Serial Killers

For decades, it seemed like Charlie Brandt's first murder was a shocking, unexplainable anomoly—something he would never repeat. But in 2004, another violent crime would make headlines, and unearth secrets no one ever saw coming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In January 1971, 13-year-old Charlie Brandt retrieved his father's gun and committed a shocking murder, saying it was like he “was sort of programmed to do it.” After 17 months in a mental health facility, he was free, and everything returned to normal… Or so it seemed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

By the early 1980s, Watts had stabbed three women to death. As police closed in on him, setting up tails and even bringing him in for questioning—but unable to detain him—he fled to Texas, where he disappeared into the city then known as “The Murder Capital of the U.S.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Unable to contain his dark fantasies and suppressed rage, Coral Eugene Watts targeted women in Michigan and Texas starting in 1974, and continuing for nearly a decade. His crime sprees were a reign of terror that for him, brought a perverse kind of relief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Still desperate to ignite a race war in the United States, Joseph Paul Franklin sought more prominent targets, hoping to draw attention to his cause. But he also found satisfaction in impulsive, isolated murders. When it seemed no one would ever catch him, he got careless. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He studied Mein Kampf. Changed his name. And joined white supremacist groups across the country. Fueled by hateful rhetoric and armed with guerilla warfare tactics, Joseph Paul Franklin set out to ignite a nationwide race war—right in the midst of the Civil Rights movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1977, Cottingham was married with three kids, two secret girlfriends, and an itch for abusing sex workers. As the years wore on, he developed increasingly bizarre torture rituals, and his crimes escalated in both body count and brutality.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He had an idyllic childhood in the 1940s and ‘50s, but as Richard Francis Cottingham grew, he began having dark, dehumanizing sexual fantasies about women. When he started working in New York City, he took those violent, twisted dreams and made them a reality.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1979, Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris sexually assaulted and murdered five teenage girls. For months, authorities were at a loss to explain the disappearances of their victims, but eventually, Norris and Bittaker got reckless, and the crimes of the Toolbox Killers were revealed to the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They each lived lonely lives, bouncing from jail to jail until a chance meeting in California brought them together in 1978. Bittaker and Norris began a sadistic friendship which evolved into a twisted partnership—one that would eventually claim the lives of five teenage girls. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices