Firebug

In 2001, a series of letters laced with a deadly powder called anthrax appeared on the desks of prominent journalists and politicians in New York City and Washington D.C causing a national panic. But what started as an unprecedented case soon turned into an unsettling mystery...

Meet Ashley Randele. Ashley’s Dad, Thomas Randele, was her favorite person in the world. A great dad, a great golfer, and the love of her Mum’s life. Ashley thought she knew him better than anyone. But at 38 years old, that notion would be shattered. Ashley’s dad wasn’t Thomas Randele, he was Ted Conrad - a wanted fugitive who had evaded authorities for over half a century...

In 1991, federal investigators arrest an arsonist in Los Angeles. In his home, they find a manuscript for a novel about a firebug burning down California. Is the book a work of fiction, or the confessions of a prolific arsonist turned murderer? Host Kary Antholis investigates to figure out where fiction meets reality. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When LA screenwriter Gary Devore mysteriously disappears in the summer of 1997, weird coincidences lead family and friends to believe he may have been a victim of foul play -- possibly because of his mysterious ties to the CIA. Gary was on the way home from finishing his latest script, which was allegedly going to be based in part on real events that occurred during the American invasion of Panama, and that script vanished along with him and his vehicle...

From the team that brought you Firebug and Crimetown comes a new true crime story, Crooked City: Dixon, IL, available now wherever you get your podcasts. It's the 1990's and in the world of show horses - Rita Crundwell was the name on everyone's lips. Known as "The Horse Queen," she was the proud owner of hundreds of champion quarter horses on her ranch outside the small city of Dixon, Illinois. But something wasn't adding up with Crundwell's equestrian empire...

For almost two decades, DEA Special Agent Chad Scott ruled the streets just North of New Orleans. He controlled a network of snitches by convincing people he arrested to work for him as informants. Chad would stop at nothing to put drug dealers behind bars. His successes won awards at the DEA, but his willingness to bend the rules earned him a terrifying reputation on the streets. Some called him the Golden Boy. Others called him the White Devil...

What if someone close to you just … vanished one day? That happens to tens of thousands of families a year in Japan, and it happened to Jake Adelstein, too, back in 2018 — when his accountant disappeared, just before tax day. Adelstein, the author of Tokyo Vice, and co-host Shoko Plambeck go in search of that missing accountant, and take us on a  journey into the fascinating and bizarre world of Japan’s johatsu, or “evaporated” people...

From Marc Smerling, the creator of Crimetown and The Jinx, welcome to CROOKED CITY.  The Saturday Evening Post dubbed Youngstown, Ohio “Crimetown U.S.A.” It was a mob town. Illegal gambling was so lucrative that a mob war raged for decades, and bodies piled up.  Then, Jim Traficant ran for sheriff, riding into office as the city’s steel industry fell on hard times...

BioHacked tells startling true stories of the people caught between two multi-trillion-dollar industries — medicine and technology — and chronicles how their lives are transformed. In season 1, the children of anonymous sperm and egg donors — some with dozens or hundreds of half-siblings — take on the fertility industry...

For decades, Washington D.C. was terrorized by a serial arsonist who set hundreds of fires. In letters to journalist Dave Jamieson, that arsonist discussed his strange motivations, and a murder no one knew about. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices