Last week, we did our first-ever live show on the Crimewave true crime cruise! We covered three cases, a sort of "sampler platter" to give new listeners an idea of what kind of stories we usually tell on TCC. Case 1 is the bizarre story of a parody website that ended up bringing dozens of would-be killers to justice. Case 2 is the murder of chef Dan Brophy by his mystery-novelist wife. Case 3 is the true story of Stede Bonnet, bumbling pirate wannabe and possible boyfriend of the dread pirate Blackbeard. Thank you so much to IRL Events for the opportunity to perform live--it was a blast! Thanks too to Royal Caribbean for hosting us all. 

Note: There were some visual aids that went along with these cases, so sometimes you'll hear the crowd laughing at those. 

Patreon supporters will also have access to the half-hour Q and A session we hosted after the live show. 

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We tell a lot of wild stories about crimes that happened right here in the States—but it’s worth noting that our cousins across the pond are misbehaving just as badly. Y’know, same crimes, different accent. Today we’ve chosen two cases that each mirror so many of the ones we’ve covered from here: A woman consumed by her toxic obsession for the man she wanted to marry, and a man more interested in playing soldier and spy than he was in building himself a real life. Case 1: Jane Andrews, the murder of Thomas Cressman. Case 2, fantasist Michael Newitt. 

Sources:
Channel 5's "Countdown to Murder," episode "The Duchess, the Killer and Her Lover"
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/21/royal-aide-jane-andrews-prison-release-murder
Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14403185/Sarah-Ferguson-killer-aide-Jane-Andrews-sick-animals.html
Murderpedia, Jane Andrews (various articles)
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The%2Bspy%2Bwho%2Bfooled%2Bme%3B%2BFAKE%2BMI5%2BAGENT%27S%2BEX-LOVE%2BTELLS%2BOF%2BLIES%2BTHAT...-a0188988173 https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/oct/31/ukcrime-jamesbond https://www.hinckleytimes.net/news/local-news/bond-style-secret-agent-fantasist-jailed-6036157 https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/fantasist-fooled-police-into-believing-he-was-spy-5sd29jd8wpr https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/two-years-in-jail-for-fantasy-james-bond-kqmsrwj8h0t https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/21284267.fraudsters-james-bond-lifestyle-exposed/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3330805/Bankrupt-posed-as-James-Bond-style-secret-agent-for-two-years.html?ICID=continue_without_subscribing_reg_first

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It’s hardly a revelation that physical attraction can cloud judgment. It’s one of the oldest traps in human nature—that spark of chemistry that overrides caution, turning common sense into background noise. For most people, the fallout is little more than a red face or a broken heart. But every so often, that same impulse leads someone much farther—into danger. Because behind the charm, the warmth, and the allure, there are those who hide something far darker: a heart devoid of empathy, and intentions that are anything but loving. When desire blinds you to the truth, the price can be more than heartbreak — it can be fatal.

Sources:
I'll Take Care of You by Caitlin Rother
ABC News: https://abcnews.go.com/US/convicted-killers-millionaires-love-triangle-murder-case-maintain/story?id=80014616
OC Register: https://www.ocregister.com/2012/05/18/girlfriend-gets-life-in-millionaires-murder-2/ https://www.ocregister.com/2012/01/11/an-ex-tells-of-a-yes-yes-nanette/

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In part one of this story last week, we learned about Utah millionaire Franklin Bradshaw, who over the years had gained both a stupendous fortune and a strained relationship with some of his family—in particular with his youngest and wildest daughter, Frances. Frances had for years been pressuring and manipulating her mom, Berenice, to steer some of the family fortune her way, and whenever Frank got in the way of that, Frances would be furious. At the end of last week’s episode, we met Frances’s own young family, two boys, Marc and Larry, that she was strangely insistent on keeping apart. Marc was the favored son, allowed to stay at home. Frances told him his brother Larry had been sent to a mental institution, but he was in fact just staying with relatives. This was a family of strange pressures and manipulations that would ultimately lead to Franklin Bradshaw being shot dead. This is part two of “The Price of Love: The Murder of Franklin Bradshaw.”

Sources:
Shana Alexander, “Nutcracker. Money, Madness, Murder: A Family Album”
Investigation Discovery's A Crime to Remember, S5E8, “Mother’s Little Helper”

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All the money in the world can’t buy peace of mind. Family life, with its jealousies and rivalries, carries the same pressures no matter the size of the bank account—but when wealth is measured in millions, those pressures can twist into something far darker. Arguments over favoritism, inheritance, and control—the kind of disputes most families recognize in small ways—become battles with stakes that can determine the course of lives. And when greed collides with resentment, and morality is already thin on the ground, the results can be catastrophic. This week’s story is about what happens when the bonds of family are tested not by love, but by money. 

Sources:
Shana Alexander, “Nutcracker. Money, Madness, Murder: A Family Album”
Investigation Discovery's A Crime to Remember, S5E8, “Mother’s Little Helper”

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The Buddha said, "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and common sense." Ignore that advice, and you might find that you're clouding your vision--that instead of seeing what's really in front of you, you're filtering everything so it fits in with your beliefs. An unwavering, unquestioned belief in anything--a philosophy, an institution, or a person--can lend us strength sometimes, but it can also make us vulnerable. And there are plenty of people out there just waiting to exploit that vulnerability. This story is about two of them, each with a very different MO, and the havoc they wreaked in the lives of the people around them.

Sources
The German newspaper BZ (translated from German to English): Blackmail Sect: Now Former Members Speak Out by Romeo Regenass, Nov. 12, 2008
Documentary "Seduced and Blackmailed" by Aldo Gugolz and Romeo Regenass
Time: https://time.com/archive/6945942/the-swiss-gigolo-and-the-german-billionaire/
NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna29594154
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/09/bmw-blackmailer-jailed
Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5051613/Religious-leader-denies-blackmailing-woman-in-Swiss-gigolo-case.html
Forbes:https://www.forbes.com/2009/03/09/scarbi-klatten-bmw-markets-faces-celebrity-blackmail.html
The Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/gigolo-who-seduced-bmw-heiress-boasted-he-read-women-like-a-map-6824827.html

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We deal with a lot of real-life horror stories, and because it’s real life, they’re often chaotic and cruel. Justice might ultimately be served, but more often than not, the victims are already cold in the ground. If someone is dead-set on killing you, there’s a very good chance they’ll succeed. In the most satisfying fictional horror stories, of course, there’s a survivor, someone who faces the monster or killer and lives to tell the tale, someone who finds deep wells of courage and resilience inside themself and defeats the horrors the world throws at them. And these stories are not only limited to fiction.

Sources:
Investigation Discovery's Surviving Evil, S3E7, “The Bathtub Killer”
A&E's Cold Case Files, S4E24, “Déjà Vu/Secret in the Well”
People: https://people.com/bathtub-killer-dateline-nbc-murders-texas-8659842
Court papers: https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/591471c6add7b04934373412
https://multco.us/news/susan-walters-who-fended-hitman-provides-guidance-multnomah-county-crime-victims-portal
Willamette Week: https://www.wweek.com/news/2016/08/17/a-hit-man-came-to-kill-susan-kuhnhausen-she-survived-he-didnt/
Investigation Discovery's Nothing Personal: Murder for Hire, "This Man Brainwashed His Friend into Killing His Pregnant Wife"
Oregon Live: https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2014/06/portlander_who_hired_hitman_to.html
The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker

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If there’s one constant in the kind of people we cover, it’s this—they’re liars. Con artists trying to scam their way into money, murderers denying their crimes, spouses with secret affairs, liars, all of them. This week’s case is about a man who checks all three of those boxes, a man who learned that, if he didn’t have a conscience, deceit could make him more money that hard work ever did. Once he’d learned that lesson, nothing was going to stop him from lying his way to more and more wealth. Certainly not the continued health and well-being of his wife.

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very first CRIMEWAVE true crime cruise! Get your fan code now--tickets are on sale now: CrimeWaveatSea.com/CAMPFIRE

Sources:
https://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/2014/11/man_infamous_for_killing_wife.html https://www.cetient.com/case/people-v-davis-1751715
https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press-um-2a/75455510/
Bonnie's Blog of Crime: https://mylifeofcrime.wordpress.com/2013/06/29/psycho-for-love-david-davis-killed-his-new-wife-shannon-mohr-for-the-insurance-money/
"Unsolved Mysteries" Wiki: https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/David_Davis
A&E's "American Justice," episode "The Shannon Mohr Story"

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Most of us grew up loving superhero stories. My favorite was always the X-Men. I liked the idea of these people who were born with mutations that initially made them targets of bigotry or fear, then harnessing those differences to do good in the world. I’ve always been a big believer in “give what you’ve got”—if you have a special gift or talent, use it to make the world better. But here’s the thing: Most of us recognize that superheroes are a metaphor for this idea. You’re not supposed to literally dress up in a cape and tights and go around town looking for muggers to fight off, or create a mysterious fake identity to rally people toward a nebulous cause. Evidently, though, some folks never got the memo on that. We’re gonna tell you about a couple of them. 

Sources:
Phoenix New Times: https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/penis-man-graffiti-returns-to-phoenix-after-yearslong-absence-15573929
https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/penis-man-grafitti-tagger-sentenced-and-fined-in-tempe-11533751
https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/penis-man-graffiti-tempe-arizona-vandalism-culture-neighborhood-11421292
Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7943525/Penis-Man-tagger-reveals-just-one-vandals-using-slogan-Arizona.html
YouTuber Gavin Wants Pizza 
Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/seattle-superhero-phoenix-jones-charged-after-undercover-drug-bust/
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/apr/12/the-superhero-complex-masked-man-real-life-inspired-podcast-phoenix-jones
Real Life Superheroes Wiki, Phoenix Jones: https://wiki.rlsh.net/wiki/Phoenix_Jones
YouTuber Interesting Stuff From Around the World
YouTuber Atrocity Guide
https://youtu.be/HWo9OchEdg4?si=onwsCoGnBIpAqRg6
https://wiki.rlsh.net/wiki/Rex_Velvet
https://komonews.com/news/local/12-year-old-secret-agent-helps-foil-local-villain

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Cell phones are amazing, aren’t they? You have a little magic box in your pocket that you can look at and use to call halfway across the world. New parents can send photos of their babies to their loved ones that live hours away, best friends can start a podcast even though they don’t live in the same state, and soulmates can meet, even from entirely different countries. Of course, we can’t have good things without someone using it for evil. Some people use phones as a means of harassment, of control. In today’s case, a stalker uses their phone as a weapon of mass destruction in order to try to get the attention of one man.

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very first CRIMEWAVE true crime cruise! Get your fan code now--tickets are on sale now: CrimeWaveatSea.com/CAMPFIRE

Sources:
Stalker, episode The Phonebox Stalker 
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/prosecutor-terrified-of-stalker-after-rape-allegations-dropped-kx55hnh279p
https://www.lccsa.org.uk/doctors-stalker-had-record-of-lies-and-false-allegations/ https://www.thefreelibrary.com/THE+SHE+DEVIL%3B+She+stalked+a+leading+psychiatrist+and+his+fiancee...-a0158019869
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-399250/My-terrifying-ordeal-victim-fiendishly-clever-stalker.html
https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/1136377.text-terror-stalker-is-jailed-for-nine-years/ https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2010/sep/01/u-be-dead-david-morrissey https://crimeline.co.uk/uploads/cases/sentencing/2008ewcacrim389.pdf https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL19421172/

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