True Crime Campfire

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Classified: The Murder of Walter Sartory Apr 15, 2022

Show notes

There’s an old saying that just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get ya. For one brilliant yet troubled mind, living in fear was pretty much the norm for most of his adult life. His friends had come to take his worries with a grain of salt. Some of them seemed like the kind of bizarre fantasies you’d find in an episode of the X-Files. Nobody really took them seriously. That is, until their paranoid friend went missing. Join us for one of the strangest cases we’ve ever covered—a twisting, turning story of greed and secrets: both government and personal.
Sources:
Cincinnati Magazine: https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/features/death-and-the-maid/
https://murderpedia.org/female.B/b/blanc-willa.htm
Investigation Discovery's "Killer Instinct with Chris Hansen," episode "Death of a Genius"
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Fake Fiction: The Story of J.T. LeRoy Apr 08, 2022

Show notes

So, this might seem like a weird question, but hear me out. Does authenticity matter? Let me be more specific. Does art need to be authentic? What if you found out, for example, that your favorite writer—somebody whose traumatic life story you related to, somebody whose identity was a living, breathing part of the power of the stories they told—was a fake? Not the person they presented themselves to be at all? Would you be fine with it, or would you feel kind of…betrayed? And how would you feel about the stories? Would they hit a little different if you knew the person who wrote them was a big, stinky fraud? Join us for the story of an audacious literary con, a scam that made its mastermind a pile of money and a whole entourage of celebrity fans—and rocked the early 2000s literary scene to its core.
Sources:
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jul/20/jt-leroy-story-modern-literary-hoax-
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/23/my-life-as-jt-leroy-savannah-knoop-on-playing-the-great-literary-hoaxer
New York Magazine: https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/features/14718/
Vanity Fair: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/08/jt-leroy-documentary-interview
Documentary "The Cult of J.T. LeRoy"
Investigation Discovery's "Impostors," episode "The Heart Is Deceitful"
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Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfire
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One Night in Hell: The Richmond Hill Explosion Apr 01, 2022

Show notes

The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can be neither created nor destroyed—only transferred from one form to another. For example, dynamite explodes when chemical energy is converted to kinetic energy. It’s an interesting metaphor for a kind of killer we see a lot on True Crime Campfire: the smart, dynamic charmer with everything going for them, who throws it all away by putting their energy into all the wrong stuff: Revenge, or greed, or a lust for power. And like a stick of dynamite, when these people go off, they tend to take innocent people with them. Monserrate Shirley was a bright, attractive ICU nurse with a loving daughter and a beautiful home. She had the potential to do anything she wanted to do. What she did instead was hook up with a guy named Mark Leonard, a con artist with a faux tan and a whole lot of bad ideas about how to get rich quick. Join us for the bizarre true story of a plan gone horribly wrong.
Sources:
CNBC's "American Greed," episode "Neighborhood Inferno"
Oxygen's "Killer Couples," episode "Monserrate Shirley and Mark Leonard"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Hill_explosion
https://www.wthr.com/article/news/crime/monserrate-shirley-sentencing-starts-monday/531-c1efed7f-5eff-4f1f-b989-d88067ee5a51
https://www.wrtv.com/longform/but-for-monserrate-shirley-she-was-a-neighbor-a-friend-a-nurse-she-betrayed-it-all
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiYqL-BnKD2AhU0JEQIHVx5AcQQFnoECAQQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indystar.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2F2016%2F12%2F20%2Frichmond-hill-suspect-monserrate-shirley-gets-50-years%2F95657520%2F&usg=AOvVaw3jMrZL-YLV1R88znU7pUaj
https://fox59.com/news/richmond-hill-explosion-culprit-mark-leonard-dies-at-indy-hospital/
https://fox59.com/news/cause-of-death-of-richmond-hill-conspirator-mark-leonard-determined/
https://www.in.gov/apps/indcorrection/ofs/ofs?lname=Shirley&fname=Monserrate&search1.x=40&search1.y=12
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Bad Neighbors: The Murder of Kay Parsons Mar 25, 2022

Show notes

Becky Sears and Kay Parsons were not only next door neighbors, but best friends, too. Their sons were in Little League together, and their husbands liked to join them both for dinner, drinks, and games of mixed doubles tennis. But secrets and lies would soon rip their friendship apart, and the consequences would reverberate throughout their small Georgia community for years to come. Join us for one of the twisty-turniest murder cases we've ever covered, a story of sex, lies, and stunning personal betrayal of the very deadliest kind.
Sources:
NBC's "Dateline," episode "Murder on Hot Springs Drive"
ABC's "20/20"
Investigation Discovery's "Evil Kin," episode "For Sale by Owner"
https://www.monstersandcritics.com/tv/becky-sears-had-her-son-christopher-bowers-beat-neighbor-kay-parsons-to-death-with-a-hammer/
https://murderpedia.org/female.S/s/sears-rebecca.htm
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Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfire
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Golden Boy: The Story of Brian Blackwell Mar 18, 2022

Show notes

Lying is an essential human activity—everybody does it sometimes. And there are a few different reasons people do it. Sometimes it’s an innocent attempt to spare somebody’s feelings: Y’know, “It’s not you, it’s me,” or “Oh no, Gramma, I loved that sweater you made me! It’s just um…it was stolen. Yeah, stolen!” Sometimes it’s to avoid accountability. “I didn’t kill that guy,” or “That vase was shattered when I got here.” Sometimes it’s to cause somebody else pain. “I never loved you.” And sometimes, it’s about creating a fantasy version of ourselves, because we don’t like who we see in the mirror. For a small percentage of these people, the big lie they build around themselves becomes their greatest treasure—something to guard with everything they have. And anyone who threatens it might not make it out alive. Join us for the story of "perfect son" Brian Blackwell, who built an elaborate web of lies to impress his girlfriend--that he was an up and coming professional tennis player, that he'd just closed on a 450,000 pound flat in the same complex as a famous footballer, that he could afford to give her anything and everything she wanted. When his parents threatened to put a stop to his fraud, he committed one of the most shocking crimes in British history.
Sources:
The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1493035/Psychological-time-bomb-that-turned-teenage-son-into-frenzied-killer.html
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jun/30/ukcrime.helencarter
BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/merseyside/4634401.stm
BBC's "Real Crime," episode "A Perfect Son"
BBC's "Killing Mum and Dad," episode "Brian Blackwell"
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Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfire
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Full-Tilt Boogie: The Crimes of Peter Braunstein Mar 11, 2022

Show notes

T.S. Eliot ends his poem “The Hollow Men” with the line “This is the way the world ends…not with a bang, but a whimper.” Spree criminals are always after the bang. Many see themselves going out in a blaze of glory, taking as many people with them as they can. Going down in history as some kind of dark antihero, shaking up the way we think, making us question our most basic values—leaving a big, smoking crater in the earth on their way out of it. These guys are legends in their own minds. Funnily enough, though, as hard as they try for the big bang, they often end up with the whimper. And there’s no better example of that than Peter Braunstein, a former playwright and fashion writer who--after being fired from his job at Women's Wear Daily--embarked on an outrageous crime spree. His ultimate goal? Kill Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour. Join us for the bizarre story of a grudge that spun out of control.
Sources:
"Friend of the Devil" by Aaron Gell: https://humanparts.medium.com/friend-of-the-devil-3726bd1ddc1c
Investigation Discovery, "I Almost Got Away With It," Episode "I Got to Pose as a Firefighter"
Gothamist: https://gothamist.com/news/peter-braunstein-endures-fellow-prisoners-teasing-you-didnt-even-rape-her
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Braunstein
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Introducing: American Hostage Mar 08, 2022

Show notes

In the series premiere, radio DJ Fred Heckman (Jon Hamm) receives an unexpected call from a listener that turns his life upside down.
Follow American Hostage on Amazon Music, to hear all 8 episodes right now: wondery.fm/TCC_AmericanHostage
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Red Wine, White Lies: Wine Fraudster Rudy Kurniawan Mar 04, 2022

Show notes

In the old Hans Christian Anderson tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes, the emperor was the kind of clothes horse who’d make Anna Wintour look like a frump in a burlap sack. This guy was all about the fashion, and the more extravagant the better. So one day, a couple of con men came blazin’ into town, pretending to be the best tailors in the biz. They swept into the emperor’s castle, bragging about the spectacular wardrobe they could make for him…for the right price. And it got even better than that. These tailors had magic powers. They could create a fabric that could only be seen by those who are good enough, smart enough, and powerful enough. Well of course our boy and his ego couldn’t resist, and he set the two “tailors” to work, creating the kind of threads that would blow the roof off of any room he strutted into. Of course the tailors weren’t tailors at all, and they had no magic powers. They just wanted the cash…and the cache. So when the day of the big reveal came along, they finessed it. Rolled in a fancy garment rack full of empty hangers, and presented them as the finest wardrobe in the land. When the emperor saw the empty rack, of course, his first thought was…oh no…oh God…I can’t see it! I’m not good enough! Presumably everybody else was thinking the same thing—oh no, why can’t I see it? There was a moment of panicky silence. And then, the emperor gasped the fakest gasp he’d ever gasped, and said “I LOVE IT!” And later that day, the whole kingdom was treated to the sight of their ruler, catwalking down the main street in the buff. And everybody clapped, and everybody had something to say about how beautiful the clothes were. Better that than admit ya got got. This is one of those stories that never goes stale. We see it every day, that essential human urge to save face, even at great personal expense. Today we’ll tell you about a fraudster who knew this all too well, and decided to try his hand at faking out one of the wealthiest, most discerning crowds in the world: the wine snobs.
Sources:
2016 Documentary "Sour Grapes" by Jerry Rothwell, Reuben Atlas
CNBC's "American Greed," episode "Vintage Wine Fraud"
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/sep/11/the-great-wine-fraud-a-vintage-swindle
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Possession: The Story of Bart Corbin, Pt 2 Feb 25, 2022

Show notes

When we left you at the end of part 1, we had just learned one of Bart Corbin’s best-kept secrets: that, 14 years before the murder of Jennifer Corbin, his ex-girlfriend Dolly Hearn had died from a gunshot wound to the head. A gunshot wound eerily similar to Jenn’s—and a death that had been ruled a suicide, to the disbelief of the people closest to the victim. Now, Dolly’s parents were determined to make contact with the investigators in Jenn Corbin’s case, and finally bring to light a truth they had always been sure of: that Bart Corbin killed their daughter. Join us now for part 2 of this twisting tale.
Sources:
Ann Rule, Too Late to Say Goodbye
CBS "48 Hours," episode "Love and Lies"
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15253153
https://www.oxygen.com/a-wedding-and-a-murder/crime-news/dentist-bart-corbin-pleads-guilty-murdering-girlfriend-wife
https://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/archive/dentist-gets-life-for-killing-two-women/article_4b206d69-70ac-5cfc-9555-22cfe9e0c145.html
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Possession: The Story of Bart Corbin, Pt 1 Feb 18, 2022

Show notes

A little mystery can be fun in a relationship. It keeps things interesting. You don’t have to share every thought that passes through your head, or tell all your best stories on the first or second date. Keeping your partner guessing about a few things can add a little spice. You shouldn’t feel like you have to make your life an open book. But if you end up with someone who won’t even let you take a peek at the very first page, that’s a red flag. This is the twisting, turning story of a marriage built on secrets—some of them so potent, so poisonous, that they began to eat at the relationship from the inside out. Some secrets can be harmless, but some you take to the grave. Join us for the story of Dr. Bart Corbin, a dentist whose charming exterior hid a dark past, and a smoldering rage so powerful that it swallowed the lives of at least two women.
Sources:
Ann Rule, Too Late to Say Goodbye
CBS "48 Hours," episode "Love and Lies"
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15253153
https://www.oxygen.com/a-wedding-and-a-murder/crime-news/dentist-bart-corbin-pleads-guilty-murdering-girlfriend-wife
Follow us, campers!
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Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfire
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