

True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers
Dan Zupansky
Every week host Dan Zupansky will interview the true crime authors that have written about the most shocking killers of all time.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Dec 10, 2015 • 1h 8min
JACK THE RIPPER AND THE CASE FOR SCOTLAND YARD'S PRIME SUSPECT-Robert House
An investigation into the man Scotland Yard thought (but couldn't prove) was Jack the Ripper. Dozens of theories have attempted to resolve the mystery of the identity of Jack the Ripper, the world's most famous serial killer. Ripperologist Robert House contends that we may have known the answer all along. The head of Scotland Yard's Criminal Investigation Department at the time of the murders thought Aaron Kozminski was guilty, but he lacked the legal proof to convict him. By exploring Kozminski's life, House builds a strong circumstantial case against him, showing not only that he had means, motive, and opportunity, but also that he fit the general profile of a serial killer as defined by the FBI today. The first book to explore the life of Aaron Kozminski, one of Scotland Yard's top suspects in the quest to identify Jack the Ripper, combines historical research and contemporary criminal profiling techniques to solve one of the most vexing criminal mysteries of all time. The book draws on a decade of research by the author, including trips to Poland and England to uncover Kozminski's past and details of the case. Includes a Foreword by Roy Hazelwood, a former FBI profiler and pioneer of profiling sexual predators. Features dozens of photographs and illustrations. Building a thorough and convincing case that completes the work begun by Scotland Yard more than a century ago, this book is essential reading for anyone who wants to know who really committed Jack the Ripper's heinous and unforgettable crimes. JACK THE RIPPER AND THE CASE FOR SCOTLAND YARD'S PRIME SUSPECT-Robert House Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

Dec 4, 2015 • 1h 26min
THE FORTUNE HUNTER-Suzy Spencer
Multimillionaire Steven Beard, Jr. fell hard for Celeste Martinez, a shapely, blonde waitress who served him his nightly cocktail at the local country club…as well as sexual favors. In 1995, the 70-year-old widow Beard married the 32-year-old mother of twin teenagers and gave her homes, cars, and more jewelry and designer clothes than she could ever wear. But it wasn’t enough for Celeste. Claiming she was depressed, she checked into a psychiatric facility, where she met fellow patient Tracey Tarlton, a prominent bookstore manager. Celeste seduced Tracey, convincing her that the only way they could be together would be to kill Steve.In the wee hours of an October morning, Steve awoke to a shotgun blast to his gut. Tracey was arrested but refused to implicate Celeste…until she learned the truth about her lover. In a sordid trial sensationalized even more by the antics of famed Texas defense attorney Dick DeGeurin, the depths of Celeste’s lies were revealed in a tale of lust, betrayal, and regret. THE FORTUNE HUNTER-Suzy Spencer Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

Nov 26, 2015 • 1h 28min
GUILT BY MATRIMONY-Daleen Berry
In February 2014, Aspen socialite Nancy Pfister was murdered in her own home—brutally bludgeoned, wrapped in a sheet, and stuffed inside a locked closet. Fewer than twelve hours after her body was found and without any evidence, police decided a married couple from Denver had killed her. Within a few days, they arrested and charged Nancy Styler, a friend of Pfister’s who’d had a falling out with her after a business deal went sour, and Dr. Trey Styler, Nancy’s disabled husband, who recently lost the family home, his medical practice, and any hope of a peaceful retirement for himself and his wife. Eleven days later, police also arrested and charged Kathy Carpenter, Pfister’s underpaid and overworked personal assistant and closest friend.Months later, Trey Styler, who was slowly losing his grip on reality as he battled with mental illness, confessed to the crime. Rampant speculation spread about whether he was involved at all—or if his confession was that of a man on his deathbed—because a medical condition appeared to have left him barely able to walk, much less carry out such a heinous crime. And, in the only interview before his death, Trey gives his account of that fateful day.New York Times bestselling author Daleen Berry covers this compelling story from the inside, following the Stylers from their fairy-tale life in Denver to the morning of their simultaneous arrest to Nancy’s release from jail and her attempts to rebuild her shattered life. GUILT BY MATRIMONY-Daleen Berry Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

Nov 19, 2015 • 1h 13min
THEN NO ONE CAN HAVE HER-Caitlin Rother
She thought she had married her soulmate. But when Carol Kennedy could no longer tolerate her husband's reckless womanizing and out-of-control spending, the artist, therapist and mother of two had to let him go. Just weeks after their divorce, Carol was found in her Arizona ranch home--bludgeoned to death with a golf club. Her ex, Steven DeMocker, was the prime suspect. Yet it took the authorities months to arrest him--and years to convict. . .Packed with twists and turns, this powerful real-life account reveals every bizarre detail of this compelling case. Bestselling author and award-winning journalist Caitlin Rother presents an unforgettable story of love turned to obsession, and a family torn apart forever. THEN NO ONE CAN HAVE HER-Caitlin Rother Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

Nov 12, 2015 • 1h 7min
DEVIL AT GENESEE JUNCTION-Michael Benson
Today you’d call Ballantyne suburban, but back then, at the start of the summer of 1966, it was country — just a cluster of houses, some of them shacks, on or near Ballantyne Road, in the Town of Chili, NY. And while June 25 started like any other day it would end in a nightmare. In The Devil at Genesee Junction, veteran crime writer, Michael Benson, returns to his formerly rural hometown to take on the double homicide of his friends Kathy Bernhard and George-Ann Formiciola that took place that night. The two girls were missing for a month and then found in the bushes horribly mutilated. The double homicide changed the author’s childhood suddenly, and drastically. He went from living in a rural playland, to being encased in fear, wondering who among them was the werewolf who cut up Kathy and George-Ann. This heinous crime was never resolved, and didn’t go away. In recent years, the author has teamed up with a victim’s mom, and a local private investigator to delve deep into the 6/66 murders, developing along the way some strong new leads and shocking details. Together they have heated up this icy cold case, and their investigation has led them in a startling new direction. THE DEVIL AT GENESEE JUNCTION-Michael Benson Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

Nov 5, 2015 • 1h 30min
RAMPAGE-Lee Mellor
Rampage: a state of anger or agitation resulting in violent, reckless, and destructive behaviour. In 1989, Marc Lépine mercilessly executed 14 female students at Montreal’s École Polytechnique to become Canada’s most notorious mass murderer. The following year spree killer Peter John Peters roamed from London, Ontario, to Thunder Bay, leaving a trail of bloodied bodies, broken dreams, and stolen vehicles. Both men experienced the same devastating destiny – they embarked on homicidal rampages that shook their nation to the core. Lee Mellor has gathered more than 25 of Canada’s most lethal mass and spree killers into a single work. Rampagedetails their grisly crimes, delves into their twisted psyches, and dissects their motivations to answer the question every true crime lover yearns to know: why? If you think serial killers are dangerous, prepare for something deadlier …RAMPAGE-Lee Mellor Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

Oct 29, 2015 • 1h 39min
MOTHER'S DAY-Dennis McDougall
In June of 1985, while her teenage sons held their half-sister down, Theresa Cross beat her nineteen-year-old daughter Sheila unconscious and then stuffed her into a 2´ x 2´ storage locker. After three days, the knocking, kicking, and cries stopped. Theresa and her sons dumped the girl’s body in the desolate High Sierras. The summer before, Theresa had dug a bullet out of her daughter Suesan’s chest with a paring knife. When Suesan failed to recover (without benefit of doctors or hospital), Theresa and her two sons drove the delirious girl to the mountains, doused her with gasoline, and set her on fire. For nearly nine years, Theresa Cross Knorr got away with murder, until her youngest daughter, Terry Knorr Graves, finally found a cop who believed the incredible story of her two murdered sisters.?That story is all here, the shocking life of a woman whose violence, jealousy, rage, and domination led to a brutally heinous crime of ruthless ferocity. MOTHER'S DAY-Dennis McDougall Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

Oct 22, 2015 • 1h 43min
BREAKING POINT-Suzy Spencer
One day, Andrea Yates was a loving mother. The next, the nation was shocked by the death of her five innocent children...The 911 call that shocked the country. "I just killed my children." Why were they killed?On June 20, 2001, in a middle-class Houston suburb, Andrea Yates and her husband Russell, a NASA engineer, prepared for the routine week-day ahead. But before the morning was over, tragedy would strike the quiet family and turn the day into a nightmare. Shortly before 10 a.m., Andrea calmly summoned the police with a grim confession...One by one, Andrea Yates' children, ages 6 months to 7 years, had been drowned in their bathtub. No one who knew Andrea could picture the devoted mother capable of such an unbelievable crime or imagine the terror in the eyes of her trusting children. As their father struggled between overwhelming grief and loyalty to his imprisoned wife, an outraged nation struggled with an unfathomable question...Breaking Point provides a harrowing portrait of the suffocating darkness at the heart of one all-American family, and exposes the private demons that pushed a mother over the edge. BREAKING POINT-Suzy Spencer Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

Oct 14, 2015 • 1h 26min
BLOOD RUNS GREEN-Gillian O'Brien
It was the biggest funeral Chicago had seen since Lincoln’s. On May 26, 1889, four thousand mourners proceeded down Michigan Avenue, followed by a crowd forty thousand strong, in a howl of protest at what commentators called one of the ghastliest and most curious crimes in civilized history. The dead man, Dr. P. H. Cronin, was a respected Irish physician, but his brutal murder uncovered a web of intrigue, secrecy, and corruption that stretched across the United States and far beyond.Blood Runs Green tells the story of Cronin’s murder from the police investigation to the trial. It is a story of hotheaded journalists in pursuit of sensational crimes, of a bungling police force riddled with informers and spies, and of a secret revolutionary society determined to free Ireland but succeeding only in tearing itself apart. It is also the story of a booming immigrant population clamoring for power at a time of unprecedented change.From backrooms to courtrooms, historian Gillian O’Brien deftly navigates the complexities of Irish Chicago, bringing to life a rich cast of characters and tracing the spectacular rise and fall of the secret Irish American society Clan na Gael. She draws on real-life accounts and sources from the United States, Ireland, and Britain to cast new light on Clan na Gael and reveal how Irish republicanism swept across the United States. Destined to be a true crime classic, Blood Runs Green is an enthralling tale of a murder that captivated the world and reverberated through society long after the coffin closed. Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

Oct 10, 2015 • 1h 10min
THE COUNTRY BOY KILLER-J.T. Hunter
From the bestselling author of The Vampire Next Door: The True Story of The Vampire Rapist, John Crutchley. J.T. Hunter tells the story of a friendly, baby-faced, Canadian boy next door. He came from a loving, caring, and well-respected family. Blessed with good looks and back-woods country charm, he was popular with his peers, and although an accident at birth left permanent nerve damage in one of his arms, he excelled in sports. A self-proclaimed “die hard” Calgary Flames fan, he played competitive junior hockey and competed on his school’s snowboarding team. And he enjoyed the typical simple pleasures of a boy growing up in the country: camping, hunting, and fishing with family and friends. But he also enjoyed brutally murdering women, and he would become one of the youngest serial killers in Canadian history. THE COUNTRY BOY KILLER-J.T. HunterFrom the bestselling author of The Vampire Next Door: The True Story of The Vampire Rapist, John Crutchley. Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com