Episode 89

In Part 2 of our deep dive into the life and crimes of Sarah Hartsfield, we follow the tangled threads back to the beginning. Because before the alleged poisoning, before the string of dead or endangered husbands, before the Dateline episode…

This week, we explore:

Sarah’s early life — the patterns that began long before her first “I do.”

Marriage #1: A relationship marked by volatility, control, and infidelity

Her marriage to Chris — the escalating behaviors, the violence, and the fear her family lives with

Her brother’s house fire — a nearly fatal fire that was never ruled arson, but relatives think Sarah may be responsible

How Sarah’s ability to reinvent herself, charm authority, and flip narratives became the defining machinery of her survival.

Part 2 is the setup for where this case truly becomes unbelievable — but as you’ll hear, the warning signs were there all along.

Listen to You Should Be Here on your favorite podcast app including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The new season, Cases that Haunt us is out now!

The Crime to Burn Patreon - The Cult of Steve - is LIVE NOW! Go join and get all the unhinged you can handle. Click here to be sanctified. 

Inner Sanctum Acknowledgments:

Listener discretion is advised.

Background music by Not Notoriously Coordinated 

Get your Crime to Burn Merch! https://crimetoburn.myspreadshop.com

Please follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok and Youtube for the latest news on this case. You can email us at [email protected] We welcome any constructive feedback and would greatly appreciate a 5 star rating and review. 

If you need a way to keep your canine contained, you can also support the show by purchasing a Pawious wireless dog fence using our affiliate link and use the code "crimetoburn" at checkout to receive 10% off. Pawious, because our dog Winston needed a radius, not a rap sheet. 

Sources: For a full list of sources, please see the show notes for Episode 88 (part 1 of this series)

Episode 88

Sarah Hartsfield didn’t weave a web of silk — she wove a web of control.

In October 2025, a jury convicted Sarah Hartsfield of murdering her husband, Joseph Hartsfield, after deliberating for just one hour. One hour — despite the fact that the physical evidence was thin, the investigation delayed, and the medical questions complex. But what wasn’t thin was the pattern that emerged the moment investigators stepped back and looked at Sarah’s life in full.

In this episode, we strip away the decades of allegations — the shootings, the fires, the chaos — and start exactly where the jury started: with Joe’s death.

Then we will explore what prosecutors revealed once the pattern of Sarah’s past began to surface — a shocking trail of manipulation, alleged violence, suspicious fires, and the relentless pursuit of control that followed Sarah from childhood to court.

This is not just the story of one death.

Welcome to “Burn, Marry, Kill: The Wicked Web of Sarah Hartsfield.”

Listen to You Should Be Here on your favorite podcast app including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The new season, Cases that Haunt us is out now!

The Crime to Burn Patreon - The Cult of Steve - is LIVE NOW! Go join and get all the unhinged you can handle. Click here to be sanctified. 

Inner Sanctum Acknowledgments:

Listener discretion is advised.

Background music by Not Notoriously Coordinated 

Get your Crime to Burn Merch! https://crimetoburn.myspreadshop.com

Please follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok and Youtube for the latest news on this case. You can email us at [email protected] We welcome any constructive feedback and would greatly appreciate a 5 star rating and review. 

If you need a way to keep your canine contained, you can also support the show by purchasing a Pawious wireless dog fence using our affiliate link and use the code "crimetoburn" at checkout to receive 10% off. Pawious, because our dog Winston needed a radius, not a rap sheet. 

Sources: 

Tim Stelloh, Kelley Moody, Mario J. Garcia, Vince Sturla.

KPRC 2 Click2Houston (YouTube).

Bryce Newberry, Bill Carruthers, Wlad Moquete, Adrian Montes, Adrian Crooks, Matt James, Ana Lastra.

KPRC 2 Click2Houston (YouTube).

KPRC 2 Click2Houston (YouTube).

FOX 26 Houston (YouTube).

Episode 87

Hidden beneath the hills of northeast New Mexico lies a ghost that industry left behind. Dawson was once a model mining town — a company-built community boasting schools, golf courses, and an opera house. Phelps Dodge called it progress. But twice, in just ten years, that progress went up in smoke.

In 1913 and again in 1923, massive explosions ripped through Dawson’s coal mines, killing 383 miners — fathers, sons, and brothers — in two of the deadliest mining disasters in American history.

This episode digs deep into how “safety-forward” operations, good intentions, and one impatient decision turned an idealized town into a field of iron crosses. We’ll explore coal dust explosions, early fire protection efforts underground, and how greed, apathy, and bad timing turned progress into tragedy.

Because when profit becomes the accelerant… all it takes is a spark.

Listen to You Should Be Here on your favorite podcast app including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The new season, Cases that Haunt us is out now!

The Crime to Burn Patreon - The Cult of Steve - is LIVE NOW! Go join and get all the unhinged you can handle. Click here to be sanctified. 

Inner Sanctum Acknowledgments:

Listener discretion is advised.

Background music by Not Notoriously Coordinated 

Get your Crime to Burn Merch! https://crimetoburn.myspreadshop.com

Please follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok and Youtube for the latest news on this case. You can email us at [email protected] We welcome any constructive feedback and would greatly appreciate a 5 star rating and review. 

If you need a way to keep your canine contained, you can also support the show by purchasing a Pawious wireless dog fence using our affiliate link and use the code "crimetoburn" at checkout to receive 10% off. Pawious, because our dog Winston needed a radius, not a rap sheet. 

Sources: 

Pappas, Nick. Crosses of Iron: The Tragic Story of Dawson, New Mexico, and Its Twin Mining Disasters. Foreword by Richard Melzer. University of New Mexico Press, 2023. ISBN 978-0-8263-6528-6 (paper), 978-0-8263-6529-3 (electronic).

Sharpe, Tom. “Remembering the Dawson Mining Disaster, 100 Years Later.” The Santa Fe New Mexican, October 19, 2013.

Villa, Elizabeth. “Dawson, NM: Booming Mine Town Turned Ghost Town.” New Mexico State University Archives Blog, posted May 3, 2022.

Hawker Vanguard. “Eerie Enchantment: Dawson, New Mexico.” KOB4 News, published November 1, 2024.

Episode 86

In the early hours of November 1st, 1970, celebration turned to catastrophe when a fire tore through the Club Cinq-Sept near Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France. Within minutes, 146 young people were dead — trapped behind padlocked exits, a full-height turnstile, and flammable décor that turned the dance floor into a death trap.

This wasn’t just a fire — it was the inevitable result of greed, negligence, and a system that valued profit over safety. In this episode, April breaks down how the building’s design doomed its occupants, why its owners never should’ve been allowed to open, and how French philosopher Guy Debord later used the tragedy to expose the rot beneath a complacent society.

Because not every fire should keep burning — and some should have never started at all.

Listen to You Should Be Here on your favorite podcast app including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The new season, Cases that Haunt us is out now!

The Crime to Burn Patreon - The Cult of Steve - is LIVE NOW! Go join and get all the unhinged you can handle. Click here to be sanctified. 

Inner Sanctum Acknowledgments:

Listener discretion is advised.

Background music by Not Notoriously Coordinated 

Get your Crime to Burn Merch! https://crimetoburn.myspreadshop.com

Please follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok and Youtube for the latest news on this case. You can email us at [email protected] We welcome any constructive feedback and would greatly appreciate a 5 star rating and review. 

If you need a way to keep your canine contained, you can also support the show by purchasing a Pawious wireless dog fence using our affiliate link and use the code "crimetoburn" at checkout to receive 10% off. Pawious, because our dog Winston needed a radius, not a rap sheet. 

Sources: 

The Raven’s Eye. France’s Worst Discotheque Fire – The Horror of the Club 5-7 Disaster. YouTube, Sept 12 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ_C77jqfW4&t=9s

Manic Manor Podcast. The Club Cinq-Sept Fire. YouTube, Mar 19 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lnQIkFvw7s

Time Magazine. France: An Unusual Silence. Nov 16 1970. https://time.com/archive/6838296/france-an-unusual-silence/

Guy Debord. On the Fire of Saint-Laurent-du-Pont (1971). Translated from French; introduction by René Viénet.

BBC News. 1970: Nightclub Inferno ‘Wipes Out a Generation’. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/1/newsid_2537000/2537937.stm

Associated Press. 142 Are Killed by Fire in Locked Dance Hall in France. The New York Times, Nov 2 1970. https://www.nytimes.com/1970/11/02/archives/142-are-killed-by-fire-in-locked-dance-hall-in-france-20-survive.html

Episode 85

Each October, the city of Detroit braced for three nights of chaos known as Devil’s Night—a grim tradition of arson and destruction that peaked in the 1980s with hundreds of fires set across the city. But behind the headlines and the flames lies a story of resilience, strategy, and a community that refused to burn.

In this episode, we take you inside the rise and fall of Devil’s Night—how economic collapse, political scandal, and desperation turned mischief into mayhem, and how Detroit’s residents, firefighters, and city leaders fought back through the “Angels’ Night” campaign.

We’ll trace the legacy of those fire-filled nights and ask: what happens when a city becomes known not for its industry, but for its inferno?

Listen to You Should Be Here on your favorite podcast app including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The new season, Cases that Haunt us is out now!

The Crime to Burn Patreon - The Cult of Steve - is LIVE NOW! Go join and get all the unhinged you can handle. Click here to be sanctified. 

Inner Sanctum Acknowledgments:

Listener discretion is advised.

Background music by Not Notoriously Coordinated 

Get your Crime to Burn Merch! https://crimetoburn.myspreadshop.com

Please follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok and Youtube for the latest news on this case. You can email us at [email protected] We welcome any constructive feedback and would greatly appreciate a 5 star rating and review. 

If you need a way to keep your canine contained, you can also support the show by purchasing a Pawious wireless dog fence using our affiliate link and use the code "crimetoburn" at checkout to receive 10% off. Pawious, because our dog Winston needed a radius, not a rap sheet. 

Sources: 

Maciak, Barbara, PhD, MPH, et al. (1999). Preventing Halloween Arson in Urban Settings: A Model for Multisectoral Planning and Community Participation. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. JSTOR link

Zaharan, Sammy, et al. (2019). Hidden Costs of Blight and Arson in Detroit: Evidence From a Natural Experiment in Devil’s Night. Ecological Economics, Volume 158, pp. 266–277. ScienceDirect link

Anonymous (2021, October 31). The Devil’s Night: On the Ungovernable Spirit of Halloween. Ill Will Editions. illwill.com/devils-night

Chafets, Ze’ev. (1990). Devil’s Night and Other True Tales of Detroit. Random House.

LeDuff, Charlie. (2013). Detroit: An American Autopsy. Penguin Books.

Episode 84:

In this week’s bonus episode of Crime to Burn, April sits down with author Arnie Bernstein to discuss the 1927 Bath School disaster, the investigation that followed, and what it takes to responsibly tell true stories of mass violence nearly a century later.

Arnie Bernstein’s Website: arniebernstein.com

Background music by Not Notoriously Coordinated 

The Crime to Burn Patreon - The Cult of Steve - is LIVE NOW! Go join and get all the unhinged you can handle. Click here to be sanctified. 

Get your Crime to Burn Merch! https://crimetoburn.myspreadshop.com

Please follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok and Youtube for the latest news on this case. You can email us at [email protected] We welcome any constructive feedback and would greatly appreciate a 5 star rating and review. 

If you need a way to keep your canine contained, you can also support the show by purchasing a Pawious wireless dog fence using our affiliate link and use the code "crimetoburn" at checkout to receive 10% off. Pawious, because our dog Winston needed a radius, not a rap sheet. 

Episode 83

This week on Crime to Burn, we’re doing something a little different. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and this episode honors the extraordinary courage of Judy Malinowski — a woman whose strength changed the law and gave victims of domestic violence a voice that could never again be silenced.

Judy was burned alive by her abuser and spent nearly two years in the hospital, fighting through unimaginable pain to testify against him. Her recorded testimony would later make history — becoming the first time in U.S. history that a victim testified at her own murder trial.

Originally aired on You Should Be Here — a collaborative podcast series where true crime creators donate episodes to support victim advocacy charities — this episode reminds us that justice isn’t just about the courtroom. It’s about courage, resilience, and the lives rebuilt in the aftermath of violence.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, help is available. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or visit thehotline.org for confidential support.

Support Judy's Foundation Here: https://www.judysfoundation.org/

Listen to You Should Be Here on your favorite podcast app including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The new season, Cases that Haunt us will be out October 25th. 

The Crime to Burn Patreon - The Cult of Steve - is LIVE NOW! Go join and get all the unhinged you can handle. Click here to be sanctified. 

Inner Sanctum Acknowledgments:

Listener discretion is advised.

Background music by Not Notoriously Coordinated 

Get your Crime to Burn Merch! https://crimetoburn.myspreadshop.com

Please follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok and Youtube for the latest news on this case. You can email us at [email protected] We welcome any constructive feedback and would greatly appreciate a 5 star rating and review. 

If you need a way to keep your canine contained, you can also support the show by purchasing a Pawious wireless dog fence using our affiliate link and use the code "crimetoburn" at checkout to receive 10% off. Pawious, because our dog Winston needed a radius, not a rap sheet. 

Sources: 

The Judy Malinowski Foundation

People – “Judy Malinowski’s murderer Michael Slager pleads, sentenced”

New York Post – “Woman testifies against her murderous ex in MTV doc”

Medium – “From the Grave” (Good Vibes Club)

10TV – “13-year-old daughter of woman set on fire asks lawmakers to pass Judy’s Law”

10TV – “Judy Malinowski, attack survivor who fought to change Ohio law, dies”

Paramount Plus – “From the Grave” Documentary

Episode 82

In this episode, we follow the fallout of the Cameron Todd Willingham case — a story that didn’t end at the execution chamber.

Because justice isn’t just about verdicts — it’s about what we do after we know the truth.

Help Stop Robert Roberson's Execution!!! Click here to sign the petition! 

The Crime to Burn Patreon - The Cult of Steve - is LIVE NOW! Go join and get all the unhinged you can handle. Click here to be sanctified. 

Inner Sanctum Acknowledgments:

Listener discretion is advised.

Background music by Not Notoriously Coordinated 

Get your Crime to Burn Merch! https://crimetoburn.myspreadshop.com

Please follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok and Youtube for the latest news on this case. You can email us at [email protected] We welcome any constructive feedback and would greatly appreciate a 5 star rating and review. 

If you need a way to keep your canine contained, you can also support the show by purchasing a Pawious wireless dog fence using our affiliate link and use the code "crimetoburn" at checkout to receive 10% off. Pawious, because our dog Winston needed a radius, not a rap sheet. 

Because we've covered this case before, some sources are listed in the show notes from Episodes 2 and 3.

For a full list of sources, please see Episode 81. Additional sources used for this episode are listed below 

Sources: 

Possley, Maurice. “Jury Clears Prosecutor Who Sent Cameron Todd Willingham to Death Row.” The Marshall Project, May 11, 2017.

Wikipedia. “Gerald Hurst.”

Wikipedia. “Cameron Todd Willingham.”

Grann, David. “Trial By Fire.” The New Yorker, August 31, 2009.

Innocence Project. “Prosecutor in Willingham Case Faces Misconduct Charges.” March 19, 2015.

Episode 81

A fire, a flawed science, and a state that still hasn’t learned.

In 1991, Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted of setting the house fire that killed his three young children. Despite a mountain of later evidence debunking the “arson indicators” used against him, Texas executed Willingham in 2004—long after leading fire scientists warned that the case rested on junk science.

Two decades later, Texas is preparing to repeat history. On October 16th, the state is scheduled to execute Robert Roberson, a man condemned under similarly discredited forensic theories and medical misunderstandings that doomed Willingham. The very science that convicted him has since been proven false, yet the machinery of “justice” continues to grind forward.

In this first installment of our Texas Justice series, we revisit the Willingham case:

How old-school fire investigation methods created a template for wrongful arson convictions

The experts who tried to stop an execution built on myth

The political forces that refused to listen—and what that refusal means for Robert Roberson today

Help Stop Robert Roberson's Execution!!! Click here to sign the petition!

Listener discretion is advised.

Background music by Not Notoriously Coordinated 

The Crime to Burn Patreon - The Cult of Steve - is LIVE NOW! Go join and get all the unhinged you can handle. Click here to be sanctified. 

Get your Crime to Burn Merch! https://crimetoburn.myspreadshop.com

Please follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok and Youtube for the latest news on this case. You can email us at [email protected] We welcome any constructive feedback and would greatly appreciate a 5 star rating and review. 

If you need a way to keep your canine contained, you can also support the show by purchasing a Pawious wireless dog fence using our affiliate link and use the code "crimetoburn" at checkout to receive 10% off. Pawious, because our dog Winston needed a radius, not a rap sheet. 

Because we've covered this case before, some sources are listed in the show notes from Episodes 2 and 3. 

Sources:

Possley, M. (2014, August 3). The Prosecutor and the Snitch. The Marshall Project. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2014/08/03/did-texas-execute-an-innocent-man-willingham

Eaton, T. (2011, July 29). AG says Forensic Science Commission can’t consider Willingham case, others before 2005. Austin American-Statesman. Innocence Project Press Release, July 29, 2011. See Innocence and Studies.

KLTV Digital Media Staff. (2025, September 25). East Texas man facing October execution will not seek clemency, his lawyer says. https://www.kltv.com/2025/09/25/east-texas-man-facing-october-execution-will-not-seek-clemency-his-lawyer-says/

Beety, V. E. (2020, April 11). Changed Science Writs and State Habeas Relief. Houston Law Review, 57(3). https://houstonlawreview.org/article/12191-changed-science-writs-and-state-habeas-relief

Innocence Project Staff. (2010, September 13). Cameron Todd Willingham’s wrongful execution gains new attention after Netflix’s Trial by Fire release. Innocence Project. https://innocenceproject.org/news/cameron-todd-willingham-wrongfully-convicted-and-executed-in-texas/

Mills, S., & Possley, M. (n.d.). Texas man executed on disproved forensics. Chicago Tribune. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/texas-man-executed-on-disproved-forensics

Willingham v. State, 897 S.W.2d 351 (Tex. Crim. App. 1995). Retrieved from https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/court-of-criminal-appeals/1995/71544-4.html

Incendiary: The Willingham Case. (2011). Documentary film directed by Joe Bailey Jr. and Steve Mims. Featuring Rick Perry and Barry Scheck.

Episode 80

On November 18, 1947, a fire tore through Ballantynes department store in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 41 people and changing the nation forever. It remains New Zealand’s deadliest fire disaster — and one that exposed shocking negligence.

In this episode, we retrace the events leading up to the blaze, the chaos of the evacuation, and the devastating aftermath. We’ll look at how overcrowding, building construction, and a lack of fire protection systems turned a busy shopping day into tragedy, and how the disaster forced long-overdue changes to fire safety and labor laws.

Ballantynes wasn’t just a tragedy — it was a turning point. But it also raises a haunting question: why do we keep having to relearn the same lessons, decades later?

Listener discretion is advised.

Background music by Not Notoriously Coordinated 

The Crime to Burn Patreon - The Cult of Steve - is LIVE NOW! Go join and get all the unhinged you can handle. Click here to be sanctified. 

Get your Crime to Burn Merch! https://crimetoburn.myspreadshop.com

Please follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok and Youtube for the latest news on this case. You can email us at [email protected] We welcome any constructive feedback and would greatly appreciate a 5 star rating and review. 

If you need a way to keep your canine contained, you can also support the show by purchasing a Pawious wireless dog fence using our affiliate link and use the code "crimetoburn" at checkout to receive 10% off. Pawious, because our dog Winston needed a radius, not a rap sheet. 

Sources:

Staff Told Not To Evacuate: The Ballantynes Fire — Fascinating Horror (YouTube, July 16, 2024). Watch here

A Tragic Series of Events | Ballantynes Fire | A Short Documentary — Retelling (YouTube, October 24, 2021). Watch here