Criminal

In November of 1988, Robin Woods was sentenced to sixteen years in the notoriously harsh Maryland Correctional Institution. In prison, Robin found himself using a dictionary to work his way through a book for the first time in his life. It was a Mario Puzo novel. While many inmates become highly educated during their incarceration, Robin became such a voracious and careful reader he was able to locate a factual error in Merriam Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia. He wrote a letter to the encyclopedia's editor, beginning an intricate friendship that changed the lives of both men. Contributor Daniel A. Gross has the story. 

We're very excited to announce that we're taking the show on the road this fall, visiting Washington D.C., Durham, Philadelphia, Anaheim, Brooklyn, Boston, Chicago, Iowa City, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Toronto. We'd love to see you. Learn more at http://thisiscriminal.com/live/. 

Criminal is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. 

2008 was an exciting time to be a Harry Potter fan. The final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, had been released. Movies were on the way. And author Melissa Anelli was at the center of it all, running a popular fan site called The Leaky Caldron and working on a book, Harry, a History. Just as things couldn’t get better, Melissa received her first death threat.

Criminal is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

If you haven't already, please review us on Apple Podcasts! It's an important way to help new listeners discover the show: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.

Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our newsletter, The Accomplice.

If you'd like to introduce friends or family members to podcasts, we created a How to Listen guide based on frequently asked questions.

Artwork by Julienne Alexander.

Shortly after Meridy Volz moved from Milwaukee to San Francisco, she received a phone call from a friend asking her to take over a small bakery business.  Meridy agreed to run the bakery, but she only wanted to sell one thing: pot brownies. Her brownies were a massive success, and soon she was making enough money to support three families. Meridy tells her story alongside her daughter, Alia Volz, who describes what it's like when San Francisco's "original brownie lady" is your mom.

Visit our website: www.thisiscriminal.com to see Meridy's final brownie bag & recipe.

Criminal is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

If you haven't already, please review us on Apple Podcasts! It's an important way to help new listeners discover the show: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.

Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our newsletter, The Accomplice.

If you'd like to introduce friends or family members to podcasts, we created a How to Listen guide based on frequently asked questions.

Artwork by Julienne Alexander.

There are more tigers in captivity in America than wild tigers in the entire world. The exact number of captive tigers in this country isn't known, because many of them live in people's backyards or unaccredited zoos, and the legality of their ownership varies widely by state and even by circumstance. We travelled to Louisiana to see a 550-pound Siberian-Bengal tiger who lives at a truck stop, and the man who's fought very hard to persuade Louisiana lawmakers he's not a criminal.

Criminal is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

If you haven't already, please review us on Apple Podcasts! It's an important way to help new listeners discover the show: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.

Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our newsletter, The Accomplice.

If you'd like to introduce friends or family members to podcasts, we created a How to Listen guide based on frequently asked questions.

Artwork by Julienne Alexander.

 

 

As a law student, Bryan Stevenson was sent to a maximum security prison to meet a man on death row. The man told Stevenson he'd never met an African-American lawyer, and the two of them talked for hours. It was a day that changed Stevenson's life. He's spent the last 30 years working to get people off of death row, but has also spent the final hours with men he could not save from execution. He argues that each of us is deserving of mercy.

Learn more about Bryan Stevenson in his book, Just Mercy.

Criminal is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

If you haven't already, please review us on Apple Podcasts! It's an important way to help new listeners discover the show: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.

Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our newsletter, The Accomplice.

If you'd like to introduce friends or family members to podcasts, we created a How to Listen guide based on frequently asked questions.

Artwork by Julienne Alexander.

Not only was John Frankford a famous horse thief, he was also a notoriously good escape artist. People thought no jail was strong enough to keep him, but then in 1895 he was sentenced to Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary. At Eastern State, Frankford became the victim of a strange practice that carried implications for both the state of Pennsylvania and the medical establishment we know it today. Reporter Elana Gordon from WHYY's The Pulse has today's story.

Criminal is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

If you haven't already, please review us on Apple Podcasts! It's an important way to help new listeners discover the show: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.

Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our newsletter, The Accomplice.

If you'd like to introduce friends or family members to podcasts, we created a How to Listen guide based on frequently asked questions.

Artwork by Julienne Alexander.

In 1979, a group of labor organizers protested outside a Ku Klux Klan screening of the 1915 white supremacist film, The Birth of a Nation. Nelson Johnson and Signe Waller-Foxworth remember shouting at armed Klansmen and burning a confederate flag, until eventually police forced the KKK inside and the standoff ended without violence. The labor organizers felt they'd won a small victory, and planned a much bigger anti-Klan demonstration in Greensboro, North Carolina. They advertised with the slogan: “Death to the Klan" and set the date for November 3rd, 1979.

As protestors assembled, a caravan of nine cars appeared, and a man in a pick-up truck yelled: "You asked for the Klan! Now you've got 'em!" Thirty-nine shots were fired in eighty-eight seconds, and five protestors were killed. The city of Greensboro is still grappling with the complicated legacy of that day.

The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s full report is available online.

Today, Reverend Nelson Johnson is a pastor with Faith Community Church and serves as the Executive Director for the  Beloved Community Center of Greensboro, which advocates for social and economic justice.

Signe Waller-Foxworth is the author of  Love and Revolution: A Political Memoir.

Eric Ginsburg is the associate editor at the Triad City Beat. 

For this story, we also interviewed Elizabeth Wheaton, author of  Codename Greenkill.

Criminal is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

If you haven't already, please review us on Apple Podcasts! It's an important way to help new listeners discover the show: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.

Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our newsletter, The Accomplice.

If you'd like to introduce friends or family members to podcasts, we created a How to Listen guide based on frequently asked questions.

Artwork by Julienne Alexander.

People have been giving each other "the finger" since Ancient Greece. The first documented use is said to be a photograph from 1886 in which the pitcher for the Boston Beaneaters extends his middle finger to the camera (ostensibly to the rival New York Giants). Even though it's been around for so long, many still find the gesture offensive enough to try to bring criminal charges. Courts have ruled that "flipping the bird" is a form of speech protected by the First Amendment. It's not a crime to be obnoxious. But there's a man in Oregon who tests the limits of free speech by giving the finger to every police officer that he sees. 

To learn more about the legalities of the middle finger, you might
enjoy: "Digitus Impudicus: The Middle Finger and the Law" from the UC Davis Law Review. 

Criminal is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. 

If you enjoy the show, please write us a review on iTunes.

When it comes to the bourbon Pappy Van Winkle, it doesn't matter who you are or how much money you have -- you can't get it unless you're exceptionally lucky or willing to break the law. The Pappy frenzy has the police, bartenders, and even the Van Winkle family themselves wringing their hands.

Criminal is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

If you haven't already, please review us on Apple Podcasts! It's an important way to help new listeners discover the show: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.

Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our newsletter, The Accomplice

If you'd like to introduce friends or family members to podcasts, we created a How to Listen guide based on frequently asked questions.

Artwork by Julienne Alexander.

In 1983, three men were prepared to plead guilty to a violent sexual assault in Anderson, South Carolina. Defense attorneys did not want their clients to go before a jury, and arranged a plea deal. This left the sentencing in the hands of the judge, who gave the assailants a very controversial choice.

Criminal is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

If you haven't already, please review us on Apple Podcasts! It's an important way to help new listeners discover the show: iTunes.com/CriminalShow.

Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our newsletter, The Accomplice.

If you'd like to introduce friends or family members to podcasts, we created a How to Listen guide based on frequently asked questions.

Artwork by Julienne Alexander.