Criminal

Fall River

05 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1833, a writer named Catharine Williams began working on a new book. She’d published books of poetry and about the Revolutionary War before, but ...

The Manual

28 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1993, a family was found murdered in their home. A Maryland police spokesperson described the homicide investigation as the most “exhaustive and ...

The Post Office

21 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Scott Darlington ran the post office in a village outside Manchester for four years. One day, the computer system told him there was money missing fro...

The Boy Scout

14 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When David Hahn was 16, he started working on something that caught the attention of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commi...

Rogers Park

07 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The story of one day in one neighborhood in Chicago – and the people living there who try to stop ICE agents from arresting their neighbors. Say he...

Ghostwatch

31 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On Halloween night, in 1992, an unusual television special aired on the BBC. Nobody expected what happened next. “The technicians were looking up at...

The Custom of the Sea

24 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1883, a sailing captain named Thomas Dudley accepted a job no one thought was a good idea: to sail a small ship called the Mignonette halfway acros...

The Tusker

17 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Audrey Ryan’s father told her he once found 20 pounds of hash while he was fishing for scallops, she didn’t believe him. But he said that he ...

Zak and Michelle

10 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2006, a group of young men and teenagers were arrested under the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act for planning to set off bombs in Toronto. They were kn...

Patience

26 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

One Saturday morning in 2018, the police showed up at Patience Frazier’s door, and started asking her questions about something she'd posted on Face...

The Phone Call

19 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bow Suprasert had just returned from a trip abroad when she got a strange phone call, saying a man had been caught traveling with a passport in her na...

The Compound

12 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2023, a woman named Jella got a new job. On her first day, she got in a car to go to her new office. Then she got a feeling that something wasn’t...

This is Phoebe Judge from the IRS

05 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Phoebe tries to scam an English grandmother named Daisy over the phone. But Daisy isn’t just any grandmother. Say hello on Facebook, Instagram and ...

E. Jean

22 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We visited E. Jean Carroll at her house in the woods to talk about her two trials against President Donald Trump. Say hello on Facebook, Instagram an...

The Bus Ride

15 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Two days after Hurricane Katrina hit, people who lived in the Fischer Housing Projects were still trapped – and it didn’t seem like anyone was com...

Kids on the Case

08 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The summer after Jessica Maple finished 6th grade, she found out that her great-grandmother’s house had been burglarized. So, 12-year-old Jessica go...

The Clock Starts Ticking

01 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On October 11, 2008, an 18-year-old was shot by someone firing a gun from the back seat of a car. A couple of hours later, homicide detectives arrived...

Death in Eden

25 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 1930s, eight people settled on an uninhabited island in the Galapagos. Within five years, two were missing and two were dead. Abbott Kah...

The Double

18 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2023, two men told police the same story: each man said that his name was William Woods, and that his identity had been stolen. Say hello on Faceb...

The Man Nobody Killed

11 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On September 15, 1983, Michael Stewart was on his way home from a nightclub when police arrested him. Thirteen days later, he was dead. Elon Green’...

The Clearwater Monster

04 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Early one morning in 1948, a phone call woke up the police chief in the small town of Clearwater, Florida. The caller said he’d seen something stran...

Uncle Harold

27 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1997, Eric Konigsberg received a strange voicemail from someone in prison — a hit man who had confessed to at least ten murders. Eric and the man...

By Any Means Necessary

20 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In July 2010, a woman was on vacation with her boyfriend of six years — they were traveling around Italy in a van. One day, she was looking for a pa...

The Guru

13 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the late 1960s, a yogi named Swami Rama came to the United States. His followers believed he could read their minds, visit them in their dreams, an...

Professor Quaalude

06 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

John Buettner-Janusch was one of the first Americans to study lemurs. He held prestigious faculty positions at Yale, Duke and NYU, before surprising e...

Thin Ice and Unusual Punishments

30 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Two years ago, we started making Criminal Plus episodes — behind-the-scenes conversations featuring Phoebe and Criminal co-creator Lauren Spohrer. T...

Action Park

23 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

“Anyone who went to Action Park understood you could get really messed up going there. It was part of why you wanted to go.” Seth Porges made a d...

No Hint or Help

16 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1950s, a new television quiz show premiered called Twenty One. But the first episode was a disaster — so the producers decided to try somethi...

False Positive

09 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The night before she gave birth, Susan Horton had a salad for dinner. The next day, doctors told her she’d tested positive for opiates - and reporte...

Tabatha

02 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Tabatha Trammell was 50 years old, she started studying to become a doula — a support person for pregnant women. Today, most of her clients are...

The Job

25 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Not long into his job as prison superintendent, Frank Thompson had to prepare his staff to perform Oregon's first execution in three decades. They sim...

The Roofman, Part 2

18 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Jeffery Manchester escaped from prison, a lot of people weren't surprised. But they didn't expect what happened next. "I kind of figured he'd be ...

The Roofman, Part 1

11 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Between 1998 and 2000, more than 40 stores and chain restaurants across the country were robbed by a masked man who always entered through the roof. P...

The Pride of Pine Hill

04 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the midst of the 1996 race for North Carolina governor, a new candidate emerged. Her name was Jolene Strickland, and her campaign slogan was “Too...

The Bottom of the Cliff

28 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In May of 2021, the National Park Service received a call that a woman had fallen over the Grandview Overlook at New River Gorge National Park. After ...

The Man Without a Will

21 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A Toronto police officer was having an affair with a government worker – and then they found out about an elderly man who died with a large estate, ...

High Tide

14 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Right after sunset, three boats sailed towards the rice plantations on the Combahee River. Harriet Tubman knew they had to hurry - they only had six h...

Five Stars

07 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

“Christopher Kinahan is probably the most successful and entrepreneurial criminal that Ireland has ever produced.” Say hello on Facebook, Instagra...

The Stay

28 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Last year, a committee of state lawmakers in Texas issued a subpoena for a man on death row to testify four days after he was scheduled to be executed...

The Butterfly Smuggler

21 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The first time Ed Newcomer went to the L.A. Bug Fair, he met a man who called himself the world’s most wanted butterfly smuggler. It took three year...

Ava and the Pickpocket

14 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

“He stole my watch. He stole my jewelry. I stopped wearing jewelry – just to see what else he would steal.” In 2004, Ava Do met a professional p...

Robert Smalls

07 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On May 13, 1862, in Charleston, South Carolina, a man named Robert Smalls took command of a Confederate ship called The Planter and liberated himself ...

The Raid

31 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2023, police raided the Kansas newspaper where Eric Meyer worked with his mother, Joan. Seven officers also searched their home. Joan had a heart a...

Guns, Grenades, and $100,000

24 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

“Anything you can think of is going to be in the water.” Say hello on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Sign up for our occasional newslett...

Dexter Wade

17 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bettersten Wade searched for her missing 37-year-old son for nearly six months. Then she found out that the police knew where he was the whole time. S...

Moon Rocks Wanted

10 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On September 18, 1998, an unusual ad ran in USA Today — a company called John’s Estate Sales was looking to buy a moon rock. The phone number on t...

The Christmas Fire

27 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The bodies of a woman and her child were found inside a burned house on Christmas Day, 1843. An autopsy showed that they’d died before the fire even...

Turtle vs. Toilet, a Monster in the Closet, and a Surprise Possum

20 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Stories of animals really going for it. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. F...

Operation Flagship

13 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1985, 160 people were sent letters saying they’d won free tickets to an NFL football game. They were told to pick up their tickets at the Washing...

The Sale

06 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1791, three men filed lawsuits in the General Court of Maryland. They were all suing the same person: the Jesuit priest who enslaved them. Say hell...

For the Sake of American Youth

22 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

“Children nowadays, they make maps. And say, this is the street where the store is that we're going to rob, and this is where we're going to hide, a...

Extraordinary and Compelling Reasons

15 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1993, Gary Settle was sentenced to 177 years in prison. Twenty-six years into his sentence, he started helping other inmates get out of prison thro...

The Reverend

08 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1977, a man named Robert Burns went to a funeral and shot someone, in the head, in front of 300 people. He didn’t deny it, and his lawyer didn’...

The Family Land, Part 2

01 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week, part two of the Reels family story – how two brothers went to jail in an attempt to save their family land, and were held there for eight...

The Family Land, Part 1

25 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Melvin Davis and Licurtis Reels refused to leave the land that had been in their family for generations – so they were sent to jail. They expected t...

Valentine

18 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today, a personal story from Phoebe about her mother, Valentine, who died this spring. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Sign up f...

Under the Wall

11 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Soon after the Berlin Wall went up, a group of students knocked on Joachim Rudolph’s door. They told him they were trying to get people out of East ...

A Land Without Law

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Before Guantánamo Bay became the prison we know today, Marie Genard spent more than a year of her life there. She was 14. Brandt Goldstein’s book i...

The Mirage

27 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1977, a new bar opened on North Wells Street in Chicago. Things weren’t as they seemed at the aptly named “Mirage Tavern.” This story is from...

A Murder in the Forest

20 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

One morning, two men got in a boat and sailed down a river in the Amazon rainforest. They were never heard from again. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook,...

Into the Vault

13 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the summer of 1975, two best friends attempted a robbery unlike any they’d ever pulled off before. Their target: the mob. Say hello on Twitter, F...

The Petition

06 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Madison Smith went to her county attorney’s office to talk about her rape case, she knew she wanted to press charges. But the prosecutor told h...

Hot Lotto

23 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2010, a $16.5 million Hot Lotto ticket was sold at a gas station in Des Moines, Iowa. At first, no one showed up to claim the prize. And then, a se...

Big Fish

16 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Two men turned in the winning catch at a Lake Erie fishing tournament. But when the tournament director squeezed one of their fish - he felt something...

Ana

09 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Phoebe: Are there a lot of spies in this country today? Scott: Far more than people can probably even imagine. You can't rule anybody out. You never k...

Trouble in Flamingo

02 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Hunters in the Everglades used to kill millions of birds every year for their feathers. In 1902, a man named Guy Bradley was hired to stop people from...

Millions of Pills

26 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

“There was a saying I heard a few times: ‘under the influence, above the law.’ And I think that describes the mindset of a certain type of frate...

Los Hipopótamos

19 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1980s, Pablo Escobar smuggled four hippopotamuses into Colombia for a zoo on his ranch. Today, there are over 160 hippos in the country. “It’...

The Disappearance of Leslie Arnold

12 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1967, a 24-year-old named Leslie Arnold escaped from prison. The FBI looked for him for years. And then, in 2022, a U.S. Marshal got a message from...

Ten Thousand Feet in the Air

05 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On the afternoon of June 23rd, 1972, Martin McNally walked into the St. Louis airport with a wig, a sawed-off rifle, and a plan. Special thanks to Dan...

State of North Carolina v. Joan Little

28 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Karen Bethea-Shields was in college, she heard a judge say, “No way in the world a Black woman can get raped.” A few years later, in 1975, sh...

The Demon Spread

21 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

“The ingenuity of depraved human genius has culminated in the production of margarine.” Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for ...

One Troy

14 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Lawrence H. Woodward funeral home in Brooklyn has been run by one family for generations, and has handled many funerals for victims of violent cri...

11 to 1

07 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When JonRe Taylor was called for jury duty in 2007, she voted ‘not guilty’ on every charge. But the defendant was convicted and sent to prison any...

The Six

24 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1989, three people confessed to participating in a murder. Eventually, a total of six people were arrested. But when DNA tests were run on crime sc...

Type B

17 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Six people were arrested for a murder in Nebraska. Some said they couldn't remember details of the crime, or being there at all - but then they began ...

The Confession, Part 3

10 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When we last spoke with Trevell Coleman, he was waiting to hear back about his clemency application. And then, in December of last year, his lawyer go...

Right of Way

03 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1991, two police officers stopped Tupac Shakur for jaywalking. He said he was knocked unconscious during his arrest, and sued the city of Oakland f...

Mr. Apology

26 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1980, posters appeared in subway stations and on telephone poles in New York City with a phone number to call. When you called it, you would hear a...

Under Oath

19 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When he was 14 years old, Ron Bishop testified in a murder trial. Decades later, he told an investigator everything he said on the stand was a lie –...

The Strike

12 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When people started saying that John D. Rockefeller Jr. was responsible for the deaths of two women and 11 children near a coal mine in Colorado, he d...

An Officer's Arrest

05 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sultan Alam was the first Pakistani officer to join the traffic department of the Cleveland Police in the UK. He was harassed at work and complained t...

Indelible Ink

22 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For almost thirty years, Adolfo Kaminsky lived quietly, forging documents for people all over the world. It started when he was 18. Sarah Kaminsky’s...

The Hiss

15 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the famous English actor William Macready was preparing to go on stage in New York, over 300 police officers were placed in and around the theater....

The Dial Painters

08 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 1920s, painters at a watch dial factory in New Jersey started to get sick. No one could tell them why. Kate Moore's book is called The Ra...

If I’m Long Unheard From

01 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1974, musician Connie Converse drove away from home and was never heard from again. Howard Fishman’s book is To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, M...

Off Leash

23 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

“I never did anything wrong. I never had a speeding ticket. I think I just saved all my stuff up for just one thing.” We speak with Toby Dorr, who...

Call Russ Ewing

16 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

“The police had surrounded the house. They had been there for quite a while. They didn’t want to try to rush the house because they thought he mig...

Cowboy Bob

09 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In May 1991, a bank robber walked into a bank in Irving, Texas, and without speaking handed the teller a note that read, “This is a bank robbery. Gi...

Bonus: The Liberal Arts Club

07 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to the latest Criminal Plus bonus episode completely for free. Phoebe and Lauren hit record on the drive to visit a 100-year-old Liberal Arts C...

911

02 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A conversation with a 911 operator about what happens on the other end of the line – and the day she heard her daughter's voice on the phone. Crimin...

The Ninth Floor

26 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Martin Abramowitz knew that his father had worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, but he always thought he hadn’t been there the day the buildin...

48 Hours, Part 2

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This episode picks up where 48 Hours, Part 1 left off. We suggest you listen to them in order. When Aaron Quinn called the Vallejo police to report th...

48 Hours, Part 1

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

“I think it was around 3:00 a.m., and that’s when I heard a strange man’s voice waking me from sleep.” This is part one of a two-part episode....

The Hunt

12 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2016, the FBI attaché in Pretoria, South Africa, got a phone call from a woman asking the FBI to investigate the death of her friend, Bianca Rudol...

Tokyo Joe

05 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ken Eto worked for the Chicago Outfit for 30 years. He was known as the mob’s bolita expert, bringing in millions of dollars a year for them. But in...

The Gargoyle Cat, the Taylor Swift Goat, and the Runaway Cow

22 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Stories of animals really going for it. Criminal is going back on tour in February! We’ll be telling brand new stories, live on stage. You can even ...

The Questions I’m Asking

15 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today we meet “Genius Grant” winner Andrea Armstrong. In 2019, she started the Incarceration Transparency Project to identify and make public how ...

Send Her to the Island

08 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When a young woman showed up at a boarding house in Manhattan, she said her name was Nellie Brown – but that was all she seemed to remember about he...

The Kit

01 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 1970s, Marty Goddard was worried about the high rates of sexual assault in Chicago. She learned from police that evidence from sexual ass...