Hunt a Killer: Deep Dives

Emma Hardy and Grace Harrison had never seen a true crime magazine that didn't make them cringe. They met at a London-based publisher and soon found that they shared an obsessive interest in crime, but also agreed that much of the genre was too sensational, often to the detriment of victims. So the two set out to create their own magazine, 'Foul Play.'

Grace told the Stylist: “It’s for people who are interested in crime, but not for those wanting to revel in someone’s misfortune. Whenever we come up with an idea for a story we discuss whether there are any conflicts that might make running it distasteful; a piece needs to be interesting without appealing to people’s morbid fascination with death, horror and crime.”

Emma continued: “We’re never going to publish a crime scene photo or serial killer cover star. Instead, we’re going to focus on long-form features, beautiful photography and lots of advice on what our readers should be reading, watching and listening to. Foul Play is for discerning true crime fans.”

It's an incredible magazine in both content and design, an important and responsible addition to the world of true crime. And, if you've ever had a dream to write about crime, now is your chance, they are always taking submissions for future issues.

To preorder issue two or to submit, go to www.foulplaymag.com

Behind True Crime is sponsored by Hunt A Killer, the monthly murder mystery subscription box service. Check them out at huntakiller.com and use the code BEHIND for 10% off your first order

Beloved crime writer Michelle McNamara died suddenly in 2016 before she could complete her book about an uncaught California serial killer she named the Golden State Killer. Her husband, comedian Patton Oswalt, hired crime writer Billy Jensen and Michelle's research assistant, Paul Haynes, to organize her drafts and notes into a publishable manuscript. Her incredible book, 'I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer' is now a number one New York Times bestseller.

Michelle's book is an incredibly important addition to the lexicon of true crime: a beautiful, thoughtful, obsessive work that very well may lead to the capture of a prolific and brutal serial killer who operated in the mid 70s to mid 80s, responsible for 50 rapes and 10 murders. It was Billy and Paul that brought her work to life.

Purchase Michelle's book here: https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062319784/ill-be-gone-in-the-dark

Billy's website: http://billyjensen.com/

Behind True Crime is sponsored by Hunt A Killer, the monthly murder mystery subscription box service. Check them out at huntakiller.com and use the code BEHIND for 10% off your first order

Beloved crime writer Michelle McNamara died suddenly in 2016 before she could complete her book about an uncaught California serial killer she named the Golden State Killer. Her husband, comedian Patton Oswalt, hired crime writer Billy Jensen and Michelle's research assistant, Paul Haynes, to organize her drafts and notes into a publishable manuscript. Her incredible book, 'I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer' is now a number one New York Times bestseller.

Michelle's book is an incredibly important addition to the lexicon of true crime: a beautiful, thoughtful, obsessive work that very well may lead to the capture of a prolific and brutal serial killer who operated in the mid 70s to mid 80s, responsible for 50 rapes and 10 murders. It was Billy and Paul that brought her work to life.

Purchase Michelle's book here: https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062319784/ill-be-gone-in-the-dark

Billy's website: http://billyjensen.com/

Behind True Crime is sponsored by Hunt A Killer, the monthly murder mystery subscription box service. Check them out at huntakiller.com and use the code BEHIND for 10% off your first order

Dr. Valarie Bell is a computational social scientist who holds masters degrees in forensic psychology, forensic social psychology, and sociology of deviant, psychopathic & sociopathic behavior. She is a professor at the University of North Texas and is currently teaching two classes, “Introduction to Criminal Profiling for the Amateur,“ and  “Introduction to Internet True Crime Sleuthing.”

In addition to teaching, Dr. Bell also works to identify active hunting grounds of American serial killers by using geographic, geolocation, & spatial analysis along with public government, census, and crime data. It sounds complicated, and it is, but don’t worry, she’ll explain, and her conclusions might shock you.

Dr. Bell has also worked for courts doing forensic evaluations of suspects, meaning that she decides whether there are grounds for insanity pleas in murder cases. This is just the beginning of the vast amount of criminal profiling work that Dr. Bell has, and is contributing to. Today she is going to share her incredible expertise in the area of serial murder, a field rife with misconceptions, false experts, and complicated, ever-changing theories. She will be dispelling some myths for us, especially in the area of criminal psychology. She certainly schooled me.

Check out Dr. Bell's website here: http://journalism.unt.edu/people/valarie-bell

Behind True Crime is sponsored by Hunt A Killer, the monthly murder mystery subscription box service. Check them out at huntakiller.com and use the code BEHIND for 10% off your first order.

Dr. Valarie Bell is a computational social scientist who holds masters degrees in forensic psychology, forensic social psychology, and sociology of deviant, psychopathic & sociopathic behavior. She is a professor at the University of North Texas and is currently teaching two classes, “Introduction to Criminal Profiling for the Amateur,“ and  “Introduction to Internet True Crime Sleuthing.”

In addition to teaching, Dr. Bell also works to identify active hunting grounds of American serial killers by using geographic, geolocation, & spatial analysis along with public government, census, and crime data. It sounds complicated, and it is, but don’t worry, she’ll explain, and her conclusions might shock you.

Dr. Bell has also worked for courts doing forensic evaluations of suspects, meaning that she decides whether there are grounds for insanity pleas in murder cases. This is just the beginning of the vast amount of criminal profiling work that Dr. Bell has, and is contributing to. Today she is going to share her incredible expertise in the area of serial murder, a field rife with misconceptions, false experts, and complicated, ever-changing theories. She will be dispelling some myths for us, especially in the area of criminal psychology. She certainly schooled me.

Check out Dr. Bell's website here: http://journalism.unt.edu/people/valarie-bell

Behind True Crime is sponsored by Hunt A Killer, the monthly murder mystery subscription box service. Check them out at huntakiller.com and use the code BEHIND for 10% off your first order.

Today I am talking to the team behind A Very Fatal Murder, the Onion’s genius true crime parody that tells the story of fictional New York podcaster David Pascall as he sets out to find and solve the perfect murder in order to comment compellingly on American society, but mostly to win himself awards.

He heads to the small rural town of Bluff Springs, Nebraska to investigate the ridiculous murder of Haley Price, and the podcast he creates is complete with all the true crime tropes, pensive piano music, think accents, crying interviews, cheap poetic monologues, and amazing fake subscription box commercials, promo code Haley.

I am joined today by writer David Sidorov, who also voiced David Pascall, director Ryan Natoli, and associate director Fran Hoepfner. The four of us discuss the value of parody, the podcasts and docuseries that served as inspiration, and try to answer the age old question of why is true crime so popular, and why we are so obsessed.

Check out 'A Very Fatal Murder' here, and on iTunes: https://www.theonion.com/c/a-very-fatal-murder

Behind True Crime is sponsored by Hunt A Killer, the monthly murder mystery subscription box service. Check them out at huntakiller.com and use the code BEHIND for 10% off your first order.

Today I am talking to the team behind A Very Fatal Murder, the Onion’s genius true crime parody that tells the story of fictional New York podcaster David Pascall as he sets out to find and solve the perfect murder in order to comment compellingly on American society, but mostly to win himself awards.

He heads to the small rural town of Bluff Springs, Nebraska to investigate the ridiculous murder of Haley Price, and the podcast he creates is complete with all the true crime tropes, pensive piano music, think accents, crying interviews, cheap poetic monologues, and amazing fake subscription box commercials, promo code Haley.

I am joined today by writer David Sidorov, who also voiced David Pascall, director Ryan Natoli, and associate director Fran Hoepfner. The four of us discuss the value of parody, the podcasts and docuseries that served as inspiration, and try to answer the age old question of why is true crime so popular, and why we are so obsessed.

Check out 'A Very Fatal Murder' here, and on iTunes: https://www.theonion.com/c/a-very-fatal-murder

Behind True Crime is sponsored by Hunt A Killer, the monthly murder mystery subscription box service. Check them out at huntakiller.com and use the code BEHIND for 10% off your first order.

David Ridgen is an award-winning Canadian podcaster, filmmaker, and journalist, known most prominently for his work on 'Someone Knows Something,' a CBC original podcast that investigates cold cases in both Canada and the United States.

SKS’s most recent season was a look back at the murder of two black men by the Ku Klux Klan in 1964, Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee. Season three shares the heartbreaking and uplifting story of David’s mission for justice with Thomas Moore, the brother of Charles Moore. Through perseverance, courage, and investigative work, Thomas and David were able to see a conviction in this civil-rights-era case that has long haunted the families of Dee and Moore, and the community at large. Season three acts as a retrospective look at the work they did together in the mid to late 2000s, and is accompanied by several films David also created as they moved through the case, most prominently, Mississippi Cold Case, which led Mississippi state officials to reopen the case against now convicted murderer James Ford Seale.

We talk about this case and the cases covered in previous seasons as well. David also tells us just a little about season four, which drops today, February 6th. Please check it out, David's work is some of the most empathetic and beautiful crime work I've ever heard.

You can find David's podcast, 'Someone Knows Something,' here: www.cbc.ca/radio/sks

Behind True Crime is sponsored by Hunt A Killer, the monthly murder mystery subscription box service. Check them out at huntakiller.com and use the code BEHIND for 10% off your first order.

David Ridgen is an award-winning Canadian podcaster, filmmaker, and journalist, known most prominently for his work on 'Someone Knows Something,' a CBC original podcast that investigates cold cases in both Canada and the United States.

SKS’s most recent season was a look back at the murder of two black men by the Ku Klux Klan in 1964, Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee. Season three shares the heartbreaking and uplifting story of David’s mission for justice with Thomas Moore, the brother of Charles Moore. Through perseverance, courage, and investigative work, Thomas and David were able to see a conviction in this civil-rights-era case that has long haunted the families of Dee and Moore, and the community at large. Season three acts as a retrospective look at the work they did together in the mid to late 2000s, and is accompanied by several films David also created as they moved through the case, most prominently, Mississippi Cold Case, which led Mississippi state officials to reopen the case against now convicted murderer James Ford Seale.

We talk about this case and the cases covered in previous seasons as well. David also tells us just a little about season four, which drops today, February 6th. Please check it out, David's work is some of the most empathetic and beautiful crime work I've ever heard.

You can find David's podcast, 'Someone Knows Something,' here: www.cbc.ca/radio/sks

Behind True Crime is sponsored by Hunt A Killer, the monthly murder mystery subscription box service. Check them out at huntakiller.com and use the code BEHIND for 10% off your first order.

This episode continues difficult subject matter around childhood sexual abuse.

*Check out part one for more information*

In episode one of this two part series, we spoke with several people to follow up on the continued work toward justice since Netflix’s Oscar nominated docuseries The Keepers premiered in May of 2017. The series explored the murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik in 1969, a 26 year old nun and teacher, but there was much more to the story than that. A ring of abuse was taking place at Archbishop Keough High School with a man named Father Joseph Maskell at the center, and his victims are now assumed to be in the hundreds. It is likely he hand a hand in Sister Cathy's murder, who was trying to expose the abuse.

Teresa Lancaster and Alan Horn join us again for part two, where explore the what it’s like to be working voluntarily on a case like this. We will also be speaking with a woman who chose to go by the name Piper, one of the volunteers who works along side Alan and Teresa making calls to victims and piecing together clues. Piper wished to remain anonymous, as powerful institutions are involved in what Alan, Teresa, Piper, and many others believe to be a serious cover-up. Piper shares with us what it is like to work on a case like this. Like I said before, we are exploring what happens when the cameras go off, when the awards season is over, but justice has not yet been served.

Here is the official Facebook page to meet others and get involved: https://www.facebook.com/groups/454252571596239/

Please get in touch with Teresa and Alan via email if you have any information around the death of Sister Cathy, Joyce Malecki, or the abuse perpetrated by Father Joseph Maskell, or if you would like to volunteer to help find justice.

Teresa's email: [email protected]

Alan's email: [email protected]

You can hear Teresa's podcast here: https://soundcloud.com/leafingout

Here is a link to SNAP: http://www.snapnetwork.org/

Thank you for listening to this very important episode.

Behind True Crime is sponsored by Hunt A Killer, the monthly murder mystery subscription box service. Check them out at huntakiller.com and use the code BEHIND for 10% off your first order.