In the summer of 2021, Tabatha Pope and her boyfriend were living out of a cheap motel, struggling to make ends meet. Then, she found an affordable apartment just outside downtown Houston, and it seemed like her luck was finally turning around. 

But when she moved in, something wasn’t right. There were buckets on the floor filled with a thick, red substance that looked a lot like blood, and crimson stains on the walls. It was clear that something terrible had happened here. And as she learned more, Tabatha came to a disturbing conclusion: the perpetrator may have been the person she thought was her landlord.

In a feature for New York magazine, Ian Frisch recounts the surreal story of Tabatha Pope’s nightmare on West Clay Street. 

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In real life, bank robberies are not nearly as sexy and dramatic as the movies make them out to be. They're usually poorly planned acts of desperation. Tony Hathaway was desperate, but he was smart. By the time he was caught - he'd pulled off thirty robberies in just over a year. This week on Crime Story, Josh Dean from the podcast, Hooked, explores why Tony Hathaway became one of America's most prolific bank robbers.

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In 2015, Larry Driskill confessed to a murder he swears he did not commit. There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime, and he didn’t know the victim, a 29-year-old woman named Bobbie Sue Hill. And yet, ten years after her murder, Driskill found himself in a police station describing how he disposed of her body in a creek in Parker County, Texas. 

The man sitting across from Driskill was James Holland, a Texas Ranger who later became known as a “serial killer whisperer" for his ability to procure seemingly impossible confessions from serious criminals. After interrogating Driskill for hours, Holland was convinced he had the right guy. But in the podcast, Just Say You’re Sorry, reporter and host Maurice Chammah reveals just how wrong he was.  

This week on Crime Story, Maurice Chammah on the confession that sent an innocent man to prison. 

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In Ringgold, Georgia, Alvin Ridley was something of a local bogeyman. He rarely left his house and, when he did, he was always by himself. 

So when Alvin called 9-1-1 to report the death of his wife – a woman that no one had ever heard about, let alone seen – the town was shocked.

Quickly a narrative began to emerge: Alvin Ridley had held this woman captive for more than thirty years. And then, he’d strangled her.

It didn’t take much for the citizens of Ringgold to believe it. And, before long, police came to the same conclusion and charged Alvin with first degree murder.

But there was one person who came to Alvin’s defence: a down on his luck attorney named McCracken Poston, who would become Alvin’s biggest defender – and his friend. 

In his memoir Zenith Man: Death, Love, and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom, Poston recounts his experience representing Alvin Ridley, and tells the story of one of the strangest trials in Georgia history. 

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When someone is attacked, especially in their home, the victim usually knows the person hurting them. And in the 2002 murder of a woman named Marlyne Johnson, the police charged her daughter-in-law, Sophia Johnson, with first degree murder. The whole ordeal tore two families apart because not only was Sophia charged with killing her mother-in-law, but the main witness against her was her own brother.

Amory Sivertson dives back into the case in her new podcast, Beyond All Repair. She joins Crime Story now. 

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When Derrick Johnson was a toddler, he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. He never developed the ability to speak. Instead, he would communicate with his eyes and his hands, and his family would do their best to interpret his gestures.

That was until they met a Rutgers professor named Anna Stubblefield.

Anna thought that with the right technique and coaching Derrick could learn to say exactly what was on his mind.

But what began as an attempt to expand Derek's horizons quickly turned into a nightmare. One that ended with Derrick’s family accusing Anna of sexual assault.

In his documentary Tell Them You Love Me, director Nick August Perna explores Anna and Derrick’s relationship – and the complicated questions it forces us to confront.

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Like most journalists, veteran reporter Tonya Mosley spent her career telling other people's stories. But then she got a call from a man named Antonio Wiley.  

In her podcast, She Has A Name, Tonya and Antonio investigate the disappearance of his mother, Anita Wiley, who went missing in Detroit in 1987. The more they learn about what happened to Anita, the more Tonya realizes that the investigation will impact her entire life. 

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There is no shortage of scam artists, catfishers, and grifters in true crime.

Usually, they’re looking for money, sex, or fame.

But Kaitlyn Braun was a different kind of con artist all together.

Over the course of two years, Braun tricked more than 50 birthworkers into thinking she was pregnant. She’d take them on wild, unpredictable rides through traumatic pregnancies (and births) that turned out to be completely fabricated.

In The Con: Kaitlyn’s Baby, journalist Sarah Treleaven (Madness of Two, Unrestorable) tries to figure out what could possibly lead someone to do something like this. 

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Amy, a seasoned doula, is bedridden due to illness when she receives a call from fellow doula Katie to assist a client, Kaitlyn, over the phone. Kaitlyn is pregnant as a result of sexual assault and has just learned her baby will be stillborn. Over the next 10 days, Amy and Katie are swept into Kaitlyn's escalating crises — bleeding disorders, a hysterectomy, cancer, and seemingly predatory doctors — while supporting her emotionally, over the phone. Despite exhaustion and their own trauma, they unquestioningly focus on Kaitlyn's needs. However, when Amy’s girlfriend points out strange details in Kaitlyn's story, alarm bells ring. A dog barks during a call where Kaitlyn claims she’s in the hospital, and photos Kaitlyn sent of her stillborn are traced back to Wikipedia. Something isn't right. More episodes of The Con: Kaitlyn's Baby are available at: https://link.mgln.ai/yPZ95Z

Content warning: This episode contains references to medical emergencies, including baby loss. We also deal with sexual assault and there is some strong language. 

Subscribers of CBC True Crime Premium can binge all episodes of The Con: Kaitlyn's Baby right now.

How should we deal with women who kill their abusers? In the Globe and Mail’s first longform podcast In Her Defence, reporter Jana Pruden tells the story of Helen Naslund, who shot and killed her husband after enduring 30 years of abuse. It’s a story about a long fight for freedom and a justice system stuck in the past.

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This episode's transcript can be found here.