When a charismatic young doctor announces revolutionary treatments for cancer and HIV, patients from around the world turn to him for their last chance. As medical experts praise Serhat Gumrukcu’s genius, the company he co-founded rockets in value to over half a billion dollars. But when a team of researchers makes a startling discovery, they begin to suspect the brilliant doctor is hiding a secret. From Wondery, the new season of Dr. Death: Bad Magic is a story of miraculous cures, magic and...

When Sandy Bird was found dead in her wrecked car in the Cottonwood River in the summer of 1983, everyone assumed the thirty-three-year-old Kansas mother of three had misjudged the turn on the one-lane bridge and gone over the side, her death a tragic accident. Similarly, when Martin Anderson was gunned down on the side of a Kansas state road just a few months later, the residents of Emporia, KS believed he was the victim of robbery gone wrong—the kind of random violence that investigators...

When it opened in 1894, the Preston School of Industry represented a change in how criminal offenders and wards of the state were treated in American society, shifting towards a more compassionate mission of reform over punishment. However, while the mission may have represented a more progressive approach to reforming young offenders, daily life for the young inmates was often as brutal as it would have been in an adult prison.  Thank you to the incredible Dave White of Bring Me The Ax...

In the early morning hours of October 31, 1955, millionaire socialite Ann Woodward heard a strange noise in the hallway just beyond her bedroom door in the sprawling estate she shared with her husband, Billy, and their two children. There had been a series of robberies in the wealthy neighborhood that month, so Ann had kept a shotgun next to her bed for safety. Rising from her bed, Ann grabbed the gun and crept towards the door, slowly opening it so as not to attract any attention. Visibility...

When Priscilla Davis filed for divorce from her husband, Cullen Davis, in 1974, she had no idea that her actions would have such tragic consequences. Less than two years later, on the same day the divorce was finalized and the terms of the alimony were settled, a man wearing a disguise broke into Priscilla’s home and killed her twelve-year-old daughter, then waited for Priscilla to return. When she arrived a short time later, the intruder said hello to Priscilla and her new boyfriend before...

On the afternoon of September 3, 1878, twenty-two-year-old Mary Stannard d left her home in Madison, Connecticut, telling her father she was going blackberry picking and would be back before dark. When night came and Mary hadn’t returned, her father went out to look for her and eventually found her body by a creek in the woods. The investigation into her murder was truly wild and remains TECHNICALLY unsolved. Thank you to the amazing Dave White of Bring Me The Axe Podcast for...

Part 2/2 - On March 19, 1969, thirty-eight-year-old Houston socialite Joan Robinson Hill died at Sharpstown General Hospital from what doctors at the time believed was flu-related symptoms. Hill’s body was quickly taken to the mortuary and embalmed before an autopsy could be performed, violating Texas law and undermining any attempts determine the cause of Joan’s death. Nevertheless, Joan’s father, a wealthy oil tycoon, believed his daughter’s death to be a homicide, used his influence to...

On March 19, 1969, thirty-eight-year-old Houston socialite Joan Robinson Hill died at Sharpstown General Hospital from what doctors at the time believed was flu-related symptoms. Hill’s body was quickly taken to the mortuary and embalmed before an autopsy could be performed, violating Texas law and undermining any attempts determine the cause of Joan’s death. Nevertheless, Joan’s father, a wealthy oil tycoon, believed his daughter’s death to be a homicide, used his influence to have her...

It’s Listener Tales 81 and you know the drill…..! It’s brought to you by you, for you, from you, and ALL ABOUT YOU! In this installment we have haunted clown sightings, almost run ins with the most notorious serial killers, spooky choirs& creepy men abroad. If you’ve got a listener tale please send it on over to [email protected] with “Listener Tales” somewhere in the subject line :) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at...

This episode is a fan favorite that was originally published as Episode 281… For this Holiday week, we wanted to bring you a lighter (?) episode, although it’s really not so light at all! Alaina’s kids have gotten super into the Wizard of Oz and so she decided to do dive into the dark happenings during filming. All kinds of atrocities went down and we are pretty confident that you’ll never watch this movie the same! Sorry…. we mean you’re welcome! References:...

On May 20, 1947, decorated army veteran Jack Kettlewell and his friend Ronald Barrie barely escaped a devastating housefire at Ronald’s cabin along the Severen River in rural Ontario, Canada. One day later, Jack’s twenty-two-year-old wife, Christina Kettlewell, was discovered dead a short distance from the cabin, lying face down in a pool of shallow water and still wearing the pajamas she had on the night of the fire. During the autopsy, it was discovered that Christina’s lungs were clear of...

On November 2, 1984, fifty-two-year-old Velma Barfield was executed by lethal injection at North Carolina’s Central Prison, bringing an end to years of legal appeals and emotional debates over the death penalty and how, when, and to whom it gets applied. For six years, Barfield had sat on death row following her conviction for the poisoning murder of her boyfriend Stewart Taylor in 1976; however, during her trial she confessed to killing at least four other people. Velma Barfield’s trial...

Deep in the woods near Cornwall, Connecticut, in a valley known as the Dark Entry Forest, lie the remains of the small village of Dudleytown. Settled in the mid-eighteenth century by British colonists, Dudleytown was a thriving mining community that for provided charcoal and other minerals for the growing steel industry in and around New England. But by the late nineteenth century, the mining industry had shifted west and slowly, but surely the population of Dudleytown shrank until there, by...

On March 19, 1960, Kansas City police were called to the home James and Sharon Kinne for what they believed was an accidental shooting. According to Sharon, she had found their two-year-old daughter lying on the couple’s bed, a gun near her hand and her father’s body next to her with a large hole in his head. Unable to find evidence to the contrary, the shooting was ruled an accident and Sharon collected on her husband’s life insurance policy. It wasn’t until a few months later, when the wife...

On March 19, 1960, Kansas City police were called to the home James and Sharon Kinne for what they believed was an accidental shooting. According to Sharon, she had found their two-year-old daughter lying on the couple’s bed, a gun near her hand and her father’s body next to her with a large hole in his head. Unable to find evidence to the contrary, the shooting was ruled an accident and Sharon collected on her husband’s life insurance policy. It wasn’t until a few months later, when the wife...

When East Orange, New Jersey police were called to the home of Virginia Wardlaw in late November 1909, they knew only that there had been an accident involving Virginia’s niece, Ocey Snead. Once they’d arrived, however, officers discovered Ocey’s body in an upstairs bathtub, dead from what appeared to be suicide by drowning. After just a few weeks of investigation, it became clear that Ocey’s death was no accident. Suspicion quickly fell on Virginia and her two sisters, who were soon...

It is Listener Tales 80 and this installment is brought to you by HEROES with the spookiest of tales… A decomposing body, florescent yellow fluid, possessed toys, a baby seeing ghost, and a man in black. These are brought to you by you, for you, from you and all about you so if you have a listener tale please go ahead and send it to [email protected] with "Listener Tale" somewhere in the subject line :) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at...

On the evening of December 28, 1956, fifteen-year-old Barbara Grimes and her thirteen-year-old sister, Patricia, left their home in Chicago, Illinois headed for a movie theater in Brighton Park to see the latest Elvis Presley film. When the girls failed to return home that evening as expected, their mother sent the two other siblings to wait for them at the closest bus station, but when they returned later without Barbara and Patricia, she became anxious and began calling their friends,...

When 39 year old Bernie Tiede confessed to the murder of his friend and companion, 81 year old Marjorie Nugent in November 1996, the revelation came as a shock to the small town of Carthage, Texas. The two had been inseparable friends since the death of Nugent’s husband in 1990 and as far as anyone in Carthage could tell, Nugent couldn’t have picked a more devoted companion than Tiede. Yet as the details of the crime began to emerge, a strange story began to take shape—Tiede’s supposed motive...

On June 22, 1932, a boy picking blackberries in rural Logan, West Virginia made a hideous discovery when he happened upon the dead and brutalized body of local woman, Mamie Thurman. At first glance, Mamie’s murder resembled a gangland-style execution; she had been shot twice in the head and her throat had been slit from one side to the other, as though whoever killed her wanted to make sure she didn’t survive. The murder shocked the small town of Logan. Mamie was well-known around town as a...

Discovered in Utah County in 1960, Nutty Putty Cave quickly became a popular destination for amateur and professional cavers and spelunkers as a kind of bucket list cave of considerable difficulty. Despite its popularity, beginning in the late 1980s, the cave became notorious for the number of explorers who became trapped and required emergency assistance to escape its twisting, narrow, and poorly mapped passageways. In late November 2009, the inherent risk and dangers of Nutty Putty Cave...

In the early morning hours of June 4, 1904, New York City police were called to Lower Manhattan for what they were told was the death of Frank “Ceasar” Young from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his chest. When they arrived at the scene, they found Young’s body in the back of a Hansom cab, slumped over into the lap of a young actress named Nan Patterson, with whom he’d been having an affair. Nan claimed Young had shot himself when she refused to accompany him back to England, where he was...

On September 11, 1982, Ken Dooley, a Youth Development Center employee in Rome, Georgia, was shot at in his home by an unseen attacker. The following day, Dooley’s coworker, Linda Adair, was also attacked when someone threw a Molotov cocktail at her house in an attempt to kill her.  Although neither Dooley nor Adair knew it at the time, these were the first attacks in the violent crime spree of Alvin and Judith Ann Neelley, a married couple whose brutality would shock in and around Georgia in...

On September 11, 1982, Ken Dooley, a Youth Development Center employee in Rome, Georgia, was shot at in his home by an unseen attacker. The following day, Dooley’s coworker, Linda Adair, was also attacked when someone threw a Molotov cocktail at her house in an attempt to kill her.  Although neither Dooley nor Adair knew it at the time, these were the first attacks in the violent crime spree of Alvin and Judith Ann Neelley, a married couple whose brutality would shock in and around Georgia in...

In the early morning hours of June 27, 1977, the bodies of millionaire Elisabeth Congdon and her nurse, Velma Pietila, were discovered murdered in Congdon’s 22-acre estate in Duluth, Minnesota. From the outset, local police were baffled as to the motive for the murders; Congdon was well liked in the community, and as far as anyone could tell, nothing significant seemed to be missing from the house. In time, detectives learned that Elisabeth’s daughter Marjorie Caldwell had a long history of...