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January 13, 2025 58 mins

March 1, 1949. Police are notified by surrounding neighbors that a local woman and her two-year-old daughter are missing, which leads to a basement full of horrors and the arrests of two despicable people. The couple at the heart of these horrors, who came to be known as the Lonely Hearts Killers, are later revisited in not one but TWO movie interpretations of these events. 

Love is not always exciting and new, sometimes it’s monstrous. And yes, The Honeymoon Killers and Lonely Hearts were both inspired by a true story.

Listen to this episode of the Inspired By A True Story podcast at any of the resources below or on your favorite podcast app to uncover the truth behind 1970's The Honeymoon Killers and 2006's Lonely Hearts

Welcome to Inspired By A True Story, a podcast where every two weeks, our award-winning hosts and film critics discuss the genuine details that have inspired some of the most memorable true crime movies around. Each episode will break down the crime or crimes that inspired a specific film, and then discuss how factual that film is, versus how much is simply Hollywood magic.

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The Honeymoon Killers
An embittered nurse doesn't mind if her toupee-wearing boyfriend romances and fleeces other women, as long as he takes her along on his con jobs. Eventually it leads to murder. Written and directed by Leonard Kastle and starring Shirley Stoler and Tony Lo Bianco as Martha Beck and Ray Fernandez

Lonely Hearts
Based on the true story, two homicide detectives track Martha Beck and Raymond Martinez Fernandez, a murderous pair known as the "Lonely Hearts Killers" who lured their victims through the personals Written and directed by Todd Robinson starring Jared Leto and Salma Hayek as Ray Fernandez and Martha Beck and also starring John Travolta, James Gandolfini, Scott Conn, Laura Dern.

Media inquiries, direct thoughts on this episode, and/or suggestions of films to cover for future episodes of Inspired By A True Story can be sent to Aaron@TheHollywoodOutsider.com or Inspired@TheHollywoodOutsider.com

Listen to all episodes of Inspired By A True Story at https://www.thehollywoodoutsider.com/inspired-by-a-true-story/

Support the podcast and gain early access to episodes of Inspired By A True Story at https://www.patreon.com/thehollywoodoutsider

"Southern Gothic" and other music provided by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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