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PODCAST

Crimes of the Centuries

Amber Hunt and Audioboom

Crime is so commonplace that it takes something particularly shocking to be labelled the “crime of the century.” Even so, there are a lot of cases that have earned the distinction. In each episode of Crimes of the Centuries, award-winning journalist Amber Hunt will examine a case that’s lesser known today but was huge when it happened. The cases explored span the centuries and each left a mark. Some made history by changing laws. Others were so shocking they changed society.

true crime documentary

All Episodes

56:23

S6 Ep17: Meaher's Illegal Gamble: The Last Slave Ship

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/06/22

In 1859, a wealthy Alabama landowner made a bet that he could do the unthinkable. The next spring, he did just that — trafficking human beings from West Africa to the United States a half-century after it had been made a federal crime punishable by death. The Clotilda brought back 110 men, women and children. For more than 150 years, the ship sat buried in the mud of a Mobile Bay bayou, as if the whole thing had never happened.Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring

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56:34

S6 Ep16: Murder in Coweta County

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/06/15

One April morning in 1948, a tenant farmer named Wilson Turner walked out of a rural Georgia jail and into an ambush. The man waiting for him owned 2,000 acres known as The Kingdom, a moonshine empire, and the county sheriff. What followed was a murder investigation that drew 500 lawmen from across the state — and a verdict few in Meriwether County saw coming. This is the real story behind Murder in Coweta County.Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes

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69:43

S6 Ep15: Twilight Zone Part 2: 'We Decided to Break...

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/06/08

After three people died on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie, it took four years to get five defendants into a courtroom and another 10 months before anyone knew how it would end. What unfolded in between was part legal battle, part Hollywood spectacle and entirely unlike anything the film industry had faced before. Part two of two.Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and

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51:20

S6 Ep14: Twilight Zone Part 1: Vic Morrow's Last Role

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/06/01

In the early morning hours of July 23, 1982, cameras were rolling at a California filming location when a helicopter crashed into a river, killing actor Vic Morrow and two young children, Renee Chen and Myca Le. It was called a tragic accident. But the more investigators looked, the harder that word was to defend. Part one of two.Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and

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54:36

S6 Ep13: Wesley Elkins: The 11-Year-Old Killer

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/05/25

On a hot July morning in 1889, two adults were found murdered in their beds on a small Iowa farm, shot and bludgeoned to death while they slept. The only witness was an 11-year-old boy who said a stranger had done it. What followed was a legal and moral reckoning that divided the country and forced a question the American justice system wasn't remotely prepared to answer: What do you do with a child who kills?Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from

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49:19

S6: Murdaugh Country: Future Crimes of the Centuries?

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/05/22

You've heard the name. You've read the headlines. But the Alex Murdaugh story is bigger than one man's spectacular fall — bigger, even, than two people's horrific deaths. It's about the century of institutional rot that made it all possible. In this bonus episode of "Future Crimes of the Centuries?", Amber looks beyond the expected retrial to the people whose stories got buried under the spectacle: a housekeeper who died at the Murdaugh estate and whose sons were swindled, a 19-year-old whose

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65:47

S6 Ep12: Above Suspicion: The FBI Informant Who...

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/05/18

A young mother from a tiny Kentucky hollow vanished without a trace in 1989, leaving behind her clothes, her makeup and her two children. She'd been working as an informant for FBI Agent Mark Putnam, so her family held onto one hope: Maybe she'd finally gotten the fresh start she'd always dreamed of through the federal witness protection program. It would take a year to find out the truth about what happened to Susan Daniels Smith. And it was worse than anyone had imagined.

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9:03

The Case Files History Left Unsolved | Hidden History...

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/05/18

Dr. Harini Bhat is a clinical pharmacist and storyteller obsessed with the moments in history that still can't be fully explained. Every week she investigates real events that defy easy explanation. Mass hysterias. Vanished civilizations. Medical oddities. Strange signals. Unexplained phenomena that keep repeating across centuries, as if history is trying to tell us something.Hidden History doesn't dismiss ancient events as myth or superstition. It treats them as open case files, shaped by the

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55:32

S6 Ep11: The Butcher of Rostov

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/05/11

In 1978, a nine-year-old girl in a red coat went looking for a kind man she'd met at a train station. She never came home. Over the next 12 years, at least 52 more would follow. But in the Soviet Union's supposed utopia, serial killers didn't exist — and a government more committed to its own mythology than to its citizens would pay a terrible price for that belief. Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped

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61:00

S6 Ep10: The Fire That Condemned Cameron Todd Willingham

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/05/04

In 1991, investigators of a house fire in Corsicana, Texas, concluded the fatal blaze was arson, pointing to burn patterns they said proved someone had deliberately turned the house into a death trap. They zeroed in on Cameron Todd Willingham as the one who ignited the inferno. But in the years that followed, a growing number of fire scientists began questioning whether the evidence used to convict him was ever sound in the first place, raising enduring doubts about one of the most controversial

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33:54

S6: Future Crimes of the Centuries? The Disappearance...

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/04/30

On the night of January 31st, 2026, 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie was dropped off at her home in the Catalina Foothills outside Tucson, Arizona. By morning, the mother of one of America's most famous TV news personalities had vanished. Nearly three months later, she's still missing. In this bonus episode, Crimes of the Centuries steps outside its usual format to ask some questions about how this investigation has been handled — questions that deserve answers whether or not we ever get them.

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51:53

S6 Ep9: The Torso in the Marsh

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/04/27

In 1949, a headless, legless torso surfaced in the Essex marshes, setting off one of Britain’s most sensational postwar murder investigations. The victim was Stanley Setty, a black-market car dealer. The suspect was Donald Hume, a small-time crook, chronic liar and pilot who rented a plane the night Setty disappeared but swore he had nothing to do with the gruesome killing.Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and

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53:43

S6 Ep8: The Covenant Conspiracy

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/04/20

In 1945, a reverend, a realtor, a science teacher, and a white woman in a low-cut dress conspired to help a St. Louis couple buy a house. The couple had steady jobs, a down payment, and six children who needed a safe home. What they didn't have was permission — at least not according to a clause buried in the property's deed. Their attempt to move in triggered outrage from neighbors, a lawsuit, and a legal battle that climbed all the way to the United States Supreme Court, resulting in the landmark

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54:47

S6 Ep7: Reckless Disregard: The Carrollton Bus Crash

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/04/13

In May 1988, a church bus returning to Kentucky was struck head-on by a wrong-way driver. Within seconds, it became an inferno. As families searched for answers, an unsettling truth emerged: The children had been trapped inside a bus never designed to protect them. The Carrollton bus tragedy is a story about how grief collided with corporate power, government delay tactics and America’s evolving reckoning with drunken driving.

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55:57

S6 Ep6: The Murder That Sparked the Zoot Suit Riots

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/04/06

In August 1942, 22-year-old Jose Diaz was found dying near a Los Angeles reservoir called Sleepy Lagoon. He'd been beaten and stabbed the night before he was set to report to the U.S. Army. His death became the excuse the LAPD needed to launch a massive crackdown on Mexican American youth—rounding up 600 people, trying 22 young men with questionable evidence and igniting racial tensions that exploded into the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943. But who really killed Jose Diaz? And why did a fashion choice

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39:04

ENCORE: The Life and Death of Sam Cooke

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/03/30

Singing his way through the 1950s and early 1960s, appealing to audiences across a segregated music industry, churning out hits of dreamy quality like “You Send Me” and inspirational fortitude like “A Change Is Gonna Come,” Sam Cooke was more than an artist. He lived – and died – a legend. So how did he end up shot in a Los Angeles motel in 1964? In this episode, we’ll trace the tale: start to finish.

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63:58

S6 Ep5: LIVE Episode: Cincinnati's "Seamstress Slayer"

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/03/23

In November 1958, duck hunters at Cowan Lake State Park stumbled upon a burned body so badly damaged it was nearly unrecognizable. It belonged to Louise Bergen, a 32-year-old Cincinnati mother whose disappearance had already set off whispers of secret relationships and divided loyalties. What followed became one of the most notorious murder cases in the city's history—featuring a shocking confession, a death sentence, and a prosecutor who refused to look at evidence that might have told a different

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52:55

S6 Ep4: Stolen Valor: The Woman Who Wasn't There

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/03/16

In the years after September 11, 2001, one survivor’s story rose above nearly all others. She said she had escaped from the South Tower, lost the man she loved on the 99th floor, and lived with injuries that would never fully heal. Her account became central to how the world understood survival, grief and resilience after the attacks. But when a reporter began asking routine questions ahead of an anniversary, the story quietly unraveled. Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab

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49:58

S6 Ep3: The Shepherd's Bush Massacre

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/03/09

In August 1966, three unarmed London police officers pulled over a suspicious car on Braybrook Street in Shepherd's Bush in West London. Within minutes, all three were dead—shot in cold blood by three career criminals who'd rather kill than go back to prison. The murders shocked Britain and sparked a months-long manhunt for Harry Roberts, who managed to evade capture while his face was plastered across every newspaper in the country. Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab

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48:37

S6 Ep2: Brief Against Death: After Edgar Smith's Release

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2026/03/02

In 1976, a woman survived a brutal kidnapping and stabbing in a San Diego parking lot. The man accused of the attack was Edgar Smith—once a cause célèbre, hailed as a wrongfully convicted intellectual. His release had been celebrated by writers, editors and influential public figures who believed they had corrected a grave injustice. What followed was not redemption but reckoning. "Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark

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