True Crime Campfire

08/02/2025

Thank you so much for all the birthday love! It makes me feel like a princess. 😍

08/01/2025

Mark Twain, always a good man for a quote, said about getting old: “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” There is generally a broad unspoken societal agreement over what the elderly are supposed to be like, the shape their lives are supposed to have. There are always people who don’t fit into this preconception, of course, I’m sure plenty of you have encountered some weird and wild senior citizens—but probably not as wild as the people in this week’s story., who turned their lives into their own personal mash-up of “Grumpy Old Men” and “Oceans 11.”

Golden Years: The Hatton Garden Heist is out now.

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very first CRIMEWAVE true crime cruise! Get your fan code now--tickets on sale now, and there's a limited number left: CrimeWaveatSea.com/CAMPFIRE

07/31/2025

Everyone help me wish the Queen of Southern Sass a happy birthday. Happy birthday Whitney! Eat all the cheesecake you want!

07/25/2025

There’s an old saying that if you hear hoofbeats, you should think horses, not zebras. It means that in most situations, the simplest, most likely explanation is probably the right one. But you know we deal in “stranger than fiction” here, folks, and sometimes you turn around expecting horses and you get a stampeding herd of zebras instead. Things are not always what they seem at first glance. And today, we’ll tell you two stories where digging down below the surface pulled investigators through the looking glass, and into the strangest cases they’d ever seen.

Mystery Grab Bag is out now!

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very first CRIMEWAVE true crime cruise! Get your fan code now: CrimeWaveatSea.com/CAMPFIRE

Art is Question Mark? Collage by Joe Dolack

07/18/2025

There’s a saying that goes, “All regulations are written in blood.” And it’s true. If given the opportunity, companies will cut corners and find loopholes to make their jobs easier or cheaper or skirt some kind of oversight. And when it all goes wrong, when there’s blood on their hands, when there’s a dozen microphones in their face, the people in charge always look contrite. And that’s infuriating, isn’t it? The mundanity of that kind of evil. They wanted to save a couple of bucks and now people are dead and hurt and they’re sorry. Today, we’re talking about two cases where hundreds of people lost their lives because some bigwig at the top didn’t like the idea of spending a little more money. These stories will make your blood boil!

Disaster Class: A Grab Bag of Deadly Man-Made Disasters is out now.

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very first CRIMEWAVE true crime cruise! Get your fan code now-- CrimeWaveatSea.com/CAMPFIRE

07/11/2025

In last week’s episode, we learned about the troubled early life of Earle Nelson, and witnessed his first steps towards becoming one of the most prolific serial killers in North American history. This week, his journey of mayhem across America really kicks into high gear. Join us for part 2 of this terrifying true story. “Dark Strangler: The Crimes of Earle Leonard Nelson, pt 2” is out now! Listen on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6o1zc0WG0lByIk3EnSwxAO?si=IGYrbghnTQOTrlON4JhFng

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very first CRIMEWAVE true crime cruise! Get your fan code now--tickets go on sale February 7: CrimeWaveatSea.com/CAMPFIRE nn

07/11/2025

Happiest of birthdays to our queen Katie!

07/04/2025

If you think about the 1920s in the United States, a few things might come to mind—jazz, prohibition, Babe Ruth, and, right at the end, the Wall Street Crash. And if you think of crime, you probably think of Al Capone, bootlegging, and fast-talking wise guys with Tommy guns. But the 1920s were also in some ways the nation’s introduction to crimes that could shock and horrify the entire country. Leopold and Loeb’s thrill killing, the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the utter horror of child-killer and cannibal Albert Fish. And possibly the most prolific killer of the decade was a man whose strange desires sent him on a trail of murder all across a continent. Dark Stranger: the Crimes of Earle Leonard Nelson, part 1 is out now.

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very first CRIMEWAVE true crime cruise! Get your fan code now--tickets are on sale now: CrimeWaveatSea.com/CAMPFIRE

Art is stranger (149) by Cheolhee Lim

06/28/2025

PATREON FOLKS! Your new Love After Lockup reaction is up! This is a juicy one.

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06/27/2025

I saw a meme one time that said, “It’s funny how sometimes the people you’d take a bullet for are the ones behind the trigger.” Most of the time that’s just a metaphor, a way to describe the way it feels when a loved one betrays you. But not always. Sometimes betrayals come written in blood—and more often than not, from somebody you loved and trusted. You couldn’t find a clearer example of that than this week’s case, a story where two of the most powerful forces in the world—love and greed—clash, and three innocent people end up paying the price. : the Crimes of Alan Hruby is out now

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very first CRIMEWAVE true crime cruise! Get your fan code now--tickets are on sale: CrimeWaveatSea.com/CAMPFIRE

06/20/2025

Motivational speakers started really gaining popularity in the 70s and 80s, the golden age of “self-help.” And in recent years, they’ve been even more in-demand, especially in the business world. You can’t swing a dead cat these days without hitting some self-proclaimed entrepreneurial guru who claims to have the formula for success and would be happy to share it with you, if you sign up for their seminar for the low-low price of thousands of dollars. Or buy their TikTok course. But you don’t have to get certified or trained to be a motivational speaker, and their industry is almost totally unregulated—meaning, anybody with a megawatt smile and a catchphrase can do it. And according to a Harvard study, most of these guys focus more on entertaining you than teaching you the way to win. It all makes you wonder—are the ones who claim to have all the answers really so enlightened? Well, today we’re gonna tell you about two who most definitely weren’t.

Inspire, Achieve, Repeat: A Grab Bag of Killer Motivational Speakers is out now.

Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very first CRIMEWAVE true crime cruise! Get your fan code--tickets are on sale NOW: CrimeWaveatSea.com/CAMPFIRE

06/19/2025

Happy Juneteenth, campers!