California Crime Stories

On February 25th, 1996, doctor, actor, author, activist, and Cambodian genocide survivor Haing S. Ngor was murdered outside his LA apartment. Ngor survived the genocide that claimed his wife, family, and nearly two million Cambodians, only to be shot in what police believed was a robbery gone wrong. After escaping Cambodia, Ngor gained fame for his Oscar-winning performance in The Killing Fields. His Hollywood success allowed him to raise awareness about Cambodia’s genocide and aid refug...

On August 2nd, 1942, José Gallardo Díaz was brutally beaten and stabbed on his way home from a neighbor’s birthday party in Los Angeles. After being rushed to the hospital, José was pronounced dead. The hunt for José’s killers became a proxy war on LA’s Mexican-American youth, and more than 600 Mexican-American men and women were taken into custody. 22 young men were charged with the murder, and after a three-month-long mass trial that was biased against them from the start, 17 were convicted...

Hey! It’s been a minute since you heard from us…but we’re back with an update minisode! Since we released our last episode in March, there have been several notable developments in cases that we've shared with you on the podcast. Riverside PD is offering a $50,000 reward (valid until 1/31/22) for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Cheri Jo Bates’s killer. Contact the Riverside PD’s Homicide Cold Case Unit by email at cjb@riversideca.gov with any information.Apply for the Cher...

On the night of June 11th, 1962, as guards stood watch and their fellow inmates slept, Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin escaped from Alcatraz prison, never to be seen again...Our recommendations for this episode: -British hip-hop artist Loyle Carner-Sally's Baking Addiction's Irish soda bread recipe https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/grandmas-irish-soda-bread/ Sources:-“Alcatraz at a Glance.” https://bit.ly/30Q1z9D-“Alcatraz escape: Fugitive John Anglin’s name on letter to p...

On the morning of October 29, 1963, Judy Williamson left her home in Albany to walk to the bus stop where she would catch a bus to the UC Berkeley campus. Judy never made it to the bus stop, and she would never again be seen alive. Three years later, Judy Williamson’s remains would be found in a wooded canyon, around 100 miles from her home. Judy’s killer might never have been found if it weren’t for Erhard Seminars Training, or EST, a self-help course popularized in the 1970s. Our recom...

On the morning of Halloween, 1966, a groundskeeper at Riverside City College discovered the body of a young woman, sprawled face-down on a gravel drive-way between two campus buildings. The victim was Cheri Jo Bates, an 18-year-old freshman who had spent the previous evening studying at the campus library. Her killer had stabbed her several times in the back and chest; slit her throat; and disappeared into the night. The search for Cheri Jo Bates’s killer stalled until 1970, when her murder w...

On June 16, 1959, the world awoke to the news that Superman had died. The actor George Reeves, best known for playing the Man of Steel on television in the 1950s, had died early that morning in his Beverly Hills home. Reeves had been killed by a gunshot wound to the head in his upstairs bedroom, while his fiancée and three friends sat downstairs. After a week-long investigation, the police closed the case and ruled Reeves’s death a suicide. Despite being the face of Superman, Reeves had never...

On Christmas Eve of 2000, Los Angeles police were called to the home of journalist and author Susan Berman. Susan’s neighbors had become worried when they noticed that her back door was open, and that her dogs were running loose in their Benedict Canyon neighborhood. Inside the home, police found the body of 55-year-old Berman, who had been killed by a single bullet wound to the back of the head. Police initially suspected that Susan Berman, the daughter of Las Vegas mob boss Davie Berman, ha...

On February 24th, 1978, five young men drove 50 miles from Yuba City, California to Chico to attend a college basketball game. They never returned home. Four days after their disappearance, their car was found abandoned on a snowy mountain road, far from both Chico and Yuba City. They had made a mysterious and inexplicable detour. Three months later, the remains of four of the five men would be found. Forty years later, one man remains missing, and the circumstances behind their disappearance...