Wicked Words - A True Crime Talk Show with Kate Winkler Dawson
Welcome to Tenfold More Wicked Presents: Wicked Words, Kate Winkler Dawson's true crime talk show. On each new episode of Wicked Words, Kate interviews journalists, podcasters and authors about their fascinating behind-the-scenes stories from their investigations in the world of true crime, many of which have never been shared before. Kate interviews Patricia Cornwell, the prolific true crime author about her book Portrait Of A Killer: Jack The Ripper – Case Closed, she heads to Texas with veteran journalist Rena Pederson to discuss her coverage of an uncatchable jewel thief during the swinging sixties, chats with podcaster and journalist Mandy Matney from the Mu...
Episodes
Áine Cain and Kevin Greenlee: Shadow of the Bridge
The murders of Liberty German and Abigail Williams in Delphi, Indiana shook the country. But the impact of the attention, the speculation and the fear is still felt in the community. Now podcasters Áine Cain and Kevin Greenlee have written …
Rich Cohen: Murder in the Dollhouse
The disappearance in 2019 of Jennifer Dulos is one of the most chilling stories I’ve ever read about. When the mother of five vanished from her wealthy Connecticut suburb, her estranged husband became the prime suspect. But when Fotis Dulos…
Jane Borden: Cults Like Us
What is the origin story of cults? Author Jane Borden says it goes all the way back to the Puritans and their doomsday beliefs. She says that from the beginning, we’ve been a nation of easy marks for con artists and manipulators. She tells …
Anne Soon Choi: L.A. Coroner
When you write a biography about a man dubbed “Coroner to the Stars,” it’s bound to be a compelling story. Who doesn’t want to read about the coroner who performed the autopsies on Marilyn Monroe, RFK, and Natalie Wood, among others? Author…
Patricia Cornwell: Scarpetta
I’ve interviewed quite a few authors who are inspired by real people or real crimes. And then they write these fantastic novels. Patricia Cornwell’s iconic character, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, has a legion of fans because of how clever she is as a…
Ross Halperin: Bear Witness
A gang in a mountain barrio in Honduras terrorized the people there for years. The police claimed that their hands were tied because witnesses refused to testify. An American sociologist and a Honduran schoolteacher devised a plan to protec…
Michael Beach Nichols: Perfect Wife
Most of us have heard about Sherri Papini. She’s the woman who faked her own kidnapping in 2016, which terrified her husband and soon sparked outrage in her Northern California community. Michael Beach Nichols is the director and producer o…
Bryan Burrough: The Gunfighters
We’ve heard from my buddy Bryan Burrough before for one of his Audible books based on a true crime story. His new book is very different. It’s called The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild. Enough said. Support this podcast by shopp…
James Polchin: Shadow Men
Our story this week is set in the 1920s in Westchester County, New York…it’s a Jazz Age mystery. A young ex-sailor is found dead on a desolate road. A suspect from a wealthy family admits to the murder, but he claims that he was trying to p…
Dan Slater: The Incorruptibles
New York in the early 1900s was filled with people trying to make their lives better. But for many, the rise of organized crime kept them in constant fear. On the Lower East Side, Jewish criminals from Eastern Europe formed crime syndicates…
Tanya Talaga: The Knowing
If you’ve ever dug deep into your family history, you know that there are sometimes surprises. Author Tanya Talaga discovered that the life of her great-great grandmother Annie Carpenter was mostly unknown because she was Indigenous. It’s a…
Alex Eliseev: Cold Case Confession
This week on Wicked Words on Exactly Right: in 1999, a woman named Betty Ketani went missing in Johannesburg, South Africa. She just vanished from the restaurant where she was working. Then a letter found 13 years later changed everything. …
Megan Abbott: El Dorado Drive
New York Times’ best-selling author Megan Abbott often uses true crime stories as a jumping off point for her wildly popular novels. Now she has a new book out called El Dorado Drive. It’s about three sisters who become entangled in a pyram…
Caroline Fraser: Murderland
This week’s author grew up in the Pacific Northwest with the memories of notorious serial killers like Ted Bundy and the Green River Killer, who also lived there. But the region wasn’t just home to those two murderers: there were many more.…
Matthew McGough + Rick Jackson: Black Tunnel White Magic
In 1990, a UCLA student was found murdered in a tunnel in LA. Detective Rick Jackson and his partner were assigned to the complicated case. Who had a motive to stab Ronald Baker? Was the pentagram pendant around his neck a clue? Author Matt…
Elon Green: The Man Nobody Killed
We’ve had journalist Elon Green on before to talk about his fantastic book Last Call. His new book is about an inspiring young Black artist in 1980s New York. Michael Stewart ended up dead after encountering a Transit Authority police offic…
Jonquilyn Hill: Through the Cracks
When an 8-year-old disappeared from a homeless shelter in Washington, D.C. in 2014, nobody noticed for 18 days, even her family. Seven years later, Relisha Rudd has never been found. The Through the Cracks podcast investigates gaps in our s…
Mary Kay McBrayer: Madame Queen
This week on Wicked Words we’re traveling back to 1923 Harlem and its seedy world of gambling and racketeering. Author Mary Kay McBrayer tells me about Stephanie St. Clair. She was one of the only female crime bosses in the city. Madame Que…
Duncan McCue: Kuper Island
Kuper Island is a remarkable podcast, an investigation into one of Canada’s most notorious so called Indian residential schools. Journalist Duncan McCue explores the unsolved death of a student, a tragedy that sheds light on rampant abuse a…
Thomas Maier: The Invisible Spy
I love a good spy story. We’ve talked about spies embedded with the American government. We’ve discussed librarians and academics researching in the basement of the Library of Congress during World War II. And now we’re talking with Thomas …
Virginia Feito: Victorian Psycho
Occasionally we interview fiction authors who use true crime stories as jumping off points for their novels. Virginia Feito wrote a book called “Victorian Psycho.” And it’s based on several cases you’ve likely heard of. There’s a lecherous …
Claire St. Amant: Killer Story
I’m so excited about this interview. It’s with Claire St. Amant. She’s a journalist and an author. And she was a TV producer for 48 Hours and 60 Minutes. Now she’s pulling back the curtain on true crime television. I learned a lot from her.…
Gilbert King: Bone Valley
We might have our first Pulitzer Prize winner on our show. Author Gilbert King digs into cases of wrongful conviction. Today, we’re talking about his outstanding podcast, Bone Valley Season 2. Gilbert explores the 1987 murder of Michelle Sc…
Christopher Goffard: Crimes of the Times
LA Times reporter Christopher Goffard was the voice behind the hit podcast “Dirty John.” And now he has a new podcast that covers crimes in Los Angeles that made headlines, stories like the murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer at the hands o…
Pagan Kennedy: The Secret History of the Rape Kit
This week on Wicked Words, years ago author Pagan Kennedy wondered about the history of the rape kit, a crucial tool for investigators today. Who designed it? She found out that it was Martha Goddard, a pioneer who wanted to help police cat…
Brendan Koerner: The Skies Belong to Us
Plane hijackings aren’t very common anymore. But in the late 1960s and early 1970s, armed criminals were forcing commercial airliners to divert their flights, oftentimes demanding ransom. Author Brendan Koerner tells the story of an America…
Hallie Lieberman: The Devil Went Down to Georgia
For years, a predator preyed on gay men in Atlanta. He was known as the Handcuff Man. He attacked male sex workers, disfigured them, and then left them for dead. Journalist Hallie Lieberman wrote a fantastic piece for The Atavist Magazine c…
Joseph Cox: Dark Wire
In 2018, the FBI discovered that high level criminals around the world were using encrypted devices to plot intricate crimes. When a powerful, secure new app began courting these syndicates, members of the underworld flocked to it. One prob…
Avril Speaks: Uprooted
In 1986, 17-year-old Keith Warren was found hanging from a tree in Silver Spring, Maryland. His sister wanted answers—how did he die? It was ruled a suicide, but there were so many suspicious things about Keith’s death. I talked to filmmake…
Lana Hall: The Incel Terrorist
This is a story about a landmark case in Canada from just a few years ago. A teenager attacked two women in a massage parlor in Toronto in 2020. He killed one and seriously injured the other. When he told investigators why he did it, they s…
Lise Olsen: The Scientist and the Serial Killer
Dean Corll was a serial killer in Houston in the early 1970s. He kidnapped and murdered more than two dozen missing teenage boys before he was murdered by one of his accomplices. Decades later, a forensic anthropologist discovered a box of …
Marcia Clark: Trial by Ambush
It’s been 30 years since the infamous OJ Simpson trial, and the lead prosecutor Marcia Clark has had quite a career since then. She writes fiction and nonfiction books, including the one we’ll talk about today. It’s called Trial by Ambush a…
Elyse Graham: Book and Dagger
Did you know that some of the most effective American spies during World War II were librarians and archivists and history professors? Some were locked in the basement of the Library of Congress, analyzing documents. Those documents were be…
Craig A. Monson: The Black Widows of the Eternal City
We don’t talk a lot on this show about female killers, but author Craig Monson has brought me a fascinating story right out of a Hollywood film. His book, The Black Widows of the Eternal City, centers on a web of women poisoners in 17th cen…
Thomas Morris: The Dublin Railway Murder
This week on Wicked Words, we’re traveling to 1856 Ireland for a locked-door mystery. A cashier for a Dublin railway station is found dead, savagely beaten. Nothing appears to have been stolen. Can an experienced detective crack this case? …
Rick Jervis: The Devil Behind the Badge
On this week’s episode of Wicked Words, we’re traveling to the Texas border town of Laredo. When four vulnerable women are murdered, police suspect that a well-respected U.S. Border Patrol agent has turned into a serial killer. Author Rick …
Rollo Romig: I Am on the Hit List
When an outspoken journalist in India was assassinated in September of 2017, it shocked the world. The conspiracy that was uncovered by journalists and investigators was disturbing. Author Rollo Romig tells me the story at the center of his…
Simon Read: Scotland Yard
Some of my most favorite true crime stories in history come from the UK, specifically London. So I was very excited to talk to author Simon Read about his book: Scotland Yard: A History of the London Police Force's Most Infamous Murder Case…
Michael Arntfield: Monster City
Police cold-case units have broken some of the country’s most notorious murder cases. Today we're talking to writer Michael Arntfield about Nashville’s cold case Murder Squad and how its lead investigator tracked down the serial killers who…
Carol Dawson: The Unforgotten
I know this sounds like an old story: a woman goes missing and it seems like a cover-up. But when Shelley Watkins’ body was discovered in 1993, floating in a Texas river, her murder really upended the town of Corsicana. Journalist Carol Daw…