Michigan Monsters

What led two young brothers from Chechnya to commit one of the most shocking terrorist attacks in American history? Acclaimed journalist Masha Gessen aims to answer that question.

The young caller's voice waivered only slightly as she detailed a ghastly scene to the 911 operator. It almost sounded like a prank, too wild to believe. But what happened in the house on Sunnydale Street was very real, and ultimately worse than anyone could have imagined.

When a young couple was attacked on a Lover's Lane one stormy Halloween night, the pressure was on police to arrest someone. So they did. 

The name Tom Toaz was well-known in Mid-Michigan at the turn of the 20th century. He was a celebrated lawman, infamous for throwing more citizens behind bars than all of the other constables combined. He had a hand in all of the scandalous, headline-making cases in Eaton County in the late 18 and early 1900s, but no case he was involved in was quite as scandalous as his own.

When a young woman is found dead in her Tijuana hotel room, authorities have more questions than answers. Mainly- why doesn't the photo on the driver's license match the body on the floor?

Out on the open water, there is a hotspot of unusual activity- ships disappearing in broad daylight, planes vanishing into thin air, unexplainable weather phenomena. Not the infamous Bermuda Triangle, but a similar danger much closer to home- the Lake Michigan Triangle.

When a serial killer was sent to the gallows in Victorian-era London, his infamous last words were, "I am Jack the..." before the noose snapped his neck. Were the Lambeth Poisoner and Jack the Ripper one in the same?

Born just outside Detroit to a single teenage mother and a violent criminal, Aileen Wuornos had the cards stacked against her from birth. She was raised in a house of horrors, amidst rumors of incest and unspeakable abuse. A child sex worker who gave birth at the age of 15, Aileen lived in the woods behind her family home after she was kicked out by her sadistic grandfather. And that was just the beginning of the cruelty and abuse Aileen would face in her 46 years on Earth. Listen in for more on how one woman's horrific childhood in Michigan led to her becoming the world's most notorious female serial killer.  

In celebration of the new Scream movie coming to theaters this week, here is a Patreon bonus episode from a couple years back exploring the true story behind the inspiration for the Scream movies.

On February 20, 2016, the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan found itself under siege. From a father/son duo out car shopping to a group of friends meeting for dinner, a madman was methodically gunning down unsuspecting citizens with no rhyme or reason. When the family man responsible for the rampage was apprehended, authorities were not prepare for the story he told them. Did Jason Dalton simply snap on that winter afternoon? Or was he possessed by evil, as he claimed?