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 year...
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...
The Man Nobody Killed
Fri, 11 Jul
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
On September 15, 1983, Michael Stewart was on his way home from a nightclub when police arrested him...
The Clearwater Monster
Fri, 04 Jul
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Early one morning in 1948, a phone call woke up the police chief in the small town of Clearwater, Fl...
Uncle Harold
Fri, 27 Jun
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In 1997, Eric Konigsberg received a strange voicemail from someone in prison — a hit man who had c...
By Any Means Necessary
Fri, 20 Jun
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In July 2010, a woman was on vacation with her boyfriend of six years — they were traveling around...
The Guru
Fri, 13 Jun
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In the late 1960s, a yogi named Swami Rama came to the United States. His followers believed he coul...
Professor Quaalude
Fri, 06 Jun
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
John Buettner-Janusch was one of the first Americans to study lemurs. He held prestigious faculty po...
Thin Ice and Unusual Punishments
Fri, 30 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Two years ago, we started making Criminal Plus episodes — behind-the-scenes conversations featurin...
Action Park
Fri, 23 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
“Anyone who went to Action Park understood you could get really messed up going there. It was part...
No Hint or Help
Fri, 16 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In the 1950s, a new television quiz show premiered called Twenty One. But the first episode was a di...
False Positive
Fri, 09 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The night before she gave birth, Susan Horton had a salad for dinner. The next day, doctors told her...
Tabatha
Fri, 02 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
When Tabatha Trammell was 50 years old, she started studying to become a doula — a support person ...
The Job
Fri, 25 Apr
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Not long into his job as prison superintendent, Frank Thompson had to prepare his staff to perform O...
The Roofman, Part 2
Fri, 18 Apr
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
When Jeffery Manchester escaped from prison, a lot of people weren't surprised. But they didn't expe...
The Roofman, Part 1
Fri, 11 Apr
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Between 1998 and 2000, more than 40 stores and chain restaurants across the country were robbed by a...
The Pride of Pine Hill
Fri, 04 Apr
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In the midst of the 1996 race for North Carolina governor, a new candidate emerged. Her name was Jol...
The Bottom of the Cliff
Fri, 28 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In May of 2021, the National Park Service received a call that a woman had fallen over the Grandview...
The Man Without a Will
Fri, 21 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
A Toronto police officer was having an affair with a government worker – and then they found out a...
High Tide
Fri, 14 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Right after sunset, three boats sailed towards the rice plantations on the Combahee River. Harriet T...
Five Stars
Fri, 07 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
“Christopher Kinahan is probably the most successful and entrepreneurial criminal that Ireland has...
The Stay
Fri, 28 Feb
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Last year, a committee of state lawmakers in Texas issued a subpoena for a man on death row to testi...
The Butterfly Smuggler
Fri, 21 Feb
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The first time Ed Newcomer went to the L.A. Bug Fair, he met a man who called himself the world’s ...
Ava and the Pickpocket
Fri, 14 Feb
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
“He stole my watch. He stole my jewelry. I stopped wearing jewelry – just to see what else he wo...
Robert Smalls
Fri, 07 Feb
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
On May 13, 1862, in Charleston, South Carolina, a man named Robert Smalls took command of a Confeder...
The Raid
Fri, 31 Jan
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In 2023, police raided the Kansas newspaper where Eric Meyer worked with his mother, Joan. Seven off...
Guns, Grenades, and $100,000
Fri, 24 Jan
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
“Anything you can think of is going to be in the water.” Say hello on Twitter, Facebook, Instagr...
Dexter Wade
Fri, 17 Jan
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Bettersten Wade searched for her missing 37-year-old son for nearly six months. Then she found out t...
Moon Rocks Wanted
Fri, 10 Jan
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
On September 18, 1998, an unusual ad ran in USA Today — a company called John’s Estate Sales was...
The Christmas Fire
Fri, 27 Dec
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The bodies of a woman and her child were found inside a burned house on Christmas Day, 1843. An auto...
Turtle vs. Toilet, a Monster in the Closet, and a Surprise Possum
Fri, 20 Dec
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Stories of animals really going for it. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Sign u...
Operation Flagship
Fri, 13 Dec
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In 1985, 160 people were sent letters saying they’d won free tickets to an NFL football game. They...
The Sale
Fri, 06 Dec
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In 1791, three men filed lawsuits in the General Court of Maryland. They were all suing the same per...
For the Sake of American Youth
Fri, 22 Nov
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
“Children nowadays, they make maps. And say, this is the street where the store is that we're goin...
Extraordinary and Compelling Reasons
Fri, 15 Nov
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In 1993, Gary Settle was sentenced to 177 years in prison. Twenty-six years into his sentence, he st...
The Reverend
Fri, 08 Nov
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In 1977, a man named Robert Burns went to a funeral and shot someone, in the head, in front of 300 p...
The Family Land, Part 2
Fri, 01 Nov
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
This week, part two of the Reels family story – how two brothers went to jail in an attempt to sav...
The Family Land, Part 1
Fri, 25 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Melvin Davis and Licurtis Reels refused to leave the land that had been in their family for generati...
Valentine
Fri, 18 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Today, a personal story from Phoebe about her mother, Valentine, who died this spring. Say hello on ...
Under the Wall
Fri, 11 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Soon after the Berlin Wall went up, a group of students knocked on Joachim Rudolph’s door. They to...
A Land Without Law
Fri, 04 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Before Guantánamo Bay became the prison we know today, Marie Genard spent more than a year of her l...
The Mirage
Fri, 27 Sep
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In 1977, a new bar opened on North Wells Street in Chicago. Things weren’t as they seemed at the a...
A Murder in the Forest
Fri, 20 Sep
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
One morning, two men got in a boat and sailed down a river in the Amazon rainforest. They were never...
Into the Vault
Fri, 13 Sep
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In the summer of 1975, two best friends attempted a robbery unlike any they’d ever pulled off befo...
The Petition
Fri, 06 Sep
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
When Madison Smith went to her county attorney’s office to talk about her rape case, she knew she ...
Hot Lotto
Fri, 23 Aug
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In 2010, a $16.5 million Hot Lotto ticket was sold at a gas station in Des Moines, Iowa. At first, n...
Big Fish
Fri, 16 Aug
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Two men turned in the winning catch at a Lake Erie fishing tournament. But when the tournament direc...
Ana
Fri, 09 Aug
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Phoebe: Are there a lot of spies in this country today? Scott: Far more than people can probably eve...
Trouble in Flamingo
Fri, 02 Aug
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Hunters in the Everglades used to kill millions of birds every year for their feathers. In 1902, a m...
Millions of Pills
Fri, 26 Jul
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
“There was a saying I heard a few times: ‘under the influence, above the law.’ And I think tha...
Los Hipopótamos
Fri, 19 Jul
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In the 1980s, Pablo Escobar smuggled four hippopotamuses into Colombia for a zoo on his ranch. Today...
The Disappearance of Leslie Arnold
Fri, 12 Jul
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In 1967, a 24-year-old named Leslie Arnold escaped from prison. The FBI looked for him for years. An...
Ten Thousand Feet in the Air
Fri, 05 Jul
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
On the afternoon of June 23rd, 1972, Martin McNally walked into the St. Louis airport with a wig, a ...
State of North Carolina v. Joan Little
Fri, 28 Jun
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
When Karen Bethea-Shields was in college, she heard a judge say, “No way in the world a Black woma...
The Demon Spread
Fri, 21 Jun
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
“The ingenuity of depraved human genius has culminated in the production of margarine.” Say hell...
One Troy
Fri, 14 Jun
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
The Lawrence H. Woodward funeral home in Brooklyn has been run by one family for generations, and ha...
11 to 1
Fri, 07 Jun
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
When JonRe Taylor was called for jury duty in 2007, she voted ‘not guilty’ on every charge. But ...
The Six
Fri, 24 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In 1989, three people confessed to participating in a murder. Eventually, a total of six people were...
Type B
Fri, 17 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Six people were arrested for a murder in Nebraska. Some said they couldn't remember details of the c...
The Confession, Part 3
Fri, 10 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
When we last spoke with Trevell Coleman, he was waiting to hear back about his clemency application....
Right of Way
Fri, 03 May
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In 1991, two police officers stopped Tupac Shakur for jaywalking. He said he was knocked unconscious...
Mr. Apology
Fri, 26 Apr
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In 1980, posters appeared in subway stations and on telephone poles in New York City with a phone nu...
Under Oath
Fri, 19 Apr
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
When he was 14 years old, Ron Bishop testified in a murder trial. Decades later, he told an investig...
The Strike
Fri, 12 Apr
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
When people started saying that John D. Rockefeller Jr. was responsible for the deaths of two women ...
An Officer's Arrest
Fri, 05 Apr
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Sultan Alam was the first Pakistani officer to join the traffic department of the Cleveland Police i...
Indelible Ink
Fri, 22 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
For almost thirty years, Adolfo Kaminsky lived quietly, forging documents for people all over the wo...
The Hiss
Fri, 15 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
As the famous English actor William Macready was preparing to go on stage in New York, over 300 poli...
The Dial Painters
Fri, 08 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In the early 1920s, painters at a watch dial factory in New Jersey started to get sick. No one could...
If I’m Long Unheard From
Fri, 01 Mar
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In 1974, musician Connie Converse drove away from home and was never heard from again. Howard Fishma...
Off Leash
Fri, 23 Feb
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
“I never did anything wrong. I never had a speeding ticket. I think I just saved all my stuff up f...
Call Russ Ewing
Fri, 16 Feb
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
“The police had surrounded the house. They had been there for quite a while. They didn’t want to...
Cowboy Bob
Fri, 09 Feb
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In May 1991, a bank robber walked into a bank in Irving, Texas, and without speaking handed the tell...
Bonus: The Liberal Arts Club
Wed, 07 Feb
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Listen to the latest Criminal Plus bonus episode completely for free. Phoebe and Lauren hit record o...
911
Fri, 02 Feb
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
A conversation with a 911 operator about what happens on the other end of the line – and the day s...
The Ninth Floor
Fri, 26 Jan
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Martin Abramowitz knew that his father had worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, but he always ...
48 Hours, Part 2
Fri, 19 Jan
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
This episode picks up where 48 Hours, Part 1 left off. We suggest you listen to them in order. When ...
48 Hours, Part 1
Fri, 19 Jan
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
“I think it was around 3:00 a.m., and that’s when I heard a strange man’s voice waking me from...
The Hunt
Fri, 12 Jan
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In 2016, the FBI attaché in Pretoria, South Africa, got a phone call from a woman asking the FBI to...
Tokyo Joe
Fri, 05 Jan
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Ken Eto worked for the Chicago Outfit for 30 years. He was known as the mob’s bolita expert, bring...
The Gargoyle Cat, the Taylor Swift Goat, and the Runaway Cow
Fri, 22 Dec
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Stories of animals really going for it. Criminal is going back on tour in February! We’ll be telli...
The Questions I’m Asking
Fri, 15 Dec
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Today we meet “Genius Grant” winner Andrea Armstrong. In 2019, she started the Incarceration Tra...
Send Her to the Island
Fri, 08 Dec
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
When a young woman showed up at a boarding house in Manhattan, she said her name was Nellie Brown –...
The Kit
Fri, 01 Dec
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In the early 1970s, Marty Goddard was worried about the high rates of sexual assault in Chicago. She...
Masterpiece
Fri, 24 Nov
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In the 1950s poodles were all the rage — one tabloid even reported that when a girl “makes the b...
Fine Art and Meat Cleavers
Fri, 17 Nov
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In 1913, museums and art galleries in London received a memo from the police. It told them to be car...
The Liverpool Exchange
Fri, 10 Nov
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In the 1980s, Liverpool was having what journalists called a heroin epidemic. The chairman of a loca...
Interrogation Room
Fri, 03 Nov
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
After a 17-hour-long interrogation, a woman confesses to a murder. But then, evidence surfaces provi...
How to Sell a Haunted House
Fri, 27 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In 1989, Helen Ackley decided to sell her old Victorian house in Nyack, New York. It didn’t go as ...
The Spy
Fri, 20 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Jack Barsky was a college student in 1970 when the KGB knocked on the door of his dorm room to inqui...
Chesa, Kathy, and David
Fri, 13 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert were once members of the radical activist group the Weather Undergrou...
Jiminy Crickets
Wed, 11 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Here's a little preview of what we’re making over on Criminal Plus! We’re having a lot of fun ma...
The Confession, Part 2
Fri, 06 Oct
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
This episode continues where Episode 237 leaves off. 17 years after he shot a man, Trevell Coleman w...
The Confession, Part 1
Fri, 29 Sep
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Trevell Coleman signed with Bad Boy Records in 1998. He made it onto the Billboard charts, and was c...
Phoebe vs. Oyster
Thu, 28 Sep 2023 08:00:00 -0000
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
We’re coming up on 10 years of Criminal. In the past decade, we've loved taking the show all over ...
Under the Crabapple Tree
Fri, 22 Sep
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
On September 16, 1922, a reverend and a choir singer were found dead under a tree. Between their bod...
The Newsroom
Fri, 15 Sep
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Jeff German was a reporter for over 40 years in Las Vegas. He spent his life covering the mafia, cor...
The Séances
Fri, 08 Sep
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In 1916, two British soldiers were held captive in a remote prisoner-of-war camp. People said the ca...
Iceland Noir
Fri, 25 Aug
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
Iceland is one of the most peaceful countries in the world, but people there love to read about crim...
The Other Phoebe Judge
Mon, 21 Aug
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
A preview of what we’re making over on Criminal Plus! Hear me and Criminal co-creator Lauren Spohr...
Wolf 10
Fri, 18 Aug
Contributed by Lukas • Default Dataset
In April of 1995, wildlife biologists flew small airplanes over Yellowstone National Park, looking f...