I’ve been fascinated with the West’s for years, and this introduced a lot information I had never known. Wonderful series!

Very Good! Couldn’t stop listening!

It was a good story event though some parts were hard to understand. I would have liked for him to go more in depth though.

Very professional. Incredible story. One of the most moving tellings of loss and humanization of victims I have encountered. The episode “Sister” maybe changed part of me forever.

I liked it

Had a lot of potential - a little more clarity on the story and less of the tape recordings. You can’t understand them and just adds to the confusion.

So good! Interesting and tons of information that I hadn’t heard before.

I really wanted to listen to this but I cannot understand a thing being said in the constant phone recordings.

The amount of back story and research is great. The only downfall is some of his recordings are hard to hear but he repeats what is said every time. Great job!

I had never heard of Frank and Rose West and found the story interesting (although much darker and more twisted then what I usually listen to). Wish the sound quality was better and that it was better organized as I had a hard time following the timeline

Stop talking about how you wrote the story and tell the story.

Extremely informative. Well done!

Having followed the podcast from the first episode, as it was recommended to me in the algorithm I found this series very interesting and the subject deeply disturbing. As an American, I was unfamiliar with the case, even though I was in my 20s at the time that it was headlines. Now in my mid 40s, I often dream of my deceased first husband, and our child who was only 2 years old when he found out he was terminally ill, and would not be here to watch grow up. This was a decade ago. The pain of knowing you are going to die, and the anguish he felt to leave us behind is something we as survivors can only live with imagining, but we do live, don't we? We must live. And it is a great thing to do so. Even though the pain of living without someone is never ever gone. My husband wasn't murdered, he died 5 months after a rare and incurable cancer diagnosis. Hearing the account of the surviving sister in this particular episode felt so familiar to me, because of her dreams; It was truly beautiful, and despite the low reviews given to this podcast for the sound quality of recordings made 20 years ago, which on headphones were easy for me to understand, this episode is a standalone work in how one person has dealt with grief.

Early episodes were good... disappointed last few. Subpar in the true-crime game

Very bad audio for a majority of the podcast, and not great at interviews. Spend more of the story talking about the process of his reporting than actually talking about the crimes. Listened to about 8 episodes but just couldn’t try to get through it any more. Had a lot of potential, but it doesn’t seem like podcasts are the right medium for this reporter.

Interesting story and good narration but the old audio is horrific to try to listen to and the narrator ends up paraphrasing it, anyway. I’m listening now and don’t understand what I’m hearing. Super confusing and disjointed. I can barely recall what I just listened to in the first episode. Unfortunate because I really want to follow this storyline. But the tapes create a mind numbing static that makes it impossible to follow it cohesively.

The recording are hard to understand at time but still great podcast to listen to! The details missed are filled in when needed and they back up all of the claims with intervenes crazy story for sure

The recordings that are often difficult to understand aren’t worth sharing in the podcast. A synopsis of such recordings would be much less frustrating. I feel like I’m wasting my time sitting through the muffled sounds of conversations.

Fascinating podcast told in a way we haven’t heard before. This guy is the expert on the case and to hear the perceptions from back then to now is a totally new and great format. Crime junkie approved!

Even if you were to ignore the tape audio, the way the story is presented seems to draw conclusions and make inferences rather than just tell a very interesting story. Maybe crime junkie will do this case in the future.

Really like the narrator and the interviews are invaluable. Unlike a previous review, the old audio isn’t bothersome, and I’m pretty auditory sensitive. That reviewer probably just needed a snack lol. This is a great series, and I love the depth of the research and the details included.

I am on episode 3 and ready to give up due to the audio. You can not understand anything said in the interviews!

Fascinating story but to have the listenable narrative constantly interrupted by old tapes that are too fuzzy to understand is really frustrating. Even with the content being paraphrased so you know what’s going on, it’s just an unpleasant listening experience.

A fascinating story & well presented. One of the better true crime series. Listen!

Lovin this podcast game!!

Manipulated elderly Daisy Letts into letting him into her house. “I’ve come all the way from London. Can I have a glass of water?” What an utter creep.

The recorded calls are terrifically hard to hear and it seems to me that the narrator/investigator makes some wild jumps to conclusions based on heresy not facts. While it’s a horrible tragedy, this podcast feels exploitative.

This story is so interesting, I wish I was getting the full story. The tapes are so frustratingly difficult to understand.

The big reveal of the tapes is pointless when they’re intelligible. It could have made a better story told without the tapes and a little added creativity.

Think I covered it all in the title. Did the producers of this podcast ever try listening to it? I think not. Would love to hear the story when/if they fix the audio. Otherwise the podcast should be removed.

Made it through the 2nd episode before giving up. Great concept but the poor audio quality of the tapes is unlistenable and drags the episode pacing down a lot.

This story is very interesting but it’s so annoying that every episode contains several minutes of tapes that are impossible to understand. The tapes are already poor quality and the thick accent just makes it even harder to understand. The narrator will sometimes admit that it’s difficult to understand so he will paraphrase. What’s the point of playing the tape if we can’t understand what they’re saying?! It’s maddening!

I like the recorded calls. I like the narrator. I like the format. It is a new way to experience this horrid tale that actually humanizes the whole thing, which obviously makes it even more scary. I appreciate this unique podcast and honestly wish the episode would come out more quickly.

Seriously, did you listed to our end product, Howard? It was painful to listen to the calls (as I see everyone else is making the same comment.). You play an illegible taped phone conversation then repeat what is said. Just leave out the phone conversation....we believe you about the content. What could have been a great podcast was pretty terrible just because you couldn't stand the static.

The content is interesting but some of the tapes are nearly impossible to understand, making it difficult to listen to. The host does note this in the beginning, but I’d rather just listen to him narrate the story himself without as much of the tapes.

I’m a true crime podcast junkie, but I couldn’t listen to this one. The sound quality is so bad I was staining to hear it. It would have been better for the host to voice the events rather then attempt a novel approach of playing the original tapes. Very poor production quality.

Really difficult to understand the recorded bits, probably would be better to just summarize them. Unfortunate because its a captivating story.

We expect a lot as podcast listeners. Having audio that is of poor quality is a deal breaker. I found this podcast terribly hard to listen to due to the bad audio tapes and the subject matter. Such a horrific story.

this is the most bass-y sounding podcast i’ve ever heard. it’s almost unlistenable. needs to be completely remastered. other than that it seems pretty good:)

I listened to 2 episodes of the podcast but I couldn’t get past the repeated playing of garbled recordings...from 1994! Technology wasn’t that evasive that there wasn’t better equipment to be used especially by journalists. The narrator tells you that the recordings are bad quality and that he’ll be paraphrasing, however I didn’t expect for production to literally play portions of the garbled recordings repeatedly (where you can MAYBE make out a word or two) and then he literally tells you what the interviewee said! You gave us a disclaimer, just tell us what was asked and said instead of having us listen to mumble jumble. I got irritated and decided to stop listening.

Started listening, and doing a great job. He worked with what he had, and it was well done. The dialect is beautiful. Looking forward to more.

Half this podcast is “unheard” by anyone. What I can hear is interesting, but you’re telling me no one has made cleaning up old audio a job yet? Never needed subtitles for a podcast before.

I am enjoying the parts I can understand. The 25 year old tapes need to go. The host recaps it anyway. The story is interesting but the tapes need to go. Hopefully the host can leave them out of future episodes.

This could be a BBC podcast it’s that well produced. Sure there’s a few issues with some of the tapes he plays but it doesn’t spoil the show at all. Fantastic.

I was fascinated by this story. It was told well! The narrator played the original tapes from 25+ yrs ago and explained that they were at times difficult to understand but he would explain what they’d said afterward, which he did. Thank you for such an interesting series.

I listen to podcasts all day long. How on earth can you release a podcast with such horrific audio?? Seriously this is such a fail. Don’t waste your time.

I don’t get all the complaints. The fact that all these recordings are kept from all those years ago, albeit with technology that is not as good as today’s, really brings the podcast to life. To be able to hear the real voices, accents and emotion or lack-there-of adds a dimension that brings you right into the time, the environment, and the mood and people surrounding the tragedy and helps you understand. It wouldn’t be half as interesting without them. Every YouTube video I’ve watched that has a northern English, Scottish or Irish accent (or any accent) you see Americans claim they can’t understand anything. I think their entitlement that the world should all have an American accent is to blame for the typical complaints. It is disappointing. If they spent some time trying to listen instead of being superior, they might understand more than their narrow world views currently allow, or demanding being spoon fed everything. Please don’t change the format! More people like it than don’t, and often people think to complain more than they do to praise.

...know the title says it all but what good are the tapes when you can’t hear a darn thing? It is incredibly frustrating to listen to. The concept however, is cool. I love how the podcast does take you back to the moment when the story broke. The present day interviews are great. I’d much rather take your word for it that you have the interviews on tape and listen to a “reenacted” version vs listening to garbage and then layering over what was said. I wish I can skip over those parts.

Like others have said the topic is awesome and interesting but you cannot hear a good 75% of the podcast. Therefore it’s hard to keep straight. I had to unsubscribe and stop wasting my time.

Interesting topic but I can only understand half of each episode - the recordings are impossible to hear/understand!