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PODCAST

Crime To Burn

A true crime podcast where we explore the dark sooty landscape of crimes involving fire including arson and criminal negligence. Join us as we explore what really happened in some of the most horrific criminal fires in history. Hosted by April and some guy that’s seen Backdraft at least twice.

true crime documentary

All Episodes

33:06

Lit by Love: Serial Arson in Accomack County, VA -...

Crime To Burn ·

2026/04/06

Episode 106In Part 2 of Lit by Love, the fires in Accomack County escalate from suspicious to unmistakably intentional—spreading fear through a rural community unaccustomed to this level of destruction. As investigators struggle to keep up with a growing number of blazes, tensions rise among residents, rumors take hold online, and volunteer firefighters are pushed to their limits responding to near-nightly calls. But beneath the surface of this arson spree, a more personal story begins to

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32:02

Lit by Love: Serial Arson in Accomack County, Virginia

Crime To Burn ·

2026/03/30

Episode 105In rural Accomack County, structure fires are rare—maybe a handful a year across an entire district. So when six fires break out in less than 30 hours, investigators know immediately: this isn’t coincidence. It’s arson. What follows is one of the most baffling serial arson cases to ever hit Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Over five months, 87 fires tear through a tight-knit community of just 33,000 people—stretching volunteer fire departments to their limits and leaving investigators with

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67:49

Survivor Stories: Shawn Simons and Alvaro Llanos

Crime To Burn ·

2026/03/23

Episode 104 Survivor Stories: An Interview with Shawn Simons & Alvaro Llanos In this special Survivor Stories episode, we step away from case analysis and into lived experience. We’re joined by Shawn Simons and Alvaro Llanos, two survivors of the Seton Hall University dorm fire—a tragedy that claimed three lives and forever changed many others. This is not a retelling of the case. This is what it was like to be there. Shawn and Alvaro share their memories from that night, the moments leading up

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40:14

The God and Country Serial Arsonist

Crime To Burn ·

2026/03/16

Episode 103Across Massachusetts, a series of fires began targeting places tied to faith and patriotism — Protestant churches, American Legion halls, and other community institutions closely associated with “God and country.” From the beginning, investigators knew they were dealing with arson. At scene after scene, the same method appeared: windows smashed to gain entry, gasoline used as an accelerant, and fires intentionally set inside the buildings. The pattern was obvious, but proving the same

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37:38

Pranks, Panic & Pleas: The Seton Hall Fire - The...

Crime To Burn ·

2026/03/09

Episode 102 In the conclusion of our coverage of the Seton Hall University dorm fire, we return to January of 2000, when flames broke out inside Boland Hall, trapping students behind smoke-filled corridors and turning a college residence hall into the scene of one of the most devastating campus fires in recent memory. In this episode, we walk through the fire investigation itself—how investigators began piecing together what happened that night and why, despite the lack of clear physical evidence,

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42:08

Pranks, Panic & Pleas: The Seton Hall Fire

Crime To Burn ·

2026/03/02

Episode 101On January 19, 2000, a fire broke out in a third-floor lounge inside Boland Hall at Seton Hall University. Within minutes, thick smoke filled the hallway. Students pounded on doors. Some thought it was a false alarm. Others ran. Three students would not survive. In Part 1, we focus on the night of the fire — what happened, how it unfolded, and why conditions became so deadly so quickly. We discuss: The timeline of events as students began to realize something was wrong The rapid

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41:17

Domestic Detonation: The Upstate NY Bomb Plot - The...

Crime To Burn ·

2026/02/16

Episode 100In Part 2 of Domestic Detonation, we move deeper into the investigation and unravel how a domestic violence case escalated into a coordinated bombing plot that nearly claimed multiple lives. As investigators began connecting the devices, forensic evidence and witness testimony painted a chilling picture of planning, coercion, and control — revealing just how far one person was willing to go to keep a partner from leaving. We explore the forensic evidence that helped build the case,

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39:39

Domestic Detonation - The Upstate NY Bomb Plot

Crime To Burn ·

2026/02/02

Episode 99Some crimes are impulsive. This one wasn’t. In December 1993, six bombs were delivered across upstate New York in less than ninety minutes. Five people were killed. One survived by pure chance. Another device failed to detonate. And one bomb was unknowingly driven around the region in the back of a courier van before police could stop it. The victims weren’t politicians. They weren’t business rivals. They weren’t part of an organized crime war. They were a family. In this episode, we

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39:16

The Fire Folklore that Convicted Butch Martin - The...

Crime To Burn ·

2026/01/26

Episode 98 In 1999, Garland “Butch” Martin was convicted of killing his girlfriend, Marcia Poole, and her two young children, Brady and Kristin, and was sentenced on three counts of capital murder in Midland, Texas. The State told a compelling story: domestic abuse, accelerant-driven fire, pre-fire blunt force trauma, and motive. A jury believed it. Twenty-four years later, Butch Martin was exonerated. In Part Two of this two-part series, April breaks down what the jury didn’t hear: conflicting fire

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39:09

The Fire Folklore that Convicted Butch Martin

Crime To Burn ·

2026/01/19

Episode 97 In this first episode of our two-part series, we go to Midland, Texas, where a fatal house fire claimed the lives of Marcia Pool and two children, Brady and Kristin. In the aftermath, investigators concluded the blaze was intentionally set — and they pointed to one man: Butch Martin. The state built its theory around burn patterns, accelerant findings, eyewitness accounts, and interpretations of fire behavior that were considered reliable at the time, but would later come under scrutiny

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42:50

Dealing Disaster - The Dupont Plaza Hotel Fire

Crime To Burn ·

2026/01/12

Episode 96On December 31, 1986, just hours before Puerto Rico would ring in the New Year, flames tore through the luxurious Dupont Plaza Hotel and Casino in San Juan. What began as a labor dispute escalated into one of the deadliest hotel fires in U.S. history, killing 97 people and injuring more than 140. In the aftermath, investigators would uncover arson, negligence, ignored safety recommendations, a chaotic evacuation, and a legal battle that reshaped fire codes across the hospitality

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34:29

The Weakest Link: The Fire that Threatened the IRA

Crime To Burn ·

2026/01/05

Episode 95In 1980, a seemingly unremarkable fire threatened to expose something far more dangerous than arson. What investigators uncovered was a trail that pointed toward an arms pipeline linked directly to the Irish Republican Army, operating quietly while The Troubles raged overseas. At the center of it all was Charles Galant—a small-time thief who never set out to be part of something so vast, but who became the sole link between a suspicious fire and an armory heist that tied someone in his

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39:30

Fireproof - The Iroquois Theater Fire - The Conclusion

Crime To Burn ·

2025/12/29

Episode 94 In Part 2 of our series on the Iroquois Theatre Fire, we examine what happened after the flames went out — and why, despite hundreds of deaths, no one was ever held criminally accountable. Although the fire was accidental, the failures that made it lethal were anything but unforeseeable. In the aftermath, Chicago demanded answers. A coroner’s inquest, multiple grand juries, and a wave of indictments followed — implicating theater owners, city officials, inspectors, fire officials, and

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42:27

Fireproof - The Iroquois Theater Fire

Crime To Burn ·

2025/12/22

Episode 93On December 30, 1903, Chicago gathered for a matinee performance at the Iroquois Theater—a venue that had opened just five weeks earlier and was widely promoted as one of the safest, most modern theaters in the country. It was advertised as “absolutely fireproof.” It was anything but. In this episode of Crime to Burn, we examine the Iroquois Theater Fire, one of the deadliest single-building fires in U.S. history—and a catastrophe that unfolded in minutes inside a brand-new building that

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42:10

The Sweet Sixteen of Samarcand Reformatory - The...

Crime To Burn ·

2025/12/15

Episode 92In the conclusion of Samarcand, we turn away from the fire itself and examine what happened after sixteen teenage girls were arrested — and what the justice system did when it realized it had no good options left. With Samarcand no longer able to house them, the state faced a question it wasn’t prepared to answer: What do you do with traumatized, rebellious, and violently angry teenage girls the system has already failed? In this episode, we explore: The debate over how — or whether —

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50:08

The Sweet Sixteen of Samarcand Reformatory

Crime To Burn ·

2025/12/08

Episode 91Sixteen girls. Multiple fires. A system built to control them — and a desperate act that forced the nation to look closer. In this episode, we step inside the walls of the Samarcand Reform School for Girls in North Carolina, where young women lived under harsh discipline, forced labor, and relentless institutional oversight. On the night they began setting fires, they weren’t just striking a match — they were striking back. This is a story of defiance, injustice, and the blurred line

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34:38

Burn, Marry, Kill: The Wicked Web of Sarah Hartsfield...

Crime To Burn ·

2025/12/01

Episode 90In the final installment of our deep dive into the deadly world of Sarah Hartsfield, we unravel the last threads of a case that spiraled from chaos to calculated cruelty. This episode pulls together the full picture of Sarah’s violent history, her pattern of manipulation, and the chilling timeline that led investigators—and ultimately a jury—to label her actions for what they were. We break down the pivotal moments from Sarah's past that shifted the direction of the trial. From the

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48:50

Burn, Marry, Kill - The Wicked Web of Sarah...

Crime To Burn ·

2025/11/24

Episode 89 In Part 2 of our deep dive into the life and crimes of Sarah Hartsfield, we follow the tangled threads back to the beginning. Because before the alleged poisoning, before the string of dead or endangered husbands, before the Dateline episode… there was a childhood already splintered by chaos. This week, we explore: Sarah’s early life — the patterns that began long before her first “I do.” Marriage #1: A relationship marked by volatility, control, and infidelity Her marriage to Chris

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45:51

Burn, Marry, Kill - The Wicked Web of Sarah Hartsfield

Crime To Burn ·

2025/11/17

Episode 88 Sarah Hartsfield didn’t weave a web of silk — she wove a web of control. A web of manipulation. A web she masked with charisma and charm until it finally snapped under its own weight. In October 2025, a jury convicted Sarah Hartsfield of murdering her husband, Joseph Hartsfield, after deliberating for just one hour. One hour — despite the fact that the physical evidence was thin, the investigation delayed, and the medical questions complex. But what wasn’t thin was the pattern that

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43:09

Dual Disasters: The Dawson Mine Explosions

Crime To Burn ·

2025/11/10

Episode 87Hidden beneath the hills of northeast New Mexico lies a ghost that industry left behind. Dawson was once a model mining town — a company-built community boasting schools, golf courses, and an opera house. Phelps Dodge called it progress. But twice, in just ten years, that progress went up in smoke. In 1913 and again in 1923, massive explosions ripped through Dawson’s coal mines, killing 383 miners — fathers, sons, and brothers — in two of the deadliest mining disasters in American

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108 results

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