Criminal
Criminal is the first of its kind. A show about people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. Hosted by Phoebe Judge. Named a Best Podcast of 2023 by the New York Times. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Episodes
June 26, 2026 • 30 mins
The “body farm” at Texas State University is a place almost no one is allowed to see, because it’s one of very few places in the world that deliberately puts out human bodies to decompose in nature. We asked if we could visit, and they agreed.
This episode was originally released in 2017.
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June 19, 2026 • 42 mins
In 2008, an article in the monthly FBI bulletin argued that 911 calls could contain clues for homicide investigations. “The caller, in fact, may be the killer.”
Brett Murphy investigated 911 call analysis for ProPublica. You can find their new show, Paper Trail, wherever you listen to podcasts.
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June 12, 2026 • 48 mins
In November 2019, nineteen-year-old Zac Brettler went missing. When his parents began looking for him, they discovered that Zac had been living a double life.
Patrick Radden Keefe’s book is London Falling.
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June 5, 2026 • 44 mins
Sheriff Buford Pusser said he and his wife had come under gunfire early one morning on a country road - leading to her death. He told one reporter, “I'm pretty sure about who did it, and I'm pretty sure about where he is."
Jason Guerrasio's article about Buford Pusser is called "A Bullet, A Legend, A Lie." Oakley Dean Baldwin's book is called "Sheriff Buford Pusser: Final Chapter."
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May 29, 2026 • 45 mins
This episode is unlocked and available for everyone to listen to!
It took some trial and error, but Phoebe finally figured out how to put on makeup. Plus, Lauren asks for advice on delivering bad news, and we hear the latest in a crime story involving bees.
If you enjoyed listening to today's Criminal Plus episode and you'd like more - join us on Patreon. We put these episodes with Phoebe and Lauren out twice a month - plus you...
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May 22, 2026 • 38 mins
Ed and Bertha Briney’s unoccupied farmhouse was reportedly broken into 50 times over 10 years. They put up “No Trespassing” signs, repeatedly complained to sheriffs in two different counties, nailed doors shut, and boarded up windows – but nothing worked. So they decided to try something else.
This episode was originally released in 2022.
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May 15, 2026 • 32 mins
On January 18, 2025, Thomas Plamberger and his girlfriend Kerstin Gurtner began climbing the tallest mountain in Austria. But when they were almost to the top, they got stuck. One year later, prosecutors filed charges against Thomas for Kerstin’s death.
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May 8, 2026 • 42 mins
In 1902, twelve young men volunteered for a government experiment. They agreed to eat food laced with chemicals like formaldehyde, borax, and salicylic acid every day, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They were called The Poison Squad.
Deborah Blum’s book is The Poison Squad.
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May 1, 2026 • 38 mins
In January 1993, a lot of children started showing up at Seattle Children’s Hospital with the same unusual symptoms. Doctors didn't know what was going on – until they realized that most of the children had recently eaten at the same restaurant: Jack in the Box.
Jeff Benedict’s book is Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E. coli Outbreak That Changed the Way Americans Eat.
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April 24, 2026 • 50 mins
When Fannie Davis and her family moved to Detroit in the mid-1950s, they hadn’t prepared themselves for how hard it would be. They had trouble finding steady work. So, Fannie found a way to take care of her family. She started small, but built a robust and lucrative operation… a business that a lot of people knew about but no one talked about.
Bridgett Davis’ book is The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mothe...
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April 17, 2026 • 38 mins
On the morning of May 20, 1957, a bomb exploded under Don King’s front porch. Police got a tip that they should search the home of someone he knew - a woman named Dollree Mapp. But when they got there, she refused to let them in. Soon, her case would go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Carolyn Long’s book is Mapp v. Ohio: Guarding Against Unreasonable Searches and Seizures.
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April 10, 2026 • 40 mins
Alice and Leonard Rhinelander had only been married for a few weeks when his family lawyer came to their house and took Leonard away with him. The next time Alice saw her husband was a year later, in a courtroom.
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April 3, 2026 • 37 mins
For years, John Moore and Tanner Mansell ran shark diving tours off the coast of Florida. One day, they came across a fishing line in the middle of the ocean – with over a dozen sharks caught on it. “This looked like something very illegal going on. And we felt like if we didn’t act, these sharks would definitely die.”
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March 27, 2026 • 33 mins
On Christmas Eve in 1926, a man came running into Bellevue Hospital in New York screaming that Santa Claus had been chasing him for blocks with a baseball bat. Not long after that, he died. And then another person arrived in the emergency room. And then another. This started happening in emergency rooms around the country. And it was happening because of a plan created by the U.S. government.
Deborah Blum’s book is The Poiso...
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March 20, 2026 • 54 mins
When Elzire Dionne gave birth to five identical babies, she caught the attention of reporters and doctors hundreds of miles away, the Chicago World’s Fair – and the Ontario government. Before the quintuplets were ten months old, they passed a new law: the Dionne Quintuplet Guardianship Act. “These children are our own royal family.”
Sarah Miller’s book is The Miracle and Tragedy of the Dionne Qu...
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March 13, 2026 • 35 mins
When Cecilia Gentili was growing up in Argentina, she felt so different from everyone around her that she thought she might be from another planet. “I think that we are all aliens until we find our communities.”
This episode was originally released in 2019.
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March 6, 2026 • 59 mins
When Angelo Quinto died, his family said police were responsible for his death. But a lawyer told them his official cause of death would likely be something called “excited delirium.”
You can read more of Renu Rayasam's reporting on "excited delirium" at KFF Health News.
Arjun Byju's article for Current Affairs is: Excited Delirium: How Cops Invented a Disease.
Reporter Chris Gelardi obtained Rochester Police Departm...
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February 27, 2026 • 47 mins
After a gang leader was murdered in San Francisco’s Chinatown, the only witnesses who would talk with the police were tourists. They looked through so-called “mug books” filled with photographs of Asian men - and pointed out a man named Chol Soo Lee. Years later, a journalist decided to investigate his case, and described it as an “unreal, Alice-in-Chinatown murder case."
Today’s episode comes from th...
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February 20, 2026 • 42 mins
In 1864, a 41-year-old woman named Mary Surratt was running a boarding house in Washington, D.C. One of the most famous actors in the country began visiting her – which led to her becoming known as the woman who “kept the nest that hatched the egg."
Kate Clifford Larson’s book is The Assassin’s Accomplice.
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February 13, 2026 • 48 mins
In the early 2000s, the hip hop group Silibil N’ Brains seemed like they were on the brink of becoming very famous. They had a record deal with Sony, had been on MTV, and were talking about making a TV show. But they weren’t who they said they were.
Gavin Bain's book is California Schemin'.
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