This episode explores two familicide tragedies that unfolded during the darkest years following the Great Recession of 2008, when financial pressure and mental instability turned into devastating family catastrophes. First, the Lupo family tragedy in Wilmington (2009), where Irvin Lupo murdered his wife, Anna, and their five children after both he and his wife were fired from their hospital jobs. A chilling and unique detail: Irvin sent a two-page will/manifesto to a TV station, blaming his employer and attempting to leave a final message before ending his entire family. From there, we shift to the Jacobson Family Massacre (2010), where Neil Jacobson — a former successful mortgage broker destroyed by the real estate collapse — killed his wife Frankie and their twin sons after experiencing severe paranoia and hallucinations.

In this episode, you will learn how extreme economic pressure can ignite unimaginable tragedy, and how untreated mental health issues only worsen the situation. You will also discover how investigators pieced together the combination of factors — unemployment, depression, paranoia, and possible medication side effects — to understand the motives behind both killers. This episode examines the ethical dilemmas faced by the media, the legal debates about the influence of mental illness on criminal acts, and the harsh reality of how the burden of being the family provider can become psychologically destructive.


This episode includes AI-generated content.