Criminal

Sgt. David Mascarenas was the Dive Supervisor for the Los Angeles Police Department. He’s been diving his whole life, and prides himself on never refusing a dive, no matter how treacherous. At least until the summer of 2013, when a murder investigation led him into the unusually murky waters of the La Brea tar pits.We first spoke with Sgt. Mascarenas in 2015. This week, we’re adding to the story with information about the crime he couldn’t tell us before. In 2011, a man named Alonzo Ester was shot and killed in LA. The LAPD received a tip that some evidence was at the bottom of the La Brea tar pits.Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. A man named Gerald Lewis was 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.We speak with attorney Frank Ashton and fire investigator John Lentini about the Lime Street case and why it was so important.Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For decades, TV news reporter Russ Ewing stood beside more than 100 people—at their request—as they surrendered to the police.Thanks to CBC Licensing.Say hello on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts.Sign up for Criminal Plus to get behind-the-scenes bonus episodes of Criminal, ad-free listening of all of our shows, special merch deals, and more. We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop.Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.Adam was charged with and convicted of the murder of Malcolm Burrows and assault against Rebecca Hill and Kirk Braden, despite there being no physical evidence against him. And then, 8 years later, Judge Justin Angel ordered a new trial.We speak with Adam Braseel, Judge Justin Angel, and Sergeant Mike Brown.Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the spring of 1922, the United Mine Workers of America announced a national strike. And then, that summer in Herrin, 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.Scott Doody’s book is Herrin Massacre. Special thanks to the Special Collections Research Center at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and Matt Gorzalski, and to John Griswold, who wrote Herrin: The Brief History of an Infamous American City.Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Debbie Schum waited a long time to receive the cremated ashes of her friend, LoraLee Johnson, from Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors in Montrose, Colorado. When she did, she felt relieved to finally take them home with her. But then, she got a call from the FBI.It turned out that the owner of the funeral home, Megan Hess, and her parents Shirley and Alan Koch had been operating a body brokering business—without permission from anyone.We speak with Debbie Schum, Elena Saavedra Buckley, Melissa Connor, and Danielle McCarthy. To learn more, check out Saavedra Buckley’s article in High Country News, “‘None of this happened the way you think it did.’”Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 and misunderstandings. Like when Nate Roman returned home one evening to find his Marlborough, Massachusetts home mysteriously clean, and when 82-year-old Willie Murphy dealt with a home intruder in her own way.Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are trying something different. Have a question for Phoebe? You can call into our voicemail at (919) 697-8231. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1995, two men filmed an episode of the 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.”We speak with Cynthia Lee, Carsten Andresen, and Paul Howard about so-called “gay panic” and “trans panic” defenses, and we discuss the murders of Scott Amedure, Islan Nettles, Larry King, Ahmed Dabarran, and Matthew Shepard.Thanks to Thomas Curry, who helped co-produce this episode.Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. They were Don and Dan Nichols, a father and son pair who later became known as the “mountain men.”This story was produced by 30 for 30 Podcasts from ESPN, and reported by Bonnie Ford. Find more at 30for30podcasts.com.Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices