In the military, a “gray man” refers to a service member who neither outperforms or underperforms his or her comrades. Someone who seamlessly fits into the group and gets the job done and doesn’t get unwanted attention while doing it. In that line of work, that can be a talent. In today’s story, we’re talking about a man who made a career out of being unnoticed, whose entire personality could be described as “gray,” and yet, had a violent and hateful nature resting just under the surface. When all was said and done, two women would be dead and countless others would never feel safe in their homes again.

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Sources:

Appleby, Timothy. A New Kind of Monster: The Secret Life and Shocking True Crimes of an Officer . . . and a Murderer (Function). Kindle Edition.

The Fifth Estate, Above Suspicion

 https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39556963

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I don’t know about you, campers, but I like to have emergency plans for any eventuality. For example, what if I find myself in the center of a maze with only my wits to get out? What would I do? Of course, the secret to escape a maze is to keep your hand on one wall while you walk and eventually, you’ll find yourself at the exit. This case is a little bit like a maze. Every time the investigators thought they had a break in the case, they found themselves at yet another dead end, but luckily, they kept pushing forward and eventually found sunlight. This story is about betrayal and loss and family.

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Join us live at Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp in Equinunk, PA, September 10-13th! Visit ⁠badmagicproductions.com⁠ for more info and to buy tickets.

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Sources:

Military Justice For All: https://militaryjusticeforall.com/tag/remano-campbell/#:~:text=Remano%20served%20seven%20years%20in,after%20his%20home%20caught%20fire.

AL.com: https://www.al.com/live/2014/04/prosecutors_allege_boyfriend_o.html

https://www.al.com/live/2014/03/iraq_combat_veteran_killed_in.html

The Cinemaholic: https://thecinemaholic.com/remano-campbell-murder-where-are-eugenia-campbell-and-alexander-williams-now/

Investigation Discovery's "Diabolical," S2 E8

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People can be pretty strange. And not just people—as we’ll see in one story of this week’s episode, you can add all our extended family of primates to that. If you have a big brain and opposable thumbs, there’s a good chance you’ll be getting up to shenanigans. But as we’ll see in our other story, human beings still wear the crown for weird, ridiculously confident nonsense.

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Sources, Monkey Invasion case:

Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-170-wild-monkeys-escaped-from-a-jungle-camp-and-terrorized-new-york-180985537/

NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1935/08/23/archives/monkey-runaways-still-number-111-32-simian-flagpole-sitters-are.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1935/08/22/archives/150-monkeys-flee-camp-stop-train-simians-escape-from-frank-bucks.html

Farmingdale Local History Blog: https://farmingdalelocalhistory.blogspot.com/2018/07/frank-bucks-jungle-campmassapequa-zoo.html

https://omeka.hofstra.edu/exhibits/show/long-island-business-and-indus/frank-buck-collection--1935-19

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1935/08/30/issue.html

https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-174-monkeys-skip-jail/159743530/

https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026749/1935-08-24/ed-1/?sp=1&q=MASSAPEQUA&r=0.241,0.976,0.311,0.229,0

Sources, Alison Gu case:

U.S. Court of Appeals filings: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-2nd-circuit/2140129.html

https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/6943f1bbcfa51735e29ca3b7

Bennington Banner: https://www.benningtonbanner.com/local-news/former-winhall-woman-back-in-court-more-fraud-charges/article_f37d8ad2-dd24-11ec-94e0-4f8b05aedbae.html

"Lowering the Bar," Kevin Underhill: https://www.loweringthebar.net/2025/07/defendant-recruited-seven-actors-to-testify-in-fraud-trial.html

Manchester Journal: https://www.manchesterjournal.com/local-news/former-winhall-woman-headed-back-to-prison/article_63203790-1e66-11ed-ba8a-77d4d5eff5ee.html

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Today we’re sharing something a little different from our friends at ABC News and 20/20. It’s the first episode of a brand new original true crime series called "Blood and Water." 
 
In 2001, Leslie Preer was found brutally murdered, her body left in the shower of her home in the wealthy suburbs of Washington, D.C. Investigators initially set their sights on Leslie’s husband as the prime suspect — until bombshell DNA evidence revealed the presence of an "unknown male" at the scene. With extensive access to the original police tapes and interviews with the cold case detectives who worked to solve the crime, Blood and Water tells an in-depth story of the decades-long wait for justice for Leslie’s daughter, and the cutting-edge investigative techniques that finally caught the killer. 
 
To hear the rest of the series, follow "Blood and Water" on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon Music⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

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I’m sure most of you have heard some variant of the phrase, “nobody wants to see how the sausage gets made,” which refers to the often messy procedures behind getting things done in, say, business or politics. But it’s also a literal truth that most of us don’t want to see how sausage gets made, and that goes double if the person making it cuts corners and develops a wildly aggressive attitude to any kind of government oversight.

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Sources:

LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-oct-18-mn-38382-story.html

SFGate: https://www.sfgate.com/news/baycitynews/article/sausage-king-guilty-of-killing-3-meat-2641380.php

https://www.sfgate.com/news/baycitynews/article/girlfriend-says-sausage-king-wanted-to-grind-up-2758522.php

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/oakland-sausage-factory-secretary-tells-of-fear-2721223.php

East Bay Times: https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2004/06/10/survivor-recalls-shooting-spree-in-sausage-factory/

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2004/04/29/ex-meat-inspector-describes-factory/

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2004/05/21/linguisa-not-safe-to-eat-expert-says/

https://web.archive.org/web/20160527100913/http://www.mindfully.org/Food/sausage-king.htm

KCBS Radio Podcast, “The Sausage King”

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Secrets can ruin everything. Not little ones, we’re talking big, looming secrets that might change your life forever if they were ever brought out into the light of day. Some people just can’t help themselves, stacking lie upon lie, hiding the secret truth behind an ever-growing wall of falsehood. And if that wall comes crashing down…well, some people will go to any lengths to keep their secrets safe.

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Anger can be useful. If you need to defend yourself or those you love, or if you need to stand up against some outrage in your community, anger can give you the necessary fire to get things done. It can also be poisonous, eating away at a soul until there’s not much left but dense fury that constantly leaks out like oil from a ruptured tanker. This week’s story is about a man who let his anger consume not only himself, but the lives of three innocent people.

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Sources:

The Parable of the Knocker by Bryan Porter

ID's See No Evil, S9E6, “Shaken and Disturbed”

https://web.archive.org/web/20160215131616/http://mentaldisorder.com/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/mother-of-severances-son-testifies-of-frightening-threatening-letters/2015/10/14/270a887c-729d-11e5-8d93-0af317ed58c9_story.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/at-severances-trial-nancy-dunnings-son-describes-finding-her-dead/2015/10/15/5375017c-7364-11e5-8248-98e0f5a2e830_story.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/alleged-alexandria-serial-killer-scheduled-to-appear-in-court/2015/09/16/472604b2-5bc6-11e5-b38e-06883aacba64_story.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/police-look-for-gunman-clues-in-fatal-shooting-in-alexandria/2014/02/07/da370d26-9004-11e3-b46a-5a3d0d2130da_story.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/virginia-serial-killer-charles-severance-sentenced-to-life-in-prison/2016/01/20/0ba176c6-bfb0-11e5-bcda-62a36b394160_story.html

https://northernvirginiamag.com/culture/2020/04/22/recently-released-the-parable-of-the-knocker-sheds-new-light-on-charles-severance/

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Love can be a pretty hard thing to define. It’s easier to say what it is not. Love is not secretly following someone and trying your best to keep her within sight every second of the day. Love is not trying to keep someone scared and uncertain so that they’ll rely on you more. And love is not thinking you own a person, and becoming furious when you find out that you do that. This is a story about someone who made all those mistakes, who mistook obsession for devotion, and whose towering sense of entitlement turned into awful violence.

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Sources:

Don Stradley, Boston Tabloid

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/06/03/Missing-Beauty-killer-released/1326739080000/ https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/19/us/killer-marries-in-prison.html https://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/28/us/professor-about-to-go-on-trial-admits-killing-his-young-lover.html

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Many of the stories we cover revolve around the disintegration of a marriage. It’s often a deeply traumatic event, upending entire lives and making an imagined future just vanish into nothing. It can drive some people kind of crazy. But other people are just built differently, and can move effortlessly from one marriage to the next as easily as changing a pair of socks. The woman in this week’s case certainly could do that, and she took that same casual attitude into matters of life and death.

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Sources:

Clifford Linedecker, Poisoned Vows

https://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/backus-appeal-rejected/

https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=STP19931216-01.2.6&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7CtxCO%7CtxTA--------0------

A&E's "American Justice," interview with Jill Coit

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Life, obviously, is easier with money. Without having to scrabble and hustle just to survive, you can be free to pursue whatever interests and fascinations you like. But wealth doesn’t make you immune to the realities of human life. Families still have drama, hearts still get broken, dreams still get crushed into dust. This week’s story is about someone who started life with every possible advantage, but despite all her privilege, still descended into darkness.

Sources:

Deadly American Beauty by John Glatt

https://www.smh.com.au/world/jury-awards-a147-million-in-american-beauty-murder-20060322-gdn7du.html

https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2013/sep/18/feature-arrest-warrant-issued/

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If you’re unlucky, you might have at least one person in your life who just drives you crazy, someone with whom every interaction has an edge of mutual antipathy, that makes you feel like you’re always on the brink of a screaming argument. Sometimes two particular human beings just do not fit together. And because human beings are strange, sometimes a couple like that hook up and stay together for years before finally spinning apart. But that undercurrent of anger can remain, a little toxic flame that doesn’t need much fuel to erupt into an inferno that destroys lives.

Tickets are on sale now for CrimeWave 2.0! Visit crimewaveatsea.com/CAMPFIRE to get your discount code for $100 off your cabin and a private meet-and-greet with us! The cruise is Feb. 8-12, 2027, from Ft. Lauderdale to the Bahamas.

Join us for Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp 2026 in Equinunk, PA! September 10-13. Visit badmagicproductions.com for more info, and to buy tickets.

Sources:

Fatal Vows S7E4, “Hell on Wheels”

Dateline S28E3, “The Plan”

Snapped: Killer Couples, S13E4, “Charlene Childers and Timothy Dean”

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2019/10/12/what-dateline-didnt-tell-you-tim-dean-charlene-childers/3917826002/

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/in-depth/news/2019/10/10/tim-dean-sodus-ny-double-murder-sunray-texas-police-chief-dateline-nbc-the-plan/1356990001/

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2019/10/10/charlene-childers-dateline-nbc-the-plan-sodus-ny-double-murder/3910812002/

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/in-depth/news/2019/10/10/double-murder-sodus-ny-of-josh-niles-amber-washburn-children-dateline-nbc/1730190001/

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