He's not a podcaster. He's a filmmaker. He's never made a podcast...but he's also never made a film. Who else can find Clara Pockets and the Goose Ganker but John David Booter? We look back at our 2017 and 2018 discussions of the first two seasons of "Done Disappeared, with me, John David Booter." For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon . Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com....
Believing they’ve found the cure to aches and pains and serious diseases, Jim Humble and Mark Grenon create a church espousing the use of the Miracle Mineral Solution. But what people are consuming isn’t medicine - it’s diluted bleach. MMS is sold around the world, promoted by the church as a panacea for malaria, autism, cancer and all common ailments. Activists urge the FDA to take action to prevent further injuries and deaths associated with MMS. Just as the media begins to expose the scam, th...
On this bonus episode of Crime Writers On, we'll take a look back at our October 1, 2018 review of the CBC's "Uncover: Escaping NXIVM. OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "ESCAPING NXIVM" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 3 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE. For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon . Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.
In one of LA’s fanciest neighborhoods, homeless military veterans erect a tent city. While some volunteer to help the vets, others want to see the encampment demolished and its occupants moved along. The camp sits along a fence to the local VA hospital, the place where services for them are offered. But some don’t qualify or can’t get into their programs. Others choose to remain on the street. But if the vets don’t find another place to live, the sheriff will ensure the tents come down. From KCR...
A fatal drunken boating accident turned the spotlight on a powerful South Carolina family. Survivors claimed Alex Murdaugh used his considerable influence to steer the investigation away from his son who caused the crash. Then Murdaugh returned home to find his wife and son murdered in the family dog kennel. The high profile case renewed interest in other suspicious deaths connected to the Murdaughs - including the roadside beating of a high school student and the fatal fall of the housekeeper i...
In 1985, when Kim Barker was a teen in Laramie, Wyoming, Shelli Wiley was murdered in her apartment. Now a New York Times reporter, Barker discovered there’d been a break in the long-unsolved case. Investigators arrested a former cop with what seemed like overwhelming evidence. So how did a case that seemed open-and-shut go cold again? The Pulitzer Prize winner returned to Wyoming to find out why it took 30 years to identify Fred Lamb and why the charges against him were dropped. “The Coldest Ca...
Steve Glew was a part-time flea market vendor when he was introduced to the world of PEZ dispensers. Learning collectors would pay big money for rare versions of the popular candy holders, Glew hatched a plan to visit Eastern Europe and get dispensers not available in the US. Connoisseurs marveled at Glew’s collection of rare dispensers and paid top dollar for them. But the president of the company’s US subsidiary flipped his lid…and vowed to shut down the bootleg operation any way he could. The...
In 2015, a 15-year-old East London girl left for Syria with two of her friends to live in the so-called Caliphate. After Shamima Begum was captured in a refugee camp in 2019, the British public was enraged by her attitude that she’d done nothing wrong and for downplaying the violence committed by ISIS. Journalist Josh Baker traveled to Syria to interview the evasive prisoner, then retraced her steps to fact check her story - that she went to the Caliphate to practice fundamentalism, not to becom...
The Easterdays drew a lot of water in southeast Washington. Cody Easterday was a titan of agriculture who provided Tyson food with two percent of its beef. But a series of bad investments and commodities speculation put the rancher in a desperate financial position. Easterday engineered a quarter-billion dollar hoax: tricking Tyson into paying for the upkeep of cattle that only existed on paper. When the hoax was discovered it disrupted the food supply and threatened the farming empire the commu...
A wave of gunfire in a parking lot. A man hogtied and beaten to death. A grandfather with dementia shot in his driveway while holding a crucifix. The many families of victims in Bakersfield and Kern County, California search for justice in the county with the highest death rate by police violence in America. In a system where police brutality is investigated by the police, few cops here are held accountable for even the most egregious uses of deadly force. And its police chief is more interested...
In 2010, a group of students at Sarah Lawrence College was surprised when a co-ed’s father began sleeping on the couch in their dorm. One by one, Larry Ray became a confidant and mentor to the young men and women, eager for his worldly knowledge. After Ray and the students moved into a Manhattan apartment, his paternal guidance morphed into coercive control - complete with corporal punishment, sex trafficking, and group paranoia that evil forces were targeting them. For ten years, Ray exerted hi...
Kansas resident Dan Day discovers his new friends belong to a militia group fixated on the Somali refugees in their community. That’s when he’s approached by the FBI, asking him to join the right-wing group and report on whether they’re planning violence. When the informant learns the extremists are drawing up an attack on Muslims, the investigation takes on a new urgency. Dan finds himself in the middle of a plot in which the lives of many hang in the balance…including his own. ABC Audio’s five...
When a German countess died in 1992, she left her fortune to the only family she had: her dog Gunther. The world’s richest pooch enjoyed private jets, personal chefs, and a dedicated staff led by Gunther’s caretaker, Maurizio Mian. The will also decreed that Gunther would form a pop band. The dog bought Madonna’s mansion where the group’s attractive members were directed to have sex with one another, while researchers studied their levels of happiness. But few questions were asked about the orig...
In the 1960s, Ronald Pellar performed as nightclub hypnotist “Dr. Dante.” He thrilled crowds, mixed with celebrities, and even married a movie star. But Dante was a prolific con man, accused of stealing and attempting to have a rival hypnotist murdered. After prison, Dante expanded his stage act to include seminars, self-help tapes, tattooed makeup, and a collegiate diploma-mill. He made millions of dollars on false claims and was comfortable telling reporters all about them. When it seemed an e...
A racially-motivated attack on pedestrians was thwarted by the driver’s passenger: a man he picked up hitchhiking. He went simply by “Kai,” and the colorful way he described the incident became a viral sensation. Kai’s quirky personality and unlikely story made him Internet-famous. He declined TV offers in favor of going back off the grid. But months later, the carefree drifter the world thought was so charming when he struck a criminal with a hatchet would be implicated in a murder. The Netflix...
When journalist Sam Anderson learned a high school friend was wanted for the murder of a Northern California pot farmer, he set off to prove his friend’s innocence. He discovered the infamous Emerald Triangle was not the hippie Shangri-la it was made out to be. Anderson tries to reconcile the friend of his youth with the man implicated in a fatal ripoff. He seeks answers as to what happened in the hills that drove Zach Wuester to violence. In “Crooked City: The Emerald Triangle,” Anderson makes ...
Ex-preacher and musician Abe Partridge went on a journey to discover songs never recorded, but passed down for generations in Appalachia. He discovered the largest repository of undocumented music were in Pentecostal churches where preachers employed the controversial practice of handling snakes. But once getting over the customs of their unconventional worship, Partridge developed a true appreciation for the people, their beliefs, and their music. He’d eventually convince a snake-handling preac...
As head of La Luz del Mundo, third generation church leader Naasón Joaquín García promised eternal salvation. All the while, he used his position as Apostle to groom children and young women for sexual abuse for years. When García’s victims in the US and Mexico meet on Reddit and compare stories, they ban together to expose the church’s secret. Once seeming untouchable, they convince authorities to go after García and hold him accountable. The HBO Original “Unveiled: Surviving La Luz del Mundo” ...
A group of uber-successful professionals are invited on a weekend trip to their billionaire friend’s island to play a game: solve his own murder. But one stranger is also tagging along: the famed detective Benoit Blanc, who fears a more sinister game is afoot. The lights go out. A body is sprawled on the floor. Who’s the killer? The politician? The fashion model? The scientist? The video gamer? Or the former business partner the host swindled? Daniel Craig leads an all-star cast in “Glass Onion:...
In August 2019, her friend reported Jessica Easterly Durning missing. When family members got little response from New Orleans police, they conducted their own search and found Jessica’s body in a field a short distance from her home. Several forensic factors made it impossible for authorities to definitively say whether Jessica’s death was homicide, accidental or some other manner. Meanwhile suspicion has fallen on her husband Justin whose story about her last night at home kept changing. Jessi...
Justina Pelletier was a 14-year-old girl diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder that required numerous surgeries and caused severe pain. When she was taken to Boston Children’s Hospital, doctors suspected Justina’s issues were psychological and not physical - and they suspected her parents were committing medical child abuse. Over the next 16 months, the Pelletiers used the media and threats of litigation to apply pressure on the hospital and the state to discharge their daughter. But administra...
JeAnna Anderson says Officer Anthony Armour sexually assaulted her during a traffic stop. Frances Salazar went to prison over Armour’s false testimony. And fellow officer Abby Dennison says Armour drugged and raped her. At the time, Armour was on something called the Brady List, a catalog kept by Arizona prosecutors of cops who shouldn’t be called to the stand - cops whose history of lying or misconduct could impeach their testimony. And that evidence was never disclosed to the women. In the lat...
Scheming families, conniving con men, and dangerous killers. We saw a lot of great series and documentaries on the small screen this year. We’ll each give our top ten list for the Best TV of 2022. Lara Only Murders in the Building season 2 Yellowjackets The Vow, Part Two Bad Sisters Blackbird Fireboys The Tinder Swindler The White Lotus season 2 Landscapers The Dropout Toby We Need to Talk About Cosby Bad Sisters The Patient Ozark The White Lotus season 2 Candy A Friend of the Family Only Murder...
Wrongful convictions, political investigations, and colorful characters were BIG this year. We’ll each give our lists for the Top Ten Podcasts of 2022. Lara Bone Valley Motive: Blind Spot Burn Wild Stolen: Surviving St. Michael's Accused: The Impending Execution of Elwood Jones The Sunshine Place Imperfect Paradise: The Sheriff The Letter Chameleon: Wild Boys Smokescreen: Puppy Kingpin Toby Chameleon: Wild Boys Bone Valley Burn Wild Stolen: Surviving St. Michael's Cover Story: Seed Money Fiasco:...
Ex-spy Matt Marshall makes a stunning accusation: billionaire Mike Goguen has been trafficking women to his Montana safehouse, paying them for sex, and bribing law enforcement to get away with it. Matt said he knew this because he’d been Mike’s right-hand man for years. The rich philanthropist had a secret life of paying millions of dollars to strippers and harboring his own fantasies of saving the world. Was the billionaire with a superhero complex actually a super villain? And could the former...
Steve Banerjee kept failing in his bid to create an upscale club in Los Angeles. His luck changed when he turned the strip club model on its head, creating the all-male dance review for women known as Chippendales. His new choreographer Nick De Noia elevated Chippendales with polished showmanship. But as the dance troupe attracted national attention, Nick vied for credit and control of the operation. Filled with resentment and jealousy, Steve set in motion a plan to get rid of his rival. Hulu’s ...
Joe Francis made a fortune on a simple concept: get drunken women to flash the camera for his direct-to-DVD series “Girls Gone Wild.” When the filming stopped the debauchery continued, as Francis allegedly coerced sex from the women…some of whom were underaged. Local authorities wanted to protect the victims and put a stop to the filming. Francis remained defiant, until the night an armed man broke into his Bel-Air home to give him a taste of his own medicine. In the five-part podcast “Infamous:...
A new set of wealthy guests have checked into The White Lotus in Sicily, each with their own kind of baggage. They include Dominic Di Grasso, with his father Bert and son Albie, who’ve come to seek their Italian relatives. Cameron & Daphne and Ethan & Harper are on a couples vacation. But recently having come into money, Harper is suspicious of her husband’s old college roommate. And returning is quirky heiress Tanya McQuoid, accompanied by her husband and her new assistant he’s not supp...
Facing federal charges that included establishing a sex cult and branding his female followers, NXIVM leader Keith Raniere prepares for trial. Meanwhile his second-in-command, Nancy Salzman, breaks her silence to say she didn’t know the darker things happening within the organization. Prosecutors lay out a strong case of racketeering and trafficking against Raniere. His attorney and his remaining followers proclaim Raniere’s innocence, saying life in NXIVM is not the cult portrayed in the media....
After a childhood of secrecy and sudden relocations, reporter Pauline Dakin’s mother finally revealed the reasons behind their family’s chaotic upbringing. Unbeknownst to the children, they’d been living in hiding from their father, a powerful figure in organized crime. The Dakins had been protected for years by Stan, a family friend and federal agent posing as a preacher. Now an adult, Pauline is made aware of the ever-present dangers posed by the gangsters. But as the situation grew increasing...
