This case is one of the most chilling in Arizona’s history—not because we don’t know who the killer is, but because of how openly she owned what she did. Today, we’re looking at Angela Simpson, the Phoenix woman who lured a man into a vacant apartment in 2009 and subjected him to days of brutality. The question isn’t who committed the crime—we know that. The real question is: why?

Sources:

https://murderpedia.org/female.S/s/simpson-angela.htm

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/angela-simpson-pleads-guilty-to-impaling-stabbing-strangling-beating-and-extracting-teeth-from-disabled-man-then-dismembering-him-and-setting-pieces-of-his-body-on-fire-6656823

https://www.foxnews.com/story/phoenix-woman-indicted-in-torture-murder-of-man-in-wheelchair

 https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/sdut-phoenix-woman-indicted-in-dismemberment-of-man-2009aug28-story.html 

https://www.wltx.com/article/news/nation/police-say-woman-butchered-disabled-man/101-380541533 

https://www.sinistercrimesandcocktailspodcast.com/2028814/episodes/15637981-episode-119-torture-kill-dismember

 https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/timeforcrime/episodes/EP-35---Angela-Simpson-Pt1-e1m98l9

 https://www.spreaker.com/episode/the-terrible-case-of-angela-simpson-and-terry-neely-25--63244814 

https://allthatsinteresting.com/angela-simpson 

https://vocal.media/criminal/angela-simpson-dismembers-burns-snitch 

https://creativeroots.org/angela-simpson/ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzK_VXS310o 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYoCxC2mB28 

Today we will discuss a case that was disturbingly described as "romantic" in the media. July 15, 1984 in Big Sky, Montana. a young athlete, Kari Swenson went for her typical run when she disappears into the woods. By nightfall, searchers wonder: Did she get lost—or meet something far worse? Listen to today's episode and let us know, do you think Don and Dan Nichols were romantic or deranged?

Sources:

Wikipedia contributors. “Kari Swenson.” Wikipedia, last updated 2024.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kari_Swenson

Kidnap Victim Decries Myth of Mountain Men - Los Angeles Times

ESPN 30 for 30 Podcasts. “Out of the Woods.” 30 for 30 Podcasts, 2017.
https://30for30podcasts.com/episodes/out-of-the-woods/

“Where Are They Now? Kari Swenson.” FasterSkier, February 2017.
https://fasterskier.com/2017/02/where-are-they-now-kari-swenson/

Black Dog Veterinary Services (Bozeman, MT). Facebook post announcing retirement farewell for Dr. Swenson, June 2023.
https://www.facebook.com/blackdogvet/posts/to-honor-dr-swenson-we-will-have-a-come-and-go-retirement-farewell-on-tuesday-ju/953962180074973/

Associated Press. “Father, Son Guilty in Swenson Kidnapping and Killing.” The Billings Gazette, Sept. 1985.
https://billingsgazette.com/news/local/father-son-guilty-in-swenson-kidnapping-and-killing/article_3d3c76ac-5a2d-5e48-8e4d-4c410bc9a6f9.html

“Mountain Man Sentenced to 85 Years for Kidnapping Biathlete.” New York Times, Sept. 1985
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/13/us/mountain-man-sentenced-to-85-years.html

Associated Press. “Dan Nichols Sentenced to 20 Years for Role in Kari Swenson Abduction.” Great Falls Tribune, May 1985.
https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/archives/1985/05/17/dan-nichols-sentenced/

“Capture Ends 5-Month Manhunt for Nichols Father and Son.” Missoulian, Dec. 14, 1984.
https://missoulian.com/news/local/capture-ends-5-month-manhunt-for-nichols-father-and-son/article_f6ec1f2d-73b4-5a94-9b84-8ea83acb3f10.html

Associated Press. “Parole Board Frees Don Nichols After 32 Years.” Helena Independent Record, Dec. 2017.
https://helenair.com/news/local/parole-board-frees-don-nichols-after-32-years/article_d08c9956-c8af-11e7-9d22-6b31a91e0a32.html

This week's case is about how sometimes, the most chilling part of true crime isn’t just the crime itself… but the injustice that follows. Imagine two nine-year-old girls, Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway, vanishing into a Brighton, England, woodland one October evening in 1986. Hours later, frantic searchers discover their bodies — sexually assaulted, strangled, and abandoned side by side. The man responsible? A local petty criminal who would evade justice for decades and eventually attack 7-year-old Rachel Watts. Listen to this week's episode to hear the story of Russell Bishop — the Babes in the Wood killer.

Sources:

‘Babes in the wood’ killer Russell Bishop dies of cancer – The Guardian (2022)

How billion-to-one DNA match led to Russell Bishop’s murder conviction – Sky News (2018)

Babes in the Wood murders (Brighton) – Wikipedia

Ex-partner of Brighton ‘babes in the wood’ killer jailed for perjury – The Guardian (2021)

Police apologise for Babes in the Wood failings after double child killer escaped justice for 30 years – The Sun (2024)

Babes in the Wood killer strangled me aged 7 and left me for dead – The Sun / Sky documentary (2025)

Who were Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway, and what happened in the Babes in the Wood murders? – The Sun (recap)

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/babes-wood-killers-shameless-lies-25171244?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target

This week's case comes from way back in the 1400s. It's a story about a boy surrounded by extreme violence. He returned to his home in Romania to find his family brutally slaughtered. Listen to this week's episode to hear about the horrific acts of violence committed by Vlad III aka Vlad the Impaler.

Sources:

• The German (Saxon) Pamphlets (1460s–1480s) — Printed in Nuremberg & Lübeck, these woodcut pamphlets spread the legend of Vlad’s atrocities across Europe, including tales of boiling, mutilations, and the infamous “forest of the impaled.”
• The Russian Chronicle / “Skazanie o Drakule voevode” (late 15th century) — A Slavic narrative of Vlad’s reign, sympathetic to him as a strong ruler against the Ottomans, but still full of detailed executions.
• Laonikos Chalkokondyles, Histories (1490s) — A Byzantine historian who described Vlad’s campaigns and cruelty, especially the confrontation with Sultan Mehmed II.
• Ottoman chronicles (including accounts by Tursun Beg) — Recorded Vlad’s wars with the empire and the shock at his use of mass impalement.

• Radu R. Florescu & Raymond T. McNally, Dracula: Prince of Many Faces (Little, Brown & Co., 1989) — Classic modern history blending the fact and legend of Vlad III.
• Elizabeth Miller, Dracula: Sense & Nonsense (Desert Island Books, 2000) — Separates Bram Stoker’s fictional Count from the historical Vlad.
• Matei Cazacu, Dracula (Tallandier, 2004; English translation, Brill, 2017) — A comprehensive biography from a Romanian historian, with close readings of chronicles.
• Constantin Rezachevici, Vlad the Impaler (Dracula): Between Legend and History (Romanian Academy, 2002) — Focuses on Vlad’s reign in Wallachia and his political strategies.
• Florin Curta, Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250 (Cambridge University Press, 2006) — Broader context of Wallachia and Ottoman frontier politics.

• National Museum of Romanian History (Bucharest) — Exhibits on Vlad III and Wallachian history.
• “The Impaler Prince: Vlad III Dracula” — Smithsonian Magazine, Oct 2011.
• “Vlad the Impaler: The Real Dracula” — History Extra (BBC History), Oct 2020.

This week's case is a chilling story from 2018, about a 22-year-old man with mental health issues who falls for an equally disturbed young lady. Together, they are homeless and on the run from police across Russia. They meet a kind young man named Alexander Popovich. Alexander offers to rent an old farm house to the couple. After just a few days of staying in the farm house, Alexander is brutally murdered by his tenants, Arkady Zverev and Valeria Yargina. Listen to this week's episode to hear about the horrific acts this killer couple commit and the tragic loss of justice for Alexander's family.

Sources:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/arkady-zverev-dead-russia-murder-alexander-popovich-leningrad-a8883351.html

https://jonharker.medium.com/the-horrifying-case-of-arkady-zverev-cannibalism-pedophilia-and-murder-a3328476d86e

This week's case is about the systematic failure of the Cleveland police department in the late 1990s through 2009. A serial killer was able to roam free, attacking the vulnerable women in his Mount Pleasant neighborhood. Several women escaped from the brutal assaults and named convicted rapist, Anthony Sowell Jr, as their attacker to the police, yet he was not arrested for months.

Listen to today's episode to hear how the Cleveland Police Department failed more than 15 vulnerable women and their families.

Sources;

• Cleveland 19 News – Anthony Sowell: The ‘Cleveland Strangler’ Case cleveland19.com

• Oxygen – Anthony Sowell Case Overview & Victim Profiles oxygen.com

• A&E – Cleveland’s Serial Killer: Anthony Sowell aetv.com

• Wikipedia – Anthony Sowell en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Sowell

• CaseText – Court Records and Legal Coverage casetext.com

• U.S. Department of Justice – Sex Offender Registration Tiers nsopw.gov

• FunFacts - https://keytopoland.com/post/21-fun-facts-about-poland

This week's case continues the theme of Halloween's spooky season with werewolf folklore from Germany in the 1500s. Listen to this week's episode to hear about how Peter Stumpp was sentenced to death for killing 14 children and 2 pregnant women and consuming their flesh. Ick!

Let us know, do you think Peter was guilty or just a scapegoat?

Sources:

 weird facts about bedburg germany - Google Searchbrutally

• A True Discourse Declaring the Damnable Life and Death of one Stubbe Peeter (London, 1590)
• Sabine Baring-Gould, The Book of Werewolves (1865)
• Montague Summers, The Werewolf in Lore and Legend
• Carlo Ginzburg, Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath
• Bruce McClelland, Slayers and Their Vampires

Today's case takes place in 2005, South Carolina. We will discuss a guy who liked to boast about his successes in life. The only flaw, his life did not match the stories he told. Listen to day's episode to hear about the horrific acts of brutality Steven Stanko inflicted on those who trusted him most.

Sources:

https://public.doc.state.sc.us/agency-news-public/homeAction.do?method=view&id=829

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Stanko

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/06/13/stephen-stanko-south-carolina-execution/84124791007/

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/14/us/south-carolina-execution-stephen-stanko

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/06/13/stephen-stanko-execution-henry-turner-south-carolian/84193804007/

Today we bring you a two for one kind of case! Two active serial killers trolling the streets in the late 1970s. William Henry Hance and Carlton Michael Gary committed heinous acts of brutal violence on vulnerable women. One man selected elderly white women to brutalize. The other man mascaraed as a group of vigilante white men preying on vulnerable black women. Listen to this week's episode to hear about the terror every woman living in Columbus, Georgia felt.

Sources:

William Henry Hance - Wikipedia

Hance v. State, 245 Ga. 856 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1980).

Hance v. State, 254 Ga. 575 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1985).

Hance v. Zant, 696 F.2d 940 (11th Circuit Court of Appeals, 1983).

Washington Post, April 23, 1978.

Gary v. State, 389 S.E.2d 218 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1990)

Los Angeles Times, April 1, 1994.

TIME Magazine, March 31, 1994.

U.S. Supreme Court Order, March 31, 1994.

Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) archives

Bright, Stephen B., Southern Center for Human Rights reports (1995–1997)

Columbus Ledger-Enquirer (archival coverage, 1977–1978)

This week's case is a major puzzle for law enforcement around the United States. Terry Rasmussen moved around constantly, hiding behind new aliases and different women and their children from the 1970s until 2002. Sadly, nearly every female that can be traced back to Terry has gone missing and is still missing, or she was murdered. His own toddler daughter, Rea Rasmussen, was just recently confirmed to be one of Terry's many victims.

Listen to today's episode to hear about the conartist, Terry Peder Rasmussen and the path of devastation he left.

Victims of Terry

Pepper Reed, ~23yo - missing since 1976

Denise Beaudin, 23yo - missing since 1981

Dawn Beaudin, 5 months - Kidnapped and missing from 1981 until 2016; Survived

Marlyse Honeychurch, ~24yo - remains found in 1985; identity confirmed in 2019

Marie Vaughn, ~7yo - remains found with her mother Marlyse in 1985; identity confirmed in 2019

Sarah McWaters, ~2yo - remains found 100yds from her mother, Marlyse, but not until 2000; identity confirmed in 2019

Rea Rasmussen, ~1-3yo - remains found with Sarah McWaters in 2000, but suspected to have been in the same location when the other remains were discovered in 1985.

Eunsoon Jun, 45 - murdered in June 2002; remains discovered in her basement in November 2002

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Peder_Rasmussen
https://www.oxygen.com/unknown-serial-killers-of-america/crime-news/about-terry-rasmussen-bear-brooks-murders
https://abcnews.go.com/US/terry-rasmussens-victims-unknown/story?id=69585534
https://mm.nh.gov/files/uploads/doj/remote-docs/20171102-allenstown-manchester-timeline.pdf
https://www.newsweek.com/new-hampshire-makes-breakthrough-40-year-old-murder-mystery-2126669