UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast

Joel Rifkin confessed to the murders of 17 women in just three years—leaving their remains scattered across Long Island, New York City, and New Jersey.

And for years, no one was looking for him.

In this episode, we examine the case through the lens of N. G. Berrill—one of the first psychologists to evaluate Rifkin after his arrest. Drawing on interviews, court records, and police reports, this is a reconstruction of how Rifkin operated in plain sight—and what allowed him to continue.

From his early life in suburban Long Island, to the environments he exploited, to the moment a routine traffic stop ended it all, this episode breaks down the pattern behind the crimes.

Because this isn’t just the story of one offender.

It’s a case that exposes something larger—how vulnerable populations are overlooked, how investigations fail to connect, and how, in the 1980s and 90s, the rise of “serial killer” culture may have given offenders like Rifkin a framework to follow.

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This episode is sponsored by Betterhelp. Financial stress can affect us more than we know: https://www.betterhelp.com/UNMARKED

If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram — @jamesbuddyday

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.

Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.

Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast 
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom. 

“BTK” is one of the most recognizable names in true crime. But it’s also a name that Dennis Rader created.

In this episode, I’m not just looking back at the investigation—I’m speaking to people who have been in direct contact with Rader, hearing from those who have corresponded with him, studied him, and, in some cases, continue to engage with him to this day.

And what becomes clear very quickly… is that “BTK” isn’t just a label. It’s a carefully constructed identity—one that Rader has spent decades shaping, protecting, and reinforcing.

From the way he named himself…to the letters, phone calls, and communications that followed…to how he still presents himself now. In this episode, we break down how Dennis Rader built the identity of BTK—and why, years later, we may still be playing along.

Check out my friends Olivia and Sydney at True Crime Society Podcast. They cover everything true crime—from missing people and cold cases to the latest breaking news.

If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram — @jamesbuddyday

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.

Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.

Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast 
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom. 

Paul Bernardo is one of the most notorious serial offenders in Canadian history. But this episode asks a different question: who was really responsible? Between 1987 and 1993, Bernardo committed a series of violent assaults across the suburbs of Toronto before escalating to the abduction and murder of multiple victims alongside his wife, Karla Homolka.

But the story doesn’t begin—or end—with him. In this episode of UNMARKED, we traveled to Toronto and speak with journalists who covered the case in real time. Drawing from court records, archival reporting, and firsthand accounts, we reconstruct what actually happened—and how it was allowed to happen. Because this case isn’t just about a killer. 

We examine:

This episode goes beyond the headlines—separating fact from mythology, and asking the question that still divides people decades later: Where does responsibility actually lie?

https://www.tryfum.com/UNMARKED to get your free gift with purchase, and start The Good Habit today!

***

If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram — @jamesbuddyday

When life feels overwhelming, therapy can help. Sign up and get 10% off at:
https://www.betterHelp.com/unmarked

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.

Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.

Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast 
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom. 

Who is the Times Square Killer—and how many people did Richard Cottingham actually kill?

In this episode of UNMARKED, we reconstruct the timeline of Cottingham’s crimes across New York and New Jersey—tracking his early escalation, his use of deception and control, and how he was able to evade detection for years.

Featuring criminologist Peter Vronsky, who has spent over 700 hours in direct conversation with Cottingham, this episode draws on firsthand interviews, police records, and cold case developments to separate fact from fiction.

We examine:

This is not a retelling—it’s an analysis of the evidence itself. Because with Cottingham, the story isn’t just what happened.

It’s what’s missing.

If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram — @jamesbuddyday

When life feels overwhelming, therapy can help. Sign up and get 10% off at:
https://www.betterHelp.com/unmarked

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.

Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.

Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast 
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom. 

In 1992, I wrote to the Milwaukee Police Department and asked for the Jeffrey Dahmer case files. Weeks later, they mailed me his full confession.

In this episode of UNMARKED, I go inside Jeffrey Dahmer’s confession—page by page—to understand how one of the most notorious serial killers in history developed, escalated, and ultimately got caught.

Using Dahmer’s own words, police reports, and expert insight from forensic psychologist Dr. Eric Hickey, this episode examines:

This is not a retelling of the crimes. It’s an analysis of the mind behind them.

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.

Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.

Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• Instagram: @unmarked_podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast 
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram — @jamesbuddyday

UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom. 

Ted Bundy didn’t begin with murder. Long before the headlines, before the trials, before the mythology took hold, there were patterns—behaviours that escalated, fractures that widened, and warning signs that, in hindsight, feel impossible to ignore.

In this episode of UNMARKED, we step back from the crimes themselves and examine Bundy at the point of origin. Drawing from psychological analysis, original records, and the work of those who studied him closely, this isn’t a retelling—it’s an investigation into how someone like Bundy takes shape.

Because the public story often begins at the moment of violence. But the real story starts much earlier.

Through the lens of his psychologist, we look at the early formation of control, manipulation, and detachment, traits that would later define one of the most studied serial killers in modern history.

This episode doesn’t mythologize Bundy. It strips the story back to behaviour, evidence, and pattern—so you can see where it actually begins.

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.

Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.

Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• Instagram: @unmarked_podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast 
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram — @jamesbuddyday

UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom. 

Danny Rolling’s murders in Gainesville shocked the country. But they didn’t begin there. In this episode, I travel to Florida to investigate the Gainesville Ripper — speaking with journalists, authors, and witnesses who lived through the panic — and trace the case back to where it really starts.
Long before the murders, there were warning signs: documented abuse, escalating behavior, and multiple points where intervention could have happened… but didn’t.
This isn’t just the story of what Danny Rolling did. It’s the story of how he got there — and how those failures followed him across state lines.
Featuring interviews with Emmy-winning investigative journalist Mike Deeson and author J.T. Hunter, this episode examines the psychology, the escalation, and the systemic blind spots behind one of the most disturbing cases in modern true crime.

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.

Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.

Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• Instagram: @unmarked_podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast 
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram — @jamesbuddyday

UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom. 

In the final year of his life, I spoke with Charles Manson on the phone multiple times. Those conversations became the foundation of a decade-long investigation into the people who once called themselves the Manson Family.

In this episode, I track down the surviving members of the Manson Family — speaking with former followers, examining trial records, and revisiting the places where the group formed, radicalized, and ultimately collapsed.

What emerges is a story far more complicated than the word “cult.” The Manson Family began as a loose commune of runaways and outsiders drifting through the counterculture of the late 1960s. Over time, isolation, fear, and loyalty transformed that group into something far more dangerous.

Through interviews with former members, firsthand witnesses, and people who knew Charles Manson personally, we examine how the Family formed, why people followed him, and what became of them after the murders.

The research behind this episode comes from years of interviews with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself. I document that investigation in my book Charles Manson: The Last Words.

Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

For those who want to examine the Manson material directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.

Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• Instagram: @unmarked_podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom. 

Serial killer Hadden Clark is one of the most unsettling figures in modern criminal history — a man whose crimes, confessions, and psychological unraveling have baffled investigators for decades.

In this episode of UNMARKED, we examine the case through the original record. Former FBI agents, primary documents, and Clark’s own words reveal a deeply fractured personality and a disturbing window into the mind of a killer.

Clark’s writings and statements — including letters he sent from prison — offer rare insight into how he saw himself, his crimes, and the strange identities he adopted along the way.

But the deeper question remains: when investigators confront someone like Hadden Clark, what are they really looking at — manipulation, madness, or something far darker?

For those who want to examine the material directly, the complete letters are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• Instagram: @unmarked_podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself: 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom. 

I’m in Phoenix, Arizona, sitting down with a group called “Jodi Arias Is Innocent.” They aren’t arguing that Travis Alexander wasn’t killed — they’re arguing the case is more complicated than the verdict suggests. 

For this episode, I read Jodi Arias’ full appeal (300+ pages), spoke with her supporters, revisited the evidence, and re-examined what the trial did — and what it may have failed to weigh. 

We walk through the relationship, the timeline, the forensic sequence, and the competing interpretations — then we get to the part that won’t go away: allegations of misconduct, a media spectacle, and why the question at the center of this case is still open.

At the end, you decide: not just what happened — but whether we got this right. 

Extended interview content referenced in the episode is available inside UNMARKED: Case Files our research archive on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• Instagram: @unmarked_podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

For readers interested in primary-source work on the Manson case, see Buddy’s book, Charles Manson: The Last Words: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.