In the original Bram Stoker novel, vampire Count Dracula uses mysterious mind-control powers to feed his insatiable need for blood. He doesn’t always hunt alone—he prefers to use hapless humans as tools to get what he wants. For such an old story, it sure does match up with the kind of manipulation we tend to see in the real-life cases we cover. And in Brisbane, Australia in 1989, life would imitate art in an almost literal way, as an obsessed young woman drew three others into her murderous web...
Oct 14, 2022•40 min
It’s spooky season, campers, and what’s a better way to celebrate than to dig into some urban legends? You know the ones we’re talking about—the razor blades in the Halloween candy, the call coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE, Bloody Mary in the mirror. That kinda stuff. We all have our favorites. But what happens when the legend comes true? Do some of these stories have roots in real crimes? Well, we’re gonna find out—and who better to help us than Joshua Zeman, award-winning director of our *favorit...
Oct 07, 2022•1 hr 6 min
Marcus Aurelius once wrote, “A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions.” Most of us want to aim high in our lives, chase our sparkliest dreams. Today’s story focuses on a man who had big ambitions—and unlike most of us, he was born into the kind of wealth that could have opened just about any door in the world for him. From the time he could talk, his parents made sure he knew he was their little golden princeling, a chosen one entitled to take the world by storm—shoot through ...
Sep 30, 2022•48 min
Life imitates art sometimes, or so the saying goes. And it’s true, no doubt about it. But you’re not always gonna get a masterwork. Sometimes, life imitates trashy art instead. With this story, we get the real-life equivalent of, like, a velvet Elvis—or more accurately, a season of “Days of Our Lives.” Join us for the story of one of Florida’s most scandalous murder cases—the “trial of the century” of the mid-60s. It’s basically a soap opera come to life, starring a glamorous socialite who could...
Sep 23, 2022•54 min
Literature is full of snakes in the grass masquerading as friends. Shakespeare’s evil bastard Iago is disgruntled about his boss Othello passing him over for a promotion and giving it to Cassio instead. So he manipulates Othello into thinking his wife is having an affair with the guy. A pretty clever way to drive a wedge between the boss and his favorite employee—and to position himself as Othello’s most trusted adviser, while secretly tearing him down. There are lots more examples: Wormtongue i...
Sep 16, 2022•42 min
People are always intrigued by intelligent criminals. We say stuff like “If she’d only put that genius and energy into something good, she’d have been a huge success.” And it’s true, it really is. But the thing is, some people just live for the con. It’s in their blood—they can’t imagine doing anything else. In every situation, they’re looking for the angle, the way to turn everything to their advantage and put one over on everybody else in the process. Join us for the story of a born con artist...
Sep 09, 2022•37 min
A beautiful bride, married only 8 days before drowning in the river under mysterious circumstances. A young woman on a sunny walk, accepting a ride from a friendly stranger and ending up in a real-life nightmare. A strange fire. A new groom with a gash on the head. A NASA engineer who blends in perfectly until it’s time to let the monster out. Murder or suicide? Abductor or serial killer? Man, or vampire? Join us for a grab bag of bizarre stories: The mystery of "Eight-Day Bride" Christina Kettl...
Sep 02, 2022•42 min
From our earliest days, some people know exactly who they are. They’re just…comfortable in their own skin. They know who and what they want to be, and they go after it, and shine. Air Force Captain Marty Theer was one of those people. His plans for his life were pretty simple: He wanted to fly, and he wanted to be a husband and a dad. For a while, it seemed like everything was clicking into place perfectly to give him the life he always wanted. Married his high school sweetheart, rose fast in th...
Aug 26, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Here are some facts about identical twins: They start to bond with each other before they’re even born. As they grow up, they often develop their own secret languages, comprehensible only to them. Many report a deep psychic bond, so strong that if one twin gets into a car crash on the other side of the country, the other twin will somehow know. The bond between twins is one of the strongest, most unbreakable, most mysterious connections in the human experience. They even share the same DNA. In m...
Aug 19, 2022•42 min
When Emily Gellis hears rumors of people suffering horrible side effects from a trendy diet she springs into action. Armed with over a hundred thousand Instagram followers, Emily launches a social media crusade to expose F-Factor and its founder, Tanya Zuckerbrot. It’s the start of a feud that will attract trolls, lawyers, and, eventually, national media all because of fiber. From Wondery, this is a story about wealth, wellness, and influence hosted by Casey Wilson. Listen to Fed Up: wondery.fm/...
Aug 18, 2022•4 min
I read a book once about the inner workings of Wall Street. I don’t really like to talk about it—I still get a little nauseous when I think about it. Yechh. One of the most memorable bits, though, was an interview with an investment banker who said, with a total lack of irony, “What good does it do me to make ten million if the guy down the hall is making twenty?” When the author said, “Well…okay, but when is it enough?” the guy looked at him like he’d just grown a second head. “Enough? It’s nev...
Aug 12, 2022•44 min
We’ve seen it a hundred times by now—evil comes in many different forms. Sometimes, you can see it coming a mile away. But sometimes it’ll look like a million dollars, dressed to the nines and fluttering its eyelashes at you, making you feel like you’re the only guy in the room. Stay frosty out there, fellas. Evil comes in many shapes, and sometimes they’re extra pleasing. Join us for the story of one of America's scariest female serial killers, a woman whose sophisticated exterior hid a heart o...
Aug 05, 2022•42 min
It’s become a cliché in the telling of murder stories that someone will always say “This kind of thing just doesn’t happen here.” Somehow, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, we’re good at convincing ourselves that there are safe zones…places that are immune to the darker shades of the human soul. Most of us—at least, the ones who make a study of darkness—know better by now. But even for us, there are some communities that do seem unlikely to wind up on a true crime podcast. Unlikely,...
Jul 29, 2022•38 min
David Foster Wallace once wrote that the truth will set you free, but not until it’s finished with you. Every time we tell a lie, we put it on our tab. That may work out for a while, but eventually the bill is gonna come due. And when that time comes, you better make sure you’ve got the money in the bank. Otherwise, your whole life’s gonna get repo’ed, and you’ll be there just standing in the wreckage. Especially if, like the guy in this week’s story, you’ve built your whole life on a lie. Sourc...
Jul 22, 2022•40 min
It takes a special kind of narcissism to feel entitled to murder somebody. Especially when the motive is just to get them out of your way, because they’re inconveniencing you. And it takes an even bigger ego to decide that you’re not gonna do your dirty work yourself—you’re gonna outsource it instead. We’ve seen plenty of murder for hire schemes before on this show, and as you’ve probably noticed, they don’t tend to go real well. And you usually find, at their center, a person so self-involved t...
Jul 15, 2022•51 min
We all wish we could win the lottery. I mean, who doesn’t love the idea of a life-changing financial windfall? The chance to pursue your real passions, get all your loved ones out of debt, travel, just…not have to worry anymore? But for the tiny percentage of people who actually do win the lottery, against almost impossible odds, the reality often ends up a lot more complicated than they expect. According to the NY Daily News, about 70 percent of lottery winners end up flat broke within 7 years....
Jul 08, 2022•42 min
Some people are born for a certain vocation. Mozart, for music. Shakespeare, for drama. Steven Hawking, for physics, and...let's say...Machine Gun Kelly? for rap music. Vjeran Tomic was born for the steal—as comfortable scaling the side of a tightly-guarded museum as a leopard is, stalking through the jungle. He says he’s in it for the love of art—a modern-day Robin Hood. But we seem to remember something about Robin Hood giving the money away…hmm. Sources: The New Yorker, Jake Halpern: https://...
Jul 01, 2022•43 min
Everybody has a skeleton or two in the closet, and most of us are able to leave it right where it is, cover it up with old coats and mothballs and forget all about it. But some skeletons are bigger and meaner than others, and for the man at the center of this story, it would be hard to imagine one worse. And he was living in fear that it was about to come busting out of there and trample all over his life. He thought he was doing everything he needed to do to prepare for it. But at the end of th...
Jun 24, 2022•40 min
On May 4, 2001, Bonny Lee Bakley was found fatally shot in a car on a dark North Hollywood street. The prime suspect was her husband, famed actor Robert Blake. But Bonny, a longtime con artist, had plenty of enemies. She left behind a trail of men she’d scammed, and she had a volatile relationship with Christian Brando, the troubled son of movie star Marlon Brando. Not since the O.J. Simpson case had the eyes of the nation been so fixated on a homicide. The search for Bonny’s killer took detecti...
Jun 20, 2022•6 min
No matter how many apples you eat in a day, you’re gonna eventually have to go see the doctor. It’s an unfortunate but necessary part of the human experience to go into that cold little room, put on a gown with no back, try not to gag on the tongue depressor, and hold your breath while they stick a needle in your arm. It’s not fun. And it’s bad enough without having to worry about whether the doctor who’s doing it to you is qualified to be there. We put a lot of faith in our healthcare providers...
Jun 17, 2022•47 min
Prey animals sometimes use camouflage to protect themselves from predators. But over millions of years of evolution, some predators have learned to do the same. Take the ghost mantis, a crafty little bug who masquerades as a leaf to get close to unsuspecting crickets. If you want to move in for a kill, there’s real value in blending in—whether you’re a leopard stalking a hare, or a cute pediatric nurse and former cheerleader who’s getting tired of her middle-class life and dreaming of bigger thi...
Jun 10, 2022•51 min
Introducing the true crime podcast Persona: The French Deception— the story of Gilbert Chikli, one of the greatest con artists of all time. What does it feel like to pick up the phone and scam someone out of $50 million? Host and award-winning journalist, Evan Ratliff, investigates how Chikli successfully duped some of the world’s most powerful people into handing over their fortunes. He explores how Chikli evaded the law for years and became a Robin Hood-like hero. More than just a tale of crim...
Jun 06, 2022•5 min
When we left you at the end of part 1, the brawny-yet-dimwitted Sun Gym gang, led by smooth-talker Danny Lugo and his bestie Adrian Doorbal were trying to figure out whether to kill their captive, Marc Schiller. They’d already drained most of his assets, set up shop in his house, stolen his cars, and sent his family fleeing in terror to Colombia. So now it was time to wrap up the plan and ride off into the sunset. But as you can probably anticipate, based on the general incompetence of these guy...
Jun 03, 2022•44 min
Teamwork makes the dream work. But what if your dream is a get-rich-quick scheme involving kidnapping and murder? And what if your team is a ragtag squad of steroid-swollen gym rats sharing about sixteen brain cells between them? This is the story of what happens when ego meets incompetence, with a generous handful of evil thrown in. Plus: Abs. Lots and lots of abs. Join us for the story of the Sun Gym gang--a case so strange, Hollywood turned it into the movie "Pain & Gain." Sources: Pete C...
May 27, 2022•42 min
It was a cold one out there the day she walked into his life—gray, like the color of her eyes. She showed up like a shiny silver dollar in the path of a starving man—exactly what he needed, at exactly the right time. Blonde. Young. Full of big ideas. She was a small-town dame in the big city, ready to take the place by storm. She was a perfect pearl. And he knew she’d believe whatever he told her. He was about to teach the girl a hard lesson: That in the big city, you can’t trust anyone. Sometim...
May 20, 2022•46 min
In the story of Pinocchio, a wooden puppet dreams of becoming a real boy—a real son to his maker, Geppetto. He’s a bit of a mess—always getting into mischief, lying and hanging around with the wrong crowd. But when he learns how to really care about people, the good fairy finally grants his wish, making him fully human. It’s a pretty powerful lesson: That what makes us whole, a lot of the time, is learning how to care for other people. Protect the people we love. Sacrifice our own comfort for th...
May 13, 2022•41 min
Elle Newmark wrote, “Unrequited love does not die; it’s only beaten down to a secret place where it hides, curled and wounded.” Most of us have felt that special kind of pain that comes from pining after somebody who’s not pining after you. Most of us manage to take the hit and move on. But a few take…another path. This is the story of Jonna Henningsson, a bright, outgoing young woman who loved animals and caring for others. Jonna seemed to have everything going for her. Most people knew nothing...
May 06, 2022•48 min
John Adams once wrote that genius is sorrow’s child. A couple years ago, The Economist published an article called “The Curse of Genius” about the tumultuous lives of child prodigies. And how many times has Mensa come up on this show by now? About half a dozen, at least? Genius, it seems, is a double-edged sword. Some people are able to harness it to make spectacular leaps forward in art or science or technology. But for some, the expectations that come with that scary-high IQ can be like an anv...
Apr 29, 2022•43 min
In the Bible, First Corinthians 13:4 says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” It’s actually a pretty good definition of love—the kind most of us hope to have in our lives someday. And it's a definition you’d expe...
Apr 22, 2022•46 min
There’s an old saying that just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get ya. For one brilliant yet troubled mind, living in fear was pretty much the norm for most of his adult life. His friends had come to take his worries with a grain of salt. Some of them seemed like the kind of bizarre fantasies you’d find in an episode of the X-Files. Nobody really took them seriously. That is, until their paranoid friend went missing. Join us for one of the strangest cases we’ve ever cove...
Apr 15, 2022•45 min
