When a haggard Alfred Packer stumbled from the Colorado wilderness in 1874, he at first said he'd been abandoned by five traveling companions who'd left him to fend for himself. But his already-shaky story quickly changed once a search party uncovered the remains of five mutilated men. Packer -- sometimes referred to by the first name "Alferd" thanks to a misspelled tattoo -- went down in history as the so-called Colorado Cannibal, but debate lingers to this day over whether he'd committed premeditated murder or simply found a way to survive horrifying circumstances.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.

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To countless women, Amelia Dyer offered salvation: She was a supposedly married but barren woman who offered to adopt babies whose parents (usually unwed mothers) couldn't afford to raise them properly. Dyer promised to rear the "precious" babies as her own and even offered the biological mothers the chance to visit and stay part of the children's lives -- for a small fee, of course. Eventually, one body surfaced that could be tied to Dyer, and then another. Soon, police realized that Dyer had been running a so-called baby farm, killing dozens of helpless children over a span of decades before her undoing.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

Around the same time the first Hillside Stranglers victims were found near Los Angeles, a young man was arrested in Ohio in an unrelated string of robberies and sexual assaults that would have strange bearing over the California cases. Billy Milligan -- who ultimately would be diagnosed as having dissociative identity disorder manifesting in 24 distinct personalities -- would become the first person found not guilty by reason of insanity because of a multiple-personality diagnosis.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

After Kenneth Bianchi was arrested in early 1979 on suspicion he was responsible for the so-called Hillside Stranglings near Los Angeles, he made an outrageous claim: He did kill 10 women in LA and another two in Washington state, he said, but not as Bianchi. He was a split personality and had killed them as his alter-ego, Steve. Not only that, he said, but he'd had help from his older cousin, Angelo Buono. Bianchi's confusing confession led to one of the longest and most sensational criminal trials in California history.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

The first body discovered on a California hillside in late 1977 didn't make much news, but as the body count kept growing, so did the headlines -- and the sense of panic. The slayings, soon dubbed by the media as the work of the "Hillside Strangler," had Los Angeles-area women on edge day and night. It wouldn't be until a pair of similar murders occurred in Washington state that LA police would finally get a big break in the terrifying case.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

When news spread that a high-profile comedian was killed in a murder-suicide in 1998, the response was disbelief: Phil Hartman wasn't just famous for being funny. He was even better known for being a good-hearted guy. The shocking story behind the deaths of Hartman and his wife, Brynn, not only made international headlines, but it shook the entertainment industry and changed how people talked about substance abuse and mental health issues in America.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

On Easter Sunday 1937, Ethel Gedeon discovered her sister Veronica and mother Mary murdered in their New York City apartment alongside a third victim, a man who was residing in the apartment as a boarder. As police began to investigate the crime, Veronica's career as a popular artist's model led to a manhunt for one suspect whose bizarre path to the murder highlighted deadly shortcomings in the nation’s mental healthcare system.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

When the county coroner arrived at Sam Sheppard's house in July of 1954, the pathologist was certain the case was open-and-shut: Sheppard, a headlines-courting doctor and serial philanderer, clearly had murdered his 31-year-old wife, Marilyn. Sheppard faced not one but two trials of the century in a case that reached the U.S. Supreme Court and continues to stir controversy to this day.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

When three members of the Newman family were discovered slain in 1987, residents of Anchorage, Alaska, flew into a panic. Though murders weren't rare there, the slayings were brutal and the potential suspect list uncomfortably long. The case marked the first time that an FBI profiler was allowed to testify to help explain how law enforcers narrowed the suspect pool to a member of the victims' own family.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

The Great Depression sparked a desperation in people that led to an epidemic of kidnappings nationwide, including the 1937 abduction of Arthur Fried, a married father of one whose father owned a sand-and-gravel company. As crime writer Sarah Weinman helps explain, Fried's unusual case ultimately led to the state of New York executing two men for the first time on charges other than first-degree murder.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod