Once Upon A Crime

After escaping from a Colorado jail, Ted Bundy fled to Florida — and unraveled.

In this episode, we follow Bundy’s path to Tallahassee, the brutal Chi Omega sorority house murders, the attack on Cheryl Thomas, the abduction of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach, and Bundy’s eventual arrest in Pensacola after 46 days on the run.

Gone is the methodical charmer of the Pacific Northwest. In his place: a reckless, frenzied killer who has...

In the summer of 1974, Seattle was gripped by fear as young women disappeared and witnesses began describing a polite man named “Ted” and his tan Volkswagen. As newspapers cautiously reported on a possible suspect, few believed the man they were describing could be dangerous.

He looked like a law student.

A volunteer.

Someone people trusted.

In this Once Upon a Crime minisode, we examine Ted Bundy before his trials—through t...

In Part Two of Ted Bundy for the Defense, we follow Ted Bundy from his first arrest in Utah through conviction, psychological evaluation, escalating murder charges, and the escape attempts that would ultimately unleash his most violent crimes.

About This Series:

Ted Bundy for the Defense examines Ted Bundy’s criminal cases through the lens of his courtroom behavior and his insistence on controlling his own fate. This series ...

A recent Los Angeles Times article has reignited worldwide interest in the Black Dahlia murder, spotlighting an amateur sleuth’s theory that attempts to link the case to the Zodiac Killer—and naming Marvin Margolis as a “new” prime suspect.

But Marvin Margolis is not new.

In this bonus episode, we’re joined once again by author William J. Mann, whose extensively researched new book, Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters, and Madnes...

In Ted Bundy for the Defense: Part One, we examine the earliest confirmed crimes of Ted Bundy and the investigation that led to his first conviction.

This episode follows Bundy’s documented attacks beginning in 1974, starting with the brutal assault of Karen Sparks and the murder of University of Washington student Lynda Ann Healy. As young women continue to disappear across Washington State, investigators begin to notice a...

Ted Bundy is often remembered as charming, intelligent, and dangerously persuasive—a serial killer who outsmarted investigators and manipulated everyone around him. But how much of that story is myth?

In this introductory episode of Ted Bundy for the Defense, we set the stage for a three-part series that examines Bundy not through the lens of legend, but through the courtroom—where his greatest gamble wasn’t murder, but his...

In this special bonus episode of Once Upon a Crime, Esther sits down with journalist and investigator Crystal Gutierrez to discuss the missing persons case she and her team are actively investigating. The disappearance of 9-year-old Anthonette Cayedito, who vanished from her home in Gallup, New Mexico, in 1986.

Crystal shares what it’s like to reinvestigate a decades-old disappearance, what keeps this case at the forefront ...

In this bonus episode of Once Upon a Crime, Esther revisits the horrific crimes of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, often referred to as “The Killer Clown,” and reviews the 2025 Peacock docu-drama Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy. The episode explores Gacy’s background, his crimes, the investigation's failures, and how the new series approaches the case from a victim-centered perspective.

🔍 Episode Overview

• A concis...

In this special bonus episode, Esther and producer Lorena answer listener questions and share their own reflections after a six-week deep dive into the life, death, and murder of Elizabeth Short.

Topics include:

• Who the real Elizabeth Short was versus the myth of “The Black Dahlia”

• Whether her killer was someone she knew or a stranger

• Whether the murderer had medical training

• The possibility of solving the case toda...

In the sixth and final episode of our series Broken: The Black Dahlia Murder, we explore the enduring cultural legacy of one of America’s most haunting unsolved crimes. For nearly eight decades, Elizabeth Short’s name, and the moniker “The Black Dahlia”. Has inspired countless books, films, television shows, and theories. But in the process, the real woman behind the legend has often been overshadowed by sensationalism, my...

In Part Five of Broken: The Black Dahlia Murder, we examine the discovery of Elizabeth Short’s mutilated body, the forensic evidence revealed by the autopsy, and how early investigative missteps and media sensationalism derailed the search for her killer.

We break down the crime scene on Norton Avenue, the medical examiner’s key findings—including signs of strangulation, postmortem mutilation, and the surgical precision of ...

In this bonus episode, Esther takes listeners back to the earliest days of the Black Dahlia investigation — before the world even knew the victim’s name.

Detectives faced a gruesome and mystifying crime scene in a quiet Los Angeles neighborhood. Who was the young woman whose body had been staged so deliberately? And who could have committed such a shocking crime?

Using witness statements, police reports, and historical accou...

In this fourth installment of Broken: The Black Dahlia Murder, we trace Elizabeth Short’s final, mysterious days — the missing week between her last confirmed sightings in early January 1947 and the shocking discovery of her body on January 15th.

This episode follows “The Lost Week” through the eyes of those who crossed her path, beginning with Robert “Red” Manley, the married salesman who would become the first and most in...

In 1946, Elizabeth Short – the young woman the world would later know as The Black Dahlia – returned to California chasing love, glamour, and a new beginning. Instead, she found herself drifting through a postwar Los Angeles filled with promise, danger, and people who would soon become key figures in one of the most infamous unsolved murders in American history.

In this episode, we follow Beth — now calling herself Betty — ...

Before Elizabeth Short became known to the world as The Black Dahlia, she was a young woman searching for love and belonging in a world still recovering from war.

In this bonus episode, Esther reads excerpts from Elizabeth’s personal correspondence with Lt. Joseph Gordon Fickling and Major Matthew “Matt” Gordon — two men who loved her deeply, and who reveal, through their letters, the hopes and heartbreaks of a woman who ha...

Before she became The Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short was simply Beth — a young woman with big dreams, an open heart, and a longing for something beyond the ordinary. In Part Two: Becoming Elizabeth, we step back in time to uncover the story of the woman behind the legend.

From her childhood in Medford, Massachusetts, through family tragedy, illness, and the Great Depression, we follow Elizabeth’s journey into adolescence — a...

In January 1947, a mother walking through a quiet Los Angeles neighborhood made a horrifying discovery — the bisected body of a young woman posed in a vacant lot.

Within hours, newspapers had a headline that would echo for decades: The Black Dahlia Murder.

In this first episode of BROKEN: The Black Dahlia Murder, host Esther Ludlow revisits the shocking discovery of Elizabeth Short’s body and explores how the media turned o...

In January 1947, Elizabeth Short’s brutal murder shocked Los Angeles — and turned her into the enduring legend known as The Black Dahlia.

In this new six-part Once Upon a Crime series, host Esther Ludlow goes beyond the headlines to uncover the real woman behind the myth. Drawing on her background in criminal psychology and nearly a decade of experience researching and narrating Once Upon a Crime, Esther takes a deep dive i...

In this special Aftershow episode, Esther and Lorena answer listener questions and reflect on the powerful story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in the United Kingdom.

Together, we unpack the psychology, the heartbreak, and the social forces behind one of Britain’s most infamous true crime cases. From Ruth’s volatile relationship with David Blakely to the justice system that sealed her fate, we dive deeper into...