I’ve been listening to a lot of true crime podcasts lately (and by lately, I mean over the last year or so) and I’d like to round ’em up for you. I’ve been meaning to a do a slew of podcast reviews, but a roundup will be easier. One I was too eager to wait for I reviewed earlier this year was Murder in Boston. You can read that review here.
The Retrievals
The Retrievals is a five-part podcast series from The New York Times released in June 2023, about a despicable doctor at a fertility clinic at Yale, who took advantage of women intent on becoming mothers by sexually assaulting them. The implications are two-fold: a.) women aren’t believed by their doctors, loved ones, friends, and of course, the medical establishment itself, and so much so that they even start wondering if what they know they experienced actually happened; and b.) how the institution covered up and/or was dismissive of the women, even after the fact.
Recommend? Yes, but it’ll be infuriating!
Gone Hunting
The fourth installment in the Over My Dead Body podcast anthology from Wondery, released in August 2023, is the case of Mike and Denise Williams. Mike goes “missing” while hunting. Gone Hunting proves that, somehow, I can still be shocked by the actions of other humans. After listening, come back and tell me if I’m write that Denise is full of crap; she’s totally involved in Mike’s death. Either she’s the dumbest person to be with someone who so obviously murdered her husband, or she was explicitly involved in the killing. The way she reacted to Mike’s mom was sickening, but thank goodness for Mike’s mom’s unrelenting search for the truth!
Recommend? Yes, because like I said, it’ll manage to shock you and there’s a lively debate about Denise.
Murder in Apt. 12
A spin-off of Dateline, Murder in Apt. 12 was released in September 2023, and is about Nona Dirksmeyer, who was killed in her apartment and her boyfriend, Kevin, was fingered for the killing because of a bloody handprint found at the crime scene. But the police, as usual, bungled this one massively. They didn’t do the usual forensics work, and let someone far more dangerous abscond.
Recommend? Yes, this is one of the better Dateline spin-off series.
Unrestorable
Unrestorable was released in October 2023, about a mentally ill mother, who presumably killed two of her three children. But she won’t tell police or the husband where the bodies are located. The fight is then over whether she’s mentally competent to stand trial or not, with the clock running out (basically, if she’s not deemed mentally competent by X time, she’s absolved). I found this one an interesting question about mental health and the criminal justice system.
Recommend? Yes, although, I think they were stretching somewhat to fill the episodes, but the debate about the intersection of mental health and the criminal justice system is worth having.
Bone Valley
The less I say about this series released in September 2022, the better. You need to go in blind, and be ready to be infuriated, dismayed, and somehow, inspired and feeling hopeful because of the goodness for humanity, including someone wrongfully convicted, how they’ve maintained their faith and goodness through 30-some years of injustice.
Recommend? Absolutely, it’s one of the best true crime podcasts I’ve ever listened to, up there with Serial, S Town, Accused, In the Dark (the most analogous one), Dr. Death, Dirty John, and The Man in the Window.
Bad Magic
Speaking of Dr. Death, the fourth season of the series, Bad Magic, which released in January, tells an astonishing story of a charlatan from Turkey who manages to fool everyone there and then in America into giving him their money and their bodies to experiment on. On one hand, it’s hard to fathom how he succeeded, and on the other hand, it’s not at all. There is just something innate in human nature that wants to believe in the Great Man of History theory and that this Great Man has the cure (to whatever ailment we’re talking about, literal or metaphorical) that the “others” don’t want you to know about. It’s sickening and maddening, particularly how the company he worked for just kept rolling on despite everything.
Recommend? Oh yeah, it’s a short and easy listen, but packed with appalling details.
The Butcher Baker
The sixth season of Mind of a Monster follows the case of The Butcher Baker. Released in January of this year, this podcast hosted by Dr. Michelle Ward, had all the ingredients for me to be invested: the Alaska setting, the 1980s, a serial killer, women not believed because of an apparently well-to-do man, and police bungling things as per usual (at least initially, a detective who comes in later is quite good, and there were good police at the start, but they were pushed down the totem pole, so to speak). And yet, I weirdly found it not to be that compelling. To be sure, it’s alarming to hear serial killer, Robert Hansen, talking to the police, but I started losing interest in the podcast mid-way through, which is unusual.
Recommend? The only one on the list I can’t say I would!
What have you been listening to lately in the true crime realm? Am I missing a great one? Let me know in the comments!
Milam's Musings 