Episodes

  • Possession: The Murder of Rebecca Schaeffer

    Possession: The Murder of Rebecca Schaeffer
    Nov 6 2026

    Success can be a double-edged sword, particularly if it puts you in the public eye. There are a lot of strange people in the world, and the most innocuous comments or behaviors can create an imaginary thread of connection between you and them. If you’re an actor playing roles designed to be attractive and fun, the problem can be even worse, because not everyone is good at separating fantasy from reality. These imagined connections can lead to obsession, and obsession can in turn lead to some very dark places.

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    Sources:

    John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, Obsession

    Gavin de Becker, The Gift of Fear

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/surprising-story-american-girl-who-broke-through-iron-curtain-180969043

    https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-07-23-mn-406-story.html

    https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-08-02-me-500-story.html

    https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-08/rebecca-schaeffer-hollywood-murder-that-changed-america

    https://www.courttv.com/title/judgment-with-ashleigh-banfield-ca-v-robert-bardo/

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    46 mins
  • Halloween Special: The Cleveland Torso Killer, with Richard MacLean Smith from Unexplained

    Halloween Special: The Cleveland Torso Killer, with Richard MacLean Smith from Unexplained
    Oct 30 2026

    Murder always makes an imprint in the lives of the people around it. But when a murder goes unsolved—or multiple murders—the imprint is even darker. It can linger through years, even decades. It can stain the history of an entire city. In the mid-1930s, there was a series of murders like that in Cleveland, Ohio. Gruesome, brutal murders that shocked the conscience of everyone who followed the story. We know for sure of 13. We suspect there were many more. Those murders have still never been solved. There are victims who have never been identified, never given back their names or their dignity. But a wealth of tantalizing clues remain, and there are some compelling theories on who the killer may have been.


    Sources:

    Cleveland Magazine, Erick Trickey: https://clevelandmagazine.com/articles/solving-the-cleveland-torso-murders/ https://www.clevelandpolicemuseum.org/collections/torso-murders/ "Unsolved Mysteries" with Robert Stack, S5, E13 (1992)

    Cleveland.com, Laura DeMarco: https://www.cleveland.com/life-and-culture/erry-2018/10/55d2b5ea596983/clevelands-infamous-torso-murd.html

    Buzzfeed Unsolved, episode "The Ghastly Cleveland Torso Murders"

    Various interviews and articles, James Badal


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    1 hr and 12 mins
  • Heroes and Villains: The Murder of Bob McClancy

    Heroes and Villains: The Murder of Bob McClancy
    Oct 23 2026
    Most of us have ordinary lives, with all its joys and heartbreaks, and that’s more than enough…but not for everyone. There will always be some people who want a brighter spotlight than their life has provided for them, but who ideally would like to avoid any hard work involved in earning it themselves. The kind of person who cares so much about how they’re perceived is also often the kind of person who finds it hard to care at all about the welfare of others. This can lead to some very dangerous decisions. Join us for a story of stolen valor, fraud, and murder. Sources: NBC's Dateline, S25E5, “Secrets in the Smoky Mountains” https://law.justia.com/cases/tennessee/court-of-criminal-appeals/2019/e2018-00295-cca-r3-cd.html https://tbinewsroom.com/2013/09/16/federal-prisoner-pleads-guilty-in-2006-monroe-county-murder/ Follow 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=enEmail: truecrimecampfirepod@gmail.comMERCH! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    41 mins
  • Foreign Substance: A Grab Bag of Poisoners

    Foreign Substance: A Grab Bag of Poisoners
    Oct 16 2026

    There are few crueler ways to harm someone than through poison. It turns your own body against you, making you a prisoner in a failing shell. Being poisoned can be terrifying, agonizing, drawn out for weeks or months…or it can push you out of consciousness and falling towards death as quickly and easily as turning off a light switch.


    Sources:

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/feb/10/curry-poisoner-guilty-murder

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/feb/11/poison-curry-killer-sentenced

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jan/06/poison-curry-murder-trial

    https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna25855779

    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13424532/

    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/nurse-faces-extradition-for-us-murder-1.1022408

    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/nurse-wanted-for-murder-in-us-now-living-in-dublin-1.1040566

    Forensic Files, S13E28 “Needle in a Haystack”

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    40 mins
  • The Misfit: Serial Husband John Smith Pt 2 (FINALE)

    The Misfit: Serial Husband John Smith Pt 2 (FINALE)
    Oct 9 2026
    In last week’s episode, we met John Smith, a lying, manipulative weirdo who almost certainly had killed his missing second wife, Fran. Towards the end of that episode, we learned that John had been married before, to a young woman named Janice Hartman—and that Janice, just like Fran, had gone missing, never to be seen again. We started that episode with a grim discovery six years after Janice’s disappearance—the skeleton of a young woman in a plywood box beside a country road in western Indiana, her legs cut off below the knees. This week, it all comes together. Ka'Chava: Go to https://kachava.com and use code CAMPFIRE for 15% off your first order. Sources: Michael Fleeman, The Stranger in My Bed NBC's Dateline, S32E37, “Chameleon” https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/9/2002/2002-Ohio-4402.pdf https://legalclarity.org/betty-fran-smith-case-from-disappearance-to-dropped-charges https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2004/oct/03/handler-hailed-for-her-search-dogs-sent-to-prison Follow 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=enEmail: truecrimecampfirepod@gmail.comMERCH! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    54 mins
  • The Misfit: Serial Husband John Smith, Pt 1

    The Misfit: Serial Husband John Smith, Pt 1
    Oct 2 2026
    If there’s one old folktale that finds a frequent echo in true crime stories, it has to be ‘Bluebeard,’ about a man who marries and then murders a series of wives. It’s a pattern we’ve seen time and again, with both killer husbands and lethal wives, most often driven by greed. That, at least, is something comprehensible—there are some killers driven by urges so cold and petty that it’s hard to even recognize them as human. Join us for the chilling true story of a serial husband whose entire life was a lie. Sources: The Stranger in My Bed, Michael Fleeman Follow 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=enEmail: truecrimecampfirepod@gmail.comMERCH! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    39 mins
  • The Bad Son: The Charles Family Murders

    The Bad Son: The Charles Family Murders
    Sep 25 2026
    All of us have some tensions and frustrations with our families, and that’s fine. It’s just normal human nature. But for some people, these rough edges to everyday family interactions become absolutely unbearable, an insult to their overinflated sense of importance. And those resentments can seep like poison through every particle of their being until it's all they can think of. Visit crimewaveatsea.com/campfire to join us on the CrimeWave cruise in February! Sources: https://supreme.courts.ca.gov/sites/default/files/supremecourt/default/documents/2-s076337-resp-brief-082809.pdf https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jan-16-me-63999-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-jan-30-me-13611-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-12-12-me-13181-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-01-02-mn-15646-story.html Follow 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=enEmail: truecrimecampfirepod@gmail.comMERCH! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    38 mins
  • Ancient Evil: A Grab Bag of Real Life Monsters

    Ancient Evil: A Grab Bag of Real Life Monsters
    Sep 18 2026

    Do you think people will still be talking about Scott Peterson or Chris Watts in a hundred years? How about five-hundred? Probably not, right? But there are some acts of cruelty and depravity that echo down the centuries, becoming entwined with myth and legend. This week, we’re going to take a look at two of these famous perpetrators.


    Sources:

    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/transactions-of-the-royal-historical-society/article/counting-the-stakes-a-reassessment-of-vlad-iii-draculas-practice-of-collective-impalements-in-fifteenthcentury-southeastern-europe/F1B68C737C004D494BBE3B8B9B5E0FF7

    https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vlad-the-Impaler

    MJ Trow, Vlad the Impaler

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    47 mins