Criminal
Criminal is the first of its kind. A show about people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. Hosted by Phoebe Judge. Named a Best Podcast of 2023 by the New York Times. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Episodes (50)
The Bottom of the Cliff
In May of 2021, the National Park Service received a call that a woman had fallen over the Grandview Overlook at New River Gorge National Park. After days of searching with rappel lines, infrared...
The Man Without a Will
A Toronto police officer was having an affair with a government worker – and then they found out about an elderly man who died with a large estate, and no will.
For more on the story, read Katherine...
High Tide
Right after sunset, three boats sailed towards the rice plantations on the Combahee River. Harriet Tubman knew they had to hurry - they only had six hours before the changing tide would make it very...
Five Stars
“Christopher Kinahan is probably the most successful and entrepreneurial criminal that Ireland has ever produced.”
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The Stay
Last year, a committee of state lawmakers in Texas issued a subpoena for a man on death row to testify four days after he was scheduled to be executed. Today, what happened next in Robert Roberson's...
The Butterfly Smuggler
The first time Ed Newcomer went to the L.A. Bug Fair, he met a man who called himself the world’s most wanted butterfly smuggler. It took three years of undercover work for Ed Newcomer to catch him in...
Ava and the Pickpocket
“He stole my watch. He stole my jewelry. I stopped wearing jewelry – just to see what else he would steal.” In 2004, Ava Do met a professional pickpocket at a bachelorette party in Las Vegas. And they...
Robert Smalls
On May 13, 1862, in Charleston, South Carolina, a man named Robert Smalls took command of a Confederate ship called The Planter and liberated himself and his family from slavery. As they passed the...
The Raid
In 2023, police raided the Kansas newspaper where Eric Meyer worked with his mother, Joan. Seven officers also searched their home. Joan had a heart attack and died the next day.
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Guns, Grenades, and $100,000
“Anything you can think of is going to be in the water.”
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Dexter Wade
Bettersten Wade searched for her missing 37-year-old son for nearly six months. Then she found out that the police knew where he was the whole time.
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Moon Rocks Wanted
On September 18, 1998, an unusual ad ran in USA Today — a company called John’s Estate Sales was looking to buy a moon rock. The phone number on the ad belonged to Special Agent Joe Gutheinz at...
The Christmas Fire
The bodies of a woman and her child were found inside a burned house on Christmas Day, 1843. An autopsy showed that they’d died before the fire even started.
Alex Hortis's book is The Witch of New...
Turtle vs. Toilet, a Monster in the Closet, and a Surprise Possum
Stories of animals really going for it.
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Operation Flagship
In 1985, 160 people were sent letters saying they’d won free tickets to an NFL football game. They were told to pick up their tickets at the Washington Convention Center. When they arrived, they were...
The Sale
In 1791, three men filed lawsuits in the General Court of Maryland. They were all suing the same person: the Jesuit priest who enslaved them.
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For the Sake of American Youth
“Children nowadays, they make maps. And say, this is the street where the store is that we're going to rob, and this is where we're going to hide, and this is how we get away.” In the 1950s, U.S....
Extraordinary and Compelling Reasons
In 1993, Gary Settle was sentenced to 177 years in prison. Twenty-six years into his sentence, he started helping other inmates get out of prison through something called compassionate release - a...
The Reverend
In 1977, a man named Robert Burns went to a funeral and shot someone, in the head, in front of 300 people. He didn’t deny it, and his lawyer didn’t deny it. Burns told a police officer: “I had to do...
The Family Land, Part 2
This week, part two of the Reels family story – how two brothers went to jail in an attempt to save their family land, and were held there for eight years without being charged with a crime. “I’m not...
The Family Land, Part 1
Melvin Davis and Licurtis Reels refused to leave the land that had been in their family for generations – so they were sent to jail. They expected to be in jail for 90 days. They were there for 8...
Valentine
Today, a personal story from Phoebe about her mother, Valentine, who died this spring.
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Under the Wall
Soon after the Berlin Wall went up, a group of students knocked on Joachim Rudolph’s door. They told him they were trying to get people out of East Germany - and they wanted his help.
Helena...
A Land Without Law
Before Guantánamo Bay became the prison we know today, Marie Genard spent more than a year of her life there. She was 14.
Brandt Goldstein’s book is Storming the Court: How a Band of Law Students...
The Mirage
In 1977, a new bar opened on North Wells Street in Chicago. Things weren’t as they seemed at the aptly named “Mirage Tavern.”
This story is from our friends at Snap Judgment.
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A Murder in the Forest
One morning, two men got in a boat and sailed down a river in the Amazon rainforest. They were never heard from again.
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Into the Vault
In the summer of 1975, two best friends attempted a robbery unlike any they’d ever pulled off before. Their target: the mob.
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The Petition
When Madison Smith went to her county attorney’s office to talk about her rape case, she knew she wanted to press charges. But the prosecutor told her he wouldn't bring a rape charge. Then she...
Hot Lotto
In 2010, a $16.5 million Hot Lotto ticket was sold at a gas station in Des Moines, Iowa. At first, no one showed up to claim the prize. And then, a series of lawyers tried to claim the money on behalf...
Big Fish
Two men turned in the winning catch at a Lake Erie fishing tournament. But when the tournament director squeezed one of their fish - he felt something inside.
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Ana
Phoebe: Are there a lot of spies in this country today?
Scott: Far more than people can probably even imagine. You can't rule anybody out. You never know what it is that motivates people to do...
Trouble in Flamingo
Hunters in the Everglades used to kill millions of birds every year for their feathers. In 1902, a man named Guy Bradley was hired to stop people from shooting the birds – but it wasn’t easy. “If...
Millions of Pills
“There was a saying I heard a few times: ‘under the influence, above the law.’ And I think that describes the mindset of a certain type of fraternity guy.”
Max Marshall’s book is Among the Bros: A...
Los Hipopótamos
In the 1980s, Pablo Escobar smuggled four hippopotamuses into Colombia for a zoo on his ranch. Today, there are over 160 hippos in the country. “It’s like hippo paradise here. They have water and food...
The Disappearance of Leslie Arnold
In 1967, a 24-year-old named Leslie Arnold escaped from prison. The FBI looked for him for years. And then, in 2022, a U.S. Marshal got a message from his son.
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Ten Thousand Feet in the Air
On the afternoon of June 23rd, 1972, Martin McNally walked into the St. Louis airport with a wig, a sawed-off rifle, and a plan.
Special thanks to Danny Wicentowski. Learn more at the Riverfront...
State of North Carolina v. Joan Little
When Karen Bethea-Shields was in college, she heard a judge say, “No way in the world a Black woman can get raped.” A few years later, in 1975, she helped successfully defend Joan Little—a Black...
The Demon Spread
“The ingenuity of depraved human genius has culminated in the production of margarine.”
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One Troy
The Lawrence H. Woodward funeral home in Brooklyn has been run by one family for generations, and has handled many funerals for victims of violent crime.
When we visited, one funeral director told us,...
11 to 1
When JonRe Taylor was called for jury duty in 2007, she voted ‘not guilty’ on every charge. But the defendant was convicted and sent to prison anyway.
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The Six
In 1989, three people confessed to participating in a murder. Eventually, a total of six people were arrested. But when DNA tests were run on crime scene evidence almost 20 years later - the results...
Type B
Six people were arrested for a murder in Nebraska. Some said they couldn't remember details of the crime, or being there at all - but then they began to have dreams about it.
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The Confession, Part 3
When we last spoke with Trevell Coleman, he was waiting to hear back about his clemency application. And then, in December of last year, his lawyer got a phone call.
We shared Trevell’s story in two...
Right of Way
In 1991, two police officers stopped Tupac Shakur for jaywalking. He said he was knocked unconscious during his arrest, and sued the city of Oakland for 10 million dollars. His lawyer says many of the...
Mr. Apology
In 1980, posters appeared in subway stations and on telephone poles in New York City with a phone number to call. When you called it, you would hear a message: “This is Apology. Apology is not...
Under Oath
When he was 14 years old, Ron Bishop testified in a murder trial. Decades later, he told an investigator everything he said on the stand was a lie – and that it was just what he was told to say.
Say...
The Strike
When people started saying that John D. Rockefeller Jr. was responsible for the deaths of two women and 11 children near a coal mine in Colorado, he decided to do something unusual. He hired “the...
An Officer's Arrest
Sultan Alam was the first Pakistani officer to join the traffic department of the Cleveland Police in the UK. He was harassed at work and complained to his senior officers about it. Then his coworkers...
Indelible Ink
For almost thirty years, Adolfo Kaminsky lived quietly, forging documents for people all over the world. It started when he was 18.
Sarah Kaminsky’s book is Adolfo Kaminsky: A Forger’s Life.
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The Hiss
As the famous English actor William Macready was preparing to go on stage in New York, over 300 police officers were placed in and around the theater. “But the head of the police said, ‘I don't know...
About this Podcast
Copyright
Copyright 2021, Criminal Productions
Language
en