Amy Bishop was obsessed with her Harvard degree, but the rest of the world failed to bow down to her, and she couldn’t take it. “These people are against me,” she ranted to a coworker. So she decided to take matters into her own hands. —Preorder my new book, Confident Women, at Pilsen Community Books or Binnacle Books or wherever you get your reads! —Here’s my Atlantic article about women who commit mass shootings. —SUPPORT THE PODCAST! Become a Patron. —See heartbreaking photos of young Amy and...
Feb 10, 2021•41 min•Season 2Ep. 43
In 2007, Jennifer Mee got her fifteen minutes of fame when she couldn’t stop hiccuping. In 2016, she was once again on TV—this time on a show called “Killer Women.” Fame is a curse, and it had cursed her. *** SUPPORT THE PODCAST! Become a Patron.*** Sources: Jennifer Mee advocacy website: jmeefree.com St. Petersburg Times coverage of Jennifer Mee, 2007-2013, especially coverage from journalist Mary Jane Park “Fla. ‘hiccup girl’ charged with first-degree murder,” Charleston Daily Mail, 18 Sept 20...
Feb 03, 2021•31 min•Season 2Ep. 42
Marie Dean Arrington looked out her window, saw a car parked outside, and knew it was the FBI. She’d been running from the law her entire life. And for this last crime—a vanished woman, a ransom note, blood in the trunk of a car—she knew she was going to have to pay. *** SUPPORT THE PODCAST! Become a Patron.*** Sources: “Mean Marie” by Gary Corsair, Lake & Sumter Style, 1 July 2014 “30 Days of Mean Marie,” supplement to the above article, Lake & Sumter Style “Lake Lawyer Bob Pierce Dies ...
Jan 27, 2021•38 min•Season 2Ep. 42
Defending murderers and professional jail-breakers isn't for the faint of heart, but thankfully, 1930s defense lawyer Jessie Levy was anything but fainthearted. In a world where women were almost never seen in criminal defense, Jessie and her fabulous shoes stepped up to the plate to represent some of the most notorious gangsters of the day: John Dillinger's men. Denise M. Testa, author of Defending the Dillinger Gang: Jessie Levy and Bess Robbins in the Courtroom, comes on the podcast to walk u...
Jan 20, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 40
Something unbelievably awful was about to happen to Bobbie Jo Stinnett. She was about to live a nightmare. But the nightmare was already with Lisa Montgomery, swirling around her, never letting up. The nightmare had molded her, turning her into the sort of person that would knock on Bobbie Jo’s door with a knife beneath her jacket. *** SUPPORT THE PODCAST! Become a Patreon supporter. Purchase THE UNQUIET ENGLISHMAN from this episode’s sponsor, W. W. Norton. And you can preorder my new book Confi...
Jan 13, 2021•46 min•Season 2Ep. 39
FIRST EPISODE OF 2021 IS HERE. Meet Juana Barraza, who loved wrestling and her children, who hated elderly women and her mother. Our expert for this episode is Susana Vargas Cervantes, author of THE LITTLE OLD LADY KILLER: The Sensationalized Crimes of Mexico’s First Female Serial Killer. Also, you can preorder my new book Confident Women here, and listen to Red Flags (my latest podcast project) here! *** SUPPORT THE PODCAST! Become a Patreon supporter. Purchase NOBODY’S NORMAL from this episode...
Jan 06, 2021•44 min•Season 2Ep. 38
A quick state of the Criminal Broads union. This is not goodbye forever, but it is goodbye for now. PLUS, some fun (basic? obvious?) quarantine escapism suggestions. And a bit of rambling. LOVE YOU ALLLLLLLLLL. Stay in touch! instagram newsletter website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 21, 2020•15 min
Midnight. A hospital ward. A young woman writhes in her bed in pain. But wait—here comes the night nurse, Jane Toppan, with a cool glass of water, promising to make it all…go…away… The story of Jane Toppan will chill you to your core, shake you to your bones, and remind you of the inconvenient truth that female serial killers can be just as deadly as the male ones. Want more Criminal Broads? Come to Caveat NYC on October 30 at 70 pm to see me and the host of DIE-ALOGUE talk about female cult lea...
Oct 23, 2019•58 min•Ep. 37
On Halloween night, a young woman sneaks her boyfriend into her house…to kill her parents. Meet Suzane Von Richthofen, Brazil’s biggest teen girl psychopath. Mega-thanks to Luiz Alberto Moura for the research assistance! Read his work on serial killers here. Want more Criminal Broads? Come to Caveat NYC on October 30 at 70 pm to see me the host of DIE-ALOGUE talk about female cult leaders!!! Get your tickets here! *** SUPPORT THE PODCAST! Become a Patreon supporter and get a cool postcard and bo...
Oct 09, 2019•41 min•Ep. 36
When a young black woman named Joan Little ran from her jail cell, leaving her white male guard dead on the floor—without his pants—the country couldn’t decide who, exactly, Joan Little was. The prosecution said she was a vicious seductress who’d lured the guard in specifically to kill him. The defense said she was an innocent angel who hadn’t even known he was dead. Who in the world was Joan Little, really? Want more Criminal Broads? Come to Caveat NYC on October 30 at 70 pm to see me the host ...
Sep 25, 2019•40 min•Ep. 35
Why do women love true crime? Wait, no—why do people love true crime? Author Rachel Monroe comes on the podcast to deconstruct our appetite for horrifying true stories. Also covered: relating to the Manson girls, why true crime is not the same as a bowl of oatmeal, the ethics of crime scene photos, and the murky side of the victim's rights movement. Check out Rachel’s new book, Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsessiontoday! Want more #content? 1) Subscribe to the new po...
Sep 11, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 34
On the night of January 15, 1978, Kathy Kleiner opened her eyes to see the serial killer Ted Bundy standing over her bed. One year later, she stared him down in the courtroom, thinking, “I’m standing, now, and you’re in the bed.” This is her story, in her own words. Here’s the Vulture article about Ted Bundy that I wrote…and my profile of Kathy for Rolling Stone. *** SUPPORT THE PODCAST! Become a Patreon supporter and get a cool postcard. Get a free month of courses at The Great Courses Plus at ...
Aug 28, 2019•55 min•Ep. 33
Fifty years ago, a wild-eyed maniac named Charles Manson sent a gaggle of his girls into the night to murder seven people. But his most loyal girl, his second-in-command, a teenager named Squeaky Fromme, didn’t head out with the group. Since she didn’t kill for Charlie that night, she spent the rest of her life trying to prove that she was just as loyal to him—and so, long after Manson's murderesses had disowned him, Squeaky remained. *** SUPPORT THE PODCAST! Become a Patreon supporter and get a...
Aug 14, 2019•50 min•Ep. 32
Tanya Nelson believed everything her fortuneteller, Ha Jade Smith, told her—until Tanya’s life spiraled out of control, and Ha couldn’t seem to help her. With that, Tanya decided that someone was going to have to pay for the wreckage that was her life. Someone was going to have to die. *** SUPPORT THE PODCAST! Become a Patreon supporter and get a cool postcard. Support Crimibox on Kickstarter. Get 25% off your Care/of order by heading to takecareof.com and using code CRIMINALBROADS. And check ou...
Jul 31, 2019•42 min•Ep. 31
There were plenty of jobs for women in WW2: nurse, ambulance driver, factory worker. But then there were the other jobs, the ones no one really talked about. Spy. Resistance fighter. Killer. These are the stories of five women—Nadezhda Popova, Vitka Kempner, Noor Inayat Khan, Nancy Wake, and Lyudmila Pavlichenko—who fought the Nazis. They terrorized them from the sky, blew up their trains, endured their torture, rode bikes through their territory, and shot them down with their rifles. In a world...
Jul 17, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 30
Meet Irma Grese. She likes boys, girls, movies, makeup, and sadistic torture. She hates her dad, but loves Adolf Hitler. This is horrific story of the story of how propaganda—and a large dose of teenage boredom—transformed an unskilled peasant girl into one of the Holocaust’s most successful concentration camp guards.(Become a Patreon supporter.) Sources: The Beautiful Beast: The Life & Crimes of SS-Aufseherin Irma Grese, by Daniel Patrick Brown “The Violence of Female Guards in Nazi Concent...
Jul 03, 2019•45 min•Ep. 29
History remembers them as beautiful booze-hounds. Hollywood turned them into fame-hungry starlets. But who were these murderesses, really? With Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, author of UGLY PREY: An Innocent Woman and the Death Sentence That Scandalized Jazz Age Chicago, we dive into the stories of Belva Gaertner and Beulah Annan, the most infamous lady killers of 1920s Chicago. What did the press get wrong about them? What do we get wrong about them today? WHY WERE THEIR JURIES SO UTTERLY MAD? And ho...
Jun 19, 2019•49 min•Ep. 28
The story behind New York’s first-ever female detective! In 1896, Isabella Goodwin was a quiet, hard-working police matron who wrangled murderesses, made up the prison beds, and earned about half of what her male coworkers did. As far as she knew, she’d be a police matron forever…until one day, a gruff captain called her over to his desk and asked if she’d like to take a crack at going undercover. (Become a Patreon supporter for rewards and bonus content!) Sources: The Fearless Mrs. Goodwin: How...
Jun 08, 2019•50 min•Ep. 27
Juanita Spinelli ran a gang of embarrassingly awful Northern Californian crooks who could barely rob enough gas stations to stay afloat. And yet three years after forming her gang, she was walking toward the gas chamber, while citizens across the country clamored that it wasn’t right to execute a woman. (Become a Patreon supporter for rewards and bonus content! And here’s the slideshow of California’s death row inmates that I mention at the end of the episode…) Sources: All Juanita Spinelli cove...
May 22, 2019•48 min•Ep. 26
In 1982, Kazuko Fukuda strangled her coworker, changed her name, and went on the run—for fifteen years. She was playing a game of chicken with the law, trying to stay free until the statute of limitations for her crime ran out. To do this, she had to go under the knife. (Become a Patreon supporter for rewards and bonus content!) Sources: Crime stats for Japan and the US: The Japanese Industrial System (De Gruyter Studies in Organization, 3rd Edition), Page 46, and “The U.S. Murder Rate Is Up But...
May 08, 2019•40 min•Ep. 25
The victims of Jack the Ripper, the most famous serial killer in the world, are known to us mostly by their autopsy photos. On the conclusion to our WOMEN OF JACK THE RIPPER series, historian Hallie Rubenhold comes on the podcast to illuminate the rough and tragically brief lives of Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elisabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly—the canonical five. Hallie is the author of The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper. (Become a Patre...
Apr 24, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 24
We remember Jack the Ripper as a man who did the brutal work of a typical male serial killer, de-feminizing his victims by hacking up their bodies. But in this two-part series, let’s take a look at the women who circle around the Ripper legend. First up, the admittedly controversial and kinda odd theory that perhaps Jack the Ripper is the wrong nickname for the killer—perhaps, some writers insist, we should have been looking for a Jill all along! This episode features an interview with Jonathan ...
Apr 10, 2019•54 min•Ep. 23
Victorian women were expected to be wives and mothers—not killers. Enter Adelaide Bartlett. In her middle-class Victorian world of green wallpaper, taxidermy, and submissive wifehood, the beautiful Adelaide was an enigma. Was she telling the truth about her husband’s weirdness? Was she really as good as she seemed? And most importantly: did she do it? (Become a Patreon supporter for rewards and bonus content!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 27, 2019•38 min•Ep. 22
In 1930s New York, a single man ruled the entire city with extortion, racketeering, and a healthy dose of murder. Nobody could take him down—until a black girl from Atlanta decided to try her hand at it. It was the match of the century: the lawyer, Eunice Hunton Carter vs. the mobster, Lucky Luciano. Only one of them would walk out of that courtroom unscathed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 13, 2019•51 min•Ep. 21
Once upon a time, in 1930s Texas, a girl named Blanche fell desperately in love with a boy named Buck. She thought they had a shot at a good life together, but everything went off the rails one night when Buck’s brother and his brother’s girlfriend—Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker—showed up drunk at their door. Before long, Blanche was swept up in the on-the-run world of Bonnie and Clyde, terrified that their outlaw lifestyle would take her love away from her. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...
Feb 27, 2019•57 min•Ep. 20
In 1960s Melbourne, a lot of very wealthy people found themselves wondering if there was more to life, and wouldn’t you know, a gorgeous yoga teacher was there to tell them: yes, yes there is. But this yoga teacher with her warm, appealing aphorisms would soon become a voracious cult leader with a penchant for pretending like she was the best mama in the world. This is the story of Anne Hamilton-Byrne, a woman who wanted to be an actress and a mother, but ended up playing God on a purple throne,...
Feb 13, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 19
At the end of the 1970s, body after dead body began appearing on the streets and sidewalks and parking lots of Miami. Many of those bodies were linked to the Colombian cocaine trade, which was in turn linked to one incredibly powerful woman with a love of gangster movies and a penchant for drive-by shootings. Meet Griselda Blanco: the Black Widow, La Madrina, the Godmother of Cocaine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 31, 2019•55 min•Ep. 18
At eight years old, Lois Gibson begged God to give her a job where she could draw faces. As a young woman, a man with an evil face burst through her door, leaving her broken, despairing, and consumed with the desire for justice. At thirty-nine, she became a full-time forensic artist. At sixty-six, she made the Guinness Book of World Records. This is the story of Lois Gibson, the world’s most successful forensic artist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 16, 2019•55 min•Ep. 17
Beneath the soft green grass of the Last Supper cemetery, most regular, God-fearing residents of Mobile, Alabama had one family member resting. Maybe two. Rhonda Belle Martin had eight. This is the story of a woman who the tabloids labeled a “redheaded hellcat,” whose urge to kill swept over her one day when her little daughter asked for a drink of water, and who was never able to explain why she gave her poisoned milk, instead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 12, 2018•42 min•Ep. 16
Falicia Blakely was only 16 when she met the man who would change the course of her life. At first, Mike Berry was the perfect boyfriend—bringing her flowers, treating her little boy as his own son. But then came the brainwashing, the manipulation, and the fire. Before long, Falicia would find herself holding a phone and a pistol, with Mike on the other end of the call, urging her to shoot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 28, 2018•46 min•Ep. 15
