Stay ConnectedCrime Writers On… is the original true‑crime review podcast hosted by Rebecca Lavoie and featuring Kevin Flynn, Lara Bricker and Toby Ball. Each week the panel reviews true‑crime podcasts, documentaries, TV shows, and films, diving into journalism, storytelling, pop culture, and the biggest crime stories in media. Plus: the Crime of the Week.
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Copyright: © 2024 Partners in Crime Media
“Twin Peaks” actor Kyle MacLachlan had a crazy story for his friend. In the 1980s, kingpin Pablo Escobar bribed an entire North Carolina town to let him land airplanes and smuggle cocaine into the US. The little-known story happened in Varnamtown, population 300. They found that residents, many with the last name of Varnam, got rich as a cog in the cartel's trafficking operation. But one fisherman who refused to be intimidated took on the town in a quixotic effort to stop the smuggling. It took a spate of bad luck and double crosses to bring the whole thing down.
In the podcast “Varnamtown,” MacLachlan and war correspondent Joshua Davis revisit this drug war footnote in a tale that features REO Speedwagon, lawn mowing Playboy bunnies, and an attack turkey. We hear from residents, investigators and drug smugglers while the actor and the journalist banter with each other about the story’s quirky twists and turns.
OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "VARNAMTOWN" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 11 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.
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This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.
About the show: Crime Writers On… is the original true‑crime review podcast, covering the best in true‑crime podcasts, documentaries, TV, film, journalism, and storytelling.
From Partners in Crime Media — creators of These Are Their Stories, the Law & Order aftershow and Netflix's You Can't Make This Up.
Keywords: true‑crime review, podcast review, documentary review, TV review, media criticism, pop‑culture commentary, crime documentaries, journalism, storytelling
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Concerned by her adolescent behavior, Katherine Daniel’s parents sent the teenager to the Academy at Ivy Ridge, a school that promised to set her straight through a rigorous program. But within its walls, Ivy Ridge’s students were subjected to humiliation and violence at the hands of its staff. Years later, Katherine and her former classmates returned to the now-closed school. Riffling through its abandoned files and surveillance tape, they put together the pieces of their traumatic experiences, hoping to prove to an unconvinced world they were abused by so-called educators more interested in collecting tuition than in their well being.
The Netflix documentary series “The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping” is a unique view of the troubled teen industry told through the eyes of a former student. Katherine Kubler retraces the academy’s history while confronting former workers and pursuing current owners. She also attempts to come to terms with her own experience at the school and her strained relationship with the parent who put her there.
OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE PROGRAM" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 14 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.
In Crime of the Week: rise, dry, reboot.
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Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.
This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.
About the show: Crime Writers On… is the original true‑crime review podcast, covering the best in true‑crime podcasts, documentaries, TV, film, journalism, and storytelling.
From Partners in Crime Media — creators of These Are Their Stories, the Law & Order aftershow and Netflix's You Can't Make This Up.
Keywords: true‑crime review, podcast review, documentary review, TV review, media criticism, pop‑culture commentary, crime documentaries, journalism, storytelling
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Journalist Jess Shane had become disillusioned with the documentary industry and its effects on those profiled. She set off to create a new paradigm and craft stories with input from the people whose lives she’s covering. Shane reveals her process of creating a new kind of storytelling, featuring four people who’ll receive compensation and editorial input. But after months of collaboration, the subjects are unable to offer meaningful contributions to Shane’s presentation of their life stories. And the documentarian must confront what happens when subjects want more of the control she offered.
From PRX’s Radiotopia Presents comes “Shocking, Heartbreaking, Transformative.” Shane lets listeners into her earnest project to create stories that do right by their subjects, only to learn what is lost by doing so. It also asks questions about the commoditization of nonfiction programs by the companies that supply them and the audiences that demand them.
OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "SHOCKING, HEARTBREAKING, TRANSFORMATIVE" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 16 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.
For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.
Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.
This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.
About the show: Crime Writers On… is the original true‑crime review podcast, covering the best in true‑crime podcasts, documentaries, TV, film, journalism, and storytelling.
From Partners in Crime Media — creators of These Are Their Stories, the Law & Order aftershow and Netflix's You Can't Make This Up.
Keywords: true‑crime review, podcast review, documentary review, TV review, media criticism, pop‑culture commentary, crime documentaries, journalism, storytelling
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Sierra Barter’s step-grandfather had terrorized her family for years before his death in 2008. Jim Mordecai sexually abused the women in his life, including his step-daughter and his high school students. But he also seemed to have knowledge about a string of 1970s unsolved murders involving hitchhikers near his Northern California hometown. Sierra launches an investigation into Jim’s life which draws her closer to estranged relatives, but what she learns of her dead step-grandfather fits the profile of a man who could be responsible for some of the most infamous killings in the Bay Area.
The Max Original “The Truth About Jim” follows Sierra’s journey to learn about Mordecai’s past, his victims, and his penchant for violence. Was this serial sexual offender also responsible for the Santa Anna Hitchhiker Murders? Or even more shocking…could he have been the Zodiac Killer?
OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE TRUTH ABOUT JIM" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 12 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.
In Crime of the Week: frankly disappointing.
For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.
Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.
This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.
About the show: Crime Writers On… is the original true‑crime review podcast, covering the best in true‑crime podcasts, documentaries, TV, film, journalism, and storytelling.
From Partners in Crime Media — creators of These Are Their Stories, the Law & Order aftershow and Netflix's You Can't Make This Up.
Keywords: true‑crime review, podcast review, documentary review, TV review, media criticism, pop‑culture commentary, crime documentaries, journalism, storytelling
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
A young filmmaker sets off to find his mother’s killer. What he uncovers shocks him.
In this CWO Classic Rewind we’ll revisit our December 7, 2020 review of HBO’s “Murder on Middle Beach.”
For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.
Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.
This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.
About the show: Crime Writers On… is the original true‑crime review podcast, covering the best in true‑crime podcasts, documentaries, TV, film, journalism, and storytelling.
From Partners in Crime Media — creators of These Are Their Stories, the Law & Order aftershow and Netflix's You Can't Make This Up.
Keywords: true‑crime review, podcast review, documentary review, TV review, media criticism, pop‑culture commentary, crime documentaries, journalism, storytelling
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Sunset Mesa Funeral Home was a trusted business for bereaved residents in Montrose, Colorado. Director Megan Hess smooth-talked family members and offered steep discounts on cremations for those who donated their bodies to science. But the community was shocked when it learned the ashes in their urns were not those of their loved ones. Investigators discovered customers were being misled as to how their remains would be used. Hess was getting rich in the shadowy world of body dealing. In the backroom, she was dismembering heads and limbs to be illegally sold to medical companies for research.
From Sony Music Entertainment, Campside Media and Black Bar Mitzvah, comes “Cover Up: Body Brokers.” The podcast recounts how Hess and her mother harvested body parts from their funeral home while giving families cremains from a mixed pile of ashes. Host Ashley Fantz talks to investigators, Sunset Mesa employees, and loved ones affected by the scam.
OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "COVER UP: BODY BROKERS" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 11 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.
In Crime of the Week: By any other name.
For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.
Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.
This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.
About the show: Crime Writers On… is the original true‑crime review podcast, covering the best in true‑crime podcasts, documentaries, TV, film, journalism, and storytelling.
From Partners in Crime Media — creators of These Are Their Stories, the Law & Order aftershow and Netflix's You Can't Make This Up.
Keywords: true‑crime review, podcast review, documentary review, TV review, media criticism, pop‑culture commentary, crime documentaries, journalism, storytelling
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
An aging detective with a failing memory struggles to solve the kidnapping case that has haunted him his whole career. On this CWO Classic Rewind, we'll revisit our February 4, 2019 and March 4, 2019 reviews of HBO's "True Detective" season three.
For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.
Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.
This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.
About the show: Crime Writers On… is the original true‑crime review podcast, covering the best in true‑crime podcasts, documentaries, TV, film, journalism, and storytelling.
From Partners in Crime Media — creators of These Are Their Stories, the Law & Order aftershow and Netflix's You Can't Make This Up.
Keywords: true‑crime review, podcast review, documentary review, TV review, media criticism, pop‑culture commentary, crime documentaries, journalism, storytelling
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
After the last sunset of the year, a group of scientists vanish from their arctic research station near Ennis, Alaska. Police Chief Liz Danvers later finds the men naked and flash-frozen in the ice with no indication of how they got there.
Danvers reluctantly reunites with Trooper Evangeline Navarro, her former partner still haunted by the unsolved killing of an indigenous woman. The uneasy pair seek to answer what happened at Tsalal station and whether it’s connected to Annie K’s murder. But as an endless darkness settles over the Night Country, are greater forces at play?
“True Detective: Night Country” is season four of the HBO series and stars Jodi Foster, Kali Reis, Fiona Shaw, and Finn Bennett. Are the deaths linked to one another or with the mining operation polluting the water supply? Haunted both literally and figuratively by loss and isolation, the characters confront their own darkness living above the Arctic Circle.
OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 11 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.
In Crime of the Week: dick pic.
For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.
Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.
This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.
About the show: Crime Writers On… is the original true‑crime review podcast, covering the best in true‑crime podcasts, documentaries, TV, film, journalism, and storytelling.
From Partners in Crime Media — creators of These Are Their Stories, the Law & Order aftershow and Netflix's You Can't Make This Up.
Keywords: true‑crime review, podcast review, documentary review, TV review, media criticism, pop‑culture commentary, crime documentaries, journalism, storytelling
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
In 1985, Irish residents were stunned to learn the man they knew as country gentleman Michael O’Shea was actually Joseph Maloney, a fugitive from America, accused of poisoning his wife twenty years earlier. He had fled to Ireland after escaping custody in New York. Though a court ruled he be sent back to the US, a legal glitch with his extradition order allowed Maloney to flee with his second wife. Decades later, the accused murderer remains on the run, frustrating authorities on two continents.
From RTÉ Documentary on One comes the podcast “Runaway Joe.” It looks at one of the FBI’s oldest cold cases. Host Pavel Barter interviews friends of Maloney’s murdered wife, American authorities hunting him, and Irish residents who knew him for years as Mick O’Shea. Can investigators find the elusive fugitive and bring him to justice nearly 60 years after the crime?
OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "RUNAWAY JOE" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 9 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.
For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.
Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.
This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.
About the show: Crime Writers On… is the original true‑crime review podcast, covering the best in true‑crime podcasts, documentaries, TV, film, journalism, and storytelling.
From Partners in Crime Media — creators of These Are Their Stories, the Law & Order aftershow and Netflix's You Can't Make This Up.
Keywords: true‑crime review, podcast review, documentary review, TV review, media criticism, pop‑culture commentary, crime documentaries, journalism, storytelling
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The case of an unidentified hiker found dead in the Florida Everglades baffled police. He’d gone by the trail nickname “Mostly Harmless,” but no one knew who he really was. His story energized Internet sleuths who started their own investigation into the John Doe. The online community grew toxic, with splinter groups competing with one another in a search for answers. But when the identity of Mostly Harmless was uncovered and the questions to his life on the trail were answered, some wondered whether the quest had been worth it.
The Max Original film “They Called Him Mostly Harmless” recounts the crowdsourced hunt for the mysterious man’s identity. It poses questions about whether these armchair detectives were searching for the hiker - or searching for themselves.
OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THEY CALLED HIM MOSTLY HARMLESS" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 11 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.
In Crime of the Week: long in the tooth.
For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.
Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.
This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.
About the show: Crime Writers On… is the original true‑crime review podcast, covering the best in true‑crime podcasts, documentaries, TV, film, journalism, and storytelling.
From Partners in Crime Media — creators of These Are Their Stories, the Law & Order aftershow and Netflix's You Can't Make This Up.
Keywords: true‑crime review, podcast review, documentary review, TV review, media criticism, pop‑culture commentary, crime documentaries, journalism, storytelling
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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