The Binge Cases: Fatal Beauty
This is the story of a femme fatale named Sandra Bridewell who wielded her Southern charm like a weapon. After people close to her died, one after the other, Sandra became known as the Black Widow. Soon, she was on the run, trading aliases, getting new men to fall for her and bankroll her extravagant life. Reporter Cooper Moll investigates her secretive life and why she managed to avoid murder charges for so long.
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Episodes (51)
Fatal Beauty | 1. Body in the Bronco
A suspicious death in Oklahoma City has investigators asking themselves, who would have wanted this young man dead?
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Introducing… Fatal Beauty
This is the story of a femme fatale named Sandra Bridewell who wielded her Southern charm like a weapon. After people close to her died, one after the other, Sandra became known as the Black Widow....
Baby Broker | 7. Gotcha Day
Tara Lee has her day in court, and her victims show up to face her. But it’s not over. An unforeseen consequence of Tara Lee’s fraud threatens to upend the lives of more than a dozen...
Baby Broker | 6. Don’t F**k With Parents
Parents sick and tired of Tara Lee’s lies join a Facebook group to share evidence and bring her down. One family stands by her, even after the Feds raid Tara’s home and more secrets come to...
Baby Broker | 5. The Last Adoption
Tara Lee pressures a couple to hand over her final payment, moments after their son is born. They stall. They hide. And for a good reason. The FBI is hot on Tara’s tail and she has no clue.
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Baby Broker | 4. We All Became Investigators
The Mathenys arrive in Detroit praying their adoption is on—when two women contact them with grave concerns about Tara Lee. The scope of her crimes is only beginning to come to light.
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Baby Broker | 3. The Birth Mothers
When the family from Chicago meets their daughter’s birth mom, Sarah, they discover she’s living in horrifying conditions. Why haven’t the thousands they’ve paid Tara Lee for Sarah’s expenses trickled...
Baby Broker | 2. Three Babies
A family from Chicago working with Tara Lee has agreed to adopt two babies when Tara Lee tries to rope them into adopting a third. They’re cornered, and they don’t feel like they have a...
Baby Broker | 1. You Cannot Tell Anyone
In 2018, Tara Lee matches Teresa and Mike Matheny of Atlanta with a pregnant woman in Detroit who is due in just two weeks. But hours before the couple drives to Detroit to adopt their son, they make...
Introducing… Baby Broker
Imagine if you were about to become a parent and someone ripped away your dream. Tara Lee ran an adoption company called Always Hope and matched families with babies in record time. But what these...
Scary Terri | 1. The Mysterious Death of Devereaux Cleaver
In 1979, 14-year-old Devereaux Cleaver vanished at sea. Was it an accident? Or part of a sick and deadly conspiracy? After her death, something suspicious happens that points the finger at Terri...
Scary Terri | 2. The Last Will
Two more women, under Terri’s influence, die. But, how can you hold her accountable, if they die by suicide, not homicide?
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Scary Terri | 3. Marital Issues
In the early days of Conscious Development of Body, Mind and Soul, if you dared to question Terri, she’d target you without implicating herself. So when Terri’s own husband Glenn becomes skeptical of...
Scary Terri | 4. Becoming Mrs. Hoffman
Terri didn’t just convince people to take their own lives. She was a cancer on whole families. The Hoffmans filed a wrongful death suit trying to hold her accountable.
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Scary Terri | 5. The White Pill
Terri’s manipulation is evolving with horrible consequences. She’s now telling her followers that death isn’t final and that another chapter awaits.
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Introducing: Scary Terri
Coming soon to The Binge, it's Scary Terri. A tragic double suicide. A teenager suspiciously drowned. A mother and her childhood nanny drove off a cliff. Between 1979 and 1989, a dozen people died...
Scary Terri | 6. “I need some money, honey.”
Facing pressure from wrongful death suits, Terri filed for bankruptcy, claiming she had no money. But, what if Terri pulled a fast one on the Feds?
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Denise Didn't Come Home | 1. Stay With Me
For almost 50 years, Karen Falasca searched for the man who killed her sister, Denise. Host Anthony Scalia joins Karen in her search for the truth.
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Denise Didn't Come Home | 2. The Memory Palace
Karen remembers the bizarre events leading up to her sister’s murder, and all the people she never suspected, until she took a second look.
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Denise Didn't Come Home | 3. The Torso Killer
Host Anthony Scalia looks into the unsolved murders of young women in Bergen County. Could their deaths be the work of a gruesome serial killer?
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Denise Didn't Come Home | 4. The Girl On Old Hook Road
Karen pressures Bergen County detectives to look into who she believes murdered her sister. But they have their own suspect - a notorious serial killer.
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Denise Didn't Come Home | 5. The Broken Road
A serial killer’s confession leaves Karen with more questions than answers.
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Denise Didn't Come Home | 6. A Word That Starts With C
Karen writes to a notorious serial killer in prison, hoping to finally come to terms with what happened to her sister.
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Denise Didn't Come Home | 7. Evil Nice Guy
Host Anthony Scalia builds a relationship with a notorious serial killer and finally hears the full story about what happened to Denise Falasca the night she died.
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Denise Didn't Come Home | 8. The Truth Is Good
Host Anthony Scalia finally gets his hands on Denise’s case file, and starts to question the person he trusted most…Karen.
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Introducing: Denise Didn't Come Home
Smoke Screen is now The Binge Cases - new name, same home for thrilling true crime stories. Catch the new season, Denise Didn’t Come Home, on October 1st.
Karen Falasca last saw her 15 year old...
The Greatest Scam Ever Written | 8. The Last Letter
The defense attorneys for the man behind the scam argue the Duval scheme is no more deceptive than a magic show. But prosecutors make a strong case for fraud. In a last ditch effort to save himself,...
The Greatest Scam Ever Written | 7. Call Me Blade
Our host writes a handwritten letter to the mastermind behind the Duval letters in 2023. He’s impressed and reaches out. He’s never spoken to a journalist before. They start exchanging emails and...
The Greatest Scam Ever Written | 6. DNA of a Scammer
The mastermind behind the Maria Duval scam is revealed. Who is he and how did he operate one of the biggest scams in U.S. history? Investigative reporter Rachel Browne discovers this wasn’t his first...
The Greatest Scam Ever Written | 5. The Runner
U.S. Postal Inspector Clayton Gerber discovers that the letters are entering the country via Albany, NY, and that they’re originating from a company in Montreal. Locating criminals across the border...
The Greatest Scam Ever Written | 4. The Swiss Swindlers
To find out how the scheme is operating in the present, we go back to how it all started. We know that two Swiss businessmen had bought Maria’s name and image to add legitimacy to their mailing scheme...
The Greatest Scam Ever Written | 3. One Man's Trash
The Maria Duval letter scam began in Europe—so how did it make its way to America? U.S. Postal Inspector Clayton Gerber begins to unravel the threads of the scam when he discovers an address on Long...
The Greatest Scam Ever Written | 2. Psychic to the Stars
Who was Maria Duval? Her son says she had a gift, an ability to see people’s futures. She helped locate missing people and worked with the French elite, befriending Jacques Chirac and Brigitte Bardot....
The Greatest Scam Ever Written | 1. Your Devoted Friend
What would you do if you got a mysterious letter promising to restore your health and vitality? Doreen Robinson wrote back and sent money to the French psychic named Maria Duval who’d written to her....
Introducing: The Greatest Scam Ever Written
What would you do if one handwritten letter promised to change your life forever?
All of us want magic, to feel like there is some sort of exterior force guiding our next steps, to believe our fate...
My Friend, the Serial Killer | 6. Unfinished Business
Despite promises made by the police, the killer faces the death penalty for his crimes. Donna confesses that she is terrified her father will find a way to avoid the death penalty, get out of prison,...
My Friend, the Serial Killer | 5. Donna
In the present day, Steve tracks down Donna, the killer’s daughter, who he first met when she was 12. Nearly fifty years later, Donna describes the harsh reality of growing up the daughter of a serial...
My Friend, the Serial Killer | 4. The Exclusive
Steve secures his exclusive interview with the killer, who reveals what he considers the “real reasons” his victims died. While digging into this investigative lead, Steve tracks down a former social...
My Friend, the Serial Killer | 3. Take Us To The Bodies
On the strangest road trip ever, the confessed killer leads detectives, a prosecutor, and a medical examiner on a grim quest to unearth the bodies he claims to have buried in remote parts Louisiana...
My Friend, the Serial Killer | 2. Confessions
Steve dives deeper into the details of the killer’s life, reaching out to his wife and daughter in an attempt to secure an exclusive interview with the killer in prison. Meanwhile, the Florida police...
My Friend, the Serial Killer | 1. Local Man
Steve Fishman is an intern at his local Connecticut newspaper and a regular hitchhiker. When one of his hitched rides comes to an unnerving conclusion, Steve shrugs it off—until weeks later, when the...
Introducing: My Friend, the Serial Killer
What would you do if someone you knew turned out to be a serial killer?
In the 1970s, Steve Fishman was an intern at his local newspaper, when one day he hitched a ride back from Boston with...
The Most Dangerous Man You've Never Heard Of - Who is John Todd?
In the 1970s, John Todd exploded onto the evangelical scene with a shocking claim: a secret group of devil-worshiping elites called the Illuminati were planning a violent world takeover, and...
Introducing The Runaway Princesses from In The Dark and The New Yorker
The wives and daughters of Dubai’s ruler live in unbelievable luxury. So why do the women in Sheikh Mohammed’s family keep trying to run away? The New Yorker staff writer Heidi Blake joins In the...
My Fugitive Dad | 6. Settling Accounts
Tom’s identity is discovered by the world. The press mobs their home. And the U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott ends up on Ashley’s doorstep. Their fathers spent their lives at odds with one another. But once...
My Fugitive Dad | 5. Tom's Very Last Round
Ashley realizes her Dad has been hiding a diagnosis from her and her mother. Time is running out for him to tell the truth. Hosts Jonathan and Ashley go back to the house on Carter Road, her childhood...
My Fugitive Dad | 4. The Ringer
Tom was a scratch golfer. Good enough he could have gone pro. So why didn’t he? How did being a wanted man shape the seemingly perfect life he had? He ended up in the car business with a posse of car...
My Fugitive Dad | 3. The Last Randele
At a social security office in Boston, Ted Conrad is reborn as Thomas Randele. It was the first time this surname was ever recorded. Then he went about making friends and making excuses for why he...
My Fugitive Dad | 2. The Hunt
Introducing the Elliotts, the father-son pair who spent the better part of their lives with the singular mission of finding Ted Conrad. From the very start of this case, John Elliott made Ted his...
My Fugitive Dad | 1. Becoming Thomas Crown
The summer of 1968 one of the most iconic heist movies ever made came out. The Thomas Crown Affair starred Steve McQueen as a clever businessman who pulls off an elaborate robbery. Ted Conrad, a kid...
Introducing: My Fugitive Dad
Ashley’s Dad was her favorite person in the world. He drove fast cars and sold them for a living. He was a scratch golfer and the love of her Mum’s life. Ashley thought she knew him better than...
About this Podcast
Copyright
Sony Music Entertainment
Language
en