Criminal

The Clearwater Monster

13 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Early one morning in 1948, a phone call woke up the police chief in the small town of Clearwater, Florida. The caller said he’d seen something stran...

The Many Lives of Michael Malloy

06 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 1932, a group of men in a speakeasy in Prohibition-era New York City hatched a plan — to take out life insurance on a loner named Michael Malloy,...

76th and Yates

23 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On May 8, 2013, a man named Timothy Jones was arrested in Chicago. He says it wasn’t until he got to the police station that he found out that he wa...

Dr. Parkman is Missing

09 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the mid-1800s, Harvard Medical School had a reputation for being a “den of body snatchers.” And then, in November 1849, the school’s most pro...

Errol Morris

25 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Early in his career, Errol Morris read about a shocking series of alleged insurance crimes in a small town in Florida, which some referred to as “Nu...

Kids on the Case

11 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The summer after Jessica Maple finished 6th grade, she found out that her great-grandmother’s house had been burglarized. So, 12-year-old Jessica go...

Ten Doors

28 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Tim Jenkin was a member of the ANC (African National Congress). The organization had been declared unlawful in South Africa, seen by the white minorit...

How to Sell A Haunted House

07 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 1989, Helen Ackley decided to sell her old Victorian house in Nyack, New York at 1 Laveta Place. It didn’t go as planned. There were stories of g...

Looking Out

17 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

People incarcerated in California’s San Quentin State Prison aren’t allowed to have pets — but some people, like Ronell Draper, have found ways ...

Knock and Announce

03 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

“I didn’t do what they said I did. And it was like, I don’t know how to disprove the police. I mean, it’s my word against theirs. I don’t re...

Robert Smalls

19 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On May 13, 1862, in Charleston, South Carolina, a man named Robert Smalls took command of a Confederate ship called The Planter and liberated himself ...

It Looked Like Fire

05 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On August 10th, 2014, one day after 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, Edward Crawford went...

Cowboy Bob

15 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In May 1991, a bank robber walked into a bank in Irving, Texas, and without speaking handed the teller a note that read, “This is a bank robbery. Gi...

Learning How to Forgive

01 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

“I’ve been teaching law for almost 40 years. And I recently realized we don’t really teach people in law school about the tools of forgiveness t...

Starlight Tours

17 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In January 2000, the bodies of two First Nations men were found frozen in a remote area of Saskatoon, Canada. It was a place where nobody walked, espe...

Wolf 10

03 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In April of 1995, wildlife biologists flew small airplanes over Yellowstone National Park, looking for two missing wolves. “They’re just gone. And...

Looking for Wolves

25 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Our other show, This is Love, is coming back on April 1. All new stories, about animals and the wild, and what happens when we take time to look aroun...

Phoebe Reads a Mystery

24 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Phoebe reads Agatha Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. For more, visit Phoebe Reads a Mystery on its own feed. Apple: https://...

La Brea Dave

20 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Sgt. David Mascarenas was the Dive Supervisor for the Los Angeles Police Department. He’s been diving his whole life, and prides himself on never re...

527 Lime Street

06 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Just before midnight on October 15, 1990, police arrived at 527 Lime Street in Jacksonville, Florida to find the small wood-frame house on fire. A man...

Call Russ Ewing

21 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For decades, TV news reporter Russ Ewing stood beside more than 100 people—at their request—as they surrendered to the police. Thanks to CBC Licen...

Red Hair, Gold Car

07 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

One day Adam Braseel got a phone call from his mother. She said that a man in Grundy County, Tennessee had been murdered, and the police thought Adam ...

Herrin Massacre

24 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the spring of 1922, the United Mine Workers of America announced a national strike. And then, that summer in Herrin, Illinois, 23 people were murde...

Sunset Mesa

10 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Debbie Schum waited a long time to receive the cremated ashes of her friend, LoraLee Johnson, from Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors in Montrose, Colorado...

Who's There

20 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Crime Blotter: “The Learning Center on Hanson Street reports a man across the way stands at his window for hours watching the center, making parents...

Phoebe, Judge Me

13 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We are trying something different. Have a question for Phoebe? You can call into our voicemail at (919) 697-8231. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...

Panic Defense

06 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 1995, two men filmed an episode of the daytime talk show, The Jenny Jones Show. A few days later, one of the men was dead. The shooter later claime...

Deep Breath

22 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

World-class biathlete Kari Swenson was on an afternoon trail run in the mountains near Big Sky, Montana in July 1984 when two men blocked her path. Th...

The Reverend

08 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 1977, a man named Robert Burns went to a funeral and shot someone, in the head, in front of 300 people. He didn’t deny it, and his lawyer, Tom Ra...

A New Kind of Life

30 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 1930, a Cuban woman named Elena de Hoyos went to the hospital in Key West, Florida. She had a bad cough, and her family was afraid she had Tubercul...

The Less People Know About Us

25 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

SPOILER WARNING: Please listen to Episode 51: Money Tree before you listen to this one. Three years ago, we spoke with Axton Betz-Hamilton about disco...

A Bucket, a Mop, and a Sledgehammer

11 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

After a crime occurs, or when someone dies, the police aren’t responsible for cleaning up. That’s not their job. The coroner takes the body, the p...

Mrs. Sherlock Holmes

27 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 1917, 18-year-old Ruth Cruger disappeared. She’d last been seen getting her ice skates sharpened in the motorcycle shop of a man named Alfredo Co...

Professor Quaalude

13 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

John Buettner-Janusch was one of the first Americans to study lemurs. He held prestigious faculty positions at Yale, Duke and NYU, before surprising e...

Off Leash

30 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

“I never did anything wrong. I never had a speeding ticket. I think I just saved all my stuff up for just one thing.” This week, we speak with Tob...

The Tunnel

02 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the late 1800s, North Carolina was trying to build a railway system through the Western part of the state. In December of 1882, something went wron...

He's Still Neutral

19 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Dan Stevenson has lived in Oakland’s Eastlake neighborhood for 40 years. He says crime has been an issue for as long as he can remember, but he isn’...

Stowaway

05 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

One day in 1969, Paulette Cooper decided to see what she could get away with. Learn more about Paulette Cooper on her website. Here’s her 1969 Cosmo...

The Lake

21 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Amanda Hamm and her boyfriend Maurice LaGrone drove to Clinton Lake one night in 2003. The next day, DeWitt County Sheriff Roger Massey told a local n...

Jessica and the Bunny Ranch

07 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In our last episode we spoke Cecilia Gentili, a trans Latina who worked for many years as an undocumented sex worker. Today, we get two more views of ...

Cecilia

24 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When Cecilia Gentili was growing up in Argentina, she felt so different from everyone around her that she thought she might be from another planet. “...

Philip and Becky

10 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When Philip Benight met Becky Golden, they made a promise to stick together, no matter how bad things got.  Read Ann Neumann's reporting in Harper's....

Hostage

26 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the summer of 1973, Clark Olofsson and Jan-Erik Olsson robbed the Kreditbanken in Stockholm’s Norrmalmstorg town square. They held four people ho...

The Mail

12 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This episode contains adult content. Please use discretion. When Sarah Garone was 13 years old, she received something very strange in the mail. She d...

Silvon Simmons

29 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 2016, Silvon Simmons was shot in the back by police officer Joseph Ferrigno. The Rochester Police Department said Silvon fired first, and charged h...

Baby Snatcher

15 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Georgia Tann of Memphis, Tennessee bragged that she had a rigorous selection process that matched the perfect child with the perfect home. Barbara Ray...

Homewrecker

01 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It's one thing to get into an argument with a stranger on Facebook. It's another thing to try to ruin that stranger's life. In 2015, Re/Max realtor Mo...

The Numbers

15 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When Fannie Davis and her family moved to Detroit in the mid-1950s, they had trouble finding steady work. So, Fannie found a way to take care of her f...

The Widow and the Winchester

01 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When Sarah Winchester's husband died, she inherited millions from the family business: the manufacture of the famous Winchester Rifle. A medium report...

Linda

18 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In a suburb outside of Salt Lake City, a 69-year-old woman named Linda Gillman hired a man named Christian Olsen to do some repairs on her condo. Afte...

Protection

21 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

John "Sonny" Franzese was once described as "largely responsible for the glamorization of the Mafia over the past century.” He'd been active in the ...

Witness

07 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

We speak with a man who has given thousands of people new names, told them where they would live, and warned them they could never go back home. For ...

Bonus Episode: The Bark

30 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

A story about Steve Hutton, a police constable in England, who decided to do things a little differently. For a transcript of this episode, send an em...

Get Out of My House

16 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

On a hot summer day in 1978, a group of friends started renovating an old house in a neighborhood in Atlanta called Little Five Points. The home belon...

This is Love: How to Live Forever

14 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Our second podcast, This is Love, is back. We’re sharing this first episode with Criminal listeners - we hope you like it. If you want to hear more...

Ride-Along

02 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

We spend the day in a police car in Austin, Texas. For a transcript of this episode, send an email to [email protected] with the episode ...

The Fox

19 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This episode picks up where Episode 100 left off. We suggest you listen to them in order. When Martin McNally met another plane hijacker in prison, th...

I'm Phoebe Judge

05 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Thanks for helping us celebrate 100 episodes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ten Thousand Feet in the Air

05 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

On the afternoon of June 23rd, 1972, Martin McNally walked into the St. Louis airport with a wig, a sawed-off rifle, and a plan. Say hello on Twitter...

Racehorse Haynes

21 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

There is nothing Richard "Racehorse" Haynes of Houston, Texas wouldn't do to win a case. He’s widely considered to be one of the most exceptional cr...

The Doctors

07 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Three of America's most experienced trauma surgeons speak with us about what happens when someone is shot. Special thanks to Dr. Amy Goldberg, Dr. Da...

Palace of Justice

17 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

When Benjamin Ferencz was 27 years old, he prosecuted his very first trial. There were 22 defendants, each of them high-ranking members of Nazi German...

On the Run

03 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

When Tyler Wetherall was a kid, her mother and father packed up the family car and drove through the night. They were on the run from the FBI. And by ...

The Job

20 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Not long into his job as prison superintendent, Frank Thompson was asked to write the manual on lethal injection for the state of Oregon. Capital puni...

The Chase

06 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Roberts has attended almost every major sporting event in the world. And he's been escorted off the field almost every time. Say hello on Twitter...

Lavender Scare

15 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Helen James grew up in a military family — her great-great-grandfather fought in the Civil War, her father in WWI, and her uncles in WWII. So when s...

Dementia Americana

01 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This episode picks up where Episode 91 left off. We suggest you listen to them in order. The early 20th century's biggest murder trial, and a partic...

The "It" Girl

18 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The story behind the face of New York's Gilded Age. For more information, check out Paula Uruburu's book, American Eve. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook...

Sharks

04 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The U.S. Navy attempted to develop a shark attack repellant after many sailors were attacked during WWII. The first step was the formation of a "Shark...

Shadowing Sheila

20 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

SPOILER WARNING: Please listen to our first episode about Sheila, Episode 88: Cold Case, before you listen to this one.  This episode contains des...

Cold Case

06 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In 1984, Sheila Wysocki found herself helping the police investigate the murder of her college roommate, Angela Samota. Detectives asked her to help g...

Casper, Wyoming

23 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

David Dovala has lived in Casper, Wyoming since he was 19. He’s worked all kinds of cases, first as a detective and later as sheriff, but a 1973 mur...

Willie Bosket

09 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Before he was 10 years old, Willie Bosket had skipped school, started fires, picked pockets, and stolen a car. A psychiatrist at Bellevue called him t...

The Manual

23 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In 1993, Mildred and Trevor Horn, along with their live-in nurse Janice, were found murdered in their Montgomery County home. A Maryland police spokes...

A New Show from the Makers of Criminal: Episode 1

14 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In 1971, David Alexander went for a run in Central Park and started talking to a stranger. For our first episode of This Is Love, a story about what's...

Masterpiece

09 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1950s poodles were all the rage — one tabloid even reported that when a girl “makes the big time she traditionally acquires 3 things — mi...

This Is Love

26 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Some spiders eat their young, and some eat their parents … love is never simple. From the makers of the award-winning podcast Criminal, This is Love...

The Mothers

26 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

There is a group in Durham, NC called "Parents of Murdered Children." This week, we meet three of its members. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Inst...

Bonus Episode: Like a Page from a Book

15 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In 1892, a gruesome murder took place in a small fishing village in Argentina. The police had a suspect who would not confess. What happened next woul...

The Choir

12 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

As a child, Lawrence Lessig was a gifted singer. His church choir director encouraged him to attend a choir camp at a prestigious boarding school in ...

Unexpected Guests

15 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Three mysteries we can’t stop thinking about. The first is about an impossible photo taken at a bed & breakfast in Etna, California.  Say hello on ...

Photo, Hair, Fingerprint

01 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In 1988, a man in Hickory, North Carolina named Willie Grimes was sentenced to life in prison for raping and kidnapping a 69-year-old woman named Carr...

Secrets and Séances

17 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Helen Duncan was a famous medium who travelled around Britain in the 1940s performing séances. She claimed to speak to the dead, and even produce phy...

The Botanist

03 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In 1993, Gerald Boggs of Steamboat Springs, Colorado was found dead in his home. He'd been burned with a stun gun, hit with a shovel, and shot several...

The Escape

20 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In 1962, brothers John and Clarence Anglin, along with fellow incarcerated person Frank Morris, managed to escape the one prison in America that was ...

The Big Lick

06 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The Tennessee Walking Horse has a natural gait that's famously smooth. And, if trained in a certain way, it can perform a walk that's even more specta...

The Gatekeeper

22 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

"I keep saying 'where's the body? Kill someone,'" Marilyn Stasio told us. She reads at least 200 crime novels a year to determine which are worthy of ...

Catastrophe

08 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In 1993, more than 1,000 levees broke along the Mississippi River, flooding thousands of acres. Most of these cases were accidents due to the river ri...

Carry A. Nation

18 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

At the turn of the century, Carry Nation was “America’s foremost lady hellraiser” and "the apostle of reform violence.” A radical member of th...

Bears, Birds, and Bones

04 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

As long as 2,500 years ago, Native Americans placed the bones of their dead in giant mounds of earth in the shape of animals. The Effigy Mounds Nation...

A Bump in the Night

21 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Amber Dawn was 20 when she moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Enumclaw, Washington. On her very first night, she began to notice strange sounds. An...

The Procedure

07 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In 1967, a very unlikely group of individuals gathered to help women quietly break the law and obtain an abortion. The first step was to call a phone ...

Becoming Chief Brown

16 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Shortly after David Brown was sworn in as the Dallas Chief of Police, his son shot and killed a police officer. Just before he retired as chief, 5 Dal...

All the Time in the World

02 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The “body farm” at Texas State University is a place almost no one is allowed to see, because it’s one of very few places in the world that deli...

Milk Carton Kids

19 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

On a Sunday morning in 1982, in Des Moines, Iowa, Johnny Gosch left his house to begin his usual paper route. A short time later, his parents were awa...

Bully

05 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Skidmore, Missouri is a very small town. In the '70s, there was only one bar, one grocery store, and one bully. Ken McElroy was so ruthless and intimi...

The Kingfish

21 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In 1928, Huey P. Long became the youngest Governor in Louisiana’s history. He bragged that he bought lawmakers like “sacks of potatoes, shuffled ‘...

420

07 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The Colorado Department of Transportation says the 420 mile markers on the state's highways were stolen so often, they had to replace them with 419.99...

Rochester, 1991

17 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kim Dadou says she wishes she had a nickel for every person who has asked why she didn't leave her abusive boyfriend Darnell Sanders. The two dated fo...

Wildin

03 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In 2014, 16-year-old Wildin Acosta left Olancho, Honduras and traveled toward the U.S. border. When he arrived, he turned himself in to border patrol ...