In the early morning hours of July 23, 1982, cameras were rolling at a California filming location when a helicopter crashed into a river, killing actor Vic Morrow and two young children, Renee Chen and Myca Le. It was called a tragic accident. But the more investigators looked, the harder that word was to defend. Part one of two. Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ...
Jun 01, 2026•51 min•Season 6Ep. 14
On a hot July morning in 1889, two adults were found murdered in their beds on a small Iowa farm, shot and bludgeoned to death while they slept. The only witness was an 11-year-old boy who said a stranger had done it. What followed was a legal and moral reckoning that divided the country and forced a question the American justice system wasn't remotely prepared to answer: What do you do with a child who kills? Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes f...
May 25, 2026•55 min•Season 6Ep. 13
You've heard the name. You've read the headlines. But the Alex Murdaugh story is bigger than one man's spectacular fall — bigger, even, than two people's horrific deaths. It's about the century of institutional rot that made it all possible. In this bonus episode of "Future Crimes of the Centuries?", Amber looks beyond the expected retrial to the people whose stories got buried under the spectacle: a housekeeper who died at the Murdaugh estate and whose sons were swindled, a 19-year-old whose su...
May 22, 2026•49 min
A young mother from a tiny Kentucky hollow vanished without a trace in 1989, leaving behind her clothes, her makeup and her two children. She'd been working as an informant for FBI Agent Mark Putnam, so her family held onto one hope: Maybe she'd finally gotten the fresh start she'd always dreamed of through the federal witness protection program. It would take a year to find out the truth about what happened to Susan Daniels Smith. And it was worse than anyone had imagined.
May 18, 2026•1 hr 6 min•Season 6Ep. 12
Dr. Harini Bhat is a clinical pharmacist and storyteller obsessed with the moments in history that still can't be fully explained. Every week she investigates real events that defy easy explanation. Mass hysterias. Vanished civilizations. Medical oddities. Strange signals. Unexplained phenomena that keep repeating across centuries, as if history is trying to tell us something. Hidden History doesn't dismiss ancient events as myth or superstition. It treats them as open case files, shaped by the ...
May 18, 2026•9 min
In 1978, a nine-year-old girl in a red coat went looking for a kind man she'd met at a train station. She never came home. Over the next 12 years, at least 52 more would follow. But in the Soviet Union's supposed utopia, serial killers didn't exist — and a government more committed to its own mythology than to its citizens would pay a terrible price for that belief. Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped ch...
May 11, 2026•56 min•Season 6Ep. 11
In 1991, investigators of a house fire in Corsicana, Texas, concluded the fatal blaze was arson, pointing to burn patterns they said proved someone had deliberately turned the house into a death trap. They zeroed in on Cameron Todd Willingham as the one who ignited the inferno. But in the years that followed, a growing number of fire scientists began questioning whether the evidence used to convict him was ever sound in the first place, raising enduring doubts about one of the most controversial...
May 04, 2026•1 hr 1 min•Season 6Ep. 10
On the night of January 31st, 2026, 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie was dropped off at her home in the Catalina Foothills outside Tucson, Arizona. By morning, the mother of one of America's most famous TV news personalities had vanished. Nearly three months later, she's still missing. In this bonus episode, Crimes of the Centuries steps outside its usual format to ask some questions about how this investigation has been handled — questions that deserve answers whether or not we ever get them.
Apr 30, 2026•34 min
In 1949, a headless, legless torso surfaced in the Essex marshes, setting off one of Britain’s most sensational postwar murder investigations. The victim was Stanley Setty, a black-market car dealer. The suspect was Donald Hume, a small-time crook, chronic liar and pilot who rented a plane the night Setty disappeared but swore he had nothing to do with the gruesome killing. Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and h...
Apr 27, 2026•52 min•Season 6Ep. 9
In 1945, a reverend, a realtor, a science teacher, and a white woman in a low-cut dress conspired to help a St. Louis couple buy a house. The couple had steady jobs, a down payment, and six children who needed a safe home. What they didn't have was permission — at least not according to a clause buried in the property's deed. Their attempt to move in triggered outrage from neighbors, a lawsuit, and a legal battle that climbed all the way to the United States Supreme Court, resulting in the landm...
Apr 20, 2026•54 min•Season 6Ep. 8
In May 1988, a church bus returning to Kentucky was struck head-on by a wrong-way driver. Within seconds, it became an inferno. As families searched for answers, an unsettling truth emerged: The children had been trapped inside a bus never designed to protect them. The Carrollton bus tragedy is a story about how grief collided with corporate power, government delay tactics and America’s evolving reckoning with drunken driving.
Apr 13, 2026•49 min•Season 6Ep. 7
In August 1942, 22-year-old Jose Diaz was found dying near a Los Angeles reservoir called Sleepy Lagoon. He'd been beaten and stabbed the night before he was set to report to the U.S. Army. His death became the excuse the LAPD needed to launch a massive crackdown on Mexican American youth—rounding up 600 people, trying 22 young men with questionable evidence and igniting racial tensions that exploded into the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943. But who really killed Jose Diaz? And why did a fashion choice ...
Apr 06, 2026•51 min•Season 6Ep. 6
Singing his way through the 1950s and early 1960s, appealing to audiences across a segregated music industry, churning out hits of dreamy quality like “You Send Me” and inspirational fortitude like “A Change Is Gonna Come,” Sam Cooke was more than an artist. He lived – and died – a legend. So how did he end up shot in a Los Angeles motel in 1964? In this episode, we’ll trace the tale: start to finish.
Mar 30, 2026•39 min
In November 1958, duck hunters at Cowan Lake State Park stumbled upon a burned body so badly damaged it was nearly unrecognizable. It belonged to Louise Bergen, a 32-year-old Cincinnati mother whose disappearance had already set off whispers of secret relationships and divided loyalties. What followed became one of the most notorious murder cases in the city's history—featuring a shocking confession, a death sentence, and a prosecutor who refused to look at evidence that might have told a differ...
Mar 23, 2026•1 hr•Season 6Ep. 5
In the years after September 11, 2001, one survivor’s story rose above nearly all others. She said she had escaped from the South Tower, lost the man she loved on the 99th floor, and lived with injuries that would never fully heal. Her account became central to how the world understood survival, grief and resilience after the attacks. But when a reporter began asking routine questions ahead of an anniversary, the story quietly unraveled. Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab ...
Mar 16, 2026•50 min•Season 6Ep. 4
In August 1966, three unarmed London police officers pulled over a suspicious car on Braybrook Street in Shepherd's Bush in West London. Within minutes, all three were dead—shot in cold blood by three career criminals who'd rather kill than go back to prison. The murders shocked Britain and sparked a months-long manhunt for Harry Roberts, who managed to evade capture while his face was plastered across every newspaper in the country. Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab expl...
Mar 09, 2026•46 min•Season 6Ep. 3
In 1976, a woman survived a brutal kidnapping and stabbing in a San Diego parking lot. The man accused of the attack was Edgar Smith—once a cause célèbre, hailed as a wrongfully convicted intellectual. His release had been celebrated by writers, editors and influential public figures who believed they had corrected a grave injustice. What followed was not redemption but reckoning. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a...
Mar 02, 2026•46 min•Season 6Ep. 2
In 1957, Edgar Smith was sentenced to death for the murder of a teenage girl in New Jersey. From his prison cell, he began writing letters, essays and arguments build a case not in court, but on the page. One of those letters landed on the desk of William F. Buckley Jr. Others found their way into elite literary circles. Soon, a condemned man had powerful allies, a book deal and a growing audience convinced the system had gotten it wrong. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Co...
Feb 23, 2026•50 min•Season 6Ep. 1
In 1931, Adolf Hitler’s 23-year-old niece, Geli Raubal, was found dead in the Führer's Munich apartment. Authorities ruled it a suicide. But the evidence didn’t settle easily—and neither did the silence that followed. Some journalists tried to make sense of the story but had trouble as the case files were quickly sealed. So they reported on emerging contradictions in the evidence and disagreements among witnesses. Within a few years, the people who tried to challenge Hitler’s version of events w...
Feb 16, 2026•48 min•Season 5Ep. 46
Sherri Rasmussen had been married for just three months when she was brutally murdered in her California home. Police quickly decided the case was a burglary gone wrong—and then stopped looking. It would take more than 20 years before a new detective took a fresh look and realized the killer had been hiding in plain sight all along. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get earl...
Feb 09, 2026•55 min•Season 5Ep. 45
In October 1964, a Washington socialite was shot execution-style on the Georgetown towpath. She had been JFK's lover. Her ex-husband worked for the CIA. Her diary vanished. And the man accused of killing her was acquitted. What really happened to Mary Pinchot Meyer? " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes and more over at www.grabbagcollab.com...
Feb 02, 2026•50 min•Season 5Ep. 44
From Amber's other podcast, titled What If They're Wrong? After the Accusation: After charges against former death row inmate Elwood Jones were dismissed, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Joe Deters—the former prosecutor who originally secured Jones’ conviction—went on talk radio insisting Jones was still guilty. The next day, phone records show Justice Deters had a 10-minute call with his former colleague, Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco. Four days later, the coroner announced false fore...
Jan 30, 2026•51 min
In October 1982, journalist Lester Kinsolving asked the White House press secretary about a mysterious disease that had already killed hundreds of Americans. The response? Laughter. For years, as the death toll climbed into the tens of thousands, President Ronald Reagan said nothing. His administration did less. This is the story of what happens when a government decides some lives don't matter—and the activists, doctors, and ordinary people who refused to let their community die in silence. " C...
Jan 26, 2026•52 min•Season 5Ep. 43
In the industrial villages of 19th-century England, death was common—but not this common. Over two decades, Mary Ann Cotton married, buried, and moved on with chilling regularity as children, husbands, and relatives died from what doctors called “gastric fever.” Only when forensic chemistry advanced—and one parish officer heard her say too much—did her pattern come into focus.
Jan 19, 2026•49 min•Season 5Ep. 42
The massacre at My Lai was one of the most lethal attacks on civilians carried out by American troops in Vietnam. For more than a year, the Army’s official line held firm: it was an encounter with the enemy. Only when a soldier wrote dozens of letters, and a reporter refused to let the story die, did the truth reach the public. This episode explores the events of that day and the long road to accountability.
Jan 12, 2026•52 min•Season 5Ep. 41
In May 1983, a young Oregon mother arrived at a Springfield hospital with a horrifying story: a stranger had flagged her down on a dark road and shot her and her three children. One child was dead, the other two clinging to life. But hospital staff noticed something strange about Diane Downs: She was superficially injured, eerily calm and oddly focused on her ruined vacation and blood-stained car. As investigators dug deeper, they uncovered a trail of obsession, manipulation, and diaries reveali...
Jan 05, 2026•48 min•Season 5Ep. 40
For this holiday week, we're releasing an episode that initially was available only to subscribers through GrabBagCollab.com and Apple Podcasts. In the 1970s, Gary Glitter was a glam rock sensation: sequins, stadium anthems, and screaming teenage fans. But like Jimmy Savile, he used fame as a weapon. This bonus episode unpacks his rise, fall, and the disturbing legacy he left behind. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that mad...
Dec 29, 2025•33 min
On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Convic...
Dec 26, 2025•14 min
For two decades, the small Illinois town of Dixon couldn't afford new trucks, fresh asphalt, or summer pools. Meanwhile, their trusted treasurer lived like royalty—breeding champion horses, dripping in diamonds, and cruising the country in a $2 million RV. When the truth came out, it was the largest municipal fraud in U.S. history. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early...
Dec 22, 2025•51 min•Season 5Ep. 39
When two wealthy brothers from the same family were murdered three years and 8,000 miles apart, it seemed too strange to be coincidence. But behind both crimes lay the same forces—greed, arrogance, and the illusion of control. " Crimes of the Centuries " is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes and more over at www.grabbagcollab.com DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE CENTURIES...
Dec 15, 2025•50 min•Season 5Ep. 38
