Sinister Crimes and Cocktails: A True Crime Podcast

Send us a textDavid Koresh was an American Cult leader who was the head of the religious movement, Branch of Davidians. Koresh believed that he was the “final prophet” sent to bring the word of God to his followers by whatever means necessary, even if it meant pitting his followers against the US government in what would be the biggest gunfire on American soil since the Civil War. David Koresh’s central role in the 51-day siege occurring in Waco, Texas left four ATF agents dead as well as 82 ...

Send us a textJim Jones was an American cult leader who proclaimed to be the messiah of the Peoples Temple, a San Fransico based evangelist group. He promised his followers a utopia living in the Jungles of South America by way of an agricultural commune in Guyana known as Jonestown. Jones ultimately led his followers into a mass suicide on November 18, 1978, which left more than 900 dead and came to be known as the Jonestown Massacre. So, why did Jim Jones lead his flock to their untimely de...

Send us a textEdward Gein also known as “The Butcher of Plainfield” or “The Plainfield Goul”, was an American murderer, suspected serial killer and body snatcher. He admitted to the murders of two women, Mary Hogan in 1954 and Bernice Worden in 1957, but was believed to be connected to several unsolved cases. Following Bernice Worden’s disappearance, police investigated Gein’s home and made a gruesome discovery. Inside his home police found he was keeping human organs inside of jars and had f...

Send us a textIn 2007 actors Rider Strong and Sean Astin starred in Borerland, a film that centered around three friends who headed down to Mexico to celebrate their college graduation. Once in Mexico the group of friends stumble upon a cult that practices human sacrifices. The thriller is loosely based on American born cult leader and serial killer Adolfo Constanzo, who moved to Mexico City as an adult and began recruiting his lovers as his disciples to help him commit human sacrifices.&nbsp...

Send us a textIn 1996 the teen slasher film Scream hit the big screen and would later become a mega franchise. But did you know that the highly popular movie was inspired by actual events? Screenwriter Kevin Williamson was inspired to write the movie script about a knife-wielding killer after he had watched a documentary about the Gainesville Murders, in which Danny Rolling a.k.a. the Gainesville Ripper, murdered five University of Florida students over the course of four days. The victims ha...

Send us a textHollywood has been terrifying audiences for decades with horror and thriller films ranging from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds to the 2013 paranormal movie The Conjuring. But what’s even more frightening than these Hollywood movies is that a variety of real-life crimes and events were the actual inspiration for many filmmakers and screenwriters of this genre. One such film was Bryan Bertino’s 2008 film The Strangers, which starred Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler, that recounted a sto...

Send us a textIn 1999, Englishman David Harker, known in the media as the “cannibal killer”, was convicted of brutally murdering, dismembering and eating Julie Paterson in his flat located in Darlington County, Durham, England about 70 miles north of Leeds. Julie, who was murdered in April of 1998, had just met David a few weeks prior. So, why would David kill a woman he just met?References:Why Darlington cannibal killer remains behind bars eight years after possible release revealed - Teessi...

Send us a textIn June of 2024, Mississippi jailer Ronnie Hunt was arrested and charged with helping inmate Joshua Zimmerman escape. Zimmerman, who fled to Chicago after his escape, was being held on attempted murder and robbery charges. So, what would cause a jailer to help a dangerous criminal escape and was there more than just one player in helping to facilitate it?References:Joshua Zimmerman: Mississippi inmate escaped, apparently found work at a Chicago restaurant and then barricaded him...

Send us a text17- year-old Florida teen, Collin Griffith, was arrested on Sunday September 8, 2024, for fatally stabbing his mother, 39-year-old Catherine Griffith to death. 19 months prior to killing his mother, Collin was accused of killing his father in Oklahoma, however, the charges were dropped. So, why did Collin Griffith stab his mother to death, and should he have been prosecuted from his father’s death?References:Mom's haunting selfies before being murdered by son - a year after he k...

Send us a textAustralian woman Katherin Knight was convicted of stabbing to death her partner John Charles Thomas Price in February of 2000. Not only did she murder Price, but he also skinned him, and then cooked his head with other parts of his body in a stew with the intention of feeding him to his own children. So, what was the catalyst to cause Katherine to cook her lover in a homemade stew and was she mentally unwell or just a sinister mind?References:The Twisted Story of Katherine Knigh...

Send us a textOne of Japan’s most disturbing and sinister killers was a man named Tsutomu Miyazaki, who earned the nickname "Human Dracula" because he was born with deformed fingers and hands, like that that of the fictional character. Between 1988 and 1989 Miyazaki terrorized the city of Tokyo by committing horrific crimes against four young girls which included kidnapping, assault, murder, mutilation, necrophile and cannibalism becoming known as "The Little Girl Murders." Miyazaki als...

Send us a textAt just twenty-five-years-old, Taylor Schabusiness murdered her lover, twenty-four-year-old Shad Thyrion, inside his mother’s Green Bay, Wisconsin home in February of 2022. According to investigators, Taylor cut off Shad’s head, sexually assaulted him, then dismembered the rest of his body, leaving his head in a bucket for his mother to find. So, what could have caused Taylor to commit such a sinister act of killing along with the sexual assault and mutilation of a corpse?Refere...

Send us a textOver the course of three days in August of 2009, Angela Simpson, one of the most notorious killers in Arizona history, tortured, strangled, and dismembered Terry Neely, a disabled man, because she suspected that he might be a police informant. Angela’s remorseless confession was so bone-chilling that it helped inspire the fictional psychopathic hitwoman Villanelle in the thriller series Killing Eve. So, what led Angela to believe that Terry was a snitch for law enforcement that ...

Send us a textIn 1993, California siblings Curtis and Shanna Culver along with friend Brian Hawkins, stabbed and killed 19-year-old Frank McAlister. Frank’s murder case would go cold for over 25 years, until one of his guilt-stricken killers confessed on a local news program. So, why was Frank McAlister killed and why did his case go cold for so long?References:Siblings Plead Guilty To 1993 Murder After Accomplice Confesses On TV (allthatsinteresting.com)Curtis, Shanna Culver Sentenced For Fr...

Send us a textDuring the 90’s, daytime tv was infiltrated by talk shows that were filled with the drama of paternity tests, couples cheating and secret crushes. One such talk show would lead to one of their guests committing murder. In 1995, Michigan native Jonathan Schmitz killed an acquaintance of his Scott Amedure, just three days after Scott admitted to having a crush on Jonathan while on the popular daytime talk show “The Jenny Jones Show”. So, why did Jonathan feel the need to kill Scot...

Send us a textA Connecticut woman, 76-year-old Linda Kosuda-Bigazzi, who was accused of killing her husband, Dr. Pierluigi Bigazzi and hiding his body for months while collecting his paychecks, pleaded guilty to manslaughter last month. Just hours before she was to receive a 13-year prison sentence, Linda Kosuda-Bigazzi was found dead in the same home she had killed her husband in. The Connecticut State Police said her death has been "categorized as an untimely death investigation" based on "...

Send us a text70-year-old Steven Craig Johnson, a convicted pedophile who escaped an Oregon prison three decades ago was finally captured this month in Macon, Georgia. Johnson who had been living in his Marco apartment since 2011, was described by Oregon authorities as a “pedophile” who “presented a high probability of victimizing teen boys”. So, how did Steven Craig Johnson manage to elude the police for thirty years?References:'Pedophile' Finally Caught After Escaping Prison 30 Years Ago (p...

Send us a textFormer mortuary worker of Little Rock, Arkansas, Candace Chapman Scott, has pleaded guilty to selling and transporting stolen body parts from medical school cadavers across state lines, as well as conspiring to commit mail fraud occurring in 2021. According to authorities, while Candace was working at the mortuary in October of 2021, she sold almost eleven thousand dollars of stolen body parts to a Pennsylvania man. She is just one of several being charged recently in what prose...

Send us a textAfter almost a decade, California woman, Trista Ann Spicer will head to trail for the grisly murder of her boyfriend Eric Israel Mercado. Eric vanished without a trace in 2014 and it would not be until eight years later that his body would finally be discovered. In 2022, Trista’s new roommate alerted police to the possibility of Trista committing a murder and hiding the body on her property. Eric’s body would be found on her property in what the police called a "makeshift tomb"....

Send us a textIn 2019, Wade Wilson was arrested and charged with the murders of two women in Cape Coral, Florida, Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz that occurred just a few hours apart. According to Assistant State Attorney Andreas Gardiner, “This case was about killing for the sake of the killing". So, did Wade Wilson kill two women in cold blood just for the sake of killing?References:FL v. Wade Wilson: Strangled Women Murder Trial | Court TVWade Wilson found guilty on all counts in the ...

Send us a textUtah mother of three, Kouri Richins wrote a children’s book about grief almost a year after her husband Eric Richins passed away in March of 2022. She wrote the book as she wanted to help kids struggling with the loss of a loved one like her own children had. However, a month after her book was published and receiving praise from the local media for helping children deal with their grief, Kouri’s story took a sinister turn, and she was charged with the murder of her husband by p...

Send us a textIn 2023, Ina Kenoyer, of Minot (mine-it), North Dakota was arrested and charged with the murder of her long-time boyfriend Steven Riley, Jr. Authorities believe that Ina fatally poisoned Steven with antifreeze in order to claim his newly acquired inheritance of thirty million dollars. So, could someone turn sinister enough to kill a person they love for a large sum of money?References:North Dakota woman arrested for allegedly killing boyfriend with poison; police cite "financial...

Send us a textFormer pig farmer Robert Pickton, also known as the “Pig Farm Killer” or “The Butcher “, is one of Canada’s most prolific serial killers. His case was the largest serial killer investigation in Canadian history and unveiled a wider issue of missing and murdered female sex workers and Indigenous women. In 2001, Robert was charged with six counts murder occurring at his pig farm in Port Coquitlam (co-quilt-lem), Canada, but by 2005, he had been charged with the murder of twenty-si...

Send us a textIn Episode 7: My Mother Joined Cult and Nobody Knew we followed the case of Idaho Doomsday author and cult leader Chad Daybell and his new wife Lori Vallow Daybell, a mother of three. The newlyweds would soon find themselves as the prime suspects in four murders and one attempted murder. Chad Daybell has finally been found guilty and sentenced for his role in the deaths of siblings Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, the children of his second wife, Lori Vallow Daybell, and the death of h...

Send us a textIn March of 2011, Jayna Murray a part-time manager at a Bethesda, Maryland Lululemon store, which is high end sports brand clothing store known for their hundred-dollar yoga leggings, was killed in the most brutal of ways over a pair of them. Prosecutors theorized that Brittany Norwood, a colleague of Jayna’s, had killed her in attempt to keep Jayna from reporting that Brittany had stolen a pair of the luxury brand leggings during a shift at work. However, Brittany claimed that ...

Send us a textFor three years from 2020 to 2023, in long-term health facilities across western Pennsylvania, 41-year-old registered nurse Heather Pressdee administered excessive amounts of insulin to 22 of her patients trying to kill them. Of the 22 patients that Heather tried to murder she was successful in killing 17. She would later claim she was performing mercy killings to end her patients’ suffering. To avoid the death penalty, Heather plead guilty to three counts of first-degree murder...

Send us a textBefore the notorious serial killer Jeffery Dahmer ever appeared on the scene, there was Levi Boone Helm, the Kentucky Cannibal. Helm a mid-19th century American frontiersman from Kentucky, was a gunfighter who got his nickname for his “opportunistic and unrepentant proclivity for consuming human flesh”, usually in survival situations, though there are documented instances of him killing people unprovoked for their meat. By all accounts, Helm had been raised by a loving family bu...

Send us a textIn 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)Gr...

Send us a textIn 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 Str...

Send us a textSince 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 showemail- sinistercrimesandcocktails@gmail.comwebsite-https://www.sinistercrimesandcocktailspodcast.com/Facebook Page-https://www.facebook.com/sinistercrimesan...

Send us a textAndrei 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 cri...

Send us a textHilda 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...

Send us a textSome 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 Al...

Send us a textFrom 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 le...

Send us a textIn 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 Septembe...

Send us a textThe 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 ...

Send us a textFor 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 cr...

Send us a textA 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 ...

Send us a textIn 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 i...

Send us a textIrish 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...

Send us a textWelsh 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 ...

Send us a textIn 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 ...

Send us a textThe 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 Garne...

Send us a textOn 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 des...

Send us a textJust 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...

Send us a textIn 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 co...

Send us a textBetween1986 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 D...

Send us a text 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 y...

Send us a textThe 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)M...

Send us a textWe 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 htt...

Send us a textAs 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....

Send us a textWe 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 o...

Send us a textOn 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 ...

Send us a textRegardless 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...

Send us a textOn 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 remain...

Send us a textIn 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 girlf...

Send us a textOn 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 allegedl...

Send us a textOn 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....

Send us a textAccording 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...

Send us a textIn 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) b...

Send us a textAmerican 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 be...

Send us a textAlbert 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 home...

Send us a textLawerence 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...

Send us a textSixteen-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 ...

Send us a textIn 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...

Send us a text 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 earne...

Send us a text 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...

Send us a textMost 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. Th...

Send us a textYork 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 murd...

Send us a textIn 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 ...

Send us a textMost 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 ...

Send us a textChildren’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 Lan...

Send us a textTwenty-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 artis...

Send us a textIdaho 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 "doo...

Send us a textChristopher 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 on...

Send us a textTupac 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 Septem...

Send us a textAt 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 w...

Send us a textGerman 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 pre...

Send us a textBetween 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 ...

Send us a text 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 ad...

Send us a textBelle 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...

Send us a text 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 ha...

Send us a textDorothea 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. Accor...

Send us a textHarvey 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 eve...

Send us a textBetween 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 co...

Send us a textIn 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 h...

Send us a textBetween 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...

Send us a textArchibald 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 t...

Send us a textOn 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...

Send us a textOn 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 tur...

Send us a textThroughout 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 th...

Send us a textOn 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 n...

Send us a textIn 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 d...

Send us a textThirty-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...

Send us a textOrenthal 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 Nic...

Send us a textIn 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 suspe...

Send us a textOn 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 themsel...

Send us a textSince 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 ...

Send us a textIn 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 dea...