Serial Killers
Get a rare glimpse into the minds and methods of sadistic murderers. From notorious names like Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy to lesser-known killers like “Death House Landlady” Dorothea Puente, what turns a regular person into a predator? Serial Killers is a Spotify Original. New episodes Mondays.
Episodes (51)
Thrill Killer: Richard Biegenwald
Richard Biegenwald didn’t have a consistent method or a clear motive. He killed out of impulse—sometimes for attention, sometimes for no reason at all. His crimes were scattered, senseless, and...
Lust Killer: Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer seemed quiet, even unassuming. But beneath the surface was a man consumed by violent desire. He didn’t kill out of anger—he killed to satisfy a fantasy. Every detail was deliberate,...
Mission Killer: "Real Life Dexter" Manny Pardo
This Florida cop dedicated his life to fighting crime. But in his mind, the only way to truly clean up the streets, was to become a killer himself. So Manuel “Manny” Pardo killed nine people. And even...
Visionary Killer: Joe Kallinger
The visionary killer blames their crimes on an external force – an apparition who commands them to kill. In Joseph Kallinger’s case, multiple entities urging him to commit arson… and then, to kill...
Power and Control Killer: Ted Bundy
Ted Bundy was calculated, composed, even charming. But behind the polished exterior was a predator obsessed with control. He used manipulation, deceit, and dominance to gain total power over his...
The Idaho Four Pt. 2 (with Kayna Whitworth)
In 2022, Six weeks after the murders of the Idaho Four, Bryan Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania. Fast forward to July of 2025, when just weeks before his trial was set to begin, he pleaded...
The Idaho Four Pt. 1 (with J. Reuben Appelman)
In the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, four students at the University of Idaho were murdered in their off-campus home. The shocking brutality of the murders garnered media attention while...
The Hook Man
The Hook Man is an urban legend dating back to the 1950s. The terrifying story tells of a killer with a hook for a hand who preys on young couples parked in lovers’ lanes. The legend found new life in...
The Postcard Killer: J. Frank Hickey
After a young boy vanished in 1911, police received mysterious postcards. The horrifying allegations and broad inconsistencies led them to believe the notes were a hoax – until it was too late. With...
Phone Call From a Serial Killer: Larry Gene Bell
May, 1985. Two days before her high school graduation, Shari Faye Smith was abducted from her parents’ driveway in broad daylight. Her kidnapper taunted Shari’s family by phone for days, calling in...
The Killer Prophet: Ervil LeBaron Pt. 2
Ervil LeBaron, the prophet of a Fundamentalist LDS sect in Mexico, has grasped power after being released from prison for orchestrating his brother’s murder. Now, Ervil has a list of names of those...
The Killer Prophet: Ervil LeBaron Pt. 1
In the 1920s, the LeBaron family settles in Mexico to practice their own sect of Mormonism. They establish a settlement, open a church, and work the farms. But after the family patriarch dies, the...
The Red Barn Murder
Happy solstice, listeners! Join our guest host this week, Sapphire Sandalo, for a summertime tale of betrayal, murder, and the bizarre journey of a criminal corpse.
It's 1827, and the Marten family...
It's 1827, and the Marten family...
Zodiac or Bundy? The Unsolved Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders
In the 1970s, at least seven young women and girls go missing around Santa Rosa, California. Seven are found dead, and one remains unidentified. Several killers, including the Zodiac and Ted Bundy,...
The Taco Bell Strangler: Henry Louis Wallace
His modus operandi is shocking: years before he strangled his victims, Henry Louis Wallace befriended them. By and large, they were his coworkers at Bojangles and Taco Bell. But under interrogation,...
The Shapeshifting Fugitive: Franklin Delano Floyd
A missing woman in Florida leads police to a fugitive who’s been on the run for 17 years. But that’s just the beginning. Franklin Delano Floyd not only becomes a suspect in that case, but he’s then...
A Body in the Cellar: Hawley Harvey Crippen
When a boneless torso possibly belonging to a woman named Cora Turner is found in the cellar of a London home, the culprit seems almost obvious. Her husband, Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, seems to have...
"The Freeway Phantom": D.C.'s First Serial Killer?
“...catch me if you can!” Police find those words written on a note left in a jacket draped over a murder victim’s body. They believe the message comes from a serial killer targeting young women in...
Operation Trace: The Missing Women of Ireland's Vanishing Triangle
The eighty miles surrounding Dublin, Ireland, hold a chilling mystery. Between 1993 and 1998, at least six women disappeared in the area, and their cases remain unsolved. Police investigations have...
Golden Years Killers Pt. 2
After getting away with murder in LA, retirees Helen and Olga scheme to kill again. But when an unlikely party sniffs out their crimes, the friends turn on each other.
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Golden Years Killers Pt. 1
No one batted an eye at the two women who became fast friends at an LA gym in the 1990s – until years later, when it came out that they’d teamed up for a plot to kill men down on their luck.
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Keep up...
The Doomsday Murders: Lori and Chad Daybell
In early 2020, the story of Lori Daybell and her new husband, Chad Daybell, hit national news. They’d seemingly fled to Hawaii while two of Lori’s children were missing, leaving a wake of mysterious...
The Rugeley Poisoner Pt. 2
Struggling with gambling and spiraling into debt, William Palmer turned to murder. This week, we continue analyzing the deaths Palmer was accused of, and how the scheming doctor was finally...
The Rugeley Poisoner Pt. 1
In 1855, Dr. William Palmer became one of the Victorian era’s most famous villains – a man who poisoned his own friends and family. But with limited evidence and only one conviction, was Palmer really...
The Eleven Who Went to Heaven: The Case Against Ed Bell Pt. 2
In Texas, convicted murderer Ed Bell claimed he killed 11 girls between Houston and Galveston back in the 1970s. Reporter Lise Olsen and detective Fred Paige investigated those claims and uncovered...
The Eleven Who Went to Heaven: The Case Against Ed Bell Pt. 1
Edward Harold Bell was serving a 70-year prison sentence for murdering a man when he sent a letter to Houston reporter Lise Olsen. He told her he’d also killed 11 girls in and around the Interstate-45...
Hunting a Serial Killer: The Colonial Parkway Murders
When a series of double-homicides struck Virginia in the late 1980s, authorities immediately suspected a serial killer. But it took 35 years – and random chance – to find the missing link.
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Keep up...
The Lewis Clark Valley Murders
Five missing people in five years. And that’s far from the only fact that aroused suspicion of a serial killer operating along the Idaho-Washington border in the early 1980s. While some victims have...
The 10,000 Bones at Fox Hollow Farm
In the fall of 1994, a 13-year-old boy found a human skull in his backyard. Detectives later discovered thousands more bones scattered about his family's estate, a property known as Fox Hollow Farm....
“La Pistolera” Sharon Kinne
In 1960, Sharon Kinne is a typical housewife raising two children in Kansas City. By 1964, she’s the subject of an investigation into the deaths of three people… and an international fugitive.
Keep...
Keep...
Valentine's Special: "A Couple of Kidnappers" - Wanda Barzee and Brian David Mitchell
For Valentine’s Day we’re going back into the archives to bring you some of the most infamous couples in true crime history.
All Wanda Barzee wanted in life was for someone to take care of her, and...
All Wanda Barzee wanted in life was for someone to take care of her, and...
Valentine's Special: "A Couple of Gangsters" - Kathryn and "Machine Gun" Kelly
For Valentine’s Day we’re going back into the archives to bring you some of the most infamous couples in true crime history.
Kathryn Kelly was running schemes long before she ever met her notorious...
Kathryn Kelly was running schemes long before she ever met her notorious...
The Legacy of Typhoid Mary Pt. 2
In 1907, George Soper located the cause of a typhoid outbreak in New York City: a cook named Mary Mallon. Mary didn’t know it, but each and every meal she cooked carried a small chance for her clients...
The Legacy of Typhoid Mary Pt. 1
In the late 1800s, Mary Mallon was a cook for wealthy families in New York City. She thought her job was going well; her clients seemed pleased and she had a reputation as an exceptional chef. But...
The Yorkshire Killer Witch Pt. 2
Mary Bateman had been playing people for fools for years. The problem was, too many of her dissatisfied customers stuck around to complain about her trickery. Her solution? Murder.
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Keep up with us on...
The Yorkshire Killer Witch Pt. 1
Mary Bateman was an accomplished liar from a young age, and when she grew up, she started using that talent as a way of making money. Passing herself off as a witch, she tricked paranoid and gullible...
Best of 2024: Israel Keyes Pt. 3
As our Best of 2024 selection, we're featuring our three-part series on notorious serial killer Israel Keyes.
Israel Keyes died having only confessed to a handful of murders and crimes. Researchers...
Israel Keyes died having only confessed to a handful of murders and crimes. Researchers...
Best of 2024: Israel Keyes Pt. 2
As our Best of 2024 selection, we're featuring our three-part series on notorious serial killer Israel Keyes.
Over the course of six months in 2012, Israel Keyes sits down with the FBI for a series...
Over the course of six months in 2012, Israel Keyes sits down with the FBI for a series...
Best of 2024: Israel Keyes Pt. 1
As our Best of 2024 selection, we're featuring our three-part series on notorious serial killer Israel Keyes.
In 2012, Israel Keyes is arrested and charged with kidnapping and killing an 18-year-old...
In 2012, Israel Keyes is arrested and charged with kidnapping and killing an 18-year-old...
Holiday Break: "The Grim Reaper" - Nate Boone Craft
We're continuing our holiday break, but you won't want to miss the episode we're highlighting this week. In this episode, our friends at Murder in America sit down and for an interview with a man who...
Holiday Break: How a Nuclear Lab Helped Catch a Serial Killer
Happy holidays, listeners! We're starting off our winter break by bringing you an episode from our colleagues at Science Vs about how a notorious murder case was solved with help from an unlikely...
Holiday Break: What’s Hiding in the Wizard of Oz?
You may have seen the movie and heard the musical, but do you know the secrets? As we take a break from our regular programming for the holidays, we’re revisiting one of the most influential films of...
The Smiley Face Murder Theory (with Murder Sheet)
Three decades. Eleven states. Over 600 bodies. Across the United States, college-aged men have ended up dead in rivers, lakes, and ponds. The deaths have been ruled accidental drownings, but a team of...
The Hello Kitty Killers
In May 1999, Hong Kong police found the scattered remains of a young mother in a flat in the city’s Kowloon district. The crime scene was like nothing anyone had seen before: unimaginable brutality...
The Rainbow Murders: The Serial Killer Theory
Nancy Santomero and Vicki Durian hitchhiked from Arizona to West Virginia in the summer of 1980. They planned to attend the Rainbow Gathering, an annual event where like-minded, free spirits could...
True Urban Legends: Candyman, with Ashley Flowers
Say Candyman’s name five times in a mirror and you’ll summon his vengeful spirit, then he’ll slaughter you with his hook. That’s how the urban legend goes anyway. It was directly inspired by a short...
True Urban Legends: The Babysitter & The Man Upstairs, with Annie Elise
If you’ve babysat, you’ve heard this tale: While her charges sleep, a babysitter receives harassing phone calls telling her to “check the children”. But this urban legend has disturbing real-life...
True Urban Legends: The Hex Hollow "Witch" Murder, with Kaelyn Moore
In a remote area of York County, Pennsylvania, a two-story clapboard house stands in Rehmeyer’s Hollow, aka “Hex Hollow” – where some say the spirit of Nelson Rehmeyer still resides.
Perhaps that’s...
Perhaps that’s...
True Urban Legends: The Demon Trucker of Highway 666
According to the urban legends, Highway 666 is a paranormal hotspot in the remote American Southwest. The “Devil’s Highway” is cursed by ghostly hitchhikers, UFOs, and the homicidal “demon trucker”...
The Menendez Brothers Pt. 2
In August of 1989, 21-year-old Lyle and 18-year-old Erik Menendez murdered their parents in Beverly Hills after years of abuse. Afterward, they attempted to cover it up, but their stories quickly...
The Menendez Brothers Pt. 1
Jose Menendez pursued wealth at the expense of everything else in his life, including his relationship with his family. He abused his wife Kitty, and his sons, Lyle and Erik, until tension in the...
About this Podcast
Copyright
868329
Language
en
Categories
True Crime, History, Education