In September 1921, silent-film superstar Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle hosted a party at San Francisco’s luxurious St. Francis Hotel. Days later, twenty-six-year-old actress and model Virginia Rappe was dead—and Arbuckle found himself at the center of one of Hollywood’s first great celebrity scandals.

Rappe became violently ill during the party and died four days later from complications associated with a ruptured bladder. Soon, sensational accusations began circulating that Arbuckle had assaulted her, and newspapers across the country transformed the tragedy into a lurid tale of Hollywood excess, sex, alcohol, and murder.

Arbuckle was initially accused of murder before ultimately facing manslaughter charges. His case went to trial three times. The first two juries could not reach a verdict, but in April 1922, the third jury acquitted him after only minutes of deliberation—and went so far as to issue a statement declaring that a grave injustice had been done to him.

But an acquittal could not undo the damage.

Once one of the biggest and highest-paid stars in silent film, Fatty Arbuckle saw his reputation and career virtually destroyed. The scandal became a defining moment in early Hollywood, demonstrating the extraordinary power of celebrity, rumor, tabloid journalism, and public opinion.

So what really happened to Virginia Rappe inside that hotel room—and how did a man ultimately declared not guilty become permanently associated with her death?

Sources used for this podcast

Fatty Arbuckle, Roscoe Arbuckle, Virginia Rappe, Fatty Arbuckle scandal, Virginia Rappe death, Fatty Arbuckle trial, Hollywood scandal, silent film scandal, St. Francis Hotel, 1921 Hollywood scandal, celebrity true crime, historical true crime, Hollywood true crime, manslaughter trial

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Few names in the American West are as infamous as Billy the Kid.

Born Henry McCarty and later known as William H. Bonney, Billy the Kid became one of the most legendary outlaws of the 19th century. A teenage fugitive, cattle rustler, gunman, and participant in New Mexico’s bloody Lincoln County War, Billy’s life quickly became tangled in revenge, murder, and violence.

By the time he was barely twenty-one, newspapers had transformed him into a symbol of the lawless frontier. He was accused of multiple killings, captured, sentenced to hang, and then stunned the territory by escaping from the Lincoln County courthouse after killing two deputies.

But his freedom would not last.

On July 14, 1881, Sheriff Pat Garrett tracked Billy to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, where Garrett shot and killed him inside a darkened room. Or at least, that is the official story.

More than a century later, questions still surround Billy the Kid. How many men did he actually kill? Was he a cold-blooded murderer or a young outlaw whose legend became larger than the truth? And did Pat Garrett really kill Billy that night—or did the Kid somehow escape and live under another name?

Billy the Kid, Henry McCarty, William H Bonney, Pat Garrett, Lincoln County War, Billy the Kid murders, Billy the Kid death, Old West outlaw, Wild West true crime, Billy the Kid escape, Fort Sumner, historical true crime, American outlaw, Western crime history

#BillyTheKid, #HenryMcCarty, #WilliamHBonney, #PatGarrett, #LincolnCountyWar, #WildWest, #OldWest, #Outlaw, #WesternHistory, #HistoricalTrueCrime, #TrueCrime, #TrueCrimePodcast, #AmericanHistory, #CrimeHistory, #Hitched2Homicide

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For nearly two years, women were being murdered across Charlotte, North Carolina—and their killer was hiding in plain sight.

Henry Louis Wallace was charming, sociable, and familiar to many of the women who would become his victims. He worked in fast-food restaurants, including Taco Bell, and often gained access to his victims not as a stranger lurking in the shadows, but as someone they already knew and trusted.

Between 1990 and 1994, Wallace embarked on a horrifying series of murders across North and South Carolina, ultimately becoming associated with the deaths of eleven women. In Charlotte alone, a succession of young Black women were sexually assaulted, strangled, stabbed, or beaten as police struggled to determine whether the killings were connected.

As the bodies accumulated, so did questions about why authorities had not recognized the pattern sooner.

Then, in March 1994, investigators finally closed in on Wallace. His arrest revealed connections to victim after victim and exposed one of the most disturbing serial murder cases in North Carolina history. Wallace was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death.

Known as the Taco Bell Strangler, the Charlotte Strangler, and “Bad Henry,” Wallace became infamous not only for the brutality of his crimes, but because so many of the women he murdered had trusted him enough to let him through their doors.

Henry Louis Wallace, Taco Bell Killer, Taco Bell Strangler, Charlotte Strangler, Bad Henry, Henry Louis Wallace serial killer, Charlotte North Carolina murders, North Carolina serial killer, Henry Wallace victims, Charlotte murders, Black women serial killer victims, 1990s serial killer, historical true crime, true crime podcast, American serial killers

#HenryLouisWallace, #TacoBellKiller, #TacoBellStrangler, #CharlotteStrangler, #BadHenry, #CharlotteMurders, #NorthCarolinaTrueCrime, #SerialKiller, #SerialKillers, #TrueCrime, #TrueCrimePodcast, #TrueCrimeCommunity, #CrimeHistory, #HistoricalTrueCrime, #Hitched2Homicide

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jerry Lee Lewis was already one of rock and roll’s most controversial stars when twenty-five-year-old Shawn Stephens became his fifth wife in June 1983. Just 77 days later, Shawn was found dead in the couple’s Mississippi home.

The preliminary autopsy found pulmonary edema, while later toxicology pointed to a fatal methadone overdose. But questions surrounding Shawn’s death would linger—questions fueled by reports about the condition of her body, allegations concerning the volatile marriage, and Jerry Lee Lewis’s already infamous reputation as “The Killer.”

Journalist Richard Ben Cramer took a hard look at the circumstances surrounding Shawn’s death in a widely discussed Rolling Stone investigation. Authorities also examined whether there was evidence of foul play, but a grand jury ultimately declined to pursue charges against Lewis, and he was never convicted or charged with killing Shawn.

So was Shawn Stephens’ death simply a tragic overdose—or was there more happening inside the home of one of rock and roll’s most notorious figures?

*Jerry Lee Lewis was not convicted of the crime of murder in the death of Shawn Stephens. This is merely a discussion of the events that led up to her mysterious death, and the proceedings following.

Jerry Lee Lewis, Shawn Stephens, Shawn Stephens Lewis, Jerry Lee Lewis fifth wife, Shawn Stephens death, Jerry Lee Lewis wife death, mysterious celebrity death, 1983 death, methadone overdose, The Killer Jerry Lee Lewis, rock and roll true crime, celebrity true crime, music true crime, suspicious death, historical true crime

#JerryLeeLewis, #ShawnStephens, #ShawnStephensLewis, #TheKiller, #JerryLeeLewisMystery, #MysteriousDeath, #CelebrityTrueCrime, #MusicTrueCrime, #RockAndRollHistory, #RockAndRollTrueCrime, #TrueCrime, #TrueCrimePodcast, #HistoricalTrueCrime, #CrimeHistory, #Hitched2Homicide

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On July 12, 1991, thirty-seven-year-old Martha Brailsford left her home in Salem, Massachusetts, for an afternoon sail with her neighbor, Thomas “Tom” Maimoni. She never came home.

Maimoni initially denied that Martha had ever been on his boat. When witnesses contradicted him, his story changed. He then claimed Martha had died accidentally after striking her head aboard the sailboat—and that, terrified his wife would discover he had been out sailing with another woman, he panicked and dumped Martha’s body into the ocean.

Six days after Martha disappeared, a lobsterman discovered her body in the waters off Marblehead. She had been weighted down with an anchor and diving weights, and an autopsy determined that Martha had drowned—meaning she was still alive when she entered the water.

As investigators dug deeper, other women came forward describing disturbing encounters with Maimoni during previous sailing trips. Prosecutors argued that Maimoni had tried to seduce Martha aboard his boat and killed her when things went wrong. He was ultimately convicted of second-degree murder.

Martha Brailsford, Tom Maimoni, Thomas Maimoni, Martha Brailsford murder, Salem Massachusetts murder, Massachusetts Bay murder, sailboat murder, murder at sea, Marblehead murder, Counterpoint sailboat, historical true crime, Massachusetts true crime, true crime podcast

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

*CASE UPDATE Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty on April 8, 2026, to murdering seven women and admitted killing an eighth. On June 17, 2026, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

For more than a decade, the remains discovered along Long Island’s remote Ocean Parkway represented one of America’s most haunting unsolved serial murder cases.

The investigation began gaining national attention in 2010, when police searching for missing woman Shannan Gilbert discovered the remains of four women near Gilgo Beach: Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman, and Amber Lynn Costello. More human remains would follow, raising the terrifying possibility that a serial killer had been hunting women on Long Island for years.

For years, there were victims, theories, suspects, and questions—but no arrest.

Then investigators began looking closely at Rex Heuermann, a Manhattan architect who lived in Massapequa Park, just miles from Gilgo Beach. A renewed task force connected Heuermann to a vehicle associated with the investigation, while cellphone records, digital evidence, and DNA—including DNA obtained from a discarded pizza crust—helped investigators build their case. Heuermann was arrested in July 2023.

And the case kept growing.

Authorities ultimately charged Heuermann with the murders of seven women: Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Lynn Costello. Then, on April 8, 2026, Heuermann stood in a Suffolk County courtroom and pleaded guilty to those murders—and admitted that he had also murdered Karen Vergata, bringing the number of killings he confessed to eight.

His admissions revealed a horrifying pattern spanning decades. Heuermann acknowledged killing women between 1993 and 2010, primarily by strangulation, and dismembering some of his victims before disposing of their remains. Investigators also recovered material prosecutors described as a detailed planning document related to his crimes.

On June 17, 2026, Rex Heuermann was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

But even with Heuermann behind bars, the story of Gilgo Beach is not completely finished. Authorities continue working to identify victims and determine whether additional unsolved deaths may be connected to him.

#RexHeuermann, #LongIslandSerialKiller, #GilgoBeach, #GilgoBeachMurders, #GilgoBeachSerialKiller, #LongIslandMurders, #GilgoFour, #TrueCrime, #TrueCrimePodcast, #TrueCrimeCommunity, #SerialKiller, #ColdCase, #CrimeInvestigation, #NewYorkTrueCrime, #OceanParkway, #Hitched2Homicide

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

During the summer of 2016, Anchorage, Alaska, was experiencing a terrifying series of seemingly random murders. People were being shot late at night along bike paths, neighborhood streets, and inside public parks—and for months, residents had no idea whether the killings were connected or who might be responsible.

The first victims were 20-year-old Brianna Foisy and 41-year-old Jason Netter Sr., found shot to death along a bike path on July 3. Less than a month later, 21-year-old Treyveon-Kindell Thompson was gunned down while riding his bicycle home from work. Then, on August 28, 34-year-old Kevin Turner and 25-year-old Bryant “Brie” De Husson were found murdered in Anchorage’s Valley of the Moon Park.

Investigators eventually discovered something chilling: the same Colt .357 Python revolver had been used in all five killings. But the identity of the gunman remained a mystery. Police and the FBI worked the cases while keeping the ballistic connection largely out of public view, fearing the killer might destroy the weapon if he realized authorities were searching for it.

Then, in the early morning hours of November 12, 2016, an Anchorage police officer encountered a man walking downtown. That man was James Dale Ritchie. When Officer Arn Salao attempted to speak with him, Ritchie opened fire, seriously wounding the officer. Police returned fire, killing Ritchie.

And beside the dead gunman was the break investigators had been waiting for.

The revolver Ritchie carried was ballistically linked to all five unsolved murders. In April 2017, Anchorage police announced they had sufficient probable cause to conclude that James Dale Ritchie had acted alone and was responsible for all five killings.

But one question would remain unanswered: why?

The victims appeared to have little or no connection to one another, and police described them as having been chosen largely at random. Ritchie died before investigators could interrogate him, leaving the motive behind Anchorage’s frightening summer of murder buried with him.

#JamesDaleRitchie, #AnchorageSerialKiller, #AlaskaSerialKiller, #AnchorageMurders, #AlaskaTrueCrime, #ValleyOfTheMoon, #SerialKiller, #TrueCrime, #TrueCrimePodcast, #TrueCrimeCommunity, #CrimeInvestigation, #ColdCase, #CrimeHistory, #AmericanTrueCrime, #Hitched2Homicide

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In 1895, young Italian immigrant Maria Barbella became the center of one of New York City’s most sensational murder trials after she killed Domenico Cataldo, the man she said had seduced her with a promise of marriage and then refused to make good on it.

Barbella and Cataldo had been involved in a relationship despite her family’s objections. According to accounts of the case, Cataldo promised to marry Maria after taking advantage of her, but repeatedly delayed the wedding. When he finally told her he intended to return to Italy and marry another woman, Maria confronted him in a New York barbershop.

Moments later, Cataldo’s throat had been slashed.

Maria was arrested, tried for murder, convicted, and sentenced to die in New York’s newly introduced electric chair. Her case became a national sensation, fueled by questions about immigration, gender, sexual morality, honor, and whether Maria had received a fair trial in a courtroom where she struggled to understand English. Her conviction was eventually overturned, setting the stage for a dramatic second trial.

At that second trial in 1896, Maria Barbella was acquitted and walked free. Her case would become an extraordinary chapter in Gilded Age true crime—a young immigrant woman who went from convicted murderer and death-row prisoner to one of the most talked-about defendants in America.

Maria Barbella, Maria Barberi, Domenico Cataldo, Maria Barbella murder, Maria Barbella trial, Gilded Age murder, electric chair woman, Sing Sing death row, Italian immigrant true crime, New York murder 1895, historical true crime, women and capital punishment, 19th century murder, New York true crime, true crime podcast

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On July 4, 1995, 38-year-old Sue Marshel and her 13-year-old daughter, Melinda “Mindy” Marshel, disappeared from Wayne City, Illinois, after failing to show up for a family Fourth of July celebration.

The following evening, Sue’s green Oldsmobile was discovered partially submerged in a rural pond. Inside was a horrifying scene: large amounts of blood, .32-caliber shell casings, and bloody handprints inside the trunk—as though someone had desperately tried to escape.

Then came an even more gruesome discovery.

On July 8, two boys fishing in another pond spotted a duffel bag floating in the water. Inside were the badly burned remains of Sue and Mindy. Dental records confirmed their identities. Sue had been shot twice in the head, while 13-year-old Mindy had been shot three times. Their bodies had then been burned before being dumped in the pond.

Investigators soon focused on Niels Nielsen, Sue’s much younger former husband. Their marriage had lasted only about ten days before Sue discovered Nielsen was wanted in Utah and reported him to authorities. By 1995, however, Nielsen was back in Illinois and had once again been spending time with Sue.

Evidence began piling up. Police found a .32-caliber handgun connected to the murders, wooden strips resembling the one used to hold down the accelerator of Sue’s car, and a burn pile containing human hair, blood, bone fragments, and personal belongings belonging to Sue and Mindy.

Nielsen initially denied knowing what happened. Then his story changed. He admitted helping dispose of the bodies but attempted to blame another of Sue’s former husbands—an allegation investigators determined was false.

Niels Nielsen was convicted of murdering both Sue and Mindy and sentenced to death. When Illinois Governor George Ryan commuted the state’s death sentences in 2003, Nielsen’s sentence became life imprisonment.

Sue Marshel, Mindy Marshel, Melinda Marshel, Niels Nielsen, Sue and Mindy Marshel murders, Fourth of July murders, Independence Day murders, Wayne City Illinois murders, Illinois true crime, mother daughter murder, Niels Christian Nielsen, 1995 murders, Wayne County Illinois murder, Fourth of July true crime, historical true crime, true crime podcast

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On November 8, 2010, Jennifer Pan called 911 from her family’s home in Markham, Ontario, claiming armed intruders had broken in, tied her up, robbed the house, and shot her parents.

Her mother, Bich Ha Pan, was dead. Her father, Hann Pan, had been shot multiple times—but somehow survived.

At first, Jennifer appeared to be the traumatized daughter who had miraculously escaped the attack. But investigators soon began finding cracks in her story. And when Hann regained consciousness, he told police something that would change everything: his daughter’s version of what happened that night wasn’t true.

Behind Jennifer’s carefully constructed life was an extraordinary web of deception. For years, she had lied to her parents about graduating from high school, attending university, and building the successful future they believed she was pursuing. She had also concealed her continuing relationship with Daniel Wong, a boyfriend her parents disapproved of.

Prosecutors alleged Jennifer eventually became involved in a plot to have her parents killed, arranging for armed men to enter the family home in what was meant to look like a robbery. The attack killed Bich and nearly killed Hann. Jennifer and several co-accused were ultimately convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder.

But the legal story did not end there.

In 2023, Ontario’s Court of Appeal overturned the first-degree murder convictions because the original jury had not been properly instructed that it could consider lesser homicide offenses in Bich Pan’s death. The attempted-murder convictions involving Hann remained intact. In April 2025, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld that ruling and ordered a new trial on the charge involving Bich’s death.

Then came another dramatic turn: on March 18, 2026, Jennifer Pan pleaded guilty to manslaughter in her mother’s death. She received a life sentence but became eligible to seek parole earlier than she would have under her original first-degree murder conviction; her convictions connected to the attempted murder of her father remain.

Jennifer Pan, Jennifer Pan case, What Jennifer Did, Bich Pan murder, Hann Pan attempted murder, Jennifer Pan parents, Jennifer Pan murder plot, Jennifer Pan Netflix, Daniel Wong, Markham Ontario murder, murder for hire, staged home invasion, daughter hires hitmen, Jennifer Pan interrogation, Canadian true crime, Ontario true crime, family murder, true crime podcast

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.