True Crime Campfire
Join hosts Katie and Whitney for a different kind of true crime podcast. You can start with season 1, The Puppet Master and the Prince of Darkness, a deep dive into the most bizarre murder case you've never heard of. Or start with season 2, which covers a different stranger-than-fiction story each week. This bingeworthy show combines meticulous research with a refreshing mix of comic relief and seamless storytelling. There's plenty of room around the campfire--come help us roast murderers and marshmallows!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.
Episodes
Invader: A Story of Madness and Revenge
Home is the one place in the world that’s ours and ours alone. It’s the place we’re meant to feel completely safe and comfortable. The warm, beating heart of our lives. So when that sacred space is violated, where does that leave us? Can we…
When Nerds Attack - Hardcore Horror: The Farmville Murders
No is a powerful word. It can stop a naughty dog in its tracks, it can get you out of a night out with friends when you just want to rot in your bed, and most of all, it’s supposed to mean something when you don’t want anything to do with s…
Golden Years: The Hatton Garden Heist
Mark Twain, always a good man for a quote, said about getting old: “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” There is generally a broad unspoken societal agreement over what the elderly are supposed to be …
Mystery Grab Bag
There’s an old saying that if you hear hoofbeats, you should think horses, not zebras. It means that in most situations, the simplest, most likely explanation is probably the right one. But you know we deal in “stranger than fiction” here, …
Disaster Class: Two Deadly Man-Made Disasters
There’s a saying that goes, “All regulations are written in blood.” And it’s true. If given the opportunity, companies will cut corners and find loopholes to make their jobs easier or cheaper or skirt some kind of oversight. And when it all…
Dark Strangler: The Crimes of Earle Leonard Nelson Pt 2
In last week’s episode, we learned about the troubled early life of Earle Nelson, and witnessed his first steps towards becoming one of the most prolific serial killers in North American history. This week, his journey of mayhem across Amer…
Dark Stranger: The Crimes of Earle Leonard Nelson
If you think about the 1920s in the United States, a few things might come to mind—jazz, prohibition, Babe Ruth, and, right at the end, the Wall Street Crash. And if you think of crime, you probably think of Al Capone, bootlegging, and fast…
#GreedIsGood: The Crimes of Alan Hruby
I saw a meme one time that said, “It’s funny how sometimes the people you’d take a bullet for are the ones behind the trigger.” Most of the time that’s just a metaphor, a way to describe the way it feels when a loved one betrays you. But no…
Inspire, Achieve, Repeat: A Grab Bag of Killer Motivational Speakers
Motivational speakers started really gaining popularity in the 70s and 80s, the golden age of “self-help.” And in recent years, they’ve been even more in-demand, especially in the business world. You can’t swing a dead cat these days withou…
Walking In My Shoes: The Murder of Kristine Fitzhugh
Nobody likes to be embarrassed. More often than not, people are kind of weird in one way or another, have some secret history or fascination they’d hate to have dragged out into the light of day. It’s normal. What’s less normal is just how …
And You're To Blame: The Murder of Miriam Illes
The heart has been the subject of mythology for humanity for centuries. Egyptians believed that in the afterlife, your heart was weighed against a feather and if all your life’s sins didn’t outweigh the feather, you could join Osiris in the…
Stranger Than Fiction, Vol VI: Sportsball Edition
If there’s one thing that gets people’s blood pumpin’, it’s sports. All over the world on any given day, you can find people getting into passionate arguments about whose team has a better chance of making the playoffs, or the finals, or th…
Great Dismal: The Murder of Kathy Bonney
A young woman found naked and dead in the water. A diary that held clues to a secret life. Dark truths hidden behind suburban walls, and a mind at war with itself. This week we have a tale of mystery and madness where the borders of reality…
When Nerds Attack - Ensnared: The Murder of Kelly Bullwinkle
There’s a meme I’ve seen a few times. It says “You never know how toxic something is until you breathe fresher air.” I think it’s about how easy it is to get so completely wrapped up in a relationship, or a group dynamic, or a way of thinki…
A Voice in the Dark: The Ohta Family Murders
You’re supposed to be safe at home. Why wouldn’t you be? And that sense of comfort must be even greater if “home” is a beautiful house you built yourself, where you live happily with your family in a town where you’re successful and respect…
You Have One (1) New Message: The Murders of Lynn Stellers and Ronnie King
Obsession is one of humanity’s greatest boons… and curses. Obsession can fuel a scientist’s entire career in trying to solve a singular problem. An athlete’s obsession can pull them to physics bending heights, a politician’s obsession with …
Deconstruction: The Murder of Shanti Cooper Tronnes
There are some people who, if they find themselves stuck in a hole, will just keep digging deeper. Maybe they think they’ll find some highly improbable way out of their troubles, more likely it’s all they know to do. This week’s story is ab…
Killer Cadets: The Murder of Adrianne Jones
The U.S. military teaches recruits to function together as a well-oiled machine—and for young people who dream of joining the most elite forces, it requires discipline, commitment, and loyalty, not to mention the courage to put yourself in …
Introducing: Suave
The Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast returns for its second season!Seven years after his release from prison, former juvenile lifer Luis "Suave" Gonzalez seems tobe thriving. His career has taken off, he’s in a committed relationship and he’s…
Bad Shepherd: The Murder of Carol Neulander
How far would you go to get what you want? For most of us, there’s a hard limit on the answer to that question, and that limit is hurting someone. Especially someone close to you. But in this week’s story, we meet a man who didn’t believe i…
Tulip 22: A Story of Betrayal and Murder
Vengeance is such a core human urge that there are hundreds and thousands of parables and plays and stories warning us about what a dangerous path it is. In the classic Shakespearean tragedy, Hamlet destroyed himself and the entire Danish r…
Poisonous: A Grab Bag of Vintage Bad Bitches
For at least the past 200 years or so, there’s been a lot of debate about women and the role we’re supposed to play in society. Historically, we’ve been expected to be the nurturers, the caregivers—the gentler sex, as we used to be called. …
'Til Death Do Us Part: The Crimes of A.B. Schirmer
For people of faith, a minister is supposed to be a figure of trust, a rock to support you in times of trouble. Not everyone who holds that position meets those ideals, though. This week’s story is about a man whose minister’s robes and car…
Hit Me With Ya Best Shot: The Wacky World of Martial Arts Frauds
In this week’s episode, we are going to be looking at “Bullshido,” a catch-all term for martial arts practices that are either fake, delusional, or just plain useless. This is the land of no-touch knockouts, touches of death, and mystical m…
Faking It: Art's Greatest Forger
Art is a mysterious thing. It’s hard to pin down why one thing moves us and another does not. Similarly, it can be hard to identify that special spark, that unique creativity that an artist can have that lifts their work into something magi…
A "Special Place in Hell" Grab Bag
We’ve covered some real nasty pieces of work on our show over the years. Dive into true crime for any length of time, and you’re bound to come across plenty of people you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley. Or a lit one, even. But even a…
Bound By Hate: The Murder of Rozanne Gailiunas, Finale
Last week, we learned the identity of the man hired to kill Rozanne Gailiunas—Andy Hopper, an insurance adjustor turned weed dealer who had apparently added “hitman” to his list of careers. But investigators were still uncertain whether And…
Bound By Hate: The Murder of Rozanne Gailiunas, Pt 2
In last week’s episode, young nurse Rozanne Gailiunas was brutally murdered while her  young son slept in the room next door. Suspicion initially fell on both her estranged husband, Peter, and her new boyfriend, Larry Aylor. But evidence wa…
Bound By Hate: The Murder of Rozanne Gailiunas, Pt 1
The late, great Bo Diddley asked one of life’s big questions in one of the 20th century’s greatest songs—“Who Do You Love?” That’s a simple question, but in some relationships, the answer isn’t simple at all. Love, money, revenge—people kil…
Schemer: The Crimes of Sheila Davalloo
We’ve covered our share of scary ladies on this show. In fact, bad bitches are one of our special interests. There was Tracey Richter, who murdered an innocent neighbor to frame him for a crime he didn’t commit. Marie Hilley, the serial poi…
Explosive: The Benson Family Murders
Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Money has never made a man happy yet, nor will it.” To which I think a lot of people would say, yeah, try being poor, Benny. A couple thousand dollars would make me plenty happy right now. But, once you’re beyond t…
Lust, Lies & Audiotape: Two Failed Murders for Hire
Most people love getting a peek behind a fellow human’s carefully managed facade. We’re delighted when we see the local magistrate gettin’ wrecked at a dive bar two towns over. We catch a glimpse of our married coworker making out with a gu…
Away Team: The Story of Heaven's Gate
I have vivid memories of the night of March 22, 1997. Part of it has to do with, y’know, young dumb love—but most of it has to do with the Hale-Bopp Comet, also known as the Great Comet, which was brilliantly visible from my hometown that n…
Bad Fortune: Two Tales of Psychic Scammers
As Abe Lincoln once said—or possibly some guy named Peter Drucker, depends on who you ask—the best way to predict the future is to create it. But for a lot of us humans, that’s a little too loosey-goosey. We’re not big fans of the unknown, …
Fool Me Twice: The Murders of James & Virginia Campbell
Some of the easiest people on the planet to fool are those who have a real high opinion of their own brains based on very little evidence. A classic con-artist trick is to make the mark think they’re the one in charge, they’re the one makin…
Listen Now - Hollywood & Crime: The Cotton Club Murder
On June 10th, 1983, the decomposing body of a well-dressed man was found in a desolate canyon near Los Angeles. John Doe #94 would soon be identified as missing variety show producer Roy Radin. He'd last been seen after meeting with a myste…
Journey Into Darkness: The Stayner Brothers Part 2
When we left you at the end of Part 1, fourteen year old Steven Stayner had escaped from seven years of captivity and abuse at the hands of child predator Kenneth Parnell—and he’d rescued Parnell’s next intended victim, a little boy named T…
I Know My First Name Is Steven: The Abduction of Steven Stayner
In classic literature—and in soap operas, too—there are a lot of families who become lightning rods for misfortune. Sometimes it really strains your suspension of disbelief—like, come on, one family could never go through this much tragedy.…
Payback: The Murder of Ted Ammon, Pt 2
In Part One, we met high-powered millionaire Ted Ammon and his…let’s say “eccentric” soon-to-be-ex-wife Generosa. When we left off, the Ammons were embroiled in a vicious divorce and a struggle over Ted’s wealth and custody of their twin ch…
Payback: The Murder of Ted Ammon, Pt 1
As much as most of us might try to live easy, conflict-free lives, sometimes you just can’t avoid an uncomfortable interaction. Maybe an unpleasant neighbor gets in your face about nothing at all, maybe someone behind a counter gives you al…