Episodes

  • Left Where God Could Find Him: Amish Serial Killer Eli Stutzman Pt 1

    Left Where God Could Find Him: Amish Serial Killer Eli Stutzman Pt 1
    Nov 21 2025
    Comedian Simon Amstell said, “If you are somebody who is going to at some point be revealed as not like everyone else, then to be in an insular community is a problem.” Here Amstell was discussing how it felt growing up gay and going to a religious school. Insular religious communities shut themselves off from the world in order to keep their views unchanged by the outside. It’s extremely effective. The Amish are one such community. Most of their followers aren’t allowed to use electricity or have indoor plumbing. They view modern conveniences as threatening to their religious beliefs, which are at the center of their lives. Today’s case is about an Amish man who never quite fit in with his brethren. His sexuality, his disposition, and his work ethic all flew in the face of what his community believed. And maybe that’s why he fought so hard to prevent anyone from finding out who he really was, even resorting to murder.

    NOTE: We had some microphone issues on Katie's end this week--we apologize if the sound isn't as good as usual.

    Sources:
    Gregg Olsen, Abandoned Prayers: An Incredible True Story of Murder, Obsession, and Amish Secrets
    https://amishamerica.com/do-amish-believe-taking-a-photo-captures-their-souls/ https://www.ohiosamishcountry.com/articles/photography-and-the-amish https://www.ohiosamishcountry.com/articles/the-traditional-amish-youth-period-of-rumspringa https://language.mki.wisc.edu/essays/pennsylvania-dutch/#:~:text=While%20most%20Amish%20and%20Old,Lutheran%20or%20German%20Reformed%20affiliation.
    Investigation Discovery's "Murder in Amish Country," episode "Amish Serial Killer"

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    42 mins
  • TCC LIVE on the Crimewave Cruise!

    TCC LIVE on the Crimewave Cruise!
    Nov 14 2025
    Last week, we did our first-ever live show on the Crimewave true crime cruise! We covered three cases, a sort of "sampler platter" to give new listeners an idea of what kind of stories we usually tell on TCC. Case 1 is the bizarre story of a parody website that ended up bringing dozens of would-be killers to justice. Case 2 is the murder of chef Dan Brophy by his mystery-novelist wife. Case 3 is the true story of Stede Bonnet, bumbling pirate wannabe and possible boyfriend of the dread pirate Blackbeard. Thank you so much to IRL Events for the opportunity to perform live--it was a blast! Thanks too to Royal Caribbean for hosting us all.

    Note: There were some visual aids that went along with these cases, so sometimes you'll hear the crowd laughing at those.

    Patreon supporters will also have access to the half-hour Q and A session we hosted after the live show.

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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • Crown Fools: Two Notorious Cases from the UK

    Crown Fools: Two Notorious Cases from the UK
    Oct 31 2025
    We tell a lot of wild stories about crimes that happened right here in the States—but it’s worth noting that our cousins across the pond are misbehaving just as badly. Y’know, same crimes, different accent. Today we’ve chosen two cases that each mirror so many of the ones we’ve covered from here: A woman consumed by her toxic obsession for the man she wanted to marry, and a man more interested in playing soldier and spy than he was in building himself a real life. Case 1: Jane Andrews, the murder of Thomas Cressman. Case 2, fantasist Michael Newitt. Sources:Channel 5's "Countdown to Murder," episode "The Duchess, the Killer and Her Lover"The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/21/royal-aide-jane-andrews-prison-release-murderDaily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14403185/Sarah-Ferguson-killer-aide-Jane-Andrews-sick-animals.htmlMurderpedia, Jane Andrews (various articles)https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The%2Bspy%2Bwho%2Bfooled%2Bme%3B%2BFAKE%2BMI5%2BAGENT%27S%2BEX-LOVE%2BTELLS%2BOF%2BLIES%2BTHAT...-a0188988173 https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/oct/31/ukcrime-jamesbond https://www.hinckleytimes.net/news/local-news/bond-style-secret-agent-fantasist-jailed-6036157 https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/fantasist-fooled-police-into-believing-he-was-spy-5sd29jd8wpr https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/two-years-in-jail-for-fantasy-james-bond-kqmsrwj8h0t https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/21284267.fraudsters-james-bond-lifestyle-exposed/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3330805/Bankrupt-posed-as-James-Bond-style-secret-agent-for-two-years.html?ICID=continue_without_subscribing_reg_firstFollow us, campers!Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfirehttps://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/Facebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimecampfire/?hl=enTwitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfireEmail: truecrimecampfirepod@gmail.comMERCH! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.
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    47 mins
  • Sleeping With the Enemy: The Murder of Bill McLaughlin

    Sleeping With the Enemy: The Murder of Bill McLaughlin
    Oct 24 2025
    It’s hardly a revelation that physical attraction can cloud judgment. It’s one of the oldest traps in human nature—that spark of chemistry that overrides caution, turning common sense into background noise. For most people, the fallout is little more than a red face or a broken heart. But every so often, that same impulse leads someone much farther—into danger. Because behind the charm, the warmth, and the allure, there are those who hide something far darker: a heart devoid of empathy, and intentions that are anything but loving. When desire blinds you to the truth, the price can be more than heartbreak — it can be fatal.

    Sources:
    I'll Take Care of You by Caitlin Rother
    ABC News: https://abcnews.go.com/US/convicted-killers-millionaires-love-triangle-murder-case-maintain/story?id=80014616
    OC Register: https://www.ocregister.com/2012/05/18/girlfriend-gets-life-in-millionaires-murder-2/ https://www.ocregister.com/2012/01/11/an-ex-tells-of-a-yes-yes-nanette/

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    44 mins
  • The Price of Love: The Murder of Franklin Bradshaw Pt 2 (Final)

    The Price of Love: The Murder of Franklin Bradshaw Pt 2 (Final)
    Oct 10 2025
    In part one of this story last week, we learned about Utah millionaire Franklin Bradshaw, who over the years had gained both a stupendous fortune and a strained relationship with some of his family—in particular with his youngest and wildest daughter, Frances. Frances had for years been pressuring and manipulating her mom, Berenice, to steer some of the family fortune her way, and whenever Frank got in the way of that, Frances would be furious. At the end of last week’s episode, we met Frances’s own young family, two boys, Marc and Larry, that she was strangely insistent on keeping apart. Marc was the favored son, allowed to stay at home. Frances told him his brother Larry had been sent to a mental institution, but he was in fact just staying with relatives. This was a family of strange pressures and manipulations that would ultimately lead to Franklin Bradshaw being shot dead. This is part two of “The Price of Love: The Murder of Franklin Bradshaw.”

    Sources:
    Shana Alexander, “Nutcracker. Money, Madness, Murder: A Family Album”
    Investigation Discovery's A Crime to Remember, S5E8, “Mother’s Little Helper”

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    1 hr
  • The Price of Love: The Murder of Franklin Bradshaw Pt 1

    The Price of Love: The Murder of Franklin Bradshaw Pt 1
    Oct 3 2025
    All the money in the world can’t buy peace of mind. Family life, with its jealousies and rivalries, carries the same pressures no matter the size of the bank account—but when wealth is measured in millions, those pressures can twist into something far darker. Arguments over favoritism, inheritance, and control—the kind of disputes most families recognize in small ways—become battles with stakes that can determine the course of lives. And when greed collides with resentment, and morality is already thin on the ground, the results can be catastrophic. This week’s story is about what happens when the bonds of family are tested not by love, but by money.

    Sources:
    Shana Alexander, “Nutcracker. Money, Madness, Murder: A Family Album”
    Investigation Discovery's A Crime to Remember, S5E8, “Mother’s Little Helper”

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    48 mins
  • Swindles and Sacraments: A Story of Deception and Belief

    Swindles and Sacraments: A Story of Deception and Belief
    Sep 26 2025
    The Buddha said, "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and common sense." Ignore that advice, and you might find that you're clouding your vision--that instead of seeing what's really in front of you, you're filtering everything so it fits in with your beliefs. An unwavering, unquestioned belief in anything--a philosophy, an institution, or a person--can lend us strength sometimes, but it can also make us vulnerable. And there are plenty of people out there just waiting to exploit that vulnerability. This story is about two of them, each with a very different MO, and the havoc they wreaked in the lives of the people around them.

    Sources
    The German newspaper BZ (translated from German to English): Blackmail Sect: Now Former Members Speak Out by Romeo Regenass, Nov. 12, 2008
    Documentary "Seduced and Blackmailed" by Aldo Gugolz and Romeo Regenass
    Time: https://time.com/archive/6945942/the-swiss-gigolo-and-the-german-billionaire/
    NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna29594154
    The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/09/bmw-blackmailer-jailed
    Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5051613/Religious-leader-denies-blackmailing-woman-in-Swiss-gigolo-case.html
    Forbes:https://www.forbes.com/2009/03/09/scarbi-klatten-bmw-markets-faces-celebrity-blackmail.html
    The Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/gigolo-who-seduced-bmw-heiress-boasted-he-read-women-like-a-map-6824827.html

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    40 mins
  • Not Today: Amazing Stories of Survival

    Not Today: Amazing Stories of Survival
    Sep 19 2025
    We deal with a lot of real-life horror stories, and because it’s real life, they’re often chaotic and cruel. Justice might ultimately be served, but more often than not, the victims are already cold in the ground. If someone is dead-set on killing you, there’s a very good chance they’ll succeed. In the most satisfying fictional horror stories, of course, there’s a survivor, someone who faces the monster or killer and lives to tell the tale, someone who finds deep wells of courage and resilience inside themself and defeats the horrors the world throws at them. And these stories are not only limited to fiction.

    Sources:
    Investigation Discovery's Surviving Evil, S3E7, “The Bathtub Killer”
    A&E's Cold Case Files, S4E24, “Déjà Vu/Secret in the Well”
    People: https://people.com/bathtub-killer-dateline-nbc-murders-texas-8659842
    Court papers: https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/591471c6add7b04934373412
    https://multco.us/news/susan-walters-who-fended-hitman-provides-guidance-multnomah-county-crime-victims-portal
    Willamette Week: https://www.wweek.com/news/2016/08/17/a-hit-man-came-to-kill-susan-kuhnhausen-she-survived-he-didnt/
    Investigation Discovery's Nothing Personal: Murder for Hire, "This Man Brainwashed His Friend into Killing His Pregnant Wife"
    Oregon Live: https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2014/06/portlander_who_hired_hitman_to.html
    The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker

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    38 mins