Criminal is the first of its kind. A show about people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. Hosted by Phoebe Judge. Named a Best Podcast of 2023 by the New York Times. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
302 episodes transcribedThe first time Ed Newcomer went to the L.A. Bug Fair, he met a man who called himself the world’s most wanted butterfly smuggler. It took three years...
“He stole my watch. He stole my jewelry. I stopped wearing jewelry – just to see what else he would steal.” In 2004, Ava Do met a professional pickpoc...
In 2023, police raided the Kansas newspaper where Eric Meyer worked with his mother, Joan. Seven officers also searched their home. Joan had a heart a...
“Anything you can think of is going to be in the water.” Say hello on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Sign up for our occasional newsletter,...
Bettersten Wade searched for her missing 37-year-old son for nearly six months. Then she found out that the police knew where he was the whole time....
On September 18, 1998, an unusual ad ran in USA Today — a company called John’s Estate Sales was looking to buy a moon rock. The phone number on the a...
The bodies of a woman and her child were found inside a burned house on Christmas Day, 1843. An autopsy showed that they’d died before the fire even s...
Stories of animals really going for it. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. F...
In 1985, 160 people were sent letters saying they’d won free tickets to an NFL football game. They were told to pick up their tickets at the Washingto...
In 1791, three men filed lawsuits in the General Court of Maryland. They were all suing the same person: the Jesuit priest who enslaved them. Say hell...
“Children nowadays, they make maps. And say, this is the street where the store is that we're going to rob, and this is where we're going to hide, and...
In 1993, Gary Settle was sentenced to 177 years in prison. Twenty-six years into his sentence, he started helping other inmates get out of prison thro...
This week, part two of the Reels family story – how two brothers went to jail in an attempt to save their family land, and were held there for eight y...
Melvin Davis and Licurtis Reels refused to leave the land that had been in their family for generations – so they were sent to jail. They expected to...
Today, a personal story from Phoebe about her mother, Valentine, who died this spring. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Sign up f...
Soon after the Berlin Wall went up, a group of students knocked on Joachim Rudolph’s door. They told him they were trying to get people out of East Ge...
Before Guantánamo Bay became the prison we know today, Marie Genard spent more than a year of her life there. She was 14. Brandt Goldstein’s book is S...
In 1977, a new bar opened on North Wells Street in Chicago. Things weren’t as they seemed at the aptly named “Mirage Tavern.” This story is from our f...
One morning, two men got in a boat and sailed down a river in the Amazon rainforest. They were never heard from again. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook,...
In the summer of 1975, two best friends attempted a robbery unlike any they’d ever pulled off before. Their target: the mob. Say hello on Twitter, Fac...
