Female Criminals

She became financially stable after her husband’s death by loaning out money to friends in return for high-interest repayments. Once remarried, Nancy Clem went into business with two locals who ran a confidence game. But when one of them wanted out, he wound up dead.

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Some people would do anything for family. Seventeen-year-old Abby Catt was one of those people. So when her dad and brother said they needed her for a bank heist, she said she would help. But her sense of loyalty would be tested when her dad tried to get her to take the fall.

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In 1950s Texas, a teenage runaway sets clubs ablaze with her improvisational dance style. Then she starts making headlines. In today’s episode: the traumatic — and whirlwind — origins of her career, how a club owner manufactured her image as a gun-toting stripper, and the sting operation that some claim was a conspiracy to take her down. Who really was the woman behind the stage name?

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When her husband died unexpectedly, it brought Sante Kimes and her son Kenny closer together in an unexpected way. And without access to her husband's money, the two would need to take drastic action. Sante had the plans. Kenny just needed to follow through on them.

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She didn't want to pay for something if she could take it for free. And now that Sante Kimes had a millionaire boyfriend who could literally bail her out of any jam, she raised the stakes. Instead of stealing bread as she did as a kid, she graduated to lifting mink coats, swiping high-end automobiles, and even human trafficking.

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In her early childhood, she didn't have much. So as Sante Kimes got older, she was motivated by one idea: enough is never enough. And even after she moved in with millionaire real-estate investor Kenneth Kimes, she continued to take what she wanted, even if it meant breaking the law.

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As Elizabeth Holmes found more investors, she had to answer more questions about her company. But she always found a way to buy more time, hoping to turn her lies into truths — until a whistleblower contacted the Wall Street Journal. The truth was coming, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

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She burst into Silicon Valley promising to revolutionize healthcare. Her pitch was so convincing that she raised tens of millions of dollars. But the technology didn't work. Investors believed Elizabeth Holmes was on the cusp of something remarkable. Others claim she was simply a con artist.

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There was no debate over whether Betty Lou Beets killed two of her husbands. But there was great concern over her motivation. Did she do it out of fear or for money?

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All she really wanted in life was freedom. But Betty Lou Beets wound up trapped in abusive marriage after abusive marriage. It was only a matter of time before she would strike back.

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