BREAKING NEWS: Alex Murdaugh WILL face a new trial. A South Carolina court has overturned the 2023 murder convictions of ex-lawyer Alex Murdaugh. Five out of five Supreme Court judges ruled that he deserved a new trial because the jury had been unfairly biased against him.

Listen to our full episode from 2023, to get the full story on one of the most sprawling true crime cases out there…

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The Murdaugh murders are not one story; they are a seemingly endless web of lies, entitlement, and confusion. At the centre of the web are the bodies of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, found at their hunting lodge.

But tangled in it are the tragic deaths of three other completely innocent people, dragged in by the most powerful family in South Carolina.

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As wrongful convictions go, the trial of Leo Schofield – who stood accused of killing his young wife Michelle Schofield – had it all: bias, speculation, and pure fabrication. And through the years, through a combination of bad luck and bad representation, Schofield stayed behind bars.

In this second part, we look at how this cold case finally warmed up, thanks in no small part to the journalists behind Bone Valley. And, the bigger question: if not Leo, then who?

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Critically lauded dance troupe, or sinister, human-trafficking, brainwashing, child-abusing cult? However you slice it, there is a lot more going on to Shen Yun than the glitzy public posters let on.

This week we open the curtain on Shen Yun, and the cult behind it, Falun Gong – whose founder Li Hongzhi believes he can levitate, predict the future and read his followers’ minds. So: what does Falun Gong want to achieve? What do we make of their claims of torture, at the hands of the Chinese government? And HOW exactly how do they sell out shows of traditional Chinese dancing in every major city across the world?

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A deadly virus that causes hydrophobia, frothing at the mouth and delirious aggression might sound more like science fiction than real life. But that’s what awaited 15-year-old Jeanna Giese when she was bitten by a rabid bat in 2004. This is the history of one of the oldest and most deadly viruses known to man – and how a 15-year-old girl and her doctor managed to overcome it, against all odds. This is the ShortHand.

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When the body of 18-year-old Michelle Schofield was found in a canal in Bone Valley, Florida, the police quickly closed in on her guitar-playing, heavy-metal husband, Leo Schofield.

Leo claimed to be innocent, but investigators couldn’t shake the fact that Leo’s own father had been the one to discover Michelle’s body - after receiving “a message from God”…

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Party favours full of drugs, a hose-down rubber sex balcony, and Bianca Jagger on a real horse. It’s often said that the brightest flames burn for the shortest time – and by god did Studio 54 burn bright.

Under the helm of Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, 254 West 54th was the single coolest place on the planet – and set the blueprint for exclusive nightclubs to this day. Bowie, Warhol, the Jaggers, and every other celebrity you could think of felt lucky to set foot on its gigantic dance floor.

But what comes up, must come down, and it only took three years for the greatest club on earth to come unstuck. This is the story of sex, drugs, and disco – the rise and fall of Studio 54.

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Zombies, incantations and dolls full of pins… the version of voodoo that most of us get has been suffused with decades of Hollywood magic, and a dusting of light xenophobia.

But the reality of Haitian vodou is much more complex – and way more fascinating. So, how did slaves reconcile their own folklore and religions, with the Catholicism that colonisers were forcing down their throats? Who are the main lwa – or spirits – of vodou? And how can an offering of black coffee, rum and cigars help you to commune with the dead?

Find out in this week’s ShortHand!

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Trapped in a soundproof underground bunker, sleeping in a coffin-shaped box, abused and forced to watch news footage of her December 1992 disappearance on a loop, 10-year-old Katie Beers wondered if she’d ever see the world outside her makeshift prison ever again…

But one thing her captor didn’t know? Katie was a survivor.

This is the story of a little girl who fought against the odds – and managed to escape a lifetime of abuse.

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