True crime podcast?

April 9, 2016 6:28 AM

I'm looking for dark, true crime podcasts. My ideal would be the content of Sword and Scale with the production of Criminal or Serial.

I love Criminal but each episode is only twenty minutes long. And I've listened to all of Serial. I'm not interested in anything supernatural. Sword and Scale would be perfect but I find it to be really poorly put together and difficult to follow.

Something about nontraditional crime or moral wrongdoings, like internet scams, would fit the bill too. I love first person narratives.

posted by pintapicasso to Writing & Language (10 answers total)

Best answer: Thinking Sideways isn't technically a "crime," podcast, it's more like Unsolved Mysteries in podcast format, but as it deals with mysteries, many of its episodes are basically stories of unsolved crime. I'm a big fan.
posted by ferdinandcc at 7:13 AM on April 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Maybe the Charles Manson eps of You Must Remember This?
posted by leesh at 8:01 AM on April 9, 2016 [4 favorites]

Best answer: A very similar question was asked on r/UnresolvedMysteries and I've been slowly making my way through the suggestions. There are a lot to choose from! Here's the link. I really like Detective and Unresolved so far.
posted by possibilityleft at 8:17 AM on April 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The Generation Why isn't up to the level of Serial but I like the format. Also I'm a big fan of Undisclosed, which is more of a legal analysis of the Adnan Sayed case and less of a narrative, but ymmv.
posted by janey47 at 8:20 AM on April 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

You might be interested in CBC radio's Somebody Knows Something.
posted by chapps at 8:41 AM on April 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Last Podcast on the Left deals with true crime quite a bit, but they also go into conspiracies, UFOs, etc.
posted by cropshy at 9:04 AM on April 9, 2016

Best answer: Last Podcast on the Left is pretty well-researched but be warned that it is pretty crude and not for the sensitive or easily-offended. I really like Liar City, which focuses on frauds and phonies rather than murder or more serious crimes. Casefile: True Crime Podcast is pretty interesting, though the host can be a little monotone. My Favorite Murder is another newer one I've been liking (it's two gals just casually discussing horrific crimes like you would at a cocktail party and its less thorough or research-oriented that some of the above). Stuff They Don't Want You to Know is often good (though less crime and more conspiracy theories). That unresolved subreddit mentioned above is a great resource for this stuff.
posted by lovableiago at 10:19 AM on April 9, 2016

You might like Breakdown. It's a podcast by the main newspaper in Atlanta, and is currently in the second season. It's a little slower than Serial, but pretty good, actually.

Truth and Justice podcast started as a show that followed Serial and incorporated listener theories, but has become a podcast about wrongful convictions. I love it, but I know Bob Ruff's style isn't for everyone. Season two is about a series of wrongful convictions in Tyler Texas. Season one is about Adnan Syed.
posted by guster4lovers at 11:17 AM on April 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I thoroughly enjoyed Who Killed Elsie Frost?
posted by suncages at 10:14 PM on April 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I wanted to update this thread for anyone who is interested in the same dark stuff. I wound up loving:
- thinking sideways: great dynamic between the hosts, huge backlog of episodes, great content
- generation why: more thorough research
- casefile: an Australian guy who has a great voice and also does solved crimes

I couldn't hang with last podcast on the left, the guys sounded so douchy and unfunny. Hope it helps someone else !
posted by pintapicasso at 10:27 AM on October 16, 2016 [1 favorite]