Crime&Stuff

Constance Fisher, a young Waterville, Maine, mother, was found not guilty by reason of insanity after she killed her three children in 1954. Eventually she was well enough to go home to her husband, Carl, where they started a new family…

Helen Bailey was a successful author, but suffering from the sudden death of her husband. Then Ian Stewart came along, and thing started looking up. Until Helen, and her little dog Boris, disappeared…

In Part II of our loosely related celebrity slaying series, we look at the life and death of Bonny Lee Bakley, whose final of her many marriages, to actor Robert Blake, turned out to be the one that killed her.

Our latest episode is Part 1 of a two-part look at two loosely connected celebrity homicides. In this one, we discuss the shooting death of Dag Drollet by Christian Brando, Marlon Brando’s son. It’s a sad story of celebrity privilege, some really bad handling of mental health issues and more.

Sorry we’re so late with this by the way — the good news is it’s mostly because we’re trying out new software that makes us sound better. Or rather, the sound quality is better. We’re not altering our voices. We want to thank our Patreon supporters who have helped us make the leap from free software to something more professional.

Enjoy.

Janet Baxter was killed on a cold November night in Maine in 1976 during a quick trip to the A&P to get some cold medicine. When her murder was finally solved 22 years later, the man who did it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise. It turns out Baxter was just one of five people he was convicted of or suspected of killing.

Serial killer? Family annihilator? Or just a hot-head? We discuss.

Madalyn Murray O’Hair, founder of American Atheists, pissed a lot of people off. And when she, her son John and her grandaughter Robin disappeared from San Antonio, Texas, in 1995, no one made a big effort to find them.

When small-time crook Danny Frye vanished around the same time, no one bothered to look for him, either.

Maybe someone should’ve.

Our special Oregon correspondent, our sister Liz, joins us once again, this time to talk about Oregon serial killer John Ackroyd, who fatally stalked Route 20 for decades. The topic is inspired by The Oregonian’s comprehensive coverage of the case, The Ghosts of Highway 20.

When Stephanie Ginn Gebo was found dead on her bedroom floor by her 13-year-old daughter in June 2015, her former boyfriend Robert Burton was already in the Maine woods, where he stayed, eluding police for 68 days.

[Photo is Robert Burton caught on surveillance camera in July 2015 during his 68 days on the run, courtesy of Maine State Police]

In our annual holiday tradition, we’re merging our podcasts Groovy Tube and Crime & Stuff, this year in an interactive Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer-watching extravaganza. Ok, it’s not an extravaganza, but break out the DVD and watch with us anyway.

We continue our in depth discussion, including our NNW rating, of both the Netflix documentary and the case it’s based on.