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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

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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43:19

France's Disco Inferno: The Club Cinq-Sept Fire

Crime To Burn ·

2025/11/03

Episode 86In the early hours of November 1st, 1970, celebration turned to catastrophe when a fire tore through the Club Cinq-Sept near Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France. Within minutes, 146 young people were dead — trapped behind padlocked exits, a full-height turnstile, and flammable décor that turned the dance floor into a death trap. This wasn’t just a fire — it was the inevitable result of greed, negligence, and a system that valued profit over safety. In this episode, April breaks down how the

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38:25

Devil's Night: Detroit's Arson Reckoning

Crime To Burn ·

2025/10/27

Episode 85 Each October, the city of Detroit braced for three nights of chaos known as Devil’s Night—a grim tradition of arson and destruction that peaked in the 1980s with hundreds of fires set across the city. But behind the headlines and the flames lies a story of resilience, strategy, and a community that refused to burn. In this episode, we take you inside the rise and fall of Devil’s Night—how economic collapse, political scandal, and desperation turned mischief into mayhem, and how Detroit’s

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56:15

Bonus Episode: Interview with Arnie Bernstein (Author...

Crime To Burn ·

2025/10/21

Episode 84:In this week’s bonus episode of Crime to Burn, April sits down with author Arnie Bernstein to discuss the 1927 Bath School disaster, the investigation that followed, and what it takes to responsibly tell true stories of mass violence nearly a century later. Together, they explore how the bombing changed one American town — and why its echoes still shape today’s conversations about justice, memory, and the human cost of tragedy. Arnie Bernstein’s Website: arniebernstein.com Arnie’s

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42:33

Her Own Witness: The Judy Malinowski Story

Crime To Burn ·

2025/10/20

Episode 83This week on Crime to Burn, we’re doing something a little different. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and this episode honors the extraordinary courage of Judy Malinowski — a woman whose strength changed the law and gave victims of domestic violence a voice that could never again be silenced. Judy was burned alive by her abuser and spent nearly two years in the hospital, fighting through unimaginable pain to testify against him. Her recorded testimony would later make

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41:58

Texas Justice: Revisiting Cameron Todd Willingham's...

Crime To Burn ·

2025/10/13

Episode 82 In this episode, we follow the fallout of the Cameron Todd Willingham case — a story that didn’t end at the execution chamber. When fire scientist Dr. Gerald Hurst sounded the alarm that the arson evidence used to convict Willingham was based on junk science, Texas had a choice: pause and reevaluate, or push forward and protect its image. It chose the latter. We’ll unpack how political pressure and flawed forensics collided, how the Texas Forensic Science Commission became a battleground

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47:09

Texas Justice: Revisiting Cameron Todd Willingham's...

Crime To Burn ·

2025/10/06

Episode 81A fire, a flawed science, and a state that still hasn’t learned. In 1991, Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted of setting the house fire that killed his three young children. Despite a mountain of later evidence debunking the “arson indicators” used against him, Texas executed Willingham in 2004—long after leading fire scientists warned that the case rested on junk science. Two decades later, Texas is preparing to repeat history. On October 16th, the state is scheduled to execute

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41:35

Permission to Burn: The Ballantynes Fire of...

Crime To Burn ·

2025/09/29

Episode 80On November 18, 1947, a fire tore through Ballantynes department store in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 41 people and changing the nation forever. It remains New Zealand’s deadliest fire disaster — and one that exposed shocking negligence. In this episode, we retrace the events leading up to the blaze, the chaos of the evacuation, and the devastating aftermath. We’ll look at how overcrowding, building construction, and a lack of fire protection systems turned a busy shopping day into

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101 results

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