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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

41:23

S1 Ep14: The Million-Dollar Kidnapping of Ginny Piper

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2021/02/01

When wealthy Ginny Piper was kidnapped at gunpoint in broad daylight inside of her secluded Minnesota home, it put the nation on edge and sent her husband on a macabre scavenger hunt to save Ginny’s life. It also became a pet case for the FBI, which was trying to improve its reputation, but many would later argue that the agency only bungled things further by focusing on the wrong suspects. The Piper case would go down in history as one of the nation’s most baffling. "Crimes of the Centuries" is a

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37:20

S1 Ep13: Edward Rulloff: The Genius Psychopath

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2021/01/25

Edward Rulloff was a genius, speaking seven languages by the time he graduated high school -- no easy feat for someone from a poor farming family. But Rulloff was also arrogant, hot-headed and prone to violence. When his wife and infant daughter disappeared in 1844, Rulloff said they'd simply gone on a trip, though his in-laws were suspicious. Somehow, he managed time and again to slip through authorities' fingers -- once with the help of an undersheriff's son whom he'd smooth-talked into freeing

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38:34

S1 Ep12: The Tylenol Murders: Over-the-Counter Killers

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2021/01/18

When 52-year-old Bruce Nickell suddenly dropped dead in Washington state, investigators at first thought he'd died of a heart attack. But then a second person collapsed, and police realized that the two victims had both taken the painkiller Excedrin. Suddenly, they realized they were dealing with a copycat of a case that had haunted federal investigators for nearly 15 years. In that earlier case, seven people died when someone randomly tampered with the over-the-counter painkiller to replace some

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47:03

S1 Ep11: Sex, Lies, and Murder: Evelyn Nesbit,...

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2021/01/11

It was one of the most salacious stories the country had ever heard: A famous architect had been gunned down in front of an audience of hundreds by a man who said he was defending his wife's honor. It so happened the wife was the world's first supermodel. The love triangle among architect Stanford White, model and showgirl Evelyn Nesbit and millionaire unhinged man Harry Kendell Thaw reached its climax on June 24, 1906. With hundreds of witnesses, the case was never a whodunit. Rather, it was a

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39:27

S1 Ep10: The Torture Chamber of Delphine LaLaurie

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2021/01/04

A fire broke out in a stately New Orleans mansion in 1834, leading neighbors to rush to the homeowners' aid. What they discovered inside, however, made them realize that the charming and cultured woman of the house had been hiding a horrifying secret: In an upstairs apartment, enslaved people were weighed down by chains, starved to emaciation and barely recognizable as humans. The case of Delphine LaLaurie and her unfathomable cruelty would outrage the nation and beyond. "Crimes of the Centuries"

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40:12

S1 Ep9: Charley Ross: America's First Kidnapping for...

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2020/12/21

After 4-year-old Charley Ross vanished in a carriage with two men who'd offered him candy and fireworks, police at first told his father to wait it out. Surely the men had no bad intentions. Then came the first ransom letter. And another. And another. In 1874, the Charley Ross case marked the first time in American history that a child had been stolen for money. The case terrified parents, made kidnapping a crime and served as macabre inspiration for future criminals. "Crimes of the Centuries" is a

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37:54

S1 Ep8: Kitty Genovese: A Murder with 38 Witnesses

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2020/12/14

As a 28-year-old woman screamed for help on an otherwise quiet New York City street, neighbors roused from sleep ... and then largely did nothing. The 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese would soon represent apathy in America and spark the creation of a centralized phone number that ultimately changed how the entire nation reported emergencies. While Kitty's case will go down in history as a driving force that launched 9-1-1, the nuances of the crime -- and people's reactions to it -- have been

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39:06

S1 Ep7: The Mysterious Beheading of Pearl Bryan

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2020/12/07

When a headless woman's remains were discovered near Cincinnati in 1896, police had a problem. Long before DNA and fingerprinting, the lack of a head made it tough to identify the victim. Thanks to a sharp-eyed shoemaker, a new kind of detective work was born: The woman was ID'd thanks to a pair of distinctive shoes on the corpse's feet. Pearl Bryan was a 22-year-old Indiana woman who'd recently learned she was pregnant. Her lover, a Cincinnati man named Scott Jackson, suggested she come to town so

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43:52

S1 Ep6: Bob Berdella: The Serial Killer Known as the...

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2020/11/30

To his neighbors, Bob Berdella was a proactive citizen who helped launch a neighborhood watch group. Sure, he was a bit condescending, but he seemed to have a big heart, using his Kansas City home as a safe haven for young men in trouble. But then, in 1988, a young man jumped from a second-story window of Berdella's house wearing nothing but a dog collar, prompting police to scour the innocuous-looking home on Charlotte Street. What they uncovered would lead to the quaint home being labeled a "House

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43:32

S1 Ep5: Prohibition Murderers: The Karpis/Barker Gang

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2020/11/16

Thanks to Prohibition, criminal gangs were a dime a dozen in the 1920s and '30s, but the Karpis/Barker Gang became one of the era's longest lived, highest profile, and most consequential. During the Depression, their exploits not only burnished the reputation of the FBI and its director J. Edgar Hoover, but also inadvertently triggered the end to rampant corruption in St. Paul Minnesota. While its body count was hefty -- and included lawmen like a sheriff gunned down in cold blood -- its enduring

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40:20

S1 Ep4: Nannie Doss: The Murderous Giggling Granny

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2020/11/09

When widower Sam Doss was rushed to the hospital with abdominal pains in 1954, his doctor was flummoxed by his life-threatening yet mysterious illness. But Doss got better and came home -- then died the next day. That's what prompted police to look at his matronly, sweet-talking new wife, Nannie. Born Nannie Hazle, it turned out this missus had left a trail of dead husbands behind her -- not to mention several relatives, all of whom died of sudden and inexplicable illnesses. By the time Nannie was

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45:25

S1 Ep3: Elma Sands: The Manhattan Well Murder

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2020/11/02

When a 22-year-old woman living with relatives in a boarding house disappeared on Dec. 22, 1799, her loved ones didn't immediately worry. But when she still hadn't returned days later, all eyes turned to her lover -- whom she'd supposedly been set to marry the last time she was seen alive. Levi Weeks came from a family with money, so his rich brother did something that was unheard of at this point in American history: He hired fancy lawyers. And that's how Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr ended up

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45:40

S1 Ep2: Leopold & Loeb: Jazz Age Killers

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2020/10/26

On May 21, 1924, 19-year-old Nathan Leopold and 18-year-old Richard Loeb convinced a younger boy, 14 year old Bobby Franks, to get in a car with them. We think Leopold was driving with Loeb in the backseat. 14 year old Bobby sat in the passenger seat. From behind, Loeb struck the younger boy several times in the head with a chisel, and then dragged him into the backseat where he eventually died. Leopold and Loeb were wealthy kids who thought they were smarter than everybody else. And they

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44:08

S1 Ep1: The Murder of Mary Phagan

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2020/10/26

At 3:00 am on April 27th, 1913, the body of 13 year old Mary Phagan was found in the basement of the factory where she worked in Atlanta, Georgia. Her dress was up around her waist and a strip from her petticoat had been torn off and wrapped around her neck. Her face was blackened and scratched, and her head was bruised and battered. Almost immediately, the murder, and the mystery surrounding who would do such a horrible, brutal thing to a child went the 1913 equivalent of viral. When authorities

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2:04

S1: PREVIEW: Crimes of the Centuries

Crimes of the Centuries ·

2020/10/13

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. Full episodes of

en

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