RedHanded

Behind the façade of the white-picket-fence dream and adventurous childhoods of suburban, late-70s Michigan, lay a web of depravity that law enforcement was not remotely prepared for. Over the course of just one tragic year, the town of Oakland was terrorised: four children vanished, only to turn up dead. Chillingly, one had even been fed his favourite food, just before his murder.

Was this the work of a lone killer? Or an organised...

Not many of us need convincing that Sesame Street is good; the Muppets have been chaotic TV icons for more than 50 years. But what not many people know is just how much good it did.

Not just unmissable TV, but a revolutionary, massive-scale outreach program. One that used ad-land tactics and groundbreaking psychological research, to reset the balance of educational privilege – and teach disadvantaged, inner-city kids how to read. It...

With 2026 bringing widespread anti-government protests to Iran, and the government’s brutal crackdowns leading to thousands of people killed and arrested, we’re rereleasing our coverage on the current regime – and how we got here – through the lens of Mahsa Amini’s murder.

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On 19 May 2024, Ebrahim Raisi – “The Butcher of Tehran” and President of the Islamic Republic of Iran – died in a helicopter crash. Immediately, theories of who...

In 2000, Christine Lundy and her seven-year-old daughter Amber were brutally hacked to death in their New Zealand home. Their husband and father, Mark Lundy, had a seemingly watertight alibi: he was over 90 miles away.

But that didn’t stop the New Zealand courts from convicting him. Twice.

With a controversial case built on junk science, shifting timelines, and a microscopic speck of what prosecutors called ‘brain tissue’ (but might ...

‘Anal seepage’ is one of the many potential risks to the consumer due to seafood fraud, a multi-layered conspiracy that goes as deep as the Mariana Trench.

The stats speak for themselves: if you’re in the UK, there’s a 55% chance that the fish you’re eating has been deliberately mislabeled. In the US, 120 samples of ‘Red Snapper’ were tested, and only 7 turned out to be the real thing.

Clearly there’s something fishy going on.

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Patre...

When Luigi Mangione was charged as the UnitedHealthcare shooter – it changed everything. The public knew this was a political act, but Luigi was not the crackpot vigilante many had pictured. He had no clear personal link to UnitedHealthcare (or CEO Brian Thompson) – and he had everything to lose. To many, he became a certified, revolutionary, anti-capitalist heartthrob.

But there’s also a lot more to Mangione than the selfless marty...

One of the most powerful people in one of the most powerful organizations in the world, Shelly Miscavige, hasn't been seen in public in almost two decades. In the world of Scientology, Shelly was practically an apostle. Yet, since her relationship with her husband – the leader of The Church of Scientology, David Miscavige – fell apart, she has never been seen again.

Where is Shelly Miscavige? Why is she so dangerous to The Church of...

Our 2026 listener survey is here – if you have 5 minutes to help inform the next year of RedHanded, we'd love to know your thoughts! https://forms.gle/jNhKVqtdyqoyF3ey9

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Three words, written on bullet casings, instantly changed the New York City shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson from a senseless inner-city attack, into one of the most polarising, unique and culturally important events in modern memory.

In part one of o...

Imagine a building as tall as the Empire State Building, that stretches for more than 100km through the Saudi Arabian desert. Inside are nine million people – with robot maids and a giant fake moon – living in self-sufficient pods where everything they need is a five-minute walk away.

It’s part of NEOM, a futuristic megacity complex, which the Saudi government has already started building. And if you believe the PR, it’ll be a car-f...

When the son of Mormon family vlogger Ruby Franke turned up bound, emaciated and apparently covered in blood – it horrified the police, the internet and Franke’s millions of followers.

The uber-strict brand of parenting advice she preached on her YouTube channel, “8 Passengers”, had been drawing online criticism for years. But even her loudest detractors couldn’t know how despicable and unhinged her punishments had grown. That is, u...