From Marc Smerling, the creator of Crimetown and The Jinx, welcome to CROOKED CITY.  The Saturday Evening Post dubbed Youngstown, Ohio “Crimetown U.S.A.” It was a mob town. Illegal gambling was so lucrative that a mob war raged for decades, and bodies piled  up. Then, Jim Traficant ran for sheriff, riding into office as the city’s steel industry fell on hard times. Traficant battles the local newspaper, then the FBI, the IRS and finally his own demons as an eight-term, twice-indicted congressman.



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A truth.media & Sony Music Entertainment production.



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Introducing... Crooked City: Youngstown, OH

This is a story about a woman who came to be known as The Horse Queen. She owned hundreds of champion quarter horses on her ranch outside the small city of Dixon, Illinois. And she was also Dixon’s treasurer/comptroller. Yet no one ever thought to ask how she could afford all of those horses on the salary of a civil servant… until the FBI raided City Hall in 2012 and Rita was arrested. For twenty years, Rita Crundwell worked hard to become the world’s largest and most successful quarter horse breeder… while also becoming America’s most prolific municipal embezzler.

Want the full story? Unlock all episodes of the third season of Crooked City: Dixon, IL ad-free right now by subscribing to The Binge. Plus, get binge access to brand new stories dropping on the first of every month — that’s all episodes, all at once, all ad-free.

Just click ‘Subscribe’ on the top of the Crooked City show page on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you listen.

A truth.media & Sony Music Entertainment production.

Find out more about The Binge and other podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts

Society & Culture

Personal Journals

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Documentary

True crime

On March 2, 2018, an anonymous and deadly package bomb detonated on the doorstep of a home in Austin, Texas. Soon after -  another was discovered, and another—each one a little more sophisticated than the last, and each target seemingly more and more random. Confusion and panic set in across the city - who was this elusive serial bomber? Why were they planting these bombs? And why were they so hard to track down? Find out on Witnessed: 19 Days - The story behind the frantic race to catch the Austin serial bomber. Join host Sean Flynn as he traces the case from its origins to its shocking conclusions. Available now wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribers to The Binge can listen to all episodes of Witnessed: 19 Days right now, completely ad-free.
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Witnessed: 19 Days - The Hunt for the Austin Serial Bomber

In 2001, a series of letters laced with a deadly powder called anthrax appeared on the desks of prominent journalists and politicians in New York City and Washington D.C causing a national panic. But what started as an unprecedented case soon turned into an unsettling mystery. Who had sent these letters? And why? Join us as we trace the FBI’s costly investigation into the attacks, all with an eye toward the question that remains today: Did the FBI identify the true killer, or is this case still unresolved? Unravel the story the played out behind closed doors on Cover Up: The Anthrax Threat, listen now wherever you get your podcasts



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Poisoned Letters & a Frantic Investigation - The Untold Story of the Anthrax Attacks

In the Fall of 2020, 14 men were arrested for allegedly conspiring to kidnap the governor of Michigan. Americans were shocked to hear the news of the foiled plot but were left to wonder - what really what happened here?



Find out on this season of the award-winning podcast, Chameleon: The Michigan Plot. You’ll eavesdrop in on this group of alleged kidnappers through the actual wire recordings (that have never been heard by the public) from the FBI informant that infiltrated it. Unravel the story behind the headlines on Chameleon: The Michigan Plot, listen now wherever you get your podcasts



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The Untold Story of The Plot to Kidnap the Governor of Michigan

Years after Rita’s arrest, the people of Dixon gather in the town’s historic movie theater to watch a documentary about Rita’s crime. Then they hear that Rita may be coming home early.



Unlock all episodes of Crooked City: Dixon, IL, ad-free, right now by subscribing to The Binge. Plus, get binge access to brand new stories dropping on the first of every month — that’s all episodes, all at once, all ad-free.



Just click ‘Subscribe’ on the top of the Crooked City show page on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you get your podcasts.



A truth.media & Sony Music Entertainment production.



Find out more about The Binge and other podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts.
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Dixon, IL | 8. Home Sweet Home

How far would you go to save the world from itself?



Dr. Eugene Mallove believed that a new form of world-changing free energy — cold fusion — was just around the corner. Even when his work was pushed to the fringes, he dreamed of a brighter future. But before Dr. Mallove could usher in that future, he was found dead in the driveway of his childhood home. Everyone had their own ideas of who killed him, and investigators were looking in all the wrong places.



From QCODE and Faceplant, in association with No Smiling, Crime Waves: Cold Truth is a story about one man's quest to expose the truth, the lengths he would go to save the world, and how his dream caught up with him.



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Introducing... Crooked City: Youngstown, OH

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