Podcasts · True Crime · Society & Culture

Criminal

Vox Media Podcast Network

300 episodes

Criminal is the first of its kind. A show about people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. Hosted by Phoebe Judge. Named a Best Podcast of 2023 by the New York Times. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Episodes page 4 of 6

  1. The Hunt

    · 31 min · Episode 251

    In 2016, the FBI attaché in Pretoria, South Africa, got a phone call from a woman asking the FBI to investigate the death of her friend, Bianca Rudolph. Bianca had died on a hunting trip in Zambia’s Kafue National…

  2. Tokyo Joe

    · 46 min · Episode 250

    Ken Eto worked for the Chicago Outfit for 30 years. He was known as the mob’s bolita expert, bringing in millions of dollars a year for them. But in 1983, they turned on him. Dan O’Sullivan wrote about Ken Eto for…

  3. The Gargoyle Cat, the Taylor Swift Goat, and the Runaway Cow

    · 49 min · Episode 249

    Stories of animals really going for it. Criminal is going back on tour in February! We’ll be telling brand new stories, live on stage. You can even get meet and greet tickets to come and say hi before the show.…

  4. The Questions I’m Asking

    · 40 min · Episode 248

    Today we meet “Genius Grant” winner Andrea Armstrong. In 2019, she started the Incarceration Transparency Project to identify and make public how many people were dying behind bars in Louisiana. The project also…

  5. Send Her to the Island

    · 32 min · Episode 247

    When a young woman showed up at a boarding house in Manhattan, she said her name was Nellie Brown – but that was all she seemed to remember about herself. Soon, people became scared of her. Someone went to the police:…

  6. The Kit

    · 50 min · Episode 246

    In the early 1970s, Marty Goddard was worried about the high rates of sexual assault in Chicago. She learned from police that evidence from sexual assault cases often wasn’t collected properly — or at all. “They said,…

  7. Masterpiece

    · 32 min · Episode 245

    In the 1950s poodles were all the rage — one tabloid even reported that when a girl “makes the big time she traditionally acquires 3 things — minks, gems, and a poodle.” But one poodle in particular put the breed on…

  8. Fine Art and Meat Cleavers

    · 55 min · Episode 244

    In 1913, museums and art galleries in London received a memo from the police. It told them to be careful when they let in visitors – women might try to attack the art. Criminal is going back on tour in February! We’ll…

  9. The Liverpool Exchange

    · 49 min · Episode 243

    In the 1980s, Liverpool was having what journalists called a heroin epidemic. The chairman of a local organization where people would go for drug counseling told a reporter, “We are on the brink of complete…

  10. Interrogation Room

    · 55 min · Episode 242

    After a 17-hour-long interrogation, a woman confesses to a murder. But then, evidence surfaces proving that she can’t have actually done it – and that it was a false confession. Today, we’re looking at what goes on in…

  11. How to Sell a Haunted House

    · 34 min · Episode 241

    In 1989, Helen Ackley decided to sell her old Victorian house in Nyack, New York. It didn’t go as planned. The house became the center of a case that’s referred to as “The Ghostbusters ruling.” This episode was…

  12. The Spy

    · 56 min · Episode 240

    Jack Barsky was a college student in 1970 when the KGB knocked on the door of his dorm room to inquire about his plans after college. “I was told to broaden my knowledge of culture, of literature, of music, to become a…

  13. Chesa, Kathy, and David

    · 41 min · Episode 239

    Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert were once members of the radical activist group the Weather Underground. In 1981, they helped members of the Black Liberation Army rob a Brink’s armored car at the Nanuet National Bank.…

  14. Jiminy Crickets

    · 12 min

    Here's a little preview of what we’re making over on Criminal Plus! We’re having a lot of fun making these bonus episodes. In each one, Criminal co-creator Lauren Spohrer and I take your questions and talk about what’s…

  15. The Confession, Part 2

    · 34 min · Episode 238

    This episode continues where Episode 237 leaves off. 17 years after he shot a man, Trevell Coleman walked into a police station and tried to turn himself in. He’d never been a suspect in the case, and had kept the…

  16. The Confession, Part 1

    · 38 min · Episode 237

    Trevell Coleman signed with Bad Boy Records in 1998. He made it onto the Billboard charts, and was called “the latest protege of rap’s royal family.” But there was something from his past he hadn’t told anyone about –…

  17. Phoebe vs. Oyster

    · 2:14

    We’re coming up on 10 years of Criminal. In the past decade, we've loved taking the show all over the country - including the time I ate a bad oyster in San Francisco and almost didn't make it on stage. It means a lot…

  18. Under the Crabapple Tree

    · 41 min · Episode 236

    On September 16, 1922, a reverend and a choir singer were found dead under a tree. Between their bodies was a stack of love letters. When police began investigating the murders, tabloid reporters did too, and rumors…

  19. The Newsroom

    · 39 min · Episode 235

    Jeff German was a reporter for over 40 years in Las Vegas. He spent his life covering the mafia, corruption, and murder. In 2022, he was found killed outside his home. His colleagues at the Las Vegas Review-Journal…

  20. The Séances

    · 45 min · Episode 234

    In 1916, two British soldiers were held captive in a remote prisoner-of-war camp. People said the camp was escape-proof. One day, one of the soldiers received a postcard from his aunt in England, suggesting they try…

  21. Iceland Noir

    · 31 min · Episode 233

    Iceland is one of the most peaceful countries in the world, but people there love to read about crime. Even the Prime Minister of Iceland has written a crime novel. We stopped by her office to ask why. Prime Minister…

  22. The Other Phoebe Judge

    · 12 min

    A preview of what we’re making over on Criminal Plus! Hear me and Criminal co-creator Lauren Spohrer taking your questions, telling stories, and talking with other producers and special guests. We’re having a lot of…

  23. Wolf 10

    · 36 min · Episode 232

    In April of 1995, wildlife biologists flew small airplanes over Yellowstone National Park, looking for two missing wolves. “They’re just gone. And that’s implausible because wolves don’t just disappear.” Thomas…

  24. The Nurse

    · 47 min · Episode 231

    When Amy Loughren started working as a nurse at Somerset Medical Center, she did everything she could to hide the fact that she had a heart condition. And then, another nurse named Charles Cullen discovered Amy’s…

  25. The Perfectionists

    · 48 min · Episode 230

    A story about religion, sex, an assassination, and silverware. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts:…

  26. A Glamour and a Mystery

    · 42 min · Episode 229

    In the summer of 1917, 16-year-old Elsie Wright took a photograph of her 9-year-old cousin, Frances Griffiths. It was the first photograph she’d ever taken — and it became the source of a mystery that lasted for most…

  27. Roll of the Dice

    · 49 min · Episode 228

    The UNABOM investigation was one of the longest manhunts in American history - it lasted for 18 years starting in 1978. Before the FBI started investigating Ted Kaczynski, they looked into a number of suspects,…

  28. The Bodies in the Bog

    · 37 min · Episode 227

    In the summer of 1984, a local newspaper reporter outside of Manchester, England, got a tip from the police. A foot had been found in a nearby bog. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our…

  29. The Prison Newspaper

    · 43 min · Episode 226

    A little over sixty years ago, there were 250 prison newspapers being published on a regular basis. Today, there are 26. We visit Nash Correctional Institution in North Carolina to meet Phillip Vance Smith, II, the…

  30. The Impersonator

    · 35 min · Episode 225

    Mary Jones could sing just like Aretha Franklin. One night, a James Brown impersonator saw her perform at a Motown tribute show - and thought he could take her on tour and trick audiences into believing she was the…

  31. Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and Cleveland’s Torso Murderer

    · 41 min · Episode 224

    In 1934, a man collecting driftwood along the Lake Erie shore found a human torso on the beach. No one could figure out what had happened. Over the next several years, more bodies were discovered. Eventually, a coroner…

  32. The Unknown Woman

    · 37 min · Episode 223

    When a toymaker and a doctor teamed up to make the world’s first CPR doll, they decided to make the doll’s face look like one specific woman – a woman who they thought had drowned. People call her l’Inconnue de la…

  33. The Paramedics

    · 53 min · Episode 222

    As recently as 1965, if you had a medical emergency, the people who showed up at your door would be volunteer firefighters, police officers, or undertakers with a hearse. Today, the story of how a group of Black men…

  34. Lavender Scare

    · 28 min · Episode 221

    Helen James grew up in a military family — her great-great-grandfather fought in the Civil War, her father in WWI, and her uncles in WWII. So when she enlisted in 1952, she felt like she belonged. Shortly after, she…

  35. Shipwrecked

    · 38 min · Episode 220

    There’s an old sailors’ saying about the ocean at the southernmost part of the world — “below 40 degrees latitude, there is no law; below 50 degrees, there is no God.” David Grann brings us the story of what happened…

  36. A Mysterious Bank

    · 33 min · Episode 219

    In the late 1870s, a woman named Sarah Howe started a bank just for single women called the Ladies’ Deposit Company. She asked new customers to tell their friends about the bank rather than advertising in newspapers,…

  37. "Did we get it right?"

    · 45 min · Episode 218

    “What we ask jurors to do is to just absorb all this trauma and just to keep on absorbing it and not process it with anyone. Just hold it in and hold it in and hold it in.” A look at what happens during and after a…

  38. The Juror

    · 35 min · Episode 217

    In 2008, Sven Berger was chosen to serve on the jury for a murder trial. He says the sentence that he and his fellow jurors handed down “felt like a mistake right away.” Sven talked about what happened next on the…

  39. The Magdalene Laundries

    · 39 min · Episode 216

    When she was 14 years old, Elizabeth Coppin was sent to a place called Peacock Lane in Cork, Ireland. It was a laundry business run by a Catholic order of nuns. Elizabeth noticed bars on its windows. Say hello on…

  40. The Somerton Man

    · 42 min · Episode 215

    In 1948, two horse jockeys were riding on a beach in Australia when they came across a man lying in the sand. There was a partially smoked cigarette resting on his jacket. He was well dressed, with a striped tie and…

  41. Palace of Justice – A Conversation with Benjamin Ferencz

    · 29 min · Episode 214

    When Benjamin Ferencz was 27 years old, he prosecuted his very first trial. It's been called the largest murder trial in history, with more than one million victims. There were 22 defendants, each of them high-ranking…

  42. The Most Wonderful Terrible Person

    · 44 min · Episode 213

    When Debra Miller woke up on October 8th, 1964, she was expecting to see a black Volkswagen in her family’s driveway. Instead, she saw a police car. “And I knew my father was dead.” Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and…

  43. The Fasting Cure

    · 46 min · Episode 212

    In 1911, two sisters traveled to Seattle to meet a "doctor" named Linda Hazzard. The sisters didn’t seem very sick, but when they arrived, Dr. Hazzard told them they didn’t have a moment to lose – they needed to begin…

  44. Crazy Eddie

    · 38 min · Episode 211

    In the 1980s, the discount electronics chain store Crazy Eddie was so famous, its commercials were parodied on "Saturday Night Live." So when the family business began selling its company shares on Wall Street — making…

  45. Out of the Box

    · 43 min · Episode 210

    In 1964, one of the best javelin throwers in Australia traveled to England to see if he could qualify for the Olympics. But, because of an injury, he didn’t make the team - and he couldn’t afford a plane ticket home.…

  46. An Impossible Crime, Part 2

    · 43 min · Episode 209

    This episode continues where Episode 208 leaves off. In 2001, Daniel Taylor wrote a letter from prison to a reporter at the Chicago Tribune named Steve Mills. Steve Mills spent months investigating before publishing a…

  47. An Impossible Crime

    · 35 min · Episode 208

    Daniel Taylor was 17 years old when he was arrested for a 1992 double homicide in Chicago. But Daniel had an alibi. He was in jail at the time of the murders. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for…

  48. Novak v. City of Parma

    · 37 min · Episode 207

    In 2016, a man named Anthony Novak created a parody Facebook page of his local police department. "I just thought, 'That would be funny.'" About a month later, he was arrested. Novak is now petitioning the Supreme…

  49. The Feather Lady

    · 40 min · Episode 206

    On October 4, 1960, Eastern Airlines Flight 375 took off from Boston’s Logan airport, and then, two minutes later, it crashed. 62 people died. Investigators couldn't figure out what had happened, and they decided to…

  50. Sunset Mesa

    · 41 min · Episode 205

    Debbie Schum waited a long time to receive the cremated ashes of her friend, LoraLee Johnson. When she did, she felt relieved to finally take them home with her. But then, she got a call from the FBI. We first aired…

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