Murder Most Foul

On Christmas night in 1996, the brutal murder ofsix-year-old JonBenét Ramsey shocked the nation. Found dead in her family's Boulder, Colorado home, JonBenét's body was discovered in the basement, with a broken skull, strangled by a garrote and sexually assaulted. A ransom note left in the home added to the confusion, but the truth would prove even more elusive.

As the case unfolded, the media swarmed andspeculation ran rampant. JonBenét’s status as a child beauty queen only fueled the fire, with many focusing on her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, as the primary suspects.

However, the case took an unexpected turn when BoulderDistrict Attorney's office brought in legendary homicide detective Lou Smit. Already known for bringing to justice the killers of actor Kelsey Grammer’s sister, Karen, Lou was a good choice.

Unfortunately, Smit, known for his unyielding pursuit of the truth, quickly grew disillusioned with the Boulder police’s focus on the Ramsey family. He believed that vitalevidence pointing away from the parents was being ignored.

Resigning from his official role, Smit chose to continue his investigation privately, using his own resources, determined to find justice for JonBenét.

In his book, Lou and JonBenet, Smit’s longtime friend and colleague, John Anderson, reveals the story behind Smit’s tireless investigation and the profound legacy he left behind.

Drawing on Smit’s extensive work, Anderson and the detective’s family and colleagues believe the elusive killer can finally be identified, bringing justice to acase that has haunted the nation for nearly three decades.

Imagine, spending 18 years in prison for a crime youdidn’t commit!

October 1997. Late one night in Fairbanks, Alaska, a passerby finds a teenager unconscious, collapsed on the edge of the road, beaten nearly beyond recognition. Two days later, he dies in the hospital. His name is John Gilbert Hartman and he's just turned 15 years old. The police quickly arrest four suspects, all under the age of 21 and of Alaska Native and American Indian descent. Police lineup witnesses, trials follow, and all four men receive lengthy prison terms. Case closed. 

But journalist Brian Patrick O'Donoghue can't put thestory out of his mind. When the opportunity arises to teach a class on investigative reporting, he finally digs into what happened to the "Fairbanks Four."

A relentless search for the truth ensues as O'Donoghue and his students uncover the lies, deceit, and prejudice that putfour innocent young men in jail.

When last we saw our heroine, Karen Read, she was free after her trial last year in Dedham, MA for the murder of her then boyfriend, Police Officer John O’Keefe. The trial ended in a hung jury. But like all soap operas, we ain’t done yet! Her retrial has just begun and it promises to be as bizarre as her first…or even more so.Once again, we turn to Kevin Lenihan of YELLOW COTTAGE TAILS and a frequent commentator on COURT TV for his expert analysis.

The 1987 murder of Lita McClinton Sullivan sent shockwaves through the affluent Atlanta suburb of Buckhead, Georgia like few other crimes before it. The neighborhood, with its stately mansions and top-tier schools, was simply not the kind of place where women were gunned down in cold blood in broad daylight. How many socialites had enemies so dangerous they would be murdered by a hitman pretending to deliver roses on an early winter morning.
In A Devil Went Down to Georgia, award-winning writer Deb Miller Landau details the shocking events that followed Lita’s murder in 1987, including the surprising lack of evidence, racial bias in the justice system, and the international manhunt for Lita’s killer.

Full of twists and turns, legal battles, and the McClinton family’s unrelenting dedication to justice, Landau's rigorous investigation is the first complete account of this tragic American crime.

The incredible story of a 1958 murder that ended with the last woman to ever be executed in California—a murder so twisted it seems ripped from a Greek tragedy.

Deborah Larkin was only ten years old when the quiet calm of her California suburb was shattered. Thirty miles north, on a quiet November night in Santa Barbara, a pregnant nurse named Olga Duncan disappeared from her apartment.

The mystery deepens when it is discovered that Olga’s mother in-law—a deeply manipulative and deceptive woman—had been doing everything in her power to separate Olga and her son, Frank, prior to Olga’s disappearance.
From a forged annulment to multiple attempts to hire people to “get rid” of Olga, to a faked extortion case, Elizabeth seemed psychopathically attached to her son. Yet she denied having anything to do with Olga’s disappearance with a smile.

The book is A LOVELY GIRL and my guest is its author, Deborah Larkin

In 1910 in the tranquil seaside town of Asbury Park, New Jersey, ten-year-old schoolgirl Marie Smith is brutally murdered. Small town officials, unable to find the culprit, call upon the young manager of a New York detective agency for help. It is the detective’s first murder case, and now, the specifics of the investigation and the daring sting operation that caught the killer is captured in all its rich detail for the first time by author Alex Tresniowski in his thrilling, True Crime book, “The Rope.”

 Mr. Tresniowski joins me now.

On a cold winter day in 1832, Sarah Maria Cornell wasfound dead in a quiet farmyard in a small New England town. When her troubled past and a secret correspondence with charismatic Methodist minister Reverend Ephraim Avery was uncovered, more questions emerged. Was Sarah’s death asuicide...or something much darker?

Determined to uncover the real story, Victorian writer Catharine Read Arnold Williams threw herself into theinvestigation as the trial was unfolding and wrote what many claim to be the first American true-crime narrative, entitled Fall River. 

The murder divided the country and inspired NathanielHawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter—but the reverend was not convicted, and questions linger to this day about what really led to Sarah Cornell’s death. Until now.
In The Sinners All Bow, acclaimed true-crime historian KateWinkler Dawson travels back in time to nineteenth-century small-town America, emboldened to finish the work Williams started nearly two centuries before.

And it is my pleasure to welcome Kate Winkler Dawson toMurder Most Foul.

Would you kill for love?

After Alice, a desperate young mother in a gritty Wyoming boomtown, kills her husband in 1974 and dumps his body where it will never be found, she slips away and starts a new life with a new love. But when her new love's ex-wife and twokids start demanding more of him, Alice delivers an ultimatum: Fix the problem or lose her forever. With Alice's help, he "fixes" the problem in an extraordinarily ghastly way ... and they live happily ever after.

That is, until 2013, almost forty years later, when somebody finds a dead man's skeleton in a place where Alice thought he'd never be found.

Bestselling true-crime author Ron Franscell revisits a shocking cold case that was finally solved just when the murderers thought they'd never be caught and joins me today!

At just 41 years of age, Florida State law professor Dan Markel was among the most well-known and accomplished criminal law scholars in the country.  He was also a newly divorced dad, his toddlers Ben and Lincoln the center of his universe.

​On the morning of July 18, 2014, Dan dropped his boysoff at preschool, hit the gym for a workout, and headed home to his quiet, tree-canopied neighborhood.  Within seconds of pulling into his garage, two .38-caliber bullets fired from point-blank range were lodged in his brain.

​His brutal slaying seemed to defy logical explanation, the case stone cold for nearly two years.  Finally, dogged pursuit by the Tallahassee Police and FBI led to the apprehension of two men with lengthy rap sheets who had apparently driven ten hours from Miami with one singular purpose:  to assassinate the revered professor. 

But why?  Were his ex-wife Wendi Adelson and her South Florida family the masterminds behind this horrific crime?

My guest today, author Steven B. Epstein may have theanswer as we dig into a story I call DEATH BY DENTIST.

Seven years before Lyle and Erik Menendez gunned down their parents in Beverly Hills, after years of abuse, suffered by he and his sister, Richard Jahnke ambushed their father in the garage of their home on Cowpoke Lane in Cheyenne, Wyoming and shot him dead.

THE POISON TREE is a riveting account of the sadistic physical, mental and sexual abuse suffered by Richard and Deborah. The book also covers the murder, trial and aftermath of an incident with eerie parallels to the Menendez Case.

My guest today is the author of THE POISON TREE, Alan Prendergast.

Lyle and Erik Menendez, two brothers who murdered their parents in 1989 in Beverly Hills and would be all but forgotten as they languished in prison under a sentence of life without the possibility of parole save for recent developments in their case. Today there is the good chance the brothers will be released from prison sometime in 2025.

Interest in the murders, trials and convictions has peaked with this new twist. I am no different. But rather than weigh in on whether the brothers, have served enough time and being model prisoners, have earned their freedom, I wanted to go back to the crimes and their claims of self-defense.

Self-defense is defined as “using force or violence to protect oneself or a third person from imminent harm, in other words, the victim reasonably believes they are in immediate danger of imminent death, bodily injury or serious harm.”

Who better to guide us on this journey than Attorney and legal commentator, Stanley A. Goldman.

Based on true events. In 1975 Florida, a series of violent disappearances go unnoticed, and young Annie (Madison Wolfe) is targeted by an ominous white van that stalks her every move. As the menace escalates, her parents dismiss her fears, and Annie is soon plunged into a terrifying nightmare that shatters her world. Also starring Brec Bassinger, Skai Jackson, Ali Larter, and Sean Astin. Directed by Warren Skeels.

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the NCIS television dynasty. Some of you may have the impression that the entire agency is made up entirely of Leroy Jethro Gibbs and a handful of agents and wacky support staff. Au contraire. NCIS has many divisions staffed by hundreds of agents. One of those divisions is the NCIS Cold Case Homicide Unit (CCHU). My guest today, Joe Kennedy, established the CCHU in 1995.  The Unit was the first dedicated Federal-level cold case homicide unit in the nation. The unit's investigation methodology and protocol were developed after extensive research and analysis, and has been recognized by the International Association of Chiefs of Police for quality and excellence. 

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Provocative title?

In the early morning hours of January 29, 2022, Boston Police Department Officer John O'Keefe was found dead outside the home of fellow Boston Police Officer, Brian Albert, in Canton, Massachusetts. O'Keefe had been dropped off the night before by his girlfriend, Karen Read, to join a party hosted by Brian Albert and Jennifer McCabe. Upon being discovered, he was transported to a local hospital where cause of death was listed as blunt force trauma and hypothermia.

Three days later, Read was arrested and charged with manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide, and leaving the scene of a deadly crash.

But was Karen Read guilty of anything? As defense attorneys will, Read’s "Dream Team" came up with an alternate theory of the crime, that O’Keefe was badly beaten, or maybe attacked by a dog, or both, inside the Fairview Road residence after Read dropped him off, and then he was dumped outside and left to die.

On its face, this might sound preposterous to you, but, Oh, we are just getting started. This strange tale turned the so called “Boyfriend Cop Murder Trial” into a national, nay international sensation. Newspaper accounts, electronic media, magazine spreads, podcasts (here and abroad) sprung up like poison ivy.

Join me and Youtuber, Kevin Lenihan, as we navigate the maze that is the Karen Read Case.

Was “What's My Line?” TV Star, media icon, and crack investigative reporter and journalist Dorothy Kilgallen murdered for writing a tell-all book about the JFK assassination? If so, is the main suspect in her death still at large?

These questions and more are answered in former CNN, ESPN, and USA Today legal analyst Mark Shaw in his book, “The Reporter Who Knew Too Much.”

 Shaw unfolds a "whodunit" murder mystery featuring suspects including Frank Sinatra, J. Edgar Hoover, Mafia Don Carlos Marcello and a "Mystery Man" who may have silenced Kilgallen. All the while presenting through Kilgallen's eyes the most compelling evidence about the JFK assassination since the House Select Committee on Assassinations investigation in the 1970s.

Author Mark Shaw joins me today on Murder Most Foul.

Melissa Ramirez, Claudine Anne Luera, Guiselda Hernandez, and Janelle Ortiz were four marginalized women striving to make ends meet as sex workers. They looked out for one another. But they would soon share a connection that none of them could have imagined. When Melissa was found dead, the other three women were on edge but assumed they were safe. Twelve days later, they too were dead and police had detained an unlikely suspect--Juan David Ortiz, a ten-year veteran of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, where he carried a badge, a service revolver, and was entrusted to protect the community in which he eventually killed.

From September 3rd through September 15th, 2018, Ortiz, a husband and doting father to three children, lured his victims into his white Dodge truck and drove them to the outskirts of town where he violently executed them, leaving them dead or dying on the sides of dark, rural roads.

“The Devil Behind the Badge” is a fast-paced, electrifying book by Pulitzer Prize-winning USA TODAY journalist Rick Jervis. It tells the gripping story of the four murders that shook the small border town of Laredo, and the quest to unmask a cold, calculated killer who was hiding in plain sight. “The Devil Behind the Badge” is also a deeply human portrait of the four lives lost and an attempt to uncover what motivated Ortiz's descent into darkness. Along the way, it raises serious questions about the border crisis, the abuse of law enforcement, and the challenges of a federal agency to police its own ranks.

My guest today is the author of “The Devil Behind the Badge,” Rick Jervis.

Who Killed Seth Rich? If you guessed Hilary Clinton, you’d be wrong, but not alone. It’s been said that we all love a good conspiracy story. In the midst, of the political convulsions that surrounded the 2016 Presidential Election, a young man by the name of Seth Rich was gunned down and killed on “W” street in Washington, D.C. He was presumably the victim of a botched robbery attempt.

Seth had not been long laid to rest when the internet exploded with the claims that not the Russians, but Seth Rich, an entry-level employee of the DNC, was Julian Assange’s source for Hilary Clinton’s infamous emails, which were published by WikiLeaks.

"A Death on W Street" is a gripping account of, madness, and political chicanery. It tells the story of an idealistic political staffer who became a tragic victim of the age of conspiracy, and how his family fought to defend his name against the likes of Sean Hannity, Alex Jones and others and expose the deceptions surrounding his death.

 My guest today is Andy Kroll, author of “A Death on W Street."

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WARNING: CONTAINS POLITICAL CONTENT!

Can two brilliant minds outsmart the law?  In 1924 Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, two wealthy University of Chicago students, sought to commit the perfect crime simply for the thrill of it.  They meticulously planned the kidnapping and murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks, a distant relative of Loeb.  Despite their careful plotting, a pair of eyeglasses left at the crime scene linked them to the murder.  Their trial captivated the nation, especially with the famous defense attorney Clarence Darrow arguing against the death penalty.  The chilling lack of remorse and intellectual arrogance displayed by Leopold and Loeb turned this case into one of the most notorious in American history!

Two of my passions are True Crime and the stage. In this segment of Murder Most Foul, I have been able to combine them into one podcast. Lizzie Borden can boast numerous plays, an Opera and a Ballet choreographed by the legendary Agnes DeMille inspired by her crimes. My guest today, Stephen Dolginoff, turned the story of thrill-killers Leopold and Loeb into theatrical musical, entitled appropriately “Thrill Me,” which is still thrilling audiences today. He also recently wrote a fascinating book on the 30-year odyssey of taking his vision from first draft to the stage and beyond.

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The musical interludes throughout the podcast are from the Original Cast Recording starring Stephen Dolginoff as Leopold and Doug Kreeger as Loeb.

Teach me to kill. That’s exactly what Media Instructor, Pamela Smart, did for 3 of her teenage students in 1990, in Derry, New Hampshire. Smart seduced and slept with Billy Flynn, the trigger man, and encouraged his friends to participate in the plot that she created, to kill her husband, Greg.

After 34 years, Pam, serving life without the possibility of parole, wants out of prison. Although she admits to the affair, she maintains that she had no knowledge of the murder plot.

Join me today, as I speak with Stephen Sawicki, who wrote an in-depth piece for PEOPLE magazine at the time and later the book TEACH ME TO KILL with details you will see nowhere else. Then you can decide if Pam Smart should be granted her freedom.

Steve DeMocker was a narcissist, a philander and all-around cad, but was he a cold-blooded killer? In 2008, in Prescott, Carol Kennedy, his newly minted ex-wife, was found bludgeoned to death in her home. It wasn’t long until the police focused on Steve as the main suspect. One might suppose this became a run-of-the mill murder case. Au contraire, mon frere! Returning Murder Most Foul guest author, Caitlin Rother, found that writing her book, THEN NO ONE CAN HAVE HER about the investigation and trial was truly a challenge.

In the forward to her book Ms. Rother writes: the ethical allegations flying in every direction, the voice in the vent, the insurance money transfers, the judge with the brain tumor and the judge from the “sweat lodge” case, the Docugate scandal and the bombshell e-mail that got thrown out on this roller coaster ride to justice, suffice it to say I came to empathize with the attorneys in this case because there was so much information it became a challenge to decide what to include and what to leave out.

Join me today as we try to untangle this mess with our guide author Caitlin Rother.

On September 13, 2016, Shawn Grate was arrested in the small city of Ashland, Ohio for the abduction and rape of a young woman. Miraculously the victim actually guided her rescuers to her location using the perp’s cell phone as he slept.

But her rescue was only the beginning! Police Detective, Kim Mager – a cross between Clarice Starling from “Silence of the Lambs” and Olivia Benson from Law & Order, SVU – was assigned to question Grate. It wasn’t long before she suspected that this event wasn’t a “one-off.” After almost 30 hours of interrogation, she got Grate to confess to multiple assaults, 5 homicides and led her to 3 bodies.

Go inside that interrogation room with Detective Mager and take a seat as she recounts, minute by minute, her experience, including more than one moment where her life was at risk bringing a serial killer to justice. The book is HUNGER TO KILL, and my guest is Retired Detective Kim Mager.

MISSISSIPPI BURNING is the name of a motion picture, released in 1988, starring Gene Hackman and Willem DaFoe, loosely based on the murders of 3 Civil Rights workers in Mississippi, during the “Freedom Summer” of 1964.  James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were lured to Philadelphia, Mississippi, and executed by the Ku Klux Klan. No one was ever convicted of their murders, until over 40 years later when Jerry Mitchell, an investigative reporter with The Charion-Ledger, in Jackson, Mississippi, convinced authorities to reopen more than one cold murder case from the Civil Rights Era, prompting one colleague to call him "the South's "Simon Wiesenthal."  In 2009, he received a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation.

Author John Grisham wrote of Mr. Mitchell: “For almost two decades, investigative journalist Jerry Mitchell doggedly pursued the Klansmen responsible for some of the most notorious murders of the civil rights movement. His book, “Race Against Time,” is his amazing story. Thanks to him, and to courageous prosecutors, witnesses, and FBI agents, justice finally prevailed.”

It is my honor to welcome Jerry Mitchell to Murder Most Foul today.

On New Year’s Eve 1989, 11-year-old Collier Landry wakes up to a loud thud coming from his parents' bedroom, and it becomes the night his mother Noreen Boyle disappears forever.

All his family has no doubts that she ran away after a fight with her husband. But Collier knows that his mom would never leave him behind. As Dr John Boyle refuses to discuss his wife’s disappearance, Detective David Messmore builds a secret bond with Collier who insists his mom was murdered.

Together, they discover Dr. Boyle’s hidden girlfriend and an astonishing secret buried under a slab in the basement of the doctor’s new mansion.

Many years later, Collier Landry helped produce a documentary chronicling his ordeal as a child of parental murder, entitled MURDER IN MANSFIELD. Collier joins me now to talk about the case and confronting his father in prison, which is depicted in the film.

In the spring of 2016, as immigration debates rocked the United States, three men in a militia group known as the Crusaders grew aggravated over one Kansas town’s growing Somali community. They decided that complaining about their new neighbors and threatening them directly wasn’t enough.

The men plotted to bomb a mosque, aiming to kill hundreds and inspire other attacks against Muslims in America. But they would wait until after the Presidential Election so that their actions wouldn’t hurt Donald Trump’s chances of winning.
An FBI informant befriended the three men, acting as law enforcement’s eyes and ears for eight months. His secretly taped conversations with the militia were pivotal in obstructing their plans and were a linchpin in the resulting trial and convictions for conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.
White Hot Hate, written by Dick Lehr, tells the riveting true story of an averted case of domestic terrorism in one of the most remote towns in the U.S., not far from the infamous town where Capote’s In Cold Blood was set. In the gripping details of this foiled scheme, the chilling, immediate threat of domestic terrorism—and racist anxiety in America— is writ large.

Today Murder Most Foul takes a slight departure from True Crime to discuss the above titled novel by author Joanna Wallace. Critics call it, “Refreshingly original and laugh-out-loud funny.” This comic thriller follows the trials and tribulations of Claire, a part-time serial killer, who is keen to keep her favorite hobby a secret—despite the efforts of a determined blackmailer.

Please join me in welcoming Joanna Wallace to Murder Most Foul

In 1990, Jens Soering, a German honors student at the University of Virginia, was sentenced to life after a spectacular televised trial for the 1985 murders of his lover’s Elizabeth’s parents, Derek and Nancy Haysom. In a classic example of “he said/she said,” at their trials the star-crossed lovers each pointed the finger at the other as the actual murderer. Were Jens and Elizabeth Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth and Lady Macbeth?  From his Virginia prison cell, Soering deployed his charm to create his own personal innocence project, recruiting celebrities such as Martin Sheen, John Grisham, Amanda Knox and even Angela Merkel.

Soering was paroled and deported to Germany in 2019. Soering sold the rights to his story and launched a media campaign which portrayed him as a victim of America’s cruel and arbitrary courts. Yet skeptics have questioned Soering’s claims, and he is now locked in a pitched battle to define his place in history.
A chief skeptic in the matter is Andrew Hammel, a bilingual German/English criminal lawyer and investigative journalist. Mr. Hammel traces the entire story, beginning with the bizarre romance which led to two gruesome killings. Drawing on five years of research and confidential sources with fresh revelations, Hammel takes the reader behind the scenes of one of the most extraordinary true-crime cases in modern history – and its equally gripping aftermath.

In 1990, Jens Soering, a German honors student at the University of Virginia, was sentenced to life after a spectacular televised trial for the 1985 murders of his lover’s Elizabeth’s parents, Derek and Nancy Haysom. In a classic example of “he said/she said,” at their trials the star-crossed lovers each pointed the finger at the other as the actual murderer. Were Jens and Elizabeth Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth and Lady Macbeth?  From his Virginia prison cell,Soering deployed his charm to create his own personal innocence project, recruiting celebrities such as Martin Sheen, John Grisham, Amanda Knox and even Angela Merkel.

Soering was paroled and deported to Germany in 2019. Soering sold the rights to his story and launched a media campaign which portrayed him as a victim of America’s cruel and arbitrary courts. Yet skeptics have questioned Soering’s claims, and he is now locked in a pitched battle to define his place in history.

A chief skeptic in the matter is Andrew Hammel, a bilingual German/English criminal lawyer and investigative journalist. Mr. Hammel traces the entire story, beginning with the bizarre romance which led to two gruesome killings. Drawing on five years of research and confidential sources with fresh revelations, Hammel takes the reader behind the scenes of one of the most extraordinary true-crime cases in modern history – and its equally gripping aftermath.

Crime movies, documentaries and literature come in several genres: True Crime (just the facts, Ma’am), “Non-Fiction Novel,” (made famous by Truman Capote with his masterpiece, In Cold Blood) and pure fiction. But even with fictitious crime novels, there are hybrid approaches. Some are “based on a true story,” or “inspired by a true story,” or “drawn from today’s headlines.”

 Mapping the Night by David Bethel, falls comfortably into that last category. Drawn from an actual murder case that took place in New York City, it is meticulously researched, authentic, with just the right amount of humor, arising from the interaction of the participants.

It is my pleasure to welcome author David Bethel to Murder Most Foul.

To all who knew him, Robert Hansen was a typical hardworking businessman, husband, and father. But hidden beneath the veneer of mild respectability was a monster whose depraved appetites could not be sated. From 1971 to 1983, Hansen was a human predator, stalking women on the edges of Anchorage society—women whose disappearances would cause scant outcry, but whose gruesome fates would shock the nation. After his arrest, Hansen confessed to seventeen brutal murders, though authorities suspect there were more than thirty victims.

There are countless books, documentaries and movies about the monster who came to be known as the “Butcher Baker.” But the book, by late Alaska State Trooper Walter Gilmour and author Leland E. Hale, is arguably the most complete and most compelling work to date. “Butcher Baker” tells the story of the most prolific serial killer in Alaskan history, from the dark urges that drove his madness, to the women who died at his hand, and finally, to the authorities who captured and convicted him.

My guest today is Leland E. Hale author of "Butcher Baker."

On May 31,1985, two days before her high school graduation, Shari Faye Smith was abducted from the driveway of her family home in South Carolina.

For several days after the abduction, the kidnapper called and sent letters to the family, taunting them with details of abduction and murder of Shari. Ultimately, he revealed the location of Shari’s body on a phone call to Shari’s older sister, Dawn.

But he wasn’t finished. Two weeks to the day of Shari’s abduction, the murderer snatched another victim, 9-year-old Debra May Helmick, who came to a similar fate. The authorities realized they were dealing with a sadistic, narcissistic serial killer of young women.

WHEN A KILLER CALLS is the haunting story of Murder, Criminal Profiling and Justice in a small town, written by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker. John and Mark have written 7 previous books, including Mindhunter, the number one New York Times bestseller that was the basis for the hit Netflix series of the same name.

Mark drew the short straw, and he joins me today on Murder Most Foul.

I saw her standin' on her front lawn
Just a twirlin' her baton
Me and her went for a ride, sir
And ten innocent people died

From the town of Lincoln, Nebraska With a sawed off .410 on my lap
Through to the badlands of Wyoming
I killed everything in my path

I can't say that I'm sorry
For the things that we done
At least for a little while, sir
Me and her we had us some fun

Now the jury brought in a guilty verdict
And the judge he sentenced me to death
Midnight in the prison storeroom
With leather straps across my chest

Sheriff, when the man pulls that switch, sir
And snaps my poor head back
You make sure my pretty baby
Is sittin' right there on my lap

They declared me unfit to live
Said into that great void my soul'd be hurled
They want to know why I did what I did
Sir, I guess there's just a meanness in this world

Those are the lyrics of the song, “Nebraska,” written by Bruce Springsteen in 1982 immortalizing the killing spree of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate in Lincoln, Nebraska and nearby Wyoming in 1958. Were Charlie and Caril Ann a new breed of Bonnie and Clyde? Was 14-year-old Caril Ann, a willing and equal participant in 10 ruthless and gruesome murders, or was she a hostage? Books, movies, and endless documentaries have tried to answer that question.

Harry N. Maclean has an “inside track” on the story having grown up at the time in Lincoln contemporaneously with Starkweather and Fugate. Today on MURDER MOST FOUL, Mr. Maclean shares his recollection of the period and what it was like to return to Lincoln to research his book, “STARKWEATHER: The Untold Story of the Killing Spree that Changed America.”

“A Murder in Hollywood” - the dark story behind the bright lights of Tinseltown.

Before there was Jodie Foster and Brooke Sheilds, there was Judy Turner. You may know her by her stage name, Lana Turner.  Discovered at a malt shop in LA in her early teens and thrust before the cameras, she seemed to have it all―a thriving film career and the kind of fame and fortune that most people could only dream of. But she was soon physically abused by directors and studio honchos and sexually preyed upon by the matinee idols of the era, including Errol Flynn, Fernando Lamas and even Ronald Reagan. But that wasn’t enough.

When Lana began dating mobster Johnny Stompanato, thug for the infamous west coast mob boss Mickey Cohen, her personal life became violent and unpredictable.  Eventually, the physical and emotional abuse became too much to bear, and Lana attempted to break it off with Johnny―with disastrous consequences - Stompanato ending up dead on Lana's bedroom floor, with her young daughter, Cheryl, claiming to have plunged a knife into him in an attempt to protect her mother. The subsequent murder trial made for the biggest headlines of the year, its drama eclipsing every Hollywood movie.

New York Times bestselling author Casey Sherman pulls back Tinseltown's velvet curtain to reveal the dark underbelly of celebrity, rife with toxic masculinity and casual violence against women which took place in Hollywood in the 40s and 50s, long before modern day’s MeToo Movement.

A Murder in Hollywood transports us back to the golden age of film and illuminates one of the 20th century's most notorious true crime tales.  Return guest, Casey Sherman, joins me now on Murder Most Foul.

It’s every mother and father’s worst nightmare to discover your daughter has vanished after a night on the town. Finding Amy is the story of just such a nightmare, written by Detective LT, Joseph K. Loughlin, who led the investigation into 25-year-old Amy St. Laurent’s disappearance and his co-author, Kate Clark Flora. The story is especially compelling because of the personal accounts of Lieutenant Loughlin--- his thoughts, emotions, and reactions as the investigation unfolded in 2001. Unlike Law & Order or CSI, there were no quick solutions that wrapped-up the case in a conveniently short time. What does take place is the passionate belief of the dedicated team of detectives, and police that they will find Amy, bring her abductor to justice, and give closure to her family and the people of Maine. It is my pleasure to welcome Lieutenant Joseph Loughlin to MURDER MOST FOUL.

In the early 1970’s, F.B.I agent, John E. Douglas, created and managed the FBI's Criminal Profiling Program, now called the Behavioral Analysis Unit. Agent Douglas became the inspiration for the character Jack Crawford in “The Silence of the Lambs,” played by actor Scott Glenn.

Douglas has interviewed numerous serial killers and other violent sex offenders at various prisons, including David Berkowitz, John Wayne Gacy, Charles Manson and others.

In the late 1990’s he formed a partnership with author and documentary producer, Mark Olshaker, called MINDHUNTER, INC. Together they wrote numerous True Crime books, based on John’s experiences in the field. One of their books, Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit was the basis for the popular Netflix series, of the same name.

Author and Mindhunter, Mark Olshaker, joins me today on Murder Most Foul.

In the winter of 1982 in Brighton, New York, a bedroom suburb of Rochester, Jim Krauseneck came home from work to discover his wife, Kathleen, lying in bed, dead, with an ax lodged in her head. Their 3-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Sarah, was unharmed alone in the dark, cold house. She had attempted to dress herself and make herself breakfast, which was evident by the cereal strewn all over the kitchen floor.

For over 30 years, no one was charged with Cathy's murder, until the Brighton Police Department collaborated with the FBI to reopen the case in 2015 with their sights set on her husband, Jim Krauseneck, as the primary suspect. It wasn’t until 2022, after Covid loosened its grip on the city, did a trial ensue and justice finally prevailed.

Dennis O’Brien was a local TV news producer at the time of the brutal murder who not only covered the case until it quickly got cold but remained committed to it for over 40 years hoping to see a just resolution.

It is hard to imagine that there is anyone out there who doesn’t know the name Scott Peterson, the man convicted in 2004 of the murder of his young wife who at the time was 8 months pregnant with their child they had named Connor.

Peterson was initially sentenced to death, but in 2020 that sentence was overturned and commuted to life without the possibility of parole. Most thought that this was the end of this tragic tale. Not quite. In January of this year (2024), Peterson’s attorneys, with the help of the Innocence Project of L.A., filed yet another appeal trying to get him a new trial.

In 2020, Murder Most Foul covered the case with the help of Stanley Goldman: attorney, professor and, at the time of the of the trial in 2004, a legal analyst for FOX NEWS. Mr. Goldman spent many hours inside the courtroom and had unique access to both the lead prosecutor and Peterson’s lead defense attorney, Mark Geragos. Afterall, they had both been students of his.

Mr. Goldman was gracious enough to come back and discuss this new twist in the case. As a primer on the case, we begin with a replay of that 2020 interview entitled: “Laci’s Missing.”

1969: The Age of Aquarius - Peace, love and understanding! Nowhere was this more evident than in Helltown, also known as Provincetown, Massachusetts. And Tony Costa was at the center of it all. Like Charles Manson on the left coast, Tony had a group of loyal followers, mostly smitten women who called him Sire. Tony was the undisputed leader of their counter-culture movement, the charming man who speaks eloquently and hands out hallucinogenic drugs like candy.

But beneath his benign persona lurked a twisted and uncontrollable rage that threatens to break loose at any moment. Tony Costa is the most dangerous man on Cape Cod, and no one who crosses his path is safe.

When young women begin to disappear, Costa's natural charisma and good looks initially protect him from suspicion. But as the bodies are discovered, the police close in on him as the key suspect. Meanwhile, local writers Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and Norman Mailer are locked in a desperate race to secure their legacies as great literary icons. 

Helltown written by New York Times bestselling author Casey Sherman, is a landmark true crime narrative that transports us back to the turbulent late 1960s.  And Mr. Sherman joins me now.

Doppelganger: “A person who looks or acts the same way you do – a twin.” Many of us have been told that we look exactly like a celebrity. Sometimes you might walk up to someone in the supermarket and start talking to them as if they are someone you know, only to be fooled because they are not. Harmless fun? Yes, except for poor Pamela Hutchinson, who was murdered by her doppelganger. To tell us this unusual story is Rod Kackley, a return guest to MURDER MOST FOUL and the author of The Murder of Pamela Hutchinson.

Elliot Ness and the American Demon. Almost sounds like a Nancy Drew Mystery. I wish the story were that benign. In the mid 1930’s, just after Prohibition ended, Cleveland played host to a killer whose grizzly murders rivaled that of London’s Jack the Ripper. The victims were all beheaded and often their limbs were also removed earning this sadist the moniker: Torso Killer!

My guest today is New York Times bestselling author, Daniel Stashower, who’s here to share the story of Elliot Ness and the hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper.

If you’ve ever been at a criminal trial or, like me, have never missed an episode of Law & Order on TV, you are aware that certain evidence and witness testimony is not allowed by our current judicial system. But in 1673, in Colonial Portsmouth, Rhode Island, it was not that restrictive. Thomas Cornell, Jr., was charged with killing his mother, Rebecca, by burning her alive. Evidence at the trial included testimony from the spirit of the deceased who appeared to a relative, stating “see how I was burnt with fire.” This form of unusual evidence was called “spectral evidence” and held weight at the trial, which had no direct evidence against Thomas. He was subsequently convicted and hung on the gallows. On a positive note, he was given leniency and was not “drawn” first.

Join me today as we probe this interesting case with, genealogist Alicia Bertrand, who discovered this story while researching her own family tree and found that, not only is she is descended from the Cornells, but also a certain Fall River Axe Murderess.

Sixty years ago this year, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Not quite two weeks after the tragedy, The Warren Commission, established by President Johnson, was launched to investigate the incident and report its findings to the American people.

The Committee stated in publishing its findings that “the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a cruel and shocking act. This report endeavors to appraise this tragedy by the light of reason… to present to the American people an objective report of the facts.”

Simply put, did they succeed? Join me today as we attempt to answer that question by going inside the Warren Commission with William VanDerKloot, writer and director of the film by the same title, available this month on your local PBS station.

Look! Up in the sky, it’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman! For us “baby-boomers” there is only one Superman. And that is as portrayed actor, George Reeves. Reeves version of the Man of Steel was beamed into our living rooms as The Adventures of Superman. The serial aired from 1952-1958, first in black white and then in color, during the birth of the Golden Age of Television. Mr. Reeves did not get rich from the show and sadly, arguably. due to typecasting, could never shake the role.

In 1959, he was discovered in his bedroom, dead from what was deemed by authorities to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. But was it indeed suicide or something more sinister?

In 2006 the film HOLLYWOODLAND was released and pondered this exact question. The movie also offers us a look into the life and times of one of the first T.V. super-heroes.  

The Writer and Producer of HOLLYWOODLAND, Paul Bernbaum, joins me today on Murder Most Foul.

The biggest, the fastest, the longest of anything intrigues us. Many aspire to have their feats, no matter how trivial, immortalized in The Guiness Book of World the Records. The record of “Most Murders by a Serial Killer” is no exception. And that honor goes to Sam McDowell Little.

Starting in 1971 and continuing for 20 years, the FBI confirmed Little's involvement in at least 63 of the 93 confessed murders - the largest number of confirmed victims for any serial killer in United States history.

 My guest today is Jillian Lauren, author and journalist, who entered a modern version of the movie “Silence of the Lambs” to BEHOLD THE MONSTER. Come along with me as she tells her unique story of gathering confessions and details of scores of unsolved murders from the mouth of the monster himself.

In 1954, two college students were hiking along a creek outside of Boulder, Colorado, when they stumbled upon the body of a murdered young woman. Who was this woman? What had happened to her? The initial investigation turned up nothing, and the girl was buried in a local cemetery with a gravestone that read, "Jane Doe, April 1954, Age About 20 Years." Decades later, historian Silvia Pettem formed a partnership with law enforcement and forensic experts and set in motion the events that led to Jane Doe's exhumation and eventual identification, as well as the identity of her probable killer. The new Kindle version includes an Epilogue––with updated information on how the mystery finally was solved.

September 2nd, 1945 - World War II is over! A time for celebration and rejoicing, except in the small town of Campbell, California. Like most towns at the time, the folks were happy that the war was over, and life was slowly returning to normal. That is, tragically except for one poor family in Campbell. It was Friday night, November 2nd. The high school was the site of a fall tradition, an interschool football game. Thora Chamberlain, just shy of her 15th birthday, was supposed to be at the game with her friends but she didn’t arrive at the game and never came home afterwards.

Please welcome a retuning guest to Murder Most Foul, Rod Kackley, as he recounts the twisted tale of THE MURDER OF THORA CHAMBERLAIN.

“Elementary, my dear Watson.” I hazard a guess that you are all familiar with that phrase uttered in almost every film portrayal of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s literary creation, Sherlock Holmes. More about that utterance later. What some folks don’t know about Sir Arthur, is that he was in every sense the alter ego of his creation, Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle was not only a brilliant spinner of mystery tales, but he was also an accomplished medical doctor and scientist. He was an expert in deductive and inductive reasoning, and in a time without high-tech scientific tools, not even fingerprint analysis, he often helped Scotland Yard solve baffling crimes. But in the case of Oscar Slater, he was on the other side of the authorities, advocating for the release of an innocent man. Why? Elementary! It was the right thing to do!

 My guest today is Margarlit Fox, author of, “Conan Doyle for the Defense.” Prior to writing this book, and others, she worked writing Obits for the New York Times of the famous and infamous alike.

 A perfect guest for Murder Most Foul. Wouldn’t you say?