True Crime Reporter

By Robert Riggs

Real human connection is becoming harder to recognize in a world increasingly shaped by AI-generated content.

Former FBI counterintelligence agent Robin Dreeke returns to the podcast to explore one of the most urgent questions of our time: who or what should we trust?

From the rise of AI perso...

This episode is about the standoff with Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and the threat of its drone attack to the global economy.

And I know what some of you may be wondering.

What does Iran have to do with the True Crime Reporter® podcast?

My answer is simple.

For more than forty years,...

By Robert Riggs

As I watched the daring rescue of the two airmen shot down over Iran in early April of 2026, I found myself thinking of John Bagwell.

John’s story is not a true-crime saga you’d expect to hear on this podcast, but it is gripping, timely, and no less dramatic.

I learned about his mi...

By Robert Riggs

Burned with lit cigarettes. Impaled with a fishhook. Staples fired into his hip. Deadly drugs forced up his nose. 

It sounds like a brutal regime’s methods from a torture chamber.

But these are the homegrown means of hazing that the Alpha Nu Chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity alleg...

By Robert Riggs

Legendary LAPD Homicide Detective John St. John walked among the dead for nearly a half-century.

Known as “JigSaw John,” he pursued monsters that had an insatiable appetite for blood and suffering.

Jane Howatt, a suburban housewife and aspiring writer, wanted to trade her tennis ra...

by Robert Riggs

This isn’t the kind of story I usually tell.

The police didn’t converge on the scene with sirens blaring and guns drawn.

But what happened inside a Dallas apartment complex was just as devastating and just as unforgivable as a cold-blooded murder.

In 2...

Most predators don’t pounce—they pick.

They observe.

They wait.

And they choose the person who looks the easiest to catch.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to make sure you’re not the one they choose.

From FBI profilers to a forme...

The Story of 200 Forgotten Murder Victims

By Robert Riggs

They were daughters. Mothers. Sisters. Strangers. Their lives ended violently—and their names were lost to time.

For more than half a century, Detroit’s forgotten dead lay buried beneath weeds and silence—unident...

Unsolved Murder of Jim Grimes Haunts Quiet Tennessee Town By Robert Riggs A bold reward offers ONE MILLION DOLLARS to solve a cold case murder mystery. Since the $25 million bounty on Osama bin Laden, few rewards have reached this level—yet a grieving widow in rural Tennessee is offering $1 million of her own money to find her husband’s killer. A single shotgun blast shattered the life of a beloved h...

Alcatraz shut its cell doors more than 60 years ago, but its grip on the American imagination hasn’t loosened. Each year, nearly a million and a half tourists ride the ferry across San Francisco Bay, through cold, choppy waters, to walk the crumbling corridors of the most infamous prison in U.S. history.  Visitors today frequently cite the desire to see the cellblocks that once confined legendary outlaws, Notori...

You Just Thought Your Home Was Safe By Robert Riggs You lock your doors at night. You check on your kids.  But what if the real threat is already inside—hiding in your phone, your smart TV, or your child's video game chat?  In this episode of True Crime Reporter®, former federal probation officer Art Bowker takes us into the digital battlefield unfolding inside your home. Bowker’s book Survi...

A Former 48 Hours Producer Reveals the Psychology and Power Behind the Genre By Robert Riggs When the curtain drops on everyday life, true crime shows like this podcast and especially those on television expose the darkest side of humanity. Television relentlessly chases the latest trending crimes on police blotters and court dockets. Claire St. Amant pursued those stories in the cutthroat world of prime-time te...

By Robert Riggs The Godfather. Goodfellas. The Sopranos. Hollywood entertained us with polished fiction—honor among thieves, loyalty bound by blood, men of principle wrapped in tailored suits. But the real mob? It was darker. Colder. Predatory. The smile came first. The knife came after. This is the true story of how FBI Special Agent Mike Campi helped dismantle the Genovese crime family—the oldest, larg...

Mobsters Hit Tony Soprano Style Before They Can Testify By Robert Riggs The JFK assassination files recently released by President Trump shed more light on the secret plot by the CIA to use Mafia gangsters to kill Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Investigative reporter Thomas Maier, the author of Mafia Spies, his book about the unlikely alliance between the CIA and mobsters, is back to discuss the latest revelations. Th...

The story sounds like something straight out of a spy thriller.  A plot by America’s most feared criminal syndicate and its most secretive intelligence agency to assassinate a foreign leader using poison cigars and other James Bond-inspired schemes.  But this isn’t fiction. This is the true story of how the CIA joined forces with Mafia hitmen to assassinate Fidel Castro. The revelations with ties to t...

In this episode, we continue our deep dive with retired FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke—a man whose job wasn’t just catching spies but recruiting them. Dreeke led the FBI’s elite Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program, where he mastered the art of predicting human behavior. He turned foreign operatives into informants—not with force, but with trust.  Now, he’s sharing the same tools ...

Whether walking through a dimly lit parking lot, meeting someone new, or even evaluating the behavior of people close to you, the ability to read people and size them up could mean the difference between safety and danger. This episode teaches you how to think like an FBI Behavioral Analyst. Robin Dreeke, who headed the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Program, joins me to discuss his framework for predicting human behavior. ...

Beware of the Fraudster Knocking At Your Door Scammers don’t just lurk online—they may be coming straight to your front door. For centuries, con artists have refined their craft, using deception and misdirection to separate victims from their money. But today’s fraudsters have more sophisticated tools than ever before. The worst part? You won’t even realize you’ve been conned until it&rsqu...