I'm the host of True Murder Dan Zupanski, and I'm recommending a podcast that truly captivated me. It's called kill List. One night, a hacker breaks into a dark web murder for higher sight, uncovering a chilling cache of documents called the kill List. It details hundreds of names around the globe, complete with faces, addresses, as well as payments and instructions for their murders. When a murder disguised as a suicide shakes a quiet suburb, a hacker connects the victim to
the kill list. With local police slow to act, he turns to an unsuspecting investigative journalist to help. His name is Carl Miller. When law enforcement decides not to investigate, our team is forced to take matters into our own hands, a decision that plunges us into a high stakes race to warn those whose lives are in danger, and it turns out convincing a total stranger someone wants I'm dead is not that easy. I'm about to play a clip
from kill List. Follow kill List on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Are you ready?
Yep?
It's a Thursday afternoon and I'm going to call with one of my producers. The road outside my house is almost totally silent. On my computer, I open Chris's documents.
Oh wow, there's a lot on here.
Yeah, Chris is running through the orders.
But this is the first time I've got my hands on the kill list itself. It's a long spreadsheet of names, locations, telephone numbers.
So how many do we have?
It looks like those eighty five eighty five.
I scroll through the list, A man from the US, a woman from Russia. Alongside each name there are contact details, workplace addresses, details of their movements, and in most cases, there are photos.
The photos are the thing that strike me first.
A few dozen people staring out at you as you open this document. In one, a middle aged man stands surrounded by his family. His light blue eyes twinkle with a deep and joyful pride. In another, a woman tilts her head. She smiles shyly at the camera over wimless glasses. She's somewhere glipsy. She looks relaxed and happy. The thing that's so striking about these photos is that they look
like they've all been taken from the social media. They look like kind of mainly Facebook profile so they're the ones that you decide to put on your profile picture.
Yeah, they're nice photos.
Yeah, and it's I mean, it's just a p But they all just sort of have this on, you know. They just don't know and this is just sort of looming over their head and they have no idea.
You know, man, this is awful.
This list looks like any other Excel spreadsheets. It's innocuous, boring, even until you read the instructions listed against each name.
There's one fucking guy and I only have his name and the city he lives in.
How can I hire a killer to kill him?
How much bitcoin should I pay?
Tell me the execution time and advairs.
I can't be there.
I would just like this person to be shot and killed where, how and what with?
Does not bother me at all.
I would just like this person dead.
These are the messages written by whoever paid to have these people assassinated, Their specifications for the hit, kill.
Your kidnaps silent, and your race without the trace. Killer nurse in Taipei.
I guess we don't know the badstory, but like a nurse, I want her to be killed.
It should seems instead because.
Of abstract kidnapped family in Hong Kong.
Can we say fifteen bit coin for hip of the car and sure fatality?
Mother needs to die. Someone wants to kill their mind.
Kill an unidentified woman in Ottawa.
Kill a woman who permitted sexual abuse. Jesus, man, this is terrible, just.
Like these are really possibly eighty five really serious crimes just staring back at us. Yeah, I mean this is conspiracy to commit murder ethically, this is the hardest thing to cover that I've ever tried to do. And for sure, I mean this is an ethical bomb waiting to blow up in our faces if we don't do this correctly.
Yeah. I don't know, man.
It looks like a big Pandora's box that were opening, and once you open it, it's opening.
I don't think we can put it shirt.
The thought of what could go wrong if I meddle with this is terrifying, But so is the thought of what could happen if I do nothing. So I start with the obvious step. I'm quite nervous, honestly, like I wasn't able to sleep that well.
I don't know why.
Suddenly makes it a lot more real when it's just a spreadsheet at the moment, and it's about to turn into a crime. I'm about to phone the police and hand over my information. Chris might have struggled with law enforcements, but I've worked with the police before in my reporting.
I'm confident I can do better.
After all, this is a credible threats How hard can it be to get them to take it seriously?
All right?
Should I just do it? Then?
Follow kill List on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast. You can listen to kill List and more Exhibit see true crime shows like Morbid Early and Adfrey right now by joining Wondery plus check out Exhibit C in the Wondery app for all your true crime listening