RedHanded

In Evangelical homes across the United States, sex outside of marriage is a sin against God. So, when Abbi becomes pregnant at 16, her devout parents hide her away at the Liberty Godparent Home, a little-known facility for pregnant teens on the campus of Liberty University. The Home says it helps girls decide what comes next – whether that’s parenting their babies or placing them for adoption. But inside the facility, the ...

Party girl Tiffany Cole had always relied on the kindness of strangers – including her former neighbours, Reggie and Carol Sumner. This frail older couple helped Tiffany out as if she were their own daughter…

And she repaid their kindness by digging their grave. Literally.

Tiffany claimed it was all her boyfriend’s idea, and she never meant for the Sumners to get hurt. But how did a boneheaded robbery plot by a bunch of part...

With Scientology’s biggest poster boy back on the big screen, the church is ramping up the recruitment drive. And to make sure you STAY AWAY from this sinister, star-studded sci-fi cult posing as a world religion, we’re rereleasing our two-parter as a bumper bonus episode...

-- 

Hannah and Suruthi peer under the slippery stone of Scientology’s sinister origins. They track the life of founder L. Ron Hubbard, from the bir...

Melanie McGuire was a beautiful young nurse who wouldn’t hurt a fly. So when her husband’s chopped-up remains were found in three separate suitcases in the Chesapeake Bay, she suddenly had a lot to answer for…

Was this petite New Jersey mum capable of killing her husband and disposing of his body in such a gruesome way? Or was this – as she claimed – a huge Sopranos-style stitch-up?

Sex, drugs and luggage: this week’s case i...

Who was The Zodiac? Did he kill Cheri Jo Bates? And how did three hobbyist cryptographers crack his ‘impossible’ code 50 years after it was written? These are just a few of the questions we answer in our final episode on The Zodiac Killer.

Join us as we try to conclude the inconcludable, cold case that has haunted California for half a century.

Exclusive bonus content:

Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHand

Patreon - Ad-...

Last week we left you with the absolutely massive cliffhanger of a 408-character cipher, which in theory contained valuable information on the Bay Area’s most infamous killer “The Zodiac”. But first it needed to be solved. And amazingly it wasn’t cracked by the police, or the FBI: it was solved by a 41-year-old history teacher and his wife, and we’re going to tell you exactly how they did it. 

In this week’s episode, t...

Violent attacks, sadistic taunting, and uncrackable puzzles; in some ways “The Zodiac” laid the foundations for every murderous TV psychopath and movie villain of the next half-century. For our 400th episode we decided to dedicate three whole episodes to the potentially the most famous serial killer in history: how he operated, how his puzzles were solved, and who he might have been.

In part one we’re going to tel...

When her sister-in-law never returned from a trip to India, Sarbjit Kaur Athwal knew exactly what had happened: her mother-in-law had made no secret of her plan to “get rid of” Surjit – the outspoken thorn in the family’s side.

But Sarbjit also knew what she was up against: a strict code of honour; the threat of shame and total rejection by her community – and the certainty that if she stepped out of line, it would be her t...

With the release of a new Netflix documentary on the Wests, we dove into the archive (way way back to episodes 27 and 28) to get you up to date with our in-depth two-parter on one of the UK's most infamous cases.

--

Incest, rape, murder and torture dungeons; the girls take on one of Britain's most notorious serial killer couples - Fred and Rose West.

Over a span of 25 years this pair of sexual sadists carried out unspeakable ...

ShortHand is released weekly for Wondery+ and Amazon Music subscribers. Listen exclusively and ad-free every Tuesday on Wondery+ through Apple Podcasts and Spotify. And depending on where you are in the world, ShortHand is included with your Prime Membership on Amazon Music.

--

What happens when humanity’s mouthpiece of God, the holiest man on earth, The Pope, passes away? First and foremost a man bonks him on the head with ...

In our second part of the Pre-Diddy saga, we take a closer look at the accusations you need to know about – and the 99 problems it could cause for some of his closest associates...

With all the sensational stories swirling around this case, we separate fact from fiction, and find out that the truth is always wilder than the headlines: from ‘MVP bags’ containing ‘power banger sex machines’, to the involvement of some of musi...

As the trial we’ve all been waiting for finally approaches, we bring you the full rundown on the self-proclaimed “bad boy for life” – and the hundreds of accusations, from victims as young as nine years old, that threaten to jail the music mogul for the rest of his days.

Before we find out which “well-known figures” are likely to be accused alongside Sean Combs (aka P Diddy aka “Love”) here is everything you need to know: f...

When the Countess of Lucan burst into a West London pub drenched head-to-toe in blood, it instantly sparked a national obsession. Lord Lucan – the suave, speedboat-racing, professional-gambling aristocrat – was wanted for the murder of their housekeeper, Sandra Rivett. And he had disappeared without a trace.

This week, we sift through the theories on Britain’s most famous fugitive (from the bonkers to the actually quite cre...

They say Brazil is not for amateurs. And that’s certainly true in the crime-stricken city of Manaus, where Wallace Souza – a charismatic TV host and congressman with a flair for the dramatic – built up an army of fans with his hard-hitting news coverage in the early 2000s. 

But was his bonkers daytime TV show, Canal Livre, just a smokescreen for his own shady criminal empire? And how far would Wallace go to increase hi...

The adopted princess of a wealthy Spanish family, 12-year-old Asunta Basterra Porto seemed destined to thrive under the devoted care of her parents Rosario and Alfonso. But beneath the surface, sinister secrets were taking root – including clandestine druggings, creepy family photos and one seriously twisted marriage.

Had these callous parents cast aside the daughter they chose? An investigation dogged by accusations of bia...

In one of our most horrifying episodes yet, we look at a man who clamped and amputated the genitals of potentially hundreds of men, and carried out unimaginable sexual torture – all from his basement flat in North London.

But what makes this story truly unbelievable is that every one of those victims wanted for it to happen. They belonged to a secretive community of 'nullos' – people who fantasise about the removal of sexua...

Continuing our filmed mega Menendez marathon, in this episode we dive into the sensational details of Lyle and Erik’s trial – where these Beverly Hills bad boys would need to convince the jury, and the world, of their story. 

We break down the explosive courtroom battles, shocking legal twists, and the media circus that turned the case into a spectacle – plus new bombshell revelations that could change everything for t...

In this long-awaited episode, we dive into one of the most infamous true-crime cases in American history: the story of Lyle and Erik Menendez. The brutal 1989 slayings of their wealthy parents, José and Kitty Menendez, divided a nation: but where do we stand?

In Part 1, we take you through the chilling night of the crime, the early investigations, and the lavish spending spree that raised eyebrows everywhere. We unravel the...

Delia Balmer’s ex-boyfriend wasn’t just a scruffy stoner with a pet tarantula and a sketchbook full of gruesome drawings: he was a murderer. The infamous ‘Canal Killer’ John Sweeney told Delia he had killed before – but after the police ignored her repeated warnings, she ended up barely escaping with her life. This is the harrowing true story behind hit ITV drama ‘Until I Kill You’: one of horror, survival, and a...