Wondery Presents Suspect Season 2: Vanished In The Snow

In this Expanded 20th Anniversary Edition of Murder of a Mafia Daughter, seasoned crime writer Cathy Scott provides in-depth new details of serial killer Robert Durst's arrest, trial, and conviction for the brutal murder of Susan Berman. Besides never-before-seen photos of Susan, also included is Durst’s $40,000 mask he planned to use to elude police while on the lam.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. Kathie's husband was a prime suspect but the case was never solved. After the Kathie Durst case reopened, the media leaked that the district attorney was about to question Susan Berman about what she knew regarding a phone call that appeared to be Kathie calling her medical school dean saying she was sick and wouldn't be at school. The call was placed the morning after she disappeared. 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.This expanded and updated book covers what led to Durst's 2015 capture. Police records placed Durst in California at the time of his good friend Susan Berman's murder. HBO filmmakers discovered an envelope unknown before, written by Durst to Susan. The handwriting and spelling of Beverly Hills were a dead-on match to the cadaver letter police say the killer mailed to police informing them of Susan’s death before her body was discovered. This new release covers Durst’s lengthy murder trial in the slaying of his best friend. MURDER OF A MAFIA DAUGHTER: Expanded & Updated 20th Anniversary Edition-Robert Durst & Susan Berman-The Shocking Inside Story-Cathy Scott 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

12 Feb 202258min

The new edition of this Michigan Notable Book includes a new introduction and stories from interviews with two additional survivors, Myrna (Gates) Coulter and Ralph Witchell, which took place after the first edition was published in 2009.On May 18, 1927, the small town of Bath, Michigan, was forever changed when Andrew Kehoe set off a cache of explosives concealed in the basement of the local school. Thirty-eight children and six adults were dead, among them Kehoe, who had literally blown himself to bits by setting off a dynamite charge in his car. The next day, on Kehoe's farm, what was left of his wife—burned beyond recognition after Kehoe set his property and buildings ablaze—was found tied to a handcart, her skull crushed. With seemingly endless stories of school violence and suicide bombers filling today's headlines, Bath Massacre serves as a reminder that terrorism and large-scale murder are nothing new. BATH MASSACRE: New Edition-America's First School Bombing-Arnie Bernstein 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

10 Feb 202259min

On May 31, 1985, two days before her high school graduation, Shari Smith was abducted from the driveway of her family home in South Carolina. Based on the crime scene and the abductor’s repeated and taunting calls to the family, law enforcement quickly realized they were dealing with a sophisticated and highly dangerous criminal. A letter arrived the next day entitled “Last Will & Testament,” in which Shari, knowing she was to be murdered, wrote bravely and achingly of her love for her parents, siblings, and boyfriend, saying that while they would miss her, she knew they would persevere through their faith. The abduction rocked her quiet town, triggering a massive manhunt and bringing in the FBI, which enlisted profiler John Douglas. A few days later, a phone call told the family where they could find Shari’s body.Then nine-year-old Debra May Helmick was kidnapped from her yard, confirming the harsh realization that Smith’s murder was no random act. A serial killer was evolving, and the only way to stop him would be to use the study of criminal behavior to anticipate his next move before he could kill again. Douglas devised a risky and emotionally fraught strategy to use Shari’s lookalike older sister Dawn as bait to draw out the unknown subject. Dawn and her parents courageously agreed.One of the most haunting investigations of Douglas’s storied career, this case details how the eerily accurate profile he created—alongside his carefully crafted and stage-managed manipulation of the killer’s psychology—combined with dedicated police work and cutting-edge forensic science to end a reign of criminal terror. As Shari’s family took incredible personal risks to lure her killer from the shadows, Douglas and the FBI pushed criminal profiling to its limits, culminating in one of his most dramatic and effective confrontations with a sadistic and remorseless killer. WHEN A KILLER CALLS: A Haunting Story of Murder, Criminal Profiling, and Justice in a Small Town-John Douglas 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

31 Jan 202259min

In the past thirty years alone, more than 2,800 innocent American prisoners – their combined sentences surpassing 25,000 years – have been exonerated and freed after being condemned for crimes they did not commit. Terrifyingly, this number represents only a fraction of the actual number of persons wrongfully accused and convicted over the same period. Renowned criminal defense and civil rights attorney David Rudolf has spent decades defending the wrongfully accused. In American Injustice, he draws from his years of experience in the American criminal legal system to shed light on the misconduct that exists at all levels of law enforcement and the tragic consequences that follow in its wake. Tracing these themes through the lens of some of his most important cases – including new details from the Michael Peterson trial made famous in The Staircase – Rudolf takes the reader inside crime scenes to examine forensic evidence left by perpetrators; revisits unsolved murders to detail how and why the true culprits were never prosecuted; reveals how confirmation bias leads police and prosecutors to employ tactics that make wrongful arrests and prosecutions more likely; and exposes how poverty and racism fundamentally distort the system.In American Injustice, Rudolf gives a voice to those who have been the victim of wrongful accusations and shows in the starkest terms the human impact of legal wrongdoing. Effortlessly blending gripping true crime reporting and searing observations on civil rights in America, American Injustice takes readers behind the scenes of a justice system in desperate need of reform. AMERICAN INJUSTICE: Inside Stories from the Underbelly of the Criminal Justice System-David S. Rudolf 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

27 Jan 202255min

Thirteen new insomnia inducing murder stories from True Crime master Michael Benson, including: Monster of the Low Country, Born to Raise Hell, The Hollywood Ripper, The Murder of Craig Rideout, Call Me Daddy, Savage Waitress, King Creep, A Dark Stretch of Road, Family of Terror, The Tell-Tale Knot, Vengeance is Mine, Breckenridge, and A Few Thoughts on the Black Dahlia. Dozens of photos! An excerpt from the book’s final story: "It is the most famous American murder case not involving a celebrity—a crime so horrible that it changed the tone of an entire city. Before, throughout Los Angeles, women routinely walked home alone. After, they required escorts—and all because of the mind-bogglingly bizarre ordeal of Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, a celebrity only in death. The twenty-two-year-old raven-haired beauty, a show-biz wannabe, was found on the morning of January 15, 1947. She was naked, severed into two pieces below the ribcage, and arranged on the ground like a piece of surreal art, arms above her head, legs spread, her upper body parallel but to the side of her lower body, a Sardonicus smile carved into her face with a knife, and portions of a breast and a thigh cut out. The missing piece of thigh flesh was found inserted in her rectum. The skin attached to that piece contained a rose tattoo.She’s been tortured for days, tortured till dead, drained of blood and dumped, no presented, at the edge of a vacant lot, left foot only inches from the sidewalk, hair freshly washed, in the Leimert Park section of L.A. The cause of death was drowning. She’d drowned on her own blood." DARK ROSES:13 Horrific True Stories-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

25 Jan 202259min

Dive Deep Into the Crime Stories of Criminal CouplesFrom harrowing heists to murderous mayhem, this collection of true crime stories will have you on the edge of your seat as you discover exactly why two criminal minds are scarier than one, especially when they belong to lovers.Discover Infamous Legends and Lesser-Known Criminals and find out why they have become solidified in true crime history. From Ted Bundy to Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killers and other criminals often work alone. But when they're in a relationship, this isn't always the case. Acclaimed author and anthologist Mitzi Szereto brings us a collection that proves that two is better than one when it comes to murder, mischief, and mayhem.From Serial Killers to Your Average Joes. This chilling new collection of original crime stories takes you into the lawless and deadly activities of criminal couples who find more pleasure in crime than in each other. Featuring contributions from an international list of award-winning crime writers, journalists, and experts in the dark crimes field. THE BEST NEW TRUE CRIME STORIES: Partners in Crime-Mitzi Szereto 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

20 Jan 202251min

25 years on, Florida's first serial killer GJ Schaefer returns with a new expanded volume of illustrated killer fiction, featuring the stories used to convict him of double murder in 1973. The ex-cop and serial killer was doing two life sentences for the murder of two teenage girls, when he himself murdered in 1995. Sondra London first published a collection of these stories in 1989, under the imprimatur of Media Queen. Feral House published Killer Fiction in 1997. Now comes the new expanded collection, that also includes the stories Schaefer wrote in prison for Sondra London. 73 illustrations include drawings by Schaefer seized by police in 1973 and used as evidence to convict him of murder; impressionistic sketches of Schaefer by Sondra London; and facsimiles of his handwritten statements. BEYOND KILLER FICTION: Rogue Cop-Sondra London 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

13 Jan 20221h 20min

For almost a decade, Backpage.com was the world’s largest sex trafficking operation. Seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, in 800 cities throughout the world, Backpage ran thousands of listings advertising the sale of vulnerable young people for sex. Reaping a cut off every transaction, the owners of the website raked in millions of dollars. But many of the people in the advertisements were children, as young as 12, and forced into the commercial sex trade through fear, violence and coercion.In Taking Down Backpage, veteran California prosecutor Maggy Krell tells the story of how she and her team battled against this sex trafficking monolith. Beginning with her early career as a young DA, she shares the evolution of the anti-human trafficking movement. Through a fascinating combination of memoir and legal insight, Krell reveals how she and her team started with the prosecution of street pimps and ultimately ended with the takedown of the largest purveyor of human trafficking in the world. She shares powerful stories of interviews with survivors, sting operations, court cases, and the personal struggles that were necessary to bring Backpage executives to justice. Finally, Krell examines the state of sex trafficking after Backpage and the crucial work that still remains.Taking Down Backpage is a gripping story of tragedy, overcoming adversity, and the pursuit of justice that gives insight into the fight against sex trafficking in the digital age. TAKING DOWN BACKPAGE: Fighting the World's Largest Sex Trafficker-Maggy Krell 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

10 Jan 202249min