True Crime Brewery

Latest Episodes:

A Killer Undercover: The Hidden Life of Charlie Brandt Feb 26, 2019

Show notes

In 1971, 13-year old Charlie Brandt shot his pregnant mother to death before turning the gun on his father and sister. In the years that followed, he seemed to move forward and live a normal life with college, marriage, and a career.

Charlie and his wife Teri were a close, fun-loving couple–the kind of couple others envy. Then, in 2004, his hidden life was revealed. Charlie was not who he appeared to be. There was a darkness no one had seen. But there had been signs.
Charlie loved to fish and he was known to his fellow fishermen as an expert with a knife. But Charlie’s expertise went beyond the world of filleting fish. After his death, Charlie would be investigated as a prolific serial killer, victimizing women along the Florida coast. He also had a sexual obsession with his niece that would end with her brutal murder.
Join us at the quiet end for a fascinating story of A Killer Undercover: The Hidden Life of Charlie Brandt.

Portrait of a Family Annihilator: The Watts Family Murders Feb 19, 2019

Show notes

The case we’re talking about today, more than any in recent history, illustrates that we don’t always know the people close to us as well as we think we do. We’re talking about the case of a family annihilator: Chris Watts.
In August of 2018, Chris murdered his pregnant wife and his two preschool-aged daughters. Then he loaded their lifeless bodies into his truck and dumped them at a work site. He was seen later that morning by co-workers and all of them would report that Chris acted normal, as if nothing unusual had happened.
Investigators believe that Chris’s motivation for the murders was his desire to start a new life with his mistress. This seems true enough, but it’s difficult to believe that this was the sole motivation for the crimes. As we delve into the lives of Chris and Shanann Watts, deeper issues are exposed that most likely played a role in the murders. There were serious financial problems and there was friction between Shanann and her in-laws. Aspects of the couple’s relationship reveal that Chris may have been full of rage and resentment for Shanann.
Join us at the quiet end today for Portrait of a Family Annihilator: The Watts Family Murders.

Happily Never After: The Murder of Julie Miller Bulloch Feb 12, 2019

Show notes

Julie Miller met Dennis Bulloch through a newspaper ad. He seemed like the answer to all of her problems. As a successful executive approaching her 30th birthday, Julie was ready to get married. Dennis seemed like the all-American guy. She thought he could be the one.
But just four months into their marriage, emergency responders were called out to a fire at the Bulloch’s home. Amid the charred debris, they found a body duct-taped to a rocking chair, the face burned beyond recognition.
This is a case that took place before Match.com or Tinder. Julie was attractive and successful in her career but she was socially immature. And she was lonely. She wanted someone to spend her life with and to perhaps start a family of her own.
Dennis Bulloch seemed to check all the boxes for her, but he had a dark side she didn’t see. If there were signs or clues to a darker side of Dennis, Julie may have overlooked them, because, more than anything, she wanted to be married. We’ll talk about this, as well as the histories of Julie and Dennis, in Happily Never After: The Murder of Julie Miller Bulloch.

Shameless: Mick Philpott Feb 05, 2019

Show notes

Mick Philpott lived off of welfare benefits for most of his adult life. He had been unfaithful and violent towards women but he enjoyed impregnating them. Mick could love them and leave them, but he would never accept it when a woman wanted to leave him. His reckless and selfish plan to frame an ex-girlfriend for leaving him would result in the death of six innocent children.
A father of 17 children, Philpott lived with two women and once appeared on a daytime talk show to demand a bigger government house for his oversized family. But beyond the caricature of a welfare parasite, Philpott exposed a much more dangerous stereotype: a control freak whose violence toward women went on for more than thirty years. For Philpott, women were his domestic, sexual, and childbearing slaves and his children were evidence of his virility. This was a man who knew no shame and used everyone, even his own children, to get what he wanted. Join us today for Shameless: Mick Philpott.

Blood on His Hands: The Murder of Tara Lynn Grant Jan 29, 2019

Show notes

On February 14, 2007, stay at home dad Stephen Grant called the Macomb County Sheriff’s office in Michigan to report that his wife, Tara Lynn Grant, had been missing for five days. In his story to the police, Stephen claimed that this was not the first time Tara had taken off, which was why he hadn’t reported her missing sooner. Stephen said that on the evening of February 9, he and Tara had argued. He then overheard Tara talking with someone on the phone, telling them, “I’ll meet you at the end of the driveway”. He said he saw her get into a dark-colored car a few minutes later and he had not seen or heard from her since.

Over the next two weeks, Stephen Grant made several TV appearances pleading for Tara to return. According to police, Stephen Grant was not cooperative with them throughout their investigation. And they began to question his relationship with the family’s 19-year old au pair.

Investigators would ultimately discover that Stephen’s story of a missing wife was untrue and was, in fact, an elaborate attempt to sidetrack the police. According to later confessions, Stephen killed his wife during an argument after she had slapped and belittled him. But insights into the couples’ relationship and evidence uncovered by the investigation have made this one of the most shocking and disturbing crimes in Michigan’s recent history. Join us at the quiet end today for our discussion of the life and gruesome murder of Tara Lynn Grant, in Blood on His Hands: The Murder of Tara Lynn Grant.

A Shooting in Alabama: The Crimes of Dr. Amy Bishop Jan 15, 2019

Show notes

When you think of a mass shooter, you don’t envision someone like Amy Bishop. Forty-five years old, female, Harvard-educated, Biology professor, and mother of four, Amy Bishop would seem an unlikely killer.

It was 3pm on February 12, 2010, and thirteen professors and staff members from the University of Alabama Biology Department met in a third-floor conference room. Plant biologist Gopi Podila passed out the printed agenda and sat beside Amy Bishop. Amy had a handgun in her purse.
Amy was normally quite vocal in these meetings, but that day she was silent and brooding. She shot six of her co-workers, killing three, before she washed up and called her husband for a ride home. The police arrived before he did.
But Amy’s homicidal rampage did not come out of nowhere. Investigations into her background would reveal a troubled person with a history of violence and a probable cover up in her hometown in Massachusetts.

Today, in A Shooting in Alabama, we’ll delve into the life of a killer, atypical but just as devious and dangerous as any other. At how many points in her life could she had been thwarted—and why wasn’t she?

Note: Jill and Dick will be taking next week off. TCB will return on January 29th!

The Eastburn Family Murders Jan 08, 2019

Show notes

Jana Eastburn was the sole survivor, just 22-months old, when her mother, Kathryn Eastburn, and siblings – 5-year-old Kara and 3-year-old Erin – were stabbed to death on May 9, 1985, in their Fayetteville, NC home.
Jana had been left alone in her crib for three days before police finally responded to the concerns of neighbors and entered the home. Jane was dehydrated and crying hysterically with her arms outstretched, alone within the horror of the brutal triple murders of her mother and sisters.
Jana’s father, Air Force Captain Gary Eastburn, was away doing training in Alabama when his wife and daughters were killed. Kathryn had placed an ad to rehome their dog because the family was planning to relocate to England. The man who came to the house and took the dog, Sergeant Tim Hennis, became the primary suspect.
This case, including eyewitness testimony, physical evidence, and three trials, captured the attention of people across the country and continues to garner speculation. Join us at the quiet end today for our discussion of this complicated and fascinating case: The Eastburn Family Murders.

Bridge of Sorrow Jan 01, 2019

Show notes

Just before 9 p.m. on Sept. 24, 1973, 18-year-old Becky Thomson left to buy groceries and asked her 11-year-old half-sister, Amy Burridge, if she wanted to ride along with her. The two girls went in Becky’s station wagon to a Thriftway store in Casper, Wyoming.
But when Becky and Amy came out of the store, one of the car’s tires was flat. The sisters didn’t know it at the time, but they were being set up for an abduction. Two men, Jerry Jenkins and Ronald Kennedy, pulled into the parking spot next to them and parked. The men offered to help the girls, but they were the ones responsible for slashing the tire. That night was the night when Becky’s worst nightmare came true. Her little sister would be murdered and her life would never be the same. The cruelty and brutality of Jenkins and Kennedy would haunt Becky until the day she died, leaving a family and a community in shock.

Join us at the quiet end today Bridge of Sorrow, the heartbreaking story of the abduction and deaths of two sisters. This story confirms that it is not only the victim of a murder who suffers. Murder is a crime with pain that ripples outward, hurting everyone in its path.

The Killing of JonBenet Ramsey Dec 25, 2018

Show notes

JonBenet Ramsey was only 6-years old when she was found murdered in the basement of her Boulder, Colorado home. It was the day after Christmas. Twenty-two years later, her murder remains unsolved. The reason why there has been no conviction in this case could be attributed to mistakes made by the Boulder Police Department right from the beginning of their investigation and to what many people define as a lack of cooperation by JonBenet’s parents, John and Patsy Ramsey.

There are only two possible answers to what happened that night. One is that an intruder crept into the house, killed JonBenét in a botched kidnapping attempt while the family slept, then took off, leaving behind a three-page ransom note. The other possibility is that she was killed by a family member. In going over the physical and circumstantial evidence in the case, we’ll address the mistakes in the police investigation that have hindered a conviction and allowed a child killer to remain free before we examine the theories of what actually happened in the Ramsey house that night.

Join tiegrabber
Sabre

The Santa Claus Murders Dec 18, 2018

Show notes

The Daniels Family lived on Dasher Street in the town of Santa Claus, Georgia. Their one-story-red-brick house, with a huge chimney protruding from the front, was nestled snuggly at the end of a cul-de-sac. For Kim Daniels, it was her dream home.

Kim was a drug addict, living out of her car, when Danny Daniels helped her fight off her addiction and fell in love with her. Kim regained custody of her three biological children and she and Danny were married. Danny had a teenage daughter too, and the couple had taken in 3 foster children they planned to adopt. Kim wanted to give these children the childhood she never had.

One cool December night in 1997, The Daniels family was destroyed by a mass shooting that is now known as the Dasher Lane Massacre. Four family members were killed, three children were kidnapped, and two children were inexplicably spared.

The village of 300 residents that had been named for Father Christmas and displayed a sign declaring itself “the city that loves children” was rocked by this tragedy. And, when the killer was found, everyone in Santa Claus was forever changed.
Join us at the quiet end on this cool December evening for The Santa Claus Murders.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected