Crime Writers On...True Crime Review

Sheriff Alex Villanueva won office in 2018 campaigning as a reformer who’ll clean up the scandal-plagued L.A. County Sheriff's Department. After criticism he was doing the opposite, Villanueva doubled down on his efforts to abuse his power, vilify the press, and investigate his rivals.“Imperfect Paradise: The Sheriff” from LAist Studios examines the controversial head of one of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies. Host Frank Stoltze interviews Villanueva and talks to his critics to learn how he wields his power, going from a progressive sheriff’s candidate to a right-wing media darling.OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "IMPERFECT PARADISE" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 9 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.In Crime of the Week: beef hot dog beef. For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jonelle Matthews vanished after her school Christmas recital in 1984. Colorado investigators had no leads, until a detective homed in on Jonelle’s neighbor, a man said to have a fixation on young girls. The case remained cold for decades until Jonelle’s body was discovered. Then police got a tip about another man in the girl’s orbit: a true crime fan who for years said he had information…but was continually ignored by police.Season two of Campside Media’s “Suspect: Vanished in the Snow'' is currently on Amazon Music and is scheduled for broad release next year. Host Ashley Fantz examines the case and several of those suspected of the crime. The six-part series also covers the murder trial of the man police say did it.OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "SUSPECT" SEASON TWO BEGIN IN THE FINAL 9 MINUTES OF THE SHOW.  For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Giancarlo Granda was the pool boy at a Miami hotel when he was propositioned by Becki Falwell and her husband, the president of evangelical Liberty University, Jerry Falwell Jr. The couple lavished attention and money on Granda to keep the love triangle going and to keep it secret. Like his father before him, Falwell fancied himself a political kingmaker, influencing millions of evangelical voters. But if word of their arrangement with Granda came out it could damage Falwell's 2016 endorsement of candidate Donald Trump.In the Hulu documentary “God Forbid: The Sex Scandal that Brought Down a Dynasty,” Granda tells his side of the story. It also makes the case that keeping the couple’s kink under wraps changed the course of history.OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "GOD FORBID" BEGIN IN THE FINAL TEN MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.In Crime of the Week: Wish I could be part of that world.  For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

After breaking up with longtime girlfriend Olivia Newton-John, Patrick McDermott set sail on an overnight fishing trip in June of 2005. When he didn’t get off the boat the next morning, officials presumed he fell overboard. But then the tabloids speculated whether McDermott had faked his death. Potential sightings of McDermott fueled the story. Journalists and private investigators scoured Mexico on tips he was living a new life. But were they reshaping the facts of an accident at sea for their own purposes - regardless of the cost to McDermott’s loved ones?“Pseudocide'' is the term for faking one’s death. It’s also the name of the Spotify exclusive podcast hosted by Alice Fiennes and Poppy Damon. The team explores McDermott’s upbringing, his relationship with a superstar, and his fatal voyage at sea. They also question those who advanced stories about his secret whereabouts - often based on flimsy accounts.OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "PSEUDOCIDE" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 13 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.  For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In 1983, 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi disappeared after her music lesson. Her family were citizens of the Vatican. Men claiming to be her abductors promised her return if authorities would release the man held for shooting Pope John Paul II. Other theories of the crime emerged. Did the Soviet Union take her to blunt the Pope’s political influence in Poland? Were mobsters using her as leverage to recover money laundered by the Vatican Bank? Or was she spirited away by the Church to prevent the exposure of some secret?“Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi” explores one of Italy’s most infamous cases. With interviews in both English and Italian, family members and journalists recount the many theories surrounding the disappearance and question a man who claimed to be one of her kidnappers.OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "VATICAN GIRL" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 11 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.In Crime of the Week: it is what it is.  For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Grace Williams has just lost her husband, John Paul. But her four sisters are not unhappy to see the man they called “The Prick” meet his demise. For months the Garvey girls had been plotting to kill the cruel and controlling spouse and get Grace out from under his thumb. Now that the deed is done, no one is suspicious - except for the life insurance agent with family secrets of his own.The Apple Original dark comedy series “Bad Sisters” features an Irish ensemble cast led by Sharon Horgan and Sarah Greene. Just how did John Paul die? How did he make an enemy of each of his in-laws? And will the nearly-broke insurance agents avoid paying on the policy by cracking the mystery?OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "BAD SISTERS" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 7 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE. For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In 1982, authorities were baffled when seemingly healthy people were suddenly dying. They concluded the Tylenol they’d recently bought in Chicago-area stores had been laced with cyanide.  In the past forty years, the culprit has not been identified. Investigators had two strong suspects but could not pin the crimes on either one of them. In the podcast “Unsealed: The Tylenol Murders” from the Chicago Tribune and At Will Media, reporters Christy Gutowski and Stacy St. Clair dig through the files of the famous cold case. They also examine the two main suspects hoping to solve the mystery before it’s too late.OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "UNSEALED: THE TYLENOL MURDERS" BEGIN IN THE FINAL TEN MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.In Crime of the Week: sneaky snake. For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rachel McKibbens didn’t even know her father and brother were sick with COVID until it was too late. She grappled with how the two people she loved the most turned unrecognizable due to pandemic misinformation. But her search for answers only renewed questions about her family history, a life filled with both fear and love that she and her brother experienced. Were the deaths a result of contemporary forces, or was this personal tragedy set in motion years earlier?The podcast “We Were Three” from Serial Productions is an intimate look at one family’s ending that was both sudden and years in the making. Host Nancy Updike zooms in on one story about what the pandemic took away and what it revealed.OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "WE WERE THREE" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 13 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.In Crime of the Week: political positions. For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Alan Strauss is kidnapped and chained in the basement of his new patient. Sam Fortner reveals he’s a serial killer and wants the therapist to help him change his violent ways. During his captivity Alan ponders his many regrets in life, all while attempting to cure Sam’s murderous urges. Alan knows if he’s unsuccessful and can't prevent his patient from killing again, he’ll surely become his next victim.In Hulu’s ten-part miniseries “The Patient,” Steve Carell and Domhnall Gleeson each give tightly wound performances. Both men struggle with how their pasts affect their present. Can Alan convince Sam to stop killing in the ultimate test of cerebral fitness?  OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE PATIENT" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 9 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.In Crime of the Week: the cost of kindness.  For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A Florida judge reaches out to author Gilbert King, saying an innocent man has been in prison for three decades. Leo Schofield was convicted of murdering his wife despite no physical evidence and thin witness accounts. Schofield maintains he was not the one who stabbed Michelle and left her body in a roadside canal.Gilbert learns authorities never examined fingerprints found on the hood of Michelle’s car, evidence that points to a different suspect. But rather than clear his name, authorities are not interested in correcting this miscarriage of justice and exonerating Schofield.Lava for Good presents the podcast “Bone Valley.” Gilbert and research assistant Kelsey Decker retrace the investigation into the 1987 Michelle Schofield murder and uncover surprising new evidence about the case. Can the new information convince an indifferent justice system to let Leo Schofield go?OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "BONE VALLEY" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 10 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE. For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.