Tales of True Crime

A murder in Portland, Oregon goes unsolved for decades until a forensic genealogy investigation reveals a Texas killer, executed in 1999 for a triple murder, was responsible for more evil than anyone knew. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

In a new record for forensic investigators, they're able to determine the killer of Peggy Beck with genealogy, 56 years after the crime. A victory for sure, but even though they found their suspect, they had a surprise waiting just around the corner... See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

The murders of Leslie Perlov and Janet Taylor in Northern California would vex investigators for decades and lead some to question whether they might have been victims of Ted Bundy or the Zodiac (or whether their murders were linked to another killing in Salt Lake City) but it would take a genetic genealogy investigation to finally identify the killer, 45 years later.

In January of 2020, Suffolk County authorities held a press conference to announce a new website about the Long Island Serial Killer case, to share a previously unknown piece of evidence with the public, and to ask for the public's help. In this episode, a few pieces of that press conference, and Troy's thoughts on what it means.

The behavior of one person can affect the behavior of another person. And sometimes when a group of people behave in a certain way, it becomes a snowball, rolling downhill. In 1944, in Mattoon, Illinois, it started with a report of a crime.

Even in the suburbs, our neighbors are sometimes strangers, and the horror we dread is often just beneath the surface, waiting to be exposed, like a cemetery where they moved the headstones, but not the bodies. On more than one occasion, Westfield, New Jersey has been just such a place.

Two murders in San Diego, six years apart, lead to three suicides and a lawsuit against the city of San Diego. DNA evidence can be a dangerous tool in the wrong hands.

A woman reports she's been raped, but nobody believes her. The perpetrator, who rooms with a police officer, attacks another woman, but she disappears before he can be brought to trial and charges are dropped. By the time her body is found, he has accidentally killed himself. 44 years later, the authorities discover through a forensic genealogy investigation that he was an evildoer beyond expectation.

A missing woman turns up murdered, a professional clown is the primary suspect, and it takes half a century to solve the crime.

He got away with murder on an insanity defense... shot to death in 1978 attempting to abduct a woman, and decades after his death, he claimed another victim.

When it is a head of state, we use the word assassination, but from a true crime perspective, the question is: Did terrorists attempt to murder George W. Bush, the American President, on September 11th, 2001.

Dozens of men disappeared in Grays Harbor over a two year period, both strangers and local residents. All of them could be traced back to one terrifying man... the Ghoul of Grays Harbor.

A Police Officer in a marked vehicle is the most beyond reproach. Nobody questions why a police cruiser is parked along the road. You just move on with your day, keep a close eye on the rearview mirror and hope they dont have any questions for you.

If the murder victims found in the impenetrable marshes off Ocean Parkway were all killed by the same person, it means one faceless serial killer has been stalking New York for more than 20 years unidentified, with as many as 16 victims.

The search for Shannan Gilbert would yield unintended results, bodies, or perhaps more accurately, body parts, which would leave authorities no choice but to admit, a serial killer was at work on Long Island-a sinister savage with no regard for human life

Genealogical DNA Analysis is capturing murderers and rapists by the hundreds, so why would anyone object to such an effective new tactic by law enforcement?

To many, he was a strange hermit. To others, he was insane. Years after his death in the state asylum, they would find out just how insane he had been. The Midnight Rider, Eugene Butler.

A little girl is killed in a hit and run. It takes more than forty years to identify her killer, but the statute of limitations has run out and he cannot be prosecuted... And yet, he will still face justice.

In episode 4 we re-examine the crimes of The Zodiac and ponder the chances that the serial killer who terrorized Northern California more than a half-century ago might still be identified.

A convicted murderer is sentenced to death by hanging, only to escape the hangman's noose through a legal technicality. After serving time at Alcatraz, he's turned loose to become a serial killer and prey on women again.

The conclusion to the story of the 1977 Detroit murder of a man named Jack Whiteley, a crime for which the host's uncle was tried and convicted. What led him to a life of crime, and why would he participate in the murder of a local businessman?

The premiere episode of Tales of True Crime, a podcast on capers infamous and shocking, whether solved or yet to be answered. In this first episode, host Troy Larson discusses a case that strikes unusually close to home.