American Criminal

In the early 1930s, there was more going on in America than the Great Depression and a spate of kidnappings. We're joined by author and acclaimed journalist Joe Urschel to discuss the evolution of law...

12 Feb 40min

In June, 1933, a crime that would shock that nation was committed outside a train station in broad daylight. No one saw the Kansas City Massacre coming, and as the nascent FBI scrambled to deal with t...

5 Feb 27min

With the entire country watching, J Edgar Hoover's Bureau of Investigation turns their efforts to hunting down the infamous Machine Gun Kelly and his wife, Kathryn. To listen to all four episodes o...

29 Jan 44min

George "Machine Gun" Kelly and his partner in crime, Albert Bates, pull off a flawless abduction of one of the richest men in Oklahoma. But their victim, Charles Urschel, has a superpower that's going...

22 Jan 42min

After his first botched kidnapping attempt, George "Machine Gun" Kelly goes back to what's familiar: robbing banks. But as the Great Depression ravages the economy, it's getting harder and harder to g...

15 Jan 38min

Growing up in Memphis, George Kelly Barnes starts dabbling in crime from a young age. First he blackmails his father, then he grows a successful bootlegging business for himself. But how did this smal...

8 Jan 41min

In the 1930s, America was in the midst of an epidemic that no one could stop. But it wasn’t an illness we were up against, it was a crime: kidnapping. Every year, thousands of people were abducted and...

1 Jan 1min

Until 2020, the world had mostly forgotten all about the McDonald's Monopoly scandal that rocked the country. But like so many modern true crime stories, this one was revived thanks to a simple post o...

1 Jan 47min