Debra Newell was ready to give up on love. By the fall of 2014, she’d been married and divorced four times and was reeling from a string of bad dates. But then she met John Meehan, and it seemed like her luck was finally changing. Meehan was a handsome doctor who doted on Newell. She fell in love almost immediately. Two months later, they were married.

But Newell would eventually discover that Meehan wasn’t a charming doctor at all – he was a serial con artist with a violent past. Los Angeles Times reporter Christopher Goffard joins Crime Story to take us behind the scenes of Dirty John, one of the most popular true crime podcasts of all time.

For ad-free listening to Crime Story, subscribe to CBC's True Crime channel on Apple Podcasts.

Feedback for us? You can email us directly at [email protected].