Podcast · Film & TV

True Crime Sleep Stories

by True Crime Sleep Stories · English · Film & TV

Hello and welcome to True Crime Sleep Stories, where you can settle in with a good true crime tale while drifting off into a safe sleepy slumber. Sip on a cup of hot tea, grab a warm fleece blanket, or cozy up by the fire... just make sure you’re comfortable and ready for relaxation. And now it’s

New episodes: Several times a week
Typical length: 25 min
Latest: 13 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

13 Oct 2026 · 25 minNew

96: The Devil's Footprints | 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories

Welcome to another night of 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories. On the night of February 8, 1855, snow fell over the villages along the River Exe in South Devon, England. The next morning, people in Topsham, Lympstone, Exmouth, Woodbury, Starcross, Dawlish, and Teignmouth found a line of small hoof-shaped prints in the snow. They came in a single file, about eight and a half inches apart. They went up to doors, over tall walls, across rooftops, over haystacks, and through a drainpipe. They showed up on both sides of a two-mile-wide estuary. Tonight we follow those tracks…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

E95 · 12 Oct 2026 · 28 minNew
95: The Disappearance of Judge Crater | 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories
Welcome to 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories... On August 6, 1930, New York Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force Crater disappeared after dinner at a West 45th Street chophouse in Manhattan. He had returned from Maine earlier that week, spent the morning with files in his chambers, cashed checks for more than $5,000, and arranged a theater ticket before meeting two companions. No confirmed sighting exists after he left the restaurant. A later grand jury found the evidence insufficient to determine whether he had left of his own accord, suffered amnesia, or been the victim of a…
E94 · 11 Oct 2026 · 15 minNew
94: The Death of Jeannette DePalma, Revisited | 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories
Tonight’s episode is one of the oldest on the show, from back when True Crime Sleep Stories was still new and I was often recording on my cell phone. Most of you never heard the original, so for 31 Nights of Frights it felt like the right time to tell it again. This is the 1972 case of 16-year-old Jeannette DePalma, who vanished from Springfield, New Jersey, and was found six weeks later on a cliff the locals called the Devil’s Teeth. Almost at once, the rumors turned to witchcraft. Thank you for sticking with me over the years. The room is a lot fuller now than it was when this one first…
E93 · 10 Oct 2026 · 12 min
93: Lenox College & Haunted Hopkinton Part 1 | 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories
Welcome back to 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories. This weekend I’ll be walking the halls of Lenox College in Hopkinton, Iowa , after dark. Not alone. Joining me are several true crime podcasters crossing over for a paranormal investigation: Justin from Generation Why , Lauren and Ken from Paradise After Dark and the Florida Themis Project . Lauren and I have done this before. We spent a night inside the Villisca axe murder house. This one is different. No known victim. Just a school that ran out of students, and a few stories that never quite left. This is part 1. I’ll be…
E92 · 9 Oct 2026 · 15 min
92: The Boy in the Box | 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories
Welcome to 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories. In the late winter of 1957, Fox Chase was a quiet corner of northeast Philadelphia, all rowhouses, corner stores, and rough fields at the edge of town. In February, in a brushy field off Susquehanna Road, a little boy was found wrapped in a flannel blanket inside a cardboard box that had once held a department-store bassinet. No one came forward to claim him. Tonight's episode follows the long, patient effort to give that child back his name: fingerprints checked against birth records, hundreds of thousands of flyers mailed with…
E91 · 8 Oct 2026 · 14 min
91: Listener Stories | 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories
Welcome to 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories. Tonight, three listener letters. A childhood house. A gas station after midnight. A rental where a staircase was not supposed to be used. Denise, winter of 1994, outside Moline. A mushroom nightlight. Her sister’s red parka on the hook. A sleeve that lifted like a wave. Marcus, 2011, Highway 218. A Kum & Go. A tan Taurus with a trash bag taped over the back window. A plate number on a receipt, and a deputy who could only say it came back to Keokuk. Lori, summer of 2006, 4th Street in Dubuque. Four screws, painted over. A strip of…
E90 · 7 Oct 2026 · 31 min
90: Lizzie Borden & the House on Second Street | 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories
Welcome to another night of 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories... "Lizzie Borden took an axe, And gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one." The kids jump-rope rhyme got almost everything wrong. It was not an axe, it was not her mother, and the forty whacks were made up to fit the beat. Lizzie Borden was tried and acquitted in 1893. Nobody else was ever charged. More than 130 years later, the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden are still unsolved, a case that went cold because 1892 had no tools to close it. Monster: The Lizzie…
E89 · 6 Oct 2026 · 18 min
89: HH Holmes & The World's Fair Hotel | True Crime Sleep Stories
Welcome back to “31 Nights of Frights” on True Crime Sleep Stories. Tonight we go to Chicago in the 1890s, when the World's Columbian Exposition was filling the city with light and crowds, and a block of brick and glass on Sixty-Third Street in Englewood was being run by a man who called himself H.H. Holmes. You have probably heard the tourist version. Trapdoors. Soundproof rooms. Acid vats. Hundreds of fair visitors who checked in and never checked out. Some of that story is so familiar it feels like fact. A lot of it is not. What the record supports is quieter and, in its way, worse.…
E88 · 5 Oct 2026 · 28 min
88: The Disappearance of Joan Risch | 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories
Lincoln, Massachusetts. October 24, 1961. Joan Risch, 31, spends an ordinary Tuesday morning with her two small children while her husband is on an overnight business trip to New York. A dentist visit. Lunch, a nap, a little pruning in the yard. Around 2:15 a neighbor sees her moving quickly up the driveway in a trench coat, carrying something red. It is the last confirmed sighting. By late afternoon the children are home alone. The kitchen is overturned. A trail of blood leads to the car and stops. Nothing is stolen. The mail is still in the box. Joan had lost both parents in a house fire…
E87 · 4 Oct 2026 · 17 min
87: Shari's Scary Stories | 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories
Welcome to 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories. :-) Tonight Kelli reads 2 stories from a listener & friend of the show, Shari. A little girl in a doorway, a handprint on the inside of a car window, and a road her brother never took. Then a rental house, a growling cat, and a voice on the basement stairs that said "run". Thank you for being here. Sleep well. Patreon Exclusive: Ad-free version & bonus content available now for supporters. Your support keeps the stories coming... thank you! 💤 Listen & Connect • Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@SleepyTimeCreepyTime • Listen on Apple…
E86 · 3 Oct 2026 · 31 min
86: The Freeway Phantom | 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories
Welcome to 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories. In 1971 and 1972, six young Black girls and young women were killed in and around Washington, D.C. Their bodies were found along freeways in the District and Prince George’s County. The killer was never caught. The case is still open. Carol Spinks, Darlenia Johnson, Brenda Crockett, Nenomoshia Yates, Brenda Woodard, and Diane Williams. The youngest was ten. The oldest was eighteen. Content note: child victims, kidnapping, sexual assault, and strangulation. Details are not described. Thank you for being here. Sleep well. Patreon…
E85 · 2 Oct 2026 · 23 min
85: John's Letter: The Haunted House on 7th Street | 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories
Good evening, dear listeners. A listener wrote to me and asked for his story to be featured on our October "31 Nights of Frights" series on True Crime Sleep Stories. He asked to be called John. That's not his real name. What he sent was a family story they've been telling for 30 years. They still call the place their old haunted house. One night after a party, he woke to footsteps in the hall. Water running. A toilet flush. Someone walking back to the other bedroom. Nobody was there. If you have a story like this... a house, a hallway, a night you still cannot explain... you can write to me.…
E83 · 1 Oct 2026 · 20 min
83: The Captain & the Vanishing Boy | 31 Nights of Frights on True Crime Sleep Stories
Welcome to Night 1 of "31 Nights of Frights" on True Crime Sleep Stories, in honor of Spooky Season. My friend The Captain from True Crime Garage told me a weird & creepy story the other day, and I knew it belonged here. This is that story. You can also find it as a bonus episode on True Crime Garage’s Off The Record . Go follow them if you aren’t already! Sleep well, dear listener. Patreon Exclusive: Ad-free version & bonus content available now for supporters. Your support keeps the stories coming... thank you! 💤 Listen & Connect • Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@SleepyTimeCreepyTime •…
E84 · 30 Sep 2026 · 2 min
84: 31 Nights of Frights: Coming in October, on True Crime Sleep Stories
Welcome to True Crime Sleep Stories... October is coming... And this year, we're not waiting for Halloween. Starting October 1st, True Crime Sleep Stories will release a new episode every single night. 31 nights. 31 stories. True crime that still doesn’t sit right... Paranormal encounters that were never supposed to be shared... Nostalgic terrors from childhood bedrooms and back roads... The unexplained… the kind that follows you home... A few familiar voices will join us along the way. Personalities you already know. Guests who have their own stories to tell in the dark. If you have one…
E82 · 28 Sep 2026 · 28 min
82: Belle Gunness & the Farm on McClung Road | True Crime Sleep Stories
Tonight we travel to northern Indiana in the spring of 1908. La Porte. A farm on McClung Road. A Norwegian widow named Belle Gunness lives there with three children. She keeps hogs. She writes letters. Neighbors see men come and go, trunks left behind, a life that looks busy and respectable enough... from the road. Then, a fire changed everything. Bodies, a trail of money, and a mystery that has never been totally put to rest. Sleep well, dear listener. Patreon Exclusive: Ad-free version & bonus content available now for supporters. Your support keeps the stories coming... thank you! 💤…
E81 · 25 Sep 2026 · 30 min
81: When The Nights Get Longer... | True Crime Sleep Stories
Tonight on True Crime Sleep Stories, 3 quiet disappearances for the soft start of spooky season. Tara Leigh Calico , 19, left home near Belen, New Mexico, on the morning of September 20, 1988, on her mother’s neon-pink Huffy. She told her mother, Patty Doel, to come get her if she was not back by noon. She never came home. Frieda Langer , 53, slipped into a stream near Somerset Reservoir in Vermont on October 28, 1950. She said she would take a shortcut back to the cabin to change. She did not arrive. Her remains were found the next May. Brandon Victor Swanson , 19, drove into a ditch after…
E80 · 18 Sep 2026 · 23 min
80: A Handle Worn Smooth: Haunting Axe Murders | True Crime Sleep Stories
Tonight on True Crime Sleep Stories, we follow a tool (the axe) instead of a single town or a single crime. In the late 1800s & early 1900s, an axe hung in nearly every woodshed. It split kindling to keep the stove roaring. Because it already belonged to the house, it sometimes became the last object a household ever used. This episode visits Fall River in 1892, Colorado Springs in 1911, a Bavarian farm in 1922, and a few other haunting cases... Settle in and sleep well, if you can. Patreon Exclusive: Ad-free version & bonus content available now for supporters. Your support keeps the…
E79 · 16 Sep 2026 · 28 min
79: The Red Barn Murder | True Crime Sleep Stories
Tonight on True Crime Sleep Stories, a young woman leaves her father’s cottage on a May afternoon and does not come home. The last place she was seen was a barn on a Suffolk hill. Months of letters follow. Then, strange dreams plague her stepmother. Tonight we walk the lanes of Polstead... ponds, cherry blossoms, a molecatcher’s iron, and a meeting that became one of England’s most remembered crimes. Patreon Exclusive: Ad-free version & bonus content available now for supporters. Your support keeps the stories coming... thank you! 💤 Listen & Connect • Watch on YouTube:…
E78 · 9 Sep 2026 · 38 min
78: The Lady of the Dunes: The Woman Behind the Mystery | True Crime Sleep Stories
For nearly 50 years, the identity of a woman found murdered in the dunes of Provincetown, Massachusetts, remained a mystery. Known only as the “Lady of the Dunes,” investigators searched for decades to discover who she was, & who was responsible for her death. In 2022, advances in genetic genealogy finally gave her back her name: Ruth Marie Terry . Tonight, we explore Ruth’s life, the decades-long investigation, and the discovery that finally brought one of Cape Cod’s biggest mysteries to a close. Patreon Exclusive: Ad-free version & bonus content available now for supporters. Your support…
E77 · 5 Sep 2026 · 30 min
77: The Wineville Chicken Coop Murders | True Crime Sleep Stories
Tonight on True Crime Sleep Stories, we travel back to 1920s Southern California to explore the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, the strange and conflicting evidence surrounding the case, and the families left searching for answers. In 1928, a quiet chicken ranch in Wineville, California, became the center of one of the era’s most disturbing criminal investigations. After a frightened teenage boy revealed what he had witnessed at his uncle Gordon Stewart Northcott’s ranch, authorities began uncovering connections to several missing boys, including brothers Lewis and Nelson Winslow and…
E76 · 2 Sep 2026 · 29 min
76: Starvation Heights | True Crime Sleep Stories
Tonight, on True Crime Sleep Stories... In the rainy woods of Olalla on Washington’s Kitsap Peninsula, Linda Burfield Hazzard ran the Institute of Natural Therapeutics. Neighbors called the hill "Starvation Heights". In 1911, British sisters Claire and Dora Williamson crossed Puget Sound for healing country air and vegetable broth. Tonight, we explore this strange case, quietly. Patreon Exclusive: Ad-free version & bonus content available now for supporters. Your support keeps the stories coming... thank you! 💤 Listen & Connect • Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@SleepyTimeCreepyTime • Listen…
E75 · 27 Aug 2026 · 35 min
75: The Unsolved Mystery of Room 1046: Who Killed Artemus Ogletree? True Crime Sleep Stories
On this episode of True Crime Sleep Stories... A young man checks into a Kansas City hotel under a false name. He has almost no belongings, keeps his room dark, and appears to be waiting for someone named Don. Then, in January 1935, he is found critically injured inside Room 1046. His real identity would remain a mystery for nearly two years, and even after he was finally identified as Artemus Ogletree, the biggest question remained unanswered: Who killed him? Tonight, we explore the strange and enduring mystery of Room 1046. Patreon Exclusive: Ad-free version & bonus content available now…
E74 · 18 Aug 2026 · 25 min
74: The London Beer Flood of 1814 | True Crime Sleep Stories
In tonight's episode of True Crime Sleep Stories... On October 17, 1814, a massive vat at London's Horse Shoe Brewery burst, sending more than 300,000 gallons of porter flooding into the streets of St. Giles. Eight people died in one of London's strangest and most tragic disasters. Tonight, we travel back to 1814 to explore what caused the brewery disaster, how the flood unfolded, and the lives forever changed by it. So settle in, relax, and let the story unfold at an unhurried pace. Thank you for listening. Sleep well. Patreon Exclusive: Ad-free version & bonus content available now for…
E73 · 12 Aug 2026 · 35 min
73: Shadows of Yellowstone: Into the Vastness | True Crime Sleep Stories
Shadows of Yellowstone: Into the Vastness In this episode of True Crime Sleep Stories , we step into the vast and quiet landscape of Yellowstone National Park. -We examine the strange 1970 murder of James Schlosser, a young social worker who offered two hitchhikers a ride near the park and never returned. -We then look at the still-unsolved 1991 disappearance of Dan Campbell and his dog Freckles from the Hellroaring Trailhead. Finally, we turn to the quieter accounts that have surfaced over the decades, reports of large bipedal figures, unexplained vocalizations, and moments that leave…
E72 · 15 Jul 2026 · 45 min
72: The Mysterious Murder of Julia Wallace | True Crime Sleep Stories
In this episode of True Crime Sleep Stories , we'll gently explore the remarkable case of Julia Wallace, a quiet musician whose tragic death has puzzled detectives, judges, crime writers, and historians for more than ninety years. Step back into the rain-soaked streets of Liverpool in the winter of 1931, where one ordinary terraced house became the setting for one of Britain's most enduring unsolved mysteries. We'll wander through the atmospheric streets of 1930s Liverpool, meet William and Julia Wallace, and follow the strange series of events that began with a mysterious telephone call…
E71 · 19 Jun 2026 · 25 min
71: Mysteries in the Woods | True Crime Sleep Stories
On tonight's episode of True Crime Sleep Stories, we journey deep into the forest, where ancient legends of watchful spirits meet real-life tales of isolation and mystery. From shape-shifting guardians to vanished skiers, innocent victims at a camp for kids, a severed hand in Yosemite, and honeymooners lost in the Grand Canyon... these stories explore how the woods can both enchant and conceal unimaginable darkness. Featured Cases: Steven Kubacki: The skier who vanished… and returned with no memory The tragic Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders at Camp Scott The Severed Hand in Yosemite (later found…
E70 · 5 Mar 2026 · 19 min
70: Shadows of the Shoemaker: The Crimes of Joseph Kallinger | True Crime Sleep Stories
On tonight's episode of True Crime Sleep Stories... Joseph Kallinger, a Philadelphia shoemaker and father of seven, was shaped by severe childhood abuse and untreated mental illness. In 1974–1975, delusions of divine commands led him, and tragically, his 12-year-old son Michael, into a brief but devastating crime spree. This episode honors the victims: José Collazo (age 10) Joseph Kallinger Jr. (Joey, age 13) Maria Fasching (age 21) We also remember the survivors of multiple terrifying home invasions across Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey... families bound, robbed, and traumatized…
E69 · 1 Mar 2026 · 34 min
69: “It’s 10 p.m. Do You Know Where Your Children Are?” | True Crime Sleep Stories
Tonight on True Crime Sleep Stories, we revisit one of the most haunting public service announcements in American television history: the nightly reminder that began airing in the late 1960s... “It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?” What started as a simple, well-meaning nudge amid rising urban crime and changing family dynamics slowly took on a darker resonance as the 1970s and 1980s brought wave after wave of heartbreaking child disappearances and exploitation cases. In this episode, we trace the PSA’s origins and quietly walk through some of the era’s most infamous tragedies:…
E68 · 27 Feb 2026 · 11 min
68: Shadows in the Vatican: What Happened to Emanuela Orlandi? True Crime Sleep Stories
Welcome to True Crime Sleep Stories. In the summer of 1983, 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi, a Vatican citizen and daughter of a papal household employee, left home for a routine music lesson in Rome... and never returned. What began as a simple missing person case quickly unraveled into one of the most enduring mysteries of our time, weaving together cryptic phone calls, terrorist demands, mafia connections, Vatican scandals, and decades of unanswered questions. Join us in this soothing yet haunting episode as we gently explore the layers of tragedy and intrigue surrounding Emanuela's…
E67 · 26 Feb 2026 · 15 min
67: The Monster With 21 Faces | True Crime Sleep Stories
In 1984, Japan was gripped by one of its strangest true crime sagas: a shadowy group calling themselves the "Monster with 21 Faces" kidnapped a candy company president from his bathtub, demanded millions in ransom, then escalated to taunting letters, arson, acid bombs, and actual cyanide-laced sweets placed on store shelves. They terrorized massive brands like Ezaki Glico (makers of Pocky) and Morinaga, forcing nationwide recalls and widespread panic over everyday treats. For 17 months, they outsmarted Japan's elite police force... and then vanished forever. No arrests. No motive fully…

About True Crime Sleep Stories

True Crime Sleep Stories is a English film & tv podcast from True Crime Sleep Stories. 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.

Publisher: True Crime Sleep Stories
Language: English
Category: Film & TV
New episodes: Several times a week
Typical length: 25 min
Latest episode: 13 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1649396201
Rights: Kelli Brink, True Crime Sleep Stories

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