My Favorite True Crime Podcasts

This is a post about what I do at home while reading the newspaper and eating spicy eggs and rice on a Sunday morning.  It involves listening to podcasts about crime and murder.  If that last sentence left you with wide eyes and a face or terror… I know.  It’s ok.  More food on Thursday.  Carry on and good day.

Now… 

Do you want to talk to me about a murder mystery episode of 20/20 from 2002?  We could.  I could tell you all about the suspicious shoe prints in the slow leading out of the master bedroom’s patio door.  I could tell you that the wife didn’t just disappear leaving her children.  We could talk about how suspicious the husband’s 911 call was.  We could speculate all night because I have THEORIES!   I’ve thought about it a lot… likely too much.  

Here’s the thing- you know that I have a mind for butter and sugar and biscuits and bacon.  You get it.  I’ve nailed home that point, rather relentlessly, for the past nine years.  I also have a mind for true crime.  It’s dark, y’all.  Have you seen every episode of Forensic Files, too?  It’s where you go when Law and Order Criminal Minds just isn’t cutting it.  It’s real life stories of people and their people, the stories of times cut short and the insane circumstances that surround trying to catch the awful people who commit terrible crimes. 

Maybe you’re like me.  Maybe you’re deeply horrified by me.  Maybe you’re confused and curious.  I understand every range of emotion.  If you’re like me. If you’re a murderino (listen to the My Favorite Murder podcast and you’ll understand), here are a list of some of my favorite true crime podcasts.  Some are really well-produced stories, others are more casual (inappropriate word choice?) and conversational (again with the word choice…).  BUT, if you’re like me you’ve likely binge-listened to all of these.  In that case.  What else are you listening to?

Just know that if you see me with headphones in my ears on a plane, I’m listening to a murder podcast, taking mental notes as to not get murdered myself, and I’m feeling deeply suspicious of the man sitting next to me because you neeeeever know until you know. 

•  My Favorite Murder  If you’d like to dip your toe into the true crime genre, you might need a friend or two.  Hilarious, easy to laugh, sharp and clever friends who make no qualms about their obsession for crime and murder.  Meet Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff.  Let them talk to you about crime and murder and life and cats.  I recommend starting from the beginning and just letting it wash over you.   Really… the only way (this is not a true statement) to not get murdered is to be VERY well-educated and well-researched about murder.  Georgia and Karen understand this and that’s why we’re staying sexy and NOT getting murdered (for as long as we can help it). 

•  Accused  Brought to us by the Cincinnati Inquirer, is this thoughtful and compelling telling of Elizabeth Andes who was found murdered in her Ohio apartment in 1978.  The police immediately pointed their police-y fingers and her boyfriend, but two juries disagreed.  What happened? What the heck happened?  I cried at the end of this podcast, spoiler alert. 

•  In The Dark  I found myself listening to this podcast in my headphones (I think they’re called earbuds now but I don’t know when that changed or how official it is) at Target, in the kitchen towel aisle, with my heads covering my face in horror… if that’s any indication of this supremely tragic 1989 kidnapping.  It’s the story of Jacob Wetterling, his friends, his town, his family, and how the case was just solved late last year, 27 years after his disappearance.  

•  Stranglers  Have you ever heard of the Boston Strangler? Follow up question: do you have any idea how strange that string of murders in the 1960’s was?  There was more than one strangler, and my goodness it was hard to be a woman and stay alive in Boston between 1962 and 1964.  I’m not even kidding.

•  Crimetown  Think: organized crime, political corruption, great accents, Providence Rhode Island.  I listened to much of this podcast while our gardening one afternoon and when I emerged from my podcast immersion I had bizarre knowledge of very specific Rhode Island politics and a little bit of a mob mouth.  No apologies. 

Are you listening to Casefile  and/or Sword and Scale?  Thoughts?  Feelings?  

If you’re wondering how I sleep at night after these true crime benders…. the answer is: not great.  Be like me / don’t be like me.  (Story of my life.)

xo Joy