On 13 July 2023 - after decades of corruption and inaction - police arrested 59-year-old New York architect Rex Heuermann, on suspicion of being the LISK.

In this episode, we’ll look at Heuermann’s family life, his background - and delve into the 33-page bail document that offers us an in-depth look at how investigators finally caught this notorious, modern American serial killer.

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In 2010, Shannan Gilbert made a series of frantic 911 calls as she ran through the streets of Oak Beach, Long Island, screaming: “They’re trying to kill me”.

Then she vanished. 

A few months later a body was found near where Shannan, vanished - but it wasn’t her. 

And neither were the next 9 sets of human remains they found along Ocean Parkway. 

Now, over a decade later, with the arrest of Rex Heuermann - the police believe they’ve found the elusive Long Island Serial Killer.

But the questions still stand; Why did it take so long to catch him - and was this the work of a lone serial killer, or multiple men using the same dumping ground?

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On 21 August 2023, 33-year-old nurse Lucy Letby was handed a whole-of-life order for the murder of seven babies, and the attempted murder of six more. She is only the fourth woman in British history to receive the sentence. 

And now this seemingly young, meek, slightly goofy, “vanilla” girl – whose bedroom was filled with stuffed animals – is now Britain’s most prolific child serial killer. 

So what really happened? How was she allowed to kill so many? Why did she do it? And how was she eventually caught?

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In July 1981, the 40 residents of Antelope, Oregon watched on in bemusement as their rural village was descended upon by an Indian guru and thousands of his followers. 

Little did they know at the time, that these maroon-robed chanting hippies and their money-loving spiritual leader would go on to overthrow the local government, attempt wide-scale voter fraud, plot to fill a plane with explosives and eventually, carry out the most significant act of bioterrorism in US history.

This is the real story of Bhagwan Rajneesh, and how he managed to amass a global following of devotees who were ready to do anything for him… 

School shootings are now tragically commonplace in the US. But in 1979, when Brenda Spencer opened fire on Cleveland Elementary School, it took everyone by surprise. 

Killing two adults and injuring nine children – allegedly just because she didn’t like Mondays – Brenda has lived on in infamy as one of America’s first school shooters, immortalised by Bob Geldof and The Boomtown Rats.

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At 2am, on the 3rd of May last year – inmates at Mangaung prison in Bloemfontein, South Africa, were woken up by an explosion. Word spread that Thabo Bester, the infamous “Facebook Rapist”, had set himself and his cell on fire. And all that remained after the dramatic blaze were a lighter, and a body, burnt beyond recognition. But that’s far from the end of the story. 

With daily revelations from the trial still hitting headlines, expect a farcical morgue-robbing scheme, a massive-scale web of fraud conducted from inside a prison cell, and a glamorous celebrity doctor who’s not quite what she seems.

Graphic Sonic fanfiction, a botched DIY sex change, incest and relentless psychosexual trolling are just some of the hallmarks of Christine Weston Chandler's story. As one of the most documented people in history – with 2,500 Wiki articles covering everything from school reports to her parents’ friends – her almost biblical tale leaves little to the imagination. Yet most people have never heard of her. 

Despite decades of online abuse, manipulation, and even extortion, the majority of those who do know about the infamous ‘Chis Chan’ see her as little more than an internet joke. Yet her real life is one of the most saddening and downright bizarre we are ever likely to cover.

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Last week, we looked at the formation of the ultra-obedient, bigamist Mormon cult, the FLDS – in which plural marriage to pregnant preteen girls is just the tip of the fundamentalist iceberg. In this second part, we look at how its new prophet, Warren Jeffs, took his so-called religion to ever stricter and more terrifying depths. 

With followers so beaten down that they were banned from even laughing; the prophet on the lam, living it up at Disneyland; and a team of ex-faithfuls and dogged investigators closing in – something had to give. But not before the full extent of his evil was laid bare in front of a stunned courtroom.

According to Warren Jeffs’ thousands of followers, he was the leader of a secretive but devoted religion – their prophet, and the representative of God on Earth. But according to US law, he was a dangerous, totalitarian, child-molesting horror with over 80 wives – some married off as young as 12. Still, according to the church, Earthly laws are no match for the voice of God.

In this episode, we explore the story behind the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: how the visions of a charismatic, seventeen-year-old farmhand grew to become a major world religion; how plural marriage caused a major rift in the church; and how its teachings were warped into a systematic cult of child abuse, underage sex, and absolute power.

In 2009, the horror film ‘Orphan’ told the tale of a couple who unwittingly adopted a 9-year-old girl, who (spoilers) turned out to be a murderous, adult woman.

Sometimes though, reality is stranger than fiction. A year after the film’s release, the Barnetts, a wealthy picture-perfect American family, adopted 6-year-old Natalia Grace from Ukraine. But within just 3 years, they’d abandoned her and fled to Canada. 

Why? According to the Barnetts, Natalia – who had a rare form of dwarfism – wasn’t a little girl at all. She was actually a 22-year-old woman who was trying to murder their whole family. In this bizarre case, everything most definitely isn’t as it seems…