Baptist deacon, family man, pillar of his Florida community . . . and serial killer of prostitutes: chilling true crime from the author ofLobster Boy. By day, Sam Smithers was the deacon of his Baptist church in Plant City, Florida, a respected neighbor to many, and a devoted husband and father. But after the sun set, he became something else: a violent attacker—and killer—of prostitutes. Smithers’s twisted double life came to light when a local woman who had hired him to take care of her proper...
Aug 01, 2018•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 388
In the late summer of 1969, the nation was transfixed by a series of gruesome murders in the hills of Los Angeles. Newspapers and television programs detailed the brutal slayings of a beautiful actress--twenty six years old and eight months pregnant with her first child--as well as a hair stylist, an heiress, a businessman, and other victims. The City of Angels was plunged into a nightmare of fear and dread. In the weeks and months that followed, law enforcement faced intense pressure to solve c...
Jul 26, 2018•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 387
The Calabrian Mafia—known as the ’Ndrangheta—is one of the richest and most ruthless crime syndicates in the world, with branches stretching from America to Australia. It controls seventy percent of the cocaine and heroin supply in Europe, manages billion-dollar extortion rackets, brokers illegal arms deals—supplying weapons to criminals and terrorists—and plunders the treasuries of both Italy and the European Union. The ’Ndrangheta’s power derives from a macho mix of violence and silence—omertà...
Jul 17, 2018•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 386
"You want to know what happened? Ask Anne."—serial killer William Devin Howell A monster was on a killing spree. In just nine months, seven people went missing; all of their bodies eventually discovered in a wooded lot behind a suburban strip mall. But the investigation that led law enforcement to their suspect, William Devin Howell, is only part of the story behind HIS GARDEN: Conversations With A Serial Killer. A practicing attorney, author Anne K. Howard first contacted Howell while he was se...
Jul 13, 2018•1 hr 41 min•Ep. 385
On a fall evening in Corvallis, Oregon in 1967, 17-year-old Dick Kitchel, a senior at the high school, disappeared after attending a party. Ten days later, his body was spotted by two children as it floated down the Willamette River. He had been beaten and strangled. The investigation into his murder played out during one of the most dramatic years in America. Life in Corvallis, a college town, had offered a protective, idyllic life to many. But in 1967-68, Viet Nam, a presidential campaign, the...
Jul 10, 2018•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 384
For years Lori Orr believed her Los Angeles firefighter dad was a selfless hero. When Lori’s dad was arrested and charged with four murders and countless arson fires, it was her testimony that helped keep him from being sent to Death Row. Eventually, Lori’s search for the truth lead her to the dark secrets lurking in her family’s past and to an inescapable conclusion about the remorseless killer and arsonist known as the "Pillowcase Pyro" and his reign of terror in sunny Southern California. EXC...
Jul 03, 2018•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 383
In 1901 Evelyn Nesbit, a chorus girl in the musical Florodora, dined alone with the architect Stanford White in his townhouse on 24th Street in New York. Nesbit, just sixteen years old, had recently moved to the city. White was forty-seven and a principal in the prominent architectural firm McKim, Mead & White. As the foremost architect of his day, he was a celebrity, responsible for designing countless landmark buildings in Manhattan. That evening, after drinking champagne, Nesbit lost cons...
Jun 28, 2018•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 382
Forgotten Sacramento Murders 1940-1976 explores the crimes by Sacramento's Greatest Generation. The murders that shocked Sacramento two generations ago are now only remembered by a handful of people, but during its time they startled Sacramento to its very core. Including... The original Boogie Man who in 1956 murdered a young boy in a downtown movie theater's men's room.The Mad Basher of 1941 who disappeared after his spree, only to reappear in 1956 to kill five moreTeenager Raymond Latshaw gre...
Jun 21, 2018•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 381
He was evil personified. In the Spring of 1997, a serial killer held Nashville, Tennessee in an icy grip of terror. In February, he murdered two employees at a Captain D's restaurant. In March, he struck a McDonalds just miles away, killing three people and maiming one. In April, he kidnapped and slaughtered two Baskin-Robbins employees.They called him "The Fast Food Killer" but his real name is Paul Dennis Reid, Jr. When he was caught and sentenced to seven death sentences, yet a new chapter be...
Jun 12, 2018•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 380
During WWII, Lithuanian collaborator Silvestras Griekshell had been plucked from a Nazi death camp and sent on covert missions by his Allied handlers. Now during the Cold War, he'd been redeployed as Steve Griggs, a nondescript American husband and father of four serving stateside as a cook in the U.S. Army. Though still doing black-bag jobs on the side, this dangerous, volatile man was consumed by an insatiable appetite for sadistic violence and psychological torture. And now, his obsessions in...
Jun 03, 2018•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 379
Nancy Pfister, heir to Buttermilk Mountain, the world-renowned site of the Winter X Games, was Aspen royalty, its ambassador to the world. She lived among the rich and famous: she partied with Hunter S. Thompson, dated Jack Nicholson, had a joint baby shower with Goldie Hawn, and globetrotted with Angelica Houston. She was also a philanthropist, admired for her generosity. But behind the warm façade, she could be selfish, manipulative, and careless. Pfister enjoyed bragging about her wealth and ...
May 29, 2018•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 378
On December 13, 1934, Albert Fish was apprehended by Detective William King for the kidnapping and murder of ten-year-old Grace Budd. Fish’s defense attorney obtained the services of Dr. Fredric Wertham for Fish’s psychiatric examination. Dr. Wertham’s files were ordered closed until 2010. Documents from Wertham’s files, including confessions and writings by Albert Fish, are published here for the first time in history. FULLY ILLUSTRATED - INCLUDING: CONFESSIONS AND OTHER WRITINGS Includes never...
May 24, 2018•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 377
A LOVING FATHER A typical morning in the Atlanta suburbs: Businessman Rusty Sneiderman drops his beloved son off at the Dunwoody Prep nursery. In the parking lot, a minivan pulls up next to his car. The driver pulls out a gun-and shoots Rusty four times in the chest. A HEARTBROKEN WIFE Sneiderman's devoted wife, Andrea, is devastated by the crime. Who could have done this? She is shocked when police trace the shooting to a man named Hemy Neuman-who happens to be Andrea's adoring boss. A DEADLY O...
May 17, 2018•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 376
A true recounting of the high-profile Oregon murder case that led to Karly's Law. Part memoir, part investigative journalism, this is the story Ann Rule called "A Must Read." Reminiscent of Capote's In Cold Blood, the book has been written in the tradition of new journalism. The writer's proximity to the people involved make for unrelenting storytelling. As Karly's abuse escalates, the investigations unravel at a rapid-fire pace. KARLY SHEEHAN: True Crime of Karly's Law-Karen Spears Zacharias Fo...
May 15, 2018•1 hr 43 min•Ep. 375
Do you think I’m pretty. No one likes me. I hate my life. I wish I had a friend. It was the mantra of fourteen-year-old Sherokee Harriman, who in September 2015 faced her alleged bullies in a small Tennessee public park and pulled out a concealed kitchen knife. She drove the knife into her stomach as the horrified teens watched. Local media focused on sensationalism rather than truth. The word “bullicide” was used, meaning bullying drove Sherokee to kill herself. The story of Sherokee’s death fl...
May 10, 2018•1 hr 41 min•Ep. 374
A reign of terror swept the streets of Birmingham in the 1920s. Criminals armed with small axes attacked immigrant merchants and interracial couples, leaving dozens dead or injured over the course of four years. Desperate for answers, police accepted clues from a Ouija board, while citizens clamored for gun permits for protection. The city's Italian immigrants formed their own association as protection against the Black Hand, an organized band of brutal criminals. Eventually, the police turned t...
May 08, 2018•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 373
Before domestic violence hot lines and safe houses were widespread, June Briand shot four bullets into her husband’s head and was sentenced to fifteen years to life. This is the shocking true story of survival—and the intense bond June shared with her pathologically violent husband, a monster who physically and sexually tortured, degraded and dominated her so relentlessly that she refused to believe he was dead even after she killed him. What kind of woman would slay her own husband? What kind o...
May 03, 2018•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 372
On March 13, 1980, In Ventura County, California, prominent attorney Lyman Robert Smith, on the verge of being appointed a Superior Court judge, and his wife Charlene were murdered in their home. Author Anne Penn her actual name Laurie, is the couple's neice. She was close to her grandfather, Lyman's father and saw the devastaing impact the murders had on the family. Once she realized it was the work of EAR/ONS Laurie vowed to do all she could to investigate and help solve the incredible serial ...
May 02, 2018•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 371
Det. Richard Shelby was the first Sacramento detective to make a connection between a series of rapes that began in communities in East Sacramento. Law enforcement failed to stop him before he transformed in to a Southern California serial killer, committing some 53 rapes and 12 homicides from 1976-1986. After Shelby's retirement, 20 years after the case had gone cold, he was contacted by his old employer, the Sacramento Sheriff's Derpartment. They had learned , through DNA analysis, that the Ea...
May 01, 2018•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 370
Absolute Madness tells the disturbing true story of Joseph Christopher, a white serial killer who targeted black males and struck fear into the residents of Buffalo and New York City in the 1980s. Dubbed both the .22-Caliber Killer and the Midtown Slasher, Christopher allegedly claimed eighteen victims during a savage four-month spree across the state. The investigation, aided by famed FBI profiler John Douglas, drew national attention and biting criticism from Jesse Jackson and other civil righ...
Apr 26, 2018•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 369
Presenting the most notorious unsolved crimes in Northeast Ohio . . . Investigative reporter James Renner reopens cold cases and delves into dark secrets that have baffled Clevelanders for years, including: • Murder?Beverly Jarosz, just 16 years old, felt a dark foreboding in the months before she was stabbed to death in her quiet Garfield Heights home. It all started with an anonymous gift. • Stolen Identity?Joseph Newton Chandler of Eastlake was not who he claimed to be. Some think he was the ...
Apr 19, 2018•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 368
On February 5th, 2007 Charity Lee Bennett was working her shift at Buffalo Wild Wings in Abilene Texas when two police officers came to inform her that her 4 year-old daughter Ella was dead and her 13 year-old son Paris had killed her. He had convinced the babysitter she could go home and afterwards entered the room of his sister. She was beaten and strangled and stabbed 17 times. Paris first called his school friend and then 8 minutes later called 911. On March 20th, 2018 FilmRise released the ...
Apr 16, 2018•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 367
The year was 1965. The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and The Righteous Brothers filled the airwaves. Television shows like "The Adventures of Ozzy and Harriett" and "The Andy Griffith Show" mirrored the innocence of life in the dusty city of Tucson, Az. But the sunbaked desert surrounding Tucson was hiding a sinister secret. A psychopath names Charles Schmid, later nicknamed the "Pied Piper of Tucson" by Life Magazine, would steal that innocence away, along with the lives of three beautiful teenage gi...
Apr 13, 2018•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 366
In the pantheon of serial killers, Belle Gunness stands alone. She was the rarest of female psychopaths, a woman who engaged in wholesale slaughter, partly out of greed but mostly for the sheer joy of it. Between 1902 and 1908, she lured a succession of unsuspecting victims to her Indiana “murder farm.” Some were hired hands. Others were well-to-do bachelors. All of them vanished without a trace. When their bodies were dug up, they hadn’t merely been poisoned, like victims of other female killer...
Apr 05, 2018•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 365
Discover the haunting untold true story of the woman whose crimes inspired speculation that Jack the Ripper was a woman. On October 24, 1890, a woman was discovered on a pile of rubbish in Hampstead, North London. Her arms were lacerated and her face bloodied; her head was severed from her body save a few sinews. Later that day, a blood-soaked stroller was found leaning against a residential gate, and the following morning the dead body of a baby was found hidden underneath a nettle bush. So beg...
Apr 03, 2018•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 364
Investigation Discovery’s MURDER CHOSE ME, featuring legendaryShreveport, Louisiana homicide detective Rod Demery returns for its second season on Wednesday,April 4 at 10/9c, only on ID. The series follows Demery as he reflects on memorable cases from his 14 years as a homicide detective, where he miraculously achieved a confession and 100% solve rate in the more than 250 homicide cases where he served as lead detective. Demery himself is no stranger to tragedy, having experienced an incredible ...
Mar 30, 2018•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 363
In May, 1988, in Everett, Washington, four-year-old Feather Rahier disappeared while playing outside after dinner. Her frantic cries drew Feather's mother to the dark garage that was home to Richard Matthew Clark. Clark had stolen the child, bound and gagged her, and begun to undress her. Only at the last instant was the little girl saved by her mother's desperate intervention. The next victim wouldn't be so fortunate. Without A Trace On the night of March 31, 1995, Roxanne Doll, 7, was abducted...
Mar 27, 2018•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 362
JUDGE. JURY. EXECUTIONER. On a cold January morning, the killer executed Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse in broad daylight. Eight shots fired a block from the Kaufman County Courthouse. Two months later, a massacre. The day before Easter, the couple slept. Bunnies, eggs, a flower centerpiece gracing the table. Death rang their doorbell and filled the air with the rat-a-tat-tat of an assault weapon discharging round after round into their bodies. Eric Williams and his wife, Kim, celebrated...
Mar 21, 2018•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 361
They stared into the faces of pure evil . . . and survived! Ted Bundy . . . Jeffrey Dahmer . . . David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz . . . Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer . . . These are some of the names that strike terror into even the bravest of hearts. Human monsters, they preyed upon the unsuspecting, freely feeding their terrible hungers. Their crimes were unspeakable, as they maimed, tortured, killed, and killed again, leaving so many dead in their bloody wake. But somehow, astonishingly, seven wou...
Mar 15, 2018•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 360
From the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, a radical new way of thinking about depression and anxiety. What really causes depression and anxiety - and how can we really solve them? Award-winning journalist Johann Hari suffered from depression since he was a child and started taking anti-depressants when he was a teenager. He was told that his problems were caused by a chemical imbalance in his brain. As an adult, trained in the ...
Mar 09, 2018•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 359
