Crime To Burn
We focus on the dark and sooty landscape where true crime intersects with arson and criminal negligence in fire cases. Created and hosted by April and some guy that’s seen Backdraft at least twice.
Episodes
The Flora Four: Between Rumors and Reality - Part 1
Episode 74 On November 21, 2016, a fire tore through a home in Flora, Indiana, claiming the lives of four young sisters: Keyana, Keyara, Kerriele, Kionnie. Nearly nine years later, the case remains unsolved, mired in contradictions, unanswe…
Pizza, Powder & Pyrotechnics: The Boy that Bombed the Feds
Episode 73 In the late 1980s, Florida’s Gulf Coast was a powder keg of cocaine, cash, and violence. In this episode, we dive into the wild case of Jeff Matthews — a drug kingpin whose ego was as big as his rap sheet, and whose grudges were……
Built to Burn: The Untold Conspiracy of the Beverly Hills Supper Club - The Finale
Episode 72 Was it arson—or was it a tragic accident? In the final installment of our five-part series, we walk through the evidence from the perspective of a fire protection engineer. We’ll dissect the fire’s behavior, ignition theories, th…
Emergency Bonus Episode - The Murder of Paul Clifford and the Fight for Justice
Episode 72 (Emergency Bonus Episode) This is not a regular episode. This is a plea for action. In 2024, Paul Clifford was brutally murdered—his body set on fire in an act of unspeakable violence. Now, the Pima County Attorney’s Office is pr…
Built to Burn: The Untold Conspiracy of the Beverly Hills Supper Club - Part 4
Episode 71 What if the official story is a lie? In this episode, you’ll hear from someone who was there that night—an employee who worked the wedding reception in the Zebra Room just hours before it ignited. For decades, she stayed silent. …
Built to Burn: The Untold Conspiracy of the Beverly Hills Supper Club - Part 3
Episode 70 As smoke begins to creep into the Cabaret Room, the audience still doesn’t realize the nightmare unfolding just beyond the doors. In this episode, we follow the chilling timeline from the moment busboy Walter Bailey issues his wa…
Built to Burn: The Untold Conspiracy of the Beverly Hills Supper Club - Part 2
Episode 69 The Beverly Hills Supper Club wasn’t built to burn—but it sure wasn’t built to last either. In Part 2, we peel back the velvet curtain to reveal a firetrap disguised as Kentucky’s swankiest hotspot: no sprinklers, no fire alarms,…
Built to Burn: The Untold Conspiracy of the Beverly Hills Supper Club - Part 1
Episode 68 On May 28, 1977, the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky went up in flames, claiming the lives of 165 people. The official ruling? Accidental fire. But decades later, that conclusion is still under scrutiny. In Part …
Culture on Trial: The Wrongful Conviction of Han Tak Lee
Episode 67 In 1989, a fire at a religious camp in Pennsylvania claimed the life of 20-year-old Ji Yun Lee. Her father, Han Tak Lee, a Korean immigrant with no criminal record, was swiftly arrested, tried, and sentenced to life in prison. Bu…
Obedience to Ashes: Cults, Chaos and Criminal Fires - The Finale
Episode 66 The story of the Lords of Chaos comes to a close in this final installment. After the murder of Mark Schwebes, the cracks begin to show. Confessions spill. Arrests are made. And the twisted empire Kevin Foster built starts to col…
Obedience to Ashes: Cults, Chaos and Criminal Fires - Part 2
Episode 65 In Part 2, the Lords of Chaos escalate from chaos to carnage. What began as vandalism and firebombs takes a darker turn when Kevin Foster declares war—not just on authority, but on anyone who stands in his way. As their plans spi…
Obedience to Ashes: Cults, Chaos and Criminal Fires - Part 1
Episode 64 Obedience to Ashes, Part 1 It started with friendship. With a promise of belonging. With a charismatic—yet deeply flawed—leader. But beneath the surface of this group of misfit boys, something much darker was brewing. In Part 1 o…
Exploding Pants: A Chemical Criminal Saga
Episode 63 The Pants, the Plot, and the Pickle Rain: Sodium Chlorate's Wild Ride This week on Crime to Burn, we celebrate our one-year podiversary with an explosive tale—literally. From flaming trousers and banned weedkillers to accidental …
The Girls are Gone - The Case of Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible - The Finale
Episode 62 The Finale. For over two decades, Lorene Bible has chased whispers through rural Oklahoma—across backroads, into burned-out houses, and deep into the shadows of fear and corruption. In this final chapter, we follow her relentless…
The Girls are Gone - The Case of Ashely Freeman and Lauria Bible - Part 2
Episode 61 Whispers. The town of Welch, Oklahoma was full of whispers after the bodies of Danny and Kathy Freeman were located in the burned out Freeman home. Whispers about drugs, wrongful deaths, police involvement, intentionally botched …
The Girls are Gone - The Case of Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible
Episode 60 In the early hours of December 30, 1999, a mobile home in Welch, Oklahoma went up in flames. Inside, the bodies of Kathy and Danny Freeman were discovered—but their daughter Ashley and her best friend Lauria Bible were gone. In t…
Behind the Byline: An Interview with Liliana Segura
Episode 59 In this special episode of Crime to Burn, we go beyond the headlines with investigative journalist Liliana Segura of The Intercept, one of the first reporters to dig into the troubling details of the Michelle Taylor arson case. F…
Science Fiction - The Forensics that Framed Michelle Taylor
Episode 58 When Michelle Taylor lost her son in a tragic house fire, she thought the nightmare couldn’t get worse. She was wrong. Fueled by junk science, broken forensics, and a crime lab running on expired credibility, the prosecutors turn…
The Happy Land Social Club Fire - New York City
Episode 57 An illegal nightclub in the Bronx was the scene of the largest mass murder in US HIstory at the time it occurred in 1990. A scorned lover went to the club to persuade his ex-girlfriend to take him back and when his attempts were …
The Ghost Train Fire at Luna Park in Sydney, Australia - THE FINALE
Episode 56 This is the finale of our coverage of the Sydney Ghost Train fire that took 7 innocent lives. Was the fire accidental as the original inquest determined or was it arson and murder orchestrated to allow a greedy man to get control…
The Ghost Train Fire at Luna Park in Sydney, Australia - Part 2
Episode 55 This week we continue our coverage of the Ghost Train fire that occurred in July of 1979 at Luna Park in Sydney, Australia. The fire ultimately claimed 7 lives and investigators initially told the public it was an accidental elec…
The Ghost Train Fire at Luna Park in Sydney, Australia
Episode 54 In July of 1979, seven people would walk through the iconic clown face gates at the Luna Park amusement park in Sydney, Australia but they would not walk out. That July night, a horrific fire occurred in the Ghost Train ride that…
The Deadliest Fire in Iowa History - St. Elizabeth Hospital - THE CONCLUSION
Episode 53 This is the conclusion of our coverage of the horrific fire that claimed 41 lives at the St. Elizabeth Hospital and Davenport, Iowa in January 1950. The fire, wtill the deadliest fire in state history, was set by a patient at the…
The Deadliest Fire in Iowa History - St. Elizabeth Hospital
Episode 52 Today we are revisiting the deadliest fire in Iowa's history. On January 7, 1950, a fire occurred at a mental health facility called St. Elizabeth Hospital on the Mercy Hospital campus in Davenport, Iowa. When a diagnosed schizop…
Dark Plea - The Wrongful Arson Conviction of Angela Garcia - The Finale
Episode 51: In this episode we conclude our coverage of Angela Garcia's case on Crime to Burn. Angela was faced with an impossible decision, risk another trial or accept what is known as a Dark Plea from prosecutors to secure her freedom. …
Dark Plea - The Wrongful Arson Conviction of Angela Garcia - Part 2
Episode 50. Angela Garcia was a 22 year old mother of two when her house caught fire claiming the lives of her two toddler daughters. After her first trial ended in a hung jury, prosecutors tried Angela a second time. However, this time the…
Dark Plea - The Wrongful Arson Conviction of Angela Garcia
Episode 49. Angela Garcia was a 22 year old mother of two when her house caught fire claiming the lives of her two toddler daughters. Angela soon found herself standing in a courtroom accused of arson, murder, and insurance fraud. What evid…
Crime, Cover-up, or Conspiracy in Centralia, Pennsylvania - THE FINALE
This is the finale of our series on the mine fire that destroyed an entire community. From the government missteps to the toxic attitudes that drove division in the town, so many factors compounded and the residents of Centralia paid the pr…
Crime, Cover-up, or Conspiracy in Centralia, Pennsylvania? Part 4
As we continue our deep dive into everything that went wrong in the government's response to the Centralia, Pennsylvania mine fire tragedy, we can't ignore the conspiracy theories that were rampant among many town residents. This week we di…
Crime, Cover-up, or Conspiracy in Centralia, Pennsylvania? Part 3
We've all heard about the canary in the coal mine being an indicator to miners that the air quality in the mine was getting dangerous to breathe. When one Centralia family woke up one morning after suffering unusual and unexplainable ailmen…
Crime, Cover-up, or Conspiracy in Centralia, Pennsylvania? Part 2
This week we continue our coverage of the mine fire that has burned in rural Pennsylvania for over 60 years. Last week we covered the physics of a mine fire and the most widely accepted theory of how the fire started. This week in addition …
Crime, Cover-up, or Conspiracy in Centralia, Pennsylvania?
In central Pennsylvania, there's a fire that's been burning for over 60 years and it's still burning. They said it was just a tragic accident. A fire burning in the underground abandoned coal mines in Centralia, Pennsylvania was at first a …
Murder by Arson - The Conclusion of the Evelyn Zigerelli Henderson Case
In this week's episode we conclude our coverage of the Evelyn Zigerelli Henderson case out of Harrisburg, PA. Evelyn was tried and convicted for setting her husband, a former sheriff's deputy, on fire on the back porch of their home followi…
Murder by Arson - The Evelyn Zigerelli Henderson Case
In June of 2022, Evelyn Zigerelli Henderson called 911 to report that her husband of more than 30 years, a former sheriff's deputy, had either intentionally or accidentally set himself on fire. However, police quickly suspected foul play. E…
Crime to Burn - The Trailer
Crime to Burn is a true crime podcast about criminal fires including arson, bombings, and criminal negligence. Hosted by April, a fire protection engineer with over 20 years of industry experience. Her husband, a self-proclaimed professiona…
A Holiday Arson Tradition in Sweden - The Gävle Goat
Let's close out 2024 with some festive... arson? Turns out that one holiday tradition in Sweden, the Gävle Goat or Gävlebocken has a dark and sinister history associated with the otherwise festive tradition. The Gävle Goat has been damaged …
40. The Wrongful Arson Conviction of Juwan Deering - Finale (Part 3)
In this final episode of the Juwan Deering Wrongful Arson Conviction Case, we learn even more allegations of investigatory and prosecutorial misconduct. We find out what evidence the independent investigator found indicating that Deering's …
39. The Wrongful Arson Conviction of Juwan Deering - Part 2
This week we continue our coverage of the Juwan Deering wrongful conviction. Juwan Deering was a Michigan man accused of setting a fatal fire that killed 5 children in Royal Oak Township, Michigan. Deering was convicted based on now-debunke…
38. The Wrongful Arson Conviction of Juwan Deering
Juwan Deering was charged and convicted for setting a fire at a home that killed five children. However, investigators based their determination of how the fire began on now-debunked arson investigation myths. Juwan Deering was seen by inve…
37. The Facebook Live Fire in Norfolk Virginia
In November 2017, a "volunteer reporter" went viral for her coverage of a house fire in Norfolk, Virginia for all the right reasons. What she lacks in professional broadcast training and polished vocabulary, she makes up for with her enthus…