Criminal

Episode 63: Rochester, 1991

Kim Dadou says she wishes she had a nickel for every person who has asked why she didn't leave her abusive boyfriend Darnell Sanders. The two dated for four years and Darnell Sanders was routinely vio...

Mar 17, 2017

Episode 62: Wildin

In 2014, 16-year-old Wildin Acosta left Olancho, Honduras and traveled toward the U.S. border. When he arrived, he turned himself in to border patrol agents. He was one of 68,541 unaccompanied minors...

Mar 03, 2017

Episode 61: Vanish

People have faked death to escape criminal convictions, debts, and their spouses. In 2007, a man named Amir Vehabovic faked his death just to see who showed up at the funeral (answer: only his mom). J...

Feb 17, 2017

Episode 60: Finding Sarah and Philip

In 2005, Teri Knight drove 650 miles on midwestern roads through Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and Illinois, pleading with the public to help her do what law enforcement and the FBI had not been able to: find t...

Feb 03, 2017

Episode 59: In Plain Sight

In 1849, abolitionist and attorney Wendell Phillips wrote: "We should look in vain through the most trying times of our revolutionary history for an incident of courage and noble daring to equal that...

Jan 20, 2017

Episode 58: Walnut Grove

In 2010, Michael McIntosh's son was incarcerated at the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in the small town of Walnut Grove, Mississippi. One Sunday, Michael McIntosh went to visit his son and...

Jan 06, 2017

Episode 57: Everyday Genius

To close out 2016, we're bringing you two lighter stories of people exhibiting everyday genius under. . . unusual circumstances. Comedian Dave Holmes' story begins with an upsetting phone call from th...

Dec 16, 2016

Episode 56: Don't Let Me See You In The Whirl

Since 1938, a weekly African-American owned newspaper called The Evening Whirl has covered crime in St. Louis with a style all its own, using alliteration and rhyme, and often omitting the usual crime...

Dec 02, 2016

Episode 55: The Shell Game

The Magic Castle in Hollywood has been a private club for magicians since 1963, and its walls are lined with portraits of magicians past and present. Among them is a portrait of one of the earliest Am...

Nov 18, 2016

Episode 54: Melinda and Clarence

SPOILER WARNING: Please listen to Episode 53: Melinda and Judy before you listen to this one. Melinda Dawson found out on the same day in 1998 that her adoptive mother had been killed and that her own...

Nov 04, 2016

Episode 53: Melinda and Judy

When Melinda Dawson was seven years old, she learned that she was adopted under suspicious circumstances. As she got older and had children of her own, she tried to learn something about her biologica...

Oct 21, 2016

Episode 52: The Checklist

SPOILER WARNING: Please listen to Episode 51: Money Tree before you listen to this one. While working on our last episode, we became curious about the nature of psychopathy -- how it is defined, and w...

Oct 07, 2016

Episode 51: Money Tree

When Axton Betz-Hamilton was 11 years old, her parents' identities were stolen. At that time, in the early 90s, consumer protection services for identity theft victims were basically non-existent. So...

Sep 23, 2016

Episode 50: This is Criminal

To celebrate Criminal's 50th episode, we check in with some of our most memorable guests including Fran Schindler from Episode 17: "Final Exit," Dan Stevenson from Episode 15: "He's Neutral," Corporal...

Sep 09, 2016

Episode 49: The Editor

In November of 1988, Robin Woods was sentenced to sixteen years in the notoriously harsh Maryland Correctional Institution. In prison, Robin Woods found himself using a dictionary to work his way thro...

Aug 26, 2016