Crimes of the Centuries

Crimes of the Centuries

Crime is so commonplace that it takes something particularly shocking to be labelled the “crime of the century.” Even so, there are a lot of cases that have earned the distinction. In each episode of Crimes of the Centuries, award-winning journalist Amber Hunt will examine a case that’s lesser known today but was huge when it happened. The cases explored span the centuries and each left a mark. Some made history by changing laws. Others were so shocking they changed society.

Episodes

S5 Ep29: The Prophet of Kirtland, Part 1: The Birth of a Cult

October 5, 2025 • 54 mins
In 1980s Ohio, Jeffrey Lundgren wasn’t just studying scripture — he was twisting it into something dangerous. To outsiders, he was a soft-spoken tour guide at a historic church site. But behind closed doors, Lundgren was preaching a radical new theology, gathering followers and slowly convincing them that he spoke for God. His target? The Kirtland Temple — once the holiest site in the Latter Day Saint movement.

"Crime...
Mark as Played

S5 Ep28: Can You Ever Forgive Me? The Literary Forgeries of Lee Israel

September 29, 2025 • 48 mins
For a brief, dazzling moment in early 1990s New York, biographer Lee Israel became one of the most notorious literary forgers of all time. Out of money, out of friends, and with a sick cat to care for, Israel turned her biographer’s research skills and her sharp wit toward a new craft: fabricating letters from Dorothy Parker, Noël Coward, Louise Brooks, and more. Her forgeries fooled collectors, corrupted archives and spread i...
Mark as Played

S5 Ep27: The Real Goodfellas Job

September 22, 2025 • 52 mins
It was the score of all scores: a $6 million haul in cash and jewels lifted from JFK Airport in 1978. The headlines called it the Lufthansa heist; Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas turned it into legend. But the real story was messier: dozens of suspects, no recovered loot, and a trail of bodies that grew almost as fast as the FBI’s frustration.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotte...
Mark as Played

S5 Ep26: The Massacre Texas Tried to Erase

September 15, 2025 • 49 mins
In the piney woods of East Texas in 1910, a mob of white men stormed through the Black community of Slocum, murdering dozens — possibly hundreds — of unarmed residents. The killers faced almost no consequences, and the survivors were silenced by fear. Over a century later, even basic recognition of the Slocum Massacre remains a battle. This is the story of the slaughter Texas tried to forget, and the people still fighting to b...
Mark as Played

Introducing: CRIME HOUSE DAILY

September 15, 2025 • 7 mins
Crime doesn’t take a day off. And neither does Crime House Daily.
Hosted by self-defense instructor and advocate for victims, Katie Ring, Crime House Daily is coming to you twice every weekday, covering the biggest crime stories as they unfold. Morning episodes give you the need-to-know. The latest headlines, breaking developments, and where things are going next. Evening episodes go deeper. Into the people, the evidence, ...
Mark as Played

S5 Ep25: The Hitler Diaries

September 8, 2025 • 56 mins
When a major German magazine announced it had uncovered Adolf Hitler’s long-lost diaries, the world took notice. But what began as a journalistic coup turned into a scandal that rattled media empires — and left a permanent stain on the truth.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free e...
Mark as Played

S5 Ep24: Who Killed Barbara Hamburg? The True Story Behind El Dorado Drive

September 1, 2025 • 50 mins
The murder of Barbara Hamburg might read like fiction — a bitter divorce, a mysterious pyramid scheme, a family full of secrets — but for her son Madison, it was all too real. In 2010, Barbara was found bludgeoned to death outside her home in the affluent shoreline town of Madison, Connecticut. In this episode, we explore a case that captivated author Megan Abbott, inspired her novel El Dorado Drive, and remains unsolved 15 ye...
Mark as Played

Future Crimes of the Centuries? The Death of John O’Keefe and the Trials of Karen Read

August 25, 2025 • 50 mins
This week on Crimes of the Centuries, we’re breaking from tradition. Instead of a crime from decades past, we’re looking at a case that’s still shaping headlines — and raising questions that may take years to answer. When Boston police officer John O’Keefe was found dead in the snow outside a fellow cop’s home, his girlfriend, Karen Read, was accused of running him down with her SUV in a fit of drunken rage. Prosecutors said i...
Mark as Played

S5 Ep23: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: Separating Fact from Fiction

August 18, 2025 • 48 mins
In 1981, 21-year-old Danny Hansford was shot and killed inside one of Savannah’s grandest mansions. The man who pulled the trigger, antiques dealer Jim Williams, claimed self-defense. What followed was a legal circus resulting in four high-profile trials. Then, less than a year later after the dust settled, Williams was dead. This is the case that inspired Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the bestselling book that turn...
Mark as Played

S5 Ep22: The Green Bicycle Mystery

August 11, 2025 • 48 mins
Bella Wright was a shy, working-class woman whose life was cut short on a summer night in 1919, just short of her 22nd birthday. At first, her death looked like a tragic accident – until a single bullet found lodged in the dirt road changed everything. What followed was a century-long mystery involving an unshaven man on a distinctive green bicycle, a suspiciously dismantled frame dredged from a river, and a murder trial that ...
Mark as Played

S5 Ep21: Gun on the Ferry: The Ruin of Laura Fair

August 4, 2025 • 48 mins
Laura Fair wanted what many women in Gilded-Age San Francisco wanted: security, respectability, and a husband who told the truth. What she got instead was a years-long affair and a heap of public scorn. When a single gunshot rang out aboard a crowded ferry, it set off a national debate about morality, madness, and how far a woman could be pushed. Based on real letters, real lies, and a courtroom drama that captivated 19th cent...
Mark as Played

S5 Ep20: The Fox in the Henhouse: Klaus Fuchs and the Secret That Changed the World

July 28, 2025 • 52 mins
You’d think the guy helping build the deadliest weapon in history would be someone the Allies vetted carefully. You’d be wrong. Klaus Fuchs was a physicist, a refugee, and a trusted member of the Manhattan Project. He was also a Soviet spy. His quiet betrayal helped the USSR test its first atomic bomb years ahead of schedule—ending America’s monopoly on nuclear weapons and setting the stage for the Cold War. All in the name of...
Mark as Played

S5 Ep19: Karen Silkwood and the Price of Speaking Up

July 21, 2025 • 46 mins
In 1974, 28-year-old Karen Silkwood left her home with a binder full of evidence and a plan to blow the whistle on dangerous conditions at the plutonium plant where she worked. She never arrived. What followed was a national uproar, a swirl of conspiracy theories, and a battle over the truth that still echoes today.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past ...
Mark as Played

S5 Ep18: Reckoning at Penn State: The Jerry Sandusky Scandal

July 14, 2025 • 50 mins
Jerry Sandusky was a legend at Penn State University. As the right hand of head football coach Joe Paterno, he was known not only as an exceptional coach but also as a big-hearted philanthropist and advocate for troubled youth. So when a 2011 grand jury report exposed decades of abuse, the fallout was immeasurable, bringing to light a story of power, silence, and the cost of looking the other way.

"Crimes of the Centu...
Mark as Played

S5 Ep17: Faith Vs. Flag: How the Gobitis Case Tested the Limits of Religious Freedom

July 7, 2025 • 44 mins
In 1935, 12-year-old Lillian Gobitas and her little brother William were kicked out of their Pennsylvania public school — not for misbehaving, but for quietly refusing to salute the flag, which they believed went against their Jehovah’s Witness faith. Their dad sued, arguing the school had violated their right to religious freedom. But in a sweeping decision, the Supreme Court sided with the school, saying national unity outwe...
Mark as Played

The Murder of Phil Hartman

June 30, 2025 • 38 mins
Crimes Of The Centuries is dark again this week, so here is an episode that you might not have heard previously... or might just want to listen to again.

When news spread that a high-profile comedian was killed in a murder-suicide in 1998, the response was disbelief: Phil Hartman wasn't just famous for being funny. He was even better known for being a good-hearted guy. The shocking story behind the deaths of Hartman a...
Mark as Played

Guest Episode: The Wild Tale of Black Jack Ketchum

June 23, 2025 • 30 mins
While Crimes of the Centuries takes a brief summer break, enjoy a guest episode from Josh at The Wild West Extravaganza. This one’s a doozy: It’s the story of "Black Jack" Ketchum — a train robber whose criminal exploits made headlines across the American frontier. But it was his botched execution that really cemented his place in Wild West lore. This is one of those cases where the truth is not only stranger than fiction — it...
Mark as Played

S5 Ep16: The Siege of Sidney Street

June 16, 2025 • 49 mins
In late 1910 and early 1911, a band of impulsive Latvian radicals fleeing persecution in Russia unleashed a wave of violence in London that left three policemen dead and part of a quiet city block in ruins. The siege that followed would not only transform British law enforcement but also mark a turning point in media history, as cameras captured the chaos in real time.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab...
Mark as Played

S5 Ep15: The Repairman's Ruse: The Kidnapping of Alice Speed Stoll

June 9, 2025 • 40 mins
When Berry Stoll returned from work on Oct. 10, 1934, the scene greeting him was pure chaos: His maid was tied up, his wife was missing and a terrifying pool of blood covered one of the beds. Alice Speed Stoll had been kidnapped by a smooth-talking, well-dressed man who claimed to be a phone repairman. What followed was a tense and twisted saga of ransom demands, narrow escapes, and a desperate manhunt that captured the countr...
Mark as Played

S5 Ep14: Breach of Trust: Inside the Legendary Loomis Fargo Heist

June 2, 2025 • 40 mins
One Sunday morning in 1997, a security guard noticed the front fence at Loomis Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina, was ajar. So was the warehouse door. And the vault inside was fitted with a suspicious time lock. When authorities finally opened the vault the next day, they found it completely empty, the target of one of the largest cash thefts in US history. The manhunt that followed would grip the nation as authorities raced ...
Mark as Played

Popular Podcasts

    Stuff You Should Know

    Stuff You Should Know

    If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

    Cardiac Cowboys

    Cardiac Cowboys

    The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.

    The Joe Rogan Experience

    The Joe Rogan Experience

    The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

    On Purpose with Jay Shetty

    On Purpose with Jay Shetty

    I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

    The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

    The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

    The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.

Advertise With Us
Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

Explore

iHeart

Live Radio

Podcasts

Artist Radio

Exclusives

News

Features

Events

Contests

Photos

Information

About

Advertise

Blog

Brand Guidelines

Contest Guidelines

Subscription Offers

Jobs

Get the App

Automotive

Home

Mobile

Wearables

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.