True Crime Campfire

True Crime Campfire

Join hosts Katie and Whitney for a different kind of true crime podcast. You can start with season 1, The Puppet Master and the Prince of Darkness, a deep dive into the most bizarre murder case you've never heard of. Or start with season 2, which covers a different stranger-than-fiction story each week. This bingeworthy show combines meticulous research with a refreshing mix of comic relief and seamless storytelling. There's plenty of room around the campfire--come help us roast murderers and marshmallows! Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.

Episodes

January 9, 2026 54 mins
A lot of the murder cases we cover feature slow-boiling resentments, or criminal schemes hatched with an explicit target in mind. Killings by strangers are rare—and terrifying. You can just be going about your life with no idea that a predator is hunting you, a twisted mind that has no more connection to your life than a shark does. And then, out of the night, they strike. 

Join us for the chilling story of a would-be serial killer ...
Mark as Played
In the early 1990s, a beloved first-grade teacher in Pennsylvania began receiving harassing, threatening letters from an anonymous sender. Her school principal, fellow teachers, and the parents of some of her students soon began receiving them too. As the ordeal wore on, the stalker slowly escalated from taunts to vile accusations and death threats—and then, finally, violence. From early on in the case, the police thought they knew...
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In Part Two of this story last week, we learned how serial husband and waste of DNA Randy Roth seduced, married, and almost certainly murdered his second wife Jan for a life-insurance payout, and tried and failed to use the same scheme on wife number three, Donna Clift. And if you already hate Randy, that’s only going to get worse after the tragic conclusion to his story this week.

Sources: 
Fatal Charm, Carlton Smith
A Rose For Her G...
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Last week, we introduced you to Randy Roth, and described his early life and his escalation from ridiculous loser and petty criminal, to the chief suspect in the death of his second wife, Jan. Jan plummeted to her death from Beacon Rock, on the Washington-Oregon border, leaving behind a young daughter and a hefty life-insurance policy with Randy Roth as the beneficiary. This week, we find out more about Randy and Jan, and learn how...
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The story of Bluebeard has a mostly happy ending, with the killer’s newest bride being rescued in the nick of time by her brothers. Good for her, less good for his previous wives, who she’d discovered hanging on hooks from the walls of a bloody closet. There are countless real-life stories of spouses being killed for money, with no muscular siblings breaking down the door with swords in hand. It’s much rarer for a killer to make vi...
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When we last left you, former Amishman Eli Stutzman was having a little trouble with the law. He’d abandoned the Amish lifestyle after the suspicious death of his wife and was currently going on a tour of the US, sleeping with any man with a pulse. His son, Danny, was starting to show signs of severe abuse, but no one in his life stepped forward to report it. Finally, Eli’s roommate/employee was found murdered in a ditch in Texas. ...
Mark as Played
The thing about serial killers is that it seems so obvious to us after the fact, right? Their behavior is so outrageous and so antisocial that we’re always left wondering why no one noticed. Eli Stutzman’s strange behavior was written off by everyone that knew him. He was quiet and odd, but being raised Amish, who could blame him? To the Amish, his time spent with the Englisch gave him some strange habits. No one really blinked whe...
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Comedian Simon Amstell said, “If you are somebody who is going to at some point be revealed as not like everyone else, then to be in an insular community is a problem.” Here Amstell was discussing how it felt growing up gay and going to a religious school. Insular religious communities shut themselves off from the world in order to keep their views unchanged by the outside. It’s extremely effective. The Amish are one such community...
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November 14, 2025 61 mins
Last week, we did our first-ever live show on the Crimewave true crime cruise! We covered three cases, a sort of "sampler platter" to give new listeners an idea of what kind of stories we usually tell on TCC. Case 1 is the bizarre story of a parody website that ended up bringing dozens of would-be killers to justice. Case 2 is the murder of chef Dan Brophy by his mystery-novelist wife. Case 3 is the true story of Stede Bonnet, bumb...
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We tell a lot of wild stories about crimes that happened right here in the States—but it’s worth noting that our cousins across the pond are misbehaving just as badly. Y’know, same crimes, different accent. Today we’ve chosen two cases that each mirror so many of the ones we’ve covered from here: A woman consumed by her toxic obsession for the man she wanted to marry, and a man more interested in playing soldier and spy than he was...
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It’s hardly a revelation that physical attraction can cloud judgment. It’s one of the oldest traps in human nature—that spark of chemistry that overrides caution, turning common sense into background noise. For most people, the fallout is little more than a red face or a broken heart. But every so often, that same impulse leads someone much farther—into danger. Because behind the charm, the warmth, and the allure, there are those w...
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In part one of this story last week, we learned about Utah millionaire Franklin Bradshaw, who over the years had gained both a stupendous fortune and a strained relationship with some of his family—in particular with his youngest and wildest daughter, Frances. Frances had for years been pressuring and manipulating her mom, Berenice, to steer some of the family fortune her way, and whenever Frank got in the way of that, Frances woul...
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All the money in the world can’t buy peace of mind. Family life, with its jealousies and rivalries, carries the same pressures no matter the size of the bank account—but when wealth is measured in millions, those pressures can twist into something far darker. Arguments over favoritism, inheritance, and control—the kind of disputes most families recognize in small ways—become battles with stakes that can determine the course of live...
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The Buddha said, "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and common sense." Ignore that advice, and you might find that you're clouding your vision--that instead of seeing what's really in front of you, you're filtering everything so it fits in with your beliefs. An unwavering, unquestioned belief in anything--a philosophy, an institution, or a ...
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September 19, 2025 38 mins
We deal with a lot of real-life horror stories, and because it’s real life, they’re often chaotic and cruel. Justice might ultimately be served, but more often than not, the victims are already cold in the ground. If someone is dead-set on killing you, there’s a very good chance they’ll succeed. In the most satisfying fictional horror stories, of course, there’s a survivor, someone who faces the monster or killer and lives to tell ...
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If there’s one constant in the kind of people we cover, it’s this—they’re liars. Con artists trying to scam their way into money, murderers denying their crimes, spouses with secret affairs, liars, all of them. This week’s case is about a man who checks all three of those boxes, a man who learned that, if he didn’t have a conscience, deceit could make him more money that hard work ever did. Once he’d learned that lesson, nothing wa...
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Most of us grew up loving superhero stories. My favorite was always the X-Men. I liked the idea of these people who were born with mutations that initially made them targets of bigotry or fear, then harnessing those differences to do good in the world. I’ve always been a big believer in “give what you’ve got”—if you have a special gift or talent, use it to make the world better. But here’s the thing: Most of us recognize that super...
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August 29, 2025 35 mins
Cell phones are amazing, aren’t they? You have a little magic box in your pocket that you can look at and use to call halfway across the world. New parents can send photos of their babies to their loved ones that live hours away, best friends can start a podcast even though they don’t live in the same state, and soulmates can meet, even from entirely different countries. Of course, we can’t have good things without someone using it...
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August 15, 2025 38 mins
Home is the one place in the world that’s ours and ours alone. It’s the place we’re meant to feel completely safe and comfortable. The warm, beating heart of our lives. So when that sacred space is violated, where does that leave us? Can we ever really feel safe again? This is the story of one of the strangest home invasions ever investigated, and the aftermath that left two innocent people’s lives changed forever.

Join Katie and Wh...
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No is a powerful word. It can stop a naughty dog in its tracks, it can get you out of a night out with friends when you just want to rot in your bed, and most of all, it’s supposed to mean something when you don’t want anything to do with someone romantically. Unfortunately for society, some people can’t handle being told no. It fills them with unfounded rage because how dare anyone deny them something they want. Today, we’re discu...
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