Top True Crime Podcasts

Host Tristan Redman is a seasoned journalist who doesn’t believe in ghosts. But weird things happened in the bedroom he lived in as a teenager. When he discovers years later that subsequent occupants of the same house have been visited by the ghost of a faceless woman, he’s curious. Because it just so happens that Tristan’s childhood home is right next door to the house where his wife’s great grandmother, Naomi Dancy, was murdered in 1937 – killed by two gunshots to the face. Could there be a connection between the ghost and the murder? Tristan decides to investigate and soon finds himself going where no son-in-law should go, deep into his wife’s family history, asking questions no one wants answered.‘

Best Documentary Podcast’ Ambies 2024 award-winner and ‘Best True Crime’ British Podcast Awards 2024 nominee, Ghost Story, is now also an Apple Podcasts ‘Series Essential’.

Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Ghost Story ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.

The human body is a miracle. But when it’s not working, it can be the stuff of nightmares. On this new series from master storyteller MrBallen, we’re sharing medical horror stories and diagnostic mysteries that are surgically calibrated to make your blood run cold.

From bizarre, unheard-of diseases and miraculous recoveries to strange medical mishaps and unexplainable deaths — you’ll never hear the phrase “heart-stopping” in the same way again. MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between MrBallen and Wondery, the award-winning company behind Dr. Death.

Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.

The tight knit fabric of a small town can be torn apart when a violent crime happens.

Join host and advocate Hilarie Burton Morgan in the companion podcast to SundanceTV's powerful true crime documentary series, "It Couldn’t Happen Here." Along with key crew from the TV series as her co-hosts, Burton Morgan will dive deeper into the cases covered on the show featuring never before heard archive and a behind the scenes lens of how the team tackles these head-scratching and heart-breaking stories. "It Couldn’t Happen Here" encourages everyone to get curious, get involved, and ask how can I help when it appears the system has failed?

After listening to this podcast, you'll find yourself thinking twice about our series title: "It Couldn't Happen Here". It can, and it does, more than you would think.

For more information on the cases we cover or if you have a case you’d like us to tackle, please follow our advocacy work on @ICHHstories on Instagram and Twitter

On a January night in 1995, 18-year-old Christa Pike and two other teenagers lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer to a secluded area near the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. They taunted, beat, and slashed Colleen, carving a pentagram into her chest, before Christa picked up a piece of concrete and smashed Colleen’s skull, killing her. Those salacious details stood out during a national Satanic Panic over ritual abuse and suburban cults. The Knoxville News Sentinel later accused Christa of killing “for love and Satan.” She was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death by electrocution—one of the youngest women ever to be sentenced to death in the United States.

Thirty years later, Christa is still alive, incarcerated at a Nashville prison and the only woman on death row in Tennessee. She has spent much of her adult life in solitary confinement. In the decades since the murder, evolving understanding about brain science and trauma have cast Christa’s wildly violent act—and death sentence—in a new light. We now know that the brain of an 18-year-old remains underdeveloped and impulsive. Christa has a horrific history of abuse, violence, and family neglect; the first time she attempted suicide, she was 9 years old. That kind of trauma can arrest healthy development, leading some young adults down a disastrous path. 

As Christa approaches her final appeals, a team of state and federal defenders are urgently trying to save Christa’s life. Her date of execution could be set any time. If executed, she will be the first woman killed by Tennessee in almost 200 years. Should a woman who committed a violent crime as a damaged teenager be granted a chance at rehabilitation? And is justice best served through retribution or mercy?

Global investigations from the BBC. Gripping stories from around the world – delve into a World of Secrets.

Latest season:

DNA detectives track down the British soldiers who fathered children in Kenya then disappeared. The mothers and children were left without support. We join the quest for justice.

Also, previously on World of Secrets:

The Darkest Web: Two US special agents infiltrate the dark web to rescue children. With access to the elite global team who hunt down people creating and trading in child sexual abuse materials.

Death in Dubai: A woman falls from a tower block and her name starts trending. But behind the online rumours lies an even darker reality.

And The Abercrombie Guys: Investigating sexual exploitation claims against the former CEO of fashion giant Abercrombie & Fitch.

*FREE Episodes Released every Monday during active seasons. Paid Brevity+ Subscribers get Early Release, Ad Free Listening, Bonus Episodes and access to the War Room on www.theguiltpodcast.com

In this hit investigative podcast, Ryan Wolf investigates some of Australasia's most enduring unsolved criminal cases.

Season Six

On August 28th 1999, 16 year old Jessica Gaudie was babysitting in Nambour, Sunshine Coast, Australia, when she vanished without a trace. In 2001 Aboriginal tracker Derek Sam was convicted of her murder, but denies his involvement and will not lead Police to Jessica's remains. 26 years later Ryan is on the ground in Australia looking for answers, and finds that he's not just looking for one missing woman, he's looking for three.

Season Five

In November of 2021, while the world was in lockdown. Dave Davan, a farmer in the rural far north community of Herekino found two bottles of wine in his mailbox. Assuming they were a gift he drank them, little did he know one bottle had been laced with the deadly poison Paraquat. In December Dave lost his short battle and sadly passed away. Three years on his murderer walks free. Ryan journeys to the remote and isolated far north to find the answer to the question: Who Killed Dave Davan?

In Season Four of GUILT - The Night of the Bonfire, Ryan heads Down Under, to Melbourne Australia to search for the truth. What happened to Alana Cecil?

New episode will be coming soon. Subscribers will get early access, bonus episodes and ad free listening.

Season Three

In 1989 two Swedish backpackers, Heidi Paakkonen and Sven Urban Hoglin arrived in New Zealand for the trip of a lifetime. And never went home. They were last seen alive together in Thames on April 7th 1989. One year after their mysterious disappearance Urban Hoglin's body would be found and confirmed a brutal murder. But to this day Heidi's body has never been found. Season 3 of GUILT will see Ryan attempt to finally bring an end to this mystery and send Heidi home to her family where she belongs. Ryan will uncover never before heard witnesses, fresh evidence in a Season of the podcast that really has to be heard to be believed.

Instagram: ryanwolfnz & brevity_studios

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Wisconsin is no stranger to high-profile cases and horrific murderers, from the notorious Jeffrey Dahmer to the perplexing Ed Gein. But on a cold night in February 2022, a new name was added to the list of Wisconsin’s worst: Taylor Schabusiness. From the outset, the details of the case shocked even the most hardened detectives and traumatized young rookies. Using Law&Crime Network’s gavel-to-gavel coverage, Severed Affair provides an in-depth narrative of the disturbing case. The Law&Crime original podcast uses exclusive audio and court footage to piece together the gruesome story.

Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Severed Affair ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.

Once upon a time, there were two titans of the crypto industry: Sam Bankman-Fried, the child of Stanford professors and founder of FTX, and Changpeng Zhao, the nomadic founder of Binance. The pair were the faces of crypto, generating billion-dollar fortunes comparable to the likes of Elon Musk and Bill Gates. That is, until their rivalry threatened to burn the entire industry to the ground.

For years, the pair had waged a cold war as Sam fought to unseat Zhao, or CZ, and dominate the industry. Then, last year, CZ fired a warning shot: one that would send FTX into a downward spiral, and reveal what prosecutors describe as a staggering $8bn fraud at the heart of Sam’s empire. Now, as Sam potentially faces decades in prison, journalist Tom Wright has been investigating the hidden origins of his feud with CZ – starting with a key witness: CZ himself.

It’s Madrid, March 2017. A former official in Venezuela's oil ministry, a lawyer, and three financial advisors are meeting to discuss business. They want to move corruptly-obtained cash without anyone noticing. But little do they know, one of them is wearing a hidden microphone, and records the whole conversation, laying bare the mechanics of a plot to launder millions of dollars embezzled from Venezuela’s state oil company.

From OCCRP and the Colombian production company La No Ficción, this investigative series dissects this secret recording and the broader corruption scheme that siphoned off $1.2 billion from Venezuela's state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA).

Across five episodes, it follows exiled Venezuelan journalist Laura Weffer as she tries to track down Carmelo Urdaneta, the former oil ministry official who plays a key role in the billion-dollar money laundering conspiracy.

The series also traces the human cost of this corruption, including Laura’s own journey into exile and the voices of other Venezuelans who were battling a severe economic crisis at the same time that their oil money was being “cleaned” by professionals abroad.

To learn more about organized crime and corruption, sign up for our newsletter at occrp.org/newsletter

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This podcast was originally produced in Spanish. But in light of recent events in Venezuela, we are sharing it with a wider audience through this English version, a human-reviewed AI translation. This is our first time using this technology, so minor variations and AI-imperfections may occur. The podcast is available in the original Spanish, at the below links:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5inyH4WRo1H82KgvmnmUHh
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cuello-blanco-manos-sucias/id1872501127

We would love your feedback on this experiment at occrp.org/podcast

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One July night in 1995, Deputy Sheriff William G. Hardy was shot behind the Crown Sterling Suites hotel in Birmingham, Alabama. At the same time as the murder, at least ten people saw Toforest Johnson four miles away, at a popular nightclub called Tee's Place. But detectives zeroed in on him as a main suspect in Deputy Hardy’s murder anyway, ultimately resulting in Toforest being tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. For over a quarter century, Toforest has been confined to a 5’ by 8’ cell on Alabama’s death row.

In 2019, investigative journalist Beth Shelburne began covering the case, going down a disturbing rabbit hole revealing many unsettling facts that cast grave doubts about Toforest’s guilt. The facts she found tear at the very foundation of the American criminal justice system: No eyewitnesses or physical evidence tied Toforest to the murder; the state tried to convict a different man for the same crime; and perhaps most disturbing of all, Toforest’s conviction relied on an ‘earwitness’ – a woman who claimed to have eavesdropped on an incriminating phone call, a woman whom prosecutors paid for her testimony, in secret. That payment was not disclosed to the jury, Toforest, or his lawyers until after he had been on death row for 17 years.

From the team behind the award-winning hit podcast Bone Valley, Lava for Good’s Earwitness is an 8-episode docuseries that asks the question, “How did an innocent man end up on death row — and why is the state still trying to execute him over the objection of the prosecutor who put him there?” Shelburne’s unprecedented access to key players—the lead detective, lead prosecutor, witnesses, jurors, and the earwitness herself— illuminate a story filled with disturbing twists, frustrating ambiguities, and shocking admissions. The story of Toforest Johnson and the state's enthusiasm for the death penalty in the face of such troubling evidentiary flaws brings to light the failings of a criminal justice system run amok.

Earwitness is available every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts. To hear episodes 1 week early and ad free, subscribe to Lava for Good+ on Apple Podcasts.

** A top 10 true crime podcast in the USA **

**WINNER of Australian Podcast Awards: "Best New Podcast 2023"**

**WINNER of Shorty Impact Award: "By Content (Human Rights) 2023"**

**GOLD HONOR (2nd place) in Shorty Impact Awards: "Best Podcast"**

**FINALIST of Australian Podcast Awards: "Best True Crime Podcast" & "Best Documentary",**

**FINALIST in Anthem Awards: Humanitarian Action & Services**


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The Fight of My Life is a multi-season documentary-style true crime podcast that tells powerful, true stories of people caught in moments of profound injustice, and exploitation—and the individuals who chose to step in the fight beside them.

Each season spotlights a different fight for freedom, justice, and survival, capturing the resilience of those who refuse to give up and the quiet courage of those who walk with them.

Told through raw storytelling, in-depth investigation, and firsthand accounts, The Fight of My Life reveals how, in the face of overwhelming odds, ordinary people can uncover extraordinary strength—and how one life’s fight can echo far beyond itself.

He was a trusted OB-GYN working inside one of the most prestigious universities in the world, an Ivy League school that is home to Nobel Prize winners and medical all-stars. Yet behind closed doors, Dr. Robert Hadden assaulted hundreds — perhaps thousands — of unsuspecting patients. When it looked like no one would be held accountable, the survivors engaged in a decade-long fight for justice.

From the team behind the hit series Dr. Death, host and medical journalist Laura Beil unfurls the story of Dr. Hadden’s horrific behavior and the ensuing cover-up. It’s a story of power: who has it, how they use it, and what it takes to get it back.

Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Exposed ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.

Kirat and Bobby have an unusual relationship. The circumstances of their individual lives mean it’s difficult for them to meet face to face but, despite everything, they end up falling in love.

Their romance might play out online but in many ways it’s a traditional love story. Until Kirat discovers the disturbing truth. 

Sweet Bobby is the #1 chart-topping, award-winning series about a sophisticated ten year scam that almost destroyed one woman’s life, and the investigation into the catfisher behind it all.

If you want to listen to more thought-provoking investigations, head to Tortoise Investigates - the home of all our investigative podcasts.

To find out more about The Observer:

• Subscribe to TheObserver+ on Apple Podcasts for early access and ad-free episodes.
• Head to our website observer.co.uk 
• Download the Tortoise app – for a listening experience curated by our journalists

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