Craving Crimes

Leonarda Cianciulli was a successful soap maker in Correggio, Italy. Though she was popular and well liked by her neighbors, she held a dark secret. While they thought nothing of the strange aromas coming from her kitchen, she was boiling her victims into soap and baking their blood into tea cakes. In this episode, find out how a grieving and desperate mother exercised human sacrifice to save her army-bound son.

Ken Rex McElroy was born on June 1st, 1934 in Nodaway County, Missouri. He was the second youngest of sixteen kids all raised by married couple, Tony and Mabel McElroy. McElroy would be accused of committing several crimes throughout his life including theft, burglary, arson, and assault. McElroy was located in the D&G Tavern with his wife, Trena when the townspeople followed him in, completely surrounding him. The crowd then followed him, blocking his way out and on June 10th, 1981, Ken Rex McElroy was shot several times, two bullets hitting him, and was killed in his pickup truck. But who killed him?

In 1971, John List, a supposedly good father, disappeared in the country after killing his entire family composed of his wife, mother, and three kids. The bodies took over a month to be discovered and only with the help of a neighbor. A manhunt began, with questions arising: where was he and why did he do this? It took the United States police over twenty years to track him down, but only with help from a very unlikely source.

On November 16, 1957 hardware store owner Bernice Worden went missing after an everyday interaction with a not-so-everyday man, named Ed Gein. Ed Gein had a fascination with his late mother due to the abuse he suffered as a child, and this fascination would lead him to taking the body parts of women who apparently looked like her, in order to fashion a flesh suit Gein could wear. To this extent he would go to the graves of women and exhume their parts, with, in his opinion, the "less-useful" parts becoming furniture in his house, such as bowls, chairs, soap containers, etc. What he would do to her, and Mary Hogan, another missing woman, were some of the most graphic and heinous acts known to man–that would later go on to inspire several famous horror movies.

In 1974, the cult known as Heaven's Gate was formed, and for the next twenty years they remained hidden away, preparing for what they believed to be the "next level" above humankind. Bonnie Nettles and Marshall Applewhite, the leaders of Heaven's Gate, appeared to keep the activities of the cult peaceful, but the 39 total deaths at the end of the cult proved otherwise.

December 26, 1996. 5:52 am. Boulder County Police in Colorado received a frantic call from a mother claiming her six year old daughter had been kidnapped. JonBenét Ramsey was only reported missing for seven hours before her brutally murdered body was found on the floor of the Ramsey family's basement. Her case became nationwide news as the world tried to uncover the truth behind the tangle of evidence. Who really killed JonBenét Ramsey? And were they closer to her than we think?

Between 1967 and 1969, several young women were brutally tortured and killed in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area of Southeastern Michigan. All of them were last seen with a young college kid, John Norman Collins. From an abusive childhood, to an average high school jock, to a serial murderer, what exactly makes the Ypsilanti Ripper tick?

Nathanial "Bodie" Barksdale was an infamous drug pin located in Baltimore during the 80s. He had started his multi-million dollar drug empire at an extremely young age and wound up indicted through a wiretap investigation all before the age of 25. His story was so engaging, HBO produced a, now famous, crime drama series dramatizing the events entitled The Wire. The show centers around the criminal justice department in Baltimore and was heavily inspired by Barksdale's life, however when it comes to the real Avon Barksdale, the truth can be much more unsettling.

In April of 2008, ten patients at DaVita Dialysis Clinic in Lufkin, Texas experienced alarming complications during their routine treatments. Further investigation revealed the suspicious and unsettling behavior of one of their nurses, Kimberly Clark Saenz. Eyewitnesses stated they saw the nurse injecting bleach into the dialysis ports of different patients, particularly those she expressed disdain for. Learn how a disgruntled nurse and a bottle of bleach led to a creation of a healthcare killer.

The body of 21-year-old Elisa Lam was found in the water tank of the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, California on February 19th, 2013. One unsettling viral video of her final moments catapulted this case into the spotlight and brought on a multitude of conspiracy theories including a murderous stalker, a hotel coverup, and even a government secret. What really happened to Elisa Lam? 4K Elevator Footage