The true-crime podcast universe is ever expanding. We’re here to make it a bit smaller, a bit more manageable. There are a lot of great shows and each has a lot of great episodes, so we want to highlight the exceptional, the noteworthy. Each week, our crack team of podcast enthusiasts and specialists will pick their favorites. To read the last edition, click here.
Shedunnit: “Nurse Danielsâ€
I just recently stumbled upon Shedunnit, and it has quickly become a new favorite. Hosted by Caroline Crampton, the biweekly podcast focuses on the real murders and mysteries that inspired the writers of some of the most classic and popular mystery stories. (She also has a great episode about Agatha Christie’s own disappearance — it’s titled “The Lady Vanishesâ€). But this week’s episode is all about a woman who went into a cloakroom on October 6, 1926, in Boulogne, France, and never came out. It’ll feel ripped from a 1920s mystery novel — in a good way. —Hillary Nelson
Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website
Crimes of Passion: “Harold Nokes Pt. 1â€
The debut episode of Parcast’s new podcast about love and murder is the first in a two-parter about an increasingly complicated relationship between a divorcée, her married lover, and his wife. Kay Hein and her soon-to-be-ex Dwayne were pals with Harold and Ena Nokes of McCook, Nebraska, but soon enough Kay set her sights on Harold, and they began an affair in the early ’70s. Ena got involved as a sort of last-ditch attempt to keep Harold happy, but Kay wasn’t satisfied with just being a third wheel, in or out of the bedroom. Drama! Trying to break off her relationship with Harold and Ena was a lot harder than Kay anticipated, and things start to get acrimonious. If you’re familiar with the case, you know things are about to get a lot more murder-y, and part one does a good job of laying out the bait. —Jenni Miller
Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website
Reply All: “The Founderâ€
This week’s episode of Reply All should not be missed. Not only is it about true crime, but it might lead you to binge-read Evan Ratliff’s The Mastermind in one weekend, as it did with me. Ratliff joins the show to talk about Paul Le Roux, one of the largest global criminals that you’ve probably never heard of. When you break down all of his crimes and how he got his start, he starts to sound a bit like a villain from Despicable Me. What started as a small-time online prescription-drug network blew up into hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of painkillers, yachts carrying millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine, Hong Kong safe houses with gold bars, the most pure form of meth from North Korea — and, inevitably, eventually murder. —Hillary Nelson
Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website
Criminal: “The Numbersâ€
True crime isn’t typically the most feel-good of genres, but this week’s Criminal left my heart positively full. Part biography, part love letter, author Bridgett Davis recounts her mother Fannie’s years running the numbers from their home in Detroit in the 1960s and ’70s. For the uninitiated, the numbers is an underground — also, illegal — lottery in which gamblers try to match up three numbers and win big. It became a booming business in the country’s urban centers — New York, Boston, Chicago, and Atlanta — and often elicited raids by the FBI. For Fannie, whose family was struggling financially after their move to Michigan, the numbers proved to be a lucrative business, one in which she served customers as both a banker and a listening ear. In relaying these memories, daughter Bridgett’s love and admiration for her mother is clear from the outset, and she is quick to point out that although Fannie’s unlikely empire may have been illegal, there was never anything criminal about it. —Amy Wilkinson
Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website
Faded Out: “The Walking Routesâ€
Doreen Jane Vincent has been listed as a missing person since June 15, 1988. She was 12 years old. At the time of her disappearance, she had been staying at her father’s house, and after an argument she walked out and has never been seen since. There have always been questions surrounding her father’s story, but there’s also belief that Hadden Clark, a convicted child murderer, had something to do with Doreen’s disappearance. Faded Out delves deep into the case, walking through all the newspaper reports, walking the routes Doreen may have taken, and even speaking with her family. It’s a truly heartbreaking case that may never have a resolution but demands investigation nonetheless. —Hillary Nelson
In the Dark: “The Trials of Curtis Flowersâ€
This is a great week to go back and listen to one of the most jaw-dropping episodes of what is arguably the greatest true-crime podcast ever made, “The Trials of Curtis Flowers,†from the award-winning second season of In the Dark. This episode ties closely to some big news that’s come out since the podcast was released. Because of the In the Dark team’s meticulous data reporting, which revealed a blatant pattern of racial discrimination in jury selection by District Attorney Doug Evans, the United States Supreme Court decided to hear the appeal of Curtis Flowers, the man who was very likely wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for murdering four people in Winona, Mississippi, more than two decades ago. This week, In the Dark dropped a trailer, which announced that the podcast will release four new episodes that will cover the SCOTUS arguments and eventual ruling. I, for one, can’t wait to hear how my favorite reporting team breaks down the proceedings, and, fingers crossed, how their astonishing and dogged journalism might lead to Flowers eventually being released from prison. —Rebecca Lavoie
Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website