7 Great True Crime Podcasts to Listen To This Halloween Season
By: Rebecca Everett
Anyone who has ever browsed the podcast charts knows: true crime is king. When my cohost Jessica Remo and I were working on our own podcast this year about an infamous family murder, we knew we were going to be putting Father Wants Us Dead out into a world already filled with great and varied true crime content. While we were nervous about how it would fare against other established shows, we hoped our podcast would fit into the awesome line up within the genre.
After launching Father Wants Us Dead in May, seeing it surpass three million downloads in less than three months, and seeing it climb – and stay – on the charts for over a month, we learned to appreciate that variety is key in true crime. From weekly shows with hosts that feel like your friends, to deeply-researched narrative series that keeps you on the edge of your seat for a whole season, and everything in between. There is space – and a craving – for all of it.
In that spirit and in the spirit of the Halloween season, I wanted to share a list of true crime podcasts I’ve come across and can’t stop listening to – ones that really show the variety that this genre has to offer.
7 Podcasts for Halloween Season
Start with: The Murder Of The Rev. James Reeb
I know I am late to this one, but it’s worth checking out if you missed it when it first came out in 2019. Two NPR reporters try to solve the 1965 murder of Rev. James Reeb, an Unitarian and civil-rights activist who was killed because he was supporting the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama.
They look at why three men were tried but acquitted, and uncover how the community kept the truth hidden for decades. It will make your blood boil.
Start with: Episode 27 // The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping
In true crime we’re often looking back at older crimes and cold cases. But I love that “Crimes of the Centuries” (from the Obsessed Network) goes really far back, digging into crimes that range from decades to centuries old. Some you’ve definitely heard of, like the Lindbergh baby kidnapping or the Salem witch trials, but there are many more you haven’t that are really intriguing. You can tell a lot of research in the archives went into each episode.
Witnessed: Mystic Mother
Start with: Mystic Mother | Episode 1: Aphrodite
This is another podcast that scratched that itch for a different kind of true crime podcast — no murder or kidnapping or horror here. The series delves into the decade-old story of the Phoenix Goddess Temple, a church or brothel depending on who you ask, where the church head insists the “healing” that women provide for money is part of their religion. They balance the telling of the story - from arrests to the wild trial - with important conversations about the criminalizing of sex work and the privilege that allowed the temple to operate.
Start with: Episode 68: Shafia Family Murders
I love a true crime podcast that leans on experts’ insight and gives me something other shows don’t. “Women and Crime” does that effortlessly, because the hosts are criminologists who have years of experience researching crime. (You might also be familiar with them through their first podcast about Melanie McGuire, called “Direct Appeal.”
In “Women and Crime,” Dr. Meghan Sacks and Dr. Amy Shlosberg cover cases involving women as victims or perpetrators, looking at everything from wrongful convictions cases to examples of the different ways women are treated in the criminal justice system.
Stolen: Surviving St. Michael's
Start with: Episode 1: The Police Officer and the Priest
I was hooked on the first season of “Stolen,” a podcast investigating the disappearance of Jermain Charlo, a 23-year-old Indigenous mother from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, who went missing in Missoula, Montana, in 2018.
In the new second season, investigative reporter Connie Walker looks at a personal story: her father’s abuse at the hands of a mysterious priest at one of Canada’s infamous boarding schools, where indigenous children were subject to horrors we’re only now starting to learn. She’s trying not just to investigate who did this to her father, but also look at the way it continues to impact his family, even after his death.
Start with: Episode 1: Meet the Quinneys (S2: American Panic)
This is another one that is a few years old but I think it’s essential listening for anyone who is interested in the Satanic Panic. In 1985, people believed there were underground rings of satanists abusing and murdering children — kids were accusing — even their own parents — and the consequences were dire. The season looks at one family in particular that was forever destroyed in it, but also gives great and intriguing context about the roots of the panic.
Start with: Episode 1: The mansion turned morgue
And of course, I have to recommend you check out our podcast about one of the most bizarre murder cases ever. We spent over a year and spoke to more than 50 sources to deliver the story of John List, a Sunday school teacher and accountant who in 1971 carefully planned the execution of his mother, wife and three kids in their mansion in the quiet New Jersey suburb of Westfield. He left a confession note explaining why he had to do it, then disappeared to start a whole new life, hiding in plain sight for nearly two decades until he was discovered in a truly surprising fashion.
We introduce you to the family, trace List’s life, examine the psychological and religious factors that went into the crime, and see why it still haunts this community in our home state of New Jersey. I hope you’ll check it out!
About Rebecca Everett
Rebecca Everett is an enterprise crime reporter, investigating the issues and figures driving policing and crime in New Jersey. Since joining The Star-Ledger and NJ.com in 2016 as a local news reporter, she has won seven New Jersey Press Association awards, including two for the print version of “Father Wants Us Dead.” She is the co-host and a co-producer of the top-charting podcast Father Wants Us Dead.
Rebecca previously worked at MassLive.com and got her start in journalism 12 years ago at the Daily Hampshire Gazette, her hometown newspaper in Massachusetts. Her reporting shed light on issues of sexual harassment and assault years before the #MeToo era, including a series revealing harassment allegations against a city councilor that resulted in a recall election and a Publick Occurrences Award from the New England Newspaper & Press Association.
Extra Crime/Spooky Podcast Recommendations from EarBuds
Thank you to Erica Braverman for curating these!
