Serial Killers

In the 1970s, at least seven young women and girls go missing around Santa Rosa, California. Seven are found dead, and one remains unidentified. Several killers, including the Zodiac and Ted Bundy, were known to commit crimes in Northern California. Could one of them be responsible for the unsolved Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders, or is there yet another serial killer waiting to be identified? Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

His modus operandi is shocking: years before he strangled his victims, Henry Louis Wallace befriended them. By and large, they were his coworkers at Bojangles and Taco Bell. But under interrogation, he’d admit an even darker motive. Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A missing woman in Florida leads police to a fugitive who’s been on the run for 17 years. But that’s just the beginning. Franklin Delano Floyd not only becomes a suspect in that case, but he’s then tied to several unsolved murders, disappearances, and kidnappings dating back to the 1970s. For police, it will take decades to fully uncover the crimes of Franklin Delano Floyd. Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When a boneless torso possibly belonging to a woman named Cora Turner is found in the cellar of a London home, the culprit seems almost obvious. Her husband, Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, seems to have disappeared with his mistress. But the true answer isn’t that easy. Nearly a hundred years later, some people are still wondering whether the police caught the right person. Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“...catch me if you can!” Police find those words written on a note left in a jacket draped over a murder victim’s body. They believe the message comes from a serial killer targeting young women in the Washington, D.C. area, nicknamed the Freeway Phantom. But the handwriting? Belongs to someone else. Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The eighty miles surrounding Dublin, Ireland, hold a chilling mystery. Between 1993 and 1998, at least six women disappeared in the area, and their cases remain unsolved. Police investigations have targeted at least one suspect, but still no one has been charged. The question remains: is a serial killer responsible for these disappearances? Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After getting away with murder in LA, retirees Helen and Olga scheme to kill again. But when an unlikely party sniffs out their crimes, the friends turn on each other. Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Have a story to share? Email us at serialkillerstories@spotify.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No one batted an eye at the two women who became fast friends at an LA gym in the 1990s – until years later, when it came out that they’d teamed up for a plot to kill men down on their luck. Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Have a story to share? Email us at serialkillerstories@spotify.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In early 2020, the story of Lori Daybell and her new husband, Chad Daybell, hit national news. They’d seemingly fled to Hawaii while two of Lori’s children were missing, leaving a wake of mysterious deaths and attacks behind. The public and authorities pressed for answers, hoping Lori’s children would come home safely, while allegations of fringe, neo-fundamentalist Mormon beliefs became a key element of the story. Lori is representing herself at trial this Spring in Arizona. With three convictions and a life sentence to her name already, she has pleaded not guilty in the conspiracy to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow. In today’s episode, we welcome author and former criminal defense attorney Lori Hellis, who spent years researching the case for her book Children of Darkness and Light – Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell: A Story of Murderous Faith, out now. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Children-of-Darkness-and-Light/Lori-Hellis/9781639367108 Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast!

Struggling with gambling and spiraling into debt, William Palmer turned to murder. This week, we continue analyzing the deaths Palmer was accused of, and how the scheming doctor was finally caught. Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Have a story to share? Email us at serialkillerstories@spotify.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1855, Dr. William Palmer became one of the Victorian era’s most famous villains – a man who poisoned his own friends and family. But with limited evidence and only one conviction, was Palmer really a serial killer? Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Have a story to share? Email us at serialkillerstories@spotify.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In Texas, convicted murderer Ed Bell claimed he killed 11 girls between Houston and Galveston back in the 1970s. Reporter Lise Olsen and detective Fred Paige investigated those claims and uncovered eerie ties between Bell and several unresolved murders. In particular, they focused on three cases: all of them, double homicides of teenage best friends. Did Ed Bell really kill Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson, Sharon Shaw and Renee Johnson, and Brooks Bracewell and Georgia Geer? Why did investigators dismiss his confessions so quickly? And what about Ed’s claim of a massive brainwashing conspiracy called “The Program”? You can watch Lise and Fred’s investigation unfold in the docuseries The Eleven. And check out Lise’s nonfiction book, The Scientist and the Serial Killer, debuting in April 2025: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/720488/the-scientist-and-the-serial-killer-by-lise-olsen/ Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Have a story to share? Email us at serialkillerstories@spotify.c

Edward Harold Bell was serving a 70-year prison sentence for murdering a man when he sent a letter to Houston reporter Lise Olsen. He told her he’d also killed 11 girls in and around the Interstate-45 corridor between Houston and Galveston back in the 1970s. He named some of these victims and described others with initials, locations, and years. And he included a poem that he titled “The Eleven Who Went To Heaven.” Lise joined the efforts of Detective Fred Paige to investigate Bell’s links to the unresolved cases he alluded to… and together, they uncovered a long list of eerie coincidences and compelling circumstantial evidence. You can watch Lise and Fred’s investigation unfold in the docuseries The Eleven. And check out Lise’s nonfiction book, The Scientist and the Serial Killer, debuting in April 2025: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/720488/the-scientist-and-the-serial-killer-by-lise-olsen/ Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Have a story to share? Email us at serialkillerstori

When a series of double-homicides struck Virginia in the late 1980s, authorities immediately suspected a serial killer. But it took 35 years – and random chance – to find the missing link. Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Have a story to share? Email us at serialkillerstories@spotify.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Five missing people in five years. And that’s far from the only fact that aroused suspicion of a serial killer operating along the Idaho-Washington border in the early 1980s. While some victims have been found, the hunt for the killer is still on. Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Have a story to share? Email us at serialkillerstories@spotify.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the fall of 1994, a 13-year-old boy found a human skull in his backyard. Detectives later discovered thousands more bones scattered about his family's estate, a property known as Fox Hollow Farm. The remains belonged to the presumed victims of Herb Baumeister, an alleged serial killer active thought to be active in Indiana for more than a decade. The investigation closed in the late-‘90s without an arrest. 11 unique DNA samples were catalogued and 8 victims identified at the time, but officials suspect the remains belong to as many as 25 people. In 2022, Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison set out on a brand new investigation to put them to rest. Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Have a story to share? Email us at serialkillerstories@spotify.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1960, Sharon Kinne is a typical housewife raising two children in Kansas City. By 1964, she’s the subject of an investigation into the deaths of three people… and an international fugitive. Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Have a story to share? Email us at serialkillerstories@spotify.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For Valentine’s Day we’re going back into the archives to bring you some of the most infamous couples in true crime history. All Wanda Barzee wanted in life was for someone to take care of her, and in return she promised complete devotion. So when her paramour, self-styled prophet Brian David Mitchell, demanded she help him find a child bride, Wanda aided and abetted the kidnapping of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For Valentine’s Day we’re going back into the archives to bring you some of the most infamous couples in true crime history. Kathryn Kelly was running schemes long before she ever met her notorious husband. She hungered to live a life of luxury and decadence. And she’d never apologize for those desires… Or for the things she did to make her dreams come true. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1907, George Soper located the cause of a typhoid outbreak in New York City: a cook named Mary Mallon. Mary didn’t know it, but each and every meal she cooked carried a small chance for her clients to come down with the disease. Finding out the truth could cost Mary her job…and her freedom. Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Have a story to share? Email us at serialkillerstories@spotify.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices