Stay Connected“The best True Crime radio program on the air.” – Erin Moriarty CBS 48Hrs
The Internet’s FIRST true crime broadcast and syndicated podcast hosted by NYT Best Selling author Burl Barer is now in our second decade of live broadcasts Saturday 2 pm PT on OutlawRadioLive.com , then available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major podcast outlets! Over 300 in depth conversations with the world’s most famous true crime journalists, authors private eyes, and agents of law enforcement
Copyright: © Burl Barer
On February 13, 2017, two Indiana teenagers, Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, went for a walk in the woods near the abandoned Monon High Bridge. They never returned home. Their bodies were discovered on Valentine's Day morning, sparking a torrent of news coverage and social media speculation that engrossed the attention of people around the world. A grainy photo of the suspected killer walking across the bridge and a chilling cellphone recording of his voice saying "down the hill" captured the public's attention. Numerous possible suspects were brought to the attention of the authorities but dismissed, leaving everyone wondering who could have committed such a heinous crime. THE DELPHI MURDERS : Author Nic Edwards, host of the wildly popular True Crime Garage podcast, was fascinated by the case and for years conducted his own extensive research and commentary. As such he was able to dissect the investigation that included an extensive list of possible suspects, such as a hatchet-wielding lunatic, a kidnapper with unusual tattoos, a murderous pastor, a rapist, and a father and son catfishing team. Then in late October 2022, local pharmacy technician Richard Allen was charged with the murders. His arrest raised multiple questions about how he was able to evade law enforcement for so long and what motivated him to commit such a horrific crime. In The Delphi Murders: The Quest To Find ‘The Man on the Bridge’, Edwards and his best-selling coauthor Brian Whitney (You Have a Very Soft Voice, Susan) provide a detailed account of the investigation from the day the girls’ bodies were found to the events leading up to Allen's arrest, and unique insight into the minds of the killer and those who worked tirelessly to bring him to justice.
In the early morning of October 18, 1986, Cherie Wier’s life collapses when her teenage son takes the life of her beloved husband. For years, Cherie grapples with events preceding and following the crime, struggling to overcome the consuming grief she suffers from her loss and the difficulty she faces as she attempts to forgive her son. The courtroom accounts of gruesome details and the shocking testimonies from experts, only add to Cherie’s yearning to make sense of the crime. She is tormented, wanting to know how and WHY this tragedy happened and if there was anything she could have done to prevent it . . .
Gem heist mastermind Punch details the truth about three famous heists -- The Pierre Hotel Heist was NOT the biggest. The Regency heist was much bigger and nobody was killed, cheated or deceived.
Plus bonus episode The Harry Winston Heist.
"Ron Franscell's 'Deaf Row' tells a darkly engrossing story with masterful, easy-flowing prose and a clever infusion of humor. The tension builds incrementally to a chilling five-star climax in which Franscell puts his well-honed skill as a true crime author to good use. It gave me goosebumps big time." —ANNE HILLERMAN, bestselling author of the Leaphorn, Chee, Manuelito mysteries
"A line-up that begs to be part of a movie. Author Ron Franscell, who writes both fiction and nonfiction, creates an endearing group of old men in a gripping story of a psychotic killer." — DENVER POST
"I'm a big fan of Ron Franscell's works and I consider them 'can't-miss' crime books." —CJ BOX, #1 New York Times bestselling author of LONG RANGE and THE HIGHWAY
"As you read along, be sure to dog-ear the pages bursting with Franscell's gritty descriptions - a sentence, a paragraph or a page - of the silver-haired people and the gray places of rural Colorado in this raw, wintry crime novel." —ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL
"A first-class mystery!" —JORDAN RICH, host at WBZ-AM/Boston
"DEAF ROW is a self-aware, clever police procedural with a riveting climax, but what truly sets this mystery apart is its wonderfully realized characters. Franscell explores struggles with aging, death and friendship with poignant prose, humor and affection and has given us yet another gem of a book that's impossible to put down. I fell in love with these guys in DEAF ROW!" —CHRISTINE CARBO, bestselling author of A SHARP SOLITUDE
"Ron Franscell is well-known and justly revered for his brilliant, often elegant and always suspenseful non-fiction, but with DEAF ROW he breaks new ground and creates an immediately unforgettable new fictional character — Mountain Bell — who takes his place right near the top in the pantheon of thriller heroes. If you haven't yet read Franscell, this is a fantastic place to start, in a novel of shattering power and a mystery that will take your breath away. Highly recommended!" —JOHN LESCROART, author of 19 NYTimes bestsellers, including THE 13th JUROR and THE MISSING PIECE
"...an undisputed gift for storytelling." —GREGG OLSEN, #1 New York Times bestselling author of IF YOU TELL
"A solid mystery that will keep readers rooting for [Woodrow] Bell and his band of retirees. For fans of Craig Johnson, CJ Box and Meg Gardiner." —LIBRARY JOURNAL
"A fantastic whodunit, but that's only part of what makes it so good ... it's also a story about aging, redemption, friendship, and connection. Finishing DEAF ROW was bittersweet; satisfying, yet like saying goodbye to a group of folks I'd come to care about like family." —OIL CITY NEWS, Casper WY
"By the second paragraph of Deaf Row, I was invested. ... I can't say enough about Deaf Row, except that I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it. Ron Franscell is one of our finest modern literary masters and this book proves it." —Robert Waters' KIDNAPPING, MURDER & MAYHEM BLOG
"A stroke of genius ... I fell in love with these characters." —TIM DENNIS, host at Darkness Radio
"Horrifying and hysterical! Smart writing and colorful characters from one of crime's best storytellers." —MYSTERYVOX
From the Author
"In the end, DEAF ROW is a classical mystery but it also dives into the lives of old people whose best days are behind them, whom we see every day but no longer actually notice. It's been either the blessing or the curse of my book-writing career: I just don't want to do it like everybody else is doing it. I blended journalism and novel technique in my true crime, and in DEAF ROW, I wanted to blend commercial crime fiction with a kind of literary exploration of men who have outlived their best days and who are now growing invisible to the rest of the world. So, yeah, DEAF ROW is an up-market fiction that should appeal to both suspense fans and to fans of more literary storytelling."
On Christmas Night 1996, six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was murdered in her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado. A ransom note was found in the home, but it was hours before her father, John, found her body in the basement. She had been strangled with a garrote and her skull was fractured.
The media sensationalized the tragic death of the “child beauty queen” and public speculation and rumors ran rampant. What followed was one of the most notorious unsolved murder investigations in American history.
Boulder police fixated on JonBenet’s parents as suspects. Needing investigative help, the Boulder DA brought in legendary homicide detective Lou Smit. However, he was soon disenchanted with law enforcement’s obsession with the Ramsey family as the primary suspects, excluding other possibilities.
Smit resigned but continued to work on his own time, and at his own expense, determined to find justice for JonBenet. He determined the Ramsey family was not involved in her death but died in 2010 before he could identify the killer.
Thousands of people attended his funeral service, including John Ramsey, and the detective’s lifelong friend and colleague, John Anderson. Along with a handful of retired detectives, Anderson and Smit’s family continue to pursue justice based on Smit’s work.
Now, for the first time in LOU AND JONBENET, Anderson tells the story of Smit’s investigation and why the Smit family team now believes that the killer can be identified.
Three years after Stidham moved to Tucson, his life ended in an empty, darkened parking lot. But who would murder such a nice man in such a violent manner?
Wade "Chip" Williamson did think there was any danger is having his wife's former boyfriend over to the house. WRONG. The ex boyfriend
roughs up the wife and threatens to kill the husband. When the boy friend tries to kill the husband, Chip shoots him in self defense.
He is surprised when he is charged with first degree murder.
An Outrageous Theory For Murder!
On December 9, 2001, Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in her Durham, NC home. Her scalp was laced with deep incisions, and her blood was strewn from outside to inside the house.
The sinister truth of that night turned her murder into North Carolina's most enigmatic criminal case, capturing media attention across the globe.
Police zeroed in on Kathleen’s husband, Michael Peterson, and charged him with murder.
But Was It The Truth?
A neighbor, Larry Pollard, came up with an alternative “killer;” he claimed an owl had attacked Kathleen outside her house. He said it sliced her scalp with its fierce talons and caused her to run inside, collapsing at the stairwell, and bleeding to death.
When the media heard about his theory, Larry was mocked. And Michael was convicted.
Now, twenty years later, author Tiddy Smith explores Pollard’s theory and questions whether law enforcement ignored, or even hid, evidence to convict Michael Peterson. And was an owl, in fact, the real killer?
Burl gave previous guest, author and musician Pat Craig, an assignment: find examples of Amish criminals and bring them back to the show. Pat did as requested, even finding an Amish serial killer!
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