“Catching Killers” retells the stories of some of America’s most notorious serial killers from the point-of-view of the people who caught them. Each film in this series recounts the investigation into one notorious killer. One of the more terrifying cases is covered in the two-episode arc in “True Lies.” After a body is discovered in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge, a grandmother accuses her alcoholic boyfriend of being the killer. Laverne Pavlinac even provides more details, fabricated evidence, ...
Dec 08, 2021•34 min
Next up on You Can't Make This Up, we are talking about Catching Killers . This series retells the stories of some of America’s most notorious serial killers from the point of view of the people who caught them. Each film in this series recounts the investigation into one infamous case. Next week, our host Rebecca Lavoie will be interviewing one of the series directors, Alex Emslie. Make sure to watch Catching Killers before then, and especially the two-episode arc "True Lies, Part 1 & Part ...
Dec 01, 2021•8 min
Spoiler Alert! If you haven't watched the wild ride that is Tiger King 2, go watch it on Netflix now. Today, our host Rebecca Lavoie is talking to directors Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin about all things Tiger King 2. When we last heard from America’s most notorious big cat owners, Joe Exotic was behind bars. He had been convicted of animal abuse and planning the murder of an animal activist & CEO of a non-profit animal sanctuary, Carole Baskin. Jeff Lowe and Tim Stark formed an uneasy par...
Nov 24, 2021•34 min
Tiger King is back and Season 2 is out on Netflix now. As you get ready to binge-watch away, today's You Can't Make This Up episode is a reminder of all the wild events that ensued in season 1. We will also share some snippets from our first interview about season 1 with the directors, Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin. When we last heard from America’s most notorious big cat owners, Joe Exotic was behind bars. He had been convicted of animal abuse and planning the murder of an animal activist &am...
Nov 17, 2021•13 min
The Netflix documentary, 'Found' is an extraordinary tale of three teenagers who were born in China and adopted by American families. Though these girls live in different parts of the country, they discover through DNA tests that they are cousins and quickly become very close. They then decide to take a journey back to China together to find out more about where they come from. In this episode, our host Rebecca Lavoie interviews director Amanda Lipitz and producer Anita Gou about this heartfelt ...
Nov 10, 2021•41 min
The Netflix documentary, 'Found' is an extraordinary tale of three teenagers who were born in China and adopted by American families. Though these girls live in different parts of the country, they discover through DNA tests that they are cousins and quickly become very close. They then decide to take a journey back to China together to find out more about where they come from. In this episode, our host Rebecca Lavoie gives you a sneak peek into one of the most heartfelt and moving films she has...
Nov 03, 2021•7 min
The world of sports and true crime collide in the new Netflix series, "Bad Sport." The show examines the misdeeds of athletes, coaches, officials... and even nations. Episodes include a point-shaving scandal in basketball, a match-fixing case in soccer, an Indycar drug smuggling operation, and an insurance fraud involving the assassination of... a racehorse. But today we focus on the episode set in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. For decades, the Russians had dominated the sport of pa...
Oct 27, 2021•35 min
For as long as we've had competitive sports, there's been scandal. In the new docuseries, Bad Sport , true crime and sports intersect, with firsthand accounts of some of the most shocking scandals you won't soon forget. Rebecca gives you a sneak peak into the series ahead of next week's episode, when she sits down with Lizzie Kempton, director of Bad Sport: Gold War . Watch it now so you're all caught up for next week's conversation!...
Oct 21, 2021•7 min
In today's episode, we take a closer look at the documentary, Britney vs. Spears and speak with the film's director, Erin Lee Carr. Britney Spears was a mega-superstar and favorite of the paparazzi. Then Britney suffered a few very public meltdowns, the singer's parents and management team went to court to secure control of her vast fortune and life. The conservatorship allowed others to manage Britney's personal life and career. A process designed to protect the elderly and infirm was being use...
Oct 13, 2021•33 min
In the 1970s police at Ohio State University arrested a man for a string of campus rapes. When examined by a doctor, it was determined that Billy Milligan had what was called multiple personality disorder. His personas were of different ages, genders, and temperaments. Milligan's case fascinated the public, law enforcement, and medical experts alike. Join us this week as our host, Rebecca Lavoie sits down with Billy Milligan's sister and veteran teacher, Kathy Preston. This episode contains spoi...
Oct 06, 2021•36 min
The Guilty takes place over the course of a single morning in a 911 dispatch call center. Call operator Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) tries to save a caller in grave danger—but he soon discovers that nothing is as it seems, and facing the truth is the only way out. Watch The Guilty on Netflix October 1.
Sep 24, 2021•2 min
Bob Ross brought joy to millions as the world's most famous art instructor on the TV series “The Joy of Painting.” But beyond the iconic hair, soothing voice, and nostalgic paintings, lies a mystery involving the artist’s personal life and business empire. This week we take a closer look at his legacy with Joshua Rofé, the producer and director of “Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed”.
Sep 22, 2021•30 min
Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami is a six-part documentary series on the South Florida traffickers indicted in one of the largest drug cases in U.S. history. Cuban exiles Augusto “Willy” Falcon and Salvador “Sal” Magluta were accused of smuggling over 75 tons of cocaine into the U.S. in the 1980s. The high school friends built a reputed $2 billion empire that made Willy and Sal, aka “Los Muchachos,” two of Miami’s biggest celebrities. Up this week, our host Rebecca Lavoie sits down with two f...
Sep 15, 2021•39 min
Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami is a six-part documentary series on the South Florida traffickers indicted in one of the largest drug cases in U.S. history. Cuban exiles Augusto “Willy” Falcon and Salvador “Sal” Magluta were accused of smuggling over 75 tons of cocaine into the U.S. in the 1980s. The high school friends built a reputed $2 billion empire that made Willy and Sal, aka “Los Muchachos,” two of Miami’s biggest celebrities. Up this week, our host Rebecca Lavoie sits down with the "...
Aug 27, 2021•45 min
Ex-leaders and a survivor of the so-called "conversion therapy" movement speak out about its harm to the LGBTQ+ community and its devastating persistence. In this episode, Rebecca Lavoie speaks with Director Kristine Stolakis and producer Jessica Devaney about the Netflix documentary film "Pray Away." This episode contains spoilers so make sure to watch all of "Pray Away" before listening on.
Aug 24, 2021•37 min
Suburban father “Toby” Curtsinger was bored when he began smuggling and selling bottles of rare and expensive whiskey from the distillery where he worked in Frankfort, Kentucky. But what seemed like an easy way to improve his family’s quality of life, soon escalated from a side hustle of booze-skimming to organized crime. In this episode, Rebecca Lavoie speaks with Executive Producer Nick Frew about "The Bourbon King" -- part three of our special coverage of all three stories featured in the doc...
Aug 05, 2021•31 min
Karls Monzon immigrated to Miami from Cuba in search of his American dream to own a home, a nice car, and start a family. But when his wife struggled to have children, he hatched a plan to pay for an expensive adoption by stealing millions in cash delivered by plane to Miami International Airport. And he did all the research he needed to pull off the heist by watching American TV. Up for discussion today is “The Money Plane”—part two of our special coverage of all three stories featured in the d...
Jul 28, 2021•32 min
We’re kicking off the first of a three-part special from the Netflix documentary series, Heist. This series chronicles three of the biggest heists in modern American history through in-depth interviews with the people who pulled them off. 21-year-old Heather Tallchief felt lost in life until she was swept off her feet by prison poet and paroled murderer, Roberto Solis. Hypnotized by Roberto’s dangerous allure and practice of “sex magick,” she gets involved with the largest armored truck robbery ...
Jul 22, 2021•42 min
The murder of a French woman in rural Ireland sets off a convoluted quest for justice that spans decades and cuts across national borders. This week, our host Rebecca Lavoie covers the new Netflix docu-series “Sophie: A Murder in West Cork" and speaks with Suzanne Lavery, the series’s executive producer. This episode contains spoilers so be sure to watch all three episodes of “Sophie: A Murder in West Cork” before listening on. If you like “You Can’t Make This Up,” please rate, and review this s...
Jul 14, 2021•32 min
Welcome to You Can't Make This Up, a companion podcast for Netflix's original true crime stories. In each episode, we take a close-up look at a true-crime narrative, documentary, or series, and our host Rebecca Lavoie talks to the people who made them. We dive deep into the backstories and get answers to questions raised by what we just watched. This week, we’ll be discussing the documentary “Nail Bomber: Manhunt” with the film’s executive producer, Colin Barr. "Nail Bomber: Manhunt," tells the ...
Jun 02, 2021•41 min
This episode contains *spoilers* so make sure to watch the entire series of "The Sons of Sam" on Netflix before listening on. When the “Son of Sam,” David Berkowitz was caught in the summer of 1977 after a string of shooting attacks in New York City, the world believed the nightmare was over, but for journalist Maury Terry, the real mystery was just beginning. Terry was convinced that Berkowitz had not acted alone. He spent decades attempting to prove that the web of darkness behind the murders ...
May 12, 2021•44 min
This episode contains spoilers so make sure to watch all of the film "Why Did You Kill Me?" on Netflix before listening on. After her daughter’s murder, a mother uses the social networking site MySpace to find the people she believes are responsible. She creates a fake profile that leads to unexpected intimacy with the suspects, a key break in the case, and a dark revenge plot. The documentary film "Why Did You Kill Me?" offers a gripping look at the effects of loss and the relationship between ...
May 05, 2021•41 min
On today’s show, we’re taking a break from our usual format to premiere a new original Netflix podcast: “Searching for The Sons of Sam.” From Tenderfoot TV and true crime director Joshua Zeman comes a 5-part audio documentary about Zeman’s relationship with the late journalist Maury Terry. Terry spent 40 years of his life trying to prove that convicted Son of Sam serial killer David Berkowitz had not acted alone. Terry’s book, “The Ultimate Evil,” lays out his case that the Son of Sam murders we...
Apr 28, 2021•37 min
In 1990, two men dressed as cops conned their way into a Boston museum and stole a fortune in art. The stolen works are estimated to be worth over half a billion dollars today and there’s a 10 million dollar reward for whoever finds it. “This is A Robbery: The World’s Greatest Art Heist” goes deep into the leads, dead ends, lucky breaks, and speculations surrounding this notorious crime that remains unsolved over 30 years later. Join host Rebecca Lavoie as she speaks with Colin Barnicle, the ser...
Apr 14, 2021•26 min
You’ve probably heard a lot about the 2019 college admission scandal, but you haven’t heard everything. Operation Varsity Blues goes beyond the celebrity-driven headlines with real conversations from FBI wiretaps. The film offers a rare glimpse of the man at the center of the scandal, Rick Singer, and the methods he used to help his wealthy clients cheat a system already designed to benefit the privileged. Our host Rebecca Lavoie is joined by two guests in this episode, Jon Karmen (the film’s ed...
Mar 24, 2021•30 min
A note to listeners: This episode contains spoilers. So make sure to watch the entire series and then, listen on. In Salt Lake City in 1985, a trio of pipe bombings killed two people. The murders sent shockwaves through the Mormon Church when a trove of historically controversial Latter-Day Saints letters was found destroyed in the vehicle of the third victim, a renowned collector of rare documents. As he fights for his life, investigators raced to uncover the truth. “Murder Among the Mormons” i...
Mar 10, 2021•44 min
For nearly a century, the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles has been linked to some of the city’s most notorious activity — from untimely deaths to housing serial killers. In 2013, college student Elisa Lam vanished while staying as a guest at the hotel. Her disappearance ignited a media frenzy that mobilized a global community of internet sleuths eager to solve the case. In this episode, host Rebecca Lavoie speaks with Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Joe Berlinger to discus...
Feb 19, 2021•39 min
It was the late 1970s. A serial killer known as the Yorkshire Ripper cast a dark shadow over the lives of women across England. Over a span of five years, thirteen women were dead and the police seemed incapable of catching the murderer. No one felt safe – and every man was a suspect.
Jan 27, 2021•43 min
The mid-1980s was a period of terror in Southern California. A series of random home invasions, sexual assaults, and brutal murders were happening across the region. Men, women, and children of all races and walks of life were victims. Stranger yet, the horrendous methods of killings fit no particular pattern. Some victims were strangled. Some were shot. Some were beaten to death. Night Stalker: The Hunt For a Serial Killer is the definitive portrait of one of the most disturbing and unpredictab...
Jan 20, 2021•37 min
In the early 1980s, the crack epidemic tore through America like a tsunami, ravaging all in its wake. And the destructive effects on people's lives, families, and communities are still deeply felt decades later. “Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy” examines the drug’s devastation, shadowy origins, and the ongoing criminalization of Black and Brown people in U.S. prison and healthcare systems. Rebecca speaks with director Stanley Nelson. This episode contains spoilers. So make sure to wa...
Jan 13, 2021•29 min
