True Crime Reporter

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See Vietnam Era Photos of Army Disc Jockey John Bagwell Blasting Out Popular Sixties Rock Music To Troops

Armed Forces Radio DJ Wounded And Hunted Behind Enemy Lines In Vietnam

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 09:31:00 +0000

By Robert Riggs

Armed Forces Radio Spc John Bagwell Evades Capture During The 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam – Recreation

As I watched the daring rescue of the two airmen shot down over Iran in early April of 2026, I found myself thinking of John Bagwell.

John’s story is not a true-crime saga you’d expect to hear on this podcast, but it is gripping, timely, and no less dramatic.

I learned about his military service when he wore a Purple Heart ribbon to a search engine marketing group meeting here in Dallas many years ago.

John had never talked about his time in the Vietnam War, and we were surprised.

We learned that in 1968, Bagwell escaped from behind enemy lines during a surprise attack dubbed the Tet Offensive.

He was wounded and alone, moving through deadly, unfamiliar territory while trying to avoid enemy fire and, at times, bullets from his own side.

His harrowing fight for survival began at a radio station in Vietnam with a scene that could have been lifted straight from a Hollywood movie.

Popular Songs Among Bagwell’s Listeners In Vietnam

We Gotta Get Out Of This Place by The Animals

Something’s Happening Here by Buffalo Springfield

Hue 1968- A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam is my favorite book about the Tet Offensive by Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down

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Get The Facts About Hazing On Your College Campus at HazingInfo.org

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Brotherhood of Brutality Unchecked Fraternity Hazing

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 09:35:00 +0000

By Robert Riggs

Burned with lit cigarettes. Impaled with a fishhook. Staples fired into his hip. Deadly drugs forced up his nose.

It sounds like a brutal regime’s methods from a torture chamber.

But these are the homegrown means of hazing that the Alpha Nu Chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity allegedly used on pledges at the University of Texas at Austin.

The sadistic practices detailed in a wrongful death lawsuit raise questions about whether fraternity members derive pleasure from inflicting pain.

It allegedly caused 18-year-old Sawyer Updike to end his life under the influence of mind-bending drugs he was forced to take.

If you are sending a son or daughter off to college, you want to hear this story about Brothers of Brutality.

University of Texas at Austin Hazing Report Required by the Federal Stop Campus Hazing Act

Sawyer Updike Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Sigma Chi Fraternity

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JigSaw & Jane 13 Years of Murder & Mayhem with Badge Number One

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:27:00 +0000

By Robert Riggs

LAPD Homicide Detective John St. John aka “JigSaw John” Badge #1

Legendary LAPD Homicide Detective John St. John walked among the dead for nearly a half-century.

Known as “JigSaw John,” he pursued monsters that had an insatiable appetite for blood and suffering.

Jane Howatt, a suburban housewife and aspiring writer, wanted to trade her tennis racket for something more meaningful.

St. John didn’t need company, and he sure didn’t want a young unpublished author in his way.

But something about Howatt’s curiosity—earnest, unspoiled, insistent—broke down his guard.

St. John worked the evidence; Howatt worked the story.

The result is “JigSaw and Jane: Thirteen Years of Murder & Mayhem with Badge Number One.”

St.John empathized with crime victims because he was one of them.

As a young jailer, a prisoner ambushed him with an iron bar ripped from a bunk.

The prisoner savagely beat St. John to the brink of death, leaving him blind in one eye.

In another life, JigSaw and Jane would have barely noticed each other in a supermarket aisle.

Instead, they found themselves peering into crime scenes of LA’s most brutal and sensational crimes together.

This is their story.

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Ted B. Lyon Personal Injury Lawyer

Carbon Monoxide Poisoned Two Children’s Brains After Their Landlord Ignored the Danger

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 09:23:00 +0000

by Robert Riggs

This isn’t the kind of story I usually tell.

The police didn’t converge on the scene with sirens blaring and guns drawn.

But what happened inside a Dallas apartment complex was just as devastating and just as unforgivable as a cold-blooded murder.

In 2015, a silent killer slipped into the home of two young children. Not through malice, but through neglect, greed, and a rusted furnace exhaust pipe no one wanted to fix.

The carbon monoxide gas that leaked out of it took their minds, leaving them permanently brain-damaged, trapped in silence.

For nine years, their mother fought a legal battle against apartment owners and their insurance company, which denied everything.

What followed was a story of delay, deception, and courtroom drama that will outrage even the most hardened true crime listener.

This episode is a departure from my usual reporting, but it’s one I had to tell.

Because sometimes, the deadliest crimes aren’t committed with a weapon.

They’re committed with indifference.

Legal Resources Mentioned In This Story:

Science Resources for Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Dr. Lindell Weaver

Science.org

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Robin Dreeke — Stop Pause Observe

Don’t Make It Easy for a Violent Predator to Choose You

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 09:30:00 +0000

Most predators don’t pounce—they pick.

They observe.

They wait.

And they choose the person who looks the easiest to catch.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to make sure you’re not the one they choose.

From FBI profilers to a former producer for CBS 48 Hours, I’ll walk you through the red flags predators look for and how to shut them down before they ever get a chance.

This isn’t about paranoia. It’s about awareness. And once you know what to look for, you’ll make it very difficult to be chosen.

Because survival starts before the crime ever happens.

Links:

Katherine Schweit

Tase Bailey

Claire St Amant

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Women Who Talk To The Dead

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 09:00:00 +0000

The Story of 200 Forgotten Murder Victims

By Robert Riggs

They were daughters. Mothers. Sisters. Strangers. Their lives ended violently—and their names were lost to time.

For more than half a century, Detroit’s forgotten dead lay buried beneath weeds and silence—unidentified murder victims dumped into paupers’ graves, sometimes stacked in vaults three-deep, known only by numbers in crumbling cemetery logs. No names. No justice. No answers.

This is the remarkable five-year journey of a team of relentless female

investigators who pledged to identify more than 200 victims of Detroit’s

outstanding murder cases.

Led by Detroit Police Detective Shannon Jones and FBI Special Agent Leslie Larsen, this group of dedicated women—detectives, agents, forensic anthropologists, and scientists—literally dug through

the past to bring closure to families and justice to the murdered.

Their quest became known as Operation UNITED, the largest coordinated exhumation of cold case murder victims in FBI history.

Katherine Schweit tells the story of this unprecedented, five-year mission in her book, Women Who Talk to the Dead.

Schweit is a former FBI Special Agent Executive, Chicago prosecutor, and journalist.

She wrote the FBI’s seminal report on mass shooters and is a recognized expert in crisis response and workplace violence.

If you or someone you know is searching for a missing loved one, there’s a tool that can help.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs.

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Part 1: NCIS From Evidence to Arrest: Analyzing Murder Cases Step by Step

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Step into the storied halls of the Texas Prison Museum and uncover the gripping tales of infamous inmates, daring escapes, and the history of justice in the Lone Star State.

Widow Offers One Million Dollars To Crack Cold Case Murder Mystery

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 09:17:00 +0000

Unsolved Murder of Jim Grimes Haunts Quiet Tennessee Town

By Robert Riggs

A bold reward offers ONE MILLION DOLLARS to solve a cold case murder mystery.

Since the $25 million bounty on Osama bin Laden, few rewards have reached this level—yet a grieving widow in rural Tennessee is offering $1 million of her own money to find her husband’s killer.

A single shotgun blast shattered the life of a beloved husband, father, and grandfather.

Sixty-three-year-old Jim Grimes was ambushed while tending animals on his peaceful property on April 19, 2021.

No witnesses. No forensic evidence. Just shadows and silence.

Who knew Jim’s routine? Who knew their way around the property at night? Who lay in wait?

And who’s finally ready to talk?

This is a true crime story of grief, grit, and the relentless pursuit of justice.

Link To Previous Cold Case Episodes With Joe Kennedy

Part 2: NCIS Confidential: Solving Real-Life Cold Cases To Catch Killers

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The Warden’s “Rap Sheets” for Alcatraz’s infamous convicts.

The Rock: Alcatraz’s Chilling True Crime Legacy

Tue, 13 May 2025 09:17:00 +0000

Alcatraz shut its cell doors more than 60 years ago, but its grip on the American imagination hasn’t loosened.

Each year, nearly a million and a half tourists ride the ferry across San Francisco Bay, through cold, choppy waters, to walk the crumbling corridors of the most infamous prison in U.S. history.

Visitors today frequently cite the desire to see the cellblocks that once confined legendary outlaws,

Notorious gangsters such as Al Capone, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, and Robert “Birdman” Stroud were inmates here, cementing Alcatraz’s image as the end of the line for incorrigible criminal offenders.

I’ve included a link in the show notes to their “rap sheets” from the Warden’s records.

During its 29 years as a federal prison, Alcatraz gained a fearsome reputation for strict discipline and inescapable walls.

Now, President Donald Trump says he wants to reopen and expand Alcatraz as a high-security federal prison.

In this episode, I take a hard look at the history of The Rock—how it earned its reputation as escape-proof, the men it held, the myth it became, and why, even in ruins, it still casts a long shadow over American justice.

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FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center – (IC3.gov)

The Click That Opens The Door To Cyber Hell

Tue, 06 May 2025 09:38:00 +0000

You Just Thought Your Home Was Safe

By Robert Riggs

You lock your doors at night. You check on your kids.

But what if the real threat is already inside—hiding in your phone, your smart TV, or your child’s video game chat?

In this episode of True Crime Reporter®, former federal probation officer Art Bowker takes us into the digital battlefield unfolding inside your home.

Bowker’s book Surviving a Cyberattack: Securing Social Media and Protecting Your Home warns how predators groom teenagers with flattery, how romance scammers bleed retirees dry, and how artificial intelligence is being weaponized to impersonate loved ones.

Bowker and his coauthor Todd Shipley call themselves “The Cyber Safety Guys”.

This is the story about how cybercriminals not only bleed their victims but leave them emotionally devastated, isolated, and too ashamed to ask for help.

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Why Do Women Love True Crime?

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 09:17:00 +0000

A Former 48 Hours Producer Reveals the Psychology and Power Behind the Genre

By Robert Riggs

When the curtain drops on everyday life, true crime shows like this podcast and especially those on television expose the darkest side of humanity.

Television relentlessly chases the latest trending crimes on police blotters and court dockets.

Claire St. Amant pursued those stories in the cutthroat world of prime-time television as a producer for CBS 48 Hours. She also produced segments for 60 Minutes.

She’s written a memoir about her experiences, Killer Story: The Truth Behind True Crime Televison.

Television executives have known for decades that the audience is overwhelmingly female.

We’re talking 70-80 percent, sometimes more. Mothers and daughters. Best friends.

Women of all ages coming together for what amounts to a girls’ night out… centered on murder.

You may want to go back and listen to my episode with Journalist Mike Cox.

He wrote a satire, Getting Away With Murder, Learning From Dateline and Other True Crime Shows.

So what’s going on here? Why are women so drawn to true crime?

Claire St Amant, now a fellow true crime podcaster, shares her insights.

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This Is Not The Godfather – It’s the Brutal Truth About the Mob

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 09:16:00 +0000

By Robert Riggs

The Godfather. Goodfellas. The Sopranos.

Hollywood entertained us with polished fiction—honor among thieves, loyalty bound by blood, men of principle wrapped in tailored suits.

But the real mob? It was darker. Colder. Predatory. The smile came first. The knife came after.

This is the true story of how FBI Special Agent Mike Campi helped dismantle the Genovese crime family—the oldest, largest, and most insidious of New York’s five Mafia Families.

Founded by Charles “Lucky” Luciano in 1931. Consolidated under Vito Genovese in the late 1950s. The family once ruled Manhattan’s west side piers and the Fulton Fish Market on the East River with quiet brutality. Everything moved through their hands—money, muscle, silence.

Campi joined the FBI’s Organized Crime Squad in 1985, stepping into the heart of a sweeping federal assault on the American Mafia. Over the next two decades, he led investigations that exposed the rot behind the façade.

His new book, Mafia Takedown, pulls back the curtain on what really happened.

Not the Hollywood version. The truth.

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CIA Mafia Spies Plot To Kill Castro Hidden From JFK Probe

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 09:59:00 +0000

Mobsters Hit Tony Soprano Style Before They Can Testify

By Robert Riggs

The JFK assassination files recently released by President Trump shed more light on the secret plot by the CIA to use Mafia gangsters to kill Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Investigative reporter Thomas Maier, the author of Mafia Spies, his book about the unlikely alliance between the CIA and mobsters, is back to discuss the latest revelations.

This is the second part of my True Crime Reporter® series about the Mafia Spies.

Two Chicago gangsters, Sam Giancana and Johnny Roselli, were central to a Congressional investigation by Senator Frank Church in the mid-1970s

Both were murdered shortly before they could testify.

I was an investigator for another committee working on a related inquiry at the time.

The mob-style hit sent a chill through Senators digging into CIA abuses.

Speculation continues about whether the CIA or a Mafia kingpin silenced the mobsters.

Maier and I discuss the murders and revelations from his new book, “The Invisible Spy.”

His dogged investigation uncovered how former CIA Director Allen Dulles steered the Warren Commission’s investigation of President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas away from the plot to kill Castro.

Here’s a link to the cast of characters.

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The James Bondesque Mafia Spies Plot To Kill Castro With A Poison Cigar

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 09:10:00 +0000

The story sounds like something straight out of a spy thriller.

A plot by America’s most feared criminal syndicate and its most secretive intelligence agency to assassinate a foreign leader using poison cigars and other James Bond-inspired schemes.

But this isn’t fiction. This is the true story of how the CIA joined forces with Mafia hitmen to assassinate Fidel Castro.

The revelations with ties to the Watergate scandal in the 1970s have fueled conspiracy theories about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

In this episode of True Crime Reporter®, I sit down with fellow investigative reporter Thomas Maier, whose book Mafia Spies pulls back the curtain on a chilling chapter of American history.

Together, we trace how the mob lost its Cuban gambling empire after Castro’s revolution and how, in Cold War fear, U.S. intelligence agents turned its gangsters to eliminate Castro.

Maier says the challenge of his investigation was figuring how out to tell a story in which everyone lies.

Here’s a link to the cast of characters in the episode.

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How To Read People To Protect Yourself From Crime Part 2

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 09:13:00 +0000

In this episode, we continue our deep dive with retired FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke—a man whose job wasn’t just catching spies but recruiting them.

Dreeke led the FBI’s elite Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program, where he mastered the art of predicting human behavior. He turned foreign operatives into informants—not with force, but with trust.

Now, he’s sharing the same tools that can help you avoid fraud, betrayal, and toxic relationships in everyday life.

In part one, we peeled back the curtain on his high-stakes career in counter espionage against Russian operatives in the United States.

Now, in part two, Dreeke reveals how you can learn to think like an FBI behavioral analyst. How to see the red flags before they wave. How to spot manipulation before it wraps around your life. And how to use behavior patterns—what he calls “behavior arcs”—to make better decisions about who you can trust.

If you’ve ever been lied to, blindsided, or left asking how did I not see that coming?—this episode is for you.

Dreeke is the author of “Sizing People Up”, a book I recommend every listener study and underline.

His short guide, “It’s Not All About Me”, offers a crash course in building rapport in any situation.

Let’s get into it—here’s part two of my conversation with Robin Dreeke.

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Step into the storied halls of the Texas Prison Museum and uncover the gripping tales of infamous inmates, daring escapes, and the history of justice in the Lone Star State.

How To Size People Up Like An FBI Behavioral Analyst

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 09:09:00 +0000

Whether walking through a dimly lit parking lot, meeting someone new, or even evaluating the behavior of people close to you, the ability to read people and size them up could mean the difference between safety and danger.

This episode teaches you how to think like an FBI Behavioral Analyst.

Robin Dreeke, who headed the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Program, joins me to discuss his framework for predicting human behavior.

Dreeke wrote the book, “Sizzling People Up”, based on his years in counterespionage.

His unit was part of the Behavioral Analysis Unit that focuses on violent crime—popularly known as the serial killer unit.

Now, in private consulting, Dreeke teaches how anyone can learn to predict what others will do in the most important situations.

Robin Dreeke is here to help keep you safe in public and online by learning to read people.

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A Terrifying New Scam Bringing Fraudsters to Your Home

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 10:01:00 +0000

Beware of the Fraudster Knocking At Your Door

Scammers don’t just lurk online—they may be coming straight to your front door.

For centuries, con artists have refined their craft, using deception and misdirection to separate victims from their money.

But today’s fraudsters have more sophisticated tools than ever before.

The worst part? You won’t even realize you’ve been conned until it’s too late.

In this episode, I break down the playbook of modern swindlers with Jim Grinstead, veteran newspaperman and host of the Scams and Cons podcast.

Grinstead studies the psychology of deception—and what he’s uncovered should concern us all.

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The Devil In My Friend. The Family Man. The Stone Cold Killer.

Sun, 16 Mar 2025 23:15:00 +0000

How well do we truly know our friends? Can we discern when they are lying, or even worse, when they might be hiding a deadly secret?

In this episode, I delve into the unsettling story of Fred Roehler, who seemed to embody the perfect father and husband in the idyllic setting of Malibu, California.

However, beneath this facade of a picture-perfect family lies a chilling tale of deception, tragedy, and murder.

Join me as I unravel the mystery that Ivor Davis and his wife Sally, both seasoned journalists, uncovered about their close friend in their book The Devil In My Friend: The Inside Story Of A Malibu Murder.

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The $30 Billion Secret The Government Doesn’t Want You To Know

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 10:51:00 +0000

This true crime story is not about a heist pulled off by a notorious bank robber or a cunning scam artist—but an audacious act of bureaucratic theft that spans generations.

It’s an audacious act of bureaucratic theft that spans generations.

Picture this: over $30 billion in matured U.S. savings bonds, investments made with trust and patriotism, are sitting unclaimed.

The rightful heirs, families like mine and maybe even yours, are stonewalled by the very institution that promised to safeguard these assets.

The U.S. Treasury, armed with meticulous records of bondholders, holds fast to those names while demanding impossible proof—a serial number—to claim what’s rightfully ours.

It’s a $30 billion heist orchestrated through silence and red tape.

Join me as I unravel this true crime story of broken promises, frustrated heirs, and the relentless pursuit of justice.

Because sometimes, the biggest heists don’t happen in the dead of night—they happen in plain sight, sanctioned by those who are supposed to protect us.

Make Your Voice Heard! Write, Call, or Email

Mike Crapo (R-ID)

Chair – Senate Finance Committee

239 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510

202-224-6142

https://www.crapo.senate.gov/contact/email-me

Jason Smith (R-Mo.)

Chair – House Ways and Means Committee

1011 Longworth House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

Phone: 202-225-4404

https://jasonsmith.house.gov/contact

Help end this bureaucratic theft and ensure justice for millions of American families.

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Step into the storied halls of the Texas Prison Museum and uncover the gripping tales of infamous inmates, daring escapes, and the history of justice in the Lone Star State.

Baby Face Nelson: The Boy Who Became America’s Most Ruthless Killer

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 12:45:00 +0000

In the blood-soaked pantheon of Depression-era gangsters, one killer stood apart – not for his height, but for his face.

Witnesses consistently described him as looking like “an angel,” with bright blue eyes and features so youthful that bank tellers often mistook him for a teenage messenger boy.

That angelic countenance masked the soul of perhaps the most efficient killer in gangster history.

Baby Face Nelson didn’t just rob banks – he hunted FBI agents for sport, kept a list of their license plates, and giggled like a schoolboy while gunning them down.

He was a member of John Dillinger’s gang and replaced him as Public Enemy Number One.

This isn’t the story of another charming outlaw like Bonnie and Clyde – it’s the tale of a cherub-faced psychopath who turned Depression-era America into his personal killing ground.

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Step into the storied halls of the Texas Prison Museum and uncover the gripping tales of infamous inmates, daring escapes, and the history of justice in the Lone Star State.

Sextortion Is Why Social Media Scares Me For The Safety Of Our Children

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 09:37:00 +0000

We used to fear sexual predators stalking our neighborhoods, ready to snatch our children off the streets. We called it “Stranger Danger”.

But “Stranger Danger” has moved online with Sextortion schemes on the social media platforms and gaming apps our children use daily.

Organized crime rings now prowl the internet, tricking teenagers into sharing explicit images through these familiar channels.

Once they have those images, the nightmare begins. These criminals blackmail their victims, threatening to expose the photos and videos to friends, family, and the public unless they pay the extortion demand.

Fear and shame overwhelm the teenage victims, driving some to suicide.

In response, a pair of Texas Detectives known as the “Catfish Cops” troll these dangerous waters, sinking their hooks into predators before they can destroy more lives.

True Crime Reporter® Security Libary: Sextortion Safety Resources For Parents

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Getting Away with Murder: Learning from Dateline and Other True Crime Shows

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 09:14:00 +0000

Mike Cox’s name is synonymous with Texas crime reporting.

Cox spent decades covering grisly crimes, working as a police beat reporter and later as the Chief of Media Relations for the Texas Department of Public Safety and authoring books about the Texas Rangers.

His latest book, Getting Away with Murder: Learning from Dateline and Other True Crime Shows, blends his sharp wit with his vast experience in law enforcement, offering readers a tongue-in-cheek take on crime and the often bizarre ways criminals get caught.

As an enterprising police beat reporter for the Austin American Statesman, Mike broke the story about serial killer Henry Lee Lucas’ courtroom confession to 100 murders. Mike extensively interviewed Lucas in jail and wrote the definitive book about the case, The Confessions of Henry Lee Lucas.

During our interview, Cox reflects on his lifelong immersion in storytelling, his family’s deep connection to journalism, and how true crime shows like Dateline rekindled his passion for the subject.

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Blood And Ink On The Police Beat Covering Serial Killer Henry Lee Lucas

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 09:23:00 +0000

True Crime Reporter® presents a story that straddles the line between horror and history. Mike Cox, a veteran police beat reporter and former chief of media relations for the Texas Department of Public Safety, spent his life documenting murder cases and bringing clarity to chaos.

From unraveling the disturbing confessions of serial killer Henry Lee Lucas to sorting out the facts for the press at the Luby’s Cafeteria massacre, Cox’s career has been one immersed in blood and ink.

In this episode, we examine one of Cox’s most sensational stories: serial killer Henry Lee Lucas.

Lucas, a drifter with an off-kilter gaze and a chilling demeanor, shocked the world by confessing to over 600 murders. His admissions sent law enforcement agencies scrambling, but as Mike Cox discovered, the truth was far more elusive.

Join us as we revisit the courtroom where Lucas dropped his bombshell confession, follow Cox’s journey from crime scenes to interviews with Lucas inside prison, and explore the fine line between fact and fiction in one of the most bizarre cases in true crime history.

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A Funeral Home Murder Mystery: Joe Pulizzi’s Bold Leap into Crime Writing

Tue, 13 Aug 2024 11:14:00 +0000

Joe Pulizzi, the Godfather of Content Marketing, takes an audacious leap into crime fiction, delivering a story that is as mesmerizing as it is chilling.

Set within the haunting confines of a funeral home, “The Will To Die” unravels a dark and twisted narrative brimming with suspense, secrets, and a touch of macabre.

Pulizzi’s protagonist, a marketing professional, finds himself entangled in a web of deceit and danger. He is compelled to uncover the mysteries buried deep within the family-run funeral home he unexpectedly inherits.

Since I grew up in East Texas, I was drawn to Pulizzi’s crime novel because of the real-life case of Bernie Tiede.

The chubby-cheeked mortician befriended the widow of a wealthy oilman at his funeral.

Bernie became her personal assistant and sole heir to her multi-million dollar estate.

And in 1996, he carried out one of the most bizarre murders in Texas history.

Pulizzi is on to something by incorporating the morticians and embalmers into his story.

They are typically seen as caretakers of the dead, but their presence confronts the unnerving possibility that death has taken on a new, more sinister dimension within their midst.

JOE PULIZZI – LINKS

“The Will To Die”

“The Content Entrepreneur”

The Orange Effect Foundation – Help children with speech disorders receive the speech therapy and technology they need.

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11 Days of Terror: The Deadly Texas Prison Hostage Crisis That Gripped The Nation

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 10:45:00 +0000

Chaos erupted inside the impenetrable Walls Unit prison in Huntsville during the scorching Texas summer of July 1974.

Frederico “Fred” Gomez Carrasco, a notorious drug lord often compared to Pablo Escobar of today, orchestrated a takeover that would become the longest prison siege in U.S. history.

Carrasco, known as “The Mexican Connection,” smuggled guns into the prison and, along with two accomplices, took teachers and librarians hostage.

For eleven harrowing days, they threatened a massacre if their demands were not met, keeping the nation on edge.

Join me as I explore this gripping saga of desperation, manipulation, and deadly confrontation.

This is the story of the deadly Huntsville siege, a tale that continues to resonate nearly fifty years later.

READ 50th Anniversary of “11 Days in Hell” – The Deadly Hostage Siege at the Huntsville Prison

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John Dillinger: The Rise and Fall of America’s Public Enemy Number One

Tue, 09 Jul 2024 11:19:00 +0000

John Dillinger & The Lady In Red Confronted Leaving The Biograph Theater in Chicago July 22, 1934. Artists Rendition

John Dillinger was the most famous outlaw of the 1930s—a charming yet elusive bank robber who captured the public’s imagination and fueled an entire genre of crime melodramas during the darkest days of the Great Depression.

His daring escapades, including multiple jailbreaks and bank heists, captivated the nation and earned him the moniker of “Public Enemy Number One” from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Join me as I delve into the life and legacy of John Dillinger, the man behind the myth.

Listen to my earlier episode The John Dillinger Enigma: Did The FBI Really Kill Public Enemy #1?

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The Postman Cometh: A Deadly Delivery That Went Tick, Tick, Tick In Small-Town Texas

Tue, 02 Jul 2024 11:15:00 +0000

The arrival of a mysterious box at a government office in a small Texas town shattered its quiet morning routine.

Suddenly, the peaceful atmosphere turned to chaos as panicked men and women ran screaming from the building into the street.

They were the targets of a sinister plot designed to kill them all with a powerful pipe bomb in a case of domestic violence.

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Blood Pacts and Breaking Bad: The Rise and Fall of the Devil Lovers

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 11:14:00 +0000

In the shadow of Texas’ heartland, a clandestine cult flourished under the guise of dark rituals and methamphetamine production.

Known as the Devil Lovers, this group of middle-aged men and women from prominent Waco families engaged in sinister ceremonies, pledging allegiance to their enigmatic leader, David Russell Zell.

Their twisted journey from occult gatherings to running the state’s largest illicit meth lab in the late 1980s unfolded a tale stranger than fiction.

Join investigative reporter Robert Riggs and former federal prosecutor Bill Johnston as they delve into the spine-chilling case of meth, murder, and malevolence that shocked a community and exposed the terrifying underbelly of human nature.

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True Crime Meets Fiction: Exploring Serial Killer Psychology with David Bethel

Tue, 18 Jun 2024 11:15:00 +0000

Investigative Reporter Robert Riggs dives into the mind of a serial killer with author John David Bethel as we explore his latest novel “Mapping The Night.”

Bethel’s books stand out for their profound basis in real-life cases.

His fiction and nonfiction offer a unique lens through which to explore the darkest corners of the human mind.

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A Case Of Pure Evil Haunts Dallas FBI Agent

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 11:06:00 +0000

Genaro “Geno” Ruiz Camacho’s drug empire thrived on violence.

In the late 1980s in Dallas, he ruled with an iron fist and displayed an almost unimaginable cruelty towards those who crossed his path.

This story is about violence, revenge, and an unrelenting pursuit of justice led by FBI Special Agent Tase Bailey.

I uncover how Camacho’s brutality shaped one of the most notorious federal investigations in Texas history and how it haunted the investigators for years to come.

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Better Be On Your Best Behavior When Police Wear Body Cameras

Tue, 28 May 2024 10:15:00 +0000

If Minneapolis police officers had been wearing body cameras, would it have prevented the excessive force that led to the murder of 46-year-old George Floyd?

Dr. Jennifer Matthews says Body-Worn Cameras are reshaping Police-Citizen Interactions, and she believes that it could have made a life-saving difference.

Matthews has implemented, managed, and trained more than 3,000 Chicago area law enforcement officers in Body-Worn Camera programs.

Matthews shares insights from her PhD dissertation for Walden University on Body-Worn Camera Use and Citizen Behavior During Police- Citizen Encounters.

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Beneath the Charm: Unveiling The Black Widow Part 3

Tue, 21 May 2024 10:15:00 +0000

Sandra Bridewell has fallen from grace in Dallas Society. Shunned by neighbors and most friends in the posh Highland Park community that is home to oil and real estate barons.

In Parts 1 & 2 Beneath the Charm: Unveiling The Black Widow we reveal Bridewell’s connection to three mysterious shooting deaths and the stories about them label Sandra, The Black Widow.

She flees to the West Coast to escape her scandalous reputation.

True Crime author John Leake unveils in his book The Meaning of Malice: On The Trail Of The Black Widow of Highland Park how Sandra Bridewell tries to reinvent herself eventually as a missionary.

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Beneath the Charm: Unveiling The Texas Black Widow Part 2

Thu, 16 May 2024 10:15:00 +0000

Dallas Socialite Sandra Bridewell cultivated an image of elegance and vulnerability.

In part one of our series, Beneath the Charm: Unveiling The Black Widow, Sandra Bridewell’s first husband’s life tragically ends with his alleged suicide.

Was the promising young dentist driven to shoot himself in a fit of depression over the crushing burden of mounting debt from Sandra’s lavish lifestyle?

Or was there a sinister motive for murder? True crime author, John Leake continues the story from his book The Meaning Of Malice: On The Trail Of The Black Widow Of Highland Park.

Within a year of her husband’s death, Bridewell hunts for a new suitor.

A whirlwind romance and marriage to her second husband catapults her to the top of Dallas society—but not for long.

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Beneath the Charm: Unveiling The Texas Black Widow Part 1

Tue, 14 May 2024 10:22:00 +0000

Amidst the sprawling cityscape of Dallas, where power and prosperity intersect with secrets and lies, Sandra Bridewell’s story unravels.

Bridewell was a beautiful, alluring socialite in the affluent enclave of Highland Park when Dallas was the world’s most popular TV show and the Dallas Cowboys were America’s team.

It is a tale woven with deception, sex, and the dark underbelly of high society in a close-knit community known as the Beverly Hills of the Southwest – Highland Park.

Known infamously as “The Black Widow,” Sandra’s life story reads like a script from a classic thriller, her charm, and beauty masking a sinister reality of purported suicides, murders, beatings, romance scams, religious cons, and identity theft.

True Crime author John Leake peels back the layers of Sandra Bridewell’s enigmatic persona in The Meaning of Malice: On The Trail Of The Black Widow Of Highland Park.

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The Secret Service Files: Cracking New York’s Counterfeit Underworld

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 10:32:00 +0000

In the shadowy underworld of early 20th-century New York City, a nefarious counterfeiting operation run by cunning Sicilian criminals thrived—until William Flynn and the U.S. Secret Service set their sights on bringing the ring to justice.

At the heart of the story is the classic clash between good and evil, law and lawlessness.

But in William Flynn, we have the archetypal determined detective hero – relentless, clever, and utterly committed to justice.

This is a follow-up to our last episode about Flynn, known as the Bulldog Detective.

I have curated the work of some of the best true crime writers from the early 20th Century.

Please let me know if you like to hear me read these stories.

PLEASE EMAIL ME IF YOU WANT TO HEAR MORE VINTAGE TRUE CRIME STORIES

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The Bulldog Detective: The Untold Story of America’s First Top Cop

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 11:05:00 +0000

Through the mist of forgotten histories, the figure of William J. Flynn beckons, offering a glimpse into a life that, though eclipsed by time, remains a testament to human endeavor and spirit.

In the early 20th century, Flynn, known as the “Bulldog Detective,” was one of the most famous detectives in America.

As head of the U.S. Secret Service and later the Bureau of Investigation (forerunner of the FBI), Flynn led the chase for counterfeiters, took on the first Mafia crime family, pursued German spies during World War I, and launched America’s first “war on terrorism” against anarchist bombers who blew up Wall Street.

Yet today, Flynn is largely forgotten, overshadowed by his more controversial successor, J. Edgar Hoover.

A new book aims to change that and restore Flynn to his rightful place in history.

In “The Bulldog Detective,” terrorism expert Jeffrey D. Simon provides the first full biography of this remarkable yet unsung American lawman.

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Searching For Patty Hearst: Militant Marxist or Brain Washed?

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 14:51:20 +0000

The mystery of Patty Hearst’s transformation from a college student born into privilege to a Marxist militant wielding an M-1 carbine in a bank robbery remains as compelling as ever on the 50th anniversary of her kidnapping.

The abduction of William Randolph Heart’s granddaughter captured America’s attention in 1974.

The saga of 19-year-old Patty Hearst pushed the impeachment of President Richard Nixon off newspaper headlines.

Searching for Patty Hearst by journalist Roger Rapoport delves into the heart of a story that blurs the lines between victim and perpetrator, between heiress and revolutionary.

Was she a willing convert to the cause of the Symbionese Liberation Army or a young woman broken and brainwashed by her captors?

You decide.

Link to Roger Rapoport’s Website: Searching for Patty Hearst

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Unmasking Evil: Face-to-Face with the Son of Sam

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 11:23:00 +0000

David Berkowitz, known as the “Son of Sam,” terrorized New York City for a year in the late 1970s with a series of random murders and cryptic taunts to police and the press.

Ever since then, the question of why he did it and if Berkowitz had accomplices from a Satan-worshipping cult has produced ceaseless speculation.

Now, Dr. Michael Caparrelli provides new insights into the mind of David Berkowitz in a new book titled Monster Mirror. Dr. Caparrelli is a behavioral scientist and was a pastor for 16 years.

Drawing from 100 hours of face-to-face interviews, Dr. Caparrelli explores Berkowitz’s transformation from an infamous serial killer to a figure of introspection.

My interview with Dr. Caparrelli sheds light on the complex psychological factors and experiences that shaped Berkowitz’s path to violence.

It also examines his claims of religious conversion in prison and features a new confession.

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The Axe Falls: The Shocking Execution of the Teenage Queen

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 15:49:52 +0000

I opened my reporter’s notebook to the historical case called the “Nine Days Queen.”

It’s a tragic story from 16th-century England about Lady Jane Grey.

Her life, a fleeting moment in the annals of English royalty, ended abruptly with her execution at just 16 years old.

I take you to London’s National Gallery to see her last moment poignantly captured in oil on canvas.

National Gallery painting “Execution of Lady Jane Grey”: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/paul-delaroche-the-execution-of-lady-jane-grey

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The Bank Robber, The Fugitive, The Pilot, and The Mena Arkansas Conspiracy.

Tue, 19 Dec 2023 01:20:42 +0000

This story shrouded in mystery, involves a Texas prison escapee that could be ripped straight from a spy novel.

Bank robber and suspected drug smuggler Charles J. Woods of Dallas made a daring escape from a Texas prison and subsequently disappeared into the realm of the Mena Arkansas Conspiracy.

In my exclusive interview with fugitive hunter Louis Fawcett, we unravel the threads of Woods’ escape to the mysterious town of Mena, Arkansas.

The town’s small airport in the Quachirta mountains was the base of operations for Barry Seal, a notorious drug and arms smuggler known for his connections to the CIA and narco Pablo Escobar.

What was Charles Woods, a pilot, doing using the alias Richard Arthur Mills on a government identification card at the Naval Ammunition Depot in Oklahoma?

Sit back and listen to this fugitive’s tale from the world of crime, mystery, and intrigue.

Links to Stories about the Eastham Prison Unit

You can hear more about Bonne and Clyde in my April 11th, 2023 episode The Enduring Fascination of Bonnie and Clyde: A Love Story Gone Wrong.

You can hear just how tough Eastham was from David Stacks, one of its former wardens, in my November 28th, 2023 episode, Hard Time In Hell Among Texas Most Dangerous Prisoners.

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Why A Serial Killer’s Cell Phone Threats from Death Row Haunt Us Today

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 14:43:33 +0000

Death Row Calling–I Know Where Your Daughters Live

I delve into the shadowy underworld of contraband communication, where prisoners wielding illegal cell phones orchestrate a web of threats and criminal enterprises from behind bars.

My story revolves around the chilling case of Richard Tabler, a serial killer on Texas Death Row.

Tabler’s audacious use of a smuggled cell phone to threaten a Texas Senator ignited a political firestorm, unmasking a glaring security breach within the prison system.

Contraband Cell Phones Seized at the Polunsky Prison Unit in Texas

I reveal the alarming extent to which inmates can exploit contraband technology to reach beyond prison walls, posing a significant threat to public safety and the integrity of the penal system.

Serial Killer Richard “Blue” Tabler on Texas Death Row 2007

You will also get a look inside the mind of a bizarre, cold-blooded serial killer who recruited an Army soldier from Fort Hood as his accomplice.

And shocker, Tabler was a police drug informant committing murders.

Serial Killer Richard Tabler — Mugshot Texas Death Row

In a typewritten letter to me from death row, Tabler claimed he had found Jesus there.

Once you hear this, tell me if you believe him.

READ: Serial Killer Richard Tabler’s Death Row Letter To Reporter Robert Riggs

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A Texas Prison Warden’s Tips On How To Stay Safe From Criminal Minds

Tue, 05 Dec 2023 13:27:13 +0000

Nothing Good Happens After Midnight

In the vast, rugged terrain of Texas, where the stories of outlaws and the law are etched into the very soil, we find a beacon of knowledge in an unexpected place: the walls of a maximum-security prison.

My guest, David Stacks guest is a seasoned Texas prison warden, a guardian of society’s most dangerous individuals.

The retired Warden is now the Director of the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville, Texas.

Having spent decades overseeing some of the most notorious criminals in the state, Stacks brings a wealth of insight into the criminal psyche.

But more than that, he offers invaluable tips on personal safety, gleaned from his years of experience amid danger.

What can ordinary citizens learn from the strict protocols and keen observations of a prison warden?

For one thing, nothing good happens after midnight.

As we uncover these insights, we not only peer into the abyss of criminal minds but also learn how to safeguard ourselves in a world where unpredictability is the only certainty.

The Texas Prison Museum

The Texas Prison Museum, established in 1989 in Huntsville, Texas, offers a profound insight into the history and operations of the state’s prison system, the largest in the world. Huntsville, known for its pivotal role in the Texas Prison System, houses this museum due to its historical significance, being the site of the first prison and the headquarters for the state’s Department of Criminal Justice. The museum features a diverse array of artifacts and exhibits, including an original electric chair used for 361 executions and various inmate-made objects, from craftwork to contraband.

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Hard Time In Hell Among Texas Most Dangerous Prisoners

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 14:34:42 +0000

In this episode, I’m going to take you behind the high walls and razor wire into the dark corners of the largest prison system in the world.

David Stacks, a former Texas prison warden with 30 years of frontline experience, provides an unfiltered look at life behind bars.

Today, Stacks is the director of the Texas Prison Museum.

He’s here with stories from inside the toughest Texas prisons that held the meanest of the mean.

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Echoes of Evil: Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff 25 Years Later.

Sat, 18 Nov 2023 21:22:43 +0000

This episode marks a somber milestone. The 25th anniversary of the execution of Kenneth Allen McDuff – a name that chills the soul of the men and women in law enforcement who hunted him down – and the families of his victims.

McDuff, infamously dubbed the ‘Broomstick Killer,’ was a figure of unparalleled brutality. His story isn’t just a tale of sadistic crimes.

It’s a saga that shook the very foundations of the Texas criminal justice system.

Kenneth Allen McDuff being escorted into the Texas Death House. McDuff, was believed to be the only condemned inmate in the nation ever paroled and then returned to death row for another murder. He went to death row in 1968 for killing two teenage boys, was paroled after the death penalty was overturned, and returned to death row in 1991 for killing two women. 11/17/1998

He was released on parole in the late 1980s under a cloud of corruption.

McDuff, within a day of his release, unleashed a reign of terror – abducting, raping, and murdering countless women, his actions embodying the darkest impulses of humanity.

My original reporting on this case exposed not just a man’s evil but a system’s failures.

It led to a sweeping overhaul of the parole and prison systems in Texas, revealing a disturbing scheme of parole selling that shook public trust to its core.

As I delve into this grim chapter, I do so with a purpose. We seek to understand, to remember the victims, and to reflect on the lessons learned.

The echoes of McDuff’s crimes still reverberate, reminding us of the vigilance needed to safeguard justice and integrity within our system.

Here’s an episode from my award-winning podcast series that led to us producing a five- part streaming documentary called “Freed To Kill.”

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The John Dillinger Enigma: Did The FBI Really Kill Public Enemy #1?

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 23:37:43 +0000

During the Great Depression, Newsreels about John Dillinger, the first gangster declared Public Enemy #1, drew cheers from movie audiences across America and hisses when pictures of J. Edgar Hoover appeared on screen.

Crowd Outside Chicago’s Biograph Theater After John Dillinger was shot in 1934

Agents from what would become the FBI killed Dillinger in a hail of gunfire while leaving Chicago’s Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934.

The case put the FBI on the map and, to this day, plays a major part in the bureau’s historical legacy.

But questions persist about whether the FBI killed the real John Dillinger or a stand-in resembling the gangster so he could make a getaway.

Travis Thompson, the great-nephew of John Dillinger and a veteran law enforcement officer in Indiana has literally been trying to dig up evidence from the cemetery where John Dillinger is buried.

L-R Travis Thompson, great nephew of John Dillinger, holding Tommy Gun from Gangster Era, with his father Michael C. Thompson, nephew of John Dillinger

Thompson has tried to exhume Dillinger’s body from a concrete-encased tomb at the Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.

John Dillinger Grave Site At Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis

Adding to the Dillinger mystery, Thompson and Stewart Fillmore, a retired FBI agent have unearthed a mysterious map on the family farm in Indiana.

The Dillinger case is a celebrated chapter in the FBI’s history and the bureau dismisses what it calls conspiracy theories.

But Travis Thompson brings his law enforcement background to the search for more evidence.

Did the FBI kill the real John Dillinger or a stand-in who was helping Dillinger escape?

The mystery continues in my interview with Travis Thompson.

Links To Dillinger Resources Mentioned During Episode

True Crime Reporter® Story About The FBI’s Hogan’s Alley This Bank Gets Robbed Every Day

FBI John Dillinger History

FBI “The Top Ten Dillinger Myths”

Expedition Unknown

John Dillinger’s Death Mask

History Channel Behind Efforts To Exhume John Dillinger’s Body

History Channel Drops Out Of Planned John Dillinger Documentary; Proposed Exhumation In Doubt

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Crisis-Proof Your Life: Fieldcraft Survival on Personal Safety & Preparedness

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 21:27:46 +0000

There’s a crime trend sweeping the United States of flash mob thieves charging into department stores to make off with armfuls of loot. Gangs rush inside affluent suburban neighborhoods in night to break into cars.

This episode of the True Crime Reporter® podcast responds to those of you asking me what they should do amid a growing wave of violence in urban America and overseas.

A U.S. businesswoman recently told me she is afraid to work alone in a big city.

I contacted Kevin Estela, the Director of Training for Fieldcraft Survival.

L-R. Jared Taylor, USAF Vet – Andy Stumpf, Navy Seal Vet – Robert Riggs, Reporter – Mike Glover, Green Beret Vet & Founder Fieldcraft Survival

Its founder, Mike Glover, was a Sergeant Major in the Army Green Berets. He deployed fourteen times to combat zones with Special Forces and the CIA.

But don’t expect his Director of Training to teach that every threatening scenario requires a gun.

Kevin Estela – Director of Training – Fieldcraft Survival – Courtesy “Recoil OffGrid Magazine”

Kevin Estela taught Advanced Placement High School History for 14 years. He is about using your head and being prepared.

His Phillipino father, who hid from the Japanese army in jungles and caves during World War II, influenced his survival skills.

Kevin offers advice on responding to a criminal assault, car accident, or natural disaster.

In closing, here’s my Reporter’s recap and reflections.

As Kevin Estela stressed, survival depends on preparedness.

He recommends carrying a tourniquet, a good flashlight, a BIC lighter, a Ferro Rod, a fire starter that can be used as an emergency signal, and a bandana.

His book is titled 101 Skills You Need To Survive In The Woods. A second book covering advanced skills is on the way.

I have placed links to his resources in these show notes.

You’ve been listening to the True Crime Reporter® Podcast: Stay True. Stay Safe. Stay Tuned for more stories from inside the crime scene tape.

This is Robert Riggs Reporting.

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No Justice for A Texas Cowboy: A $750 Million Elder Abuse Tragedy

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 22:16:14 +0000

Investigative Reporter Stephen Michaud, among the nation’s best, spent six years unraveling how an iconic ranch was taken from a dying Texas Cowboy.

It’s a sprawling Texas ranch near the border with Mexico where the biggest producing gas well in the United States was struck in 2004.

The ranch and its mineral assets have amassed a 750 Million dollar fortune.

But, the cowboy who once owned it and his relatives never saw a penny. According to my guest, it’s a case of elder abuse like none other.

Hello. I’m investigative reporter Robert Riggs with a longtime friend and fellow investigative journalist Stephen Michaud.

You may recognize his name in the world of true crime. Michaud, in collaboration with Hugh Aynesworth, another giant of investigative journalism, wrote the definitive book about serial killer Ted Bundy in 1983 titled The Only Living Witness.

In 2019, Netflix premiered a four-part documentary, Conversations With A Killer, based on 150 hours of audio recordings of their interviews with Bundy in prison.

Now Michaud is back with a fascinating look inside South Texas ranching royal families titled Robert’s Story, A Texas Cowboy’s Troubled Life And Horrifying Death.

It likely came from these ranches if you ate steak in the 1960s. If you cooked with natural gas in the 2000s, some of it likely came from there.

Sadly, people close to Texas cowboy Robert East, the sole heir to all of this, allegedly took advantage of his simplicity. He died a lonely death on the iconic ranch.

Here’s our interview.

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Defusing Tension in 90 Seconds: A Game Changer for Inmates and the Public

Tue, 29 Aug 2023 23:39:14 +0000

Doug Noll says murderers are not born, they’re bred. Today kids revert to what they see around them…violence.

Doug Noll founded the Prison of Peace Project. Noll teaches hardcore inmates how to de-escalate an angry, emotional person in 90 seconds or less.

It’s a skill that we can all benefit from learning in this era of violence.

Hello, this is Robert Riggs taking you inside the crime scene tape in this episode of the True Crime Reporter® Podcast.

Besides telling interesting crime stories, it is also my mission to educate.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know we live in an epidemic of violence. school shootings, mass shootings at malls and public places, road rage murders, senseless violent acts, and, as I have reported, outlaw motorcycle gangs shooting each other in broad daylight on Interstate Highways.

Some days I think the world has gone crazy.

Mediator Doug Noll with Chowchilla inmates in “peace circle”
photo by Susan McRae 10/2/2010

Doug Noll is here to explain the causes and offer a solution that’s working in prisons.

The California lawyer felt a calling in 2010 to create the Prison of Peace project at the Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, California, the largest women’s prison in the world.

Link to Noll’s Book De-Escalate

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Death On Two Wheels: Everyone Wants A Piece Of The Bandidos Outlaw Motorcycle Gang

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 21:44:13 +0000

The Bandido’s Intimidating Presence On U.S. Highways

A violent war for control of illicit drugs and weapons leaves a deadly trail of bullets and blood across highways in the U.S. Southwest.

It started eight years ago in a hail of gunfire between the Bandidos outlaw motorcycle gang and the Cossacks at the Twin Peaks Restaurant in Waco, Texas.

The violence escalated starting in May of 2023, leaving dead bodies on an interstate highway in Texas, at a biker bar in Oklahoma City, and at a once peaceful bike rally in New Mexico.

There’s no sign of tempers and the rivalry cooling off anytime soon.

The Bandidos stand to lose a lot and are fighting to hold on to their turf.

They are not Hollywood’s romanticized version of the Sons of Anarchy.

The Justice Department considers the Bandidos one of the eight most dangerous motorcycle gangs in the U.S.

A gang threat assessment by the Texas Department of Public Safety ranked the Bandidos as a “Tier 2” gang — or the second-most dangerous classification — alongside the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.

It appears that local law enforcement is not prepared to intervene and, in some quarters, may even fear the Bandidos.

According to the Bandidos legend, a 36-year-old Vietnam War veteran and Houston dockworker started the club in the 1960s.

It adopted the red and gold colors of the U.S. Marine Corps.

They proudly wear the “patch” on their jackets and other apparel.

Mess with one Bandido and you are messing with all of them.

The Bandidos maintain an international presence from Australia to Russia.

Detective Steve Cook, an expert on outlaw motorcycle gangs, joins me in this episode of the True Crime Reporter® Podcast titled Death On Two Wheels: Everyone Wants A Piece Of The Bandidos Outlaw Motorcycle Gang.

It’s a war that has spilled into threatening innocent bystanders.

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Flipping Off Angry Drivers Can Get You Killed On US Highways

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 23:31:34 +0000

Road rage violence shatters records on US Highways. Experts say a perfect storm of post-pandemic anger and violent criminals out of jail due to liberal bail practices has set off a wave of deadly road rage shootings.

Capt Greg Fremin (Ret’d) Houston Police Department

Retired Houston Police Captain Greg Fremin tracks the growing carnage at Sam Houston State’s College of Criminal Justice located in Huntsville, Texas.

The numbers have run off the highway as stressed-out, violent drivers turn their rage into the wild wild west on American highways.

On average, 44 people are killed or wounded on U.S. roadways every month. That’s twice the average for 2019.

In this episode of the True Crime Reporter® Podcast, investigative reporter Robert Riggs talks to Fremin about the causes and what to do if you are a target of road rage.

BREAKING NEWS:

Shortly after I published this episode the very thing I warned about tragically came true in a Dallas suburb.

A recently wed couple driving to work the night shift together at a paint company became the target of a raging driver.

The husband thought the driver was flipping him off and replied in kind. But it was not the one-finger gesture, it was a gun.

37-year-old Nunez Linares was fatally shot in the back of the head.

Here’s a link to the story.

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NCIS Confidential: Solving Real-Life Cold Cases To Catch Killers

Mon, 03 Jul 2023 21:52:18 +0000

Former NCIS Special Agent Joe Kennedy established the first federal cold case homicide unit.

Starting in 1986 with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), Kennedy investigated crimes involving sailors and marines worldwide.

In this episode of the True Crime Reporter® Podcast, I take you inside the crime scene tape to hear about cold cases from a legendary agency member popularized by Hollywood.

Although he is retired from NCIS, Joe Kennedy lends his cold case experience to small law enforcement agencies that seek help.

He serves on the Cold Case Coalition, a non-profit volunteer organization comprised of retired law enforcement officers and experts.

Kennedy has also written a brilliant guide for cold case investigators titled Solving Cold Cases-Investigation Techniques and Protocols.

Serious true crime fans will find it helpful in understanding the anatomy of murder investigations and cold case inquiries.

Part two of my interview with former NCIS Special Agent Joe Kennedy is here.

Link to the Cold Case Coalition

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NCIS From Evidence to Arrest: Analyzing Murder Cases Step by Step

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 23:33:35 +0000

If you are a fan of the NCIS television drama, you are in for a treat.

My guest is homicide investigator Joe Kennedy, a former Special Agent for the real-life NCIS.

NCIS Special Agent Joe Kennedy Teaching Police In The Philippines Homicide Investigation

In this episode of the True Crime Reporter® Podcast, I lift the crime scene tape for Joe Kennedy to take you inside the anatomy of murder cases.

He’s written a book titled Solving Cold Cases: Investigation Techniques and Protocol.

This is the first of a two-part series featuring Kennedy. The first focuses on his unconventional method of approaching a crime scene investigation.

In the second episode, Kennedy explains why cold cases are so complex, and he digs into Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy.

I believe his book should be required reading for every rookie homicide investigator.

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Rise And Fall Of A Pro Pitcher: From the Bull Pen To The Texas Pen

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 19:40:31 +0000

The high school baseball player hung a homemade motivational sign on the wall of his bedroom. It read Brandon Puffer will be a Major League Baseball player.

Indeed, Puffer made it to what ballplayers call “The Show.”

Only to fall from the Bullpen to the State Penitentiary in Texas.

Brandon Puffer was a pitcher on the Boston Red Sox baseball team when they broke a century-old curse and won the World Series in 2004.

But four years later, a Texas jury sentenced Puffer to five years in prison.

He survived the tough Texas prison system and is now out.

Puffer has written a book titled, From The Bullpen To The State Pen, in which he opens up about his experience.

In this episode of True Crime Reporter®, Puffer shares the story of his setbacks and come back.

Puffer coaches youth and high school baseball players on how to play college and pro ball at GPSLegends, located in Central Texas near Round Rock and Georgetown.

In closing, here’s my reporter’s recap and reflections.

No matter what walk of life they came from, most of the convicted felons that I have interviewed did not comprehend that their actions had consequences.

To quote Puffer, “the longer we try to ignore or run from those consequences, the more they will grow like a cancer that starts small, but eventually takes over the whole body if ignored.

You’ve been listening to the True Crime Reporter Podcast: Stay True. Stay Safe. And Stay Tuned for more stories from inside the crime scene tape.

This is Robert Riggs Reporting.

Insightful Quotes From Brandon Puffer in From The Bullpen To The State Pen:

One of the devil’s schemes is to make you think the only one who thinks a certain way or acts the way you do–it’s a feeling of isolation, and when humans feel isolated, the mind has a tendency to go to some dark places.

Our actions in this life have consequences, and the longer we try to ignore or run from those consequences, the more they will grow–like a cancer that starts small, but eventually takes over the whole body if ignored.

The music we listen to, the things we watch, the games we play, and the words we speak…they all take a toll over time, and only you have the power to control what enters your mind and soul.

You have the power to make choices before the choices that will define you.

My dream was derailed by one decision that was actually many smaller decisions that led up to that moment.

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Texas Justice Prevails: Texas Deputy Steve January Arrested Killers For 34 Years

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 14:01:21 +0000

Steve January, the Chief Deputy of the McLennan County Sheriff in Waco, Texas, was a lawman cut from denim of the old west.

Hundreds of officers recently paid their last respects to January, whose life was not cut short by a bullet from his many face-offs with killers but by cancer.

I’m Robert Riggs with a story about an officer who fought many a round seeking justice inside the crime scene tape.

L to R Robert Riggs & Chief Deputy Steve January Hold “Yellowstone” Hoodie Worn By Nicole Sheridan

Steve and I were last pictured together holding up a barrel racing jacket given to the Sheriff’s office by Nicole Sheridan, the wife of Taylor Sheridan.

Yes. Taylor Sheridan, The creator of Yellowstone, a true-life Texas cowboy, and cousin of January’s boss Sheriff Parnell McNamara.

I met McNamara and January in May 2022 to discuss their cold case unit.

In honor of Steve’s memory, I am rebroadcasting the episode.

After hearing the original, many of you commented that you wished you had a pair of straight-talking, no-nonsense Texas lawmen like January and McNamara watching over your community.

Their motto is “Riding Herd On The Lawless.”

And they are about as Texas as you can get.

In closing, here’s my reporter’s recap and reflections.

Steve January was a lawman who would not quit when trying to find justice for the victims of crime.

He stood up the cold case unit to solve cases once considered unsolvable.

That was Steve, and the law-abiding citizens of Central Texas will miss him.

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Fearless In The Face Of Murder: Unstoppable Detective Johnny Bonds

Tue, 23 May 2023 11:00:00 +0000

God forbid if I ever was murdered, I would want Johnny Bonds on the case.

His name sounds like a film noir detective. Johnny Bonds is the stuff true crime legends are made of.

In 1972, he became the youngest officer ever assigned to the elite homicide division in Houston, Texas.

He had a sixth sense of how to approach people or investigations.

He relentlessly hunted down killers and challenged powerful politicians who got in the way of justice.

Bonds became known as “The Cop Who Wouldn’t Quit” for relentlessly pursuing the contract killers who murdered a Houston couple and their baby for life insurance benefits.

The brutality of the case and the cold-blooded nature of their killers shocked Houston residents in 1979.

If Bonds had not bucked politics and fearlessly challenged a faulty murder-suicide ruling by the powerful medical examiner at the time, the killers would have gotten away with murder.

Former Harris County District Attorney Johnny Holmes said of Bonds. “He kept looking for the truth when others gave up.”

In this episode of the True Crime Reporter® podcast, I sat down with Holmes to discuss the highlights of his 40-year career in law enforcement.

We go inside the crime scene tape to discuss the motives of murder.

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She Lived Next Door To America’s Most Infamous Killer: The UNABOMBER

Mon, 15 May 2023 23:44:11 +0000

Before, there was Osama bin Laden. Before, there was Timothy McVeigh. There was Ted Kaczynski. The UNABOMBER. FBI codename for “UNiversity and Airline BOMBER.”

For sixteen years, Jamie Gehring grew up next door to Ted Kaczynski. She never had a clue that the man who appeared to be a harmless hermit was one of the most notorious serial killers of the 20th Century.

Hello. I’m investigative reporter Robert Riggs here to ask you a chilling question from inside the crime scene tape. Do any of us really know our neighbor?

Homemade Metal Shrapnel

Ted Kaczynski mailed and hand-delivered homemade bombs to people at scientific universities, airlines, and businesses for what he believed was their role in the over-industrialization of society and the destruction of nature.

The former Berkley math professor, a certified genius who entered Harvard at age 15, terrorized America for seventeen years between 1978 and 1995.

The FBI called Kaczynski a twisted genius.

He killed three people and injured 23, claiming limbs and eyesight, leaving many with permanent emotional and physical scars.

Residents of tiny remote Lincoln, Montana, thought Kaczynski was an oddball, cranky loner. He lived off the grid in a remote mountain cabin 10 feet by 12 feet. No running water. No electricity.

It was a primitive bomb-making factory. Kaczynski handcrafted bombs from scrap materials that were impossible to trace. He called the bombings experiments.

He smelled foul. His hair was unruly, uncombed, and dirty. No one could imagine that he was the anonymous author of a 35-thousand word manifesto sent to the New York Times and Washington Post in1995 threatening more bombings if it was not published.

Until then, it was the cold case of all cold cases. It gave the FBI a big break. When it hit the press, Kaczynski’s brother and sister-in-law spotted similar semantic railings in letters written to them by their estranged relative, and they contacted the FBI.

FBI agents Tom McDaniel and Max Noel arrest Ted Kaczynski aka The UNABOMBER

For 16 years, Jamie Gehring lived next door to this serial killer and wanted domestic terrorists. Her late father, “Butch,” helped the FBI to find his cabin and to lure him outside.

Baby Jamie Gehring with her parents Tammie and Butch

She has written a deeply researched book entitled, Madman in the Woods: Life Next Door to the UNABOMBER. Here’s our interview.

Photos: A look back at The UNABOMBER’S Arrest in Montana

Photos: A look inside The UNABOMBER’S Montana Cabin

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How DNA Forensic Genetic Genealogy Brought A Monster To Justice

Tue, 09 May 2023 11:10:00 +0000

50 Sexual Assault Victims Will Never Forget The Stare of Serial Rapist David Hawkins When He Held A Gun To Their Heads

This is the third episode in my series about how new DNA technology solves previously unsolvable cold cases. It’s called FGG — Forensic Genetic Genealogy.

I’m investigative reporter Robert Riggs taking you inside the crime scene case into how the first use of forensic genetic genealogy in Dallas County, Texas, caught a serial rapist responsible for over 50 victims.

76-year-old David Thomas Hawkins – Serial Rapist – Serving Life Sentence – Michael Maximum Security Prison – Texas

75-year-old David Thomas Hawkins of Fort Worth, Texas, left a trail of victims along his truck route for at least ten years.

The investigation by the office of District Attorney John Creuzot was made possible by a Sexual Assault Kit Initiative federal grant known as SAKI.

Leighton D’Antoni — Cold Case Prosecutor Dallas County

You will learn more about SAKI in this episode from cold case prosecutor Leighton D’Antoni who is solving cases once thought to be unsolvable.

D’Antoni is on the cutting edge of using sophisticated DNA technology that stems from research on the human genome project to solve murders and sexual assault cases.

You Can Reach D’Antoni at: leighton.dantoni@dallascounty.org

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Solving The Toughest Cold Case Murders With Forensic Genetic Genealogy

Mon, 08 May 2023 16:36:13 +0000

The Golden State Killer got away with 12 murders, 50 rapes, and more than 100 burglaries for over forty years before being caught.

DNA evidence from his crime scenes never matched DNA samples in the FBI’s CODIS databases because he had never been arrested for murder or rape.

Eventually, investigators uploaded the profile to genealogy sites and identified a relative on the killer’s family tree.

It led to the conviction of James DeAngelo, a 72-year-old former police officer.

I’m investigative reporter Robert Riggs from inside the crime scene tape reporting how DNA analysis, called Forensic Genetic Genealogy, also known as FGG, is solving cold cases once thought unsolvable.

You can learn more about the Golden State Killer case in my episode titled How Cold Case Investigator Paul Holes Unmasked The Golden State Killer, dated April 25th 2022.

In my second episode about Forensic DNA, Dr. Suzanne Bell, who served on the National Commission of Forensic Science (NCFS), returns with more insight on the subject.

She coauthored Understanding Forensic DNA and emphasizes that DNA does not solve cases by itself. DNA results are always part of an extensive investigation.

At the end of our interview, Dr. Bell also provides advice on how to get into forensic science. It’s attracting large numbers of women.

Here’s our discussion about forensic genetic genealogy.

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The Power of Forensic DNA: Bringing Killers and Sexual Predators to Justice

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 11:00:00 +0000

The Double Helix That Catches Killers And Sexual Predators

Sitting across the desk from a DNA profiler, she told me that I was leaving a trail of cells in her office that would lead back to me, especially if I committed a crime there.

The rapid advancement of science and technology makes DNA evidence

a powerful investigative tool for catching killers and rapists, solving cold cases, identifying missing persons, and clearing the innocent.

I’m investigative reporter Robert Riggs here to take you inside the crime scene tape to look at how DNA plays a central role in the judicial system.

The first use of DNA typing for a criminal investigation occurred in 1986 in England. DNA evidence identified the killer of two 15-year-old girls and cleared an innocent, mentally challenged suspect who had confessed to one of the murders.

Police conducted a DNA dragnet by collecting thousands of samples from men in the village around the crime scenes.

I recommend watching Code of a Killer to learn more. It’s a three-part British police drama television series that tells the true story of the case, and I have placed a link to a story in the Guardian about the case.

DNA analysis has come a long way since then.

To bring us up to date, I asked Dr. Suzanne Bell to take me back to biology and chemistry class to help me understand the advances in science and technology.

Dr. Bell is an Emeritus Professor and Chair of the Department of Forensic and Investigative Sciences at West Virginia University.

She coauthored Understanding Forensic DNA with John M. Butler.

This is the first of a two-part interview series with Dr. Bell.

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The Enduring Fascination of Bonnie and Clyde: A Love Story Gone Wrong

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 11:00:00 +0000

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were two of the most notorious outlaws in American history, forever linked to the public consciousness.

They were young, daring, and dangerous, and they captured the imagination of a country struggling through the Great Depression. But behind the legend lay the harsh reality of their lives, a story of poverty, violence, and desperation.

They met in Dallas, Texas, and were immediately drawn to each other.

Together, Bonnie and Clyde embarked on a crime spree that would capture the nation’s attention and make them both into legends.

They robbed banks, gas stations, and stores across the South and Midwest, always staying one step ahead of the law.

The outlaw lovers became folk heroes to many Americans who were struggling to survive amid the Great Depression, seen as modern-day Robin Hoods who were sticking it to the wealthy and powerful.

Today, Bonnie, pictured in a beret and flapper-style dress with a cigar stuck out the side of her mouth, would be described as a rebellious fashionista. Clyde wore suits and ties with a fedora cocked on his head.

The glamorous image captured in photographs of the outlaw couple taken by members of their gang riveted American newspapers.

But for Bonnie and Clyde, the fame came at a cost. They were constantly on the run, never able to settle down and live a normal life.

They always looked over their shoulders, afraid the law would catch up.

As their crimes became more violent and their notoriety grew, Bonnie and Clyde began attracting the attention of law enforcement agencies nationwide.

Texas Ranger Frank Hamer hunted them for staging a deadly escape from the Eastham Prison Farm.

Their day of reckoning came on May 23, 1934, in Louisiana, where Ranger Hamer lured them into a deadly ambush.

Crowd Gathers Outside McKamy Campbell Funeral Home In Dallas Clamoring To See The Open Casket Holding Bonnie Parker in May 1935

More than fifty thousand people came to see their open caskets at two funeral homes in Dallas.

In death, the legend of their crimes and love affair grew, immortalized in magazines, books, and movies.

Investigative reporter Robert Riggs separates facts from fiction in this episode.

For listeners who want to learn more, he recommends Bonnie and Clyde: The Making Of A Legend by Dallas journalist and author Karen Blumenthal.

Bonnie and Clyde Death Scene (1934)

This footage captures scenes of the aftermath of the shootout with police that killed the infamous outlaw couple, Bonnie and Clyde on May 23, 1934. They were ambushed by a posse of six officers led by legendary Texas Ranger Frank Hamer.

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A Shocking Failure of Justice: A Serial Rapist And Serial Killer Murder Six Teens

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 11:00:00 +0000

Kenneth McDuff – “The Brookstick Killer” & Jerry McFadden “The Animal”

Texas Death Row Inmates Called Them The “Macs.”

Kenneth McDuff and Jerry McFadden.

Two violent psychopaths hated and feared by fellow death row inmates.

Two killers with a lust for randomly abducting, raping, and murdering young people.

Suzanne Harrison

Gena Turner

Bryan Boone

Two killers whose victims would still be alive if Texas had kept them behind bars.

In this episode, investigative reporter Robert Riggs takes listeners inside the crime scene tape of one of Texas’ most brutal killers.

Jerry “Animal” McFadden

He called himself “The Animal.”

Inside the Minds of Death Row Inmates: A Terrifying Journey Into Evil

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 11:01:00 +0000

Jerry “Animal” McFadden

Pastor Wayne Whiteside says, “there are people that seem to be hell-bent on being held bound.”

Whiteside knows of what he preaches after ministering to prison inmates for thirty-nine years.

He spent the last 24 years talking with death row inmates in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Mississippi.

Whiteside says he has looked evil in the eye and seen nothing but empty souls.

He has come face to face with the worst of the worst of serial killers who inflicted unimaginable pain and suffering on their victims.

Whiteside holds an unusual perspective on capital punishment.

He has witnessed 30 executions and was present as a chaplain inside the Texas death chamber for one execution.

Two hours before a lethal injection started flowing, one killer confessed to Whiteside the murder of a young convenience clerk and solved a 17-year-old cold case.

Our episodes often take listeners inside the crime scene tape. This episode is truly a journey into darkness.

At its end, Pastor Whiteside shares advice about how to keep yourself safe from men with a lust for murder.

Note: We have shared photographs of some inmates Whiteside discusses in this episode, including Jerry “The Animal” McFadden.”

L. to R. Pastor Wayne Whiteside & Rolando Ruiz (Executed on March 7, 2017) on Texas Death Row

Texas executed hitman Ronaldo Ruiz late Tuesday night, 25 years after he killed a San Antonio woman for $2,000.

L. to R. Luis Salazar (executed March 11, 2009) & Pastor Wayne Whiteside on Texas Death Row

Victim’s Family Says Killer’s Execution “Wasn’t Difficult”

Jerry “Animal” McFadden

ANIMAL MCFADDEN DNA SOLVES 40-YEAR-OLD MURDER CASE

Notorious serial rapist and murderer of 3 East Texas Teenagers trigger one of Texas’ biggest manhunts

Mass Killer Douglas Feldman Interviewed By Investigative Reporter Robert Riggs on Texas Death Row (Executed July 31, 2013)

Death Row Interview With The Mass Killer Known As The “Terminator”

Serial Killer Kenneth Allen McDuff AKA “The Broomstick Killer”

“Freed To Kill” Serial Killer Kenneth Allen McDuff is the Broomstick Killer Episode 2 – Season 1

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Women Who Kill: This Bank Robber Viciously Shot Her Victim In The Back

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 16:07:27 +0000

Jerry and Dava Truett lived well beyond their means in the small central Texas town of Kosse. They owned a lake house and a speed boat. They drove a pair of expensive pickup trucks and numerous recreational vehicles.

Townfolk thought they were receiving oil and gas money from their farmland or had an inheritance.

How Did They Live Such An Extravagant Lifestyle On Small-Town Wages?

The small community of 500 people confronted the cold-blooded truth about the couple’s lifestyle when 52-year-old Michael Wells was murdered inside the First State Bank of Kosse.

Sue and Michael Wells (Slain President of First State Bank of Kosse

Williams was the bank’s president and a beloved community leader.

He arrived early one morning before the bank opened to meet with a customer.

A 68-year-old business owner wanted to find out why thirty thousand dollars was missing from his account.

Before they could meet, Williams was gunned down. The bank’s vault was still locked. No money was missing from it.

But in the aftermath of this tragedy, an FBI audit discovered that $700,000 was missing from elderly customers’ accounts.

What happened to all of that money?

In this episode of the True Crime Reporter® Podcast investigative reporter Robert Riggs takes you inside the crime scene tape with a case from former federal prosecutor Bill Johnston.

It will leave you wondering if you can trust anyone.

LINK to previous bank robbery episodes mentioned:

This Bank Gets Robbed Everyday With Former FBI Agent Don Bentley

The High School Gang That Graduated To Cold Blooded Murder

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“To Catch A Predator” — Chris Hansen Reports How Children Are At Risk On Social Media

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 12:17:57 +0000

Chris Hansen, the journalist who created the televised series To Catch A Predator, warns that the problem of adults preying on children for sex is growing at an alarming rate.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has reported that during the peak of the pandemic, inappropriate contacts between adults and children, predatory contacts, as well as the transmission of inappropriate material between adults and children shot up nearly 900%.

Indicative of the problem is the case of the former Virginia police officer accused of “catfishing” a teenage girl and murdering her grandparents and her mother.

“Catfishing” is a form of online deception in which someone pretends to be a different person.

Firefighters discovered the teen’s family inside their burning home in Riverside, California.

28-year-old Austin Edwards, the ex-cop, was killed in a shootout with San Bernadino County Sheriff’s deputies. The teenage girl was not harmed.

Hansen and investigative reporter Robert Riggs have encountered predators throughout their respective journalism careers.

The journalism community has honored Chris Hansen with 10 Emmys and 5 Edward R. Murrow reporting Awards.

Chris has broken stories worldwide and is launching a new series, True Crime Nation, on the TruBlu Streaming Network. His To Catch A Predator series is now called TAKEDOWN.

In this episode of True Crime Reporter®, Riggs and Hansen go inside the crime scene tape to remind parents that predators live online and that they need to have a conversation with their children about how to stay safe online and on social media.

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How A Single Hair Caught A Killer

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 12:00:00 +0000

The previous episode showed how homicide detectives solved 50-year-old cold cases.

They analyzed old evidence using new DNA extraction technology pioneered by Othram, a forensic genealogy lab in Texas.

Othram provided new leads by finding relatives of suspects on genealogy databases.

As revolutionary as that seems, it was just a few years ago that the FBI pioneered the use of mitochondrial DNA in a Texas murder case.

Mitochondrial DNA is handed down from mother to child, so it can only tell you about your maternal ancestors.

In a landmark case, former U.S. prosecutor Bill Johnston used the mitochondrial DNA from a single hair to send a killer to prison for the rest of his life.

Here’s the backstory of how he did it.

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Murderers Can Run, But They Can’t Hide From Their Forensic DNA Genealogy

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 11:00:00 +0000

14-year-old Stephanie Anne Isaacson Prom Photo 1989

14-year-old Stephanie Anne Isaacson left her father’s apartment in North Las Vegas on June 1, 1989.

She walked through an empty sandlot, her usual shortcut, to the Eldorado High School.

The ninth grader never attended her 7:30 AM class at Eldorado High School.

Later that evening, officers found her body under a piece of discarded carpet in a sandlot that Isaacson used to take a shortcut to school.

Stephanie was the victim of a blitz attack. Her black shirt was pulled up, and her jeans pulled down. Her shoes and other belongings were missing.

The freshman with shoulder-length brown hair who had last been pictured with a wide grin in her prom picture had been sexually assaulted, bludgeoned, and strangled to death.

Investigators had little to go on besides a tiny drop of semen found on the dead girl’s shirt.

They made numerous attempts to test the evidence but could not identify the killer.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police investigators never gave up.

In late 2021, they submitted a DNA sample of a mere 15 human cells to Othram, a forensic genealogy lab in the Woodlands, a suburb of Houston.

DNA Analyst at Othram Examines Bone From An Unidentified Crime Victim

Othram’s DNA extraction technology found a relative of the alleged killer in a genealogy database that law enforcement has the consent to search.

Forensic genealogy led Las Vegas detectives to Darren Marchand, who had never been listed among suspects.

Darren Marchand

But Marchand had committed suicide at the age of 29, six years after the murder.

Issacson’s 32-year case represents the tip of the iceberg of a silent mass disaster–a quarter million cold cases languishing across the United States.

But as we say in Texas, there is a new sheriff in town: a DNA lab built to solve cold cases.
Investigative Reporter Robert Riggs takes listeners of the True Crime Reporter® podcast inside Othram’s facility near Houston to find out how its trailblazing technology solves cases once thought to be unsolvable.

Link to the episode about how Othram helped solve the 47-year-old murder of Carla Walker

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Heat2: The Hollywood Shootout In Which Life Imitates Art

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 12:00:00 +0000

As I stood in the LA office of the FBI’s bank robbery coordinator,

veteran FBI Agent Bill Rehder pointed to a wall plastered with bank surveillance photos.

33-year veteran FBI Agent Bill Rehder Ran The FBI Bank Robbery Squad In Los Angeles

Rehder ticked off the nicknames of a rogue’s gallery of serial bank robbers.

The baby bandits, the big nose bandit, the big ears bandit, the skunk bandit, the ponytail bandit, the grandpa bandit.

Hello, I’m Robert Riggs with a story from inside the crime scene tape at what was the bank robbery capital of the world in the 1980s and 90s. Los Angeles, California.

I met Bill Rehder in 1997 while doing a series of stories about the upsurge in violent bank robberies across the United States.

Bank tellers were being shot, and customers were taken hostage. California’s takeover bank robbery epidemic was spreading across the nation.

Rehder, who spent most of his 33 years with the FBI on the bank robbery squad, dispatched agents to the scenes of robberies. Twenty-eight in one day alone.

After he retired, Rehder wrote a book about his favorite cases titled Where the Money Is: True Tales From the Bank Robbery Capital of the World.

He also provided technical advice for Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie Catch Me If You Can. Rehder advised how actor Tom Hanks should dress and talk like an FBI agent did in the 1960s and 70s. And what a bullpen looked like back in those days when button-down FBI agents worked together in an open office at their desks.

Rehder assigned wanted bank robbers colorful nicknames based on their appearance, clothing, MO, or unusual habits.

For example, the Spiderman Bandit didn’t scale walls. Rather, spider web-like tattoos on his forearms earned him the nickname.

The colorful and quirky nicknames helped generate more news coverage and tips by creating a picture in people’s minds.

Rehder told me that the tradition of assigning memorable nicknames dated back to Jack The Ripper, who killed and mutilated prostitutes in late 19th Century London.

As Rehder and I scanned the wall, he stopped dead on a surveillance photo of two bank robbers clad head to toe in black body armor and armed with assault rifles.

Rehder dubbed the pair “The Hi Incident Bandits.” A few months earlier, they had shot up two banks in the San Fernando Valley.

With an ominous foreshadowing, Rehder told me they were not just dressed for a bank robbery but for a confrontation.

Indeed a month later, the two heavily armed gunmen dubbed “The Hi Incident Bandits” by Rehder shot it out with police after robbing a bank in North Hollywood.

The running gun battle lasted 44 minutes. The pair were armed with thousands of rounds of ammunition and fully automatic assault rifles.

Wounded officers lay bleeding, pinned down. Armed with 9mm pistols and 38 caliber revolvers, the police were no match.

An order crackled across police radio transmissions to shoot for the head as officers realized their rounds were bouncing off the robber’s body armor.

In the end, both robbers were killed, and twelve police officers and eight bystanders were wounded.

It was a case of life imitating art.

Two years earlier, the movie Heat featured a similar paramilitary-style robbery and shootout in LA.

Written and directed by Michael Mann, Heat is a classic American crime film. It pits Al Pacino as an LAPD detective against Robert De Niro, who plays a career thief and the gang’s leader.

Mann has teamed up with award-winning author Meg Gardiner to write a suspenseful novel titled Heat 2.

It tells the character’s back story in the years before and after the iconic movie.

Meg Gardiner is my guest on this episode of True Crime Reporter®.

She is a New York Times bestselling author of sixteen thrillers. Her previous novel, The Dark Corners of the Night, features FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix, which is in development by Amazon Studios for a television series.

Here’s my interview with Meg Gardiner. (Guard-Ner)

RIGGS TAG

Bank heists were once the quintessential American crime immortalized with the daring exploits of Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, and Pretty Boy Floyd.

In the wake of high-tech surveillance cameras that capture sharp images and hardened cages for tellers, most criminals today have decided bank robbery no longer pays.

The FBI even released a Bank Robbers app so the public could scroll through the photos of suspects to help identify them.

As a result, the bank robbery rate has dramatically dropped and gone are the days when you could get away with hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It’s now largely a crime of the desperate.

But it will continue to grip the public imagination in books like Heat 2 by Meg Gardiner and Michael Mann.

I want to remind our listeners to sign up for our true crime community on our website at True Crime Reporter® dot com. There’s a red box on every page where you can sign up.

Here are links to my stories about the bank robbery shootouts in Los Angeles.

https://youtu.be/NC6QZKP_F5Q

https://youtu.be/M9BcS1DFFXc

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From Gunship Pilot – To FBI Agent – To NYT’s Best Selling Author Don Bentley

Tue, 13 Sep 2022 12:00:00 +0000

Don Bentley Pictured With His Helicopter Gunship In Afghanistan

Don Bentley’s career zigzagged from flying an Army helicopter gunship on combat missions in Afghanistan to working counterintelligence for the FBI, to now writing suspense-filled novels based on the knowledge of his previous careers.

In my last episode, former FBI agent Don Bentley took us inside the training of Special Agents at the elite FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

After the FBI, Bentley launched a successful writing career. He intimately knows the subject that he writes fiction about.

Don Bentley is the New York Times bestselling author of the Matt Drake series spinning out potboilers about terrorism and intelligence operations.

He has also written two Tom Clancy Jack Ryan, Jr. novels…the latest on bookshelves everywhere is Zero Hour.

In this second episode, we discuss Bentley’s transition to writing and our individual association with the late Tom Clancy.

Clancy, a legendary author, was known for his precise descriptions of everything he wrote about in his best-selling novels about spycraft and military weapon systems.

Clancy turned his books into video games and spellbinding movies starting with Hunt For Red October.

Here’s my interview with veteran decorated Army helicopter pilot, former FBI agent, and author Don Bentley.

https://youtu.be/QinO-HRifzo

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This Bank Gets Robbed Every Day – Former FBI Agent Don Bentley

Wed, 07 Sep 2022 15:38:16 +0000

There’s a bank in Quantico, Virginia, that gets robbed every day.

And I am going to take you there.

Hello. I’m Robert Riggs.

In this episode of True Crime Reporter®, former FBI Agent Don Bentley takes us inside the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

New Special Agents start their career there in an intensive 20-week long training program.

Realistic training scenarios unfold in a mock town called Hogan’s Alley named after a comic strip from the 1890s.

Town House In Hogan’s Alley That Is The Site Of Many Mock Shootouts At The FBI Academy In Quantico, Virginia

I’ve reported there many times on stories ranging from bank robberies to weapons of mass destruction.

I’ve posted links to those stories in the show notes.

FBI Academy

The 10-acre training facility contains a bank, post office, hotel, laundromat, barbershop, theater, homes, and everything you would find in a real urban setting.

It’s like a Hollywood set that features actors playing armed criminals.

In an homage to the deadly shootout with John Dillinger, there is a mock Biograph Theater where three FBI agents ended the gangster’s reign as “Public Enemy Number One.”

My guest, Don Bentley, went through all of that training, and he was well suited for it.

Before the FBI, Bentley served in the U.S. Army as a pilot for ten years and flew an AH-64 Apache helicopter gunship.

Bentley received the Bronze Star and Air Medal with V device for Valor.

He commanded a Quick Reaction Force in support of Operation Red Wings in Afghanistan.

The story of that mission can be heard on Episode 56 of Jack Carr’s podcast, Danger Close.

Carr, as you may know, is a former Navy SEAL and now a New York Times best-selling author of The Terminal List.

The Terminal List starring Chris Pratt, is an acclaimed series on Amazon Prime.

Don Bentley is also a New York Times bestselling author of the Matt Drake series spinning out potboilers about terrorism and intelligence operations.

In this episode, we discuss the focus of the FBI since 9/11.

Here’s my interview with Don Bentley.

Links to Robert’s TV stories at the FBI Academy:

https://bit.ly/RobertRiggsReportsFromFBIAcademyOnWMD

https://bit.ly/RobertRiggsReportsFromFBIAcademyOnProfileOfAPsychopath

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When First Responders Need Help This Is Why They Call SWAT

Mon, 22 Aug 2022 21:11:39 +0000

In the previous episode, Inside Story Of The Deadliest Attack On Police Officers Since 9/11, the negotiator for the Dallas SWAT team revealed the inside story about the mass killer who ambushed Dallas officers during a Black Lives Matter protest five years ago.

Members of our True Crime Community have asked to learn more about the purpose of SWAT teams.

SWAT stands for Special Weapons and Tactics. It’s a highly trained elite unit selected from rank-and-file officers who apply.

In the True Crime Reporter™ podcast episode published on July 18, 2022, about the Uvalde School Shooting, Police Waited To Subdue Killer While Uvalde School Children Lay Dying, you heard how a SWAT team from the U.S. Border Patrol finally stepped in and ended the mass shooting.

SWAT teams grew out of the mass shooting at the University of Texas Tower in Austin a half-century ago.

In 96 minutes, Charles Whitman, an architectural engineering student, cut down nearly 50 people with 150 rifle shots from the 30th-floor observation deck on August 1, 1966.

From his perch, three hundred feet above the campus, he methodically picked off victims as far as five blocks away.

Police were outgunned and did not have protective gear to make a quick assault.

You can learn more about the incident and how it influenced policing in our March 28, 2022, episode titled, A Sniper In The Tower–Why Did He Do It?

L to R Reporter Robert Riggs and Gary Lavergne Author of Sniper In The Tower

We interviewed Gary Lavergne, the author of A Sniper in the Tower: The Charles Whitman Murders.

Here are links to the shooting’s black and white film footage and a video of Gary Lavergne following the sniper’s trail to the top of the UT Tower.

If SWAT teams had existed back then, that’s who would have responded.

Pictured in Center: Lt. Bob Owens Dallas Police Department SWAT

We asked retired Dallas Police Lt. Bob Owens to explain the role of SWAT teams. Owens is a 40-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department.

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Inside Story Of The Deadliest Attack On Police Officers Since 9/11

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 20:42:27 +0000

On the evening of July 7, 2016, Black Lives Matter protesters marched in downtown Dallas and other cities nationwide.

They peacefully gathered in response to the police shootings of two black men, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling.

A few blocks from the site of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, an African American man who had left the U.S. Army following disgraceful conduct got out of his SUV, ready for combat.

The mass murderer arrived with a calculated plan to kill police officers, preferably white officers.

Wearing tactical gear, a bullet-resistant vest, and armed with a high-powered assault rifle, he, in effect, executed five officers and wounded eleven others.

A cell phone video by a witness in a nearby building recorded Johnson shooting an officer for the city’s transit system, DART, in the back and then standing over the officer to pump eleven more rounds into him at point-blank range.

The ambush marked the deadliest and bloodiest day for American law enforcement since 9/11.

In a fierce gun battle, officers cornered the shooter inside the downtown campus building of the El Centro Community College.

Larry Gordon, a crisis hostage negotiator for the DALLAS SWAT team, spent four hours talking with the gunman who pledged to take his life and the lives of more officers.

Gordon and Retired Dallas Police Lt. Bob Owens, a 40-year veteran of DPD who served 20 years on SWAT, join Robert to reveal the inside story of what happened.

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Tales of Murder and Mayhem from Former Prosecutor Bill Johnston.

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 21:00:00 +0000

The True Crime Reporter® Podcast features stories and interviews from the respective careers of investigative reporter Robert Riggs and former U.S. prosecutor Bill Johnston.

Listeners have asked how both of them got involved in investigating criminal cases.

In response, the podcast featured an episode with Riggs on July 4, 2022, explaining how he first got involved in digging for information during the Watergate scandal case while working for Congressman Wright Patman.

In this episode, we cover the highlights of Bill Johnston’s distinguished law career.

Bill devoted his career as a federal prosecutor to, in effect, protect the sheep from the wolves.

He helped launch the manhunt for notorious serial killer Kenneth Allen McDuff, who tortured and murdered countless young women. His role in bringing McDuff to justice and prosecuting the Texas Parole Board Chairman official who released McDuff under a cloud of corruption is featured in the Fox Nation documentary Freed To Kill.

Johnston became the cohost of the True Crime Reporter® podcast with Peabody Award-winning investigative reporter Robert Riggs in 2021.

Johnston had a guilty verdict returned in every federal prosecution in hundreds of jury trials that he undertook during his 14-year career with the U.S. Department of Justice. A noteworthy criminal case includes the Branch Davidian cult members who murdered four ATF agents during a raid on their heavily armed compound outside Waco.

The Texas Rangers, rather than FBI agents, were Johnston’s go-to investigators for complex murder cases. He managed a team of Rangers to investigate the crime scene at the Davidian compound after the end of the controversial inferno.

Johnston successfully prosecuted a mail bomber, which was the first case tried under the U.S. Violence Against Women Act. Other firsts include the first jury trial in the United States in which mitochondrial DNA (hair without root) was used in evidence against a violent “car-jacking” defendant who caused the death of an elderly man in Texas. He received a mandatory life sentence without parole.

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From Convict To CEO — Turning Inmates Into Business Entrepreneurs

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 14:40:23 +0000

Many U.S. prisons are trade schools for crime. High recidivism rates underscore the failure of the current criminal justice system.

Released and rearrested inmates pass through an expensive revolving door.

The Texas prison used to be called the Texas Department of Corrections (TDC), but there was little evidence that it corrected bad behavior.

In Texas, nearly one-fourth of the prisoners released return within three years. Nationally, half of the prisoners released return within three years.

However, the Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP), an independent nonprofit organization in Texas, puts inmates within one to three years of parole eligibility on the path to jobs and even running a business. Less than 7% of its graduates return to prison within three years.

500 participants are chosen yearly out of more than 10,000 eligible inmates. The screening process, which is more selective than prestigious universities, includes a 20-page application, three exams, and an interview with PEP staff members.

Death row inmates or those convicted of sex crimes are not eligible.

The program exposes them to PEP’s ten driving values: fresh-start outlook, servant-leader mentality, love, innovation, accountability, integrity, execution, fun, excellence, and wise stewardship.

The entrepreneurship program starts with a three-month Leadership Academy that teaches character development and computer skills.

Next, they take a rigorous six-month “mini-MBA” course taught by staff, volunteer business executives, and college students.

Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business has worked with PEP since 2007. It awards certificates of Entrepreneurship at the program’s graduation ceremonies.

All of the inmates who have graduated get a job within 90 days of walking out of prison. More than 1,500 PEP graduates have launched 300 businesses. Six of those companies generate more than $1 million in annual sales. Nearly half of the grads own homes within three years of their release.

Bryan Kelley, the CEO of PEP, has “walked the line” in the prison system. Kelley served 22 years of a life sentence for a drug-related murder. (note: In this context, “walk the line” refers to the white lines painted on the floors of prison cellblocks. Inmates must stay inside the white line and against the wall as they walk in both directions.)

Investigative reporter Robert Riggs spent a decade in every corner of the prison system, exposing corruption in the Texas parole system.

Riggs interviews Kelley about the life-changing Prison Entrepreneurship Program.

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The Growing Threat Of Grievance Killings – Why More People Are Losing It

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 21:00:00 +0000

A growing threat of grievance killings is taking center stage across the world.

Recent examples include the assassination of Japan’s popular prime minister to a patient in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who gunned down two doctors and two medical personnel because he was angry about ongoing pain following his surgery.

Sasha Larkin, the Deputy Chief of the Homeland Security Division at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, describes this new threat.

Dep Chief Sasha Larkin of the Homeland Security Division at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department

The 22-year veteran of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department says it was easier to deal with the Osama bin Laden’s of the terrorist world because it was easier to identify them and their motivations.

Larkin came up through the ranks reaching Deputy Chief.

From her post overseeing the Homeland Security Division, Larkin has a unique perspective on crime trends.

In a wide-ranging conversation with investigative reporter Robert Riggs, Larkin discusses the new phenomenon of grievance shootings, her approach to stopping murders that arise out of domestic violence, her path to leadership as a role model to women, and the deadly Route 91 mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip that occurred on October 1st of 2017.

You may recall that a 64-year-old lone, heavily armed rifleman perched in a 32nd-floor suite of the Mandalay Bay Hotel opened fire on a crowd at the Harvest Music Festival below.

He killed 60 people. Wounded 411. Caused chaos that led to the injury of 456 people.

It was the deadliest mass shooting committed by an individual in U.S. history.

And the killer’s motive remains a mystery.
In this episode, Robert Riggs takes a look inside the crime scene tape at America’s playground—Las Vegas.

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Police Waited To Subdue Killer While Uvalde School Children Lay Dying

Mon, 18 Jul 2022 21:32:43 +0000

A 77-page report by a special committee of the Texas House of Representatives concluded that no one was able to stop the gunman from carrying out the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, in part because of “systemic failures and egregious poor decision making” by nearly everyone involved who was in a position of power.

376 law enforcement officers descended on the school in a chaotic, uncoordinated scene devoid of clear leadership and a sense of urgency to take down the gunman, according to the report.

It is the most exhaustive account of what happened to date, and it was released on Sunday, July 17, 2022.

It found that the mass killer had been dubbed “school shooter” on social media a year before the massacre because of his violent threats against others.

The high school dropout and social outcast consumed gore and violent sex online. He sometimes shared videos and images of suicides and beheadings.

In real life, he was fired from two fast-food jobs for harassing a female coworker at one and refusing to speak to coworkers at the other.

He spent more than $3,000 on two AR-15-style rifles and accessories when he turned 18 years of age, two weeks before he attacked the school. The massacre was the first time that he had ever handled a firearm.

The committee found that the killer took advantage of a culture of complacency about school security. Doors were routinely left unlocked and propped open. Teachers had become desensitized to false alarms and did not quickly react to a lockdown alert.

The report suggests that stopping the gunman sooner could have made a difference.

“Given the information known about victims who survived through the time of the breach and who later died on the way to the hospital,” the committee wrote, “it is plausible that some victims could have survived if they had not had to wait 73 additional minutes for rescue.”

The critical report underscores the indecisive and disorganized police response recorded on the school’s security cameras.

Images of police standing around waiting for more than an hour while twenty-one wounded Uvalde, Texas students and teachers needed medical aid drew outrage across the United States.

All 21 victims, two teachers and their fourth-grade students, died at the hands of an 18-year-old mass killer.

Security camera footage from inside the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, records the sound of repeated bursts of gunfire from the killer’s assault rifle for two and half minutes.

Three officers arrived and advanced down a colorful school hallway toward the classrooms within three minutes.

But when the gunman opened fire through the classroom door, the officers frantically retreated.

Heavily armed officers with shields congregated at the end of the corridor, where they waited to confront the killer for excruciatingly 77 minutes.

At one point, an officer paused to squirt hand sanitizer into his hands and rubs his palms together.

The security camera footage underscores a painfully slow response that contradicts everything the FBI has taught U.S. law enforcement since the Columbine Colorado High School massacre occurred 23 years ago in April 1999.

Katherine Schweit, the former FBI agent and executive who established the Bureau’s active shooting training program, emphasizes that even if an officer responds alone, they are supposed to go in harm’s way to neutralize the gunman to stop the carnage.

After reviewing the security camera footage, Schweit concluded that indecision and a lack of leadership turned a bad situation into a catastrophe.

An editorial in the New York Post ran a headline denouncing the slow response, “Video proves Uvalde was the greatest act of cowardice in modern American history.”

Investigative Reporter Robert Riggs interviewed Schweit about the shooting video and the legislative report’s damning conclusion that the police response by local, state, and federal agencies disregarded its active shooting training.

Schweit is the author of Stop The Killing: How To End The Mass Shooting Crisis.

The former FBI agent says law enforcement agencies worldwide need to revise the effectiveness of their active shooter training programs.

Here’s a link if you wish to donate to the victims’ fund.

Here’s a link to the security camera video. Warning: it is graphic and disturbing.

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A Love Triangle Ends In An Alleged Murderous Fit Of Jealous Rage

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 21:40:38 +0000

25-year-old Anna Moriah Wilson, known as “Mo” was an up-and-coming professional cyclist in gravel racing.

Friends described her as a beacon and light and energy.

But another cyclist, Kailin Armstrong allegedly snuffed out that light in a hail of gunfire.

Shockwaves from the grievance killing spread from Austin, Texas where the murder occurred to news media around the world.

It is a true-crime story that is stranger than fiction.

Two female cyclists vying for the affection of a male cyclist were on a tragic collision course.

Investigative Reporter Robert Riggs takes fans inside the crime scene tape with Austin homicide detectives and U.S. Marshals.

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The Watergate Scandal — A Tale Of Bribery And International Intrigue

Mon, 04 Jul 2022 20:51:03 +0000

Many of you have asked how Robert became an investigative reporter. After all, most of the stories you hear on this podcast come from my reporter’s notebook.

Riggs’ career path has zigged and zagged since I received a degree in Architecture and Construction from Texas A&M University. Upon graduation, he headed off to Capitol Hill.

In this episode, my cohost, former prosecutor Bill Johnston, takes me back to the Watergate scandal 50 years ago.

Bill has never heard some of these stories, and in later episodes, Riggs will interview him about his high-profile criminal cases.

Riggs shares a muck-raking tale of bribery and international intrigue.

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Stop The Killing – How To End The Mass Shooting Crisis

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 16:37:06 +0000

Katherine Schweit headed up the FBI’s active shooter program, where she authored the bureau’s landmark research about mass shootings and how to respond best to save lives.

In the wake of the massacre of children and their teachers in Uvalde, Texas, school safety weighs heavily on the minds of teachers and students’ families.

In this episode of True Crime Reporter®, investigative reporter Robert Riggs and Schweit discuss why the number of mass shootings is spiking to the point that some parents are afraid to send their children to school.

Riggs is no stranger to this tragic subject.

In October of 1991, he covered the mass shooting at a crowded Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas.

A lone gunman crashed his pickup truck through the front door of the restaurant. He proceeded to murder 23 people with two semi-automatic pistols before killing himself when confronted by police.

It was the mother of all mass killings in America, marking the start of an epidemic.

In September of 1999, Riggs covered the mass shooting at the Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth and produced a profile of the mass killer with the assistance of retired profilers from the FBI.

Riggs covered so many “critical incidents” in his reporting career that he was asked to serve on a study panel hosted by the Critical Incident Analysis Group at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 2000. The public university was founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819.

The panel was assembled to study Threats To Symbols Of American Democracy.

It included the FBI case agent for the Columbine shootings and its high school principal.

The report prophetically predicted the future targets of the 9-11 hijackers. Unfortunately, the report apparently fell on deaf ears at the top echelon of national security.

When it comes to mass killings, Riggs has been there. He looked mass killer Doug Feldman in the eye during an hour-long interview on Texas Death Row. The episode is Interview With The Mass Killer Known As The Terminator. None of it made the slightest bit of sense to Riggs. Feldman warned Riggs at the beginning that his motives would not make sense to anybody but himself.

The shootings are only getting worse. Especially when children are slaughtered.

Katherine Schweit

No one understands this epidemic better than Katharine Schweit, who spent 20 years with the FBI as a Special Agent Executive and U.S. prosecutor.

In the years after the massacre of 20 school children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in New Town, Connecticut in December of 2012, the FBI spent more than 30 million dollars teaching police how to persistently pursue efforts to neutralize a shooter even if only one officer is present.

Yet, police in Uvalde, Texas, waited 78 minutes before confronting the gunman at Robb Elementary School. The Texas Department of Public Safety Director called it the “wrong decision, period.”

The murders reflect a disturbing pattern. Six of the nine deadliest mass shootings in the United States since 2018 were committed by men who were 21 or younger.

Who is doing this? Why are they doing it? Can we tell when it will happen? How can we intervene?

Do our children need to go to school in fortresses?

Katharine Schweit answers some of those questions in her book Stop The Killing – How to End the Mass Shooting Crisis.

SHOW LINKS

Katherine Schweit | Stop the Killing

FBI Study of Active Shooter Incidents in the U.S. 2000-2013

Active Shooter Resources

Katherine Schweit | Stop the Killing Podcast

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She Butchered Her Sons And Took A Nap. She Was Freed To Kill.

Mon, 13 Jun 2022 20:08:45 +0000

For many years, Texas had a law and order image.

Politicians campaigned for office about getting tough on crime.

A gubernatorial candidate’s TV ads featured actors wearing black and white overalls swinging sledgehammers in the prison yard. His voice-over pledged to teach youthful criminals “the joy of busing rocks.”

Texas ran a revolving-door prison system.

Lawmakers passed tougher laws but refused to spend money to build prisons to hold more convicted criminals.

The public did not know about this until I exposed how serial killer Kenneth McDuff was released on parole with hundreds more violent offenders.

You can learn more about McDuff by listening to our recent episode titled The Broomstick Killer or watching our Freed To Kill streaming television documentary on Fox Nation.

The episode you are about to hear illustrates how Texas turned loose monsters. And I mean monsters.

I warn you it is a graphic story about a mother who dismembered her two boys and later walked out of that revolving door.

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Rev Matt Baker – The Sinister Minister Who Almost Got Away With Murder

Mon, 30 May 2022 21:14:00 +0000

Matt Baker, the charismatic Baptist minister who almost got away with murdering his wife is among our most popular episodes.

On his way to the pulpit in Waco, Texas, Baker molested numerous young women.

An investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest Protestant denomination, revealed that church leaders covered up sexual assaults by hundreds of pastors like Matt Bakers for twenty years.

A seven-month investigation conducted by Guidepost Solutions released in May of 2022 found that sex-abusing pastors were often passed along to other churches with no notice or warnings.

Two top officials of the Southern Baptist Convention kept their private list of abusive pastors for ten years. And the list of 703 abusers may soon become public.

We expect Matt Baker to be on that list.

Former U.S. prosecutor Bill Johnston, the cohost of the True Crime Reporter® Podcast, unraveled a trail of sex abuse complaints about Matt Baker during his murder investigation.

Johnston and investigative reporter Robert Riggs update their original episode, The Minister Who Almost Got Away With Murder, published on October 18th, 2021.

Johnston reveals how his murder investigation discovered that Matt Baker’slong history of sexual abuse allegations had been swept under the rug for years.

Riggs discusses the mindset of sexual predators based on his experience of reporting from inside the Texas prison system.

Link to Investigation of Sexual Abuse Allegations At Southern Baptist Convention

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Jail House Romances: Why Do Women Fall In Love With Serial Killers?

Mon, 23 May 2022 21:30:00 +0000

Can you imagine yourself falling in love with a serial killer or murderer to the point you will give up your family, career, and even your life for them?

A veteran Alabama jail officer, Vicky White, did just that in April of 2022 when she staged a getaway with a capital murder suspect.

The 56-year-old White had an unblemished record. She was on her last day of work before retirement. Her colleagues had just voted her Corrections Employee of the Year for a fifth time before she went on the run.

At first, the Lauderdale County Sheriff in Florence, Alabama, thought White had been kidnapped when she disappeared with a 36-year-old Casey White, no relation.

56-year-old Vicky White

But White had been involved in a two-year-long jailhouse romance with a career violent criminal named Casey White, no relation to her.

He certainly didn’t have fashion model looks.

Casey White, a 300-pound, muscular, burr-headed 6 foot 9, heavily tattooed inmate, was already serving a 75-year prison sentence for murder and other charges from a terrifying rampage.

Confederate Flag Tatoo Signifies Casey White’s Membership In Racist Prison Gang

He had a large image of a Confederate flag tattooed on his back with the words Southern Pride connected by a chain to the image of a pit bulldog.

It signified his membership in a white racist prison gang called the Southern Brotherhood, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

The tattooed sleeve covering his right arm featured large SS symbols favored by neo-Nazi gangs

Casey White was awaiting trial for stabbing 58-year-old Connie Ridgeway to death in her apartment. It had been a cold case for five years until White suddenly confessed in a letter to investigators.

He later pleaded not guilty because of mental disease and was awaiting trial in the Lauderdale County Jail. But was his confession a ploy to get back to the jail to see Vicky White, its supervisor?

According to the convicted felon’s mother, Casey White called the jailer his wife, and she visited his son and grandson and even gave them Christmas presents.

Vicky White gave a phony cover story when she took the capital murder suspect out of jail, claiming it was for a mental health examination.

A week earlier, she sold her house for 95 thousand dollars, far below market value, sold her car, and applied for retirement. She also bought an AR-15 rifle, a shotgun, men’s clothes, and sex toys.

Vicky White had been making dry runs to escape the jail with Casey White handcuffed and wearing a jail-issued jumpsuit in the backseat of her patrol car.

The couple’s getaway came to a deadly end in Indiana when U.S. Marshals rammed their Cadillac during a high-speed chase.

Marshals pulled Vicky White out of the wreckage, still gripping the handgun that she used to kill herself.

So what could she have possibly seen in a violent felon to throw her life away?

Investigative reporter Robert Riggs searches for answers in this episode of the True Crime Reporter® Podcast.

He interviews John Moriarty, the former Texas Department of Criminal Justice Inspector General.

You may recall from our earlier episodes about serial killer Kenneth McDuff that Moriarty was an undercover prison investigator who played a significant role in catching McDuff.

The tough-talking transplanted Irish cop from New York also tricked McDuff into revealing the location of the body of one of his victims before he was executed.

Moriarty is also featured in the opening of the promo about our five-part documentary news series about McDuff titled Freed To Kill on Fox Nation Streaming.

The stories of women and men falling in love with killers may sound like pulp fiction, but it is all too common inside jails and prisons.

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The Greatest Escape From Texas Death Row Since Bonnie & Clyde

Mon, 23 May 2022 19:18:17 +0000

In this vintage photo 1993, Peabody Award-Winning Investigative Reporter Robert Riggs stands on a guard tower overlooking Texas Death Row.

Poking up behind him to the right of the large spotlight is the steeple of the prison, the chapel, where seven condemned prisoners made their daring break for freedom five years later.

29-year Martin Gurule, a cold-blooded killer from Corpus Christi in South Texas, made it over the prison’s fence on a foggy Thanksgiving night under a hail of rifle fire from guard towers.

The last time condemned killers had broken out of prison in Texas was in 1934, when two members of the notorious Bonnie and Clyde gang made a daring escape.

Prison guards were killed by machine gunfire.

That set off a manhunt led by legendary Texas Ranger Frank Hammer that ended in the deadly ambush of Bonnie and Clyde.

Sixty-four years later, hundreds of officers scoured thousands of acres around the Ellis Prison Unit near Huntsville, Texas, looking for Martin Gurule.

Robert Riggs was there until the very end.

In this episode of the True Crime Reporter® Podcast, Riggs dusts off an old reporter’s notebook about this sensational escape from Texas Death Row.

Click Here To See The List Of Crimes That Constitute Capital Murder in Texas

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Prison Inmate Sued Because His Rice Krispies Did Not Snap, Crackle, Pop

Mon, 09 May 2022 20:18:44 +0000

Frivolous lawsuits filed by convicted criminals flooded the federal court system in Texas.

A prison inmate who regarded himself as the “Perry Mason” of the Texas prison sued for millions of dollars because his Thanksgiving Turkey was served cold.

Another sued because his Rice Krispies Cereal did not Snap, Crackle, or Pop as advertised.

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Sheriff Parnell McNamara Rides Herd On The Lawless Solving Cold Cases

Tue, 03 May 2022 03:01:37 +0000

Sheriff Parnell McNamara promised his constituents in McLennan County, Texas around Waco that he would actively pursue cold cases.

McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara & Reporter Robert Riggs

McNamara was elected for a third four-year term in January 2021. He has made good on his campaign pledge to open up long-forgotten homicide cases.

Because as McNamara sees it, no one should get away with murder, and the victim’s family deserves to know what happened.

U.S. Marshall Guy McNamara 1933 (on right)

Guy McNamara Constable 1907 (seated)

The McNamara clan started in law enforcement in 1902 with Guy McNamara, who President Franklin Roosevelt later appointed as a U.S. Marshal in 1933.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Mike McNamara, Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff, Deputy U.S. Marshal Parnell McNamara

You may recall from our earlier episodes about serial killer Kenneth McDuff that it was the brothers, Deputy U.S. Marshals Parnell and Mike McNamara, that launched the manhunt for McDuff with former U.S. prosecutor Bill Johnston.

L-R Deputy U.S. Marshal Mike McNamara, Federal Prosecutor Bill Johnston, Deputy U.S. Marshal Parnell McNamara with Big Foot

After 36 years with the U.S. Marshals Service, Parnell McNamara reached the mandatory retirement age.

He retired for nine years but was unwilling to be put out to pasture, as they say here in Texas.

Sheriff Parnell McNamara Holds 50 Calibre “Tommy Gun”

He was elected Sheriff in 2011 on a campaign slogan of “Riding Herd on the Lawless.”

McNamara, wearing his trademark Stetson cowboy hat, is a throwback to the old West.

rThe western historical decor in his office looks like a modern-day Dodge City occupied by Wyatt Earp.

L-R Capt Steve January, Robert Riggs & Seiler Burr of True Crime Reporter™, Sheriff Parnell McNamara

I sat down to talk to Sheriff McNamara and the Captain of his cold case unit, Steve January.

They started by giving me a challenge coin for the unit.

It features the “Dead Man’s Hand In Poker”, the combination of cards that “Wild Bill” Hickok was holding when he was shot dead point-blank in the back of the head.

Wild Bill Hickok Monument at Deadwood, South Dakota

Like I said, this is the old west where McNamara still forms a posse to hunt down fugitives.

And one more thing. McNamara inspired Jeff Bridge’s role in Come Hell or High Water, which was written by his cousin Taylor Sheridan, best known now for Yellowstone.

Robert Riggs & Captain Steve January Display Nicole Sheridan’s Yellowstone Hoodie She Wore When Presenting A Generous Donation to the McLennan County Sheriff’s Cold Case Unit

Saddle up your horse. Here’s my interview with Sheriff Parnell McNamara from inside the crime scene tape.

If you wish to contribute to Sheriff McNamara’s Cold Case Unit, send it to:

McLennan County Sheriff’s Office

Attn: Cold Case Unit

901 Washington Ave, Waco, TX 76701

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How Cold Case Investigator Paul Holes Unmasked The Golden State Killer

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 20:20:13 +0000

Cold case investigator Paul Holes played a major role in ending a decades-long reign of terror by The Golden State Killer.

First known as The East Area Rapist, a masked psychological sadist assaulted 50 women in Northern California between 1976 and 1979.

He progressed from burglaries to vicious sexual assaults in the middle of the night to bludgeoning his victims to death.

Along the way, he called 911 to taunt the police.

Suddenly it seemed he had disappeared.

But he had moved to a new hunting ground in Southern California, where he murdered 13 people and became known as the Original Night Stalker.

And then in 1986, it stopped.

In 2011, DNA testing revealed that the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker were one in the same man.

True crime writer Michelle McNamara gave the elusive criminal the “Golden State Killer.”

McNamara, the wife of comedian/actor Patton Oswalt, became obsessed with the long-abandoned cold case for six years, focusing attention on it until her untimely death.

Enter investigator Paul Holes. Holes talked with Robert about his newly released book, Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases.

They discuss the “Golden State Killer”, notorious cases in Texas, and breakthroughs in forensic genealogy.

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Death Row Interview With The Mass Killer Known As The “Terminator”

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 21:00:00 +0000

Doug Feldman’s resume gave no clue that a mass killer was lurking inside him.

He graduated from a prestigious university, was a financial wizard, and was the funniest man in the room at social functions. Everything appeared to be going his way.

But beneath Feldman’s calm exterior, a volcano was swelling inside him. First, there were tremors. Then, a deadly eruption against random strangers.

Security Camera Footage of Mass Killer Doug Feldman Riding A Harley As He Randomly Guns Down A Gasoline Tank Truck Driver

Crime Scene Where A Tank Truck Driver Was Randomly Murdered by Mass Killer Doug Feldman

Feldman cruised around Dallas on his Harley Davidson motorcycle, randomly shooting truck drivers to death. His reasons for the murders are beyond comprehension.

A month after Feldman was sentenced to die in the Texas death chamber, he sat down to talk with investigative reporter Robert Riggs.

It is a rare glimpse into the mind of a mass killer because they usually take their own lives at the end of their rampage.

Mass Killer Doug Feldman Interviewed by Robert Riggs On Texas Death Row

At the beginning of the interview, Feldman told Riggs that most of what he had to say would not make any sense.

And he was right.

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The High School Gang That Graduated To Cold-Blooded Murder

Fri, 15 Apr 2022 03:12:53 +0000

Gun-wielding gang members from Houston burst into a rural bank located a hundred miles north of Houston.

The high school-age teenagers graduated from burglaries and drive-by shootings to cold-blooded murders that day.

They left behind the bullet-riddled body of an 82-year-old woman who was tending her family’s graves.

They robbed a bank and shot up the small town while making their getaway. They pistol-whipped a deputy sheriff and used his gun to shoot a Texas State Trooper.

Investigative reporter Robert Riggs covered the murder, and former U.S. prosecutor Bill Johnston sent them to prison.

They are back with another story inside the crime scene tape about the execution of the sweet elderly lady known as Miss Ruby.

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Do Murderous Roots Lie Within Your Family Tree?

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 23:30:13 +0000

It was called the “Ride Murder.”

The bullet-riddled body of an unidentified seaman from the Port of Houston, Texas, was found dumped in a ditch a few miles away.

HELP US FIND THIS MAN’S FAMILY

Two men and a woman used a “honey pot” trap to lure the seaman into their car to rob him.

It was one of the most sensational murder trials ever brought in East Texas.

School children paraded through the county jail on macabre field trips to get a look at the accused killers.

Jailhouse Sketches by The Ride Killer

One of the defendants, who had already killed a traveling salesman using a similar “honey pot” ploy, sat behind bars drawing sketches about romantic encounters.

Decades later, veteran criminal investigator Louis Fawcett was conducting genealogical research about his family tree.

Imagine his shock when Fawcett who had spent 43 years hunting down criminals, discovered that the trigger man in the “Ride Murder” was his uncle.

If you have information about the identity of the murdered seaman, please CONTACT US.

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A Sniper In The Tower–The First School Shooting–Why Did He Do It?

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 02:10:44 +0000

Before Columbine. Before Sandy Hook. Before Virginia Tech. There was the Sniper in the Tower at the University of Texas.

America’s first mass murder and school shooting unfolded on live television in Austin, Texas, more than a half-century ago.

Since then, the question has lingered, “Why did he do it?”

Gary Lavergne, the author of A Sniper in the Tower: The Charles Whitman Murders, addresses the whys and the myths about the why.

In this True Crime Reporter™, Confidential investigative reporter Robert Riggs and former U.S. prosecutor Bill Johnston take listeners back to 1966 when a student cut down fifty people in 96 minutes.

We have placed links in the show notes to black-and-white film footage from the shooting and a video of Gary Lavergne following the sniper’s trail to the top of the UT Tower

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CBS News Anchor Bob Schieffer Shocked By Broomstick Killer’s Brutality

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 20:49:10 +0000

Kenneth McDuff “The Broomstick Killer”

Retired CBS News Anchor Bob Schieffer was the first reporter to interview Kenneth McDuff and cover his crimes in 1966.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram police beat reporter Bob Schieffer; appeared in “The Anatomy of a Newspaper” article dated 01/12/1964

Back then, Schieffer was the police beat reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter Bob Schieffer in combat helmet while reporting from Vietnam, spring 1966

Schieffer had just returned from a combat assignment covering the Vietnam War when the call came in from homicide detectives.

The bullet-riddled bodies of 17-year-old Robert Brand and his cousin, 16-year-old Mark Dunnam, had been found in the trunk of their abandoned car on a remote farm road south of Fort Worth, Texas.

Sixteen-year-old Edna Louise Sullivan, who had been out with the boys, was missing.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers and residents started a widespread search of rough terrain.

Kenneth McDuff Dubbed “The Broomstick Killer” Gives Menacing Stare During Court Hearing

The triple slaying would bring Schieffer face to face in exclusive interviews with 20-year-old Kenneth McDuff, who became known as the “Broomstick Killer,” and his accomplice, 18-year-old Roy Dale Green.

Investigative reporter Robert Riggs would follow Schieffer’s lead 27 years later.

Their journalism careers came full circle.

Robert Riggs Reporting From Capitol Hill 1987

In 1978, Schieffer helped Riggs move from the staff of a congressional committee to television news.

Both reporters covered wars for CBS during their careers but never witnessed brutality like serial killer Kenneth McDuff inflicted on young women.

Robert Riggs Interviews Retired CBS Anchorman Bob Schieffer About The Broomstick Killer

Besides appearing on the True Crime Reporter™ podcast, Schieffer sat down in front of a TV camera to talk with Riggs about what it was like to cover McDuff.

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First There Was the Lone Ranger. Now There’s Creed True.

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 21:00:00 +0000

We usually take our fans inside the crime scene tape of real-life crimes.

But in this episode, we are testing out a fictional Texas Ranger superhero named Creed True, inspired by real-life cases.

The Texas Ranger became a superhero in pop culture long before Spider-Man and fellow characters from Marvel Comics captured our collective imaginations.

Think about how “Who was that masked man?” is now part of our vocabulary.

Superheroes possess supernatural or superhuman powers and are dedicated to fighting evil in their universe.

Our first story is titled The Kidnapper’s Tale.

Please let us know what you think about it fan@truecrimereporter.com.

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One Riot, One Ranger Fuels 200-Year Old Legend

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 01:22:14 +0000

Texas kicked off festivities on Texas Independence Day, to commemorate the 2023 Bicentennial of the Texas Rangers.

As the Rangers approach their 200th year of service, their legend is embodied in the following quote.

When Texas Ranger Captain Bill McDonald was sent to Dallas in the 1890s to prevent a scheduled prizefight, McDonald was greeted at the train station by the city’s anxious mayor, who asked: “Where are the others?” McDonald supposedly replied, “Hell! ain’t I enough? There’s only one prize-fight!” (credit: Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum).

The Texas Rangers are the oldest serving state law enforcement agency in the United States.

Texas Ranger Displays Drones Used For Crime Fighting Operations

Armed with the latest technology, Rangers wear distinctive white cowboy hats, white western-style shirts with silver badges crafted from Mexican Cinco peso coins, and cowboy boots.

The event started at the Dickies Arena on the grounds of the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo with special help from Brad Barnes, the President/General Manager of the Exposition and Livestock Show.

It concluded on Mule Alley, hosted by Craig Cavileer in the Fort Worth Stockyards at the Hotel Drover.

(L) Bob Sims buying mules to work the Texas oil fields. Mule Alley Fort Worth Stockyards circa 1940.

Artist’s aerial drawing of the mule barns at the Fort Worth Stockyards. Date Unknown.

Herd of Texas mules at Mule Alley at Fort Worth Stockyards circa 1939

One note: Mule Alley is where Robert Riggs’ great uncle Bob Sims bought mules for use in the East Texas oil fields in the 1930s and 40s.

Those places are steeped in Texas history. Fort Worth, known as “Cowtown,” is where the West began.

And there is nothing more Texan than the Texas Rangers.

You will like this episode if you are a fan of Taylor Sheridan’s TV series Yellowstone or 1883.

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History of the Texas Rangers

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 23:33:36 +0000

The Bonnie and Clyde gang rode roughshod over the Central United States during the Depression in the 1930s until Texas Ranger Frank Hamer came out of retirement and ended their deadly robbery spree in an ambush.

Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker aka Bonnie and Clyde

It’s one of many cases that contributes to the worldwide reputation of the Texas Rangers.

In order to get a concise and accurate account of its history, Riggs went to the Official Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum.

Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum In Waco, Texas

The museum attracts 100-thousand people a year from around the globe to see its exhibit artifacts, artwork, and archives.

Here’s my interview with its Director, Byron Johnson.

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How Det Jeff Bennett Used Genetic Genealogy To Solve The 47-Year Old Murder Of Carla Walker

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 21:54:30 +0000

Fort Worth Cold Case detectives solved the murder of 17-year-old Carla Walker after it had gone cold for nearly five decades.

They analyzed old evidence using genetic genealogy and new DNA extraction technology pioneered by Othram, a forensic genealogy lab in the Woodlands, a suburb of Houston.

17-Year Old Carla Walker Abducted in August of 1974

Othram matched the DNA to a test submitted to a genealogy site by a member of the killer’s family tree. Othram did not disclose the relative’s name.

Cold case investigators Jeff Bennett and Leah Wagner identified 78-year-old Glen McCurley, who was among the original suspects. McCurley confessed to them when confronted with the DNA evidence.

Genetic genealogy was used in the Golden State Killer case, but this was the first time the technology made it to a courtroom.

Glen McCurley Sentenced To Life In Prison Under McDuff Capital Murder Law

McCurley pleaded guilty after two days of testimony in his capital murder trial in August of 2021.

More than 1,000 cases remain unsolved in Fort Worth alone. Paying for expensive DNA tests and travel expenses for investigators makes the task even more difficult.

Detective Jeff Bennett created the FWPD Cold Case Support Group in the wake of the Walker case. This nonprofit foundation accepts tax-deductible donations to help solve Fort Worth’s unsolved murders.

Make An Online Donation with a note that you heard about this on True Crime Reporter™ Podcast or mail a check to:

FWPD Cold Case Support Group

PO Box 185052

Fort Worth, TX 76181-0052, US

The seven members of the FWPD Cold Case Support Group Board of Directors are: Detective Jeff Bennett, Detective Leah Wagner, Jim Walker (brother of Carla Walker), Emily Dixon (Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office), Detective John Galloway, former Sgt. David Thornton (who started the cold case unit in the 2000s), and Adam Palmer (founder of the oil and gas company Resource Sense LLC.)

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After Hitmen Failed To Kill Her Husband She Pulled The Trigger

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 23:14:28 +0000

This is a story about two botched murder attempts by hired hitmen.

And what happened when 65-year-old Joyce Sturdivant took matters into her own hands?

One of the most common forms of homicide is when one half of a couple kills the other.

Women are usually the victims of this form of homicide.

Only one percent of male victims are killed by a partner.

Joyce Sturdivant 76-years old – TDCJ Inmate #01783322

But in this case, 65-year-old Joyce Sturdivant knocked off her husband after the hitmen she hired failed to kill Big Joe Sturdivant, a burly stock car racer in Central Texas.

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Real Stories Of The Texas Highway Patrol

Mon, 07 Feb 2022 23:53:27 +0000

The men and women of the Texas Highway Patrol work alone, often at night, on remote stretches of highway.

They drive distinctive black and white cruisers and SUVs with bright gold emblems in the shape of Texas on the side doors.

Help might be a hundred miles away if a traffic stop turns bad.

For example, in 2021, Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Chad Walker was killed in an ambush.

Walker stopped to help a driver in a disabled vehicle.

The driver jumped out of the car armed with a handgun and unloaded rounds into the windshield of the Trooper’s vehicle, striking Walker in the head and abdomen.

Honoring Fallen Trooper Chad Walker Courtesy Fairfield Recorder Newspaper

His wife and four children survived the 38-year-old trooper.

The suspect fled and later killed himself when surrounded.

These are the dangers faced by Texas Troopers.

Senior Texas Trooper Johnny Williams Ret’d

In this episode of True Crime Reporter Extra, we feature real stories of the Texas Highway Patrol from retired Senior Trooper Johnny Williams, a Vietnam Veteran of Paris, Texas.

By the way, people travel from miles around to see the Paris, Texas version of the Eiffel Tower.

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Inside The Making Of Hollywood’s Greatest Crime Movies

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 15:48:20 +0000

Former NYPD Detective Randy Jurgensen walked a beat in Harlem all the way into Hollywood’s greatest crime dramas of all time.

He is known as the cop who killed Sonny Corleone in The Godfather.

Gene Hackman pats down NYPD Detective Randy Jurgensen to learn proper police procedures to use in the filming of The French Connection

His walk of fame started when William Friedkin, the director of The French Connection, asked Jurgensen to demonstrate how to put a suspect against a wall for the “pat down.”

Friedkin hired Jurgensen as the film’s technical consultant to advise him on how to realistically show the gritty side of heroin trafficking in the 1960s.

NYPD Detective Randy Jurgensen playing a police sergeant in The French Connection

It became Jurgensen’s job to turn actors Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider into narcotics detectives.

Jurgensen turned out to be a natural on camera and was given the role of an NYPD Sergeant in the film.

3rd Person Left — NYPD Detective Randy Jurgensen Plays a police sergeant in The French Connection

He appears on the poster for The French Connection, flanking Gene Hackman.

Jurgensen had been on the periphery of an undercover narcotics investigation that netted a legendary seizure of heroin.

Robin Moore, the author of The Green Berets, wrote a book about the case titled The French Connection.

In those days, heroin flowed into New York City from Marseille, and the book was made into a movie.

A long list of credits includes Jurgensen’s work as a technical advisor on Die Hard with a Vengeance, a cop in the first Superman movie with Christopher Reeve, and a role in Frank Sinatra’s first made-for-TV movie, Contract On Cherry Street .

A few days after celebrating The French Connection’s Oscars, Jurgensen became embroiled in the most notorious case in the history of NYPD.

Jurgensen’s book titled Circle of Six details his determined effort to bring to justice the murderer of Police Officer Philip Cardillo, who was killed in a Harlem Mosque in 1972.

Fasten your seatbelts!

Link to the one-man-show parody of The Godfather mentioned in the podcast: The Godfadda Workout

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Protect Your Self From Sexual Predators – Have A Plan… Because They Do

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 21:07:36 +0000

When you hear about violent crime, do you think to yourself, “it would never happen to me?”

When 29-year-old Colleen Reed went to a self-service car wash in Austin, Texas, none of her family or friends thought it would be the last time they saw her.

Reed never imagined that serial killer Kenneth McDuff was stalking her.

McDuff is featured in the first season of True Crime Reporter®.

I want you to understand that it can happen to you because “they walk among us.”

Sexual predators and killers don’t present themselves in a demonic manner and are not easy to recognize or avoid.

“They walk among us” means that people who might hurt us may be unrecognizable as a threat.

More often than not, they are people we see in public, go to school with, date, live with, or strangers who appear trustworthy.

In our earlier episode about the teenage girl who was rescued from her kidnappers by Texas Rangers, the ring leader of the abduction was the father of one of her school classmates.

What would you do if you were ordered to get into a car and threatened if you didn’t?

Retired homicide detective David Thorton explains how and why violent criminal actors target their victims and how victims’ behavior may contribute to their vulnerability.

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Surrounded By Psychopaths With Author Thomas Erikson

Mon, 03 Jan 2022 22:00:00 +0000

After listening to our episodes about serial killer Kenneth McDuff, you have no doubt that McDuff is what FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood described as a textbook psychopath.

But it’s not only criminals that are psychopaths.

CEOs of major corporations, politicians, and entertainers score high on the checklist of psychopathic behavior.

Think about your work colleagues or social circle.

Is your boss a narcissistic manipulator with no remorse?

Do you know someone who takes pleasure in hurting others and easily lies?

Thomas Erikson reveals how psychopaths surround us.

They may not physically threaten our lives, but they can emotionally destroy them.

In this episode, investigative reporter Robert Riggs talks to Erikson about his book Surrounded by Psychopaths and how we can protect ourselves from them.

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Best of True Crime Reporter® 2021 – Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff

Mon, 27 Dec 2021 22:52:59 +0000

In this “Best Of True Crime Reporter®”, we take you back to the first episode in our series about serial killer Kenneth Allen McDuff.

It was a Webby Award Honoree for Best True Crime Podcast in 2021.

McDuff is the only criminal in Texas history to have received three death sentences.

Serial Killer Kenneth Allen McDuff is being escorted to a holding cell in the Texas Death Chamber. McDuff was believed to be the only condemned inmate in the nation ever paroled and then returned to death row for two more murders. He was sentenced to die in the electric chair in 1966 for killing Robert Brand, one of three teenagers he was charged with randomly killing. But McDuff was later paroled after the death penalty was overturned. He was sentenced in two different cases to die by lethal injection for the murders of Melissa Northrup and Colleen Reed. McDuff was executed shortly after this photograph was taken on November 17, 1998.

Yet he got out of prison under a cloud of corruption after murdering three teenagers.

An FBI profiler, the late Roy Hazelwood, described McDuff to me as the Great White Shark of serial killers.

Yet most people have never heard of McDuff.

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The Devil Lovers- The Satanic Cult of Murder & Meth

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 22:00:00 +0000

What is it about Waco, Texas?

A whirlwind of bizarre events and violence seems to dump all sorts of strange creatures into Central Texas.

Whether it is serial killers on the hunt for victims or the Branch Davidian Cult ending in a fiery inferno, it spins out true crime stories that are stranger than fiction.

Investigative reporter Robert Riggs and former federal prosecutor Bill Johnston have been deeply involved in all of them.

In the previous episode called Murder, Mayhem, and Meth, they talked about violent meth kingpins who controlled the manufacture and distribution of “speed” during the 1980s in Texas.

Now it’s about to get really weird with the story of devil lovers who set up a factory to make methamphetamines.

In a weekly ritual, the devil lovers would prick their fingers and drip blood on the pages of an open Bible.

You won’t believe what happened next.

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Murder, Mayhem, & Meth — Breaking Bad In Texas

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 23:00:07 +0000

If you were a Breaking Bad TV series fan, get ready to listen to the actual version in Texas.

The TV series featured a fictional high school chemistry teacher named Walter White, diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor who manufactures high-grade meth to put away cash for his family’s future.

It is not far from the truth.

During the 1980s, Central and East Texas were dotted with illicit meth labs set up in remote farmhouses.

But these “Walter White” meth kingpins typically became addicted to their own chemical product and turned super paranoid.

Investigative reporter Robert Riggs and former federal prosecutor Bill Johnston flashback to the notorious trade and violence it brought to the badlands of Texas.

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The Day The Last Texas Ranger Died

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 22:30:00 +0000

Texas Ranger Stan Guffey 1946 – 1987

Courtesy Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, Waco, Texas

In the previous episode of True Crime Reporter™ Texas Ranger Files, we told the story of brave Rangers who kept up the pursuit of kidnappers while their car was being riddled with gunfire and was engulfed in flames.

Thirteen-year-old Amy McNiel the daughter of the pioneer in the development of the first hand-held calculator, was kidnapped by five men on the way to school in January 1985

Retired Ranger Captain Bob Prince recalled the tension-filled 48-hour, 600-mile game of cat and mouse and a 100 mph running gun battle that ended in the safe rescue of the teen.

During the pursuit of the kidnappers, Texas Ranger Stan Guffey maintained surveillance from an aircraft.

Two years later, when a doped-crazed criminal out on parole kidnapped a two-year-old girl, Guffey did not want to stand by and watch as he had before.

Guffey insisted on replacing another Ranger in a plan to surprise the kidnapper as the father of the victim delivered the ransom.

He pulled a fellow Ranger out of his hiding place in the back seat of a Lincoln Continental that was being used in the rendezvous with the kidnapper and took his place.

It was the day the last Ranger Died, January 22, 1987.

Investigative reporter Robert Riggs and former U.S. prosecutor Bill Johnston reveal what happened in this exclusive edition of the Texas Ranger Files.

Bill tells the sad ending of this story that has waited years to be told.

Note: You can read more about the history of the legendary Texas Rangers and see vintage photos on our blog at True Crime Reporter®.

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Texas Rangers Brave Bullets and Flames To Rescue 13-Year Old Girl From Kidnappers

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 00:09:23 +0000

The Texas Rangers constitute the oldest state law enforcement organization in North America, dating to 1823.

You can read more about the Texas Rangers’ history and influence on popular culture on our blog at the True Crime Reporter®website.

L to R Bill Johnston, Ret’d Ranger Captain Bob Prince, Robert Riggs True Crime Reporter™ Podcast

Robert and Bill interview retired Ranger Captain Bob Prince, a legendary modern-day Texas Ranger, about his most memorable case.

Our story begins with the rescue of 13-year-old Amy McNiel of Alvarado, Texas, from five kidnappers in mid-January of 1985.

It captures the frontier spirit and courage of the officers who wear the distinctive 5-star badge of the Texas Rangers.

The teenage daughter of Don McNiel, a pioneer in the development of the first hand-held calculator, was snatched at gunpoint on the way to school.

Kidnappers ran a jeep driven by her 17-year-old brother off the road and put a sawed-off shotgun to his face as they grabbed his sister.

They demanded a $100,000 ransom for the seventh grader’s safe return but had no intention of releasing the teenage girl alive.

Throughout McNiel’s abduction, the five kidnappers snorted and injected drugs and talked about “driving” to Hawaii with the ransom money.

The teen defiantly insisted that her captors feed a hungry dog in their backyard before she would cooperate.

Their ringleader, 34-year James Wesley Foote, lived near the McNiel’s mansion and his son was her school classmate but unknown to her. Foote’s son had once stabbed a fellow student in the arm with a knife.

Two weeks before McNiel’s abduction, Foote who was wanted for attempted murder had burst into the home of a prominent businessman in Arlington near Fort Worth, Texas to kidnap his two young children.

The family’s housekeeper wrestled Foote’s gun away from him and fought him in a bloody 45-minute struggle.

The gun discharged near her head, and Foote fled.

A few weeks later, Foote and his accomplices then abducted 13-year-old Amy McNiel

In this episode of Texas Ranger Files, retired Ranger Captain Bob Prince remembers a tension-filled 48-hour, 600-mile game of cat and mouse and a 100-mph running gunbattle.

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The Mind Of A Murder – What Makes A Killer?

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 15:26:14 +0000

In our previous episode of the True Crime Reporter® podcast, we presented the murder case of Annie Laurie Williams.

Williams bludgeoned her 8 and 9-year-old sons to death and then dispassionately dismembered their bodies to dispose of them.

Her acts are unthinkable.

Robert Riggs and Bill Johnston contacted forensic psychiatrist Dr. Richard Taylor in the United Kingdom to gain perspective and understanding of such a crime.

Dr. Taylor is the author of The Mind of a Murderer. He has worked on more than 100 murder cases.

He explores the subject of Women Who Kill Children in his book.

Dr. Taylor also works with a special unit called the Fixated Threat Assessment Center (FTAC), which investigates threats to the royal family and politicians.

You can find a link to more information about the FTAC on our website.

Murder is not just a crime; it is a significant public health problem.

In 2017 alone, there were close to a half-million recorded victims of homicide around the globe.

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The Ghastly Story Of A Mother Who Dismembered Her Children

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 22:37:26 +0000

The 1950s were called the “Happy Days.” The war was over, the economy was booming, and the American Dream was in full swing.

In 1957, it was estimated that one baby was born every second. The Lone Ranger was a hit TV show. Little boys acted out their mythical western adventures on stick horses.

But the dream became a nightmare for two brothers in Texas. Their murders at the hands of their knife-wielding mother shocked the nation.

Annie Williams 1955 Mug Shot

This is the story of how Annie Williams was supposed to spend the rest of her life in prison for dismembering her boys.

Annie Williams Sentenced To Two Life Terms November 8, 1955

But contrary to what her sentencing jury was told, Williams was set free on parole. She then jumped parole and disappeared for sixteen years until fugitive hunter Louis Fawcett got on her trail.

This is the 57-year-long account of a mother who murdered her sons with malice.

Annie Williams Booking Photo After Her Fugitive Arrest In 1997

Until now, the tragedy of her two sons has been long forgotten.

A pair of large ornate pink granite headstones mark their graves at the Oak Park Cemetery located in Alvin, Texas.

Long-Forgotten Victims Of A Mother’s Murder With Malice

8-year old Conrad S. Williams. and 9-year Calvin H. Williams were laid to rest side by side.

In 1955, the shocked and grief-stricken community took up a collection to bury the murdered brothers.

Years later, green mold grows on Calvin’s headstone. Vandals have tipped over Conrad’s headstone. It lies flat on the ground.

Piles of scattered brown leaves and broken tree limbs cover the boy’s graves.

Few remember the terrible end to their short lives that made front-page headlines across the world.

But veteran Texas lawman Louis Fawcett, the fugitive hunter who always got his man or woman, says it is the one case out of hundreds that will never fade from his memory.

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Inside A Cold Case Unit Solving A 46-Year Old Murder

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 14:00:00 +0000

46 years after the abduction, torture, and murder of a 17-year-old girl, cold case detectives with the Fort Worth police department arrested a 78-year old Glen McCurley and charged him with capital murder.

McCurley abducted Carla Walker from the parking lot of a bowling alley in 1974. Walker had been to a Valentine’s day dance with her 17-year old boyfriend.

McCurley pistol-whipped Walker’s boyfriend and tried to shoot him in the head three times but the pistol’s magazine fell out.

Walker’s lifeless body was later found dumped in a culvert.

Fort Worth Police detectives Jeff Bennett and Leah Wagner were the primary investigators who reopened this case in 2019.

New, advanced DNA testing matched McCurley’s DNA to stains found on Carla Walker’s clothing.

The 46-year old unsolved case came to an end in August of 2021 when McCurley pleaded guilty during his murder trial. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Retired Homicide Detective David Thornton helped start the cold case unit. At the outset, investigators faced 750 unsolved murders dating back to 1966.

Thornton put into motion an effort that is still solving cold cases in which the original investigation failed to produce sufficient evidence to support murder charges.

In this edition of our True Crime Reporter Confidential, Robert Riggs and Bill Johnston take listeners inside homicide investigations and cold cases.

It is nothing like what is portrayed on popular TV shows. That’s Hollywood. This is real life.

Inside The Police Beat Covering Texas Worst Serial Killer

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 14:00:00 +0000

Serial killer Kenneth McDuff fixated on the female reporters who covered his capital murder trial.

After a Texas jury sentenced McDuff to death by lethal injection, he sent off a letter to one of the reporters.

Rebecca Rodriguez Reporting Live For CBS 11 News in 2000

The letter written behind bars sickened reporter Rebecca Rodriguez

She had covered the abduction of Colleen Reed, a petite 29-year-old accountant, from an Austin, Texas, self-service car wash shortly after Christmas in 1991.

Colleen Reed

The accountant was one of the dozens of young women who had mysteriously disappeared up and down interstate 35 through the heart of Texas.

Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff

McDuff was a sadistic, sexual serial killer. His biggest pleasure came from inflicting pain on his victims and controlling their moment of death.

Alva Hank Worley Accomplice of Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff

A grisly confession by McDuff’s accomplice detailed a chamber of horrors in explicit detail of how he tortured his victims.

Rodriguez could hardly process this horrible story when McDuff’s mother called her in February of 1993.

The phone call followed her son being sentenced to die by lethal injection in the Texas Death Chamber for the capital murder of Melissa Northrup.

Addy McDuff claimed her son was innocent and pleaded with Rodriguez to tell his story.

But Addy was known as a manipulative, crass creature who was the stereotypical mother of a serial killer.

The residents of Rosebud, a small town in Central Texas, knew Addy as the “pistol-packing mama”.

Her son had ridden roughshod over its residents for years.

When a school bus driver scolded Kenneth for bullying fellow students, Addy threatened him with her pistol.

In this episode how McDuff’s case has haunted reporters and law officers for thirty years.

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The Minister Who Almost Got Away With Murder

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 14:00:00 +0000

Husbands who murder their wives often go to great lengths to concoct stories about their disappearance or sudden death.

They may give tearful appeals for help on television newscasts.

They typically think that they are smarter than the police and can get away with murder.

But there are no perfect crimes.

Murderers often slip up when they try to make the crime scene look like what they’ve seen on television shows.

Eagle-eyed investigators can see right through it.

This episode goes inside two cases from the career of former federal prosecutor Bill Johnston.

In the first case, a charismatic Baptist preacher in Waco initially fools the police into believing that his wife committed suicide.

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The Day The Last Texas Ranger Died

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 16:23:29 +0000

The Texas Rangers are among the world’s most legendary law enforcement agencies and North America’s oldest state law enforcement agency.

The Rangers have inspired scores of books, movies, radio, and television.

Their roots date to frontier Texas. In 1823, Stephen F. Austin, known as the Father of Texas, founded a group of ten men to protect new settlers.

Texas Rangers at the El Paso County Courthouse 1896

They are deeply embedded in Texas lore. As former Ranger Capt. Bob Crowder once said, “A Ranger is an officer who can handle any situation without definite instructions from his commanding officer or higher authority. This ability must be proven before a man becomes a Ranger.”

Frank Hammer on horseback

Frank Hammer, a veteran Ranger captain, was recruited to hunt down Bonnie and Clyde in 1934 after he had left the Rangers.

Hammer and his posse ambushed the couple, riddling them with more than 130 rounds.

Modern-day Rangers assist local law enforcement in investigating murders and other crimes. They also investigate organized criminal activities and protect the Governor of Texas.

Texas Rangers typically wear western attire, including a white cowboy hat, a white shirt and tie, a “ranger belt”, a gun belt, and cowboy boots.

Texas Rangers’ badges are cut from Mexican five-peso coins.

The Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum located in Waco, Texas, estimates that fewer than 1%of the individuals who have served as Texas Ranger were killed or died in the line of duty.

Texas Ranger Stan Guffey

Stan Guffey was the last Ranger to die in the line of duty while saving a little girl from her kidnapper in 1987.

This episode is about the Day The Last Texas Ranger Died.

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Don’t Fence Me In — No Texas Prison Could Hold Dennis Wayne Hope

Fri, 15 Oct 2021 15:10:47 +0000

Dennis Wayne Hope

Willie Nelson sings about riding in the wide-open spaces with lyrics titled “Don’t Fence Me In”.

“Don’t Fence Me In” was the ballad of Texas inmate Dennis Wayne Hope.

Hope bragged that there wasn’t a prison in Texas that could hold him.

The convicted armed robber even imitated the prisoner played by Paul Newman in Hollywood’s Cool Hank Luke.

Hope purchased a Jaguar for his girlfriend with money stolen during robberies in Dallas, Texas.

While on the run, Hope sent imprisoned convicts letters about life on the outside.

Hope impersonated armored car guards with fake ID cards and uniforms. He picked up tens of thousands of dollars in cash deposits.

During one getaway, Hope calmly strolled past a police officer parked in a patrol car at the entrance to the grocery store he had just robbed.

During a television interview with investigative reporter Robert Riggs, Hope demonstrated how he could use the plastic refill of a ballpoint pen to unlock handcuffs.

This episode, “Don’t Fence Me In,” chronicles Hope’s prison escapes and the fugitive hunters who get on this trail.

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Inside The Minds Of America’s 2 Worst Serial Killers: Kenneth McDuff & Ted Bundy Episode 17 Season 1

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 20:21:34 +0000

Serial Killer Ted Bundy

Kenneth Allen McDuff ranks among the most heartless and sadistic serial killers in American history.

But what creates the McDuff’s and Ted Bundy’s of this world?

Two former FBI profilers, who were among the founders of the Behavioral Science Unit based at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, gave me invaluable insight.

I met profilers John Douglas and Roy Hazelwood after they had retired from the bureau. At that time, they were not widely known outside of law enforcement circles.

Today, the Netflix crime drama Mindhunter is loosely based on John Douglas’s role in pioneering profiling at the FBI.

His fellow profiler Roy Hazelwood became the world’s leading expert on the strangest, most dangerous of all aberrant offenders, the sexual criminal.

Hazelwood is now deceased. He coauthored landmark books about the minds of sexual predators with Stephen Michaud.

Michaud is a friend and fellow investigative reporter who used to be based here in Dallas.

Stephen Michaud is the expert on Ted Bundy.

He tape-recorded 150 hours of audio with the serial killer when Bundy was imprisoned in a Florida State Prison. In 1983, Michaud and another giant of investigative reporting, Hugh Aynesworth wrote the book, The Only Living Witness; The True Story of Serial Killer Ted Bundy.

In 2019, NetFlix premiered a four-episode docuseries based on Michaud’s tapes titled Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes.

Michaud and I discuss what goes on inside the minds of serial killers.

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“Freed To Kill” These Wounds Don’t Heal. The Living Hurt Forever by Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff Episode 16 Season 1

Tue, 29 Dec 2020 11:39:44 +0000

Colleen Reed

You are about to hear how the murder of Colleen Reed on December 29th, 1991, by serial killer Kenneth McDuff impacted the life of her then-ten-year-old niece.

Ms. Reed was abducted from an Austin car wash shortly after Christmas by McDuff and his accomplice, Alva Hank Worley.

You can hear Worley’s confession about the grizzly details of the young accountant’s brutal murder in episode 6.

At the time of this recording in December 2020, Ms. Reed’s niece had spent 29 years suffering from guilt.

It is a story that none of us who worked on the case were aware of until now.

Bill Johnston, the federal prosecutor who launched the manhunt for McDuff, and I talk with Ms. Reed’s niece to give you insight into how the trauma of violent crime affects the victim’s families forever.

We also explain why society should lock up violent offenders and throw away the key.

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“Freed To Kill” Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff Is Six Feet Under But What Mysteries Remain? Episode 15 Season 1

Mon, 21 Dec 2020 12:20:40 +0000

The scandalous release of serial killer Kenneth McDuff and corruption inside the parole system triggered the passage of numerous legislative reforms dubbed “The McDuff Law.”

But mysteries remain.

How many violent inmates bought their way out of prison and were free to kill again?

How many women did McDuff abduct and murder?

McDuff always liked to have an accomplice to witness his evil acts.

Did other accomplices get away with murder?

Investigators sit down with investigative reporter Robert Riggs to discuss their theories.

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“Freed To Kill” Dead Man Walking Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff Enters The Texas Death Chamber Episode 14 Season 1

Mon, 14 Dec 2020 13:59:53 +0000

Investigative reporter Robert Riggs traced serial killer Kenneth McDuff’s footsteps from Texas’ Death Row to its Death Chamber at the Walls Unit in Huntsville, Texas.

The day before McDuff’s execution, the prison system gave Riggs and his camera crew access to the Texas death chamber.

Riggs fills in precise details about how the lethal injection was administered down to McDuff’s last words.

It’s a step-by-step account that most people have never heard before.

McDuff’s body went unclaimed by family members, and his home community protested any attempt to bury him there.

Riggs follows McDuff’s pine box coffin to its burial in an anonymous grave in the prison cemetery.

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“Freed To Kill” How A Throbbing Toothache Made Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff Talk Episode 13 Season 1

Mon, 07 Dec 2020 13:51:46 +0000

Serial killer Kenneth McDuff held back on revealing where he buried Colleen Reed’s body.

McDuff and his accomplice Hank Worley abducted Ms. Reed from an Austin car wash in 1991.

Seven years have passed, and the clock is ticking down toward McDuff’s execution for her murder and that of Melissa Northrup.

Prison investigator John Moriarty, federal prosecutor Bill Johnston, and U.S. Marshal Mike McNamara spent hours on Texas death row trying to get McDuff to reveal the location of his victims’ bodies.

The big break comes when Moriarty hears McDuff complaining about a painful toothache.

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“Freed To Kill” Face-To-Face With Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff On Texas Death Row Episode 12 Season 1

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 13:17:15 +0000

Kenneth Allen McDuff is being escorted into the Death House. McDuff was believed to be the only condemned inmate in the nation ever paroled and then returned to death row for another murder. He went to death row in 1968 for killing two teenage boys, was paroled after the death penalty was overturned, and returned to death row in 1991 for killing two women. 11/17/1998

Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff matter-of-factly described the last moments of his victims’ lives as “using them up” to his accomplices in murder.

Afterward, he would dispose of the young women’s bodies in unmarked burial sites at remote locations.

With time ticking down toward his execution, author Gary Lavergne met with McDuff on Texas Death Row to try to find out where the serial killer buried countless bodies.

His victim’s families just wanted to give their loved ones a proper funeral.

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“Freed To Kill” A Serial Killer Is The Only Man In Texas To Receive 3 Death Sentences Episode 11 Season 1

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 13:19:00 +0000

Kenneth McDuff’s first death sentence for the broomstick murders was commuted to life when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in 1972.

Now, McDuff faces two more capital murder charges.

Prosecutors want to make sure that McDuff keeps his date with the executioner.

After being sentenced to die by lethal injection, Riggs asked McDuff, “What now, Kenneth?” McDuff looked Riggs in the eye and smugly said, “I guess I’m going to die. We all have to sometimes. You know.”

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“Freed To Kill” How A Serial Killer’s Prison Pals Received Get Out Of Jail Free Cards Episode 10 Season 1

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 13:58:31 +0000

James Granberry Pleads the 5th In Senate Hearing

Texas inmates and their families started receiving business cards and letters from the ex-parole board chairman, promising early release for a price.

Former parole board chairman James Granberry, who played the key role in setting serial killer Kenneth McDuff free, set up a business as a parole consultant.

He solicited money from inmate’s families to get his old cronies on the parole board to release his clients from prison early.

In Episode 10, Investigative Reporter Robert Riggs exposes the secret underworld of parole consultants and the release of Kenneth McDuff’s prison pal.

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“Freed To Kill” Dirty Little Secrets About Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff’s Parole Episode 9 Season 1

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 12:03:56 +0000

Kenneth McDuff’s confidential prison and parole records contained plenty of warning signs that he was a psychopathic killer who should never be released.

Investigative Reporter Robert Riggs obtains McDuff’s records.

Riggs exposes the lies the Texas Parole Board Chairman has been telling about his role in freeing McDuff.

Along the way, Riggs discovers a secret process that released a hate crime killer in exchange for giving the parole board chairman a new car for himself and his mistress at the parole board.

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“Freed To Kill” McDuff Called Her “My Little Gangster” — She Spills The Beans About A $25K Bribe Episode 8 Season 1

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 14:33:15 +0000

Investigative Reporter Robert Riggs was investigating how serial killer Kenneth McDuff and dozens of other former death row inmates in Texas got out of prison when Riggs crossed paths with U.S. Marshals.

The Marshal’s nationwide manhunt captured McDuff working on a garbage truck in Kansas City. But the question remained.

Who in their right mind on the Texas parole board would let this diabolical killer walk out of prison?

McDuff’s abduction and murder spree started shortly after he returned to Waco, Texas in 1989.

Deputy Marshall Parnell McNamara had compared McDuff to “Jack The Ripper.”

After McNamara locked McDuff in a holding cell, the stern lawman looked Riggs in the eye and told the journalist, “We caught him. Our job is done. Now it’s your job to find out how this monster got out of prison.”

Riggs was already on the trail.

Just a few days after McDuff’s capture, the daughter of one of McDuff’s rape victims from when he was a high school student in his hometown of Rosebud comes forward.

The biological daughter that McDuff called “My Little Gangster” tells Riggs that she overheard the serial killer’s family discussing a $25,000 bribe to grease his way to freedom.

Her allegations take Riggs deep into the corrupt underbelly of Texas parole and prison systems.

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“Freed To Kill” U.S. Marshals Launch A Nationwide Dragnet For Fugitive Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff Episode 7 Season 1

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 10:51:23 +0000

The confession to the abduction and murder of a young accountant in Austin by Kenneth McDuff’s accomplice gives U.S. Marshals the evidence they need to launch a nationwide dragnet for the serial killer.

After combing every corner of Central Texas for weeks, the Texas posse realizes that McDuff has fled the state.

In Kansas City, a garbage truck worker recognizes McDuff’s mug shot in a TV crime show featuring the U.S. Marshals’ search.

The Marshals capture McDuff, but when they return the serial killer to Waco, Texas an angry mob wants to tear him limb from limb.

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“Freed To Kill” Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff’s Accomplice Confesses — It Is A Journey Into Darkness Episode 6 Season 1

Mon, 19 Oct 2020 10:56:26 +0000

Alva Hank Worley – McDuff Accomplice

The U.S. Marshals Service Task Force locates one of McDuff’s prison pals.

Every night, Deputy U.S. Marshals Parnell and Mike McNamara, along with U.S. federal prosecutor Bill Johnston, roll through the underbelly of Central Texas rousting parolees.

Unlike the horse-bound Texas’s posses of the past, the Marshals drive an SUV bristling with weapons.

It’s called “Big Foot”.

They use a technique called “driving them up” to break down one of McDuff’s prison pals, who is also out on parole.

It pays off when the parolee admits that he was McDuff’s accomplice in the abduction and murder of Colleen Reed from an Austin carwash.

You will hear the masterful confession extracted by Tim Steglich.

At that time, he was a criminal investigator for the Bell County Sheriff’s Department and a crack interrogator.

Steglich extracts a confession that breaks the case wide open.

It is a blood-chilling “Journey Into Darkness.”

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“Freed To Kill” The Pistol Packin’ Mama -The Making Of A Serial Killer Episode 5 – Season 1

Mon, 12 Oct 2020 13:01:02 +0000

Addie McDuff – Mother of Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff

The case of Kenneth Allen McDuff raises the age-old question about serial killers.

Was McDuff the product of nature or nurture?

Did genetics create this violent, uncaring monster, or did McDuff’s home life rob him of every ounce of compassion?

The U.S. Marshal’s posse converges on McDuff’s mother, Addie, who was known as the “pistol-packing mama.”

Addie McDuff’s pure hate and meanness shock all of the hard-nosed lawmen hunting for McDuff.

One thing becomes clear to them. Addie McDuff enabled a violent, sadistic psychopath.

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“Freed To Kill” Bodies Start Turning Up Episode 4 – Season 1

Thu, 08 Oct 2020 17:17:17 +0000

When Falls County, Texas Sheriff Larry Pamplin heard Kenneth McDuff was out on parole, he prophetically stated, “I don’t know if will be a few days, a few weeks, or a few weeks, but bodies will start turning up.”

Indeed, a string of abductions started happening up and down the Interstate 35 corridor between Dallas and Austin.

McDuff started a murderous crime spree that would span two and a half years.

The paroled triple killer and an accomplice circled an Austin car wash, stalking a victim.

In the words of McDuff, “They were on the hunt for a woman to use up.”

It was just a few days after Christmas in 1991.

They spotted Colleen Reed, a petite Austin accountant, washing her new sports car.

Neighbors hear her shrill scream.

In a split second, Colleen disappeared, never to be seen alive again.

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“Freed To Kill” A Texas Posse Gets On The Trail Of Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff Episode 3 – Season 1

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 12:11:04 +0000

A pair of Deputy U.S. Marshals and a young, aggressive federal prosecutor suspects that triple killer and former death row inmate Kenneth McDuff is behind the abduction of a convenience store clerk in Waco, Texas.

When no other law enforcement organizations are willing to pursue a hot lead, the trio organizes an old-style Texas posse.

The U.S. Marshals Service’s top fugitive hunters join the posse.

They recruit an Irish cop from New York City who works undercover in the Texas prison system.

You can follow their trail as they track McDuff through a filthy underworld of ex-cons with a vengeance

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“Freed To Kill” Serial Killer Kenneth Allen McDuff is the Broomstick Killer Episode 2 – Season 1

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 12:43:18 +0000

A Texas Sheriff and a U.S. Marshal describe the violent criminal history of Kenneth Allen McDuff — AKA “The Broomstick Killer.”

They and their fathers helped capture McDuff for the abduction and murder of three Fort Worth teenagers in 1966.

The brutality and rape of a teenage girl with a jagged broomstick handle were seared into their memories.

Twenty-five years later, they discover that McDuff is the modern-day “Jack The Ripper” of Central Texas.

Two days after the former death row inmate walked out of prison on parole, women’s bodies started showing up.

And women started getting snatched in plain sight, never to be seen alive again.

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“Freed to Kill” The Release of Serial Killers from Texas Death Row Episode 1 – Season 1

Sun, 27 Sep 2020 20:28:54 +0000

A violent crime wave swept across Texas in the late 1980s and early 1990s. You could pick up the newspaper any day or turn on the television anywhere, Houston, Dallas, particularly Houston, and the lead story was a stranger on stranger crime, horrific violence.

A Houston mother was pulled out of her car by her hair women at a busy intersection by ex-cons looking for a full tank of gas.

They executed her and ran over her body as they drove away in her car with a full tank of gas.

Stories like this always start and end with, “The killers were out on parole.”

Little did the public or members of the Texas Legislature know, but the Texas Governor had secretly swung open the doors to relieve prison overcrowding. Thousands of violent criminals, including former death row inmates, flooded back into Texas communities.

In their wake, murder and mayhem spread like a plague across Texas.

Among the inmates released was Kenneth Allen McDuff, a sadistic sexual serial killer known as the “Broom Stick Killer.”

McDuff had been sentenced to die in Texas’ electric chair for the brutal murder of three teenagers in a farming community outside Fort Worth.

Women’s bodies started showing up a few days after McDuff walked out of prison on parole in 1989.

This is the story of the dedicated law enforcement officers who worked tirelessly to stop McDuff’s killing spree and to bring him to justice.

It is the story of how Peabody Award-winning investigative reporter Robert Riggs uncovered widespread corruption in the Texas Parole and Prison systems that led to the wholesale release of thousands of violent criminals.