For all Tom Marquardt knew, Capital Gazette just had an unhappy reader. What he didn’t know was that the unhappy reader was about to become a mass murderer.
Marquardt, the former editor of Capital Gazette newspapers in Annapolis, MD, was a target of a 38-year-old loner who sought to avenge a 2011 article that reported the reader’s conviction of sexually harassing a former high school classmate. For years the man sued the editor, the reporter and the newspaper for defamation, then took to Twitter (now X) to lash out against the editor and reporter. Representing himself in court, his lawsuit rambled and failed to persuade a judge who easily dismissed it. He spent the next three years silently plotting his attack.
On June 28, 2018, he blasted his way through the locked doors of Capital Gazette offices and killed five employees. He called 911 to confess, then hid under a desk while waiting to surrender to approaching police.
Marquardt spent two years reviewing police and court files, eyewitness accounts, the killer’s interview with a state psychiatrist and video footage to chronicle in stunning detail what lead up to the crime and how the killer escaped detection.
“Pressed to Kill: Inside Newspapers’ Worst Mass Murder” is a chilling account of the worst mass murder at an American newspaper, but more so it is about the lives of those who died, their heroism on that day, and the remarkable response from a community who rushed to its side. PRESSED TO KILL: Inside Newspapers' Worst Mass Murder—Tom Marquardt

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The true story of how one dedicated forensic scientist restored the long-lost identities of the teenaged victims of the “Candy Man,” one of America’s most prolific serial killers.
Houston, Texas, in the early 1970s was an exciting place—the home of NASA, the city of the future. But a string of more than two dozen missing teenage boys hinted at a dark undercurrent that would go ignored for too long. While their siblings and friends wondered where they had gone, the Houston police department dismissed them as runaways, fleeing the Vietnam draft or conservative parents, likely looking to get high and join the counterculture.
It was only after their killer, Dean Corll, was murdered by an accomplice that many of those boys’ bodies were discovered in mass graves. Corll, known as the “Candy Man,” was a local sweet-shop owner who had enlisted two teens to lure their friends to parties, where they would be tortured and killed.
All of Corll’s victims’ bodies were badly decomposed; some were only skeletal. Known collectively as the Lost Boys, many were never identified and some remained undiscovered. Decades later, when forensic anthropologist Sharon Derrick discovered a box of remains marked “1973 Murders” in the Harris County Medical Examiner’s office, she recalled the horrifying crime from her own childhood, and knew she had to act. It would take prison interviews with Corll’s accomplices, advanced scientific techniques, and years of tireless effort to identify these young men.
Investigative journalist Lise Olsen brings to life the teens who were hunted by a killer hiding in plain sight and the extraordinary woman who would finally give his unknown victims back their names and their dignity. With newly uncovered information about the case, The Scientist and the Serial Killer immerses listeners in an astonishing story and reveals why these horrific events remain relevant decades later. Joining me to discuss, THE SCIENTIST AND THE SERIAL KILLER: The Search for Houston's Lost Boys—Lise Olsen

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Acclaimed journalist, author, and creator of the True Crime This Week podcast, and former Boy Scout James Renner, explores the dark side of an American institution, its pervasive culture of sexual abuse, and the traumatic—even deadly—repercussions of its long-buried secrets.
In the summer of 1995, at the largest Boy Scout camp in Ohio, a night of sexual violence ended with one counselor dead and another hospitalized. The death was ruled “accidental.” But it wouldn’t be the last death associated with Seven Ranges Reservation.
James Renner, too, was a counselor at Seven Ranges that year. He was always sure there must be more to the story of Mike Klingler’s death, because Renner also knew firsthand that the 900-acre camp was not the safe getaway it was portrayed to be. On Friday nights the boys were ushered into the woods for a frightening ceremony in which they learned the rules for becoming good young men—and, above all, that keeping secrets was a scout’s duty. No matter how dark the secrets were.
Determined to face his demons, Renner embarks on a journey back to that tumultuous summer and exposes a clandestine society that left indelible scars on the scouts and the staff who were there. For Renner himself, it meant opening up about his twisted upbringing, his issues with trust and sexuality, and a lifetime of self-medication. The result is a deeply personal, no-holds-barred, and vitally important true crime memoir. Joining me to discuss, SCOUT CAMP: Sex, Death, and Secret Societies Inside The Boy Scouts of America-James Renner

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THE CRACK CITY STRANGLER: The Homicides of Serial Killer Benjamin Atkins offers a chilling, in-depth account of the horrifying crimes committed by one of America’s most notorious serial killers.
Award-winning journalist B.R. Bates delves into the twisted life of Benjamin “Tony” Atkins, whose reign of terror in Detroit spanned less than a year in the early 1990s. Known for targeting vulnerable women in Detroit’s most dangerous neighborhoods, Atkins attacked at least 12 women, killing 11 along a mile-and-a-half stretch of Woodward Avenue, one of the city’s most iconic streets.
Atkins' crimes were brutal and relentless, leaving victims abandoned in the dark corners of the Cass Corridor and Highland Park. Only when the lone survivor of his horrific spree came forward did law enforcement begin to connect the dots and ultimately capture the monster behind the killings.
Through meticulous research in this second book in her Murders In The Motor City series, Bates uncovers the complex web of motivation, abuse, and desperation that led Atkins to target sex workers, while also exploring the societal pressures and systemic neglect that shaped his dark path. A poignant look at a killer’s psychology, Bates explains how this troubled life could give rise to such monstrous behavior. THE CRACK CITY STRANGLER: The Homicides of Serial Killer Benjamin Atkins-B.R. Bates

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Smitty: My Marriage to Serial Killer Charles Schmid, the Pied Piper of Tucson unveils an unforgettable tale of love, betrayal, and survival. Diane Schmid thought she had found her Prince Charming when she met Charles Schmid, a charismatic and mysterious man who swept her off her feet as a teenager in the mid-1960s. But her fairytale quickly unraveled when her husband was arrested for multiple shocking murders that captured national attention.
Set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing America, this deeply personal memoir recounts Diane’s journey from a young girl in love to a woman facing unimaginable revelations of murder. Through vivid memories and unflinching honesty, Diane reveals how she navigated a life overshadowed by her husband’s heinous crimes while striving to protect her family and find peace.
Written with co-author Marshall Terrill, this book offers a unique perspective on one of the most infamous cases in American history, shedding light on the devastating human cost of living with such a dark secret. Blending gripping storytelling with heartfelt reflection, Smitty captures the strength of a survivor who chose to share her voice after decades of silence.
Smitty is a compelling and haunting story for those who seek a deeper understanding of resilience in the face of unthinkable events. SMITTY: My Marriage to Serial Killer Charles Schmid, the Pied Piper of Tucson—Marshall Terrill

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Detective Rick Jackson, a decorated LAPD detective and a key inspiration in the development of Harry Bosch, delivers a shocking and immersive look into the one case he could never let go. In June 1990, Ronald Baker, a straight-A UCLA student, was found repeatedly stabbed to death in a tunnel near Spahn Ranch, where Charles Manson and his followers once lived. Shortly thereafter, Detective Rick Jackson and his partner, Frank Garcia, were assigned the case. Yet the facts made no sense. Who would have a motive to kill Ron Baker in such a grisly manner? Was the proximity to the Manson ranch related to the murder? And what about the pentagram pendant Ron wore around his neck? Jackson and Garcia soon focused their investigation on Baker’s two male roommates, one black, and one white. What emerges is at once a story of confounding betrayal and cold-hearted intentions, as well as a larger portrait of an embattled Los Angeles, a city in the grip of the Satanic Panic and grappling with questions of racial injustice and police brutality in the wake of Rodney King. Rick Jackson, the now-retired police detective who helped inspire Michael Connelly’s beloved Harry Bosch, along with co-writer, Matthew McGough, take us through the events as he and his partner experienced them, piecing together the truth with each emerging clue. Black Tunnel White Magic is the true story of a murder in cold blood, deception and betrayal, and a city at the brink, set forth by the only man who could tell it. BLACK TUNNEL, WHITE MAGIC: A Murder, a Detective's Obsession, and 90's Los Angeles on the Brink-Rick Jackson and Matthew McGoughFollow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510 Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com 

When Wayne Adam Ford walked into the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office in November 1998 with a woman's body part in his jacket pocket, the 36-year-old truck driver wasn’t a suspect in any crime. After a lengthy investigation spanning four California counties and a sensational trial, he was convicted of the torture and murder of four women. His first victim, whom he dismembered, would remain unidentified for 25 years. While serving honorably in the Marine Corps, Ford had learned life-saving techniques that gave him structure and purpose. But a severe head injury worsened pre-existing emotional problems, rendering him unable to suppress his dark sexual impulses. Knowing he would kill again, he enlisted his brother’s help to turn himself in. Award-winning investigative journalist Caitlin Rother drew on previously sealed testimony and interviewed key players in the case, including Ford's brother and father, to write this intimate and psychologically resonant narrative. Extensively updated with the inside details of how Ford’s first victim, Kerry Anne Cummings was recently identified through DNA testing and forensic genealogy, this classic true crime story continues to haunt us. Joining me to discuss the updated edition of her book, BODY PARTS: A Serial Killer's Deadly Compulsions-—Caitlin Rother Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510 Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com 

At just 21 years of age, friends Todd Wilson and Scott McCarthy were virtually inseparable. The pair reported for duty at United Bank of Denver at 6:00 a.m. on Father's Day 1991-McCarthy's first day on the job. They joined two more experienced guards and began making their rounds. By 9:30 a.m., all four were dead. The killer then descended upon the cash vault where he held six petrified tellers at gunpoint before absconding with nearly $200,000.

Eighteen days later, the Denver Police Department arrested one of its own. Not only had retired sergeant James W. King served on the force for 25 years, he'd recently been a guard at United Bank-often complaining about the abysmal security, including a decision to disarm its guards. But would he slaughter four of his unarmed successors to prove his point and risk a date with the execution chamber?

DEADLY HEIST is the captivating story of one of Colorado's most notorious crimes and of a courtroom slugfest that would take a jury nine grueling days to resolve. Its verdict-delivered a year and a day after the bloody massacre-reverberates across the Rocky Mountains to this day. Joining me to discuss his book, DEADLY HEIST: The True Story of the Mile High Bank Massacre—Steven B. Epstein

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On a Sunday morning in the spring of 1921, a small boy made a grim discovery as he played on a riverbank in the cotton country of rural Georgia: the bodies of two drowned men, bound together with wire and chain and weighted with a hundred-pound sack of rocks. Within days a third body turned up in another nearby river, and in the weeks that followed, eight others. And with them a deeper horror: all eleven had been kept in virtual slavery before their deaths. In fact, as America was shocked to learn, the dead were among thousands of Black men enslaved throughout the South in conditions nearly as dire as those before the Civil War.

Hell Put to Shame tells the forgotten story of that mass killing and of the revelations about peonage, or debt slavery, that it placed before a public self-satisfied that involuntary servitude had ended at Appomattox more than fifty years before.

By turns police procedural, courtroom drama, and political exposé, Hell Put to Shame also reintroduces three Americans who spearheaded the prosecution of John S. Williams, the wealthy plantation owner behind the murders, at a time when white people rarely faced punishment for violence against their Black neighbors. The remarkable polymath James Weldon Johnson, newly appointed the first Black leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, marshaled the organization into a full-on war against peonage. Johnson’s lieutenant, Walter F. White, a light-skinned, fair-haired, blue-eyed Black man, conducted undercover work at the scene of lynchings and other Jim Crow atrocities, helping to throw a light on such violence and to hasten its end. And Georgia governor Hugh M. Dorsey won the statehouse as a hero of white supremacists—then redeemed himself in spectacular fashion with the “Murder Farm” affair.

This is a story that remains fresh and relevant a century later, as the nation continues to wrestle with seemingly intractable challenges in matters of race and justice. And the 1921 case at its heart argues that the forces that so roil society today have been with us for generations.  Joining me to discuss his book, HELL PUT TO SHAME: The 1921 Murder Farm Massacre and the Horror of America's Second Slavery—Earl Swift.

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For the first time in forty years, former New York Times editor Michael Cannell has unearthed the full story behind two ruthless New York cops who acted as double agents for the Mafia.

No episode in NYPD history surpasses the depravities of Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, two decorated detectives who covertly acted as mafia informants and paid assassins in the Scorsese world of 1980s Brooklyn.
For more than ten years, Eppolito and Caracappa moonlighted as the mob’s early warning alert system, leaking names of mobsters secretly cooperating with the government and crippling investigations by sharing details of surveillance, phone taps and impending arrests. The Lucchese boss called the two detectives his crystal ball: Whatever detectives knew, the mafia soon learned. Most grievously, Eppolito and Caracappa earned bonuses by staging eight mob hits, pulling the trigger themselves at least once.

Incredibly, when evidence of their wrongdoing arose in 1994, FBI officials failed to muster an indictment. The allegations lay dormant for a decade and were only revisited due to relentless follow up by Tommy Dades, a cop determined to break the cold case before his retirement. Eppolito and Caracappa were finally tried and then sentenced to life in prison in 2009, nearly thirty years after their crimes took place.

Cannell’s Blood and the Badge is based on entirely new research and never-before-released interviews with mobsters themselves, including Sammy “the Bull” Gravano. Joining me to discuss his new book, BLOOD AND THE BADGE: The Mafia, Two Killer Cops, and a Scandal that shocked the Nation—N.Y. Times editor and author Michael Cannell

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On April 15, 1973, two high school students discovered Virginia Marie Olson’s body near the campus of the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Olson’s murder was horrifically violent—she had been bound, raped, and stabbed to death, leaving the Asheville community in shock. The cold case that followed would span over 50 years, involving three generations of detectives and the Asheville Police Department and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation as they worked tirelessly to uncover the truth. 

Authors Brian and Cameron Santana and I discuss law enforcement’s dramatic efforts to find Olson’s killer, facing numerous obstacles along the way, from the abduction of another UNCA student in 1974 to a rape and murder victim's body discovered near Olson’s crime scene in 1978. Whispers about the killer's identity have circulated for decades, with theories ranging from an escaped mental health patient to one of North Carolina’s most notorious serial killers—until now.

Their book, A MURDER ON CAMPUS is the first to tell the gripping story of this unsolved crime and the surprising twists that led to the authors' startling revelation of the killer’s identity. 

This is the fascinating story of how two brothers—Brian, an English professor, the other a cop—tag team as authors to solve North Carolina’s most notorious cold case ....A MURDER ON CAMPUS: The Professor, The Cop, and North Carolina's Most Notorious Cold Case-Brian and Cameron Santana

 

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