Crimes of the Times
L.A. Times reporter Christopher Goffard of “Dirty John” is back with another riveting podcast from L.A. Times Studios. In “Crimes of the Times,” Goffard goes deep behind the scenes of a new story each week, cutting through common myths and misconceptions to uncover what really happened in the most compelling cases from L.A. and beyond.
Episodes
Tinker, Tailor, Stoner, Spy
When 21-year old college dropout Christopher Boyce got a job as a clerk at the TRW Defense and Space Systems complex in Redondo Beach, he was given access to some of the country’s biggest government secrets. And under a Robin Hood-like etho…
I Killed John Belushi
When comic John Belushi died of a speedball overdose at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont, it wasn’t clear there had been a crime—until the National Enquirer got involved. This episode follows the tabloid reporter who hunted down Belushi’s dealer…
The Other Side of the Door: The Case Against Lee Baca
James Sexton endures weeks of solitary confinement in federal prison, as prosecutors finally gear up to take Lee Baca to trial. Baca’s lawyers claim he has Alzheimer’s Disease. It’s late 2016, and the recent presidential race has made the F…
The Generals: Power, Deception and a Cover-Up that Goes to the Top
The feds interview Baca’s flinty #2 man and heir apparent, Paul Tanaka, who professes ignorance about who gave the order to hide Anthony Brown. In 2013, as the FBI probe enters its fifth year, feds finally get a chance to grill Baca. He tou…
Inside Man: A Jailer Turns Informant
James Sexton thinks Operation Pandora’s Box is behind him. When he reports a superior officer for misconduct, he is branded a snitch and treated as a pariah. Ostracized and scared, he does what he once thought unthinkable: he begins feeding…
Gunning Up: L.A. County’s Top Cop Versus the Feds
When Lee Baca took over the LA County Sheriff’s Department in 1998, he inherited a scandal-plagued agency. He built a reputation as a progressive reformer, and his jail-education programs were celebrated. But the feds notice that investigat…
The Ghost: An Inmate Disappears in L.A. County Jail
After an inmate sucker-punches James Sexton, he defies the jail’s unwritten rules by failing to exact violent retribution, and finds himself ostracized by his peers. But he becomes an expert in the antiquated jail computer system and eventu…
The Dungeon: Inside Men’s Central Jail
A young FBI agent named Leah Marx arrives in Los Angeles and receives a tip in 2010 about brutal conditions at Men’s Central Jail downtown. Such complaints have gone nowhere for years, since they pit the allegations of inmates against the w…
Introducing Pandora's Box: The Fall of L.A.'s Sheriff
Pandora’s Box: The Fall of L.A.’s Sheriff is a six-part podcast exploring the crisis that toppled one of the country’s most prominent lawmen, Lee Baca. Rising from humble beginnings, he presented himself as a reformer when he took over the …
Featuring: The Trials of Frank Carson, Episode 8 Bonus
In this special feature bonus episode, our host Christopher Goffard is joined by his editor, Steve Clow to discuss the aftermath of the case.
Featuring: The Trials of Frank Carson, Episode 8
In this featured episode, The fates of Frank Carson and his co-defendants are decided, and jurors explain their reasoning. An interview with the state’s star witness, now out of lockup, raises troubling questions about the state’s handling …
Featuring: The Trials of Frank Carson, Episode 7 Bonus
In this special feature bonus episode, our host Christopher Goffard is joined by his editor, Steve Clow, to examine the evidence against Carson and his co-defendants as the longest California criminal trial in decades staggers to its conclu…
Featuring: The Trials of Frank Carson, Episode 7
In this specially featured episode, defense attorneys offer alternate theories to explain Korey Kauffman’s death, and the trial becomes an endurance test. As Frank Carson’s health deteriorates, he wonders whether he will live to see a verdi…
Featuring: The Trials of Frank Carson, Episode 6 Bonus
In this specially featured bonus episode, our host Christopher Goffard is joined by his editor, Steve Clow, to discuss the implications of Frank Carson's trial on the criminal-justice system.
Featuring: The Trials of Frank Carson, Episode 6
In this special-feature episode, Frank Carson hits rock bottom, and offers his co-defendants a way out. During the marathon preliminary hearing, the prosecution belatedly reveals a cache of undisclosed evidence — with major consequences.
Featuring: The Trials of Frank Carson, Episode 5 Bonus
In this special-feature bonus episode, our host Christopher Goffard is joined by his editor, Steve Clow, to discuss how detectives zeroed in on Frank Carson’s wife and stepdaughter.
Featuring: The Trials of Frank Carson, Episode 5
In this specially featured episode, a series of wiretaps lead to criminal charges against Frank Carson’s wife and stepdaughter, an art student.
Featuring: The Trials of Frank Carson, Episode 4 Bonus
In this special-feature bonus episode, our editor Steve Clow and our host Christopher Goffard discuss how three California Highway Patrol officers fell into the District Attorney’s crosshairs.
Featuring: The Trials of Frank Carson, Episode 4
In this special-feature episode, Frank Carson and his co-defendants are accused of a complicated murder conspiracy after a three-year investigation. Among the accused: three cops.
Featuring: The Trials of Frank Carson, Episode 3 Bonus
In this special-release bonus episode, our host Christopher Goffard talks with false-confession expert Richard Leo, who questions the credibility of the government’s star witness.
Featuring: The Trials of Frank Carson, Episode 3
In this special featured episode, the discovery of Korey Kauffman’s remains gives the investigation new impetus, and a man named Robert Woody offers a methamphetamine-fueled “confession.” But his story changes again and again.
Featuring: The Trials of Frank Carson, Bonus Episode 2
In this special-released bonus episode, our host Christopher Goffard is joined by his editor, Steve Clow, to talk about how authorities linked the disappearance of Korey Kauffman to Frank Carson.
Featuring: The Trials of Frank Carson, Bonus Episode 1
In this special-release bonus episode, our host Christopher Goffard is joined by his editor, Steve Clow, to discuss the origins of The Trials of Frank Carson.
Featuring: The Trials of Frank Carson, Episode 2
In this special-release episode, investigators confront a defiant Frank Carson about the disappearance of a scrap-metal thief with a reputation for making enemies.
Featuring: The Trials of Frank Carson, Episode 1
In Season 2 of Crimes of the Times, host Christopher Goffard revisits one of the longest and most bizarre murder trials in U.S. history.This special podcast rerelease will include fresh insights, bonus content and a new episode with the lat…
Introducing: L.A. Crimes
Please enjoy a featured clip of L.A. Times Studio's latest production, L.A. Crimes. On this episode, Madison McGhee is joined by legendary Dateline host Josh Mankiewicz and esteemed L.A. Times Reporter Richard Winton as the three of them di…
Featuring: Man in the Window
Please enjoy a special feature of the first episode of L.A. Times Studios production, Man in the Window. In this episode, Phantom in the Fog, investigative reporter Paige St. John discusses how a series of brutal dog killings in a small tow…
Featuring: Detective Trapp
Please enjoy a special feature of my show, Detective Trapp’s first episode, All the Missing. In this episode, Detective Julissa Trapp fights her way onto the homicide unit in her hometown of Anaheim, California — and strives amid personal s…
Featuring: Dirty John
Please enjoy a special featured episode of my show Dirty John. In this episode, Debra Newell, an interior designer in Southern California, meets John Meehan on an over-50 dating site. His profile looks exciting: Anesthesiologist, divorced, …
The Arsonist in the Crowd
John Orr was a renowned fire investigator who was also a prolific arsonist, and whose thinly veiled novel helped to convict him. In this episode we hear from the fire captain who first suspected him—and from Orr himself. New episodes every …
The Execution of Barbara Graham
The case of Barbara Graham, known in the 1950s as “Bloody Babs” after the murder of a Burbank widow. Former prosecutor Marcia Clark joins us to reexamine the questionable tactics that sent Graham to death row. New episodes every Tuesday.To …
The Cult, The Lawyer, and the Snake
The story of Synanon, the drug rehabilitation group once known as “the miracle on the beach,” and the rattlesnake attack on the crusading Los Angeles lawyer who made an enemy of the group’s leader.New episodes every Tuesday.To read more abo…
The Final Word on Manson: Part 2
Former Manson prosecutor Stephen Kay recounts the strange story of Ronald Hughes, the “hippie lawyer” who enraged the cult leader and vanished mysteriously in the middle of trial.New episodes every Tuesday.To read more about these cases, vi…
The Final Word on Manson: Part 1
The last living prosecutor of Charles Manson gives an inside account of the trial and the cult leader’s deadly vision. Stephen Kay recalls the case that still haunts America.New episodes every Tuesday.To read more about these cases, visit C…
The Black Dahlia
The Black Dahlia mystery: Wild theories, enduring myths and a long-overlooked suspect.New episodes every Tuesday.To read more about these cases, visit Crimes of the Times at latimes.comVideo episodes will be available on Spotify and Youtube…
Patty Hearst
The kidnapped heiress who became an “urban guerrilla” and embraced her captors.New episodes every Tuesday.To read more about these cases, visit Crimes of the Times at latimes.comVideo episodes will be available on Spotify and Youtube.
The Pentagon Papers Trial
Smuggled out of a Santa Monica safe, the top-secret documents that changed American history.New episodes every Tuesday.To read more about these cases, visit Crimes of the Times at latimes.comVideo episodes will be available on Spotify and Y…
George Franklin
A childhood memory sent her father to prison for murder. Was it real?New episodes every Tuesday.To read more about these cases, visit Crimes of the Times at latimes.comVideo episodes will be available on Spotify and Youtube.
McMartin Preschool
Wild claims of mass child molestation rocked an L.A. beach town. Truth was the first casualty.New episodes every Tuesday.To read more about these cases, visit Crimes of the Times at latimes.comVideo episodes will be available on Spotify and…
John DeLorean
A maverick from Detroit, John DeLorean built the “car of the future.” Then came the briefcase full of cocaine.New episodes every Tuesday.To read more about these cases, visit Crimes of the Times at latimes.comVideo episodes will be availabl…