True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers

THE CRACK CITY STRANGLER: The Homicides of Serial Killer Benjamin Atkins offers a chilling, in-depth account of the horrifying crimes committed by one of America’s most notorious serial killers. Award-winning journalist B.R. Bates delves into the twisted life of Benjamin “Tony” Atkins, whose reign of terror in Detroit spanned less than a year in the early 1990s. Known for targeting vulnerable women in Detroit’s most dangerous neighborhoods, Atkins attacked at least 12 women, killing 11 along a mile-and-a-half stretch of Woodward Avenue, one of the city’s most iconic streets. Atkins' crimes were brutal and relentless, leaving victims abandoned in the dark corners of the Cass Corridor and Highland Park. Only when the lone survivor of his horrific spree came forward did law enforcement begin to connect the dots and ultimately capture the monster behind the killings. Through meticulous research in this second book in her Murders In The Motor City series, Bates uncovers the complex web of motivation, abuse, and desperation that led Atkins to target sex workers, while also exploring the societal pressures and systemic neglect that shaped his dark path. A poignant look at a killer’s psychology, Bates explains how this troubled life could give rise to such monstrous behavior. THE CRACK CITY STRANGLER: The Homicides of Serial Killer Benjamin Atkins-B.R. Bates

Smitty: My Marriage to Serial Killer Charles Schmid, the Pied Piper of Tucson unveils an unforgettable tale of love, betrayal, and survival. Diane Schmid thought she had found her Prince Charming when she met Charles Schmid, a charismatic and mysterious man who swept her off her feet as a teenager in the mid-1960s. But her fairytale quickly unraveled when her husband was arrested for multiple shocking murders that captured national attention. Set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing America, this deeply personal memoir recounts Diane’s journey from a young girl in love to a woman facing unimaginable revelations of murder. Through vivid memories and unflinching honesty, Diane reveals how she navigated a life overshadowed by her husband’s heinous crimes while striving to protect her family and find peace. Written with co-author Marshall Terrill, this book offers a unique perspective on one of the most infamous cases in American history, shedding light on the devastating human cost of living with such a dark secret. Blending gripping storytelling with heartfelt reflection, Smitty captures the strength of a survivor who chose to share her voice after decades of silence. Smitty is a compelling and haunting story for those who seek a deeper understanding of resilience in the face of unthinkable events. SMITTY: My Marriage to Serial Killer Charles Schmid, the Pied Piper of Tucson—Marshall Terrill

Detective Rick Jackson, a decorated LAPD detective and a key inspiration in the development of Harry Bosch, delivers a shocking and immersive look into the one case he could never let go. In June 1990, Ronald Baker, a straight-A UCLA student, was found repeatedly stabbed to death in a tunnel near Spahn Ranch, where Charles Manson and his followers once lived. Shortly thereafter, Detective Rick Jackson and his partner, Frank Garcia, were assigned the case. Yet the facts made no sense. Who would have a motive to kill Ron Baker in such a grisly manner? Was the proximity to the Manson ranch related to the murder? And what about the pentagram pendant Ron wore around his neck? Jackson and Garcia soon focused their investigation on Baker’s two male roommates, one black, and one white. What emerges is at once a story of confounding betrayal and cold-hearted intentions, as well as a larger portrait of an embattled Los Angeles, a city in the grip of the Satanic Panic and grappling with questions of racial injustice and police brutality in the wake of Rodney King. Rick Jackson, the now-retired police detective who helped inspire Michael Connelly’s beloved Harry Bosch, along with co-writer, Matthew McGough, take us through the events as he and his partner experienced them, piecing together the truth with each emerging clue. Black Tunnel White Magic is the true story of a murder in cold blood, deception and betrayal, and a city at the brink, set forth by the only man who could tell it. BLACK TUNNEL, WHITE MAGIC: A Murder, a Detective's Obsession, and 90's Los Angeles on the Brink-Rick Jackson and Matthew McGough

When Wayne Adam Ford walked into the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office in November 1998 with a woman's body part in his jacket pocket, the 36-year-old truck driver wasn’t a suspect in any crime. After a lengthy investigation spanning four California counties and a sensational trial, he was convicted of the torture and murder of four women. His first victim, whom he dismembered, would remain unidentified for 25 years. While serving honorably in the Marine Corps, Ford had learned life-saving techniques that gave him structure and purpose. But a severe head injury worsened pre-existing emotional problems, rendering him unable to suppress his dark sexual impulses. Knowing he would kill again, he enlisted his brother’s help to turn himself in. Award-winning investigative journalist Caitlin Rother drew on previously sealed testimony and interviewed key players in the case, including Ford's brother and father, to write this intimate and psychologically resonant narrative. Extensively updated with the inside details of how Ford’s first victim, Kerry Anne Cummings was recently identified through DNA testing and forensic genealogy, this classic true crime story continues to haunt us. Joining me to discuss the updated edition of her book, BODY PARTS: A Serial Killer's Deadly Compulsions-—Caitlin Rother

At just 21 years of age, friends Todd Wilson and Scott McCarthy were virtually inseparable. The pair reported for duty at United Bank of Denver at 6:00 a.m. on Father's Day 1991-McCarthy's first day on the job. They joined two more experienced guards and began making their rounds. By 9:30 a.m., all four were dead. The killer then descended upon the cash vault where he held six petrified tellers at gunpoint before absconding with nearly $200,000. Eighteen days later, the Denver Police Department arrested one of its own. Not only had retired sergeant James W. King served on the force for 25 years, he'd recently been a guard at United Bank-often complaining about the abysmal security, including a decision to disarm its guards. But would he slaughter four of his unarmed successors to prove his point and risk a date with the execution chamber? DEADLY HEIST is the captivating story of one of Colorado's most notorious crimes and of a courtroom slugfest that would take a jury nine grueling days to resolve. Its verdict-delivered a year and a day after the bloody massacre-reverberates across the Rocky Mountains to this day. DEADLY HEIST: The True Story of the Mile High Bank Massacre—Steven B. Epstein

On a Sunday morning in the spring of 1921, a small boy made a grim discovery as he played on a riverbank in the cotton country of rural Georgia: the bodies of two drowned men, bound together with wire and chain and weighted with a hundred-pound sack of rocks. Within days a third body turned up in another nearby river, and in the weeks that followed, eight others. And with them a deeper horror: all eleven had been kept in virtual slavery before their deaths. In fact, as America was shocked to learn, the dead were among thousands of Black men enslaved throughout the South in conditions nearly as dire as those before the Civil War. Hell Put to Shame tells the forgotten story of that mass killing and of the revelations about peonage, or debt slavery, that it placed before a public self-satisfied that involuntary servitude had ended at Appomattox more than fifty years before. By turns police procedural, courtroom drama, and political exposé, Hell Put to Shame also reintroduces three Americans who spearheaded the prosecution of John S. Williams, the wealthy plantation owner behind the murders, at a time when white people rarely faced punishment for violence against their Black neighbors. The remarkable polymath James Weldon Johnson, newly appointed the first Black leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, marshaled the organization into a full-on war against peonage. Johnson’s lieutenant, Walter F. White, a light-skinned, fair-haired, blue-eyed Black man, conducted undercover work at the scene of lynchings and other Jim Crow atrocities, helping to throw a light on such violence and to hasten its end. And Georgia governor Hugh M. Dorsey won the statehouse as a hero of white supremacists—then redeemed himself in spectacular fashion with the “Murder Farm” affair. This is a story that remains fresh and relevant a century later, as the nation continues to wrestle with seemingly intractable challenges in matters of race and justice. And the 1921 case at its heart argues that the forces that so roil society today have been with us for generations.  Joining me to discuss his book, HELL PUT TO SHAME: The 1921 Murder Farm Massacre and the Horror of America's Second Slavery—Earl Swift.

For the first time in forty years, former New York Times editor Michael Cannell has unearthed the full story behind two ruthless New York cops who acted as double agents for the Mafia. No episode in NYPD history surpasses the depravities of Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, two decorated detectives who covertly acted as mafia informants and paid assassins in the Scorsese world of 1980s Brooklyn.For more than ten years, Eppolito and Caracappa moonlighted as the mob’s early warning alert system, leaking names of mobsters secretly cooperating with the government and crippling investigations by sharing details of surveillance, phone taps and impending arrests. The Lucchese boss called the two detectives his crystal ball: Whatever detectives knew, the mafia soon learned. Most grievously, Eppolito and Caracappa earned bonuses by staging eight mob hits, pulling the trigger themselves at least once.Incredibly, when evidence of their wrongdoing arose in 1994, FBI officials failed to muster an indictment. The allegations lay dormant for a decade and were only revisited due to relentless follow up by Tommy Dades, a cop determined to break the cold case before his retirement. Eppolito and Caracappa were finally tried and then sentenced to life in prison in 2009, nearly thirty years after their crimes took place. Cannell’s Blood and the Badge is based on entirely new research and never-before-released interviews with mobsters themselves, including Sammy “the Bull” Gravano. Joining me to discuss his new book, BLOOD AND THE BADGE: The Mafia, Two Killer Cops, and a Scandal that shocked the Nation—N.Y. Times editor and author Michael Cannell

On April 15, 1973, two high school students discovered Virginia Marie Olson’s body near the campus of the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Olson’s murder was horrifically violent—she had been bound, raped, and stabbed to death, leaving the Asheville community in shock. The cold case that followed would span over 50 years, involving three generations of detectives and the Asheville Police Department and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation as they worked tirelessly to uncover the truth. Authors Brian and Cameron Santana and I discuss law enforcement’s dramatic efforts to find Olson’s killer, facing numerous obstacles along the way, from the abduction of another UNCA student in 1974 to a rape and murder victim's body discovered near Olson’s crime scene in 1978. Whispers about the killer's identity have circulated for decades, with theories ranging from an escaped mental health patient to one of North Carolina’s most notorious serial killers—until now. Their book, A MURDER ON CAMPUS is the first to tell the gripping story of this unsolved crime and the surprising twists that led to the authors' startling revelation of the killer’s identity. This is the fascinating story of how two brothers—Brian, an English professor, the other a cop—tag team as authors to solve North Carolina’s most notorious cold case ....A MURDER ON CAMPUS: The Professor, The Cop, and North Carolina's Most Notorious Cold Case-Brian and Cameron Santana

An eight part miniseries, The John Wayne Gacy Murders: Life and Death in Chicago (2024) is the first ever historical, comprehensive and chronological miniseries to study the life and crimes of the infamous serial killer. From his birth to the ongoing investigation of identifying unknown victims, this is the groundbreaking documentary project that filmmaker John Borowski has dedicatedly worked on for five years—uncovering extraordinary new facts and dispelling certain myths about the case. Borowski features important and exclusive interviews he conducted with leading psychologists, childhood friends, arresting officers, prosecutors, Gacy's death row attorney, employees, and victim's family members—in order to create the definitive documentary regarding John Wayne Gacy. THE JOHN WAYNE GACY MURDERS: Life and Death in Chicago-John Borowski

In the tranquil towns of New England during the 1970s, a sinister mystery unfolded when several boys vanished without a trace and the community’s peace was shattered. With law enforcement stymied in its search for answers, whispers of a possible serial killer surfaced, especially after one boy’s body was found years after his disappearance. But what happened to the others remained a heart-wrenching puzzle.In 2013, author David McGrath, a former host on the Law Enforcement Today Network and an investigator with a relentless drive for justice, watched a documentary about the cold case investigation regarding the missing boys. Himself a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and active in his local community with a sex abuse therapy group, McGrath was struck by the number of unanswered questions in the documentary.What followed, beginning in January 2014, was a five-year quest to find the answers to this child abduction and murder mystery. Traveling all over the United States, he uncovered a labyrinth of dark secrets just beneath the surface and unknown to most residents of the bucolic communities from which the boys disappeared. Haunted by his own past, he had to navigate these dark waters if he wanted to bring truth and justice to the victims and their families. OBSESSED: A Survivor's Quest To Find The Lost Boys of New England-David McGrath