Turn off the lights, light some candles, and enjoy Tales of True Crime, a true crime podcast featuring sound effects, voice actors, carefully curated music, and stories about true crimes, both little-known and notorious. Hear episodes on serial killers like The Zodiac, plus tales of killers exposed after death by genetic genealogy, historic stories of true crime, and more! If you enjoy campfire stories, you’ll love Tales of True Crime. Download, listen and subscribe right now.
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Tales of True Crime, episode 23: Genealogy Identified a Killer But Texas Got Him First
More than 150 years ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson set pen to paper to write "The Conduct of Life," a series of essays paired with poems, and based on lectures he had given. The goal of "The Conduct of Life" was to provide a lesson in how we, as humans, should live our lives and philosophies we should abi...
Sep 15, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 22: The New Coldest Case Solved with Genealogy
Peggy Beck was 16 years old on August 17th, 1963, a counselor at a youth camp at the Flying G Ranch in the Pike National Forest southwest of Denver. Having dropped names like that, Flying G Ranch and Pike National Forest, you can visualize the landscape... rugged mountains and serene lakes surrounded by Douglas Firs an...
Aug 29, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 21 -- Coincidence Means Nothing: Serial Killer Caught in 45-Year-Old Cold Case
"There's little hope that the murder of Leslie Perlov, 21 year old law library clerk, will ever be solved." That was the first line in a story published by the San Francisco Examiner on the 8th of April, 1973. Leslie Perlov, a Stanford graduate, was discovered dead on university-owned land on February 15th of...
Aug 16, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 020: Update and New Evidence on the Long Island Serial Killer
Welcome back to Tales of True Crime. I'm your host, Troy Larson, and if you've been listening to Tales of True Crime, you know I did a three episode special on the Long Island Serial Killer about ten episodes back. There have been developments since then, however, including the revelation of some new evidence, and I am...
Apr 20, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 19: The Mad Gasser of Mattoon, Tiger King and Outlandish True Crime
Normally I try to make episodes of Tales of True Crime what people in the radio business refer to as "evergreen," which essentially means it will always be timely, whenever you listen to it, whether that's the day it's released or five years down the road. This time, I'm gonna make an exception because as the...
Apr 05, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 18: John List and The Watcher of Westfield
With the industrial revolution, people flocked to cities in search of industrial jobs--in factories, on assembly lines, in power plants. The promise of good pay and a steady job lured millions, but the influx of city-dwellers brought problems--crime, pollution, crowding and illness to name a few. But with ever-increasi...
Mar 23, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 17: DNA Gone Wrong and the Suicide of Kevin Brown
In every time and every culture, there are secluded places, locations undisclosed to adults, where young people go for privacy... places where they go to smoke cigarettes, maybe more, take a nip out of a bottle stolen from Dad's liquor cabinet, or to meet up with a love interest, out of range of the prying eyes of pare...
Mar 09, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 16: The Serial Killer Who Accidentally Killed Himself
In the movies, we always know when something bad is about to happen. It starts in a place with an idyllic name and peaceful reputation, a place like Downers Grove, Illinois. Usually, the story is set in a place like Downers Grove to provide a contrast for the horrors that will come later. Vibrant, smiling, happy studen...
Feb 24, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 15: The Coldest Case Solved with Forensic Genealogy
[studio VO:] This is your host, Troy Larson, and before we get started with this week's episode, I want you to take a little field trip with me. From a nice, quiet studio like this... [Host remote VO:] ...to a place like this. Surely your ears can tell the difference. What do you hear? Traffic noises? Car doors opening...
Feb 19, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 14 -- Jeffrey Lynn Hand: Black Intentions
June 16th, 1973. Jeff Thomas and his wife Carol were on their way home from visiting relatives in Chicago. They were a young couple, both 22, with a love for adventure but not much money, and they decided to hitchhike home to Evansville, Indiana. At the intersection of 3rd street and I-70 in Terre Haute, the young coup...
Feb 19, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 013: Did Terrorists Try to Assassinate George W. Bush on September 11th?
[Intro FX: 911 Calls, Firefighter Radio Communications, Flight Attendant Calls] On September 11th, 2001, terrorists attacked the United States when they flew hijacked commercial jets into both towers of the World Trade Center in New York, and the Pentagon in Washington DC. A suicide attack by a fourth airliner, United ...
Feb 19, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 12 -- Getting Away with Murder: The Ghoul of Grays Harbor
More than a century ago, in the first decade of the 20th century, Aberdeen, Washington was growing into a busy seaport. Situated at the spot where the Chehalis and Wishkah Rivers empty into Grays Harbor, Aberdeen was the perfect spot for the logging industry to harvest timber by the boatload, from virgin forests of mon...
Feb 19, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 11: Is the Long Island Serial Killer a Cop?
It can't be overstated. Disposal of the bodies along the highway on the southern shore of Long Island is a high risk proposition. It's a beach landscape, only sparsely populated with residences. And while a body can be easily hidden in the scrub, a car parked anywhere along the road would quickly look out of place, jus...
Feb 19, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 10: Who is the Long Island Serial Killer?
It hadn't been that long, really, since news of two active serial killers prowling the streets of New York had been the front page kind. In 1991... 1992... and 1993, Joel Rifkin and Robert Schulman simultaneously targeted the young women of metropolitan New York in separate but equally evil campaigns of terror. Murders...
Feb 19, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 9: The Long Island Serial Killer
May 1, 2010: Shannan Gilbert, a call girl, arrives at the Long Island home of Joseph Brewer for a date arranged through Craigslist. Gilbert had reportedly struggled with mental illness and before leaving Brewer's home, she placed a 23 minute call to 911 in which she claimed someone - they - were trying to kill her. Two...
Feb 19, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 8: What is gDNA and Why Would Anyone Object?
The methods used to investigate crime have evolved considerably over time... fingerprint analysis dates back to the 1880s, and the roots of forensic toxicology go all the way back to the first century, but most think of DNA evidence as the most effective tool in the investigator's tool chest. The use of DNA evidence is...
Feb 19, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 7: The Strange Tale of the Midnight Rider
Hello and Happy Halloween. This is your host Troy Larson. I searched for a special subject for a Halloween podcast, something short, that wouldn't take up a lot of your time, because hey, it's Halloween and we all have plenty to do... parties to attend, cocktails to drink, and candy to steal from our kids when they're ...
Feb 19, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 6: A Death on Halloween and the Price of Redemption
For many who live in northern climates there is nothing quite like the time of year when the temperature drops and the trees turn beautiful shades of yellow, orange and red before shedding their leaves. The chilly autumn wind blows them into entrancing, colorful swirls at each street corner and in every gutter, and the...
Feb 19, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 4 -- No Address: The Search for the Zodiac Killer
It was just before 10:00 pm and on a street near San Francisco's famous Union Square, the streetlamps bathed the neighborhood in a harsh orange glow. A taxi driver, Paul Stine, 29 years old and moonlighting as a cabbie while he pursued a Doctorate at San Francisco State College, accepted a fare as the back door opened ...
Feb 19, 2020
Tales of True Crime, episode 3: The Murderer Who Escaped Execution to Become a Serial Killer
Kathy Miller was just a teenager, trying to help her boyfriend find a job. She reviewed the classified ads in the Seattle Times, because that's how you found a job in 1973, by looking through the newspaper, and when she saw a simple ad -- Service Station, Help Wanted -- she called. Her mother, Mary Miller, overheard he...
Feb 19, 2020
