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Criminal

Criminal is a podcast about crime. Not so much the "if it bleeds, it leads," kind of crime. Something a little more complex. Stories of people who've done wrong, been wronged, and/or gotten caught somewhere in the middle.

Episodes

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 55: The Shell Game

The Magic Castle in Hollywood has been a private club for magicians since 1963, and its walls are lined with portraits of magicians past and present. Among them is a portrait of one of the earliest American organized crime bosses and conmen, Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith. And though it may seem strange that this "mecca of magic" honors a criminal, Soapy's legacy reveals just how blurry the line is between a delightful trick and a dirty one.   
posted by bq on Dec 5, 2016 at 12:21 PM - 1 comment

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 49: The Editor

In November of 1988, Robin Woods was sentenced to sixteen years in the notoriously harsh Maryland Correctional Institution. In prison, Robin found himself using a dictionary to work his way through a book for the first time in his life. It was a Mario Puzo novel. While many inmates become highly educated during their incarceration, Robin became such a voracious and careful reader he was able to locate a factual error in Merriam Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia. He wrote a letter to the encyclopedia's editor, beginning an intricate friendship that changed the lives of both men. [more inside]
posted by bq on Nov 15, 2016 at 2:36 PM - 0 comments

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 54: Melinda and Clarence

Melinda Dawson found out on the same day in 1998 that her adoptive mother had been killed and that her husband Clarence was being charged with the murder. Clarence was convicted in 1999 and given two life sentences. Left alone with her two sons, no money, and no experience, Melinda set out to try and prove that he was innocent. She started with a suspect list.    [more inside]
posted by radioamy on Nov 6, 2016 at 10:24 AM - 5 comments

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 53: Melinda and Judy

When Melinda Dawson was seven years old, she learned that she was adopted under mysterious circumstances. As she got older and had children of her own, she tried to learn something about her biological parents. And when she went to the county courthouse and asked to see a copy of her birth certificate, she discovered that she was an unwitting participant in something much bigger and more complicated than she could have imagined. 
posted by bq on Oct 24, 2016 at 12:41 PM - 10 comments

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 52: The Checklist

SPOILER WARNING: Please listen to Episode 51: Money Tree before you listen to this one. While working on our last episode, we became curious about the nature of psychopathy -- how it is defined, and what to do if someone close to you meets the criteria. We spoke with Dr. Ronald Schouten, author of Almost a Psychopath, and Jon Ronson, author of The Psychopath Test.
posted by bq on Oct 24, 2016 at 12:40 PM - 3 comments

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 51: Money Tree

When Axton Betz-Hamilton was 11 years old, her parents' identities were stolen. At that time, in the early 90s, consumer protection services for identity theft victims were basically non-existent. So the family dealt with the consequences as best they could. But then when Axton got to college, she realized that her identity had been stolen as well. Her credit score was in the lowest 2%.  As she was working to restore her credit, she inadvertently discovered who had stolen the family's identity. It would change everything forever.  
posted by bq on Oct 24, 2016 at 12:39 PM - 7 comments

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 43: 39 Shots

In 1979 a peaceful protest by Communist workers in Greensboro NC turned into a massacre by the Klan. The police were nowhere to be found. This episode examines the incident and the investigation of who was ultimately to blame. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue on May 23, 2016 at 5:39 AM - 0 comments

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 33: Deep Dive

Sgt. David Mascarenas is the Dive Supervisor for the Los Angeles Police Department. He's been diving his whole life, and prides himself on never refusing a dive, no matter how treacherous. At least until the summer of 2013, when a murder investigation led him into unusually murky waters.
posted by bq on Dec 23, 2015 at 10:15 PM - 4 comments

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 32: It Looked Like Fire

Ed Crawford had never been to a protest until he heard about the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Robert Cohen, a staff photographer with the St. Louis Post Dispatch, ended up taking a photograph of Ed that would be seen around the world, and change both of their lives.
posted by Potomac Avenue on Dec 12, 2015 at 10:40 AM - 2 comments

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 24: Pearl Bryan

In February of 1896, a little boy discovered a woman's headless body in a farmer's field in Fort Thomas, Kentucky. No one knew who she was, or what had happened. [more inside]
posted by Gin and Broadband on Aug 11, 2015 at 2:40 PM - 5 comments

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 23: Triassic Park

The Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona has the largest collection of petrified wood in the world. The beautiful wood is more than 200 million years old, and visitors to the park often take a little piece home with them as a souvenir. But stealing the wood has serious consequences, both legal and, some say, supernatural. See photographs of the conscience letters and learn more about Ryan Thompson's book here. Check out our original episode illustrations at thisiscriminal.com. Say hi on Twitter @criminalshow. Criminal is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. [more inside]
posted by bq on Aug 6, 2015 at 12:52 PM - 1 comment

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 21: Bloodlines

Julius Robinson had killed for revenge before, and so when his sister was brutally murdered in her sleep last year, he says he planned to "get" the killer. He felt like his family expected him to get revenge, because that's what he'd always done, both in and out of prison. But when he learned that the killer was actually his 17-year-old nephew, he struggled against his family's expectations and his own.<
posted by Gin and Broadband on Jun 8, 2015 at 12:22 PM - 3 comments

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 18: 695BGK

Police officer John Edwards was patrolling a quiet neighborhood in Bellaire, Texas when he saw an SUV driven by two young African-American men. It was just before 2am on December 31, 2008. Edwards followed the SUV and ran the license plate number. When his computer indicated that the SUV was stolen, Edwards drew his gun and told the two men to get down on the ground. It wasn't until later that he realized he'd typed the wrong license plate number into his computer. He was off by one digit. By the time he realized his mistake, one of the men had already been shot in the chest at close range. But there's a major difference between this shooting case and so many others that we've heard about recently. This is the story of Robbie Tolan.
posted by Potomac Avenue on Apr 7, 2015 at 6:48 AM - 2 comments

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 17: Final Exit

No one disputes that it's against the law to take another person's life, but is it against the law to sit with someone and watch while they commit suicide? We meet an elderly woman who sneaks around the country as an "exit guide."  [more inside]
posted by radioamy on Mar 16, 2015 at 11:59 AM - 2 comments

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 16: Poster Boy

On July 17th, 1889, the residents of Clayton County, Iowa woke up to news of the worst crime in their history. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue on Mar 2, 2015 at 12:31 PM - 4 comments

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 15: He's Neutral

Dan Stevenson has lived in Oakland's Eastlake neighborhood for 40 years. He says crime has been an issue for as long as he can remember, but he isn't one to call the police on drug dealers or sex workers. He's a pretty "live and let live" kind of guy. Or he was. Before he finally got fed up and took matters into his own hands.To learn more about Criminal, visit thisiscriminal.comCriminal is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. [more inside]
posted by bq on Jan 30, 2015 at 1:15 PM - 4 comments

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 14: The Fifth Suspect

In June 2014, authorities released information about a massive child pornography ring being conducted in North Carolina.  Four suspects had already been arrested, and the police were asking the public for help finding a fifth suspect. But they didn't need to look very hard -- the suspect was about to turn himself in, almost by accident.
posted by Potomac Avenue on Jan 13, 2015 at 2:22 PM - 3 comments

Podcast: Criminal: Episode 13: The Big Sleep

Raymond Chandler is often called the greatest American crime novelist, famous for murder mysteries like "The Big Sleep" and "Farewell, My Lovely." He's the subject of several biographies, and his correspondence and manuscripts are archived at Oxford. But something very, very important to Chandler had gotten lost. No one noticed until a pair of Chandler's biggest fans, newlyweds in their seventies, got on the case. [more inside]
posted by Gin and Broadband on Jan 3, 2015 at 5:43 AM - 9 comments