Serial Killers

For over a year, Robin Gecht had been leading his own satanic cult composed of three of his own workers. But as they committed more murders, they got sloppy. When a victim left for dead survived her attack, it opened a window for police. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As the days count down to Hale-Bopp's arrival, 39 people prepare for ascension. They'd abandoned their old lives, embraced a new ideology, weathered the death of a beloved leader… and finally, made themselves worthy of the Next Level. Now, the comet was coming. And with it, the spaceship that would ferry them onward. In March of 1997, they left everything behind. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The group's belief system had never been infallible. There had been adjustments along the way; revisions meant to keep the wheels turning whenever prophecies didn't manifest. But then, in 1985, Bonnie Lu Nettles died. And her passing threw Heaven's Gate's whole world askew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After committing his first three murders, Joseph's struggle with schizophrenia persisted. He couldn't ignore the voices. And by the time he'd done their bidding, 12 people had died, and he'd been given a new nickname: "The .22 Caliber Killer." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two years before he embarked on a killing spree in Buffalo and New York City, Joseph G. Christopher's friends and family noticed a seismic shift in his personality. The 23-year-old was beset by mood swings and paranoia. His hold on reality was unraveling. In the end, it would prove fatal.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rediscover the dark side of love in the second season of this special collection from Parcast Network. Enjoy a clip from the first episode, then follow Criminal Couples for new episodes every Monday!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After he killed his friend Cherie in 1980, Randy Woodfield was a clear suspect in the murder — but he still managed to walk free. The failed football star went on to commit a horrifying string of assaults and murders along the West Coast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He was a star football player in the early 1970s. A talented athlete with every chance for boundless success. But he developed a nasty temper, and a ferocious sense of entitlement. Whatever Randy Woodfield wanted, he was going to take. By any means necessary.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Imagine living with a secret so big, if anyone were to find out, it would change everything. From love affairs and fake identities to heists and murder — do you think you could take a secret like that to the grave? Discover the most explosive things people have admitted to just moments before the end in the new Spotify Original from Parcast, Deathbed Confessions. Listen to an exclusive clip from the first episode right here, then search and follow “Deathbed Confessions” to hear more. New episodes air weekly! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After his first three murders, Kenneth McDuff was quickly apprehended and brought to trial. But while it seems like that should be the end of the story, the tale of Kenneth McDuff still had a long way to go… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kenneth Allen McDuff led a charmed life. He was an angelic child. At least, that's what his doting mother thought. But in reality, Kenneth concealed a sadistic desire to hurt people, and his first murders left his hometown shaken. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They're some of the most iconic figures of all time, celebrated in death for their individual achievements and impact on society. But in life, the relationships they kept tell a different story — one of unexpected connections that yielded extraordinary change. In this new Spotify Original from Parcast, explore the shared legacies of prolific pairs from the past. Listen to an exclusive clip from the first episode right here, then search and follow “Obituaries” for new episodes every Wednesday! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As a long-haul trucker, Eckert realized his job afforded him the perfect conditions to kill. And claiming victims was the perfect way to finally complete his macabre trophy — a life-sized human doll, complete with a full head of hair. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From a young age, Volker Eckert displayed a strange fascination with women's hair. His fetish led him to murder in 1974, when he was just 14 years old. Eckert spent the next decades assaulting women across Western Europe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Some serial killers' reigns of terror are cut mercifully short, due to careless mistakes or careful police work. Pedro Alonso López was not one of those killers. The number of his victims is staggering — but the way his story ends is perhaps the most terrifying of all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John Joseph Joubert was plagued by disturbing daydreams, along with a horrifying urge to hurt little boys, and in the 1980s, he finally acted on both. But when he targeted a teacher's young students, her determination signalled the end of his deadly spree. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This summer, sift through the files of America's most covert organization in a special collection from Parcast Network. From secret alliances to global cover-ups, uncover the cold, hard facts and unproven theories surrounding the CIA. Listen to a clip from the first episode here, on the domestic mind control program known as Project MK-Ultra. Then search and follow “Conspiracy Theories: CIA Edition” for declassified episodes every Thursday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Having graduated from brutal assaults to murders, Paul Ogorzow felt untouchable as he rode the rails, throwing his victims off speeding trains. But every train has to stop somewhere, and Paul's was headed for one very specific ending: swift and brutal justice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming of age alongside Adolf Hitler's political rise, Paul Ogorzow took his cue from the Nazi party, and looked at some of his fellow Germans as little more than rodents to be stamped out. He took advantage of World War II to carry out his terrifying attacks around Berlin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are few criminals so reviled as a child killer. David Elliot Penton was one of them. His crimes were so horrendous, he earned the nickname "The Bogey Man." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A lifelong drifter and con man, Roy Melanson charmed and manipulated his way into his victims' lives beginning in the 1960s. As his crimes became more gruesome, his vagabond lifestyle made him virtually impossible to track down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ashley Flowers explores 15 of the world's worst crimes in the new Spotify Original from Parcast, International Infamy. The first episode takes you to Mexico and the true story of Juana Barraza — a pro wrestler who became a serial killer known as the “Little Old Lady Killer.” Listen to an exclusive clip right here, then follow International Infamy for the full episode. New episodes every Tuesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Avoiding capture as Amherst's terrifying “Bike Path Rapist” emboldened Sanchez to commit his first murder in 1990. His crimes were escalating — but inexplicably, after nearly two decades of violence, he vanished. Twelve years later, the Bike Path Killer returned. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An elusive rapist stalked areas around Buffalo, New York, for decades beginning in the late 1970s. When he moved to a city once dubbed the “Safest City in America,” he began using his signature weapon to not just subdue… but to kill.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Harry Powers lived a life shrouded in mystery, so tracing his origins is difficult. But here's what we know: he was a conman without a conscience, and he was a ruthless killer whose victim count might be higher than anyone ever imagined... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Revisit ten of the worst fathers in true crime history in this special collection from Parcast Network. From the father who turned his son into a spy, to the dad whose long business trips turned out to be mafia hits, these dads will definitely not be getting any Father's Day gifts this year. Devious Dads is a Spotify Original from Parcast. Listen free on Spotify!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1973, 7-year-old Susie Jaeger fell asleep in a tent with her siblings while on a camping trip with family. When her siblings woke up, the tent had been slashed open and Susie was gone. A team of profilers believed David Meirhofer was responsible for the kidnapping — they just had to prove it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

By 1999, Sells had murdered men, women and children in multiple states, and showed no signs of slowing down. He might never have been stopped, had he not attacked a little girl who survived to identify him, and finally put an end to his decades-long murder spree. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For over 20 years, Tommy Lynn Sells hitchhiked across the U.S., killing indiscriminately and without mercy. What started as a revenge fantasy involving his childhood abuser grew into a deadly impulse that would claim nearly two dozen lives.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

By the beginning of 2011, Bruce McArthur had killed and dismembered two men, hiding their bodies in enormous planters at a client's house. But when police let him slip through their hands, he was free to kill again.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For most of his life, Bruce McArthur led an unremarkable existence. But in the 1990s, he split from his wife and moved to Toronto's gay village — free to be his true self. Unfortunately, McArthur's true self was violent, bloodthirsty... and murderous. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After amassing wealth and influence as a spiritual advisor in the 1980s, Adolfo Constanzo set his sights on the lucrative drug trade in Matamoros. To claim a piece for himself, he needed more power. And for that, he turned to one thing: human sacrifice.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Schooled in the darkest corners of his family’s Afro-Carribean religion, Adolfo Constanzo decided to make his fortune using magic granted through animal sacrifices. In Mexico City, he grew his power and esteem — but he wanted something more. He wanted revenge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By 1828, Burke and Hare’s scheme of murdering people and selling their bodies was making them rich. But eventually, one curious woman crashed their entire operation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When a tenant at their boarding house died in 1827, William Burke and William Hare found a way to make some extra money: selling bodies to a medical school. But to keep it up, they’d need a fresh supply of dead bodies — and those were hard to come by. Naturally, at least.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wayne Simmons had a dramatic 27-year career with the CIA taking down cartels and busting arms smugglers — or did he? The ex-CIA military analyst and cable news star stands accused of being a fraud. Hosted by the reporter who broke the story, Impostors follows the investigation into who Wayne Simmons really is… Hero, or conman? Impostors is a Spotify Original from Parcast. Produced by Topic Studios and Transmitter Media. Hosted by Alex French. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Having moved from break-ins to aggressive sexual assault, David Russell Williams carefully planned his first horrific murder in late 2009. It was not his last. But the high-ranking military officer could only fly under the radar for so long. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As an officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, David Russell Williams had a spotless record for decades before beginning a breaking-and-entering spree in 2007. Stealing into women’s houses, he photographed himself wearing their underwear, setting the baseline for crimes that would later include rape and murder.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After his first murder in San Francisco, Richard Ramirez headed back to Los Angeles to begin a killing spree that had the whole city terrified. His brutal attacks came after dark and without warning, earning him the chilling nickname "Night Stalker.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A troubled relationship with his father, his religion, and the demonic visions he saw during seizures dominated Richard Ramirez’s childhood in the 1960s. When he witnesses a horrific crime at the hands of a sadistic cousin, he comes face to face with his own dark nature.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This awards season, pull back the curtain on Tinseltown’s most infamous controversies in the new Spotify Original from Parcast, Hollywood Scandals. You can hear the first episode on Hollywood’s sordid beginnings right here, then follow Hollywood Scandals for an episode every Monday. Listen free, only on Spotify!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Organized and meticulous, Timothy Wilson Spencer evaded suspicion until a detective began connecting the dots between Arlington’s “Masked Rapist” and Richmond’s “South Side Strangler.” The 1988 case against him helped exonerate a wrongfully convicted man, and made forensic science history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Growing up in Arlington, Virginia in the 1960s, Timothy Wilson Spencer displayed an alarming interest in torturing animals and burglarizing homes. With practiced cruelty and stealth, he eventually became known as “The Masked Rapist” for his attacks on women.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Born in 1935, Florencio Fernández grew up in a region of Argentina nicknamed the “fortress of folklore.” As a teenager, destitute and alone, he watched a film at a local theater that would change his life — and inspire his crimes. That film’s name? Dracula. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creepypastas, frightful TikToks, online horror stories… Loey Lane and Eleanor Barnes are taking you into the spookiest corners of the web in their new Spotify Original from Parcast, Internet Urban Legends. Meet the hosts and hear their debut episode on the Watcher House — a terrifying saga that unfolded in 2014 after the Broaddus family bought their dream home in New Jersey. Listen free on Spotify, and follow Internet Urban Legends for new episodes every Tuesday! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Salvator Perrone’s early life in the 1950s is a murky mystery, but by the time he was in his 60s, the failed fashion entrepreneur had a grudge against the world — and he was ready to exact his revenge.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By the 1980s, Ted Kaczynski had set off several bombs, causing only minor injuries — but for him, it wasn’t enough. What had started as a plot for revenge grew into an unrelenting need to change the world. To do that, he needed to kill. The reign of the Unabomber had begun. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spotting his genius at a young age, Ted Kaczynski’s parents pushed their son to academic excellence — but Ted never found a true home in the hallowed halls of academia. Instead, by 1969, he was a former math professor with a festering hatred for the modern world.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By Thanksgiving 1986, Gary Heidnik had captured a woman and locked her in his basement, where he intended on making her carry his children. But Gary wanted an entire “birthing harem.” Over the next four months, he lured five more women to his Philadelphia home… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Estranged from his family, Gary Heidnik’s behavior grew more and more troubling as he grew older. By 1976, no one was around to notice when he started digging a pit in his basement — one big enough to hold a person... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When a six-year-old girl was brutally murdered in Chicago in 1945, the public and the press demanded answers. Luckily, police found the killer by chance when they arrested a teenage burglar named William Heirens. Or did they? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices