violence stretched back to a childhood defined by abuse, abandonment, and early acts of cruelty toward animals and family members. After killing his grandparents at 15 and s...

In the fall of 2002, John Muhammad and his teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo killed nearly 20 people across the mid-Atlantic and southern United States, paralyzing the nation with fear. Until a trail of careless mistakes finally led investigators to the pair sleeping in their Chevy Caprice at a Maryland rest stop. If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to n...

In the early 2000s, John Allen Muhammad and 16-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo terrorized the Washington D.C. metropolitan area in a killing spree that left nearly 20 people dead, all to conceal Muhammad's true target: his ex-wife. This episode traces Lee's turbulent childhood in Jamaica and Antigua, and how years of abandonment and abuse left him dangerously vulnerable to Muhammad's calculated manipulati...

Despite a year of killings, the Austin police made no credible arrests in the Midnight Assassin investigation, and two innocent husbands were prosecuted while a key suspect died without ever facing trial. The case remains unsolved more than 140 years later, with some theorizing the killer may have gone on to commit similar crimes around the world. If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial...

In 1884, a brutal killer began targeting Black female domestic servants in Austin, Texas, attacking victims in their sleep and vanishing without a trace. With no forensic tools and deep racial prejudice shaping the investigation, police arrested countless innocent men while the murders escalated in frequency and violence. The case, known as the Midnight Assassin, remains unsolved to this day. Join...

Despite years of investigation, the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run remained elusive. One promising suspect, slipped through the police's grasp, and an innocent man may have died in custody for a crime he didn't commit. Decades later, the authorities are using DNA technology in hopes of finally identifying the victims. Join Crime House+ to binge a special limited series on Murder: True Crime Stories...

In 1930s Cleveland, a killer known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run preyed on the vulnerable as the city struggled through the Great Depression. Victims were found dismembered and decapitated across the city, their identities stripped away as deliberately as their lives. This episode examines the psychology of overkill, dismemberment, and a pioneering criminal profile that was decades ahead of...

On June 20, 2001, Andrea Yates drowned her five young children in the bathtub of her Houston home, convinced she was saving their souls from eternal damnation. A devout mother battling postpartum psychosis and major depression, she had fallen under the influence of extremist preacher Michael Woroniecki, whose teachings persuaded her that only death could protect her children from the demons she be...

On the surface, Andrea Yates was a former valedictorian, nurse, and a devout mother of five from Clear Lake, Texas. But deep down, Andrea was consumed by religious guilt, postpartum psychosis, and the manipulative teachings of a fringe preacher who convinced her that demons were pursuing her family. This episode traces her deteriorating mental health across nearly a decade of mismanaged care, isol...

In 1970s Houston, serial killer Dean Corll murdered at least 28 teenage boys with the help of two young accomplices he groomed and manipulated. When Corll turned on 17-year-old Wayne Henley and threatened to kill his girlfriend, Wayne made a decision that would unravel one of America's most horrific crime sprees. This episode examines the psychology of coercion, escalating violence, and what it fi...

In early 1970s Houston, Texas, businessman Dean Corll used free candy, a party-ready apartment, and a carefully cultivated reputation as a community pillar to lure teenage boys to their deaths. But behind his friendly facade, Corll was systematically grooming victims... and recruiting young accomplices to help him carry out increasingly brutal crimes. This episode traces his childhood, his escalat...

Crime House’s Murder: True Crime Stories presents a special series for America’s 250th Birthday: The Crimes That Built America. Listen every Monday until July 6th on Murder: True Crime Stories. Join Crime House+ to get all 4 episodes right now ad-free. To subscribe, go to crimehouseplus.com or if you are listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. 250 years ago, a b...

After killing at least two women in his orbit, Joe Ball seemingly got away clean. But when the rumors in town caught up to him.. Joe did something nobody expected. After he was gone, his gator pit and a trail of missing women turned him into one of Depression-era Texas's most chilling figures. If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Wan...

In 1930s Elmendorf, Texas, tavern owner Joe Ball built a reputation for wild alligator feedings and a revolving door of female employees who kept disappearing without explanation. Reportedly a descendant of notorious slaveholders, Ball graduated from bootlegger to killer, and when the women in his life became inconvenient, they simply vanished. If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Kil...

By the early 1980s, Richard Kuklinski had supposedly killed dozens of men for the New York Mafia. And with his boss Roy DeMeo dead, he was operating entirely on his own terms. But when ATF agent Dominick Polifrone began building an undercover identity inside New Jersey's criminal world, Richard's own greed and loose talk would bring him down. If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Kille...

Richard Kuklinski grew up in the violent housing projects of Jersey City, New Jersey, where abuse at home and relentless bullying on the streets hardened him into a killer before he turned 15. By his mid-twenties, he had leveraged his capacity for cold-blooded violence into a career as a trusted hitman for the Gambino crime family under Brooklyn mob boss Roy DeMeo. This episode traces how Kuklinsk...

Once again, Vanessa and Dr. Engels are joined by Katie Ring, host of the Crime House Original America's Most Infamous Crimes to discuss the crimes of the "Ypsilanti Ripper." In 1969, John Norman Collins terrorized Ypsilanti, Michigan, murdering at least six young women and girls while hiding behind a charming, all-American persona. Despite being questioned multiple times, Collins evaded investigat...

Vanessa and Dr. Engels are joined by Katie Ring, host of the Crime House Original America's Most Infamous Crimes to discuss the crimes of the "Ypsilanti Ripper." In the late 1960s, Eastern Michigan University students Mary Fleszar and Joan Schell were brutally murdered by someone hiding in plain sight: their charming, honor-roll neighbor John Norman Collins. Despite a witness placing Collins with...

Vanessa and Dr. Engels are joined again by Dr. Harini Bhat from PAVE Studio's newest show "Hidden History" as they conclude their deep dive into the "Blood Countess" Elizabeth Bathory, used her wealth and noble status to lure hundreds of young women to their deaths inside the walls of Castle Csejthe. As her crimes escalated from peasant girls to the daughters of nobility, rumors of blood baths and...