True Crime Campfire

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Listen Now: MrBallen's Medical Mysteries Oct 17, 2023

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Follow MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge the first 8 episodes, early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. 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. Listen Now: Wondery.FM/MBMM_TCC
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Chimera: The Crimes of Elaine Parent Oct 13, 2023

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In July of 1990, the headless, handless body of a young woman named Beverly McGowan was found in a canal near St. Lucie, Florida. As they began their investigation, detectives had no way of knowing that they were embarking on one of the strangest cases of their careers—the twisting, turning story of a consummate con woman, killer, and master of disguise…a criminal so skilled at deception that she would manage to stay one step ahead of the agencies hunting her for more than a decade, even after being named the Most Wanted Woman in the World. And even after they found her, she would still leave a long trail of mysteries behind her.
Sources:
The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1391705/Chameleon-Killer-cheats-the-Florida-police-by-ending-her-many-faced-life.html
Irish Times: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/a-killer-s-many-faces-1.165231
South Florida Sun-Sentinel: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/1996/12/11/90-murder-trail-leads-to-woman/
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/mar/11/features11.g22
TV show "Unsolved Mysteries" with Robert Stack
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Parent
Murderpedia: https://murderpedia.org/female.P/p/parent-elaine.htm
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Faceless: Two American Nightmares Oct 06, 2023

Show notes

It’s October, folks. The season of mystery. So this week, to kick off our favorite month of the year, we’ve picked two of the most iconic unsolved cases in American history: both cases where the basic fabric of everyday life was threatened. Where the things we take for granted as safe—over the counter medicine and air travel—suddenly couldn’t be trusted. Both of these cases rocked the country to its core. And both of them remain unsolved to this day. Case 1: The Tylenol Poisonings. Case 2: D.B. Cooper.
Sources:
Rolling Stone: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/db-cooper-tina-mucklow-untold-story-1111944/
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/13/db-cooper-fbi-closes-case-plane-hijacking-washington-oregon
https://www.opb.org/article/2021/11/24/d-b-cooper-50th-anniversary/
The FBI: https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/db-cooper-hijacking
Anatomy of Motive by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
The Chicago Tribune: https://www.chicagotribune.com/tylenolmurders/ct-tylenol-murders-investigation-listicle-20220922-kndriges6zgdpf5pvrxdjatah4-list.html
NPR: https://www.npr.org/2023/07/10/1186906874/james-lewis-suspect-tylenol-poisonings-dies#:~:text=In%20a%20span%20of%20three,over%2Dthe%2Dcounter%20medications.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders
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Gotcha! A Grab Bag of Famous Hoaxes Sep 29, 2023

Show notes

We’ve had a pretty heavy summer on TCC, haven’t we? Nazis and Norwegian black metal murders, and those last two cases were gnarly. So we thought maybe this week, you’d appreciate something a little lighter—something just for fun. So we decided to talk about hoaxes. Sometimes hoaxes are hilarious, like the time Sir Arthur Conan Doyle pranked five of his friends by sending them all an anonymous letter saying “We are discovered. Flee at once,” and then watched in amazement as one of ‘em up and left town the next day. Sometimes they’re kind of a public service, reminding us that we can’t believe everything we see on TV or the internet. Sometimes they’re sick burns—humiliating revenge against a stuck-up snob who deserved it. But whatever the motive, and whether anybody ends up in jail or not, pranking the crap out of our fellow humans is almost always entertaining. Join us for a grab bag of hoaxes through history--from Mary Toft and her miraculous "rabbit births" to the infamous "War of the Worlds" broadcast that terrified America, to a Canadian woman who faked a pregnancy and abducted a real baby, and more.
Sources:
Toronto Star: https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/i-m-not-a-bad-person-says-gta-baby-snatcher-with-guilty-plea/article_928babfb-b457-5942-bbee-7daf500d3eb6.html
CBS's "The Dr. Phil Show," episode "I Abducted a Baby/I am a Psychopath"
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-war-on-paper-operation-mincemeat
Time Magazine: https://time.com/6174289/operation-mincemeat-netflix-true-story/
The Smithsonian Mag: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/infamous-war-worlds-radio-broadcast-was-magnificent-fluke-180955180/
NPR: https://www.npr.org/2014/03/14/290119435/society-for-indecency-to-naked-animals
The Ringer: https://www.theringer.com/music/2017/11/8/16615842/grunge-new-york-times-slang
Paris Review: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/07/05/an-extraordinary-delivery-of-rabbits/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2017/05/21/sneaky-teen-texting-codes-what-they-mean-when-worry/101844248/
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Until the End of the World: The Children of Thunder Pt 2 Sep 22, 2023

Show notes

When we left you at the end of Part 1, former Mormon golden boy Taylor Helzer had decided on two disciples who would aid him in his weird scheme to bring about a planet-wide spiritual awakening through a network of self-help groups fueled by sex and drugs, a plan he called Transform America. These disciples were his quiet younger brother Justin, and Dawn Godman, a vulnerable young woman convinced that Taylor was divinely inspired. But Transform America needed a lot of money to get off the ground, and there were no limits to what Taylor, Justin, and Dawn were willing to do to reach their goal. Join us now for part two of “Until the End of the World,” the cult of the Children of Thunder.
Sources:
Unholy Sacrifice by Robert Scott
Investigation Discovery's "True Crime With Aphrodite Jones," episode "The Children of Thunder"
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Listen Now: The Apology Line Sep 18, 2023

Show notes

For fifteen years you could call a private number in Manhattan and anonymously apologize for anything. It was called The Apology Line. This is the story of the phone line and the man at the other end who became consumed by his own creation. He was known as “Mr. Apology.” As thousands of callers flooded the line, confessing to everything from shoplifting to adultery, drug dealing, to murder, Mr. Apology realized he couldn’t just listen. He had to do something, even if it meant risking everything. Prime Members, you can binge all seven episodes of The Apology line exclusively on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today: www.amazon.com/AL_TCC
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Until the End of the World: The Children of Thunder, Pt 1 Sep 15, 2023

Show notes

Being part of a society means that for the most part you follow its rules, often without thinking about it at all. And those rules, those strictures of what is right and wrong, good or bad, are frequently dumb and sometimes awful—human societies are not utopias, after all, they’re messy and loud and full of argument. But some shared consensus on the boundaries of behavior is necessary if people are going to live together in something approximating peace. So what happens when a group of people give up on the idea of right and wrong entirely, and surrender all their free will and moral judgment into the hands of madman who thinks he was born to save the world? Nothing good, that’s what. Join us for part 1 of the story of Taylor Helzer, a narcissistic man who was raised to think he had the "gift of revelation" and was destined to be a prophet--and the impressionable people he gathered around him to do his deadly bidding.
Sources:
Unholy Sacrifice by Robert Scott
Investigation Discovery's "True Crime With Aphrodite Jones," episode "The Children of Thunder"
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For the Thrill of It: Killer Couple BJ and Erika Sifrit, Pt 2 Sep 08, 2023

Show notes

When we left you at the end of part 1, married couple BJ and Erika Sifrit had decided to take a break from their demanding schedule of selling scrapbook supplies and burgling local businesses and drive down to Ocean City, Maryland for a little vacation…join us now for part 2 of this chilling true story.
Sources:
Cruel Death by M. William Phelps
A&E's "American Justice," episode "Thrill Kill Couple"
Investigation Discovery's "People Magazine Investigates"
Cape Cod Times: https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/2005/02/25/life-sentence-ordered-in-beheading/50917379007/
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For the Thrill of It: Killer Couple BJ and Erika Sifrit, Pt 1 Sep 01, 2023

Show notes

In May of 2002, a couple on vacation went missing from the beach town of Ocean City Maryland…and what began as a missing persons investigation soon morphed into one of the most bizarre, most disturbing double murder cases in the area’s history. The killers’ names weren’t a mystery for long. They were a young married couple with their whole lives ahead of them. The puzzle was their motivation to brutally kill two total strangers, while on a beach vacation. Before they met and married, these two seemed to have their lives on track. He was a rising star in the Navy. She was a straitlaced, high-achieving former college basketball queen with dreams of becoming a lawyer. But when they got together, it was like ammonia and bleach—a toxic cloud that would envelop everyone around them. Including two innocent people who didn’t yet know they existed. Join us for part 1 of this horror movie come to life.
Sources:
Cruel Death by M. William Phelps
A&E's "American Justice," episode "Thrill Kill Couple"
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Love or Money: The Crimes of Joel Sandler Aug 25, 2023

Show notes

In Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” Scrooge’s nephew says of his uncle, “His wealth is of no use to him. He don’t do any good with it. He don’t make himself comfortable with it.” Those of us who aren’t staggeringly wealthy might have happy daydreams about how much fun we’d have if we won the lottery, but a lot of the people who devote their lives to making as much cash as possible seem incapable of finding any joy in their success. For them, it’s not about taking care of their loved ones, pursuing their dreams, having the time to travel or learn new passions. It’s just about…making—more—money. It’s the journey AND the destination. And that kind of greed? It can rot you from the inside out, and destroy everything good in your life. Join us for a true story of murder for hire in one of the richest neighborhoods in the country.
Sources:
Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege and Justice, episode "What Price Murder?"
The Reporter: https://www.thereporteronline.com/2003/03/06/millionaire-sentenced-for-hiring-hit-man-to-kill-wife/
Steeple Times: https://www.thesteepletimes.com/the-roll-call/linda-sandler/
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