Come Closer

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Aileen Wuornos killed seven men along Florida highways in 1989 and 1990, and the world has called her a monster ever since. But monsters are made. In this episode of Come Closer, I tell the full story of Aileen Carol Wuornos, from a childhood no adult stepped in to stop, to the girlfriend who helped police get her confession, to the trial that never heard about Richard Mallory's past. Then I hand down the Verdict.

We cover Monster (2003) vs. Precious, betrayal trauma, Tyria Moore, the Williams Rule, death row, and a historical parallel from Rome in 1599: Beatrice Cenci.

In memory of Richard Mallory, David Spears, Charles Carskaddon, Peter Siems, Troy Burress, Dick Humphreys, and Walter Antonio.

Content warning: child sexual abuse, suicide, murder. Support: 988 (US) · RAINN 1-800-656-4673

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Come closer. It's darker than you think.

Most Christmas movies want you warm. This one wants you honest.

Director Christian Jude Grillo and producer and star Andrew Hunsicker of Intruder Films join me to talk about A Cold Season. It’s a snowbound Christmas horror film about Jacob, a man so lonely and so sure he can freeze out his pain that the season starts freezing everyone around him.

Christian wrote most of the script for everyone who finds Christmas hard. Andrew plays a man who barely speaks, and he still made me laugh before breaking my heart in a therapy circle.

The Verdict: Which ring of hell does Jacob belong?

🎄 A Cold Season premieres November 10 on Roku, Tubi, Xumo, Amazon, Google Play and more.

Content note: depression, substance use, grief, an injured animal (AI-generated; no animals were harmed).

Follow Intruder Films:

Andrew Hunsicker:

Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/andrew.hunsicker/ ·

Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/andrew.hunsicker/

Christian Jude Grillo: on Facebook, along with Potent Media

Come closer.

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The closer you look, the darker it gets.

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The Green River Killer was also an unassuming-looking man named Gary Ridgway. He made a bet that if he killed women society had already written off, nobody would come looking. For nearly 20 years, he won and got away with it.

LINKS:

📖 Get Maria DiLorenzo's book, "Confessions of the Green River Killer": ⁠⁠https://link.amazon/B0j5A0aHt⁠⁠

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Get my list of 50 essential true crime docs ⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠

Betty Broderick is often remembered as the ultimate woman scorned, but that story leaves out the psychological damage, manipulation, and betrayal that pushed her to the edge. If you think you know this infamous case, this episode will change the way you see it.

Rae Review unpacks the rise and collapse of Betty and Dan Broderick’s marriage: from the years Betty supported Dan through medical school, law school, and four children, to the affair with 21-year-old legal secretary Linda Kolkina and the brutal unraveling that followed. The case is famous, but the deeper question is the one most retellings skip:

What happens when betrayal trauma, gaslighting, and a no-fault divorce system combine to strip someone of their reality, their children, and their future?

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Inside the ‘Vampire Cult’ Murder Case: Chet Hardin on Sydney Loofe, Aubrey Trail & Bailey Boswell.

🩸 GET CHET'S BOOK - "The Vampire's Cult"

Rae interviews investigative journalist and author Chet Hardin about his book "The Vampire’s Cult: The Untold Story of Obsession, Control, and a Shocking Small Town Murder," exploring why the case reads like “horror crime.”

They recount how 24-year-old Sydney Loofe went on a Tinder date with Bailey Boswell. Hardin details Bailey’s troubled background, her meeting with lifelong felon Aubrey Trail, and how he used money, manipulation, and a vampire/witch “coven” con to recruit and control multiple young women with degrading rules and threats.

Credits:

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What are your thoughts?

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I'm Rae Review, Aries Goddess and Keeper of Dark Stories. Today, I'm telling my version of the story of Medusa. The myth, the misogyny, and how the "monster” narrative was edited over time.

I'm 40,000 years old. I was there, and it's crazy how things get misinterpreted through time.

Athena, Poseidon, the male poets, the hair snakes. How did it all start?

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00:00 Come Closer Intro

01:16 How This Podcast Works

02:49 Medusa Before The Curse

03:18 Poseidon And Athena's Punishment06:06 Exiled As A Monster

07:53 Perseus Gets The Quest

09:29 The Unfair Assassination

10:01 Medusa's Head As Trophy

11:07 Older Myths And Ovid's Edit

15:07 Was Athena Protecting Her

17:18 Modern Meaning And Moral

20:46 Final Thoughts And Outro

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Get my list of essential true crime docs HERE

In 1992, a 17-year-old girl named Amy Fisher shot Mary Jo Buttafuoco in the face on her own front step. Within weeks, America had a nickname for her: the Long Island Lolita. Within a year, all three major networks aired competing made-for-TV movies about her, and roughly half the country watched at least one.

Almost nobody asked about the 35-year-old married man who had been sleeping with her since she was 16.

This is the story of Amy Fisher, Joey Buttafuoco, and Mary Jo Buttafuoco — a case that became the blueprint for how tabloid media turns a groomed child into a villain and a predator into a lovable rogue. We cover how Joey Buttafuoco met a 16-year-old at his Long Island auto body shop, the mechanics of grooming and how predators select and isolate a target, the DARVO playbook he ran when the story broke, and the sentencing gap that gave Amy Fisher seven years while the man convicted of statutory rape served four months.

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You've seen the iceberg videos. Surface level at the top, the unspeakable at the bottom. I like the format. I just think it's shallow.

So this is mine. Nine rings, not one iceberg, because when I sort a subject by how bad it gets, I use the system I know best. I've been to all nine and I know the bartenders.

The rules are simple. Ring one is the tip: the part you've heard of, the part that sounds almost reasonable. Ring nine is the bottom, and nobody goes down there voluntarily. Each ring is worse than the last. Three rings per episode, three episodes, all the way down.

We're starting with eugenics.

Not because it's the darkest subject I know, but because it's the one that most people think is finished. It isn't. And it didn't begin with a monster; it began with a statistician, a respectable institution, and a very reasonable idea about improving the human race.

It gets worse from here. It always does.

Come closer.

xx Rae Review

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Rae is joined by defense attorney Edward Cohn as they discuss the story of Nikki Addimando.

A woman told police, very calmly, that she'd just shot the father of her children. She was telling the truth and had been for years. Nobody listened. This was a complicated case about self-defense, violence, and toxic relationship dynamics.

Listen as Edward Cohn provides his insights about his experience in the legal system, his opinion on this story and how you can protect yourself.

⚠️ Discretion advised: domestic violence and s**ual abuse.

Find Edward Cohn Defense Attorney at cohnjustice.com.

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