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.
292 episodes transcribed“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...
When Madison Smith went to her county attorney’s office to talk about her rape case, she knew she wanted to press charges. But the prosecutor told her...
In 2010, a $16.5 million Hot Lotto ticket was sold at a gas station in Des Moines, Iowa. At first, no one showed up to claim the prize. And then, a se...
Two men turned in the winning catch at a Lake Erie fishing tournament. But when the tournament director squeezed one of their fish - he felt something...
Phoebe: Are there a lot of spies in this country today? Scott: Far more than people can probably even imagine. You can't rule anybody out. You never k...
Hunters in the Everglades used to kill millions of birds every year for their feathers. In 1902, a man named Guy Bradley was hired to stop people from...
“There was a saying I heard a few times: ‘under the influence, above the law.’ And I think that describes the mindset of a certain type of fraternity...
In the 1980s, Pablo Escobar smuggled four hippopotamuses into Colombia for a zoo on his ranch. Today, there are over 160 hippos in the country. “It’s...
In 1967, a 24-year-old named Leslie Arnold escaped from prison. The FBI looked for him for years. And then, in 2022, a U.S. Marshal got a message from...
On the afternoon of June 23rd, 1972, Martin McNally walked into the St. Louis airport with a wig, a sawed-off rifle, and a plan. Special thanks to Dan...
When Karen Bethea-Shields was in college, she heard a judge say, “No way in the world a Black woman can get raped.” A few years later, in 1975, she he...
