On October 11, 2008, an 18-year-old was shot by someone firing a gun from the back seat of a car. A couple of hours later, homicide detectives arrived on the scene. And so did the camera crew for a reality television show.

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In the early 1930s, eight people settled on an uninhabited island in the Galapagos. Within five years, two were missing and two were dead.

Abbott Kahler’s book is Eden Undone: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II.

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In 2023, two men told police the same story: each man said that his name was William Woods, and that his identity had been stolen.

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On September 15, 1983, Michael Stewart was on his way home from a nightclub when police arrested him. Thirteen days later, he was dead.

Elon Green’s book is The Man Nobody Killed: Life, Death, and Art in Michael Stewart’s New York.

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Early one morning in 1948, a phone call woke up the police chief in the small town of Clearwater, Florida. The caller said he’d seen something strange at the beach. Residents had found an odd set of footprints in the sand, and a rumor began circulating that Clearwater Beach had a sea monster.

Listen to other episodes of This is Love at https://thisislovepodcast.com/.

This episode was first released in 2020.

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In 1997, Eric Konigsberg received a strange voicemail from someone in prison — a hit man who had confessed to at least ten murders. Eric and the man had never spoken before, but Eric had a hunch about who it was: his uncle.

Eric Konigsberg’s book is Blood Relation.

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In July 2010, a woman was on vacation with her boyfriend of six years — they were traveling around Italy in a van. One day, she was looking for a pair of sunglasses in the glove box, and she found a passport. It had her boyfriend’s photo — but a different name.

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In the late 1960s, a yogi named Swami Rama came to the United States. His followers believed he could read their minds, visit them in their dreams, and manipulate reality. Shruti Swamy was one of them.

Shruti Swamy wrote a version of this story for the June 12th issue of The Believer. You can find it at https://www.thebeliever.net/.

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John Buettner-Janusch was one of the first Americans to study lemurs. He held prestigious faculty positions at Yale, Duke and NYU, before surprising everyone with a series of increasingly bizarre crimes.

Phoebe and Lauren got to visit the Duke Lemur Center in person – hear all about it in our latest episode of Criminal Plus. Use the promo code “JOINUS” for 20% off an annual membership. You’ll get behind-the-scenes bonus episodes of Criminal, ad-free listening of all of our shows, special merch deals, and more.

Peter Kobel’s book is The Strange Case of the Mad Professor.

This episode was first released in 2019.

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Two years ago, we started making Criminal Plus episodes — behind-the-scenes conversations featuring Phoebe and Criminal co-creator Lauren Spohrer. Today, we’re sharing some of those conversations with you — about everything from Phoebe’s jangly bracelets to the reason a judge ordered a man to watch Bambi.

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