Serial Killers & Murderous Minds takes you deep into the psychology of history's most chilling murderers, from infamous serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy to ruthless cult leaders, deadly exes, and spree killers. Every Monday and Thursday, hosts Vanessa Richardson and Dr. Tristin Engel
Between 1918 and 1919, a killer slipped into homes across Greater New Orleans under cover of night, attacking families with an axe and leaving investigators with few clues and no clear suspect. In a letter published by a local newspaper, the Axeman taunted police and promised to spare any home where jazz music played... turning an entire city into a single, terrified audience. As arrests were made and convictions overturned, the true identity of the killer remained maddeningly out of reach.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want…
In 1918, a killer began slipping into New Orleans homes under cover of darkness, attacking sleeping victims with an axe and vanishing without a trace. The attacks targeted the city's Italian immigrant grocers, leaving a terrorized community wondering who would be next... and investigators scrambling to find a suspect they couldn't identify. As the body count rose, false arrests and coerced statements threatened to send innocent people to prison.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join…
Fun fact: Did you know Jaws almost never existed because the shark kept sinking while filming? That is Connor Tomlinson just getting started. If that sounds fascinating, you are going to love Rewind Studios’ new podcast out now called WHAT THE FACT hosted by Connor Tomlinson and Carter Roy. It’s produced by the same team that brings you Serial Killers & Murderous Minds.Connor and co-host Carter Roy pull three unbelievable true facts every week and tell you the full story behind each one. Nothing is off limits. Myths and monsters. Forgotten scandals. Accidental discoveries. Untold stories…
On the night of February 29, 2000, Katherine Knight murdered her partner John Price at his home in Aberdeen, New South Wales... then committed acts so disturbing they had no precedent in Australian criminal history. Despite a lifetime of escalating violence and repeated threats against John's life, almost no one believed she would follow through.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime House+ and get both parts of each case dropped together on Monday ad-free. Join at…
In February 2000, Katherine Knight committed one of the most disturbing murders in Australian history... but the path to that night began decades earlier in a rural New South Wales household defined by violence, neglect, and sexual abuse. As Katherine moved through a series of volatile relationships, her fear of abandonment grew into a pattern of escalating intimidation and brutality that left a trail of traumatized partners and a community living in terror.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at…
In January 1993, Jean-Claude Romand murdered his wife Florence, his children Caroline and Antoine, and his parents Aime and Anne-Marie to prevent them from learning he had never graduated medical school and had spent nearly two decades impersonating a WHO research scientist. As investigators unraveled the crimes, they discovered he had also stolen hundreds of thousands of francs from family and friends...and attempted to kill his mistress on the same day he killed his family.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of…
For nearly two decades, Jean-Claude Romand convinced his family, friends, and colleagues that he was a respected World Health Organization researcher...while spending his days in cafes and rest stops, swindling loved ones out of their savings. And in January 1993, as the walls of his fabricated life finally closed in, Romand turned to violence rather than face exposure. This episode traces the childhood roots of his compulsive dishonesty through the eve of his ultimate crime.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of…
In August 1995, Mark Winger beat his wife Donnah to death in their Springfield, Illinois home and shot an innocent man, Roger Harrington, to frame him for the crime... then walked free for six years. When his affair partner finally went to police in 1999, investigators uncovered a chilling web of premeditation that had been hiding in plain sight.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime House+ and get both parts of each case dropped together on Monday ad-free. Join at…
In 1995, Mark Winger appeared to have it all: a stable career, an adoring wife named Donnah, and a newly adopted daughter in Springfield, Illinois. But beneath the surface, Mark was carrying on a secret affair and harboring a chilling plan to rid himself of his marriage without losing everything he'd built. When an unsettling encounter with a shuttle driver gave Mark the opening he needed, he set a deadly trap.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime House+ and get both parts of…
In the 2010s, Omaha man Dave Kroupa was terrorized by thousands of harassing messages, acts of vandalism, and arson, all seemingly from a woman named Cari Farver, who had vanished without a trace. What Dave didn't know was that Cari was dead, and the real perpetrator was someone far closer to him.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime House+ and get both parts of each case dropped together on Monday ad-free. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap…
In 2012, Omaha mechanic Dave Kroupa met Liz Golyar on a dating app... a connection that would spiral into years of relentless stalking, arson, and murder. And when Dave began seeing Cari Farver, she vanished overnight, and a torrent of threatening messages began arriving in her name. As the harassment escalated from digital terror to a house fire, investigators slowly realized the truth was far darker than a bitter ex.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime House+ and get both…
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ivan Milat lured at least seven young backpackers into Belanglo State Forest in Australia, where he stabbed, shot, and buried them in isolation he believed would protect him forever. A survivor's testimony, victim belongings kept as trophies, and forensic link analysis ultimately led investigators to his door...and a jury delivered seven unanimous guilty verdicts.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime House+ and get both parts of each case…
Ivan Milat grew up in a volatile Sydney household surrounded by weapons, abuse, and fourteen siblings. By his teens, he was already hurting animals, and allegedly... people. After a series of robberies, a sexual assault, and a faked suicide, Milat walked free from every charge and used steady road work to move unseen through Australia's most isolated stretches of highway. This episode traces how years of escaping consequences shaped one of Australia's most terrifying serial killers.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2…
The fourth and final episode of Campus Crimes examines the 2003 murder of Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy, who was shot and killed by his own teammate... but the crime that followed may have been even colder. Head coach Dave Bliss, facing exposure for recruiting violations, launched a calculated scheme to brand Dennehy a drug dealer after his death, recorded in his own words on a hidden tape. One young assistant coach risked everything to stop it.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at…
In November 2005, Morgantown, West Virginia, pediatric nurse practitioner Shelly Michael injected her sleeping husband Jimmy with a surgical paralytic, then set their home ablaze to conceal the crime. What investigators found —a body without soot in its lungs, a secret affair, and a controlled medication only she could access — built an airtight case against a woman her community trusted completely.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime House+ and get both parts of each case…
In Morgantown, West Virginia, pediatric nurse practitioner Shelly Michael appeared to have built the perfect life: a successful career, a beautiful home, and a blended family. But beneath that polished surface, she was carrying on a secret affair and quietly laying the groundwork for her husband Jimmy's murder.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime House+ and get both parts of each case dropped together on Monday ad-free. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on Apple…
The third episode of Campus Crimes follows the events of the Friday after Thanksgiving 1969, when 22-year-old graduate student Betsy Aardsma was stabbed through the heart in the basement stacks of Penn State's Pattee Library, surrounded by people, in broad daylight, and dead within minutes. A man walked calmly out of the stacks, said five words, and vanished; no one was ever charged. Decades of institutional silence, a scrubbed crime scene, and a suspect who died before investigators assembled the full picture left her family without justice.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial…
For this episode, Vanessa and Dr. Engels are joined again by Alexis Linkletter, co-hose of Crime House's newest show Crimes of Reddit. Between 1968 and 1985, a killer known as the Monster of Florence murdered eight couples on remote roads outside Florence, Italy, leaving behind chilling physical evidence and no clear culprit. Despite decades of investigation, multiple arrests, and shocking courtroom twists, no one was ever conclusively identified as the sole perpetrator. Forensic analysts are still examining DNA evidence today, and the case remains officially unsolved. Follow Crimes of…
For this episode, Vanessa and Dr. Engels are joined by Alexis Linkletter, co-hose of Crime House's newest show Crimes of Reddit. In 1968, a young couple was shot dead in the Italian countryside while their six-year-old son slept in the back seat: a crime that quietly launched one of Italy's most haunting serial killing sprees. For over a decade, a gunman stalked couples parked in remote areas outside Florence, leaving behind little evidence and a signature pattern of brutal mutilation. When investigators finally linked the crimes through a single .22-caliber Beretta pistol, the trail led…
On February 12, 2010, biology professor Amy Bishop opened fire on her colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, killing three and wounding three more after being denied tenure. But investigators quickly discovered the shooting wasn't her first act of violence: a quarter century of buried history, closed files, and institutional failures had put a gun in that room long before tenure ever came up. This second episode of Campus Crimes traces the deaths of Gopi Podila, Maria Davis, and Adriel Johnson, and the chain of overlooked warnings that preceded them.If you’re new here, don’t…
In July 2000, 21-year-old British hostess Lucie Blackman vanished after a date with a man she knew only as Mr. Kowa. In reality, he Joji Obara, a serial predator who had drugged and assaulted over 200 women across three decades in Japan. It was Lucie's own phone calls the night she disappeared, and the courage of his past victims who came forward, that finally brought Obara to justice.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime House+ and get both parts of each case dropped together…
Vanessa and Dr. Engels get into the case of Japanese serial rapist Joji Obara, who for thirty years, drugged and assaulted hundreds of women across Japan, documenting his crimes in chilling detail. Hiding behind false names and a surgically altered face, he evaded justice while his attacks escalated.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime House+ and get both parts of each case dropped together on Monday ad-free. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts,…
In the first of our four-part limited series "Campus Crimes," Vanessa breaks down the 1905 murder of Jane Stanford, co-founder of Stanford University, who was poisoned to death in a Honolulu hotel room. A coroner's jury ruled it murder, the evidence was clear, and the prime suspect had motive and opportunity. But the university's own president intervened, hired a compliant doctor, and replaced a murder verdict with "heart failure" in a cover-up that held for a hundred years.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of…
In June 2011, Israel Keyes abducted and murdered Bill and Lorraine Currier from their home in Essex, Vermont, a crime that went unsolved for years. Months later, he targeted 18-year-old barista Samantha Koenig near his own home in Anchorage, Alaska, breaking the strict rules he'd lived by... and leaving a trail that finally led investigators to him. Keyes died by suicide in 2012, leaving as many as eight murders unresolved and families without answers.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once?…
Israel Keyes spent years methodically preparing for murder: burying weapon caches across the country, committing crimes far from home, and maintaining a quiet family life to avoid suspicion. Born into a white nationalist sect and mentored by domestic terrorists, Keyes developed a chilling capacity for violence alongside an equally chilling ability to conceal it. This episode traces his upbringing, his earliest attacks, and the elaborate systems he built to keep killing undetected.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2…
Investigators spent years chasing suspects in the Villisca Axe Murders, including a traveling minister, a suspected serial killer, and an alleged hitman, yet every lead collapsed before trial. A coerced confession, two hung juries, and a killer who was never convicted left the case permanently unsolved.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime House+ and get both parts of each case dropped together on Monday ad-free. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on Apple…
In June 1912, eight people were bludgeoned with an axe in a Villisca, Iowa home while they slept. The killer left behind a staged scene filled with bizarre clues but no clear identity, plunging a tight-knit community into fear and suspicion.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime House+ and get both parts of each case dropped together on Monday ad-free. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. Serial…
Once again, Vanessa and Dr. Engels are joined by Andrea Gunning of "Betrayal Weekly" to discuss the crimes of Ed Kemper. In early 1973, Kemper murdered UC Santa Cruz students Rosalind Thorpe and Alice Liu following a violent argument with his mother, Clarnell... then turned his rage on her. After killing Clarnell and her friend Sara Hallett, Kemper fled California before voluntarily calling police to confess to eight murders. His subsequent cooperation with investigators helped shape the FBI's behavioral profiling of serial killers.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers &…
Vanessa and Dr. Engels are joined by Andrea Gunning of "Betrayal Weekly" to discus the crimes of Ed Kemper, who murdered at least six young women who accepted rides from him while hitchhiking in the 1970s. But the roots of his violence stretched back to a childhood defined by abuse, abandonment, and early acts of cruelty toward animals and family members. After killing his grandparents at 15 and spending years in a psychiatric facility, Kemper returned to society with a calculated understanding of how to manipulate those around him... including the doctors meant to stop him.If you’re new…
In the fall of 2002, John Muhammad and his teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo killed nearly 20 people across the mid-Atlantic and southern United States, paralyzing the nation with fear. Until a trail of careless mistakes finally led investigators to the pair sleeping in their Chevy Caprice at a Maryland rest stop.If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Serial Killers & Murderous Minds to never miss a case! Want all 2 parts of every case all at once? Join Crime House+ and get both parts of each case dropped together on Monday ad-free. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on…
About Serial Killers & Murderous Minds
Serial Killers & Murderous Minds takes you deep into the psychology of history's most chilling murderers, from infamous serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy to ruthless cult leaders, deadly exes, and spree killers. Every Monday and Thursday, hosts Vanessa Richardson and Dr. Tristin Engels, a clinical and forensic psychologist, blend gripping true crime storytelling with expert analysis to uncover what drives people to kill. What fuels their darkness? How do their minds work? And most hauntingly, could they have been stopped?Serial Killers & Murderous Minds is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios. Follow us on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe to @crimehousestudios on YouTube and follow us @crimehouse on Instagram.
Serial Killers & Murderous Minds is a English true crime podcast from Crime House. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.
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