True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers - podcast cover

True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers

Dan Zupanskywww.spreaker.com
Every week host Dan Zupansky will interview the true crime authors that have written about the most shocking killers of all time.
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Episodes

MURDER IN SUBURBIA-Emily Webb

Murder in Suburbia features the stories of more than 20 murder cases that have happened in the quiet streets of Australia’s suburbs and small towns. These stories show that the most brutal and harrowing events can happen in any street or neighbourhood. Featuring contemporary cases as well as some shocking historical murders, Murder in Suburbia proves you should never say ‘it could never happen here’. MURDER IN SUBURBIA-Disturbing Stories From Australia's Dark Heart-Emily Webb Follow and comment ...

Nov 13, 20141 hr 2 minEp. 178

WHY WE LOVE SERIAL KILLERS-Dr. Scott Bonn

In Why We Love Serial Killers, Drew University criminology professor Scott Bonn, PhD, simultaneously examines the public’s and media’s fascination with the monsters among us and the ways in which that attention impacts them. He writes about serial killers’ behaviors and the research—from the FBI’s original work to more recent models—that informs the law enforcement professionals charged with profiling, catching, and studying them. A real bonus: Dr. Bonn’s correspondence with Dennis Rader (BTK or...

Nov 06, 20141 hr 33 minEp. 177

DEATH OF A CHEERLEADER-Kevin M. Sullivan

In this Notorious USA collection, Death of a Cheerleader, New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen and true crime journalist Kevin M. Sullivan write about notorious crimes in the Bluegrass State. In a scene right out of Hitchcock’s “Rear Window,” a young woman vanishes from a beach on a summer day and a neighbor views the abduction through his telescope. A newly wed disposes of his bride but doesn’t know what to do with her head. Selling tickets at a drive-in movie theater proves deadly. An...

Oct 23, 20141 hr 34 minEp. 176

MAN OVERBOARD-Burl Barer

1982: Oregon businessman Phil Champagne, age 52, dies in a tragic boating accident off Lopez Island. He is survived by one ex-wife, four adult children, an octogenarian mother, and two despondent brothers. Phil didn't know he was dead until he read it in the paper. All things considered, he took it rather well. So did Phil's brother, Mitch, the beneficiary of a 1.5 million dollar policy on Phil's life. 1992: Washington restauranteur Harold Stegeman, famous for his thick, juicy steaks, is arreste...

Oct 14, 20141 hr 40 minEp. 175

BLOODY LIES-John Ferak

The remote farming community of Murdock, Nebraska, seemed to be the least likely setting for one of the heartland's most ruthless and bloody double murders in decades. In fact, the little town had gone more than a century without a single homicide. But on the night of Easter 2006, Wayne and Sharmon Stock were brutally murdered in their home. The murders garnered sensational frontpage headlines and drew immediate statewide attention. Practically everybody around Murdock was filled with fear, pani...

Sep 11, 20141 hr 42 minEp. 174

TRUE DETECTIVE-Gary Sweet

For years David Elliot Penton stalked elementary schools and playgrounds looking for young girls from low-income neighborhoods to abduct, rape and murder. He thought of them as "throwaway kids"-hardly missed, and soon forgotten, except by those who loved them. He was every parent's worst nightmare. The bogeyman they warned their children about ... the fiend who lurked outside bedroom windows. Christi Meeks disappeared during a game of hide-and-seek outside her mother's Mesquite apartment complex...

Aug 21, 20141 hr 29 minEp. 173

THE INNOCENT KILLER-Michael Griesbach

The story of one of the nation's most notorious wrongful convictions, that of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin man who spent eighteen years in prison for a crime he did not commit. But two years after he was exonerated of that crime and poised to reap millions in his wrongful conviction lawsuit, Steven Avery was arrested for the exceptionally brutal murder of Teresa Halbach, a freelance photographer who had gone missing several days earlier. The "Innocent Man" had turned into a cold blooded killer. Or ...

Aug 14, 20141 hr 24 minEp. 172

THE GREAT HEIST-Jeff McArthur

On a sunny September morning in 1930, six men entered the Lincoln National Bank in Nebraska's capital city armed with revolvers and Thompson submachine guns. In eight minutes they emerged with more than 2.7 million dollars, the largest take of any bank heist in history. A nationwide search for the bandits would lead Nebraska authorities through the rough, gangland streets of Chicago and East St. Louis, and deep into the heart of the Capone organization. The Great Heist not only chronicles the se...

Aug 08, 20141 hr 3 minEp. 171

LUCKY LUCIANO-Christian Cipollini

Charles Lucky Luciano is one of the most researched, discussed and dissected American mobsters of all time. His name has become synonymous with NY City's high drama gangland days of prohibition bootlegging, the information of the infamous five families, and controversy over his alleged Last Testament. However, there exists many fascinating and lurid tales and theories regarding Lucky's rise and fall from the mobs top spot. Some of these stories are known, but still incited debate, such as the or...

Aug 07, 201457 minEp. 170

CHARLES MANSON BEHIND BARS-Mark Hewitt

For the past forty years, Charles Manson has languished in prison for his participation in the Manson family murders of 1969. He is America’s icon of evil, the one who brought down the curtain on the 1960s. He has never been a quiet inmate, however. From his unbridled outbursts of rage to his tender acts of generosity, he makes his presence felt to everyone around him. He inspires awe in other inmates, he cozies up to prison guards who are eager to do him favors, and he is responsible for countl...

Jul 24, 20141 hr 8 minEp. 169

VIOLENT CRIMES IN AMERICA-Amanda Seaton

Violent crimes in America have become an epidemic within the past decade or so, with more juvenile offenders taking to the streets, homicide and murder rates have skyrocketed, as science does their best to study the minds of America's most horrific killers. Amanda Seaton would like to invite you to delve into the world of crime and forensics, as she provides an analysis of those violent crimes committed by juvenile offenders, mothers, husbands, room-mates, ex-football players, and one of the mos...

Jul 10, 20141 hr 2 minEp. 168

THE TRUE AMERICAN-Anand Giridharadas

The True American tells the story of Raisuddin Bhuiyan, a Bangladesh Air Force officer who dreams of immigrating to America and working in technology. But days after 9/11, an avowed "American terrorist" named Mark Stroman, seeking revenge, walks into the Dallas minimart where Bhuiyan has found temporary work and shoots him, maiming and nearly killing him. Two other victims, at other gas stations, aren’t so lucky, dying at once. The True American traces the making of these two men, Stroman and Bh...

Jun 19, 20141 hr 7 minEp. 167

KILLER NURSE-John Foxjohn

She was hired to nurse them back to health...instead, she took their lives. For months, the DaVita Dialysis Center in Lufkin, Texas had been baffled by the rising number of deaths and injuries occurring in their clinic. In April alone, they’d rushed thirty-four patients to the hospital. But no one expected such a horrific cause to be behind it all. Kimberly Clark Saenz was a well-liked licensed vocational nurse at the center. The East Texas nurse was a mother of two, and known for her smiles and...

Jun 05, 20141 hr 12 minEp. 166

THE MAD SCULPTOR-Harold Schechter

Beekman Place, once one of the most exclusive addresses in Manhattan, had a curious way of making it into the tabloids in the 1930's: “SKYSCRAPER SLAYER,” “BEAUTY SLAIN IN BATHTUB” read the headlines. On Easter Sunday in 1937, the discovery of a grisly triple homicide at Beekman Place would rock the neighborhood yet again—and enthrall the nation. The young man who committed the murders would come to be known in the annals of American crime as the Mad Sculptor. The charismatic perpetrator, Robert...

May 22, 20141 hr 22 minEp. 165

BOGEYMAN-Steve Jackson

"For years he stalked elementary schools, neighborhoods and playgrounds looking for young girls to abduct, rape and murder. As though invisible, he brazenly struck in broad daylight, pulling children into his van or cars, or he crept into homes in the dead of night to carry away little girls while their families slept. He was the bogeyman they warned their children about disguised as the friendly stranger ... the fiend who lurked in the shadows outside of bedroom windows." From the NYTimes bests...

May 16, 20141 hr 47 minEp. 164

DISTURBED GROUND-Carla Norton

The story begins with Bert, a gentle, unassuming street person who mumbled to himself and talked to trees. He wasn't an alcoholic, but he hung out at a detox center in Sacramento, where a volunteer named Judy took an interest in him. Judy was overjoyed when she found a home for Bert with a silver-haired grandmother, Dorothea Puente, who ran a tidy boarding house in a blue-and-white Victorian. Little did Judy know that Puente (just one of the woman's many aliases) would soon become her obsession....

May 08, 20141 hr 15 minEp. 163

LICENSED TO LIE-Sidney Powell

A tragic suicide, a likely murder, wrongful imprisonment, and gripping courtroom scenes draw readers into this compelling story giving them a frightening perspective on justice corrupted and who should be accountable when evidence is withheld. Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice is the true story of the strong-arm, illegal, and unethical tactics used by headline-grabbing federal prosecutors in their narcissistic pursuit of power. Its scope reaches from the US Depart...

Apr 17, 20141 hr 15 minEp. 162

MOMMY'S A MOLE-Eve Carson

Karen Wolfe Churgin walked her dogs on April 18, 1990, on her remote wooded property on Chebacco Road. The veterinarian spotted a white sphere obstructing a drainage ditch. When she reached to dislodge it, she reeled back in horror. She immediately called the police. “I saw something in the woods that looked like a punched-in volleyball,” Karen told the Beverly Times on April 25, 1990. “I looked closer and it was a human skull. It had suture-like zigzagged lines. Those are unique to human skulls...

Apr 10, 20141 hr 19 minEp. 161

THE SICILIAN MAFIA-A TRUE CRIME TRAVEL GUIDE-Carl Russo

The Sicilian Mafia: A True Crime Travel Guide is the first book of its kind in any language: the ultimate Cosa Nostra experience. Since 2006, author Carl Russo has photographed Mafia hotspots on the Italian island of Sicily: where murders happened, where the godfathers lived and their victims buried. From the sunbaked fishing villages of the Mediterranean to the darkest alleys of Palermo, western Sicily is the exotic backdrop for over a 100 meticulously researched tales of murder and mayhem, wit...

Apr 03, 20141 hr 5 minEp. 160

A VOICE OUT OF NOWHERE-Janice Holly Booth

A Voice out of Nowhere delves deep into the mind of a psychotic killer. In this tragic true story about one young man's harrowing descent into madness and murder, A Voice out of Nowhere offers a rare glimpse inside the workings of a criminally disordered mind. In the narrative style of non-fiction novels like In Cold Blood and Columbine, best-selling author Janice Holly Booth draws from court transcripts, eye-witness statements and personal interviews to go beyond the headlines and share little-...

Mar 27, 20141 hr 40 minEp. 159

NOT ALL HEROES-Gary Skogen

(Aired March 12th but due to audio problems-new interview) Gary Skogen’s tour in Vietnam (1971–72) was the best year of his life. Living with fellow CID investigators in an isolated hooch overlooking the South China Sea at the U.S. base at Chu Lai, Skogen enforced military drug laws during his working hours and yet managed to pursue a life of perfect hedonism—far from the farm life in southwestern North Dakota where he grew up. With unlimited access to cheap beer, a wide variety of compliant Vie...

Mar 20, 20141 hr 22 minEp. 158

BLOOD LUST-Gary C . King

Dayton Leroy Rogers, was known in Portland, Oregon as a respected businessman and devoted husband and father. But at night he abducted women, forced them into sadistic bondage games, and thrilled in their pain, terror and mutilation. His murderous spree was stopped only after-in plain view, he slashed to death his final victim...and when a hunter accidentally stumbled onto the burial grounds of seven other women Rogers had killed one-by-one in the depths of the Molalla Forest, police realized th...

Feb 27, 20141 hr 14 minEp. 157

I'LL TAKE CARE OF YOU-Caitlin Rother

Nanette Johnston Packard, a sexy divorcee, liked to meet men at the gym and through personal ads. Soon after she began dating millionaire Bill McLaughlin, he moved her and her kids into his bay-front home in Newport Beach. But one man was never enough for Nanette...Eric Naposki, her NFL linebacker lover, fulfilled Nanette's wilder cravings. Together they schemed to make her fiance's fortune their own. When McLaughlin was gunned down, authorities had suspicions - but no proof. Pulitzer-nominated ...

Feb 21, 20141 hr 16 minEp. 156

FROM CRIME SCENE TO COURTROOM-Dawna Kaufmann and Dr. Cyril Wecht

In March 2009, Michael Jackson stood before the world press and announced that he would be doing a series of live concerts at London's Grand Concourse stadium, beginning in July. The shows would be called "This Is It," and he referred to them as his "final curtain call.". But Michael would never make any of the dates. In June "The King of Pop" died at his Los Angeles home. In 2004, a San Diego jury convicted Richard Tuite of fatally stabbing a 12-year-old Escondido girl named Stephanie Crowe. He...

Feb 07, 20141 hr 39 minEp. 155

LOBSTER BOY-Fred Rosen

Descended from a notorious carny family, Grady Stiles Jr. traded on the deformity that gave his hands and feet the look of lobster claws, to achieve fame as the "Lobster Boy". In November 1992, neighbor Christopher Wyant, in a conspiracy with Stiles's wife and stepson, shot Stiles in the head, leading to one of the most bizarre trials in criminal history. LOBSTER BOY-The Bizarre life and Brutal Death of Grady Stiles Jr.-Fred RosenDescended from a notorious carny family, Grady Stiles Jr. traded o...

Jan 30, 20141 hr 34 minEp. 154

MOM SAID KILL-Burl Barer

When Jerry Heimann's son arrived at his father's home in Everett, Washington, he found his grandmother, an Alzheimer's patient, alone in the house, starving and dehydrated. His father was missing. The furniture was gone. Within hours, police realised that Jerry's live-in housekeeper, Barbara Opel, had robbed him and fled. But where was Jerry?The next morning, Opel's 11-year-old son led police to Jerry's body. Soon, stunned detectives were getting confessions from a rage tag group of teens and pr...

Jan 23, 20141 hr 44 minEp. 153

LETHAL INTENT-Sue Russell

Sexecutioner On November 30, 1989, in a lonely place off Florida's Interstate 95, 51-year-old Richard Mallory shuddered under the impact of four .22-caliber slugs being pumped into him by a naked, hard-faced blonde hooker. While he suffered a slow, agonizing death, she stripped him of his valuables and drove his Cadillac back to the motel where her lesbian lover was waiting. In 1990, her killing spree kicked into high gear, with three men slain in as many weeks. Of the six of her seven male vict...

Jan 16, 20141 hr 28 minEp. 152

MURDER IN BEVERLY HILLS-Cathy Scott

Growing up, Susan Berman's childhood was idyllic. She was Las Vegas Mob royalty, the daughter of a Mob boss who ran the Flamingo and furnished his only child with anything money could buy. But halfway through her childhood, dream exploded. Susan's father died without warning during a routine surgery. Next, Susie Berman's mother died by her own hand the next year when she overdosing on drugs. Susie was whisked away from the only home she'd ever known, parentless and living with an uncle and his f...

Dec 05, 20131 hr 6 minEp. 151

MURDER IN MISSISSIPPI-John Safran

When filming his TV series Race Relations, John Safran spent an uneasy couple of days with one of Mississippi's most notorious white supremacists. A year later, he heard that the man had been murdered – and what was more, the killer was black. At first the murder seemed a twist on the old Deep South race crimes. But then more news rolled in. Maybe it was a dispute over money, or most intriguingly, over sex. Could the infamous racist actually have been secretly gay, with a thing for black men? Di...

Nov 28, 20131 hr 4 minEp. 150

AMERICAN SNIPER-Jim DeFelice

American Sniper is the astonishing autobiography of SEAL Chief Chris Kyle, who is the record-holder for most kills for a sniper in U.S. military history. Kyle has more than 150 officially confirmed kills (the previous American record was 109), though his remarkable career total has not been made official by the Pentagon. In this New York Times bestselling memoir, Kyle shares the true story of his extraordinary decade-long career, including his multiple combat tours in Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freed...

Nov 21, 20131 hr 7 minEp. 149
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