Profiling Evil

Sam Bateman, the self-proclaimed prophet tied to a polygamous FLDS offshoot, took the stand in his own defense and the jury did not buy it. Bateman was already serving a 50-year federal sentence for a child sexual abuse conspiracy involving underage girls, but this state case focused on three young girls found inside an enclosed trailer he was hauling through Flagstaff in 2022. This episode walks through the opening statements, Bat...

New reporting in the Nancy Guthrie case reveals disturbing details about that second ransom note sent after the 84-year-old Tucson woman was abducted from her home. The news feels old, but the clarifications are breaking! According to reports, the note said Nancy died shortly after she was taken and was “buried in nature.” That phrase caught my attention because it may be more than just unusual wording. It could be lite...

Between 1962 and 1964, thirteen women in the Boston area were murdered in a case that terrified a city and became known around the world as the Boston Strangler murders. For decades, the public was told Albert DeSalvo was the killer. He confessed, the headlines moved on, and Boston tried to put the nightmare behind it. But DeSalvo was never convicted of the Strangler murders. His confession had problems, several suspects remained i...

Rex Heuermann has now been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison for the Gilgo Beach serial killings. After pleading guilty to seven murders and admitting responsibility for an eighth, the former Long Island architect stood in court as victims’ families finally had the chance to speak directly about the pain, the waiting, and the years stolen from them. In this episode we’ll look at Heuermann’s sentenc...

Rex Heuermann is scheduled to be sentenced in Long Island, New York on June 17, 2026, after pleading guilty to the murders of seven women and admitting responsibility for an eighth. In this episode, Profiling Evil looks at the Gilgo Beach case from a criminal behavior perspective, not by glorifying the killer, but by asking a practical question: why do serial killers do what they do? We’ll talk about four things that often sh...

Chad Daybell said his “Letters from Chad” project would finally tell the truth about the murders of JJ Vallow, Tylee Ryan, and Tammy Daybell. Ten letters later, he’s paused the series and nothing has changed. In this Profiling Evil breakdown, Mike King walks letter by letter through Daybell’s self-serving narrative, using “The Ten Failed Commandments” to show how each installment dodges responsib...

While filming a new documentary in Los Angeles, a story from Japan caught my attention and I keep thinking about it. It's the story of 20-year-old Auburn University student James "Weston" Higginbotham, a young man who disappeared during a family trip to Japan and was later found deceased after an extensive search in the mountains outside Kyoto. This isn't a video about assigning blame or creating theories unsupported by evidence. I...

When survivors begin talking about abuse years later, the story often does not come out in a clean timeline. It can come back through sensory details, body reactions, fragmented memories, and moments that leave spouses, families, and even investigators struggling to understand what they are hearing. In this episode, Mike King sits down with Dr. Judy Ho to unpack what trauma can do to memory, why triggers feel so physical, why discl...

Seven-month-old Emmanuel Haro was reported missing in August 2025 after his mother, Rebecca Haro, claimed he had been kidnapped during a diaper change in a Yucaipa parking lot. That story triggered a community search, media coverage, and public fear. But investigators later said the kidnapping story did not hold up.

Emmanuel’s father, Jake Haro, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, assault on a child under eight causing dea...

What does control actually look like when you strip away the labels and get down to behavior? In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Steven Hassan to talk about the BITE Model, one of the most practical frameworks for understanding how controlling people, high-demand groups, and manipulative systems gain influence over others. Dr. Hassan draws from his own experience of being recruited into the Unification Church, often referred to a...

Barry Morphew is preparing to stand trial for the alleged murder of his wife, Suzanne Morphew, whose disappearance on Mother’s Day weekend in 2020 became one of Colorado’s most watched criminal investigations. The first prosecution was dismissed in 2022, but after Suzanne’s remains were found in 2023, prosecutors brought a new first-degree murder indictment in 2025. Barry Morphew has pleaded not guilty, and the tr...

The South Carolina Supreme Court has reversed Alex Murdaugh’s murder convictions and ordered a new trial, but this decision does not declare Murdaugh innocent, and it doesn’t erase the evidence presented at trial. What it does say is that the jury process was contaminated by improper influence from Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill. What a horrible consequence of bad choices. Let’s break down the Court&r...

I’m still on vacation, but I can’t drive through Europe without noticing the crime stories hiding in plain sight. In this final segment of this European Roadtrip, I travel through Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Paris, and Antwerp, digging into some of the most consequential crimes tied to this route. We’re talking about the Strasbourg Christmas market attack and the Bridge of the Butchers, Luxembourg’s (Bomb-uh-la...

I’m standing at a remote rest stop in eastern Nevada, south of Ely where a 1974 stopover became the crime scene of yet another victim of serial killer Paul John Knowles, also known as The Casanova Killer. This episode examines how Knowles used mobility as a weapon, why rest stops and highways became part of his hunting strategy, and how his victim selection evolved as his confidence grew and his mistakes mounted. This isn&rsq...

I’m continuing my true crime travels through Europe, this time through Baden-Baden, the Black Forest, Triberg and Freiburg. These are some of the most beautiful places you can visit in Germany, but each one carries a darker story beneath the scenery. In Baden-Baden, we look at the witch trials of 1627 to 1631, when fear, religion, politics and forced confessions helped turn accusation into execution. In the Black Forest and T...

When survivors finally begin talking about abuse, especially years later, the truth rarely arrives in one neat statement. It often comes in fragments, sensory flashes, and moments that can leave spouses and families confused, hurt, or unsure what to do next. In this episode, Mike King sits down with psychologist Dr. Patrice Berry to walk through one of the hardest true crime realities behind closed doors, delayed disclosure. They t...

I’m in Europe for the next three weeks, mixing a little vacation time with some true crime. I’m recording parts of this episode in Amsterdam and Cologne, near the place where Peter Kürten was raised, and I’ll also spend two days in Düsseldorf walking the crime scenes tied to one of Germany’s most infamous killers. I’ll start in Amsterdam, a city with more than enough crime, vice and history for a full ...

Let’s discuss one of the most important and uncomfortable subjects in true crime, the path from coercive control to domestic violence homicide. Using the work of forensic criminologist Dr. Jane Monckton Smith, we’re breaking down the eight-stage pattern she identified after reviewing hundreds of domestic homicide cases. This is not about blaming victims. It’s about understanding offender behavior, escalation, and ...

Newly unsealed search warrants are giving us a much clearer picture of how investigators built the case after Charlie Kirk was killed at Utah Valley University. We’re learning more about the early confusion over a second possible suspect, the digital evidence investigators tried to pull and the surveillance trail that places Tyler Robinson on the roof above the event. We’ll talk about that alleged letter, and the messag...