Darkness

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

True Crime
**Darkness**

It’s the spring of 2018 in Austin, Texas. A devastating package bomb explodes at a home, killing the man who picked up the package, and law enforcement officials think it’s an isolated incident. Within days, the Austin community and the entire nation find there is plenty to worry about as a trail of destruction rips through the city. Following the first season of the true-crime podcast The Orange Tree, season two of Darkness tells the story of Austin’s serial bomber. Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Latest Episodes:

Sneak Peek: Devilish Deeds May 03, 2022

"Devilish Deeds" is out now wherever you get your podcasts!

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/devilish-deeds/id1616011815

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2NB2HT09wMWO7LbaXIEtJN?si=480c3136308547ac

About episode one, "Wicked Work":

As the capital of Texas celebrates the coming of a new year with exuberance, a dark shadow eclipses the city as an unknown killer stalks the streets. A Black woman working as a servant to a rich white Austinite is murdered, and her boyfriend barely survives. In a city rife with violence, the brutality of the killing shakes up its citizens. And the terror has only just begun.

Additional sounds from www.zapsplat.com

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Introducing: Devilish Deeds Mar 24, 2022

Coming soon: A new historical true crime podcast from The Drag

In 1885, a few years before Jack the Ripper went on a killing spree in London, an axe-wielding killer stalked the streets of the dusty frontier town of Austin, Texas. The victims, mostly Black women who worked as servants for Austin’s wealthy white residents, were brutally killed in the middle of the night. In a new podcast from the creators of the popular true crime series “Darkness,” host Megan Parker brings you back to the time when the first known American serial killer terrorized a community.

Subscribe to Devilish Deeds wherever you get your podcasts:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2NB2HT09wMWO7LbaXIEtJN?si=44af3ca91e9e45b3

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/devilish-deeds/id1616011815

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Bonus: The bomber’s confession tape | Austin Bomber Dec 07, 2021

In this bonus episode, host Ashley Miznazi and executive producer Katey Psencik Outka interview Paul Watler, a First Amendment lawyer and former journalist. In April 2018, nearly a month after the bombings, Paul wrote an opinion column published in several Texas newspapers urging law enforcement agencies to release the bomber’s confession tape.

Go to NordVPN.com/darkness73 to get 73 percent off your NordVPN plan, plus a bonus gift.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Episode 6: 19 days | Austin Bomber Nov 16, 2021

It has been nearly three weeks since the first bomb killed Stephan House, beginning an unprecedented time of terror in Austin. Law enforcement officials are closing in on the top suspect, and no one knows what will happen as the net closes around him.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Episode 5: Delivering Darkness | Austin Bomber Nov 11, 2021

At a FedEx distribution center near San Antonio, a package explodes. Law enforcement officials quickly realize that another package that likely has a bomb in it has also been shipped via FedEx, and they race to find it. An FBI agent works to match receipts for equipment bought in the Austin area that could be used to make a bomb with a database of vehicles. She finds a match and officials believe they have identified the bomber.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Episode 4: The Trip Wire | Austin Bomber Nov 09, 2021

In a residential neighborhood on the other side of the city from where the three bombings had struck, a young man parks his truck and strings a wire across the sidewalk. The wire is connected to an explosive device, and the trap is set for random victims. As Austinites descend into panic, law enforcement officials get their first big break in the case.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Episode 3: Hope | Austin Bomber Nov 04, 2021

On the day investigators work the scene of the bomb that struck Draylen Mason’s home, 75-year-old Hope Herrera spends the morning caring for her 93-year-old mother. Hope picks up a package from her porch, and it explodes. Six hundred federal agents descend on Austin to work the case and to try to figure out the bomber’s identity, and no one knows where the serial bomber will strike next.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Episode 2: Draylen's Story | Austin Bomber Nov 02, 2021

Teenager Draylen Mason dreams of being a neurosurgeon, and he also excels in music, which draws an offer to study the double bass under world-renowned professors at the University of Texas. Ten days after the first bomb exploded in an Austin suburb, Draylen notices a package on the porch and brings it into his family’s home. The package explodes, and it becomes clear that the death of Stephan House, a 39-year-old Black man, was not an isolated incident. Since Draylen is also Black, the community fears that Austin’s Black population is being targeted by an unknown serial bomber.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Episode 1: The First Attack | Austin Bomber Nov 02, 2021

On a quiet suburban street in northeast Austin, 39-year-old father and husband Stephan House prepares to go to work. He spots a package on his porch. The box explodes in his hands. His neighbor runs to his porch and tries to help the bleeding man as he talks to a 911 operator, but there’s nothing he can do. In the aftermath, the Austin police tell the public that the bombing seems to be an isolated incident and that there is no cause for alarm.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Introducing: Season Two Oct 26, 2021

While just seniors in college, Haley Butler and Tinu Thomas started work on The Orange Tree, a seven-episode podcast about the life and tragic death of a young woman who was killed near the University of Texas. So many of you listened to and appreciated the work of The Drag Audio Production House that we decided to make a new season based on a completely different case. In season two, Ashley Miznazi examines a series of crimes that put the city of Austin on edge in the spring of 2018. And we have more true-crime seasons that we’ve started working on as well, so we have decided to make The Orange Tree season one of a new multi-season podcast that we’re calling "Darkness." Here’s a preview of the second season of Darkness, which is coming Tuesday, November 2.

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Full trailer: 'The Orange Tree' Aug 07, 2020

The post Full trailer: ‘The Orange Tree’ appeared first on The Drag.

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Episode 1: The Orange Door | The Orange Tree Aug 04, 2020

Sharon Cave knows something is wrong the second she gets a call from her daughter Jennifer’s boss saying Jennifer didn’t show up for her first day at work. When no one can give her an answer as to where Jennifer was the night before, Sharon and her family set out on their own investigation. They find themselves in front of the door of Jennifer’s friend Colton Pitonyak just a few blocks from the University of Texas at Austin. They can’t get in, but what’s behind that orange door changes their lives forever.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Episode 2: Jennifer’s Story | The Orange Tree Jul 28, 2020

In 2005, Jennifer Cave was navigating through the best and worst parts of her early 20s. She moves to Austin after high school in hopes of figuring out what she wants to do with her life and gets caught up in a party lifestyle. One night, right before the start of a promising new job, she goes out with her friend Colton Pitonyak to Austin’s famous Sixth Street … and is never heard from again. In 2005, Jennifer Cave was navigating through the best and worst parts of her early 20s. She moves to Austin after high school in hopes of figuring out what she wants to do with her life and gets caught up in a party lifestyle. One night, right before the start of a promising new job, she goes out with her friend Colton Pitonyak to Austin’s famous Sixth Street … and is never heard from again.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Episode 3: Vacation | The Orange Tree Jul 23, 2020

Austin Police detectives search for a UT student wanted in connection with the death of Jennifer Cave. Colton Pitonyak, a promising business student and Jennifer’s friend, fled the scene of the crime right before her body was discovered at his condo. Since his Toyota Avalon is still parked at the Orange Tree Condos, police have to find out where he’s fled to but also how he’s getting there. They have reason to believe that he’s not alone.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Episode 4: Whodunit | The Orange Tree Jul 21, 2020

It's January 2007, and Colton Pitonyak has been sitting in a Travis County jail awaiting his trial. His family didn’t post bail, so he has been behind bars since August 2005 when he was arrested after fleeing to Mexico for six days with Laura Hall. The Travis County Courthouse is packed for what everyone expects will be a sensational trial, and Court TV prepares to stream the details across the nation. A legendary Texas lawyer stands by Colton’s side.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Episode 5: Obsession | The Orange Tree Jul 16, 2020

A few days after Colton Pitonyak and Laura Hall were found in Mexico, Laura is called in to pick up her impounded car's keys at the Austin Police headquarters. When she shows up, she's led to a small room to be questioned by the police. Detectives are trying to figure out what her involvement is in the crime. She waives her rights to having an attorney present during an eight-hour interrogation. Her version of what happened the morning Jennifer Cave was killed sets in motion another major trial, and her lawyer worries that Laura’s own words might be her downfall.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Episode 6: Wild Card | The Orange Tree Jul 14, 2020

Fellow inmates say Laura Hall has been talking in jail about her role in the Jennifer Cave case. She continues to talk when out on bond, others say. As Colton Pitonyak’s appeals lawyers look for an angle to try to get him a new trial, the lawyers convince several people to swear that Laura had a much larger role than anyone knew. Will it be enough to get Colton a new trial?

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Episode 7: Fifteen Years | The Orange Tree Jul 14, 2020

Laura Hall seeks to move on after her release from prison ... and she has a lot to say. Colton Pitonyak remains in a West Texas prison as his parents hold onto hope that he’ll someday return to Arkansas. Sharon and Jim continue to fight on Jennifer Cave’s behalf, and they also fight for strangers who find themselves in tragic and traumatic situations. Fifteen years later, the wounds have not healed.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/darkness-podcast/support

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected