Sinister Crimes and Cocktails: A True Crime Podcast

In June of 2014, 37-year-old Gregory Scott Hale, was arrested in Coffee County, Tennessee, and charged with first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse. He confessed to authorities of killing 36-year-old Lisa Marie Hyder before he dismembered her and then ate parts of her body less than a day after meeting her. So, what makes one commit murder and then eat their victim. References:CANNIBALIZED MURDER VICTIM FROM PIKEVILLE TENNESSEE | Crossville News First (crossvillenews1st.com)Gregory Scott Ha...

In 1981, Japanese killer Issei Sagawa, also known as the “Kobe Cannibal,” murdered his friend Renée Hartevelt, a young Dutch student, and ate her remains. Nevertheless, he was never charged for his crime and lived as freeman after committing the murder. So, what makes one want to eat their friend.References:Japanese Cannibal, Who Was Never Punished for Eating Woman, Dies (thedailybeast.com)‘Kobe Cannibal’ Issei Sagawa, who killed and ate a Dutch student, dies at age 73 | The Straits TimesIsse...

Since the very beginning of our podcast, Kori and I have pointed out many mistakes that parents have made with their children or dire situations that young children have been privy to that has led to their sinister actions. So, for Mother’s Day we put together a Top 10 list of How Not to Raise a Killer. Support the Show.email- sinistercrimesandcocktails@gmail.comwebsite-https://www.sinistercrimesandcocktailspodcast.com/Facebook Page-https://www.facebook.com/sinistercrimesandcocktailsIns...

Andrei Chikatilo aka, “The Butcher of Rostov” or “The Red Ripper” was one of the most prolific killers in the Ukraine. Between 1978 to 1990 he murdered at least 53 young women and children who he lured into the woods, raping his victims before he ate their sexual organs, as well as removing other body parts like their nose and eyes. After twelve years of slipping through the authorities’ fingers on multiply occasions, Chikatilo was arrested in 1990 and executed for his crimes in 1994. S...

Hilda Nilsson also known as “The Angel Maker on Bruks Street”, is in one of Sweden’s most notorious female serial killers. In 1917 she was imprisoned for murdering eight children that were under her care at her home and given a life sentence. So, what would make a woman caring for infants turn into such a sinister killer.References:Sweden's Most Deadly Baby Farmer Hilda Nilsson - Crimes LabSwedish History - Hans Högman (hhogman.se)Hilda Nilsson | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderersSupp...

Some serial killers develop a kind of calling card throughout their rein of terror such the “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez leaving a bloody pentagram or the “Son of Sam” David Berkowitz leaving handwritten letters. Serial killer Charles Albright, a native Texan, left his own unique calling card as well. During the early 90’s in Dallas, Texas, Albright killed a string of female sex workers and removed his victims’ eyeballs with surgical precision. Throughout his life, Charles Albright had bee...

From July of 1976 to July of 1977, one of America’s most notorious serial killers, David Berkowitz, better known by his moniker, The Son of Sam, swept panic through the streets and boroughs of New York City with a murder spree that captivated the nation and ignited a media frenzy. Over the course of that year, in three of the city’s boroughs, Berkowitz, using a.44 caliber Bulldog revolver randomly shot New York citizens, leaving six dead and seven wounded. He left handwritten letters at some ...

In Anchorage, Alaska on February 22, 2024, 53-year-old South African immigrant Brian Steven Smith was convicted in 14 charges including first and second-degree murder, sexual assault, tampering with physical evidence and misconduct involving a corpse for the murders of 52-year-old Veronica Abouchuk and 30-year-old Kathleen Jo Henry. Both women were from small villages in western Alaska and had experienced homelessness and addiction. Smith was connected to the murders in September of 2019, whe...

The most infamous serial killer in the history of North Carolina is that of Henry Lewis Wallace, also known as “The Charolette Strangler or “The Taco Bell Killer. During the early-90’s Wallace murdered nearly a dozen black women, who almost all had one thing in common, they knew him. For several years he remained at large, causing hysteria in the city of Charolette, especially amongst the minority community where a large number of the murders had taken place. A lack of adequate police patroll...

For most of us when we think of Easter, we think of church services, the Easter bunny, dyed eggs, family gatherings, and Easter egg hunts. However, for one country their most common Easter tradition is something altogether more sinister.References:Easter Traditions in Norway - Life in NorwayEaster crime: Norwegian Easter equals brutal murders | The Norwegian phenomenon påskekrim (visitnorway.com)Norway’s Weird 100-Year-Old Easter Tradition Of Crime Fiction (forbes.com)How did crime fiction be...

A small English community in Cornwall, England would be shaken to its core when in 1952 the battered bodies of a wealthy and well-respected married couple were discovered on Porthpean Beach near St Austell, England. The investigation of the double murder would lead authorities to the couple’s only living son, Miles William Giffard, who was eventually found guilty of murdering his parents and hung to death in 1953. So, what caused Miles Giffard to kill his parents and were their other sinister...

In December of 2010, along a remote stretch of sand on the South Shore of Gilgo Beach in Long Island, New York, a police officer and his dog would discover human remains while searching for a missing woman. Just a few days later, the police would find the remains of three other women. Like the first victim, they were petite, in their 20s and worked as escorts. In the following weeks, six other bodies were discovered, including that of a man and a 2-year-old girl who have never identified. The...

Irish newlyweds Colin Whelan and Mary Gough had been married just six months when on March 1, 2001, Colin called for an ambulance claiming that his wife had fallen down the stairs of their home in Balbriggan Co Dublin and wasn’t breathing. Mary was pronounced dead at the hospital but when her autopsy examination revealed she died of asphyxiation, a murder investigation quickly ensued. Police would soon learn that Colin had been planning his wife’s brutal murder for almost a year. He would be ...

Welsh serial killer John Cooper, a diagnosed psychopath committed two double murders, one in 1985 and the other in 1989 in the Pembrokeshire area of Wales. The murders became known as the "Pembrokeshire Murders" or the "Coastal Murders" with Cooper earning the name the "Bullseye Killer" after his appearance on a game show that would eventually help led to his arrest. Now these were not Cooper's only sinister misdoings, he had a long history of violent crimes that included armed robbery and se...

In August of 2004, in the small coastal town of Jenner, California 22-year-old Lindsay Cutshall and her fiancé 26-year-old Jason Allen, where found shot to death in their sleeping bags on Fish Head Beach with little evidence being left at the crime scene. The couple’s murder investigation would span over 13 years with countless conspiracy theories spurred before their killer was identified. In 2017, self-proclaimed survivalist Shaun Michael Gallon was arrested for the murder of his brother an...

The first public arrest through genetic genealogy was the April 2018 identification of the suspected "Golden State Killer." Since then, genetic genealogy has helped identify more than three dozen suspects in violent crimes, with one of those being the murder of Pamela Cahanes. In August of 1984, Orlando Navy recruit 25-year-old Pamela Cahanes was found beaten and strangled to death in Sanford, Florida. Almost 40 years later DNA and genetic genealogy would link Thomas Lewis Garner, a former na...

On October 4, 1978, two electric company workers found the remains of a young woman near the campus of Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. She had been beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled; at the time police called her injuries "extreme trauma". The young woman was soon identified as 16-year-old Krisann Baxter who had been reported to police as a runaway just a few days earlier. The case soon turned cold, but her clothing and other evidence was preserved despite this bein...

Just last month, on January 24, 2024, 37-year-old Sarah Scheffer, a part-time art and design teacher at the Christian Calvary Lutheran High School in Jefferson City, Missouri was charged with the attempted murder of her husband by continuous poisoning. Over a six-week period, Sarah’s husband had grown suspicious of his wife after becoming severely ill from ingesting several meals and beverages made by her. Her husband then set up a hidden camera in their kitchen. After capturing his deadly di...

In late September of 1981 23-year-old Laura Kempton’s body was discovered in her Portsmouth, New Hampshire apartment by police. Laura had last been seen alive in the early morning hours before her murder, entering her apartment alone after a night out with a friend. Over the next four decades, investigators pursued hundreds of leads and potential suspects, but were unable to identify the perpetrator. That was until 2022, when the Portsmouth Police Department, working in conjunction with...

Between1986 and 1989 on or near a scenic drive that connects Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown in southeastern Virginia, two double homicides occurred with a third believing to have taken place, but those bodies have never been found. The killings were suspected to be the workings of a serial killer. Sadly, investigators were unable to apprehend the culprit and the slayings now known as the "Colonial Parkway Murders” went cold. Between those years, in the 1987, 20-year-old David Knobling ...

Located in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia at the Ivy Hill Cemetery in Cedarbrook, there is a headstone that reads “America’s Unknown Child.” The child who lies beneath the headstone, is a boy who was found in a cardboard box beaten to death some 65 years ago in 1957. The death of the young boy is one of Philadelphia’s most famous unsolved murders with the case having become known as the “Boy in the Box.” For decades this cold case has baffled Philadelphia police who over the years have purs...

The two cases that we will be diving into today are our last Texas cold cases we will be looking at this month. Both these cases have had more details made public than any other Texas cold case we have covered but have yet to find a resolution for the victims’ families. However, a new theory has emerged for one that does not include foul play, while police have three suspects for the other with no arrest being made so far. References:Details - Unsolved Homicide (texas.gov)Missing Pieces ...

We are still paying it forward this month and once again are looking at cold cases in our home state of Texas. Just like before, few details have been released to the public since they are still ongoing investigations. If you have any information regarding the cold cases we cover, please come forward and help give closure to the victims’ families. · If any of you have any information about these unsolved cases you can submit a tip through the Texas Rangers’ Cold Case website http://www.dps.te...

As part of us paying it forward for the month of January we decided to try to renew interest in some cold cases in our home state of Texas. Since Texas does not have a statute of limitations when it comes to murder, these cold cases are still considered active investigations, with few details pertaining to the crimes and suspects having been released. Our hope is that this coverage will spark a memory or bring someone forward who has information about the crimes or perpetrators. At the end of...

We have been fortunate to have other podcasts such as Into the Looking Glass, Darkly to help promote our show when we first launched Sinister Crimes and Cocktails. For our New Years Bonus Episode this year, Kori and I wanted to pay it forward by promoting the new podcast Slaycation, that has a truly fascinating twist on true crime podcasts. Slaycation, which will be launched on January 9th, is a gripping and darkly comedic podcast that delves into the chilling world of murders on vacation. Ho...

On July 23, 2016, inside the Ellenville, NY, apartment of 27-year-old Sarra Gilbert a murder in the most horrific fashion occurred. Sarra stabbed her 52-year-old mother, Mari Gilbert more than 200 hundred times and then bludgeoned her head with a fire extinguisher until she was certain her mother was dead. Sarra had a long history of mental illness staring at a young age, with her defense attorney arguing that on the day of the murder, she had been suffering from hallucinations and was hearin...

Regardless of whether you take part in the Christmas traditions or not, most everyone in the world is familiar with the plump jolly guy dressed in a velvet red suit, fashioned with a big shiny belt buckle and clunky black boots as the face of Christmas. Sorry, Jesus, but it’s kind of true. As part of our Christmas traditions, we sing carols of praise as well as those embedded with Santa himself. One such popular Christmas carol, sung by Americans is Santa Claus is Coming to Town, but have you...

On the evening of September 23, 1995, in Sollies-Pont, France, 16-year-old high school student Éric Borel, murdered his entire family with his stepfather’s .22-caliber rifle. Afterwards, he walked several miles to the Village of Cuers, where the next morning he strolled through the streets and continued his shooting spree. Éric took the lives of 13 people, including his family, and injured four more during his deadly rampage. What had caused such a heinous act of violence remains unclear but ...

In January of 1999, thirteen-year-old Catherine Jones and her twelve-year-old brother Curtis Jones fatally shot their father’s live-in girlfriend, Sonya Speights at their Port St. John, Florida home. On several occasions prior to committing the murder, the young siblings had cried out for help about the sexual abuse they were enduring at the hands of another male relative who was living in the home. But when those cries for help fell on deaf ears, with their father nor his girlfriend doing an...

On the late summer afternoon of July 16, 2011, 54-year-old Blake Hadley and his wife 47-year-old Mary-Jo Hadley, were bludgeoned to death in their Port St. Lucie, Florida home. Their killer was their 17-year-old troubled son, Tyler Hadley. After murdering his parents, Tyler hid their bodies in the master bedroom, attempted to clean up the evidence and then later that night, threw a ragger of a party at their home. A couple of weeks prior to the double murders, Tyler had allegedly told several...

On December 15, 2011, in the beautiful seemingly small town of Bridgeport, Connecticut, 35 -year-old Tyree Smith hacked a homeless Angel "Tun Tun" Gonzalez, to death with an ax in an abandoned apartment building. He then removed part of Gonzalez’s brain and one of his eyes, placing the organs safely in his backpack and walked to a nearby cemetery. While Tyree stood over one of his family members’ graves, he snacked on pieces of brain and the lone eyeball he had brought with him. Since childho...

According to U.S. News & World Report, those delivered with the dreaded verdict of capital punishment are often afforded the right to a final meal of their choosing, and as long as the demands aren't unreasonable, they are generally granted their edible wish. Even the most sinister of serial killers are not denied this luxury. For our Thanksgiving Day Bonus this year we thought it would be fun to give you a tasty little treat of some of the final meals of the death row cases we have...

In 2012, Brazilian cannibals Jorge Beltrao Negromonte da Silveira, his wife Isabel Pires(pie-res), and his mistress Bruna Cristina Oliveira da Silva were arrested, for the murders of two women and a teenage girl whom they dismembered and ate. Not only did they dine upon their victims but also stuffed the flesh of the females they killed into savory pastries selling them to neighbors and other locals. The sinister three were dubbed as the “cannibals of Garanhaus” (gar-an-house) being named aft...

American serial killer and cannibal Joe Metheny aka “The Cannibal” claimed to have killed up to 10 female sex workers in Baltimore, Maryland during the 1990’s. Joe dismembered his victims’ bodies, saved pieces of their meat in his freezer, and discarded the rest of their remains in a nearby river or buried them. The 41-year-old serial killer who had an addiction to drugs and alcohol, admitted to eating the remains of some of his victims, combining the human meat with pork and beef. This meaty...

Albert Fish is known by many monikers such as the “The Vampire of Brooklyn”, “Moon Manic” or “The Grey Man” and is one of America’s most disturbed cannibal serial killers who was obsessed with sadomasochism. Many Americans during the Roaring Twenties spent their time at flashy parties, but Fish who suffered from deadly hallucinations spent his time developing at taste for human flesh. Authorities believed that Fish murdered as many as 10 children, luring them into abandoned homes to kill them...

Lawerence Bittaker and Roy Norris were two American serial killers, who over a 5-month period from June of 1979 to Halloween of that year, killed five teenage girls. The sinister pair used a modified torture van they ghoulishly nicknamed “Murder Mack, to drive along their hunting grounds on the lonely backroads of southern California. Lawerence and Roy hunted for teenage girls to kidnap, torture, rape, and murder, using ordinary tools like ice picks, pliers, and screw drivers as their instrum...

Sixteen-year-old American killer Roderrick Justin Ferrell founded a teenage cult in Murray, Kentucky known as the “Vampire Clan”. The cult teens believed they were vampires with Roderrick claiming he was a 500-year-old vampire named Vesago, a character he created for himself after becoming obsessed with a role-playing video game. Roderrick along with three other teenage cult members of the “Vampire Clan” traveled from Kentucky to Florida to pick 15-year-old Heather Wendorf, who wanted to run ...

In October of 1989, in the city of Brisbane, Australia, City Council worker 47 -year -old Edward Baldock was stabbed to death in a frenzied attack on the bank of a river in a suburb of the city. It was one of the most notorious crimes Brisbane has ever seen — and if not for one tiny clue left by the victim himself, it might have gone unsolved. The culprit was 24-year-old Tracey Wigginton, who believed that she was a vampire that needed to feed off human blood to survive. She led a band of thr...

Friedrich Haarmann known as Fritz, was a notorious serial killer in Hannover, Germany in the early 1920’s. Working as a police informant, Fritz was able to carry out a killing spree right under the noses of the police, committing sexual assault, , mutilation, dismemberment, and murder of at least twenty-four young male vagrants between 1918 and 1924. He would kill these young males by biting through their throats in a kind of sexual frenzy. These horrific acts earned Fritz the na...

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the most prolific female serial killer in the history of the world, is the Hungarian Countess, Elizabeth Bathory. In late 16th and early 17th centuries she tortured and killed anywhere between 50 to 650 young women for pure pleasure, and reportedly bathed in their blood to keep herself young and vibrant. These acts earning her the nickname “The Blood Countess” was allegedly one of the inspirations for Bram Stoker’s character Count Dracula...

Most people today are familiar with the writer Bram Stoker’s Dracula published in 1897. The story is that of a vampire named Count Dracula who feeds on human blood, hunting his victims and killing them in the dead of night. The book was that of Stoker’s own creation, but he in fact drew inspiration for the bloodthirsty vampire from a real-life man with an even more gruesome taste for blood: Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, or better known throughout history as Vlad the Impaler. The true history...

York is a walled medieval city in North Yorkshire, England, that was founded by the ancient romans in 71 AD. The city rich with history has quite a bloody one, suffering through the Black Death to the heads of enemies being displayed on spikes at the city’s entrance to being bombed in World War II. Yet, York is embedded with even more sinister secrets and purportedly laced with the most ghost hauntings in all of Europe. Such a ghost haunting is that of the children who were murdered at the Yo...

In recent years many well-known nursery rhymes have been tied to suspected dark historical origins. Such a nursery rhyme is the English one, Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary that is often song by children who are playing. The nursey rhyme’s origins and actual meaning are disputed with many believing it has ties to a religious theme. But others argue that the children’s song is about governorship or even fertility. The name Mary has been used in several humorous nursery rhymes, but in the case of Ma...

Most fairytales have darker realities or cautionary themes lying underneath their cheerful exteriors. Some of the most famous fairytales are those written by the Grimm brothers, who’s stories are dark and filled with murder, mayhem, premarital sex, child abuse, incest, and wicked mothers. One of their most horrific tales is that of “Hansel and Gretel”, a story which nightmares are made of. The fairytale features famine, child abandonment, attempted cannibalism, enslavement, and murder. The or...

Children’s literature has always been vital to society, helping young minds understand complex issues. Many literary experts believe that nursery rhymes often contain hidden meanings, references to historical events or were critical of the political and social climate of the day. Most people are familiar with the nursey rhyme: Do You Know the Muffin Man with its lyrics: Do you know the muffin man /The muffin man, the muffin man? /Do you know the muffin man/Who lives on Drury Lane? There...

Twenty-three-year-old singer Selena Quintanilla Pérez was a Mexican American Tejano superstar on the verge of an even higher level of fame when she was shot and killed on March 31, 1995. She achieved international fame with her band Selena y Los Dinos as well as for her solo career both in Spanish and her crossover into the mainstream English market. At the height of her career in 1994, Selena won a Grammy for Best Mexican American Album, making her the first female Tejano artist to win the a...

Idaho mother Lori Vallow Daybell was finally sentenced for murdering her two children and conspiring to murder her fifth husband Chad Daybell’s first wife Tammy Daybell in what People magazine call “a plot that stemmed from the bizarre doomsday prophesies she believed.”References:Lori Vallow Daybell found guilty of murdering her 2 children - CBS News"Doomsday Mom" Lori Vallow Daybell's son testifies in murder trial - CBS NewsLori Vallow Daybell trial: What to know about the "doomsday mom" fou...

Christopher Wallace, better known by his stage names the Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or simply Biggie, was an American rapper who is considered one of the best of all times. Biggie became a central figure in the East Coast rap scene with the release of his 1994 album, "Ready to Die” and went on to collaborate with Sean Combs, Lil' Kim, Faith Evans, and Jay-Z. AllMusic described him as "the savior of East Coast hip-hop who had a talent for piling multiple rhymes on top of one another in q...

Tupac Shakur was an American rapper who is widely considered one of the most influential and successful rappers of all time. Among being one of the best-selling music artists, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide, Tupac’s music has been known for addressing contemporary social issues that plagued the inner cities, and considered a symbol of activism against inequality. However, his short-lived career was riddled with controversy and violence. On the night of September 7, 1996, 2...

At the peak of Marvin Gaye’s career he was known as the Prince of Motown—topping the charts with his soulful voice with hits like "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)”, “Mercy Mercy Me”, “What’s Going On”, and of course the infamous bedroom love song "Sexual Healing". Throughout his musical career spanning over three decades, Marvin Gaye worked as a recording artist and record producer. The New York Times described him as someone who "blended the soul music of the urban scene with the beat o...

German born Gesche Gottfried also known as the Angel of Bremen, for her kindly habit of nursing her victims through their death throes, she had inflicted on them, was the real deal when it comes to serial killers. Between 1813 to 1827, it is estimated that Gesche murdered 16 people by poisoning their food in Bremen and Hanover, Germany. Her poison of choice was a mixture of arsenic and a fat called ‘mouse butter’ that was usually used to kill mice. Gesche claimed her parents preferred her twi...

Between 1998 and 2006, elderly women in Mexico City were being ruthlessly murdered in their homes. The victims were all strangled to death and had a similar profile. Juana Barraza dubbed the “Old Lady Killer” was a professional wrestler who murdered at least 16 elderly women, although some estimates go as high as 48. She specifically targeted women that were over the age of 60 who had lived alone, portraying herself as a caring individual or a social worker. Once she had gained her elderly vi...

Jane Toppan, also known as Jolly Jane, was a female nurse serial killer from Boston, Massachusetts. Between 1880 to 1901, Jane claimed to have given lethal injections of morphine to 31 trusting victims with many being her patients. Ironically, the doctors that worked with Jane considered her one of the best nurses around. Jane however did not limit her victims to just the sick and elderly she was caring for, as her victims also included landlords, her own adopted sister a...

Belle Gunness (gun-ness) nicknamed Hell's Belle, was a Norwegian immigrant who came to the United States in 1881, becoming one of the country’s most infamous female serial killers. Belle was a violent killer who is thought to have murdered between 14 to 40 people including several of her husbands and children, throughout Illinois and Indiana. A series of suspicious fires and deaths which seemed to follow Belle wherever she would go, mostly resulted in insurance money being awarded...

On July 4, 2022, 21-year-old Robert Eugen Crimo III opened fire into an unsuspecting crowd attending a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois killing seven adults and injuring dozens more ranging in ages from eight to eighty-eighty. A manhunt quickly ensued with authorities looking for the suspected shooter throughout the Chicago area and would end eight hours later when a member of the community spotted Robert in his mother’s car leading to his arrest. Robert had a history of...

Dorothea Puente was an American female serial killer that disguised herself as a kind-hearted boarding house owner in the 1980’s. She was convicted of drugging and killing, three of her nine tenants found buried in her backyard. By many Dorothea was deemed as a saint who opened her unlicensed boarding house to disabled people, older adults, drug abusers, alcoholics and the mentally ill. However, in exchange, Dorothea stole her tenants Social Security and disability checks. According to Sactow...

Harvey Glatman was one of the most notorious American serial killers of the twentieth century who at a young age displayed antisocial behavior and sadomasochistic sexual tendencies. Glatman’s killing spree started in the 1950’s after moving to Los Angeles, California where he posed as a professional photographer to lure girls into his apartment with the promise of easy and quick money. Once in his apartment, Glatman would tie up his unsuspecting victims, photograph them, and eventually killin...

Between 2007 and 2009, Anthony Sowell (sa-well) murdered 11 black women luring them to his house with the promise of drugs and alcohol. After Anthony rapped his victims, he would then manually strangle them to death, earning him the nickname “The Cleveland Strangler.” For two years Anthony was able to go unnoticed by authorities as he hid his victims who either had mental health issues or were drug addicts by burying them around his property Anthony a former U.S. Marine was a convicted sex of...

In May of 2004, over a period of 12 days three dark green Kenneth Cole suitcases were discovered in and near Chesapeake Bay. One of the suitcases contained a pair of legs, another a pelvis, and the third a torso and head. The body parts would be identified as thirty-nine-year-old William or Bill McGuire, a New Jersey father of two sons. Following the trial of evidence would lead police to Bill’s wife Melanie McGuire, who they believe killed her husband to start a new life with her secret love...

Between the years of 1984 and 1988 Kansas City, Missouri would be plagued with sinister acts of sexual torture and murder by one of the most brutal serial killers in U.S. history, Robert Berdella. Growing up Berdella was physically and mentally abused by his father, and as a loner in school who struggled with his sexuality was bullied constantly. By the time he had entered college, Berdella had begun torturing and killing animals. At least six young men fell victim to Berdella’s rape, torture...

Archibald Thomas Hall, also known as Roy Fontaine, was a Scottish career criminal who minored in petty thief at a young age but by the time he had reached his early 50’s in 1977 had begun majoring in killing using a variety of blunt objects. Over the course of a year, Archibald would claim the lives of five victims including his own brother. He would eventually become known as the Killer Butler or the Monster Butler after committing murders while working in service as a butler to members of t...

On December 8, 1980, 40-year-old John Lennon, a former member of the Beatles, a band that transformed the music scene in the 1960s, was shot and killed on the steps of his Manhattan apartment by obsessed fan Mark David Chapman. Chapman had suffered years with mental illness and after his arrest psychiatrists deemed him borderline psychotic. Chapman was instructed by his lawyers to plead insanity, but instead he pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life. Today, Chapm...

On the night of December 8, 2004, the Alrosa Villa night club in Columbus, Ohio was buzzing excitedly with fans eagerly waiting for the heavy metal band Damageplan to take the stage. Thirty-eight-year-old Darrell Abbott, also known as Dimebag or Dimebag Darrell, and his brother forty-year-old Vincent Paul Abbott had formed Damageplan after the breakup of their heavy metal band Pantera -- a group they formed in the 1980s. However, the night of December 8th would take a deadly turn when 25-year...

Throughout Gypsy Rose’s childhood her mother Dee Dee Blanchard, a former nurse’s aide, made claims about her daughter’s health which resulted in a series of dire diagnoses and unneeded medical interventions. Due to Dee Dee's claims of Gypsy Rose’s aliments, she was prescribed a catalogue of medications, had to sleep using a breathing machine, was on a feeding tube, and went through multiple surgeries, including procedures on her eyes and the removal of her salivary glands. On the surface Dee ...

On Mother’s Day morning of May 13, 1995, the nude, brutally beaten, and almost decapitated body of thirty-one-year-old Nannette Krenzel, a single mom from Chicago, Illinois would be found along a desolate stretch of highway on the Wisconsin/Illinois state border. The night before Nannette’s body was discovered she had a fight at a sports bar in Chicago with her live-in boyfriend of three years, Jacob Stutz. This led to Jacob being the police’s prime suspect, however, there was no evidence to ...

In 1948, the lifeless body of a man dressed in suit and tie, would be found leaning against the concrete seawall of Somerton Beach in Adelaide, Australia. The well-dressed man had no physical signs of trauma, no identification, and the tags of his cloths had been removed. The mystery man’s cause of death and identity eluded local police. An extensive search was conducted hoping to discover his identity including having newspapers worldwide publish the man’s face. As the police deepened their ...

Thirty-six-year-old Andrea Yates who had history of mental illness and postpartum depression was a stay-at-home-mom, home schooling her five young children, 7-year-old Noah, 5-year-old John, 3-year-old Paul, 2-year-old Luke, and 6-month-old Mary. Throughout the years of having children Andrea was treated for her severe postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, and schizophrenia with anti-psychotic medications and antidepressants. On the morning of June 20, 2001, Andrea made a 911 call, sta...

Orenthal James Simpson, commonly known as O.J. or "The Juice," was an American football star, broadcaster, and actor, but perhaps best known for his murder trial for the deaths of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. On the evening of June 12, 1994, O.J. Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were stabbed to death outside of Nicole's Brentwood, California home. The specific details of whether O.J. was involved in the deaths of Nicole and Ron wi...

In November of 2007, the Italian city of Perugia would draw people’s attention from around the world with the gruesome murder and sexual assault of 21-year-old foreign exchange student Meredith Kercher from Surrey, England. She had been found dead in her Italian apartment on the floor of her locked bedroom. Meredith’s 20-year-old American roommate Amanda Knox who was also studying abroad and Amanda’s Italian citizen boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, would emerge as the primary suspects. World med...

On April 20, 1989, shortly after 1 am the barely clinging to life Trish Meili (ma-lee), a young white woman, was discovered in New York City’s Manhattan Central Park. Trish would survive her severe injuries, waking from a coma with no memory of the violent and horrific assault leaving her with no memory of her attacker. Two days after Trish’s assault, five teenagers, four being Latino and one being black, ranging in ages from 14 to 16 and were from Harlem would implicate themselves in Trish’s...

Since we are looking at wrongful convictions for the month of April, we decided to look at one of the most famous stories of wrongful convictions and executions known worldwide for our Easter Episode, The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. We will be looking at the arrest, charges, and crucifixion of Jesus from the angle of the law of a wrongful conviction. Now, with saying that, we will looking at this case both from historical facts and stories from the New Testament as this is one of the biggest...

In 1997 four United States Navy sailors 25-year-old Danial Williams, 27-year-old Derek Tice, 21- year-old Joseph Dick, Jr., and 21- year-old Eric Wilson collectively known as “The Norfolk Four,” confessed to the brutal rape and murder of 18-year-old Michelle Moore-Bosko, the wife of a U.S. Navy man, in Norfolk, Virginia. The four were sentenced based on their declared false confessions, as they were subjected to high-pressure interrogation tactics, including threats of death penalty and...

Britons John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans would become known as Ireland’s first serial killers. The sinister duo first met while serving time together in an England prison during the 1970s and it is there the two career criminals concocted their sinister sick plot to abduct, torture, rape and murder a woman once a week. Once released from the English prison the deadly two would leave the UK and travel around Ireland committing burglaries for several years. In the long hot summer of 1976, Sha...

During 2005 in Dublin, Ireland, the murder of Farah Swaleh Noor shocked and appalled the country due to the horrific details surrounding his murder. After a long day and night fueled by drugs and alcohol consumed by 40-year-old Noor, his 58-year-old girlfriend Kathleen Mulhall and her two daughter’s 30-year-old Linda and 21-year-old Charlotte Mulhall, would end their night back at Kathleen’s flat. According to Kathleen and her two daughters at some point in the late-night hours Noor made unwa...

On St. Patrick's Day in 2010, First State Bank in the town of Gallatin, a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee was robbed by a gun toting leprechaun, with hopes of having the luck of the Irish on his side while stealing someone else’s pot of gold. The armed leprechaun scored an undisclosed amount of cash before leaving the bank where he then joined another suspect in a car outside, where the two fled. As police gave chase with the leprechaun and his getaway driver, and a wild gunfight broke out. Th...

Elaine O'Hara went missing from her home in Blackrock, Ireland on August 22, 2012. Elaine having suffered from mental illness was initially reported missing by her family, who suspected she had taken her own life although her body could not be located. At first it was assumed she had disappeared while volunteering at the 2012 Tall Ships' Races. However, in 2013, more than a year after Elaine had gone missing a woman walking her dog on wooded land near Kilakee in the foothills of the Dublin Mo...

Murders are a relatively rare occurrence in Ireland, but when one does occur it typically shocks the country to its core. Malcom Macarthur an eccentric socialite is undoubtedly one Ireland’s most infamous murders. In the summer of 1982, after Malcom had depleted his hefty family inheritance, a family whom he had deep rooted issues of endured childhood abuse would devise a sinister plan of a series of unbelievable and bizarre robberies to continuing living the life of luxury, ending in a doubl...

In the early '90s, an infamous couple from Manassas, Virginia would become headline news for weeks when in June of 1993 24-year-old Ecuadorian immigrant Lorena Bobbitt became known as the woman who cut off her husband's penis with a carving knife. On the night of the shocking appendage dismemberment, Lorena claims her husband, John Wayne Bobbitt, came home drunk and raped her, a charge he profusely denied and was acquitted of later. A jury would find Lorena not guilty due to insanity. So, was...

On April 23, 2008, in Leeds, England, 36-year-old Anthony Marley, a professional sue chef, brutally killed his boyfriend 36-year-old Damian Oldfield, and would then go to carving, seasoning, frying, and chewing parts of Damian’s body. Anthony would state to authorities that Damian had sexually assaulted him and tried raping him. However, it would come to light that Anthony had struggled for years with his sexuality and had a history of violence. Anthony Marley would be found guilty of murderi...

After 24 years of marriage, On February 13th, 2021, 66-year-old retired accountant Penelope Jackson, stabbed her 78-year-old husband David Jackson, three times at their home in Somerset, England before telling a 999 operator: “I thought I’d get his heart, but he hasn’t got one.” Penelope claimed her husband, a retired lieutenant colonel, was coercive, controlling and physically violent towards her for decades, stating she lost control when he called her "pathetic". The couple was just three w...

In February 2005, 34-year-old Lisa Underwood who was seven months pregnant, along with her 7-year-old son, Jayden, were reported missing after she failed to show up at her baby shower. The investigation into their disappearance would reveal a brutal crime fueled by jealousy, passion, and fear of exposure. Lisa’s then-boyfriend, Stephen Barbee, would be arrested, tried, convicted of murder and sentenced to death. According to the New York Post, Stephen had initially confessed to the shocking s...

In November of 1994,33-year-old Farah Fratta, a beloved mother of three was executed in her own driveway in Texas receiving shots to the head by an unidentified gunman. As the murder gained attention, suspicion would begin mounting on Robert Fratta, Farah’s estranged husband and the father of their children. The authorities would use phone records and witness testimony to uncover a sinister murder-for-hire plot that ended with Farah’s murder. Robert Fratta maintained his innocence until the t...

In part 1 we left on 16-year-old Cyntoia Brown being charged with first degree murder in the death of 43-year-old Johnny Allen, aggravated robbery, handgun possession and criminal impersonation. Pour yourself a cocktail and settle in for the second part of this sinister crime. Believe us you are going to need it!References:www.https://allthatsinteresting.com/cyntoia-brownwww.htps://.refinery29.com › en-us › 2018/12/219015www.https://npr.org › 2019/08/07 › 749025458www.https://tennessean.com ›...

On August 6, 2004, 16- year- old Cyntoia Denise Brown had been walking the East side of Nashville, Tennessee and area well known where the ladies of the night work the streets looking for her next client. The young black teen would be picked up by a 43-year-old white man named Johnny Allen. The pair would end up back at Allen’s house. Several hours later, Cyntoia would end up shooting Allen in the back of the head killing him, claiming that she had believed that her life was in emanate danger...

In 1986 Rhonda Morrison, a white woman was murdered working at a dry cleaner in Monroeville Alabama. Unable to identify Morrison’s murderer police would eventually focus their attention on an unlikely suspect, that of 45-year-old Walter McMillian. A self-employed black man, McMillian had done work for many of the community members in Monroeville having no criminal history or that of violence. What would pull Walter McMillian into the limelight was his affair with a married white woman that wo...

On August 28, 1955, while visiting family in Money, Mississippi, a young black teen, Emmett Till, 14-years-old, from Chicago, was brutally murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman named Carolyn Bryant four days earlier. Emmet’s assailants were Carolyn’s husband and his half-brother. An all-white jury would take less than hour to come back with a not guilty verdict allowing Emmet Till’s murders to walk free. The inflaming tensions around Till’s murder trial brought to light the bruta...

On October 24, 1988, in Greenfield, MA, 18-year-old Sharon Gregory’s slain body was found by Sharon’s twin sister Cheryl, in the bathtub of their home with multiply gashes to the head, chest and torso. The urban legend of a small-town killer inspired by the horror movies from the Friday the 13th film series, might have played a role in 19-year-old Mark Branch brutally killing Sharon Gregory. Police and the media quickly blamed the tragedy of Sharon’s murder on Branch’s obsession with hor...

On June 7, 1998, in the small Texas town of Jasper, 49-year-old JamesByrd Jr, a black man, accepted a ride from three white men with two of the men being avowed white supremacists who brutally lynched James Jr.chaining him to the back of their truck and dragged him to his death. Hisbrutal murder that was racially motivated made national headlines andsparked legislative changes. In 2009, President Barack Obama signedthe Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate...

Happy New Years to all you wonderfully strange and unusual creatures! Kori and I hope 2023 brings everyone one of you peace and happiness. For our New Year’s episode Kori and I have decided to change things up a bit and thought is it would be fun to have a sinister crime battle off. We have each picked and have no idea what case the other has chosen and will be hearing the details for the first time right along with you listeners. We need our listeners help in voting which case was the most s...

JonBenét Ramsey was an American child beauty queen who was only six years old when she was murdered in her Boulder, Colorado, home on December 26, 1996. Her murder made national headlines, in part because her mother Patsy Ramsey, a former beauty queen, had entered JonBenét into a series of child beauty pageants. JonBenét’s murder became one of the decade's most famous police investigations and to date, no one has ever been charged for JonBenét's death and the investigation remains open ...

JonBenét Ramsey was an American child beauty queen who was only six years old when she was murdered in her Boulder, Colorado, home on December 26, 1996. Seven hours after JonBenet was reported missing her lifeless body would be found in the basement of her home. She had sustained a broken skull from a blow to the head and had been strangled. Her murder made national headlines, in part because her mother Patsy Ramsey, a former beauty queen, had entered JonBenét into a series of child beauty pa...

18-year-old Alexis Valdez, who had been living with his aunt and her 41-year-old boyfriend Silvestre Diaz-Hernandez, would return home from making a run to a local convenient store with Silvestre on Christmas eve 2013. Upon returning from the quick trip, Valdez would let Silvestre enter their apartment first and then savagely attacked Silvestre from behind with a hammer and brutally killed him. Valdez would leave a Christmas present on his aunt’s bed one that she would never forget. Had somet...

Twas the night before Christmas when all through the Ortega house, 25 people were partying when an unexpected visitor was announced. Who could it be, why it was Santa himself! That jolly old elf was carrying a large, wrapped package. What could it be a mower or blower? Nope, it was a homemade flamethrower and guns full of lead, leaving 9 people dead. Was this Santa simply unhinged or had he sought revenge?References:1. Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, Killer Santa | The Scare Chamber2. ...

In the late afternoon of Christmas day in 2016, Tricia McCauley a 46-year-old actress who worked in a series of short films and body double for leading ladies in Hollywood left her home in Washington D.C. to head to a friend’s Christmas dinner. As Tricia was getting in her car to head out, she would cross paths with 29-year-old Adrian Duane Johnson, a man who had a history of mental illness and criminal behavior. In the late-night hours of December 26, 2016, Tricia’s lifeless body would be fo...

During the Christmas Holidays in 2010, 15-year-old- Kristy Bamu and four of his siblings would visit their 29-year-old- sister, Magalie and her 28-year-old boyfriend, Erik Bikubi, staying in the couple’s east London flat in Newham. Instead of basking in the holiday cheer, Kristy and his four siblings were subjected to a prolonged attack of unspeakable savagery lasting almost 4 days at the hands of Magalie and Erik, ridding the siblings from their evil spirits in the name of witchcraft or Kind...

Omaima Aree Nelson, a 24-year-old Egyptian nanny and model would be compared to Jeffery Dahmer and the fictional character Hannibal Lector by authorities, after discovering that on Thanksgiving Day in 1991, Omaima had not cooked a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner of turkey and sides. Instead on the menu, Omaima had chopped up and cooked her husband of three weeks as a stomach-churning revenge for his alleged sexual attacks on her. So, was this a case of revenge killing or that of a sinister mi...

The family, friends and neighbors of Richard Kuklinski woulddescribe him as a loving, devoted husband and father who was livingthe American dream in the suburbs of New Jersey. However, Kuklinskiwould be living a double life. To the criminal underworld and hisvictims, he was known a ruthless and brutal hitman for the mafia.Although law enforcement and organized crime experts have expressedskepticism about Kuklinski’s claiming to have ties with the Mafia. On May 25, 1988, Richard Kuklinski dubb...

We have all heard the stories of people flocking to Cult leaders committing heinous crimes like those of Charles Manson, David Koresh, Warren Jeffs, and David Miscavige. A man named Chad Daybell would also try his hand as a cult leader under the guise as the chosen Prophet by God to lead and provide the chosen ones with salvation when the end of times would occur according to Daybell’s prediction, on July 22, 2020. Lori Vallow, a mother of 2 would be so captivated by Daybell and Daybell by he...

I am sure that all you have heard one or two of the urban legends surrounding Halloween. Such as razors blades embedded in apples that children would go bobbing for, temporary tattoos laced with LSD, or the infamous candy filled with poison or needles. But what if I told you that one of those urban legends would actually become a reality. On the drizzling and fateful evening of Halloween 1974 the suburbs of Houston, Texas sidewalks were crawling with children bubbling over...