Crime Story

In the early summer of 2017, police in Squamish, British Columbia discovered the body of a man in a burned out vehicle. It took little time for the police to declare his death a homicide. What took more time was identifying who the man was. Originally, authorities thought his name was Jesse James, but they discovered he had other identities: Andrew Britt Greenbaum, Davis Wolfgang Hawke, Commander Bo Decker. Each identity revealed a mysterious past - and a potential motive for his murder.In the new podcast, Dirtbag Climber, host Steven Chua takes us along on the adventure to uncover who the real Jesse James was.

Kevin Smith seemed like your typical pastor. He was a respected member of his community in Montego Bay, preaching the Bible to hundreds of congregants each week. But he also preached conspiracy theories from his social media account. On October 17, 2021, Smith sent a message on Facebook instructing his followers to get to the church. He told them “the Flood is coming”. Members of his congregation packed their suitcases and rushed over. But when they arrived, that’s when the real danger began. Three people were killed, two of them, witnesses allege, as part of a human sacrifice. This week on Crime Story, reporter Rachel Browne explains how a pastor’s pandemic conspiracy theories turned a church into a cult and a crime scene.

Maria Hinojosa first met David Luis “Suave” Gonzalez when he was serving life without parole — sentenced as a juvenile. What began as a chance visit inside a Pennsylvania prison grew into a decades-long story of friendship, justice and redemption.Suave’s journey out of prison exposes the harsh realities of juvenile sentencing, the complexities of freedom under lifelong parole, and the fragile line between journalist and subject. Along the way, Maria confronts the emotional toll this story takes on her family and herself.If you like this episode, we think you’ll enjoy Trouble in Sweetwater: Connie Walker investigates a crisis of policing on America’s largest reservation.

Not every journalist is willing to explore the darkest corners of humanity. It’s hard. It’s haunting. And not everyone can stomach what they would discover But Ian Urbina has made a career out of going there. In his podcast, The Outlaw Ocean, Ian explores the most lawless place on earth – the vast unpoliceable ocean. He’s back with season two where he sheds light on secretive Libyan prisons, flagrant human rights abuses off the shores of China, and the horrors of a shrimp processing plant in India. And this week, we have something special for you. Ian sat down with Daemon Fairless, host of the podcast Hunting Warhead, to discuss what it takes to report crime on the ocean.

On October 21st, 2021, actor Alec Baldwin was rehearsing a scene for his new Western film, Rust, when tragedy struck. The gun he was holding wasn’t supposed to have live ammunition. Both the director, Joel Souza, and the director of photography, Halyna Hutchins, were shot. Halyna, a 42-year-old mother and filmmaker, died.Right from the start, the question on everyone’s minds was this: how did a real bullet end up in a gun that everyone, including Alec Baldwin, thought was a prop? In her new documentary, Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna, director Rachel Mason takes us on set to explore who Halyna Hutchins was and what really happened on the set of Rust.

At first, Kat Torres seemed like your average social media influencer. She was a young, Brazilian model photographed with Hollywood elites. She spoke about her life, relationships, and meditation, spouting advice from self-help books. But then, her content began to shift.She told her followers she had supernatural abilities that could change their lives. And their lives did change - but not in ways anyone could have imagined. This week on Crime Story, journalist and influencer Chico Felitti from the hit podcast, Don’t Cross Kat. If you like this conversation, we think you’ll enjoy our episode with Scott Johnson about the Hollywood Con Queen. 

In 1987, Leo Schofield was convicted of murdering his wife, Michelle. Decades later, a different man confessed to the crime. Jeremy Scott’s DNA was found in the car Michelle was driving the night she was murdered. And yet, the state of Florida doesn’t believe either of them. Not only did Leo lose Michelle but he spent 36 years in prison for her murder. This week on Crime Story, Bone Valley’s Gilbert King is back and he brought a surprise guest: Leo Schofield. Exactly one year since Leo was released from prison, we discuss season two, meeting Jeremy and Leo's decision to forgive him.If you like this episode, we think you’ll enjoy our first conversation with Gilbert: Bone Valley: ‘Why is Leo Schofield still in jail?’

In 2009, Amanda Knox was wrongly convicted of the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher. She should have been a footnote in a tragic story. But despite zero physical evidence linking her to the crime, she spent four years in prison. Amanda was vilified by the press and made infamous as ‘Foxy Knoxy’ in the tabloids. After eight years on trial, she was finally exonerated in 2015. And yet, her release from prison was only the beginning of Amanda’s search for freedom. Who was she now that the world had branded her a killer?Today, Amanda is a writer, podcaster, and advocate for criminal justice and media ethics. She joins Crime Story to discuss her new book, Free: My Search for Meaning. If you like this episode, we think you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maurice Chammah.Feedback for us? You can email us directly at crimestory@cbc.ca.

In 1977, the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club opened up a chapter in Montreal. One of its founding members was a man named Yves “Apache” Trudeau.Although he was quiet and diminutive, Trudeau had a knack for violence. And, before long, he had developed a reputation as a ruthless assassin. By the time his criminal career ended, he had murdered no fewer than 43 people.Despite the magnitude of his crimes, Trudeau only served 7 years in prison.Now, Julian Sher and Lisa Fitterman are reexamining the story in their new book Hitman: The Untold Story of Canada’s Deadliest Assassin. Feedback for us? You can email us directly at crimestory@cbc.ca.Hear Crime Story early and ad-free by becoming a subscriber here.

When we started this podcast a year and a half ago, there was one name at the top of our dream guest list: Keith Morrison.For more than 30 years, Morrison has been the face – and the voice – of NBC’s Dateline, which, in some ways, is the original true crime show.In recent years, Morrison has moved into podcasting. His latest offering, Murder in the Moonlight, is about a pair of wayward drifters who murder an elderly couple in a quiet farming community. Morrison explains how he picks the stories he works on, what it’s been like to spend three decades covering true crime, and whether the death of his stepson, the Friends actor Matthew Perry, impacted the way he approaches his job. To hear episodes of Crime Story a week early, and ad-free, become a subscriber here.Feedback for us? You can email us directly at crimestory@cbc.ca.

FBI undercover agent Scott Payne’s job was to infiltrate the most dangerous gangs of our times: outlaw bikers, drug cartels and the international neo-Nazi networks hellbent on inciting a race war. He was taking down these groups from within. And Scott was good at it — people confided in him their most audacious plans for mass violence and domestic terrorism.In the second season of White Hot Hate, host Michelle Shephard gives you an unvarnished view of a life undercover. Because after a 28-year-long career pretending to be somebody else, Agent Payne is ready to tell his side of the story. This series was produced alongside a book co-written by Scott Payne and Michelle Shephard titled Code Name: Pale Horse: How I Went Undercover to Expose America's Nazis.More episodes of White Hot Hate: Agent Pale Horse are available at: https://link.mgln.ai/iSaGFR

Over the past decade or so, white supremacist groups with names like the Patriot Front and the Atomwaffen Division have been quietly recruiting new members online, spreading propaganda and conducting paramilitary training exercises across North America. One of these groups is called The Base and, in the summer of 2019, Scott Payne wanted to become a member. But Scott wasn’t a neo nazi or a rightwing extremist. He was an undercover FBI agent. Over the course of 28 years in law enforcement Scott has infiltrated biker gangs, posed as a hitman, and ingratiated himself with drug dealers. Now he’s taking us inside that world, with a memoir called Codename: Pale Horse, and the second season of the CBC podcast White Hot Hate, both of which he worked on with journalist Michelle Shephard.Feedback for us? You can email us directly at crimestory@cbc.ca.

Sam Mullins' latest podcast, Sea of Lies, begins with a gruesome catch pulled from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean and leads to a wild manhunt for one of the world’s most wanted criminals. Fisherman John Copik and his son Craig were hoping their day on the water would mean smooth sailing and finish with a good haul of cod. Instead, the duo from Devon reeled in a corpse. The horrifying discovery threw them straight into the middle of an investigation that uncovered stolen identities, a con man who had duped even his closest friends and family, and, of course, murder.To get Crime Story episodes early and ad-free, subscribe to CBC True Crime Premium on Apple Podcasts.

If you were alive in the fall of 2001, you probably have vivid memories of September 11th. But, what you might not remember, is that just weeks after 9/11 there was another attack on American soil. As the country mourned, envelopes containing anthrax spores were sent to national media outlets like NBC and to the offices of U.S. senators. When it was all over, five people would be dead and 17 would be seriously ill. It was the worst biological attack in U.S. history.The FBI’s investigation would take nearly seven years, and leave a trail of collateral damage in its wake. By the time they figured out who was responsible, the story had faded from the public consciousness.Now, Jeremiah Crowell is taking a new look at the story in his podcast Aftermath: Hunt for the Anthrax Killer, and trying to unpack the profound impact that these attacks had on American politics – and the American people. To get episodes of Crime Story early and ad-free, subscribe to CBC True Crime Premium on Apple Podcasts.

Although there are plenty of disturbing personalities on social media, few are as vicious, and as influential, as Andrew Tate.Tate, who began his career as a professional kickboxer, rose to prominence in the late 2010s as a social media influencer and self-described misogynist. On TikTok, his videos have been viewed billions of times, mostly by young men. Over the last couple of years, as Tate’s influence has spread, a growing body of evidence has emerged that his digital empire wasn’t just corrosive – it may have been criminal. In 2023, Romanian authorities charged Andrew Tate, and his brother Tristan, with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal organization to sexually exploit women. But before any of that came to light, two journalists received a tip about Tate back in 2019. That tip would send Jamie Tahsin and Matt Shea on a four year odyssey into the bizarre and disturbing subculture of Andrew Tate’s manosphere, which they document in their new book Clown World. Feedback for us? You can email us directly at crimestory@cbc.ca.

In 1989, on a quiet night in Beverly Hills California, Jose and Kitty Menendez were gunned down in their living room.At first, police thought Jose – a hotshot entertainment executive – had been involved in some shady business dealings. But it wasn’t long before we learned what really happened: Jose and Kitty had been murdered by their own sons. The trials of Lyle and Erik Menendez captivated the world, and ultimately ended with both brothers being sentenced to life without parole.Today, more than 35 years after the killings, the Menendez brothers have come back into the public consciousness, in part because new evidence has emerged that could lead to the brothers walking free. Before all this though – before the brothers were even considered suspects – a Miami Herald reporter named Robert Rand flew to Beverly Hills to write a profile on the late Jose Menendez. That fateful trip resulted in Rand being swept up in one of the most shocking murder trials of the 20th century. Feedback for us? You can email us directly at crimestory@cbc.ca.Hear new episodes of Crime Story early and ad-free by subscribing to CBC True Crime Premium on Apple Podcasts.

On Oct. 3, 1980, a bomb exploded outside the Rue Copernic synagogue in Paris, killing four people and injuring 46.The attack sparked outrage and protests against anti-semitic violence. But as weeks turned to years, the investigation went nowhere.Finally, French investigators named Hassan Diab, a Lebanese-Canadian professor, as its main suspect. 28 years years after the attack, Diab was charged and extradited from Canada to France. But did the police arrest the right person?Alex Atack and Dana Ballout from the podcast, The Copernic Affair, join Crime Story.To hear next week's episode of Crime Story right now, ad-free, subscribe to CBC True Crime Premium on Apple Podcasts.

Michael Jackson might be the most famous pop star of all time. With more than 500 million records sold, it’s hard to overstate his impact on popular culture, and on the generation of fans who grew up with his music.His strange personal life became part of his mystique. He occasionally slept in an oxygen chamber, and he collected exotic animals, including a pet monkey named Bubbles. But there were darker stories as well. Stories about him abusing young boys.In 1993, Jackson was publicly accused of molesting a child. In 2003, there was another accusation, and this time he was arrested.Despite all of this, Jackson’s fans remained fiercely loyal to him right up to his death in 2009. Then, in 2019, director Dan Reed released a documentary called Leaving Neverland that profiled two men who alleged they had been abused by Jackson. The documentary was a watershed moment. For the first time, it seemed like people might finally be willing to reckon with who the King of Pop really was, and the things he might have done.  Feedback for us? You can email us directly at crimestory@cbc.ca.

In the summer of 2021, Tabatha Pope and her boyfriend were living out of a cheap motel, struggling to make ends meet. Then, she found an affordable apartment just outside downtown Houston, and it seemed like her luck was finally turning around. But when she moved in, something wasn’t right. There were buckets on the floor filled with a thick, red substance that looked a lot like blood, and crimson stains on the walls. It was clear that something terrible had happened here. And as she learned more, Tabatha came to a disturbing conclusion: the perpetrator may have been the person she thought was her landlord.In a feature for New York magazine, Ian Frisch recounts the surreal story of Tabatha Pope’s nightmare on West Clay Street. Feedback for us? You can email us directly at crimestory@cbc.ca. To hear episodes early and ad-free, subscribe to CBC True Crime Premium.

In real life, bank robberies are not nearly as sexy and dramatic as the movies make them out to be. They're usually poorly planned acts of desperation. Tony Hathaway was desperate, but he was smart. By the time he was caught - he'd pulled off thirty robberies in just over a year. This week on Crime Story, Josh Dean from the podcast, Hooked, explores why Tony Hathaway became one of America's most prolific bank robbers.Hear Crime Story episodes a week early, and ad-free, on CBC True Crime Premium.