Criminal

An illustration of a couch on fire.

527 Lime Street

Episode #135

2020-03-06 12:52:11

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Just before midnight on October 15, 1990, police arrived at 527 Lime Street in Jacksonville, Florida, to find the small wood-frame house on fire. There was a man standing in the front yard. He said there were people inside the house. What happened next was so unusual that it changed the way we think about arson.
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Call Russ Ewing

Episode #134

2020-02-21 13:32:22

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"The police had surrounded the house. They had been there for quite a while. They didn't want to try to rush the house because they thought he might kill one of the innocent people. But after waiting for a long time, I asked the police: 'Let me see if I can talk to the guy.'"
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Red Hair, Gold Car

Episode #133

2020-02-07 12:22:35

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One day Adam Braseel got a phone call from his mother. She said that a man in Grundy County, Tennessee, had been murdered, and the police thought Adam had something to do with it.
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Herrin Massacre

Episode #132

2020-01-24 13:06:18

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In the summer of 1922, in a town in southern Illinois, 23 people were murdered over two days. Men, women, and children came out of their houses to watch, and in some cases, to take part in the violence.
An illustration of two hands holding a gift bag-style bag that holds a container of cremated human remains.

Sunset Mesa

Episode #131

2020-01-10 13:13:36

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Debbie Schum waited a long time to receive the cremated ashes of her friend, LoraLee Johnson. When she did, she felt relieved to finally take them home with her. But then, she got a call from the FBI.
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Who’s There

Episode #130

2019-12-20 12:54:27

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Crime Blotter: “The Learning Center on Hanson Street reports a man across the way stands at his window for hours watching the center, making parents nervous. Police ID the subject as a cardboard cutout of Arnold Schwarzenegger.” Today, we're looking at mistakes.
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Phoebe, Judge Me

Episode #Bonus

2019-12-13 13:48:49

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We are trying something different.
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Panic Defense

Episode #129

2019-12-06 12:35:16

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In 1995, two men filmed an episode of daytime talk show, The Jenny Jones Show. A few days later, one of the men was dead. The shooter later claimed he’d committed the murder “in a panic that he was being falsely accused or identified as a gay person.”
An illustration of a biathlete on cross-country skis, rifle lifted to her eye.

Deep Breath

Episode #128

2019-11-22 13:17:52

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World-class biathlete Kari Swenson was on an afternoon trail run in the mountains near Big Sky, Montana, in July 1984 when two men blocked her path.
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The Reverend

Episode #127

2019-11-08 14:00:29

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In 1977, a man named Robert Burns went to a funeral and shot someone, in the head, in front of 300 people. He didn’t deny it, and his lawyer didn’t deny it. Burns told a police officer: “I had to do it. And if I had to do it over, I’d do it again.”
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A New Kind of Life

Episode #126

2019-10-30 12:27:29

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In 1930, a Cuban woman named Elena de Hoyos went to the hospital in Key West, Florida. She had a bad cough, and her family was afraid she had Tuberculosis. She met a German X-ray technician who called himself ”Count Von Cosel” and who claimed he could save her, using unusual methods he'd invented himself. But on October 25, 1931, Elena de Hoyos died. Count Von Cosel wrote that a strange new kind of life began for him.
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The Less People Know About Us

Episode #125

2019-10-25 12:51:16

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Three years ago, we spoke with Axton Betz-Hamilton about discovering that her identity had been stolen as a child. When she found out who had stolen it, everything changed. We spoke with Axton again a couple of weeks ago. She said that since our last conversation she’s been conducting an investigation, going back to the very beginning of her own life, and reconsidering every memory.
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A Bucket, a Mop, and a Sledgehammer

Episode #124

2019-10-11 13:04:05

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After a crime occurs, or when someone dies, the police aren’t responsible for cleaning up. That’s not their job. The coroner takes the body, the police conduct their investigation, and then everyone leaves. But the blood, and the rubber gloves, and the uneaten food in the refrigerator are all left behind. Sandra Pankhurst didn’t like imagining that. So she decided to clean it up.
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Mrs. Sherlock Holmes

Episode #123

2019-09-27 11:01:57

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When 18-year-old Ruth Cruger disappeared in 1917, newspapers reported that she probably ran off with a boyfriend. New York police said that there were no clues to go on. But an investigator named Grace Humiston decided that she would do whatever it took to find her. She became known as "Mrs. Sherlock Holmes."
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Professor Quaalude

Episode #122

2019-09-13 12:24:52

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John Buettner-Janusch was one of the first Americans to study lemurs. He held prestigious faculty positions at Yale, Duke and NYU, before surprising everyone with a series of increasingly bizarre crimes.  
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Off Leash

Episode #121

2019-08-30 12:13:19

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“I never did anything wrong. I never had a speeding ticket. I think I just saved all my stuff up for just one thing.” This week, we speak with Toby Dorr — better known as the Dog Lady of Lansing Prison.