This episode is brought to you by Hostage, a Parcast Original. For more episodes like this one, subscribe to Hostage on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

 

In the summer of ‘72, inexperienced criminal John Wojtowicz stepped into a Manhattan bank hell bent on carrying out a bold plan—rob the joint and smuggle his partner to Denmark for gender reassignment surgery.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Natural Disasters, a Parcast Original. For more episodes like this one, subscribe to Natural Disasters on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

A wave of storms that devastated the southern United States in 2011. Known as the Super Outbreak, it became the costliest tornado outbreak ever recorded.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Natural Disasters, a Parcast Original. For more episodes like this one, subscribe to Natural Disasters on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

On April 27th, 2011, the clouds were low and dark—intense winds whipping around. It was a quarter past five in the afternoon, and the entire state was on high alert.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Gone, a Parcast Original. For more episodes like this one, subscribe to Gone on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Once used by prodigy violinist Erica Morini during the height of her musical career in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, the Stradavaruius was stolen a few weeks before her death.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Con Artists, a Parcast Original. For more episodes like this one, subscribe to Con Artists on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

In 1998, Sante and Kenny Kimes started a spree of crimes by stealing a green Lincoln Town Car. But their biggest gambit—to snatch a $10 million mansion out from under New York socialite Irene Silverman.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Con Artists, a Parcast Original. For more episodes like this one, subscribe to Con Artists on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Sante ran cons for the majority of her life and involved both her husband, Kenneth Kimes, Sr., and their son, Kenny, in her elaborate plots. She made them accomplices to fraud, arson, human trafficking, and murder.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Medical Mysteries, a Parcast Original. For more episodes like this one, subscribe to Medical Mysteries on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Once modern medicine recognized Fatal Familial Insomnia as a disease, it faced a greater challenge: finding a cure.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Medical Mysteries, a Parcast Original. For more episodes like this one, subscribe to Medical Mysteries on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Don’t let the complicated name fool you—this mystery is no laughing matter: Inability to sleep. Loss of coordination. Slow, painful loss of mental faculties.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Survival, a Parcast Original. For more episodes like this one, subscribe to Survival on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

January 1847. Fed by the remains of their friends and family, the surviving members of the Forlorn Hope managed to get through the snow and reach civilization.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Survival, a Parcast Original. For more episodes like this one, subscribe to Survival on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Snowed in, and unable to get their wagons over the Sierra Nevadas, the Donner Party set up camp by Truckee Lake and waited for the winter of 1846 to pass.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices