I recently caught up with Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Bill Lee at the West Newton Theatre in West Newton, Mass., where he promoted the independent baseball film, Eephus, in which he stars as himself. Lee, a left-handed pitcher, is famous for developing the Leephus pitch, a variety of the … Continue reading TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME WITH BILL “SPACEMAN” LEE →
I caught up recently with Carson Lund, the director and co-writer of the independent film Eephus, and a New England native who grew up in New Hampshire. Carson, a cinematographer and film editor, holds a BA in Film Production from Emerson College in Boston. In an impromptu chat at the Dedham Community Theatre in Dedham, Massachusetts, I quickly learned … Continue reading EEPHUS – An independent film about America’s Favorite Pastime →...
Sam LaGrassa’s Deli, situated just off the Freedom Trail, is an excellent spot to refuel during your walking tour of Boston. Since 1968, this family-operated sandwich mecca has been piling the meats high. Hats off to the Rumanian pastrami & Swiss on light rye. Honorable mention to the pickles. Sure, LaGrassa’s swarms with locals at … Continue reading A Sandwich Lover’s Mecca – Sam LaGrassa’s 44 Province Street, Boston →...
Creative podcasters welcome the chance to spread their wings and try something new. After a very successful series of “true crime” podcasts, Diane Godfrey is now pursuing her passion for sharing stories about the people, places and things she loves about her fair City of Boston. We talk about the adventure Diane is about to … Continue reading ALL RISE BOSTON WITH DIANE GODFREY TRAILER EPISODE →...
We’re going “off road” to talk again with the writer Joseph P. O’Donnell. He is the author of the successful 2022 memoir of E. Steven Sachs, “Living On the Fringe of the Mob”, which we talked about on February 5, 2023. Joseph’s latest project was to put down on paper the gripping true story told … Continue reading Pulling Back the Iron Curtain: A Discussion with Joseph P. O’Donnell →...
The fascinating and fearless best-selling author Jillian Lauren joins me to discuss her upcoming true-crime book, Behold the Monster: Confronting America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer (due out July 18, 2023). Before Samuel Little died in 2020, he confessed to having murdered 93 people, mostly women, between 1970 and 2005. Jillian was determined to give a … Continue reading Behold the Monster: Jillian Lauren Exposes America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer →...
Meet Bill Powers, the Retired Massachusetts State Police commander of the Detective Unit for Middlesex District Attorney’s Office. Bill guides us through every step of a truly bizarre murder investigation he recounts in his book, When the Smoke Cleared, A Murder Mystery in Malden Massachusetts. Powers and his colleagues knew someone had been murdered, but … Continue reading No Body, No Weapon, No Suspect →
Bonanno. Gambino. Colombo. Anyone familiar with the New York Mafia from the 1960s until the early 2000s will instantly recognize those notorious names. E. Steven Sachs was the lone Jewish kid growing up in a rough-and-tumble Brooklyn neighborhood in the 1960s among neighbors and playmates who would become members of the NY organized crime families. … Continue reading Living on the Fringe of the Mob →
The Power of Crowds: Bob Ruff’s Truth & Justice Podcast Bob Ruff hosts Truth & Justice, the popular crowd-sourced podcast now in its twelfth season, where he and his followers seek truth and justice for the wrongly convicted. Each season Bob asks his listeners to help him work on a new case of a potential … Continue reading The Power of Crowds: Bob Ruff’s Truth & Justice Podcast →...
The Honorable Thomas A. Connors was appointed to the Massachusetts District Court by Governor William Weld in 1995. In 2004 he was appointed to the Superior Court Bench of Massachusetts by Governor Mitt Romney. As an attorney, he had built an impressive career in a solo practice that handled everything from real estate closings to … Continue reading From the Bench: A Talk with Judge Thomas Connors →...
A 50-year-old East Boston woman was the mastermind behind a human trafficking operation that forced women into prostitution in Massachusetts. Ramona Hernandez and her husband, Rafael Henriquez, earned the dubious distinction of being the first individuals charged under the state’s new anti-trafficking law. The couple lured women into their net and then shipped them to … Continue reading “Delivered Like Pizza”: Sex Slaves in Massachusetts →...
With all the grimness that occurs in a courthouse, it’s no wonder that sometimes comic relief is on the docket. Diane reveals to Jordan the lighter side of working in the halls of justice, including antics by court officers, a rogue lawyer’s “gymnastics”, odd encounters, and how a bit of levity can help employees cope … Continue reading Sometimes It Gets Nutty →
On February 5, 2015, a bitterly cold morning in the seaside town of Bourne, Massachusetts, a murder-suicide plan was set in motion. A 31-year old Coast Guard Petty Officer, Adrian Loya, armed with an assault rifle, a pistol, and a shotgun, had driven from Virginia to shoot his way into the condominium of a colleague, … Continue reading A Rape of the Mind →
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN is the USA Today bestselling author of 13 psychological thrillers, winning the most prestigious awards in the genre: five Agathas, four Anthonys, and the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award. She is also the on-air investigative reporter for Boston’s WHDH-TV, with 37 EMMYs and dozens more journalism honors. Book critics call her “a … Continue reading Up Close: Boston’s Own Hank Phillippi Ryan, Journalist & Crime-Fiction Star →...
Someone commits a crime but is found “not guilty by reason of insanity”. It doesn’t happen just on TV – it’s a real defense entered by a defendant in a criminal trial. The defendant claims that they were so mentally disturbed or incapacitated at the time of the offense that they did not have the … Continue reading The Insanity Defense in the Real World →
When Mark Putnam graduated from the FBI Academy in 1986, he seemed to have it all: the new career he’d dreamed about his entire life, darkly handsome good looks, an attractive wife from a rich family, a new baby daughter and another child on the way. His first big assignment took them to the podunk … Continue reading Above Suspicion: The Rise and Ruin of an FBI Agent →
Ring in the Year of the Tiger with Diane and Jordan as they look back at the best of their 2021 podcasts and give you a taste of what’s coming up in 2022. Many listeners have been asking about the everyday work of the court reporter, the nuts and bolts of the job, from the … Continue reading Happy New Year! Hello, 2022! →
J.W. “Jay” Carney, a prominent Boston-based criminal defense lawyer, rose to national fame when he defended James “Whitey” Bulger, the infamous South Boston crime boss. Jay is known for taking on the gruesome or difficult cases, such as that of Tarek Mehanna, the pharmacist from Sudbury, MA who was convicted in 2012 for providing support … Continue reading Defending Whitey Bulger: A Candid Conversation with J.W. Carney →...
Clemente “Shorty” Aguirre thought he had finally found a place beyond the reach of death. He had fled threats and violence in his home country, Honduras, after refusing to join a gang. When he saw his best friend’s body dumped in front of his house, he got the message to join or be killed as … Continue reading BLOOD WILL TELL: Clemente Aguirre Was Innocent →
“She still stays in St. Joseph’s Cemetery. Nobody overturns that verdict.” Joanne Arruda knew something was terribly wrong. It was late afternoon on Friday, September 8th, 1978: two days after her daughter’s 15th birthday. But Mary Lou still wasn’t home. She had been out riding her bike in her Raynham, MA neighborhood, about 32 miles … Continue reading The Lonely Death of Mary Lou Arruda →
Violence against the homeless is only too common and has been on the rise over the last few years. Violence among the homeless is unfortunately also frequent; the odds of a homeless person becoming a crime victim are appallingly high. Going beyond the courtroom, today’s podcast brings you onto the streets of Boston to hear … Continue reading Living Unsheltered: A Survivor’s Story →
On the night of September 6th, 1987, Dora Jean Brimage, 19, accepted a ride from a birthday party in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood. She was seen getting into a car with three men. The next day, construction workers renovating a vacant building a mile and a half away from the party location found her semi-clad, mutilated … Continue reading Justice Served Cold: The Murder of Dora Brimage →
October 23, 1989. It was a crime that shocked even the most jaded journalist and shook the city of Boston and beyond. Carol DiMaiti Stuart, nine months pregnant, was killed and her husband Chuck Stuart seriously wounded. They had been shot in their car after attending a birthing class at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. Chuck … Continue reading “A Terrible Night!” The 1989 Carol Stuart Murder, Revisited →...
That’s what Diane Farley said to her boyfriend, David Blatz, when he picked her up at 8 am from the house of her friend of just six weeks, Sarah Ann Marsceill, known as Sally. Diane and Sally had spent the night before drinking and doing cocaine. But David noticed what appeared to be blood stains … Continue reading “What do you think I am, a murderer?”: The Retrial of Diane Farley for the Murder of Sarah Ann Marsceill →...
Clad in bright-red mesh basketball shorts and a red shirt, 39-year-old Mark Felix wasn’t exactly inconspicuous when he approached four young women at different times in Boston’s busy Downtown Crossing on the sunny afternoon of July 10, 2008. He supposedly wanted directions to the Back Bay neighborhood. When he had his target cornered, he exposed … Continue reading Felix the Flasher: Indecent Exposure in Downtown Crossing →...
Ever wonder how someone becomes a judge? In Massachusetts, judges are appointed by the governor. Judge Robert C. Cosgrove, an associate justice of the MA Superior Court, discusses the steps in that process and divulges many details of the day-to-day work of a sitting judge.
Sherlock Holmes warned that “it is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data … one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts”. That tendency to interpret information to support a pet theory or to support what we think we know is called “confirmation bias”, and it can … Continue reading Twisting the Facts: The Dangers of Confirmation Bias →
In 1993, 19-year-old Sean Ellis was sentenced to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. He served 22 years for the murder of Boston Police Detective John Mulligan, who was shot multiple times in the head as he slept in his private vehicle while parked in a drugstore lot in Roslindale MA. At the time … Continue reading Justice Was Not Done: The Trials of Sean Ellis →
Shannon ran for Suffolk County DA in 2018; she shares her insights on that important office as well as what it takes to break the cycle of repeat incarcerations for emerging adults. Having a strong commitment to equitable justice, she is now a Vice President at ideas42, a nonprofit that uses behavioral science to address … Continue reading McAuliffe on Equitable Justice →
Not everyone who works in a prison is a correctional officer. Today, Diane’s brother-in-law Irl will share memories of his ten years in the California prison system as a teacher and education administrator. He’ll talk about what it’s like to walk the yards and tiers of a maximum-security facility as “free staff”, connecting with inmates … Continue reading “Hit the Gate, Standing Straight” →
