In an era where sensationalism often trumps substance, the True Crime Reporter® podcast offers a bracing alternative—a meticulously crafted, investigative lens focused on the intricacies and nuances of criminal cases that grip public consciousness. Created and hosted by Robert Riggs, a Peabody Award-winning investigative reporter based in Dallas, Texas, the podcast peels back the layers of high-profile criminal investigations, offering an unprecedented level of detail and insight. True Crime Reporter® is not merely a recitation of facts and timelines. Drawing upon exclusive interviews with experts, from law enforcement agents to forensic psychologists, Riggs dives into the complexity and gravity of each case. He explores not just the "what" and the "who" but the often elusive "why" behind criminal acts, meticulously unraveling the sociopolitical threads that often inform them. The narrative richness of the podcast is underscored by its ethical rigor. Riggs goes beyond the superficial to offer a humanized portrait of both victims and perpetrators, challenging listeners to confront their preconceptions and biases...
https://www.truecrimereporter.com/episodes/
episode 1: "Free to Kill" The Release of Serial Killers from Texas Death Row
A violent crime wave swept across Texas in the late 1980s and early 1990s. You could pick up the newspaper any day or turn on the television anywhere, Houston, Dallas, particularly Houston, and the lead story was a stranger on stranger crime, horrific violence.
A Houston mother was pulled out of her car by her hair women at a busy intersection by ex-cons looking for a full tank of gas.
They executed her and ran over her body as they drove away in her car with a full tank of gas.
Stories like this always start and end with, “The killers were out on parole.”
Little did the public or members of the Texas Legislature know, but the Texas Governor had secretly swung open the doors to relieve prison overcrowding. Thousands of violent criminals, including former death row inmates, flooded back into Texas communities.
In their wake, murder and mayhem spread like a plague across Texas.
Among the inmates released was Kenneth Allen McDuff, a sadistic sexual serial killer known as the “Broom Stick Killer."
McDuff had been sentenced to die in Texas’ electric chair for the brutal murder of three teenagers in a farming community outside Fort Worth.
Women's bodies started showing up a few days after McDuff walked out of prison on parole in 1989.
This is the story of the dedicated law enforcement officers who worked tirelessly to stop McDuff's killing spree and to bring him to justice.
It is the story of how Peabody Award-winning investigative reporter Robert Riggs uncovered widespread corruption in the Texas Parole and Prison systems that led to the wholesale release of thousands of violent criminals.
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