True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers

By Dan Zupansky -

What's True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers about?

Every week host Dan Zupansky will interview the true crime authors that have written about the most shocking killers of all time.

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DEATH BY TALONS-Tiddy Smith

03.21.2023

On December 9, 2001, Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in her Durham, NC home. Her scalp was laced with deep incisions, and her blood was strewn from outside to inside the house.The sinister truth ...

True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers episodes:

03.21.2023 DEATH BY TALONS-Tiddy Smith On December 9, 2001, Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in her Durham, NC home. Her scalp was laced with deep incisions, and her blood was strewn from outside to inside the house.The sinister truth ...
03.14.2023 JonBenet's SECRET SANTA, MY MURDERER-M'Linda Kula M'Linda Kula is very familiar with this SECRET SANTA and the many links that tie him to JonBenet Ramsey. Each link is carefully explained within this book, to lead from one connection to the next between JonBenet and the SECRET ...
03.13.2023 THE ANGEL MAKERS-Patti McCracken The Angel Makers is a true-crime story like no other—a 1920s midwife who may have been the century’s most prolific killer leading a murder ring of women responsible for the deaths of at least 160 men.The horror occurred in a ...
03.06.2023 SICARIUS: Sondra London From his cell on Death Row in Florida, confessed serial killer Danny Rolling started writing and illustrating this novel about the Daggerman Sicarius in 1999, seven years before his 2006 execution for the five murders he committed in 1990.Drawing on ...
02.27.2023 LOU AND JONBENET-John Wesley Anderson On Christmas Night 1996, six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was murdered in her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado. A ransom note was found in the home, but it was hours before her father, John, found her body in the basement. She had ...
02.20.2023 ERIE'S BACKYARD STRANGLER-Justin Dombrowski On a cold morning in December 1960, 60-year-old Laura Mutch was found strangled behind a house in downtown Erie....At a time when the Gem City was at its peak, including a triumphant run for the coveted 'All-American City' award, the ...
02.14.2023 THE BEST NEW TRUE CRIME STORIES: Crimes of Famous and Infamous Criminals-Mitzi Szereto Actors, musicians, TV personalities, and other public figures in the spotlight aren’t always who they appear to be. You might be surprised by just how many have led nefarious, double lives, and have become infamous criminals!Power, status, and a rich ...
02.08.2023 THE REAL-LIFE MURDER CLUBS-Nicola Stow What happens when ordinary people, in real-life murder clubs, set out to investigate crimes, both recent and cold cases?The Netflix hit Don’t F**k with Cats was based on the 2012 Montreal murder of thirty-three-year-old Lin Jun by his porn-star boyfriend, ...
02.06.2023 THE KILLING SPREE-Anita Paddock John Edward Swindler never learned to read or write and instead became a bona fide criminal at the age of fifteen. His crimes quickly advanced from car theft to arson. At three hundred pounds, with long, fuzzy red hair and ...
01.30.2023 BUTCHER'S WORK-Harold Schechter A Civil War veteran who perpetrated one of the most ghastly mass slaughters in the annals of U.S. crime. A nineteenth-century female serial killer whose victims included three husbands and six of her own children. A Gilded Age “Bluebeard” who ...
01.24.2023 TRIAL LAWYER-Richard Zitrin Internationally known legal ethics professor Richard Zitrin's work as a trial lawyer placed him on the front lines of fighting systemic racism, pervasive elitism, and injustice against individuals in the legal system. In Trial Lawyer, he shares details of the ...
01.23.2023 Wondery Presents: Frozen Head Hosted by Ash Kelley and Alaina Urquhart from the hit show Morbid.When 90-year-old Laurence Pilgeram drops dead on the sidewalk outside his condo, you might think that’s the end of his story. But, really, it’s just the beginning. Because Laurence ...
01.17.2023 NEVER FORGIVE, NEVER FORGET-Rod Kackley No body means no crime, which makes this the perfect murder.Doug Stewart even has an ironclad alibi. He's been seen hundreds of miles away when his lovely wife, Venus, vanishes. What better plan could any murderer hope for?But Doug's forgotten ...
01.16.2023 HIDDEN DEMONS-Margery B. Metzger On January 7, 1994, residents of the Berkshire Hills woke up to a typical snowy winter day in the majestic woods of Western Massachusetts. The quaint New England towns, the idyllic scenery and the people who lived there could have ...
01.09.2023 A LOVELY GIRL-Deborah Larkin The incredible story of a 1958 murder that ended with the last woman to ever be executed in California—a murder so twisted it seems ripped from a Greek tragedy.Deborah Larkin was only ten years old when the quiet calm of ...
01.03.2023 COLD BLOODED MURDER-Brad Hunter Murder is the most vile crime known to man. It can be triggered by love or money or sex. Those are the three big ticket items for homicide. But people are strange. They will kill for the most obscure and ...
01.02.2023 MURDER IN THE FOX VALLEY-Jim Ridings The western suburbs of Chicago were being terrorized by a serial rapist and murderer in the 1970s and 1980s. Bruce Lindahl was a psychotic rapist and killer who preyed on girls and young women for almost a decade. He managed ...
12.21.2022 ROOTED IN DECEPTION-Laura Churchill Duke From the award-winning author of Two Crows Sorrow comes another historical true crime story about secret identities, deception, and murder.At the turn of the century, an ex-convict from Ireland arrives in the back country of rural Nova Scotia, whereupon he ...
12.19.2022 Wondery Presents Suspect Season 2: Vanished In The Snow For more than three and a half decades, the disappearance of 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews was a mystery – a riddle neither authorities nor her family members could solve. The residents of her cloistered Colorado hometown had scoured every inch of ...
12.12.2022 THE MAN WITH THE KILLER SMILE-Mitchel P. Roth On a cold, windy December night in 1926, hell was unleashed on a tenant farm near Farwell, the last Texas town before the New Mexico border. Prone to the bottle and fits of rage, the burly man with the smiling ...
12.07.2022 I DON'T LIKE MONDAYS-N. Leigh Hunt In 1979, Brenda Spencer, a seemingly average teenage girl living in a nice suburban neighborhood, made and executed plans that would place her in infamy and set a violent and terrifying national precedent. She received a rifle for Christmas and ...
12.05.2022 FRANK SINATRA AND THE MAFIA MURDERS-Mike Rothmiller Mike Rothmiller and Douglas Thompson draw on previously secret LAPD intelligence files, a cache of FBI documents released to the authors in 2021, and extensive interviews with prime sources, including many who worked with Frank Sinatra and many more who ...
12.01.2022 THE FOREVER WITNESS-Edward Humes A relentless detective and an amateur genealogist solve a haunting cold case—and launch a crime-fighting revolution that tests the fragile line between justice and privacy. In November 1987, a young couple on an overnight trip to Seattle vanished without a ...
11.28.2022 RUSSIAN SERIAL KILLERS VOLUME 1-Nico Claux Much is known about American and European serial killers, but did you know that more than 150 homicidal maniacs have plagued the former Soviet Union during the last 100 years? Nicknamed “The Night Creature”, “The Urals Strangler” or “The Balashikha ...
11.21.2022 INSIDE THE MIND OF JOHN WAYNE GACY-Brad Hunter Brad Hunter has spent over thirty years writing about some of America's most horrific crimes. In this new book he enters the mind of John Wayne Gacy, the real-life 'Killer Clown', often said to be the inspiration for Stephen King's ...
11.16.2022 THEIR BLOODY LIES AND PERSECUTION OF DAVID CAMM-Gary M. Dunn Although featured nationally on 48 Hours, Dateline, and the Oxygen Network, the detailed, complete, and totally unbelievable story of the case of DAVID CAMM has never been fully revealed as police, prosecutors, forensic scientists, and judges either sought or facilitated ...
11.14.2022 SARGE!-Debra DiMaggio “SARGE!” is a fascinating memoir by the late Chicago Police Detective Sergeant John A. DiMaggio, one of the most decorated officers on the force during a career that spanned the years 1957 to 1991. Among his awards are two Superintendent’s ...
11.08.2022 KILL. BURY. FORGET.-Rod Kackley January 14, 1927 — A.J. Mathis, a wealthy, elderly chicken rancher, is missing. One of the last of the cowboy sheriffs, Jim McDonald, is convinced A.J. is dead. Murdered. And McDonald says he knows who did it and vows to ...
11.07.2022 BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD-Marla Bernard In the early hours of March 22, 1989, two friends – career criminals with violent felony convictions - drove around the eastern Kansas City area in a stolen car committing a series of crimes. The weather was mild for late ...
11.01.2022 Amazon Music Presents COLD: The Search for Sheree Sheree Warren left her job in Salt Lake City on a mild October evening in 1985. She told a coworker she was headed to meet her estranged husband, Charles Warren, at a car dealership. But she never made it, Sheree ...
10.31.2022 STRANGLED-LaDonna Humphrey and Alecia Lockhart LaDonna Humphrey gains a new ally in her effort to find justice in the 1994 unsolved murder case of Melissa Ann Witt when Alecia Lockhart reveals a dark and troubling secret from her past. Together, Humphrey and Lockhart must delve ...
10.24.2022 EXTREME PUNISHMENT-Steven B. Epstein A devoted father. One of the most accomplished criminal law scholars in the country. Someone wanted him dead. But why?On the morning of July 18, 2014, 41-year-old Florida State law professor Dan Markel dropped his boys off at preschool, hit ...
10.17.2022 SILENT SILHOUETTE....WHO KILLED DEBORAH SUE-George Jared Deborah Sue Williamson was a newly married young woman living in Lubbock Texas on Aug. 24, 1975. One night while her husband was away at work, she was brutally stabbed 17 times in the carport of their home. Many suspects ...
10.10.2022 EXPOSED-Dr. Mark Hewitt The solution to the Zodiac serial killer case is as clear as it is controversial. One man, a letter writer, bomb maker, and code creator, was living in the area at the time of the Zodiac murders, had easy access ...
10.06.2022 THE BEST NEW TRUE CRIME STORIES-Mitzi Szereto Unsolved crimes, unanswered questions. Crimes are meant to be solved. But what happens when they’re not? For the individuals involved—from the victims and their families to police investigators—this is the most frustrating part of all. For them there’s no resolution, ...
10.04.2022 ALL THAT IS WICKED-Kate Winkler Dawson Acclaimed crime historian, podcaster, and author of American Sherlock Kate Winkler Dawson tells the thrilling story of Edward Rulloff—a serial murderer who was called “too intelligent to be killed”—and the array of 19th century investigators who were convinced his brain ...
10.03.2022 Introducing: The Generation Why Podcast The Generation Why Podcast released its first episode in 2012 and pioneered the true crime genre in the podcasting world. Two friends, Aaron & Justin, break down theories and give their opinions on unsolved murders, controversies, mysteries and conspiracies. One ...
09.26.2022 NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT-Greg King and Penny Wilson Nearly a hundred years ago, two wealthy and privileged teenagers―Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb―were charged and convicted in a gruesome crime that would lead to the original “Trial of the Century”. Even in Jazz Age Chicago, the murder was uniquely ...
09.19.2022 AMERICAN DEMON-Daniel Stashower Boston had its Strangler. California had the Zodiac Killer. And in the depths of the Great Depression, Cleveland had the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run.On September 5th, 1934, a young beachcomber made a gruesome discovery on the shores of Cleveland’s ...
09.13.2022 BLOOD & INK-Joe Pompeo On September 16, 1922, the bodies of Reverend Edward Hall and Eleanor Mills were found beneath a crabapple tree on an abandoned farm outside of New Brunswick, New Jersey. The killer had arranged the bodies in a pose conveying intimacy. ...
09.08.2022 THE COLUMBUS STOCKING STRANGLER-William Rawlings During an eight-month period in 1977 and 1978, the city of Columbus, Georgia, was terrorized by a mysterious serial killer who raped and ritualistically strangled seven elderly women in one of the community's finer neighborhoods. Despite intensive efforts on the ...
08.31.2022 SIX INCHES DEEPER-William Rawlings On August 31, 1972, Hellen Hanks, a pretty thirty-four-year-old mother of three disappeared from her place of employment at Wilcox Advertising in Valdosta, Georgia. After a brief investigation by local and state authorities, the case went cold. In the fall ...
08.29.2022 Introducing: Blood Ties S3: Strange Days Our family members are not always who we think. When Eleonore Richland exposed her father’s dark legacy, she vowed to clean up the family business – and hired her half-brother, Santino Reyes, to help her do it. But old habits ...
08.25.2022 THE TUSKEGEE STRANGLER-Linda Lou Long Every serial killer is a “nice guy”—until he’s found out. The shocking, true account of a Southern charmer who left a trail of victims in his wake.Jerry Marcus fooled them all. He was “a nice guy,” always helped at home, ...
08.22.2022 THE RED WIDOW-Sarah Horowitz Paris, 1889: Margeurite Steinheil is a woman with ambition. But having been born into a middle-class family and trapped in a marriage to a failed artist twenty years her senior, she knows her options are limited.Determined to fashion herself into ...
08.12.2022 THE FISHERMEN AND THE DRAGON-Kirk Wallace Johnson By the late 1970s, the fishermen of the Texas Gulf Coast were struggling. The bays that had sustained generations of shrimpers and crabbers before them were being poisoned by nearby petrochemical plants, oil spills, pesticides, and concrete. But as their ...
08.11.2022 GANGSTERS vs. NAZIS-Michael Benson As Adolph Hitler rose to power in 1930s Germany, a growing wave of fascism began to take root on American soil. Nazi activists started to gather in major American cities, and by 1933, there were more than one-hundred anti-Semitic groups ...
08.05.2022 JIMMY THE KING-Gus Garcia-Roberts An incredible four-decade account of murder, power, and corruption in one of the country’s largest police departments In 1979, the gruesome slaying of a thirteen-year-old boy riveted the suburbs of Suffolk County, New York. As the county hustled to bring ...
07.27.2022 AURORA-Dr. Lynne Fenton A compelling look at violence and trauma from the psychiatrist who treated mass shooter James Holmes, perpetrator of the infamous movie theater massacre.As an expert and speaker on mass shootings and gun violence, Dr. Lynn Fenton knew it was impossible ...
07.19.2022 THE CASTLETON MASSACRE-Sharon Anne Cook and Margaret Carson A former United Church minister massacres his family. What led to this act of femicide, and why were his victims forgotten?On May 2, 1963, Robert Killins, a former United Church minister, slaughtered every woman in his family but one. She ...

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True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers

What's True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers about?

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True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers episodes:

DEATH BY TALONS-Tiddy Smith

JonBenet's SECRET SANTA, MY MURDERER-M'Linda Kula

THE ANGEL MAKERS-Patti McCracken

SICARIUS: Sondra London

LOU AND JONBENET-John Wesley Anderson

ERIE'S BACKYARD STRANGLER-Justin Dombrowski

THE BEST NEW TRUE CRIME STORIES: Crimes of Famous and Infamous Criminals-Mitzi Szereto

THE REAL-LIFE MURDER CLUBS-Nicola Stow

THE KILLING SPREE-Anita Paddock

BUTCHER'S WORK-Harold Schechter

TRIAL LAWYER-Richard Zitrin

Wondery Presents: Frozen Head

NEVER FORGIVE, NEVER FORGET-Rod Kackley

HIDDEN DEMONS-Margery B. Metzger

A LOVELY GIRL-Deborah Larkin

COLD BLOODED MURDER-Brad Hunter

MURDER IN THE FOX VALLEY-Jim Ridings

ROOTED IN DECEPTION-Laura Churchill Duke

Wondery Presents Suspect Season 2: Vanished In The Snow

THE MAN WITH THE KILLER SMILE-Mitchel P. Roth

I DON'T LIKE MONDAYS-N. Leigh Hunt

FRANK SINATRA AND THE MAFIA MURDERS-Mike Rothmiller

THE FOREVER WITNESS-Edward Humes

RUSSIAN SERIAL KILLERS VOLUME 1-Nico Claux

INSIDE THE MIND OF JOHN WAYNE GACY-Brad Hunter

THEIR BLOODY LIES AND PERSECUTION OF DAVID CAMM-Gary M. Dunn

SARGE!-Debra DiMaggio

KILL. BURY. FORGET.-Rod Kackley

BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD-Marla Bernard

Amazon Music Presents COLD: The Search for Sheree

STRANGLED-LaDonna Humphrey and Alecia Lockhart

EXTREME PUNISHMENT-Steven B. Epstein

SILENT SILHOUETTE....WHO KILLED DEBORAH SUE-George Jared

EXPOSED-Dr. Mark Hewitt

THE BEST NEW TRUE CRIME STORIES-Mitzi Szereto

ALL THAT IS WICKED-Kate Winkler Dawson

Introducing: The Generation Why Podcast

NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT-Greg King and Penny Wilson

AMERICAN DEMON-Daniel Stashower

BLOOD & INK-Joe Pompeo

THE COLUMBUS STOCKING STRANGLER-William Rawlings

SIX INCHES DEEPER-William Rawlings

Introducing: Blood Ties S3: Strange Days

THE TUSKEGEE STRANGLER-Linda Lou Long

THE RED WIDOW-Sarah Horowitz

THE FISHERMEN AND THE DRAGON-Kirk Wallace Johnson

GANGSTERS vs. NAZIS-Michael Benson

JIMMY THE KING-Gus Garcia-Roberts

AURORA-Dr. Lynne Fenton

THE CASTLETON MASSACRE-Sharon Anne Cook and Margaret Carson

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