Legendary LAPD Homicide Detective John St. John walked among the dead for nearly a half-century.

Known as “JigSaw John,” he pursued monsters that had an insatiable appetite for blood and suffering.

Jane Howatt, a suburban housewife and aspiring writer, wanted to trade her tennis racket for something more meaningful.

St. John didn’t need company, and he sure didn’t want a young unpublished author in his way. 

But something about Howatt’s curiosity—earnest, unspoiled, insistent—broke down his guard.

St. John worked the evidence; Howatt worked the story. 

The result is “JigSaw and Jane: Thirteen Years of Murder & Mayhem with Badge Number One.” 

St.John empathized with crime victims because he was one of them.

As a young jailer, a prisoner ambushed him with an iron bar ripped from a bunk.

The prisoner savagely beat St. John to the brink of death, leaving him blind in one eye.

In another life, JigSaw and Jane would have barely noticed each other in a supermarket aisle. 

Instead, they found themselves peering into crime scenes of LA’s most brutal and sensational crimes together.

This is their story.

Click here to purchase my “Texas Crime Stories” audiobook. It downloads into your podcast app.

Click here to purchase the Paperback & Kindle editions on Amazon.

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My presentation, “Evil Walks Among Us,” features stories about serial killers and notorious criminals and personal safety tips.

Step into the storied halls of the Texas Prison Museum and uncover the gripping tales of infamous inmates, daring escapes, and the history of justice in the Lone Star State.

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This isn’t the kind of story I usually tell.

The police didn’t converge on the scene with sirens blaring and guns drawn.

But what happened inside a Dallas apartment complex was just as devastating and just as unforgivable as a cold-blooded murder.

In 2015, a silent killer slipped into the home of two young children. Not through malice, but through neglect, greed, and a rusted furnace exhaust pipe no one wanted to fix. 

The carbon monoxide gas that leaked out of it took their minds, leaving them permanently brain-damaged, trapped in silence.

For nine years, their mother fought a legal battle against apartment owners and their insurance company, which denied everything. 

What followed was a story of delay, deception, and courtroom drama that will outrage even the most hardened true crime listener.

This episode is a departure from my usual reporting, but it’s one I had to tell. 

Because sometimes, the deadliest crimes aren’t committed with a weapon. 

They’re committed with indifference.

Legal Resources Mentioned In This Story:

Ted B. Lyon Personal Injury Lawyer

Science Resources for Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Dr. Lindell Weaver

Science.org

Click here to purchase my “Texas Crime Stories” audiobook. It downloads into your podcast app.

Click here to purchase the Paperback & Kindle editions on Amazon.

Schedule me to speak at your social meeting or corporate event.

My presentation, “Evil Walks Among Us,” features stories about serial killers and notorious criminals and personal safety tips.

Step into the storied halls of the Texas Prison Museum and uncover the gripping tales of infamous inmates, daring escapes, and the history of justice in the Lone Star State.

41% Off Cozy Earth Sheets, Pajamas and More

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Most predators don’t pounce—they pick.

They observe.

They wait.

And they choose the person who looks the easiest to catch.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to make sure you’re not the one they choose.

From FBI profilers to a former producer for CBS 48 Hours, I’ll walk you through the red flags predators look for and how to shut them down before they ever get a chance. 

This isn’t about paranoia. It’s about awareness. And once you know what to look for, you’ll make it very difficult to be chosen.

Because survival starts before the crime ever happens.

Links:

Robin Dreeke — Stop Pause Observe

Katherine Schweit

Tase Bailey

Claire St Amant

Click here to purchase my “Texas Crime Stories” audiobook. It downloads into your podcast app.

Click here to purchase the Paperback & Kindle editions on Amazon.

Schedule me to speak at your social meeting or corporate event.

My presentation, “Evil Walks Among Us,” features stories about serial killers and notorious criminals and personal safety tips.

Step into the storied halls of the Texas Prison Museum and uncover the gripping tales of infamous inmates, daring escapes, and the history of justice in the Lone Star State.

41% Off Cozy Earth Sheets, Pajamas and More

20% Off Eric Javits Designer Hats Worn by True Crime TV Detectives

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By Robert Riggs

They were daughters. Mothers. Sisters. Strangers. Their lives ended violently—and their names were lost to time.

For more than half a century, Detroit’s forgotten dead lay buried beneath weeds and silence—unidentified murder victims dumped into paupers’ graves, sometimes stacked in vaults three-deep, known only by numbers in crumbling cemetery logs. No names. No justice. No answers.

This is the remarkable five-year journey of a team of relentless female

investigators who pledged to identify more than 200 victims of Detroit’s

outstanding murder cases.

Led by Detroit Police Detective Shannon Jones and FBI Special Agent Leslie Larsen, this group of dedicated women—detectives, agents, forensic anthropologists, and scientists—literally dug through

the past to bring closure to families and justice to the murdered.

Their quest became known as Operation UNITED, the largest coordinated exhumation of cold case murder victims in FBI history.

Katherine Schweit tells the story of this unprecedented, five-year mission in her book, Women Who Talk to the Dead.

Schweit is a former FBI Special Agent Executive, Chicago prosecutor, and journalist.

She wrote the FBI’s seminal report on mass shooters and is a recognized expert in crisis response and workplace violence.

If you or someone you know is searching for a missing loved one, there’s a tool that can help.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs.

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Click here to purchase my “Texas Crime Stories” audiobook. It downloads into your podcast app.

Click here to purchase the Paperback & Kindle editions on Amazon.

Schedule me to speak at your social meeting or corporate event.

My presentation, “Evil Walks Among Us,” features stories about serial killers and notorious criminals and personal safety tips.

Step into the storied halls of the Texas Prison Museum and uncover the gripping tales of infamous inmates, daring escapes, and the history of justice in the Lone Star State.

By Robert Riggs

A bold reward offers ONE MILLION DOLLARS to solve a cold case murder mystery.

Since the $25 million bounty on Osama bin Laden, few rewards have reached this level—yet a grieving widow in rural Tennessee is offering $1 million of her own money to find her husband’s killer.

A single shotgun blast shattered the life of a beloved husband, father, and grandfather.

Sixty-three-year-old Jim Grimes was ambushed while tending animals on his peaceful property on April 19, 2021.

No witnesses. No forensic evidence. Just shadows and silence.

Who knew Jim’s routine? Who knew their way around the property at night? Who lay in wait?

And who’s finally ready to talk?

This is a true crime story of grief, grit, and the relentless pursuit of justice.

Link To Previous Cold Case Episodes With Joe Kennedy

Part 1: NCIS From Evidence to Arrest: Analyzing Murder Cases Step by Step

Part 2: NCIS Confidential: Solving Real-Life Cold Cases To Catch Killers

Click here to purchase my “Texas Crime Stories” audiobook. It downloads into your podcast app.

Click here to purchase the Paperback & Kindle editions on Amazon.

Schedule me to speak at your social meeting or corporate event.

My presentation, “Evil Walks Among Us,” features stories about serial killers and notorious criminals and personal safety tips.

Step into the storied halls of the Texas Prison Museum and uncover the gripping tales of infamous inmates, daring escapes, and the history of justice in the Lone Star State.

41% Off Cozy Earth Sheets, Pajamas and More

20% Off Eric Javits Designer Hats Worn by True Crime TV Detectives

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Alcatraz shut its cell doors more than 60 years ago, but its grip on the American imagination hasn’t loosened.

Each year, nearly a million and a half tourists ride the ferry across San Francisco Bay, through cold, choppy waters, to walk the crumbling corridors of the most infamous prison in U.S. history. 

Visitors today frequently cite the desire to see the cellblocks that once confined legendary outlaws,

Notorious gangsters such as Al Capone, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, and Robert “Birdman” Stroud were inmates here, cementing Alcatraz’s image as the end of the line for incorrigible criminal offenders.

I’ve included a link in the show notes to their “rap sheets” from the Warden’s records.

During its 29 years as a federal prison, Alcatraz gained a fearsome reputation for strict discipline and inescapable walls.

Now, President Donald Trump says he wants to reopen and expand Alcatraz as a high-security federal prison.

In this episode, I take a hard look at the history of The Rock—how it earned its reputation as escape-proof, the men it held, the myth it became, and why, even in ruins, it still casts a long shadow over American justice.

The Warden’s “Rap Sheets” for Alcatraz’s infamous convicts.

Click here to purchase my “Texas Crime Stories” audiobook. It downloads into your podcast app.

Click here to purchase the Paperback & Kindle editions on Amazon.

Schedule me to speak at your social meeting or corporate event.

My presentation, “Evil Walks Among Us,” features stories about serial killers and notorious criminals and personal safety tips.

Step into the storied halls of the Texas Prison Museum and uncover the gripping tales of infamous inmates, daring escapes, and the history of justice in the Lone Star State.

41% Off Cozy Earth Sheets, Pajamas and More

20% Off Eric Javits Designer Hats Worn by True Crime TV Detectives

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By Robert Riggs

You lock your doors at night. You check on your kids. 

But what if the real threat is already inside—hiding in your phone, your smart TV, or your child’s video game chat? 

In this episode of True Crime Reporter®, former federal probation officer Art Bowker takes us into the digital battlefield unfolding inside your home.

Bowker’s book Surviving a Cyberattack: Securing Social Media and Protecting Your Home warns how predators groom teenagers with flattery, how romance scammers bleed retirees dry, and how artificial intelligence is being weaponized to impersonate loved ones.

Bowker and his coauthor Todd Shipley call themselves “The Cyber Safety Guys”. 

This is the story about how cybercriminals not only bleed their victims but leave them emotionally devastated, isolated, and too ashamed to ask for help. 

FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center – (IC3.gov)

Click here to purchase my “Texas Crime Stories” audiobook. It downloads into your podcast app.

Click here to purchase the Paperback & Kindle editions on Amazon.

Schedule me to speak at your social meeting or corporate event.

My presentation, “Evil Walks Among Us,” features stories about serial killers and notorious criminals and personal safety tips.

Step into the storied halls of the Texas Prison Museum and uncover the gripping tales of infamous inmates, daring escapes, and the history of justice in the Lone Star State.

41% Off Cozy Earth Sheets, Pajamas and More

20% Off Eric Javits Designer Hats Worn by True Crime TV Detectives

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By Robert Riggs

When the curtain drops on everyday life, true crime shows like this podcast and especially those on television expose the darkest side of humanity.

Television relentlessly chases the latest trending crimes on police blotters and court dockets.

Claire St. Amant pursued those stories in the cutthroat world of prime-time television as a producer for CBS 48 Hours. She also produced segments for 60 Minutes.

She’s written a memoir about her experiences, Killer Story: The Truth Behind True Crime Televison.

Television executives have known for decades that the audience is overwhelmingly female. 

We’re talking 70-80 percent, sometimes more. Mothers and daughters. Best friends. 

Women of all ages coming together for what amounts to a girls’ night out… centered on murder.

You may want to go back and listen to my episode with Journalist Mike Cox.

He wrote a satire, Getting Away With Murder, Learning From Dateline and Other True Crime Shows. 

So what’s going on here? Why are women so drawn to true crime?

Claire St Amant, now a fellow true crime podcaster, shares her insights. 

Click here to purchase my “Texas Crime Stories” audiobook. It downloads into your podcast app.

Click here to purchase the Paperback & Kindle editions on Amazon.

Schedule me to speak at your social meeting or corporate event.

My presentation, “Evil Walks Among Us,” features stories about serial killers and notorious criminals and personal safety tips.

Step into the storied halls of the Texas Prison Museum and uncover the gripping tales of infamous inmates, daring escapes, and the history of justice in the Lone Star State.

41% Off Cozy Earth Sheets, Pajamas and More

20% Off Eric Javits Designer Hats Worn by True Crime TV Detectives

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The Godfather. Goodfellas. The Sopranos.

Hollywood entertained us with polished fiction—honor among thieves, loyalty bound by blood, men of principle wrapped in tailored suits.

But the real mob? It was darker. Colder. Predatory. The smile came first. The knife came after.

This is the true story of how FBI Special Agent Mike Campi helped dismantle the Genovese crime family—the oldest, largest, and most insidious of New York’s five Mafia Families.

Founded by Charles “Lucky” Luciano in 1931. Consolidated under Vito Genovese in the late 1950s. The family once ruled Manhattan’s west side piers and the Fulton Fish Market on the East River with quiet brutality. Everything moved through their hands—money, muscle, silence.

Campi joined the FBI’s Organized Crime Squad in 1985, stepping into the heart of a sweeping federal assault on the American Mafia. Over the next two decades, he led investigations that exposed the rot behind the façade.

His new book, Mafia Takedown, pulls back the curtain on what really happened.

Not the Hollywood version. The truth.

Click here to purchase my “Texas Crime Stories” audiobook. It downloads into your podcast app.

Click here to purchase the Paperback & Kindle editions on Amazon.

Schedule me to speak at your social meeting or corporate event.

My presentation, “Evil Walks Among Us,” features stories about serial killers and notorious criminals and personal safety tips.

Step into the storied halls of the Texas Prison Museum and uncover the gripping tales of infamous inmates, daring escapes, and the history of justice in the Lone Star State.

41% Off Cozy Earth Sheets, Pajamas and More

20% Off Eric Javits Designer Hats Worn by True Crime TV Detectives

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The JFK assassination files recently released by President Trump shed more light on the secret plot by the CIA to use Mafia gangsters to kill Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Investigative reporter Thomas Maier, the author of Mafia Spies, his book about the unlikely alliance between the CIA and mobsters, is back to discuss the latest revelations.

This is the second part of my True Crime Reporter® series about the Mafia Spies.

Two Chicago gangsters, Sam Giancana and Johnny Roselli, were central to a Congressional investigation by Senator Frank Church in the mid-1970s 

Both were murdered shortly before they could testify.

I was an investigator for another committee working on a related inquiry at the time. 

The mob-style hit sent a chill through Senators digging into CIA abuses.

Speculation continues about whether the CIA or a Mafia kingpin silenced the mobsters.

Maier and I discuss the murders and revelations from his new book, “The Invisible Spy.”

His dogged investigation uncovered how former CIA Director Allen Dulles steered the Warren Commission’s investigation of President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas away from the plot to kill Castro.

Here’s a link to the cast of characters.

Click here to purchase my “Texas Crime Stories” audiobook. It downloads into your podcast app.

Click here to purchase the Paperback & Kindle editions on Amazon.

Schedule me to speak at your social meeting or corporate event.

My presentation, “Evil Walks Among Us,” features stories about serial killers and notorious criminals and personal safety tips.

Step into the storied halls of the Texas Prison Museum and uncover the gripping tales of infamous inmates, daring escapes, and the history of justice in the Lone Star State.

41% Off Cozy Earth Sheets, Pajamas and More

20% Off Eric Javits Designer Hats Worn by True Crime TV Detectives

20% Off HyperNatural Men’s Polo Shirts

15% Off TONA Activewear Designer Gym Leggings

15% Off STAND+ Comfort Shoes For Extended Standing

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