On November 23, 1987, Bernard "Barnie" Jones arrives home from a business trip and tells his wife he feels "heavy" after a long flight and stress. The next morning, she finds him dead of an apparent heart attack.
By all accounts, this looks like a small, ordinary tragedy, the kind that plays out in homes across America every day.
But a year later, another man arrives home from a trip, reports that he feels "heavy," and is also found dead of a heart attack within hours.
And then another man. And another. And another.
These men lived a country apart from one another. They didn't know each other, or have any interactions or connections in any way. They simply arrived home, reported that they felt "heavy," and died of seemingly natural causes.
Which is why it took nearly 10 years and a random, off-hand comment for the FBI to discover that these were not, in fact, ordinary health events. These were murders, and what they discovered would shock them.
Because from 1987 to 1995, a serial killer quietly murdered at least 12 business travelers throughout America -- and almost got away with it.
This is Crime Adjacent episode 579: The case of the Cross Country Killer, told live in Austin during our tour.
OK, profilers. Can you solve an unsolvable murder?
Join host and serial killer survivor Chase Patrick live on stage for Crime Adjacent, the world’s biggest true crime podcast. Every week, at shows across the country, Chase reopens the most haunting, enduring mysteries from the grim underbelly of American true crime and challenges you to solve them.
“An atmospheric and immersive podcast where true crime and psychological thrillers intersect.” — Earworthy
From the Zodiac to the Rest Stop Killer, the Michigan Nightstalker to the Cross Country Killer, each episode unfolds like a real investigation — like the whip smart, nerdy love child of Murder, She Wrote and War of the Worlds — and dares you to unravel the mystery and provide justice for those who need it most.
It looks like a true crime podcast. It sounds like a true crime podcast. But what happens when the cosmology of our escapist entertainment looks terrifyingly like our real world? That’s Crime Adjacent. It’s a fully scripted, intimate, locked-room mystery that pulls back the curtain on our social obsession with true crime and what this fascination with humanity’s darkest impulses says about … us.
“Crime Adjacent is redefining the true crime genre.” — Podcasting Today
Crime Adjacent is written and performed by Mike Adamick, a former crime reporter turned contributor for NPR, The New York Times, and McSweeney’s. He uses degrees in sociology and gender studies from UC Berkeley, along with an obsession with criminal profiling, true crime, and Jessica Fletcher, to explore why people commit crimes, why we are enthralled with them, and who, ultimately, pays the price.
So listen closely, profilers. Because with every episode, a new crime is afoot and every detail matters.
It’s not crime. It’s Crime Adjacent.
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