Crossing the Line with M. William Phelps

A serial rapist, Mitchell Gaff, is caught and jailed. Thinking he's getting out of prison many years later, the court sentences him to McNeil Island, where the worst sexual predators are kept from society. After decades, he is finally released. 50 years after his first crimes, police are knocking on his door once again—but this time, it's murder they're looking to charge him with.

For exclusive conte...

Five members of the Martin family--Kenneth, Barbara, and their three young children, Barbie, Susan and Virginia--head out one afternoon in 1958 for a Sunday drive in Oregon and never return. The only family member left behind, the oldest son, has some explaining to do. But in the end, a case spanning nearly 70 years, the answers are not what anyone has been expecting, sending shockwaves throughout the community. 

A young mother, Judith Lord, estranged from her husband, is home alone with her 20-month-old baby one night in Concord, New Hampshire. The next morning, the landlord is looking to collect the rent—and soon discovers a brutal homicide that will take 50-plus years to resolve.

For exclusive content, sign up for your free Patreon account here.

Leave a five-star review of this show, please. ...

A mother, Heather Dewild Springer, heads out to meet her soon-to-be ex at the home they once shared… and nobody sees her again. True crime tells us to go right to the old adage: the husband did it. But if you think that's the end of the story, tune in, because it is far more complicated.

For exclusive content, sign up for your free Patreon account here.

Leave a five-star review of this...

For 25 years you go about your life as if you're a normal dude living the dream … you have a good woman supporting you; a solid job; and loyal friends. Yet, you do it all while holding onto a dark secret … buried underneath the floorboards in one of the bedrooms inside your home.

If you find yourself in a domestic violence situation and feel alone, scared, or unsure of what to do, there is he...

You and your girlfriend are parked on Lovers' Lane, the moonlight shining its wondrous glow on you both. A scumbag comes up to the car—with a gun. Such an innocent image shattered by a psychopath one night in Houston, lurking in the shadows, like the Zodiac Killer… and ready to strike. A double murder that goes unsolved for over 30 years.

For exclusive content, sign up for your free Patreon ac...

It's been a life-long dream of mine to write Westerns (as you can clearly see from the photo below of Little M. William Phelps, the cowboy, LOL). The old-school, plot-driven, big character stories pitting good verses evil, good guys against bad guys, which is not so much different from what I normally do for my day job of true crime reporting and investigation for the podcasts I am most known...

For some, killing is an addiction, like food, alcohol, sex or drugs. Each victim makes the next one easier … Is the man behind the murders I have for you this week the most prolific serial killer on record—whose name you have likely never heard of? And what do the experts say regarding the psychology behind the dozens of murders he committed? 

For exclusive content, sign up for your free ...

A young couple is living together and finishing their graduate studies in March 1980. One of them arrives home to a horrific scene. For nearly 50 years the case flies under the radar of the media and investigators … until, that is, a compassionate journalist decides the victim deserves to be remembered.

Sign the Change.org Julie Revsin petition to help get DNA from he...

A dog heads out one morning for a walk and returns, tail wagging, with a rather interesting discovery. A human skull. Alarmed, the dog's owner calls 911 and, after a broader search of the property, the remains of a man missing for years are soon discovered.

IG and TikTok @mwilliamphelps 

Find Phelps on X @MWilliamPhelps

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mwilliamphelps

Your two buddies are helping you move one sunny morning. Driving down a lonely Ohio road, looking out on acres of serene farm fields, you spot a jacket off on the side of the road in a ditch—a jacket which will ultimately provide the nickname for one of the more infamous murder cases in the annals of true crime. 

Reach me @mwilliamphelps on social media; and email mwilliamphelps@comcast.net

Born with a very rare condition, which he parlayed into a lucrative career with the traveling circus and carnival, they called him Lobster Boy. His story is replete with wild tales, gambling, alcoholism, violence, abuse and, of course … murder.  

Find Phelps on X @MWilliamPhelps

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mwilliamphelps

IG and TikTok @mwilliamphelps 

A beloved auto mechanic suddenly goes missing and all eyes turn toward the grieving wife. But a far more diabolical and gruesome plot emerges as the secrets behind a tight knit group of friends in a small Texas town come to light.

For exclusive content, sign up for your free Patreon account here.

Leave a five-star review of this show, please. ;-)

Visit www.crossingtheline.biz to ...

A college student abruptly gets up from a poker game, says nothing, and leaves the dorm. With a five-minute walk ahead of him home, somewhere in between … he vanishes… never to be seen again.

Welcome to a bonus feature here on the Crossing the Line feed. I come across all sorts of stories while researching books, TV series, and my iHeartMedia podcast, Paper Ghosts, in addition to the ideas yo...

Sixty kids show up to a house party one night and dance the night away, get their drink on, and stay until the pre-dawn hours of the following morning… Unbeknownst to everyone is that there are two mutilated bodies hidden inside the same house, with evidence of both murders just about everywhere you look. 

Find Phelps on X @MWilliamPhelps

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mwillia...

It's called the Village of Drummond, an exclusive neighborhood in Chevy Chase, Maryland. On a pleasant spring morning, homicide investigators are called out to a swanky brick colonial with blood smeared all over the walls. It takes decades, but two determined investigators finally find the answer to a murder in which the wrong man had been targeted all along.

Find Phelps on X @MWilliamPhelps

F...

It's the day after Christmas. A young man takes off on his motorbike and heads out to a popular Connecticut trail to meet a young woman. By late evening, when he fails to return home, his parents call the state police and a search gets underway.

For exclusive content, sign up for your free Patreon account here.

Leave a five-star review of this show, please. ;-)

Visit www.crossing...

You've heard of the beer and the name ... Coors. But behind all that wealth, fame, and the iconic name, almost 70 years ago, the Coors family is connected to one of the most intriguing kidnapping/murder cases … my bet is, you have never heard about. A case which, more recently, has come back into the spotlight after a well-known Today Show anchor's mother, Nancy Guthrie, was kidnapped in Tucson, Arizona. &n...

A Florida woman goes to a popular bar to watch a NBA game and nobody ever sees her again. A career scumbag is captured on security video walking out of the same bar with her later on that night. 

Welcome to a bonus feature here on the Crossing the Line feed. I come across all sorts of stories while researching books, TV series, and my iHeartMedia podcast, Paper Ghosts, in addition to the ideas you sen...