

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

Jul 3, 2015 • 1h 29min
REDBONE-Ron Stodghill
Lance Herndon was at the top of his game in 1996. At age forty-one he was a self-made millionaire, the owner of Access, Inc., a successful information-systems consulting company. As a prominent member of Atlanta's young, wealthy, and powerful set, he was surrounded by black Atlanta's "beautiful people." But when he failed to show up for work one day, friends and family started to worry. Their worry soon turned to horror when he was found murdered in his own home, his head smashed in—in what appeared to be either an act of jealousy-fueled rage or a seedier sex crime. With a laundry list of ex-wives and lovers, competitors, critics, and admirers in hand, detectives had to break through the city's upper crust to discover his killer. Journalist Ron Stodghill tells the riveting, true story of this investigation.Part investigative thriller, part sociological commentary, Redbone offers a truly intriguing story that channels insight into one of America's great metropolises. REDBONE: The Millionaire and the Gold Digger-Ron Stodghill 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

Jun 26, 2015 • 1h 3min
KENTUCKY BLOODBATH-Kevin Sullivan
From the author of VAMPIRE: The Richard Chase Murders and The Bundy Murders comes an excursion into the truly weird and the bizarre: from a medieval-esque murder in a small town museum to the jilted boyfriend who decided that his former girlfriend needed to die on her twenty-first birthday. And then there’s the demented son who returns home to live with his mother and stepfather, and one night in their beautiful mansion sitting atop a high bluff overlooking the Ohio River, slaughters them. KENTUCKY BLOODBATH: Ten Bizarre Tales of Murder from the Bluegrass State 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

Jun 18, 2015 • 1h 29min
PERFECT VICTIM-Carla Norton
Hitchhiking from Eugene, Ore., through northern California in 1977, 20-year-old Colleen Stan thumbed a ride into hell. Her kidnappers a sadistic lumber mill worker, Cameron Hooker, and his battered wife Janice subjected her to seven years of torture and sensory deprivation. She was made a sex slave, kept locked in a wooden box and brainwashed into believing that an underground network of sadists would recapture her if she attempted to escape. Did Colleen fall in love with Cameron and make herself a willing partner in a love triangle, as the Hookers' defense lawyer asserted? The jury found otherwise, convinced by the evidence marshalled by coauthor McGuire, state prosecutor in the case, a trial that journalist Norton attended in 1984. Not for the squeamish, this harrowing tale shuttles between the courtroom and the grisly doings in the Hookers' basement. PERFECT VICTIM-The True Story of "The Girl In The Box" by the D.A. Who Prosecuted Her Captor-Carla Norton 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

Jun 11, 2015 • 1h 22min
WEEP FOR THE LIVING-Anne Butler
A survivor's firsthand account of attempted murder in St. Francisville, Louisiana. A former warden of Angola Prison shoots his wife five times with a pistol, then sits down to watch her die on her plantation home porch. The victim, author Anne Butler, survives to tell this true crime story, detailing the unraveling of her seven-year marriage and how it led to her near-murder. Interspersed with simple black and white snapshots, this stranger-than-fiction story of murder, survival, and forgiveness offers keen insights into the mind of both victim and criminal. WEEP FOR THE LIVING-Anne Butler 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

Jun 5, 2015 • 1h 36min
FRUIT OF THE POISONOUS TREE-Richard Carson
First came the unsettling Ouija board prophesy that Robin Adams would die before her 17th birthday. When a minister was summoned to rid the house of frightening phenomena blamed on the Ouija board, he was taunted and denounced by a neighbor and suspected Satanist. Thus, the die was cast for one of the most bizarre murder cases in Michigan history. In 1976, when Robin vanished without a trace from the village of Caro, police were left without a body, witnesses or anything remotely resembling a crime scene. The case went cold for six years. Then, when a rookie state police detective was assigned to reopen the investigation, what followed reads like chapters from a Stephen King novel -- right down to the claim that the killer's grandmother was practicing black magic to avenge efforts to bring him to justice. FRUIT OF THE POISONOUS TREE-Richard Carson 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

May 28, 2015 • 2h 49min
HUNTING A PSYCHOPATH-Richard Shelby
"Hunting a Psychopath" is a fascinating first hand account of the crimes of California's East Area Rapist Original Night Stalker couples killer. Detective Shelby was the first Sacramento detective to make a connection between a series of rapes that began in the middle class communities of East Sacramento in the late 1970's. His book details the efforts to apprehend this psychopath before he transformed into a southern California serial killer who preyed upon middle class couples through a terrifying series of home invasion murders. I highly recommend this book for readers of true crime. This particular series of crimes remains unsolved, leaving many questions about a violent predator who has been labeled one of the most brazen criminals and one of the least publicized. Detective Shelby's book is fast paced and full of investigation details.. . HUNTING A PSYCHOPATH-The East Area Rapist-Original Night Stalker Investigation-Richard Shelby 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

May 21, 2015 • 1h 39min
DELIVER US-Kathryn Casey
Critically acclaimed author Kathryn Casey delivers a riveting account of the brutal murders of young women in the I-45/Texas Killing FieldsOver a three-decade span, more than twenty women—many teenagers—died mysteriously in the small towns bordering Interstate 45, a fifty-mile stretch of highway running from Houston to Galveston. The victims were strangled, shot, or savagely beaten. Six met their demise in pairs. They had one thing in common: being in the wrong place at the wrong time.The day she vanished, Colette Wilson waited for her mother after band practice. Best friends Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson loved to surf and were last seen hitchhiking. Laura Kate Smither dreamed of becoming a ballerina and disappeared just weeks before her thirteenth birthday.In this harrowing true crime exposition, award-winning journalist Kathryn Casey tracks these tragic cases, investigates the evidence, interviews the suspects, and pulls back the cloak of secrecy in search of elusive answers. DELIVER US-Three Decades of Murder and Redemption in the Infamous 1-45/Texas Killing Fields-Kathryn Casey 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

May 13, 2015 • 1h 19min
FOLSOM'S 93-April Moore
From 1895 to 1937, 93 men were hanged at California's Folsom State Prison, and this book is the first to tell all of their stories, recounting long-forgotten tales of murder and swift justice, or sometimes, swift injustice that hanged an innocent man. Based on a treasury of historical information that has been hidden from the public for nearly 70 years, the full stories of these 93 executed men are presented in this collection including their origins, their crimes, the investigations that brought them to justice, their trials, and their deaths at the gallows. This wealth of previously unpublished historical detail gives a vivid view of the sociology of early 20th-century crime and of the resulting prison life. Readers take a trip back in time to the hard-boiled early 20th-century California that inspired the novels of Dashiell Hammett and countless other crime writers. Illustrated throughout with authentic and haunting prison photographs of each of the condemned men, the crimes and punishments of a vanished era are brought into a sharp and realistic light. Folsom's 93: The Life and Crimes of Folsom Prison's Executed Men-April Moore 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

May 7, 2015 • 1h 30min
NO STONE UNTURNED-Steve Jackson
The True Story of the World’s Premiere Forensic recreates the genesis of NecroSearch International as a small eclectic group of scientists and law enforcement who volunteered their services to help locate the clandestine graves of murder victims and recover the remains and evidence to assist with the apprehension and conviction of the killers. Known early on as “The Pig People” because of their experiments in locating graves using the carcasses of pigs (because of their similarities to human bodies), NecroSearch has evolved and expanded into one of the most respected forensic investigation teams in the world. New York Times bestselling author Steve Jackson, the author of BOGEYMAN and MONSTER, vividly tells the story of this incredible group and recounts some of their most memorable early cases that taken separately would make great true crime books. Following his participation in a NecroSearch expedition to Russia looking for the remains of a Russian noble in 2013, Jackson was made an honorary member of NecroSearch International in November 2014. NO STONE UNTURNED-Steve Jackson 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

May 2, 2015 • 1h 22min
ROBERT DURST: MURDER OF A MAFIA DAUGHTER-Cathy Scott
Susan Berman grew up in Las Vegas luxury as the daughter of Davie Berman, casino mogul and notorious mafia leader. After her father died she learned about his mob connections. Susan then dedicated her life to learning about Vegas and its underworld chiefs. Her life took a bizarre turn in l982 when Kathie Durst—the wife of her good friend, Robert Durst, mysteriously disappeared. Durst was a prime suspect but the case was never solved. After the Kathie Durst case was reopened, the DA was about to question Susan Berman about what she knew regarding a phone call Kathie supposedly made to her medical school dean saying she was sick and wouldn’t be at school. The call was placed the day after she had vanished. Soon after the Kathie Durst case was reopened, Susan Berman was found dead, shot in the back of head. No forced entry, no robbery, nothing missing from her home.The book covers what led to Durst’s capture. Police records placed him in California at the time of his good friend Susan Berman’s murder. HBO filmmakers discovered a letter unknown before, written by Durst to Susan, a dead-on match to the cadaver letter police say the killer sent before Susan’s body was discovered. MURDER OF A MAFIA DAUGHTER: The Story Behind The Suspicions Robert Durst Murdered Susan Berman-Cathy ScottNATUREBOX-Snack Smarter-Start a Free Trial-For Delicious Details: http://www.naturebox.com/offer/free/sampler/?utm_source=truemurder&utm_medium=podcast&utm_content=link&utm_campaign=2014_podcast&afid=truemurder 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