The Generation Why Podcast

At a time when we’re debating where policing is going, we’re going to tell you where the police came from. Guided by Peabody award-winning host Chenjerai Kumanyika, Empire City will provide the first accessible narrative history of the American police and its place in popular culture. Who are the police? And why were police departments created in the first place? To find answers, we’re going to tell the origin story of the la...

July 27th, 1996. Atlanta, Georgia. During a free concert at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, security guard Richard Jewell spotted an abandoned knapsack and reported it to a GBI agent. Authorities soon discovered the knapsack contained a live bomb and the agent and Jewell began evacuating people from the area. The bomb detonated minutes later, killing one person and injuring more than 100 others. Days later, Jewell becam...

Jeremy Foy is a former Marine and a former Federal Law Enforcement officer. He has been releasing videos on tiktok stating that he knows that his grandfather, Richard Hoffman, a former police officer, was the Zodiac killer. I have no way of knowing if he was. There are many suspects. If nothing else, this episode should serve as a reminder that the Zodiac Killer murdered multiple people and has thus far gotten away with it...

July 9. 1993. Sedona, Arizona. In the early morning hours of July 9, 1993, 10-year-old Nikki Wasilishin was awoken by police shining flashlights into her bedroom. She learned shortly after that her mother, Stephanie, was dead, shot once in the neck in the master bedroom of the home while Nikki was sleeping. For the next 30 years, investigators made no arrests. Now Nikki is trying to get her mother’s case reexamined and tho...

November 30th, 1984. Winnipeg, Manitoba Province. 13-year-old Candace Derksen disappeared while walking home from school. Weeks later, her body was found in a shed. She had been tied up and left to die of hypothermia. Over two decades later, DNA testing identified a suspect in the murder.

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On November 6, 2001, at Keystone State Park in Pennsylvania, Dr. Andrew Bagby was found dead with five gunshot wounds. Dr. Shirley Turner, a recent girlfriend, became the number one suspect. She fled to Canada, her home country, and awaited a decision on extradition. In July 2002, Shirley gave birth to Andrew’s son, Zachary Andrew Turner. Andrew’s parents, Kate and David Bagby moved to Canada and fought for custody of Zach...

May 8th, 1996. El Reno, Oklahoma. Deputies found the body of Terrance Yeakey, an Oklahoma City police officer, in a field off a rural road. Terrance died of a gunshot wound to the head, but he also had cuts on his neck and wrists. A year earlier, Terrance saved at least three people in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. He did not want to accept a medal of valor for his heroic actions, and he came to believe that ...

August 22nd, 2004. Coral Gables, Florida. John Sutton called 911 after an armed intruder broke into his home and shot him and his wife Susan. John was the sole survivor. John’s son Christopher arrived at the crime scene and quickly offered an alibi to detectives, triggering their suspicions immediately.

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May 12, 2004. Noord, Aruba. Since 2004, Yvonne DeVries has tried to get justice for her 14-year-old son, Max. That day he and an older man took jet skis out into the ocean from their resort in Aruba. Max never came back. The Aruban police declared him lost at sea and, using the statement of the older man, decided it was an accident. However, Yvonne knew something wasn’t right. Why did the old man and his son seem to single...

June 16th, 1991. Denver, Colorado. On Father’s Day 1991 an armed robber gained access to secured areas of Denver’s United Bank Tower and fatally shot four guards before stealing $200,000 in cash. Based on the shooter’s extensive knowledge of the bank’s layout and security system, the police suspected that the shooter was a former employee.

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November 19, 1996. Carthage Texas. There is no debate that Bernie Tiede shot 80-year-old Marjorie Nugent in the back four times and hid her body in a deep freezer for nine months. He admitted so in his confession to police and in his later trial. The question is why did he kill her? Did Bernie snap after years of mental abuse dealt out by a woman very few people seemed to like? Or did he play out a long-con to become the s...

On December 11, 2017, a 21-year-old mother, Libby Caswell, was found dead in the bathroom of a motel in Independence, Missouri. Her boyfriend’s belt was fastened around her neck, and he had fled the scene after telling a 911 dispatcher that Libby had committed suicide. The police ruled her death a suicide, however, after obtaining autopsy reports, police reports and the opinion of experts, Libby’s mother believes otherwise...

A young woman’s body was found on the side of the road in Choctaw, OK in 1990. Four years after her death, her son, Michael Hughes, was abducted from his elementary school by a man who claimed to be his father. Who was the young woman and what happened to her son? Her death and her son’s disappearance would lead to a string of disturbing discoveries over the following two decades.

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September 11th, 2009. Monrovia, California. Brian Randone called 911 because he found his girlfriend Felicia Tang unresponsive after a night of drug use. Officers responded to the call and found Felicia dead in the bathtub. She suffered over 300 injuries, but Randone maintained that she died from an overdose of GHB.

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March 18, 1990. Boston, Massachusetts. In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, a security guard at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum buzzed in two men dressed as police officers. Those two men revealed themselves to be thieves, who quickly tied up both of the guards. They stole 13 pieces of art including works by Rembrandt, Degas, and Vermeer. Despite a large reward offer from the museum and over 30 years of invest...

February 16, 1974. Fort Worth, Texas. Carla Walker and her boyfriend Rodney McCoy were kissing in a bowling alley parking lot after a school dance when they were attacked by an unknown man. Rodney was beaten into unconsciousness and Carla was abducted.

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In the summer of 2000, 31-year-old musician, David Anderson, went missing after a night out in New Hope, PA. He disappeared after crossing the bridge from New Hope to Lambertville. In 2013, 39-year-old bartender, Sarah Majoras, went missing after a night out in New Hope along the same route that Anderson had mysteriously disappeared from almost 13 years earlier. She was on route to the home she shared with her boyfriend, A...

December 6th, 2014. Courtland, Mississippi. Firefighters responded to a report of a burning vehicle on a rural road. They found 19-year-old Jessica Chambers nearby. She was still alive but severely burned. Jessica identified herself and told first responders that someone named “Eric” or “Derek,” set her car on fire. She died from her injuries the next day.

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March 21st, 2012. El Cajon, California. Shaima Alawadi was attacked inside her home and died from her injuries three days later. Shaima was a Muslim woman and because a threatening note was found next to her body, investigators initially considered the possibility that her death was a hate crime.

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